exsilium | 1st story. (voice.)

( there's a bit of a pause before anyone speaks. when the voice does start, though, it's pretty low. flat, almost, like the speaker is tired, and her voice sounds pretty rough and husky-- and distinctly australian. she sounds decidedly... detached from what's just happened, considering it's her first entry. )

I remember, once when I was a kid. One of the shearers bought a kangaroo to the farm – not alive, though. It was roadkill. I couldn't tell you if... he hit it, or if he just found it. I don't know if that matters.

Anyway, he brings this dead 'roo over in the back of his ute, and hauls the thing off his trailer. I'm surprised he got it on there, to be honest. He and my dad, they took it over to one of the sheds and started butchering it. It was already dead, but they still went through all the steps they use for lamb or cattle if we're gonna be using them for food. Slice the throat, first. They took the whole thing apart, until there was just this... steaming carcass, and then they froze the meat for dog food, buried the guts so that the foxes couldn't get at them.

That's a bit what I feel like right now. Like I'm a carcass that someone picked up and dropped off here. It doesn't matter if I was alive or not when they found me. ( She laughs a bit, but it's a bitter sound. ) I'm here now, aren't I? Either I've gone bush crazy and I'll be dead soon, or I'm already dead. This Initiative bullshit is just-- Jesus.

( A sigh, and a long silence. )

My name's Ellie. Ellie Linton. I don't know if names mean much to the dead, but that's it.

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Dunno if "awesome" is the word for most of them, but they're kind of exciting, I guess.

( Hah. Yes, okay, she laughed. Sort of. It was one of those weird cynical sounding things that can just about pass for a laugh. ) It was occupied by some foreign soldiers. I mean, I dunno what-- time you're from, or whatever. ( She mutters something about things being "bloody stupid" before continuing. ) But uh, where-- when I'm from, Australia got invaded. And now Australia doesn't exist or... something. But we were trying to get our airfield back so the Kiwis'd have a shot at getting some headway.

Why the hell would anyone want to invade Australia? That place is designed to fuck people up. Er, no offense with it being your home and all. So you were part of a resistance back home?

[Eddie takes another drag, releasing the inhaled smoke in a long, slow breath.]

At least that's shit we have in common.

( Although Eddie can't see it, Ellie is grinning. Brief, but it's there, and maybe it can be heard in her voice a little bit. ) Yeah. And that's before you even get to the bloody wildlife. You know that if the Gympie-Gympie plant stings you, it just burns and burns for months? One bloke stumbled into one, got stung across the face-- couldn't see for days. Like one of those triffid things, only without the walking. Or eating people, I guess.

( One can only hope. It is Australia, after all. )

Kinda. Some friends and I were camping when we got invaded. We just kind of... tried to do things that'd help.

( Sometimes it worked out well, sometimes not so much. )

Yeah? What happened where you're from?

I got blood in my magic belt buckle after a bunch of heavy stage props crushed me. When I woke up I was in the Age of Metal, shit looked like it was ripped off of a heavy metal album cover. Found out a bunch of humans were trying to overthrow their BDSM wearing demon overlords.

Thanks to them, I got an awesome axe and my guitar can shoot lightning.

( . . . )

Are you drunk?

[Eddie switches over to video, giving the poor girl a raucous bout of laughter. Interestingly, Eddie seems to be holding his guitar in a position to play it, and the area behind him seems to be mostly clear of buildings and people.]

Nah, it'd be a lot easier if I still had the sacred beer tree.

[Eddie has always been a firm proponent for show, rather than tell. So he rocks out with some tasty jams that just happen to call down bolts of lightning from the sky. It's a pretty awesome display with the strikes appearing behind Eddie, finishing up the whole thing with a power chord that summons an eruption of fire behind the roadie, further illuminating the finale of his display.]

So, still think I'm drunk?

Sacred beer--

( You know what, she is not even going to question it. Questioning things just seems like a really bad idea, right now.

And then comes that little display. She looks rather skeptical when he starts playing - she can't help herself - but slowly her eyebrows are rising further and further, until they're probably up in the altitude of Mount Everest's higher peaks. )

No. ( Uh. ) I'm starting to think maybe there was acid in those biscuits I had, earlier, but you're definitely not drunk.

( No, please forgive her. ) But it's a guitar!

[He smiles and returns his guitar to hanging off of his back.]

Kid, Clementine ain't an ordinary guitar. She's been blessed by the metal gods. Now for them putting acid in your biscuits, I don't know shit about that.

Ellie.

( There will be none of that kid business if she can help it, sir. )

You are really, really strange.

( But it's more just an observation. He actually seems like a decent kinda guy. She appreciates how forthright he is. )

I think there might just be more to get used to here than I though. Time travel seemed as weird as it can get, but uh. Clementine is something else.

I've been around the block a few times, I've been told it's one of my better qualities.

[If the guitar baffles her, he's mildly concerned how she'll handle any of the dragons or demons walking around.]

I should probably warn you now, there's some crazy shit here. Demons, dragons, fairies, shit like that. They're all pretty cool, though.

( A amused snort. He may have just wrangled a smile out of her.

And, honestly? She's probably not going to handle it very well. )

Oh, come on. Now you're pulling my leg. Weird time travel, sure. And I bet there's science somewhere for that guitar of yours, too.

( SCIENCE. Good old science. )

There's some science to all this time travel shit, but you'd be better off asking a fella by the name of Gordon Freeman. He's gotta be the sharpest motherfucker I've ever seen when it comes to all this science shit.

[Eddie shakes his head, glancing around for a moment. Was he planning something? Well, he wouldn't say.]

Not any science that I can think of. Hell, it shouldn't even be able to make any sound without being plugged into an amp, but there you go. I could show you something else that might convince you, but it kinda freaks people out.

Gordon Freeman, huh? All right. I'll look him up, sometime.

( She's actually writing the name down on the inside of her arm with her TRUST BIRO. YEAAH.

Looking at Eddie with something that is wedged between confusion, suspicion, the desire to cling to anything remotely familiar, and morbid curiousity, Ellie sighs. )

When my mate Homer talks about doing stuff to freak people out, it's usually a good time to get as far away from him as possible. ( Then again, this Eddie guy doesn't seem quite so chauvinistic and dickheady as Homer. )

How freaked out are we talking, on a scale of one to I'll shoot you?

Depends on if you've dealt with supernatural shit before. Basically there's a lot of weird shit around here. Me? I can sprout wings out of my back and fly at will.

[He motions back to his guitar and battle axe.]

Kinda came with the whole face-melting package.

( nope nope nope nope nope )

I would definitely shoot you.

( She is going to adapt to Exsilium really well! )

You know. Nothing personal.

( Yeah, that makes it all better. )

1st story. (voice.)

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