[text/action/videro] An Invitation x2/MARIGOLD MADNESS!

[notvitiligo]

[text]
Since the Powers That Be have decided that they want to give us all cavities and diabetes, I am keeping a big pot of stew going at Beaumont for anyone who needs emergency food that is not candy. If I am not there, Bulbasaur or one of the robots will be in charge of it. Do not worry, they are all sanitary. It is free to use so do not avoid it if you do not have food. There are severe health consequences to eating only sugar, which I guess the people in charge do not care about.

-----

Also if there is anybody that needs a place to stay, Beaumont has a lot of rooms open. It is by the lake on the northwest side, and is pretty convenient as far as being close to places. There are some robots here that do the housekeeping stuff. Also you will get a lot of free snacks because I bake a lot. I guess that is not much of a benefit right now but there you go. Pets are OK.

[action/video]

[Hi, Ladygarden residents. Do you like your reality TV to have normally linefaced girls curled up on the ground and crying in the middle of nowhere? Because the Vine has decided that is the hot new thing in entertainment. (The more perceptive viewers might notice she seems less opaque around the edges than usual.)

[After a moment, she notices the mirror broadcasting her. She makes a few awkward attempts to turn it off, then lets her arm flop to the ground.]

Fine. I give up.

Comments

[notvitiligo]

[Whoa OK that's... different. She looks around a bit, but quickly squinches her eyes shut as the landscape seems to warp around her dizzily. That... doesn't help the issue much, and she instead stares hard on her hands and the ground moving beneath them.]

oog...

Wait... how are, uh, remnants different from spirits?

[bloomnobly]

Well, the most notable is their physical appearance. Phantoms are always wisps. Ghost retain their humanoid forms.

They can be born from living humans as well. I believe...the main difference is a full-bodied spirit who retains their sense of self as a human, such as myself, and a simple shard, or a piece, like a phantom. They often don't remember what they once were, if they were even human.

...and that is not taking poltergeists into the equation.

[notvitiligo]

That makes


wait, you're a ghost?

[She glances up, then regrets that decision and goes back to the only part of the landscape that doesn't make her queasy to watch.]

They can look like whatever, where I come from. Like... some of them look pretty human, but a lot of them... you ever see, like, surrealist pictures?

[bloomnobly]

That would be correct. [For a moment, she flashes transparent, as if to demonstrate.]

Surrealist pictures? I'm familiar with the concept of surrealism, but I don't believe I've ever seen...pictures, of it?

[notvitiligo]

Huh. I can, um, do that, but my clothes and glasses aren't, um, ghosts or whatever, so... yeah.

Well, they're... like that. Really, really weird-looking. Sort of things you hear about with hallucinogenic drugs. Just stuff that doesn't make real world sense. Especially if they've been dead for a while.

[bloomnobly]

[A slight smile.]

Psychedelic spirits, hmm...basic non-euclidean forms? [she closes her eyes for a moment, trying to picture it.]

[notvitiligo]

Kinda depends. Like... you can tell, usually, that it used to be something. There's parts there. But there's other things, or it's stretchy, or missing stuff.

Well, with people. Animals are weirder. One of our dogs was just this kind of blob afterward.

[bloomnobly]

Oh, dear. [she hums for a moment, thinking about the direction to go in.]

Jessica-san? Would you take a look up? I do not know if I am heading in the right direction. [She pauses for a moment, thinking of the marigolds she saw earlier. Do they have something to do with her sudden lack of a mental compass?]

[notvitiligo]

[For a moment, she doesn't move. Finally, she looks up. This is... not entirely familiar.]

Uh... You know where the lake is?

[bloomnobly]

Yes, it should be...right next to the orchards, right?

[notvitiligo]

Usually. Depending on the edge of the orchard.

It happened to you, too, didn't it?

[bloomnobly]

...yes, it would seem my sense of direction is a bit wonky at the moment. [She sighs.]

You live at the place called Beaumont, correct?

[notvitiligo]

Yeah, that's the place.

This sucks.

[bloomnobly]

[ She contemplates this for a moment. ]

I'm going to fly up for a moment. See if maybe a bird's eye view will be better.

[notvitiligo]

...might work...

I feel like my inner ear is in a centrifuge.

[bloomnobly]

[ A deep frown. ] Shut your eyes for a while, in that case. I'll be a minute.

[ With that, she takes to the skies, a bird's eye view of the gardens below her. Oh. There was Beaumont. So she wasn't going in the right direction at all. Goddamn. She sighs, and tries to burn the pathway into her head. Even if she was messed up down on the ground, if she memorized that she needed to head North, then her disorientation wouldn't apply... right? ]