kaisou | Open log + video

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varian

Open log + video

WHO: Varian and you!
WHERE: His labyrinth then outside the Zodiac apartments
WHEN: 1 May
WHAT: Alchemy boy arrives
WARNINGS: Some PTSD in the arrival log.

Varian doesn't recognise the alchemy lab he's wound up in - he's not even sure how he got here. He remembers that weird, uneasy being watched feeling the night before, but that's nothing new. People watch him plenty. Then he went to sleep and found himself...here. The one good thing is that Ruddiger is here too, the raccoon perched on top of his shoulder and chittering anxiously. He wanders around the space, finding upturned flasks of strange, green liquid or broken automaton parts and the realisation that something is deeply wrong starts to settle in his chest.

"H-hello? Um- anyone there?"

He stills for a moment, chewing his bottom lip, waiting for an answer. When one doesn't come, he starts walking again and recognises more and more of the discarded experiments around him. It's like someone put together the worst museum in the world and it consisted only of his failures. Varian's...pretty used to having nightmares about the darker sides of his past, but it's never been like this before.

His anxiety has already been slowly rising, but the second he walks into a man encased in some sort of crystal, it spikes up exponentially. His breath catches in his throat, his eyes wide. He's DEFINITELY experienced this in his nightmares before and it hurts every single time. He backs away from it, into the opposite wall, where he slides down onto the floor, squeezing his eyes shut and covering his face with his hands. Ruddiger slips down to sit in his lap, trying to pat his arm reassuringly, but to little avail.

"Nonononono, not again!" he tries to even out his breathing, but he's not doing a good job of it. "Wake up, wake up, wake up!!"

VIDEO - UN:NOT SET

[Once he's free from his labyrinth and has been shown the way to his new apartment (which is a wild concept, a little house inside a building???) Varian has decided to check out the strange pocket communication device. Ruddiger is behind him, rummaging through the garbage as he stands outside the Zodiac apartment building. Not that anyone can see this, because Varian has his thumb over the camera. So there's just audio and the occasional flicker of light as his hand shifts. ]

Okay, so, apparently I fell through some sort of trans-dimensional rift and now I'm here. I've got some questions I really need answering and apparently, this little device allows me to talk to other people who are similarly trapped in this world. Right? Right. SO!

One - Can someone explain what this electricity thing is? How does it work? How does it generate light? Power? If you can't explain it, can you point me in the direction of a library where I can learn this for myself?

Two - Bouncing off from one, what's with the horseless carriages? I've built automatons in the past, so I'm assuming they run on some sort of internal device, but I've never seen anything like it before in my life. What fuels them?

Three - Where can I get alchemical supplies? My backpack usually has plenty in but I've got nothing for some reason. Is there an apothecary around here somewhere? Equally, does anyone know a good lab space I can use? I have my kitchen in my...home? But I really do need a better space for my future projects.

Four - Speaking of, I have experience in building trans-dimensional portals. I'm going to try and get the supplies needed to figure a way out of here. This is a very different world to what I'm used to, but I'm sure I can figure it out.

Five- Who is Denny? Does-does he own the brightly coloured tavern? They won't accept silver or gold coins there and I need to feed my raccoon. I guess I need to speak to this Denny for that? How do I get in touch with him?

Okay, that should be it for now. I'd appreciate any help you can give me...assuming this thing even works.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There is still so many questions she has right now, and its enough that Luz is on edge, trying to look like she's dealing when in reality she's as lost as ever. Luckily for her, there's someone here who's having a worst time than she is, and that helps her forget her horrible, awful, confusing troubles. Yay for distractions!

She followed the voice and saw it was a boy, looking about Hunter's age, but definitely scared out of his mind. The place where he was cowering was not a fun place either, but she wasn't about to let that make her a quivering mess when she had plenty of other stuff to freak out about.

"Hey, hey! Kid, calm down. Take a breath. Uh, this place is pretty awful, but you can just leave! You just get here too?"

Varian glances up sharply at the sound of an unfamiliar voice- confusion growing with it being attached to an unfamiliar face. Ruddiger glances between them, chittering softly.

"I don't-" he tries to push the panic down. "What is this place? Who- who are you? What do you mean just got here? I- isn't this a dream?"

Luz sighed. Man, this poor kid. He was really going through it. She was too, but at least she was trying to temporarily set it aside, if only to function.

That wasn't much better, but it was something to help her cope.

"This is some strange magical city," Luz responded, sighing. "Just had a talk with a few people, and this is apparently not a strange thing that happens here. I'm Luz, and, well, no, this isn't a dream. Dreams and nightmares usually end in a way more dramatic way for me than this."

Sorry Varian. They were all sort of in the same boat."

Of course, it would be magical. How could it be anything else?

"Yeah, mine too," he means the nightmares. "So...what this is another dimension or something? I don't remember passing through any portals, and I'm pretty sure I'd remember something like that. It- it's not something you'd forget."

Well, nowhere near as cool as the Boiling Isles, sadly.

"I'm, uh, still figuring that out. Far as I can tell, this place actually resembles the actual world I'm from, but not the magical realm that I was living in before here. It isn't so bad, but there's still a lot that I'm trying to figure out. I guess we went through our own labyrinth things, and then we wind up here?"

Nothing can be as cool as the Boiling Isles, it is known. He blinks owlishly at her because that's...well, unexpected.

"Wait. So you're...from one universe...and get got sucked into another universe and now you're- you're in a third universe? Are- did you do that on purpose?"

It seems like a weird thing to do by accident, Luz! WEIRD!

"So how do I get back to my world? I don't- I don't want to be here. My dad'll be freaking out."

It was true, nothing was as cool as the Boiling Isles, though if this place was trying, she could see there was still something in being here.

"What? No! Not that I was exactly having a good time when I was in the last place, but I got here by accident! I kinda super have to get back!"

Before that maniac wound up killing ALL the witches back home.

Luz shrugged. "Look, I stumble THROUGH portals, I don't make them! I mean, I did once, but that honestly did not turn out so good."

He's just gonna sit here and take that in for a sec.

"Okay, so you...want to get to the middle dimension? Not your home, but not here, either?"

Could he do that? He feels like he could probably do that. He can make portals...maybe he can figure a way to escape this. He certainly can't just...sit here. In this other world.

"I can make portals. I can definitely make portals."

"The place I need to get to, yes. I should really say back home to my world but...there's a lot of bad things happening in the world I was just in. A lot of people going to get hurt. Just making this decision alone is a hard one."

Because she felt like she was betraying her own mother again, choosing the Isles instead of her. But what could Luz do? Her mother would be OK, she would LIVE. People in the Boiling Isles though? They'd wind up like those folks at the knee in Bellos' memory, maybe even WORSE.

"That is an incredibly good thing to hear. Do you need anything super special to create them?"

"I guess I can understand that. Pretty noble, wanting to help a world that's not your own."

But understandable. Varian's sure if he was in that position (and maybe he is now, he realises) he'd do the same. He doubts he could turn his back on people suffering.

"Yeah, I need to be able to build them. And the mechanics are a bit complicated, and usually use a little magic which I'll....have to figure out here. Unfortunately. I'd rather it be completely science but-"

"Just because we're not here doesn't mean we should act like people in trouble shouldn't be helped!"

Luz had talked to several people already and had started to take a liking to some of the people here.

"Sometimes you need a bit of both!" Luz said this, thinking of Hunter and sighing a little. She really hoped he started to look at as more than just how easily they could help him escape this place. "But we'll try and figure out the magic part, since that's more out wheelhouse anyway. AND I just realized we're trying to make plans without properly introducing ourselves!"

Luz stuck out her hand. "Luz Noceda, aspiring witch! Nice to meet you!"

"...That's-" okay he... really can't argue with that logic - maybe that's why they're here, maybe they were brought here to help people. "That makes a lot of sense, actually."

He does pull a little face at the magic. Ugh, why was it always magic? Could it just not be magic? Just once? He looks at her hand for a moment, before sighing, taking it to shake it.

"Varian. Royal Engineer," if they're giving titles and all. "And okay, good. Maybe between us, we can figure a way out of here."

"Makes sense to me," Luz said with a shrug. She didn't LOVE that she was now having to be stuck in a place without her family and friends and loved ones, but that was certainly not the people HERE's fault. Something was likely going on, and their help was going to be needed. So she might as well get started figuring out what that was, so she could go and help the Isles once that was taken care of.

Luz was pretty much sure it HAD to be magic. We were talking about pulling people from other worlds, after all. No way that happened on a whim, especially with the indication that they were far from the first people to be brought here. She'd shrug off that face at magic for now.

"Engineer! No wonder you made that face!" Luz was more amused, but she seemed to understand. "I wonder if that'll be as easy as we think, since we're not the first to be brought here."

Which was going to make things so much harder. Drat.

Might as well do some good while they're trapped in this unknowable madness, after all.

"What face? I didn't make a face," he absolutely made a face. "And I don't know? I'm willing to give it a try, though. I don't plan to be stuck here forever."

Luz wasn't about to just get a portal and leave, after all. She was already starting to like some of the people here.

"Oh, sure, no, your face was totally even and non-expressive," Luz said, casting him a wry expression. "No one wants to stay here too long. It's bad enough we don't know why we were brought here to start other than 'magic.' That's not enough of a reason for me."

"Magic is fickle like that, it doesn't always need a reason."

Varian she literally just told you she was a witch can you not?

"But no, I agree. There might be something...something else behind this? I'm gonna try and find out to be sure."

"I don't necessarily agree. There CAN be things that go strange with magic, but if that happens it's because they didn't research enough to attempt what they're doing."

Luz, being a girl who had to learn glyphs and casting magic herself, refused to think of magic as some mystical thing with a basis in nothing. If these Zodiac people were only experimenting with things, she was going to have a word or two with them!

"You and me both! Probably going to have to start with asking people who CAN see magic and live here how long this has been going on."

"I don't know, I researched the magic back home a lot and it was still bonkers."

Also had a demon in it. She was the worst. He clearly needs to learn glyphs and get himself an education in not being such a smarmy git about magic vs science.

"Ugh, you're right. There's got to be some sort of event that...that started it off."

And at least thinking about that has eased his panic. He's still trying to not look at the amber as he finally stands, exhaling.

"We've gotta get out of here to do that though, right?"

"Well I research magic, and while it's a little mystical, it still has its own rules and way that you go about it. Now I don't know what the deal with this place is, but I feel like we might be asking for trouble when you start to mix magics."

Which Luz definitely thought was happening a little bit, since she's talked with some people already, and clearly magic was not some strange new thing to them. So how much and what kind of magic was being used to bring THEM here?

"Exactly, and then the other question? WHY? There's already something wrong here where there are people from my world that are here but somehow also not quite the them that I know there."

She nodded. "Might even need to tap into this "leyline" they're talking about."

"It does, huh? It makes about no sense at all, back home. Bar...some things, I guess."

Magic is FINE back in Corona, he's just a salty little so-and-so about it.

"That's what I'm trying to understand. We have to be here for a reason if this is being controlled by someone," and then he pauses, "What do you mean...not quite them?"

That sounds concerning, should he be concerned?

"Hrmmm, I think right now we need to get out of here and...I don't know, maybe check out this leyline, yeah."

"Really? Magic in most stories have guidelines at worst, they're never, well, nonsensical. There always has to be a kind of natural law that it follows."

It certainly was that way on the isles. You either had the bile sac and could perform magic on your own, or you casted glyphs.

"Exactly. I'm still trying to get an idea of why someone would do this in the first place."

She sighed. "Well. I've met two people I definitely know from the world I was in. One of them looks different and doesn't remember me but otherwise is exactly the same. The other DOES know me, but is from a time earlier than the one I just dealt with. Maybe about a few weeks, I'd say."

Luz could not understand the time displacement, and at this point wasn't going to ask questions. Yet.

"Good idea. I mean, well, it would be if we knew where to look."

"The things I've seen tend to be...very chaotic and dangerous."

That is the question though- why. What could anyone have to gain from pulling people into other worlds? It could be an accident, of course, but it also could not. He listens to what she has to say about people from home and worry creases his brow.

"Do they remember your home world? Like...do they know they were brought here? Or is it...full memory loss?" something deep and uncomfortable churns in his stomach- memory loss is something horribly familiar to him. "When did they show up here? The one that does remember? Maybe it's just...time passing."

God, does that mean his absence will be noticed? Maybe not immediately, they'll think he's busy working, but in a few days... He hopes they don't assume he just ran away or something.

"Well. First step is leaning what we can- move on from there."

"I know what that's like, but it's not the magic that's so dangerous as it is the people using it."

She tended to agree with Varian though, that whatever was happening in this world was not going to be good. It must have taken something big to start pulling in people from other worlds. And for what? It couldn't be clearly said.

"OK, one thing at a time. Where I'm from is not technically MY home world, but there is one other person here from that place too. The other one, they have no recollection of being there, and its like this world has always been where they live. They were already here for a long time. Now the one that IS here, they're the one that's missing time, or at least, is behind me in the events of things that happened."

Luz wished she knew what all of this meant.

"How easy do you think that's going to be, when there are people here who can't even sense any of the magic around here?"

"I think that's true for everything, not just magic."

After all, he did a lot of damage with zero magical ability. As much as he distrusts magic, he knows it's not solely dangerous. There's plenty that can hurt others that isn't magic.

" Right, right. I mean- the between place. The place you know," because that's gonna get real confusing real fast. "That's... so is there evidence that this is where they've always lived? It could well be manufactured memories. If their minds were wiped, they could be told something is true and they'd believe it. That would suggest someone doing it on purpose. But if there's evidence of them always being here... well, that could be something else."

What he's not sure. Alternate timelines? Possibly!

"It's probably not gonna be easy at all. But...I need to get out of this place," he gestures around his labyrinth. "Gte a lay of the land. Try to...figure stuff out from here. But I'm happy to help."

"I think we can both agree on that."

The point Luz thought she was making was that magic wasn't bad so much as the people who used it for bad intentions. If there was anything that she had learned from that jerk Philip, it was that.

And she still felt she was partially to blame for that.

"Oh no. That was something I hadn't even thought about! But the person here, her eyes and her ears are completely different too. They wouldn't have done something like that to change them, would they?"

Now Luz was seriously beginning to wonder how "good" this place actually was.

"I can help you too! I may not be as great with making a portal as you are, but I HAVE made a makeshift one before. Just let me know when you have all the stuff you need, and I'll be there!"

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