#solo 01

Originally published in Solo Vol 1 #1.

Also in Catwoman: A Celebration of 75 Years TPB.

14th August, 1628 My Dearest,

Finally, I am able to write this letter to you. I have suffered an eternity of heartbreak in the short weeks we have been separated. It is agony sneaking what glimpses of you I can get from my windows, but catching your eye makes it all worth it.

Raoul is… hurt. He seeks to punish me, I think, to take away all my ‘privileges’ and have me rue the day I set my eyes on you. He can never make me regret you, my love. It does make things harder, to communicate. I am still welcomed at this bookshop where we spent so many hours… M. Bonnet has always liked us. He has promised to slip this correspondence to you in your next purchase, and will take any return letters for me.

Do you remember those stories we used to love? About forbidden lovers eloping away to foreign lands and being happy there? I have a small bag packed at all times. Give me a signal and we can carve out our own happiness, my dear.

Yours, Sybille

When he woke up a second time he could not smell the sweet, flower like aroma that characterized Koharu’s room. He could not feel the various stuffed animals she slept with. He decided that this was not Koharu’s room. 

He looked bleary around the room and realized this was not even the Norn. Or, if it was, it was not a room he’d ever seen before. It felt off anyway, not like anything that would be on the Norn, so he decied this was not the Norn. Upon deciding that, he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

He groggily thought Koharu would surely come wake him up, if she was wherever they were. When he woke up next, he came to the convulsion she was not. He had half expected her standing over his, cheeks puffed out, complaining about how he can’t just sleep through the day. Disappointment colored his frown. There was really no reason to be awake if Koharu wasn’t sitting on his bed, shaking his arm in her gentle way. So he went back to sleep.

When he woke up a fourth time it occurred to him he should maybe look around this new room that was decidedly not on the Norn. It was certainly a room, he would give it that. And it was one he’d never seen before on top of it. There were no windows, so really it was anyone’s guess to where he was. 

Upon sitting up and trying to get out of bed he realized he really didn’t want to do that so he laid back down. Koharu really wasn’t here, wherever here was. Did that mean she was hurt? Had that weapons dealer gotten her again? Was this The World’s doing? But, The World was Aine right? And Aine was dead, right? Maybe that had all been a lie. That seemed really elaborate for a lie. How would Aine have known Shukuri had the other half of Senri’s powers?

This was all too much for think about so Senri went back to sleep. 

Upon waking up a - he can’t remember what time this was actually. Senri could feel the weird hungry pains you get after you’ve slept through meals. Where there chicks wherever he was? Would they bring him food? The ones on the Norn didn’t but that was because they were told not to. 

He didn’t want to deal with this but his stomach was giving him enough grief that he wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. This room wasn’t nice per say but it was fine. Acceptable. He didn’t need to see anything outside of it. 

Hm, maybe he should lock the door. Did the door have a lock? He didn’t want to get up to check. He didn’t want to get up to eat either but it was looking like he would have to.

She sits up too fast and winces. For a moment while she glances around she thinks this might be some kind of hospital or like, recovery center, but the giant actual aquarium wall negates that thought instantly. It is way fucking cool. No hospital with Jesus-loving nurses would be this fucking cool.

The phone on the nightstand is clearly not hers but she immediately starts going through it anyway. It says some really bizarre stuff. To be fair, she also said some really bizarre stuff while dripping bile everywhere and sort of concussing Venus, probably, and all of that was completely true. Weird isn’t wrong. The devil knows that.

Neptune doesn’t hear it anymore, but the memory of its voice is warm and delicious, honeyed. She knows the devil. It’s her, and it’s something else out there, something that held her in its arms in that instant of blinding light and raging winds before she faded into the darkness. 

The universe paradoxically feels much safer with the devil in it. If it’s the worst thing out there, why should Neptune be afraid of this? She leans against the weird cold glass wall of the room and looks out into the ocean, out at all the even weirder sea things that swim and balloon and jet by. It’s nice. They probably fucking love the devil; the devil doesn’t think that even the weirdest dumbest ocean worms have a grand purpose in the universe. They just are.

Neptune wants to just be, too. Without anyone telling her to be someone else.

Soon enough she discovers that the device reacts to her touch, and that it can respond to simple queries asked out loud, although it tends to misunderstand her words. Her question of “How do I get back to Ishgard?” brings up nothing helpful. It was worth a shot, she reckons.

After some more experimenting, she discovers that she can use the device to send letters to other residents. She prefers to meet face-to-face, and she hasn’t had much opportunity to write letters before, but it’s worth remembering, just in case.

The device lets her “call” people. Call how? Will it ask them to come to her room? There’s no one she needs to talk to for the moment, so she decides not to test it out. This functionality also comes with a contact list, which contains a lot of bizarre names, and a few she recognises, like Daud and Yda. Sento is missing from it, for whatever reason.

Finally, after trying out countless “apps” of varying degrees of uselessness, she finds a way to contact the protocols. Whoever those protocols are, they seem to be in charge of the Ark. They’re going to hear from her soon, that’s for sure.

First, however, she tries asking the device itself some more questions about the Ark and her situation. The answers are mostly things she already knew or suspected, but she does pick up some interesting details. Hopefully the protocols will have more information.

She thinks about the enforcement protocol in particular. Such a blatant display of power doesn’t bode well. The message is clear: you either conform to our rules or you die. It’s a potent threat, but she’s never let threats like that stop her before.

The thing was: Chuuya was awful, but Dazai did trust him enough to work with him when necessary.

So Dazai, armed with a dusty old bottle of Xargramay Heaumcheauchot Rosato from the Palilicium wine cellar, set out for Chuuya’s apartment. The long name combined with the completely unappetizing cobwebs he’d had to brush off it indicated that it was probably the kind of nasty, overpriced wine Chuuya loved. A perfect peace offering.

He’d scouted out Lampadias Suites twice already. It shouldn’t be difficult to scale the building up to the third floor and make his way in through a window, but tricking his way in would be marginally more fun and piss Chuuya off a great deal more, so he used the front door. As he rounded the top of the spiral staircase, he spotted someone with a shock of blonde hair opening the door to the common area.

“Ah, wait, please!” he called out, bouncing up the last few steps. “I’m a friend of Chuuya’s! I’m terribly sorry to intrude, but could you please let me in? I’d like to surprise him with a gift.”

The blonde let him in with a smile and a kind word. Easy. Kind of airheaded, too. Dazai might need to have a talk with him about trusting strangers, if Chuuya didn’t tear the guy’s head off first.

"Thank you,” he said, beaming. “I know how to find his room from here, but I appreciate your help.” He waved the man off with a cheerful smile and made it three steps across the living room.