insurance must be having a time

[saynotobugs]

⭐ Who: Maki, you
⭐ When: The aftermath of the crystal hailstorm on the 16th
⭐ Where: The DU office
⭐ What: Regular office stuff... and a public art project?

[1) the front desk]

At this time of year, the biggest worries would normally be cleanup after the DU anniversary celebration and kids coming in complaining about their midterm results. Unfortunately this is not, in fact, the case.

Maki can be found at the front desk, dealing with not an IT problem but a stack of emails and running a hand through her own hair. She looks up.

"Anyone got any tips for office insurance claims for rocks falling from the sky? Asking for a friend."

[2) still the lobby, but???]

Well, as long as all that sky crystal has been littering the ground for a few days and the adjusters have finally come to look at it, they can't just leave the mess outside, can they?

Maki's got work gloves on and has trucked in a bunch of the weird crystal and fallen debris, and she's... working it into a large wire sculpture? It's hard to tell what it's supposed to be, but maybe it doesn't really matter. She looks up at anyone passing.

"Hey. The emails died down, so I thought I'd do some cleanup. You wanna help, there's more gloves over there. Careful of the broken glass."

Comments

[saynotobugs]

I have no idea. Monument to the situation we're in, let's call it that. [Maki shakes her head.] I thought it'd be better than just sitting here and taking it. Not that we have much choice in that.

[predecir]

...well, you want more of that stuff? It's just going to the curb otherwise.

[Bruno's a habitual scavenger himself, but he doesn't personally put much stock in crystals.]

[saynotobugs]

Sure, why not? Add stuff yourself if you want, too. Call it a communal art project.

[predecir]

Oh, really? That might be kinda fun. Kinda, uh, therapeutic, even...

[He darts a worried glance up at the sky.]

This one seems like it's gonna be bad. Whatever it is.

[saynotobugs]

You've got that right. The tremors were bad enough, but at least those are things that can happen normally. Now we're getting stuff that shouldn't exist outside a dream.

[predecir]

I've never heard of anything like it before.

[Not in all his years!]

Wonder if something really is broken this time, somehow...

[saynotobugs]

What, like fundamentally? In the Dream Sphere?

[predecir]

[shrug]

Maybe. It seems like things have been getting worse there, the past year...

[saynotobugs]

Sounds like. It makes me wish we could do something too.

[predecir]

Yeah...

[For the first time in a while, he feels a little bad about his whole non-Dreamer schtick. But even as a Dreamer, it's not as if he's been able to do any good about all of that.]

Guess we just have to wait and see what happens. Whoever's got a Disturbance happening must already be in it.

[saynotobugs]

Yeah... We don't even have proof it's someone from here. It just usually is.

[predecir]

Mmm...yeah, it could be some random newly Awakened Dreamer, huh? Imagine that being how you started out...

[Considering how big this one seems, though, Bruno suspects it's someone with quite a bit of Dream Sphere power already.]

[saynotobugs]

That's true. That poor idol kid. [She shakes her head.] Feels so far away now.

[predecir]

Yeah...

[Before his time, but that Disturbance didn't sound like it was as bad as this one.]

Almost the anniversary, too. Bad stuff seems to happen around then.

[saynotobugs]

Kinda like they've got a grudge against the DU. Do you feel like that?

[predecir]

Eh....I don't know. Whatever happened last anniversary wasn't even a real Disturbance, was it? I don't remember hearing who was involved...

[He was like right there, he saw it, it was FREAKY]

[saynotobugs]

I don't know either. Our Dreamers all just got stuck in there. But if it wasn't a Disturbance, what was it?

[predecir]

I dunno. Weird new nightmare thing?

[He shrugs. That is his honest assessment, even as a Dreamer who was present! He has no fucking idea what that thing was!]

[saynotobugs]

Considering it's been a year and we have no leads, who knows. ...Well, no leads as far as I know. Could be anything in those reports turns out to be important.

[predecir]

Well....no one can find Crimson again, right? It's probably something more to do with her than any of these other people.

[saynotobugs]

Wish we even knew what she wanted. Or why she left in the first place, much less kicked all this off.

[predecir]

I can imagine a few reasons someone might not want to be a Dreamer...

[He's definitely talking about the chaos these past few months with Ai and absolutely nothing else!]

[saynotobugs]

Yeah, and she could've just handed in her two weeks like normal people. Okay, that wouldn't make her not a Dreamer, but...

[predecir]

Yeah, she'd still be...I dunno. Locked in.

[saynotobugs]

The pressure of duty, huh? When you put it that way...