fading in and out

[ethnobotany]

WHO: Beverly Crusher
WHERE: Outside mostly
WHEN: backdated to October 14th
OPEN TO: Everyone!
WARNINGS: will update if needed

---

A lot of things have happened since Beverly surfaced out of the fountain. Some of them have seemed almost normal for a Starfleet officer to experience, while others seemed like something a Cardassian or Q would cook up. Despite still not being pushed for Starfleet intel or information on the Enterprise, Beverly isn't entirely convinced that one of the above isn't running the entire show.

On days like today, she leans more towards Q. If she were at all aware that yesterday was her birthday, she would be even more convinced that Q is the prankster.

The day starts out as well as most, but partway through, when she's headed to the Inn for lunch, she notices that the ground is unusually bright. She lifts a hand to shade her eyes from the sun and barely anything happens. In fact, as she turns her hand over, she notices it isn't casting a shadow at all. More to the point, she isn't casting any kind of shadow. Even turning around and looking down doesn't produce anything. Nor does lifting her feet.

"The trees and buildings are all casting shadows," she comments to herself, but loudly enough for anyone nearby to hear. "Are the people just not?"

She probably looks a little strange wiggling her arms and legs around, as though a shadow will simply fall off of her if she moves enough. Eventually, she'll end up in the Inn, where she finds she is still not exactly casting a shadow, even in the unnatural light inside. Still, even shadowless people need food. And maybe a bit of company.

Comments

[learned_to_die]

Ned is finishing a task of collecting water from the spring to bring back to the Weirwood sapling he planted not far from his family home, which has surprisingly done well despite everything. He's returning the basin he borrowed from the Inn when he spots a woman he's seen around the village before, but with whom he has not yet made an introduction. He is a bit too far to hear what she is saying, though the sight of her - raising and lowering her limbs as though she has never seen them before - is a bit .. alarming. With the recent plague's memory still fresh in his mind, he wonders if it's still circulating and if she's currently hallucinating with fever.

Although he had intended on going into the Inn to begin with, he decides to focus less on returning the basin in his hand and more on the woman, to ensure that she's well. He follows in after her, eyeing her inconspicuously before disappearing in the back to place the basin back in the pantry. When he emerges, he finds her still doing the same inspection of her limbs, only inside now. After some deliberation, he approaches her.

"Forgive me, I could not help but notice - are you quite well?"

[ethnobotany]

This time she is definitely not hallucinating with fever, at least not that she's aware of. Given the nature of this place and whoever the Observers are, she wouldn't put it past them to have put that one on her twice in such a short time, though. They haven't proven to be altruistic in any means.

Still, when the man finally approaches her, she offers a tight smile and then shakes her head. "I'm fine," she assures him. "I've just been checking to see if my shadow's going to reappear." It sounds so strange when she says it, but that is the truth. She hasn't been casting a shadow all day and it's odd. As if to illustrate her point, she holds her arm next to the closest light source. Still no shadow.

"Do you see anything or am I the only one who can't?"

[learned_to_die]

"Your - shadow?" Ned inquires, unsure if he has heard her correctly. The statement draws his gaze away from her face and down towards the ground, eyes in search of aforementioned entity - which, now that his attention has been brought to it, he is unable to locate it around her body. He glances down towards the ground underneath him to verify whether or not it might be the dim lighting of the Inn that has caused such a thing, but there his blackened self lies - starkly contrasted in darkness compared to what is underneath her.

"No, you are not the only one," he finally says, lifting his eyes to meet hers, curiosity and confusion in his. "When did this start happening?"

[ethnobotany]

She shoots him a resigned sort of look, the kind that says she knows how strange it sounds and asks him to humor her for a short time. On the plus side, he at least seems to be willing to do that much, glancing around her, presumably for her shadow. His shadow seems to be perfectly intact and that makes her wonder more.

"I first noticed it about midday," she admits, almost apologetically. "I wasn't paying much attention before that. Have you noticed anyone else with this problem?"

[learned_to_die]

"Was it there while you went about your morning? Or had you not noticed? I don't think anyone could fault you if you hadn't; I doubt there is anyone here who often thinks of whether their shadow might be following them or not," Ned offers, catching the tone of apology in her voice. Although it is a tad on the ridiculous side of things, there is something oddly familiar in it - in so much that something like this would happen to someone in the village. It doesn't seem to out of character for this place, and as such, she has no reason to feel foolish over it.

"I have not but, as I said, shadows firmly connected at one's feet are not often at the forefront of my mind in my usual musings. I will admit that I only noticed you because of how you had been behaving outside of the Inn, stretching your arms out every which way as though trying to locate something only you could see."

[scepterschild]

Wanda was working in the kitchen when Beverly walked into the inn. She hadn't seen the older woman that morning, having left the house at day break, nor had she considered that something strange might be happening in the village. The disappearing fruit had been strange enough, little did Wanda know, that it was just the start of the oddities.

She paused when she walked from the kitchen, staring at Beverly. She had gotten to know the doctor decently well over the last few weeks of living together and it wasn't hard to see that something was wrong.

"Beverly? What is it?"

Wanda stepped closer, her eyes falling to the ground as she noticed the lack of a shadow.

[ethnobotany]

Beverly has enjoyed having more people in the house. Jean-Luc is always a welcome sight, but Beverly is a people person. She likes being surrounded by people she cares for. Having Jean-Luc, Wanda, and Clint around means she has people to go home to, people to talk with and bond with. It's much better for her than living alone. Moving in with Clint and Wanda was one of the best things she could have done.

Beverly wiggles her fingers at Wanda's question, her gaze also on the floor, where the shadow still has not turned up. "You don't see anything, do you?" she asks, as though she might not be trusting her perceptions. Or senses. "I haven't seen my shadow all day. Everything else seems to cast one, but not me."

[scepterschild]

Wanda looked down at Beverly's feet and then circled the woman with an inquisitive stare. "No. You don't have a shadow." She then stood next to Beverly. Her own shadow stretched out along the floor while Beverly had none.

Wanda had absolutely no explanation for this. It didn't make any sense.

She looked up at Beverly with a worried crease to her brow. "How do you feel?" She can't help but worry. What illness takes away a persons shadow? Unless this was some weird twisted Peter Pan reference. Wanda was having trouble wrapping her head around it.

[ethnobotany]

It definitely makes no sense to either of them. Beverly has no explanation, either, and that is what unsettles her. Maybe Data or Geordi might be able to come up with something, but without either of them, or even Wesley, she has nothing.

"I feel fine," she answers with a helpless shrug. "This is nothing like the last time I was sick here. I almost wish it did. At least then I'd have a better idea of what's going on. Have you seen anyone else without a shadow today?"

[scepterschild]

Wanda shook her head from side to side. She thought back to the strange happenings of this month: Clint and Hawke. They had different things happen but there had been on thing in common between the two events.

"Did a fruit disappear in front of you before losing your shadow?" She wasn't sure if Beverly knew but if she was a victim of one of the strange fruits then at least Wanda could confirm that it'd go away on its own. As it is now, it's more than a little unsettling and certainly due to some mischief of the overseers.

That wasn't a comforting thought.

[chirrutsluck]

Baze is coming out of the woods with a couple dead squirrels he's caught-- too late for lunch, maybe, but good for dinner or an overnight stew-- rather proud of himself for using the bow instead of his snares, this time, when he spots the redheaded doctor twitching her arms around. He's just close enough to hear her comment, as he approaches. "No shadow? That's not possible, is it?"

And yet, looking down at her feet, he doesn't see anything, either.

[ethnobotany]

Beverly glances up at the voice, recognizing the person, and then shrugs. "It shouldn't be, as far as I'm aware," she replies. "But... I don't seem to have anything. And yet, you do. Switch places with me? Maybe it's something about where I'm standing."

She shifts around to give him space to take her place, unconvinced that this idea is the case. Wherever they are and whoever is in charge, things like this never quite seem to have a logical answer. It's enough to make a Vulcan crazy.

[chirrutsluck]

It's enough to bother a rational rebel sort, too. Baze circles her once to try and find some sort of shadow, before moving to stand in her spot. Nope, he still has his shadow. (His own fading will start tomorrow, and then maybe it will make a little more sense.) "Are you still solid?" he asks. That's the only reason he can think of why someone wouldn't have a shadow, if light just went through her, along with anything else.

[ethnobotany]

She watches him try to sort things out with her and for all that it's comforting that it isn't just something she can't see or figure out, the fact that he's still got his shadow is decidedly distressing. That might mean that something is wrong with her, though what it is she can't figure out. She feels fine at the moment and she's been touching things all day. That doesn't mean she's still solid now, though.

So she holds out a hand to him. "As far as I know, but try touching my arm. Maybe I'm not now."

[chirrutsluck]

Baze takes the invitation to do that, putting a hand on her forearm, then her hand to make sure it's not just her scrubs that are solid (though then the clothing would also cast a shadow, would it not?) and it's her body, too. "You're still there. I wonder if this is like the pranks," he frowns. "Like Bodhi's purple hair, my raincloud. Suddenly, for a day, you have no shadow."

[womanofvalue]

At the inn, Peggy's there for her daily check-in to see if James has returned back or whether he's yet another name to add to her list of those who have vanished when she comes across Beverly, looking a touch like she's been thinking rather strongly on something. Drifting to her side, she gives her an attentive look. "Do you mind if I sit?" she asks, gesturing to the chair beside her.

Something is going on, something terribly strange, but right now, Peggy can't put her finger on it, only that there's something she ought to be noticing and isn't.

[ethnobotany]

Beverly seems to snap out of her thoughts at the sound of the voice, but she smiles as she spots Peggy. Giving her head a slight shake, she motions for the other woman to sit with her. "Not at all. I've been meaning to see how you're doing lately anyway."

Beverly might have something strange to worry about, but she wouldn't be the woman she is if she didn't ask after everyone else around her before addressing her own problems.

[womanofvalue]

Peggy settles, rather happy for the distraction given that there appears to be no trace of Barnes being back from wherever he is (if he's even still here, given that she doesn't have high hopes for him after she knows she's lost Steve). "It's touch and go," is all that Peggy says, treating this as a mission report rather than being something more personal.

"And you? Last I saw you, I believe you thought I was your son," she says, straining to recall Beverly's feverish words.

[ethnobotany]

It's the mission report style briefing that tells Beverly that whatever Peggy has been up to, it hasn't all been good. She won't press, at least, not now. Instead, she offers a sympathetic glance before it turns slightly sheepish.

"Think you can forgive me for that?" she jokes lightly. She remembers snatches of the fever dreams and the illness itself, but not quite everything. Vague memories of each delusion surface before she pinpoints the one that featured Wesley. "As much as I would love to see him again, I know he's not here. And you are definitely not the same person."

But she's all right otherwise, given the way she's been walking ever since and how coherent and lucid she is now. Everything's been all right since, thankfully.

Her lips twist. "You probably have a lot of questions to ask about that and I won't blame you for them." She might even be more willing to answer them now, since the fever dreams blew open a lot of her secrets.

[womanofvalue]

"Absolutely," Peggy assures her without even a moment's thought about it. She's more than willing to offer Beverly as much benefit of the doubt as is required, because when a person is ill, nothing they say ought to be held against them. "Besides, I'll take the compliment that I looked young enough to be your son," she jokes mildly, trying to keep the mood light.

"I have a great many questions, but I'll only ask if you feel comfortable answering," Peggy says, knowing well enough that you can't draw blood from a stone.

[enterprisingheart]

It's not directly Jean-Luc's intention to head for the Inn, for all that he's aware that it's lunch time. Still, he stops for a moment when his path happens to cross Beverly's, and though he wouldn't have noticed that she doesn't have a shadow had it not been for the fact that he happens on her just in time to overhear her comment about it, it is a little strange.

Which he's coming to expect of the village thus far, but this is beyond even what he might have expected.

(And he does stop to make sure that he's still casting a shadow before he answers.)

"Not that I'm aware of. I'm assuming this is something that's only just started?"

And indeed, should she look, he is casting a shadow, just as he should be.

[ethnobotany]

"If it has been longer, I've been less observant than I thought," she muses, glad at least to see Jean-Luc here. Maybe he can help her figure it out, because she's at a bit of a loss. "I've never seen anyone lose a shadow like this before. I'm assuming it's some new trick from the Observers, but why I'm not sure."

Or how to get it back. She would like it back, if only so she can feel normal again.

She glances at him, noting his shadow. "I see it's only me with this problem. I wonder why?"

[enterprisingheart]

"I can't imagine it would be anything else, no. Although it definitely seems to be more minor than some of the other things they've thrown at us." He pauses for a moment. "Assuming this isn't the precursor to something else."

Which certainly isn't outside the realm of possibility, but it still raises question. Namely, what else might follow on the heels of Beverly's lack of shadow. And why the Observers might have decided to pick this, out of all the things they could choose to do.

"I'm not sure. It could simply be affecting only a certain subset of the population?"

A small subset, given that he has yet to meet anyone else who's missing their shadow, but that could just as easily simply be because it's only recently begun to happen. Still, it's something to look out for, at the very least. Even if doing so might not provide any actual answers.

[ethnobotany]

Beverly pulls a slight face at that. "It better not be a precursor. I've already had enough doom and gloom here for one lifetime." The illness was more than enough in her mind. She'd rather not have to deal with anything else at this point. Whatever a lack of shadow might actually bring up.

"That's true. We've had that happen before. Ravi, one of my colleagues here, ate something and got extremely ill once. Or at least we think it was something he ate. Chocolate, if memory serves, but it didn't affect me." Anything is possible with the Observers and she shrugs almost helplessly to echo that.

"Whatever it is, I hope it doesn't spread and that my shadow comes back soon."

[enterprisingheart]

He can't blame her for not wanting to see another plague. Not when the both of them had been so badly afflicted. It could certainly have been worse, if only by virtue of having actually been potentially fatal, but even so it's not something that he can claim to be interested in seeing again. Although to be fair he also isn't familiar with any disease where the initial symptoms include the loss of one's shadow.

Which certainly isn't to say that it's not the precursor to something all the same, but he's willing to see what comes of it first.

"If this is all it is, I can't imagine it would be that troublesome if it spread. It might be odd, but not having a shadow certainly isn't the end of the world. Even it if would feel a little bit like living in a holodeck malfunction."