when visions in the final end must shatter like the glass [open to multiple]

[amourtician]

When Jay opens his eyes, he stares into a white wall. Around him is the noise of a city, though the rumble of automobiles is so much louder than he's used to, merging into a sort of feral buzz, a cross between angry bees and static. The noise of the crowd is interwoven into this hum, a hideous counternote. Jay shudders and tries to figure out what sort of wall he's staring at. He reaches out to touch it, then thinks better of it and instead turns around.

He's standing under a marble arch that stands at the entrance to a park. He stumbles back into the inner wall of the arch, suddenly feeling dizzy. It's the noise, the hideous noise that's tunnelling down his ears to his brain, making him feel like his whole head is vibrating. He screws his eyes shut and leans against the wall, shaking. He wants to throw up, but he's very aware that he's in public and he does not want to be unseemly.

He has no idea what's going on. It feels like he's lost some time, for he cannot remember the last thing he was doing, only the distant morning, breakfast with his twin. And now this. He shudders. He wonders, briefly, if he's hallucinating and the idea makes him moan in dismay.

To anyone who may be passing by, it appears as though a lavishly dressed, young, black person of absolutely indeterminable gender just popped into existence of nowhere. He's wearing a suit that looks like a New Romantic gone distinctly Regency, with a floor-length, pleated black skirt rather than trousers. A fur stole drapes around his shoulders; his hands are bedecked with rings, his face is painted brightly. He's wearing boots with pointy toes and high heels, elevating him to a height of 5'8", rather than his natural 5'5".

And he looks so very overwhelmed and sick.

Comments

[etherthief]

Oh snap. She can hardly believe her luck.

Here she is, taking a day, getting groceries, hoping Satan doesn't stop by for another visit and debating the whole ROMAC thing, is she really gearing up to join them, probably, she can't stop thinking about their beautiful lab equipment - when the Rift decides to drop another present right into her proverbial lap. So far off center, it almost feels like a gift just for her. Aw, that's so nice of you, Rift. She's passing by the archway to Washington Square Park when it happens, knocking her right out of her focus. It would be hard not to notice, even if she hadn't trained herself to spot people just appearing like that. This one has a fashion sense to end all others. And on closer inspection, is not human.

She hefts her groceries to one arm and strolls forward.

"Hi," she says. They're hot, she decides, as she decides about almost everyone, but now's not the time. She holds out a hand, for a shake, or just as a placating gesture, it's up to them. "Don't worry. You're okay. This has happened before. To me, in fact. You've been displaced." She adds to this a winning smile. "I'm Iman."

[amourtician]

"Eh?" says Jay. How very articulate, he thinks a mere second later and clears his throat, shuddering theatrically. He's pointedly avoiding making eye contact with Iman, staring at her nose instead. The noise, the horrible noise of the city is hammering against the doors of his brain and making thinking very hard. He takes a deep breath and tries again.

"I'm ... I'm Jay ..." he says, breathily. His voice is a little screechy, slightly wavering, on the alto side of things. It's impossible to gender him as is, but the voice makes it even more mysterious. He's got a harsh accent reminiscent of a Yiddish accent or possibly Russian. Quite possibly both. "Ahhh, Jay Zimin, darling," he continues, "but just ... just call me Jay." He stares at her hand. It occurs to him she's holding it out for a reason, so he takes it and presses his painted lips against her knuckles, gentle as a breeze. His kiss leaves a blue lip-print nonetheless. "Um. I'm sorry, I ..." he shuts his eyes and takes yet another deep breath that completely fails to calm him. "I'm ... it's so loud here ..."

[etherthief]

Oh wow, they're - kissing her hand. Okay then. Iman lifts her eyebrows in bewilderment and mild glee. That's adorable. And now she has a nice blue smudge on her hand.

"Don't worry about it," she says, taking her hand back. "Matches my skirt. It is really loud, yeah. Sorry about that. It doesn't really go away. I can explain, but maybe you should sit."

They should definitely sit. She takes their arm fluidly and pulls them into the park, hoping to find a bench or something, somewhere a little more chill. Not right next to the street anyway.

"So, Jay," she says. "This is Earth, I'm a human, mostly we've got humans here." There's a ton of questions to ask, the university standard orientation talk - what are you, where do you come from, what's your major - and, Iman wonders curiously, are they speaking English? Callie studied humans and knew English from that, presumably, but with Jay, who knows?

"Do you have a personal pronoun I should be made aware of?" she asks. Blunt but to the point.

[amourtician]

"Personal ... er ..." says Jay, as he tries to put together what Iman means. Finally it clicks. "I'm a man, darling. At least, I think I am--" He doesn't seem the least bit surprised nor offended that she couldn't tell, since he's aware of how androgynous and confusing he and his presentation are, but he does seem mildly peeved that he has to explain. "But ... ahhhh. Forgive me, dearest, what's a human?"

He lets Iman guide him to a bench and flops down like a sack of potatoes, entirely ungraceful. In fact, in stark contrast to his presentation, his movements are jerky, clumsy and speak to disorientation and confusion as well as no small amount of brain fog. Everything has become too much and motor functions are one of the first things to suffer when things get too much for him. He hugs himself and leans forward, head cast down. From this angle, it's evident that his nose is rather large for his face. He shivers and sighs and mutters something to himself - it is, in fact, a vague plea to the Lord of Song, in whom he doesn't quite believe any more.

The words Iman is speaking make sense, though he's aware the language is foreign. He can tell "Earth" means something akin to "Mir", but the meaning of "human" eludes him. He can tell, with a sinking, cold feeling in the pit of his stomach, that he is very far from home.

[etherthief]

Poor Jay. Iman pats his hand as they walk. "Sorry," she says. "Rather ask than assume." Who knows if aliens have a gender binary? This one seems to, at least a linguistic equivalent. Is the Rift translating for him? Wouldn't that be fascinating. Begrudgingly, she thinks she could probably ask Satan about that.

The moment they get to a bench, Jay drops onto it, looking tired and dissociative. She sits down beside him, setting her groceries down as well.

"I'm a human," she says. She waves a hand at the people moving about the park. "They're all humans. Apex predator of the planet Earth. You've come a long way, I take it."

At least he'll fit in slightly better than Callie. People might take him for a flamboyant cosplayer, which are a dime a dozen in New York City anyway. Fewer stares.

[amourtician]

"Human," Jay repeats, blandly. For a second, his flamboyant manner dips and his voice is flat, stripped bare. He looks at Iman, hardly seeing her. He's still not meeting her eye. "Ah. You look rather like a lovek. Your eyes are ... your eyes are very dull, darling."

His own eyes phosphoresce slightly, a startling blue in his dark face, though that might be hard to see by daylight. The eyes of others from his world could be anything from yellow to orange to vicious green, though red and grey are not uncommon, either.

"Have I come a long way?" he adds, after a moment's dazed thought. "I ... I suppose I must've but I don't ... I don't remember ..." He sighs and it turns into a deep shudder. "How ..."

[etherthief]

Iman lets him flounder through this, nodding slowly. When he shudders she reaches out and rests her hand on his back. Sympathy never comes as easy as curiosity, but it's hard not to want to comfort someone who's clearly in a bad way.

"You were brought here by a rift in space-time," she says, hoping he has at least a vague awareness of 'space-time' being a thing. "It's centered here, over the city, and it brings people here from all kinds of different universes. No one knows what it is or how it works yet - or if they do, they're not telling." She wants to go off on a diatribe about how that's not going to continue being the case, not if SHE has anything to say about it, but she resists.

"This has been happening for years now," she says. "I've only been here for a few weeks so far, and at least it's pretty similar to where I came from. But there isn't a way back, not that anyone's found." She tries to deliver this gently, though it's hard to be gentle about something like that. Time to check in. She can't just spill the whole exposition pile at once. "You with me on this so far?"

[amourtician]

Jay doesn't find the hand on his back overly comforting, but he's too overwhelmed to say so. He sits very still, listening to Iman and trying to understand. The words whizz through his brain without gaining much traction at all.

He's vaguely aware of space-time, though in a distant, pop-science, never-been-relevant-to-my-field-of-study way that doesn't mean much. All he understands is that he's been displaced and there's no way back and everyone around him looks off. There isn't a single person in sight who looks like they have visible spirit heritage and that makes him feel very alone and very uneasy.

His head spins. A veil descends between him and the world and when he speaks, he hears his own voice as though it's coming from miles away.

"I'm with you, darling," he says. "What ... what now?"

[etherthief]

Iman frowns. He's not doing super well, even she can see that, but she's not sure what she can do about it.

"Well," she says, taking her hand back settling both hands in her lap. "There's two different organizations in place to help people like us find their feet in their new world. Or you can make your own way - that's harder, of course." It's what she's doing, but not for much longer. "They set rifties - uh, that's us - up with homes, money and phones. The basics."

She hesitates before going into any more detail. Callie had the benefit of being in one of the dreams before coming here - Jay was completely unprepared.

"Look, this is too much to take in right now," she says decisively. "Do they have liquor wherever you're from? Do you want to get drunk? That's what I did my first day and it was great. My treat."

Okay, look, nobody said Iman was good at this.

Eliot goes for the gold in the day-drinking Olympics

[eliotwaugh]

Eliot's spending the afternoon in the cafe portion of a place he'd been to a few times in his universe, and he's pleased to see the scene and the menu haven't changed. The wine is a welcome distraction from how agitated he feels; Johnny and Sunshine were both busy with jobs and boyfriends and here he is stuck without anything to do with his time. And he doesn't want to be a burden, so it's easier to just isolate and drink until he forgets how bad he feels. And maybe he'll meet someone! Not that he could talk about his problems with some rando off the street, Rift-displacement issues aren't really a good way to chat someone up at a gay bar.

So he frowns a little, and sips his wine and watches the passersby on sidewalk.

[etherthief]

The only part of The Duplex that looks to be currently open is the cafe, but that's fine, Jay could probably use something to eat, too. She's reasonably sure he'll be able to eat and drink human food, having asked a few odd questions on the way.

"Here we are," she says brightly, stepping in to escape the August heat. "Love this place. They do music shows at night, if you wanna stick around for a while."

She scans around. The place is reasonably populated for a Monday afternoon - mostly a late-lunching crowd - but she spots one guy in particular who's definitely getting his drink on, and what's more, he's familiar.

"Oh no way," she says. She taps Jay's arm and points Eliot out. "That guy's another rifty. I totally met him in a dream." She glances at Jay. "Oh right, we, uh, we have shared dreams here. Kind of a lot. You'll see. Hey, Eliot!"

She waves at him, already heading over, expecting Jay to follow.

cw offhand mention of homophobia

[amourtician]

Jay follows, looking around the café with some suspicion. Something about the place feels odd, but he can't quite place it right now, being preoccupied with other matters. He decides to shrug it off. He's in a whole different world - lots of things are going to look off. Instead he follows Iman.

He gives Eliot as charming a smile as he can manage. Even through the haze of despair and the white gauze of dissociation, he can judge him as handsome and there's no harm in smiling at a handsome young man, even one from another world.

At least, he hopes. He has misjudged that sort of thing very badly, in the past.

[eliotwaugh]

Eliot looks up from his glass in confusion when he hears his name being called. How does anyone know him here? But oh, that lady is familiar, and he has a cloudy memory of a dream, with an underwater city and an incredibly chatty bartender. Looks like he might be able to talk Rift problems with someone after all.

"H-hey," he says, raising a hand in greeting. "Iman, right?" he gives her a crooked smile, and then notices the guy trailing after her, who is also smiling. He looks cute. Weird as hell, but cute. "Come join me, if you want. Who's your friend?"

[etherthief]

"Don't mind if I do," she says, pleased that he remembers her. Just as he was in the dream, he is devastatingly attractive, and, if memory serves, tragically gay. Maybe that'll work out though, if her sense about Jay is on the money.

"This is Jay," she says, sliding into a chair across from Eliot and resting her chin on her hands. "He just arrived, as of like a half hour ago, or less. Poor guy's a little shaky on his feet so I thought I'd get him a drink or twelve." She smiles at Jay and holds her hand out toward Eliot. "Jay, this is Eliot."

[amourtician]

Jay smiles at Eliot again and reaches out a delicate, beringed hand.

"Charmed, darling!" he thrills, suddenly once again "on". There'll be time to mope and contemplate the fact Rook is several universes away later. Right now there's a pretty boy and alcohol and, if he's lucky, maybe later there'll be a discreet place to ask the pretty boy about his inclinations and whether they could be tipped towards Jay.

He takes a seat next to Eliot and discreetly shuffles his chair closer to him.

Eliot is bad at appropriately polite conversation topics: the motion picture

[eliotwaugh]

Eliot raises his eyebrows. "Gracious, that new?" He assesses Iman with a glance: if she's the type of person to take a new arrival under her wing and immediately suggest getting hammered, clearly Eliot needs to associate with her more often. "You must give me your contact information so I can have you over next time I'm doing brunch."

Most of his attention, though, is on Jay, who seems to be just as flamboyant as his fashion suggests. "You poor thing," he murmurs, taking Jay's hand. He pauses for about half a second before kissing it; honestly, what the hell else is he supposed to do with a hand like that?

The contact gives Eliot a little jolt of energy, something exotic and unfamiliar, but power is power, and he begins to think that Jay might not just be a cosplay enthusiast. "So there's no polite way to ask this, but are you magic? You seem magic. What's going on with all this, here?" He waves his hand in a lazy circle indicating Jay's face and ears and whatnot.

[etherthief]

"That sounds fabulous," says Iman delightedly. Friends who aren't Satan are always a thing she's in the market for.

She catches the eye of a bleach-haired waiter and summons him over with a raised hand, keeping a casual eye on Eliot as he romances Jay. Wow, that was easy. Then again these two are rather peas in a pod, aren't they. This'll be good. She wishes she could order some popcorn.

"I'll take a double campari on the rocks," she says smoothly. "Jay, darling, what can I get you?"

enter boyfriends who don't yet realize they are boyfriends

[peacefulexplorer]

Wow, this place is a rather stark contrast to Wilmot's. Not that Daniel minds, really. He rather enjoys the change of pace. The early evening crowds have begun to filter in but it's not so packed that he can't spot Iman and the aforementioned alleged alien, though it helps that the latter stands out a bit between the splashes of bright blue on his face and the curiously elaborate-looking ensemble of fur and rings.

A small smile tugs at one corner of his mouth. It seems in the weeks that have elapsed since meeting her, Iman's immediate coping method of 'get gloriously drunk' hasn't changed. Thankfully this particular drinking partner looks to be of a less unpleasant and infinitely more interesting sort than literal Satan.

"Never been here before," he admits to Seth under his breath, faintly self-conscious.

they are totally platonic friends I don't know what you're talking about

[powerdealer]

"Me neither," Seth answers, glancing around the place. It's not a place he would usually go to relax, but it might be somewhere he'd go to work - not for power dealing, but for the regular kind of dealing. But anywhere that has alcohol and people works for relaxing and distracting tonight.

"See them?" he asks, since he has very little idea what the people they're looking for actually look like. Not to mention the three inches Daniel's got on Seth probably makes it easier for him to spot people.

[etherthief]

Fortunately for them, Iman spots Daniel right away. "Heyyyy!" she calls cheerfully and slightly louder than necessary, waving. "C'mere, c'mere! Jay look there they are." She points unnecessarily at the two faintly bewildered looking men coming towards them. Daniel continues to look like someone dreamed the most generic friendly hunky nerd they could, and his friend - oh hey, he is cute.

"Settle in boys," she says, pushing out one of the chairs with her foot. "This is Jay, he's shiny and new. Jay, this is Daniel and Daniel's friend." She beckons their waiter again. New people! Plus she's almost out of campari.

[amourtician]

Jay gives both Daniel and his friend a winning, slightly crooked smile. He's very drunk now and feeling quite exuberant, though Eliot's departure had dampened his spirits, earlier. He would've liked to depart with Eliot, all things considered. At least he had the man's phone number in an inner pocket of his ridiculous regency jacket.

"Darlings!" he chirps at Daniel and Seth. "I recommend you just ask for whatever is the most colourful, they do wonderful cocktails here!" He toasts them with the remains of whatever the hell he's been drinking - it's bright blue, almost the exact shade of his lipstick and his eyes and eyespots.

[peacefulexplorer]

"Seth," Daniel introduces the other man with a nod, sliding into the chair next to Iman. "And, uh. Daniel. Which you know already. Hi."

And this is Jay.

And he is drunk. Whatever species he is, inebriation looks to be very much possible.

Daniel would be happy to go no farther than being pleasantly caffeinated as usual, but the day's earlier conversation has left him somewhat more emotionally exhausted than he's altogether comfortable with given the general atmosphere of the place. His low tolerance warrants only a small pause before he decides, why not? and orders himself something appropriately colorful.

"So, Jay, is it?" he says, almost experimentally. "I heard you're new here?"

[powerdealer]

Seth is both bemused and amused at the enthusiasm greeting them. But then Seth is pretty used to being the most subdued person at a gathering, so he doesn't much mind. He just needs to get some alcohol in him to he can feel a bit more relaxed about it, after the exhausting trials of last night and this morning. At least they both seem friendly, and Jay in particular rather eccentric.

He gives them both a polite nod and awkward smile as he sits down, ordering himself a gin and tonic, which is really the opposite of colourful, but what can you do.

[etherthief]

"Brand new," says Iman to Daniel. "I rescued him under the arch." She smiles at Seth, putting her chin in her hands. "Daniel and I met under similar circumstances, only I was the newbie. And the one who wanted to drink. Hi." She gives him a little wave. "I'm Iman."

He is cute, and quiet, apparently, which only enhances the cuteness. She wants to engage him further but she figures she should probably let Jay take the socialization reins here. So she sits back, motions for another campari, and smiles at the new awkward little group.

[amourtician]

Jay sits back and sips his drink, the name of which he's already forgotten. He appraises Seth and Daniel and decides that, all things considered, neither are a patch on Eliot. A pity. Still, he smiles at them both, again, because he's an incurable flirt and does it almost automatically, sometimes.

"Iman was the welcoming committee, yes," he says. "Very kind of her, really."