GLoG 89

[Morty]

[On the Way Back]

Sophie is quiet for a moment. Tricky. It's Kate, alright, but maybe some sort of alternate version of her? Either way, she's not equipped to deal with this. She needs someone who knew Kate better... and that means Julie. It's a risk, because it might give her succubus friend false hope, but she doesn't see another option.

"I see. I think there's someone here you should meet... she might be able to help us figure it out."

[The Bushranger]

Infirmary

"This evil woman came up to me whilst I was out in the woods. She showed me some dead animals- at least, I thought they were dead. I hoped they were. But, the badger was still struggling, so I didn't look long and threw up. She said I could come with her or join them, so she took me through a portal. I escaped, eventually. I tried opening my own portal, but I couldn't, so I made a dimensional rift instead. It was unstable, and tried closing around me. I had to fight to keep it open all the time I was using it." She's covered in scratches and cuts from where it tried to close around her, and she's temporarily exhausted her entire magic supply, so she can't summon anything until it's recovered, which will take a while.

Jamie's eyes widen as Natalie tells what had happened, and when she finishes she goes to pull her friend into a very tight hug. While using her abilities to try to take away whatever discomfort Natalie is feeling from the scratches.

"That's...that's terrible! I wish I'd been there. I should have been there to help. I'm sorry..."

[Lost_Deep]

On the Way Back

Kate nods. "Okay, if you say so." She obviously has doubts about it, though. Or perhaps about this entire situation.

[Morty]

[On the Way Back ==> Rowan Cabin]

And Sophie leads Kate there, hoping Julie or at least Eric are home.

[Earl of Purple]

Infirmary

If Jamie can feel how the scratches feel, she knows it's quite painful- like being covered in shallow paper cuts; deep enough to really sting but most are not enough to bleed.

"If you were there too, one or both of us might have joined the animals. She's the most powerful person I've met, I think. She created the realm I escaped from." Natalie will squeeze back, really unwilling to let go.

I'm not sure if Clarissa did create KINDER, but Natalie believes that to be the case.

[Halae]

[Rowan Cabin]

Assuming the door is knocked on, there's a young girl that answers. pitch black skinned and with a third eye in the center of her forehead, it's Scylla! This new Kate may be a bit surprised to find that Scylla also has a nest of tentacles for a lower body instead of legs.

Her face goes from surprise, to confusion, to joy, and Kate will suddenly find a pseudo-preteen launching herself for a hug, "Auntie Kate! You're here!"

Uh oh.

[Lost_Deep]

Rowan Cabin

Utter confusion.

It's a thing with an extra eye and tentacles, and it knows her name, and it calls her auntie, and it's hugging her. Kate's look is one of total non-understanding, to the point that she seems to check out, mentally, for a moment.

[Morty]

[Rowan Cabin]

"Scylla, are your parents home? I'm afraid Kate needs their help," Sophie asks, sighing inwardly. Really, she should have seen this coming.

[Halae]

[Rowan Cabin]

Scylla will let go of Kate, smiling brightly. Save for being part eldritch abomination, it's fairly easy to tell she'll be quite beautiful when she's older, "Yeah! Let me go get daddy!" She rushes off, her tentacles moving in a weird form of locomotion as she goes to retrieve Eric.

Sophie and Kate will have a moment to process what just happened before the super-psychic appears.

[Lost_Deep]

Rowan Cabin

"Effl... ada... tacl... seh... hivel... nucle... baha... refo... nefl?"

After that, Kate looks slowly at Sophie. She is so confused. So very confused. Her eyes beg for an explanation.

[Morty]

[Rowan Cabin]

"That girl and her sister know you as their aunt. Or a godmother, you could say. Or someone who looks and is named exactly like you, at any rate. I wanted you to speak with her parents, but I didn't predict her opening the door," Sophie explains. "They should be able to help us figure out what's going on."

[Lost_Deep]

Rowan Cabin

Kate's brain works for a moment. "Wait, so the reason you know me is because I'm good friends with the couple here, and... that doesn't make any sense. She shakes her head strongly. I've never been here. She points in the direction that Scylla went. I've never seen anything like that-" Kate stops suddenly. She seem unsure. "Have I?"

[Morty]

[Rowan Cabin]

"I think you have," Sophie says. "Or at least, some.. version of you has. That's what I brought you here to find out."

[Halae]

[Rowan Cabin]

After a moment, Scylla will return, dragging her father along behind her. He looks surprised when he sees Kate, but remains composed, and keeps his daughter from leaping in for another hug. For those who may be unaware, he looks entirely human, save that there's a strange lightness to his step, and the air around him buzzes with power.

"Look! Look! I told you!" Scylla says enthusiastically, bouncing up and down in place.

After a moment of surprise, Eric regains his composure and waves the two women inside, "Let me guess - flash of light, possibly a terrible sound, and you've no idea where you've ended up or how you got here, right?"

Seems Eric is on the ball. One has to wonder how he figured this out.

[Lost_Deep]

Rowan Cabin

Kate looks at Eric when he enters, and nods to his question. "Yeah, yeah. Well, kind of. Less of a flash and more just everything going... weird. And there was some noise, but I'm not really sure what it was?" Kate shrugs, and then after a moment awkwardly asks, "Um, have we met? You seem familiar for some reason."

[Morty]

[Rowan Cabin]

"I was coming back from Riverside when I saw her appear," Sophie says. "I was hoping you and Julie might help me work out what's going on here."

[Halae]

[Rowan Cabin]

Eric nods. he goes to sit on his recliner, and Scylla climbs up onto his lap, which he's fine with, "Alright, Kate, this is going to sound odd, but we've got a couple ways of doing this. Do you want all the information dumped on you right away and then we give you some time to process it, or talk about it slow, letting you ask questions along the way?"

[Lost_Deep]

Rowan Cabin

"Uh, slowly, I think. Things have been moving a little fast for me since I... got here?" Eric might notice that Kate is carefully not staring at Scylla. She keeps looking around the room, like she can't quite believe what she's seeing.

[Morty]

[Rowan Cabin]

Sophie sits down on the nearest available piece of furniture, letting Eric explain things.

[Halae]

[Rowan Cabin]

"Right, the first thing to say; You're in the Nexus. Given you're Kate, I'm fairly certain you vaguely know what that means, but to enlighten you, we're in a cross-dimensional point. It's constantly changing, and the people who fall out of their own realities end up here. As for why everything seems to familiar... You've already been here. Or another version of you, at least." Eric frowns. He's fairly certain that this is an alternate Kate from a different world. Let's not drop her death on this new one so soon.

[Lost_Deep]

Rowan Cabin

"Seriously?" Kate asks, looking doubtful. "Even ignoring the alternate me thing, you're saying I fell out of my reality, into the "Nexus"? It's not like I was doing anything that would warp reality. Okay, I was on a ftl spaceship, but people have been doing that for hundreds of years! And I remember the transition to tesseract drive, too, so it couldn't be a drive malfunction. And even if it was, a tesseract drive is 67% safeguards to keep anything like that from happening! And you're telling me that this has happened twice now? I don't know what the other Kate was up to when she got here, but this entire thing sounds utterly..." Kate takes a deep breath, "Utterly impossible." she says it like she knows it isn't true. She shakes her head, as if to clear it.

[Halae]

[Rowan Cabin]

"Maybe it is, and you'll just wake up eventually feeling like you just had an incredibly strange dream. But on the other hand, if you're really looking at a man who claims to be an extremely powerful psychic and his farspawn daughter, you need to wrap your head around what's going on. The how doesn't matter; what does matter is that you are, in fact, here."

"Have you ever heard the concept of "The One"? In theory, it's that the multiverse has copies of every existing individual ever in different dimensions. It was only a matter of time until someone had multiple copies of themselves land here, if that holds true. And if I'm right, you're absorbing the essence she left here in the Nexus."

"Daddy, does that mean she's not really Auntie Kate?" Scylla asks, frowning.

"She's close, but she's not the Auntie you knew, kiddo." Erin says, patting Scylla on the head.

"Oh. Okay." She looks like she's about to say more, but Eric shushes her so that the conversation with Kate can go on.

[Lost_Deep]

Rowan Cabin

"So, there's another Kate here-wait. She left? She got back to where she came from?" Kate looks hopeful for a moment. She hadn't even thought about escape yet, but knowing that it's possible immediately brightens her mood.

Poor girl...

[Halae]

[Rowan Cabin]

Eric looks at Kate sadly, resting a hand on Scylla's head as the far child rests her head against his chest for comfort - the loss is still fairly fresh for the family, and the old Kate was a very good friend of the family. They miss her.

"No."

[Lost_Deep]

Rowan Cabin

"...oh." Kate looks awkward. She then realizes what this must be like for them, having a dead girl show up like this. That makes her MORE awkward. She tries to find some words, but there aren't any. She turns that over in her mind one more time.

"Am I being possessed by the ghost of an alternate me!?!" and given the sudden panic and look of horror, Kate's paranoid streak just kicked in.

[Halae]

[Rowan Cabin]

"Given Kate couldn't be resurrected by the god that presided over her funeral, I very much doubt her soul stuck around long enough to play body snatcher," Eric says. Scylla is remaining silent, something Sophie may recognize as Eric and the little girl talking in their minds.

[Lost_Deep]

Rowan Cabin

"That's, uh, good, I guess. Wait, a god?" and now she's looking at Eric like he's crazy again. This is going to take a while.

[Halae]

[Rowan Cabin]

"We can leave that one for later; I'm sure you'll meet him eventually," Eric smiles slightly, remembering how Julie told him Cos was crushing on Kate, "For now, do you have any other questions?"

[Lost_Deep]

Rowan Cabin

Kate seems to want to object for a second, but Eric IS the one who knows what's going on here. She thinks for a bit, but for some reason all the questions that come to her don't feel important for some reason. After a bit she asks, "What was she like?"

[Zefir]

Infirmary

"I leave you alone. call me if anything happens." Andy says befor leaving the infirmary to take a walk outside. He will still be close to the infirmary so if any new pacient comes or if anything happen.