reality_crossroads | (no subject)

. . .well, sounds like you're having fun today. [Marty was just passing through, having hit up the mall for some new jeans, but this guy looks both new and -- just sort of done? With everything? Ever?] You okay?

No. *He gestures vaguely to his door.* We've got body snatchers. Everybody's paranoid as all hell, pointing flamethrowers at each other or leaving each other to freeze. Oh, and I just saw a head with spider legs crawling around until somebody torched the fucking Thing. It was the head of someone I liked, too.

So no, I'm not fine.

Edited 2020-07-03 05:41 (UTC)

Holy shit. That is -- is. . .

[hang on a second -- hang on. Head with spider legs, flamethrowers, leaving people out to freeze. . .and the way he'd said 'Thing,' it sounded like it had a capital -- shit. Marty hasn't actually seen this movie in a while, but he knows what happens in it. But he doesn't remember this guy off the top of his head. Shit, is he one of the humans, or. . .would the Thing even be able to do something here, with the anti-violence field? But that's not always the most reliable. . .crap crap crap. Maybe if he stays here, keeping his distance. . .]

. . .yeah. That is -- pretty much the definition of "not fine."

I'm never going back. I don't care what this place is, I'm never going back. Pretty sure if I do I'm going to die within a day. *He actually would have been stepping into the scene where he dies, so he's more right than he knows.*

It doesn't sound like a great place to be, no. . .guess I should tell you where you are, though. Welcome to the Nexus, meeting place of all worlds! [he scratches the back of his head] Would you feel better knowing there's supposed to be an anti-violence field over this place, so people can't hurt each other? [It's making Marty feel better right now, given what he's guessed about this guy's world. . .]

*There’s definitely relief in the guy’s eyes as that registers.* Oh thank God. I could use a bit of assured safety.

Nexus, huh? What kind of worlds meet here? And does it often pick up people in need of havens? Because that’s actually pretty cool.

Oh, I don’t think I introduced myself. Name’s Palmer. David Palmer.

[Well, Marty's glad the guy is feeling better after hearing that. . .though he's going to continue keeping his distance, because, again, no guarantees said guy is human] Yeah, I think we all appreciate that about the place.

All kinds of worlds -- you, uh, might see people here who are fictional back in the world you're used to. I know we've got some people from DC comics running around, and I've seen video game characters too. It just seems to grab whoever it wants to grab, honestly. I dunno if there's any actual purpose to it. [thoughtfully] Though, if it hadn't picked up both me and Doc, we never would have found each other again. . .

Oh, yeah -- Marty. Marty McFly. Prime example of people being fictional other places. Sort of.

*There's an instant--blink and you'll miss it--where his expression is somewhere between stark terror and utter rage, but then he just looks curious in a slightly stoned, out-of-focus way.* Do you suppose my world might be fictional around here somewhere? I'd be interested in finding out how things end without having to actually, you know, go back and live through it. *He doesn't seem to have considered that his disappearing might change things. Or maybe he did and he wants to know what Marty knows. Hard to say.*

Sorry, never heard of you. Probably too early or something, you look like a kid from around now. My now? I dunno what to call it, man.

Edited 2020-07-06 05:45 (UTC)

[the expression flickers across his face almost too fast to see -- but Marty's been watching this guy, and just the slight flash of rage and fright is enough to raise the hairs on the back of his neck. He tries not to show he saw, though] It -- could be. I mean, I'm living with one version of the girl behind Alice In Wonderland. Though her story definitely didn't go like the Disney movie, I can tell you that much.

Heh, yeah, I know how tricky that can be. . .but yeah, if you're before 1985, you wouldn't have heard of any version of me. I'm -- well, I'm supposed to be from a movie called Back To The Future, but my life went kinda off the rails before then.

Yeah, well, it was a book way before it was a cartoon. Unless it wasn't like the book either? I don't think they were very different, come to think of it.

Oh, so they aren't always accurate? *Relief again, almost undetectable though it may be. He's really sick of flamethrowers in his face, even if there's apparently no violence here.* A shame, now I'll never know for certain.

Yeah, that's true. . .and Alice says the book is pretty accurate. It's more everything kind of went to crap after the book happened. . .

[Marty shakes his head in confirmation] I mean, they're probably accurate for one version of reality, but. . .well, according to Back To The Future, me and Doc were supposed to be time travelers, not kidnapped by Faeries.

Oh. Oh, I see. Other timelines and shit. Very sci-fi, not that I'm one to talk. *Another hit of his joint.*

Time travel and faeries? Whoa, your world is eclectic as fuck. I like it. *He smiles. The kid hasn't run away screaming, so either he's getting away with it or this place really is safe. Either option is a big plus.*

Yeah, that about sums it up. Though here it can also be very fantasy, very romance, very -- you get the idea.

[Marty smiles back, though it's a little strained -- both from his nerves regarding possible Thing-ness and his natural hatred of faeries] You might not like it so much if you actually met one of the Fae. They're total assholes.

Very everything?

Oh, so these are Grimm-type faeries. Harsh luck, man.

*Palmer thinks a moment, wondering if he should mention his slight surprise that the human has heard the phrase 'body snatchers' and not tried to make him prove that he's human. No, best not push it. He's done very well at being himself so far, he certainly likes himself better than most of the colonies he remembers, and if the kid just isn't thinking straight he doesn't want to get him thinking.*

Yeah. That's kind of the motto of the Nexus. "Very Everything."

Worse than Grimm, I think -- though it's been a while since I've read any Grimm fairy tales. And at least I didn't have to see, uh, anyone's head crawling around the floor. . .you know what, though, I bet you some Fae probably could make that happen. [Thinking of the Thing as a weird form of Fae is -- is it better or worse than it being a body-snatching space alien? Marty's not sure. He's especially not sure when he's still trying to figure out if he's in the presence of it or not. So far Palmer's been cool, or at least not actively hostile, but. . .mmm. He really needs to watch this movie again, see what happened to this guy in it.]

*He smiles wryly.* Great motto.

Grimm's were, ah, pretty grim. *A little laugh. This humor thing is the best. Then he takes another hit of his joint and raises an eyebrow.* That would be one hell of a nasty trick, even for a faerie, which were definitely not the issue for us. I saw the spaceship, it was definitely aliens. Great big saucer, downright cliche.

Not that it's really surprising, right? I mean, everyone knows that the government has one at Area 51 or whatever. Ever read Chariots of the Gods?

[Marty smiles back] We'll see if it pops up on a sign anywhere.

Heh -- I guess when you've got the name, you gotta live up to it. [He makes a face] Trust me, I've seen them do some -- fucked-up stuff. My best friend is part-mechanical because of what his Keeper did to him.

[Marty shakes his head at the book title] Not ringing a bell. But I've heard a lot of the conspiracy theories about aliens -- my dad's a bit of a sci-fi nerd. Usually that sort of stuff is about little green men with big eyes and probes, though, not body-snatchers or shape-shifters or what have you.

Grimm's did pretty well at living up to the name in my opinion. *He too makes a displeased expression.* Oh, ouch. Yeah, that doesn't sound good at all.

It's usually greens and grays, sure but who knows what else they're covering up. Although to be fair these guys are kinda self-keeping secrets, so maybe they're clueless here too.

Yeah, I think so too, from what I remember from being a kid. Haven't actually read anything of theirs in a while. [he shakes his head, teeth gritted] Nope. Definitely not. Especially since the asshole made Doc build all the stuff himself before -- [he shakes his head again] No, you don't want to hear about that. Not my story to tell anyway.

Got me -- I mean, I don't know if they're covering up anything at all in my reality. Though I guess if you've got faeries, aliens aren't a stretch. Your world, though -- well. Who freaking knows. I mean, you've already got a monster that -- uh -- you guys have any clue what it does to the people it snatches? [Marty can't remember if the movie actually made that clear or not]

*He supposes he may as well be honest about what Things can do. It would make him seem more trustworthy, odd though that seems.* It depends, I think? Sometimes it just, like, devours them and uses the mass to make a Thing version of them. Other times it infects people, replaces their cells one by one until there's an alien where the human was.

We still aren't sure if they know they're Things or it's a sleeper agent kind of deal. We don't know their motive, or if they even share one. We just know that the situation is not good. *For either side.* We started out with twelve people, we're down . . . well, we don't know. No way to be sure how many of us are Things so far.

[Marty blinks a few times] That's. . .you seem to know a lot about it. And damn, that's creepy. . .being replaced one cell at a time. . . [he can't help a shudder] Oh man. No wonder everybody in your world was super paranoid. . .

[he frowns] Wouldn't they have to know they were Things? You know, since they're taking over the original people? I mean, yeah, I dunno how a Thing thinks, but. . .

We had a couple of biologists, they figured some stuff out. It's still theory--but it makes sense, you know?

The ones who were violently taken, yeah. But if you change cell by cell, at what point do you stop being you? Do you ever stop being you, or are you just the same person but with powers? I don't know, man, I'm no philosopher. *These are the things that would keep him up at night if he ever slept.* I wish I understood, but . . .

*A rueful smile.* You know, it would be just our luck if it turned out it was scared of us too. That's the thing about paranoia, it can cause more problems than it solves. It would be fitting for the whole thing to have been needless to start with.

Right, yeah. . . [Marty really, really wishes right now that he'd watched the movie more recently and thus knew just how much they actually knew about the Thing(s). Palmer sounds pretty sure, but if he heard it from a scientist. . .who could have been a Thing. . .damn, meeting someone from this movie is confusing]

Neither am I, but -- I dunno. [He runs his fingers through his hair] Technically I picked up a few powers from my time in Arcadia -- don't ever use 'em, but still. I was changed by being in the fae world. I'm not gonna be the Marty was before. Is that the same thing as getting replaced by an alien? [He doesn't think so -- but --]

I can buy it being scared, but -- I mean, how the hell did you guys find out about it? That people were being taken over?

*Hell, being some from the movie isn't too much better. He knows what he is, more or less, but fuck if that doesn't cause issues of its own.*

I suppose that depends on how much you were changed. Was it all of you? Do you still feel, you know, generally like yourself? Do you think like yourself? What can you do?

We were woken up in the middle of the night by barking, the dogthing was trying to convert the dogs. Not sure if they had scared it by barking or if it didn't feel safe around unconverted creatures or what. *That's how the humans found out, at least. Palmer awoke already knowing, the knowledge part of his core, and wrapped around that innermost self was terror of being discovered.*

Well, it wasn't like Doc, that's for sure. . .but the outside definitely got changed. Not much, but -- if you stood me up against another Marty, I'd be the more handsome version. Had to look good for that prick. . .but I still feel like me, yeah. I never let him get that far into my head. [he shifts awkwardly] It's mostly I'm supernaturally good at performing -- think I've got a "compelling voice" thing going on too. But I've never really tested it out, because -- well. Makes me feel like one of them.

Right, yeah, the dogs. . .so they saw whatever was going on with that dog and freaked out, and -- shit proceeded from there?

no subject

I half want them to bond over being from 80s movies, half want to see Palmer freak out

Why not both? Both is good :p

Mention it then? Since Palmer won't know BttF, it's three years ahead of him.

Yeah, fair -- I'll see when I can work it into the conversation

I’m using the actor’s first name for him, there wasn’t an official one I could find

Fair enough -- I use actor's birthdays if one isn't established for the character

This guy probably counts as all of a week old at most

Wow~

Considering that the whole movie takes place over a few days . . . well, you know.

Yeah, that's fair enough

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