[M - C02] Gate Malfunction: Aftermath

[rodiziorobs]

Location: C02 Hunston
Tags: n/a

"Wake up, Virginia," a voice called, from the other side of a dream. "You must wake up."

One by one, conscious thoughts came drifting into focus, the drowsy fog lifting and chasing sleep from his eyes. He heard a different voice mumbling, a voice that was familiar and yet that he had not heard for what seemed like ages. After a few moments, he realized the mumbles were his own, and managed to twist them into a single word: "Wut?"

Followed by a more distinct "Who?"

The first voice, clearer now, gave the reply: "Ha ha, why it is you, Virginia! You are finally coming to. Good."

He understood the words spoken, but had no idea what they were supposed to mean. He opened his eyes, but the misty sunlight made him close them again. As his brain struggled to decode the sudden flood of information from his long-dormant senses, he sat up from where he had been lying, pushing off the sort of gauzy blanket that had covered him.

Eyes still closed, he turned to where the voice had come from. "But I'm not...I'm not...my name is not Virginia," he stuttered. "My name is...my name is..."

As he cast his mind around for this once-known fact, he opened his eyes and looked up at the being who had woken him. If he hadn't been so disoriented he might have been startled at the sight of the four-armed man before him. Instead, he simply kept staring, and said, "Scorpio. My name is Scorpio."

"Scorpio, not Virginia? A pity, I liked Virginia better. Although the others suggested even more unusual names, I suppose it makes sense that your real name be the most unusual of all."

Scorpio was thoroughly confused, and wasn't altogether sure he wasn't still dreaming. The four-armed man continued.

"My name is Farrs Farrkas. I was once a chieftain of my people, and I have been looking over you since your arrival."

"My arrival...? How long have I been here? And where is here? Scorpio inquired.

"You are simply here. Where all Things are. Although we have rarely seen anything such as you here. You have been here for several months by our reckoning.

"Several months...?" Scorpio's mind was going wild, searching for anything to connect to, when he was interrupted by Farrs:

"Your companion arrived at the same time, but she has not shown any inclination to awakening yet."

Companion? Scorpio looked over to the other side of his cot. There, also lying prone, was his sister. His sister, Arsenica, whom he had not seen in years. What has happening? Then he noticed the scar on her face and it all came rushing back: his captivity in Octan, the transfer through the Gate system. The swirling green vortex was the last thing he remembered seeing, usually the Gates weren't green, were they? What had happened? The woman who had captured him had been his sister all along? How had he not recognized her?

He turned back to Farrs. "Where did you say I was?"

"Where all Things are. We have never given it a name because it is where we have always been. Except that...after you arrived, my people were broken. Conflict, which had never been known before. They all left in an exodus and are no longer Here."

"Your people all left you? Why? Where did they go?"

"Come sit with me in the bowery. Eat. Drink. I will tell you."

"We have been observing your activities--your people's, I mean--and many of my people saw your arrival as an omen. They saw their own doom as your people transversed the realm you had overrun to arrive in ours. They said they were leaving Here to establish a New Here. I suppose they are now Someplace Else."

As he spoke, Farrs gestured to the sky, where Scorpio could see faintly in the clouds several small spheres with invisible lines connecting them. It took him a moment before he recognized what it was he was looking at. He recognized Torresta, and saw that he was probably on a world correspondingly close to that. Or something.

Scorpio looked at the heavens, then back to the motionless form of his sister, and then back to Farrs.

"So, what do we do?"

"I was going to ask you the same question, Virginia."

"I told you, my name is not Virginia, please don't call me that. It's Scorpio, okay?"

"Sorry. That is what my people elected to call you when they were still here. I will try and remember. Scorpio."

"Thanks." Scorpio felt an unexplained trust for Farrs. Surely the fact that he had been watching over him for so long was part of it, yet it felt deeper than that.

"Aha, do you see? This is why I wanted you to awaken."

Scorpio looked and saw his sister's face contorted in pain, then relax again.

"She does this sometimes. You did it too, even to the point of screaming, but then were still and color returned to you. And now you are awake."

Perplexed, Scorpio looked at his hands and began screaming.

"What happened to me? I used to be...normal! Now I'm...I'm..." He looked and noticed that Farrs was also a lighter pale color, almost white or sand yellow. His sister, however, was still a healthy bright yellow. 

What was going on...?

****************

If you remember much of Scorpio's story (and even if you don't), this entry probably raises a lot of questions (like: 'wait, isn't Scorpio dead?' short answer: yes) while hopefully not being too undiscernible. I had planned for this story to come later, but with AG1 potentially wrapping up in the foreseeable future, I figured I had better start on it if I wanted to get anywhere with it.

More answers will come later, but for now know that everything that will happen relies on story threads that were either laid down by me myself or piggybacking off of hints made by @LucasLaughing or @woofmcmoose in entries of theirs from way back.

*JUDGES: the building seen is an official set (Starlight Inn) with very few modifications, and should not be judged. The landscape and tree and such is all original work, and although the crystal part at the base of the tree resembles the Elves Crystal Cave, it differs significantly enough that I consider it my own.

The tree:
AG week 67 by rodiziorobs, on Flickr

The Bowery, Bizarro Scorpio, and Farrs Farkas
AG week 67 by rodiziorobs, on Flickr

[LucasLaughing]

This is awesome - I really like the 4-armed elves guy and his pole/totem.  NPU using the turntable tops as stepping stones too.

[Andromedas Gates]

The judges awarded you 4 points.