Crystals or Action, choose your own adventure | Open

[youwonscience]

FORM: Sending crystal plus (see notes).
SENDER: Cosima
RECIPIENT: Rifters (others opt-in)
NOTES: Catch-all for threads about amputation (so content warning for that being discussed, though I don't expect anything too bloody). Happy to match prose or brackets, as ever. See further notes under the cut.

Cosima wouldn't flatter herself she knows everyone in Riftwatch well, but she's been here a long time and she's been leading a division for a respectable bit of that now. She has names and faces for everyone, and at least a vibe on most of the people she doesn't know well. That makes this slightly easier, but only slightly.

The entire point of seeking people out one-on-one is that making an official announcement will give the discussion she wants to have too much official weight. But that does mean tracking everyone down individually (though at least Research members who aren't in the field will come to her for their normal check-ins, if nothing else). Still. She's put this off too long, and it's not going to get any simpler if she continues to procrastinate.

If she hasn't gotten to you yet, you may notice her walking through the Gallows with a bit of extra purpose. Nothing seems to be immediately on fire, at least.


[OOC: Choose your own adventure with this very un-formatted flow chart:

1.) RIFTERS who want a thread: Good news, Cosima is tracking down every one of you to talk about amputation and anchor shards! She'd lean in person, but OOCly if you'd rather a network thread, we can just handwave that your character is out on an assignment and do it by sending crystal instead.

2.) RIFTERS who don't want a thread right now: You can assume Cosima tracked you down (unless you took truly extraordinary measures to avoid her). We can either handwave or talk OOCly about it, as you like.

3.) NATIVES with anchor shards: If you want to chat too, Cosima's not hunting you down but wouldn't avoid a conversation if you clocked what she's up to and want one.

4.) NATIVES without anchor shards: Look, if you want to talk about anchor shards for some reason, hmu. (Otherwise her inbox is open.)

For all of the above, just jump in if you'd like. If you'd like me to write a more customized starter, reach out on plurk or discord and I'll take care of you.]

Comments

[armd]

Abby relaxes a little. She exhales, "Yeah."

She thought so. Hoped so. It's not entirely reassuring — this means that, eventually, she will disappear without any warning and upend the lives of the people around her — but it in a way it removes the culpability from it. It won't be her fault when it happens. (This of course, now has to go both ways: it was not Ellie's fault that she left either, even though when she's thinking about it, she sometimes likes to blame Ellie just to make herself feel better.)

"You remembered everything when you came back, right? What was it like?"

[youwonscience]

"It was fucking weird," was frank. "Because it wasn't only that I remembered everything from here, though I did. I also had new memories from home. A bit less than a year's worth, but I also remembered not remembering Thedas, which was a little bit disorienting. It felt like less time had passed for me than had passed here, which would have been weird on its own. But it..."

Cosima exhales. "It's why I really do believe we're our own people, here in Thedas. Like, we're people who come to be in a unique way, for sure, but I think there's a Cosima who never left Earth, and I got a new batch of her memories when I came back with my own. We used to be functionally the same person, but we're not anymore." A beat, then she adds: "I can't prove that, it's a theory; it's possible I physically went back and forth, and just couldn't access my Thedas memories while I was there. But it seems less likely to me. Personally." She realizes that's not incredibly comforting, probably.