001 // text; username: grollschwert

[hauntedsavior]

What's up.
Are we doing introductions now? I guess we're doing introductions.
Name's Anna. Professional city defender and mostly robot girl.
Coming here from a place called Recolle that I'm pretty sure no one here knows about, which is cool.

Never been much for stuff like this, so, like, I don't know.
Anyone needs a katana at their side, look me up. I'm pretty damn good at it.
I might not know what's going on here, but far as I'm concerned, this is where I live now and it makes sense for everyone if I actually try to keep it safe.

And since I'm in full spaghetti at the wall mode right now, lemme just throw out some words, see if it triggers anything for any of you guys.
Zee Carlisle. Clarence Vanderweele. Layers of reality. Retrospec.
The Geteilts.
Nothing?
Yeah, didn't think so.

Anyway, yeah, flag me down if you see me on the streets and need some protection or whatever. I'm five ten and I only have one eye. I'm hard to miss.

Comments

text | un: hardcore.

[deathrespect]

"Spaghetti at the wall"?
Sounds like you came from a wild place.

[hauntedsavior]

Yeah. We made too much spaghetti and we fucking HATE walls.
This is how we can fight back against our oppressors.

Text; UN: Willow

[frogfear]

Mostly robot girl?

[She can't help the curiosity, but presumably if Anna was concerned about being questioned about it, she never would have brought it up in the first place.]

I'm Willow. I'm not much of a fighter, but I know a little bit about robotics, so if I can help, I will. Nice to meet you.

text; un: lowell

[vibing]

you the girl i broke out of jail with?

good you made it

this is yuri, we killed some fish guys together probably

[hauntedsavior]

Nice meeting you, Willow. I'd be impressed if anyone really knows what's going on in here, since it's from, like, the year ten thousand.
It's complicated. Do me a solid and don't end up inheriting someone else's soul.

[hauntedsavior]

Oh, fuck yeah, what's up, dude?
Nice swordplay in there.
Glad to see you on dry land. Any more exciting nautical adventures since then?

[deathrespect]

Gotcha. Takes all kinds, I guess.

[frogfear]

Yeah, that might complicate things a little. It was 2002 for me before I came to Deerington.

I have no immediate plans for soul-inheriting. I've got my own already, thanks.

[hauntedsavior]

Well, hopefully it's only a risk for other people who come from Recolle. And it shouldn't be one anymore at all, now that the app isn't a thing.
Another Deerington refugee, huh? How many of you made it out of that dream or whatever and ended up here?
Is that basically the whole town except for me?

[vibing]

you too. you need a second sword out there let me know
you know just fought some crabs before making it to shore
shore's better at least. nothing tried to kill me except the monsters

[hauntedsavior]

I'm fucking with you. It's just a way to say I'm saying anything and everything to try to find someone who recognizes it.
But I'm not liking my odds so far.
Let me guess, you're another Deerington transplant?

[deathrespect]

I was kidding too. Hope you find someone who knows you, either way.

Nah. I'm from Hakagemachi most recently. Then Yokohama before that.

[hauntedsavior]

Pff, monsters. Like they stood a chance.
These ones don't even pretend to be dead until your guard's down so they can start fighting again. Like, how am I supposed to take them seriously?
These beasts are way easier to deal with.
...A lot bloodier than I'm used to, though. You notice that?

[hauntedsavior]

Oh cool, like Japan? Nice.
Never been myself, but I've read a lot about Yokohama. Mostly about the shit from WWII, you know, real sunshine and rainbows stuff.
What kind of place is Hakagemachi?

[deathrespect]

Yeah, Japan. Yokohama's a ward in Tokyo.

Hakagemachi is ... like a Japanese city in a lot of ways, but everything is crumbling and necessities are hard to come by. There's a 7-11 with cheap beer though. Everyone has to wear a mask and we're all host to some kind of youkai. More sunshine and rainbows stuff.

( It is very weird to him to talk about this; he burns a bit as he types, but he'll hit send anyway.

He thinks of Genkei and there's a welling-up of saudade. )

What about where you come from? Did you have to defend that Recolle place too?

[hauntedsavior]

Damn. Whole town where everyone's full of demons.
Well, not the weirdest thing in the world.
Recolle was a pretty modern city, but all of us kept getting memories of people we were "really supposed to be", or whatever. For a lot of us, our bodies changed, too. It's because our souls were intertwining with these other people and becoming stronger.
I was one of the last people there when it all ended. Helped stop a eugenicist from hand-picking the strongest of us and killing off everyone else.
Kind of thought that would be the end of my story.

My soul is still mixed with the girl I remembered. I take it you've still got your youkai?

[vibing]

man monsters in your world sound smart
they arent so smart where im from, but they attack in packs. trying to taking out five quiettas at once damn near killed me
yeah they bleed a lot. heard theres a thing with blood pollution here. bet killing all these monsters is part of it

[deathrespect]

Hah, it was definitely different from what I was used to in Yokohama.

Fuck. What's with this displacement shit happening to everyone.

I can relate to that soul shit, we went through a bit of hell when Genkei wanted to take over, and some shit where we fused a few times. Moreso than usual anyway.

Nah. He's gone. Name was Genkei. Have no idea what happened to him.

[hauntedsavior]

These were special monsters. They lived inside another layer of reality, or something.
Real dark shit just under the surface of what everyone else can see, as long as you take the time to look for it.
But ain't that the story of everywhere.
Hell, this place just looks like it made all the darkness front and center.
Maybe I shouldn't be so cavalier about cutting things up.

Eh.

[vibing]

sounds rough. at least the monsters i had to fight were reality monsters

[ look, he doesn't really get it, but whatever, he doesn't need to ]

yeah they seem to like the whole gloomy vibe
trying to figure out whats up with the blood pollution. has something to do with our blood too.

not like we should let monsters kill people, because thats other blood spilled
worlds better off with fewer monsters if you ask me

[hauntedsavior]

Dude, I have no idea why everyone's getting displaced or whatever.
I heard that this is supposed to be, like, the real world that Deerington was based on or something?
But I've seen the real world. Or at least I was pretty sure it was the real world.
And now here I am, a squid who just happens to look exactly like I do and remembers everything I remember.
Apparently.
I'm just glad there's people here who DIDN'T come direct from Deerington. Like I didn't feel out of place enough as it is.

[hauntedsavior]

Oh, the blood I'm not supposed to have because I'm a robot?
That blood?
Yeah, I'd say there's some bigger mysteries going on there.
I'd be glad to thin out the monster herd while we try to figure out what the hell's happening with all this weird magic blood or whatever.
Just means I can bring back more samples of the stuff to study or whatever, you know?
I can just wring it out of my clothes.

[deathrespect]

The more I think about this the more I miss the last fucking pit I got pulled to.

I feel like I wanna open up a discussion about this kind of thing myself, but a lot of people have done that already. I'm just looking for patterns. Or reasons.

[hauntedsavior]

Still think it might be too fresh for any of us to see a pattern yet.
Though... hey, did Genkei make your blood any different?
Stronger, or more powerful, or, like... I don't know. Something other than normal blood.
Because that's the closest connection I can find so far.
And it would explain why that Dipper kid was so hype to learn about everyone's blood.

[deathrespect]

Eh. I'm probably jumping the gun on wanting answers 'cause I never got any in Hakagemachi.

My blood? Not really. I think I run a bit hotter 'cause of his influence but it wasn't like ... this in the slightest.