∅ 001 [ video ]

[adnihilum]

[ The video feed flickers on to show a young man dressed in white and blue. The background seems to be a town - probably New Bark Town, judging from the buildings. (He's sitting a little too far away from the screen, with his hands on his lap in a rather formal posture.)

The youth squints slightly for a moment, though a good fifteen seconds pass before he says anything. ]

... Hello. I hope this is transmitting properly? [ His voice is surprisingly quiet, just loud enough for the viewer to hear.

There is another pause before he continues. ] I wish to ask if anyone here knows of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, or Tokyo. 'Tis my homeland, and there may be others who ended up here...

[ He looks away from the screen briefly before returning his attention to the screen. ]

... I suppose it is customary to give my name alongside such a request. I am Flynn. I believe this device is able to receive incoming calls...? [ Pause. ] Yes. It does.

Please contact me here if you have any news. Thank you.

[ Flynn bows slightly to the viewer before the feed cuts to black. ]

Comments

[foolishwren]

Uh, no, hence the 'we'.

But I've been here longer than most.

[adnihilum]

[ Flynn nods again. It occured to him that conventional protocol needed to be completed before any proper discussions can be made... ]

Thank you. [ Pause. ] Your name... may I have it?

[foolishwren]

Sorry. Slipped my mind.

It's Heather.

_{[After awhile you make so many introductions it just starts getting left out.]}

[adnihilum]

Flynn.

[ He gives his own in return, accompanied by a polite nod. ]

Where are you from?

[foolishwren]

America.

Though probably not the same America as is on the Earth you're from, if my experiences are any indication.

_{[There's gotta be at least a few hundred different versions of Earth floating around out there by this point.]}

[adnihilum]

America...

[ He echoes her words faintly. ]

I have not heard of it.

[foolishwren]

_{[She blinks, then squints.]}

Didn't you say you were from T--

...

What year are you from?

[adnihilum]

[ Year? ]

I... don't think we go by the same calendar system. Mikado followed the Gregorian Calendar, at around 1492.

But as for Tokyo itself... hmmm. Around the twenty-first century? I am not sure...

[ Especially with the apparent time stream inconsistency... ]

[foolishwren]

The.... dude, if you're from the twenty-first century, you should totally know what America is.

_{[... Right? :I; It's been awhile since she's thought too hard about history from home...]}

[adnihilum]

[ He merely gives her a long, silent stare, only speaking after a good ten seconds. ]

I don't. The world outside of Tokyo has been destroyed.

Mind telling me what America is?

[foolishwren]

... Oh.

_[WELLP.]

Never mind, then. I guess.

It's a country.

[adnihilum]

[ Flynn doesn't show any signs of shock or otherwise response to the news he just calmly delivered. ]

A country... like Japan, yes?

I wonder if they are still there.

[foolishwren]

Yeah. Bigger, though.

_{[Really, it shouldn't be TOO much of a surprise to hear that there's worlds out there where America was obliterated. She knows there's worlds where it never existed at all, after all. But it's still a little weird to think about.]}

[adnihilum]

I see.

Are there demons?

[ Logical question, given how the demonkind-God battle put into motion pretty much everything that derailed his world from its original course. ]

[foolishwren]

_{[That gets a weird look, but not the 'wtf r u talkin about' kind.]}

Yeah, there's demons.

But most people don't know about 'em.

[adnihilum]

[ Interesting... ]

And angels?

[foolishwren]

_{[This time there's a slight glint of steel somewhere in that gaze.]}

Same thing.

_{[And she means 'same' in more ways than one.]}

[adnihilum]

[ Flynn nods. Is he... smirking? He might be. It's hard to tell. ]

Mm. They are one and the same, in essence, after all.

We share similarity, then.

[foolishwren]

_{[She's not sure how she feels about that smirk, if it is indeed a smirk. She squints at the screen slightly.]}

What, did demon-angels annihilate everywhere that isn't Japan where you're from?

[adnihilum]

Something like that.

[ The smirk, if it was even there, vanishes. ]

Angels follow God. Demons follow their lord, Lucifer. They had a war over and using humans.

It didn't end.

[foolishwren]

Hm. Well, that's one difference, I suppose. _{[Heather doesn't know just how many gods are out here in her world. Surely more than just the one she killed. But she knows that it and the devil are more or less synonymous.]}

Sounds like a real drag.

_{[Understatement of the millennium.]}

[adnihilum]

Mm.

[ His expression doesn't betray the slightest hint of emotion towards what he has just said. ]

And what of your world?

[foolishwren]

Eh.

It's still kickin'.

_{[And most of it would never know how close it kept coming to ending.]}

No thanks to the demons and angels, though.

[adnihilum]

[ Not bad, then. ]

Are they fighting?

[foolishwren]

Two names for the same thing. So no, I guess they're not fighting.

<sub>[Fighting her, and people like her, she supposed. But not each other.]

[God is the Devil, and Her angels are mutilated, twitching things that spin gears and crawl across ceilings. And Heather hates all of it.]</sub>