Priority Log - Part 2

[locomodo]

Log 06 Priority (Part II)

Still the Big Screen Car

The last two weeks have been a busy time at FONY Records! Maybe you've been working diligently on your upcoming projects — or maybe you've been fighting the sense that something is wrong. That this life, whether it's better or worse than before, is not your own.

Either way, passengers will finally receive a new objective on their phones...

> Looking back is blinding.



From here on out, characters can regain their real memories. They can do so randomly, but the most reliable way is to work with another passenger: they will know that by touching foreheads (yes, headbutting counts) for pairs, or huddling very closely for groups, they will unlock some memories for one or all of them — of course, it also allows the other person to see and feel everything play out, as though they lived it themselves.

It's memshare time!

As passengers regain their memories, their AU lives will start to fade. Production crews disappear, texts from your parents delete themselves, your favorite coffee shop is suddenly empty... Because you can't have both.

At least one character will need to reject the AU in order for everyone to progress; there is no minimum comment count. Characters may go both routes, but should ultimately prioritize one for the AC Poll.

Remembering

As characters regain the memories of their real lives, all semblance of their fake ones will rapidly disappear.

And choosing to remember comes with side effects: passengers are overtaken by a fierce chill as the source of the cold finally presents itself. The shadows in the empty buildings around them start to stretch out. These shades collect in huge swathes — and shape themselves into sharp, spindly arms and fingers. They'll grab at whoever passes, leaving them cold and constricted, making it hard to remember what's happened and trying to drag them back into the illusions of the AU. However, when these shadows have manifested, they're also vulnerable: they can be dissolved by using a strong light, like a fire, flashlight, or stage light. Even sunlight will do the trick, but physically resisting the shadows will grow more and more difficult as they sap warmth from everything they touch.

For those less physically inclined, the shades have one more weakness: real, happy memories. By focusing on something that brought them past comfort, however small, characters can drive off the shades little by little.

This force controlling the AU clearly lives in shadows. Characters can weaken it by confronting these shades, in which case they will find themselves alone with their memories and a ghostly, empty city of Danaca.

Resisting

But maybe you don't want to remember—maybe your life in Danaca is too good to give up, and you'd rather have this even if it's not real. Unfortunately, once the illusion starts to shatter, there's no stopping the cracks from spreading.

Characters that don't regain their memories through contact with other passengers (whether intentionally or unintentionally), will still find their fake identities starting to fade away, but their real identities won't be able to fill the gaps. Instead, they'll find themselves... hollow. Devoid of personality, hopes and dreams. Empty.

...And in that empty space, something else might slip in. The steady collapsing of Danaca has left plenty of strong emotions and ghosts hovering in the air, and passengers might find themselves embodying a powerful current of despair or anger. Or perhaps one of the false denizens might inhabit them (Chadsef, anyone?). Contact with another passenger might also ignite enough memory to return their personality, but it might also give them the wrong one; they might start acting like someone from their memories instead, such as a childhood friend (or enemy).

Regardless of the scenario, there is one common thread: an innate desire for contact with other passengers. Though they won't remember why, passengers will eventually be driven to reclaim their original selves through memshare with other characters. Whether they get everything back before they leave is up to you!

OOC Notes

AC Check is up! The deadline to submit AC is December 1st, 11:59 p.m. EST. Please note this is a day extended as we've pushed the log back a day, AC schedule overall will remain as normal.

Memshare: To add a little spice, memories do not need to be limited by your character's canon point. That is to say, sharing scenes from your character's future will also count as memshare.

Continuing Memloss: Characters may or may not regain all their memories prior to leaving the car, player's choice. The memshare mechanic will no longer be in effect, however players are free to naturally regain memories over time.

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locomo e2 traincation

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Comments

i.

[hellknighted]

[ Venros has no idea what manner of beast this so-called 'train' is meant to be. Maybe Rainier, that treacherous little human, or Apparatus with all of their magical gifts, had finally decided to cast him into some feeble dream. Perhaps they were using his limp body to bargain even now. Or perhaps Lolth had deigned to look upon him, and this was the expression of Her disgust.

In truth, he doesn't know what this is or why he had felt so compelled to it. He'd woken with the cold chilling him to the bone, and this unfamiliar shore was where he had found himself. A number had been branded to the inside of his wrist, like the slaves some houses kept for labor or meat.

He is... confused. This story - his people, the things he has done and the strangers he travels with - these are all just for show, are they not? A part of his character.

He looks down at the feeble human offering him a hand and grabs it by the wrist, lifting the little creature so that they're at eye-level. It barely weighs anything, perhaps an infant. ]

Tell me what you know about this 'train.' [ Venros' Common - English? - is accented with the rolling vowels of his native tongue, and he speaks it as if it tastes foul in his mouth. ] Speak before I find a better use for your tongue. [ He gives the human a shake for good measure. He's good at hiding things like confusion, and the pervasive chill that burns through him more readily than the sun. ]

[testgasm]

Wait--ow!

[Wheatley is prepared for some friendly handholding in the interest of snapping people out of the illusion. He is not prepared to be manhandled and bodily lifted off his feet--by now, he understands that some human and human-adjacent species have exceptional powers, but it's quite another thing entirely to have said powers foisted on you.]

Ow, ow, ow, ow--

[Still, he can do little but struggle impotently, dangling by the wrist, feet kicking a little halfheartedly, like he wants to fight but isn't sure if this guy will just snap him in half for the effort. Despite the amount of pain that he's in, Wheatley manages to go off.]

--I'm not telling you anything until you put me down, mate. Oh, it's all well and good that you can--that you can just waltz right up to someone and lift them up like it's nothing, but this is the sort of thing you ask people about! I would've said no, by the way, even if you--if you had asked. Will you let go!?

[hellknighted]

[ It certainly is talkative. It's too bad it's not saying anything useful.

Venros thinks about snapping the wrist - it's not like anyone is here to stop him - and all of this talk of asking and permission is exhausting. He rolls his eyes, but he supposes this is as good a time as any to attempt the negotiating surface creatures love so much.

Venros releases his grip all at once, letting the human drop. ]

Fine. You are back in the dirt where you belong. [ Technically it's pavement but he doesn't care. ] What information do you have for me?

[testgasm]

[Wheatley doesn't even get to enjoy the relief of having his wrist freed, because he still has no sense of balance and his legs betray him once again. He crumples a little, only managing to stop himself from falling square on his ass by reflexively thrusting a hand out. It hits Ven's not insubstantial pectorals. After a moment of gaining his bearings, he pulls away, and straightens, clearly still in no mood to be magnanimous, given the introduction.]

I suppose you're not going to apologize? [This is rhetorical.] For just--just manhandling me like that? All right. I see how it is.

[Now that he has his feet underneath him, he's just going to. Take a preemptive step back.]

Do you--do you know what a train is? Just asking. Need to know the best place to start.

[hellknighted]

[ Venros just watches the struggle, much the same way one might watch a cat attempt to make its way across a slippery floor; a mix of pity and amusement. He thinks nothing of having his chest grabbed - for stability, apparently - but he does barely resist the urge to clap once Wheatley has managed to right himself. ]

If you don't want to be "manhandled", you should struggle more next time. [ When Wheatley steps back, Venros steps forward, taking hold of his chin. His grin is wide enough to show off teeth. ] Someone is going to think you like it, maybe keep you as a pet.

[ He chuckles, like he's just made a joke, and lets Wheatley go - for now. ]

Of course I know. [ He folds his arms. ] It carries people. Like a horse, but bigger.

[testgasm]

[Wheatley has a feeling that if he struggled more, he would currently be dealing with broken limbs or maybe some head trauma. Probably getting hoisted up by the wrist and then dropped on the ground is for the best! He still has no idea what this guy's deal is, but he does know he hates being grabbed.]

That's not--no rational person will think that.

[Implying, of course, that Venros is not at all rational. Wheatley swats his hand away, takes another few steps back, and then tugs on the hem of his sweater, straightening it.]

Well, no, not like a horse, because a horse is alive, and also you don't--you don't ride inside a horse. What we're in right now is a train car, one of, uh. Probably infinite train cars. We're looking for the door, so that we can get out of this one, and go to the next one, and eventually find our way off this thing. Does that--am I making sense, to you?

[hellknighted]

[ Venros is caught somewhere between annoyed and confused. He doesn't understand what it is with humans - he makes some perfectly normal statement, and they act as if it isn't blatantly obvious. Don't struggle enough, and you're asking for it. Struggle too much, and you deserve what you get. It's very simple. ]

Any normal person would think that. [ He waves it off, as if it isn't really worth arguing about. There's no getting through to some people. ]

Yes, it is not that hard. [ Anyone else might be a little boggled at the implications, that so large a space could fit into so finite of an area. Luckily, Venros only has one brain cell, and no matter how much information he absorbs, it has plenty of room to roll around in his skull without ever once being used.

He glances around and points at the first door he sees, the entrance to a building. ] There's a door. Right there. So we just go through it, and then we can leave.

[testgasm]

[What a coincidence! Wheatley is also annoyed and confused. It's a small mercy that he doesn't have to explain trains any further, not that he seems any less frustrated by Venros'...everything.]

No, that's not--it's a special door. Red, with a gold handle. When you get into a new car, sometimes you can see them from the start, sometimes you have to do something to find them, and even then, there's no--no guarantee that it's going to open. That's the problem we're having right now.

[Wheatley is having other problems, but he's not going to expound on those right now.]

You're new, though? At least, we haven't met before. Didn't see anything on your way in, did you?

[hellknighted]

[ Venros rolls his eyes again. ] So we break it down. I can see that you have the small worm-like arms of a young boy, but I do not have that problem. Show me where the door is, I will break it.

[ It's all still very simple, he doesn't understand what the issue is. ]

I stepped into this accused train dimension and woke up on the beach not long ago. I was not looking for doors. I did not think the culprit would be so cowardly as to hide behind them. [ He looks away for a moment - keeping an eye out for any enemies, if anyone were to ask him. ] They tried to beguile my senses with some kind of charm, but I am obviously too smart for that, and I have broken free.

[testgasm]

Okay, first off, I am currently a human adult, to the best of my knowledge, so you can--you can stop that.

[He's not even sure why he's offended at his lack of stature and substance. It's possible that he understands the whole conceit of this car is that this is who he would be, if he were a normal human adult, and Wheatley doesn't like that person one bit. Having someone else point out the general pathetic-ness of this body only aggravates him further.]

Yeah, uh, they never got me either, so. Obviously we're geniuses. If you can locate the door, try and bust it open. Be my guest. Thinking I might like to see that, to be honest.

[hellknighted]

Oh. [ Venros pauses. ] My condolences.

[ He supposes he should try to be more tolerant; Wheatley has something he wants, after all. ]

Fine. What is your suggestion, oh great bastion of intelligence? Impress me with whatever it is that makes you so bold.

[ He's not good at this being nice thing. ]

[testgasm]

Yes, it's very unfortunate.

[Wheatley looks down at himself and frowns, smoothing a wrinkle out of his coffee-stained sweater. He hates this. It's all terrible, though he's not sure how he's going to make this guy understand that. Better to just table it for now, and focus on the real problem, which is the door.

He ponders for a moment.]

Well, since both of us are, uh, immune to whatever's going on here, we probably have a better chance of finding the door than, uh. Everyone else. So, unless you have a better idea, we should start looking.