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

[ss_buttcrack]

"Yeah, according to Nobunaga, the Bahanimal is having babies, so we might have an entire little pack of the bastards to watch out for." He sounds just so thrilled about that, doesn't he?

"So, first day's done. How are you feeling?" This entire expedition has been subtly putting him back into the mindset of a Commander, checking on his crew. So, he's going with that feeling.

[not_the_last]

"A little sore," she admits. "And tired. I'm not used to quite this much walking. And you?"

[ss_buttcrack]

"All things considered, I'm doing all right. I try to keep myself in shape doing jogs around the ship."

He looks down at her feet to check what kind of footwear she's got on. "Do you need a better pair of shoes for this? We can probably snag some sneakers off a nearby rack in here."

[not_the_last]

Her footwear is a pair of sturdy boots, made (like the song goes) for walking.

"Sneakers?" she says with a curious look.

[ss_buttcrack]

Those boots aren't bad, actually. They're a close match to the combat ones he's got on. So, maybe this is a fruitless mission. Still, since she asked.

"I could try and explain it to you, but it might be quicker just to show you. They have rubber soles and are usually made of fabric and more rubber. Here, take a look." He will lead her a short distance to a display of women's sneakers in a boring range of colors from white to navy blue.

"See? These."

[not_the_last]

She looks at them with more fascination than they might seem to merit, picking one up and flexing the sole.

"You could move without a sound in these. -- Is that why they're called sneakers?"

[ss_buttcrack]

"You know... that might be why? I'm not actually sure." The number of times he's had to question why a thing is called that and simply didn't have an answer is getting into the double digits since he got here. So much he's taken for granted.

"You could try a pair on and see what they do for you. Have to figure out your size. They have numbers in them to help you pick."

[not_the_last]

"Perhaps I'll do that while we rest. Not on watch, though." Potentially too distracting, not to mention the possibility of the alarm going up while she's only got one shoe on.

[ss_buttcrack]

"You got a good point. I remember the time our ship got attacked while I was still in my underwear and let me tell you, trying to run to battle stations while also putting various pieces of clothes on doesn't go well." He got into a habit of sleeping with his boots on after a while.

[not_the_last]

She laughs, a touch dryly. "Something like that happened to my brother and his friends once. Fighting off orc bandits in their pajamas ... I wasn't there for it, but I heard the story later."

Specifically, she heard Shorthalt composing a song about it, in which the phrase butt flap featured prominently.

[ss_buttcrack]

"Lucky him, he had his pajamas on at least," he quips. "But now look at you, going on your own adventures. If I know how these things go, you'll probably walk out of here with at least one interesting and slightly embarrassing story of your own."

[not_the_last]

"That'll be something," she agrees, because it feels unnecessarily dismal to say something like and who would I tell it to?

Unnecessarily dismal to think, too, she admonishes herself.

[ss_buttcrack]

She doesn't have to say it; he can practically hear the echo of it in his own mind.

"I miss my sisters a lot too. I know how much it sucks. I'm sorry. I wish I'd gotten the chance to tell them any of my stories."

[not_the_last]

She glances up at him swiftly, and there's a pause before she responds.

Soft: "You have sisters?"

[ss_buttcrack]

"Yep." There's a melancholy fondness in his expression. He misses them. God, he misses them. But he's had years to come to terms with it, so the pain is less sharp.

"I'm the middle child. Susan's the oldest and Olivia is the youngest. And there was me, smack in the middle."

[not_the_last]

There's a pause.

Still soft: "I was the youngest. Two older sisters and four older brothers."

She's had years, too, but the pain of loss is different; what's parted them isn't just space and time, but life and death.

"Julius, Vesper, Percival, Whitney, Oliver, Ludwig, and me last of all. It's just me and Percy, now."

[ss_buttcrack]

"And you had to carry on for so long without them, alone," he says with deep reverence. No wonder she's so strong.

"Could you tell me something about them? Or, would that be too hard?"

[not_the_last]

"... I think I'd like to."

There's a note of faint surprise when she says it, surprise and wonder; it's not the answer she would have expected to give.

[ss_buttcrack]

"I'd like to hear it."

He knows that feeling she's having. It's the same wonder he had for himself when someone asked him the same question about his mother. It was only four--maybe five or six by now--years ago that she passed, and at first he was afraid to say anything for fear it would open those old wounds. But talking about the things he loves and misses about her actually helped more than it hurt.

[not_the_last]

"Julius ... was so much older than me, he was almost like another parent. He was the heir. He and Vesper were already taking on some of my parents' work, learning how to run things for the future ... There was a girl he was courting, one of the barons' daughters. I think they probably would have been married within a year or so."

Her voice is distant, like someone telling a story they can only just remember.

"Vesper was brilliant. Full of ideas for making things, for building enchantments into things that looked ordinary ... she wasn't an enchanter herself, but she would commission the work when she could. Oliver wanted to learn magic when he was older, I think he would have worked with her. Whitney loved the castle dogs and horses, she spent half her time in the stables and the kennels ... she used to play dolls with me when I was little, even once she was too old to really like dolls. Ludwig was a terrible brat and I miss him. I miss them all so much."

[ss_buttcrack]

"Thank you for sharing such wonderful memories of them. That's how we keep them with us, you know?"

Suddenly, just holding a hand doesn't seem like enough. He can't offer her much, but he can do more than this.

"Would you like a hug?"

[not_the_last]

She inhales, eyes widening a little, more startled by the question than it merits.

And then she presses her lips together briefly and nods, small and tight, because it's either that or burst out in messy bawling like she's four years old, and she will not do that.

[ss_buttcrack]

He gets up and goes to her, wrapping her up in a warm embrace while his hands rub circles on her back.

Quietly, he tells her, "I get the sense you haven't allowed yourself to really miss them. Too much to do, right? Too many people counting on you to keep things together?"

[not_the_last]

She doesn't really hug him back, but one hand closes tightly on his shoulder, clinging a little, as she leans into his embrace.

"Not very much," she mumbles. "There was ... a little time, right after Percy came back and the Briarwoods were gone ... we were putting the castle back to rights, and we, we went through all of their rooms. All of their things."

[ss_buttcrack]

He can hug them tight enough for two, all she needs to do is take it for the comfort it is.

"I remember doing that for my mom. It was hard enough for just one person. So many memories hitting all at once. The task of trying to decide what's important or not felt so overwhelming."