rule #1

[scaler]

[Molly has found the journal.

'Calm' is not a good word for it. Neither is 'relaxed,' or 'adjusted,' or 'accepting,' but she is very good at putting on all four. Keeping her head is what keeps her alive.

She's gotten acquainted with the important bits: the magic, the wishes, the losses, the indefinite stay, the familiar faces. Also the really important bit: walkers. That is, lack thereof. Allegedly.

None of it seems real -- but then, options are limited.

She presses a crease into the corner of the journal's page with her thumbnail. The first thing it picks up is a mutter half to herself.]

Feet first, I guess.

[Then, louder:]

So, hey. Ain't I supposed to get a gift basket? That's what luxury places like this do, right? What kind of welcome wagon is this?

Comments

[lucre]

Do you truly require this motor control of yours here?

[scaler]

That's the question of the day. Rather have it than not, though.

[lucre]

What does it do exactly?

[scaler]

It just means how well you control your movements. You know how when you get drunk it's hard to balance or catch things? Same rule applies to hitting things and getting out of their way.

[lucre]

And what must you hit or escape?

[scaler]

Geeks, walkers, the dead risen again. Whatever you want to call them.

Things that aren't here, apparently.

[lucre]

Walkers. I have heard of those.

[ But it would be presumptuous to assume everyone in their world knows each other, right? And yet, there's always a chance. ]

Do you know a girl named Clementine?

[scaler]

[And that's another. Seems they've gotten popular here.]

Yeah, I do. [Her voice is calm but pointed.] How do you know her?

[lucre]

By chance.

She looks most lovely in blue.

[scaler]

[That doesn't make her feel better.]

Then you know Lee, too.

[lucre]

Yes. She is his charge, is she not?

[scaler]

That's one way to put it.

He looks out for her.

[lucre]

We did too before he arrived here.

[scaler]

Who's we?

[lucre]

Many of us here. Myself included.

[scaler]

[SUSPICIOUS.

But, well, she really isn't Clem's keeper. Lee is, and if these people are still alive after Lee's been here, then that probably means they aren't horrible.]

That's pretty generous of you.

[lucre]

It is easy to be generous when one has it in abundance.

[scaler]

Sounds like we hit the jackpot of generosity, then. Lucky us.

[lucre]

The castle too is endlessly generous. In most instances.

[scaler]

Yeah, about that. Heard there might be some fine print involved.

[lucre]

Your soul, they say.

[scaler]

[A pause. That's... hefty, but so abstract that it's hard to compare it against everything she's gotten back by being here.]

How's something like that even work?

[lucre]

Perhaps that prevents us from entering the pearly gates.

[scaler]

[A short, humorless laugh.]

That all? I got nothing to worry about, then.

[lucre]

Eternal fire does not frighten you?