RP Dissertations on The Dissections of Planets

[Ira]

There was a song.

There was always a song.

It wasn't a song the little she was particularly known for among her people. It was something new, something found in the lists among lists among lists of songs recovered from the Dreaming World. Cait had, along with a few recommendations, introduced Ira to something known as 'spoot-iffy.' It had so much music! Ira could barely contain herself.

Back in her short vacation in the 'Anomaly Containment Foundation,' Ira had acquired an 'old' piece of technology known as a 'radio.' The Foundation had provided it- well, no, that wasn't quite true. Isaac had given it to her as a gift. A treasured thing, Ira had recreated it here in her Waking World as an object of remembrance to her dear friend. But back in the Dreaming World, Ira had gooped -as Cait would put it- a complex mechanism into the old machine to parse and hijack local wifi signals for the purpose of pulling music tones from the world wide web.

It had worked, kinda, for a time. Ira found Nirvana that way. The Dead Goddess, Duet's 'pet' at this point, had taken a particular liking to the band with the ugly human baby on the front. But now that the Dreaming World was not as accessible to her, Ira needed a different access to new music. She loved her people. Ira really did. But their taste in music was esoteric at best and just downright not music at worst. But today wasn't about them.

Well, not entirely. Parts of it were. It was kinda about them. Ok it was a lot about them but not in a direct kind of way. They were involving in a- well- listen it's better if Ira just says it straight away correctly. Ira was going to help a researcher friend of Cait's dissect a planet. Cause that's what you did on Wednesdays. Today was the first Wednesday too, and what an exciting Wednesday it was going to be.

Ira walked toward the little entrance to the ACF's little location on her world. It was a tiny dot of mystery on a sphere otherwise filled with madness and hatred. The ground beneath her feet laid The-Sphere-That-Hates, the unkind, harsh world Ira had created to house her walking palace. It was a remembrance of the fight SHE and She and she had with Him before any of them were SHE or She or she or SHE and she and Cait and- That wasn't what today was about.

Focus Ira! Twirling in her thick, black, cotton skirt, Ira giggled. The entrance laid before her now, and she waved at the door with her little fingerless cotton gloves. Her shirt, a long sleeve black thing with white little bone eating-crabs embroidered across it, matched well with her black combat boots and her little indigo beanie hat. The surface of The-Sphere-That-Hates was cold, -50c on a warm day, and Ira knew that was entirely her fault.

She had killed the surface not too long ago, and everything that had been so unfortunate to be caught upon it and not buried under its flesh. Without a sun in the sky to warm the planet, the Sphere generated its own warmth from its super-massive beating heart and millions of aortal nodules. With so many of them dead so far from the center, it would take decades before the new skin and flesh grew to warm the surface once more.

Shaking her head, Ira cast these thoughts from her mind for the time being. Instead, she waved once more to the door and shouted, "Heyo! Come out come out! Joshua we have Wednesdays! It is time of day that we cut deep!" She knew they could see her and hear her from outside, it was quite literally impossible to ignore Ira. Here, without Cait close enough to touch, her voice was strong enough to crack minds and her mere presence stole the breathe from other's lungs.

But Ira was certain Cait knew that and had made preparations against it. Wouldn't want poor Joshua freezing to death or suffocating or losing his mind. Cait was smart, she definitively remembered to set up protections for Joshua. So certainly when he emerged, everything was going to great! Today was Wednesday!

 

[illirica]

Today was Wednesday. It was important to record these things properly, in case they ended up being relevant. As it was often unknown what was going to be relevant until a much later date, it was best to record as much information as possible, so that it could be referenced at some later date, possibly by some later researcher, as the original did not always survive the experiment.

Joshua was fully aware that this was a distinct possibility. The agreements granting relative safety to personnel in the Dimension didn't apply outside of the designated location, meaning that the instant he passed through the doorway, the only thing keeping him alive would be... preparation. He avoided thinking in such phrases as the will of the gods, less because it was inaccurate and more because it was entirely too accurate, and that made him uncomfortable.

He supposed a bit of discomfort was inevitable, as well as, undoubtedly, good for him. Challenges offered opportunity for growth, and growth was necessary to avoid stagnation. Growth and challenge were why he had signed on with the Locusts, after all. Growth, challenge, and-

"So, you ready?"

Ah, of course. Cait. It was no surprise that she was here. It was her Location, after all. The current room they were in was all too familiar, a recreation of the Locusts' apartment back at their previous location, almost exactly. Made, not grown. Most of the location had been grown of bones and sinews and other living bits, made to look like standard hallways and rooms. This one, though, she'd done specifically, one thing she had wanted to keep the same.

She looked much as she always did, which Joshua was fully aware was a choice that she was making. She could have looked like anything, which made the question to ask why she chose not to. This was, after all, Cait. Predictability had never been something she chose, yet she chose it now. Unpredictably.

"Undoubtedly not, but it remains to be seen how," he answered. He supposed he looked much the same as well, sensible medical scrubs that he could move in, a standard lab coat with enough mystical protections woven into it that he genuinely had no idea how they would interact with whatever it was they actually encountered. A bag, containing everything he thought he might need and several things he didn't.

"I made you coffee."

Joshua contemplated whether or not this was a threat. He did have quite a bit of experience with Cait's coffee, after all. She held out a mug, emblazoned with the statement

World's Best Researcher

. It did not specify which world, of course. The drink within looked much like coffee with milk, which could have meant anything. Cait offered a smile, and a shrug. "It'll keep you warm."

He raised his eyebrows, but he supposed it would be wrong to refuse a gift from a goddess - though whoever had originated that phrase had undoubtedly never been on the receiving end of Cait's attempts at coffee. He took the mug anyway, and took a careful drink, because it was undoubtedly an opportunity for growth, whether he wanted it or not.

It was, indeed, warm. He could feel it, not just on the inside, but on the outside. An... aura, perhaps, of warmth, persistent. Whether that was a divine machination or simply one of Cait's odd spells, he couldn't tell - or perhaps at this point there was no difference between the two.

Even more remarkably, perhaps, it tasted like coffee, with milk. "Huh." Perhaps she deserved a better answer than that. She was trying, after all, though Joshua doubted that she would like to hear that he was slightly disappointed that she had figured out how to make more or less normal coffee.

Well, normal except for whatever Eldritch nonsense she had wrapped into it, which... he supposed it was at least a little odd. Still, it didn't go gloop or have eyeballs, and he missed that, though if it had... well, if it had, he would have been hoping someone else would be drinking it, rather than himself. He would have been taking it apart, as usual.

Today was Wednesday, and he had other things to take apart. He took another drink of the coffee, which persisted in tasting just about right, and persisted in being... warm.

He noted her smile, which also seemed to be persisting to be warm, or at least making its best attempt. He walked with her through the hallway, knowing that the appearance of plaster and drywall was skin, and that if he cut into it the wires beneath would be veins or tendons, a living thing. He had, of course. He wasn't the only one. It was a proper Location, after all, with proper researchers.

For now, he left the walls alone, pausing at the doorway to the outside, the one that was marked only with the ominous word Exit. There were no other warnings, no other signs. Anyone who made it this far was assumed to be intelligent enough to know what they were doing.

Joshua chose to believe that he was intelligent enough to know that he had absolutely no idea.

"Thank you." He didn't specify what for, nor wait for an answer before he pushed the door open and stepped outside. There was a girl waiting, after all. Not Cait, but... someone a little bit like she had once been, he thought.

"Good day, Miss Ira." He contemplated what to ask her, and couldn't think of anything better than what she had asked, just a little while ago. "Are you ready?"