entrancelogs | [OPEN] forgot what i was losing my mind about

Entry tags:

[OPEN] forgot what i was losing my mind about

Who: Mae and YOU
Where: Around the Mansion and grounds
When: 2/9-2/11
Rating: PG-13 for potential violence and mental health issues
Summary: Mae is about fifteen, fresh off The Incident, where she attacked and almost killed a fellow student. Now she's stuck in a world with strange looking people and dinosaurs. She's pretty sure she's gone insane.
The Story:

A: (kitchen) woke up on the wrong side of reality

It's official, then. Everyone was right. Mae Borowski is insane.

She's in an enormous house she's never been to before, and everyone around her doesn't look--normal. The people she's seen are all tall, hairless creatures. She's pretty sure they're still people, since they're wearing clothes and talking, but they're not normal. Maybe aliens. They're not actual aliens, she's sure. It's just her mind making them look that way. So she tries not to look at them too much, because if she stares then people will start asking what's wrong.

There's also dinosaurs outside. She knows plenty about dinosaurs. She had like a thousand plastic dinosaurs as a kid.

So this is what insanity is like. It's weird. She doesn't really feel crazy. She just kind of feels lost and numb, and like she's about three inches to the left of her own body. Everything's just...sort of floaty.

She hides out in her room for most of the first day, but eventually she gets up the courage to go exploring. Might as well explore this insane asylum or whatever it is. Where are all the doctors?

She ends up in the kitchen, where she finds a box of off-brand Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Then she tucks herself into a corner of the kitchen and just starts eating out of the box, staring into space and trying not to think too hard about what's happening. She's got a journal and pen with her and occasionally jots something down.

B: (roof) there's a madness that's just coursing right through me

Later on, she starts getting the hang for how this crazy fever dream of hers is going to work. It's all magic-based or whatever, and the closets have infinite resources. Junk food, blankets, baseball bats, you name it. She started to get a bat out of the closet, then thought against it. No weapons. Bad idea. She might hurt someone again.

Instead, she starts gathering a whole bunch of small drinking glasses and carries them up to the roof. The roof is a bit dangerous, considering there's like...pteradactyls and shit. They leave her alone once they realize what she's doing, though. Mae just sort of starts tossing the glasses and letting them smash onto the roof. Once she's done with one batch, she sweeps up the broken glass--she doesn't want to be that guy who leaves broken glass everywhere--and then starts it all over again.

It's cathartic. It's helping.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Hm."

She considers it. There actually isn't really a downside here, she thinks. It'd be nice to hear about whatever world has bright orange unicorns in it, whether or not it's to prove something's real or not.

She smiles a little.

"Yeah, okay. You can talk about your world."

He brightens, glad to be, in his mind, helping her out.

"Okay! So i come from a country called Equestria, which is where where all kinds of ponies live,
not just unicorns like me, but also earth ponies and pegasi. We have a wonderful ruler, princess Celestia, she's an alicorn! That means she has a unicorn horn, pegasus wings and earth pony strength. She runs the school I go to, so she's a really involved princess."

The school he hates and will eventually flunk out of, but details.

She listens attentively, getting more into it the more he talks. She munches her cereal a little more quietly. He makes it all sound so...real.

"Wow...ponies, princesses...is your whole world just all different kinds of ponies?"

She knows some horse-shaped people back home. She wonders if ponies are just the "people" in his world, the dominant species.

"Oh no, that's just Equestria! There's lots of different creatures in the countries outside of mine."

He never really wanted to visit, but he does want to learn more.

"There's dragons and griffons, yaks and breezies- and so many more. There's even people who look like you. Cat people."

"Oh wow...dude, that sounds like...legit magical."

Dragons? Holy crap. It's like out of one of those books she hasn't read in ages and ages.

"Cat people? Are they people who look like cats, or are they like, cats that go on two legs and meow and stuff? Cause I'm the first one."

"My world is really, really magical. Magic runs a lot of it, honestly."

To the point where if it went away, everything would grind to a horrible halt.

"Well, we have regular cats, too. Those are pets, they walk on four legs and meow and stuff. Then the ones from Abyssinia look like you. People. Who are cats. Like I'm a person who's a pony."

"We don't have magic in my world. Except in stories. I kinda like to think that there used to be magic, but it went away. Or something like that."

There's plenty in the world that's inexplicable. Ghosts and cryptids, things like that.

"Aw, man. That's really cool, actually. So different animal-shaped people are kinda...divided by country? Although I guess it's more complicated in your world. See um, in mine, everyone's going around on two legs, even people who look like horses. I guess you'd have to like, design things around having four legs versus two...that's neat to think about."

"Oh wow, really? I can't even imagine living in a world without magic?"

How do they get anything done?

"Kinda yeah. Creatures pretty much stay in their own countries. The only ones we really interact with are the griffons, and that's more the pegasi than anypony else," because flying schools and whatnot. "So there are pony people who walk on two legs, too?"

"I always kinda wished it was real, but yeah." She shrugs. "We probably just use technology instead? That's how it works in like, fantasy books and stuff, I guess."

She nods along as he keeps talking.

"Man...griffins and pegasus--pegasi?--that just all sounds so cool. And yeah, there's people who are like...they look like me, except they're horses. We've got a lot of different animal-shaped people. It takes all kinds, yanno?"

"Technology. That stuff that runs the network devices, yeah?"

All metal bits and weird green boxes from what he can decipher. Maybe technology is just a very specific kind of magic, one with wires and electricity rather than actual, legitimate spells.

"It's a pretty neat place to live, I guess," he smiles, nodding. "Yeah! If everypony...err everybody was the same it'd be so boring."

"Uh...do you mean phones and stuff?"

She hasn't seen the network yet.

"I guess in a lot of stories, technology is kinda like magic without magic, sorta. There's some kind of quote about advanced technology being magic. I can't remember."

She smiles again.

"It sounds really cool. I wish I could visit."

"Fffffoooones."

That's such a weird name. Still, it all sounds so fascinating. To not have to rely on magic, it would give all non-unicorns (and, he thinks a touch bitterly, unicorns like him) a chance without having to rely on the magic of others.

"Your home sounds way cooler! So much you can do with little machines!"

"Yeah, they're like...uh...they let you communicate with people far away, basically."

She figures that sums it up pretty well.

"Heh, see I think magic would be way cooler. Phones are great and all, but casting spells? That's totally my jam."

"Does anypony still send letters?"

Are letters obsolete now? It's a genuine worry

"Oh yeah, magic is really neat- uh not that everypony can do it. Only unicorns and alicorns can cast magic. Everypony else has kind of... under the surface magic. Like pegasi can control the weather sort of thing."

"Nah, people still send letters. It's just kinda more of an old-timey thing now, I guess."

It's kind of fun, actually. She remembers having a pen pal in middle school, and it was neat to kind of have to think out what to write down to send to them. It's something more tangible than just sending someone a text.

"Just unicorns and...alicorns?"

She's never heard that word before. Which she figures is a very good indicator that he's telling the truth. That this really isn't some kind of hospital, and she really isn't just hallucinating all of this.

It's comforting.

"Oh, well I'm glad that part hasn't changed. Even if it's old-timey."

He smiles, nodding.

"Yup. We're the ones with horns, that's how we cast magic," he points at his, helpfully. "Alicorns are way, way more powerful. There's only one alive right now, and she's our princess."

"Yeah, some traditions are just never gonna go away, I think. Then again my dad used to say that about VHS, so I dunno..."

He probably won't know what that is either. She clears her throat.

"So what makes them alicorns? Like, unicorns but--more? Like the superhero equivalent of unicorns?"

And here she thought unicorns were pretty freaking amazing on their own.

"Veeechess?"

Is that a game? It sounds weird.

"Um. Sort of. An alicorn has to earn their position- Celestia and her sister saved the world, and ruled over us. I...uh I think that's why they got their wings. Alicorns are super powerful, anyway.

"Oh, sorry. Video tapes. Uh, they're like...they store...moving pictures I guess. Like--do you guys have plays? Stage performances?"

It's hard to think of analog versions of all the stuff she grew up with. VHS was already on its way out when she was little, and this here is on a whole different level.

"Ohhh. Okay. Wait, I thought you said there was only one alicorn alive? What about the sister?"

"Ohh, I think I see. We have stage plays in Equestria, yes."

Strap in, Mae, this is going to be a ride.

"Well, Princess Luna used to be the guardian of the night. She raised the moon and watched over ponies dreams. But she was sad- because ponies slept through the night and didn't give her the same love and adoration as they did Celestia- who looked after the day."

He sits down, continuing on, smiling happily. He likes stories, even if their stories are their histories.

"A dark force took Luna over, transforming her into Nightmare Moon. She refused to lower the moon, attempting to drop Equestria into an endless night. Celestia had to use the Elements of Harmony to defeat her, and banish her to the moon, where she's been ever since. You can even see her silhouette in it- the Mare in the Moon."

"Okay. So, movies are like plays, but they're on a screen so that you can watch it over and over. And VHS tapes used to store movies so you could watch them at home, only now we use D--uh, like, a different type of technology that's better."

She really doesn't want to have to explain disks. She actually has no idea what a disk even is on a technical level. She knows there's lasers involved.

She listens with rapt attention as he talks.

"Man...that's so cool. And sad. But it sounds just like a fairy tale or something. Wow."

"Ohhh, I see! That's really cool. You could watch it without ever leaving your house!"

As a future shut-in, this is an important factor for him.

"It was kinda sad. Some legends say that one day she might break out again, but who knows if those are real or not," spoilers: they are. "So for now, Princess Celestia does it all herself. It must be really lonely."

"Yeah, exactly. That's the whole point. That way you don't have to go to some big city just to see whatever show you wanna watch."

And you can even record things on the TV, like her parents used to do. Now there's DVR for that sorta thing.

"That sucks...I feel bad for them both. It sounds like Luna got corrupted by something, and like, maybe it wasn't all her fault. And I bet Celestia really misses her sister. I know if I had a sibling and they went away for a bazillion years, I'd miss them."

"That's nice, not everypony can do that."

Especially Manehattan, which is a place where only those rich and foolish enough to strike out on their luck generally do well in.

"I think she misses her, too. And it's a real shame that she couldn't save her sister from the darkness that got her."

"Yeah. I think that's one of the points of technology--to give people like, equal opportunity for stuff or whatever."

Something like that.

She nods. "Maybe you all will get a happy ending someday? Maybe she'll come back and be happy and not evil or something."

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