[Two days into Fridge Liminal]

[professorwolf]

Sorry to bother everyone, but I'm having a bit of a problem. Some of you may know I picked up a somewhat awkward but sometimes useful ability in the city of Melasurei-- I occasionally get flashes of the future in brief, context-less visions. And right now that ability won't leave me alone.

It's the same thing every time: standing on one side of a glass wall, with several others on the other side, unable to reach us-- there are hands pressed to it on either side, but it's impermeable.

I have never actually seen anything metaphorical before, it's always an exact representation of something that may happen. So... I'm wondering if anyone's seen a glass wall around here? Or run into one, I suppose, seeing as it may be a bit hard to see. And if we haven't... perhaps we'd best keep an eye out for one.

And before anyone asks, no, it's not the shelves in the giant refrigerator. I know what those look like.

Comments

[theflyingone]

Perhaps in the next change in environment we will see this glass wall. This sounds like it will be more durable than glass, however. What do you suppose it is made of?

[ How can they break it? ]

[professorwolf]

Plexiglass, or safety glass, or clear plastic, or whatever they make windows on the space shuttle out of... or some clear creation from a time well beyond mine, for that matter. It could even be solidified energy, for all I know. I do know it doesn't hurt to touch it, no one is flinching back.

[theflyingone]

[ So much for the "how". He tried for the "why". ]

Why would they separate us? To conquer? But we are already taken... Were we divided evenly in your vision?

[professorwolf]

I only saw a few faces, so I can't guess how evenly we're divided... I'm on one side, Hajime is on the other. So is Naoki. My pack, I think, is mostly with me... except for Hajime.

I don't have any sense that there's any great danger, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

[theflyingone]

[ Nothing bodes well at this point. Altaïr is all too familiar with how danger can hide in the most innocuous places. He does so himself. ]

Do you know why Hajime was singled out?

[leftbehindagain]

[Naoki remembers Lyall's visions very well indeed, and as such has no reason to doubt what he has to say about them.]

Interesting. Is there any indication of whether sound carries across the barrier, or are you just getting the barrier?

[professorwolf]

No one is talking in the visions I'm getting, but that could change.

[leftbehindagain]

hmm. Well, there's likely still the network.

[professorwolf]

Probably so. I couldn't say for sure, but it takes a lot to cut that off, doesn't it? That only happened once, during Harrogate, and then on the smaller Walkabout Jaunts, right?

[neverfeltthatway]

Well, at the start of this liminal where we showed up was divided according to whether or not we'd died before. Then there was that zoo liminal where shadow or fog followed around everyone who's been marked. It's not too surprising they'd eventually go for a more literal separation.

[professorwolf]

Oh, is that what it is? I hadn't put together it was people who'd died, though I suppose that explains why I was inside. "Fridged" indeed. I'm not sure, sometimes, about the Trumps' sense of humor....

[neverfeltthatway]

That seemed to be the common theme, from the people I could see inside. I can't say for sure, since not everyone who died did so as a Traveler, and I'm not totally familiar with everyone's history.

[He frowns, considering the unfamiliar turn of phrase.] ..."Fridged?"

[professorwolf]

Fridged. Ah. It's a term from modern Earth, in relation to being killed off, usually for shock value or to advance the character arc of another character in the story. Come from an old comic book where, er, a character's love interest is literally left in a refrigerator.

[awitchdidit]

Sounds like a prison, or a zoo, or an aquarium. Apparently there's already been a zoo, though, and I don't think they usually repeat Liminal Spaces.

[professorwolf]

And there were prison cells in the liminal just after the Grid Jaunt, as I recall. In the bottom of the casino.

There wasn't any water, though, so if it's an aquarium, it's an empty one. There may be a maze?

[awitchdidit]

Have we not done a maze before? That'd be rather surprising considering our resemblance to rats in an experiment...

[professorwolf]

There have been maze-like constructs that are difficult to navigate, but no straight-out mazes that I recall. I think one liminal had hamster balls with little mazes inside, but that wasn't the full liminal design.

[memoryandtheft]

Are you sure it isn't a ceiling?

[professorwolf]

Or a floor, for that matter. However, given how few people seem comfortable with standing on things other than a proper floor, I'm given to assume it's a wall, for now.

[memoryandtheft]

I know I'm very uncomfortable with standing on things that aren't floors. Or some other reasonable variation on the ground.

...What was on the other side of the wall?

[professorwolf]

People. Some of the other Travelers. Hajime in particular, but I saw others.

Or do you mean besides them? Erm, well, walls. It looked a bit like some kind of maze, with high walls that had openings and turns in them.

[chalicejoker]

...I bet I could probably smash it, if I tried hard enough.

If it is a literal glass wall, anyway.

[professorwolf]

I... don't think you can. You're one of the faces I'm seeing on the far side, and I think if you could get through, you would have.

[chalicejoker]

...that doesn't mean I'm not going to try, if it really does happen like that.

[He doesn't like this.]

[professorwolf]

I don't think anyone could stop you if you wanted to try. I just wish I knew what it meant.