[text] - anonymous

[brandingproblem]

[because listen old habits die hard and haha fuck the idea of blasting identifying information over a questionably secured at best network in a freaky mystery city!!!]

So we're all just supposed to lie back and take it like this is just where our lives are now?

If you consider this place home and are getting back to previously established lives, fine whatever. But some of us aren't exactly looking to start whole new lives in a supposedly sentient city in the middle of everywhere or nowhere.

How do we make this place hate us and spit us back out or however the hell any of this works? Who's got the brains and the lab tech to reverse the bridge that brings us in to take us back? What metaphysical bullshit needs done to fix everything?

Comments

[ text ] » @canary

[canaria]

There have been way too many powerful magic users, science and tech geniuses, and gods to pass through here previously for reversing anything to be possible, because if there had been, they'd have found it. Example A: One of said magic users was mutual friends (or family) with a lot of my friends, she got possessed by some cosmic horror, killed by a magistrate for it to siphon her boosted power from it or some nonsense, then one of my other magic friends who packed a magical punch too temporarily put her soul in my body for a few minutes to try to get information and all that shit. Clearly I'm not scared of desperate measures and gambles, but it's gonna be hard to top that one.

[brandingproblem]

So no punching holes in reality. At least in theory. Blah blah sentient city blah blah brings us here on purpose bc it's fucked up like that and we all have jobs or we've got strong emotions. [Someone was keeping up with what the Duchess was explaining, apparently.]

But it can choose to shunt people out too. That's what happened before, some kind of end of the world scenario. It just decided to bring everyone back again once it was
fixed?
Turned itself off turned itself back on again?
So. Potential exploit. If apocalyptic in nature.

un: barnes

[ostavil]

( Bucky hasn't been here longer than a day but he's figured out how to operate the network pretty handily and when he sees the post come across by anon, he swears to god that anon could have been him. )

I'm no good for the metaphysical shit that goes into traveling between worlds but I'm not going to just accept that I'm stuck here. Maybe I wasn't doing something the second I got grabbed here but I've got a hell of a lot more that I need to be doing than walking around this city and accepting that I live here now. I'm with you on finding a way out.

[brandingproblem]

[Barnes. Is not an uncommon last name. Could even be a first name. It could even not be a real name and just a username. It only gives him the briefest pause, the pang of homesickness.]

If this place is sentient then who the hell knows. Metaphysical, astrophysical, bullshit physical. It might even be hard to ask the people in charge because it sounds like there's been some recent shakeup in the hierarchy. Lady at the top of the food chain says she doesn't know specifically how or why things are the way they are. Believing that's another matter but just asking seems a difficulty.

[ostavil]

haven’t had enough time with boots on the ground to figure out who’s in charge but I’m more than happy to throw in with someone else that doesn’t want to just accept we’re stuck here. I don’t get much out of giving up and accepting things. Never works out well for the person who surrendered.

I’m willing to meet up if you don’t wanna stay anonymous.

un: leonskennedy

[needsabreak]

you're going for the make them hate us route?

i was going for the figure out what the hell they want from us and maybe give it to them and get sent on our way route.

maybe we can compare notes in a few months, stranger.

i'm honestly not sure either one will get us anywhere.

[brandingproblem]

Boring and passive, friend. I got places to go and people to see back home, and I don't plan on just rolling over and giving anything to anyone just for forces beyond our ken deciding we're really fun dolls to play with.

But as far as I can tell, "they"=somehow sentient city??? That wants us for vague reasons. If you believe what the lady supposedly in charge said. Kind of not interested in giving into the as yet unknown demands of an interdimensional hotpot of a city being.

Call it personal preference.

[brandingproblem]

[Not having enough time is right; it's been a month and some change (who's counting every single day, not him, definitely not), and he's not used to this sensation of spinning wheels.]

You want to have a slumber party of fuck this place affiliates?

[y'know just over here somewhere between amused and 'what are you a cop']

private; text

[iwasrussian]

[ Natasha is scrolling the network and right at the top of her screen, she sees the anon broadcast. oh, she knows who it is, and for a long few minutes, she isn't sure how to approach him or know what to say to help smooth things over. except to make an appearance, even through text, to let him know she's here if he wants to talk. ]

what are you up to?

[brandingproblem]

[Well. There's a couple ways this could go. Lying his ass off is an option. Not one he's ever tried taking with her, even from the start. Not a great way to earn trust, and then there's her uncanny ability to see right through bullshit. Ignoring her could work, but it's likely she'd just pay him a visit. He could tell the truth, of course. He could play coy.

He leaves her on read for longer than he ought to, probably, given who it is. When he makes a choice on what to even say:]

What gave me away?

[iwasrussian]

[ She also knew he'd deliberate for as long as he did on how to answer and was within a window of 3 seconds when he finally did. ]

We've been partners for an age. I know the way you talk and when you're mad, even in text format.

[brandingproblem]

Could've been any crazy city whackjob.

[Which is not the point since she caught him out anyway.]

I can't just stay here. You know that.

[iwasrussian]

Yeah, I do. And we'll find a way to send you back.

[ As for her, however, there is no going back. ]

I promise. You don't belong here.

[brandingproblem]

[It isn't as though he wants to leave her. Not after reuniting, playing catchup, seeing that she's got a life here. He's not going to take that from her. But if she could come with--]

Someone or something disagrees. But there must be ideas. Or plans that went wrong so we can make new plans. I met someone talking about Einstein-Rosen bridges like Dr Foster figured out. I don't know. There has to be something.

[iwasrussian]

[ She'd go back in a heartbeat if there was a way, but with her dead and him alive -- it would take more than finding the rest of the Stones or going back in time to fix.

Some things just can't be undone. ]

If it can take a 5-month break and bring back some of us while pulling new people in, there is a way. We just have to find it. In the meantime, you need to have a level head. Letting it get to you like this isn't going to help.

[ The last thing she wants to see is him do what he did and become what he did after the Snap. ]

[needsabreak]

don't call me friend, pal

might be boring but it hasn't been too passive. no one seems to have an answer aside from vague we're here to 'act on our sins', whatever that's supposed to mean.

i'm still curious, if the city is sentient, can we talk to it?

i'm usually not one for talking either, but i've also never been stuck in another dimension

[brandingproblem]

They're going to think I'm dead.

[What seemed like a tragic inevitability, fully prepared for, has been staved off time and time again. They'll be fine without him, but there will be questions with no answers.]

I've been on extended assignments, but I'm not looking to build something new. This isn't my life.

[brandingproblem]

Maybe we should all hold hands and sing kumbaya. Hands Across America this shit instead of feeding it with sin.

[Yeah, he doesn't think that's a solution, either.]

There have to be psychics around right? If it really is alive and it's not just a weird metaphor by the people in charge.

[needsabreak]

we need more intel.

we don't know what the city is, if it's even anything. we don't know how much the magisters know or how much they're lying to us. we don't know why we're here or what might trigger us to get sent back to where we belong.

your telepath idea might be worth looking into but i don't think pissing people off will get us what we want. at least not until we know who the right people to piss off are

[brandingproblem]

You underestimate my ability to piss people off just by existing.

But yeah. The tower is the obvious focal point, but getting in and asking questions or looking for answers is a hard sell at best. What we really need is a hand from people who have apparently been here before.

[iwasrussian]

They might not even realize you're gone. People who have left and come back have said they left and returned at precisely the same moment. Some live out a portion of their future from that point and then return here again.

It happened to me the couple of times I was here and came back.

[ it's information, if nothing else. not meant to be any kind of excuse to get comfortable, which she knows he won't do. she hasn't. ]

[brandingproblem]

Great, this sounds like some quantum realm bullshit now. But at least that's a little more comforting.

Guessing you didn't remember being here, though. Since you would've brought it up.

[iwasrussian]

If I'm being honest, I think it's far more complex than time or the quantum realm, or even multiverses.

And no, I didn't. But I also returned in the middle of a full-blown war with Thanos, so my attention was immediately on that.

[brandingproblem]

More complex than multiverses? Are you kidding me? How do you get more complex than that? Never thought I'd want Strange around.

[iwasrussian]

Now you know why it's been a bit of a challenge to get anywhere on things.

[ he'll note on his screen that for a good few minutes, she is 'typing', but when she finally replies it doesn't match what should be sent. ]

I can't promise how long it will take, but I WILL get you home.