taxonomites | System Glitch: In The City

The artificial sun rises in the artificial sky... just like every day in Taxon. For some of the inhabitants, this has been going on long enough to be very routine.

This morning, though, the light shines over quite a few gaps in the city's architecture. There is no Oxford library, no Hedge Maze. A number of the private residences are simply gone, those that people brought with them to Taxon. And the streets are very empty, indeed: no Extras on the sidewalks, no Extras driving cars. No smiling faces in the corner coffee shop. The trams rattle around the city with nary a soul on board. The streets are silent.

But it's not just the Extras who are gone. Most of the familiar faces are, too. The tablets show only a very short list of 'Contacts'-- those few citizens left in the city proper.

Save for a small handful of Taxon's prisoners-- left rattling around like the last pills in a nearly empty bottle-- the city is deserted, and silent as the grave.

[ OOC: The first of two log posts to kick off the event! For reference, these are the characters who are remaining in the city: Azkadellia, Briar Moss, Charles Xavier (AU), Daphne Powell, DG, Drusilla, Eanes, Illyria, James Holmes, Jenna Sommers, Martha Jones, Remus Lupin, and Wyatt Cain. ]

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Azkadellia listened attentively though she paled, a lot. "I... Do you find me obnoxious? Am I," she asked, worried and concerned for that. "I don't mean to be. Would you tell me how," she asked, looking like she'd bit a lemon. "I don't want to be feared either. I've lived enough of that even if not me."

"I think something like that, that learning, would be fantastic," she said with a sigh. "I don't like mayhem and pranks though. Are they part of the house?"

"No, you're not obnoxious. He was, but that was nothing to do with the ways in which you're similar. Your similarities are much more innocent than his malice. So put that fear from you. I would tell you, but you're not."

It was a blessing and a curse. The school system had a lot of flaws. "No, those were just my friends. The pixies are just part of the world, like flowers and birds and people. They just are."

She looked at him, a bit uncertain and judging if he would or not. She knew that some held their tongue to protect others. "Well, I'm holding you to that. If I'm being that way, tell me. I can't learn if you don't tell me."

She frowned. "Were they your friends' fault?"

"Of course you can't. Just promise that you'll never think my statements for malice or cruelty."

He let the dragonfly go, dropping the minor enchantment enthralling the insects there. "No. It was after school. I was in Cornwall, so they were to be expected."

"Malice and cruelty? From you," she asked, scoffing at the very idea. "Maybe I don't know you well, but I can't imagine that from you."

She watched it fly away, smiling as she looked to him, seeing him as enchanted. "Do you use a lot of magic where you're from?"

"Well, I suppose it might be a lot. We're very casual about magic use. It's how I get around here as well."

"So few can do it where I'm from that it is a big thing, even the smaller things," she said in a soft voice.

"In my world, there's a lot of muggles, but their world and ours... they don't know about us. Some of us move in their world, but we stay away from them. There were terribly times in the past, so we let ourselves be forgotten by them.

"But our world is all magic. Maybe too much so."

"Why would you think it was too much," she asked, brow furrowing in confusion at that comment. "If you're staying to yourselves, how is it too much?"

"We don't innovate. We leave all technological development to the muggles and we shun a lot of what they create, however valid or amazing it is. We have magical innovation, yes, but I think we need to open ourselves much more. We're mired in tradition and outdate notions of 'pure breeding'."

Her nose wrinkled at that. "Why would they be worried about that? It seems troublesome and only meant to ... I guess I'm seeing your point about what is wrong with your world."

"I don't know. Because they're ignorant." He shrugged slightly.

She chuckled, though it was a sad sound. "So I imagine. Think of a world that combined them," she said softly. "I admit, most of my world doesn't either."

"One of my friends, Sirius, he loved muggle technology. He had a motorbike that he enchanted to fly."

She perked at that idea. "I think that would be lovely," she admitted. "See? A mixture of both. Shame more can't see that brilliance."

"He was very clever. Is... was. I don't know which is right. He's alive but he's thoroughly, utterly mad now."

Azkdellia winced at that admission, offering small sounds of sympathy. "I'm so sorry," she murmured softly. "I wish I had more to offer than that."

"No, don't be. It happens. Nothing will change it and he won't admit he has a problem."

She nodded, wishing there was more she could say. Instead she merely leaned in against him, giving him a hug quickly.

"Do you think they'll come back," she asked suddenly.

He could lie. But he wasn't going to. "I don't know. I think they will, but I simply don't know."

"Cain assures me it will be okay," she said softly. "But I think he just wants to comfort me," she admitted.

"I don't know Cain well enough to say either way. Maybe it's not you he's trying to convince?"

She glanced at Remus, considering that. It honestly hadn't occurred to her before. "I... Thank you. I hadn't thought of that. I will try and be stronger for him."

"Sometimes, we argue hardest when we need to convince ourselves." He patted her hand. "Feeling a little better?"

"Not at all,' she said, though her tones were brighter. She was feeling selfish. Again. It happened a lot.

"But thank you. I feel... different," she admitted. "And selfish. I haven't asked at all who you're missing."

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