Can't I go for broke and say all of the above? [He looks up at the ceiling, unhappy with the notion but knowing Grell's right. She knows him well enough that he can't even bullshit her and keep everything to himself in this case. His hand's dangling toward the ground and near his backpack, not quite dipping into the opening but enough to keep it close.]
Which part? The impossible images, the creepy items, or the myriad of questions I've got thanks to all of this?
Pick one at random. We'll start there and address the rest on the way.
[part of knowing Luke like this is knowing that he knows her in response. if he asks, she'll confess what she's been thinking and remembering beyond what he knows. there can't be lies when they both know how to look through them.]
And they've always been blue as far as you remember, right? Nothing weird like...gold, maybe? [He hates sounding uncertain, but he definitely knows what he saw.] I haven't been able to figure out how these things work yet.
No, they're still showing up blue in the mirror, it's not that. It's...you ever get an image in your head, and no matter what you do you can't get it back out? It's something like that. [A pause.] ...one of those weird flashback things. Gold eyes were the highlight.
Remembrances. I like it. [He nods in agreement if only to stall on answering the question.]
Uh. I remember gold eyes and a scythe. I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to feel or what I was feeling at the time because everything just comes back to being "confused."
I sure as hell hope not. [Wait.] No offense or anything, but I don't know if I want to deal with that on top of everything else that seems to be coming up. It's not normal for people to be carrying around a scythe, is it?
A scythe? Not in my reckoning. Why would you have that?
I mean, you could say that about the eyes as well, but a scythe is a little likely to be noticed first off.
[shrugging as she drinks more of the tea.]
There's no pattern to how people are changing. No prior signs to it either. If it happens, it happens - we can only pray it doesn't start going after the children.
I wish I could figure it out. I've been trying to think of an excuse for days but I'm getting nothing. And I know it's mine. I remember holding it in my hands. I remember it belonging to me. Do people even use scythes in this day and age? Maybe I was cosplaying the grim reaper or something.
[But he nudges his hand at his backpack again.] It's going after everybody, Grell. It's already hitting Annabeth, too. [Who isn't a child, given she's seventeen, but she's still his baby sister.] It's anybody with that stupid app, and there's no way to get rid of it once it downloads. That's the scary part.
Unless you cut yourself off from electronics and go live in the woods.
[someone's probably considered that already.]
But there's nothing in this that makes sense, unless you start just accepting certain things as facts, bizarre as they are. It's not "someone got turned into a chocobo", it's "an entire species got changed and only we remember the difference." Meaning what, that we're special in some way?
Don't joke about that, I'd be perfectly happy in a cabin in the woods. Probably. [He's too social for that so maybe not.]
As much as I want to be special, what do you think we could do to reverse the effects? For all we know someone did get turned into a chocobo and we just don't know it yet. Almost everyone I've spoken to lately over the app has experienced some weird thing. And we know that they're capable of impacting different groups at different times. Annabeth and Thalia got the app at a different time than I did.
What other facts are there though? You know. Other than someone forging my handwriting pretty damn well. [Wait, what?]
[He's frowning a lot, but all right. He'll dig through his bag and pull out a small journal, tossing it unceremoniously on her desk to let her look it over. The first several pages appear blank, but eventually she'll see exactly what he means.]
Present from the creepy club, if you can believe it.
[for a minute, Grell's quiet, flipping through some of the pages to read and to think about Luke's handwriting as much as she remembers it. it's an exact match, and it's too extensive for a prank. before she can get too sucked into the story, missing pieces and all, she looks up to him, concern in her eyes.]
I can, even if I can't understand how. What'd Thalia say when she saw this?
[And here he goes quiet.] I, uh. Haven't shown her yet. Haven't really shown anybody yet...I just got it a few days ago. Figured it'd be better not to freak her out just yet until I had a better idea what was happening. Plus I haven't told her about all of the memories in that book yet.
[for the sake of his privacy, she closes the book, setting it down on her desk. it's a deliberate motion - only if he wants her to read and know what it says will she pick it back up. otherwise, they're his to have.]
It's frightening, Luke. I won't lie and say it's not.
[she says it softly.]
The best theory I can come up with, with the fragments we have, is that you were meant to have this right now for reasons we can't see. It's too targeted to be chance.
[Thanks, Grell, he's busy trying to wrap his head around glowing goats and what-have-you.]
That's a good word for it, if only because this is way too hard to explain away as a trick or a coincidence. You know me and you know I know tricks. Forgery's not that uncommon but my handwriting as a kid? That's a harder one. And I hate the idea of being targeted when they also sent me some other stuff that doesn't make sense. [Give him a second to reach into his bag again, this time pulling out a pair of dirty basketball shoes still in their box and a mangled golf club. He'll set them on the desk with the diary, giving them equal looks of distain.]
All three showed up at the same time. Same day. Do you know anybody else who's been receiving multiple items in the mail?
Not that I can remember hearing about or reading about on the app. Do you think these three things are connected somehow? Like the golf club and the shoes connected to a certain event? That's the only way I can see any sort of reason in sending you these.
[cautiously, she reaches out to touch the club, glancing up at Luke when she does.]
The shoes I don't think so, but...the diary and the golf club? Maybe. The diary talks about the golf club but I don't really get the context other than I was using it as a weapon, maybe. Something like that. Why I only had a golf club is still a mystery but I was using it to defend me and Thalia and it got clamped.
[He makes a face.] If their weird message is "we're here to fuck with your life", then the message is loud and clear. [He rubs the back of his neck then.] But figured if anybody should know, you should be one of the first people.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Which part? The impossible images, the creepy items, or the myriad of questions I've got thanks to all of this?
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[part of knowing Luke like this is knowing that he knows her in response. if he asks, she'll confess what she's been thinking and remembering beyond what he knows. there can't be lies when they both know how to look through them.]
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Grell, what color are my eyes?
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[if he's asking, then something must be suspicious, and her tone reflects that.]
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[still blue even as she stares at him right now. not a flicker of gold in their depths.]
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[but enough on that.]
What do you remember, aside from the gold eyes? How'd you feel at the time?
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Uh. I remember gold eyes and a scythe. I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to feel or what I was feeling at the time because everything just comes back to being "confused."
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Do you think, one day, your eyes might change like mine did?
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I mean, you could say that about the eyes as well, but a scythe is a little likely to be noticed first off.
[shrugging as she drinks more of the tea.]
There's no pattern to how people are changing. No prior signs to it either. If it happens, it happens - we can only pray it doesn't start going after the children.
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[But he nudges his hand at his backpack again.] It's going after everybody, Grell. It's already hitting Annabeth, too. [Who isn't a child, given she's seventeen, but she's still his baby sister.] It's anybody with that stupid app, and there's no way to get rid of it once it downloads. That's the scary part.
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[someone's probably considered that already.]
But there's nothing in this that makes sense, unless you start just accepting certain things as facts, bizarre as they are. It's not "someone got turned into a chocobo", it's "an entire species got changed and only we remember the difference." Meaning what, that we're special in some way?
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As much as I want to be special, what do you think we could do to reverse the effects? For all we know someone did get turned into a chocobo and we just don't know it yet. Almost everyone I've spoken to lately over the app has experienced some weird thing. And we know that they're capable of impacting different groups at different times. Annabeth and Thalia got the app at a different time than I did.
What other facts are there though? You know. Other than someone forging my handwriting pretty damn well. [Wait, what?]
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[Luke.]
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Present from the creepy club, if you can believe it.
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I can, even if I can't understand how. What'd Thalia say when she saw this?
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It's frightening, Luke. I won't lie and say it's not.
[she says it softly.]
The best theory I can come up with, with the fragments we have, is that you were meant to have this right now for reasons we can't see. It's too targeted to be chance.
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That's a good word for it, if only because this is way too hard to explain away as a trick or a coincidence. You know me and you know I know tricks. Forgery's not that uncommon but my handwriting as a kid? That's a harder one. And I hate the idea of being targeted when they also sent me some other stuff that doesn't make sense. [Give him a second to reach into his bag again, this time pulling out a pair of dirty basketball shoes still in their box and a mangled golf club. He'll set them on the desk with the diary, giving them equal looks of distain.]
All three showed up at the same time. Same day. Do you know anybody else who's been receiving multiple items in the mail?
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[cautiously, she reaches out to touch the club, glancing up at Luke when she does.]
It's like some weird message.
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[He makes a face.] If their weird message is "we're here to fuck with your life", then the message is loud and clear. [He rubs the back of his neck then.] But figured if anybody should know, you should be one of the first people.