(no subject)

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

[OOM: There'll always be an England. It's just that eventually, it's REALLY going to suck.]

The door opens, and for a moment the ruddy-gold light of candles and lamps can be seen on the other side. Not for long, though. The blue-clad, bearded fellow who trudges through closes the door behind him.

And then stops, two paces in, and stares.

Quinn Abercromby hasn't got any words at all for this.

Comments

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

Quinn?

Stares.

".... that's sick, mate," he says. "That's just- that's nasty."

[reluctantcleric.livejournal.com]

Partridge was grim, "Never said it was pleasent. At least it will only be a bad memory, and a warning for future generations now. That world is now free."

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

Quinn exhales. "Suppose so," he murmurs. "No offense, mate, but- I'll take the dragons over that any day."

[reluctantcleric.livejournal.com]

Partridge frowned at that, "Dragons? But that's only in stories and poems. Mythical creatures."

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

Quinn snorts. "Tell that to my people," he says. "They've been alive and active where I come from for the past twenty years. I saw the first one come out from under London when I was twelve years old. They've bloody near destroyed everything."

[reluctantcleric.livejournal.com]

"I'm sorry," Partridge honestly admitted. "How did it happen?"

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

There's a sigh as Quinn settles back in his chair. "Far as anyone can tell, the species's been around for a long, long time," he says. "Millions of years. There's scientists who think- who thought- that it was the dragons that killed off the dinosaurs, or did the other mass extinctions. Dunno how they got to that conclusion, but I remember hearing that when I was younger. They've been in hibernation all that time, 'cos there hasn't been enough life on Earth for it to be worth their while. But when I was twelve, my mum was in charge of a construction project- digging new infrastructure for the London Underground- and woke up the first one. It came blazing out of its cave, burning and smashing-"

He shivers, swallows, and has to look away.

"Anyway, after that... after that they just started popping up, all over the place. Waking up, the survivors of... I dunno the last time they were really, seriously active. But it wasn't like the Middle Ages and the stories- they woke up and they bred, and you got swarms of the bloody things. They just sprung up like cockroaches, and it didn't matter how many the military killed 'cos there were ten living for every dead..."

[reluctantcleric.livejournal.com]

Partridge was silent at that, unsure what to say.

[twoeyesonthesky.livejournal.com]

There's not that much that can be said, really.

"They're starving now, I think," says Quinn quietly. "At least- that's the impression we get when we see them. We're hoping we can outlast them somehow, 'cos only one species is getting out of this alive."