ArchivedLogs:Conjecture

Conjecture
Dramatis Personae Dusk, Tag, Tian-shin	2015-03-29 "I remember." (Part of Future Past TP.)
Location <NYC> {Geekhaus} - Harbor Commons - Lower East Side
There's an open airy feel to the floorplan of this unit. The door opens up into a wide expanse of common space that is not so much divided up into rooms as it is simply multipurposed. Ash-grey resin flooring underfoot runs up against the paler grey of the exposed stone in the walls; between the stone support there are wide floor-to-ceiling windows looking out at the river on one side of the home and the Commons' central yard on the other. Half of the space has a ceiling at one-floor height, though half of the space is left open with a balcony up on the second floor overlooking the living space below. A slatted stairway heads up to the second floor balcony; on the other side of the room, a fireman's pole running straight down to the basement provides a quicker way /down/. The wide open space here is combination living and dining room; in a recessed pit near the windows there are a pair of couches and large armchair around a wide coffeetable; further off a steel-and-glass dining table is surrounded by eight tall black chairs. A full bathroom behind the stairway is done up in dark granite; the glass-doored bathtub/shower is rather expansively large. The kitchen is tucked off in back, beneath the half-height ceiling; in here the appliances and cabinets and shelving recessed into the wall are in brushed steel, wide grey sweeps of tempered glass countertops running around the edge of the room and a large central island holding stoves and oven and deep double sink. Adjacent to the kitchen, beneath the ceiling as well, is a sitting area structured largely around the enormous television against one wall, a wealth of video games for a number of consoles held on the shelves around the television. Crates and beanbags and one low futon folded against the floor are arranged in good viewing distance; opposite the television, a sturdy large pen built out of wood shrines a couch amid a sea of brightly colorful playpen balls. A door in one wall opens up to the apartment next door; a door opposite leads down to the basement. It's shortly after sunset on a not at all spring-like day, and the front door swings open to admit one brightly-colored Tag. His hair is scarlet with occasional black highlights, his denim jacket black with red stitching, and his long, ruffled skirt is made up of alternating black and red panels. "Hi!" he chirps, waving. "I have come to sling colors at you!" He darts inside and goes straight to the kitchen to put a kettle on. "I'm thinking green, lots of green. Maybe leaf patterns? Or green with a silver shift. Like a luna moth, you know?" Tian-shin follows her brother in, a little less cavalier about just barging into someone else's house. She wears a sharp black peacoat and dark gray corduroy trousers. Her hair flows loose from under a bright red newsboy cap. "Good evening," this as she closes the door behind her and takes off her hat, looking uncertain about where to put it. "I hope it's okay that I tagged along." Her wince suggests she hadn't intended the pun. Dusk is in the living room, Dragon Age on the television. He's in a sarong, black and blue and wrapped low around his hips. No shirt, no shoes, a thermos on the crate nearby him as he plays. "-- Oh hey yo. Oh /shit/ a luna moth? That sounds rad." One wing strethes out to wave. "Sure it's okay. There's some cookies and muffins over there if you want them." By 'over there' he's gesturing to -- the door to Lighthaus. Possibly that's where the only clean mugs are, too. Tag was already picking mugs out of the sink and washing them creatively, around the pile of other dirty dishes. "Yeah, I was thinking it'd work especially well on you, if I do the wing fuzz in two tones. Isra will be harder...she upstairs?" When he finishes drying the mugs, they have all changed colors: one red with black dots like a ladybug, one pearly silver gray, and another a dizzy paint-swirl of a dozen colors. "I'm going on a pastry raid, then. Sing songs about my bravery if I don't come back!" With that, he zips off again. Tian-shin follows Tag to the kitchen, but hangs back rather than getting in her way. "Good luck on your raid," she calls after him when he takes off. She wanders back into the living room, looking a little lost. "Wow, that's an...interesting-looking game." Eyes narrowing slightly, arms akimbo. "Is that a minotaur with an eyepatch?" "Nah she's down with Hive." Dusk's thumbclaw twitches towards the basement door. "Dude, we already sing songs about your bravery. Every day at sunset." He pauses the game, looking up with a grin at Tian-shin. "It's a dangerous world. And he's very dashing. You want some coffee or something? I have -- uh. Bawls." "You have--what now?" Tian-shin's eyes go a little wide, but she recovers quickly. "Ah, I think Tag is making tea. Going to make tea, when he returns victorious from raiding. I'll wait." She clasps her hands behind her back and looks around the room. "Say, this may seem a bit out of left field, but do you know someone named Maya? Maya Menon?" Dusk has hit unpause on his game but he pauses it again just as quickly at this name, looking back up at Tian-shin a little wide-eyed. "Maya?" His wings quiver slightly behind him. "Yeah, I knew -- know her." He turns to face Tian-shin, setting his controller down. "She's a -- friend. Why? Do you know -- have you seen -- what's up?" There's a quiet note of hope sparking in his tone. Tian-shin heaves a long breath. "Yes--no...sort of?" She hugs her elbows. "I met her in a /dream/, which I wouldn't normally think much of, except that my brother had the same exact dream on the same night." She tries to sit down primly in a beanbag, but sinks into it rather faster than she seems to expect. "He also told me he's had dreams like that before, that other people do, too." She clasps her hands together. "It was the future, a terrifying future. We nearly get killed by some robots, but Flicker saved us--it was weird, I knew him, in the dream, though I haven't actually met him. Anyway, he took us to Hive and this girl, Maya. She said she was from the past, and she wanted us to remember her. Then Hive said that you would remember." "... oh. You've been getting them too." Behind him, Dusk's wings droop. His tongue flicks out against his lips. "You saw Hive?" His voice is softer, here. His eyes a little brighter. "Is he -- was he --" He pulls in a breath, slow and deep, and leans forward to pick up his thermos to take a gulp. "Wait, Maya -- said she was from the past, like. Like she /went/ there? From here? Like /my/ Maya -- is --" The top of his wing curls in, rubbing at his head. "But she's alive? She's /okay/? ...ish?" "This was my first dream of the kind, but yes." Tian-shin shifts her weight forward and rests her elbows on her knees. "Hive...didn't look too great or sound too great. Tag said it was because he had too many people in his head." She spreads her hands. "Maya told us she went there--the future, or the dreams, or whatever it is--by accident a year ago." "She's been gone for -- about a year, yeah." Dusk's wings continue to shift, restless, fidgety. "But then are there /two/ Mayas or -- is there just -- just her because she /left/ here and ended up there or -- how does that even work, that's --" His eyes scrunch up, then relax. "Accident. Is she stuck there? Can she not get back? We should bring her back." A slight flush darkens his cheeks, and his fist lifts to circle his heart. "This is -- lo siento, this probably. What were /you/ doing? I mean. Future -- you." The barrage of questions do not seem to faze Tian-shin at all. If anything, her posture suggests the opposite. "We only saw one of her, and nobody mentioned another." She sits up a little straighter, as if physically gathering herself, composed now. "If we accept that these dreams offer a window to a future, and if people can /physically/ travel there, then I would guess there's only one of her, but I'm not sure flatlander logic has any traction in this." She tucks a lock of hair behind one ear. "She stayed to help them--Hive and his team--change things, which /implies/ she is not stuck, but she did not say so explicitly. As for me, I was mostly just trying to stay alive, as far as I could tell, though I recall several mentions of a Resistance, and I don't think we meant Ingress." Her hands fold together in her lap, primly. "You needn't apologize. This is all a bit overwhelming anyway, and you're obviously close to Maya. I wish I could tell you more, but all I can remember is what happened in the course of the dream itself." "It's hard not to be close to her. She's the most amazing --" Dusk shakes his head again. "You remember when the whole city kept -- kept going all fucking /nuts/ like. Like it /rained chocolate/ and there was a goddamn /hug/ bank and /stars/ everywhere and the whole city changed /colours/ and grew a jungle and just. Everything got more /awesome/ for a while. That was all her, she -- felt like everyone could use some cheering up after the zombies happened and things were so rough. Kinda wore herself the fuck out trying to make everyone smile some." He snorts, hard. "Guess she's taking that to sort of an extreme now. God/dammit/. Hive /and/ Maya. If we destroy that future are we just going to kill her, too, then?" "I remember." The smile on Tian-shin's face says as much as her words, if not more. "I was still in school, and it was a welcome, if perplexing, reprieve. I really thought the colors were Tag's handiwork at first, before I realized the /extent/ of it." Her expression grows sober again. "I don't know, and I don't know how we /can/ know. Even if these dreams are but dreams--startlingly consistent, shared dreams--and not literally the future, she might still well perish if she only exists in them, and they cease to be. And Hive...I have no idea." She looks down at her hands, slender fingers interlocking. "He suggested we had not come to them by happenstance, that Maya brought us there, somehow? And if she brought us there so that we might tell you, maybe you could find your way to her, as well." Her long hair sways like curtains to either side of her head, more visible than the actual motion of the shaking. "I shouldn't venture so much conjecture about something I understand so little." Dusk tips his face down, burying it against his hands. Another small shiver runs through his shoulders. "I miss them." His voice is smaller. A quiet whisper, shakier. "Oh god." His palms scrub hard against his eyes, his wings wrapping in tightly around himself. "Nah." Even in a whisper, his voice is fierce. "None of us understand shit. But what do we have left to do but -- fff. Dare to fucking give it our best damn shot." Tian-shin rises, hugging herself again. "Not sure there's ever a whole lot else we can do." She closes the gap between them in two steps--the second more hesitant than the first. Her hand stretches out and touches the long index phalanx of his wing. In the kitchen, the water has begun boiling audibly. "How about that coffee, then?" Dusk's wing unfurls. Just enough to curl up against Tian-shin's arm, rubbing there briefly. "That," he agrees, quietly, "sounds pretty great."