paradisalost

Current Mood: shocked

Entry tags:

!intro,
tess mercer

♙ 1

[at first, there's silence.

The silence is then followed by gasps and sobs as Tess is forced into a sitting position like there's been a shock of adrenaline to her system. It takes a moment for her to catch her breath, and get herself oriented again, and when she does -- this isn't Metropolis Gen. In fact, this isn't even close]

What the hell?

[if you didn't know better, you might even say that there was a twinge of fear in her voice, but she'd never admit to it if she knew anyone was listening]

Is anyone there?

[a beat]

Chloe?

[it takes her a minute to get her legs under her, but she does, slowly and cautiously making her way to the door. She pulls it open, sees her name on the door, and slams it shut again.]

I repeat. What the hell.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yes. Which means that the castle either removes your memories when you leave, or that you and the other Tess Mercer are two different people from universes so similar that we wouldn't notice any discernible differences. It's a little more complicated, but still a possibility.

Don't worry about it too much, though. It's not something we have any control over.

Smallville, did anyone ever tell you you're not very good at this reassuring thing?

She has a point, Clark. I don't think debating quantum physics is a good way to convince someone that they're not going crazy.

[but that's ... somewhat affectionate teasing? at least as far as Tess can be affectionate]

[a touch of a smile]

Sorry. That's all I read for my first month here, and it made it a bit easier to swallow than just "magic."

At least if you are crazy, you're in good company? [yeah, lois isn't great at this reassuring thing either]

[nods, and still ... is having a hard time believing that they're actually being civil to her. Clark explained it to her, but she's still having a hard time adjusting]

So. Sentient castle. And we're just ... stuck here?

Sort of. The castle has a good deal of surrounding land, but there's a point maybe eighty or ninety kilometers out where any non-human ability gets canceled out, and anything that needs more than just basic mechanics stops working. Traveling past that is time consuming and dangerous.

As for getting off-planet, there's something in the lower atmosphere bubbling us in. There have been literal gods incapable of getting out of here by their own means.

And Clark left out the part about the guys in powered armor out there who try to kill us if we cross their territory.

So we're prisoners, just with nice accommodations. I almost would prefer the bars on the windows.

[it'd be less of a lie]

[He hates thinking of it that way, and could argue that it isn't, really, but when he starts thinking like that, he feels like the castle has gotten to him far more than he'd like to think. Three years can feel so long.

So he'll just be relentlessly optimistic on that front.]

It's probably better to focus on what we can do, rather than what we can't do.

Exactly. And it isn't as if we're not slowly carving out clues about this place. I can show you what we've got so far when you're more settled in.

[nods, her arms still crossed in front of her chest defensively. she's still not sure how she feels about everyone suddenly being friendly, but she's not in the mood to look for teeth.]

Sounds good. Is anyone else here other than you guys and Oliver? From home, I mean.

Not anyone that you know, but there's a Bat-themed family of heroes from Gotham. We hadn't heard of them before we got here, but that's because they're twenty or so years ahead of us and on a different time-line.

[Pause.]

I promise this makes more sense eventually.

... Exactly why I said you might want to wait for the full scoop. But it's basically what Clark said. When people wind up here, no time passes back home, so no one notices anyone's gone... and everyone forgets this place when they head back, so none of us winding breaking space-time.

I think.

So the castle just wipes our memories and puts us back at square one?

Unfortunately, that does seem to be the case.

And that's really sort of the shallow end of invasive procedures where the castle's concerned.

.... Do I want to know?

Probably, but whether you want to know now or have a chance to absorb the rest first is up to you.

What Smallville said. This is probably already a little overwhelming.

Overwhelming might actually be an understatement.

[there was a beat before she makes her way back to where she left the journal]

I was here before -- it would mostly be on this, right?

Whenever you had the journal open. I don't think you used it much. [Or if you did, you filtered away from him.] I think the only time you and I spoke with the journal open was when you arrived, and when we went to the Pillar Fields.

If you can find out who you talked to last time around, they might be willing to play informer.

[nods slowly]

I'll look through it and see.

And we can answer any other questions you have, too.

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