NO EXITS

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.

Just because I refuse to take anything for granted around here as being fully normal: has anyone else seen the, uh. The dance... movie? With the - all right so I don't think I know your name, dancing man, but I do remember you from the pool party for what I feel are obvious fashion reasons so hello, I'm Vax, and I'd love to know more about this dance and why I'm suddenly able to watch it.

I also want to learn it, since it's a void week and we all need something to do right now. Who's in?

[ KATE, IKOL, AND PERCY ]
What do you say to making an evening out of drinking and stories? We can find somewhere quiet, build a campfire, raid the kitchens to see if there's anything worth toasting over said fire, purloin a bottle of something that nobody's going to miss, and see what comes up. It'll be like camping, only we've got questionably comfortable beds to go to once we're over it.

[ ONLY PERCY ]
Did I tell you I volunteered you for drinks and chatting with those two? Maybe I didn't, last week was a lot. Percival, I volunteered you for drinks and chatting with us. You know them, it's fine, you're welcome!

The changes I made to the pool room a couple weeks ago have stuck, so it looks like Derleth has accepted the spell.

Also, Rita and I collected a bunch of plants and flowers from dino-world, and while I hoped they would be brought to campus, I didn't expect it would happen, but it actually did. So, I'm doing some gardening inside the pool room, replacing the artificial plants I had before with these real ones. Rita, care to help? Also, I'm setting a temperature inside the room that will be conducive to healthy growth, but still comfortable for us to lounge in.

WE'RE BACK IN BUSINESS!

Don't mind me, I'm just going to do a few hundred laps. I've missed you, superspeed.

And don't worry! I'll be paying attention so there'll be no accidental collisions.

When I'm done, though, I'm thinking it's time to break into the last of the New York reserves. There's probably enough frozen hoagie bread to make a few decent approximations of Philly cheesesteaks. We're going to need to stock back up on cheez-whiz whenever the next opportunity rears its head.

FILTER TO STEVIE

Hey, you want to play a game tonight? Maybe steal one of the board games from the library and pull out candy? We can invite people, if you want, but I just figured it'd be nice?

Did you enjoy the camping life last week?

FILTER TO LOKI

We're supposed to do something fun, remember. Is that still in the cards?

Oh my god I never thought I'd be so thrilled to wake up in a room with a tiny bed, no electricity, and a roommate.

[...] Is a nap out of the question? I could use a nap.

I have not yet missed my lightsaber as much as I've missed it this week.

On the bright side, I am realizing that I could enjoy having a pet. I can't imagine I'd want one normally in Delerth, but Aba is proving herself quite handy and a decent companion as well.

[Rey]

How do you feel about cave exploration?

So, first off, it looks like I've made friends with a giant sloth. If anyone wants to leisurely explore without having to worry about death/resurrection, the other animals seem to just leave this buddy alone and it's pretty comfortable to just sit on.

Second, well, probably not the best time or place, but who knows what our next reset will even be like, so just going to toss this out here now. I know there'd been asking about people with mind powers before, but I'm gonna do a repeat ask, but with the more narrow focus of people who are good with memory based mind powers or magic or science. Which flavor really doesn't matter.

Do you think we'll get to keep the dinosaurs that we've bonded with? I came across a beautiful one with a sort of helmet. I almost hid when it saw me, but then it came right up to me and sniffed at the berries in my hand. I gave them a bunch, and it let me ride it. She's so very friendly.

STEVIE UNIVERSE:

Does the gem in your belly itch like this one in our arms?

My sister is gone. We were going to hang out together, I was going to show her my goats. She was going to use her horn to summon Valkyries.

And we never did.

I never got to know her.

I haven't heard anyone mention finding the Derleth campus, so I'm going out on a limb and assuming that we may not find one. And if we do, it may not be in a condition that will sustain us. We should consider that we're going to have to make our own shelter, but I'd like to suggest that we don't do this alone.

It might be easy to make fabric and clothing, weapons, but if we pool our resources, I bet we can build better things to house us all. Something stronger. We can protect each other, make patrols for the creatures so we're not blindly being killed an reset.

I've found an area that seems to relatively safe, compared to the other places I've been traveling here. It's a valley, hidden by trees and hills. There's a lake in the center of it. If we're going by Earth direction, I'd say it's northeast and directly east of the largest frozen mountain I could find. Hopefully that gives you somewhere to go. I think we should all convene here if we can. There is safety in numbers here, and I want us to have our best chance.

This sure was a lovely way to find out that I'm not used to roughing it anymore. I've been spoiled by the amenities of a magic mansion for far too long. I have managed to cobble together a decent shelter at least.

Has anyone made any educated guesses about how large this island is?

[VAX]

Where are you?

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.

Got a very Savage Land vibe going on here.

Never really did like the Savage Land.

Everyone okay? Anyone need help?

IKOL:

Marco?

I can hear a lot of big animals in the area and I've climbed up a tree that's at least six or seven feet in diameter at the base of the trunk. It must be a very old forest. I can't smell anything like gasoline or plastics either, and the canopy's too thick to see the sky properly so I can't tell if the stars are right. The only light nearby seems to be this thing in my wrist that's glowing. I'm not sure if I should try taking it out, it feels very securely embedded. I think there's swamp or bog over to my left but I won't know what direction that is until the sun comes up. There's cleaner water somewhere behind me to the right, too.

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

I'll never look at tabletop gaming the same again. Although I definitely didn't miss sitting around for five minutes while people tried to find the rules on how to grapple. Again.

[Peter Parker]

How's it going? Have you got a handle on the talking thing? How many cats have you rescued from trees?

[Sylvie]

Not that many days left, but I'm sure we could find some people who need help around here still. If you're up for it.

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.

From what I can tell there are several magical items I can create, potentially once a day(? will need more experimenting to figure out exactly), that could be very useful if you're planning to go into the ruins. Mostly armor improvements and a couple of utility items like boots that allow you to fly and bags of holding.

[The Fellowshit Fellowship of the Ring]

So far searching out information on a ring like what Mobius described has given me an equal share of useless answers for every guess that it could be deep in the Ruins. Which, Vax, you will be happy to know moves up to top pick your suggestion that we go somewhere dark, dank, and dangerous.

Take the night and settle whatever you need to settle. Buy what you need to buy. Tomorrow we venture forth.

( Read more... )

[Friends (if you think you are, you are!)]

Everyone good? I would've checked in sooner, but yesterday was, uh... existentially confusing?

[Stevie]

👋 Hanging in there ok?

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.

I'm a cat? I assume this is one of those "unfamiliar new worlds".

...Scott?

Just a few days left. Any means necessary. Go. We're so fucking close.

[IKOL]

The fuck is she?

[ALICE]

Now is the time to do your worst.

I should have told you all earlier when I saw her. I'm so sorry.


[CARVER]

I'm sorry. I should have told you especially. You told me people have let you down before. You've been open about who you are. I didn't want or mean to break your trust. I was just scared to tell anyone. That Stevie was me, about a month before I got here. Once I started transforming, I couldn't stop, like that week when I was a werewolf. I felt like a monster and I became a monster and it was terrifying. I didn't want anyone here to think of me like that. I should have told someone. I should have said something when we first saw her. But everyone on the network kept calling her a thing or a monster. I didn't know what to do. I panicked.

I hope you can forgive me.

Your Peter let me use his phone, so I'm going to try to get to the point fast. I know there's not much reason to trust me. It's not about me. Just hear me out.

Every week for years, we've had to deal with the pink kaiju and no one knew who she was. That can't be fixed. I know that. But I brought her over here. I don't have ideas about how to make sure she doesn't reset with us. I just know she might have a better chance with you in the last stretch.

[[OOC NOTE: This was mod cleared!]]

So good news about those badges: if you were tagged, you are not automatically switching places with your Shitty Derleth counterpart next week.

Bad news about those badges: it's an all or nothing deal and I think a lot of us have already been tagged. If they tag all of us, next week we'll be waking up in Shitty Derleth.

More bad news about the badges: it's a homebrew spell that uses curse magic. I think they mixed magic from a few different worlds. But making it a curse means there's no way to dispell the magic or get rid of the badge before the reset.

Strange has come up with a way to detect if you've been tagged or not. Please see him and make sure you're not tagged. Don't assume. This is too important.

If your counterpart hasn't attempted to tag you yet, it's probably coming. We don't have Butler's wards to hide behind anymore. Protecting the untagged should probably be our biggest priority.

I've checked and I'm untagged. Anyone else?

First things first, if you can check in, please check in. I know there are people who want to hear from you. If you know someone is injured or, let us know here.

Secondly, if you're in good shape, I need help moving things around so we have places to rest tonight. I know it's not what we want to be dealing with, but it'll be dark before we know it. If you're willing and able, I will take all the help I can get.

First objective is to account for our people, get them to medical if need be. Second is to salvage what we can and make space in the classrooms.

ETA: Still working on some things, but do not let anyone give you the magical badge if you can help it. If we have magic users who can tell who is branded and who is not, that would be helpful.

MORE ETA: We need perimeter patrols. Volunteers?

MORE MORE ETA: At 8pm, we'll meet inside Armitage Hall for a meeting.

MAGIC USERS:

Do any of you know about magical tethering abilities?

Oh, that ended up being too easy. I also got some information. My counterpart mentioned a party being planned by the other campus. Something involving karaoke and food. That could be a really good opportunity for us, depending on when it is.

[ERIK]

I was a good girl and did just as you suggested, sir.

Okay, who's tagged themselves? Let me know and I'll cross your name from the list. The results of the census spell for our side:

Malachi Allen Aziraphale Bucky Barnes Sydney Barrett Bill Batson Baymax Kate Bishop Tandy Bowen Sharon Carter Carver Rupert Chatwin Hugh Christian Ciri Caduceus Clay Lara Croft Rey

Orlin Dax Percy de Rolo The Doctor Elsa Fandral Fen Geralt Margo Hanson Alison Hargreeves Steve Harrington Jo Harvelle Eleven Takeshi Kovacs Loki Laufeyson Loki Laufeyson Sylvie Laufeydottir

Erik Lensherr Wanda Maximoff Mobius Laura Moon Matt Murdock Kady Orloff-Diaz Pikachu Peter Parker Alice Quinn Harley Quinn Ben Reilly Rocket Natasha Romanoff Kylo Ren John Silver River Song

Alina Starkov Ava Starr Timothy Stoker Stephen Strange Mad Sweeney Seventh Sister Thor Odinson Richie Tozier Vax'ildan Eliot Waugh Julia Wicker Joseph Wilson Rose Wilson Sam Wilson Sabine Wren Yennefer

[CADUCEUS CLAY + ALICE QUINN]

You're my plan B. What do you need to possess or move anyone that dies or refuses to tag their own?

[LOKI (EACH FILTERED SEPARATELY)]

I need help finding mine. Can't tell if she's avoiding me, but locator spell isn't working.

Has anyone seen my counterpart? I need to complete my mission, but I have not seen another healthcare companion.

They may be hiding it.

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.

[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.

My other self took the badge, and is wearing it.

He was so trusting, and nice, he didn't suspect anything.

I feel just awful.

Maybe that other campus has serious Resident Evil vibes, but they have way more monoliths over there. My senses are going wild. That can't be good. I mean they probably need some help, right? There's no reason to not try to go see if we can help.

Okay, Kaiju is down.

Remember what we talked about. Keep it friendly. The longer they take pity on us, the easier it's going to be to tag all of them. We don't know if we're going to be equally matched or outgunned so lets find out as much as we can about this other Derleth first.

Anyone who doesn't think they can keep their shit together can lay low and go last. Do not fuck this up. It was a one in a million shot finding them so lets make this count.

Questions?

So a few of us have an idea to find out more information about this place. It involves building something called a Tesla Flexion and it will allow us to talk to someone from another timeline for two minutes.

I'm making this announcement because some of you have been here long enough to know that when we try to fuck with Derleth, Derleth gets fucked. When Rick tried to anchor Derleth on Planet Vegas so we could stay somewhere decent, it didn't work, and the next week some of us woke up in the bodies of ourselves from alternate timelines. That time a bunch of people shrank down an IKEA and stole it so we could have furniture? We woke up different heights the following week. It's worth pointing out each consequence has only lasted the week.

The plan might not work, but Derleth might react regardless. This isn't me asking for permission from every single one of you, this is me giving you a heads up. Figuring shit out is going to require risks. I promise I'll try to make this one worth it.


[TEAM TESLA FLEXION*]

I'm ready to do this. Armitage Hall? Tonight at 6?

Caduceus Clay will be in the Tesla Flexion to talk to Rick, posing as his daughter Dahj. The Rick of this timeline was kinder. We think he'll be cooperative in addition to having information we need.

Natasha Romanoff is our interrogation expert. She'll be feeding Caduceus lines through an earpiece and coaching him on what to say.

Alice Quinn and I will be casting the Tesla Flexion.

Kady Orloff-Diaz is providing the battery we'll need for the extra power and can help Alice and I set it up.

Mobius M. Mobius is our timeline expert and will be there to assist in feeding Natasha questions to Caduceus as needed.

Eliot Waugh, Original Loki and Ben Reilly are our additional science and magical timeline/multiverse experts to assist Mobius in case new information comes up. ETA: Also Rocket. He's worked with Rick before. Say hi.

We only have two minutes so we have to make the most of it.


*(OOC: Folks that replied to this open post, or spoken to Julia about the Tesla Flexion were invited to join. Did I miss someone? Please let me know! IC/OOC post coming tomorrow!)