@stephen.strange | via morningstar network, a couple of days after cassius' post

[rehandle]

[ It isn't real. That's a fact upon a fact: none of it is real, but this even less so.

Usually, knowledge matters. It had for a while here too. Taken him from staggering frantically down part-collapsed tunnels over obstacles whose names he didn't know, calls giving way to bellows, in search first of life and then just of obstacles whose names he did know— to sitting quietly, raking thick air into his lungs, body too beleaguered to be good for more than waiting for the day to end.

And eventually he'd slept. And the day did end. And when he woke and turned on his flashlight to gear himself up for greeting the millions who ought now to be staggering back down into the tunnels, fresh from their reset - he'd found them exactly where he'd left them.

This will not be ending soon. This will not be over until somebody makes it so. But his thoughts won't be gathered into shape. The wall at his back is still hot from the blast. The air is cloying. His skin sloughs under his touch.

The quiet is too heavy. He needs the reminder. ]



Talk to me
Please



[ ooc: for those in the sim, none of the things described in the above brackets will be visible to anyone but him, but Stephen will have been seen by some about half a day before this post searching haphazardly around the tunnels, calling both in general and then specifically for people, then staring very intently with varying expressions of grim hopelessness at patches of nothing, and eventually giving that up for sitting very quietly on the ground in a tunnel somewhere. He's non-responsive to attempts to interact with him throughout and wouldn't previously have been replying to any attempts to contact him via the network either.

Feel free to assume your character has spotted him or been aggressively bumped into by him or heard about him being Weird, or on the flipside to have no idea he's been acting like he's having a really bad trip. ]

Comments

@ren.amamiya

[variate]

Hey.
I thought about a new special for the bar.

[rehandle]

[ It's possibly the most Ren text he could have sent. Earns an immediate weak snatch of a smile. ]

Go ahead.

@tifa.lockhart

[powersouls]

Are you alright?

[rehandle]

I've been better

@hafid.alghul

[batricide]

I'm here.

[rehandle]

[ Thank god. Not real not real not real not real.

A debrief, first. Context, both for Damian and for anybody else who might need it. ]

Judas has me isolated in an offshoot of the simulation. The city is dead.

@kyna.medina

[evocation]

[Kyna is down for a distraction too, so—]

i can't believe you haven't fired tim yet

[rehandle]

[ Hah. ]

I think about it every day.

@bartholomew.peanut

[speediest]

stephen strange as in
sorcerer prime or whatever?

[rehandle]

Close enough.

@tomoe.mikage

[jinshi]

[ it's a plea that Tomoe is not— altogether unfamiliar with, in sentiment. and though he lacks empathy, and feels no particular concern for a stranger, all this situation requires is boredom enough to engage. he doesn't even need to care about the outcome. low effort, low stakes. ]

I've been thinking about reading human literature.
Any recommendations?

[rehandle]

I can rattle off some great medical journals and ancient tomes on mysticism but I'm not sure how many of them would accessible now

@gabriel.reyes

[gravemistake]

Feeling lonely?

[rehandle]

Desperately.

[ It's funny because everyone's dead. ]

@xuanyu.mo

[laozu]

Mister, you have no idea how GOOD the food is in New Beijing. Even now, it's arguably the best food in the world - bar none. Not even your own bar, ha! There may be a surplus of vegetable-based foods, and I might be missing a good pork broth, but when you add a spicy sauce to cucumber you really cannot go wrong. The CRONCH is simply divine. Did you know "CRONCH" was a "meme" in ages past? Or, ages future-past, in my case. Anyways, I'm thinking we should include some nice, spicy meals at the bar. I only sing there, so if I need to submit my ideas in a formal manner, I'll

ughhhhhhhh

do paperwork. But, only because it's you. You should feel treasured!!!

[rehandle]

[ In the dark he sputters out a laugh. It catches, he coughs. Fine droplets of blood make a delicate pattern on his shirt. ]

I'll spare you the paperwork

But only because it's you

@robert.plant

[righteously]

you hanging in there, man?
I think somebody got wise to the whole shtick
I gotta be honest, shit's starting to feel a little off

[rehandle]

[ Shit's starting to feel a little off.

Not reassuring, exactly. But at least it isn't this. At least he hasn't condemned him to this. ]

It's Judas. Hang on to that. What you're feeling is by design

@marta.cabrera

[veraz]

Would you like to know what the rest of us are seeing around you
or talk about something completely unrelated

[rehandle]

Anything

[ No, actually, now she's given him some direction - ]

How are things going?

[ A search for the specifics of life continuing on. ]

@yennefer.vengerberg

[angerberg]

Did you do this on purpose?

[ mistrust is the word of the day for those on supply runs, so after waking up only to die of traumatic blood loss from an incomplete brain surgery that she'd never signed up for a second time, she's wondering if judas hadn't already converted some of them by the time these plans developed.

and it must have been the plans. she can't assume anything else might have led to the change. ]

[rehandle]

No.

[ Though, in truth: ]

There was always a risk

What's going on?

[kill7]

hi gramps how u holding up

[rehandle]

[ The one time a shot to the ego isn't unwelcome ]

The back's a little stiff.

[ Might as well stick to the theme ]

[wangxian]

[ ah. this is a tone he knows.

but, lan wangji is no conversationalist. he is no bright and engaging thing. ]

I am listening.

[ he pauses. not entirely as he has asked, sure, but: ]

I have no time limit.

[ sometimes this is the best someone like him can do. ]

[rehandle]

[ It's not dissimilar from what he expects he'd say were their situations changed. ... No, actually, that's doing the other man a discredit. Stephen Strange has never been a particularly patient, generous kind of person.

Suffice to say the sincerity of the offer shines through. ]

Thank you.

[ He'll ease into it. For now - ]

Who knew that actions have consequences?

[ A joke asked mainly at his own expense, but also one that's partly shared. They've shared a choice that came at the same cost. The point is that learning that particular lesson is a new trick for an old dog and he just isn't ready to take it on board. ]

@wade.wilson

[ishotyouuu]

not rly how a booty call starts out there boss man

ur outta practice

lucky 4 u im an accommodating guy ;D

[rehandle]

[ And then there's Wade. ]

I don't even know where to begin

@goro.akechi

[impede]

Would you like to engage in a discussion of morality?

[rehandle]

[ For as Ren as Ren had been, Akechi is equally as Akechi. ]

Sure.

[ He'd like to engage in anything. And Akechi has a certain talent for sticking kitten claws into a mind for the duration of a conversation that might well come in handy. ]

@clarke.griffin

[strove]

Where are you?

[Before replying, Clarke read what she could. What he's experiencing is something she's familiar with—that she's lived through herself.

The last thing Stephen should be right now is alone.

At least he knew to reach out. It's smart. A sign of some stability.]

[rehandle]

Tunnels somewhere to the north of main medical.

[ Direct, to the point, as is their way. If she needed more information she'd have asked for it so he keeps his spare words to himself. ]

Wish I could be more specific

[ But he's all turned around. ]

@nill.klein

[culver]

[alarm bells going off because phase two is giving her some strong thisavrou flashbacks anyway]

I'm here. What happened?

[rehandle]

[ Don't scare the kids don't scare the kids don't scare the kids

Except the kids are hardly kids, and have lived through exactly the same as he has in the last however long they've been trapped inside their own minds. It's crueller to underestimate and shut her out now than it is to tell her the truth. ]

Judas decided I needed some alone time

[antihistamine]

oh hey. how are u doing??

[ Lottie is not in the simulation because she wanted to try to expand her brand to Neo Tokyo. That didn't really work and now she can't get back into New Amsterdam. Her engagement is way down!! What a spiral.

Also another weird thing seems to be happening to the other kidnapped people but she hasn't really been paying attention to that, because, see above. ]

[rehandle]

[ Ah, it's Lottie. He hasn't seen her, hasn't heard any mention of her underground or seen her pop up on the shared forum, which she's bound to have were she down there. He's hoping that means she isn't. One less influencer trying to survive in the simulation is a point in favor of small mercies. ]

I could be worse

[ Could you, Stephen, please paint that picture for us ]

Where are you?

[ Just to be sure. ]

@david.washington

[hardwearing]

[ Wash doesn't know what specifically is wrong, but doesn't have to. He recognizes his boss' name and the fact that even from those four words he must be extremely distressed, and answers. With the first thing he can think of. ]

Here or do you need company?

[rehandle]

I can't have company

[ A non-answer, but at least one that makes the decision ]

Here works fine