(no subject)

[metachrosis]

Who: Espio + anyone
What: One very belated intro
Where: Here and There
When: "November", if November exists
Content Warnings: Likely references to him being from a sex-or-die CRAU in the tags.

1. The Sky

[Why, you might ask, is there a short man with a lizard tail standing on a rock, arms spread wide as he laughs almost maniacally at the sky? There must surely be a reason, right?

Before he can be interrupted, he notices whoever approaches him and his laughter trails off as he turns to face them.]

Look at that! Five years, and they give me this - it's like going home! How long's that been like that?

[He jabs a thumb towards the sky behind him, where shapes are twisting and coiling just like in the weird part of the Special Zone. It has been so long since he's seen a sky as colourful as the one he was once used to that the little taste of home actually makes him feel slightly ill... still, seeing it, all he can do is laugh, even if it's not a happy laugh.]



2. How to Be Social

[Still convinced this is only an illusion, just like the countless illusions he's experienced in the past several months, Espio has not been particularly inclined to socialise. The problem with that is that while he does not want to go through meeting and greeting new people who might not even be real, being alone is... well, it's lonely! So while he has mostly been steering away from more obvious social hubs and has instead wandered what feels like the entire habitable area for he doesn't know how long, eventually he gives in and shows his face somewhere with people. What few people there are in this place, anyway...

The Heavenly Blanc is as good a bet as any, but he can also be found somewhere in the Underground Academy. Either way, his idea of a greeting is questionable:]

Still haven't seen anyone I know. How 'bout you?

Comments

[abeautifulgame]

[Damien has had worse greetings, so he's not really bothered by Espio's introduction. plus, it's a bar. sort of. regardless, this kind of abrupt small talk isn't unfamiliar, given at least part of the setting]

[all that said, he shrugs]

No one here but us chickens. [no one here from his world but him] But in my case, that may be a blessing.

[metachrosis]

[That gets a somewhat puzzled frown from Espio, who's unfamiliar with that phrase largely because chickens are people too and this person looks very much human. He gets the idea though, and leans back in his seat with a small 'tch'.]

Great.

Can't believe I gotta do this all over again. Money's still on mass illusion, but if I've been thrown into another dimension again it's not even a surprise.

1

[blue_eyed_obsession]

[Kaiba might have asked that, but really that sort of reaction was part for the course here. That being said it still was a little unnerving]

If you're completely unhinged, at least do me the courtesy of waiting until I leave before it escalates beyond laughter.

[As for the rest of it... ]

What are you going on about?

[abeautifulgame]

I'd go with simulation, myself. [or that this is some sort of shared cognitive reality, like Mementos, like the Phantom Thieves and their Palaces, but that's -- a little harder to explain]

[either way, after a beat, he tells him:] Either way, I can promise you I'm perfectly real.

[metachrosis]

If you'd been bounced back and forth between dimensions like a ping-pong ball, you'd be unhinged too.

[He turns slightly to look back up at the sky, and takes a moment to think before he explains himself.]

I'm talking about the sky - that's how it looks back home. Like I wasn't homesick enough already.

[blue_eyed_obsession]

Who says I haven't?

[Kaiba was joking, mostly, but he had been gifted with forerays into Atlantis, and Ancient Egypt.. and two virtual worlds before this one. Those counted. Sort of. ]

Oh- like a lava lamp exploded. Heh, sorry for you. [Not being able to see why you would miss that ] So where have you been if it wasn't home?

[metachrosis]

Simulation's a fair guess too, but I've seen enough illusions to guess this is more of the same... good thing you're so sure you're real, though. Last time I met illusions of people, their faces melted off.

[He'd rather not recall the details of that, even as the image decides to replay in his head.]

Hopefully I'm real, too. You can never be sure these days.

[abeautifulgame]

[ ... ]

Well, that's horrifying. [and while he's also not trying to think too hard about that one, he can't help but ask:] Where were you, when this happened?

2!

[menaretrash]

[ Poor Espio. Ann practically lives at the cafe, thanks to Ren, and today's no different. She's sitting at what would be her seat at home, sipping on some of the delicious iced coffee that Ren's prepared just for her, when she notices the young... that's. That's a young man with a lizard tail. Okay, then. Maybe he's related to Bowser.

She's not one to judge or stare, though, so instead she offers him a friendly smile and wave, because she's not seen him before, and she imagines that he's probably feeling a little... down in the dumps, so to speak. ]

Mm? Yeah, I've got some people from home. But I've been here a while, too... just arrived?

[metachrosis]

Point. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.

[He huffs a little at Kaiba's 'sorry' - what's there to be sorry about, the sky is supposed to look like that! - but lets it go without comment.]

...here and there. An alien world, an apocalyptic wasteland... several illusions... here, but I think 'here' probably falls under the 'illusion' category.

[blue_eyed_obsession]

[It was all about perspective really. What was normal for one was peculiar for the other]

I would call it a simulation myself, but I'm in the minority.

[Either way, it sounded like lizard boy had been through several hells and... Not quite back. ]

Most seem to think this place really is an alternate dimension.

[metachrosis]

The end of all worlds, or so we were told. Dirt, dust, ruins, and a warped reality that made no sense... this place seems a lot more alive, but just as insane.

[abeautifulgame]

This is the way the world ends ... [not with a bang, but a whimper -- or, in this case, with pure entropy, disorder]

I don't suppose you were brought there by so-called gods, to fight in some kind of war, were you? [he's pretty sure Midoriya would have mentioned the end of all worlds, if he'd been a part of something like that, but it can't hurt to check. not that Midoriya's even here anymore, as far as he can tell]

[metachrosis]

As in, a computer simulation?

[He pulls a face at that.]

No way. Experience would say mass illusion, except... [he narrows his eyes a little at Kaiba, trying to figure out if he's seen him before and just forgot] ...except normally, they're shared with people I know.

[metachrosis]

Lucky you...

[There's a small amount of bitterness in that, but he tries to disguise it by simply making it sound tired instead.]

Guess you could say I just arrived, but I'm not completely convinced I'm not still exactly where I was before. Only thing that puts it in question is all the strange faces.

[blue_eyed_obsession]

What else?

[Of course he does. It's like everyone he's met here has this aversion to technology and the capabilities thereof. There were no limits to the field]

What is with you people? I can only assume inexperience or ignorance when the theory is immediately shot down.

Oh great- so you're used to hallucinating. That's just what we need.

[metachrosis]

Not gods, just idiots.

[There's really no other way he can think of to describe the Hedonists... apologetic, energetic, incompetent and always unsure of everything.]

Don't think they ever claimed to have brought us there... their story was that this was how the world was supposed to be, and that it was our lives that were fake. Apparently we were supposed to somehow live by believing hard enough and - well...

[And he cuts himself off there, and gives a deep sigh. Let's not go into that.]

Long story short, zero out of five experience. Don't recommend it.

[metachrosis]

Because my experience says otherwise. That, and I don't like what a 'computer simulation' theory would mean for me specifically. I have a lot of enemies that would absolutely pull that shit... I'd rather have gone through hell with some semblance of freedom than think I've been completely at someone else's mercy for five years.

At least the illusions go away eventually.

[blue_eyed_obsession]

You think I don't? That's why it's not outside the realm of reason.

[Expelling a sigh.]

The simulation will too, once I find a way to gain access to the controls or find a backdoor. [Just saying ] It's better than assuming we're all just on some trip. [Rolling his eyes ]

[abeautifulgame]

[not where Midoriya was, then, which is kind of disappointment, if only because that rules out there being a point of commonality there]

[though:] You know, there are two landmarks, here, from my world. [not that he believed hard enough to bring them here. if it were that easy, it if were a choice, he could have done so much better than the Merlaut]

[metachrosis]

'Better' how? Because it'd be easier for you to fix if it was?

Good luck with that. If I assumed simulation, I'd have every reason to assume you're not real either, with as many 'characters' I've seen come and go.

[metachrosis]

Huh.

[Huh. That's interesting... Espio adjusts his position a little, giving the stranger a little more attention.]

Weird. There a reason for that, or do you not know?

[blue_eyed_obsession]

Naturally. That and my senses wouldn't be dulled by hallucinogens.. [Not to mention having to deal with potential withdrawal after the substance was no longer being supplied ]

I'm not going to argue with that... [Since, actually, Kaiba had assumed everyone was an NPC before... But now he thought differently ] I'm just telling you like it is. The things that happen here can't be real.

[abeautifulgame]

[he shakes his head]

No idea.

[a beat]

But the train? The apartments, up to the lobby? They're the Chicago L and the Merlaut Hotel, respectively. [and another pause] Though, the interior of the hotel, the part where it turns into apartments? That isn't mine. [and he's yet to figure out who that part does belong to]

[metachrosis]

Hallucinogens...? Not yet...

[He can't help but frown. He's been through Some Shit, but getting drugged up on hallucinogens has thankfully not happened yet. Just an unstable reality being unstable, and he's been dealing with unstable realities his entire life!]

And what sort of things happen here?