iterumnetwork | [Network] username: leonskennedy

Well... we sort of are. About your experiences, your knowledge.

I guess if you're really interested, I'll try to answer whatever questions you have. [He'd play along if it meant she'd be willing to share more about what she knows.] I'm not military.

Just- Before we move on. Just one question about that. Did you ever end up back home? Had time passed?

As for what I've heard so far - the City is sentient, it brought us here for some purpose, though it seems like no one knows what that purpose is, someone mentioned something about emotional responses, people die here but not permanently, and most people like us don't trust the magisters, you called them the council? ... I think that's about it.

I don't ask questions I don't want the answer to. [She smiles a little at his answer to her previous question and takes another long sip of her tea.]

So you've already been introduced to the magic, interesting. Good, actually. Means people are willing to talk about it. More importantly, means they remember.

I was sent home.. once, but time stops meanin- It's all like a dream, sort of. Being there. Being here. Mine is not a.. Not be what you might find to be a more traditional history in places like this. Because you- if you were to go home, that'd be it. You'd be home. Apple pie and whiskey. But if I were to go 'home', I go to a place that doesn't really exist anymore save an island of property.

That doesn't have anything to do with the City, but the context is important. [Her head bobbed and moved as she talked, that one hand animating her more, and she furrows her colorful brows at him as she continues.]

Have you been anywhere other than Home before? And I mean your world, no matter how much roaming over it you may or may not have done - have you ever been to a place like this before? Not the city, but.. but this.

[It was very hard to articulate, she wouldn't blame him if he didn't understand on first pass.]

Edited 2023-07-06 02:37 (UTC)

[He gives her a small, forced, uncomfortable smile but nods, apparently resigned to his fate. He guesses it's sort of a fair trade off.]

Magic? Why assume anything I've just said about the City has anything to do with magic? [Maybe it's simply semantics but, from their brief exchange, his new acquaintance seems very intelligent, so he's a little disappointed she continues to simple chalk things up to a force that simply doesn't exist. If nothing else, he supposes he's willing to hear why she thinks it's magic.

He tries to follow along with what she means about time and how her home doesn't exist.] How does your home not exist?

[He shakes his head.] I didn't even know shit like this was a thing. That there was more than one... universe, or whatever you want to call it.

Ya know, I don't know a single place that has natural Lazarus options. People dyin' are supposed to stay dead - the great equalizer. Except here, we pop back up outta the mirage like we're fucking daisies. That and there's also no instance where a soul gets jerked across the multiverse and back again, without a little razzle dazzle.

[Other arguments aside, those two things on their face had always been the foundational blocks of understanding why 'magic' was an option. If they were outside, she'd show him a little more, but that could wait.]

It's called the multiverse. And I don't know how or why it doesn't exist anymore, alls I know is that for the past fifteen or so years, I've only gone back once. That's with cycling a few of these little bubbles of reality.

People don't always stay dead where I'm from. But when they do 'come back', they don't come back right.

I was told that the only side effects were missing memories? [Seriously, don't tempt him with a good time.

Her points still don't have him convinced that all of this can be explained in some kind of scientific way.]

So... doesn't that make you more of a resident than a visitor? It kind of sounds like you just live here now.

Edited 2023-07-07 01:13 (UTC)

Some people come back.. different. From a different point on their timeline, backwards and forwards. Sometimes they lose the city in transit. Like a dream.

Sure, I'd be a resident if only I hadn't just gotten back here with the rest of you. A month ago, I was not here. I was in the Integra Arms Hotel on a street named Twisted. If I'm a resident of anywhere, it's there, another dead reality.

[She'd meant to order them food but frankly, she was enjoying the conversation.]

They don't come back 'right'? What does that mean?

[Different. That word makes him tense, expecting her to start describing grotesque monsters, twisted bodies that were barely a shell of the person they were before. But what she says ends up being more weird than horrifying.]

Well, if a younger me shows up, tell him not to go back. [He scoffs softly in laughter.]

Another dead reality? I don't get it. How does a reality die?

[He swishes his lips, looking down at his tea and stalling for a moment by taking a sip. He doesn't really look at her when he speaks, seeing the things he's talking about, replaying memories.] They usually come back... changed, mindless, stronger. Sometimes it's claws and teeth, sometimes they're three times the size they were in life... with claws and teeth. Tentacles. And they're usually a bitch to kill. Re-kill.

Not sure that'd do any good, but I'll try to remember the message.

[She makes a face at his description.]

Gross. But... also sounds like some fun. [She totally understood why it wouldn't be fun for him, but she was something else.]

And I don't know how a reality dies. I have some theories, but that's a larger conversation better meant on rooftops with saki.

[He gives her an exhausted glare before picking up his cup.] Yeah, you know, you're right. It's great. [His tone is completely flat. Looking toward the door, he takes a sip. He certainly wasn't above dealing with things using dark humor but it felt earned somehow.]

So what's the deal with the magisters? [He's obviously eager to get this conversation back on track.] They've got to know more than they let on.

Aside from them, is there any way to get to the City? If it's as sentient as they say it is, it must be able to tell us what it actually wants. [Or reveal itself so he can fire a rocket launcher at it.]

[The glare was utterly ignored, but it was all noted.]

They do.

If everything is the same as last time, it's under the Tower. And the tower isn't an easy place to breech. It can't be damaged, for one, and they'd be stupid to keep it in the same place. Could be that its somewhere totally different this time around. But where ever it is, its not easy to get to, and it's already claimed a couple of lives in previous attempts. And those people.. They didn't come back the same in a different way. Like part of themselves were missing or.. locked away.

The magistrates mind the Chosen that are in their district. You'll answer to whomever the magistrate of your apartment district is. They're generally ambivalent, though some of them had some spice and flare.

I figured.

[He pauses midsip, looking confused.] What? Where under the Tower? I live there... [He knows he has to be missing something, especially if people have died trying to get to... 'it'.] What's it look like? The City's... whatever. Some brain in a jar or something? A computer?

[He purses his lips, making a face as he puts the cup down.] Great. Pretty sure I've already pissed off the Duchess.

A Pyramid actually, but no one knows what's inside. It gets into your head as its defense, just to start.

[Devi's eyes light up and her tea cup is abandoned in favor of lacing her fingers together, weight resting on her elbows, as a platform for her chin.]

Tell me everything about her.

Edited 2023-07-10 00:17 (UTC)

It gets into your head how? Like... makes you see things? Thinks things? Or does it know stuff about you?

[He really shouldn't be accepting that those are possibilities quite so easily.]

The Duchess? She reminds me of a lot of politicians. Those people where you just get a feeling they've never told the full truth in their whole life but what they're saying has bits of truth. She did mention the magistrates can communicate with the City... kind of. She wouldn't elaborate, claimed she didn't have enough time to.

Yes. Yes is the answer to all those. Whatever it wants to, Leon. Whatever it needs to.

The best lies are rooted in truth. But it is for sure a lie that she doesn't have enough time; that means she didn't like your questions. I'd bet five dollars. I can't tell you about their powers - we've seen a range and I don't know if they're person specific or shared and fully accessible by all of them. The latter isn't a likely option but a possible one, nonetheless.

Great. [He nods, lips pressed into a thin line.

But something she mentions immediately piques his interest and he leans in a little. It's his first time hearing anyone mention it.] Powers? What were some of the things the past magistrates could do? And does anyone have any idea where it comes from? Is the City lending them some of its power?

We're back to magic. [She tuts softly and sighs.]

Let's fix that a little bit, shall we? Since clearly we're not gonna eat right now- [Devi drops her boots and slides out of the booth, leather trench coat flaring as she straightens it out with a little shake.]

But not in here. I like this place and I'd like to be able to come back.

[It's impossible to miss the roll of his eyes.] Sure.

[He looks confused at first, watching her get out of the booth, and looks a little put out as he sighs and gets up. At least, he's already paid.]

Fine. Lead the way.

[Lead the way she would, outside and onto the street. She waits for Leon to get fully out of the building and a little way away from the door before she turns around. And promptly levetates.]

You think I got a jet pack, Leon? Wires maybe? [She holds up a finger and flares her other hand in a roll, manifesting a basketball sized ball of bright purple kinetic energy.]

You got science for this? A checklist I can fill out of my symptoms or somethin'?

[She leans in a little, one foot lifting a little and tucking behind her other calf.]

You wanna fly, Kennedy?

[He'd had a few guesses as to what she might show him. His money had been on something to do with fire. Levitation doesn't seem to shock him though and he crosses his arms.]

I'm not a scientist but all of this could be science. Just because I don't understand how you do it, doesn't mean I'm going to call it magic.

[He scowls when she asks him if he wants to fly.] Do. Not.

I met a little girl who could make fires and put monsters into a trance by singing. [She'd been infected of course.] It wasn't magic. [And it hadn't been magic when she'd turned to dust in his arms either.]

I told you before. Semantics. You can call this whatever you want. Whatever makes you happy.

[It was Devi's turn to roll her eyes, fingers coming together to smooth over the bottom half of the sphere and launching it into the air where it goes high before exploding in a flair.]

Oh I see. You're one of those. [She sighs.] What a fucking drag having to trot out those specifics - what's wrong with calling it by something easy until it's figured out by nerds able to find a root source? Are you gonna say that every time? 'That guy shot electricity out of his fingertips like fuckin' Emperor Palatine, but it wasn't magic, it's just science no one can even begin to understand?

You're still wrong by the way, but I can see it'll take something Special to move you.

[Leon can't contain the snort of laughter.] Are you really trying to use Star Wars to convince me magic is a thing?

Also, yeah, I'd say that shit in the science fiction movie was science.

[He just shakes his head, arms still crossed.]

We're just going to have to agree to disagree here, I think. Like I said, call it whatever you want, but I'm not calling this 'magic'. It's ignorant. I'm sure ancient people also thought magnets or aerodynamics were magic.

[Her eyes narrow at the first, lips curling at the edges but it all breaks into an impish grin at his very logic, very annoying point.]

It's a big multiverse. I hope you're ready to see some real shit.

[She straightens, shoulder squaring, chin lifting with a flare of her hand out towards the city, back to being the showman.]

The city runs on the pyramid in the basement and subbasement levels. It generates a bubble that keeps the city safe from the monsters and wasteland of horror that lives outside. Our being here is what keeps the place safe. Tear down the construct and you utterly destroy this world all over again. I think that's what we did, in the end. After the assault on the Tower.

[Her hand falls and she drops back to the ground unceremoniously.]

So maybe don't do that unless they give us good reason. Welcome to enlistment in the Balance.

Edited 2023-07-10 02:35 (UTC)

Sure. I think I'll manage. [He says flatly.

Honestly, Leon's ability to roll with the punches is one of the things that had kept him alive so far. He was great at compartmentalizing, for better or for worse.

She has his attention now though, the first person to bring up that there was something beyond the City.] It's protecting us... And using us to create that protection?

[Well, that complicates things.]

Huh... Why not tell us that when we arrive? [It's mostly rhetorical. He certainly doesn't expect her to have an answer to why the Magistrates kept the secrets they did.]

[Devi shrugs.]

They're dramatic and some- most sane and reasonable people might object to being used in such a way. This is the honeymoon period. Let everyone get settled, quiet. [A hand slips out, lazy fingers brushing back and forth across the air to match the airy, dream like tone she carried for it all.]

Lull them into jobs and routine, security in their surroundings for the day to day to function almost peacefully. [Until it doesn't. Her paintstained hand gets tucked away again as her tone drops back to normal.]

It is something that you can touch though. Just a short little flight, in any direction you like.

Whoa, whoa, wait, you can't just say something like that. What do you mean we're being lulled into a false sense of security? What happens?

[She seriously couldn't just casually bring up something like that and then leave him hanging.]

Really? I thought... I thought someone said you could try to keep going in one direction and you'd just end up back where you started. The barrier's a physical thing? Like a wall?

[Network] username: leonskennedy | ota

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