Piper 90: Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
goneawaymod) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
goneawayworld2021-04-10 09:37 pm
goneawaymod) wrote in goneawayworld2021-04-10 09:37 pm
3..2...1...CONTACT!
Who: The New Hires
What: Sudden Memory Share
Where: Their Memory Palaces
When: After "Don't Touch That Dial"
Warnings/Notes: Possible in every memory, warn in subject lines.
Contact.
It's during a pause in their day. A nap. An idle moment looking across the Top Deck. Taking a slow breath between reps in the training room.
The New Hires are connected. Mental pathways locking together, they're forced into one another's innermost beings. Thrust into one another's memory palaces where the mind collects and stores everything that makes them who they are. The core of their beings are only a few steps away and no one can help the violation.
To make matters worse, it comes with no explanation or no ability to pull out and stop. Once they're through the first memory, perhaps they can find a way out, but they're already witnessing some event from their host's past. And, if they left, who knows whether or not they'd end up accidentally invading another memory palace?
And if they were there, who was in theirs?
[[So, how this works: the memories can either be viewed in spectator mode or the guest can be experiencing everything themselves. The person whose memories are being shown, the host, can watch as their current self or take the form they had of their past self. They can talk about the memory with the "guest" that's visiting.
They cannot control the first memory shown, the player decides that, but they can control any other memories they'd like to show people after. Of course, there's also always the option of an extreme emotional reaction bringing up other memories unbidden.]]
What: Sudden Memory Share
Where: Their Memory Palaces
When: After "Don't Touch That Dial"
Warnings/Notes: Possible in every memory, warn in subject lines.
Contact.
It's during a pause in their day. A nap. An idle moment looking across the Top Deck. Taking a slow breath between reps in the training room.
The New Hires are connected. Mental pathways locking together, they're forced into one another's innermost beings. Thrust into one another's memory palaces where the mind collects and stores everything that makes them who they are. The core of their beings are only a few steps away and no one can help the violation.
To make matters worse, it comes with no explanation or no ability to pull out and stop. Once they're through the first memory, perhaps they can find a way out, but they're already witnessing some event from their host's past. And, if they left, who knows whether or not they'd end up accidentally invading another memory palace?
And if they were there, who was in theirs?
[[So, how this works: the memories can either be viewed in spectator mode or the guest can be experiencing everything themselves. The person whose memories are being shown, the host, can watch as their current self or take the form they had of their past self. They can talk about the memory with the "guest" that's visiting.
They cannot control the first memory shown, the player decides that, but they can control any other memories they'd like to show people after. Of course, there's also always the option of an extreme emotional reaction bringing up other memories unbidden.]]
no subject
Quite the thing to hear from a teenage girl, she knows. But when Shelley professes baffled ignorance of the smokey figure, Stacia is further intrigued.
"Is that...weird portal thing magic or science?" she asks, pointing at the contraption that is the probable cause of the temporary end of the world. "I'm leaning toward 'magic' personally, but that's what I have the most experience in when it comes to weird stuff going on with memories."
no subject
She never found out what was the point, all she cared about was that it had to be stopped. Shelley points at the group, among them a rather old-fashioned-looking man that seemed to have been dealt with already, forced to accompany them all while they tried to come up with a plan to stop the portal.
"The creepy guy there? The one with the mustache? He's the one who made it, some guy named Crowley. Apparently he's a well known black magic practitioner"
no subject
Fun fact: Garou really fucking hate demons. More than anything else, which is impressive because Garou exist in a constant state of I would very much like to make every single problem dead, please. Not that Stacia's used the term "Garou" around anyone but Kenzie and Bunny and the vampires-from-similar-realities.
"Let's get closer," she says, grabbing for Shelley's elbow to drag her toward the memory gang if she protests. "We're not going to find out anything standing all the way over here."
no subject
Getting grabbed wasn't something she expected, and of course, she protests: "Wait, is it okay? I don't want to cause any paradoxes or anything like that!" She has absolutely no idea what to do in the middle of memories, but still, a part of her is glad she's getting dragged into this. Fortune favors the bold!
Above them the night sky swirls, taking an ominous purplish tint, and the voices of them talking gets louder. Crowley is sitting aside, dejected, with the blurry person thing staying by his side. Shelley has finished talking to the phone, proclaiming it with a proud 'Done!', and right when she says that, the portal seems to switch: from expelling demons into the world, it starts inhaling everything like a vacuum.
And by everything it's certainly everything. The trees bend over, the trailer starts levitating, starting to be brought up from the ground -- it's like a typhoon has formed. While the demons that were starting to gather in the air are dragged towards the portal.
'It seems to have changed from 'blow' to 'suck', in a perfect cosmic joke about our situation', says one of the teenagers.
The present Shelley by reflex grabs onto the closest stationary object, while everyone else from the memory starts making their way towards the bulldozer, Shelley, Crowley and the blurry form straying behind, too far away from the memory crew.
Crowley is the first one to start floating, dragged by all the wind. He looks resigned at first -- until the form grabs him, at which he starts begging not to let him go. Useless that is, since both are taken by the gale, at which point Shelley grabs onto the form's ankle and holds onto a tree, shouting it:
'Sis!'
The current Shelley can only frown at that, confused.
no subject
Stacia makes an amused noise at the commentary about the appropriateness of things being switched from blow to suck and files it away for use later. Something appropriate is almost certain to pop up in her life. But when Shelley-in-the-memory yells "Sis", Stacia glances back at current Shelley with confusion and concern.
"That's not a word I like to hear in this situation," she says over the roar of the wind.
no subject
"...maybe she's just a nun! A very passionate nun" as if to try to distract herself, she just gestures at Crowley, while past Shelley keeps holding onto them, trying not to let them go into the portal. "These two got married and that's what started the end of the world, so I had to use lawyerly skills to undo the marriage. Shame on this nun for going against her holy vows!"
...yeah, no, it probably isn't that. Shelley really seems rather confused, and can only say:
"I'm an only child..."
Certainly no sisters. No sisters who could go and get married to old-timey black magic practicioners. Still...she can't help but recall how she just a moment ago was all trying to talk to that figure and then looked hurt when she was rejected. It did imply some closeness between her and it.
She doesn't want to admit that maybe, just maybe, her memories have been tampered with. She had never really realized that something wasn't right, but watching the events happen in real time makes it impossible to ignore.
no subject
"Do you want to go with that for now, or do you want me to poke it?" Stacia asks instead of immediately trying to poke it to see what happens. Obviously this person's identity isn't something Shelley traded away for something -- or if it is, she doesn't remember doing so. It might be best not to poke it, given she's entirely without a support system except in the vaguest "we're all in the same boat" terms.
no subject
Shelley has never...been one to turn her head when things get unpleasant. Or ugly. If she backs down or lets anything stays untouched it'd bother her later, she knows it. May as well push forward, do whatever needs to be done, and handle any regrets later!
Perhaps it's not really a healthy outlook in life, but she has lived her entire life like that so far. She's not going to change that anytime soon.
no subject
So Stacia does what she did last time she tried some bullshit and it worked: she adjusts her mindset from "Stacia" to "Nothing-to-See-Here, Athro Ragabash of the Shadow Lords", whose reputation spans the North American continent in spite of her age. She is formidable in power and subtle in its use; the secrets others keep are hers to collect as she will.
It's all very dramatic inside her head, but amounts to little more than a change in posture outside of it.
"Why don't you tell me who everyone else is?" she asks in a perfectly casual, conversational tone. "That's you, obviously, and the old man is Crowley...who is everyone else?"
no subject
"Sure, sure. The one driving is Ryan" she pointed at a somewhat unkempt-looking young man, who was testing the steering wheel of the bulldozer "He's my oldest friend, and one of the kindest lads I ever met. The kind of person that'd let you spend the night in his home if you needed a place to crash at" Shelley sounds so fond of him. Of course she'd have taken someone like him along in this quest to save the world.
The other two people -- teenagers -- made sure to not let go off the bulldozer, the girl clinging to the steel frame while the boy sat on the other seat.
"That one is Esther -- wait, Dark Esther. She likes to be called that because she's gothic to the core, see? I'm not sure if she's naturally that pale or if she worked hard to look like that, but she's a little firebrand, both in attitude and talent. The blond lanky guy is her boyfriend -- I think, if they aren't right now I'm sure they'll be someday -- and I dunno his name, we just call him The Boy"
Shelley snickers, like she's about to share something fun she remembered.
"This whole mess started because the teachers at the school were running out of budget and tried to doom these two's class to hell so there'd be money for coffee. IT all failed and they summoned Crowley instead, and now here we are!" For a moment Shelley grins, but the grin slowly vanishes, thinking about a small detail: "...how do I know them...? I have known them for a while, but it's not like I hang out at high schools to socialize..."
She really can't remember how their social circles managed to cross, bringing this otherwise unlikely team together.
The person who introduced them to Shelley is one she doesn't remember anymore, after all.
no subject
She'd learned it from a falcon spirit, Ace had insisted. Silver Fangs are like that sometimes, but a falcon spirit could teach her to muddle lies just as well as a truth spirit. Falcons are clear-eyed and quick to seize their prey once it's revealed itself, just as she would be with this gift. She doesn't have to claim a sense of the truth when she can just catch someone in a lie instead...
"Maybe they came to you for help?" she asks, still trying to keep her voice casual. "I mean, I'd go to a trusted adult if I found out my teachers were trying to send me to Hell for coffee money..."