[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]

Yes, those assumptions are what Mark want's people to make. Of course he's not going to have the luxury of that very long.

"Why? You got a thing against cars?"

[unkindled_madness]

"I have something against being trapped in them, yes."

...he also doesn't know how to drive, but he really doesn't think it would be that hard if it were actually a way out.

[atypical_echo]

Trapped?

"Usually you can just go back into the mall," Mark points out.

But hey, he can drive.

"We should look for a car!"

[unkindled_madness]

"No."

Absolutely not.

"I did not mean that euphemistically. There is magic here that will confine you to a vehicle."

[atypical_echo]

Magic that what now? Mark looks horrified. Trapped. He almost panics to think about it. A mall is a large cage. He prefers the large cage.

"Yeah, not doing that. Holy fuck not doing that."

[unkindled_madness]

"Exactly why I propose we leave it for last. If we can find the way out before then, we need never deal with it."

[atypical_echo]

Alright then. At least the guy has a plan.

"So, are you Alliance or Society?"

[unkindled_madness]

"Neither. I am not interested in being a public figure."

Hey, look, it's the Orange Julius. No rifts in it, sadly.

[atypical_echo]

"So unaffiliated. Which means you're a public threat, if the Guilds are right," Mark said, walking with him. Ooooh, Orange Julius. He pulls away to go over toward it, because it's time to get some damn food right now.

[unkindled_madness]

"Do you find an individual more threatening than an organization?"

Sephiroth follows, because maybe the man's seen something?

[atypical_echo]

"It depends on the individual, and on the organization."

Said like someone who had bad experiences in both ways. It made him feel... awkward. The reminder had hurt him.

Damien. And the AM. The memory of both of them made him nervous. Made him wish he could disappear. Make it so no one could see him as him. And, whether he knew it or not, that desire to hide was leading to a change. His features shifting into something without a lot to make it memorable. A more bland brown hair, his complexion shifting a bit more Caucasian. A flimsy illusion, but one he was unconsciously creating anyway.

[unkindled_madness]

"Hm. Fair enough."

Sephiroth misses the first signs of the shift, because he's inspecting the Orange Julius for spacial rifts, but then he glances aside at the man and... that is definitely not a normal average human thing that's happening.

He supposes he can't rule out some external enchantment, but color him suspicious. "Do you realize what you're doing?"

[atypical_echo]

Realize what he's doing? Mark looks at him in confusion.

"You mean seriously considering ordering something from Orange Julius? What, do you think this place is sorta like Greek's Hades? That if I eat something I'm trapped here forever?"

[unkindled_madness]

Well, that's a no. It's either unconscious or he isn't the one doing it.

"...your face has changed, in the past minute."

[atypical_echo]

Face has changed? Mark frowns. "Is it the confusion? Surely I don't look like another person when I'm confused?"

[unkindled_madness]

Sephiroth regards him flatly. "I am not referring to your expression."

He casts about for some kind of reflective surface, then remembers his phone has the ability to take pictures and digs it out of his pocket. Here you go, Mr. normal human photographer. This is what you look like right now.

[atypical_echo]

What? Mark frowns when the picture is taken and presented. And Mark flinches back, the illusion failing in that moment.

"What fucking powers do you have, Meta?"

[unkindled_madness]

That earns them both some looks from the customers at the Orange Julius. Sephiroth frowns.

"Me? I am not doing anything to you."

[atypical_echo]

"No, but you can do something," Mark counters, pointing a finger at him. "What. Powers. Do. You. Have?"

[unkindled_madness]

Sephiroth lifts his chin, looking down at the man.

"What are yours?"

[atypical_echo]

Soooo yeah, he's not selling the whole 'local' thing. But he's still nervous, and afraid. And with that he starts to hover. Not that he notices. This is too much.

"I don't have powers! Not really."

[unkindled_madness]

Sephiroth does notice. He glances down at the man's feet, then back at his face. That's some impressive denial there.

"You're floating."

[atypical_echo]

"Shit!" Mark yelps, and he floats higher as he flails.

"Oh my god warn a guy that you can fucking FLY!"

[unkindled_madness]

"...I can't," Sephiroth states, although now his brow is furrowing. He doesn't actually know that for certain, and this man seems to think...

"You think you're getting these powers from me?"

[atypical_echo]

"I'm a Mimic," Mark hissed, even as he was flailing around, trying to find something to grab so he can keep himself from floating away! "So YES. I have to get them from someone!"