During the Meeting

I'm not quite sure what's going on. It's probably a dream. I'm probably dreaming as I die. The City probably killed me. That makes sense. After all there's no one else left, it's just I. I'm the only human left on earth and this man holding on to me so tightly seems human to me. He seems very human. Awkwardly human.  Even if he denies it and refers to me like I'm human. Everyone's dead but me so I must be dreaming. It can't be real because that doesn't make any sense. Nothing makes sense. Just more forward, just move on. If I'm dying then there are worse dreams to die to. That makes sense. There are worse dreams to die to. At least I don't die 'alone'. That would mean that I lose and that is unacceptable. I refuse to lose to a city, even if it was living, breathing, human once maybe?

"Oh what's your name?" The light voice of the strange man? Woman? asks.

"My name is, I don't know." I reply.

"Oh, you don't know? That's silly. I know my name. You should know yours. Maybe it's in the money pouch."

"Money pouch?"

"The place peoples keep their moneys and identities."

"You mean a wallet. No one's had a wallet in a very long time."

"But, but Mercury has one and Hope has one and Taro-Lee had one before she lost it."

"Listen up I don't know why they have wallets but I don't."

"Maybe Mars can guess your name. He's really good at that."

"How many people are left?"

"People I can name? Twenty three. We are the resistance, resisting the hold of the I8."

"I8?"

"Also known as the Ein."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Well I'm sorry. Now sush. Let's fly!"

I remain silent as I stare at the trash on the ground. It's so filthy. This world is like a trash heap. How is it so filthy? Which country are we on? I'm not dreaming. I'm not dreaming. If I was dreaming then this would be a happy dream and happy dreams aren't like this. happy dreams don't involve strange men rambling about things that haven't existed for a very long time and dragging me off. Happy dreams are where I can see my family again. Where I'm not the only one left. It isn't a nightmare either as there is a distinct feeling of chaos and hope throughout it all. So then this must be real life.

He carries me off to a small shelter and throws me down. Am I falling? I'm falling. Then maybe it is a dream. Ah, I must be dreaming. No point in panic. I think I'll just wait until I hit the bottom. I begin to fall slower now. The chaos is making me ill. In a few years I won't even be able to talk again. I'm dizzy. I better be dreaming. Nothing makes sense. Sense is abstract anyway. In a few years this will be all over and done with, Just a few years, how fleeting.

My feet touch the bottom easily. No issues, no problems at all. I'm still breathing. I guess this wasn't a death sentence. How strange. Usually falling means death. I can't imagine someone not wanting to kill me.

"Are you alright?" The high voiced man asks me.

"I'm just fine." I reply. "In a few years or so anyway."

"How long where you in the city?" He asks.

That, that is something I can half answer. I kept track after I moved the bookcase.

"More than five." I say.

"Ah that makes sense." He smiles. "Most people in there for that long never fully recover. I'm surprised you didn't starve to death. You must of had an awfully good reason to live."

"Live? No, no, no reason at all to live. That would be silly." I stutter with a slight hoarseness.

"Then why wouldn't you just die?"

"Because I hate losing."

"Yeah you'll fit in here just fine. Mercury, Mars we have a new one!"

A dark skinned man with bleach blond hair and a .... man that's a torso walk and wheel in. The torso looks like the dark skinned one but with pale skin and white hair and light pink eyes. The dark one wears a light blue half mask over his mouth and nose and a torn up labcoat over an old pair of slacks and dress shirt. To think anyone still dresses like this. Maybe the styles are different, were different for inhuman beings. The other wears the remains of a pantsuit it seems. I guess they were going to work before the bombing.

"Eh? You called Dixie?" The dark one asks.

"Uh yeah, teach her the ropes and things! I have some stuff to do!" Dixie cries as he climbs up the ladder, there was a ladder, and vanishes.

The dark man's eyes smile.

"Why hello there. I am Mercury and this is Mars. My brother, the torso boy!" Mercury laughs as he pulls at his brother's cheeks.

These people are strange. I must be dreaming in reality. Strange and chaos. In a few years it'll make sense anyway.

"I'm forty, please stop treating me like you did when we were children. I am Mars. My brother is not a nice man. Don't trust him." Mars sighs.

"Sush you, I'm the best person. I AM THE BEST PERSON! Anyways time for you to meet my harem of teenage girls." Mercury laughs.

"One, there aren't that many girls and two hardly any of them are teenagers. Only Celeste and Taro-Lee." Mars banters back with his slow voice.

"Sush you." Mercury repeats.

I walk slowly behind them to meet the other survivors. I wonder if there are any other humans after all. That would be nice. I wonder if these two are humans.

"Are either of you human?" I ask them.

Mars looks bemused and Mercury laughs openly.

"Not at all. Not even partially. Why'd you ask?" The dark one asks stifling another giggle.

"Because I'm human." I reply with a sigh.

"Human? Well then." The light one mutters.

Mercury stops pushing his brother's wheel chair to grab my shoulders and shove me towards another room. In there a woman with a half shaved head and tattoos running up her arms makes sound with something rather strange. She has dark purple skin and is wearing a pair of very large shoes. She's clad in a pair of jeans and a tank top in decent condition.

"How is she making that noise?" I ask.

"She's using a guitar that's how. Anyway she's our resident Mugic Jinn." Mercury explains. "Her name is Base G. Louis, fake name."

"I don't care. In a few years names won't matter anyway." I mention.

"Yeah you've completely lost it. Oh well what's a guy to do. Come on lady. Go meet her. Be social. You two can become lady friends."

He shoves me towards the woman.

"Hello." I stumble.

"Hey." She waves before becoming engaged in the guitar once more.

I wave back slowly.

"So who are you?" The woman asks.

"I'm me." I state.

She laughs and slaps me on the back. Ow. The pain is a little too much. I've never been hit this hard before.

"Louis quite it! The lady's fragile." Mercury says.

"Hope ya last more than a second girl, you're funny." Louis laughs again.

The dark man's thick hand grabs tightly on to my wrist and drags me off to meet the rest of their gang. It's so dark in here, how can anyone see? It's so dark in here. In a few years or so it'll be darker than this anyway.

Mercury drags me over to another person. This one has tanned skin, light purple hair tied back in a ponytail that was just below his shoulders and light brown and large squared eyes. He's wearing very gaudy clothing, like that of those so called Witches. They've clearly never seen a very good Witch. Those blow these clowns out of the water. Nevermind, in a few years they'll know better anyways. The man is wearing a white shirt and pants with one arm and one leg respectively. Where the clothing would be is instead covered up with tattoos that look similar to Louis's. On his head are a pair of rabbit ears and large horns.

"This is Sepi Chatha. He's a Magician and a good one at that. I guess. No fucking idea what a better one would look like but whatever." Mercury grins again as he pushes me towards the man. "Chatha stop dicking with the god damn watch and meet our new lady friend!"

"Hello there!" Chatha smiles as he walks over to touch me.

He reaches out a hand and I frown and refuse to take it.

"Why don't you want to touch me?" He pouts.

I don't reply and he frowns and storms off.

"Well your social skills are crap." Mercury guffaws and he drags me off again.

Another two young women are sitting on a couch together, one with a computer in front of them and the other with a set of papers. One has silver hair and the other blonde. One with a blue eye and a brown eye and the other with a huge pair of purple eyes. One with a completely black leather outfit and the other with a pink corset and pants.

"These two are Kilian Ambrose and Maxime Emilien. They are our sword wielders, you know for The Bone's Claws." Mercury rambles on.

The one with silver hair sneers at me before continuing her work.

"Oh and they're both men but fae are really girly." Mercury adds.

"I'm Maxime!" The pink clad man cries.

Ambrose just ignores this and continues typing on the computer in front of him.

Mercury drags me off to meet some more people. A woman with clearly dyed blue hair is screaming at a green haired man. This woman has catlike yellow eyes and a pair of fluffy cat ears on her head. The woman wears a suit in tatters and is missing a chuck of ear plus she has a large scar running down her eye to her chin that is very raised and still pink. The green haired man has short and curly hair that must obscure some of his vision. He has a pair of thin red eyes with a yellow pupil. He wears a unitard similar to those of Mahou Shoujo I've heard about and long boots.

"The lady is Antoni Anatazy, she can't talk but she's a crack shot. The boy's a Lamia named Aki Ormr with no real skills." Mercury narrates.

"Oh hello there." Ormr hisses before screaming as the woman takes a shot at his shoulder.

"Antoni no!" Mercury growls.

The woman holsters the gun and walks off with a sneer towards the dark man clutching my wrist. He drags me off again. Another woman, this one with deep set wrinkles and has her long black hair in a ponytail. Here eyes are round, small and green with ordinary pupils, a rarity here I guess. She has a pair of green pants with heavy rips in them revealing scars and a black shirt with the sleeves as tattered as her face. Those wrinkles if you look closer are actually scars. Her arm is in a sling.

"This is Gwen Eira, she doesn't have any magic which is why she's in bad shape. Really we all ought to look like her but Ormr never leaves here and Ambrose and Maxime have healing magic that they don't seem keen on sharing. Oh and Chatha's a Magician."

He drags me of to a young woman with a squared jaw and scars marring her upper lip. She's wearing a pair of cut off shorts and the top of a fencing uniform with a pain of oversized leather boots. She has quite obviously sawn off blonde hair and brown eyes. The woman smiles at me and shows her mouthful of broken teeth,

"She's also in bad shape, a Vampire, who'd have thought she'd survive this long? Her name is Ilka Marcia. She used to be a fencing instructor so she's damn good with a rapier and fairly decent with a baseball bat cause she used to be into all that." Mercury mentions.

The woman doesn't even see me as she's in her head. In a few years she won't be missed at all anyway.

Mercury drags me off towards a woman with long and messy lavender hair. She's talking to a man in a long white jacket. This woman has tape over her nose and scars under her eyes where they seem to have been clawed. Speaking of eyes, her look like a pair of half circles and are entirely purple. The woman is fused tightly to a frozen blood red sword, that might actually be made of blood. She is wearing a long purple dress that has a ripped hem and a hole in the back that looks like it's been burnt through. The man beside her has short white hair that is tied back and a long white coat with burns at the ends and blood stains all over the breast. His eyes are small and a mint green. He has scars at his mouth and on his cheeks giving the impression of higher cheekbones. Other than that he actually does have wrinkles, deep frown lines. He's wearing a black suit in fairly decent quality even though a pants leg is ripped off. The man stares at me and smirks.

"So this is Morgan Porter then? No relation to Dick Porter I pray. I am, Liuva Amsila and a Vampire also a psychic. I am the most powerful man here so please don't try to fight me." Amsila boasts before running a hand over his breast pocket and throwing me a small silver watch.

"Always check the time Porter." He chuckles before returning to his conversation with the woman.

"Yeah sorry bout him Morgan is it? He's an asshole. He and Mars get into a lot of argument over this. Similar personalities and abilities see. This guy is what Mars would have been without me. Anyway the lady is an Incubus and her name is Viollca Nuri. She's our best fighter other than Chatha and Louis, maybe Hope when he's not brooding." Mercury explains.

He takes me over to a woman with spikey brown hair and large rounded green eyes. She's in great condition, like Ambrose. she's wearing pink shorts, green sandals, large hoop earrings and a gold bandeau.

"That's Nalani Noe, she's stoned and a Siren so she's good healing factor as well plus she's terrible in combat so we don't really let her leave. But she actually shares her healing factor, though it's weaker than Ambrose's and Maxime's. She's a sweet lady." Mercury rambles.

He takes me off again. This time a man is bantering with another woman. The woman is missing an eye and when she smiles I can't find any white teeth left. She looks like she was really attractive before the bombing. Her eye is hazel and shaped like a cat's but with a normal pupil. Her hair is in a pixie cut and dark brown. She's wearing a short red dress that is free from the rips and tears that the others have and a pair of black tights and red knee high boots. The man beside her has small crow's feet and has short black hair. His eyes are less amazing and simply brown. He has a pair of bear ears poking out from holes in his baseball cap. He appears to be wearing an old and ripped brown and gray baseball uniform. He's holding fast to a hatchet.

"The lady is Eva Ageal and the man is Adal Steinn. Steinn is a decent fighter so we always keep him here in case of invasion and Ageal was a model and still has enough of her looks to make a killing in Casino Park. We try not to let her fight, she brings home the bacon. Literally." Mercury explains.

Ageal waves once towards me and continues the chatter with the oblivious Steinn. I wave back and she giggles at that.

"Mercury this is a man." She giggles.

"Nope. She would have told me by now. Wouldn't you Morgan?" Mercury asks, still with his hand wrapped around my wrist.

"Actually I am a man." I reply.

He snorts. "Damn Ageal. Eh, I don't mind. There's bound to be more lady folk in Casino Park or the Red Light willing to join. Preferably hot teenage girls that are stoned."

It doesn't matter. He doesn't seem to get that. In a few years or so we'll all be ashes anyway.

Mercury drags me away to a woman sitting on a window ledge far above everyone else. Along with her arms she has a pain of blue wings with black on the tips and mixed in with the plumage. Blue jay I think. She has a short black bob and is wearing a pair of blue jeans and a black t-shirt.

"She's Adha Hagar. Hagar we have a lady boy you'd like to meet!" He calls up.

"Go the fuck away Mercury unless you're letting me go outside." she growls

"Someone's grouchy."

"Go be an ass with your brother or something."

He sighs and whisks me off to a room with a rickety throne. A man with dark brown hair in a braid is humming to himself while sitting on it. His eyes are nothing unusual except that they are black. He's wearing a mauve suit that is ripped in many places and has scars all over his face, hands and exposed areas of his body.

"This is Desideria Roque. He's got problems. I mean worse than yours. And worse social skills. Anyway let's have you meet the techies and the kids, you'll be hanging round with them mostly. After all you wouldn't be useful for more than bait." Mercury laughs again.

He takes me to another room with a large computer and an even larger bed. Two dark skinned girls are chatting on the far corner of the bed. One is wearing a red hood and the other with a white hood. They both have large and rounded eyes in light brown and are clearly sisters. The one in the white hood is taller.

"These two are Madam Red and Madam White." Mercury sighs. "Take good care of em will ya?"

On the computer is a small man with large square glasses that he's constantly pushing up. His hair is orange and a piece stands straight upwards in a cowlick. A very large man with half pink and half gray hair is collapsed in a heap on the floor beside the computer and an Asian girl is cheerfully poking at him.

"The man's Fellio Alto, the lady's Raven Taro-Lee and the man in despair on the ground is Hope. Taro-Lee is a Diviner and can see the future with he fancy tarot cards. Hope can fight but gave up the will to live and now just kinda lies there but we haven't got rid of him cause the Ein don't seem to like going near him. Fellio's like twelve and is some kind of genius and he and Fracture get into hacking wars or some bull.  Madam Red has magic that she needs to tap into and Madam White already has some but she needs training. Basically these people need protecting. We figure you need it to so you're hanging with them. And Grenda and Celeste when they get here. Have fun." He explains before heading off. "Oh and Dixie'll introduce himself properly. Hate getting near him, just racks up my nerves is all."

The dark man finally leaves me alone and walks away. Madam Red smiles at me.

"Hi there. I'm Madam Red but people just call me Red. You're hair is Red. I like the colour Red! Well we friends. Good friends." She smiles.

Friends? In a few years or so there won't be any need. But she's rather young, a few years must seem like centuries. Whatever, it won't matter anymore. I'll just try not to die until the finale comes. 

"Hey why aren't you answering me lady?" Red asks.

"Because I don't care." I reply.

"You're voice is funny! It sounds all scratchy!" Red giggles.

"Sh, leave the woman alone." White frowns. "I'm sorry ma'am."

"It doesn't matter." I sigh.

"Oh another Hope I see. Thank you Mercury! God damn lolicon doesn't fucking know when to leave them." Alto snarls before continuing typing.

"We will have to just cheer her up!" Taro-Lee smiles.

"Like that ever works." Alto whines.

The door opens again and a woman covered in water stumbles inside with a girl with her hair on fire. The woman covered in water has short blonde hair, tanned skin and light blue eyes. The girl has natural bronze-ish skin and has deep red eyes with three black dots underneath either one. She looks like a real witch to me.

"Oh help. Hello I'm Grenda Phoenix and this is Celeste Dragonni. We are the ones that are supposed to protect you and everyone in here." Phoenix mentions. "We aren't doing a very good job today."

"No, no you aren't." I mention.

"Well you are a huge a- jerk." Phoenix sighs.

She flops down on the bed and promptly passes out. Dragonni waves before passing out herself. I don't like so many people around me. Oh well, why complain? In a few years there won't be anyone breathing.

The door opens yet again to show Dixie I suppose. He's certainly male. He has pointed ears and brown hair. He'd be the most ordinary looking if it wasn't for the pitch black eyes that appear to move in different directions from each other and the need-like teeth. He's grinning rather widely. This is insane. I have never heard of a species that looks like this.

"Oh am I scaring you Porter? Sorry! Forgot you're ignorant! I'm Dixie Alabama! One of a kind! Literally! No I mean seriously, I am the only member of my species that has ever existed! And you're the last human, we must have a lot in common! What are you doing in here? If you killed The City, even if it was dying, you must at least be on Viollca's level!" Dixie rants on in his high pitched voice.

He grabs me by the wrist as well and drags me out. Red waves goodbye and Alto breathes a sigh of relief. I can see I am not wanted. It doesn't matter. I'm only here to live longer than I will ever alone.

The chatter of the room grows along with anticipation. Dixie's holding fast to my hand, rather than my now bruised wrist.

"Today most of us are making our way to Casino Park! Apparently Shard's taken up permanent Shack there and The Jack of Diamonds is visiting. You know the drill with these two. Oh wait, Dixie what are you doing with Porter eh? Put the lady boy back in with the kids! He's of no use!" Mercury growls.

"Nope. He's of use. He's coming with me!" Dixie screams back.

Louis breaks into laughter. Chatha does as well. Ageal is trying to hold hers back. Ansila and Ambrose look amused.Steinn smiles at me awkwardly before turning away. Whatever. Let them be elitist. In a few more years or so it all be vanished anyway.

"Whatever Dixie. Anyway here are the rules. One, don't make wishes, two don't play any games of luck or chance, three don't drink anything, four don't shake her hand, five don't steal anything from Shard. Other than that wait for my orders. Clear?" Mercury asks.

Everyone nods in unison.

"Good. Come on Dixie bring lady boy with you if you must." Mercury sighs.

Dixie grins again and pulls me along. I wanted to survive. Oh well, why bother to complain, life will be vanished in a few years or so.