luministi | ❧ Allow Me to Introduce Myself

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❧ Allow Me to Introduce Myself

[Once the black spots from the flash of light go away, the otherworlders will find themselves in a large room filled with boxes, computer equipment similar to that seen in Lab #4, and a seemingly ancient camera resting to the side of someone fast at work at a computer terminal. If they look behind them, they'll see the air duct grate that most of them had seen before being transported out of it and brought back to proper size. (The others had seen the one leading back into Lab #4.) They'll also see a door with the label "Lab #5" next to the doorjamb, but it won't open if anyone tries to pry it open.

A frustrated noise comes from the person working at the terminal. A black fedora rests atop of the man's head as he furiously enters commands and mutters under his breath, his back to the group of people suddenly in the room with him. Several screens flicker past as he scrolls through various security camera feeds. All pomposity is gone from his rough tone of voice as he growls at the terminal.]

No, no, no! Where have they gone?! [His gaze turns towards a second terminal beside him, the screen simply counting down how long it'll take before a transfer completes--and it's less than an hour. He frowns severely at it--before he becomes aware that there are other people in the room with him. Stiffly, he looks over his shoulder at them, not moving for a second.]

So...that is his game, eh? [Ferran lets out a small chuckle and slowly turns his chair around to face them, one hand moving to tip his hat forward a bit over his smirking face.]

Go on, then. [He finishes swiveling around, crossing one leg over the other as he gestures towards the group.] Do what you will.

[On the computer screen behind him, the words "DISTRACT HIM" appear on-screen for the otherworlders to see.]

Plot Details: Allow Me to Introduce Myself - **Quick-time Endgame Event**

you

Your goals

here

were

couldn't

Objectives!

Objective #1 = Find out what the transfer is and stop it. | Status: Done!
Objective #2 = Find the negatives Nathan spoke of. | Status: Found!
Objective #3 = Find the photos of everyone in the game. | Status: Found!
Objective #4 = Find out more about Ferran | Status: Done in various threads!
Objective #5 = Discover the nature of how the whole process works. | Status: Done!
Objective #6 = Discover "why them?" | Status: Done!

Talking to Ferran
Doing other things to Ferran (and in this one, you do have my permission to do whatever you'd like with/to him so don't worry about asking)
Investigating the room (for these, I'll respond with what you'll find and such. If you want to investigate AND talk to Ferran, you can do so in either spot. I'm flexible~ It's just so people can initially start off doing one or the other. That kind of thing!)
And as always, OOC comments/questions.

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[... An air duct. That explains that strange shape they'd tripped over. How dizzying - she feels rather like Alice in Wonderland. And here is the Queen of Hearts. (Or perhaps the Wizard of Oz?)

Mister Ferran's posture isn't indicating that he's going to fight (short of him hitting a key on the keyboard that could trigger something), so she curbs her instinct to bind their opponent in wind magic. An act of aggression right off the start might make him unwilling to answering her questions.
Of which she has many.

A quick glance around shows that Doctor Resarci is not here. She sadly realizes that she may be too late to help him, so for now she focuses on what she can do: 'distract him'. And honestly, she wants his answers.]

Mister Ferran. Why are you doing this? Why go to such lengths?

[After a couple years observation of this young woman, he most certainly is not surprised when she launches straight into her questions. In a way, he's been prepared to be subjected to them one day himself. This day has come sooner than he planned, but no matter.]

Ahhh, the question of, "Why?". I knew you, of all people, would dive straight into the heart of the matter. I am, however, going to be rude and answer with a question first. Have you ever reached the end of a book and felt it was left unfinished? To be more specific, have you ever read something your ancestors wrote and were left wondering what happened next? That is the question I wished to know the answer to when I found my great-great grandparents notes from their interdimensional studies research. I wished to finish what they started--at first. I still do, and one day, I'll shatter the anthropology world with the results of my studies.

Yet...[He pauses a moment, his eyes drifting over to the second terminal to see how much longer he has.] At the end of the day, I continue to do this because the emotions you all exude with each new test are all so beautiful. They fuel me and make me stronger. The dear little Marshall can feel them too. He's used the power of your emotions to cling to this universe on a number of occasions in the past when his anchor was near-death. That is the nature of who we are in the presence of otherworlders.

[He grins, wondering she is taking this.] It really is no wonder why my people made these studies illegal. They liked it too much so of course they had to outlaw it before they got too carried away. Thankfully, I know my limits.

[Fuu finds herself nodding once slightly- she does have something spring immediately to mind when he asks of things left unfinished. That's a large part of why they'd returned to Cephiro the second time.

Her eyes follow his to the countdown on the terminal. If he's concerned with it she should stop it, but she knows that her computer skills would likely be no match to the technology, never mind if Mister Ferran even let her get that close. (Where was the Doctor when you could really use him and his special talents?)

She shakes her head just as slightly again in amazed disbelief as Mister Ferran outlines his reasoning. The emotions fuel him? She can't help but think that she'd read something like this once before- creatures from science fiction who fed on the wildly varying emotions of humans. Only this is no fictional story. And it sounded more like emotions were close to a drug for his people.

A chill runs up her back- if he had known that Nathan's anchor had been near death at some point, perhaps he was closer to knowing who it could be than she'd thought. Could it have been Doctor Resarci- no, there was the message on the screen that was most likely from Nathan. He, at least, was probably okay.

At least he admitted that he was doing something illegal. She will have no hesitation to restrain him or stop him by force now.

Setting aside all those thoughts, she concentrates on Mister Ferran and breaks her long, silently thoughtful pause.]

I sympathize with your feelings of wanting to finish what was left undone. But doing it in a way that hurts so many people is wrong. [Her tone is coloured by the emotion of personal experience, but she consciously keeps her voice level.] I'm sure another way can be found, if only everyone would be straight-forward in communicating their wishes. What were you trying to find out, Mister Ferran?

My apologies, but for the type of research I am doing, the most extreme and random measures must be taken--and that is without your initial consent. For the purist reactions, you simply cannot know what will happen, so of course I could not simply tell you what to expect. [He says it all rather matter-of-factly.]

So in answer to your question, that is what I wanted and needed to find out. After reading my ancestors notes and finding the one device the government did not take away, I knew I had to push things further. I had to do it slowly, however. You had to believe other humans were doing this to you so I could escalate the severity of the experiments, and I found wonderful allies who had their own needs and pursuits that I could capitalize on. It took me many years of searching several worlds to find Dr. Caligin and the Resarcis.

You wanted to find out how we would react to the unexpected? [She frowns sourly. Hope that's going not as he expected.]

You were very meticulous. And once everything was set up for your experiments, you caught us.

Precisely. You have no idea how powerful and aesthetically pleasing those raw emotions can be to someone like myself. [Unfortunately, he has come to expect that frown, or a frown of some kind.]

In a few words, yes, but I am afraid the process is far more complicated than that. It is not as though I knocked you out, tied you up, and tossed you all into a room in those townhomes.

No... If I'm following you correctly, you didn't do it that way because it would interfere with the results of your research. Having done such a thing would have made for a very different range of emotion than what we had gone through.

But why us? [The question that had been on her mind ever since finding out that they had been selected somehow...]

Oh, now you are only marginally correct. [Ferran actually sounds disappointed.]

Why you? [He crosses his legs, placing folded hands in his lap.] I have searched for many years and have been to countless worlds searching for the right otherworlders. Everyone I have ever selected had a special quality, a certain emotional vulnerability at their very core. Of course, such things would not be as obvious to you or the others, but like I said, I can see and feel them. I studied each and every one of you, getting to know you and seeing what you do in your own environment. When the time came and my own preparations were complete, that is when I found you all again.

I started off small, introducing some of you into the town of Luministi before the others to gauge how well you would do in a new environment. Once you had established your place there, I slowly introduced more, but still kept the sample size to a manageable point. Dr. Caligin and Resarci were running things back then, so I sat back and watched. When Caligin's own people began to revolt against him, I knew I had been right to restrict the number of subjects I gave him.

Along the way, however, I found that some of my initial observations had...disappointed me. Some otherworlders I sent home. They were not giving me the results I had hoped for, and as I had no further need of them, I released them. They remember nothing of their encounters in this world. I made sure of it.

[Fuu's face flushes in embarrassment - she prides herself on being an excellent student, and being told that she is only marginally correct (even on something she'd not known anything about before now), makes her want to find the fully correct answer.

However that thread of thought is set aside for a moment in the face of Mister Ferran's conversation. Her skin prickles at the thought that he had been spying on her - on everyone! - for so long. Perhaps he had even been to Cephiro.

Can he see her emotional vulnerabilities even now? Is he feasting upon her emotions? Perhaps his disappointment was something to play into that? She takes a breath to calm herself.]

So, you set everything up and you have observed our emotions for three years. You now know how we react to a... variety of situations. Why are we still here?

[It rather sounds like his original intention for the research- continuing his ancestor's work- has fallen by the wayside.]

[He can, indeed, see her emotions right now which is mostly why he isn't entirely bothered by this entire encounter. The more he continues to stay calm--or contrary to their emotions--the more he knows he can elicit the kind of responses from them.]

Well, now that is simple: the tests are not done. A thorough examination and study of a people takes years to accomplish. We are still only beginning.

'We'? [Remembering what she heard in the air vent, she frowns and looks at him keenly. Even his 'friend' has fallen at his hand.] Do you have any allies left?

[She doesn't really expect a straight answer to that, but it does make her think- even if they all escape, Mister Ferran has the means with which to do this all over again. They have to stop him. And Mister Nathan and the others are accomplishing exactly that.
She believes in her friends and allies.]

I think that your tests are coming to an end.

[He takes a second to respond, his thin lips pursing for a second.] "We" as you and your friends, and myself. [He is not answering this question directly.]

[His eyes narrow for a moment behind his hat.] Oh yes?

Yes. [She firmly believes it. And belief is power.]

Even if you escape from us, it is only a matter of time. And no matter how you tamper with us and our memories, we will always struggle to be free.

Besides, your research is illegal by your own admission. Why continue? If I may say, it doesn't even seem that a contribution to otherworlder anthropology is your priority any longer.

Afraid not. [But what he is being contrary to, he doesn't elaborate--but suffice it to say that he disagrees with her assertion that he'll be stopped, as well as the fact that his studies aren't anthropological any longer.] And you are wrong again. It will always be my priority, and has been this entire time.

But I would be lying if I didn't do a little something for me every now and then. [He grins.]

[Her cheeks flush again- please stop telling her she's wrong...
But that does remind her of the other thing she got 'only marginally correct'. And when one is wrong, it's best to ask for the right answer. Even though Mister Ferran hasn't been completely forthcoming, he has been fairly open about his motives. Perhaps he figures that he can erase their memories of this event once he has completed what he's about with the computer.
But whatever the reason, it's a good opportunity.

Ignoring that grin she looks at him with a mildly concerned expression.]

Delicate, complicated, self-satisfying research. If I may, Mister Ferran, how is it all accomplished? The method that you bring us here by, the way that you manipulate our memories, it is all incredibly sophisticated by any standard.

[He's silent for a moment, considering her question. In the end, he figures that it won't do any harm since he can make her forget it later.]

Humans have this old superstition, at least they did in more primitive times, about cameras and being photographed. Said a photograph would capture their souls... [He crosses his legs.] Have you ever wondered why they felt that way?

[He reaches out and pats the camera.] Because of this. Not specifically this model, but the principle behind how it works. It does not capture the soul but rather a person's entire essence and physical body. That is why the photographs exist. Those are the anchors for the otherworlders such as yourself. [As are the film negatives, but he keeps that bit to himself.] Tear the picture up, and the person is set free, pulled back to their own world right from the moment the photograph was taken. Naturally, the photographer--myself, in this case--will not be there when they do. The first test subjects were sent back with vague feelings and memories that they had had their souls taken. The same kind of superstition exists in other corners of the universe as well for similar reasons.

Manipulation of your memories and everything else is simple. [He gestures behind him to the computer terminal.] That is my main tool. With it, I can change anything about you. Alter your memories, block parts of it, let you remember everything... And that is only the beginning. I can let you see things that others cannot. Marshal Thanial used a similar device with his helper to aid you in your efforts to escape Caligin, for example. The technology is not limited to people, either. The town you all have called home was put together in a similar fashion. I thought it would be nice for you all if you had some fun and engaging sights to look at and live amongst.

So do you not see? I have your lives at my disposal. Yet when I am done with you, you can go home. I have already let some of your friends go in the past. Until then, you are all mine--and soon, you will not remember having this conversation if I so choose.

[Admittedly, her mind is a little blown at the idea that Ferran and his people are at the root of a superstition that crosses the universe.

It is also deeply unnerving that the man calls the manipulation of their memories a simple thing- he makes it sound as easy as turning up and down the volume on a stereo. And for all she knows, it is.

Her eyes narrow at that emphasis he puts on remember 'everything'... implying that even now, there are things he is holding back in their minds.
She absolutely sees how Mister Ferran has their lives at his disposal. Perhaps literally.]

Although your technology is amazingly advanced, I'm concerned that there is no telling what kind of damage this sort of deep manipulation will have on our minds in the long term. I really would not like to turn into a vegetable.

[Memory manipulation is about that simple, yes... And there is one thing he's holding back, but for reasons of his own--and if he didn't, the whole thing would be blown.]

Oh, rest assured that any lasting damage was worked out centuries ago with the first several iterations of the technology. You are, and always have been, perfectly safe. The only way you will turn into a vegetable is if I make you one myself--and I have no plans to do so. How boring.

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❧ Allow Me to Introduce Myself

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