[Previously Public, Now Locked to Basement Residents]

[clockwork_doc]

I'll be the first to admit I'm not sure what's going on here. Everything has happened so suddenly. I suppose I got lucky in that there was someone around to help me right after the event happened, but still, I'm very much confused. Hopefully, if I write things down in this journal that has mysteriously appeared in my room (left behind by someone? Hotel service?), I can get my thoughts straight. Let's start with the basics:

Name: Dr. Emmett Lathrop Brown, nicknamed "Doc"
Profession: Scientist, Inventor
Age: Unknown
Current Location: The basement of the Conrad Hotel, Chicago, in the year 2008
Reason for Being Here: I apparently stepped through something called the Rift -- a tear in the space-time continuum that reaches across multiple universes, allowing anyone to fall in and enter this universe at any time. I was found in a park by a woman named Revan Onasi and brought here to be accomodated with my fellow refugees.

Fellow refugees. I've seen some people around during my first day here, but I haven't talked to any of them besides Revan, really. They're all strangers to me. I suppose I should go out and attempt social contact -- none of them appear to be anything like the Fae, and back in Arcadia I would have given my left hand for human contact -- but --

None of them are Marty.

Damn it, what happened to that kid? We were making our way through the Hedge -- slowly, granted, but what else can you do -- and out of nowhere a pack of briarwolves fell on us. I managed to procure a thorny stick and escape, but I lost sight of him, and --

[water stains here] Well, I guess that definitely answers the question of if my new weather-based powers work inside or not.

That's another thing. My trip through this Rift has apparently sapped me of most of my Fae-based magical powers. I've been attempting to use the Contracts I learned under Andrew's tutelage, and most of them simply fail to function. The only three I can still use are "Brief Glamour of Repair", "Touch of the Workman's Wrath," and "Blessing of Perfection," and those take a lot more concentration than I'm used to. I've got a bit of a headache now from attempting them. In return, I've got the ability to control the weather. Well, not really control -- it seems to respond more to my emotional state than to any direct commands I give it. I'll have to be careful about getting too upset, especially now that I know that my abilities work inside.

It's odd, but I feel like there's something else too that's changed. . . .
(edit: Thanks for warning about locking these, Revan and -- April, was it? I didn't realize. I've made the necessary correction.)

Comments

[xiaomei-mei.livejournal.com]

You may wish to make sure that you dictate private or group-locked security settings on your entries. There are bad people who could potentially use information gleaned from your journals against you and the "fellow refugees" you mentioned.



...You're not... you don't play with the human brain at all, do you? As a scientist, I mean.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

What the
How did
I think I missed something. How can anyone read my private journal? Let alone write in it? (I'll admit to being rather in a daze when I first came through; perhaps this is information I should have heard but didn't?)

Er, no to your second comment. My talents have always lay in the realm of mechanical things. Biology was never my forte. (I tend to get a little squeamish.)

[curtainfalling]

The journals aren't private, Dr. Brown. They're psychically linked with everyone else's in the city (who happens to have a psychic journal, that is). As April stated, you may wish to lock the pages to specific people or groups. Otherwise people like Shepard would be able to read about you and potentially use some of the information you give against you.

Sorry I forgot to mention this when I found you. Slipped my mind. ^_^;;;

- Revan

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Oh. That's -- rather intriguing, actually. Certainly not the strangest thing that's ever happened to me.

I suppose I "lock" entries by simply specifying who can read them in the text? Such as, "all residents of the Conrad basement?"

And it's perfectly all right, I wasn't in much of a state to ask many questions. Though now that I'm here, how did I get this journal? I just find it a bit peculiar that it's the exact same type as the ones I used back home to record my experi

Oh my God.

[curtainfalling]

Or in the entry title, yes.

I have no clue. It just randomly appears in the possession of anyone new.

...What's wrong?

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Aha, thank you. I've made the necessary corrections so anyone outside this particular location can't see.

And it's not what's wrong, it's what's RIGHT! I had rather severe amnesia before coming through the Rift, and now it's GONE! I can actually remember who I am! Great Scott, I thought it would take me years to get it all back, if I got it back at all. . . .

[xiaomei-mei.livejournal.com]

It's not a private journal. It's connected to the journals of every wanderer, demon, angel, and supernatural human in... well, I think you'd call it the "greater Chicago area".

If you don't want people to read it, you have to mark an entry as "Private".



Good.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Duly noted. Thank you for the heads up. I've made the corrections.

I take it you've had some bad experiences. Trust me, after what I've been through at home, human experimentation is at the top of my "do not do" list.

[xiaomei-mei.livejournal.com]

They completely shattered my psyche. Made me psychic, imprinted various forms of combat in my consciousness, programmed me to be a weapon. They didn't get to complete the programming, but...

I was twelve years old when they started. I only just found a powerfully controlled psychic yesterday who took the shards of my consciousness, my psyche, and put them back in a tenuously stable formation.

Forgive me if I'm a bit suspicious.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

I certainly can't blame you. I've had my own rather nasty experiences with unethical scientist types. I was abducted by someone I considered a friend and operated on without anesthetic in an effort to create a human that didn't require sleep or food. Andrew didn't hold with those things, you see. He made me build the replacement parts myself. And he messed with my mind a little too, forcing me to forget whenever I got suspicious of his motives.

Still, to do those things to a TWELVE YEAR OLD GIRL. . . I'm sorry you had to go through that, and thankful someone was able to start fixing it. I wish you the best of luck.

[xiaomei-mei.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

It's wrong, when people do that.

My government did that. My father volunteered me for the program. Me, and other children. I was the youngest.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

That's -- all I can say is that's despicable. I'm so sorry.

[xiaomei-mei.livejournal.com]

It's alright.

I... I'm sorry, I don't usually talk about it. But everything in my head is just a little... it's very much in-focus, in a way it hasn't been for quite some time. Almost three years.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

It's okay. I don't mind listening. I'm glad to hear everything is in-focus. My own head's on a little straighter now too, for whatever reason. Thinking clearly is good.

[xiaomei-mei.livejournal.com]

For you, it would probably be the Rift's doing. It alters you on some basic genetic level. Everyone who comes through. Sometimes it's big, sometimes it's small.

I haven't been able to figure out what it's done to me, yet. I'm assuming it's something psychic or psychological, since it hasn't manifested already. Now that my mind is more controlled, I have a chance to poke around gently and maybe I'll find it.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Makes sense. It's already taken away most of my old powers and replaced them with weather control. Why wouldn't it restore my memories in the bargain?

I see. I hope it had a good effect on you. It all seems so random. What caused that Rift anyway? Does anyone know?

[xiaomei-mei.livejournal.com]

Local (and by local, I mean planetary) theory seems to be that whatever caused the "supernatural" things (angels, demons, elementals, mages, and so forth) ripped a hole in the fabric of reality to come and cause all of it. Faeries, if you will.

Granted, I may be remembering that wrong - all I did was sort of accidentally scan a few people's minds when I was out.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

. . . It just figures that a bunch of filthy Fae would --

Sorry, that's not directed at you. I have -- issues -- with Faeries. (All the Victorian conceits about them? LIES.)

[xiaomei-mei.livejournal.com]

Given the differences between worlds, it might not be fair to assume the Fae from your universe are the same as the Fae here.

Not that there's any proof of the Fae here. That's just a theory. A mythos, really. No proof that's actually what happened.

I wish I did know.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, yes. It's just one of those things that automatically sets me on-edge.

I wish I knew too. I've got a friend on the other side, and I'd at least like to be able to see if he's all right. Though I'm sure that's true of most everyone here, isn't it?

[xiaomei-mei.livejournal.com]

Like me and doctors. It's alright, no one would hold it against you.

As far as I can tell. I have... family. Not blood family, but... my family, all the same.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Marty -- without him, I'd still be trapped in Andrew's basement, answering to the title "Professor," with no memory of home at all. And no hope of freedom.

[water stains again] Damn it, he'd better be all right. . . .