Hello, Manhattan.

[ her voice is soft, and a little tired, the murmur failing to hide her displeasure at waking up ...

... wherever this horrible place is, other than, presumably, Manhattan. there's a clipped coolness to the way she projects into the murmur, a practically tangible sense of both stubborn refusal and defiant self-control.

little of her feelings, after all, escapes her besides these, a strange amusement and, bubbling beneath it, her faint frustration. ]

You can hear me, can't you? It's been so long. For you, perhaps, if not for me.

My name is Lortel. Lortel Kehelland. I've been here before, you see. I've been told I was gone for several months. To me, though... all I can remember is dreaming. A long, dark dream. Perhaps unsurprising, considering our gracious host, hm~?

There's much I'm sure I've missed. Should anyone care to tell a girl in greater detail what's happened these past two months, I'd be very grateful. [ her smile may be felt through the murmur, though its honesty is another matter. ]

For those of you who don't seem to have awoken down here with us, please check in with me. I'm sure you'll know who you are. If we've not yet met... then tell me, perhaps, what you think of our strange little corner of the world. What has it been like, for you? How have you been changed? [ an echo of a long ago question she once asked. ]

For those who are down here with me, there's something I'd like to share. I seem to have woken up with some strange mask. Not the ones all of us have been given. Rather, it seems to filter the air we're breathing, after testing it out myself. Given our ... conditions, I would, naturally, be willing to share this vital resource. I'll ask only a fair price in return, of course~.

[ I've missed you.

I was scared.

I didn't want to leave.

these things are not said, or shared. but for the briefest moment, she cannot bury an intense and longing melancholy. ]

Well. We'll see all each other again soon, I'm very sure.