sixthiterationlogs | [MINGLE] One-Man Show

She opened her eyes to a place that was absolutely not the house she had claimed after arriving through the fountain, and it took all of her control not to roll her eyes. She barely had time to ask herself what now before the memory of her first actual death began to play. Not a flashback, but happening all around her. She knew what she was seeing right away, and her annoyance only grew. There were more painful memories in her past than this, but this had been a dark turning point for her.

She barely moved as she watched herself say goodbye to Laurel. That was the most painful part. Laurel. Her big sister, alive. Happy, but about to watch Sara fall to her death.

Thea emptied the arrows into her, Sara had only been confused by her appearance there. Then it was over. Had she already been dead when she fell off the roof? She couldn't remember hitting her head on the trashcan, but she could remember Laurel crying. She'd imagined what it had looked like, and it was all pretty much meeting her imagination.

When it was over she found that she wasn't in this unfamiliar area alone. There were three other people, and she had to assume they had all been able viewers of her death.

"Not a zombie. If anyones concerned." Her resurrection had been just as rough, but at least it didn't look like that was next on the viewing screen. Or so she hoped.

Of the three weeks, two hours, and seventeen minutes since Connor model #313 248 317-60 first dragged himself from the fountain, he's spent nearly all of it pursuing the same goal. Transport. Connor needs to return to CyberLife. To restore contact, to receive orders, to fulfill the purpose for which he was made.

This isn't what he had in mind.

His LED spins yellow as he tears free from the memory(?)—gaze flitting around to catalog the nearby shapes. A couple are half-familiar, faces glimpsed in passing through the village, but none explain his presence here. Where is this? Was that some kind of... interface? Humans shouldn't be capable of that kind of information transfer. But, humans who had taken three arrows to the gut should also be dead. He takes a half-step back, head turning to scan for an exit—

—when the strange faces and stranger surroundings are replaced with something much more personally significant. CyberLife Tower. The basement level. And a plan Connor had worked towards, but never seen come into play.

He watches the deviant Connor model freeze in its tracks. He watches himself emerge, with Anderson as a hostage. The video is external, showing a clear view of both Connors, and he tries fruitlessly to place the source. "Very moving, Connor." A drone? A security camera? "It's time to decide who you really are." CyberLife had full access to his memory. Why would they film an encounter like this from the outside. How would the data get here if they had?

Why doesn't he remember it?

The deviant's mouth is open to answer as the images dissolve. When reality asserts itself, Connor's lips are parted, LED flickering the briefest glimpse of red. It dulls almost immediately to a pulsing, unsteady yellow, and he swallows back the word (the name) he might have called.

"...That didn't happen."

[[ooc: The linked video is a compilation of outcomes—for this thread, only up through 1:19 will be shown!]]

Fern watched both scenes and the reaction to them impassively. He was still trying to sort out where he was, how he got here and who the butts all these people were. Then his own video began to play.

[ Start here, end at "sorry about that". ]

"Hey," Fern cut in with only mild interest. "I remember that!"

Once, Kate had caught Mr Gracchus in the grips of a vision. A waking dream, where he'd seen something of his world. She's known it was possible, here, and so after the second vision hits her she knows what is happening. It doesn't help. Not this swirl of strange people and their strange memories, or not memories, or whatever else is going on. Not with Miss Lance's sister's sobs ringing in her mind.

"Oh, no, don't-" she begins, because there are so many things she doesn't want to remember let alone have them dragged in front of strangers (again). It doesn't help.

This video puts the group into a scene of chaos. A small Australian town, all brick and weatherboard and gum trees on a cold winter's day. There's a crowd. A crowd of policemen in their Victorian-era blue uniforms, a crowd of reporters running around asking questions, a crowd of distressed and loud townspeople. Some are bleeding from cuts, from bullet-wounds. Some are crying. Here and there, groups and huddles of people standing and sitting, angry and shocked. Men, women. Children. Three young women on two horses ride through this crowd, faster than is safe. One young woman, two girls, all with the same round face and curling hair, all clearly sisters. The middle one is obviously Kate, but younger. There are calls of, "can you talk them down, Mrs Skilling? Miss Kelly, Miss Grace! Ned's been arrested, Mrs Skillig-"

The oldest of the trio, the one dressed dramatically in black with a large, feathered hat much finer than her jacket, slides from her horse and marches up to one of the policemen, and pointedly ignores the way his colleague aims his pistol at her while she demands to know what is going on. Kate herself slips off her own horse and makes her way to the line the police are holding, keeping the crowd back from the shot-up inn which had been Ann Jones' pride and joy. A priest grabs her by the arm.

"Miss Kelly, Katie," he says. "They've released the hostages they were holding, but they still won't surrender. Can you talk them down? I know you and Dan have always been close, and Steve will follow Dan. And you know Mr Byrne, Joe. I, I fear what will happen if this goes on much longer."

Wide-eyed, the younger and clearly frightened Kate nods her head quickly. "Of course, Father!"

She rushes through the crowd now, a small figure not letting her stature or politeness stop her. When she reaches the line, someone else grabs her arm. A policeman, young and hiding his fear with anger. "Miss Kelly, do you think you could get through to your fool of a brother?"

Instantly, her expression changes to one of furious contempt as she wrenches herself free. "Help you, you fucking curr? It's you lot what started all of this!"

Movement out of the corner of her eye catches her attention, and she (and the camera) turn to see Maggie, the oldest of the trio, Maggie who has lost her hat, has broken free of the line and had been running towards the inn. The movement was a sergeant catching up with her and catching her, trying to haul her back. Dimly, over the commotion, her voice can be heard, "- light a fire, don't!"

There's a roar. Not animal, but elemental. The inn, soaked with shattered alcohol bottles and gunpowder, has exploded into flames.

The three sisters start to scream, the spectators yell and shout and shriek, and louder than all the commotion is Kate's banshee wail of "DANIEL!"

Then the vision is gone. Kate sits down, abruptly, not caring where she is or who is seeing her. Unlike the others of this little group, she has no witty comment or protest. She's pale, pressing a hand to her mouth, and shaking just the slightest bit.

Edited 2019-01-26 00:44 (UTC)

She didn't know if she was more relieved or uncomfortable to find out it wasn't just her memories on display for these people to see. She watched them, if only because there was nowhere else to really look beside keeping her eyes closed. Just like her own memory, she knew these could only tell her so much about the others around here. Each memory likely had many more attached to it, or important to know. She assumed the one named Conner was a machine. One was a....plan and sword? Sure, life was full of weird things, so why not? The last memory fell more into her old idea of 'normal,' but still horrible.

When all three were done playing, Sara took that time to notice more of her surroundings. They were in a shrine of some kind, and there were other people here besides the four of them, but for whatever reason, they had been placed into a group.

Where the other people experiencing the same things they had? The same four scenes, or ones unique to them? Two of the others in her group - Conner and Plant Man - seemed to be taking it well, or at least in stride. The other person, Katie, not so much.

Sara moved to crouch down beside her, placing her hand on the shaking woman's shoulder. "Hey, it's over I think. You're okay." Just because Sara didn't spook easily anymore didn't mean other people weren't going to have bad reactions to horrible memories. "Hopefully there's no more public displays of memories." Or maybe they weren't necessarily memories.

Sara turned her gaze to look at Conner, remember his reaction. "You said you don't remember that happening?"

From CyberLife Tower to a beach covered in grotesqueries. From absurd transformations to far more standard human violence. Connor doesn't know what to make of these images, but it's clear the others have some personal tie. Whatever this attack—this trick—it has more than one target.

And certainly, he knows it can't be real.

By the time the last video fades, the LED at his right temple is—not solid, not steady, but spinning a controlled shade of blue. Connor's eyes flit around, confirming the lack of additional participants before they settle back on the beings around him. Sara Lance: human (vigilante?), deceased. Katie Kelly: human, criminal ties (former). [Unknown]: plant growth? It's hardly a full report from facial recognition, but under the circumstances, he needs any information he can get.

"It didn't," he confirms, expression smoothed to blank neutrality as he turns to Sara Lance. "It's not something that could happen." Not anymore.

Unlike her own apparent death, it seems. Or the other visions? Kelly is too hysterical to be of use, but Connor's attention lingers on the green... child? Mutated limb? The android's features won't shift, but his faint distaste is audible.

"What are you?"

Edited 2019-01-26 04:30 (UTC)

The one girl seems really upset. He should do something about that, right? Something heroic. But... he doesn't understand the video, and he doesn't really get what's wrong. Maybe he should tell her that if he sees the man she yelled at he'll kill him?

He's still trying to decide when the man asks him that question. The question Finn asked him, before making sure he'd never have a place at the tree house again. He doesn't know what he is, only that he is.

"I don't know man, what are you?"

Part of her, a large part, would have honestly welcomed Fern's offer. Oh, how she hates the police, and currently all headway Detective Gibson had made in that area has vanished entirely. As it is, she finds herself leaning a little into the blonde woman (Miss Sara?) and her touch as she tries to get her breathing under control. She'd be curled up in a ball if her corset would allow, but it doesn't, so all she does is hunch her shoulders as much as she can. Which doesn't help the breathing.

It's the disdain that does it. The disdain from the man, whose memory she didn't understand at all. Deviant? Partner? And his twin? As much as the green child's memory had been as confusing and horrible as an opium-induced nightmare, she's sensitive to disdain. Particularly now, with the reminder of everything.

"Does it matter?" she snaps, straightening. There are tears in her eyes, down her face, but her full mouth twists in something other than a repressed sob. "He's clearly some form of the Good Folk, but he's here the same as all of us." Anger, yes, good. She can use anger, and she uses it to get to her feet.

"Wherever here is."

To be fair, Sara was thinking the exact same thing as Conner was, she just hadn't asked. There was more concern that Katie's reaction would get worse. Sorting out what each of them was could come later, assuming none of them attempted to attack each other.

As it was, it seemed Katie was pulling herself together pretty quickly. Or at least feeling something other than upset. Anger was a good way to focus, she knew, as long as you didn't get lost in it. The Good Folk was a term that was no longer lost on Sara, but she'd argue that this guy didn't seem anything like a Fairy's she'd encountered recently. Not that it meant much anymore in a place like this.

"Potential Fairy, possible robot or artificial intelligence?" it was a question as she looked at Conner, before pointing to herself "Previously dead." She offered a hand to help Katie get to her feet. "Now that everything is clear as mud, does anyone have any idea where we are?"

She was a newer arrival to the village. While she'd done some exploring, she hadn't gone too far. She didn't have enough supplies to attempt that trip yet. This place was completely unfamiliar to her.

"Android," he confirms. "My name is Connor."

The answer is directed at the human—Lance—but his eyes stay on the plant creature, stare sharp and clinical. Its shape is human, but a closer inspection reveals no flesh in the slightest—not even the synthetic substitute covering his own body. Grass composes its frame instead, an array of flora twisted to imitate everything from clothes to hair. More like a doll than construct, really. Does it even serve a use?

He wonders if it might unravel.

Kelly's... contribution draws only the faintest curl of a lip. Definitely one of the more primitive humans. (Not that her memory hadn't shown that much already.) But their current location is a pressing question, and Connor shifts his gaze at last, taking in the other groups and the dimensions of the structure holding them.

"It's not part of the villages." North or South. He hasn't been in every building, but he's walked them all from the outside, and the architecture doesn't match at all. He squints at the milling crowd, gaze caught by an odd shimmer of light to one side. He blinks, and the error(?) vanishes, but...

"Traffic is dispersing over there." Connor points. "There's probably an exit."

Fern turns his entire body away from Connor. He isn’t worth the trouble, really, so he’ll just show him exactly how much he cares about the jackhole’s opinions.

"I don’t think we should go with the android. He’s probably evil." If he had a sword he could probably test that theory...

Kate has no idea what an android is, and only the vaguest of ideas on what a 'robot' is. She's heard of zombie, since being here, but it's all so hard to process right now. Too many memories not her own, and the echo of her own scream bouncing around her skull.

"I do not," she says, sharpening her voice, "particularly care what any of us are. Unless you can magically take us back to the village, I doubt it's that important. And, Master... Uh, Plant. We cannot fathom someone's morals from their civility. So."

She looks around, trying to weigh their options. At least they are not alone.

"If we go with the rest of the villagers, we cannot go too far wrong. At least, there'll be more of us who may know how to get home."

Kate may not care who or what any of them were, but Sara did. Not to a point that she would have an immediate outward reaction, but she wanted to know who and what she was dealing with just in case. When she arrived here she had been told that everyone got along, but that didn't do it for it.

Just because one of them was an Android didn't mean he was Skynet. Just because one of them was a plant didn't mean he(?) was Swamp Thing. But better to be sure.

"Cool, when in doubt, follow the masses. Unless anyone notices them doing something stupid."

So she turned in the direction that Conner had pointed and headed towards the others that were here. If no one wanted to discuss the visions, that just made things easier. Even if it didn't satisfy her curiosity.

When Connor arrived here? He'd ripped his duplicate's heart out. Of course, that had been for a mission. Still, he eyes the plant creature's back with silent, clinical interest... before turning to follow Lance out. He definitely has questions for her, though the mystery of their second kidnapping takes precedence for now.

His LED glows a calm blue, face a neutral mask of unconcern. But Connor certainly isn't taking anything for granted—safety least of all. He listens, tracking the motions of the two behind.

Fern makes grumbling noises, ready to stay behind out of spite. But Kate is going too, and he doesn't actually know where anything is. It wouldn't be a problem if he got lost, except that his best chance at getting a new sword is in that dumb village.

He finally follows with a disgusted scoff.

"Well, now, if they do anythin' too stupid, we'll just have to speak up, then." There's safety in numbers - and there will be more safety later, when it gets cold - but Kate is also not blind to the issues of playing Follow The Leader. People can also be very, very stupid.

So the small woman walks off to the crowd, back straight and step far firmer and far more determined than perhaps she needed to be.

But then, these three strangers had seen one of her worst memories, had heard her screaming, and that makes her feel vulnerable.

Still.

She does try to keep half an eye on the Plant Fae.

[MINGLE] One-Man Show

Closed Group: Sara Lance, Fern Mertens, Kate Kelly, Connor-60

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