[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

[badfeyth]

[And indeed, she will discover that the border of her ID card is now blue! Though there is a trick of the light when she first looks at it — a little ripple of something that's not quite explicable.

It's probably nothing. But that certainly is her ID card and its border, just as blue as it's always been.]

[keepgodwaiting]

[ Yeah, obviously it's blue. It's always been blue.

No, it was green. It used to-- ]

Oh, wow.

[ She rubs one eye, squinting. ]

Trippy, man.

The person writing this can draw the Seal of Solomon from memory, without error

[ Then, grabbing the sharpie that Kaveh loaned her, she starts drawing that sigil on the blank facing page. ]

[badfeyth]

[It is blue. Except it was green. Except that Agent Mystic is a Field Ops agent except that Agent Mystic is in the medical department except that she didn't know what Room #1 was for except that Room #1 is where she works except that the reports in the logbook had someone else's name on them except that the reports in the logbook had her name on them except that she doesn't know what the glassed-in wall was for except she's performed surgeries behind that glassed-in wall except that she didn't except that she did except that she didn't except that she did —

Her upper lip feels wet, suddenly. A thick round droplet of blood spatters down onto the open journal pages. Now there are three different forms of markings on the paper: two lines of blood ink, one spatter of blood, and a wobbly oblong Sharpie mark that is definitely not, and will not turn out to be, the Seal of Solomon.

There is no memory of the Seal of Solomon in Johanna's mind, and her drawing is full of errors, and the pounding behind her eyes is starting to feel like a migraine.]

[keepgodwaiting]

... Oh.

[ Wincing, Johanna sniffs hard, lifts a hand to her face, and stares in befuddlement at the blood on her fingertips. There's a thick, snotty, metallic taste in her throat. ]

You know. I think I should ... sit down, maybe.

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham had seen Johanna start writing in the journal. He had thought, surely, she was writing their escape and not whatever it is that now has her dripping blood from her face.

So of course he comes over, looks between the sentences on the page and her face, and reaches to take the pen from her.] You'll need to pinch the bridge of your nose and hold your head straight for at least ten minutes.

[keepgodwaiting]

Which of us is the medical staff, here?

[ She's aiming for snarky, but her tone comes out more genuinely confused. Another hard sniffle before she does as she's told. ]

That's no joke, that ink.

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham brandishes his blue-bordered ID card. There's a conflict in his memories when he stops to consider that, because looking at everyone's ID cards had been his first action.]

And now we've learned an important lesson about being careless with it. [His eyes narrow, feeling that migraine hit before he averts his eyes from Johanna. Outwardly, the scrunch of his face is his only reaction.]

[keepgodwaiting]

How'd they do this? Fuck, no wonder Meta lost control of whatever it was. There's no allowance for intent at all.

[justscribing]

Would intent really allow for more control? What would happen if someone's intent changed in the process of adjusting reality?

[keepgodwaiting]

I mean, probably bad things, and that's why you're supposed to spend six months getting your mind right before you do magic.

[ Sniffle, snort. ]

Ugh. I'm used to having more push and pull. This is all pull.

[justscribing]

I'll ask details when you're not bleeding from your nose. [And when looking at her doesn't give him a migraine. No, he's just gonna go write them an exit.]

[badfeyth]

[And unfortunately, because everyone is experiencing the same reality that Johanna decided to alter herself within, looking at Johanna's face will begin to produce a similar migraine-like disorientation in Alhaitham. Hooray!]

[justscribing]

[Anyway, Alhaitham turns his attention to the journal upon the podium and flips open to a new page. Now they know the risk, so he intends to make this as efficient but encompassing as possible so that nobody needs to write even more technicalities.

It's a minute before he puts the pen to the paper and writes with the blood ink: The portal currently in front of me will lead to the City Hall of the simulated city we were in before walking through the door that led us here. There is nothing that prevents us from going through that portal.

There. He would prefer to have it just take them straight home but he's aware of how unlikely that is when they don't really have reality-bending abilities and are just working within a mockup of it all. He can be realistic about this.]