[OPEN] For Want Of Some Ruby Slippers

[atypical_echo]

Who: Mark Bryant atypical_echo, Sephiroth unkindled_madness, Open
What: Getting Lost In The Multiverse
When: August 12th through 17th
Where: The Multiverse (each starter has a link to information)
Content Warnings: If needed


I. Surely I'm Only Dreaming| Open | Premise & Setting

There he'd been, minding his own business as he worked at the small table in his new shitty apartment, flipping through photos to review his final image selections for the disastrous wedding contract. And then...

And then he had awoken in a park, out of nowhere. A beautiful park with fountains and staircases and so much he didn't really know what to do with. A woman with vividly crimson hair and a gentle smile talked and talked and Mark was just in too much shock to listen, even when a small man (was that a literal hobbit?) had rushed up, handed him a gray satchel, and left. In it, keys, a tiny bit of money, and a flip phone.

"Okay, but who even uses a flip phone these days?"

Well, it's not the first random place he's been dropped in, so he supposed he could do his best and keep going. So Mark started walking. And soon had to jump out of the way of a giant fucking bird that someone was riding.

"Someone pinch me. I think I'm sleeping."

II. Unda' Tha Sea! | Open (CW: Panic Attack) | Premise FAQ

It had taken him days in that last mess of a place to find the break in space-time. Of course Mark hadn't been looking for it. But it had called and with the shivering sense of right calling to him, and Mark had gone toward it. Which was why he had awoken in a strange bunk bed in a strange place. An abandoned seeming place, for there was no sign of residents in the strangely rounded dorm.

Of course, Mark had then come outside and... Well, he'd made the mistake of looking up. Looking up high above where there was a shine where the sky should have been. Glass. Distant glass. A dome. And...

"Oh fuck," he gasped as he looked upward. "Am I...?"

Underwater. He was trapped in some fucking dome underwater? In a panic, Mark found himself running forward, finding a glass tunnel. Through there, another dome, this one looking like a central square with a market. Or what would have been a market if anyone were around. Instead it was... empty. There were lights, there was air, there were even a few trees growing up in places that were clearly meant for him. But otherwise.

"No," he said, already starting to hyperventilate. "No. No no no no no."

He was panicking, shaking, his heart racing like it was going to beat right out of his chest. No.

"Please, I can't be alone. I can't. Please," he said, his voice raising to a shout, "is someone out there!?"

III. Let's Go To The Mall | Closed to Sephiroth

He just wanted to go home. Was that so wrong? Perhaps it was, because here Mark is, slamming at the doors of the food court, trying to get out. Which, of course, he couldn't. Ever since the latest portal had dropped him here, he'd been stranded. Which had been almost eight hours now.

"Let me out!" he shouted, still slamming his fists against the door. "Oh come the fuck on. I don't even like malls! The chairs in the food court are sticky! The fashion is from the nineties. I look horrible in grunge styles!"

There were people staring at him, of course, from the different food stalls. Mark didn't care.

"I swear to fuck, there is less interesting happening here than in Regency Britain!"

Comments

[atypical_echo]

"Nah man. You respect privacy. So much of the world doesn't. HEll, so much of the Meta people, and the people who care about Metas don't respect that. It's a mess."

[unkindled_madness]

"It's one of the reasons I've chosen to remain unaffiliated," he remarks. If the guilds are monitoring him anyway... at least he didn't sign on to make it easier for them.

[atypical_echo]

"Me too. I don't... I don't want to be a hero. You know? I just want to live my life and go home," he says with a sigh. "I don't get people who want to be heroes."

[unkindled_madness]

"I suppose some see it as an expression of compassion," Sephiroth reasons, "but I think they imagine the experience will be different than it is."

[atypical_echo]

"It strikes me as fucking prying," Mark sighs, shaking his head. "And they don't seem to like us much."

[unkindled_madness]

Sephiroth tilts his head. Heroism is prying? And who doesn't like them?

"Do you mean the guilds or the people meant to perceive us as heroes?"

[atypical_echo]

"Honestly? Yes. Both of them. Geez. Holy fuck geez. They don't need to know what I'm doing if I'm not making a mess, right?"

And a mess would be a thing that describes what happens to people.

[unkindled_madness]

"...on that we're in agreement."

He did not expect to start sharing opinions with this panicky weirdo.

"Frankly, I think even most messes are none of their concern."

[atypical_echo]

"I mean, I can respect the idea that people should have repercussions for their powers if they're helping others. But fuck."

It's all just a very strange mess, isn't it? But he sighs.

"How much further? Damn, this mall seems a bit too large."

[unkindled_madness]

"Are there not laws already?"

Why should they need an entirely separate set of rules?

"It's just up here. The size was... welcome, when spending so much time here."

[atypical_echo]

"There are, but... Well, people that aren't going to follow the law already aren't going to follow the laws. And so they make rules so they can get the ones that would follow rules and could stop the ones that won't. Basically, they make these rules not to be fair, but to give themselves weapons, while making those of us they can't leash into second class citizens."

ANd Mark hates that. So damn much.

"Wait, how long were you here?"

[unkindled_madness]

"A fair assessment." And Sephiroth does not want to be a second class citizen.

He steps through the entry way of the arcade and pauses. This is definitely... not his kind of place. There are so many different clashing noises.

"Two months."

[atypical_echo]

Neither does Mark. So he tries his hardest to hide what he is, so he can be treated the same as anyone. But, in the arcade now, he was happy to move through the space, trying to find a rend for them to get out of here.

"Shit, that's too long to be in a mall. I don't want to be here that long. I HATE malls."

[unkindled_madness]

Trying to pretend he was something else... really didn't work for him.

He lets Mark take the lead through the arcade, keeping his eyes open.

"One day was more than enough. I certainly need nothing from here now."

[atypical_echo]

Mark had been doing it for years, because he didn't know how to do anything else. It was a survival technique.

Nope, no tear here. Mark sighs.

"I just... I just want to go home."

[unkindled_madness]

"...back to your Earth?" Sephiroth ventures. Most of those the Confluence has brought from other dimensions probably want to go back.

[atypical_echo]

"Or the Confluence Earth. It's... It's not the home I want, but I feel safer there sometimes?"

And it's closer to being home than this trapped hell mall is. And the places before it.

"Guess I'm just tired and want my bed."

[unkindled_madness]

"Mm. It was difficult to find a decent place to sleep, here."

He would prefer not to be here long enough to need to.

"There will be a way out. We've not searched everywhere."

[atypical_echo]

"Alright. Um..."

Oh, he brightens up.

"What about Employee areas? We wouldn't see them as easily if it was in there!"

[unkindled_madness]

"Good idea. It should be a small respite from this, as well."

By this he means the crowds. People, right?

He's just gonna head straight for the nearest door marked 'employees only.'

[atypical_echo]

Less crowds, less bright lights. Yeah, he's down for that.

"Could we get a coffee first? No? Okay."

Damn, he doesn't want left alone, so he's running after the guy.

[unkindled_madness]

"I thought you wanted to leave."

He likes coffee as much as the next person, but... priorities.

[atypical_echo]

"I do. I'm just, yanno, sleepy. The last place I found via rift was..."

He shudders.

"I was alone. Completely alone. There were people but they couldn't see me."

[unkindled_madness]

"I see. I suppose all of this would be... tiring."

He may have forgotten about the amount of sleep most people require.

[atypical_echo]

"So tiring," he agrees with a sigh. "But better to get out of here I guess."

But hey, he can keep going.