dreams in digital

[thespaceopera]

[ Calibration Rooms ]
( for A-M characters )

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ROOMS BY CHARACTER

A - C Akeldama Alisha Diphda Allura Baku Ben Douglass Belthazar Carl Grimes Connor

D - F Escha Malier Eithan Paine Felix Gaeta

G - I Glenn Rhee Grievous Haggar

J - M James T. Kirk (OU) James T. Kirk (AU) Kaname Bucanneer Keith Kitty Pryde Kogarasumaru Kolivan Krolia Lance Leia Organa Leilani Lavellan Libra Loki Lordon Gesh Lup Maggie Rhee Magnus Burnsides Manji Messer Ihlefeld Mikleo Mirage Farina Jenius

(last updated: 1/21/19)

Comments

Lup

[necromanswers]

[The first room any visitors find themselves in is a simple but lived-in kitchen, clean but obviously one that sees constant use, the wear and tear showing in the appliances and decor. Chipped and mismatched dishware, multi-coloured cabinets that have been repainted or repaired over the years, a long table with seven chairs, all different sizes and styles as if personally chosen for the user rather than a set. The air smells faintly of sweets. One wall has a window to the outside, displaying a sea of stars passing by, indistinguishable from each other but indicating that the ship is obviously traveling through space, much like the fleet during a drift. On another wall is a chalkboard with a list of names: Cap'nport, Lucy, Burnsides, Bluejeans, Lup, Taako, and "fuckin Highchurch". Beside each name is a set of tally marks, and not a one has less than 5. The last name has almost 60. Lup has 15. Above the board is its title- "DEATH COUNT". It's whimsically decorated despite the subject matter.

A handful of items stand out among the rest, as if drawing the eye (or hand) to them:
-a cookie jar
-a red robe draped over a chair
-a model ship in a bottle
-a small bag of gold with a vial of blue liquid atop a parchment paper
-a bottle of alcohol with the label "Grey Goose"
-a set of sheet music

Towards the back of the room, a doorway is blocked by a curtain of faded beads, and behind them veils of deep black silk. If approached, it gives off a strange, dark vibe- implying that more lies beyond, but it won't be as cheery.

Lup is working at the counter, mixing something together. She's humming a song under her breath, something soft and peppy, and she doesn't acknowledge the arrival of anyone, but you can try to talk to her if you like.

You can also go straight for the back room. Approaching it will make that dark vibe grow stronger, but there are no barriers preventing entry.]



(( ooc: more details on all of Lup's options found here if you want to know what you're getting into! ))

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki isn't too surprised to find himself in a kitchen. he peeks through the window to see if he can recognize the stars. he watches them for a time, lulled by their solitary motion. once he was a ship in space, but all he did was fall. then he turns back to what's available.

loki reaches out to pluck the model ship in a bottle, holding it up to the light. ]

[necromanswers]

[The light of the kitchen shimmers across the glass, and that sensation grows and grows until a scene dissolves into view.

The ship is real, now, no longer in a bottle but all around. Six people stand in a circle on the deck - Lup, Taako, two human men and one woman, and a dwarf. A gnome steers at the helm, apart but close by. Stars fly by the ship as it sails and in the distance, huge and overwhelming but mercifully leaving the ship alone is an enormous mass of black scarred by countless streaks of colours, tendrils slamming down on the world they're abandoning. Everyone is quiet, the atmosphere solemn and grim as they watch the destruction below.

Lup is the one who breaks the silence, first with a flippant joke-]

Listen. That stuff I was saying down there — that wasn’t just, that wasn’t just talk. I believe that, one of these times, we’re gonna get it right. And we’re gonna find a way to defeat the Hunger and... save everybody inside of it. I— I have to believe that, to keep doing what we do. Because I have to believe... that I’m gonna get... those fifteen dollars back from Greg fucking Grimaldis!

[-to make them all laugh and then, more quietly, to encourage them all to do better, to be better.]

Seriously, though, it got— we got dark down there. I— I know this journey’s been hard, and it’s only going to get harder, but we can’t allow ourselves to— to get to that place again. To even think about destroying an entire world. We need to promise each other, right now, we— we won’t let one another get to that place. Never again.

[She stretches a hand out, holding it in the air towards the center of the circle, her expression firm and urgent. She won't tolerate a repeat of what happened, no matter what. Slowly, one by one, they all join their hands with hers, echoing the sentiment in their own ways, and she smiles at them all. She looks at Taako in particular and something shifts in her gaze, a look of understanding and forgiveness. He'd done something to earn her ire, but in the end he'd made it right again. She's glad, the relief in her expression plain as day. She hates feeling angry with him.

They all stand like that for a while as the ship flies further and further away, leaving the ruined plane behind them, and suddenly their bodies all dissolve into threads of light, carried off to separate corners of the ship. The cycle begins anew.

Here we go again.

And with one final flash of light, the memory is gone, and the kitchen is back.]

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki doesn't say anything, but he sets it back gently. he's familiar with cycles after all. it doesn't surprise him that taako and lup would do the right thing. they may be chaotic but they have some sense of ethical duty.

he drifts towards the counter where lup is. ]

Busy?

[abracafcku]

[Well, this is a weird ass place to be dreaming about. Taako is used to weird dreams at this point, especially when he's actually forced to sleep instead of meditate, but this is probably the first time most of the dream had been static. Especially static that doesn't hurt. It's more like the room is blurry. He can see it's a kitchen, can see Lup there, can see there's a board and numbers and names, but can't pick out the details. Some of them break through, especially some objects which are crystal clear to him, but otherwise it's a little hint here and there, so looking around the place is... It's a- it's... A struggle.

Hearing Lup humming contentedly at the counter makes him feel like an intruder, which is weird. But at least focusing on her is easy. He wanders over, fingers grazing a countertop he can only vaguely comprehend and then he decides fuck it and jumps up to sit on it, right next to a cookie jar.]

So this is a weird fucking dream, huh?

[And since he's so close? He grabs for the cookie jar because at least eating something in a dream will give him something to do. Plus, no calories - win win.]

[necromanswers]

[She turns towards him, mouth moving to respond, but before she can say anything his fingers touch the cookie and the world around them burns white.]

--------

When the room changes, the scene it reveals is... blurry. Bits and pieces of it are fuzzy, making it difficult to see many of the details. It still looks like a kitchen, but a different one- a simple looking design, less sleek but more uniform. It smells sweet and the air is warm. Four chairs are placed around an old wooden table and one is occupied by a small, blond-haired child who is quietly watching an adult female elf wrap a bandage around the child's leg. Something is odd about the adult's face, shifting and coalescing, features changing from moment to moment. One second she looks exactly like Lup, the next she looks older, then younger, then her nose is bigger or her eyes are a different colour. The child in the memory never notices the changes.

"Mama? Is Koko gonna be okay?" The child - Lup - whispers. Her shoulders hunch, fear audible in her voice.

Her mother hums. Unlike her features, her voice rings through clearly enough. She sounds fairly young. "He'll be fine, sweetie. His cut was deeper than yours, so Papa wants someone else to make sure it'll heal safe. You'll see him tomorrow."

Lup is quiet again, her eyes glued to the window, waiting. There's another wave of anxiety, mingling with frustration. Tomorrow is too long. He'd been crying, he'll be lonely. "Can we go there too?"

The elf woman sighs. "I'm working tomorrow. It'll be hard enough with your father…" She trails off, then looks up. Her face blurs, there and gone and back again, and she smiles and brushes a hand through Lup's hair. Warm. "Sorry, honey. We can't go tonight, it's almost bedtime."

"I dont care about bedtime, I-"

"The answer is no." Silence follows the stern scolding, and her mother returns to quietly bandaging her leg until she can fasten it shut and relax, leaning in to kiss the child's forehead. "I know you want to see him. I'm certain he'll be missing you, too. But the roads are dangerous at night, and he and your father will want you safe too, don't you think? They'll be at your auntie's tonight." She's quiet a moment, studying Lup's expression, and then sighs and murmurs, "How about sending a message, then?"

Lup's eyes light up, instantly relieved, and her mother goes to fetch a quill from a locked box and offer it out to her. The child focuses intently on it for a long moment, then calls out, "Taako? How are you feeling, are you okay? Is your leg gonna fall off? It better not! Um- Mama and me just wanna say goodnight! Come home soon!" The spell winks out a few words early, but Lup doesn't notice, her eyes closed, waiting for a response. When her eyes open again, they're bright and happy. "He's okay! They're still with the healer. He says goodnight and that you gotta teach me how to count better."

Her mother laughs, loud and relieved, and trades the quill for a warm, soft cookie. A hand brushes a hand through Lup's hair as she takes a huge bite and grins with chocolate in her teeth.

--------

[And as the original kitchen fades back into sight, Lup opens her mouth again, closes it, purses her lips. She looks away.]

I don't think you'll like what you see here, Taako. If you can even see it to begin with...

[abracafcku]

[The world going funky isn't the weirdest thing to happen in a dream - but when it resolves itself into a blurry approximation of his home? That? That is super weird. What's weirder is that he can see Lup there, a younger version of herself, getting bandaged up by his mother and he instinctively knows exactly what is happening.

This is his life.

This is his memory.

But from the other side.

He remembered coming home with the bandage on his leg, having to be carried by his father since he was told to take it easy. He remembered getting the message from someone while he was at the healer's even. He remembered the cookies that were waiting for him when he got back.

And now?

He remembers sharing them with Lup.

He remembers Lup.

He remembers everything.

Taako jolts as soon as the memory ends, gripping his head, eyes wide in shock. A hundred years of memories, a hundred more before that, all pouring into his head at once. It's a splitting headache and the feeling of his heart rending in two over and over as he realizes that the empty feeling he's always had in there, the missing piece of himself that he covered over with thorns and goofs and aloofness, it was here.

She was here.

And she'd been stolen from him. The only person who ever stuck around, the only safety he'd ever known. They'd been outcasts after his parents-- their parents died, but he'd never been alone. He'd had Lup. How could he forget Lup? How could he forget his sister?

His eyes dart up as the kitchen resolves itself into the Starblaster. The death count board, the names, the familiar and yet alien design of this place that had been his home for...gods, a century. Then he flicks his gaze over to Lup and his ears pin back against his head like he's been shot through the heart. Which, technically, he very much feels like he has.

Back soon had been a lie.]

....Lulu? What... just? Happened...?

[keythatconnects]

[Sora finds the lived in quality of the room extremely comforting and he takes a look around before going to where Lup is.]

Hiya. [He says rather cheerfully.] Uh... do you know where we are?

[necromanswers]

[Lup turns towards him, offering up a small smile and a wave.]

Heya... I think we're in dreamworld, buddy. I'm as surprised as you are about it.

[She's not too bothered about it, though this is awfully weird. She belongs here though, so it's fine. Probably.]

[keythatconnects]

Oh, like the Sleeping Worlds? Okay.

So... uh... why am I here?

[woodcarving]

[Magnus stops suddenly because he remembers this place, but not quite like this, but it's definitely like this. He'd fought on the deck, had clung to Taako and Merle to keep from being pushed off the edge, from-- and he'd spent how many hours here, poring over maps and...

His face lights up when he sees Lup at the stove. He surges right past the table, past the robe on the chair, past the board with the death counts and goes right to a small cabinet.]

My hard candies!

[-- and is immediately disappointed.]

Awww, darn it. [He looks at Lup, then at the table, and then back at Lup.] I'm having a sorta... nagging feeling this isn't real, but I can't tell if it's a dream or a memory.

[necromanswers]

[Lup snorts at his reaction, the noise dissolving swiftly into a real laugh. She doubles over, clutching at the counter to stay upright. Of all the things she thought she might ever see here, that wasn't on the list, though in retrospect it certainly should have been.

Ahh, but she's glad it's him. It's stressful, having other people invade this place, but she likes not being alone in her thoughts as well.

It takes a moment, but she straightens up and wipes at an eye, grinning over at Magnus.]

Didn't you run out of those things in cycle 12 or something? And by then they were just this big sticky lump melting onto the wood...

[woodcarving]

[He hasn't heard Lup really laugh like that in a while, and he can't help the crooked smile that creeps onto his face. It's a beautiful laugh. They were all deprived of that when she left. It's... weird, remembering when he didn't remember before, but he's slowly easing himself back into it. In this place, it's a start.]

Listen-- listen, Lup. Almost a hundred different worlds and not a single one had the right kind of butterscotch. Do you-- do you realize how important that is? It's butterscotch. [He is such a little kid sometimes. A... six foot tall little kid who is laughing a bit himself.]

And... okay, I'm not proud of this, but I ate them even when they were weird and chewy. Not my finest moment but sometimes it's... you know, midnight, and you're really sad because you love dogs and you wonder if you'd ever see a dog again, and then you eat your feelings.

[spellsteal]

[Belthazar almost doesn't realize he's stepped into someone else's kitchen, but a cursory glance tells him otherwise. He's quiet for a long moment as he takes in the state of things-- the window with the stars outside, the repaired appliances and decor, the death board. That's where Belthazar gets stuck for a while, just staring at all these tally marks and fervently hoping they mean a different sort of death than the one presented.

He glances at the dark hallway and notes how foreboding it is. Deciding not to pry for the moment, he comes up beside Lup instead.]

Um... do you need help with anything?

[necromanswers]

[She leans in, giving him a little bump with her elbow.]

Hey, sure. Step one is to stop looking so nervous, though!

[Now that he's up close, he might notice that she doesn't appear to be making... anything, not really. It looks more like there's just a spiraling galaxy of space in the mixing bowl she's holding.]

[spellsteal]

[He makes a soft noise of surprise as he's elbowed, but it's such a friendly gesture that he just feels... strange, and familiar, and kind of comfortable. And then he realizes it's because she's a sister. He hasn't like, actually asked Taako about it or anything, but it was pretty obvious after he met both of them.]

R-right, sorry.

[... What is that supposed to be? He stares quizzically at the bowl.]

I think you stirred your icing too long.

[deathcouture]

[ When Kravitz appears here, a lot of things catch his eye all at once - the window to the outside, all of the items that almost demand to be touched, and of course Lup herself, apparently making something. But that chalkboard? Oh, you can bet that grabs his attention and holds it. He walks over to it for a closer look, eyes narrowed... and then he snorts, a lopsided smile tugging at the corner of his lips. ]

Of course.

[ He shakes his head, and then he looks over to Lup. ]

Not surprised to find you in the middle of cooking something even in dreams - or... whatever this is.

[necromanswers]

[She lifts her spoon into a mock-salute at him, lips quirking into a grin.]

Yeah, who even knows. Taako'd probably be mad, though- stealing his shtick even more than usual!

[She offers no apology for the death board, though she'd of course noticed him noticing it. Half of those are deaths he'd been well aware of back at the lab, anyway. A few more should be no surprise to him.]

[miraclewhip]

[ The place feels more- home-ish than the fleet does. Certainly more than the fucking Marsiva. It's simultaneously more comfortable and also super fucking weird and overly personal. His eyes scan over the chalkboard of-

-Kill counts. That has to mean kill counts, right? Just a weird way of wording it. Fucked up thing to put on a chalkboard, but- you know. Respect to whoever fuckin Highchurch is, assuming they all deserved that shit. ]

The fuck.

[ And, naturally, he's reaching for the alcohol. Because this place smells like a home, and if he's apparently randomly breaking into someone's house anyway, he may as well be drunk for it. ]

[shroudedsecrets]

[ Quite a lot to take in, in this space. Hard not to recognize it immediately as being something integral to Lup, from the feel of the place to the look of it, the recollection of a story. So much to catch the eye, catch the attention. Not quite her usual way of digging through another person's mind, having it be more visual, a puzzle to solve.

Haggar's attention couldn't help but be drawn to that darkened door, the concealed objects within feeling like a siren's call to her usual nature, but... Lup herself had somehow earned her consideration to resist such a temptation, for the time being. Then again, it was like being at that tree again. Curious to wonder what might have gotten left out of that story. Her gaze lingers, for a long moment.

Finally, she approaches the mixing Lup, trying to think of a greeting -- because she does so well at those, but before she can, her fingers lightly brush against the counter, and that impulse again, stronger, as she notices the cookie jar just within reach. ]

... It must say something that even your dreams... are trying to bribe me with cookies.

[ Hi Lup. ]

[necromanswers]

[Lup laughs, freely, without hesitation. It's much easier to laugh here, somehow. Restraint in one's own soul just seems silly.

Hi, Haggar.]

No one's forcing your hand, you know! Don't put this on me.

[She doesn't really get the compelling nature of this place- it's just a part of who she is. If people want to poke around, whatever, that's fine. Apparently a bunch of shit's already been broadcast through the whole planer system (thanks for that, Fisher, bud) so what does it matter if it happens in this place, too? She has very few regrets.

At least, not here.]

[twosidedsword]

[Shin-ah is still learning to read so he really only recognizes Lup's name. It also means that the rest of it doesn't mean much to him either. But he still looks at it even as he looks around. At all the stuff in this room.

It's like...a busy home. At least, what he thinks would be a home. His only real experience with that has been living on the road. So to have this? It's all rather new to him. And yet there's something about this that just tells him there are people who live here together. Maybe even happily? He's not certain.

Seeing Lup, he starts to go her direction until he notices the back room. Instinct is what kicks in now and he goes to face that room. Likely to protect her from whatever rests there.

That's what makes the most sense to him as he goes to step through the door...]

[necromanswers]

[The room beyond the curtains isn't nearly so domestic. There are no decorations, no furniture, no windows or doors. Every wall is draped in that same black fabric, soft and pliant but impassable. Any attempt to go beyond it is futile. The atmosphere of this place is also... oppressive, steeped in negative emotions: there's fear, there's anger, there's loneliness.

There's so much loneliness here.

no one comes here

no one finds me

There's a set of objects scattered in the room seemingly at random, sprawled haphazardly on the floor
-an intricately decorated umbrella
-a silver gauntlet with fiery accents
-a human skull
-a folded paper note, sealed in wax with a lipstick mark above it
-a little copper bell

And in the center of the room is Lup again... or a being that could be Lup, anyway. Her flesh, features, and casual clothing are all gone, leaving a spectral figure in a flowing red robe hovering a few inches above the ground. Skeletal hands are visible below the sleeves, and eerie, glowing red eyes peer out of the shadow of her hood. When she speaks, her voice has an echoing quality to it, as befitting the ghostly body it's coming from.]

...I did kind of warn you.

[rebuildyourruins]

[This is such a homely space, it's difficult not to be put at ease by it. It's lived in and loved; Thor can tell that much. He notices Lup immediately at the counter only she looks busy, so he decides to look around a bit first. He's not one to get in the way of cooking, not with either of the elves.

The robe draws his attention first, fond as he is of the colour red. He reaches out to pick it up, wondering at the style of it.]

[necromanswers]

[The robe is soft and pliant, form-fitted, and it looks surprisingly easy to move in. Over the breast is a patch with a set of coloured circles around the letters "IPRE".

And as he holds it up, a memory suddenly overwhelms his mind--]

------------

She comes home to a scrappy, one-room, one-bed apartment, tired from a long day's work, anxious of what she'll find here. Today's supposed to be the day. Today is when they'll know, after months of waiting. The mail is on the floor and she scoops it up, flipping through. It's mostly notices for funds owed- to the alchemist, the armory, the supplier. Everything they'd scraped together on lien so they could perform their practical exam, with the promise of payment (and perhaps a Charm spell or two to get the paperwork signed) was now due. They were fucked if-

-if the IPRE letters weren't there. Which. They were. Emblazoned across the wax-sealed envelopes, plain as day. "The Institute of Planer Research and Exploration". One for her, one for Taako. She does not open them, not even her own. She sits down on the bed with them, and she waits quietly, fingers twisting together, stress permeating the whole room.

what if we didn't get in?

what if we fucked it up?

what if one of us got in and the other-

She replays the exam in her mind again, over and over, searching for any errors she could have made that would result in them denying her entry. She hadn't. She couldn't have. And Taako boasted that he'd done it perfectly as well, but he'd have done that anyway, even if he'd bungled it up. He wanted her to get in as much as she wanted him to.

fuck

fuck

we'll have to skip town again, we'll have to start over

This paranoia feeds her thoughts until the door opens and Taako joins her, bitching about work or some other nonsense until he catches sight of her expression, and the envelope in her hands. He freezes. Wordlessly she holds it up to him as he joins her on the bed. Silence lies thick like a blanket between them both, until finally Lup says, "Together, or not at all."

"Together, or not at all," is his echo, and as one they tear open the envelopes and draw out the letters to read the contents within. Lup's eyes scan the text until she finds the word she desperately needed to feel safe again. She looks up at the same time he does, frozen in shock for a moment. 3...2...1....

"Accepted!!" they shout at the same time, turning their letters towards one another- identical, save for the name attached. Taako lifts his hand for a high-five but she just lunges right at him, tackling him down against the bed, giggling wildly, her legs kicking as he laughingly protests. She knows he's full of shit- he's as happy as she is.

Accepted. Accepted. With full fucking scholarship. Their lives were going to change forever. Their lives were going to be amazing.