![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
savmods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
thisavrou_ooc2017-03-24 10:49 pm
tdm 16
test drive meme
Waking up is another story. Or maybe it isn’t.
You find yourself in a nondescript room; sometimes with others who have found themselves in the same situation, sometimes alone. A medical tech is always present to explain what’s happened before giving you some clothes, a TAB, and a guide that discusses things in further detail. This entire process also consists of a complete work-up of medical history and current health in order to obtain your signature—a specific frequency that will allow them to hone in on exactly where it is you’re from in order to get you back there.You spend your first week on the Ingress Complex while other accommodations and arrangements are made for you.
welcome to thisavrou
escoria
⋆ The boat that eventually comes to your rescue isn’t very big, one of a fleet used to transport visitors from the floating Ingress platform. Only a few passengers are allowed on each one--a maximum of six. The boat’s captain is quite insistent that each group remain small, handing out blankets to those who did not come prepared for the chill. It isn’t too much trouble as there are a great many boats and plenty of natives to pilot them. The weather is cool, the skies are dark with rain that might fall, but for now things seem alright. Leaning out on the rail, you might see some shark-like sea creatures breaching the surface to breathe. Of course, you might also see quicksilver figures darting underneath the water from the corner of your eye, which is then followed by a sharp rocking of the boat. Did something nudge the vessel? Maybe you ought to make sure people stay back from the sides in case they fall in...
⋆ Despite the calm appearance of the sky, the worst has happened. A storm hits at just the right time to drive your boat against one of the multitudinous reefs, roughly jarring its passengers, and then, the waves continue to batter the ship against it until it falls to pieces. You get lucky and find a piece of debris to hold onto to keep your head above the water until the storm passes, although it’s some time before even a calm comes. Once it does, you have to deal with the facts: you’re stranded with minimal supplies, all alone except for the other people who were on board with you when the ship went down in the waves. And what’s worse, the water isn’t getting any warmer. What do you do to survive until help, hopefully, arrives? Will you make an attempt to swim to shore or wait for someone to send another boat?
⋆ The few who manage to weather the storm and make it to one of the few islands of Escoria are, indeed, lucky. What lies beneath the surface of those dark waters is much more dangerous and deadly. Distant cousins of Thisavrou’s native Gorgona of Region Four, these nameless creatures are ruthless as they hunt. They slither the shallow surfaces of the reefs spread out across Escoria, waiting for even the slightest ripple of water to alert them to their prey. At first, looking into the water reveals nothing. Then, the closer these things come to the surface, the faster it begins to change and look as if something familiar, something you long for is calling to you. It can be a person, alive or dead, or it could be something intangible like a goal waiting to be fulfilled or an object waiting to be touched. This is how they lure the unsuspecting below the surface, and once they have their claws in you, it’s very difficult to escape. The urge to be with them is impossibly strong regardless of the fact that no one can hold their breath for that long or survive the deep cold of the water for longer than a few minutes.
Your only chance of escape? Someone who might have noticed that you’d suddenly slipped under without a sound. Or, if by chance, you manage to snap off a piece of the coral in the reefs. It changes with the shape of the holder, and that, if you’re lucky, might be the very weapon that saves you.
FAQ | LOCATIONS | RESERVES | APPLICATIONS | NAVIGATION
<3
He carries with him that same (validating) comfort, and with it the curiosity of what this new home-that-isn't has brought with it.
As he enters, he gets the sense that he isn't the only one overwhelmed and a little surprised. That "intuition" (if one can all that sense intuition and not simply cheating) is proven right as he faces Jean in the foyer, looking every bit startled. (Astonished, maybe?) He smiles.]
Jean. [A pause, and he grows just a little wary that something is wrong. Beyond the fact that she's here...or that here exists.] Have I grown a second head?
no subject
Finally, she manages to get out, ]
You left.
You left and you didn't even say goodbye.
[ Left a note, yes. But it wasn't the same at all. ]
no subject
What do you mean I left?
[He hasn't been here long enough to leave. As if he did, he'd be aiming to take as many of them back with him as possible. (Or, more likely, he'd be trying not to leave at all. This, as far as he's aware, is safe. Regardless, together is key.)
no subject
[ She finally has to reach up and rub at her eyes the moment the tears are trying to leak out of them. ]
You left a note telling Logan and Erik to take care of us and the school and then you were gone. And then Logan left, too and --
[ It's been really fucking hard. There was a point when she was wanting to leave, too. It was too much all at once. Like she was losing her family. ]
no subject
He wouldn't need his senses to understand Jean's distress. But all he's greeted with is a wall if he tries, and that helps to contextualize nothing. All he's left with is an accusation, the upset, and a great deal of confusion. Charles sighs softly, resisting the urge to shake his head and say no.]
Whoever did, Jean, was not me. [Or he was. But he is still very tired of being told who he is and who he will be when everything changes and falls apart so easily. It's one thing to contend with the past. It's quite another to have to defend against the fallout of a timeline he's never experienced.] And I'm not leaving now. Not if I have a choice.
[Though he does, however, file that bit about Erik away for later. That he's here is...something of a relief. That he--or another of himself, would trust him to do that is telling of something else entirely. Especially if Erik had agreed.]
no subject
She gives her eyelids another rub, sniffing a few times and hating that she was doing this. She hated crying in general but crying in front of others was always so embarrassing. ]
There was a time when you didn't know me, either. You had longer hair and a beard.
no subject
Still, there is a quiet laugh that follows through the hallway. Not only has she run into him without his knowing, but it had to be him at his worst?
Of course it was.] The 70s were rarely kind to any of us.no subject
no subject
He gives her a short moment to sulk, and then turns to face the window and her, even if he cannot have as much in return. Even if, perhaps, he may not deserve it.]
There is not an apology I can give that will sound genuine, but Jean, however this has happened, I am sorry. [He doesn't need to understand the situation to know this needs to be said.]
no subject
Still. Her resolve feels like it's weakening. The same with how she's been giving the new Logan the silent treatment ever since he arrived. She continues to look out the window without seeing what was outside. ]
I just don't understand why you would do that... Why you would suddenly leave us.
no subject
Charles has only ever walked away once. It had involved a complex level of failure, loss after unexpected loss, and unless Jean is referring to a similar breakdown, he doubts it was willing. Or so he would very much like to think.]
That I believe we share. You must believe that I wish I had the answer for you.
[Well, that's not quite true. She must nothing. She has an experience that he does not want to diminish (as much as he might wish this isn't the case). And even the smallest change in a timeline can alter everything, he knows this much. But if this is the case, what happened?]
Did you notice anything beforehand? Anything strange?
no subject
I want to.
[ She wants to believe it. And not purely because of the bond they share as telepaths. She shakes her head, slowly, thinking back to the days before he was gone. ]
No. Nothing that stood out then or now. You didn't even tell Erik you were leaving.
lmfao ignore the last, pls.
Well, it should be encouraging. All it leaves him with are even more questions than he already has. Erik is here? Here? They've been on decent enough speaking terms to consider this? That Jean considered this?
He sighs softly.]
I did leave, once. The circumstances were far different, of course. Everything was then, the same way everything feels too big when you're young. [Pointed, perhaps, but it isn't wrong.]
But there is not a day that goes by that I don't regret it. Whatever has happened, I have to believe he... I must have had a very good reason.
i will never ignore u 8U
She continues to look out the window as he speaks and her heart aches as she listens, closing her eyes and seeing those flashes of memory Laura showed her, however brief.
She keeps them locked away behind the walls she set up between herself and Charles. She reaches up to rub her eyes again. ]
You wouldn't know but... they put you in cryo on the ship. When we were still on the ship. I-I couldn't even feel your mind when they did that. For months I had no idea you were there. It was like receiving static.
[ She doesn't even know why she's saying this. But she wants him to know, her reaction isn't for nothing. That it's been a long line of heartache when it comes to dealing with him in this universe. ]
no subject
[He doesn't really know what to say. His voice has grown weary, small even, in tandem with the sorrow he feels hanging heavy in the air between them. Those shields are worrisome alone, but every revelation only seems to be worse than the last.
In truth, what can he even say? To deny it is foolhardy: it isn't his truth to erase, nor his experience to secondhandedly demean. To continue to press upon the "well I'd never" only seems tone deaf and born out of a desperation to save face for--granted--something he doesn't rightly remember. If he'd been in a facsimile of her place, would he have accepted the same plea from his own parents? Not likely. In the end, this isn't really about him, but what Jean feels.
And that is where he finally settles.]
I can't imagine what that feels like.
[Well, he can. He's not a stranger to loss. But that isn't the point.]