savetheearth | the "p" doesn't stand for pretentious, FYI. [art gallery, may 6th

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the "p" doesn't stand for pretentious, FYI. [art gallery, may 6th—??? ]

[ Welcome to Locke's very own Taste de Louvre, everyone! Predictably, the unveiling of the new set of statues at the magnificent Hugh P. Thadson Gallery of Fine Art has turned out to be a rather fanciful affair. The upper echelon of snobby society, in their snobby society attire, has come to mingle amongst one another—and is endeavoring to ignore you, fair citizen, as much as possible—and discuss this fantastic addition to our city's fair culture.

The first statue is a touchingly metaphorical piece, the prominent carving of a snake coiled around a human heart that looks so real you can almost hear it beating within your ears. This statue appears to be the most popular; the crowds drawn around its base simply can't stop going on and on and on about how wondrous it is, along with the rest of the works on display tonight.

The second statue also depicts a snake, but has its blush-brushed scales cut dramatically open to display its own wicked black heart. The Thunder Corporation and its latest line of tacky memorabilia is the primary subject of discourse here.

The last statue is strikingly different from the other two, and features a wolf howling at the open sky,* dying in apparent agony with a sword driven through its chest. You get a distinctly unsettling impression from it that the other, ordinary folk don't seem to notice—that perhaps your adventure to meddle in recent affairs is ill-advised. Inscribed below the pained wolf's paw is a link of sorts to a peculiar forum that, when accessed, bears only the topic "Let's Negotiate" with the same message enclosed within. Strange, but since no one else is talking about it, you wonder if you can't have just imagined the whole ordeal... and yet stranger things have happened, right? Perhaps it's worth looking into, in any event.

There's plenty to do with the statues about and the gift shop buzzing, with lots of familiar faces to run into. So what's your agenda for the evening? ]

(( General mingling post for the plot as related to art gallery affairs! There will be base threads for OPEN INTERACTIONS, open to all as implied, CLOSED INTERACTIONS, for planned out one-on-one interactions between player characters, and a general purpose EVERYTHING ELSE, for characters who wish to explore the gift shop, just mull about. Just as a general reminder:

1) Touching one of the snake statues will grant you one (1) Echo, for two (2) Echoes max. However, touching a second statue will definitely arouse suspicion, so be prepared for that. One safe Echo, two potentially risky ones up for grabs here! No Echoes from touching the wolf statue, though, so slither your way towards the snakey-snakeys for those.

2) If you'd rather not touch the statues themselves, hanging around them for awhile -- about an hour or so -- will grant one (1) Echo.

3) Accessing the webforum will not grant an Echo, but posting a reply to it will. It will be possible to get a second during conversation, but as for how it happens... it's a secret to everybody!

4) Little statuettes are available for purchase in the gift shop, but do not grant an Echo themselves in any way.

You may also handwave the mingling NPCs being snobby snobs at you, just for fun. Because why not.

~~As before, please wait for all base threads to go up before posting.~~ OPEN FOR BUSINESS! In your character's subthreads, please put your character's name, the day, and optionally the time you are visiting in the title so things remain nice and neat. Remember, open to all interactions in the open section and one-on-one time in the closed section. Everything else goes in Everything Else. This post will remain stickied throughout the entirety of the plot duration, for easy finding.

The plot post for this week, detailing about the art gallery and more, can be found here.

*This awesome picture drawn by our very lovely Lucas-mun! Thanks, MC! ]

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Fay laughs a bit sheepishly. "I suppose I'm the only one who knows how he never wears anything else. But yeah, that. I wouldn't have wanted not to have gone here and-"

Realizing that he might have lost Lyall's attention there, he tilts his head a bit, lowering his voice and reaching out a hand to brush his arm. "You okay there, sugar? Did something happen?"

Definitely lost Lyall's attention. He doesn't even hear most of that, the memory being dumped into his head taking up most of his attention. He looks a little rattled, and jumps when Fay touches him, blinking rapidly and glancing aside.

"What? I-- oh. No. I don't think... I saw something." Again.

Fay frowns in confusion at first, but then the realization hits and his mouth forms a silent 'o' for a moment, before he lets out a soft breath.

"Was it the statues? Or... I guess that's a bit strange, we're not standing that close to them even. Something else?" He grimaces slightly, and just a little bit ruefully. "Ah, this seems to happen to you almost every time we speak. I'm almost feeling a bit guilty about it."

"I really couldn't tell you." Lyall shakes his head vigorously, to try and clear it, and then starts walking again, this time with a little more purpose-- he's aiming for a side room, away from those awful things. "Don't feel guilty, though. None of it has hurt, after all-- and that nose thing turned out to be surprisingly useful."

He makes a soft noise of amusement and nods, following along readily enough. He can understand well enough wanting to get away from those terrible things already. "We~ell, I guess that's true. More useful than a lot of things I've heard of - definitely more useful than the things I've got so far." He hesitates a beat, and then adds: "What was it this time? If you don't mind me asking."

"I don't mind. Once we're out of the press...." He reaches back for Fay's hand and picks up the pace, pulling the young man behind him and out into the watercolor gallery he'd sat in an hour ago with Julien. It's even more deserted now than it was then.

"There. Better." He drops down onto the bench in the middle of the room with a sigh, and puts his head into his hands a moment-- he freed Fay as soon as they were out of the sculpture gallery.

He gasps softly in surprise at being tugged along like that, but after a glance over the shoulder so that he knows roughly where Youou is, he doesn't resist at all. What he does do, as soon as they're out of the worst of the crowd where too-many people could be listening, is drop into a crouch in front of Lyall, looking up at him with equal parts concern and carefully tempered curiosity.

"Was it something dreadful, or just overwhelming?" He knows enough about dreadful, as he still wakes up drenched in sweat, trying to wipe blood off his face, and it's hard not to worry about someone who is trapped in the same predicament as yourself.

"A little of both," Lyall answers, looking a little embarrassed by his emotional reaction, but not quite in control of it, either. "I saw-- two wolves fighting. Very, very big wolves. One of them... killed the other. And then I introduced myself to it. Or whoever I was seeing through the eyes of, did."

He'd been pleased. And afraid, and worried, and angry, and... and it had been very complicated. Or, rather, whoever's life he was seeing, since he is still trying very hard to separate this other person with the wolves and ghosts and things from himself. It's getting harder and harder, every vision.

He nods slowly, mind immediately picking through the mental rolodex of strange creatures he'd encountered. Except wolves were normal creatures, weren't they?

Then again, storms were normal, and he's pretty certain one of those 'creatures' that he knew about - hadn't seen, just heard about - was in fact a sentient storm.

"You think... maybe you were looking through the eyes of a wolf? But..." He chews his lip a bit, tilting his head. "Well, I mean, that would explain the sense of smell. But it doesn't quite work with some other of those visions, does it? Unless we're getting visions from several people..."

"I've already had a vision looking through the eyes of a wolf," Lyall points out dryly. "As soon as someone mentioned those dog mutants on the network, I had one of running with a whole pack of them. This one felt different, and I actually do remember speaking. And having hands."

He finally straightens up from his bent-over position and runs his hands through his hair in a habitual calming-himself-down motion. "I am fairly sure everything I've seen comes from the same person, at least. It's very... consistent. Except for the one with being a wolf, at any rate, and even that seems consistent with this one, which seems consistent with the others as well...." He's mostly thinking out loud, at this point, really.

"Ah, I see. I... I suppose I presumed a bit much. It's just that for me, I can't make the memories work with each other, even within the same... group of memories, so to speak." He smiles apologetically and shakes his head a bit, watching Lyall's face attentively. It's an... interesting idea, to say the least. The memories are somehow consistent, yet at least one is from the perspective of a wolf, the other from the perspective of a person talking with wolves. "But that's... well, really something. I wonder if... well, when it's all filled in, will you remember that person's entire life? And have their abilities? That sounds a bit..." Worrying.

"You aren't the only one," Lyall assures him, reaching over to pat his shoulder gently with one hand. "I may be the only one whose visions all seem to at least point to a coherent whole, so far, or at least I'm the only one who I've spoken with on the subject, like that."

He settles back a little on the bench, trying out Fay's idea. It doesn't sit well with him. "I know some of us have thought that perhaps we are becoming these other people... whoever they are."

That sends a shudder through him, and his legs sort of seem to lose power a little bit, ending up with him sitting on the floor in front of Lyall. For a moment he just shakes his head mutely, looking uncomfortable.

"I hope not. I mean, not all my memories or whatever they are... not all of them are bad. But I ain't sure I wanna be that person. Well, I mean, obviously I don't wanna be anyone except myself, but you know what I mean?" He didn't want to be a person who knew the kind of loss that one of the memories had carried.

"I do," Lyall agrees solemnly. "I'm not really sure I'd want to be someone who actually-- made some kind of plan to make one of those wolves kill the other." He hasn't the faintest idea what than plan was, just fleeting thoughts of planning something in the middle of that fight.

He frowns, and adds, "I don't suppose you've ever heard the term 'Beta' before, have you? I mean, besides those colorful fish."

Fay swallows hard, thinking that he really, really wishes that he won't become someone who can do the kind of damage he'd seen in one vision too. Or someone who would like the taste of blood. But the question makes him laugh a bit ruefully, shaking his head. "You're asking the wrong guy, I ain't exactly the living encyclopedia. I know it's, what, a greek B? I dated a fraternity dude for a while. So, B, second, number two?" He sighs, and then hesitates. "I guess Youou might know something else. I could ask him if you like?"

Thankfully, Lyall hasn't gotten that part yet. Someday, though. He shakes his head, too. "No, that's all right. I'll just head home and google it, I'm sure I'll get a pretty complete answer there. --I ask because this man I'm having visions as introduced himself as the wolf's 'Beta'. I can only guess this means, as you said, second or number two. But what that means in context, I have absolutely no idea...."

Fay nods, because that sounds like a decent enough plan, and tilts his head a bit in thought. "You know, I thought one of those things happened to me when I touched one of the statues." He frowns a little bit, shaking his head. "But I didn't get any memories or anything like this. Just a- a weird feeling, and I'm noticing stuff differently now. So maybe it's some kind of... skill or something that I know nothing about yet."

"It's possible. Not all of these changes are immediately noticeable, after all. How do you mean 'noticing differently'?" Because that could mean a number of different things, and Lyall isn't sure which way Fay means it.

"Well, kinda... all the things in here that I could use to defend myself with? Suddenly it all sort of just pops out at me? Things I could topple, things I could strangle with, things I could club someone over the head with?" He grimaces lightly, because it's confusing to be in a world where he's suddenly so very aware of just about all of the nasty things he might do with a discarded wine glass or a stool. "Maybe the person I'm getting memories from is really paranoid?"

"Or else very well trained in self-defense. Just because he knows it doesn't mean he necessarily wants to do it," Lyall points out, trying to be reassuring in that. "Just like, I suppose, just because you want to taste someone's blood doesn't mean you want to harm them. Right?"

That was Fay, who had that problem, he remembers.

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the "p" doesn't stand for pretentious, FYI. [art gallery, may 6th—??? ]

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