004✖; (audio @ hot.damn | August 2nd; during Sanguis Moon)

[circumitus]

[...Well, it looks like there's supposed to be video, but the screen is black.

[Audio-wise, you're privy to just a bunch of thrashing for a few seconds, catching a frantic and frustrated "god-DAMMIT" and "fuck fuck fuck" and "just move, you useless piece of shit!" It's a voice and string of expletives that should be familiar to some who know Rey. In general it sounds disconcerting, with an identifiable amount of metal clanging and other hefty objects hurling about (cue stock cat scream) -- before a heavy thud shakes the screen. The feed drags across what looks to be pavement and some scattered rubbish.]

Got you! Fucking finally...

[The video moves, but the feed remains a blur as Rey hadn't intended to select facetime before things got out of control -- by "things" meaning... her own body. Only a few details can be made out in the bleary visual quality, and that's a patch of red-orange scales and some sharp, gritting teeth.]

Need... help. [Despite her exhaustion made clear in the fraught audio and her labored breaths, it's speaking those words in particular that strains her the most.]

Have to come here. Level Three.

Legs're gone. Can't walk.

[Both the audio and visual then cuts abruptly. As you can tell, Rey is having a bad time this Sanguis cycle.]

Comments

[circumitus]

[That's... oof. Not something Rey entirely is sure how to answer.]

...Kind of?

[It at least gives her something else to think about while her body subconsciously does the work for her. Like walking and talking, except maybe whatever "snake" side of her brain already knows how to operate when she's not actively obsessing over it.]

Instincts sometimes, um. Change. During the cycles. Some handle it better than others. [Rey does her best to avoid her more carnal Sanguis urges.]

[littlesundog]

...So, something like that Wolfman I met recently.

[Marshall commented, glacing between the movements of her massive tail and the hard expression on her face.]

He went mad during the full moon, when his body changed to something not Human. Our... Boss, I suppose-- called it some kinda curse that he found himself with in the Parisian Catacombs.

I never understood why a bustling city is built upon the cavernous graves of centuries worth of the Dead, but people are funny. Maybe the land around the city was too hard to build on. Maybe the waters of the Seine were perfect right in that spot.

Doesn't matter here, though.

[circumitus]

[If someone were to just casually throw around "Wolfman" before, Rey would would look at them as though they had grown a second head that spoke Greek. For someone who's contended with sentient machines that often took various forms and functions, she should be used to hearing and seeing weird things like that. It still throws her off.]

Wait, that shit's normal where you're from? [Rey's mouth tightens into a thin line, too distracted to notice that her tail muscles have begun moving in an accordion-like motion across the ground.

[As usual, it's easier to do something if she doesn't put too much thinking to it. Easier said than done, though.]

Wouldn't be too sure that it doesn't matter. Moons can make people do crazy shit sometimes. Not the same for everyone. Still, that's more experience with that kind of thing than most of us have before landing here.

[It's definitely more than Rey was ever prepared to deal with.]

[littlesundog]

[Have an arched brow.]

I, uh... wouldn't call it Normal.

[Far from it; he hadn't even known of their existence in his homeland until recent weeks-- before he was spirited off to this dazzling town that was both blinding and deafening to those who were accustomed to nights so dark that the Milky Way spread like a river of stardust across the infinite void that was the night sky.]

Truth is, I'm not certain how normal that is at all. But it is here, so we've just gotta buck up and learn how to handle it.

[circumitus]

[scoff]

"Buck up"? [...Okay, that kind of gets her.] Wow, really selling your cowboy persona, aren't you?

[Sorry, Marshall. She's got to have something else to think about other than dwelling on how fucking weird it is to be dragging around several extra feet of yourself.]

[littlesundog]

I'd be better paid if this was an act.

[He said, a wry smile on his face.]

It's likely hard for most here to believe... But that's fine. We all get to see something new.

[circumitus]

[Rather than getting embarrassed and taking it back, Rey just makes a "pff" noise.]

Tend to be from a much later time than most here, but you've got to be really far back. Got a brother who's a spaghetti western affictionatto, he'd be all over that.

[Well, maybe Orion would've had more restraint than Rey does. He was better at being a normal person -- or at least pretending to be one.]

[littlesundog]

[While she was laughing, Marshall just looked confused.]

The 1880s ain't too far, right? And what does Spaghetti have to do with the Frontier?

[circumitus]

[Now she's even more amused.] Sure, if you consider something close to three-hundred years not too far off.

[She shrugs a scaly shoulder.]

Isn't literal spaghetti. Just films directed by Italians, is all. [Duh.]

[littlesundog]

Film? I thought that was something the French were working on with that... God, what was it called?

[He rubbed the back of his neck with a free hand uneasily, trying to recall the word.]

eh... 'cinematographe'. They say it's a hand cranked machine, but word is that Edison is trying to make one that's better.

[circumitus]

Cinemato--

[Rey blinks.

[Then snorts, stifling a laugh.]

Yeah, those have come a long way since Edison's days. It's all digital now, no cranks necessary.

[littlesundog]

Digi--

[Marshall made a face. At first he had wondered how off his accent on the French had been, but this--]

You mean like-- like--

[Scrambling, he dug out the blasted device he didn't fully understand.]

--Like this thing?

[circumitus]

[She glances over at what he means by "this thing" and snorts.]

Oh yeah, that. Can watch movies on the little thing. Not like they're any good, though.

[Rey finds the Prismals' tastes in media to be pretty... questionable.]