NO EXITS

Okay, so. Looks like sometime in the past on Earth. Los Angeles even. Well, could be worse.

Anyone found anything different going on? Or are we just in Maltese Falcon this week?

YELENA BELOVA:

Talk to me. How are you doing?

I feel like compelled honesty is a really good stress test for relationships, right up there with having a baby and moving house and going on one of those reality tv shows like The Amazing Race. Though, personally, I think we'd be great on The Amazing Race, especially since Bucky speaks something like a dozen different languages and I speak, well, Arabic. Bonus: a world tour without Baron Eurotrash constantly around with his smug smirkiness and stupid headtilt and fucking Turkish delight like he's the Queen of Narnia or something.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. Though now I'm a little worried that it's going to be terrible and I'm going to regret saying that. Derleth probably doesn't really care what I say but I've always been a little superstitious and it's not like it runs on the same rules as home anyway.

( filtered to steve rogers - cw for emotions and discussion of racism )

[Bucky and Natasha]
I promise, neither of you can possibly judge me harder than I'm judging myself right now. I was planning to get rid of that thing when I went back to my room, but when I picked it up... I'm not sure what happened but I tasted a few of the crumbs. You know, like absently cleaning up a plate when you've done eating but you're still in the middle of a conversation so you haven't taken the dishes away yet. And then I couldn't really stop myself from finishing it.

Anyway, now I'm apparently afflicted with complete honesty, so I give it nine chances out of ten that this is going to be a complete disaster.

Bucky

You’re still on the network. Does that mean you’re here? Where are you?

Rocket

There's a ping before a quickly redacted message.

What did you do.

To All

So. I remember a life in Empire City, and another life altogether. Is there somebody who will explain all this to me?

[Bucky Barnes]
I dreamed about you last night. Very much a first for me.

Having a weird week already. Strange app appears on my phone, posts about suddenly having different magic, odd little comments about people not remembering things, guy I could have sworn I made up telling a completely mundane lie about getting patched up after a bike crash I definitely didn't attend. I've heard a lot of Louisiana juju but nothing that makes this make sense. Reincarnation, walk-ins, time travel. I'm pretty sure there's a tv show that combines all three.

So I'm thinking how about this time you tell me a story that's less plausible sounding and see how that goes.

It's the perfect night to gorge yourself with Chinese food.

[FRIENDS *]
Roll call.


* for those who remember. you know who you are

Okay okay, if I'm asleep then this is the weirdest dream I've had in a long time. Very nice, brain! You really did a great job this time, now let's wake up!

But in case you're all real, what's going on? Did I die? Is that what happened? All that time I spend doing things to make sure the way I go is really cool and... what, did I space out with headphones in and step in front of a taxi? I die and end up at a frat party. I know I really did some things when I was alive, but I think I'm going to need to talk to the person in charge about how so many of them (so many!) weren't actually my fault.

Are you there, god? It's me, Yelena. I just want to talk.

I'm not about to ask for a group pact or anything, but I just want to say if anything gets beamed into my phone or on a tv -- I'll do my best to avoid looking without permission.

[FILTERED TO BEN REILLY]

Heyyyyyyy.

So.

I found this graphic novel just hanging out by the doors, and I didn't start reading it because I'm pretty sure it's part of how everyone is getting pieces of their life shared around. Which is super creepy.
And I'm trying to not be super creepy by watching anything. But there was this book, and...

I think it's yours.

To celebrate the last day I think I'm going to dump most of my stuff in a box in the valley and take my lion out to find some of those red glowing dinosaurs and see if we can kill any. This should be entertaining. Just debating whether or not to bring the Cap armor. It's a hell of a lot harder to bite through, but it would mean I'd have to go hunt down my body to get it back afterwards and that seems... extremely not worth it.

This Spino seems to have taken a liking to me and thankfully not in a "you'd make a good lunch" way. I probably shouldn't name it, though it does seem to respond to Gilbert so maybe this will make the dino less terrifying?

Private to Bucky & Wanda

How are the two of you doing?

HOLY FUCK

WARNING!: There are giant fucking cats hiding in those big redwood trees that attack by jumping down on you. Flying just puts you closer to them. Good thing I've had a lot of practice dodging things out of the air but usually I don't have to sacrifice most of the fish I'd collected to appease them afterwards.

Alright, somethings I have discovered. Would possibly be the same for the rest of you.

I died. My light beam attracted a large creature. I only know this because as someone had indicated earlier, it felt like losing consciousness and waking up later. And I only know I died for sure because I stumbled upon my own body while trying to get back to wherever I had thought I had come from.

So, yes, I suppose you do die but it's not permanent although you do lose everything including your clothes.

I will be a little more cautious but I'm putting up my light beam again.

Hey so maybe I was eating some betties and they're really good but the dark purrple ones made me tired

I'm going to go find somewhere to take a nap now

Seriously? How am I supposed to live, laugh, love in these conditions?

Just wondering, but what's the rule on birthdays? Like what if someone is about to turn 18? Time passes here, but we're not physically aging if we reset. So...

We're allowed to fudge it?

[BEN REILLY - FILTER UNSENT]

Hey, sorry to bother you, but I just

[JULIA - FILTER UNSENT]

You don't think there's a way to turn off

[STEVIE & CIRI - FILTER UNSENT]

So, I

[DR. STRANGE - FILTER UNSENT]

Can I ask something about ma

[NATASHA ROMANOFF - FILTER UNSENT]

I keep trying to figure out who to

[LOKI, OTHER LOKI, SYLVIE, WANDA - FILTER UNSENT]

This is a bad idea

[Bucky]
Well this sucks. I'm going to need your help with this white boy hair. My leg Are you okay? I saw Lara's post.
[/]

[John Silver]
So. Hi. I don't think you've been here long enough for this level of crazy yet, have you?
[/]

[Lara Croft]
If you... need anything, I have a fair idea of some of the things you might be dreaming about. I studied every file on the Winter Soldier we could find.
[/]

Dibs on the hot tub for reset this week. You all can have it any other week's reset.

Well, let's see, here.

Has anyone heard of the Avengers?

Asking for a friend.

Looks like the first day after reset is going to be Attunement Day from now on with everyone re-syncing to their magic items.

As it turns out, flying with wings is much more delightful than flying by dangling from a friend's magic broom. I only threw up the first time out with the wings! I think I'll miss them most of all next week.

HOLY SHIT, GUYS, WE FUCKING MADE IT OUT

Next time someone asks if you want to go to some old abandoned ruins in the middle of fucking nowhere, say no.

Or say yeah. I mean, we all survived and got some interesting shit. But Jesus fuck, that was.... you know the phrase too close for comfort? That was damn uncomfortable.

Can we blow up Butler Hall to see if it resets to something that's less kooky?

Just kidding. It's better than having a dread monolith.

BUT STILL.

The whole tarot theme is interesting, though. Am I reading too much into how we might be placed in rooms according to the interpretation of the cards?

Who wants to go into the ruins with me and look for some magic shit?


[MALACHI & CARVER]

So I found something interesting. There's a legend about a vampire hero, or anti-hero depending on the source. Apparently about 100 or so years ago Baba Yaga, or a version of her here, pissed him off and he stole her magical mortar and pestle, intending to bury it in the ruins where she'd never find it again. Except he must have done a really good job hiding it down there because he never made it back out.

The relevant part, however, is that he famously had a magic ring that allowed him to walk around during the day. It's part of how he was able to trick her in the legend.

So... let's go find his corpse and loot his shit? If we manage to hang onto any magic items we find this week it means you won't be limited by worlds we visit with a sun.

Everyone doing okay? No one stuck in a situation they need help with?

LOKI:

How's your head after all that booze as a unicorn?

SAM & BUCKY:

How much trouble you in yet?

While most of you are finding glory, treasure, I have an important quest of my own to give a new fellowship of brave, intrepid heroes.

We need alcohol and clothing.

The bar we set up in Dexter Hall has been empty or running on fumes for months now. I don't blame anyone for focusing on their own individual stashes first, but this has been our best opportunity so far to replenish our stock and keep it going for a few months.

Peaslee Theater is where we send newbies who want more than one set of clothing their first week until they can collect some things themselves. The last place I restocked on clothing was Schmigadoon, so lets see if we can find some basics here that are less turn of the century that might work for a wide variety of tastes.

Please let me know if you are interested or able to contribute.

Thank you.

Hi everyone - just wanted to check in and see how you were all doing. Also see if anyone's in an adventuring kind of mood?

I've been listening around, doing some snooping for anything that may be relevant to our timeline research interests - and it seems like the merchants have a lot of info about various doo-dads that pique my curiosity. I don't have exact details but I've heard rumors about something called the Book of Time, basically a whole bunch of chronomancer knowledge and spells we want to get our hands on. If anyone would be up for tracking this book down, I think it'd really help us.

There's also a ring I heard rumblings about too - it's a ring that allows you to store spells in it to use at any point and since breaking the timeloop is going to require a combo of magic and science/tech (or at least that's been my guess, and the path we're currently on) we're going to need helpful supplies like that too.

If you find yourself low on coin to pay for things, come see me. I can make duplicates.

DID SOMEONE STEAL A FUCKING FURNITURE STORE AGAIN? WHY AM I MISSING HALF OF ME?

Seriously, I'm not even five fucking feet tall. And my knives are missing. My fucking guns are missing. My room is different -- oh, that's Sharon.

motherfucking

After last week, yeah, it could be worse, but come the fuck on!

[...] I need help tagging my person.

[Friends]
So my double is fast, like super soldier fast, which makes sense because his wings are fucking attached to him. That answers the question of what's different between us. He was going through the rubble when I went looking for my gear and he'd already found the shield. Left the rest of my stuff alone though, assuming he saw it.

I'm not sure if he got me before Redwing knocked his arm away. I felt a bit of pressure but it was pretty light. He was going for the back of my shoulder, someone want to check?
[/Friends]

[Bucky]
How are you feeling?
[/Bucky]

[Assassins]
Mission complete.

I have the shield too.

Met my other self. He's a jerk. Stay away from him.

He's murderous and mentally unhinged. So please stay away from him.

He's also missing an arm. Don't ask.

[Sam]

So... I have a cool and kind of horrible new trophy?

[Natasha]

I can't tell if he was just unnhinged, but the guy assaulted Orlin and I had to fight him off. Hope I didn't ruin any diplomatic negotiations.

So did we learn anything in all that?

I'm sure plenty have already figured this out, but just as an FYI to the rest, if your plan includes sneaking undetected into your counterpart's sleeping quarters (or anyone's really), you're shit out of luck. They look to be well warded against anyone who isn't the room's owner. You can still be let into the room by its owner, but otherwise no go.

[Ikol]

So what's more fun? Wandering on your own lonesome or playing twenty questions for some interesting information? Spoiler: it's definitely bigger than a breadbox.

So, many of you have expressed reservations and distrust around your other half. They're hard to get a read on, they've obviously been through worse than we have, and most of them look like they weren't in the best shape to begin with based on what I'm reading. Are we in agreement so far?

Most of you weren't here a few months back, but someone stumbled onto a cursed karaoke machine. The whole campus went pop-rock musical for the week. I swear, it was not like Schmigadoon, the musical numbers were better. The point is, people sang what they were feeling. Unlike Schmigadoon, they didn't have the option not to sing, everyone broke down eventually.

My ideas are...

Option One: the most drastic option, we release the karaoke machine for a day or two, hide it somewhere on campus, see what kind of songs the other side ends up singing. Pro: we'll hear everyone sing. Con: we'll hear everyone sing.

Option Two: slightly more subtle, we throw a party with karaoke. I can enchant the stage so only those who volunteer to sing reveal how they're feeling once they step up to sing. Pro: not everyone has to sing. Con: not everyone has to sing and we might miss something.

What do you think?

[good derleth network - filtered to friends & the timeline research crew, whoever is on it]

Alright, so just as a heads up - Loki met my other self, who was here in my office space, and he's. Uh. He's literally a walking infinity stone because he apparently made himself a Tessaract, bonded with the space stone, and thus has the powers of the stone.

For those who don't know what an infinity stone is, they're magical rocks created when the Big Bang happened - there are six and each is tied to a different aspect of the universe (time, space, reality, etc). I'm not sure how he manages to exist as one without burning up but either he's stronger than I thought or Derleth is somehow also sustaining him. Also probably suppressing the effect/the powers somehow too. But no doubt A. he needs help and B. that research lab over there must be chock-full of good stuff.

I'm going to head over to check it out and see what I can gather for the sake of our research but wanted to let you all know first.

[private message to just wanda]

Can you give me some tips or advice on the whole 'there's an infinity stone in me' kinda thing?

Are the animals [...] real?

At least the squirrels are normal.

I've met with the other version of me and Pikachu. They were due for a void week, and are just as surprised as we are that there's a campus similar to theirs.

As you can tell, their campus is a mess. They don't have warding on their rooms. They have ghosts who can just go right in. They have five monoliths, all of which were buildings we have they no longer do, mostly due to the pink kaiju. I've been promised that the kaiju is currently bound so that it can't harm anyone or anything. It seems that they've been bouncing from one horror type universe to another, rather than the ups and downs we've had. They've been at this for five years. They run on a similar type schedule that we do. One week in the void, one week somewhere else. They have their own network.

The big news though:

They say they have figured out a way to keep the monoliths from harming you. A magical badge of sorts. I will leave it up to you whether you want to take advantage of it. If anyone does, I'd like someone to volunteer for our scientists and magicians to take a look at it. If no one volunteers, then I will and have the magicians and scientists look it over.

Be careful. I'm not sure I fully trust the other me yet, but that's something for a very good therapist one day. The other version of me had a few differences in what happened to her, so they're likely not exactly like ourselves, but more like the AU Derleths we've been to.

Think I'll head out and say hello to myself. Again. Start working the pity party.

WIDOWS ASSASSINS (Falcon, Winter Soldier, Kovacs Prime, Rose Wilson):

I'm gonna need eyes on the other campus. Send me everything you can get. Do not be seen.