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]

We're still just groping around in the dark. I wish there was something we could just do to find out more, but since apparently there's nothing left in the mine...

Yeah. Creepy! But it could just be a coincidence? Lots of people like spies.

[argents]

I went back. There's really nothing left there, but I don't honestly know what I was expecting to find. Who knows if nothing is really better than something in this case.

And a lot of this seems to come down to coincidence. Or dumb luck.

[espigeonage]

Yeah? I went back with someone a couple times but didn't find anything. Didn't go in, either, but... well.

It's very frustrating. We just wait.

[argents]

Me and Gomez [ yes, the cat ] went pretty far in, but it looked normal, besides where the earth moved.

Even when we don't wait, it seems like a dead end.

[espigeonage]

Figures.

I don't know what we *could* do. There's always trying to kidnap the chief of police or break *his* statue, but that seems kind of horribly dangerous.

[argents]

[ He may or may not have blanched at the idea. ]

Way too dangerous! We saw what happened when someone tried that.

[espigeonage]

I know, I know! And there's the whole question of what we'd do with him if it even worked. Which is a big if!

[argents]

[ Every single NO BEING A HERO ALLOWED goes here. >:'( ]

It's true that things got bad, but there's still some kind of balance here. I feel it.

[espigeonage]

How's that?

[argents]

How? Well

A lot of us have been hurt, and confused, and shoved out of own lives, I think, but we're still here. If we didn't have any kind of chance in this, then why?

[espigeonage]

I don't know. Luck? We can't ever just assume that because we've all made it so far we'll never lose anyone.

[argents]

If that's true then do we stay in the dark hoping, or do we upset it?

[espigeonage]

Nothing sleeps forever.

Well that's a depressing tangent we've been on. I try not to worry too much about things I can't change but, well!

( 1/2 )

[argents]

[ — that really was an awful feelings-jam word-vomit thought-train to send off the rails. ]

Sorry!

( 2/2 )

[argents]

I'm no good at not saying what I'm thinking about.

[espigeonage]

Nothing wrong with that! May your birthday be happy, Banagher.

[argents]

Thanks, Julien.