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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.
no subject
"Virginia! Sorry, no sense of personal space, no idea where she gets that from," Dan says, emerging from the crowd and scooping the ferret up by the scruff, as if he doesn't treat anything that enters the triple-dorm as communal and doesn't frequently help himself to whatever Sam and Ric bring home - probably his worst rooming habit. "Wow, Ric, I was really going to peg your soul animal for a mole or prairie dog."
"A prairie dog..." Virginia says with a dreamy sigh, although it's unclear whether it's a lustful or hungry one, given the shape of her.
Dan pauses as KREB in the background shouts something about pinching again.
They both speak at the same time, Dan and Virginia and their ambient concern for their surroundings in stereo. "Do you think they need help over there?"
no subject
The sleek daemon nods and, once Virginia’s been scruffed, gives her tail a wave and a flick, as if to show off that she hasn’t been scuffed. Neither human nor daemon knows what to make of the compliment or the prairie dog lust. Both raise an eyebrow of sorts.
“I would’ve thought some sort of dog. Bulldog or mastiff. Just because sometimes I make tunnels doesn’t mean I’ve got a naked mole rat soul.” The genet is a weird one; he must’ve seen it at a zoo in his life, but it looks like something that would get used as an “alien” in an old B-movie.”
He’s not sure what he would’ve guessed for Dan. This matching game is evidently something he’s terrible at; a ferret wouldn’t have been on the list.
Urukáme turns when KREB goes off again; Ric doesn’t want to. “Help with what? It’s not like we can fix someone’s soul. They have to convince it to shut up.”
“Good luck with that,” Urukáme says quietly, but loud enough to be heard by more than just Julio.
“Yeah, but you’re not a creeper shouting about how you can touch the world, Urukáme.”
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"I just reckoned something grounded, is all." Dan grins at the stupid pun, but Virginia outright snorts, wriggling as she hangs from Dan's hand. He smiles at Urukáme. "I don't suppose I know much about genets, except that you look pretty fine. Pleasure, Urukáme."
It's so weird to think of this genet as both Ric and not-Ric. It's like the opposite of possession, one body for two souls, which Dan's quite used to navigating; this is that, funneled upside down, and with apparently an entire culture's worth of baggage and social mores around it that they'll have to learn fast.
"Maybe we can convince it to shut up if we can convince it it's not in danger," Virginia says. "It could be fun! Even dangerous. We love that."
"Can't go running into trouble just because we're bored," Dan says, since apparently having his soul extracted as a ferret isn't exciting enough for him. "Much as I'd love to."
no subject
As it is, he takes the pun with a small smirk. "I guess she's the part of me that likes fast cars and rap."
Urukáme really wouldn't look out of place strolling through a shiny black set behind a rapper, or posing on a bed. She is visibly the part of him that like things with a little bit of flash and bite. The part of him that is actually nodding along with Virginia's suggestion that it could be dangerous and we love that. "And what, this isn't enough trouble? They made it sound like we'd be the weirdos who didn't have daemons; naw. We're the weirdos who don't know how to handle having daemons. It's not going to make us any safer."
no subject
If a ferret could grin, Virginia would. "I ain't a fan of safe anyhow. It's more interesting, always having to improvise."
"You know by now there ain't never enough trouble for us," Dan says. "You're a superhero, you get it."
There are those who run away from fires, and those who run into them.