singillatim | prelude

prelude

January 1st 2015

Do you remember yesterday? What is tomorrow?
How will you face this quiet apocalypse?
— Raphael van Lierop.

As the old year falls and the new year begins, the skies fill with light. An Aurora comes on the last day of December, and with it the usual signs of it: the ethereal noise, the cracks and pops in the air, the stuttering of electrics as they struggle to power on and then blare and flicker. It is, as Interlopers have come to know, business as usual — in terms of the Auroras within this world. However, something a little different happens this time.

Interlopers will fall asleep all over the town of Milton. Even the ones who fight sleep and try to stay up into the small hours of the night will find themselves drifting off for a short while — as if their eyes just feel too heavy to keep open, and their minds slip into a deep kind of quiet darkness without their realising. And at first, there is nothing — nothing but the quiet dark. Something peaceful, almost.

A dream comes.

The first thing you notice is blood in your mouth, the cold in your bones, the deafening din in your ears — as if you are caught in static and the sound of howling winds through pine trees. You are afraid. At first, you do not know why. You find yourself on your knees in the snow. The skies are filled with green light, the air is thick with smoke. And then the realisation comes:

This is the ending of all things.

You look up, to the sight before you: a huge, shapeless shadow. Towering above you, over you. A head peers down at you: a cluster of three wolf skulls, eye-sockets glowing green and terrible, and their three open maws, dripping with more green. The sound it makes is unnatural, you cannot put it into words. The darkness draws in, you are so cold, so tired.

This is the ending of all things.

It is so hungry. You are so tired. The world falls away, you cannot see the stars, the dark hiding them from view. Were they even there to begin with? Or did they go out? You have forgotten. And you know, you know—

This is the ending of all things.

The skies glimmer, licks of strange, colourful wisps curl above — a voice screams out your name, from the static and winds. Through the noise. A woman’s voice. You have heard this voice before, in the lights and noise. Do you see? What could be? What you could become?

Can you hold on? Please. A hand grips your shoulder, but as you turn — the dream ends.

For some, they snap into waking with a shout or cry. Some will shudder awake to find tears in their eyes. All over Milton, the Interlopers wake: shaken, unsure, afraid. They will awaken to the dark: the Aurora is gone — slowly fading from the night skies into an otherwise calm and clear night.

It is a new year.

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He takes a moment to find paper and an pencil, then draws out a pair of connected circles.

"Um, I... I don't really know. I know people use them to call for their power or mark who a sacrifice is for or whatever other rituals they do. I don't know if they have power on their own or not."

Hopefully not, he sure doesn't want any more attention from Gro-goroth or any god.

Bigby stares at the circles. But when he hears Levi speak up, he slowly exhales.

"Hey, don't worry about it." He knows he isn't exactly the reassuring type, but.. he's trying to be better. Not to mention that Levi seems so obviously shaken up because of all of this still that he doesn't want the other to only have to get more worried about this.

No matter how worrying the situation actually is.

"Just letting me know all this information is already helping. I'm still trying to put the pieces together, but I feel like we might be able to pinpoint this thing's identity by comparing legends and beings from all of our own worlds. It might be this place's version of them, or something close enough to that."

He nods. "Um, I've had shared dreams before...they were connected to a god. He picked us all to be part of some horrible festival, and we all had the same dream then. Then every time we slept during the festival, but there one of the god's servants talked to us. I don't thing whoever was speaking during this dream was a servant of Gro-goroth or whatever."

".. what kind of festival was it?"

Bigby agrees with the last part - not necessarily thinking it's some servant of a god Levi knows either - but he feels like maybe this information could be relevant enough. The man wouldn't be surprised if a god - or just some higher being - would force them into that sort of thing here too.

Better to be prepared.

"If you can speak about it, that is. I get that it might be difficult, if you're calling it horrible." And Levi seems shaky enough as-is.

"I-it...uh. Y-you probably don't want to know..but the point was that only one of us could survive. Or that's what he wanted." He usually prefers not to talk about Termina both because its still quite raw and because he figures the whole thing would terrify people. Bigby seems like he might be able to handing it, but its still a lot.

"All of the gods from my world are horrible. Some less than others, but none of them are really good. Or like the Christian god or whatever you have here."

He does want to know, Levi. It's why Bigby is asking. Especially since he figures it's nothing more horrific than stuff he's seen before - and he's apparently right about that. Sure, what the other is describing is still macabre, and Bigby feels bad that Levi had to go through it, but.. thankfully Bigby can handle the talk about it, at least.

The reason he's not pushing for more details is really more for Levi's sake than his own. It's clear Levi doesn't like talking about this, and Bigby can respect that. Especially on a day like today, after that awful nightmare.

"I'm not sure if there is anything good looking out for us here either."

Sure, it does seem like there may be two forces battling it out or something, one that brought them here and one that just wants them to get out.. But Bigby isn't so sure whether the one that brought him here is good either.

In his experience powerful beings usually just suck, yes. He'll believe Levi easily about the gods from his world because of that.

"I think it's more one force toying with us, and yet another force that wants us all to die. Pretty sure the latter is what we saw in that dream. Even if it might not necessarily be that god from your world, it's still just another similarly shitty powerful being, from what I can see."

"I think the best you can do with gods is have them ignore or not care about you. Whatever the other voice was...it wouldn't be helping us. Maybe helping herself by helping us but to powers like that...we're all just toys or ants." Based on his experience with one god, but the stories from his world often skewes that way.

"I guess we just have to try and be ready for anything."

"Well, that's never bad advice."

It's the way Bigby tries to live, after all. Always being ready for anything.

"Try to not stress yourself out about it too much, kid." Even though the man knows it's easier said than done - especially in the wake of what they just saw, and how openly worried it's left Levi. But even though Bigby might not call this an attempt to reassure Levi, it.. actually is.. "I'm pretty sure a whole hell of a lot of us are gonna do our best to try and handle this situation. You're not alone in it."

"Yeah...there are a lot of strong people here. Maybe together we can do what seems impossible." He doesn't sound very optimistic, but he never does.

Hey, Bigby will take it. It's not really like he does reckless optimism very well either. All of this involves a whole lot more of him trying to be strong for the younger people here - especially when it's slowly starting to feel like his job.

He may not be sheriff here, but part of him still wants to keep the people and the town safe.

"I got some good news for you. Not to brag or anything, but I'm probably the strongest person you've ever met."

Bigby.. That totally sounds like you're bragging..

Though - to be fair to him - he does mean what he's saying. He knows that he'd be the strongest person in town by far if it weren't for the stupid limits this place seems to place on all of them.

He raises an eyebrow. "Are you? You don't look so special to me."

He's met some pretty strong people. It'd be nice to have one on his side, or at least not actively trying to kill him. Or whatever Pocketcat wanted.

Bigby actually lets out a laugh.

It's not a particularly long one or anything, but Bigby laughing at all is a rarity. Maybe it's something about the way Levi just says it so bluntly that's kind of funny to him.

"Oh, yeah? You think so?" Thankfully even his words sound more amused than offended. Bigby knows who he is, after all. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. "Is that something you usually go around telling people after they say they're strong? That's a ticket to getting your ass beat, kid."

Not that it sounds like that's what Bigby is about to do.

But he can certainly think of a few people who'd be set off by a blunt remark like that way more easily than he does. Maybe it's a warning, trying to make sure it doesn't get Levi in trouble with someone else in the future.

He meant it in a good-natured way, anyway, so he grins when Bigby laughs. "You can't always tell strength just by looking at someone. One of the strongest people I've met was just a girl my age."

Well, magic maybe doesn't count? It didn't work here anyway. He shrugs, "I'm not some weak kid, I can hold my own. Especially against someone who gets angry at such a statement; you don't fight smart when you're emotional."

He'd likely dodge instead of taking any punches, though. And he did find most (sane) people didn't tend to take a swing at someone with a gun, even if he did look like a scrawny kid.

To be fair, he knows Levi is right about that first thing he says. People not quite looking like what they actually are is quite a common theme where Bigby comes from, after all. Sometimes the people who look like the youngest girls are actually the strongest witches. Sometimes someone who looks like a regularly strong guy is actually a three story tall wolf.

"You can?" There's a tiny bit of surprise, but it doesn't go beyond that. Bigby's tone is still mostly casual, still lingering in that slightly lighter mood - a lighter mood he's really feeling for the first time now since the nightmare. If Levi really is sure he can handle himself, then that's fine with Bigby.

As long as it means he's keeping himself safe.

"So what would you do if someone got angry enough at you to get violent?"

"I was in the army, I've taken more than a few punches. I'd probably try to get away, though. There's not really anything to be gained in a fight like that."

He'd likely apologize like crazy, unless they really were a jerk. Maybe cry. Levi isn't afraid of a fight, but trying to figure out how to deal with why someone was mad was well out of his comfort zone.

The answer itself is enough for Bigby. Especially since he'd really appreciate having a few more people around who like avoiding fights, rather than getting into them. The less confrontations happen here in town, the better.

So there's no questions about that part for Bigby. He instead nods a little bit, kind of with approval, and when he speaks up it's instead to ask: "You were in the army back home?"

Not really what he expected just by looking at Levi, but Bigby also figures it's not impossible.

"...yeah. I, um..." He's figured out that for most people here him being sent to war was abnormal and not a good thing. He's glad it's like that where they came from, but it makes him hesitant to mention it. He doesn't want to upset anyone, or bring more attention to himself.

"...I was conscripted when I was younger."

"I see."

It's probably a calmer - or rather, less surprised - reaction than most people would give. Then again, it's not like Bigby comes from the sort of world that's similar to the one most people here come from. Practically everyone had to fight back in the Homelands to survive, especially right before they all no longer had any choice but to leave that place.

"Well, it's good that it gave you some survival skills. And I'm glad to see you aren't aggressive, despite your training. We want to make sure there's no hotheads here who could cause violent trouble, right?"

Especially when their community is so small. It's so easy for a spark to ignite into huge trouble for all of them.

Huh, that's a lot less of a reaction that he expected. Good? He never wants to cause a scene, and Bigby doesn't seem like the type to do so anyway. Maybe it wasn't as uncommon in his world...Levi hopes that's not the case.

"Yeah...I spent most of my service in forests so that's helped some here." He sighs, "...I've seen too much fighting. I don't want to see more, especially if there's no real reason for it."

"Well.. Kid, if you get into trouble you don't want to deal with yourself, just let me know."

There's something in that statement that does squeeze Bigby's heart a little, after all.. Even though pretty much anyone of any age had to deal with shitty things where he comes from, it's not like Bigby enjoys watching people suffer. And it's not like he hasn't already been playing the town protector ever since whatever mysterious force brought them here dumped him into this town.

Might as well add one more charge to the list.

"I live on the lake side of town. If I'm not in, then I'm probably out hunting. But if I'm home, you can knock on my door anytime to ask me for help with a difficult situation. I can fight plenty." So he can do Levi's part of the fighting too, if it's ever necessary here.

"Thanks." He usually prefers to deal with trouble himself, but its good to know there are a few people he can rely on.

"Okay. I sleep here, which, um, I guess you figured out...uh. But I patrol all around town." And some of the forest outside of it.

It's not really a surprise to Bigby that Levi patrols. He's seen more people do it - Edward, first and foremost - and if Levi has army training, it only makes more sense that he'd instinctively do that sort of thing. It must have been why he was on the lookout for that dog months ago too.

"Let me know if you see any sign of that being we saw in our dreams, then." If Levi is keeping an eye out anyway.. "No matter how insignificant it may seem. We gotta learn everything we can about it."

Instinct, paranoia and boredom all lead to hm spending a lot of time patrolling. "I will. Let me know if you come across anything odd or worrying...even if its not related to the dream."

He lets out a huff.

It's not really an annoyed one, though. If anything, it sounds nearly amused.

"If I had to mention everything odd, we'd be here all day." Trust him, Levi. He's a literal wolf from a fairytale, and even he thinks so many of the people here are just.. so weird.. He could fill an entire conversation with stuff about Rorschach alone!

"But I get what you mean. If something's worrisome enough, you're gonna know about it. Hang in there 'till then, alright?"

"Well, I mean...odd enough to stand out and...yeah." He nods. "I will. You too."

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prelude

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cw: kids being sent to war

cw: kids being sent to war

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