The Remembers Assemble!

[cannot_flinch]

WHO: Team With Memories & New Memories
WHERE: City Public Library
WHAT: Everyone gathering together to find Billy.
WHEN: After the He Row Announcement
WARNINGS: TBD



The City Public Library was an elegant old brick building on the edge of town. It was beautiful inside with large windows and plenty of soft places to sit and read. Right by the check out desk there was a tropical fish tank with a rainbow of fish.

Ikora actually quite liked this part of her identity quite a lot. All the pre-Golden Age technology was quaint and simple but she loved the feel of a book in her hands. She would miss this once they returned to Temba.

Which might be sooner than she thought. The intervention of the Agrii had finally given them a direction. None of them had a good idea for the source of this little world as the Agrii or the forces in control of the Agrii or many things. Now, they knew who to find.

Of course... how to find Billy was another question. She had one of the private study rooms in the library reserved for their little group and anyone else that might wander in with memories returned. Ezra was very helpful in spotting those.

Cayde was very exuberant when he spotted them which was not very welcome in a library.

"Here." Ikora put a few water bottles on the table. "Help yourselves. We have more in the back."

They would be talking for awhile so she imagined water would be needed.

Comments

[cannot_flinch]

The conversation flows around her while Ikora does what she does best, listen and think. Everyone has good points and strong feelings but there's no answer in this. No solution. It's emotions and nothing else.

"If I can bring us back to focus," Ikora said, a bit of steel in her voice. Cayde would recognize the tone.

"We don't need to worry about the others. By the logic of this place when we break Billy out of his illusion, everyone is freed." She held up a hand before anyone could say anything and interrupt her. "This is magic and doesn't always follow logic but we free Billy and he can bring his powers under control. What we should focus on is getting a hold of him so we can talk to him and break through this. Some of us may have to hold off any heroes that come to rescue him but no one dies in this."

She fixed a hard look at Kaz, Ezra and Padme. "We are here to help people find their way home. They cannot do that if they're dead. Unless either of you can bring people back from the dead?... That's what I thought."

[demjiin]

At Padme's first comment, Kaz raised one eyebrow and looked at her. When she explained why she was volunteering to off Jonathon, the brow lowered and his dark brown eyes turned cold, gaze becoming as flat and black as a shark.

"Then once Billy himself is taken to the part of reality that isn't his, then everyone else will 'wake up'."

His eyes never looked away from Padme as he spoke before or now.

"And don't worry. There will be no need for deadly force from anyone toward Jonathon, even once Billy's reality unravels."

None of them may know it, but the icy calm of his voice belied a well of rage so deep no one had found the bottom yet.

[no_applause]

Padme rolled her eyes. "I understand the need to bring everyone back to this 'Temba' alive. I may not remember it, myself, but I grasp the idea and the importance" Really, she wasn't an idiot.

She sighed, crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair. While she could easily kill Jonathan, that wasn't normally her way unless there was no other option. In this case, there were other options. "Billy is the target. However, if there's a possibility of Jonathan interfering with that task, it makes sense to have a plan to subdue him." Her eyes met Kaz's, she noted the dark look in them. "How do we know that everything will unravel and everyone will remember? Because this 'Ga Re' said so? This is a lot of trust being placed in a weird, poorly written message."

[deal_me_in]

Cayde promptly shut his mouth once Ikora spoke up. Naturally that wasn't going to be for long, and as plans continued to be spooled, his shoulders shook just a little as he began to chuckle.

"It's like we're preparing for a war. So we're really going the direct approach? 'Cuz all I'm picturing is us all hauling Billy up over our heads and off somewhere with a bunch'a our not-yet-woken up buddies chasing behind us." A beat. "-which could be a problem if the chasing's done by his brother."

But he approved of a direct approach. Nab and grab. But it all hinged on making Billy remember, and even if the game was to keep anyone from interfering he didn't really like the thought of harming their friends just because they weren't in their right minds. This would be so much easier if it was just some enemy threat.

"Um, hellooo! At least several of us here remember stuff even before Ga Re came and spoke up. I know I'd have questions if creepy messages suddenly popped up on the airwaves and told me to find Billy, but I'll tell you, that message was a weird relief because it proved I wasn't just going crazy."

[ezra_of_lothal]

"I've remembered Temba really clearly the entire time," Ezra agrees. "And - I was already pretty sure this Billy's doing somehow. I'm...we call it Force sensitive, where I'm from. Psychic's probably the easiest thing to label it, here. Empathic, telekinetic, sometimes clairvoyant."

He meets Padme's gaze. "Luke and Leia are Force sensitive, too. My abilities are muted here but I can still feel things a little. So I know what it feels like when Billy's emotions alter reality, and most of the city feels like that to me. I guess it's possible he's locked his own powers away so tightly he can't undo it, but trying to get him to remember seems like good place to start."

[demjiin]

As Kaz had explained to others; you could only kill someone once. But you can make them suffer so much they wished for death a thousand times. Another beat of staring at Padme in silence, then he looked away again.

"I could remember Temba for a while before the message, but Cayde has a point. Billy made this reality and a lot of other people are realizing it's very wrong, even if they don't exactly know why. As I was saying; I do know of a place that isn't a part of Billy's reality but if he can remember on his own, that would be safer."

He gestured at Cayde and his notebook.

"Finding that which would make him remember is the next step. Until we know that, there is not a lot to be done."

Well, short of the bullet idea.

[cannot_flinch]

"Then we will look like villains." Ikora was prepared for that. This was all an illusion anyway. Once people remembered, they would probably not hold it against the rest of them.

If they did, they would sort that out when they were back in Temba.

"I can manipulate reality to a slight degree. My hope is that Ezra, Lark, and I can come up with a way to dispel the illusion from around Billy. To get into his mind and give him a moment of clarity." Ikora believed that once they had a foothold in his mind and he had some of his senses Billy would manage the rest on his own.

"We do need a safe place to take him. I would rather not use the library." Because if the heroes came this place would get destroyed. "It isn't very secure."

[no_applause]

Padme looked down at her children when Ezra mentioned them. Force... sensitive... She knew they were special, they'd been demonstrating some abilities already, but the term felt right somehow.

"I can use some of my connections to clear out a warehouse on the edge of the city for us to use. If there's any possibility of others coming to defend Billy, we don't want this to happen anywhere where civilians can get hurt."

[deal_me_in]

"Hold up- where's this place you're talking about, Brekker?" Cayde asked, glancing over at the kid who was far too clever for his own good.

"Okay, having some place to pretend to be dastardly is good and all but we still gotta find him." He did have to grin a little at the thought of the library becoming such a busy hub, but Ikora and even Padme had a point. All the people filling up the city might be facsimiles or something but it still didn't sit well with him to have anything happening. The screams of people from when Jon had collapsed buildings was still fresh in his mind.

The Exo blinked at Padme though. "Oh, you needa... Well I guess doing things that way makes sense if you have connections. Oooor we could use the abandoned one I've been using to do target practice in." Abandoned was pretty much free for all, right? Or at least if it wasn't occupied? Really, if anyone other than Ikora knew where he was coming from then it was no surprise that he had such a mindset.

[demjiin]

Kaz answered Cayde's first question;

"Whatever piece of reality Jonathan has claimed. It would be safer for all involved to make use of an abandoned warehouse, though, so give out the address of the one you have already been making use of?"

Abandoned meant first come, first serve in Kaz's mind. Though it also meant no one would mind any additional damage.