deernet | video; un: shiro

[The video clicks on to show Shiro, sitting at a dining table - in the Mouse House, for anyone who's been there before. He looks... different. Hollowed-out. More exhausted than usual, which is saying something, for him. But the biggest difference? His greying hair has gone completely white. All of it.]

[His hands are curled around a mug, with the omni propped up on something else.]

Hey, feels like long time, no see.

[The smile he goes for falls flat. He reaches down with his left hand, the real hand, to ruffle the fur of his Omen, the lion with her head in his lap.]

First of all... I'm sorry for what happened, recently. [The Beasthood Incident.] I want to thank the people who helped me out. You know who you are, and - I'd rather not get into it more than that, please.

That aside - I've really noticed there aren't a lot of us left from the Dream. From Deerington. That's no one's fault. It's just a little alarming to realize. Maybe it's better forgotten - I don't know. But, I'm offering what I have to anyone who wants to learn.

Either what Deerington was, what happened there, who was involved. Anything I still have.

I don't think it should be forgotten. Not after what was done to get us here. After what people went through to make it possible to wake up here. And who we lost in the process.

[He takes a deep breath, and lifts up the coffee mug for a drink. You know, to get himself centered and everything.]

[Except... the mug stopped steaming halfway through his speech. Something heavy slides around inside instead, and impacts Shiro's face with an audible THUD. His head snaps back, which allows the object to go plummeting down to the tabletop.]

[It's a solid brick of frozen coffee.]

[It isn't even melting in the summer weather. Just sitting there. Mocking him. Another slow, deep breath, to keep his eye from twitching.]

... also, if any coldbloods out there want to... help with this... blood ability mess? I'm... listening.

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No... no, it's...

[Hang on let him dive for his papers. And flip through.]

Cloverfield. You're sure it's her? Ruby's day is in October, hers is Cloverfield.

[Keith frowned.]

Someone told me... [He leaned his chin on his hand for a moment.] Could there be two patrons? What's Ruby's day?

Who told you?

[That could be important - ]

I think it might be around her birthday? Or on it. I know mine is... Hers is Halloween.

One of the locals. They asked my birthday. I'd been just asking about patrons, and they said that most people had patrons based on their birthdays... not all, but most.

[Keith considered that.]

I mean, Halloween isn't that far off from my birthday... and they're both odd numbers, so it's not like an every other day thing. Maybe it's based on which week? And they alternate?

But the person seemed really insistent that Mother Mercy was the whole month. They didn't mention Cloverfield.

I think we need to ask the others. Like us, not the locals.

[That will probably help. That will likely give them better information.]

I've only ever heard Cloverfield being the patron of October. Ever since I got here.

You think the locals could be wrong?

[Keith looked confused by that. Why couldn't they trust them to know? They were the natives here, right?]

Maybe. I don't know - maybe they were lied to.

[Or maybe the locals were just flat-out lying themselves.]

But if she really is trying to take the month from Cloverfield, that's not good. From what I know, Cloverfield isn't evil, or good. It just kind of ... exists.

Superior, or Mercy, is malevolent.

I only saw that stuff from her back in February... [Keith wasn't sure exactly what it had been that Lance had been resisting, other than the weird string that had connected them at the time. But it had been causing him pain, and that had seemed temporarily alleviated, at least, by them passing Doorway's challenge of the flame and candle.] Something about resisting desires causing pain?

But, if she wants October, why do something in February? Why not focus more on October?

Yeah, that... that was messed up. [To put it mildly. He'd been impacted too, and it hadn't gone well. If not for the other things going on that month, it would have gotten even worse.]

I don't know. Maybe because she isn't tied to a month... and Cloverfield is too distant of a patron to get involved if she tries taking over. Doorway - they're about promises, connections. Maybe that opened some kind of window for her to sneak in.

We need to look up the curse again.

Mm. [Keith considered that and then nodded. Looking up the curse was a good idea. It might give a clue.]

She also could eventually want to take over every month... but just be picking and choosing which ones to focus on at a time.

But then... why put her curse in the Doorway's month...? Unless that did trigger something.

[Will's patron had been the little moth, hadn't it? Why not try and take over that one? It was the fragile patron, wasn't it?]

[Why Cloverfield.]

We're not going to figure this out without more information.

Yeah. [Keith huffed a small sigh.] We need more information on the Patrons specifically, I think. Figure out if there's something in each month that she can exploit in some way. Maybe there's a pattern or a reason for what she's done in certain months.

Talk to Ruby. See if she knows anything specific about this month - and Cloverfield. I can start with the Archives.

Since... I'll be there anyway. I want to get these notes written down there.

[Keith nodded a bit.] Alright.

Though... you might want to write things out in a safe place first... since, uh... you know... you might set them on fire by accident with the whole powers thing that's happening.

[... please launch him into the ocean.]

I'll just... dunk my hands in ice. Write with my nose.

[It won't actually work, but oh well.]

[Keith just stared at Shiro for a second and then finally let himself laugh a little.]

Right.

video; un: shiro

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