To infinity...and beyond? (Semi-open)

[astrogator]

Who: Ari Tayrey + willing CR + anyone else who wants in
What: Mini-plot: an expedition to determine what kind of infinite this store really is
When: 25-29??? November
Where: The Infinite Tommy Bahama
Warnings: None yet
Notes: First prompt is a text message sent to Ari's friendly-ish CR - replies are welcome even from people who don't want to take part! Other prompts are open but please note that participating characters will potentially be in the store for up to 4/5 days. Party post rules are fine, start your own toplevels and tag people other than Ari if you like. ((I checked with our lovely mod about what would happen if they tried this!))



1. Texting

I have a plan. I want to see just how infinite this Tommy Bahama is. Multi-day expedition for data collection? It could be informative. Maybe fun, too. Interested in coming along?

- Tayrey

2. Preparing

Even people who don't know Ari well may notice that something is up. It's not often that people walk into Tommy Bahama wearing backpacks full of supplies. There's some last-minute preparation going on here, as well as a last-minute opportunity to join the expedition. Expect Ari to want to check and make sure everyone has all the essentials with them. She's used to preparing for trips to uninhabited and potentially hostile planets, and it shows. Don't mind the fussing. She wouldn't do it if she didn't care.

3. Exploring

Despite all the promises, the expedition is - well, boring might be an accurate description, unless you're really invested in the outcome. There's a lot of walking past the same racks of clothes, over and over and over. Infinite length doesn't mean infinite variety.

Ari's fascinated, and she'll be chattering about loop programming to anyone who will listen, and attempting to measure the distance between one rack of garishly-patterned bikinis and the next iteration of that very same rack. She'll encourage tests, too - what happens if you completely destroy one of the displays? Is the destruction repeated? (Spoiler alert: no, it's not that kind of loop, but let's try it a few times anyway and make sure?)

Maybe you give up and head back after a few hours. Maybe you have a run-in with the Bahamanal. Maybe you join in with Ari's ridiculous spacer song singalong - she is in a good mood. It's Tommy Bahama, anything could happen.

4. Relaxing

Ari pushes the pace on the first day, because it comes naturally to do so, and possibly, subconsciously, to weed out anyone who isn't serious about this and is going to cause them problems once they're a long way in. Eventually, though, it's time to stop for the night. There's not a campfire, but it's a fine social occasion just the same. Ari's brought some Serena Eterna branded playing cards, and she's up for a little gambling. Maybe you have some other entertainment ideas. Don't stay up too long, though - see if you can't make a nice nest of clothes to bed down in. There's plenty of walking to do tomorrow.

5. Emerging

Plenty of data has been collected about the repeating displays, but there's no end in sight to this store. Is it really infinite? If there's a way to answer that question, this expedition won't do it. It's over two days in when the group realises that they're over halfway through the supplies they brought. Time to turn around, whether that leaves you disappointed or delighted.

Unfortunately, there are no tricks of perception or proportion here. It'll take just as long to walk out as it did to walk in. Look on the bright side, at least you're carrying less weight? Finally, on the fifth day, the intrepid explorers who stayed the distance catch sight of the store entrance up ahead. Who saw it first?

6. Wildcard

Anything else you want to do! (Just let me know if I need to add warnings to the header :) )

Comments

Exploring

[crushed_pearls]

Erin provides a nice whistle to go with Crichton's terrible singing, a thought coming to mind after about the 70th bottle of beer.

(Nerd check?)

Oh yeah, nerd check.

When his, for lack of a better word, song comes to a close, Erin waits a moment to be sure no one else is going to start up, and then she starts humming a classic bop.

[ss_buttcrack]

Crichton is feeling pretty pleased with himself that he actually got through all 99 bottles for once. People usually stop him long before that. So, he's sort of loosely still humming when that new tune breaks through from Erin.

It's been a while. A long while, so it takes a few minutes of him thinking really hard about where he's heard that before it finally hits him. When it does...

"Hey," he protests playfully, "Hey, now. I'd rather be singing a hobbit song myself." He's all grins. Come on, she has to know the reference if she's humming that song.

[crushed_pearls]

"Ah, but I have no songs fit for such grand halls or dark times," Erin teases back. "...I'm also a bit short on old men who can eat a tomato in just the weirdest - oh my god you missed those adaptations. We have GOT to get you the Peter Jackson films, you aren't even READY Crichton -"

Is. Is this mounting excitement? Is she excited right now?

[ss_buttcrack]

"Do what with a tomato...?" He is so confused. Peter Who?

He can tell from her excitement that he's been missing something, but she's got him so utterly confused still with the tomato comment.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, they made films? When?"

[crushed_pearls]

"In the late aughts or so!" Erin answers, practically bouncing on her feet. "Brilliant fucking films, tons of attention to detail, all this like, very loving character work and setting design and these super clever tricks with - like, okay, okay, so -"

Her Mantle crackles as she really gets into it, matching the energy of Erin's excitement.

"- the Battle of Helm's Deep, right, right, the director Peter Jackson needed to sound for the marching uruk-hai, really draw the audience into the idea that this was this huge army. But how do you get that sound? You could get a few hundred extras to try chanting and then multiply it but this fucking mad lad, he goes to a SOCCER STADIUM during a game, and at half time he puts the chants up on the big screen and records all these soccer fans chanting and uses that!"

[ss_buttcrack]

"You gotta be kidding me! I missed it by that little?" Why does this make him so irrationally mad? Maybe it's just the cherry on top of all the other things he misses and will miss on Earth while the universe is doing its damndest to flatten him.

As she describes the lengths Peter Jackson went to to make everything just perfect he moans with jealousy. Really? He really never got to see this?

"I've never wanted to find a wormhole and crawl back through it so much." That's a lie, obviously, but dammit!

[crushed_pearls]

(Should we comfort him?)

Well, after that John talk: no, he must die.

"They got Christopher fucking Lee in to play Saruman," Erin continues, with excitement and without mercy. "Oh man and the Bridge of Khazad-dûm! Even more than a decade later their balrog has this huge, menacing presence, this fucking evil that just smolders from the screen!"

[ss_buttcrack]

"No!" he clutches his chest like he's about to go into cardiac arrest. "He's legendary. Ugh. Who else did they get?" he asks, because he is apparently a glutton for pain.

"The Balrog! How did they do it? Was it a puppet like Jurassic Park?"

[crushed_pearls]

"I'm not sure you'd recognize most of the actors but I'll tell ya this: Lee wanted Gandalf and he lost that role to Sir Ian McKellen." Her grin is something cruel and delighted. "And, the balrog - so you know the big debate on if they have wings? Their design broke on wings but it's wreathed in this billowing, ashy smoke that distorts the shadows of the scene and blots out its fire, concealing its hideous form except when it moves to attack! I believe it had to be mostly CGI but there's a practical skeleton under it to make the movements smooth the way Jurassic Park did it, and god, the practical effects! Their Aragorn broke his foot kicking a helmet - they used that take too."

[ss_buttcrack]

More piteous moaning. "Oh, come on. You're telling me they got both those guys in the same room together?" So help him, he might go to the Captain himself and ask for a movie night just for the chance he could see this.

"Hell yeah. I always liked the idea of wings but... oh sweet mother of--someone, someone on this ship has to have these, right? You can't torture me like this, Erin. What did I ever do to you?"

[crushed_pearls]

"Oh, no one I know has them," Erin says wistfully, knowing full well that her trap is now swinging shut. "But I'll cut you a deal, Crichton. You hear out my request, and if you can tell me you'll give it a good faith attempt, I will not - I repeat, not - tell you what happened to the live-action Hobbit adaptation. Humor me; with the Fellowship lost in the Mines of Moria, young Frodo, bitter at having to live in such evil times, says that it's a pity Bilbo didn't kill Gollum when he had the chance. How does Gandalf answer?"

[ss_buttcrack]

Hold on. What's happening here? He's gone from good-humored ribbing and, well, okay some legitimate pain at missing such a cultural touchstone to... whatever this is. He's getting that feeling again like he used to get whenever he heard the smart smack of Peacekeeper boots marching down a hallway.

"It's been a while, I don't know if I can accurately quote it..." but he knows the scene she's talking about and it isn't making him any less suspicious.

"What's this really about? What's the request?"

[crushed_pearls]

"In two parts. The first is non-negotiable; if you're at an event I'm hosting, be civil to my friend Mister John Doe. I take guest-right very, very seriously Crichton, and though I'm quite fond of you I will not hesitate to throw you out, literally, if you force my hand. The second is to keep Gandalf's answer in mind in your dealings with him in the future. No threats, no punishments, I'm not here as an enforcer...well, except insofar as learning what happened to the Hobbit will destroy your faith in a benevolent God. But I'd like you to give it serious thought all the same."

Did she just compare John to Gollum? Yes. Does she regret it? No. Will she be telling John that? Fuck no, fuck the hell no, good God can you imagine?

[ss_buttcrack]

John Doe? ...John. That sonofabitch! Crichton's face pinches with rage, eyebrows knitting low over his eyes. "What the hell has he been telling you? Do you have any idea what he's done?"

[crushed_pearls]

"You were at the game show, Crichton." Erin's voice has gone very soft; not threatening, not angry, but low and serious. "And here you are next to me having a good time, knowing what I've done. I'm not asking you to like him. Just don't be cruel. Is that a lot to ask?"

[ss_buttcrack]

He heard what the Captain said, yes, and it has haunted him. But he put it in the same box he put his knowledge of Aeryn's Peacekeeper past in and let it stay there. But this... is more personal to him.

"From me, it is. You don't..." He runs his hands down his face. "You don't get it. He took Arthur over and he made Arthur kill his own partner. He made Arthur have to live with that and I... I know what that's like. I know what it is to live with some asshole in your--"

Shit.

He freezes in place with a look of terror in his eyes that far surpasses any worry over having the future of the Hobbit cinematic universe spoiled for him.

[crushed_pearls]

Erin...

Lets him freeze. Thinks it over. She does Crichton the courtesy of looking away and letting him get his composure as much as he can before she says, still in that soft voice: "Given the option between joining me to scout ahead or ending this conversation there, what's your pick?"

[ss_buttcrack]

He's sucking deep breaths in, both fists curled into tight balls that don't stop the trembling from showing. He really has to think about it. Does he want to take this any further? What happens if he backs out, walks away? Is that the end of a friendship?

"I'll scout ahead with you."

[crushed_pearls]

"Works for me. I'm a big girl so if you need someone else to fill in, just go get 'em."

An open door back out of the conversation; an excuse for Crichton to stop short, if he needs to. Erin moves on ahead.

He'll start talking when he's ready.

[ss_buttcrack]

The stated out is appreciated. Not that he wouldn't be bold enough to stomp off if he really felt like it, her permission or not. But it does give him hope that maybe all isn't lost.

He does stay quiet for a time, thinking of how he wants to start, realizing he's about to spew more vitriol and closing his mouth around it instead. Fine. Maybe she'll understand it better if he takes it from the beginning.

"Remember when I told you about that heist at the party? How my worst enemy wants something from me and he'll do anything to get it? I do mean anything. This one is... one of the bad stories."

[crushed_pearls]

"I'm sensing that," Erin agrees softly. "And like...you don't need to justify yourself to me. Cards on the table, John actually asked me to stay out of it. 'm here meddling because we get along, not because I think I can strong-arm or threaten you."

"...But...I do understand about needing to get a bad story out. If that's what you want."

cw: torture/body implants

[ss_buttcrack]

"You'll be the... fourth person, I think, that's heard this here. And I don't want it getting back to John." But he does now feel the need to justify himself, despite what she says. He's not just being obtuse for no reason.

"First time I met Scorpius, I was infiltrating his Gammak base. His base of operations. He was trying to create a weapon, and the base was dedicated to researching that. I didn't know or care about that, I was only there because I needed a tissue sample from a genetically compatible match to save my crewmate Aeryn's life. Peacekeepers and Humans look alike, so I dressed up like one and used a stolen Identity Chip to bluff my way in. I almost got away with it, until Scorpius caught me."

He starts out in a slow monotone cadence as he tells this, flat and emotionless because that's the only way he can possibly recount the thing he's had nightmares about ever since.

"He thought I was a spy trying to steal his tech. He put me in his... chair. It reads memories. Rips them out of you if you fight it. We were maybe an hour in when it...hit a barrier. A mental wall hiding something. I didn't know. I didn't know that an ancient race I ran into earlier had gifted me with the knowledge he wanted. The entire point of his whole operation and it was stuck in my head." That last part starts to sound heated. A cruel laugh crackles in the back of his throat because... wouldn't you know it? What a cosmic joke. He walked right in.

"The moment Scorpius realized what I had locked in my brain, it was over for me. God, I went round and round in that chair..." He closes his eyes and swallows hard against a sudden rise of bile.

"But he couldn't get to it. I couldn't give it to him even if I wanted to. Those Ancients locked it down hard. So, he did the next best thing. He put a chip in my head. Neuro chip." He taps his temple. "Containing him. A clone of his damn personality that was supposed to secretly live in my head worming its way in and trying to unlock the secrets. I wasn't ever supposed to know about it. But... somehow...I gained access to it. It glitched or, something. Suddenly, I was seeing and hearing Scorpius like he was right there all the time. I can feel him. I can talk to him. Hell, I even named him. Harvey! Harvey the invisible frelling rabbit. And he's still in there! I tried to cut him out. After what he made me do to Aeryn I..." His voice cracks and he catches himself on the edge of a sob. When did tears start leaking down his face?

"The chip is long gone but he's still... he still whispers to me. I thought, when I woke up here, I thought it was the same as Arthur. I thought maybe he was gone. Didn't get ported over with me. But he's... I think maybe he just wants me to think that."

[crushed_pearls]

That is. A lot. Erin's mind wanders, involuntarily, back to her dark cell and the things done to her in order to make it bright. Often she has had to remind herself that the Lost do not own a monopoly on suffering, but this...this needs no reminder.

She reaches her hand out and squeezes Crichton's shoulder.

"...It's never easy, when your own mind's not a safe place to be. I'm sorry." Shaky breath in. Hold it together, Erin, it's...well, no, it's not okay, but you can play being okay on TV here. He doesn't need you losing your shit out of sympathy. "The voices in my head aren't always the friendliest. Not...to that extent...but. Well. You probably get it."

[ss_buttcrack]

"Yeah. I know. I'm my own worst enemy and I live with him looking over my shoulder every damn day. But..." the heat comes back into his voice, "at least he doesn't have the gal to call himself my friend."

Not Here?

[redlightgreenlight]

The sensation of an unusually high level of distress draws her attention back to where Crichton and Erin are speaking. Whatever it is, she hopes it's not about his ass again. It's not bad looking, but she's not interested in it beyond that.