001 [Video]

[lostherstrings]

[The video option on the phone seems to have been activated while someone was examining their phone, leading to a rather unsettling view that keeps moving without focusing on anything. A soft, somewhat sing-song female voice can be heard from off the screen.]

What a curious piece of machinery.

[The view finally settles on the woman's face as she finishes her examination. From what can be seen in the background, she appears to be sitting on a bench in the shopping district, and is far calmer than most new arrivals tend to be. Her clothes seem decidedly odd, though.]

Prospero, is it? Though I came here through a fire and not a tempest. A character who's place in the story had ended, a player who's role had come to an end, I had thought to be put aside to be used no longer. Yet here I find myself in another story. But then, a story's start is a happy accident, the end the fate for which it's meant. I wonder what sort of story this will become?

[She lifts the hand that's not holding the phone up to show it to the camera. The back is scratched up a bit, though not bleeding seriously.] I haven't experienced pain before now. It's sharp and jagged, just like the jewel that represents it. What must I do to make this feeling go away? I don't like it.

Comments

[forgivethemtheirpain]

What? That doesn't make any sense at all. Who does that?

[lostherstrings]

A man obsessed with tragedy and the power to make his stories become real. He didn't want the tool he was creating to guide those in his stories to balk at leading them to their unhappy fates. Ironically, I still ended up choosing to act against him to allow for the possibility of a happy ending.

[forgivethemtheirpain]

So people like that exist after all... Did it work out?

[lostherstrings]

I was taken to this place before the story reached its true end, but I think it will. I have faith in Duck and the others.

[forgivethemtheirpain]

I hope everything is okay there. I need to go back, too, but I can't.

[lostherstrings]

[Edel simply nods. Telling the girl the truth of her fate would only make her sad.]

I take it that even if we left this place physically, we wouldn't be able to reach our homes.

[forgivethemtheirpain]

That's what everybody says.

[lostherstrings]

One cannot cross from one story to another unaided.

[forgivethemtheirpain]

I don't know who did it. Took us here, I mean.

[lostherstrings]

I don't think we're meant to know.

[forgivethemtheirpain]

I'm not just going to sit here and accept that!

[lostherstrings]

Such determination is admirable. Perhaps unravelling the mysteries this place holds will also reveal our means of arrival.

[forgivethemtheirpain]

I hope so, anyway. It's the best we can do.