CONTACT [EL NYSA]

[priorly]

[Greetings, Prophet. The Great Work Begins.]
(leave a message after the tone)

Comments

[badgerlock]

And so I'll ask again.

Do you need help?

[priorly]

I've been offered a place in a carriage, with a woman I hardly know.

[badgerlock]

Well.

If that's all right with you.

[priorly]

And if it's not? Will you throw me over your saddle?

[badgerlock]

I could but you wouldn't be comfortable.

[priorly]

True romance rarely is.

[badgerlock]

[He laughs.]

Are you a prophet as well?

[priorly]

I

[There are more words but they choke off for a moment]

Did I tell you that?

[badgerlock]

[There's a pause.]

No.

You remind me of a prophet I know. Why?

[Another pause.]

Are you?

[priorly]

I can't just remind you of a prophet you know. What, do we all look the same to you?

[Yes, the italics are audible. He's startled. ]

...Do we?

[badgerlock]

You all certainly speak to me the same way.

[Sharp side of his tongue and all.]

And well. You're not as pale.

[priorly]

Hm. Hm. Well.

[A little bluster as he tries to get back on track.]

My condolences to your friend, who must be on a par with paper to judge by the state of me. As it happens I am a prophet, as redundant an occupation as that may now be.

[badgerlock]

[Do they have a scroll that all prophets read to harass their catalysts?]

Well, he would rather agree with you on the redundancy.

Do you have a catalyst?

[priorly]

I don't know what that means. I had a cat, she ran out on me before the real troubles began. A common theme.

[badgerlock]

A catalyst?

Fate's slave, essentially. A prophet doesn't do the work, they just see. The catalyst does all the hard work.

[Not how the Fool would put it but you know.]

[priorly]

Really. [Danger, Will Robinson.] And What hard work is that, exactly? This catalyst, do they go blind too? Are they kept from sleep, terrified, assaulted - left almost certain they're going mad with what they see? Is that the hard work? Or is that just the easy part in comparison?

I don't have a catalyst, Fitz, I had a goddamn angel.

[badgerlock]

[There's a pause.]

Well. You certainly would have gotten along.

[priorly]

[Hmph.]

I think I had a dream about you the other night.

[badgerlock]

That's foreboding.

[priorly]

Is it? I was little blood-red riding hood, and you had a big bad wolf.

[badgerlock]

[There's another pause.]

Oh. That dream.

[priorly]

Is it here, the wolf?

[badgerlock]

No.

I was told they might be able to get him to me.

[priorly]

I suspect everyone's been told that about someone. You seemed very... tangled up.

[badgerlock]

[There's silence.]

We've been bonded for years.

It's not considered...natural. Where I come from.