ANOMALY DETECTED

[indigo_league]

Who: ANYONE AND EVERYONE
Where: ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE
When: NOV 25TH to 27TH
Summary: GET IN HERE AND MINGLE
Rating: BUT PLEASE MARK YOUR THREAD CONTENT ACCORDINGLY
Log:






Need a reminder of our Fourth Wall Rules or what is going on this weekend? Want to check what locations have been made available? Find all your answers here!

Comments

[nightyorb]

[Riz laughs a rusty, snotty sort of laugh, and loosens the hold on Gorgug's neck a little. He's absolutely not letting go though. He lives here now. Gorgug's clavicle is his new living room, and he'll dine on his shoulders. Gorgug will simply have to deal with it.]

No way, man. [He scrubs the back of his hand over his eyes for a moment.] Your neck probably has a higher strength score than my arms.

[georgug]

[ Gorgug smiles, taking in a deep, unimpeded breath, and finally wraps his arms around Riz's much smaller shoulders. ]

Boober said you were here, but I didn't know how to find you. My crystal doesn't work here, I guess 'cause we're in another plane or something?

[ Wait. ]

Are you crying...?

[nightyorb]

[Riz isn't usually much of a crier (unless he is drunk, in which case he is very much a crier), but right now, he feels like he might burst with how much he's feeling all at once. It's partially still some relief at being finally back in his own body and not feeling wrong all the time, but mostly it's just all seeing Gorgug again -- Uncomplicated, supportive Gorgug, who might be a little quiet in a big loud group like theirs, but whose absence hurts like hell when he's not there.

Riz nudges Gorgug's shoulder at the comment.]

If you make fun of me, I'll tell Jawbone and Ragh.

[Not that Gorgug ever would. Which is why Riz has no problem with resting his chin on Gorgug's shoulder, his tail coming up to wrap around Gorgug's wrist.]

I've been here for a year, Gorgug. More than that. Just me. You're the first person I've seen from back home in all that time.

[georgug]

I'm pretty sure Jawbone would say it's okay to cry...

[ So would his parents, probably. They'd probably have some kind of song to sing about it.

But Gorgug's confused by the rest of what Riz says. ]

What do you...? I don't get it, I was just with you. We were all together, you, me, and Fabian.

[nightyorb]

[That catches Riz's attention and pulls it back to the far more important question of what has been going on in their world. Stupid. He should've been focusing on that first, right, instead of getting all emotional. Especially when the last thing Gorgug remembers isn't at all what Riz remembers. The last thing he remembers was being with his dad.

He pulls back so he can look at Gorgug's face (though he doesn't actually let go of him, his claws threaded lightly with Gorgug's hoodie.]

Gorgug, it's important. What's the last thing you remember?

[georgug]

[ Gorgug's eyebrows go up, surprised by the sudden shift in Riz's demeanor. But he knows Riz well enough to know that when Riz thinks something is important, it usually is. ]

Uhh, we were at Corey Durden's party. With Ragh.

[nightyorb]

[Riz's frown deepens further. Now, Riz can remember each party he's ever been to extremely well. Primarily because he can count them all on his fingers without issue. But he has never, never ever been to one of Corey Durden's parties.]

I've never been to one of Corey Durden's parties.

[georgug]

Uh. What...?

[ Gorgug's first thought was that maybe he had somehow gotten drugged at Corey's party, and hallucinated that Riz was there when he wasn't. But no, that makes no sense. ]

N-no, that was the whole point. Fig, Kristen, and Adaine were out with the Maidens and we were having a boys' night.

[nightyorb]

A boy's night?

[They've also never had a boy's night before! The three of them don't even have a separate chat group together.

Is this even Gorgug? Maybe he shouldn't think like that, but his brain has always been prone to paranoia. What if this is something imitating Gorgug? Riz hates suspecting his friends of anything, but now that the thought has entered his mind, it's also hard to shake.

Maybe. Maybe if he just asks something that only Gorgug would know? Some sort of detail so small that anyone trying to pass themselves off as Gorgug wouldn't know.]

Quick, what was that pet Fig had in our first year? The one she carted around for weeks even though it was dead?

[Most of that had taken place over their solstice break, so few people would know that, right? Probably only the Bad Kids and Gilear.]

[georgug]

[ Gorgug's face twisted in disgust at the memory, even though he doesn't entirely get Riz's reasons for asking. ]

The... oyster? That she brought to my parents solstice party, in a glass of water?

[nightyorb]

[Riz's face twists in sympathy disgust (and just plain memory of the smell) But still, this is good. He doesn't think anyone else would know that sort of thing.]

Yeah, the oyster. Sorry, I had to make sure you were you. It's just--

The last thing I remember, or, at least, the last time we were all together, we were in hell. Not going to any parties.

[georgug]

[ To be honest, after everything they went through this year, Gorgug isn't suprised that Riz wants to make extra sure that he is who he says he is. ]

Oh.

[ ... ]

Oh!

[ .................. ]

No, wait, what??

[nightyorb]

When we were going to the party, what was the date?

[This is a super fucked up situation, which makes Riz suspect that chronomancy may somehow be involved. Cause time fuckery always turns everything into a pain in the ass.]

[georgug]

It was [ insert date of whenever Boys' Night took place... sometime in the fall, clearly after sophomore year. ]

[nightyorb]

[Riz's eyes, if possible, widen even further.]

But-- that's months from now. The last thing I remember, we were doing our Spring Break project.

[Oh god. This is some future Gorgug. Wait, does that mean Riz can ask him the answers to all the questions he has about their situation? Or would that fuck up the timeline? Or is he actually supposed to do that? Is this a stable time loop situation, or one where there are divergences?

If only Adaine was here to help untangle his tangled web of timelines.]

[georgug]

But...

[ He frowns, harder than he's ever frowned. ]

Is this a Chronomancy thing? Is Arthur Aguefort here?

[nightyorb]

Unfortunately not.

[Not that Riz relishes the idea of being saved by his principal, but Arther would probably be able to sort this whole mess out in a few minutes.

Or he could grow 500 feet tall and grab the sun again. One of those two.]

It's this plane. People get kidnapped here and they can come from anywhere and any time.

Honestly, right now isn't even how this place normally looks like. I don't know why exactly, but normally everybody who arrives here gets polymorphed into a human and loses their powers. But every half year, for three days, people get back their regular bodies and powers. That's what's going on right now.

My theory is that whatever spells are being cast, probably need to be recharged every six months. Like, whatever is doing this can only hold concentration or whatever for so long, you know?

[Riz lets go of Gorgug's shoulder to gesture wildly. And, frankly, this is far more info than Gorgug requested, but all the Bad Kids know about Riz's tendency to info dump.]

[georgug]

[ Gorgug knows Riz well enough by now to just sit and nod along, interjecting his thoughts here and there as there are breaks in the conversation. ]

Boober said that, yeah. That everyone's usually made human.

[ It seemed kind of weird and racist to Gorgug at the time. ]

I don't— I mean... I know magic isn't really my thing, but, uh. Six months feels like a long time to hold concentration on a spell.

[nightyorb]

Oh, you met Boober? That's good.

[An absent comment as Riz thinks over Gorgug's comment.]

Yeah, it's probably not concentration exactly, but some sort of resource that needs to be renewed. Adaine would probably know more about it. This isn't exactly my area of expertise either. But it's the only thing that would make sense given the facts of the case. Why else would this [Here he just gestures around himself at everything.] happen with such regularity?

[georgug]

So... Leviathan shows up in this plane regularly?

[ He may not entirely get what it was that Riz was gesturing to. ]

But, wait. If the last thing you remember from home is spring break... And you've been here for a— for more than a year...

Does that make you older than me, now?

[nightyorb]

No, actually, that's pretty new too. Normally--

[Except Riz doesn't get to tell him what things are like normally, because then Gorgug asks that question and wow. Is he? Riz doesn't really like to think too much about the time that has been passing here. It just drives home the fact that he is not, well, home. He doesn't want to out-age the other Bad Kids through the virtue of being stuck in a weird place.]

I-- I don't think that matters.

[georgug]

Oh, uhhh. No, I didn't mean that it— I don't think it matters, it's just. It's kind of weird, right?

[ He shakes his head. ] Never mind. Forget it.

So, um. Boober said you had told him about me— a-about the rest of us?

[nightyorb]

Oh yeah. I've told a lot of people about you guys.

[It helps keep them alive in Riz's mind. He misses all the Bad Kids like one would miss a limb. Sometimes his mind is so certain they are still right there, that he'll be turning to point something out to Fabian, or elbow Fig before she can make the comment that Riz knows she'll be going to make, but then there is no one there and it hurts all over again.

Riz hesitates for a moment, then buries his face against the front of Gorgug's hoodie, so he won't have to look him in the eye, as he mumbles]

I miss all of you guys so much. It sucks. I keep waiting cause I know you'll get me out of here once you figure out where I am, but it still sucks so much.

[georgug]

[ Gorgug frowns, his big hands fumbling away in the air before settling themselves on Riz's back again. ]

It's okay, man. I'll... I'll go back and tell everyone where you are. Maybe Adaine can think of a way to get you home. We'll... We'll figure it out, somehow.

[nightyorb]

Yeah.

[Riz absolutely trusts the Bad Kids to figure this out. Like he told his dad -- he's got some pretty powerful friends.

The problem is just...]

I just don't know how it works with all this... time stuff. I was never gone during Spring Break from what you can remember, right? But I am here now. Does that mean me coming here altered time somehow? That I made the future you are in impossible?