(Untitled)

[and_not_ginger]

Hold on, that's...no, wait, that.... That can't be right.

I don't suppose anyone's heard from a man called Harold Saxon, or a small girl called Yotsuba? No, I don't suppose you have. I'm not picking up a thing from either frequency.

Right. Well. He's actually gone, then. Sent home when there's no home to go to. When there's no life to return to.

Comments

[kan_chyan]

A plague of visions of our dark, hidden pasts!

[and_not_ginger]

Well, that was rather poetic, if a bit on the cryptic side. Care to clarify?

[kan_chyan]

I don't know the details so much, I was one of the few unaffected. It seems Yorda chan, who makes a lot of produce here, did something by accident. It caused bad memories and other things people keep locked up and away to surface in the form of visions. It was rather distressing for a lot of people.

[and_not_ginger]

All of that was caused by produce? Really? I must admit, I never would have expected something as innocent as fruits and vegetables to cause that much damage. Well, I did see someone get rather effectively killed by a satsuma, once, but that's very different.

More importantly, though - poor Yorda. She seemed like a lovely person, so I hope no one's taken it into their heads to place the blame on her.

[angelic_lawyer]

This place has a habit of going through periods of predictability followed by far briefer periods of unpredictability.

Of course there have been murders. They seem to be an unchanging fact of this city.

[and_not_ginger]

As volatile and all-around unpleasant as those periods of unpredictability might be, it's all that predictability that rubs me the wrong way, to be quite honest. And not simply because of the murders, although they're certainly contributory.

[angelic_lawyer]

Predictability leads to complacency which is rarely - if ever - a good thing.

[and_not_ginger]

No, complacency never is. After all, variety is the spice of life, as they say. Life without a bit of unpredictability is just sort of...vanilla. Except that I do actually like vanilla, so...it's something else that's appropriately un-spice-like.

[defensenvrrests]

I used to read many mystery and crime novels. I haven't heard Agatha Christie mentioned in quite a while.

[and_not_ginger]

Oh, wonderful! It's always lovely to run into someone else with an appreciation for a well-crafted mystery novel. And, haven't you? I'm surprised. She's one of the masters, she is. One really shouldn't even mention crime fiction without going on to mention Agatha Christie in the same breath.

[defensenvrrests]

Agatha Christie, Edgar Allen Poe, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle set many precedents with the crime novel as we know it now.

[and_not_ginger]

Absolutely. And you have brilliant taste, you know - not many people realize that Poe was an early pioneer of the crime novel! Gets overlooked in favor of his darker work and all that. I'm impressed that you know about that, which is a rather high compliment, because, well. Not many people know as much as I do.

[daddyslilpyro]

Jeeze, you just kind of come and go, don't you?

[and_not_ginger]

How's that? Well, typically I do, yeah, but it's a bit harder to accomplish when you're trapped in one relatively small city. Still, though - rather nice to know that I've managed to sustain my air of coming and going despite that minor problem.

[daddyslilpyro]

I'd like to think we could get you to stick around just long enough to help with some of our scientific endeavors.

[and_not_ginger]

Oh, I haven't gone anywhere, not really. I've been working on my own endeavors - also of a scientific nature, incidentally - but I'm always here if my help is needed, yeah? I'd be glad to lend a hand. I'd love it, in fact. Why don't you start by telling me a little bit about what you're working on at the moment?

[madwashu]

You pretty much summed up what's been going on here lately.Though I admit, I haven't heard of this Agatha Christie you're talking about. She's and author correct? That's what I'm gathering from your rambles.

I didn't realize that Mr.Saxon had been given the pleasure of getting out of here. Lucky man.

[and_not_ginger]

An author, yes. Best-selling author of all time, to be precise, although I don't suppose that'll be common knowledge for another few billion years. But, yes, if you fancy murder mysteries, I can't recommend her enough!

He has. Except that I don't...well, he doesn't.... Well. "Lucky" depends upon your point of view.

[madwashu]

Murder Mysteries? Hm.. far cry from my usual genre of reading.

Depends on "your point of view?" what do you mean?

[and_not_ginger]

What's your particular genre of choice, might I ask?

Oh, never mind. He's lucky enough to escape this place, I suppose.

...You're quite clever, aren't you, Washu? Tell me, what d'you think happens to someone when they're sent back? If they've, say, already died in their world? Have you got any theories on that, by any chance?