CONTACT [EL NYSA]

[priorly]

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

Comments

[nineteenfortyfive]

Scottish Gaelic. From an Earth. Plenty of those, it seems. I don't come from one with things like this. Not yet, at least.

Hello. I'm Claire.

[priorly]

Well neither do I, really. The cellphones I'm used to were wielded by Wall Street bankers and could have been stacked up to build a house.

You must be a fast learner, Claire. I'm Prior. And I have scots in the family, way way back. We're probably practically related.

[nineteenfortyfive]

Prior is a unique name.

What year is it on your Earth?

[priorly]

Sadly not really. I'm the 32nd or 34th of the name, depending who you ask. The Walters are an old family and they like their continuity.

1986. Yours?

[nineteenfortyfive]

Good lord. At least it's a nice name.

1945. [And some hundred but it's always easier to ease into that.]

[priorly]

Why thank you. As is Claire. Timeless, really.

Well that's not so long ago. I was born in '56, only ten years out. You'll catch up to me in no time.

[nineteenfortyfive]

Assuming there was a place to catch up at.

[priorly]

Well there was. All these mixed up timelines confuse me - but they give me a little hope, too.

[nineteenfortyfive]

How so?

[priorly]

I know someone from centuries into Earth's future. Maybe there's somebody in a pod right now thousands of years ahead of us.

So, life goes on. I know it doesn't quite make sense, but nothing here makes sense, right? If they came from so far ahead, if life continued for them, maybe someday there'll be a way to slot us back in.

[nineteenfortyfive]

Maybe. I suppose it proves that nothing in this world, or any world, is certain.

[priorly]

Well if the apocalypse didn't help us figure that one out, nothing could.

But '86 isn't such a great year anyway. Skip it, stop with the seventies. They knew how to have a good time.

[nineteenfortyfive]

I'll keep that in mind and be sure to visit another era.

[priorly]

Something a little less Republican. The air's cleaner in those years.

Though, you must be post-war, just. Which means I've got to right to talk of terrible times.

[nineteenfortyfive]

If I got silver every time someone said that, I'd be living very comfortably.

[priorly]

There's nothing original left. You learn that after you throw your second theme party.

Though it must be tedious, having your entire era defined by war and not all the life that went on through it.

[nineteenfortyfive]

We could do with a party here after this last month.

I don't mind it too much. The people that make such comments didn't experience that time themselves. That's a good thing.

[priorly]

Absolutely. There's nothing quite like the founding and eradication of a brand new pandemic to get a city in the mood.

I wonder what the 80s is remembered for. Party lines, politics and the plague, probably.

[nineteenfortyfive]

Could be the new trend.

I'm sure someone here lived through that time.