metaverses | [OPEN] For Want Of Some Ruby Slippers

[OPEN] For Want Of Some Ruby Slippers

Who: Mark Bryant

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!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"'Messed up'?"

Wow, excuse you. For that, Sephiroth folds his arms. He might have offered a hand, but the attitude is irritating.

"This so isn't fucking controlled!" Mark snaps. Of course this isn't controlled. "Just... just learn how to fly and help me down! Please?"

Mark's desperate and he just needs down. Please? He's panicked.

"You expect me to learn, just like that?"

Although here this guy is, just doing it by accident. Is this really something he's been able to do all this time?

"I don't know, maybe?" Mark asks, frowning at him. "Isn't it supposed to be your power? You fly and do illusions? How do you not know it?"

It's frustrating, hearing that tossed back at him. There are so many things he doesn't know about himself, but he's been trying to uncover them. He doesn't know what he is or the scope of his powers. How does he begin to attempt something when he doesn't know it's there?

"These are not things people in my world are capable of."

There is one spell he feels more confident in, though. He's going to attempt Gravity magic, to pull Mark back down to the floor. It's probably not a pleasant feeling, but he doesn't care.

"Yeah, well what I do is not something people in my world are normally capable of. I'm an unusual Atypical. Doesn't mean you have to be like everyone else, even if you want to be."

And yes, it's VERY MUCH not a pleasant feeling to have gravity pulling at him like that. But it shocks Mark out of the flying and he does hit the floor. Hard.

"Shit."

Sephiroth won't help him up. (Sorry.)

"And I see you're very much in control of what you do, with no one to teach you."

Yeah, he deserves that, even if he won't agree. Oh dear, this hurt. He groans as he sits up.

"Yeah, well, normally I am," Mark grumbled. "Usually, back home, I am better at control than the native power user. I don't know why. But here... well, it doesn't seem to work as well here."

"Better than the 'native' power user? You mean the person you copy powers from?"

That seems... unfair, if true.

"Usually," Mark reminds him. But he nods. Yeah, that's exactly what he means. And it earns an unhappy look from him.

"Trust me, made me super popular with the AM scientists. I hated it. Imagine being able to copy powers of other people, but you don't know what they can do? You're sitting there in a room with four, five other people. Strangers. They're sedated or chained to beds. And you're there in the middle, being watched, being told to take the powers when you can't just echo them. It's... It's bad."

"I didn't ask."

He doesn't want to imagine being popular with scientists. Been there, done that. It sucks, but they don't need to talk about it.

"You're fucking cheery," Mark sighed, rolling his eyes. What a guy.

"But seriously. Did you not know that you could fly?"

Sephiroth gives him a flat look. This guy brought up lab experiments and expects anyone to be cheery?

"No. I didn't." He glances away, uncomfortable. "I am still... discovering my powers."

Hey, nothing cheery about it. But Sephiroth is worse than most.

"Well, maybe with your full powers you can get free. Maybe the way out is up."

Sephiroth glances towards the ceiling.

"I don't know that that's likely. But it's a possibility we should consider."

"Dude, the doors won't open and the parking garage is, according to you, a trap. Seems like it's a new angle of approach that you haven't tried before."

So, you know, it might work or something?

"We don't need to escape this building, we need to escape this reality. I am willing to acknowledge the rift could exist above us. I am not going to attempt to fly through the glass."

"Isn't one the same as the other? The other places that I ended up in, when I escaped to a certain point, I found a tear."

IT had been true of the underwater place, and to the other place. Though that one at least seemed nicer.

"...you seem to be imagining that there exists more to this world outside of this mall. These doors have never opened. These people don't leave."

If there's anything outside, it's just that strange sort of ocean that connects the different islands.

What? That...

"How is that even possible? That's SO messed up. No one leaves? Where do these people LIVE!?"

"I don't know. I was never certain they were even real. This place is part of the realm of a sort of deity."

That... What? Mark just stands there, trying to fathom all of this.

"You're saying gods are real? And one controls this place. And we might be the only real people here?"

"Gods are real enough. Or at least, beings that people worship as gods exist, but that's semantics."

Sephiroth studies him a moment. "It hasn't been long since the Confluence that brought you, has it?"

"Which makes me wonder if that Loki I was blowing off is actually, you know, a god."

Though the Loki he blew off was Tina, but that's something else entirely.

"Two months. I'm still not sure about a lot of things. Mostly trying to keep out of anyone's way."

"Understandable, I suppose, given your ability."

It would be rational for him to avoid other 'metas,' at least until he found his footing.

"Loki is quite powerful. Although there are three of them, and also a girl claiming to be one. I can't say which you encountered."

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