004 | scherzo no. 1 in B minor

[pianola]

[ VIDEO ]

[ Dorothy is normally pretty expressionless, but by her current face - eyes slightly narrowed, lips thinner - anyone who's spoken to her before might be able to tell she is Not Amused.

Coolly: ]

I am curious.

What holiday do you celebrate, where everyone loses their minds?

Please inform me.

Comments

[black_black_heart]

[ Tannusen's been watching her on this video stream long enough to know that even a slight expression was a big deal. Reminded him of someone he'd known, back on his Earth. It's enough to pique his interest, at least, sitting up slightly from his casual slump back against a dark wooden wall. ]

Oh? And why's that?

[pianola]

He reminds me of a Memory.

It's not a clear one, and it might not be real.

[black_black_heart]

[ There's a pensive look on Tannusen's face. He doesn't know precisely what she means by 'memory', but there's that slight Inflection that makes him think she doesn't just mean a normal... you know, memory.

And then there's the fact that her world resets. ]

Something from a past reset? I get flashes of old lives, sometimes.

[ Some were more than flashes, of course, but not always. ]

[pianola]

... It could be.

[ She hesitates. She doesn't know how to explain, what little she understood about Paradigm, standing next to the Negotiator while he spoke with Angel - even to others from Paradigm, let alone a stranger. ]

Some Memories have never happened. They seem like they could have been, but ... I think are instead suggestions.

Some may be from past versions of our world.

And others ... might be stories, or fiction, that we may have heard in the past, and now mistake for what might have been.

[ It complicates things, being an android, and having yet more false Memories placed there - but at least most of these had been removed. Only faint lingering ones remained. ]

[black_black_heart]

[ Okay, that's enough to make Tannusen sit up properly in his usual booth in Velvet, un-leaning from the wall and actually sitting more like a normal person with his feet on the floor. The pooka's brow even furrows, just a bit. ]

That... sounds like the Dreaming.

[pianola]

I don't know what the Dreaming is.

[ She's curious, though, and that might show. Here was someone, the first someone, who didn't react with confusion to the idea of different Memories, different versions of what was real. ]

[black_black_heart]

It almost sounds like you might, just not by name.

I'd rather discuss this in person, at any rate.

[pianola]

[ A long pause. ]

Where?

[black_black_heart]

Wherever. If you want me to pick, my default is Velvet Lust in Genessia City. We're closed during daylight hours, but I can let you in.

[ It's almost funny how often Velvet doubles as his office. ]

Do you know of it? Big brick building downtown.

[pianola]

I’ve walked by there.

[ She’s never had reason nor inclination to go in. Nightclubs and performing were what her father enjoyed ... and then. They were different sorts of nightclubs. ]

... I’ll be there soon.

[black_black_heart]

Alright, I'll unlock the door for you.

[ Action ]

[pianola]

[ Roughly thirty minutes later, there is a knock on the front entrance of the Velvet Lust - and then Dorothy lets herself in, as she believed the unlocking implied.

Curious, she lifted her head, looking around.

This world had a different idea of what a nightclub was, clearly. Not that she disliked the space. It was only something new - and she wondered, briefly, what it was like, filled with people.

Also.

Something, something, seemed strange about the place itself.

But, not being a thing she could quantify, with her sensors - she ignored the idea. ]