[closed]

[badfeyth]

WHO: Ghost (badfeyth), Reno (astraphilia) , Johanna (keepgodwaiting) , Lestat (perfectdevil) , Alhaitham (justscribing) , and Kaveh (fussiest) .
WHAT: The "Monologue With The Moon" player plot!
WHERE: [emphatic shrug]
WHEN: 1/6/24
WARNINGS: Possible references to murder, violence, related dark themes, medical equipment, Omelas Kid™ Scenarios, shady institutions and their operations, etc.

You are standing in a nondescript, space-age sort of room; the walls are a silver metal so polished that you can almost see shadows of a reflection in it, and the floor is likewise sturdy and reinforced. There are two Star Trek-style sliding doors leading out of the room, one on the left wall and one on the right. Both are currently in open position, enabling you to see out into the corridor beyond; it looks pretty much the same out there as your surroundings in here. Maybe there are doors; you'd have to look closer to check.

Currently in the room with you is a pretty normal-looking wooden podium that's clearly seen some use (though in what ways, you'd have to look more closely at it to determine), and a very abnormal-looking escape portal that's just kind of floating in midair, definitely big enough for even a very tall human to walk through, but for the fact that it's behind an impenetrable forcefield. You're welcome to hurl yourself at this, hit it, whatever, all that you want, but unfortunately it ain't budging under any method currently available to you or your party.

Really, your circumstances look something like this:

The other thing you might notice is that your clothes have received a slight glam-up, in the sense that clipped to a pocket, lapel, belt loop, or other convenient area of your attire is some sort of ID card. That might be worth having a look at.

Speaking of having a look at things, maybe you ought to look around?

Comments

[justscribing]

Heine and Ghost are two this seems most likely to be connected to.

[keepgodwaiting]

[ Johanna taps a nail on her ID, considering, and nods. ]

Either of 'em could be it. All right. Hope it's Ghost.

[ She knows essentially one thing about Heine, and it's that he has an internal monster that lets him fight a werewolf and hold his own. Not anxious to get into a scrap with that. Ghost seems more manageable. ]

Reckon we should have a look around, then.

[justscribing]

[They should, and he does cast a look around while Lestat is checking out the podium. The entrance room is, largely, bare, but he'll go look at that seemingly blank wall in a moment.]

More familiar territory? [That is, knowing Ghost better.]

[keepgodwaiting]

I'd rather run into her in a dark alley, is all.

[ And with that, she's off to investigate the left-hand hall. ]

[justscribing]

I can understand that. [Says resident man who brawls with Heine on a monthly basis. He is pretty sure he could kick Ghost's ass a lot easier.

They part, so he can go inspect the wall and find the thin grooves marking it as a door.]

[fussiest]

[ we are not kicking ghost's ass. ]

[justscribing]

[You never know when you might need to kick someone's ass in this place!!]

[astraphilia]

[ from the middle of the room, and waggling his snap bracelet about: ]

It's definitely Ghost.

EDITING BECAUSE JUST REALISED NOT EVERYONE GOT THESE-

[fussiest]

[ kaveh look with the kind of trepidation only seen in cats trying to circumvent a cucumber.

...

the sigh emanating from kaveh is loud enough that it can possibly be heard from orbit. ]

It's definitely Ghost.

[justscribing]

Oh. [He looks faintly amused as he reaches back to check his belt pouch for a snap bracelet as well.] So it is. Did she give those to everybody?

[He has been wearing his around the apartment for the sole purpose of making Kaveh look at it's terrible neon pattern.]

[badfeyth]

[Evidently she did not give them to everybody! Or, well. People got them for Christmas, but here in Psyche Room Moon Hallucination, only Reno and Lestat have them in their pockets.

Maybe there's something different about the two of them?]

[justscribing]

[Absolutely, it's that they're the two most likely to be extremely annoying with them.]

[perfectdevil]

[ Well shit, the man's not wrong. ]

[fussiest]

[ from where he had been examining one of the keycard sensors: ]

Why Heine, and why Ghost? It seems you've formulated a hypothesis. What have you noticed? You ought to share with the class.

[justscribing]

As I said, I haven't had reason to mention my job at the Akademiya to many people. What little I've seen of where Heine comes from means this kind of architecture doesn't seem completely out of place. I know less about Ghost's home, except where she is now is not where she was before.

[And if the rules of magic are different between each place, it's entirely possible it's on different worlds or planes of existence.]

[fussiest]

Ah, true. Whereas everyone I've met knows I'm an architect. [ kaveh considers this. he looks to the portal on the wall. ] ... well, I suppose we don't know enough to find out either way. It could be an unknown third person, you know - given the way the network works, it wouldn't be unusual for people to have gathered information about you without having actually met you.

Lucky them, I'd say.

[justscribing]

The only other way they'd be finding out I'm the Scribe is through you. [He nudges Kaveh with his arm.

Anyway. He moves to the wall and runs his fingers over the grooves that split door give.] There's another door in this room but it's so blended into the wall that it's difficult to see. It doesn't have an obvious release, so we must need something found down one of those hallways.

[fussiest]

Oh. [ kaveh says, with the interested note of someone who's sometimes made his living, or at least his continued living, from looking into doors that can't traditionally opened. ]

Where? Fun. [ kaveh is already leaning in, however, tracing the door #5 that alhaitham has outlined with his fingers. does he notice anything else about this mysterious, near-invisible door? ]

[justscribing]

What's your assessment of this place's architecture? Besides that it's ugly. [Because he knows, Kaveh, he knows you'll think it's ugly.]

[fussiest]

[ kaveh makes a face. ]

Aside from obvious aesthetic considerations - do you remember the ferris wheel, Alhaitham?

[ that door that had swung open. the rushing of air. ]

This place isn't built like that. It wasn't made by design for human hands to put together. This is far more like a dream than a memory. I doubt conventional means of breaking out will have much of an effect, so it's perhaps best to follow whatever rules that this place operates by.

[justscribing]

[Yes he remembers Kaveh precariously clinging to their cart 1/4th of the way up because he wanted to look at the joints.]

Traditional means of breaking out hasn't really worked in any of these strange dimensions, so I wasn't expecting to be able to break the door down. But couldn't this be like a memory of a space that wasn't made by human hands?

[fussiest]

It could be. Or it couldn't be. It's difficult to say. But this is Ghost - she seems familiar with most of the trappings of the world that this city belongs to, with all its amenities. It shouldn't be that different, where she comes from.

[ ... ] Unless... this is technology from her original world.

[badfeyth]

[Kaveh expands his phenomenal architect brain powers and correctly concludes that there's probably a gimmick for opening it, and probably a reason that this one is somewhat less accessible than the other doors around here.

Okay, well, second-least-accessible. There's still that portal with the literal impenetrable force field around it. That's probably the most...least...accessible.]

[fussiest]

[ hm. a barely visible door. there are puzzle doors like these, kaveh thinks, buried beneath the great red sandsea of deshret's tomb. they are often coupled with elemental monuments to activate, or a series of operations needed to be completed before it deigns to open. kaveh considers this, then does at least a basic due diligence check - are there any secret latches, buttons or somesuch in the surrounding wall of the door? ]

[badfeyth]

[There are no obvious latches, buttons, switches, or mechanisms! Possibly the solution to this puzzle is elsewhere in the facility.]