Macbeth (sleepnomore) wrote in crownplazaic, @ 2021-09-14 13:12:00 |
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With how the dreams had worked few noticed one glaring difference from a more typical dream might work. Sure, the shared nature of them had been obvious, but Dan had not only experienced a different life in an different universe but knew of or interacted with people who were in the hotel. Ones he didn't even know were from the same universe. It wasn't just a realistic shared dream, it was a real experience of another version of themselves. For all it was, Dan handled it rather well. Not having to survive alcoholism over and over had been a relief. Sitting at a table in the corner of the dining room, Dan sipped his coffee and stared out the window. With the recent wave of people sent away, the entire space felt quieter. He wondered if this was what Abra felt when a large group had been sent to the beach hotel. Just a subtle quiet and touches of morose from those that had lost friends or loved ones as if they had died in some manner. He supposed they did in the way the people left behind knew them. Should the Losers or Abra be sent home, Dan knew he would feel that pang of loss as well, if for nothing more than he had gotten used to having friends that understood his world in some level. And, of course, Richie's ridiculousness in his teasing flirtation that Dan never knew how to respond to. --- Adrienne hadn’t felt the need to share with the masses her experience of the dreamscape nor publicly lament the losses of those who were swept away by another clearing of the hotel. She’s only been around a few months, compared to some of the longer stay residents, but by now she’s picked up on the fact that this happens periodically. People trickle in, people trickle out. Sometimes the groupings are larger than other times. It was no real loss to her personally since she’s yet to lose anyone she would consider close to her. She tended to keep herself at a distance, being very selective about who she might occasionally engage with, but it was out of some self-protective stance against emotional turmoil each time someone might be taken away. It was simply because she cared very little about the other inhabitants of the Crown Plaza on the whole. She attended Lois’ book club because she enjoyed reading for pleasure and there was always wine to be had. She was intrigued by Dan because he understood the power and burden of psychic abilities, though he called it Shine in his world. It was nothing personal against her fellow lost souls in the hotel. Even back home, Adrienne was not exceptionally close to anyone in particular. Not even her blood family. Arguably it was growing up a Frost that helped shape her this way. She learned to see the world and people around her as in relation to her and how they might benefit or detract. That level of emotional cutthroatness made her a ruthless, and therefore exceptional, businesswoman; it did not lend itself to maintaining meaningful long-term relationships of any kind. Stepping out of her (currently private) room, merely to stretch her legs and for a change of scenery rather than desire for socialization, Adrienne walked around somewhat aimlessly until she passed the dining room. She might not have stopped short if she hadn’t noticed Dan sitting in there. Despite her general lack of interest in other people, she had to admit Dan intrigued her. Or rather, his powers intrigued her. From the doorway of the dining room where she stood, he appeared lost in thought, as he sipped his coffee and stared out the window. She had misstepped with him previously, her curiosity and eagerness over his Shine getting the better of her. She would have to take a different approach. “Penny for your thoughts?” --- Dan gave Adrienne a soft smile in greeting. He trusted that she wouldn't pull the same trick twice, but he still put up better shields when she approached. If she tried to enter his mind again she would find herself amidst locked doors in an ever repeating hallway. Similar to what he had done in the dream universe when she approached him as the White Queen right before Pepper as a SHIELD agent had. "Enjoying the quiet mostly," he replied. "The ghosts find themselves more talkative the less people, but it's nice not to have that push of minds." He shrugged. "I was also thinking of your universe. If I'm honest. It was an interesting experience." Dan gestured for her to sit down with him. --- He was strong. She knew that from the glimpse she managed to sneak when she grabbed for his hand during their last encounter. She got even more of a taste of his power when she tried to penetrate his mind in the dream they shared. A dream in which she was the White Queen, not simply as a ruse to steal funds from the London branch of the Hellfire Club. She was the White Queen of New York, in her sister’s stead, and all other doors were open to her; benefits of being in the Inner Circle. But not Dan’s mind. Those doors remained resolutely shut, which of course only made her all the more curious. “Really? You found it interesting?” Adrienne approached, not with the predatory prowl of a large hunting cat, the way she did in the dream, when she came calling to recruit. Not the way she did in life, standing at the helm of Meridian Enterprises or Frost Technologies. Instead, she embodied the unassuming movements of a meeker woman, albeit still one used to a certain degree of affluence and fine taste. “I’m assuming you mean for reasons other than the fact that you’ve now seen me in lingerie.” That was the uniform of the Queens of the Hellfire Club, after all. Adrienne didn’t mind showing a little skin. Had once worn the form-fitting suit with its sweeping cape and headdress in all its ostentatiousness befitting the title she took on. However, she didn’t have Emma’s boldness when it came to her penchant for skimpy outfits better suited for the privacy of a boudoir or the stage at a gentlemen's club. She gave a little smirk that could be read as offered up in self-deprecating humor. “What do you remember?” --- His eyes adverted at the mention of her in little more than lingerie. Dan had no overt sex drive, though he recognized beauty as an aesthetic and personality as a charm. The dream version of him might have had more ease with it all because that version did not have to push down or cover up his abilities like Dan had in his actual life. His own shy mannerism came from lessons learned the hardest way. "All of it in great detail," he admitted. "Not just shared moments either." A humor hit his gaze. "I'm sorry I don't have a glass of rosé for you this time." --- Dan’s shyness pulled Adrienne in further, both in dream and reality. Like a shark scenting blood in the water, it made her want to seek out and strike. Except she knew the direct route of a head-on would only shut her out. The Dan in their dreams was somewhat more receptive to seduction, but even then he turned her and the Hellfire Club down. Instead, she would have to lie in wait, like a poisonous flower waiting to bloom. Adrienne smiled at his remembrance of that detail. “I’m sure we’ll have other opportunities to share a drink.” The Crown Plaza’s liquor cache was impressively vast and endless like a cornucopia of plenty. “You turned down the Hellfire Club. You really aren’t a joiner.” --- "This is as close as I get to sharing drinks. I'm a recovering alcoholic," he said toward his coffee. It was a miracle really that he hasn't replaced one addiction with another as so many do. He worked hard for his sobriety as he had already bore witness to how it could end, both in his father and himself for however long he had try to hide from his powers behind liquor. Dan nodded. "I turned down SHIELD as well," he chuckled softly. "Both groups had sent the best." He didn't see himself as worth it. Dan only had the heroic instinct when pushed to it, when people were directly in trouble. He wasn't perfect by any means, in reality, he was a bit of a coward before Abra. His dream self had not had that quality, but other reasons to want a quiet life working in the hospice. --- “I remember,” said Adrienne, of their last exchange, when she took a peek without permission. She could still taste the Jack Daniels on her tongue from the swirl of sensory input that came with the uninvited touch. She knew that was Dan because her own tastes usually ran to wines and fancy cocktails that usually consisted of vodka, gin, or Prosecco. She didn’t know whether her own father ever drank to excess, since Winston Frost’s world was one where drinks with long business lunches and taking clients to dinner laden with expensive bottles of alcohol was fairly commonplace. In that kind of environment, it was only ever seen as ‘social drinking’. But addiction ran in families as strongly as the mutant gene and she knew her brother Christian was thrown into rehab. She knew her husband Steven was prone to drunken jealous rages. “It seems their best wasn’t good enough.” Although she spoke of it lightly, it was telling that even something as inconsequential as what occurred in a dream about alternate lives lived bothered her. All Adrienne could take away from it was that she failed at getting results. “What was S.H.I.E.L.D.’s pitch?” —— There was a subtle shift of discomfort at the casual reminder of her invasion. He didn't have discomfort over her knowing he was an alcoholic, more the way she learned it. "I'm difficult to sell a new life to and when I already knew what you were going to do and say, I had time to prepare." Seeing the future there was more concise than his own world, where not everything was so obvious in the details. Though, he supposed if he was as open as he was in the dream he could do even more than what he already knew he could. "Funny enough, their pitch was SHIELD agent, Pepper, in a very form fitting combat body suit," he blushed at the thought. The blush was partially as he didn't really know how to respond to even teasing, let alone sexual advances, and partially because Pepper was his roommate. The entire shared dream was a little more awkward because of their actions within it. --- S.H.I.E.L.D. was just one among many government agency that dealt with superhero teams and supervillain threats that existed in her world. So many abbreviations, so little time. Particularly when one had a company to run. However, Adrienne was aware of them. Just like she was aware of her sister Emma’s involvement with various bands of mutants, though it was never quite consistent which side she stayed on. Bold little Emma, always looking out for #1. Typical Frost. Even though Adrienne herself wouldn’t see it come to fruition, given her untimely death, she became aware through her time here at Crown Plaza that Emma eventually became far more intimately connected with mutant youngsters under the wing of that Charles Xavier. Instead of Generation X and the Massachusetts Academy in Snow Valley, Massachusetts, it was Xavier’s school in Westchester, New York. And his X-Men, in all their various iterations. One of these days, Adrienne would have to venture out of the comfortable confines of her room to dig for more details. Adrienne didn’t know Pepper well, but she’s aware of her in passing, through messages over the network. Another fiery redhead. Red was the new blonde. She arched an amused brow at the telltale blush. “Did we succumb to Pepper’s tactics, despite turning down the pitched offer?” —- Dan cleared his throat. "A lot happened, but I still did not want to join just one of many teams in your world trying to vie for power." His world, in general, beyond those who could see or lived in the shadows was relatively tame compared to the extensive politics of her world. He could be open with his powers there, had to be, there were a lot of people watching always from different angles, but he had been literally forced to play their games. Games which he did not like nor appreciate. Shaking his head, Dan offered a soft smile. "But, how are you doing?" --- Adrienne smirked. “Good. I was prepared to be offended.” At the question, the mutant woman heaved a small but slightly dramatic sigh. “Fine, for the most part. All this upset over people leaving the hotel. You would have thought most of them were used to it by now.” This was a selfish perspective, she knew. She had the luxury of being mildly annoyed over the complaints because she didn’t have anyone to lose. She was always looking out for number one: herself. As long as she wasn’t one of the ones being sent home, she was content. Forcing herself to take on a more understanding lens, she offered Dan a sympathetic expression. “What about you? Did you lose anyone?” --- Another blush was spared for the comment. He didn't entirely think about sex nor that others might find him attractive. It felt weird really. The change of expression to sympathetic felt slightly off on her face as if it was not used to it. Dan shook his head. "I would be disappointed if those from my world were sent home, but it's not in me to be sorrowful over loss," he stated softly. "I deal with dead people easier than the living so my views are a bit skewed." He supposed that was why he had been fine coming into the hotel. Something he hadn't seen coming even in the briefest glimpses or in his dreams was a nice thing. --- “Maybe that’s why we’re getting along,” said Adrienne. “Technically, I’m a dead person.” Not because she was a ghost or one of the undead - like a vampire or zombie or anything like that - but because she was never meant to be living again. She thought again of both what Dan willingly shared with her in words and the glimpses of his past life she obtained when she grabbed his hands. He was used to haunted hotels and their restless spirits. All things considered, this place’s ghostly inhabitants didn’t even bother them that much. Not like the spirits of the Overlook. “Who else is from your world? Other than your niece Abra with the powerful Shine.” --- "You may have been dead when you came here, but it's not the same as the dead I chat with," he laughed. "You are very much alive here." Dan gave her a look at the unnecessary power descriptor, but then, she had a set way of looking at things for a reason. "Richie, Eddie, Bev, and Mike are also from my world. The first three have a bit of shine and Mike is a ghost." One would think Dan would get along better with Mike but the man being an alcoholic made it difficult for Dan to interact with him. He didn't judge him in any way for it, it was his own will power on the addiction he had to curb. --- “I don’t remember anything from after I died, before I came here,” she said conversationally. “I almost wish I did.” That would answer certain philosophical and theological questions. “It’s not even clear to me how much time really passed in between.” She supposed that didn’t matter anymore. Adrienne mentally made a note of the names of others with Shine that Dan listed off. A bit of Shine was not the same as Dan’s or Abra’s, but it was worth knowing for comparison’s purposes. Especially next to what she understood of mutant abilities. “How does that work exactly? Does everyone who has Shine do something uniquely different or can they all do what you do, just to a lesser degree?” --- "In my world, some souls are trapped behind in the in between, so I try to help people who are dying understand that there's no pain there and they are better to move on." Dan would have touched her hand but felt it might not work the way he would want it to because of her natural curiosity. "The Shine is unique to everyone but commonly there's a lesser degree of seeing the future somehow and some form of telepathy." Dan was not above explaining his world to others. He might even explain his own powers if asked. The view into her world has honestly gave him a broader view of what he could do, because he didn't rightly know the extent. Anything he thought to do, he could instinctively. --- “That’s… noble.” Adrienne meant it, for once. “Maybe you, or someone like you, helped me and I simply don’t remember.” Or maybe if she didn’t wind up here, she would have become one of those trapped souls that became more cantankerous with time and became a poltergeist. Like in the movie. “Seeing the future, I know that part well.” Telepathy was more in her sister Emma’s bag of tricks. “Can people with the Shine control what they see or when they see?” She had always been rather envious of Emma’s range when it came to her psychic abilities. --- "Not commonly. The future can shift with such little things that most usually get vague information." He, of course, got fully detailed scenes, so much more than vague flashes when he let his abilities go. For his sanity, he held his abilities on a tight leash. Only in her world did he let it go without care. It has been freeing and worrying. Tilting his head to the side, he looked at her as if peaking into her but pulled his ability so he was not invading. Too many times lately he had picked up thoughts he shouldn't have, especially after telling Abra she shouldn't without permission. His brain had merely been on due to stressors in the environment so he had not controlled what he should have, but he still felt bad about it. "Can you see the future also, in your touch?" --+ That was true. The future was ever shifting. They were all now well aware how flexible time and space could apparently be. “I can touch something and know the history of many events concerning it. All of its previous owners, events that took place around the person or object…” She thought of the way she learned about Generation X when she brushed Emma’s purse, that Emma ran a school for mutant children. She thought about the way she could feel her husband’s death again when she retrieved the katana that took his life. “And yes, the possible future of it, too.” Adrienne saw the way he studied her. Emma used to get that look on her face. Except with her sister, Adrienne was one of the few people naturally safe from her prying mind. She wouldn’t want Emma in her head, but like with everyone else, she was fascinated by her powers. She wondered what it would feel like not only wielding it but also on the receiving end of it. She wondered if it was something she could feel. She couldn’t feel Dan right now, but that could just be because the man seemed too polite to try and invade her mind without permission, after he took such exception to the way she took from him last time. --- "Do you control when it happens or is it all the time?" It was curiosity rather than turning her questions back at her. His voice stayed soft and almost meek when he spoke on abilities. It had been difficult growing up with it in his world; his oh so normal world unless you peeled back the surface. There was a different quality of darkness than her world that had been fascinating to feel. He set his hand forward on the table as if to see if she had learned her lesson or if she would try again. There was already a lot of the future of the hotel that he had begun to pick up and it did not fully make sense to him until it was happening. It was translating images into their intended concepts into words that could be slow. --- “It varies,” said Adrienne. “I’m glad it’s not completely involuntary, so I don’t have to go around wearing gloves all the time or something like that.” She smirked. “Even though it would be very Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast At Tiffany’s.” Most mutant powers presented themselves coinciding with the arrival of puberty. Sometimes there was an earlier jumpstart when there’s trauma. Sometimes the onset was more subtle than others. She remembered back to when Emma was attending the Snow Valley School For Girls, when she would come home with headaches. Emma thought she and the family chauffeur, Bryce, hid her condition, but Adrienne always knew. Then again, she knew a lot of things she wasn’t supposed to know. Adrienne noticed the way he placed his hands on the table. Something about the motion seemed very deliberate. She wondered if he was testing her. As such, she wisely kept her hands to herself, avoiding the temptation. “Would you care for a demonstration?” she asked, arching her brow. --- "I know there's at least one mutant that must do that. I haven't met her yet though." Dan knew that neither him nor Rogue would want to accidentally touch. While Adrienne had gotten a rush from her testing Dan figured someone like Rogue would not enjoy the horror of his life or power quite as much. Dan thought for a second. At least she was asking. "You will find my mind much like what you found in your world," he answered patiently. "But if you would like, I can allow you to demonstrate." In a very controlled setting. Of anything, Dan didn't want to discourage her. There was enough oppression in every world of people with abilities that to cringe away from what was natural for them felt rude. There just needed to be permission asked and given first. Etiquette. --- Adrienne’s offer of a demonstration had honestly been an offer to pick up some inanimate object in the room and tell about its history. A psychic parlor trick of sorts. However, Dan’s mention of his own mind suggested to Adrienne that he was willing to let her in, this time with express permission. She hadn’t dare hope that would be the case, but the lure of feeling the heady rush of power again was too much to pass up. “Alright.” Hand tentatively inching towards Dan’s, she hesitated only a moment longer before stretching her fingertips slightly further and making contact. As soon as she did, she felt it again. The dark swirling vortex sucking her down into its depths before the surround sound, technicolor imagery of memories crashed over her like a tidal wave. She wondered what the memories would show her this time. She’s already seen the shadow of the Overlook, the young boy Danny being chased through the desolate hallways of the hotel, the stupor of years of falling victim to the genetic pull of his alcoholism in the aftermath as he tried to escape the trauma of those childhood experiences and stifle his Shine… --- It was also in testing himself; his AU version of himself had had so much control that he was sure he could if he let himself. Dan had more control than he would admit given his ability to hide his Shine from people who actively sight to drink it in to keep themselves alive forever. So, sure an object might have been easier and safer, and Dan enjoyed safe, but he supposed it was best to do in this moment while he was still going over who he had been in her world. The thing was, Dan saw what she saw because of his gifts. As she swirled down into his mind through her ability his own eyes turned white as he went into the place between astral and memory. --- Again, the heavy taste of the Jack Daniels on her tongue. It wasn’t Adrienne’s own preferred drink by far yet it was unmistakable. She knew it because he knew it. Touching his hand now conjured up old memories. Like the touch of the woman with the dirty blonde hair, who was drunken draped over him at the dingy bar in New Jersey, the waft of cigarette smoke hanging around them both like the trails of visible ghosts. Empty beer bottles littered the countertop, chasing shot after shot. Dan getting into a bar brawl, ending up with swollen eye sockets and aching fists. Hitting the other man over and over again, even after he was down on the ground. Take your medicine. It all seemed so uncharacteristic for Dan. But that’s what the drink does. Waking up naked in bed with that same woman from the bar. The smell of vomit heavy in the air. Knowing they’d fucked on her couch the night before after she got high as a kite. Deenie. Deenie who took all the money he had in his wallet to buy the coke that got her that blazing high. Deenie who reached out from the afterlife later, a rotting ghost. They never find us. And knowing that she and her baby were both dead. It was Adrienne who reeled back this time. The pull of his Shine was too great that she couldn’t bring herself out of it entirely, but it was enough to stop the downward spiral somewhat. “Deenie…” she said softly. —— Dan had learned to confront his flaws in AA. He couldn't run from his mistakes, much like his old friend had told him. There had been many a person before that one that he had fallen into bed with after getting absolutely blasted. For a man with a low sex drive, it always seemed to happen. Alcohol had brought about many mistakes until he got to the small town with support. Pulling psychically at Adrienne to help her back out, he lightened her up by taking her to the small town with its children's train and replica town at center. He didn't show her the memories there, the face of his best friend blurred. It was less about morose or Shane of his death and more in respect to the man. 'The only way to be a good person is to recognize your flaws and try to work to better them,' he said into her mind. 'I honestly didn't remember her name and never went back.' --- The lingering visages of death were horrific. The images were difficult to shake off. When Dan brought her to a little play area for children outside, it was a relief to leave the darkness behind. The sense of familiarity was there, even though it was not familiar to her. She wondered about the blurred faces, but her ability to know those details were being impeded by his psychic influence. There was something he didn’t want her to know. She didn’t push. Adrienne understood from the soothing quality of his voice in her head that he was trying to comfort her. Drag her away from the horrors of death and rot in what she just witnessed. Recognizing her own flaws was not something Adrienne was practiced at doing. It was drilled into her from a very young age that the thing to do was striving to achieve perfection. However, her father did make a habit of pointing out her weaknesses to her, out of the guise so that she could identify these areas that need work so she could cull those weaknesses and turn them around into strengths. “I’m not sure I could ever be a good person,” she admitted as she watched the children scream with glee as they climbed the structure and race one another around. “Not after everything I’ve done•” —- What she had witnessed was not even the worst thing in those subjects that he had ever experienced. Dan was the way he was because he understood how trauma hung to a person for their life and it had always been so much easier dealing with the dead. Dan still held that frightened child inside him. His slumbering mind tried to warn his younger self, projecting back, but it never changed anything. It couldn't; he was his younger self's Tony. "Being a good person is something you choose to do. It is not affected by your past. As long as you recognize that part of you as something that was wrong and needs to change." He stepped up beside her in the mini replica of the town, his hands in his jeans. The children smiled and waved at Dan as they played, able to see him- because he was there- but not Adrienne. "I sometimes drive the train that goes around. Not for money, not for the socializing, but to give back to a community that allowed a shipwreck to stay." While he got strange looks, he never let himself look at her, only the scene. "You're so attracted to the bad things because there's more power behind them, that you're missing all the good things you could pick up with your Shine." Dan knew that was not what her world has, but they were in his mind, his memories, so he used his terms. --- Sometimes Adrienne wondered if her life had been more normal, she might have cared more about starting a family. She didn’t mean not being a mutant. That wasn’t her worry. It was likely for some, where having biological children meant passing on the X-Gene, but that was a legacy that she didn’t hide from. She was more concerned about the human elements. No, it was the fact that she had no idea how to be a parent. She had no good example of it in her own life. Her father was a harsh disciplinarian and her mother was neglectful. Her dynamic with her siblings had been problematic at best. What was more, when she had gotten married, it didn’t take long for her to realize how suitable Steven would be as a father. She was sure he would only perpetuate the same toxic home environment her own father created. Steven and Winston Frost were men cut from the same cloth. No wonder her father approved of the marriage. “Is that it?” asked Adrienne, still watching the children play. “The bad is more powerful?” The rest of what he said rang true, too, though it took longer for her to recognize how well it sat with her. “Do you think that’s what this place could be? The Crown Plaza. A community that allowed a shipwreck to stay?” --- Dan nodded. "It's more powerful because they are stronger memories. It's an adaptation human and human-like made a long time ago. Teaches most to stay away, because they remember it longer." A smirk played lightly on his lips. "You're not supposed to run toward the fire," he teased softly. There was so much he could pick up on the surface about the kind of environment that she came from and who she had been in the dream had not changed that much in that matter. Dan knew better than to have a Knight complex. She knew now. He was no Knight, nor savior, Dan was just trying his best. Trying came with his regression to his quiet personality. The dead were an easy place to hide. The living were complex. She was more complex than she gave herself credit for, so he showed her a little bit of trust to gain more of that; in hopes that her seeking out his power would instead help her break her cycle. "It is a place that allows shipwrecks some peace and a chance." --- The bad stuck with you longer. Like trauma. She supposed that was true. There are some things that feel ingrained now, and she doubted she could ever forget them. “Maybe that’s just it. Homo sapiens evolved to learn not to run towards the fire. To fear the dark. Homo superior,” said Adrienne, using the term her world utilized to classify mutants. “We evolved to become the fire.” Quite literally, in the case of some, as Dan may have seen when he took his dream foray into her universe. She laughed softly, self-deprecatingly, at herself. Some peace and a chance. Maybe this really was that. She was already getting a second chance at life. What she did with that life was up to her. “You seem to have more faith in me than I do, Dan. Why is that?” —— He understood the terms now. They had been embedded in his mind from her world. The world saddened him more than anything because even though they were capable of being out as mutants it was politicized. Humans still hated that which they couldn't control. It made sense that so many groups formed on every side revolving around the subject. In his world, there were horrors beyond imagination so he had to hide, normal humans didn't even know people like him or the horrors existed beyond fictional subjects. "Because, you're a product of your environment. My father was a product of his too." He looked over at her. "Or, maybe, it's because when we go back to our times we're both dead. I'm not from the same timeline as Abra, I don't make it through my fight. But I didn't intend to." Dan looked back out at his friend with his blurred face. "A lot more people die in my version of events." He paused. "Can you control your power to move to my future?" A sparkle of amusement hit his eyes. --- That was true. They were all products of their environments, for better or for worse. In her home reality, it was too late for her. Dan, with all his powers, couldn’t escape death either. But from the sound of it, that was a circumstance of his own choosing, at least to a degree. That was not the case for Adrienne, when Emma shot her twice, point-blank. Adrienne tilted her head curiously, turning to look at him. He wanted her to take control and try to look? Furrowing her brows in concentration, she reached over to touch him to try. This was different for her, being inside someone’s memories like this. Usually, when she touched someone or something, she was able to glimpse their past or potential future, but experiencing them from within the mind like this was a new one. And also new was experiencing a psychic block. It almost felt like how she felt when trying to utilize her powers against her siblings when nothing would happen. Except now, she felt as if she were pushing against a brick wall. “There’s something in the way. Something I can’t see through,” she said, an ounce of frustration evident in her voice. --- "Move around it." The scene had dissolved as she took control. Dan no longer stood beside her. When he had to pull her out of his horrific past, he decided that he'd also teach her a bit about the Shine. The hotel offered the unique blending of world where others could access things from someone else's world. For Adrienne, he would see if that was true. If her abilities released more of it's limitations because the Shine worked differently or if it merely found it's own way amongst it. The heavy, smokey scent of whiskey followed in the path behind her losing its bite if she pushed forward. He released the lock he held around the Overlook, but kept the wintery hedge maze shielded from her touch. --- What he was asking her to do was not within the scope of what Adrienne knew how to do. Then again, evolution came when least expected. Emma couldn’t have anticipated the secondary evolutionary trait of diamond skin. What they were practicing here was a more logical expansion of what Adrienne was capable of. And with Shine, perhaps there were different rules of psychic engagement. Adrienne envisioned sweeping aside the perceived barrier she encountered a moment ago. She matched motion to thought and then it was like sweeping aside a curtain. And then, out of depths of snow and ice, a hotel in the middle of the mountains popped up in front of her. She’s glimpsed it before. The Overlook Hotel. The place of so much fear and death, the setting of Dan’s childhood traumas, it was so under that he kept it under mental lock and key. “Are you sure you want me poking around in there?” —— "This is an exercise of how much of the future you can perceive with your gifts." His smirk could be felt in the energy of his words in her mind. "Is this the future, is the first question you should be asking yourself." It could be hard to tell with his life. It started- practically- and ended with the Overlook, but she had to make sure she was directing it. Dan might have given an excuse to why he encouraged her, but he wasn't entirely sure why he wanted to help her so much. He knew. He knew she wanted to use him as her family used people, as the Hellfire Club used people. He was a source of power to capture. But he still wanted to try to steer her better. Maybe if she had a calm voice that didn't try to put her down all the time she would grow as a person. "You can't poke anywhere I don't want you now. Though. Are you sure you want to poke and in there?" +-- “None of this is real,” said Adrienne. Knowledge is power, but memories couldn’t harm you after the fact. At least not when they’re not her memories. “I’ll poke.” She started up the snow-covered walkway towards the front entrance of the hotel. Right outside the door, before she turned the handle to let herself in, Adrienne paused and turned slowly towards the hedge maze. She couldn’t see anything there, but she sensed something. Something Dan purposely wanted her to steer clear from. As she turned back and reached out to open the door, she found herself with a crowbar in her hands. Adrienne Frost made use of a tool that she has never wielded before in her life, but she managed to pry open the front double doors. The crowbar fell discarded to the lobby floor. “I have to wake it up…” she heard herself mutter. Blinking furiously, she turned to look for Dan. He wasn’t there, but she was standing where he stood. This is your future. You know what happens, but you haven’t been here yet, she said in her mind. —— His memories very much could bite. They were as tangible as the ghosts in the Overlook, dangerous and solid. 'Oh. They're very real. Don't be fooled.' But again, this was kind of an experiment. Her powers might not allow for the solid manifestation or his might be too much and overpower what her psychometry was capable of allowing. They were still in his present, just before he had been taken by the Crowne Plaza. 'Not quite my future, but you're close, a few more turns.' Once she reached the hall to the ballroom, he would have to blur his father's face. He knew his dad was there, stuck forever. He was the only one he had left alone. The only one that didn't chase him in the world beyond the Overlook. --- Adrienne’s psychometric powers had always been about seeing past, present, and future. Sight was a sense, of course, but she only bore witness to events and obtained knowledge with the sensory input she received. She couldn’t affect anything that she saw while she saw it. It wasn’t as if she was actually there. Here and now, with Dan’s memories of the Overlook, she wasn’t so sure that was true. She knew that in the dreams the hotel recently gave them, there was some flexibility and fluidity in what could be done. It was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, in a way that only dreams could make you feel. Crossing the lobby floor and stepping further into the hotel, Adrienne began to hear music. Even though all the lights were off and everything covered in a thick layer of dust, the ghostly sounds called to her. She followed her ears down hallways until she reached a ballroom. The sole source of light, as far as she could currently see. Empty, except the music played on. A lone man, wearing a dark red jacket, stood behind the bar. Like the people at the playground, his face was unsettlingly blurred. Adrienne was starting to get the impression that Dan was purposely hiding certain people from her. She stepped into the ballroom and up to the bar. --- Dan watched the situation unfold, seeing her push into the point of the future- already written, already known. She might not have been able to see his father’s face but he could. It was sad that he had to be stuck there, but it was where he belonged. The hotel had required it of him and while Dan could fight the ghosts that occupied the space, he could not bring himself to take on the hotel to try to let his father pass over to the other side. Looking toward the rest of the timeline Adrienne was pursuing, he shook his head. “I think we should go now. I don’t want you to get hurt or pass out.” He said into her mind. “Your nose is bleeding.” Pulling them both out of his future, it was impressive that their abilities bent and changed to accommodate other worlds while in the hotel. Knowing this would help him teach others at the hotel should they want to learn. --- Hungry, always hungry, for the pull of power. Especially psychic power. It somehow fit her more. And maybe Dan could sense that. Maybe he knows her limits better than she does. Adrienne reached up to touch her fingertips to her nostrils. Sure enough, they came away stained crimson with fresh blood. Until he said something, she hadn’t even noticed it for herself. For one wild second, she had this crazy urge to stick her bloodied fingertips into her mouth. To suck away the red droplets as one might suck on an accidental cut to stop it from bleeding. She could already taste the metallic flavor of it dribbling down the back of her throat from her nosebleed. She’s experienced that before, either from spontaneous nosebleeds from overtaxing her mental capabilities or from a strike to the face, and she usually hated that taste. But now… “Right,” she said, half in a daze, surrendering herself to Dan’s control of the mindspace. He pulled them out and she went willingly. |