imaginarymods | NPC Inbox.

Whether or not Sans is the type of person to turn his back on his possessions, there comes a moment when he does. His liveriver orb rests out on the cabana couch. He looks out to the ocean. When he looks back, a somewhat worn red umbrella leans against the couch next to the orb. Something gold drifts just out of eyeshot and is not seen again.

Edited 2020-08-17 03:34 (UTC)

Mira stumbles from the crystal maze into the sunlight with the umbrella at her back, dripping wet and urging her along. Instead of the clear waters and bright foliage around the Crystal Lagoon, when she looks up she will see that she's on another, smaller island. The beach is covered in black sand, flecked with iridescent color.

Above her is a mountain, dull rock that would be outshone by the dramatic colors of the beach if it weren't struck through by veins of the same opalescent black. Smoke emerges from the top, a thin but regular trail. The veins change shape towards the top of the mountain, if Mira turns back to see, becoming distant sharp shapes, like thorny vines. If she turns to look behind her, those same thorny vines block the way from this island to the larger island of Baisla.

This is the distant mountain, across the land behind the Gilded Wall. It seems to be an active volcano. But there are no Cursed here. Everything is eerily quiet.

The umbrella presses itself to Mira's side, insistent.

Edited 2020-08-21 01:52 (UTC)

Contemplating ominous messages received from beyond?

Need some company?

Wash is thinking about the message he received from Legend Lore, maybe contemplating the wand itself, when he senses a presence behind him. Leaned against the nearest tree is a red umbrella, somewhat worn. He's seen it before, but never on its own. And he's the only person nearby. Curious.

Edited 2020-08-18 19:45 (UTC)

[ Maya had a long strenous day. She falls into a comfortable sleep on her bed. Horizontal. Then vertical. She awakens to a place she might not immediately recognize- but it doesn't matter. Those feelings are ingrained as flesh.

The man on the other side of the meeting table actually rises in greeting, hands splayed in... something. A show of joy? Of harmlessness? Of ███████████? But the smile is genuine, exuding relief and happiness between the cracks. Literal ones. One hand brushes over his face, flesh knits back together, There Is Nothing Wrong Here. ]

Maya! There- You have no idea how long I've been trying to- [ Clears throat, sits back down, hands knitted and Professional. ] Where are you?

Edited 2020-08-19 00:05 (UTC)

[ Ogata dreams-

and wakes

But the salty sea breeze is replaced with that specific clean-but-stale scent from over-circulated air conditioning. There is no music, aside from some faint elevator piano somewhere. He sits in an uncomfortable chair, pretending its hardest to be comfortable and failing miserably, staring at an empty gray table. It's a generic desk. It expands for eternity.

Tap. Tap. Fingernails on cheap plywood. ]

Can you hear me?

[ And he dreams of locking eyes with a Man. There is definitely a face, and possibly a friendly one, but somehow, he can't find the words to describe it. Not now. Not ever again. ]

Good. Where- no, that's wrong- Hello. Who might you be?

Edited 2020-08-19 00:09 (UTC)

[ Tommy's dreams waver in and out of focus, as dreams are wont to do. But one goes so far past lucid it becomes visceral. Every detail recalled as clearly as being awake. What is sleeping anyway? It's just another state of mind, isn't it? Another way of seeing the world.

And this world is limited to a single room, clerical and stale. There are a few filing cabinets (like hollow boxes), degrees hung on the wall that Tommy can't make out (will never make out), windows to an open world (that is only White), a single meeting table that bridges an unfathomable distance. On one side, he sits. On the other side, He sits.

Human Eyes narrow, ever slightly, and the curiosity is plain in the Human Voice. ]

I don't remember seeing you before. What's your name?

Edited 2020-08-19 00:09 (UTC)

[Ah. Hm. Yeah, that might as well be how it is. Everything has been so vague and hard to grasp, his memories fogged, distantly unplaceably familiar faces, a world of questionable permanence. This man might as well be... as impenetrable as he is. Ogata sits up straight, with a particularly tilt of his head that feels familiar. At attention like a good soldier, but in a weirdly defiant sort of way.]

Superior Private Ogata Hyakunosuke, sir.
[He frowns, because he doesn't know where that title came from. But he's sure that's right. And well, he doesn't know who this man is. But something about him feels like power and authority in a terrible, hateful sort of way. So. Sir.]

Congratulations, Shinjiro! You get a visit today from the amazing, stellar, captivating-

Well okay no the umbrella is none of those things. But Shinjiro may remember the umbrella and its strangeness from hanging out with Lion on numerous occasions. Perhaps it comes as less of a surprise, then, when it comes zooming past Shinjiro outside as if on a mission.

Suddenly, the umbrella veers backward along the same path it passed Shinjiro on until it's back to him, and loops its handle around Shinjiro's wrist.

The umbrella starts pulling Shinjiro toward Miso Fou's cafe. Perhaps he should follow?

[Sans doesn't really expect his stuff to just get up and walk away without him, but maybe he should expect that when some of his possessions include floating orbs? Umbrellas seem like another matter altogether, though. Is that even his? It definitely looks well-used. Sans reaches to pick it up.]

part one

Once McCree has joined the Umbra staff in the water around the Calamari Cafe, the Umbra staff begins to flap and move and dip, attempting once more to dive down into the water. It just can't seem to break buoyancy on its own, however, and once it feels it's done enough demonstrating of that concept, it just dips its tip straight down.

Its handle turns McCree's way and almost seems to gesture, for all that an object with no joints in its handle can gesture. If McCree takes hold of the staff and dives, it will tug him behind Miso Fou's bar and deep below. Will McCree follow?

[ There's a look of Surprised Bemusement for a second, followed by a short laugh. Polite and genuine in all the ways that make your skin crawl. ]

Haha, sir? Oh, no. There's no need for titles here, Ogata.

[ The name rolls off like someone trying it on for the first time. Not quite liking how it comes out, judging by the frown, but it's fine. Practice makes perfect. Hands clasp together and the smile comes back. This time, the name sounds less like a curse and more like a Name. ]

I'm sorry for bringing you here, Ogata. You see, I'm having a problem. Would you be willing to help me?

It seems obvious that the umbrella will only float without help and it also wants to go down to maaaybe show McCree something? And he doesn't know how he knows this, but he somehow understands that now he'll be able to breathe underwater.

So, sure. When a sentient umbrella gives you magical waterbreathing powers, you follow it. You don't say Thanks for the spell, but I'm done exploring and I'm gonna have a drink now.

He takes hold of the handle and tilts his body down under the water.

[There’s something very wrong here. He should probably ask this man’s name at the very least? But. Eh. Instead he just perks up a little. Like his interest has been caught.]

That depends on what exactly you want me to do and what you’re offering in exchange.

While the umbrella isn't quite powerful enough to drag McCree, it does guide him deeper and deeper into the saltwater lake. Down, down, down, deeper down it goes.

McCree will find this adventure much more fruitful than his initial dive down on Ronaldo's hunches. As the Umbrella leads him down into an underwater cave below the Cafe, jellyfish begin to pass them. Just little baby ones at first, though.

One, two, five, ten, a dozen more and suddenly in this cave the two of them are surrounded by those jellyfish McCree was looking for, the older and larger of which have already begun to display bright pictures in their orbs. For just a moment, the umbrella seems to drift in the water, almost as though what was moving it before has disappeared or something-- but that moment passes quickly, and the umbrella begins to open and shut and open and shut, fluttering away from McCree like one of those jellies moves.

The umbrella spins through the water until its tip prods one of those jellyfish, and then as it bounces back McCree's way, the umbrella opens to slow down its pace, hooking back on to McCree's arm not to float away.

Within the jellyfish's dome, a scene begins to play.

The scene shows a STATIC

The scene shows one elf child, bunched up in too-big clothes. The child has a mop of unkempt hair, but as they push it aside it's apparent this child is just beautiful, as most elf children are. The scene shows them because they are standing in one half of a mirror, looking at themselves as though someone is beside them. They lean in, sticking out their tongue at the mirror, then turn their head to direct that tongue wag at someone else-

And just like the static at the beginning of the scene, this scene statics out completely again.

The umbrella stops moving again for another moment, before rolling to the side. Maybe that wasn't quite the memory the umbrella was going for...

[ A good answer. The knives in the air vanish with an exhale; a sigh of someone leaning back in a comfortable chair. No one holds Conversations these days. And yet, here sits one of those Reclaimers, willing to have an Exchange. After the other attempts, all the bad luck, this is the first good news in

In. ]

A man who gets to the point. You're a rarity, Ogata. So... why should I "offer" when You can "demand"? I know what I want. What do you want?

[He's found a place to sit and think - a bit of beach not subject to nearly as many glitches as usual. He's been turning the information he received from Legend Lore over in his mind and restlessly turning the wand itself over and over in his hands, as though either of them will help him figure out what he's been told.]

[Of course it would be poetry. He's never been good at poetry.]

[He twirls the wand through his fingers and stops short, flicking his wrist and grabbing the wand in his hand. There's a feeling - the hairs on the back of his neck standing at attention - there's something there that shouldn't be - it's the same feeling he gets when he's facing someone with a cloaking unit, someone who can slip his motion trackers and attack undetected - of all the goddamn times for him to be out of his armor-]

[He turns abruptly, and-]

[There's no one there. No telltale shimmer of cloaked armor; no other movement; just...an umbrella.]

[It might be Lion's umbrella - he thinks he's seen them with it before? But he hasn't seen them around, and the umbrella is...here. For some unknown reason. When it sure as hell hadn't been here before.]

[Huh.]

[He blinks, then looks down at the wand in his hand, making damn sure to keep the umbrella in his peripheral vision, just in case. (In case of what, he has no idea.]

You know anything about this?

[He's talking to an inanimate (but magical) object about another inanimate object.]

[It's not the first time Wash has questioned what the fuck has become of his life, but it certainly is one of the weirdest.]

What the...? McCree doesn't know if the umbrella can hear his thoughts, but if so, he wants the umbrella to know that he doesn't get it. He doesn't know the child and in fact, McCree is struggling to remember if he's ever even met an elf of Faerun before. He shrugs and shakes his head at the umbrella, unsure what he was supposed to take away from this.

[Ogata frowns a little, because damn if that isn't a good question. He's sure he'd have an easy answer if he could remember things... He could ask for his memory back, but honestly... he's starting to suspect that maybe he doesn't want it back. Maybe the memories that are behind some of his knee-jerk reactions he can't fully explain... are bad? It seems like they're probably going to come back on their own, eventually, whether he wants them or not. Might as well enjoy being ignorant while he cant.

So then... what does he want right now? He thinks for a long moment. Well. Whatever this place is, this situation, it's either truly just a weird dream, completely fabricated or... magical bullshit. So he's probably not restricted by any sort of rules of what's possible.]

... I just want to know what it feels like to be truly happy.

[The wand has nothing to contribute.]

[Then again, the wand has never been much of a conversationalist. What it communicates is words, not feelings. So it sits in Wash’s hand, communicating nothing.]

[The umbrella, on the other hand, is exuding a faint aura of good humor. Or maybe that’s Wash’s imagination? It might not mean anything. Might just be the effect of its association with a teammate. Regardless, he’s not going to get anywhere just staring at it.]

[When Sans picks it up—]

[There’s this sense. It’s hard to describe, clearly an emotional feeling but a convoluted, tangled one. Resignation, reluctance, mourning, curiosity, hope, a faint sense of amusement. Acceptance. And it’s strong, slapping Sans in the hand like somebody decided to give him a feelings high-five. Pretty weird.]

[Something sparks under Sans’s hand, then down the spine of the umbrella to its tip, shooting out the metal end in quick-fading shapes of fire:]

HEL

[There’s a puff of smoke. A faint grinding sound. And then, exhaustedly:]

P

Edited 2020-08-20 21:01 (UTC)

[Well, this is going exactly nowhere.]

[Wash pockets the wand, turning his gaze to the umbrella. There's something to it - something he can't quite put his finger on, but it's not unfamiliar. It's a bit like always knowing which gun had Freckles in it, even when he was silent.]

[(Admittedly, that gun never left Caboose's hands and had a confetti trigger, but still.)]

[It's worth investigating, but he still hasn't ruled out the idea that there might be someone invisible here, messing with him. Stranger things have happened, especially in Faerun. After a moment, he reaches out to Athena and asks her to watch the perimeter, only to receive some sass in return that she already is, but okay, she'll watch it extra hard, just for him. It's not perfect, but it'll be good enough for now. Hopefully.]

[He sighs and turns his full attention to the umbrella.]

How did you even get here?

[Because questioning inanimate objects has worked well so far, right?]

[He'll wait for an answer, but if he doesn't get one, it's time to use mage hand to pick up the umbrella and see what happens.]

[ Alright, then. She's tired and absolutely rattled from everything that happened back there, but she can't stop going now. There might be answers here, after all, and that's what they're all looking for.

She brings a hand to touch the umbrella, just gently. ]

... I'm not sure what's going on, or if you can even hear me, but thank you for your help. So...

[ She's alone, save for the umbrella, and she's never wanted to see her friends more, but right now, that can't be helped. ]

Any ideas which direction we should go?

[When she touches the umbrella, it warms. Shifts slightly to hook its curved handle over her wrist. And, yes, the handle is literally warm against her skin. Not quite human body temperature, but . . . close enough that it's kind of weird.]

[The question doesn't get an immediate answer. Either the umbrella is torn or it doesn't know. The waves lap quietly against the shore behind them. Finally, the umbrella gives a hesitant tug back toward the—]

[The tunnel? Seriously?]

[ Kind of weird, but it's also... weirdly comforting? The umbrella understands her, so she feels far less alone. But all she wants to do right now is sleep forever--if she even could, as keyed up as she is.

And when the umbrella tugs toward the tunnel, she stiffens, and looks that way with wide eyes. ]

... Are you sure? If that-- whatever it is-- is still there...

[ ... and if the umbrella still tugs that way, well, she's hesitant to head back there. But she does it, because what else is she going to do? ]

NPC Inbox.

umbrella → sans

umbrella → mira

umbrella → wash

the hunger → maya

the hunger → ogata

the hunger → tommy

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umbrella → mccree

umbrella → shinjiro

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