The Crowning of Mindy McReady

[etcircenses]

Who| Everyone who's anyone.
What| The Crowning.
Where| A warehouse on the edge of town.
When| Starting from early evening till late into the night.
Warnings/Notes| Be sure to check the linked thread for plot purposes, even if you don't tag into it.

The party is brightly colored.

The theme, subtly, is super heroes. Boldly paints city scapes are splattered across the walls, and hallways are made to look like dingy, potentially crime ridden alleys. From the upper walkways of the warehouse, party goers can get hooked into harnesses and swing out over the dance floor. Above them, tributes and VIPS can find themselves on a clear plastic dance floor levitated above everything, looking like they're hanging in air.

Masks are passed out in plenty, and capes are easy to find, while brightly colored drinks themed around super powers are plentiful. None of them actually work, but many of the Capitol people are happy to pretend, mocking super strength or invisibility with each new beverage.

Under the dance floor a catacomb of tunnels and rooms full of obstacles is splashed with black light receptive colors. Party goers are given vests and laser guns, marked green for villains and red for heros, and set loose to hunt each other in the laser tags playground. The screens in the dance floor keep a running tally of which side is winning, displaying the players on the screens around the room, along with clips from the arenas.

About half way through the night, everyone is gathered to the main stage for a special announcement.

Comments

[futilecycle]

Sigma shook his head in defeat. "Alright, I am convinced. What a magnificent ability..." Responding to her other question, the Doctor put a smile into his voice. "Better yet, I could simply request one for you. Why not sit and have a drink with me? After all, there is still much I would like to discuss."

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi contemplates a moment before moving to grab herself a chair. "Okay. You've convinced me."

It really didn't take all that much to be honest. She wants to talk with him, too. But since he mentioned it first--and he's the one providing the bribe for her attention, she'll let him start them off. "What did you want to talk about?"

[futilecycle]

Sigma beams at the girl, though she could not know it, and turns to flag down an Avox. After one of the red 'cherry' drinks is ordered, Sigma's full attention is turned on Terezi.

"I wanted to ask you of your psychic abilities, if you would permit me," he begins tentatively. "There are a very complex and specific set of rules regarding human extrasensory powers. I would like to compare ours, if you would allow it." Though he was cautious not to overstep his boundaries, Sigma was feverishly curious, and his enthusiasm bleeds through his words.

[pythianjudgment]

"Sure, I don't mind. It's not like the Capitol has left me with any secrets about my abilities, anyway."

No, by this point, Terezi is almost certain that they know exactly how her abilities work--even if they don't exactly know why or how she experiences it. But the rules? Probably, just through observations in the arenas. It couldn't hurt to talk about them as far as she's already displayed them from that point of view.

So Terezi grins and folds her hands together, setting them up on the table. His open curiosity and enthusiasm is actually kind of refreshing from the typical Capitolite fixation. She can at least be sure that he won't treat her abilities like a palm-reading trick.

"Where do you want to start?"

[futilecycle]

Sigma perks up immediately, sitting up straight and depositing his own glass on the table to push it away. He seemed to be getting ready for a long chat. "Human ESP is a relatively new phenomenon, at least according to historical record. Those of us who are the strongest are still trying to pin down the consequences of our abilities." He hums. "Perhaps I could start by explaining how we believe ours work? It might give you a clearer reference point for you to explain yours to me. Your species has probably been used to having abilities for a very long time, am I right?"

[pythianjudgment]

"Well, some of us. Typically, it's only the warmest blood castes that have any sort of psychic prowess, but there have been exceptions." Such as people she's not going to directly talk about. And Indigos, but she assumes that Sigma already knows about that one.

"Are all humans psychically gifted where you come from? I don't remember that being a thing that any humans could do. Except in shitty scifi movies."

[futilecycle]

Sigma laughs. By now the Avox has arrived with Terezi's drink, but Sigma does not notice her, too rapt within his own story. "I was not aware you had seen shitty Scifi movies. At any rate, yes, indeed, they are - rather, any human is capable of acquiring powers, but not all of them do, and fewer still display proficiency." He drums his fingers on the table as he thinks.

"All humans from my world are capable of tapping into a collective conscience of sorts that we call the 'Morphogenetic Field', though each of us in different ways. To give you an example of the most common skill, there was once an experiment preformed on television where a scientist displayed what appeared to be a series of abstract images, but inside of which several figures could be identified - and once the pattern had been seen, it was impossible to see the image as anything else. He then asked the participants what the image appeared to be to them: let's say the correct answer was 'a Dog' and 'a Woman wearing a hat'. Very few were able to identify the patterns until the solutions were revealed. This program had over 200 thousand viewers. Following the broadcast, when the same set of images were shown to people living in areas where television signals did not reach... Suddenly, the ability of participants to identify the correct patterns spiked significantly. Do you understand, so far?"

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi pulls the drink towards her as soon as it arrives, taking a careful sip of it. She quickly concludes that it's going to take a decent amount of willpower not to just guzzle that thing down... It's a good thing that Sigma's conversation is so interesting, then.

Terezi nods at his question. "I get it so far. Humans who had no access to the answer suddenly knew what the answer was. So there had to be some way that they were given the answer. Like the hivemind you mentioned."

[futilecycle]

Sigma nods, thankful Terezi is following. "Now then. There are very few of us with powers similar to yours in particular, but I am one of them. I have met only one other, but historically, we believe we have found two who both lived one hundred and fifty years ago."

He tilts his head, thinking deeply. "The first was William Thomas Stead. He was a successful author, and wrote several books about steam ships that hit icebergs, resulting in great losses of life due to an insufficient number of lifeboats. He predicted that he would die freezing to death in an ocean... Then, years later, he perished when an ocean liner he had boarded hit an iceberg and he drowned in the frigid sea due to being refused a lifeboat, which were too few in number to accommodate all passengers on board. Now, how could that be...?"

Sigma decides he will need his wine, after all, and reaches for his glass to knock it back. "It is because we are capable of doing more than receiving from the Morphogenetic field: we are capable of reading the information left there by our many other selves across time. In rare instances, we are also capable of jumping or returning to the time from which that information was sent, and swapping our consciousnesses altogether." His cheerfulness diminishes significantly at that, and for a moment, Sigma breaks gaze with Terezi to swirl his wine around idly. "But the consequences of inflicting a paradox are usually too grave to meddle with such powers. However... it has been done before."

Sigma shuffled in his seat, cleared his throat, and shrugged. "There is one other. One who wrote a similar novel to Stead, but was capable of including more details: what others would say about the ship, the ship's name, the speed the ship was traveling on impact, the rough number of passengers and casualties... When we read memories from other times, it is not often clear, unless we have experienced the phenomenon multiple times. Think of it much like trying to recall a bad dream: at first, the dream is hazy, and only the strong feelings can be remembered after waking. If similar terrible dreams are experienced repeatedly, they become easier to recall. But... exchanging our consciousness with another point in time... that is an entirely different scenario. Only then are we capable of recalling information without any difficulty during and after the swap. And there is a clear difference between Stead and Robertson: Robertson did not die."

He emptied his glass, now. "It is because I believe he changed time. I believe he returned to the past to write that novel and save himself," Sigma concluded. "The Robertson of the future knew the details, and the Robertson of the past experienced the suffering while his other self occupied his body. By swapping their consciousnesses back and forth, he made the decision never to board that ship, and never even to travel to the country it departed from in the first place."

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi notes the...air of awkwardness that Sigma exhibits when talking about parts of this explanation--particularly the mention of paradoxes. She stores that information away, even as she nods along to the rest of it.

When he finally finishes, Terezi frowns a little, furrowing her brow. This isn't like the kind of abilities that she's used to. Honestly, it sounds a little more like Dave or Aradia's fields, but... "Doesn't that mean he made a paradox, then? He learned about the details of the shipwreck from his future self, but then avoided the circumstances that would lead to his future self being in the situation to give those details to his past self."

[futilecycle]

Sigma nods gravely. "Yes, you are exactly right. To tell you the truth, I have not seen for myself what happens when such a paradox occurs." His lips tighten into a thin line. He knows exactly what that reveals to Terezi. "...Perhaps he forgot about the entire thing and the book he wrote merely became an idea he dreamed up, his dislike for travel a happy coincidence. But I have another theory..."

Sigma cannot stand to look at Terezi, now. He turns his gaze away, watching the guests in the upper walkways to distract himself. He sounds every bit of his age when he speaks: "There is always a failed timeline, always the worst possible outcome for every success. Perhaps that is what stabilizes us. Because it exists, because it is reality for another version of ourselves, we can remember it."

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi nods, accepting that response as something that might be the approximate truth. "That's how time travel works where I'm from," she admits. "It's good that you came to that conclusion yourself because it is a pain in the ass to try to explain that." She would know...She's tried before without a whole lot of success.

"Is that what you did, then? With your powers, when you saved Don from me and Karkat and Cuthbert?"

[futilecycle]

Sigma laughs hollowly. "Is that so? Well, I am grateful to find I am on the right track." Then he shrugs. "Somewhat, I suppose. My abilities to travel through time are separate to my abilities to read the information written on the morphogenetic field, though they do blend. That time, I was simply referencing another failed timeline rather than returning from one. Traveling through time is much, much more complicated than reading other timelines and I do not trust myself to do such a thing again..." He rubs his eyes, feeling sluggish, beginning to live the effects of the wine. Phew. He isn't as young as he used to be.

"...In any event, I'm afraid I've rambled for too long. I believe it is your turn. You said time travel operated under a similar principle, but are there any differences you have not mentioned?"

[pythianjudgment]

"You mean aside from the fact that not everyone can do it?" Terezi shrugs her shoulders, pulling her drink closer and sipping at it thoughtfully. "I wasn't originally a Seer. I was just a normal troll. No powers or abilities. Psychic abilities are typically reserved for the lower castes. Mutants. And the odd blueblood here and there." But she's not here to talk about that, especially not the bluebloods.

"My friends and I ended up in this... game. It's sort of horrible to call it a game, since it was actually the culmination of the end of the universe as we knew it. But it had monsters and levels and treasure, so you call it how it is!"

"Anyway! When we entered the game, each of us had a prefabricated title, planet, and destiny designed specifically for us. My title was the Seer of Mind. The combination of Seer and Mind meant that I could foresee the consequences of the choices that others made. It wasn't something I could do right away. It's part of your personal game quest to figure out what powers your title grants you and how you're able to apply them. Some of us figured it out pretty quickly, and some of us not at all."