[Social] Doing Things the Old Fashioned Way

[Will Stanton]

"What was what?" Will asked turning around, and finally recognizing Miriam's....plight, for lack of a better word.

"Woah, woah, woah, Miriam, come in, sit down, something's happening to you. Is it the sun? Is it too much sun? It's too much sun, isn't it," he said, stepping back outside and taking Miriam's hand to try to guide her.

[Miriam Bell]

"I'm fine..." she says, though she does end up letting Will lead her inside.

"There here I'm at is just very far away. Or... very small in all the rest of this..."

[Will Stanton]

"I...don't understand. You're right here, right? I'm holding your hand, you're right next to me."

[Miriam Bell]

"Yes, yes, of course..." she says, though she sounds as if she'd needed the reminder. "But I can see so much more than that, all the rest of it is out there still."

[Will Stanton]

"...The bubble is a different size for you than it is for me, isn't it. Tell me what you see."

[Miriam Bell]

"All of it... the Factory, the Woods, the Town, the Sewers, the Foyer, the Dance Hall, the Ossuary, the Chapel, the Charnel House, the Sarcophagus..." she starts, clearly drifting on to what must be parts of her own mind.

[Will Stanton]

"OK, Miriam, I'm going to need you to focus a little bit. You're drifting.

I don't want you getting lost in your own head here. I need you to focus on my voice."

[Miriam Bell]

"Yes, yes, I know where you are. We are. We're just so little is all."

[Will Stanton]

"You tell all the guys you know that? No wonder dating isn't your forte," Will joked.

"The net is vast and infinite, yes, but you're drifting into other minds here. I don't think chocolate-coated sarcophagi are going to be in vogue in either of our minds."

[Miriam Bell]

"I can't help it. It's how I draw them forth."

[Will Stanton]

"...ALright, let's try something else then," Will said, pausing and thinking for a moment.

"The foyer. You said you saw the foyer. What's outside the front door of that foyer?"

[Miriam Bell]

"The Endless Labyrinth. You don't want to go there..."

[Will Stanton]

"And where is that labyrinth compared to, say, the factory?"

[Miriam Bell]

"They're not... in the same place. Not like that. They're both here but..." she frowns, hard. "They're not connected like that."

[Will Stanton]

"Then do they....kind of overlap?

Like, in the same place but a different, what, frequency?"

[Miriam Bell]

"Frequency, layer, yes, something like that. Different places."

[Will Stanton]

Will took Miriam's hand.

"Alright. But you need to try to focus on where you are right now. I worry that you're going to lose yourself in your own mind here."

[Miriam Bell]

"I'm in the Town with you. Inside... what is it, a store? I'm okay. I'm here. It's fine..."

[Will Stanton]

"A bar, actually, it looks like. Maybe something to drink would help you find your bearings?

Not that I know what that would mean here, as there's not, uh, actually a tap here, right?"

[Miriam Bell]

"There isn't? Oh, hang on..." she says and a narrow pipe snakes it's way out from behind the counter, curling as it grows into a proper tab along with three more that sprout next to it. Above it racks of bottles settle in with soft clinking.

[Will Stanton]

Will blinked.

"OK, fair play, little miss clever. But it's not actually, like, really real? Just a figment of our own imagination?" Will said, walking behind the bar to check things out again, his skin doing that weird rippling effect again.

[Miriam Bell]

"I don't know. I think so. It doesn't... last but I think it's real while it does. You'd think we would have walked into a tree by now if it wasn't."

[Will Stanton]

"Great. People can gorge themselves and come out without any problems. A dangerous power you have there, ma'am," he joked.

"Let's see what we've got here. There's...a lager, and...another lager, and...the same lager..." he paused.

"...All twelve of these taps are identical, Miriam."

[Miriam Bell]

"Are you sure that's not a 'you' problem?"

[Will Stanton]

"Well, if it's my mindscape, then everything's a 'me' problem, wouldn't you say?" Will joked back.

"That's the thing with me. Peal back one layer of troubles, and you just find another world of broken parts."

[Miriam Bell]

"You're not broken. You're scarred."

[Will Stanton]

"Nah. Chicks dig scars. Most people try to fix or hide what's wrong with me," Will laughed, a bit ruefully.

[Miriam Bell]

"Yeah, well, most people suck anyway."

[Will Stanton]

"Says the vampire," Will joked. "With you sponsoring this mindscape trip, I'm surprised the taps aren't O, O+, A, B..."

[Miriam Bell]

"I'd have to mess about with your head for that and we're here to see if something's wrong with you, not make you think of blood when you're crave a beer."

[Will Stanton]

"Mmm. True," Will said, somewhat noncomittingly.


"My subconscious, though, appears to be very boring. These bottles are all the same beer, too. Multiple taps, multiple bottles, all the exact same. I've never seen a bar like that, have you?"

[Miriam Bell]

"No... and that does seem uncharacteristically plain for you. Do they have a... delivery chain like the baked goods, do you think?"

[Will Stanton]

"I mean, I've never been here; you'd have to ask the proprietor. But I imagine that they must come from somewhere, wouldn't you?"

[Miriam Bell]

"No, but it's you so maybe yes." she says, slowly turning in a circle to try and get a bearing for where the booze might be coming from and wandering in what feels like the right direction.

[Will Stanton]

Miriam would get the general impression that it was coming from the factory. What, was there a brewery there she had never had the chance to visit on her previous trips? Rip-off!

"I like to think I follow a sense of logic. Just maybe not the standard one."

[Miriam Bell]

"More than most people's minds, really. Maybe it's an expression of how... user-friendly your mind is in and of itself." she says as she traipses out the door and starts down the road, building out the mindscape ahead of her as it recedes in her wake. Though relative distances are definitely a bit off as the entrance to the factory begins to take shape after only a couple meters.

[Will Stanton]

"I'll take that as a compliment. I do like to be useful," Will said.

He carefully was holding on to Miriam's arm, partially to try to keep her tethered to this 'reality', and partially because he couldn't see where the hell they were going as the mindscape revealed itself as they walked -- Miriam's view was clearly more 'zoomed out' than Will's was. As such, Miriam could feel Will undulating and vibrating slightly as they walked along, 'rippling' at different rates and different directions as they passed different areas of the mindscape.

"So, this is where the magic happens..."

[Miriam Bell]

"Are you alright? You're buzzing." she asks, hand finding Will's upper arm and holding it a little tighter than you normally would.

[Will Stanton]

"Hrm? I'm fine; I don't know what you mean," Will asked, confused. "I guess I'm a little excited to actually see the inside of this thing, but that's all."

He was apparently unaware of his body reacting to the environment.

[Miriam Bell]

"So excited your skin is quivering? I know you're quite literal but that seems a tad excessive."