odd little alucine

[affodell]

It's never previously occurred to Cayra to put a door across an alucine boundary, but now that she's encountered it in practice it makes sense. It makes it visually obvious and it lets you lock it if you want. This door wasn't locked, and it looked like it led to a public bathroom, not a bar, from the signage, so she's still confused. Still, it's a good idea. She twists open the glass vial pendant around her neck and bends her head to the little blue lily inside to make a note of it; as an afterthought she tries to send it off to her antheomancer-chatcircle, anything to have a decent conversation, but it doesn't go. Her flower doesn't look wilting, but she can put it back in the garden and get a fresher one for the vial later. At least her personal files look okay. She closes up the vial again, giving the flower a touch of antheomancy for its health, and finds a bathroom inside the bar that dominates this little alucine.

And then she emerges into the bar. It doesn't seem to be staffed. Or stocked. Why wasn't it locked?

Hello, anybody here?

with Flynn (ErinFlight)

with Harry (andaisq)

Due to some icon rearrangement errors, some of Flynn's tags appear with an incorrect icon. The correct face for this thread is Rosario Dawson's.

Comments

[affodell]

"Yeah, maybe. We could also still try to find an oneiromancer. Actually, we should do that anyway, I'll put a stamen out about it -" Cayra fiddles with her speakflower. "Someone will get back to me eventually probably about that."

[erinflight]

Flynn begins to weave with permission from Cayra, and reaches out towards the threads.
A cloud of threads descends around her, obscuring her from view. She's never called this many before.

Suddenly, she feels them in her mind. Alien, incomprehensible, overwhelming. Alive.

Her empathy, self-control, rationality all start plummeting downwards.

[affodell]

Cayra interrupts.

"What happened?"

[midst_of_threads]

"You were right. They're definitely alive and very strange. There was nothing in them that was human or that I could even understand."

[affodell]

"They were affecting you. Fast. If you didn't get anything out of that brief contact I don't think you could get anything out of a longer try."

[midst_of_threads]

"Are the vices an attack? If they wanted to hurt us, there'd be easier ways to do it."

[affodell]

"You'd think. They come when you call, and when you use knowflowers - I didn't see any threads when you were notetaking on the speakflower. Try that just a little bit now?" Cayra hands over the blue one.

[midst_of_threads]

Flynn tries and nothing happens. "There were threads the first time you handed me a flower though, remember? I was just taking notes then."

[affodell]

"I don't remember - I wasn't paying as much close attention then. But there aren't any now. They don't find the speakflowers - interesting, anymore, I guess? Try going on my chatcircle. It's in Radial, but, well. It's called Vicious Garden."

[midst_of_threads]

Flynn enters the chat circle and a handful of threads gather around the flower. After a few minutes, they vanish.
"Maybe it is interest then? Every time I do something new with magic, they come to see what's going on, but once they figure it out, they leave?"

[affodell]

"Maybe. But that doesn't explain why they lingered when you were using the knowflower. You weren't using lithomancy, just learning it, and learning Radial doesn't involve substantially different flower use per se."

[midst_of_threads]

"And why were there more threads for the lithomancy than there were for the chatcircle? But, they are alive. No one's ever figured that out before."

[affodell]

"I suppose that's something."

[midst_of_threads]

"Why were you traveling through this alucine?"

[affodell]

"I was on my way home. I went to visit a tephramancer who's very good at controlling her vice and got advice about becoming an automancer."

[midst_of_threads]

"Maybe I should try to find an older weaver to talk to, even if they're probably insane by now. I-"
Flynn pauses and looks around,
"The threads are acting strange. I haven't called them, but they're gathering."

[affodell]

"If... they start acting on their own... I can't necessarily stop them. Let's go in the room in case that helps contain them. But I don't see anything." Cayra opens the nearest door.

[midst_of_threads]

The threads close in before Cayra can take a single step.

They are elsewhere.

Humans minds were not built to comprehend this place. Before their minds impose a false order, there is an instant of pure, terrible chaos. That instant holds an eternity of horror and of a longing for something that can never quite be named.

The chaos vanishes, replaced with artificial sensation. Threads, thousands, billions, an infinite number, surround Cayra and Flynn. The two women have no form here, but their minds provide an illusion of location. They feel themselves to be in the center of a swarm.

Carya’s magic hangs around her, a thin shield against this place. Flynn has no such protection.

’We know you’

[affodell]

"Flynn what's going on."

[midst_of_threads]

"They're beautiful. I never realized how beautiful they were before. Can you see them?"

[affodell]

"I can see them but how pretty they are is not the thing to focus on right now!"

[midst_of_threads]

'You reached for us'

The threads speak not in words, but in bursts of memory and sensation. Here is Flynn reaching out to understand the threads. Here are the hundreds of weavers who did not.

[affodell]

"Can you understand me?" Cayra wonders softly.

[midst_of_threads]

'You are distant'
'Your magic separates you from us'

[affodell]

Cayra takes that as a yes, regardless. "Can you stop altering her?"