thespherelogs | That was a hell of a nap!

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That was a hell of a nap!

Who: Llewellyn Watts and anyone!
When: Through the month of October
Where: Watts’ Private Investigation Ageny, The Market, Dorm Dome 2
What: Open Logs!
Warnings: Nothing yet, but there will probably references to the last couple months with the plot? I will update with anything major!

(OOC: So here are a few general starters, personalized ones will be added below in the comments! If you want something personalized I can write something up too! Or if you want to throw something at me, go for it! Basically, I’m back from hiatus and I missed you all! I want to get threads going! ALSO, if you’d rather something with action brackets, I can match! Message me on Plurk or WhimsicalSpook#8219 on Discord :D)

The Dorms - OTA at Dorm Dome 2

It had been weird, waking up in his pod like the last couple months hadn’t even happened. Weirder still when his last waking memories were... What they were. He shuddered inwardly, the entire thing had been a little too reminiscent of other experiences in his life. It hadn’t taken long to realize just how long he’d been out for. The signs were obvious enough, even if what he’d missed specifically were not.

Llewellyn ran through the networks backlogs with a growing sense of dread, he’d missed so much. How much had he missed beyond what he could find there? All while he’d been out cold for a whole month?

How could he have allowed himself to mess up this badly...? How much of a burden had he been on people, injured and out cold in the middle of a crisis?

Nope... No. Not time to shut down, he’d been shut down for long enough. He needed to move, to do things and find people and... He wasn’t sure what, but sitting there wasn’t going to be productive.

A glance around the dorm suggested that everyone was fine (did that extend to everyone, though?). The domes were back, the lights were on, the air wasn’t thin anymore...

He needed to get moving...

Anyone paying attention would either have seen Llewellyn sitting at his pod looking a tad lost, possibly pacing a bit, looking for his puppy Pretzel, or looking for snacks in the kitchen area to get his brain jump started...

Watts’ Private Investigation Agency - OTA

If anyone wanted to find Llewellyn when he wasn’t otherwise occupied by those he cared about, or at the market getting something to eat, they could find him at his office. Pretzel was tucked away in his bed, gnawing on a shoe that the detective had forgotten about until he saw the dog with it. Did he have the heart to take it away now? Nope. It was just good to see his puppy acting normal again.

The office was just as he’d left it, more or less. A cluttered mess of papers, notes and assorted books that he’d been in the middle of sorting through and cleaning up when everything had started disappearing. He was going to have someone else working with him, and Llewellyn had wanted to at least try to make the space a little nicer.

Which was how anyone would find him if they entered, picking up papers and trying to put things in a vaguely neater order that he could still find what he needed when he needed it. He almost missed the door opening, but an excited bark from Pretzel made him look up, “Oh uh— hello, don’t mind the mess...?”

As if the mess was new... Ha!

The Market - OTA

Llewellyn was, admittedly, a stress eater. So waking up after missing an entire month of a crisis with very little idea of what he’d missed? He sure was taking advantage of there no longer being a shortage of food. Was anyone surprised by this? Probably not. If anyone was surprised, then they just needed to get to know him better, which meant now was an excellent opportunity. While he was eating and distracting himself from his guilt over being asleep for a month and the many questions still buzzing in his head.

Besides that, the detective always found you could learn a lot from the people around the market. So he bought food from the vendors, ate and sometimes halted his energetic walk around the market to talk to people, those he recognized or those he didn’t.

And yes, the detective had noticed the severe decrease in this place’s population... It was just another thing that was nagging at him.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Not really." At least he was steadfastly refusing to think about them. Who didn't appreciate a tuna steak or smoked bream? It was true enough humans weren't the top of the food chain, no matter how hard they tried to believe it, but that didn't mean any of them, himself included, wanted to look at that fact all the time.

Instead, Harry opted to nod along with what Watts had been tasked with. "I can help with that. I was looking into some weird things that happened while we were in lockdown. Finding lost people is a specialty of mine."

The offer of assistance is definitely a welcome one. Considering how much he’d missed in the last month and the fact that waking up had almost felt like some kind of strange reset, he was still more than a little lost trying to sort through it all. “I’d be grateful for the help, Harry. I admit, I’ve only been able to put a little together going through the network backlog and getting a few sparse details from people.”

Not everyone wanted to talk about what happened, and he could understand that. It just made figuring out the specifics on what he’d missed a little more difficult. “I heard a little from Rhy about talking to the sphere, and a little from Enis who went to repair the air system.” Gesturing vaguely, he finished with a small shrug. “I need to fill in the blanks? I have a few ideas but... nothing solid enough to be more than a guess.” Nothing he liked anyway, and he would be jumping to conclusions without more information.

Harry nodded at that. He'd been down for the count himself, before, and he felt like he was still playing catch-up with regards to what this place offered a guy on a normal day. There was the more mundane stuff, like the lack of coca cola and the fact that he was pretty sure the "meat" wasn't actually meant and the more existential problems of how the hell he even actually ended up here in the first place.

"I wouldn't mind hearing your ideas first. We can build from there." His voice sounded tired in his own ears and he frowned.

The request to hear his ideas was met with a frown of his own. “Yeah... I don’t like them, not that I imagine anything we come up with will be pleasant.” ... Yeah, his glass was half empty, as per usual. “But having heard what I have and considering what the sphere can do? I would say that it’s very possible that they’re missing because they’re with the sphere itself. It’s uh— proven that it can just move us about as it likes given we all suddenly woke up as though it never happened in our beds having been entirely healed of our injuries.” He says beds, because pods are still just a whole other kind of strange. “The dome that houses the sphere is still inaccessible, after all.”

The detective has foregone sitting or leaning on anything, pacing a little as he explained his ideas with animated gestures. If he had something to point at or reference, he probably would have. “The second idea is uh— something to do with Annie? I dislike the idea and doubt it, if only because Enis trusts her and I trust Enis. But I feel foolish not taking into consideration that if something happened to her programming again that it might have caused this. If something like the moss that time could...?” He shrugged, finally stopping himself short and looking to Harry curiously.

“I don’t really know at the end of the day, things involving magic and futuristic machines are not the norm where I’m from.” So he was feeling more than a little lost at this point.

Edited (I just noticed a small typo, oops) 2020-10-26 03:26 (UTC)

Harry could commiserate with his theories typically being unwelcome. He tended towards paranoia and suspicion of new people, and who wouldn't with his track record? "You mean inaccessible again. That's where we went, to speak with it. Annie opened it. Were you around here when she was here before?"

The topic of Annie herself made him frown, knowing her origins and the misguided reasoning behind her creation. If that was to be believed, anyway.

He nodded, chuckling. "I don't know if we can trust Annie or not, like you said, just reprogramming her could make her our enemy again. That and...I don't how trustworthy she is right now...but we have to find them, first, and I think I can help with that."

“Well, yes. I suppose again would be correct, but even that was outside the norm considering the sphere actually spoke to you all. It even took on the appearance of a person, from what Rhy said, which it’s never done before to my knowledge.” He frowned a little at that. Even if it hadn’t sounded pleasant, he really wished he could have gone himself. With a curious glance at Harry, Llewellyn wondered what the man had thought of the conversation he’d had with the sphere. “Do you mind if I ask how your conversation with it went?” If only to compare with what he’d heard already...

“But uh— no, I wasn’t around when Annie was here and corrupted by the moss. I only know what I’ve learned from Alex over the last few months and poking around the network’s backlogs.” If anything, Llewellyn was glad that Harry at least seemed to understand the suspicion and entertaining the idea.

It wasn’t even that he wanted to distrust Annie necessarily, but he wanted to rule some things out. The detective had trusted people blindly before and been bitten for it. “As it is, we don’t even know if the sphere could change and alter her programming itself.” For whatever game it had been playing with them all over the last few months...

Llewellyn paused at the suggestion that Harry had an idea on how to find the council. “Really? What are you thinking?”

"I don't know about that." The thought had been bothering him since his meeting with the Sphere in the form of his brother. It was the second time he'd met Thomas there. The first had been when he'd first arrived. "I think it talks to us a lot. Do you remember who told you about this place when you woke up?"

He smiles at Watts' question. "I'm a wizard, and I specialize in Thaumaturgy. I'm particularly good at tracking spells."

Now that makes him pause... It had been months, after all, and Llewellyn’s memory is prone to dropping things here and there. Humming a little, he rubbed the side of his cheek. “I... think I do. I wrote it off as a dream at the time, my mind’s way of trying to process arriving here? The voice was a friend of mine who isn’t around anymore.”

That actually would make some sense now, “If... the sphere can take on their appearances and voices of people we know, I suppose there is nothing stopping it from having done so before in other ways.” Especially with the device it had shoved in all their heads, which he might have begun fussing with absentmindedly.

Now his curiosity is piqued, he’d been more than a little fascinated with the various kinds of magics he’d seen since arriving, and this sounded like a very practical sort of magic. “A wizard... So you have magic? That’s convenient, I’ve only known a few people who could use it since I arrived.” This was good, because he had a feeling that in a place like this it was magic that would probably be the most successful method of getting ahead in a situation like this. “Even if we can’t get to where they are, would the spell give us an idea of their general location? Even if we can only confirm our suspicions, it would be a step in the right direction.”

"Yeah, and that's how it puts you at ease." Harry wasn't really sure what to think of the Sphere, and the idea of living in a place controlled by a sentient overmind that knows their inner secrets didn't sit well with him.

He nodded as Watts' mind filled in the blanks, connecting the dots he'd already done. In a lot of ways, thought-process-wise at least, Watts reminded him a lot of himself. Though Watts was a lot less annoying, which probably got him invited to more parties.

"Yeah, well, even if there are wizards in your world, we don't usually go around advertising it." The fact that Harry did tended to put him at odds with those who didn't. "Theoretically, yeah."

He wasn’t entirely sure how ‘at ease’ he’d been that day. The detective distinctly remembered stress eating his way through a box of knock-off Oreos before being interrupted. Still, he supposed he could have been worse without the familiar voice. And don’t worry, he wasn’t invited to many parties, Harry. Llewellyn was only less annoying around people that he actually liked and respected.

“Suppose that would make sense. Going around blabbing that you’re a wizard would not be smart. Might not be taken well by people in general...” Hey, Llewellyn knew very well what people were like when it came to those who were different.

He’s interested in the idea though, and very keen to at least give this a try to see if they could tell if their suspicions were correct or not. “Is there anything you’d uh— need to do it? Like magic... stuff.” Sorry, Harry, he really hasn’t got a clue how it works.

"Yeah, once I graduated, I didn't exactly make a good impression with all the old timers who thought it was bad form to advertise as a practicing wizard publically, but-" he shrugged. "Bills have to be paid and magic's all I'm really good at."

He smiles. "Yeah, most people don't take me seriously until something weird happens to them they can't fully explain. People might have started denying magic exists, but faeries still kidnap infants, trolls still camp out under bridges." He nodded, though, his smile turning into a grin. "It depends on what you want magic to do, really."

He had to grin a little, brow wrinkling a bit as he considered the difficulties with being taken seriously. Very few people took him seriously too, though he had to admit... “I suppose if we were in my own world I might question your words myself...” Not doubt them entirely, that would have been Murdoch, but certainly question them a bit without proof. “Rather absurd to do so here though, surrounded by mm... everything.” He ended with a little gesture around them. Seriously, they were at the bottom of the sea, being held captive by a giant sphere thing that had implanted machines in their heads. What wasn’t possible anymore?

“I would ask what magic can do, but I have a feeling we’d be here for quite a while...” He responded with a little tilt of his head, he’s very curious still but... He’s trying to focus. Which often meant catching his train of thought before it jumped the rails to a slightly different track. “In that case though, what would you need for a tracking spell?”

He smiled at the other man, nodding as he spoke. "See, the really cool thing about magic is it exists whether you believe in it or not. It's in your heartbeat, your brain, your everything, and even if you can't sense it, it's there, keeping the whole thing going."

Now that was a good question, and it depended on a lot of things. "Well, if we're tracking an android? I have no idea. Historically, magic and technology don't mix. I'm actually surprised the place hasn't exploded yet." That was meant as a joke, and he smiled more directly to get that point across before he continued because that sort of thing wasn't actually possible. Really, it wasn't. He hoped. "If it's a ghost? That one's tough, but just getting a sense of its energy should be enough to get started. People? I need something of theirs. Hair would be great, but a favorite...anything really would work in a pinch."

That was cool, though a little confusing in a way too. “Really? I was under the impression only certain people had magic. At least— um... in other worlds.” This was a topic that Llewellyn was going to have a lot of questions on, and likely would keep them at it for a while if allowed.

Especially if there was potential for some kind of dangerous reactions from both technology and magic getting mixed up... His brow furrowing for a moment at the very idea that the place actually might explode. At least until he noticed the very obvious smile on Harry’s face. Ah... A joke. Right! “Mm... considering what just happened, I’m not sure I’m willing to rule anything out anymore.” It’s said light, but he could be serious for all Harry knows.

“Well... If we focus on Laurie and Max, there’s a small chance we’d also find Jon and Annie. If not, then at least perhaps get clues as to where they are...? Jon is a ghost, but she’s connected to Laurie from what I understand.” He rubbed his chin lightly, thinking on how to proceed. “I can probably get us access to their stuff? Rhy hired me, and he said anything we needed in the way of resources would be made available. I would think that includes personal items to help find people.”

"There's a difference between having magic and controlling it, and some people are sensitive without actually being able to manipulate it. Others can learn a few things but nothing major." Harry could ramble about magic all day.

He laughed, shaking his head. "I really don't want to think about being responsible for...well, I guess we wouldn't have anything to worry about anymore."

Now that was what he was talking about. "If you can get them, I can find them." If they were around to be found, anyway.

“And I presume you’re in the more skilled party where magic is concerned.” He responded with a small nod, “So even those with magic can’t necessarily use it, or even be entirely aware of it? Hm... Makes you wonder if there’s more magic in other worlds than one realizes.” Considering some of the weird things that had been known to go on in his world, it was hard to say.

He winced a little, “I suppose that’s a good point. Though with all of the advanced technology and the uh— sphere itself... I always wondered if this place was a strange mixture of both magic and science, which might be why nothing has exploded yet.” He shrugged a little, settling to lean against his desk.

Llewellyn wasn’t willing to assume this would give them definite answers, but even proving that they couldn’t be found would be an answer in a way. “I’ll see if I can get us into their personal domes to get a couple things that might work. I don’t think that it’ll be too difficult, but it might take a little time. Everyone’s uh— kind of in a weird space at the moment, all things considered.” Was that an understatement? Probably.

"I've cast a few good spells in my day, yeah." He nodded, pleased that Watts was beginning to understand. "Or maybe they do realize it. People are really good at making things around them fit into their way of understanding them. Oh, this book just decided to disappear without a trace? It probably wasn't there in the first place, or I probably imagined it. They bargain away the unknown all the time."

He chuckled at that, a little uneasily. "If that thing's a mixture of technology and magic, then it's out of my league. I have no idea how something like that would work."

He nodded, though. "If you can get me in, I can find them, if they're around to find anyway." And that was the kicker, wasn't it? What if they were...gone?

“I think I can get that... Sort of like how when I’ve asked people if they’ve noticed anything off, only for them to have admitted they did but assumed it was something less serious than it turned out to be.” He considered past cases with a small nod, “People would rather explain things in a normal way, than have to consider something might not be as it seems and turn the world on it’s head.”

The uneasy chuckle gets a small, sympathetic smile and shrug. “Then we’d both be in the same boat. I’ve started to realize just how far beyond my own understanding that this place can be.” Not that he’d actually give up, it wasn’t in him. It just meant a lot of floundering around and having to come to terms with the inevitable failure where figuring some things out were concerned.

That was always fun.

He was sure he’d be able to move them forward with that much, but it was true... This might not lead anywhere. “Their things haven’t disappeared, which means they haven’t been sent home. At least that’s how this works from what I understand. Though... if the sphere doesn’t want them found then there isn’t much we can do about that.”

Folding his arms lightly, he nodded. “I’ll get in contact once I get the okay on us getting into their places. Thank you, Harry.” Because it was nice to have people around who knew how different things worked that he could ask. Especially where things like magic were concerned.

Harry nodded, shrugging slightly. "That's usually the long and short of it. It's just plain easier to pretend everything around you fits into the little mould you think it should. Things that don't make sense are scary, and nobody likes to think they're could be things out there bigger than them, or that might want to eat them. Bad stuff."

He widened his eyes to show Watts he knew exactly what he meant by 'beyond his understanding'. "I'm sure it'll all come out in the wash, right? Or at the very least, get that locked in stain that just adds to the character instead of annoys you until you buy a new shirt."

Though his jovial disposition faltered at Watts' further explanation. Harry really didn't like getting told something was pointless. He had the nasty tendency to dig his heels in until he made something happen, and normally that resulted in explosions, either figuratively or literally. "Yeah. And we're finding them." Or God help the Sphere.

He’s more of the mind that it would be more along the lines of a locked in stain than anything else, if only because he’d been trying to work out this place in general since he arrived. “Given past experience, and what I’ve learned form people here far longer than I? I believe the latter to be more likely.” He offer at least a slightly amused expression, “I um... suppose added ‘character’ is better than other possibilities.” In this case, it’s not like they could go out and ‘buy a new shirt,’ they were rather stuck with this one.

Shaking his head a little, Llewellyn continued. “Other strange things have happened here over the last year, though what just happened... and continues to happen, has been the worst I’ve seen myself? Otherwise the unpleasantries I’ve experienced have been troubling but manageable.” He shrugged widely, manageable being ‘not sleeping’ and ‘pretending to have managed it.’

Still, being here had its good points. “At least there have been enough balance from the upsides to being here in my own case.”

Llewellyn didn’t like feeling as though things were pointless, but he’d started to feel that way of late. His glass had been half full for much of his life to begin with, and while he was trying to change that... It was hard to not consider it at the moment. Harry’s certainty does get a small, forced smile from him. “Your confidence is bolstering, Harry.” He hummed a little, “And I’ve never worked with anyone who has the kind of magic or ideas that you have, perhaps we’ll see some success this time after all.”

"That's usually the case with people who don't deal with this sort of thing on a regular basis." While Harry had to admit 'this sort of thing' wasn't exactly what he was used to, he'd dealt with so much other really random stuff, this seemed almost normal, or at least par for the course. He smirks at Watts' reasoning and nods. "If the character doesn't drive you insane, sure. There are some things mortals aren't meant to see."

He was pretty sure he'd seen some of them. It could also be argued that Harry Dresden wasn't the sanest man on the planet but that was a can of worms he had no interest in opening. It was probably pretty insane that a part of him still missed the fallen angel that had occupied a part of his mind for a few years.

Yeah. There was absolutely no reason to go down that path. "That is the first time I've ever been called bolstering, that's for sure." But he smiled. "But I'll try to keep it up."

“I would believe that... They say that the human mind can only handle so much, after all. I know I wasn’t entirely sure how sane I was for the first few minutes when I woke up here.” He shrugged slightly, he’d come in from a rough patch in his life. Before he’d buckled down and started talking to people to make sense of the place, Llewellyn had definitely wondered if the day he’d been having had finally made his mind snap.

“And just when you think you’ve seen the strangest thing you could see, you see something else. Well— at least that’s how it seems to me.” He hummed a little before continuing. “Back when I first got here, I met someone and then suddenly there was an alternate version of them that had replaced them for a while before they switched back. It was very odd. Then there was an entire month where we all uh— were compelled to admit to things we felt guilty about.” He shook his head, that all seemed so long ago now.

Harry’s comment gets a little grin out of him though, “They do say there’s a first time for everything, and you haven’t exactly fallen behind since arriving from what I seen.” No, the wizard definitely seemed like he had more of a handle on some things than others did when they got here.

"The human mind can handle a lot more than it thinks it can, but it has to make sense of it. Some people are scared of learning something new. They're comfortable in the knowledge they have an their understanding of the world, and if something comes along to influence that, they hide their heads in the sand and pretend it's something it's not. There are other types of people who see something they don't understand and do their damnedest to understand it, but it all comes down to one thing: knowledge. It's all that separates us from the animals."

He grinned at Watts' observation and shook his head. "I'm really good at looking like I know what's going one. Things that look to humans like they're food hunt based on advantage. If you don't look like food, they're more likely to choose something else." It was just one example, but sometimes the simplest one was the most accurate.

“Mm... That is true.” He responded with a small returned smile, “To build an image that might differ from what’s inside is a useful approach.” One he’s used himself, though perhaps not as effectively as Harry did now. People had read gotten a knack for reading him better than he expected over the last year or two... Though that also could be chalked up to the fact that he was a little more comfortable with some people.

“Though, I do worry about the fact that uh—” He gestured a little at the device implanted behind their ear, “That there is a slight disadvantage where the sphere is concerned.”

Harry was also gifted at reading people, and to this day he had no idea whether or not it was a natural knack or a supernatural one. Most days he didn't question it, either. It was just a nice thing to have; it helped him to know who he could trust and who he couldn't. So far, Watts had done nothing to move himself out of the 'trustworthy' column, which was just find with Harry. He needed as many allies as he could get. They all did.

"Everyone has a weakness, Watts, some are just better at hiding them."

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