EVENT: MELPOMENE ▒ THE CORRIDORS

[ataraxites]

CHARACTERS: Ensemble production!
LOCATION: Corridors in the belly of the Tranquility
WARNINGS: Creepiness, paranoia, disturbing imagery, violence.
SUMMARY: Characters head out into the corridors in the hopes of rescuing their lost and begin to experience strange and harrowing phenomena.
NOTES: Open to all! Covers Stages One & Two of the plot, June 22 onwards.

The hallways stretch on into a deep darkness ahead of you. You've been out here before, or heard of what happens to those who do — it'd be enough to make anyone turn back. But there are people lost out there that have called for your help, and you're prepared to do what you have to to save them. Aren't you?

Comments

[50000volts]

"Decades?" One area in which Darcy doesn't necessarily excel in is doing her homework, as evidenced by the way she continues to react to this information. She doesn't dwell on that portion, however, despite her brows coming together in consternation. "Time is overlapping? I'm only a political scientist, but I've spent enough time around Jane - she would love this, by the way - so, I feel like that's entirely plausible. Especially given the whole... jump drive weirdness."

See? At least something makes sense. In the fact that it doesn't really make any sense at all. "What is Smiley anyway?"

[ryuuzaki]

He shakes his head, then raises his shoulders in a shrug. Everything hurts less than it had a few minutes earlier, when even moving much had seemed like a bad proposition. He might be able to start moving to rejoin the other group again soon.

"I can't say that we really know. If it's Gallagher, something seems to have happened to him around the time of the first jump.

"I'd hate to think that Smiley is a ghost -- it would be ridiculous -- although all of this does sometimes seem to have aspects of a classic haunting, almost to a stereotypical degree. In the real world, wouldn't that usually be a cover for something? It's hard to believe that the ship might be full of 'angry spirits,' " (he doesn't cover his sarcasm there), "or that the captain might have somehow merged with it... it sounds like a bad movie.

"The trouble is, if we're dealing with something like multiple timelines or overlapping realities, everything becomes a lot more..." His words trail off.

The problem with Darcy's face comes on suddenly: it's like black oil has appeared under her skin, blurring and obscuring her features, threatening to remake them. It initially seems like a trick of the poor lighting, or of what had just happened to him, and it causes him to peer at her, squinting.

It's alarming when you're not expecting it, he thinks, but it would be worse if you had no idea what it was, if you had never seen anything like it before.

[50000volts]

"You've had an awful lot of time to think about all of this, haven't you?" Which is a point of concern, for Darcy, as it cements the fact that she really may never get out of this place. Even though 'a couple of years' is a drop in the bucket in comparison to 'forever.' "It's making my head hurt," she groans with a frown, fingers coming up to rub at her temple.

Her features scrunch up when she catches L staring at her. "What are you looking at?" She looks over her shoulder quickly just to be certain that there isn't someone (or something) right behind her. With that satisfied, she brushes her fingers over one cheek. "Have I got something on my face?"

gosh, kid, TAKE NOTES

[ryuuzaki]

He doesn't really have time to respond to her first question before the illusion (or hallucination, or whatever it is) kicks in. His impulse is to laugh: You could say that, Darcy. 'A lot of time to think about it' is an understatement, but he's not very much closer to a solution than he ever was.

In some intrinsic way, his life has been wrecked. It's obvious, and it's not because of any of his own mistakes, and all he can do in response is to try to understand the details of how and why it's happened, try to figure out whether or not it can be undone. It's a selfish goal, he has no misconceptions about that (wouldn't almost anyone want out of here, if they had somewhere better to go?), but it benefits everyone if it happens.

As it is, her features rearrange themselves in a haze, and he moves immediately on. His face falls into a neutral expression.

"No."

Earlier in the... how long have they been out here?... he had occasionally felt the impulse to run from the group they had been walking with, the momentary conviction that none of them could be trusted. The few times it had come on, it had passed just as quickly.

Darcy is armed, but so is he, and he's willing to bet that he's the better shot. That might turn out to be important.

"Nothing is wrong with you. I saw something weird. I've heard about it happening before, but I haven't experienced it myself until now."

That's not strictly true: he's experienced Ilona Matine's experience of it, secondhand, and it hadn't been pleasant then. But that suddenly seems like a lot to explain to Darcy.

"If I start to look strange to you, please tell me. Things could get bad if we aren't careful not to act on it."