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goneawayworld2021-06-28 07:23 pm
goneawaymod) wrote in goneawayworld2021-06-28 07:23 pm
FROM DUST TO DUST - Plot Post 1
FROM DUST TO DUST
LINKS
WORLD INFO/WORKSHOPPING
BRIEFING
They're briefed on the situation. It's a full-scale incursion, where it's not a section overlapping the Gone-Away worl, the incursion zone allows access to an entire alternate universe. Full-scale incursions like this need to be resolved before reality breaks down entirely due to the two worlds overlapping.
They're told that Jorgmund has determined the objective is to gain something useful from this world, and that a simple diplomatic mission will procure it. They must make contact with the upper crust and some members of the clergy, who are fascinated by the prospect of their world folding into another. These aristocrats have a relationship with the Church, who has a powerful artifact in their possession. The New Hires will receive a special knife in exchange for some mingling, one that might be able to close up some of the holes in the reality of the Gone-Away World.
Their sponsors in this world are going to give them a few nights in a very classy hotel, and take them on a shopping trip to treat them to glamorous clothes and finery for the gala they're expected to go to.
That's it, that's the mission. Or so they've been tol.
The New Hires are also told about daemons. That everyone in this world has one. That there are different interpretations of what they are: the human soul externalized, or maybe something else, something alien and bad. Jorgmund tells them that they'll likely stick out, due to not having daemons.
This is a lie, of course. They suspect that the mechanics of this universe will rectify the lack of daemons the second they enter.
EQUIPMENT
- The New Hires will be sent over wearing clothing appropriate to the world they're entering, though for now it's plain and casual. (They'll be taken shopping later by their guides for their formal evening wear.)
- They'll only be allowed weapons and gear appropriate to the world, so most of their technology will be gone. The only guns they'll be allowed are revolvers and bolt-action rifles. They'll all have been given substitute weapons, for those that carry them.
- They'll be allowed a more stealthy version of their comms, that look like bracelets or leather cuffs. These have all the functions of normal comms. They project small holographic screens and holographic keyboards, instead of having physical ones.
- They will still have their powers, but will be warned to keep them under wraps, as no one in this world has any.
- Non-humans or people with other-than-baseline physical traits will get holographic image inducers styled as discreet world-appropriate jewelry. Or other accessories to hide what makes them look different.
CROSSING THE BARRIER
They cross over the shimmering barrier between worlds, and walk into a small park that's been cleared of people by their sponsors. All the buildings nearby are in an Edwardian style, with light brick, slightly baroque masonry, and arched openings. In the distance, they can see a college that seems to have even older architecture.
For a half second after they walk through the shimmering barrier they seem fine.
And then there is pain, like an iron hand gripping their insides and pulling something out between their ribs. For a moment, it feels like something vital is spilling out of them, like a big enough hole as been made for their heart and lungs and organs to spill onto the ground. It feels like something secret and private is being dragged into the open, where it doesn't want to be.
And yet, there is a sense of relief, like they've all suddenly had a splinter deep in their bodies that's worked itself out. There is no sense of emptiness left behind. It's not that they've lost something, it's that it's separated out - but remained connected. By some kind of invisible umbilical cord.
It's been externalized, not ripped away.
They're suddenly all there beside them, forming out of the ether. Daemons. Each New Hire can immediately sense which is their own. When they start talking, the daemons are sure in their knowledge that they were always there all along, just hidden away, and are delighted to interact with their other halves more directly.
FRY
"Hi! Hi! I am your soul!" says the dog. "I am your daemon, hi!"
Fry's mouth turns into a little O of surprise and delight, and he kneels down to pet her. "I have a soul-dog, neat! What's your name?"
"I don't know!" says the dog excitedly.
"Well, my last dog was named Seymour Butts, because that was the name from the crank call on the pizza delivery run where I met him. He was the best dog, but you need a good name, too." He thinks hard. "So I think I'll name you after the second most popular name people gave me on crank calls: I.P. Freely."
"That is a good name, Fry!" says I.P. She then briefly loses interest and chases her own tail, before paying attention to Fry again.
"Can you sing 'Walking on Sunshine'?" asks Fry. "If you can't, I can teach you. I taught Seymour."
"I think so!" says the dog, her tail thumping for several seconds of blank staring. Then she says, "But I do not know the words!"
"It goes like this," Fry says, and then he starts singing. "I'm walking on sunshine, whoa-oh-ooh!"
"Now I do know the words!" the dog says excitedly, and she sings along with him the second time, hopping around him on her hind legs as she sings, "I'm walkin' on sunshine, whoa-oh-ooh!"
"And don't it feel good!" they finish together.
"Can I go meet the other daemons, Fry? Please please please please please?" Several tail thumps. "Please?"
"Go ahead. While you do that, I'll think of more songs to each you. Or figure out what sport you can learn so you can get a feel-good children's movie made about you."
"Yay!" says the beagle, hopping several times in the air.
Then the dog runs for the nearest person and starts running around their daemon in circles, chattering at them as she runs.
"Oh boy oh boy! Hi! Hi! I'm I.P.! I'm Fry's soul, I am a dog, can we be friends?!!"
Re: FRY
"Who's soul got off its leash?" Bunny objects, from well above Acacia's head. At least it doesn't smell like a real dog.
Re: FRY
She then starts chasing her own tail in circles until she gets so dizzy that she flops over.
"She's mine!" Fry calls out, jogging over. "Isn't she great? She can sing with actual words instead of just noises."
Fry kneels and I.P. stumbles shakily to her feet and then throws herself at him, floppy ears flying.
"Hi hi hi hi, Fry!" she says, licking his face. "You didn't talk to me for more than two seconds, so I missed you, but you're back again, yaaay!"
Fry squints at Bunny, and Acacia, the gears turning...
But unfortunately they're turning in the wrong direction.
"Hi, I'm Fry! I don't think we've met. Your rabbit's cute."
no subject
The response is immediate from Shelley. If someone approaches her and asks to be friends she'd never turn them away. That this someone is somebody's piece of soul doesn't change that!
Still...Lepakko himself doesn't seem terribly enthused abuout Shelley declaring he's I.P.'s friend too. Contrary to Shelley he's far more reluctant, settling onto Shelley's front, like a shield between her and everything else. What can she say? Even though she's friendly to a fault and welcoming, her shenanigans have her as a bit of a weirdo and she's well aware of that. Lepakko, representing a lot of her whimsical qualities, seems intent in being a barrier between her and everyone else, even if he's quite ineffective at it.
She asks the dog, though: "Does Fry know his soul is signing people up for the Fry Circle of Friends?"
I.P. was the one to approach but this is Fry's daemon, therefore it's Fry by proxy, as far as she's concerned!
no subject
Fry walks up and puts his hands in his pockets, shrugging a little shrug, as if to say 'she's not wrong.'
"But he's good at making friends in new places, oh yes," says I.P. "But only when those places are really different from other places he's been."
"Waaaay different," says Fry.
Which is certainly specific as far as conditions go.
no subject
"Does this place count, then? Unless you have been somewhere where you get your heart ripped and turned into cute dogs tattling about how you feel, Fry."
Shelley has gone through so many experiences but something like this one certainly isn't like it, she thinks, scratching Lepakko's head, who not even for a moment stops staring at I.P. He seems a little torn between telling Shelley to walk away and bothering to at least be courteous towards the other daemon.
Re: FRY
"Calm down," she says. "You'll scare the prey daemons if you rocket up to them out of nowhere."
Re: FRY
"Them's the rules, I guess," says Fry cheerfully. "When in animal-soul Rome..."
With that he slowly reaches a hand towards Brand but sloooooow enough it's very clear that he's not attacking, he's mimicking a paw reaching out to touch his arm.
Re: FRY
"Any part of you that touches me, you're not getting back," he says with a remarkable glower.
"We don't like being touched," Fi explains to Fry before lifting her paw off of I.P. "We can be friends I think."
That, at least, is sufficient distraction for Brand to prevent any pummeling of Fry.
"The fuck?!"
Drive-bun (No tag backs necessary but welcome)
Robbie is following a few feet behind. He isn't shaking his bun-bun, or even his bon-bon, but he seems amused and curious.
no subject
"Rogue, Rogue girl you gotta come here and see this!" The bird wanted to find a stick to throw for it.
The woman came after quickly following the bird and couldn't help but be charmed by the dog.
"Hey there. I.P.? That's a different name. Ah'm Rogue and this here's Hiram," The bird offered his own greeting by way of dropping a stick.
"Fetch." The bird intoned in a deep southern accent.