bewrightback | IC Inbox [Cerealia]

...I see. So you've met with Iris as well. That's good. [He does sound nothing but warm about it. Luckily she's not anyone's long-lost relative or anything.]

...You're missing a few, but they're all people you don't know yet.

[He catches the "yet".]

You mean they're people I'll know later. In my future.

[Yeah, he's still weirded out by this whole thing.]

Yep! Give it a few months.

....Well, to be fair, I don't think that you've met Maya or Larry yet.

But you're familiar with them?

[Maya and Larry... now why do those two names ring a bell in his mind? Apollo rests his finger against his forehead as he tries to remember where he's heard those names before.]

[He smiles warmly.]

Without a doubt. I've known Larry since we were children... and Maya was my first assistant, as well as the younger sister of my mentor.

[Honestly? It's still weird seeing Phoenix so relaxed and smiling genuinely in a way that Apollo rarely ever saw since he started working for him.

...in a good way, though. It's a much better look on him than the carelessness that he often wore before.]

I don't get it. [Apollo finally admits, folding his arms as he puzzles over this new information.] They sound like they mean a lot to you, but you've never mentioned them before.

[Phoenix responds with a hearty laugh.]

What's not to get? It's not like I hand out a list of all the people closest to me to all my new friends.

...Although I have mentioned Maya to you before, if not by name. Remember all of those Steel Samurai DVDs that were sent to me?

[It doesn't immediately ring a bell, and Apollo has to pause and think back. Oh, right. The car accident.]

When you were recovering in the hospital? [If it could be called "recovering" at all. Who gets hit by a car and walks away with just a sprained ankle?? Apollo thinks to himself.]

You said something about sending reports to someone--that was her?

That's right. Those were very important reports. [He affirms this with a nod. Then he goes on in a dranatic nature that doesn't quite sound entirely sincere.]

If I didn't have those videos to keep me company at that time... I might not have pulled through.

[Now this is familiar. Apollo barely stops himself from rolling his eyes at the melodrama. Barely.]

Because sprained ankles are such life-threatening injuries?

Ahhh... Apollo, you're just as I remember. That stare of yours can still kill a perfectly good joke dead in its tracks...

It's not my fault your jokes need some work, Mr. Wright.

[But he does tone down the sarcasm just a little.]

Was that everyone I'm missing, though?

Or maybe it's your fault that you think my jokes need work. [A dad laugh.]

Scuttlebutt.

[Don't blame your lameness on him, that's so rude.]

Scuttle...what?

[Does he even want to know?]

[Or is it so true??]

Keep a watchful eye on cardboard boxes. You'll find her eventually.

[Cardboard boxes??? Apollo stares at Phoenix.]

I have the feeling I'm better off not asking.

It's too bad. You'll find out eventually, whether you want to or not.

Now, you wanted to learn some more about the situation here...?

Right. [He'd been so distracted by the chatter about their home world, but Phoenix's reminder jolts him back into focus.]

You said something about the world outside? You must've learned something about it if you're bringing it up.

I've learned a few things... In fact, everyone in the city was stuck out there in the wilderness not too long ago. In that time, we learned a bit about the world outside these walls. It's filled with dangerous wildlife, murderous terrain and run-down settlements.

And that's not all. There are four different... beings of some kind, who each have their own domain there. They're affiliated with one of four elements, and each one of them claims a different portion of our population is actually their own. The four of them... Well, maybe this will make it easier for you.

[He lays down one card of each suite as he goes through the elements.]

Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four elements and their people apparently lived together in harmony. [He flips a Joker card over, scattering the four cards.] Then everything changed when the CERES company attacked. ...Or forced them to make treaties. It's kind of unclear.

[He flips around a Queen card now.]

Only the Bridge, an authority over all four elements, could... do something. I'm not exactly sure what she does, to be honest. Just that when the world needed her most, she vanished. ...Into CERES's dungeon.

Some amount of time passed, and a few heroes from this city saved the Bridge. And although her mysterious powers were great enough to help us escape from CERES for a little while, theyyy all still have a lot to learn before they're ready to save all of us. Like how to not let us suffocate to death out there, for starters But I believe... that I have no idea who can save us all.

...Got all that, Apollo?

[This is a real tag. Deal with it.]

[Sometime during Phoenix's long winded explanation--geez, it's like a summary or introduction for some fantasy series--Apollo's eyebrows have risen nearly to his hair line.]

I think I got it, but was the dramatic reading really necessary?

Maybe not. But I figure that it probably helps young people like you to take it all in.

[Mr. Wright please. Apollo, ever the expert on tuning his boss out when he's being especially weird, actually sorts through the information Phoenix just dumped on him.]

So you've actually met these four beings? The element ones. What were they like?

Edited 2015-12-29 18:15 (UTC)

Well... Personally, I've only met three of them. Ardeo, the fire guy, is a hyperactive firefox. [I'm surprised he didn't crash more often..]

Maris, the water guy, is this bored-looking... goat-man? I forgot what they're called. Anyway, he seems to be the one who flooded the city back then, and he really has a hate-on for Ardeo and anyone associated with him.

Then there's Caeli, the air person. She's a real airhead... and I mean that in just about every sense of the word. She's a living cloud of some sort and she seemed to be easily distracted.

I never met the earth person, but I've heard that one is named Occidi. Between them, they have some shared traits. They hate CERES for tricking them, they think that all of us here in the colony 'belong' to one of them, and their plan to free us and then force us to live with them in their domains was very poorly-planned.

So there's some discord even amongst the four beings. Did he say why he and Ardeo don't get along?

[Apollo pauses, holding up a hand.]

Wait. What do you mean they think we belong to them?

I didn't get a whole backstory, but it sounds like they have... creative differences? I guess they're not a fan of hotheads....

[Phoenix gives Apollo's hand an idle glance.]

They associate each of us with one of the elements, and from there they think that we 'belong' to the matching elemental being. I don't exactly understand it myself, but... it seems like there's something to it. Back when the city flooded and two of those elemental beings appeared, a number of us started having some odd phenomenons happen to us that seemed to match our elements.

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