the_isle | The Show Must Go On

Entry tags:

The Show Must Go On - Arrival

Open/locked?: Open
Who: Morgana McCawber & You?
What: The self-called Queen of Rock has arrived, and she's got a few things to say... or sing.
Warnings: N/A, will update if needed.

Sweet dreams are made of these, who was she to disagree? Here Morgana had been hoping to wake up in her coffin after that odd sequence of shared memories, embarrassing falls, annoying heroes, and an epic jam session. Yet here she was, among trash and gloom, and she didn't take to a genius to figure out where she was. Thanks to Mal's descriptions, Morgana was already ahead of most people who arrived here... but that didn't make her any happier.

But, hey, at least she wasn't chained up anymore - nor was she alone. She stuck a hand in her hair, jostling out her familiars - two bats and a spider. "Eek, Squeak, recon mode. See what you can find, but don't go too far." The bats chittered in agreement before fluttering off. "Archie, you stay with me, and keep all eight eyes open." After a loving pat to his head, Archie crawled onto her shoulder, and the two walked on to discover what new adventure they'd been forced into.

Another blessing was that she'd still kept her guitar. She swung it over to her front, and began to strum a few bars... music was her outlet for anything and everything, so she might as well use it to start venting.

No spotlight? No grand entrance? Not even a working phone? This was NOT how you treated a rock star! (And the fact that she wasn't famous enough to be considered one was irrelevant, dang it.)

"Empty spaces, what are we living for?
Abandoned places, I guess we know the score, on and on
Does anybody know what we are looking for?
Another hero, another mindless crime
Behind the curtain, in the pantomime
Hold the line
Does anybody want to take it anymore?"

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Unable to properly sense other creatures' hostility here, the ent more or less failed entirely to react to this "attack" and ignored the little creature that was now on it. Rather, it was Morgana's movement that had its attention, not that she could tell where it was looking or anything.

Its branch moved a little again, leaning down to once more softly try to... pet her hair?

Archie continued to growl and even try to bash its itty bitty legs on the offending branch, for all the good that it would do. Morgana, for her part, merely blinked a bit slower than usual - as someone who grew up with monsters and magic, this wasn't the weirdest thing she ever saw. Granted, it was still very odd ... at least she was faintly amused.

"I suppose I'll take that as a compliment." She said a bit dryly, reaching up to encourage Archie to return to her. "I can't say this is the worst audience I've ever had. All right, Archie, back here. As long as they don't mess up the 'do, we don't need to call security."

Reluctantly and with another grumble, Archie crawled back to her shoulder.

The tree wasn't making any sudden moves. It seemed to take the hint when she reached up, and lowered its branches a bit toward her, making it easier for her own companion to return to her....

And now that she was looking in the tree's general direction, perhaps she'd spot another figure that was new to the Isle. He looked quite a lot like some sort of knight in black platemail, brown visible at his joints, and a green-brown cape hanging down behind him. ....Were those twigs on the back of his head? It was hard to tell, at that distance, his back to them as he looked around, stepping out from around the corner....

Where oh where had that tree wandered off to now? Looking for it would be far easier, if he could sense it properly, instead of... well, instead of not at all. He had plenty of complaints about being here, but so long as he could find his ent again... that was what mattered, right?

Morgana tilted her head a bit to see the newcomer, and upon seeing those twigs... well, she might have dropped out of school, but even she could put two and two together.

She cleared her throat, slipped her guitar around to her back, and called out.

"Looking for a friend of yours?"

He turned to look when she spoke up for him to hear her. Despite his eyes being fully black, it was easy enough to tell that he was looking between her and the tree as he sighed and headed over. "Is it bothering you? ...I was looking for the gold, actually. But...."

For its part, the tree seemed content to just ignore him, stepping to the side to try seeing her spider better again.

Up closer, it was easier to see that he had more in common with the first tree than just a couple twigs up top. A shiny-smooth wooden face, his dark armor more of an exoskeleton than anything worn... was that cape of his even real fabric, or some sort of woven-looking moss? Because it looked like it might actually be some sort of moss that was rather expertly pretending to be fabric.

"I don't know that they want to play," he informed the tree gently, reaching over to put a hand around its trunk, ready to guide it away. "And you were supposed to stay beside me, anyhow...."

The tree slowly shook a branch at her as it let him direct it to back up... what, was it waving to her? Maybe? It seemed like it might've been waving to her... or to her spider? It was hard to tell for sure.

Morgana chuckled a bit darkly - looking for gold? She doubted something that valuable would be laying out for anyone to take... And if it had, she would have definitely snatched it first. But keeping those thoughts for herself, the fact that this guy had a less "normal" appearance was actually kind of comforting - he might have fit in at home.

"I know what it's like to have to keep an eye on wandering friends." She mused while giving Archie an affectionate scratch to the top of its head, as it continued to grumble and growl. "But no harm, no foul. Are you two just as lost as I am, or do you have a better grasp of why we're here?" Or more importantly, how to get out?

Not that she doubted anything Mal had told her, but it had been a dream, and it was important to get facts checked and double checked - a lesson learned roughly from many a botched crime.

He shook his head, coaxing his pet tree into backing up another few feet, enough that it couldn't so easily pester her. "If you walk a ways... there is gold again. And past that, it's somewhere else. But I can't figure out how to walk away from this place." He frowned a little, vaguely frustrated with it. Didn't that sound like the dreamscape they'd all wandered through not long ago, though?

"I intend to keep looking. This place has not changed yet, but perhaps it will...."

... Wait, there was gold? Morgana blinked rapidly, turning her head in the direction where the Tree Knight had pointed. Her inherent greed was ready to salivate... but common sense put a snuff on that candle. What good would any gold, jewels, cash, ANYTHING like that be if there was nothing to spend it on, and no way to get it back home where she needed it most?

She clicked her tongue in disappointment. This whole ordeal really was starting to sound like a punishment for her criminal lifestyle.

"Sounds like we're stuck in the same situation. Any interest in doing that road-trip together? Four eyes are better than two... or, well, ten." She was counting Archie in there.

Well... there'd been something gold-colored, at least. Elsewhere. In a sense. "If you'd like." Humanishly-shaped face or not, that totally was a little bit of a smile starting to form on his beakless mouth. "...And I apologize, should I be short; my patience is starting to wear thinner with this place."

The little tree seemed to think it might be a fine idea to step around him while he spoke with her, moving to stand close behind him. Who knew just where it was looking, or how it did so, right?

Edited 2023-10-13 09:36 (UTC)

"Believe me, my own patience is hanging on by a thread." And hopefully whatever they came upon during their expedition wouldn't snap it. She decided to take the lead, starting to walk and expecting to be followed.

"Name's Morgana. This here is Archie." Standard grumbling from the spider. "And I've got two more helpers, Eek and Squeak, trying to find out what they can from above."

"Chell," he said simply, giving her a single little nod, not saying anything when she started off first, simply moving to go with her. He didn't have an issue with letting her, if she wanted to lead.

"...'From above'?" He looked up -- would he spot them? As though he'd even know what he was looking for....

His tree simply toddled along after them, not making any sounds worth noting.

Morgana decided it'd be better to show than tell. So she stuck two fingers in her mouth, and made a high-pitched whistle.

Within seconds, there'd be a flurry of squeaking sounds - then two bats would descend from the sky, landing on Morgana's hair and giving a brief illusion of her wearing bows.

"I don't know why the power that brought us here also dragged in our little friends, but I'm not complaining."

He smiled a little more at seeing the two little airborne creatures... but it faded not long after they landed, and he turned his head to look back at his tree for a moment.

Quiet, "I'm... uncertain if it did."

A second's hesitation, and he looked back to her. "I cannot seem to speak with mine."

How curious! Morgana quirked an eyebrow. "What do you mean? That this place... is somehow affecting the way you two understand each other?"

Morgana had known her familiars since childhood - did that mean what if this place meant to separate them, it just didn't have the power? Or was her traveling companion just that unlucky?

He was quiet a second, not quite pausing in following her as he eyed it. The tree simply continued to toddle after them, unbothered by all of this, and then Chell resumed stepping after her.

"....Yes." It sounded like he was about to say something else, but he decided against whatever it was, and eyed hers again, considering it. "What of you and yours?"

Morgana shrugged, as all three of her familiars now decided to go into their favorite nesting place... her hair.

"Hm... well, it's hard to say. My babies have been with me since I was a child... even if we couldn't communicate, we know each other perfectly. They understand me, what I want, and how to get it. We're... like family, you could say. So if this place has done anything else besides sealing away my magic, I wouldn't even know. We'll just have to find whoever is in charge of this place and demand some real answers."

Or beat it out of them, which would also be good for venting her frustrations.

"You as well? ...Whose place is this, do you know?" And then some other idea seemed to occur to him, before she even had a chance to answer that: "Perhaps they need help, for this place to be like this."

Morgana hesitated before answering - what she was going to say would sound kind of crazy, and she knew it.

"... I had a dream before I came here. It was playing the worst parts of my life for everyone to see... and a girl named Mal said a lot of things. Like how this place was supposed to be home sweet home for villains, and there's another place out there for the kids of goody-goodys. But some wishes went wrong, there's a genie in a coma, the wizards bailed, and both places keep drawing people in like the opposite of population control."

A big shrug. She could hope it was accurate, but she couldn't be entirely sure.

"... At least, that's what could be happening. No one in the waking world's told me a thing... you and tall, dark and woodsy are the first living things I've seen here."

He made a small sound, merely acknowledging what she'd said calmly. He didn't say anything himself for a second, but more than that, he didn't make a face or anything that might help clear up what he'd thought of all that.

It was only for a second or two, though. "I met a brother that helped me wake up... but it was still a dream. We talked... but the places changed again. And there was gold, between those places, at the edges. So if we find that gold again...."

At least he didn't react as if she was nuts. One point for him. "At least it's something to keep an eye out for. A weird lead is better than no lead at all."

Trying to follow a gold path that would lead them home... wasn't there some kind of mortal story that went that way? She couldn't really recall.

"I can't even tell what time it is, or how much time has passed since those dreams happened."

"Time was indeed strange in the others," he agreed, "But it seems fair here. It was lighter, earlier... so I would guess that it is getting later in the day. Probably not sunset yet...."

He didn't let the silence sit long, though, not when there were things he was curious about. "Did you also find...." He paused again, hesitating, and from the look on his face, it seemed he was more trying to figure out how to word something, than whether he wanted to ask it, and finally settled on "people that weren't there?"

So she'd probably be stuck here when night fell, and she wouldn't have her cozy coffin to sleep in. Ugh! This was awful! How was she supposed to get a good night's rest without it?

But the question threw her off, and she furrowed her brows. How could you find someone who wasn't there? "You lost me," she replied, doing her best to not sound judgmental. "What exactly happened?"

He was quiet again as he tried to figure out how else to phrase it, narrowing his eyes, looking down. "Their presence is... wrong. Some are correct. Others... it feels like they aren't there. One can touch them. Hear them. See them. ...But they don't feel right." In this case, he meant at all, but he wasn't sure he ought to say that yet. "...Like an illusion."

That last one was the magic word, and Morgana nodded in understanding. "All right, now you're playing the right notes.... but it looks like you went solo for that experience. I only met a handful of players in that world, but they all seemed pretty real to me. The places I went to where from my memories... were those people from yours?"

He was silent another few seconds, considering something, and looked back to his tree again, watching it. Hesitantly, "Some. Of both. The ents... I thought that they were with me, at first. But I've grown less certain that they were. I always felt them with me, but I don't think I have, in those places."

He looked back to her, frowning a little. "The other ones, that I was certain of sensing correctly... were not ones I'd known before. And one in particular who was not who he appeared to be... was someone I had seen while asleep, before. I could feel him easily then." For all that his eyes should've been harder to read, they sort of weren't. Even in the dim overcast from their poor weather, those looked to be hints of tears. He turned his gaze back to the ground in front of them, holding his breath for just a beat, trying to dismiss any displays of... well, anything, it seemed. Quieter, "He was absolutely, radiantly joyful. ...But there, at one of the places I went... there was nothing. He seemed to present, but he wasn't there."

A sigh, trying to lean on his frustration at it all, "The silence has been deafening."

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