goneawayworld | Minor and Major Keys

Entry tags:

Minor and Major Keys

Who: Stacia, Bunny, Saturday, Remy, others to be added
What: Stacia finds a mysterious key and investigates
Where: About the rig
When: After Pathless Woods/Saturday Morning/Unicorn Hunting
Warnings/Notes: none as of yet

There is a mysterious key in Stacia's possession and she is wildly curious about it.

She'd found it in her room, and promptly stomped on it just to make sure it wasn't going to get any funny ideas. She'd crumpled the accompanying note a bit in the process, but the message is still legible:

Never forget: Keys turn both ways. You can lock something away... But you can also throw a bolt and set something free.

It's true enough, she has her own experiences that speak to it, but someone or something is playing a game here and she doesn't appreciate not being told the rules ahead of time. She also doesn't appreciate the fact that she knows that this key will open the wooden music box that Jorgmund has in their Collections room just from touching the key.

Stacia is not a girl prone to investigating the weird and mysterious on her own unless she has no other choice, and she has a person or two she wants to talk to before she takes this thing to Collections to see what will happen...

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"Before we get into what I got, I just wanted to thank you all again," Stacia says. "Knowing that people have my back lets me breathe a little easier here. And, in case you haven't run into each other yet, this is Saturday, Bunny, and Remy." She points to each one in turn as she says their names. "I trust all three of you, so I hope you guys can all trust each other, too."

With that out of the way, she holds up the key between her thumb and forefinger, so they can see both the head-shaped bit on one end and the bit that goes in the keyhole.

"I traded the first key for this one, which is also informatively psychic, so I think that might be a function of the keys themselves. Which may mean that there are others out there, because if there are two psychic info-dump keys, I can't imagine that there aren't more. This one doesn't open boxes or doors though, it opens people's memories."

She pauses, looking between the other three, trying not to let her gaze linger too much on Bunny.

"From what I understand from the how-to-use-me tutorial, I stick the key in the back of someone's neck and a door appears, and I can just...go inside their head and root around. It takes time, and if someone pulls the key out of the person while I'm in there, I could get stuck inside their head; so if I use it, I'm gonna need someone to stand guard and make sure no one interferes." She rolls the key between her finger and thumb. "Also, people will only remember me going in if they agree to help me. If they don't, or if I ambush them and jab the key into their neck, they won't remember shit. So I'm just gonna say this out loud now: if it's another New Hire, I'm gonna ask before I go traipsing around inside their heads."

Jorgmund employees however are absolutely fair game.

Saturday waves a bit at the other two, elaborately cool with the Easter Bunny being a thing. Or at any rate, a man sized bunny with magic powers and an Australian accent who calls himself the Easter Bunny. She's not going to argue with him about it.

Then she listens attentively, and whistles when Stacia's done.

"Okay. So how badly can this backfire? Like just doing an idiot check because experience has this coming to mind first, for example, is there some kind of curse or addictive quality? Just, that's a very useful thing to have just arrive at our doorstep with no hidden fuckery. I don't trust things that useful from unknown benefactors."

Bunny holds out a fist for Saturday to bump, having been nothing but cool with her at their every encounter so far. "We've met."

Remy gets his own greeting nod before Bunny leans in to sniff the key. "No associated deities or incantations?" He asks, looking for a scent other than Stacia's. He caught her look, knows she knows the weight of what she has. A curse or addictiveness is a threat, yeah, but - "there could be a toll it's not telling you you'll pay."

"Saturday an' me, we're acquainted. Monsieur Lapin, I only know by reputation." There's an amused quirk to his mouth, but he's not sharing why unless somebody asks.

The key gets an interested look, though he keeps his hands to himself. "'M sure she's thought of mos' of dis." Though...he'd have thought of it and done it anyway. But that was just his way. "Still. Reckon if you're gonna be doin' a test run, best to be doin' it in controlled circumstances."

Then a pause and a glance around. Because if she isn't going to be trusting others with the knowledge yet, that meant a controlled circumstance with one of them.

"Hey, I'm down for you guys voicing any concerns you have, even if I've already had them myself," Stacia says. "Can't answer any questions you don't ask, I'm less psychic than these keys."

She rolls it between her finger and thumb again, thinking hard.

"I don't feel a compulsion to use it, at least not yet," she says, as though she's thinking aloud. "So clearly it isn't addictive on contact. If it is addictive, we probably won't find out until I've used it once or twice. At the same time, I don't know how much it needs to be?" She grimaces. "I found the first key, it's possible that the force behind its delivery knew that this key is the sort I'd use. Because I would not feel even a little bit bad about ambushing an executive and digging around in their head for a couple hours."

In fact, she can almost taste the idea. They'd have to arrange a way to keep anyone from walking in on them but, oh, the information they could get. She huffs at herself and gestures to Bunny with her free hand. "I don't get any sense of deities or incantations. The information I got wasn't even in words or anything, it was more like I remembered how it worked even though I've never encountered it before."

She wrinkles her nose. "And putting it like that makes me more sure that someone or something wants it to be used. Which worries me, especially because there might be other keys like it. And part of me wants to hand it off to one of you to see if you get the information dump, but I'm also worried that it might vanish since it's a stupid magic key and that's apparently the sort of thing I have to deal with now."

A nod to Remy. "Yeah, if I'm going to try it, I'd want to do it under close supervision. I'm willing to take a couple risks on this thing, but I'm only one person and I might be compromised at this point. So check me, I guess: good idea, bad idea, or keep talking?"

"I mean, I'm not generally that guy, but I'd say let one of us touch it an' if it does vanish, something was hinky."

She shrugs. "Like you said, something wanting it to be used? I assume that's a bad thing, 'cause so far the only mysterious powers around this joint haven't been friendlies. On the other hand, this is very, very tasty bait, and if we can get it out the trap without breaking out neck..."

There's also always the very slim chance that this is someone giving them a break. But betting on luck to show when you need her is how you get rolled.

Bunny squints a little at Remy's amusement, but he does have a reputation that he relies on to do a lot of his introducing for him, after all.

"I usually don't trust things that'll only let themselves be used by a kid, but Stacia, you've already run down why you've already got a job." He gets it. He doesn't like it, but he gets it. "Saturday's not wrong, but I'd be considered a 'mysterious power' if all this were going on in my world, and we're not low on benevolent mysterious powers there. Not everything is too wonderful to be true. But in case this is - If everyone else agrees to it, you can test it out on me first."

She's already been in his head, so no mysteries there.

"If something's off, we can do damage control from there, rather than starting with less control."

"I jus' don' trus' most t'ings dat just drop t'ings in your head like dat." Remy leans forward, elbows on his knees as he considers the key. "Dealt wit' a lot of psychics in my time. Even de benevolent ones can leave you wit' more pro'lems dan you'd have had before."

There's another moment before he nods to Stacia. "We should also see if dere's a way to contact you or get some signal to you while you're inside someone's head. In case dere's trouble."

He's absolutely not going to volunteer to be the person to be tested on. Not yet, at least. But that's more because of what's in his head than anything else.

Stacia points to Saturday. "You're not wrong on the "if it vanishes when someone else touches it, it's probably bad" point. However, my concern is more that, if something wants it used and doesn't approve of other people touching it, it could end up in the hands of someone less ethical about its use than me. Any one of the executives, for example."

Having drawn sufficient attention to that distressing possibility, she nods to Bunny next. "Not to mention that something wanting us to use it doesn't inherently mean that it's a bad thing. Whatever is behind the delivery mechanism could be pissed that its music box is in Collections. The Jorg is certainly very good at pissing people off. Sure, I'd prefer if I could have a chat with the keeper of the keys or whatever, but until that option presents itself, I want to be as sensible as I can about all this."

Remy also gets a nod. "I'm dubious of inanimate objects that come with their own psychic tutorials as well. But it's beginning to sound like we're coming around to me taking the key for a spin anyway. Unless you think we should take more prep time, Saturday?"

"I mean, what kind of prep can we take? If I had everything I normally have, I wouldn't touch that thing til Bit and Maggie had a go at it - they're a shaman and a mage, respectively," she says, for the benefit of those who don't know. "But I got nothin' other than trying it and seeing what happens or... not doin' that. It's your skin. If you wanna try it, I'm game."

Too many unresolved variables, but that's nothing new. Most of Saturday's life choices have boiled down to picking a direction at random and going for it.

"There's a lot I wish we had to prep with, but this is what we have," Bunny agrees. He wishes they had a shaman and a mage, too.

"If you want to give it a try, Stacia, now's as good a time as any."

"Dis is pro'ly as safe as it's gonna get." Before anybody else knew about the key or even the possibility of it. "Saturday an' I can keep watch easy 'nough. See how dis goes."

Having gotten the nod from all three -- and Bunny twice, who's really the most important here -- Stacia moves toward Bunny, key in hand. They keyhole appears on the back of Bunny's neck, right where the key told her it would be. It's weird and unsettling, but that's magic for you. She taps it gently with a fingernail.

"Let me know if it hurts," she says, and slides the key home. Bunny goes still, more still than she's ever seen him before, and she almost yanks the key right back out, but--

A doorway has appeared just ahead of them, off-set such that Bunny isn't blocking it. It's standing in midair rather than against a wall, an archway of interwoven branches and flowers blocked by a moss-covered stone. Stacia knows that she could push the stone aside easily; that it's something she's meant to be able to open as the person who put the Head Key into Bunny's neck.

Oh! And Bunny's also there, translucent and ghost-like. Or perhaps just more spirit-like than usual?

"Bunny? You okay?"

The transluscent ghost-Bunny is as still and wide-eyed and staring as his body, for a moment, before his hackles drop and he finds his voice again.

"Yeah, I'm fine, for being in two pieces."

He waves his own spectral paw in front of his own staring eyes, which are never ever that still naturally. If not for the very shallow rise and fall of his chest he'd be unnerved to see himself this close to the stillness of the grave. He's still unnerved, but, you know, at least there's that to keep his nerves a little unfrayed.

He looks at his own gate, and, so Stacia doesn't feel she's being too invasive, walks over to push the stone open himself.

Edited 2020-11-23 07:39 (UTC)

Stacia waggles her fingers at Saturday and Remy -- they're still moving normally, so she and Bunny don't seem to have slipped sideways into a pocket realm or anything -- and follows Bunny to his door. It doesn't seem like his 'ghost' has any physicality to it at all, even when it comes to his own door.

"Here, I'll do it," she says, and pushes the stone aside. "Oh!"

It's beautiful inside, unsurprisingly. It looks like the place she went when she was inside his memories, when it was good and not a frozen horror show he asked her to close her eyes against.

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Minor and Major Keys

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