Rau le Creuset (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
eschatological) wrote2000-10-01 12:00 pm
eschatological) wrote2000-10-01 12:00 pm
Entry tags:
[psl] post-mortem; closed to @destinymaker
[ This office has always been quiet, but now the silence is unnaturally absolute. The usual ambient sounds have all vanished — the muted rumble of feet and serious voices beyond the door, the hum and crackle of electronics, the omnipresent pulse of Aprilius’s environmental support systems. But, then again, there’s no reason for the environmental support systems when the familiar noises of breath and heartbeat have ceased as well.
Two armies of chess pieces lie toppled and abandoned on the floor, leaving the low table bare save for the empty board. Rau sits languidly on one of the two wide sofas with his chin in a gloved hand. Even though he’s corporeal now (or as corporeal as anything in this scene, which is to say, gentlemen of the jury, ambiguously), the dim light and the white of his mask and uniform combine to give him an uncanny, still-ghostly appearance. He shows no interest in the scattered chess pieces. Instead, he is waiting very patiently, intently, for.... ]
Two armies of chess pieces lie toppled and abandoned on the floor, leaving the low table bare save for the empty board. Rau sits languidly on one of the two wide sofas with his chin in a gloved hand. Even though he’s corporeal now (or as corporeal as anything in this scene, which is to say, gentlemen of the jury, ambiguously), the dim light and the white of his mask and uniform combine to give him an uncanny, still-ghostly appearance. He shows no interest in the scattered chess pieces. Instead, he is waiting very patiently, intently, for.... ]
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[ The capriciously cute way Rau has given him the runaround about handholding only proves that point. Gil wastes no time taking hold of Rau's hand, giving it a quick squeeze as he does so.
Rau can have his mask, if he really needs it. A pocket is a decent place for it. Much better than Rau putting it back on as though it were a natural part of getting redressed.
With all that settled, Gil leads them towards the door. He's walked in and out of this office hundreds of times when he was alive, but this might well be the last time. It's a strange feeling, but he doesn't allow himself to linger on it. ]
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And there's something nicely dramatic about doors -- literal, metaphorical, existentially-questionable. Rau spent a long time wanting to unlock mutual annihilation, and now he can't quite shake the thought of Rey's fervent want for something better around the corner. Whether this leads to the same old Aprillius reception area or to Mendel or to an abrupt end of existence, Rau is genuinely, visibly interested in seeing what's on the other side. The little smile stretches wider, and he matches Gil's pace because he's absolutely not going to get lead through to something new.
He reaches out his hand to pull the door open and --
Mendel, yes? Experiment in wishful thinking successful? ]
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Mendel Colony - a laboratory complex first and foremost, structured around the Human Gene Manipulation Lab in specific. Remote from the rest of the PLANTs, for the quiet sanctity of science and also because it makes the dodgy use of human material in experiments a lot less notable to the general public. With commuting to work obviously out of the question, the living quarters of Mendel were a town to themselves. The scene of Gilbert Durandal's young adult life - freshly heartbroken, and ready to pour himself into science.
When Gil had first set foot into this house, he had not yet known that it wouldn't be long until he'd meet someone new who'd pique his interest, someone new who'd occupy his every waking thought. He didn't know that he'd move check-up appointments for one of Mendel's crowning achievements from the labs into his living room, every once in a while, playing house with the experiment and being drawn deeper and deeper into his thrall.
Mendel. They'd left it together, Rey in tow, and it was closed down for biological hazards soon after. Gil has never felt any particular desire to return to it. His new house in Aprilius, alive with the sound of Rey's piano practice, soon felt perfectly like home.
Mendel. A fateful place, indeed.
It feels... anticlimatic to return to it by stepping right into the bathroom. Gil looks around, feeling a little dazed. He's not letting go of Rau's hand yet, simply because he's too distracted to even think of doing so. ]
It's just as it was... before I moved out, that is.
[ He certainly wouldn't have left shampoo and towels out when giving his boxes to the movers and locking the door a final time. ]
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If Gil isn't letting go of him, Rau is going to drag him to the nearest window, to look at the greenery that well-to-do colonies planted to offset the sterility of life in space. It's still there, still alive, not the wasteland of red-brown dust that had covered the place on his last visit. ]
Before it was sterilized.
[ His blue eyes go very wide, racing through the ramifications. There's some malleability to time as well as space, though whether it's bounded by their own recollections and whether it requires some level of mutual familiarity will have to be worked out. ]
Oh, this is exceptional.
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I have not returned here since I moved out - and you were never inside this house after all my belongings had been packed up. We've returned to the last point in time at which our memory of this place overlaps - or at least, that's my working theory.
[ 'Working theory' is a fancy way to say that he's literally just thinking out loud. There are a thousand variations to how this could truly work and all he's done here is broken it down to the easiest assumption - but that is not always the correct one.
It's only after he's established that line of thought that Gil stops looking at the view and turns to Rau instead... Ah. What a beautiful expression. Such childlike glee, caused by something other than imminent destruction for once. Maybe they'll both enjoy testing every little detail of this space's capabilities.
His mind is still racing about that, too. Even being really gay about the face Rau is making can't stop him from running theories in his head first and foremost. More thinking out loud is inevitable. ]
The state of my office suggests that memories you've obtained by 'haunting' me post-mortem count as shared perceptions for these purposes. Which means we might be able to access the living world in some form and replicate it....
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[ But that's purely reflexive banter, without any sharp edges; Gil wouldn't be anywhere near as interesting if his mind didn't go a mile a minute.
Still, Rau's own curiosity is tinged with practicality -- he glances out a corner of the window to a stretch of colony where there ought to be people at any time of day and confirms that no one is there, then presses an ear to the glass to confirm that, yes, this place is as quiet as the office on Aprillius. The fascination is still clear in his face and posture, but his brows knit thoughtfully as he turns back to Gil. ]
This particular replica is empty. Or perhaps dead.
[ Will that be true of every location, or is it a mutable characteristic? And more immediately, will the shower still work? ]
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[ Plenty to talk about with just themselves, after all. It suits Gil just fine that no souls nor replicas of souls are here to clamor for their attention right now. In the future though... Rey and Talia should both be 'here' (for lack of a better word) and Gil's going to want to try reaching them. And even beyond personal desire... If he and Rau have any ability at all to call someone else to them, then Rey is their likeliest bet to test that theory on. ]
I'm also curious about the dimensions of the copy. We can see outside just fine, but just visual confirmation means nothing. After we're cleaned up, we should go for a stroll.
[ Is it going to take conscious effort to expand the space of their memories or is the entire colony just 'pre-loaded' into their afterlife? Gil finally lets go of Rau's hand so he can head to the bathroom door and open it up without stepping through - what he sees is the expected hallway, the door to his bedroom slightly ajar on the right. He nods to himself.
Only then he realizes that maybe going for a walk in Mendel isn't the smartest idea. There isn't much space where the lab isn't right in sight. Gil recalls the reports of Rey's panic attack at Lodonia; bad enough that the doctors suspected physical contagions.
Ah well. Rau's an adult and he would hate to know Gil is even worrying. ]
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And so, breezily not-having-a-panic-attack and with with zero deference as a guest, he brushes past Gil and into the washroom. (Rau makes a tiny, practiced gesture as he walks past the mirror -- Gil may have seen him do it years earlier, before Rau could get away with wearing a mask all the time -- of brushing his hair out of his eyes so that his hand blocks his reflection from his peripheral vision.) ]
There's no one to ask for, here.
[ Better to ask for Rey anywhere else, and as to the rest -- ]
Not unless there's a way to kill the dead again.
[ Delivered perfectly breezily, while performing the utterly mundane task of starting the water running. ]
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If there is, it's merely a matter of time until you find it.
[ Ideally, they find a way to make Rau happy before he begins double-killing people, but it's not a massive priority. There are a lot of souls that Gil wouldn't feel particularly sorry to sacrifice to Rau's curiosity. And that's not even counting... Huh. Is Al Da Flaga still around to tear from limb to limb? Questions to shelf away for some other time.
For now, it's time to get refreshed. It's quite fortunate his shampoo and conditioner are still neatly lined up on the corner of the bathtub. Towels meanwhile... Gil produces two large fluffy ones from the cupboard under the sink. ]
You call dibs on the shower, I take it?
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If you've given up on perpetual handholding, yes.
[ Honestly, it's pretty amusing, even slightly endearing, that Gil's interest in going exploring has gotten the better of his clinginess. ]
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I've decided to trust the strength of my desire. Someone told me that it's an untameable part of the human experience, after all.
[ There's still a baseline anxiety about separation that will linger until its cause assumption has been disproven, but Gil will swallow it down. Though he's a careful planner, he did not get to where he was in life without taking some risks. He shouldn't start to let fear control him now. ]
Take your time. I'll go find us a change of clothes.
[ If his shower products are still here, it stands to reason so is his wardrobe. ]
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showers really fast and steals a bathrobechuckles at that, though not disapprovingly. Having his words thrown back at him is funny, and honestly this isn't a bad test of whether distance is an existential threat -- if either of them starts to feel like they're going to stop existing, Rau can just get out of the shower with no harm done other than a wet floor.But, joking aside, he cleans up quickly and unfussily and wanders out in a towel a few minutes later. Rau's particular brand of drama just isn't "linger for a shower scene" drama. ]
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It's also, thankfully, a place that contains a variety of pants and dress shirts. By the time Rau makes it out of the bathroom, Gil is waiting for him with a stack of clothing in hand. It's just black pants and a white shirt, business casual to the max. Clean underwear and plain white socks also provided. ]
Pleased to confirm your continued existence. Here you go.
[ It's going to be really weird seeing Rau in civilian clothes again (the sight had been rare enough even back in the day) - weird enough that he doesn't even feel like focusing on the fact that it's his clothing specifically. ]
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But hmm, hmm, the chatterbox has been quiet, and without even the excuse of showering. ]
Have you been brooding?
[ Rau has been strategizing about practical ways to efficiently prod the boundaries of reality, thanks, very different from brooding. ]
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Gil frowns and the confusion once again vanishes from his face entirely. ]
Reminiscing, perhaps. This is an interesting intersection of past and future after all.
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Of course, you think there must be a "future."
[ Rau can do existential banter while pulling on pants, what a multi-tasker. He starts toweling his hair rather than putting a shirt on, though, so Gil will get the benefit of another minute or two of looking at him shirtless -- and the marks he left down Rau's neck. ]
And if we can only wander through old memories?
[ The thing is, Mendel isn't a bad place to test a "future." If there is room for innovation and progress and change, it will be here, at this locus of humanity's dreams. If there is life after death, they will find viable embryos offered up by desperately hopefully parents. And if everything is frozen and unmoving, only a photograph of a place -- well, then they will have learned something. ]
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[ Gil was going to go into the shower next, but now he's leaning against the bathroom doorway instead, immediately distracted by this line of conversation. ]
Even if the world that keeps on spinning for the living is out of our reach and we're confined to facsimiles of our pasts, we still experience linear time for now. As long as we're still making new memories, we also still have a future we're moving towards.
[ A few hours ago, he was alive. An hour ago, he kissed Rau for the first time. Now he's here, watching him get changed. A nice and orderly progression of events that has not yet reached its end point.
If there is nothing to change but themselves, well... That just means they're faced with a most difficult problem to work through. ]
And as long as that future exists, I will seek more to offer to you.