Early in the Week 1.5 Mingle

[chalicejoker]

Look, being back in the Bando...it's not good for Matthew or for me. Not after the last Jaunt. Matthew thinks he can open a portal to the Walkabout, and if any of the missing people aren't hiding around somewhere else here, they'll be there.

So we're leaving. I won't wreck anything, he won't get recognized...it's for the best. Don't worry about us.

[There's a very short pause, and then...]

Shit. Shit! That didn't...

Comments

[thornsofmalkav]

What did you fucking do???

[chalicejoker]

I didn't...

He's gone. I'm still here, everything's the same...

...but Matthew vanished.

[thornsofmalkav]

Motherfucker.

Okay. Okay, shit.

He's not answering his brain.

[chalicejoker]

Yeah, I...I don't know where he went.

[thornsofmalkav]

Somewhere else, obviously. Maybe the walkabout. Maybe somewhere else like that goddamn tree hotel.

Shit, is there anybody besides Naoki who can talk to other liminal places?

[summerorange]

What happened, Hajime-san? Did you get spotted by the other crew?

[chalicejoker]

No, no, we were in Liminal when we tried...

...but Matthew's gone. He just...I don't know where he went. We tried to go together, but I couldn't go through for some reason.

[summerorange]

You mean, something blocked you from going with him? What could have done that?!

[chalicejoker]

I don't think I was blocked, I just...just couldn't.

[theflyingone]

[ He dearly hopes that portals can't close on people while they are still half through them. ]

Are you alright? Is Matthew just... gone? What happened?

[ He better not have died. Altaïr did not know portals were this dangerous. Matthew really does not need another traumatizing experience so soon after his last one. ]

[chalicejoker]

I'm fine, but...we were going to leave...and then he left, and I didn't.

[theflyingone]

You will have to be more specific than that. Any detail may help.

[chalicejoker]

We were sticking kind of close together so I could go through too, and then when he opened the portal, it felt like I hit some kind of...I don't know, a wall, and then he made it through the portal, and I didn't.

[morbirdinterest]

Back in the Bando? How...

[And then another thing happened.]

What happened?

[chalicejoker]

Okay, so we're not really in the Bando, just...the same world, with some of the same people on that other boat...

...it was close enough for us. We tried to leave. He left, I...couldn't.

[morbirdinterest]

Hmph.

That is...disturbing. And poses some questions about the nature of Walkabouts. ...As well as raising immediate concerns, of course.

[chalicejoker]

Yeah, it's...I don't know how to fix this.

[Almost immediately]

[professorwolf]

Hajime? Are you all right? What happened?

[He wasn't exactly happy to find his packmate had decided to up and leave without talking to him first, but now he's just concerned.]

[chalicejoker]

I...I'm still here, I'm fine...

...Matthew's gone.

[professorwolf]

Where are you? And what do you mean "gone"? Did he go through the portal he was going to make?

[chalicejoker]

Liminal, he went through a portal, I was supposed to go too, but then...didn't...

[comebewe]

[it's a while before this response comes through. Lyall's already reported back on his conversation with Matthew, and it's nearly a day later, when the Cornu has landed and everyone is in the process of disembarking.]

I'm fine.

[short as the message is, it gives the impression that Matthew doesn't really want to talk much right now. Still, he can easily be found on the beach soon after, and we shall all pretend that I didn't write that prompt before I knew Matthew would be going on his Liminal Adventure]

[chalicejoker]

Are you all right?

[comebewe]

Yes.

[chalicejoker]

Glad you made it back.