prismatica | video

And now that all of the sprouting ears and tails business is over with...

[Among many other effects but whatever. She's adjusting and perhaps at a pace far more speedily than she really ought to be in all the wrong aspects. Ears and tails? That's okay. Thinking about not seeing Toby again for a long while? That's harder. The video tilts and moves a bit as Sarah settles her device a good enough distance away that she can more or less talk to it somewhat casually.

Once she's finally happy with that she leans back in her chair, bearing a mug between her hands. Steam rises off of it just a little and she completely looks like she's settling in for a nice chat with a friend here.]

So I'm not exactly well versed in video over networks and things like that but if I'm going to be here a while, might as well jump straight in. So in an effort to just get to know some of you and maybe satiate my curiosity at the same time, why don't you share a story with me?

[She pauses a moment to blow across the top of her mug, scattering the steam out of view of the camera for a second or so before she elaborates further.]

It can be anything you like. A personal story, a fairy tale, something you heard here or elsewhere, whatever. I'm not picky here.

[Maybe she will be in the future but for now she's feeling somewhat lonesome and stories have always been a way for her to outrun that particular emotion.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh. Are they more supernatural then?

Definitely. My job is dealing with the supernatural after all.

Well that definitely makes sense then. I'm afraid I don't have that many supernatural stories myself.

[Well she sort of does but...]

[He doesn't think that's strictly true. He just has a sense for those things these days, but he's not hungry right now, not hunting, and he can hold himself back. He has to hold himself back.]

I'd be happy to share a few, if you are interested. I know a lot.

Of course, I'd love to hear any of them.

Alright then.

[He taps his fingers for a moment before deciding. His own first statement. A fitting place to start he believes.]

The statement of Nathan Watts, regarding an encounter on Old Fishmarket Close, Edinburgh. Original statement given April 22nd 2012.

[And he launches into the tale, the words coming as smoothly as though he were reading them once more. They don't give him quite the same thrill of fear as they had before. This statement is already inside him, has already been a meal for his patron, but it still has power.

How Nathan Watts left the party last night and encountered the person in the alleyway. 'Can I have a cigarette' in that strange flat voice. How the person had swayed oddly, and how Nathan Watts had been reminded of a bright lure dangling in the water, of an anglerfish. How the person had seemed to fold up and vanish when Nathan had tried to take a photograph or use the torch on his phone.

How he'd noticed a person had gone missing there.

Finally he ends, and when he speaks again, his voice has gone back to normal.]

And there were quite a few disappearances actually, around there. And we found a photo that was taken by one of the victims when they recovered her phone. When Sa- when one of my assistants put it through some software, it seemed to show a huge beckoning hand.

[OOC: Audio transcript]

[Oh. To say Sarah looks fascinated is an understatement. By the time he's finished with Nathan Watts' statement and the odd tale of Old Fishmarket Close, Sarah is still holding her mug of tea but it's long since gone cold in her hands. Once his voice goes back to normal she goes to actually take a drink and then makes the pinched expression every tea drinker in the world knows as a signal for "great, it's cold already".

She just outright sits the mug off to one side then before she leans forward some.]

Are most of your stories like that?

[It makes him hungry, in the way that smelling something delicious stokes hunger. He needs to check how many fresh statements he still has, before he needs to start rationing or... supplementing.]

This is one of the nicer ones. Nathan Watts is still, I believe, alive, and mostly not traumatised.

[Sarah makes a low, impressed sound. Not quite a whistle but somewhat close.]

I'm not sure if you've got a rough job or an intriguing one. Probably both.

It definitely has its moments of both. And then plenty of extreme boredom as I try to get the filing system into some kind of useful order.

Ah yeah, organization. The bane of my existence.

I know the feeling. I'm not terrible at it, but we have statements going back two-hundred years. There's still a lot of work to do.

[Now she whistles in appreciation.]

Two-hundred years. Okay, at least I'll never have to file two-hundred years worth of old school essays.

That does sound like it would be a kind of torture. Thankfully I don't have to deal with the more academic side of the Institute.

Oh? Is it an actual academy with students? I thought it sounded more like s research thing.

We don't teach. But we are academic researchers. We have PhD candidates who work there, writing their thesis on folklore or mythology or- or whatever. I honestly never paid too much attention.

[One can practically hear Sarah snap to attention.]

Where do I sign up.

[There's a lilt of humor in her tone but even with her light smile there's an air of thorough seriousness that still comes through.]

[He can't help a smile at that. He'd considered it himself once, back before the Archives, when Jurgen Leitner had been the worst monster he could conceive of.]

Well, London. The Magnus Institute if it exists where you're from. Or I suppose the Usher Foundation in Washington DC since you're American.

I'll have to check in on those. I live in New York at the moment.

[He should warn her away. But he doubts it will help if she's truly interested.]

I'd offer you a reference, but... This place seems to draw people in from all sorts of times and realities.

Oh. Yeah, I guess I tend to forget that.

[How exactly? It's a long story.]

What year is it for you?

It's 2018 for me. March. Or it was when I woke up here. You?

[Her brows rise way up. This isn't the first time she's run into time differences but no one has ever given her a specific year.]

1999.

Well, that's quite a difference. Not the biggest I've seen but...

In that case, I definitely can't give you a letter of recommendation.

What a shame. Remind me to hit you up again in nineteen years then.

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the_archivist - 2019-07-29 20:22 (UTC) - Expand

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video; oh well damn i know what i'm listening to for the next couple of weeks, thank you.

Video; (Enjoy :D )

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