un: hidden | audio

[matermali]

( cw; drug use—marijuana )

[ The woman's voice that scrapes through the network's channel keeps low and calm, with a vocal fry that is uttered in a distinctly English accent. ]

The dragon of recent arrival, whom I believe to be named Zhaera, wishes nothing to do with us, and so I would suggest leaving her be. Her only concern seems to be in mothering, and the power she wields would be no small thing if she feels the need to defend her nest. Best not to invite her ire when she has yet any cause to make of herself a monster.

She knows even less than we do about her sudden appearance. Perhaps if she did, she would not be so willing to keep to her singular cause.

I should also think that the serpents deserve no ill will en masse unless they become an immediate threat. I'm of no mind to make demands, but perhaps they can be herded into the woods where they can better find the prey they likely crave. A task I am willing to take on should any with the skill wish to assist.

Aurora has given us few choices aside from what we do with these trials presented.

[ The pause that follows is not from hesitation, but a drag that includes a whispered exhale of smoke that remains unseen on the network. Should anyone happen upon where she's seated on a bench near the café and bookstore, Vanessa—in all of her black-laced glory—is smoking a joint.

The rasp softens with her murmur. ]

We are all outsiders, after all.

Comments

[anciently]

i'm sure.
but it's really a question if it needs to exist at all.

[matermali]

Existence often precedes necessity, doesn't it? Yet once something exists, we're quick to find reasons for its continued presence.

[ She pauses, then adds: ]

This...lifestream. It sounds not dissimilar to the demimonde — a realm between worlds. Have you ever interacted with it directly?

[anciently]

"demimonde?" huh.

i have a little. it's nothing something i can reach out and touch on demand or anything.
but i have a kind of connection to it.

not sure i've ever thought of it as a place like that, but you're right.
when people die, we say they're going back to the lifestream. so...it is. in a way.

[matermali]

I would not say that the demimonde is the same as the afterlife, yet the dead do well affect it. Such things are difficult to describe without being able to see the shadows within shadows.

Lifestream has a kinder sound to it, I believe.

Have you ever heard them, then? The dead?

[anciently]

yeah. sounds pretty complicated...

[ As befits the kind of inscrutable thing she's describing, though. ]

i guess it's kind. i like to think of it that way, anyway.
but it also just "is."

yeah. sometimes.
didn't think too much of it when i was little.
but it did happen.

[matermali]

When you were young?

Did that frighten you?

[anciently]

it happened when i was a kid, yeah.

[ Nowadays? It's...kinda more complicated than she wants to get into at the moment. ]

it didn't scare me.
they were...just people. wanted to pass on messages to loved ones.
it made me feel less alone, honestly.

[matermali]

I can understand.

I, too, have known the whispers of the dead. They carry a loneliness of their own.

[anciently]

you have?
sorry if you mentioned that before.

i know what you mean though.
but sometimes i wonder if what i'm feeling, in those moments, is really their loneliness or mine.
not sure if that makes sense.

[matermali]

There has been little cause to mention it before now.

When it comes to souls lost, I suspect they can hear us in kind. That may be why they have spoken to us. Kindred spirits where pain is hidden from most.

[anciently]

makes a lot of sense.
all i could really do was pass on messages.
i hope that helped them.

[matermali]

Were there ever any hopeful messages?

[anciently]

yeah.
nice messages to loved ones.
parting words and all that.
they were beautiful. but they still made me sad sometimes.