003 — handwritten [graph paper]

[argents]

[ July 1st.

This time, Banagher's number is copied down on graph paper. What appears isn't anything handwritten, but a rough technical sketch. An empty jumpseat of some kind, crowned by three screens and what looks like an impossibly advanced panoramic HUD. The rest is left sparsely detailed — no buttons, concrete controls, or clues as to what this cockpit (what else could it be?) belongs to. Save for the odd one-on-one occasion, he's been tight-lipped about what exactly has splashed itself uninvited across his memories, never knowing for sure what to trust when it came to himself. Never quite believing he could have been this... thing's pilot.

Off to the side, around some messy notes, is a scrawled out line of text in another language: À mon seul désir. There's a poetic ring to it, nearly romantic.

It's odd, placed next to a piece of technology so futuristic. ]

It's weird. I had to wrack my brain to remember this thing enough to put it on paper, even if I can't forget it. [ A pause, possibly to tap his pencil. ] If you asked any kid when they were younger what they wanted for their birthday, a giant robot probably ranked pretty high, right? Not so much when you're 18, though. When things like this aren't even supposed to be real...

[ Let alone crazy brain powers. At least he was getting used to those. And more importantly: ]

...it could have come with a better name.

[ Which he is hoping like hell wasn't his doing. ]

Comments

[espigeonage]

"To my only desire"! Very romantic. I wouldn't be too put out about it being called Unicorn, though. The iCorn? I mean I only know the other me as the Apostle of the Violet Rose. Shoujo as anything.

We gotta try to hang on to what we can while we can, right?

[argents]

Oh, it's from a painting I remember! At least I think it's a painting, it was huge. There was actually a unicorn on it too... but a /machine/ being called the Unicorn sounds like someone got their Saturday morning cartoons mixed up, doesn't it?

Still, these clues kind of feel like they're taking over.

[espigeonage]

Huh. Yeah, it does! lol, maybe they were desperate for a name.

Mmm. What helps for me, so far, is to take a few days and hang out with people, doing normal things. Doesn't take it away, but it's good to be reminded that the real world is still here, and I'm still part of it.

[argents]

Or there really was a romantic at the wheel. Connecting an old painting to technology like that.

Yeah...I keep trying to remember how summer started out last year. It's like night and day. But I know what you're saying should work, it just feels...

[ Heavy. ]

[espigeonage]

True. Maybe you'll get to find out.

Give it a few days, so it's not so immediate. Maybe that'll help. You can get used to anything - or well, starting to think *I* can. No matter what changes, the world keeps turning and regular things still have to happen. Right?

[argents]

I hope so. And I hope I'm wrong about it too.

The world turns even when there are things trying to change it, I know, I just didn't think I'd be changing along with it. But I might not be as good as getting used to it, even when there are a lot of people going out of their way for me.

[espigeonage]

Yeah...

Well, good luck I suppose? I guess this is all individual anyway. It might or might not be any consolation to remember that you're not the only one going through this sort of thing.

( 1/2 )

[argents]

No, I know. I'm probably being pretty thankless...I'm just nervous, I suppose. Thinking about that machine being a weapon of some kind.

( 2/2 )

[argents]

[ He remembers a previous one-off that brings a tinge of humor back to him. ]

I could probably use some Pollyanna thoughts, huh?

[espigeonage]

Hey, it's understandable.

[argents]

I guess I should try to remember I'm still a part of this... or, I'm still a part of everyone. It's not so scary that way.

How about you? Nothing else has changed?

[espigeonage]

If it helps and doesn't hurt anyone, do whatever feels best.

lol, no, I'm okay. Nothing new. That said I'm sure I've now gone and jinxed myself, lol.

[argents]

Don't say things like that! It's like some curse you can invoke out of an Indiana Jones movie.

[espigeonage]

Eesh. Idk if it works that way but I don't know how it *does* work. The freakish animals and the hair piles seem to have something to do with it.

[argents]

You've seen more of them?

[espigeonage]

I haven't, but the way people have talked about them it seems to make sense. People were getting extras from seeing the hair things. Back in the mine I got something when a bat touched me.

[argents]

Just because it touched you? I don't think I got a pulse from anything like that... but there were some weird sparrows outside my kitchen window this morning again.

[espigeonage]

Yeah. Huh... So you think this latest thing is from that, or like a delayed effect? Sometimes it takes a while to kick in. Like, the first statue, I had a dream-vision later, not right there.

[argents]

In a sense, I think so. I remembered what the inside of that thing looked like back when some of us were hearing howling, or having crazy dreams.

But wouldn't that make no sense? If the things we're supposed to be fighting were the things that were changing us?

[espigeonage]

Maybe we're being watched by things we don't even notice and they set these things off that are supposed to help. And sometimes they do. But sometimes it goes sideways instead?

Man we're all just fumbling around, here.

[argents]

Totally sideways... I've never heard of the delayed effect thing before though. And the birds don't seem to be doing much but hanging around now.

[espigeonage]

It's definitely happened to me before. I didn't get a vision that wasn't in a dream until the start of June.

Huh. Do they seem weird?

[argents]

A little. Here.

[ A few moments pass before a picture text comes along. It's taken through a window and around a curtain, all incognito-like. Three or so house sparrows are parked outside his kitchen windowsill, flitting here and there. The only odd thing about them is the oddly finger-like appendages where their primaries should be. ]

Like when this first started. They come and go, but I get the feeling they're attracted to people like us.

[espigeonage]

Ugggghhhh that's creepy.

Spies?

[argents]

Spies? You really think so? They don't seem /dangerous/ or anything. I mean, if they see me, they just run away.