❧ Flashback

[luministimods]

[After getting dug out, Nathan makes his way over to the general store, limping as he walks. He looks quite the sight with cuts, scrapes, and gashes all over his body (the worst of it is on his legs), and his suit is scorched, tattered, and just plain non-existent around his calves. He's even missing a shoe and looks a bit thinner than he was the last time he was there. But for a man who was crushed under so much debris, he doesn't seem in pain or anything; just inconvenienced.

Once he's inside the general store, he walks over to the vid screen, activating it so he can contact everyone's CAT devices and all of the other vidscreens around town. When he speaks, he doesn't sound strained, not like he has in any of his other appearances in the town and spacestation.]

I hope everyone can hear me and none of you were caught in that blast. I'm sorry it even happened, but--[He falls silent, his eyebrows knitting in concern.] There is much I need to tell you now that I'm here.

Please, meet me in the White Rabbit pub in half an hour. All of you. It's time you had some answers.

[The video transmission ends.]


Plot Details: Flashback

That was a close one! But thankfully, Nathan was found! Good job! Not only that, though, but something else was too. This is Nathan's CAT and it revealed a very, very interesting fact to Sophie and Fuu.

Yep, that is indeed the man in black. It's taken him a couple years to finally show himself--or rather, accidentally get recorded.

But you know what? Instead of me just sitting here explaining things, I am going to let Nathan do that for me. No doubt once everyone hears the transmission from him--and when they hear everything Sophie and Fuu have learned--they'll probably have questions. So! What a better way to discuss things than over dinner? The pub is unharmed, and Nathan is starving, and no doubt some people may need a drink or two.

All action and stuff will, again, happen in this entry. I'll make a starting comment with Nathan and we can go from there. This is kind of like a mingle/party post, so if people want private conversations with each other, you can make threads in this entry. In Nathan's thread, everything he says can be overheard, so people can bring things up again to him or threadhop, whichever works best. (Just in case, I would recommend tracking your threads if this does happen.) Also, if your character wants a private conversation with him, definitely say so in the subject heading! (And if your character wants a conversation with Ten or Wash, please say so too.)

What else... Oh yes! Those who lost powers should have them back in full now, and those gained them, well, you're back to normal. Balance is restored and all that. As for the town itself, the townspeople have started to clean things up. Oddly, things haven't been reset yet as they have when odd things happen. By the way, if people want to continue their other threads from the previous entry, you are more than welcome to do so! There just won't be any more searches for Nathan.

This plot will only last a week, so don't waste any time in getting to asking him questions! The sooner you ask, the more you can find out. When a week has passed (so until Tuesday evening), unfortunately, I won't be continuing those threads.

If you have any questions/concerns/etc, I'm making an OOC comment in here so everyone can use that! Or ping me through the usual channels~

Comments

Conversation fun times with Nathan

[luministimods]

[Nathan sits in the back of the pub, facing the front door. He's pulled together some tables and sits at the head of them, a plate with half a sandwich sitting on it and a half-empty pint glass set before him. He looks a lot better than he did earlier; most of the cuts and scrapes have already healed. He's even acquired a new suit.

When he sees people start to enter, he gives them a nod and motions towards the bar.] I don't know if you'll want anything, but the staff are at our disposal right now, so ask them for anything you'd want. You might be here for a while.

I'm--[He looks slightly embarrassed now]--I don't know if any of you found it out there, but I'm missing my CAT. I can still tell you things like I said I would so long ago now, but I have something on there that everyone should see.

[luke_triton]

[Never one to say no to an invitation to food or clues, of course Luke is there with everyone else. He's a little hesitant to approach this guy...but this is how the best gentlemen get their answers!]

I guess just asking for everything you know isn't going to get me very far, is it?

[luministimods]

[Nathan smiles apologetically] I'm afraid not. I wouldn't even know where to begin if we started like that. Maybe pick a spot and we can go from there, Luke.

[luke_triton]

[Then he will listen for a while. And when the chance comes up, he'll raise his first question.]

How exactly do we get home then? What do we have to do?

[wind_of_reason]

[Fuu takes a seat close to Nathan, relieved at how much better he looks than just a half hour ago. She would have offered to use her magic on his wounds, but it seems like it's not necessary (oddly enough).
She would ask about that but there are other, more imminent things to think about right now.

When he asks about his CAT she holds it out to him, her expression guarded behind the smile.]

Miss Sophie and I found it. It was playing a video... If you help us 'piece everything together', perhaps we won't be so quick to hold you accountable as the man in black hopes.

[It's frustrating to think that they apparently have so many of the pieces in their hands already, but haven't seen the big picture yet. And that Nathan's help over all this time might have actually had a part in keeping them here...
She's been lied to and misled too often. To avoid more tragedy, right now she needs to understand Nathan.]

[luministimods]

You did? [His expression goes from surprise to, amazingly, relief] So you saw what I recorded! I was going to show that to people anyway, to show you all who has been behind everything this entire time. You needed to see him--and yes, this is me helping you to piece this together. [As for the accountable bit, he's just not going to acknowledge it. He knows he's not responsible.]

Were you able to see it from the beginning? Did anything happen to you when you saw him?

[wind_of_reason]

[Hey, but she doesn't know Nathan's not responsible yet... Not acknowledging it doesn't make it go away. (A lesson Fuu herself is learning the hard way.)]

[She tilts her head curiously at the last question, glancing over at Sophie before shaking her head.]

We saw it from the beginning, from when the man in black started gloating about us being 'perfect'. But nothing happened to us when we saw him. ...But then, his face was always blocked by that hat.
Should something have happened?

[fortune_sought]

[Sophie has always been one for the direct approach, and she has long since run out of patience for this place and its games. she walks right up to the set of tables and, without sitting, demands:]

Just what is going on here? How do we get home!?

[luministimods]

[Calmly] Sophie, you don't realize how loaded those questions are. You might want to sit down. But I'll start with the easier question. You and Fuu saw the man in the video, right? He's the one who is behind everything. He's been the orchestrator of Caligin's experiments, Resarci's reality TV program, and, unsatisfied with them both, has taken the reins into his own hands, so to speak. He's the one I was trying to hide from, but obviously, I got caught months ago, else I would have been here sooner.

Your way home...is a little more complicated.

[terezi_pyrope]

[Terezi shows up sometime later. She wanted her answers fresh, and early, like an early morning daisy.]

Nathan. Let's start with the easy stuff. Two questions!

Who is the name of the head criminal behind all of this? And who are his accomplices?

[luministimods]

[He leans back in his seat, part of him wondering what she might consider to be hard.] His name is Ferran, and as far as I know, his only other known accomplice is Filippo Resarci.

[desertdaggers]

[Hawk brings a glass of lemonade with him to the table, giving him something to do with his hands once he's sat down. It's interesting that Nathan seems to have recovered so quickly… but he's assuming it could be magic or an ointment, though how or where doesn't seem so obvious.]

The conditions could be better… but I'm glad to see you're in good health. [He shifts a little, bringing his hands together.] What, exactly, is it the man in black hopes for with us?

[luministimods]

[He smiles faintly, taking a sip from his glass.] Thank you, I feel a lot better now.

[Aaaand he sets his glass down.] He...wants you all to stay here forever. You may have noticed that he won't let any of you die. He brings the townspeople back all the time. Those who have died in the explosion today will be back to normal tomorrow. But there is a big difference between you and them.

You're not from this universe. Here, you are special. You and all your friends are subjects of an illegal experiment of an interdimensional level. Your experimental status never ended after Caligin released you--but he isn't the one behind this. The friends and acquaintances you've met and aren't here any longer? Are failed subjects. They didn't pass his requirements, so he let them go. You're just lucky enough to have met them all.

[bonnypiperlad]

[Jamie still looks the same as he did when the explosion occurred. And to see Nathan not looking even more banged up is more than a bit strange to him. So while he's as curious as everyone else about the things Nathan can tell him, he's curious about that too.]

Ye look pretty good for someone who's had an entire building fall on ye. Why is that?

[luministimods]

[He looks a bit sheepish.] Ah...noticed that, huh? I'm...not of this place. This isn't my home dimension. I know that's the case for all of you, but that's especially the case for me.

And I'm not human. I'm a lot more resilient and it takes more than a building crashing on my head to take me out.

[manicurious]

[Ichijou, being the classy guy he is, comes storming into the pub looking dishevelled, loudly demands an entire bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon at the bar, and commences moping.]

I can tell you what happened to your CAT! It was stolen! Do you have any idea how many times I tried to get a hold of you only to be teased in return? I thought that you had died!

pardon the hopping in /o\

[wind_of_reason]

[Mister Ichijou has a very good point!]

That's right! How did you get your CAT back so you could record that video, Mister Nathan?

[luke_triton]

It isn't really his fault someone stole it from him...

[Oh, Ichijou.]

[moveslikestrider]

[Dave hung back to listen to what was being said. He hadn't said anything as each person asked what they wanted. He approaches at last, quietly with his hands in his pockets. It's a serious situation and for once he's not going to treat it as anything else.] Name's Dave. [He starts, his hands around his mug of coffee. This stuff wasn't bad.] So, lay this out for me. What do you think should be our next step? The pieces put together mean something but without a direction to go into we're going to be prodding at shit and hoping we know what we're doing.

Since we're stuck in this until it's over not going to ask about going home. Pretty much heard what you said to the others. Mind showing me this 'man in black' recording, god he sounds like a tool already.

[luministimods]

Honestly Dave? Your next step is finding the materials that are keeping you here and can keep on bringing you all back time and time again.

[He switches on his CAT, a smirk on his face.] You're right. He really is a tool... Here. [And he passes it to him, the recording starts to play.]

[gothelproof]

[Flynn taps his fingers on the arm of his chair, wearing a somewhat cynically baffled expression as he tries to listen in on the various conversations. Honestly, he's not getting a lot of it -- this is all way, way over his head, just like most of Luministi's insanity!

But he's not one to be deterred!

Latching onto a comment from one of the last snatches of conversation, he leans forward to point a purposeful finger at Nathan.]

Anchors. You know, correct me if I'm wrong, but those are for boats. Generally. From my experience, pairing a person with an anchor generally leads to drowning.

[luministimods]

[Nathan laughs a little.] That is true in that sense, Flynn. But anchors for us are...a bit different. To go with the boat metaphor, we are the boats. You, me, the man behind this. You and your friends here are automatically anchored here thanks to the technology used to bring you here in the first place. The man who brought you here, named Ferran, and myself...we're from the same universe, but it isn't this one. So we need to find an anchor here to keep us here. The state of one's anchor affects how well we can interact in this universe, and if one doesn't have one or the anchor is injured or destroyed, it takes a lot of personal energy just to stay here for long.

[worldsapart]

[Xion has been sitting quietly and listening, taking everything in and turning it over in her mind. The next steps they need to take are clear.] So, we need to destroy the film... It might be in the mansion, right? Are there other places you think we should look for it?

[... mm...] And... The townspeople, the ones that have replaced everyone from our first time here... Are they... [Xion's brow knits.] Aren't they people in their own right? How... does all of that work? [She's very conscious of how she's phrasing that. Are they copies? Replicas? How were they made? No. She would hate being talked about like that, so she won't say things like it. But it's what she wants to know.

... there's something else she wants to know, too. But she'll wait. She's asked enough at once for this moment.]

[luministimods]

No, the plans for the lab might be in the mansion--or they might be in Caligin's office where Lab #3 still is. But yes, you'll need to find the film and whatever other photos there are and let me destroy it. Otherwise, you'll kill yourself for good.

The townspeople... [He frowns, trying to decide how to phrase this.] They are only simulations. They're modeled after real people, yes, but what Ferran does is make them seem real to you. They don't have any memories other than the ones they've been programed to have. Just basic responses.

OOC questions/comments/etc!

[luministimods]