[Event] Calibrations Waiting Room Mingle

[trpmods]

WHO: ALL HE ROWS PRESENT
WHERE: Calibrations Area
WHAT: Mingle log for literally anything you'd like to take place in the waiting room between sleep cycles during the event
WHEN: June 10th to July 10th
WARNINGS: Please mark individual threads with warnings
NOTES: If you have any questions, please go Here

An Agrii, or what may have been an Agrii, led you here, and now you can't get out. From the moment one steps through the door into Calibrations there is no going back. Luck, good or bad, even prevents people from being in the entrance way when another He Row arrives, meaning there's no slipping out to be hoped for. This is because Calibrations at their core keep you from going out and seeing the world, keep you from doing much but exploring the space and interacting with your fellow trapped He Rows. This wouldn't be much of a problem if there was a lot to do in the lengthy hours between the compulsion to sleep. At least there is some modicum of comfort offered to those who were tricked into this timed trap.

Some might find the area familiar, having haunted these halls before. Upon entry one walks down a large hallway before it opens into an even larger waiting room with chairs, tables, and the same food dispensers available in the ships, save that it lacks any Red Fruit Drink. It's a shame, actually, the alcohol might help you get through things, and since there was no warning this time, the dispensers are likely the only source of food available. There is more than enough to feed everyone, even to the point of being overstuffed at every meal. At least there are those small favors.

There are also communal bathrooms - one men and one for women though nothing would stop a person from using whichever they desire - with several toilet stalls and shower stalls in each, including basic shampoo and soap dispensers. All of the dispensers put out a liquid that smells like motor oil for some reason. The water in the showers is pleasantly warm and just perfect for getting clean. Well, it is for good little boys and girls who don't blow up buildings. Given that sort of comfortable temperature hasn't been available in past sessions, it's a real relief.

Branching off of the main waiting room are hallways that lead to a number of bedrooms. The door of each bares a nameplate on it, imprinted with the name of a He Row. Those who are returning here won't find their name plate in the same place it was previously, which might be frustrating in its own right. The doors aren't locked though, and anyone can enter any other room or share with anyone else if they wish to. Each room has a single, simply made queen-sized bed, and a set of drawers. The drawers have a white jumpsuit in the size of the He Row whose name was on the door, as well as a pair of equally white canvas shoes. It's kind of your captors to offer you clothes, and for a change there will be new ones available to you this time through, replacements appearing once every week. You can wear them or ignore them as you like.

Greater pity has been offered this time than before for the He Rows, offering a variety of things to do in the downtime. Given most of what He Rows may have been able to grab and bring with them for their 'escape' may not be much good for entertainment, it's helpful to have even the little things. Shelves are available in the large waiting room, filled with boxes and containers. There are pictures on each box, brightly colored and then defaced with Agrii smilie art, showing all sorts of aliens having fun with games.

Sadly the games are not written in a language anyone knows. Luckily the Communications datapoint is working right this time, and it's possible to translate the instructions for a change, letting people play things with all the fun you need. Unfortunately this year there are pieces missing. Because of course nothing can ever be easy. The only thing that is fully intact is that solid gray puzzle and of course, Monopoly Longest Game Ever. There's even paper and pencils and crayons! It's like the Calibrations area was upgraded just for you!

In fact, you don't have to rely on just the board games to keep you occupied this year. In addition to them, the food, getting to know each other, and probably building forts out of all the beds, there's one big plus offered to everyone: arts and crafts! That paper and those crayons aren't the only thing. There's containers of water based paint, there are brushes and canvases, there's even clay for modeling and glue for pasting paper together if you decide to cut some up. No scissors or knives though. But maybe you can spend some time beautifying your mostly white surroundings. Or maybe committing some graffiti in your frustration. Anything to pass the time.

You can opt to spend time in your room or in the larger, common waiting room. But about every twenty-two hours, all people suddenly feel a compulsion to sleep. Once this starts, you can’t fight it off. You find yourself going into your room for bed or wherever else you feel like you’d prefer to sleep. And then, inevitably, you close your eyes and dream.

Comments

[quark_assassin]

"--She doesn't," Dustin says surprisingly fast, shooting Link a quick glare. "No one does. I just..."

That burst of heat dies away just as quickly.

"...Wish I had a choice."

[newmemorywhodis]

"...Yes," Link agrees softly. He can understand that desire.

He and Zelda didn't get a choice in their roles. Not from what he remembers, that is. It's not the same as what had happened to Dustin, of course. But Link empathises, all the same.

If he had been given the choice, he still would have picked up the blade. He was needed; that wasn't something he would say no to. But perhaps having the choice would have made things easier.

[quark_assassin]

Dustin's gaze flicks up to Link, eyebrows lifted slightly with surprise. He hadn't expected him to acquiesce so easily - but then again, while Link isn't nearly as paranoid as Dustin is, he does seem as stubbornly independent. Dustin can't imagine anyone successfully forcing Link to do anything. Unless they trick him into it, of course, or the powers are so beyond them that he can't hope to fight back. That's how they ended up here, after all.

A spike of anger swells in Dustin's chest, but he's too exhausted to do anything with it, letting it escape him instead as a melancholy sigh.

"I hate it here," he murmurs, apparently unprompted. "Being brainwashed into this shit for some aliens' entertainment. I-I don't know what to do. At least then, back home, I could do something about it, but--I can't stand it. I feel like I'm going insane."

[newmemorywhodis]

Link hums softly. He doesn't really have anything to add; no reassurances or platitudes. But he can offer an ear, to listen. That, at least, Link is good at.

Though there is one thing thing, that has him frowning faintly. "...Entertainment?"

Calibrations is meant to be...entertaining? But...it's so boring in here.

[quark_assassin]

"Yeah," Dustin snaps back. His irritation isn't directed at Link - well, okay, a little bit is, he's too frustrated to be especially patient right now. But it's not a whole lot. "The, um--Atroma. More aliens. Using the planet as a game show venue or something. There was this whole thing, uh--"

He wants to rant and ramble about the details. Except, he can't find them; he remembers having conversations related to this topic with Felwinter and Cayde, so the broad strokes are there, but he'd relied too heavily on his powers both times to store the information for him rather than making an effort to remember anything. It's all sitting so tantalizingly on the tip of his tongue.

After a few moments of staring blankly ahead, desperately trying to will the memories forward, Dustin gives up with a snarl.

"--Useless," he hisses, burying his face in his hands. "Never mind, just. Forget it. It's a game to some assholes, that's all that matters."

[newmemorywhodis]

"Game...show...?" Link says, with a blank look on his face. As that is absolutely not a concept he is familiar with.

Then he falls silent for a moment. Dustin seems...agitated. In a way that's different from his usual agitation. "...You okay?"

[quark_assassin]

Dustin doesn't even bother trying to explain what game shows are. "Does it fucking look like it?" he snaps with a glower shot at Link between his fingers, but like he's been for the rest of this conversation, his retorts lack their usual bite. Annoyed, but too tired to be properly angry.

It's not Link's fault.

His shoulders sag as he breathes a heavy sigh into the palms of his hands. "...I keep...forgetting shit," Dustin admits. "It's really fucking irritating."

[newmemorywhodis]

At least Link's used to Dustin's tendency to snap, and generally be disagreeable. So he doesn't take the remark personally. Just looks and Dustin, and waits for him to calm.

However, what Dustin says next has Link frowning. "...You lost memories too?"

[quark_assassin]

It takes Dustin a moment to realize what Link is trying to say, and he only gets there because of his time in Link's own Calibrations space. It was his first, so he remembers a surprising amount of it, all things considered.

"No--I mean, yes, kind of," Dustin says, pursing his lips. "I don't remember anything before '96, but that's normal. This feels different."

[newmemorywhodis]

"96?" Link echoes, having absolutely no idea what that's supposed to refer to. 96 what?

And that's not the only thing, that has Link confused. "Different how?" The only kind of memory loss Link's familiar with is the one he's experienced. What other kinds of memory loss is there?

[quark_assassin]

Okay, not knowing how years work between worlds is valid and Dustin is willing to spare a word of explanation. "1996 - it's the year I was, um..."

He waves a dismissive hand, like the fact that he appeared in town as a fully-formed six-year-old without any memories is supposed to be a given.

"...It's like...fuzzy," Dustin continues in answer to the second question instead. "Like I should know something, but I don't. Sometimes it'll come to me later if I'm reminded of something else, or just randomly, for no reason. But I can't just, you know..."

He taps the side of his head.

"...Call it up when I need to. And some stuff, I know I was there for it, but it's just...missing? Names and directions and things like that." Dustin's tapping finger turns into a fist around his hair. "It's infuriating."

[newmemorywhodis]

1996. It's not a number Link would expect to be the one assigned to a year. And yet he realsies he has no idea what number the year would be back in Hyrule.

And neither is the experience Dustin describes one Link is familiar with. He lost memories - but once he relearned something he didn't have trouble remembering again.

"You forget...facts?"

[quark_assassin]

"I forget everything," Dustin answers tersely. "Facts, stuff I've seen, things people have said--"

Another flustered shake of his head. He doesn't seem to be getting the point across, not quite, and the frustration is finally forcing him into being more direct. It's the only way he can get Link to understand.

"--You don't get it," he says abruptly, fixing Link with a flat, exhausted stare. "I haven't forgotten anything in ten years."

[newmemorywhodis]

Dustin's right. Link doesn't get it; doesn't understand just what Dustin is trying to tell him.

Memory for Link is something...brittle. Patchy. He doesn't know what knowing all your history is even like, let alone having a good memory.

He can't even comprehend never forgetting anything. Not when he forgot his whole life.

"You didn't forget things, but now you do?" Link says, frowning.

[quark_assassin]

"Yes," Dustin says, lifting his hands in a pointed, frustrated gesture. To him, the concept seems obvious - there's remembering everything, and then there isn't. The idea that there's a middle ground of an 'average memory' is not foreign to him in concept, but it definitely is in experience. He might as well have amnesia in comparison. "Ever since I arrived here. The storms do it too, but it's been constant in this fucking bunker."

[newmemorywhodis]

In the bunker? Link looks around, a slight frown on his face as he takes in the space around them.

The Shrine took his memories. But that wasn't the place itself - it was the act of resurrecting him that did that.

"Something here is...interfering?"

[quark_assassin]

Dustin nods again, looking marginally less flustered this time. Getting him to think about the root cause of his spotty memory does help pull him away from the persistent, flustered anger he's been operating at so far.

"Deliberately, I'm pretty sure," he asserts. "And not just me, it's--hmm."

A hand goes to his chin, pensive.

"That, ah..." The other hand waves in a circle next to his head, trying to conjure the most concise, Dustin-like way to say this. "...Magic bullshit you do. You know what I'm talking about, right? Can you do any of that here?"

[newmemorywhodis]

There's a confused tilt of the head for a moment, before Link realises what Dustin is asking about. He doesn't head to think of it as 'magic bullshit', but...the Champion's abilities. And his own ability to slow time, sometimes. Those are what he's asking about, isn't it?

He thinks a moment. Urbosa's Fury would just hurt Dustin. Mipha's Grace would require someone to kill him. And the ceiling's not high enough for Revali's Gale.

But he holds out his left arm, like he would with his shield. Tries to call upon Daruk's Protection.

Nothing happens.

"...No."

[quark_assassin]

Dustin patiently waits - or rather, uses the extra time to brood in his feelings - while Link works out the best way to test Dustin's theory. His response, though, is much faster.

"--Exactly," he says with a snap of his fingers. "See? It's like they know what makes us...they've got some kind of idea of what's 'normal' and they can repress parts of us that aren't. That's your magic, for you, and for me that's my, uh. My memory. Kinda."

[newmemorywhodis]

"Not my magic." Even if that's not really what Dustin's getting at. But it doesn't sit well with Link, to pretend that the Champion's gifts are really his own.

[quark_assassin]

"Close enough," Dustin says with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Call it whatever you want - they know you can use it so they block it off somehow."

[newmemorywhodis]

Link thinks of how he ended up here: woken up by a creature telling him that they'd solved the storms, that they were all going home.

A creature which had clearly lied.

"The...Agrii?" he says slowly, eyebrows furrowed together. Was that an Agrii? He'd never met them. It seemed to fit the description Link had heard of them. Seemed to talk in the same way they did. But Link had also never actually met an Agrii, in person. How could he know whether it was really an Agrii at all?

[quark_assassin]

Dustin starts to shake his head, but stops quickly, frowning.

"...I'm not...it could be a joint effort," he mutters, furrowing his eyebrows. "The, um...Atroma. They're definitely using the Agrii and their resources. I don't know for how long, and I don't know if the Agrii consented to it or..."

His expression goes blank for a moment, attempting to piece together what he remembers - only to come up disappointingly empty and confused. Dustin groans and drops his face back into his hands.

"--Forget it," he mumbles, muffled by his fingers. "Fucking pointless trying to speculate while I'm like this."

[newmemorywhodis]

Link just looks at Dustin. Frowns. Were Dustin's memory problems really that bad? That without the benefit of a perfect memory, it wasn't even worth it for him to try?

Link couldn't know. He wasn't Dustin; didn't know what it was like to live inside his head. Evidently he was frustrated. Although Dustin was often frustrated.

"Can I help?" he asks. He doesn't know if there is anything he could do. This is far, far outside Link's knowledge and experience. But he has to offer, all the same.

[quark_assassin]

As far as Dustin is concerned, it isn't worth it for him to try when he can't remember literally everything at the drop of a hat. He's gone his whole life with that benefit; the idea of a normal memory was so foreign to him that he couldn't even conceptualize it, and now that he's forced to experience it for himself? Misery. Absolutely intolerable. How do people function like this?

Dustin shakes his head, still buried in his hands. "Unless you can get us all out of here or figure out what's suppressing our abilities," he says, blithely. "No."