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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?

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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.]

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.

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.

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? ]

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.]

[ 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.

[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?

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.

You mean the one she was raised in? My impression was that she didn't know anything about where she was born. [Which is what Alhaitham would call her "original" world, if not her "home" world.]

That's what I mean, yes. The place where she was born. Perhaps she doesn't recall, or remember - but there are some things you experience without having remembered, only for it to come back in dreams.

Perhaps that's what this place is. [ kaveh looks, from wall-to-wall. ] Well, I suppose even if we asked her later, she wouldn't be able to say so, one way or another. But it's a thought, isn't it? The body remembers, and the mind tries to replicate it, piece by piece.

[Every child in Sumeru dreams before they receive their first Akasha terminal. Alhaitham had fragmented ones where he could almost grasp his mother's voice humming a lullaby or his father's hands balancing his small body and a book. Things that he doesn't know in his conscious memory.

He cants his head in silent acquiescence.] She'd probably wonder why we asked at all about a place she clearly can't remember.

[ kaveh has to laugh at that. ]

Or she'll write herself a past. One or the other, right?

Rather than a past, isn't it better to write a future?

[ there's a careful, startled beat. then, kaveh smiles. his eyes curve along the sharp line of its edges. ]

... you know, once in a while, you do have the ability to say something agreeable. Poignant, even. Good work.

I've always believed that. [And because he sees that good mood he is going to lean in for a quick kiss while he can get away with it.]

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fussiest - 2024-01-15 01:57 (UTC) - Expand

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justscribing - 2024-01-15 02:12 (UTC) - Expand

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fussiest - 2024-01-15 02:13 (UTC) - Expand

[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.]

[ 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? ]

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

[ well, understandable. kaveh lifts his head from where he'd been carefully making his way, cheek-to-the-wall, discerning shadows from form. he shakes his head. ]

I can't discern anything that may open this door along the wall. There must be another trick to it. If you see anything that resembles a button or a latch, or even something metaphorical to the opening of a locked and seamless door - well, I don't need to tell you to give it a look.

So you want me to push buttons first and ask questions after?

I told you to look - since when did you look with your hands, hm?

Not everything can be experienced through vision alone. Some things are better understood through touch. Surely an architect would understand that.

An architect also knows better than to trigger the traps designed by one. Look first with your eyes, Alhaitham. if you so choose to touch it afterward, then it's hardly my problem. Clear enough for you?

You're going to make something not your problem for once? But I was always going to do what I want.

[And then Kaveh's going to be the one to slap his ID card on a button on instinct anyway.]

Yes, yes, because you only ever do what you want. Alright, then. Right now, I want you to want to go and look at some hallway or another. We're not getting out of here any sooner by discussing it.

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