driftfleet | dreams in digital

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dreams in digital

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ROOMS BY CHARACTER

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Connor

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Haggar

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Lup

(last updated: 1/21/19)

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[She follows his gaze and nods when she sees what he's indicating, lips quirking into a smile.]

Sure is. The infamous crew of the Starblaster, at your service! ...Well, it's just me right now, but they're here in spirit.

I can see that. [He wanders over to get a closer look at the sign, noting all the numbers with a look like he's considering football scores.] I feel bad for the one with the highest count. It is what it sounds like, is it not?

A record of the number of times we've died? Yeah, that's exactly what it is. That one's kind of outdated now, but it's where we were at about 11 years ago.

[Her eyes linger on Merle's, her smile softening. They hadn't had the greatest parting- not a fight or anything, but she'd been dour and uncooperative more often than not in those last few months. In retrospect, she feels kind of bad about that.]

His was... a calculated risk, you could call it. He walked into something knowing he'd probably die, over and over, trying to get us intel, or maybe even put an end to the apocalypse. It didn't work, but he was a damn hero for trying as long as he did.

[Thor watches Lup for a moment before returning his gaze to the board, thoughtful.]

I can only imagine. To die is a terrible thing, even if you know you will return from it.

[Worse if you don't, of course. He looks back to Lup with a question in his eyes.]

An apocalypse?

Yep. An annual one, if you can believe it. For a hundred years we worked our asses off trying to save just as many worlds. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't! But most years at least one of us died.

[Her nonchalance about it might come across as weird, but to her it's just life, at this point. Becoming a lich probably didn't help her attitude about death and how it works, admittedly.]

[That rings familiar. Lup had said something about having to change worlds every year for a century, caught in a continuing cycle where they would sometimes die. She hadn't said it was for the purpose of preventing an apocalypse, though.]

I believe you said something about that. I did not know the reason for it though.

[Glancing back at the board, he lingers on Taako's name.]

You and Taako both, right?

Right, right, I didn't mention that part. Well, it is a hundred years of history! There's plenty of story to tell.

[She waggles her spoon around the room, gesturing vaguely at the objects decorating the place- not at any one object in particular, but to make a point. He's got one small slice of a very big pie.]

...Yeah, us both. Not that he remembers it.

There is. But I'm sure it's still worth telling.

[Thor wanders away for a moment when Lup gestures around the room, idly glancing at things until he stops in front of the bottle of Grey Goose. When he looks back to her it's with some sympathy.]

I've heard, yeah. It must be tough.

[For both of them.]

Well, yeah, it's not great.

[She shrugs her shoulders, still trying to keep it nonchalant, though the subject of Taako makes it more difficult.]

The hard part is, like... balance. Because there kinda isn't much? I know basically everything there is to know about him, give or take a few juicy deets, but if I try to share the grand story of Lup to 'im he just gets a bunch of shrrkkkkkshrrkkkk crinkletinkles and a headache. Our lives were too aligned for me to fit back in when my spot's been stolen by static.

[Because of the memory creature that ate it all. Thor's brow furrows regardless, because it's still an alarming concept. Especially knowing that even looking Lup in the face mustn't be enough to job Taako's memory of her.]

To think there is a method of erasing a memory so strong that even being told of it afterwards doesn't work... [He shakes his head, drumming his fingers on the counter.] But you're both still here together. That must count for something.

[It's similar to what he had said to Taako, though not so definitive. Lup seems to be working from a more complete base than what the other elf is.]

Gods, don't get me wrong- what we have here is... kind of huge? It's more than either of us have had for a decade. I'm not trying to sound ungrateful, exactly, but that doesn't make it any less bullshit that the situation exists, y'know?

Yeah. [And he means it.] Yeah, I do.

[The situations aren't exactly comparable, but Thor knows how it feels to be in this place with more than what he has at home.]

It can be both blessing and curse.

[He reaches out to pick up the Grey Goose bottle then, out of familiarity more than active idea to see something else.]

[It's good liquor, he'll find, should he give it a swig. If he likes vodka it may very well be the best he's ever tasted. Could be the magic, could be the fact that this place is a dream, could just be how Lup imagines it. Tasted or not, the alcohol carries with it a wave of overwhelming emotions: nostalgia, regret, love, family-

-and a memory.]

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

She's been dreading this part all day; it's been in the back of her mind all along, though she's done her best to suppress it and let Taako's surprises be her focus. He'd done so, so wonderfully. First that amazing breakfast in bed, then the water fight in the park, then the chance to set that shitty DMV ablaze, and now this: her favourite meal, with her favourite person. She'd never had a single doubt in her mind that he'd fail. He'd given her exactly what she'd asked him for, the best day ever. A perfect memory.

Now she owes him the truth.

"We're gonna become liches."

The words are hard to say aloud, and the reaction he gives in return - the one she knew was coming - is why. She can't blame him, because it is scary, even if she trusts the research they've done, trusts the method and the process and the notes and everything. Trusts the memories that the two of them have given her to protect her sanity. The danger is still very real- liches are dangerous, absurdly powerful. Liches are… monsters, in the technical sense. And if this goes wrong they could put the whole mission in jeopardy, ruin everything they've worked towards for eighty-two years.

It's why this day was so, so important.

"I love him, Taako, with all of my heart, but you… I needed a day from you because you are my heart. You know that, right?"

The ease with which he agrees warms her to the core, and she smiles softly as their hands entwine. Taako's half of who she is, her heart and her soul, and she knows she couldn't have chosen a better anchor. Even if he's scared - even if they both are, at least a little - she trusts in this bond they've carefully cultivated together over the last 200 years. She won't ever lose him. He won't ever lose her.

She accepts the bottle from him and downs the first swig without hesitation, glad to have it; with the stress of having to tell him finally eased, she can relax and enjoy the rest of her night with him. She can give Barry the go-ahead, they can retrieve the whale bone and prepare the ritual. They'll be changed, soon, but they won't be different. And long as she has him, as long as she has her other half, she knows she'll be able to hold on to her soul.

It'll be fine.

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

[When the memory ends, the bottle is half-empty. It hadn't lasted long that night.]

[He does drink it, because what else does one do with alcohol? Or maybe it's a compulsion borne of this strange dreaming state. Regardless, by the time he lowers the bottle from his lips his expression has changed, somewhere between pensive and confused. He understood inherently from the memory what a lich is, but isn't able to see a discernible difference in the Lup before him today.

Finally he puts the half-empty bottle back on the counter, staring at the liquid in it for a few moments longer before he looks up at Lup again.]

And after? Did you do this?

[She hesitates at that, just for a moment, just enough for it to be noticeable. And then she smiles over her shoulder at him.]

Yeah, I did. Surprise, right? You can't even tell by looking.

I can't! I assume that means the work was good.

[He can only imagine how something like this could go wrong. Or no - not entirely imagine, as the memory had already held some ideas of how it the task could go awry.]

And you are still this way in the Fleet?

'Fraid so. Contract cannot be nullified, all changes are permanent.

[She taps the side of her nose with a sly grin.]

But it's a secret, okay? So don't go spilling the beans to everyone.

[She tries to sound casual about it, but there's an underlying tone of... urgency, almost pleading.]

I won't. You have my word.

[After all, Thor's just randomly stumbled upon it in Lup's mind, or dream, or whatever this place may be. He hasn't truly earned this secret. He may not be the most adept at keeping them, but he isn't about to tell everyone he knows about this just because he's learned it.

But it does raise another question.]

Does anyone else know?

[It wouldn't be the end of the world if he'd spread it around to some people, but others... yeah, that could end poorly. She wants to be in control of who finds out, else she end up lynched or something. She isn't surprise by his answer, though- Thor's a nice guy, she's seen that much.]

Guys from home, yeah- Magnus and Kravitz, they know. That's about it.

[Taako is pointedly not listed, despite being in the memory, but that at least isn't a new problem.]

[The point comes across clear enough. Thor nods, familiar with Magnus at least. Taako ... obviously can't know about it, if he knows nothing about Lup or their history. What a mess.]

Well - at least there's that.

[He can easily picture how much harder it would be if no one knew. Thor himself was keeping somethings close to his chest that only Natasha knew - and that was only because she was unlucky enough to be from the same point in time as him.]

It's not so bad- not something I get all angsty about. It's actually pretty useful at times! If this body dies, I get a second chance at life, kinda- as much life as one can have as a skeleton ghost, at least. And liches are super powerful. I'm much stronger than I was before I changed.

[It's just not really a thing that everyone would be totally on board for, that's all.]

[Convenient or not, there's still something unsettling about the very idea. Not enough to drive Thor off, no. He's had his own experiences with dying and returning to life. The whole being a spirit part is what sits strangely with him. But it wasn't his decision - it was Lup's.]

And that was the point, wasn't it? Not being stopped by death.

[He thinks he can gather that much, from the memory he just saw and what Lup's told him before.]

Yeah, see? You get it. Not everybody does, at first.

[Reactions had been... varied, back then. They'd both known it had been a huge risk, but the payoff was crucial to the success of their mission. Eventually all of the others came around.]

If anybody wants to kill me, they have to kill me twice. And the second time around's a lot more dangerous. It bought us a lot of extra chances for what we were trying to accomplish. Saved some people, too. I've got nothing to regret.

[Not about the actual change, anyway.]

Yeah, that part makes sense to me at least. I know where you're coming from.

[The rest of it ... he's not sure if he could go that far. Thor knows the taste of desperation, though. He's been drowning in it lately. If he thought doing such a thing would give him a chance at finishing his duty though, he has little doubt. He would take it.

Thor smiles a bit, crossing his arms over his chest.]

It's a first for me though. You hear tales about things like this, but you're the first I've ever known to have done it.

Oh, sure. Most people don't go for it, even if they talk about doing it. It's dangerous- it can go very, very badly if you don't prepare for it ahead of time.

[There'd been so many debates (and straight-up arguments) about it with Barry, for months and months leading up to the day she'd actually told Taako what they were doing. Endless hours of pouring over research materials old and new, hunting for necromantic cults and lairs and even a college, weirdly enough. Secret sessions away from the others because gods, if they knew, they'd never allow it to happen at all.]

Folks get scared off by the whole, if you fuck it up you go on a crazy murder spree and lose your soul, or whatever. An out of control lich isn't a pretty thing. ...Well, they're not pretty in general, what with the whole undead part, but y'know.

dreams in digital

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