Shortly after the Jauntabout ends

[reallymean]

[The Jaunt has only been over for perhaps half an hour when Allura's voice comes across the network, tight and clipped as though she has a white-knuckled grasp on control.]

I know some of us tend toward trigger happy.

[As evidenced by the chalk outline in the penalty box - not quite a universal sign for 'some poor soul was just murdered', but close.]

But I would strongly advise against killing someone who has been severed from the Network or from Liminal Space. It appears to...disrupt the mechanism by which we're resurrected if we die during a Jaunt. They will return in the Floor, aware for at least part of the process.

Comments

[fearinahandfulof]

[Well, this certainly doesn't make her feel any less worried about Allura.]

Do you want company?

[She's not even going to ask if Allura's all right. She'd probably just say 'yes' and it's fairly clear to Cassandra that that would be a lie.]

[reallymean]

I would appreciate that. Though...perhaps later. I have some things I need to tend to.

[Like inspecting that chalk outline and inadvertently getting drawn into a murder investigation.]

[fearinahandfulof]

All right.

[She's still going to worry, though.]

[reallymean]

Thank you. For helping me during the Walkabout.

[fearinahandfulof]

It was no trouble. I'm... sorry I couldn't do more.

[theflyingone]

What happened? How did you find out about dying while severed?

[ If he had died while severed in Questing Country... ]

[reallymean]

By dying while severed.

[theflyingone]

...That much is clear. [ Come on now. But he glosses over that, assuming she doesn't want to pick over the details. He certainly hadn't, when he'd gone to the Floor. He'd written it down and put it in the Library instead. ]

So if we are concerned with preventing what happened, how do we tell if someone has been Liminally severed if we cannot ask them to try performing some Liminal ability? Psychic I know well enough...

[reallymean]

I suspect that if someone's truly cut off, they wouldn't be any more susceptible to Liminal abilities than the natives of a world. There may be some way to detect the connection, just as some of us can detect an active portal, but until now no one's had cause to look.

Private

[itsananimalthing]

Severed? What the fuck happened on the other side of the Jaunt?

[There's a pause, then he adds,]

You okay?

Private

[reallymean]

There was an entity possessing people. It...provoked one of our fellow Travelers while wearing my body.

[Which is only part of the story, but she's not comfortable telling the whole thing across the Network.]

I've mostly healed. Nike's gifts have their advantages.

[Private double protected forevers]

[itsananimalthing]

Well that sounds like it was some shit. Glad you're better. I've heard the floor is pretty awful.

[However, that only sort of answered his questions.]

The entity cut you off from the network?

[reallymean]

It is. But my experience of it was mercifully brief - consciousness wouldn't have been possible for most of my resurrection.

[Somewhere in Liminal Space, she tugs the scarf she'd conjured to hide the still-healing scars closer around her throat.]

And no. It wasn't the entity that cut me off - I did that myself.

[acapriciousthing]

That answers a few questions I don't think any of us wanted investigated.

[reallymean]

I think you've described the majority of the important discoveries we've had. Good news is vanishingly rare.

[acapriciousthing]

Sadly.

I've wondered about how the interference with death interacted with the rest, but it's really not the sort of thing anyone would want to test.

[reallymean]

You might be surprised. Some Travelers are remarkably cavalier about the possibility of dying.

Private

[waitatick]

My most sincere apologies for what took place.

[She was probably more than able to tell that he was...really not good, but it didn't matter in the slightest.]

Is there anything I may do for you?

Private

[reallymean]

No. I'm fine.

[No, she isn't.]

Private

[waitatick]

Then you are far stronger than I could ever hope to be.

Private

[reallymean]

Don't. Just...please, don't.

[verdeleonessa]

What happened at the walkabout?

[reallymean]

We were trapped in a confined space with a creature that fed on quintessence and could possess people. It went poorly.

[verdeleonessa]

So you were possessed and killed.

I'll come over to talk about this. I don't feel comfortable doing it on here.

[reallymean]

There's no need. It's over. I just wanted to be certain everyone knew the side effects, so they could factor them into on-Jaunt problem solving, if it ever comes up again in the future.