Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
modblob) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
redmarsshit2019-10-24 11:41 pm
modblob) wrote in redmarsshit2019-10-24 11:41 pm
redshift: tdm #5
Redshift: Welcome to the v͖͕̺̲̘̱̜͎o̴̦̣̠̦̘̹͞i̯̖d̛̪̬͈̱̦̝͍̕.
▶ Click here to read what characters will experience when arriving in Anchor.
▶ All TDM threads can be considered game canon, and current players are welcome to either top-level on the TDM so prospective players can tag them, or use the prompts for logs or network posts on the communities. All threads on the TDM can be used for Activity Check.
▶ All TDM threads can be considered game canon, and current players are welcome to either top-level on the TDM so prospective players can tag them, or use the prompts for logs or network posts on the communities. All threads on the TDM can be used for Activity Check.
a. don't be a sap.
Good morning, October 25th! Whether you're a confused new arrival or a current resident, you probably had some plans for today, right? Grab breakfast, visit a friend, pick some fruit, explore a new part of the massive city.
Well. Too bad. Because, as every single bot in the city will be telling you the moment you show your face, it's GOOP FESTIVAL DAY! What? You've never heard of it? Preposterous, everyone knows about the Goop Festival, it's one of the most anticipated holidays in Anchor! Haven't you been preparing for this for a week now?
The Goop Festival is a harvest celebration, in particular, a celebration of the sap-producing trees that grow wild in the Park, thick around the edges of the south side of the lake. The bots have been hard at work setting up the festival grounds in the shade of the trees in the balmy fall temperatures. There are spiles tapped into trees with buckets placed underneath that are already half-full of a thick, viscous, amber-colored sap. The bots have also set up troughs of shaved ice with long sticks nearby, with which they will demonstrate for excited residents (you are excited, right?) how to cool the sap in the ice and wrap it around the stick to make it a sort of taffy candy. That's not the only sweet surprise waiting, either.
A long table set up in the grass is loaded down with all sorts of delicious sap-related goodies, ranging from cupcakes with thick globs of sap-flavored frosting to sap-flavored jerky to sap sugar candies, and just about anything else you can imagine. There are a wide variety of offerings that would taste good coated, flavored, or glazed with the sap, which tastes sort of like a caramelized toffee. Another table is laid out that has row upon row of cups, each half-full of the sap, heated lightly to a thinner consistency and served similarly to hot chocolate - at least, if hot chocolate gave you a floaty, happy, hazy sort of feeling. Everything made with this sap does, actually, with the cups of pure sap having a stronger effect and items with less sap content having barely any effect at all.
Does this not sound like your cup of weird tree sap? Too bad. This is the GOOP FESTIVAL, and everything is shut down for this lovely paid vacation day. Spa? Locked down. Kitchens? Locked. Bar? Nope, totally shut down and the server bots are all down at the park. VR Gaming? Too bad, the computers are all shut down. Even roaming the halls and trying to stay out of the way won't help much...be prepared to be dragged down to the park to participate in this mandatory festival! Isn't it exciting?
Well. Too bad. Because, as every single bot in the city will be telling you the moment you show your face, it's GOOP FESTIVAL DAY! What? You've never heard of it? Preposterous, everyone knows about the Goop Festival, it's one of the most anticipated holidays in Anchor! Haven't you been preparing for this for a week now?
The Goop Festival is a harvest celebration, in particular, a celebration of the sap-producing trees that grow wild in the Park, thick around the edges of the south side of the lake. The bots have been hard at work setting up the festival grounds in the shade of the trees in the balmy fall temperatures. There are spiles tapped into trees with buckets placed underneath that are already half-full of a thick, viscous, amber-colored sap. The bots have also set up troughs of shaved ice with long sticks nearby, with which they will demonstrate for excited residents (you are excited, right?) how to cool the sap in the ice and wrap it around the stick to make it a sort of taffy candy. That's not the only sweet surprise waiting, either.
A long table set up in the grass is loaded down with all sorts of delicious sap-related goodies, ranging from cupcakes with thick globs of sap-flavored frosting to sap-flavored jerky to sap sugar candies, and just about anything else you can imagine. There are a wide variety of offerings that would taste good coated, flavored, or glazed with the sap, which tastes sort of like a caramelized toffee. Another table is laid out that has row upon row of cups, each half-full of the sap, heated lightly to a thinner consistency and served similarly to hot chocolate - at least, if hot chocolate gave you a floaty, happy, hazy sort of feeling. Everything made with this sap does, actually, with the cups of pure sap having a stronger effect and items with less sap content having barely any effect at all.
Does this not sound like your cup of weird tree sap? Too bad. This is the GOOP FESTIVAL, and everything is shut down for this lovely paid vacation day. Spa? Locked down. Kitchens? Locked. Bar? Nope, totally shut down and the server bots are all down at the park. VR Gaming? Too bad, the computers are all shut down. Even roaming the halls and trying to stay out of the way won't help much...be prepared to be dragged down to the park to participate in this mandatory festival! Isn't it exciting?
b. familiar ground.
Every year in Anchor near the end of October, there's a very strange interaction between the protective dome over the city and seasonal radiation surges that happen in the wastelands. Some complicated combination of refraction and reflection means that for the last few days of the month, residents will experience some of the more benign effects of the red shift inside the city.
Did we say benign? Because while there may not be any dangerous radiation to melt your skin off, there are some mind-bending dangers. Characters experiencing the shift will find the world becomes distorted, warped, impossible to navigate; they are enveloped in auditory and visual hallucinations, and can become so disoriented that they can't even recognize people they've known for years. And characters will find that the citywide shift brings in slivers of other universes, little slices of places characters have never seen before...or places so familiar they make the heart beat hard with joy or fear.
And just like in the wastelands, the things that show up in these shifts are all too real. Characters may find themselves walking through a door into a scene straight from home, or from someone else's home. Whether it's a favorite place to share with a new friend, or the nightmare landscape you almost died in, complete with the monster that almost killed you, be careful. Everything you experience here is real, and if you die in the shift, you die for real.
Of course, the city has its own safety measures in place - residents experiencing the hallucinations and appearances of items and places from other worlds may find themselves locked down in the room they're in, trapped with the otherworldly effects of the shift.
Did we say benign? Because while there may not be any dangerous radiation to melt your skin off, there are some mind-bending dangers. Characters experiencing the shift will find the world becomes distorted, warped, impossible to navigate; they are enveloped in auditory and visual hallucinations, and can become so disoriented that they can't even recognize people they've known for years. And characters will find that the citywide shift brings in slivers of other universes, little slices of places characters have never seen before...or places so familiar they make the heart beat hard with joy or fear.
And just like in the wastelands, the things that show up in these shifts are all too real. Characters may find themselves walking through a door into a scene straight from home, or from someone else's home. Whether it's a favorite place to share with a new friend, or the nightmare landscape you almost died in, complete with the monster that almost killed you, be careful. Everything you experience here is real, and if you die in the shift, you die for real.
Of course, the city has its own safety measures in place - residents experiencing the hallucinations and appearances of items and places from other worlds may find themselves locked down in the room they're in, trapped with the otherworldly effects of the shift.
c. the virus.
A few weeks ago, people in Anchor started getting a case of the sniffles. While some of the earliest cases might be clearing up, there are still a few people suffering, or people freshly infected by those who were sick earlier, including some of the new arrivals who may not even be feeling it yet.
Which may make the cause of some unexpected 'glitches' around the city a little unclear. Residents who are feeling the effects of the illness, or who are infected but not showing symptoms yet (or anymore) will find that their access to certain parts of the city are restricted. Suddenly, automatic doors aren't opening for them, as if they were ghosts, particularly when they try to access anything that may facilitate transmission of the virus. Suddenly, only some of the residents of the city will find they can't get into half of the MedBay, or the spa, the kitchens, the VR or games rooms, the bar...anywhere people gather or eat or sit close together.
Residents may put together that it's related to the illness some of them have been experiencing over the past few weeks, but it might take a while, since these safety and security measures are affecting people who are showing no symptoms yet. Be prepared for a few days of paranoia while seemingly perfectly healthy people are locked out of common areas. What does the computer know that residents don't? Are these people security risks? Is it a system glitch? What could be going on?
Which may make the cause of some unexpected 'glitches' around the city a little unclear. Residents who are feeling the effects of the illness, or who are infected but not showing symptoms yet (or anymore) will find that their access to certain parts of the city are restricted. Suddenly, automatic doors aren't opening for them, as if they were ghosts, particularly when they try to access anything that may facilitate transmission of the virus. Suddenly, only some of the residents of the city will find they can't get into half of the MedBay, or the spa, the kitchens, the VR or games rooms, the bar...anywhere people gather or eat or sit close together.
Residents may put together that it's related to the illness some of them have been experiencing over the past few weeks, but it might take a while, since these safety and security measures are affecting people who are showing no symptoms yet. Be prepared for a few days of paranoia while seemingly perfectly healthy people are locked out of common areas. What does the computer know that residents don't? Are these people security risks? Is it a system glitch? What could be going on?
c. the network.
Need to get hold of someone, call for help, ask the city at large a question? Need to warn a friend not to leave their apartment unless they want to be forcibly press-ganged into the Goop Festival? Maybe you need to hold your sat phone up to whatever crazy thing you're seeing and send out a recording to double-check if your eyes are deceiving you and what you're looking at is real?
Whatever the reason, the network is going strong, so feel free to include a post to it in your top-levels.
Whatever the reason, the network is going strong, so feel free to include a post to it in your top-levels.
Mod Note: The "familiar ground" prompt will be active between October 29th and October 31st; "the virus" prompt will be active until the next introductory mingle, which will be kicking off the second part of the illness plot.
no subject
A split-second of horror crosses Reynir's face, and all at once they're somewhere else. Somewhere dark and close, with the sound of gunfire and explosions all around, and she thinks she can smell smoke.
With these eyes, she can see clearly in the dark. But she almost can't believe it. This isn't Ami's memory... but the woman sitting next to Reynir is unmistakable.
It's Tuuri Hotakainen.
A kitten is dashing around between Ami's feet, puffed up and squeaking loudly, and she feels the floor shift beneath her... Reynir reacts before she can, slamming into her and knocking her to the ground, and not a moment too soon. Wood and metal splinters, and something comes through.
She scrambles back from the breach, pressing herself against the wall, too panicked even to scream. Reynir may have his back turned, but Ami can't look away. It's hideous - long and lumpy and bony and gristly and slithery and glistening with some unidentifiable fluid and the whole room smells like rotting fish and for one terrible heartbeat time seems to stop...
She isn't sure what happens next. But it happens so fast. Chaos, a flurry of spindly limbs and a too-flexible spine, it lunges, but not at her or Reynir - then suddenly the door slams open, and the CRACK of a single gunshot reverberates through the enclosed space -
and it's over.
The abomination slumps to the ground, and behind it, silhouetted in the flickering light from outside, Lalli Hotakainen lowers his rifle.
He doesn't see Ami, either. He doesn't see Reynir, or the monster he just killed, or the cat. Only Tuuri, clutching a bloody wound on her shoulder.
Then he's gone. They're all gone, except Ami and Reynir and and the corpse of the monster. It's dark again, eerily quiet.
Ami doesn't move for a long time, staring at the corpse, half-expecting it to get up again. Her lungs begin to burn, and she realizes she isn't breathing, yet it's hard to start again, almost as if she's forgotten how it works. Finally, though, she manages a loud gasp for air, breaking the silence. Her mouth makes a few attempts at shaping words, but none actually form.
no subject
He registers then that Ami is gasping, and it sinks in through his own shock and grief that she must be confused and terrified. Croakily, Reynir asks:
"Are you hurt?"
Reynir moves away from her, turning to face the interior of the vehicle - that gaping hole in the floor, and the dread troll, and the blood, and the terrible weight of knowing what happened after. He feels remembered panic and grief surging through him, like a physical thing.
"This- is my memory. I'm sorry."
He had never meant to drag her somewhere like this. To make her see something so awful and terrifying that must be beyond her comprehension...
no subject
"I - I'm okay," she says, between heavy breaths.
It's hard to process any of this, but her brain gradually releases her from the grip of the fight-or-flight reflex, and information starts to filter through. It doesn't occur to her why he'd apologize for having a memory - they just happen sometimes, there's nothing he can do about that.
"You're..." She swallows with difficulty. "You're from their world. Lalli and Onni's." There's no overt judgment, just a statement of fact she hadn't realized until now.
"... What is it?" she asks. But she's afraid she might already know.
no subject
Except nothing feels all that funny, now.
None of Reynir's usual bouncy energy is there in him, right now. He stands there, still and quiet, arms loose at his sides, staring at the dead troll, the hole in the floor. The more the fear fades, the more room it leaves for guilt and grief. It had been so close. It could have happened differently - should have.
"It's a troll."
Reynir doesn't know how much Ami might know. He sighs, all wavery and heavy, and adds:
"Something that used to be human. Their souls are still trapped in there. I'm a mage so. I can hear them. They just... scream, mostly."
no subject
In that moment, all the pieces come together. The Rash isn't quite like a zombie virus - Onni told her that, when they first met. It's more like the G-virus, mutating people into horrible nightmare monsters and trapping their souls so that all they can do is scream forever...
And the end result is a troll. Like that one.
Ami covers her mouth with both hands, horrified. No wonder Reynir was scared of her. No wonder Lalli got mad when she joked about them. Her situation's not the same, but when she casually says "troll" in conversation, this is what they see.
"Oh, God," she whispers. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't know..."
She finally manages to tear her eyes away, and looks up to the spot Tuuri occupied a moment ago.
"Was..."
No, no no no. It's a stupid question, she knows it is. It's not going to lead anywhere good. But she has to ask. She doesn't want to believe the alternative. There has to be some hope...
"... Was Tuuri okay?"
cw suicide mention
He is so horrified over having re-watched that scene that it doesn't occur to him, at first, that Ami has no way of knowing Tuuri's name. Because the question she asks is heart-breaking, and Reynir immediately hangs his head, eyes closing against the pain of it.
"No." His voice breaks on that one, awful syllable. "She wasn't."
He slumps back against the wall of the vehicle, a little surprised himself when his legs give out and he slides all the way down to the floor. At least that means he can rest his head against his knees.
"She got infected. We weren't sure for a few days, but. She did."
It should have been him. It shouldn't have been her. It was like a mistake - there shouldn't be a world where Tuuri dying was something that really happened. It should have been him.
"She killed herself. As soon as she knew. Before she could start to change."
She hadn't even said goodbye to him.
cw suicide mention
Ami sits very still for a while, as the heaviness of it sinks in. In a way, that's the best possible scenario, isn't it? She'd caught an incurable disease. She knew it was fatal. Worse than fatal. They all knew, as soon as they saw her clutching that wound. From that moment, Tuuri was doomed. There was nothing anyone could do for her.
She's seen the trope in zombie movies, of course. Someone gets bit, maybe tries to hide it for a while, starts to turn, begs another survivor to kill them while they're still human... But no. Tuuri's too smart for that, and too kind. She couldn't put everyone else at risk by denying her fate. She couldn't force Lalli to put a bullet in her brain. She was doomed, but she still had one choice... and to her, it was no choice at all.
Her eyes blur with tears, and she doesn't bother to wipe them away. She looks to Reynir, crumpled up against the wall, his face hidden between his knees. After a moment, she scoots over to him, wraps her skinny arms around his shoulders and squeezes. She gets a faceful of hair in the process, but who cares.
"I'm sorry," she murmurs, red tears flowing freely into red hair. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
no subject
So getting that kind of immediate comfort in the form of a hug is unexpected. And when he looks up he notices she's crying. Hard not to, when the tears themselves are tinted red. That's a whole new mystery, but it'll just go in the pile with the grey skin and yellow eyes and the rest of it.
"You're crying."
It's only then that it occurs to him that Ami had asked about Tuuri, but he hadn't mentioned her by name. The only conclusion he can draw is that she knew Tuuri was related to Lalli, or possibly what she looked like from a picture or something. So he asks:
"Did Onni or Lalli tell you about her?"
no subject
Ami tenses a bit, draws back from the hug. "Ah. Shoot. I didn't mean..."
She shouldn't have mentioned Tuuri by name. But... she couldn't help it. Tuuri might have forgotten about Retrospec a while ago, but Ami still considers her a friend, and finding out she suffered such a terrible fate, even in another life... it's a shock.
At this point, though, it'd be pointless to try and lie. Reynir could just ask Onni or Lalli for confirmation, and then she'd be screwed. She sighs, then shakes her head gently.
"No. They didn't. It's..."
How does she tell him? About Recollé, about Retrospec, what she really is, how she knows Tuuri, and Lalli, and Majima, and what that means for all of them?
"... It's really complicated."
no subject
She's not from his world. Reynir knows that. She knows way too much about video games for that to be possible.
When she merely says it is complicated, as if hoping he'll just accept that as an answer, the corner of Reynir's mouth turns down a little in a small frown.
"Please, tell me." A little urgency has come into his voice. Reynir is an easy-going guy, for the most part. But he can be stubborn, and he's not a big fan of being underestimated or talked down to. And Tuuri is a sore spot, for him. He's not about to just let it go.
"Simplify it if you need to, but I can deal with complicated. I want to know."
no subject
She pauses for a few seconds, clearing her mind a little and pondering where she should start. She's got an idea what she might be able to do. This dream space, or whatever, that they're in... she's remembered something like it before. Obviously, you can revisit your memories here - so maybe, like Aradia did, she can sort of... control the memories and do it deliberately?
Ami closes her eyes, and the scene changes around them.
It resolves to a classy nightclub, warm and warmly lit, with a disco ball spinning slowly overhead. The dead troll vanishes, its rotten stink replaced by a faint scent that subtly evokes bourbon without shouting it. Instead of a frozen, deathly quiet, the room is filled with music, revelry, and laughter.
It may not look much like the parties Reynir's grown up with, but it's unmistakably a party. At this particular moment, most of the fifteen-odd guests - including Ami, and Reynir beside her - are gathered around the center table, where the birthday girl faces down a cake topped with twenty-one candles. It's Tuuri, alive and well, her smile lighting up the room as always.
"Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday, dear Tuuri!
Happy birthday to you!"
Tuuri blows out the candles, and a cheer goes up. Ami - appearing fully human again - neither sings nor cheers. She did both at the real party, and this time she's content to watch the others, a bittersweet smile tugging at her lips.
no subject
He doesn't know where this is. He doesn't know how it's possible. This can't be Keuruu. He doesn't think it is Mora, either. It's not anywhere in the Silent World that they had been during their journey. So what is this place, and how is Tuuri there, and how does Ami know her, and what is even happening?
But all of that confusion is background static. Mostly he just stares at the happy face of his friend. He looks at her like he'd never thought he would see her again. Which, to be fair, is exactly what's true. He watches her grinning as the people around her sing, and then blowing out the candles on her birthday cake.
He wishes Onni were here, to see her again one last time. He wishes Tuuri were in the Anchor. He wishes she hadn't died.
"How... is this possible?" Reynir's whisper is only just audible over the chatting and music of the club, bare and heartbroken.
no subject
"There's a world," Ami begins, "where the souls of the dead are given a second life."
Her voice is soft, but clear and even-toned. Storytelling comes naturally to her, for whatever reason. Maybe that's something she inherited from her past self.
"In your world, Tuuri died. In my world, she was reborn."
no subject
It seems impossible, and yet here is the evidence right in front of his eyes. Reynir has seen how this dream place is strung together from memories. He knows that people can be taken from his world to other worlds, because here he is, and Lalli and Onni with him. Ami is so clearly something different from anything Reynir has ever seen or heard from before.
Both his hands are over his mouth, now, and he says, in a voice cracked with emotion.
"So she... she got another chance?"
To explore. To have adventures. To learn and make friends and spread that wonderful light of hers into the lives of others. It had always seemed too impossibly cruel, that a light as bright as Tuuri should be snuffed out so soon.
He can't tear his eyes from Tuuri's face, gone mischievous now, gods only know what she was plotting. Reynir's chest aches with a mix of emotions. Happiness for Tuuri, an intense feeling of missing her, confusion, hope, skepticism, grief...
"She seems... really happy."
no subject
She can't speak for Tuuri, of course. She doesn't know to what extent she actually was happy. Did she ever remember that moment with Reynir and the troll? The days of wondering whether she'd turn, the horror of realizing she would? The moment she made up her mind?
It's sort of moot now, anyway. Whatever she remembered, she's since forgotten. She fell off Retrospec months ago. That's not unusual, it happens sometimes. A soul slips out of alignment, forgets itself again.
Ami forgot for a while, too. And... it wasn't so bad.
She smiles, nods a little more firmly. "Yeah, I think she is."
no subject
"Good. Nobody deserves it more than her."
The Tuuri in the memory seems completely at her ease, bright and cheerful as Reynir had ever seen her.
"And - and that means you were friends? Before you came here?" Reynir lets out a giggle, delighted and surprised, "Imagine that! We come from completely different worlds, we still managed to have a mutual friend!"
Then, however, he remembers something, and it is like a pin popping the balloon of his happiness. Reynir finally looks away from Tuuri, turning back to Ami. He asks:
"Did she know? About... you becoming a troll?"
no subject
The question is harder to answer, though. The truth is, when someone forgets, it's like going back to sleep. You don't have access to Retrospec, so if that was your only point of contact, everyone who only knew you there won't know where to find you. And ... you forget everyone you met through Retrospec, too.
So when Tuuri forgot, Ami fell out of touch with her. And that was well before any of her troll features started coming in. It's not the only time Ami's lost contact with someone for that reason, but she still feels kind of bad about it, and rubs her arm absently.
"No, uh... I don't think she found out." To avoid elaborating on that, though, she adds - "Lalli knew, though. He was there for the horns thing..."
no subject
If this were a certain kind of movie there would be the sound of a record scratch here, as Reynir blinks, train of thought derailing abruptly. It's not adding up. Ami had told him just a few minutes before (hadn't she?) that her horns came in before she arrived at the Anchor? He'd been in that memory with her, with the tents, in that lovely forest. But she had just implied (HADN'T SHE?) that Lalli was there at the time. And that can't be possible because Lalli is here in the Anchor. He couldn't have gone to her world because she'd made it sound (HADN'T SHE?!) like you had to die before you go there and Lalli isn't dead, definitely not-
"Wait."
He's trying to make all the pieces fit together but it's just not happening.
"I don't... understand. How- I thought you said...?"
Reynir is so very, very lost.
no subject
Oh, heck, she's said too much again! Why does this keep happening? She messed it up with Lalli because she didn't know he was Past Lalli at first - and almost messed it up with Mr. Majima, for the same reason - but now she has no excuse.
And if Reynir happens to take another look around again, he might notice a few more familiar faces.
Tuuri's making the rounds now, offering her guests some authentic Finnish candy her brother sent her. And there, eagerly taking a piece, is a certain young Swede with flawless hair. A little ways off, there's a tall red-haired woman with a guitar case on her back, laughing loudly. And if Reynir's lucky, he might even catch a glimpse of Lalli, stealthing between hiding places. There's no sign of Mikkel or Onni, though, nor of Reynir - though for him there wouldn't be anyway, since you take your own place in these memories.
And Ami's not sure how to explain. She'll try, but she needs a second.
no subject
Which is when he notices that familiar mop of over-cared-for blond hair. And how hadn't he noticed Sigrun with that big, distinctive laugh of hers? Reynir would know that laugh anywhere.
He doesn't get a chance to see Lalli, because he's turning back to Ami, face gone a little pale under his freckles. But he's holding it together, for now. He just needs her to tell the truth.
"Why are so many of my friends here?"
no subject
Her chest tightens a little with anxiety, but there's no avoiding it. Occam's razor - the most obvious answer is, in this case, the truth.
"Because they were reborn here, too," she says. "Or - will be, to you. Anchor's pull draws people from all different times and places, I told you that. The chronology doesn't line up, and it's not supposed to."
She pauses, but the elephant in the room isn't fully addressed. "And ... yeah, that does mean Lalli and your other friends have died, or will die, at some point. But ... everybody dies, eventually. It's possible you'll all live to be a hundred."
no subject
He had forgotten, about the chronology. That had really screwed with his head, when first he was getting used to the Anchor. The idea that there might even be people there from his own world, just hundreds of years in the past. Reynir had accepted it as a fact, but he hadn't considered all the further possibilities. That Ami is from another world, but also the future. A future after not only Tuuri had died, but Lalli and Sigrun and Emil, as well.
In a way it's reassuring, realizing it doesn't mean any of their lives would be shorter. In another way, though, it is a reminder that everyone he loves is mortal and will inevitably die. Which... is awesome.
He rubs the back of his neck, embarrassed for not putting the pieces together on his own. And he jokes.
"No way Sigrun is gonna live to be a hundred. She's definitely gonna die in some huge heroic battle and go off to Valhalla way before then."
Only... apparently she'll make a pit stop here, to this place? Spiritually it's all pretty deeply confusing.
no subject
"Haha! Which one's Sigrun?"
She could probably figure it out by process of elimination, but.
no subject
Gods he misses Sigrun. She was so mean and badass and wonderful.
"Does that mean that you had a whole life and died and were brought back in this world, too?"
Hey, he's not a total idiot, after all! He at least has gotten that that is the rule for how people ended up in this place. If it was true for Tuuri and Lalli and Emil and Sigrun, wouldn't it be true for Ami as well?
no subject
"Yeah," Ami says, nodding. That was a correct inference, well done, Reynir. "I don't remember everything about my past life yet. Just bits and pieces, really. It's kind of a gradual process, once you've awakened. First you start remembering, in visions, a little at a time. Then you start receiving things like... items your past self used to own, or abilities they used to have. And eventually..."
Her horns are back. When did those show up again?
"You start to look like them, if you didn't already."
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)