Not long after arriving in Agrabah

[finalizes]

[The young man - older teenager, depending on definition - that peers into the mirror appears to be located somewhat above it, like it's on the ground and he's leaning forward on his arms to look into it. There's a look of concentration and some doubt about how legit this item is in his expression.]

Everyone hearing this is with the group that walked through the desert, right?

[A pause, inviting confirmation or denial but not lasting long enough to properly answer.]

You don't seem to be Travellers. [A statement.] Neither investigators nor infiltrators. [Not that anyone would know the latter, but... For the sake of being complete.] What is this, then?

[And then, once the structural things are out of the way...]

Also, has anyone seen a small dragon or a human man calling himself Casper?

[ooc: There's also a log intro option, if you prefer that.]

Comments

[71lines]

To answer your questions in order, yes, we're not quite sure, but it's something about saving a bunch of worlds, and no. And I've been paying attention to who comes and who goes in this group.

Casper's an odd name for a dragon. Or maybe just a dragon man.

[finalizes]

Two different people. The dragon is a young girl. Casper only changes into a dog.

[He shifts, half vanishing from the feed, tilts his head.] What do you know, if you're not sure?

[71lines]

Ah, my mistake. Sorry, with all of the weird stuff around, a dragon man just seemed like the next step.

I'm getting this second hand, but apparently a bunch of worlds are being pulled into this one. And that has to be stopped somehow, so it looks like we're the lucky ones volunteered to do it. [Boy, she doesn't sound bitter about that at all.] Anyway, the people who know more are off at this place called Rivendell, so that's where we're headed next.

[finalizes]

So instead of going to worlds, the worlds come to us.

[The principle isn't THAT different, in the end.

But the fact that it's a problem as such is different. And worrying.] Are our worlds getting pulled in, too?

[71lines]

That's the rough idea, I think.

[She shrugs at the question.]

Apparently any world with magic has a chance of being pulled in. Since you're hanging out with dragons and shapeshifters, I'd say your world has a non-zero chance of making an appearance.

[finalizes]

Neither of them is from my world.

[Not that his world lacks shapeshifters. Or magic. And thus, is in fact quite at risk. But neither Saffron nor Casper are from there.]

How about yours?

[71lines]

[She just seems to be making all kinds of wrong assumptions about this guy's friends. Tenten decides to quit while she's behind, at least on that front.]

Also a non-zero chance of appearing, but given the war... Well, I'd hate to see what happens now. Especially considering that not all of my magic is working right.

[finalizes]

[He noticed; a large part of his own abilities vanished, too. Not even just the ones he picked up while Travelling, either. Inconvenient. Crossing the desert as a wind spirit would have been so much easier.]

Is that normal? Magic malfunctioning.

[71lines]

[She rolls her eyes, more frustrated at the world than at him.]

Around here? Yeah. I don't hear too many others complaining, but I know Raistlin's lost some of his power and I'm pretty sure that some of the others aren't at 100%. Kon moves like he thinks nothing can hurt him and yet... So very vulnerable.

Technology fails here, too.

[millenyal_pink]

I'll complain! None of my Gifts work and I'm pissed about it.

[Elle has been waiting for the opportunity to loudly complain about this.]

[71lines]

You turn into a big cat-thing. Doesn't that count as a gift?

[millenyal_pink]

Nah, that's biology. [And magic. But also not? It's complicated.]

Gifts are basically like spells.

[71lines]

Weird. I can't transform without using some ninjutsu which... that one doesn't work here.

It's weird how specific spells are just kind of nullified, but others aren't. Or, well, everything in your case. I can still use sealing jutsus, but they're so toned down that I'm having to be really picky about what I use with them.

[millenyal_pink]

It probably has something to do with all the different magics conflicting with each other. I guess with different kinds of incompatible magic, random shit just gets turned off?

I don't know, I'm just spitballing here.

[71lines]

I'd be more comfortable saying that's right if I knew what the others could actually do. If it's all the same kinds of magic that's getting nullified, then maybe you're on to something.

[millenyal_pink]

Well, some people have gained powers. To me it almost feels like the Wilderland's innate magic is trying to compensate for all the different kind of magic from other worlds by just... throwing things at the wall and seeing what stick. Like it got overwhelmed or overloaded or something.

Like it went "this is too much Magic Nonsense. Let's just jumble it all up, maybe that'll fix it".

[finalizes]

[Laughs, having looked very pleased indeed when Tenten managed that technology doesn't work here, has sat back and listened while the two women were talking.]

If the same things vanish, the same things should also show up.

[He's not going to use the word "pattern", but that is what he means. And with what he's heard he's not sure that whatever causes this is that Weaverish.]

The power that does this could be chaotic.

[millenyal_pink]

My theory is that it's in flux. New worlds are constantly being enmeshed; the foundational rules that govern this reality are constantly shifting. Why wouldn't the effects be different from person to person?

[Elle may be making more than a few leaps in logic, but it does make sense to her. To her it doesn't feel dissimilar to Umbral realms. Even if the actual situation is completely different, there are enough functional similarities that it helps her wrap her mind around it.]

Some people's abilities got limited. Some people don't have their powers. Some people have gained new powers. To me that sounds like a system trying and failing to compensate for elements that it's not able to process.

[They don't even know if there's a 'power', singular or otherwise, behind what's happening. She wishes they had more information about this 'Green'. Are they supposed to have control over this world's native magic, or is it a self-sustaining system.

Or perhaps this world has its own equivalent of Spirits (maybe the Green are Spirits), but Elle hasn't seen any traces of that so far. It's hard to tell which things they've encountered are from other realities and which things aren't.]

What we do know is that different worlds are being drawn to this place, the Wilderlands, and the different incompatible magics are ripping it apart, and the other realities with them.

[finalizes]

[There's a long, thoughtful pause as he works through these explanations. What results isn't complete by any means, but there's the start of an interpretation.]

So there is only destruction and some creation. No petrification.

[71lines]

Basically, I guess?

[She's no expert, though. She needs more information before she can make a solid hypothesis.]

Do you have any, uh. Talents, I guess? That aren't working, I mean?

[finalizes]

Yes.

Anything but the very first abilities I developed doesn't work.

[He can shapeshift into Garou forms - as evidenced by his current human appearance - and has what abilities are directly tied to that, like healing at a much accelerated rate, but that's pretty much were it all begins and ends. No other shapeshifting, no Gifts, no magic. ]

[slowmotionbuscrash]

This isn’t organized enough to have a name, but none of those things sound familiar. Sorry man.

I’ll keep an eye out for anybody named Casper, but if it’s a dragon, you’re on your own asking its name.

[finalizes]

[No name has developed yet? Huh. In his experience, no matter the level of organisation, human-minded people tend to categorise and name just about everything pretty immediately. Which begs the question...]

This has not been happening for long, then? [He's not looking for exact numbers here; he'd despise them anyway. But "long" or "short" would be useful.] How did it start?

[slowmotionbuscrash]

[ Tommy’s been thinking of everything as ‘the camp’ or ‘you guys’, but the latter is just a vocabulary tic because of where he’s from. Getting an accepted universal term in place is likely going to involve another boring meeting passing around a talking talisman - no thanks. ]

I don’t think it’s been two full weeks yet.

[ He tries to run the numbers on his fingers, but the days are blurring. He hadn’t set out making a count right away. ]

It started with everyone getting individually dumped in the woods, same way you did. The whole Green tunnel fall. We all ended up at this fair run by faeries. The steampunk things attacked it.

[finalizes]

[Huh. So... it's like when Synodiporia started, from the things that he's heard. Before the very first game.

Just that this is very distinctly not Liminal Space, and it's also not the people he is used to.

Not that he will ever admit to being able to tell what two weeks are.]

...There was no woods when I arrived. Only sand.

[slowmotionbuscrash]

Yeah, yeah, you’re new. We were wandering through the woods, and now we’re in the desert.

[ New is a better excuse than just stupid. Tommy will catch him up. ]

You didn’t miss anything. Some trolls, a live butchery show that has me almost ready to embrace veganism, and a wishing well that nobody was allowed to use.

[finalizes]

...a live butchery show?

[No, he has no idea what that's even supposed to mean. He HEARS the individual words. He can even parse them and apply meaning. But they just make no sense in connection.]

[slowmotionbuscrash]

Yeah? I don't think it's going to take off as a concept, but I don't know what else to call it when they start turning things into cutlets in the middle of camp.

[ Besides gross and a little too farm-to-table for someone who connects blood and guts to threats and danger. Food comes from supermarkets in an extremely sanitized version of itself. The closest Tommy gets to eating anything that looks like an animal is a rotisserie chicken. ]

[finalizes]

[...no, this is not actually helpful at all. How is this a "show". That just sounds like how humans and their like butcher, and they butcher because...]

The concept is that you take their game apart before eating it.

[slowmotionbuscrash]

The "concept" is that it shouldn't be happening in the middle of camp! It should be somewhere were the rest of us don't have to see and smell it until it's down the plastic wrap and styrofoam phase and YES I know that's not medieval.

[finalizes]

[There's a long, much too direct stare.]

...you're afraid of knowing that meat was a living animal once.

[slowmotionbuscrash]

[ Stare all you like, Tommy will not be shamed about his thoughts. ]

I know it was a living animal once. That's as far as I need my knowledge of it to go. And if you need more reasons, there are people who aren't humanoid here who look a lot more like what we're calling dinner. If it's gross for us, imagine how creeped out they are.

[finalizes]

Humans are the only prey that doesn't know that they're prey.

[No, he's absolutely convinced that this is a you kind of problem.]

Everyone else knows how life works.

[slowmotionbuscrash]

Stop. Are you serious? I’m not human - I’m a mutant, and I’m not prey, but I’m also kinda against calling humans prey in a casual conversation. You might want to take a page from the vampires and bring it down a bit.

There’s a difference between not knowing how life works and building an outhouse with no walls because we all know how life works. Sometimes, you just don’t want to see shit, man.