OOM: An expedition.
Jan. 28th, 2025 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darkeryetdarkerGaster stands by the door.
In his arms, he has a wool poncho, several feet of rope- and, of course, the USB drive.
He takes a breath in, and out.
He’s waited long enough.
Gaster turns to Ibani.
“Are you ready?”
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Date: 2025-01-30 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-31 12:50 am (UTC)"No sense in delaying it, then."
He opens the door.
Inside is complete and total blackness - if there is a ceiling or floor, it's not visible. But it's not completely absent of sensation - Ibani might get the sense that this is an "in-between" space, or many spaces converging into one.
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Date: 2025-01-31 01:56 am (UTC)It feels...odd. Not empty, not like the void of space, but not like a proper reality either.
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Date: 2025-01-31 02:09 am (UTC)Gaster offers Ibani his arm. "You should probably stay close, though."
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Date: 2025-01-31 02:19 am (UTC)They'll go through the door together, for better or for worse.
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Date: 2025-01-31 02:35 am (UTC)After clenching and unclenching his hands, Gaster steps through the door. (Which, thankfully, stays open - though the light from the bar seems to be absorbed by the darkness.)
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Date: 2025-01-31 09:05 pm (UTC)"Universes colliding here, I think," she says, voice slightly distant. "Can feel it, like a pressure change, but not."
"Might need to meditate to get a clearer picture."
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Date: 2025-02-01 02:50 am (UTC)"Please, do what you need to do. I can pull up a particular timeline if it makes it easier for you."
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Date: 2025-02-01 03:08 am (UTC)"We may both float a bit while I'm meditating." Since they are touching. "It happens sometimes when someone who is Force sensitive meditates, connects deeply with the Force."
She settles into a meditative pose as if it's second nature, Gaster next to her on the...floor? Best to think of it as floor, probably.
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Date: 2025-02-01 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-01 03:36 am (UTC)Sith training on Korriban kills most, breaks even those who survive in many different ways. A great and terrible Determination that she MUST make things better was all that allowed Ibani to reconcile what she needed to do to survive with her own moral compass. Her passion BURNS like a flare in the darkness, her awareness of the Force strong and true. The Force will show her what she needs to know.
She and Gaster are floating slightly above the ground now, but holding steady.
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Date: 2025-02-01 04:01 am (UTC)There are a slew of pathways in time, branching and intersecting, all centering around one human's journey through the Underground, and the choices they make.
In some of them, there is a kind of...dark spot, for lack of a better word - creatures and pathways that do not appear anywhere else.
Gaster's eyesockets widen a bit at the sensation of being weightless, but quickly adjusts - this is by far not the strangest thing to happen to him in the Void.
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Date: 2025-02-01 03:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-01 05:31 pm (UTC)"I did notice a discrepancy in one. Just a moment..."
Gaster waves his arms, and a series of glowing images appear in front of the two of them. They all show the same places, the same people - all involving a small human child.
"There." Gaster selects a particular strand - a particular timeline - and taps on an image, enhancing it in size.
On a dock overlooking a body of water, stands a monster child, washed out in grey, staring into the distance.
(https://undertale.fandom.com/wiki/Waterfall/NPCs#Goner_Kid)
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Date: 2025-02-01 05:41 pm (UTC)She tilts her head, struggles to put words to what she's feeling. "There's a...resonance, to them, a discordance, as if their note doesn't fit the chords of the world."
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Date: 2025-02-01 05:51 pm (UTC)After a moment, the human child appears in the image. The washed-out child turns to speak to them.
"Have you ever thought about a world where everything is exactly the same...except you don't exist? Everything functions perfectly without you...Ha ha...the thought terrifies me."
(Ibani may notice Gaster's shoulders tense, just a bit.)
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Date: 2025-02-01 06:01 pm (UTC)Is that some connection between Gaster and the child she's sensing? She reaches with the Force slightly, seeks.
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Date: 2025-02-01 06:44 pm (UTC)The child seems half-formed - like a memory, or an echo. Not quite a person, but a reflection. Nevertheless, they radiate emotions - fear, longing, grief.
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Date: 2025-02-01 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-01 07:08 pm (UTC)"I remember a child who looked like this - they lived in Snowdin, the same town as my sons and I. They didn't look so grey and lifeless, though."
He presses his fingers to his mandible as he mulls this over.
"If it is an echo of me, it may be drawing on pieces of my memories."
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Date: 2025-02-01 07:14 pm (UTC)She can't be sure of what will happen if she does that, but it's the best idea she has.
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Date: 2025-02-01 07:18 pm (UTC)He hands one end to Ibani. "Try not to let anyone else see you if you can. And if there is any danger, pull on it and I'll pull you back."
Gaster isn't entirely sure Ibani will be able to enter his world, but he's not willing to compromise her safety. She's already risked so much for him.
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Date: 2025-02-01 07:31 pm (UTC)She takes the end of the offered rope and REACHES for that universe, calling upon an inner well of Determination.
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Date: 2025-02-01 07:38 pm (UTC)She's in Waterfall, the part of the Underground made up of marshes and water-filled caverns. There's a slight chill in the musty air, and droplets are heard echoing in the distance.
The human has left the area, but the grey-washed child is still there. Now that Ibani is closer, they almost seem to be slightly transparent.
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Date: 2025-02-01 07:39 pm (UTC)She approaches the grey-washed child with all the stealth of a trained assassin, though her purpose here is study rather than violence.
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Date: 2025-02-01 07:48 pm (UTC)They stare up at the high ceiling, which Ibani can now see has shining stones that glow like stars.
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Date: 2025-02-01 07:56 pm (UTC)She opens her senses, looking for connections, how this universe connects to Gaster, how he and the child are connected, how the glowing stones above fit into things.
There must be some useful bit of information she can bring back!
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Date: 2025-02-01 08:21 pm (UTC)"Something's different...Something that wasn't here before."
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Date: 2025-02-01 08:23 pm (UTC)She keeps still, quiet, blurs her Force presence into the background noise of this reality.
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Date: 2025-02-01 08:27 pm (UTC)The figure looks down.
"Ha ha..the idea is a little scary...but it does feel good."
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Date: 2025-02-01 08:43 pm (UTC)She dives as deep as she dares into the Force, seeking in this universe AND back toward Gaster for connections.
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Date: 2025-02-01 08:51 pm (UTC)The child is not a child at all - they are a spectre, a memory, a fragment.
A fragment of a SOUL.
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Date: 2025-02-01 08:59 pm (UTC)She's HOPING she can bring this piece of him back to the whole or otherwise reunite what has been split apart.
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Date: 2025-02-01 09:10 pm (UTC)In an attempt to aid Ibani, he pulls out the data recovery flash drive and places it in the darkness next to the image. Maybe they can recall this figure like he did with the rock earlier?
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Date: 2025-02-01 09:16 pm (UTC)Her will is very strong, it's HAD to be. She reaches, pulls power she has seldom dared before, the power she has taken from Force ghosts. Her eyes glow with violet light behind closed lids and she is distantly aware of pain, of skin cracking, tearing, from the energy she is channeling through her body.
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Date: 2025-02-01 09:26 pm (UTC)The figure is pulled toward her - and as it moves, it changes.
The child's form frays at the ends, like static, shifting in all directions - before finally compressing into a small, glowing shard that floats into Ibani's hand.
The feelings of fear and grief begin to melt away, and from them emerging a sense of safety and peace.
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Date: 2025-02-01 09:29 pm (UTC)Her hand is tight around the shard as she tugs on the rope. She can feel in her bones that it is time to go back.
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Date: 2025-02-01 09:32 pm (UTC)"Are you all right?" He asks.
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Date: 2025-02-01 09:35 pm (UTC)She stretches out her hand, opens it to reveal the piece of soul. "Found something of yours."
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Date: 2025-02-01 09:40 pm (UTC)He waves a hand over his ribs, exposing his SOUL. Stretching out his other hand, the SOUL piece turns blue and is lifted towards it, fitting into one of the cracks perfectly.
Gaster inhales sharply, and then exhales, with a contented smile.
There are still pieces missing, but his form already looks a bit more stable, slightly less melted.
"Thank you, Ibani. Truly."
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Date: 2025-02-01 09:43 pm (UTC)"Looks like there are still pieces of you missing, which concerns me."
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Date: 2025-02-01 09:48 pm (UTC)"We can worry about that later. For now we should get you back to Bar to rest. Now that I know for certain that there are pieces of me out there, I can work on a program to locate the rest of them."
Gaster offers his arm again. "Are you alright to walk?"
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Date: 2025-02-01 09:51 pm (UTC)"I'm glad you can work on a program to find the others, as I have no idea how long it would take ME to find them all."
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Date: 2025-02-01 09:54 pm (UTC)As he supports Ibani, he notices, he already feels a bit stronger.
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Date: 2025-02-01 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-01 10:07 pm (UTC)Maybe things might get better for him, in the timeline where everyone goes free.
They step into the light and warmth of the Bar.
(OOC: Wanna wrap it up there?)
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Date: 2025-02-01 10:18 pm (UTC)(OOC: Works for me! Thanks for the thread. Ibani is glad Gaster has a bit of his soul back.)