ellipsanet | Video, UN: Puppetking

I'd like to see what kind of fusion cuisine is in this dimension. I haven't had chespini for at least sixteen years, so fingers crossed.

[ Russell looks... steadier, not that Maxwell really knows what to do in situations like these. Tries to imagine what he'd want, in a similar situation. Certainly not a fuss. Maybe acknowledgment, but maybe not. A rose some days, the thorn on others, difficult and not worth the time taken.

Unwise curiosity is often his motivator. FAFO has always been Maxwell's biggest vice and virtue. ]

--You do believe this is all really happening, don't you?

Edited (historical accuracy my nemesis) 2025-02-05 21:23 (UTC)

…… Being here, you mean? It still doesn’t feel like it sometimes. So much about it makes no sense, shouldn’t even be possible. But it’s definitely… real.

[For better or worse. Russell takes his phone out of his back pocket and begins searching for restaurants in the area. He didn’t really get out a ton so he wasn’t familiar with all the local establishments.]

What is chespini?

Edited 2025-02-05 21:54 (UTC)

It doesn't take a brainbox to guess you might have had a doubt, so I'm just making sure. [ He has no idea why Russell is on his phone. Hasn't even remotely begun to absorb the power inherent in tiny-computer-internet-in-pocket. Just assumes he's texting someone on the EllipsaNet. ]

Chespini's a seafood stew. When individual fishermen weren't so lucky at their art, they came begging to the others, and received whatever scraps could be spared; a crab leg, mussel, or clam here, a shrimp or scallop there. Next time, the givers could be takers, and so on. Before I hit it big, I practically lived on that stuff.

[ He indicates Russell's phone. ] Anything interesting?

[People just… willingly helping one another in difficult times? Sounds fake but big if true. Russell holds out the phone to Maxwell, showing off a map.]

Mm. I found a place that might work. It’s not far if you use the nodes.

[He nods towards the exit and begins to walk that way, keeping an eye on his phone’s directions.]

… … So you were a fisherman?

[ Wow. Maxwell whistles low in appreciation at just how much this single device can actually do. ] Like the map scrolls from the Constant... But even more efficient. [ Even though large portions of the greater seasonal territories remain unexplored for safety reasons, which is honestly also a lot like the Constant. And speaking of things that are like the Constant? ]

The nodes also put one in the mind of the Telelocator and Lazy Deserter... [ Although those things tended to stress the mind, so it's not without slight trepidation that he considered the nodes earlier and decided to wait on using them.

He quirks a half-smile at the fisherman comment. ] I do enjoy fishing as a hobby, but no, not back then, I just lived in San Fransisco, near a sizeable community of fisherfolk, so that kind of food is a comfort these days.

What about you, anything you veer toward, in the gourmet sense?

[NOT BEATING THE VIDEO GAME ALLEGATIONS WITH THOSE ITEM NAMES, PAL. They’re intriguing sounding, at least. Maxwell had mentioned the “Constant” before when they were talking on the network, too - that must be the world he was sent to? Hmm.]

We didn’t have teleportation in my world. … Not the real world, anyway.

[Russell never thought much about food, before the dream. It was just whatever he could manage to make or buy for himself. Taste wasn’t priority. He’d come to know an aspiring chef in the dream, though. He’d even caught his own fresh fish! That said, he seems to brighten a little when Maxwell expresses an interest in fishing.]

I like… seafood. Meat pies. Turnimp salads.

[…What was that last one?]

Walking is fine in small doses. But when there's-- [ He stops. He was going to say 'miles to go before you sleep', sort of whimsically because he likes that poem, and yet the last time he just flippantly quoted some fiction this kid had a micro-depersonalization event or something, so he semi-smoothly amends: ] --miles in between you and where you're going, magic should intervene. Magic is often the answer. [ He's determined not to walk on eggshells, that's not his style, but it's not like he wants to make Russell feel like garbage on purpose so soon after whatever that was. Maybe once he knows a bit more he can avoid some of these problems better. ]

Seafood is the best, in my opinion. In fact, lobster, [ And he gestures a bit, before his brain catches up to the pun in the salad one, then snorts good naturedly. ] All right. Show me how a node works, if you'd be so good, pal.

[Russell doesn’t seem to catch what was funny about what he said. At any rate, he nods diligently and taps on the screen in front of him, indicating the node they’re headed to. Just like that, they’re hurled through space and it didn’t even cost them any of their sanity OR walnuts! They’re just suddenly there! Welcome to Blossomcrown.

He rocks in place as he reappears, taking him a moment to get his bearings before checking his phone and continuing the trek.]

…This way.

[It’s not a far walk to a tall building boasting a number of establishments, including OFF-SEASON’D, a little restaurant specializing in serving food based on the cuisines of otherworlders with an Ellipsian flare.

“Carrie, the player characters in this game are called otherworlders not offworlders so that restaurant name doesn’t really land…” LOOK if you can come up with a better name, have at it, judgy but admittedly entirely correct hypothetical voice. We don’t have to name it at all! I’m just trying to be ~IMMERSIVE~ here (and also I definitely forgot that fact and couldn’t think of anything better…)

It’s decorated in a clean but cozy way with some tasteful memorabilia from various otherworlder patrons’ home worlds brought in via wishing dandelion and donated.

There’s a cheery-looking young woman standing at a podium when they walk in.]

Table for two?

[ At least Maxwell knows he can fully indulge in shitbrain pun humor and jokes with Russell, whether or not Russell will actually appreciate them or approve. But for the moment there is learning about magitech (nice) and Blossomcrown (...interesting. Still has elements of the rat race about it, but there's a definite attempt to make the aesthetics less bleak). ] Fun place... Ha, fun name, too. I get it.

[ He's extremely interested in the objects, but even so, turns his full attention to the server as soon as they're addressed. ] Thank you, yes.

[ Good thing it's not a 'you need reservations' kind of place. He doesn't have 'you need reservations' money at the moment. He lets the young lady seat them and give them the physical menus, thank god it's not one of those 'QR code' things or he'd actually start beefing with the technology instead of admiring it. Then he goes back to staring pointedly at the artwork. This place is extremely different from the Constant, because that seemed like a vibrant dimension that black-holed itself and started pulling in mostly Earth people and mostly from a specific time and place. This is a total explosion of times and places. ]

Thanks for finding this place, by the way. [ That flinty intensity is banked, some, but not gone. And his eyes are curious as hell. ]

You could teleport in your dreams, then?

[Russell stares at the menu with a dull curiosity. Some of these things sounded entirely foreign. He doesn’t look up at Maxwell right away when spoken too, lingering on the food descriptions before raising his eyes.]

…Mm. [That doubles as both a “you’re welcome” and a “yes.”] There was a building by my house… that had items you could touch to teleport to different areas. Sort of like the nodes, but one-way.

And there was… the Homeward Rootie. An item Cody sold in her shop. It warped you back to town.

[…The dream was a little like an RPG too, in that respect, come to think of it. ~~Ha ha.~~]

So these were reoccurring dreams. With a through-line narrative. [ He meditates on Alice in Wonderland for a few seconds, letting his eyes reread the same few menu items again and again. Besides the odd literary reference, and the mathematical/logical aspects (and all those delicious chess metaphors), he can't say he's an expert on the dreaming parts of it, or even that they would necessarily apply. Maybe part of this experiment was programming this kid to respond to certain code words and some lab tech got cute.

He's done as bad to people, or worse, but he's still sorting all that out, and tracing culpability is hard when you're a villain and a victim in the same sitting. ]

Russell... [ He considers various lines of questioning. No good being cute about it. ] Is there somebody in this place who's looking out for you, or are you on your own here?

…Yes. I injected the drug every day and woke up in the same room in the same town.

[The Happy Dream Phenomenon is actually kind of fascinating conceptually - a technical marvel! (putting aside the highly unethical parts) - but Russell sounds very drab about it. He looks back down at the menu again.]

I live by myself. …… Doctor is here, though. …One of the people… from the dream.

[And it’s totally fine and they’re both Soooooo Totally Normal about this arrangement! There’s no wildly deep-seated unreality and guilt problems there at all! Hahaha ha ha haaa.]

[ Yeah, nothing about that experiment is sounding anything but ominous. ]

Hmn. [ The part about living by himself isn't much better. Maxwell almost can't believe he's a responsible-feeling adult party. Who let this happen? ]

That's--[ Very interesting, but the server is returning, and he transitions totally smoothly to ordering a bowl of that sweet seafood stuff he's been craving and some breadsticks.

Dream figments? A real place, that Russell accessed somehow from inside his mind? All conjecture. And all academic, right now. At least the breadsticks will arrive soon. Wow, getting a meal cooked for you that you don't need to break the neck of and offer to the camp specialist to skin. True luxury. ]

Good to have somebody who might understand.

[In Kantera’s defense, he had had the thought of inviting Russell to live with him almost immediately but quickly vetoed that because he’s a pretty sexually active dude nowadays with multiple partners and Russell has very deep and complicated feelings on both sex and fidelity. It’s fine, he’s really fine this way. He was a self-sufficient young man and he rather liked the quiet.

Russell orders the same dish as Maxwell, for science. Idly, he thinks of the Incarner chef on the resort island who would prepare the fish he brought it. He wonders if those fish could live here in Ellipsa - if those dishes could be recreated too, just like these recipes were.

He hands back the menu to the server and stares off at the decorations on the wall.]

Doctor understands… better than anyone.

[On so, so many levels.]

Guess a lot of people pine for their old homes in one way or another. [ And despite missing the food from San Fransisco, it's the Constant, and the people in it, that Maxwell thinks is 'home'.

He watches Russell watch-without-seeing the shapes on the wall, chewing on the inside of his lip lightly. ]

This is heavy discussion without video game competition exchanges. [ He offers a fangy grin, reassessing mildly. ] I'm sure he does.

Look. I'm not gonna judge you. Or fuss over you. You've survived here long enough on your own. You're doing something right.

But if I can help, I hope you'll let me know, so I can consider it.

[He hums a soft, almost amused little sound at the video game comment.]

…Thanks. I will.

… …You too… alright?

[For as much as he tried to paint himself as a terrible and irredeemably rotten kid who could do nothing but cause harm, Russell really was quite fond of helping people.]

… … Does it eat?

[His attention has drifted back to the immediate area and he is looking at the Peeper now. Right after the question leaves his mouth, though, there’s a slight wrinkle of his nose, as if he’s just considered the mildly horrifying possibility the answer is actually yes.]

Alright, pal. [ The nine-tenths-a-lie flows easily; Maxwell's bound and determined to be, at worst, a neutral factor to Russell, not yet another failed guardian who needs him to assume more responsibility than he should have to.

The one-tenth-a-truth comes from this place being potentially fatal without teamwork. If Maxwell died in, say, the Forge gladiator arena, he wouldn't begrudge his necromancy-inclined nine-year-old niece reviving him. Some responsibilities are just unavoidable. ]

I'll do my best not to need anything unreasonable. You've done plenty, just getting me up to speed with the heartbeat of this century, too. [ It isn't lost on him, despite Russell's enigmatic outburst from earlier, that he's been generous with his time and information. Still early days to make a judgment. ]

Oh, does it ever eat. [ Maxwell reaches over to the Peeper's nearest dangling nerve-tendril, drawing it closer, and it nuzzles into his hand lovingly. ] You think it's sweet right now, but when it gets hungry, that eye peels back and it starts screaming for food like a baby bird with incisors. Real nails on chalkboard noise.

[ He reaches over to pluck a little sugar packet from the caddy, peering at it in interest to confirm what it is - they had sugar cubes Back In His Day - and then opens it, pouring it into one hand. ] Here, look.

[ The Peeper takes one look at the edible dust, pupil going big like a cat in attack mode, and then the colored parts of the eye retract into itself, unfolding a fangy maw around it and drooling tongue that licks delightedly at the sugar. ]

[Oh. Yeah okay that’s kind of exactly what Russell anticipated/dreaded but honestly it’s not as bad as he was expecting it to be, actually seeing it. Like, his life is already so goddamn weird, this might as well happen. It really did look like something that he could’ve stumbled across in the dream.]

….Weird.

[Judging by the calmly interested way he watches it, though, it’s definitely more like “Weird (positive)”]

… …

So were there a lot of creatures like this where you were before? Or is it one of a kind?

Edited 2025-02-12 15:44 (UTC)

Honestly, I love this kind of thing. [ Maxwell wipes his hand free of Peeper slobber with a napkin, fastidiously, and notices Russell's response is also not negative. Good, so this Dream experiment wasn't all bad, maybe. Or at least it didn't all seem to network into bad associations. ]

Eyes? The "moon" is a living entity that watches the Constant, and They see just about everything. [ Carelessly, he folds his hands and leans his chin on them, looking at Russell solemnly. ] This little fella is a benign novelty compared to most things there.

Ah, one of my favorites actually has no eyes whatsoever, and a little herd of No-Eye-Deer. Draped in chains, mouth and sockets all sewn up. I didn't make any of these ones myself, I was more partial to spiders and clockwork chess monsters.

What about you? Anything you liked from back there? [ Home or the Dream, he's not particular. ]

[Russell listens attentively to the descriptions. That all sounds kind of horrific. What a strange place. (As if he really has any room to talk.)

Basically all of the monsters in the dream, much like the dream itself, were meant to make Russell feel guilty and miserable, so his feelings on them typically ranged from indifference to active dislike. The other races that inhabited the dream, though… they were alright. In their weird, screwed up sort of ways.]

Mm. The other races in the dream were interesting. The Pengii and the Catties… and the Kelpies…

… As far as regular animals, I especially like… rabbits. And fish.

[Does the rabbit thing seem at odds with his little episode earlier? He seems perfectly fine mentioning them now, at least.]

[ At least to Maxwell, the Constant promises a deeper understanding of magic, which he's historically always wanted more than anything, more than even before he knew to ask for that, and he accepts without condition whatever horrors come with - whether they change him or just destroy him. ]

Sounds like they could be a good time. If you could avoid them getting hostile, anyway. Did you talk to them?

[ The breadsticks and seafood arriving are a small intermission in the mutual cross examination of worlds, and Maxwell cheerfully rips one in half, dips it, and offers the seafood-bread to the Peeper, which floats down to land on the table next to him and starts chewing happily. Then he points the remaining half of the baton in Russell's direction. ]

Just want to ask in case this comes up again during a crisis. Did this experiment you were in involve... Mesmerism, anything like that? [ The time for delicacy is over, it's only fair to tell him why Maxwell's so concerned. ] For a second there, you acted like I stabbed you when I referenced Carroll.

I did. I would… help them. [For the most part, anyway.] … … Sometimes they were beyond help, though. The Catties especially.

[It was kind of sad, watching them struggle with their addiction and fighting them when they lost themselves to it. Those wild, vicious expressions… The arrival of the food takes his mind off it, at least for a while.

Russell is still staring curiously down at his bowl when Maxwell poses the question. His whole body tenses as if a spotlight had just been shone on him, then relaxes as he contemplates an answer.]

…No, nothing like that. [Plenty of fucked up mind games, but no mesmerism.] I just… had a pet rabbit once. As a kid. White. [red white red—] … It got into an accident. It reminded me of that time. That’s all.

Edited 2025-02-19 18:52 (UTC)

It's a lot to deal with. In life, in any reality you happen to find yourself. Facing unwinnable scenarios. ...I thought once it was best not to fight it, but I don't think that way now.

[ He falls quiet, listening to the answer. A pet rabbit. A white rabbit. Maxwell opens his mouth, then closes it again, meditatively. ]

Good, if that's all. I didn't want to upset you.

Video, UN: Puppetking

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CW vague mention of unreality

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cw brief needle & fantasy drug use mention

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CW pet death mention (almost forgot that)

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