(memshare) And if the night comes, and the night will come (Semi-closed)

[configuration_birdwatcher]

Who: Memory Bastion, a memory of a bird, and Dimitri. And you?
What: Belated, backdated memshare
When: Late March, but before anyone gets stuck in memory Arcadia. Like the 25th or so?
Where: A memory of the Black Forest in winter
Warnings: Probably gonna get pretty morbid in here, lots of dead omnics, dead humans might show up too. Also like, both these guys (gender-neutral) in the main thread I put this here for have pretty bad PTSD
Notes: I know it's REALLY late to be putting up memshare stuff, but if you still want to thread out one that I offered on the plotting post or you just now realised that you have to have one, come on in, just drop me a line first (DM or in the plotting chat on Discord, or cameoappearance on Plurk).

1. All the living are dead and the dead are all living; the war is over and we are beginning (Dimitri; others by request)

The rift in the forward stairwell opens onto an entirely different stairwell, in a chilly two-story wood-floored room. It appears to have been abandoned for some time, though there are still a few sacks and barrels in the corners. There are two doors at ground level and two more on the upper level, and any doors they may once have had are long gone, opening onto a snowy landscape.

Outside the door are stone and wood buildings in a state of disrepair, a few tall trees in the open space between them, shrubs and ferns peeking out of the snow, a rickety fence along the edge of a cliff with a view of the mountains in the distance, and some sort of crashed vehicle that judging by the amount of snow on top of it has been there for a while. There's shapes buried in the snow around it and scattered around the clearing, the same sun-bleached orange as the vehicle, that look an awful lot like the armor plates from Bastion's legs and shoulders.

It's not them, though. They do have the same paint job, but they're standing upright and alive with mechanical motion as they toss seeds to a fluffy yellow-green bird. At least, until some underfoot crunch or change in air currents gives you away and they almost topple over as they whirl around to face you, the bird taking flight as the omnic lets out a synthesized screech of surprise that translates to // Why is a human here?!?

2. If there's no one there, then there's no one there (Wildcard)

I'll write you a different starter if you want, just let me know.

Comments

[prince_of_beasts]

As terribly as Dimitri's been disintegrating over the past weeks -- and as much as the sudden drops into rifts have worsened that -- the blast of cold air and the smell of snow fix something in his mind. The architecture isn't quite familiar, but it's not unfamiliar, either -- this could be rural Faerghus, in the west Oghmas maybe, or near Conand Tower where there's actually enough lumber for buildings to be mostly wood.

The rift's intact behind him. Dimitri's never encountered a memory where the rift closed if it remained past the first few moments. He can ... he can explore. Just a little. He'll return as if no time had passed, so ... he can have this.

...

... first he darts back to his cabin for his coat.

It's a shame the town is thoroughly abandoned. It's not hard to see why -- some of the buildings are distinctly war-torn (bullets, Dimitri notes with a disappointed sigh). Still, the mountain air is clean, and a brush breeze has blown the worst of the powdery snow out of the road and into drifts against the buildings. After a few minutes of walking, Dimitri's dropped out of his patrol march and into a more casual stroll, breathing deep. For once -- for a little while -- it feels like peace.

Until suddenly it isn't. His first instinct is to drop into a guard, but as his hand is halfway to his sword he recognizes that piercing screech as fear, not threat. (Also, that is a gun pointed at him, so his sword is worse than useless in any case.) He steps back quickly instead, head bowed, hands raised.

"I mean you no harm," he calls out. His gaze flicks across the field; his heart sinks at those blocky, snow-covered silhouettes. "I apologize, I'm -- I seem to be very lost."

[configuration_birdwatcher]

It feels like a miracle that their combat programming hasn't activated yet just from seeing a human at this range. The human backs off and doesn't attack them with his sword(??). But now he's talking to them??? Like they're another human??? Instead of just running away??? He doesn't look visually impaired, intoxicated or injured, and he reacted to the gun, which they weren't entirely aware that they had levelled at him. They make themself lower it. Ganymede lands on their right shoulder.

// What's wrong with him? How did he get here? they say to themself, unaware that they're being translated. The human's dressed for the -11°C weather but not carrying any more supplies than he can fit under his coat, the road into town is blocked to vehicle traffic by a dead OR-14 with a Crusader's hammer permanently entangled in what's left of its head, and they would have heard an aircraft landing anywhere nearby.

[prince_of_beasts]

Dimitri ... has no idea how to answer that question, as he goes through the same calculations as Bastion in reverse. So far from any living human, the "I'm lost" or "not from around here" excuse won't serve him here. Especially not on top of a battlefield like this. It's not fresh, but it's clearly recent enough that no one could pass through the area without hearing about it.

Well, he's a dogshit liar, and honesty hasn't failed him so far. "That ... was a partial falsehood, actually. If I tried to explain where I've come from or how I arrived here I'd sound insane. But it is true that I don't know where I am, nor what's happened here. I only came to enjoy the snow."

He directs a slight wave at Ganymede. "Hello to you too, sir. Or ma'am. I'm afraid I'm not a scholar of birds."

[configuration_birdwatcher]

Bastion runs a diagnostic in case they're the one who's malfunctioning, and it comes up as close to normal (well, normal for them) as could be expected for the situation. This manifests externally as a long pause while they hold Dimitri's gaze; it resembles a blank stare in human body language.

They take a glance at the undisturbed snowy field on the far side of the cliff. They're more confused now than they were before Dimitri tried to explain himself; that clarified nothing and raised more questions, such as 'how did this human miss the entire Omnic Crisis' and 'why did he need to come up here to enjoy the snow when the whole region's been snowy for weeks'. Their sheer bafflement is doing a pretty good job of distracting them from freaking out, at least. They emit a puzzled beep. // This specific snow?

They crouch down, scoop up a handful of snow with their manipulator arm, and offer it to the inexplicable human. Ganymede chirps at Dimitri, which goes untranslated.

[prince_of_beasts]

Dimitri accepts the snow with a slight bow, meant to be lighthearted but not mocking. After a moment's consideration -- flames, there's no one up here but him, Bastion, and the bird. (Well. No one alive.)

Dimitri mashes the handful of snow against his face. It's cold enough to burn, and it's the best thing he's felt in ages.

His face is bright pink when he lowers his hands, brushes off his gloves, and heaves a pleased sigh. "Not this snow in particular, no. It's ... " Another sigh, this one exasperated. " ... well, here's the explanation that will sound insane: I came here through a portal from another world. I wasn't able to control when or where it opened. It's always hot in that other world, while I grew up in a climate much closer to this, though plains instead of mountains, so while I had access ... I do apologize for the intrusion. In hindsight that was selfish of me." A statement which will make more sense to the Bastion of the future-present.

More of an intrusion, given ... Dimitri can't keep his gaze from flicking back to the shapes beneath the snow.

[configuration_birdwatcher]

There was no one possible action that they'd assigned the highest probability of happening when they gave the snow to the human, but smashing it into his face was one of the less expected results. It gets a confused little whistle out of them.

They tilt their head as they process that. His explanation is improbable running to impossible, but so is his presence under these circumstances, so they can't just throw it out as invalid. Teleportation of intact macroscopic entities was proven to be possible by the time Bastion was manufactured, but doing it on purpose under controlled circumstances has such substantial engineering challenges that it remains experimental and dangerous even now, two decades later. This isn't far from the time that Overwatch tests a teleporting plane and loses it in the spacetime continuum on the first flight, although Bastion doesn't pay enough attention to the news - or get access to it often enough, out here in the middle of nowhere - to connect the two.

Also, the human can apparently understand omnicode as well as if Bastion was speaking a phonetic language; the first few things he said could have been a single rambling attempt to make himself understood to a model of omnic he didn't recognise, but that was a direct answer to their question. Which is quite a feat from someone who's not visibly wearing any equipment that could translate radio-frequency transmissions into audiovisual communication and on whose person they can't detect any abnormal-for-a-human heat signatures or chemical or electromagnetic emissions that would suggest cybernetic components. Which indicates access to unknown technology, so either he potentially could have been teleported here or he doesn't need more than a pocketful of supplies to have sufficient heat and sustenance for a very long walk.

// Describe this world?

They follow his gaze to where the shoulder armour of another Bastion unit pokes out from the snow. // That's not recent.