lucetilogs | Zompania Draft - Draftees only, days 1-3.5

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Zompania Draft - Draftees only, days 1-3.5

Who: All Draftees
What: This is your death. Followed by your time-traveling life and desperate bomb hunting.
When: From May 22 to May 20 to early May 23 (days 1-4)
Where: Zompania
Summary: Information post here
Rating: Varies on thread, please mark explicit material.

This post is for the draftee-only portion of the Zompania draft--the day 3 death, time travel to day 1, and then the events until the arrival of the reinforcements. Be sure to use the above info post for any plotting needs you might have. Enjoy!

Please note that there is a specific top-level comment thread for:

The day 3 arrival of the draftees and the 6 hours that follow until the bomb is dropped
Death--This thread can be treated as REFERENCE ONLY. Responding to it isn't necessary.
Threads prior to departing for Zompania--post resurrection freak outs, arguments over how to proceed, etc.

All other threading, from day 1 until the reinforcements arrive, should be conducted as normal.

Be sure to tag this post appropriately: [canon] character name

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[Dying is nothing like the 'peace' he might've been given at the Tower of Rem, or when freeing Lorelei. There was no sensation of warmth, of being embraced. It's something else, something ancient and twisted and awful, and it makes him sick to his stomach.

When he's him again, when all of his dissected little parts have been glued back together, he doesn't take it well. He falls to his knees right where he stands, gasping, clutching at himself to make sure he's still there.

He's still breathing.]

What—

[His only question is choked out by nothing short of a sob. He knows he needs to get back up. He needs to pull himself back into the situation, but he just can't. Not right now. There are tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. His hands are shaking, and he can't stop staring at them.

Is this what Akzeriuth was like for the people he killed?

He reaches for Asch mentally, out of instinct-- but with his focus so scattered, he's more emotions than words.]

[Asch's response isn't... really a response, either, but it's at least more calm than Luke's. He is, however, shaken by the nature of what just happened- how sudden it was, how swift it was, and how... insidious it all felt. He's not certain of the exact nature of what caused them to all die like that, but he knows that there was something very wrong with it. Even ignoring the morality issue of mass genocide, it was an unnatural way to die in a world full of strange deaths.

It's like the dissonance, he realizes, But it wasn't my fonons that separated. It was... everything. Every body part and mental fragment. It's like they were fonstones, fallen from the belt and shattered into a million pieces and just as suddenly dragged back together. He still feels fragmented, as if his body is remembering what it's like to be knit together once more.

He feels positively wretched, and as much as it bothers him to reach out to Luke in the state he's in, he can't quite bring himself to deny the call, either. Not when it feels so desperate. There are no words shared yet, only a common understanding, awful and unpleasant as it is.

I'm here.

I felt it, too.]

[It's something, at least. Luke is trying to keep himself from throwing up. He's usually got a pretty strong stomach, but he's feeling his limits right now, what with being ripped from oblivion.

Breathe. Breathe. Deep breaths. Count to ten.

His fingers are still trembling when he manages to get his stomach and his breathing under control. The displaced feeling is gradually fading. They have to find a way into that city, but he's still reeling. He can't focus.]

Asch. Are you okay?

[He glances around. There's a lot of people, all in about the same shape he is. Finding Asch might be a little hard.]

Did that... really just happen?

[Asch snorts audibly at the first question, not even bothering to answer it. Of course he's not okay- from the look of things, no one is. But he isn't hurt, and he doesn't want to say he's not okay, so he leaves it at that.]

It must have. If we've started to hallucinate dying, we're in more trouble than I thought.

[Aside from that, the battlefield looks... really different. Quite literally night and day.]

[Well, that's basically what Luke meant anyway. He'd be lying if he said he was okay, too. He wants to throw up for a week straight. Time traveling and old gods are not for the faint of stomach, and all.]

Are we even in the same place? I can't tell...

[Observation has never been his strong suit.]

It doesn't look the same, but that doesn't mean anything. We won't know until we investigate.

[It could be minutes later, or a full week, or a whole different world. He's seen enough experiments to know not to assume anything until they get answers.

That's when he notices his journal making noise at him.]

What the hell...?

[He thinks it might be time to find the others. Even if he's not feeling okay, he feels like it's important for everyone to stick together. Asch included. He glances around, but he can't see Asch from where he is, and the whole double vision thing with the link is really awkward after dealing with... everything else.]

Huh? The journal...?

[Did he forget his? Or is it still somewhere in his coat? Time to start stripping.]

[Asch doesn't respond, merely stares at the open page for a long moment, listening to John's message with the link still open so Luke could hear it, too.

....

Truth be told, though, he has a hard time believing his own ears.]

How the hell... is this even possible...?

[Luke is silent, too, until the message finishes. He elects to leave his coat on for now. He'll deal with the journal later-- it's probably useless during a draft anyway. Extra weight.]

We... were revived? And it's-- it's two days before...?

[Yes, dumbass, that's what he said.]

That's crazy!

That... would explain the differences in our location.

[He still sounds incredulous, though. It's hard to believe something so- well. Crazy, just as Luke had said. He has no idea what he's supposed to think about this.

He hasn't been this shocked by anything since... god. Since his own replication, probably.]

[Luke falls silent for a long moment. Even without the message from the commander guy, their mission is clear.]

... We have to stop it. We have to keep it all from happening.

[Asch doesn't hesitate; he nods, glancing off towards the city in the distance. They hadn't made it that far last time, but this second chance... maybe they can pull it off.]

It's why we're here. Why we were brought back. We'd be stupid to let ourselves fail again.

[He pauses, feeling a sort of silly request bubble up in him. Asch might be able to tell the kind of request before he even makes it-- it's out of concern, and fear, and wanting to prevent more loss.]

I know we can cover more ground if we spread out, but... we should stay together. We don't really know what we're going to deal with, trying to break into that town.

...Hm.

[Even in a situation like this, he doesn't feel like getting all chummy with Luke's friends. It seems a little counter-productive, too.]

Don't be a fool. Haven't you realized? This area's huge. A method of communicating across large distances would be of more use than stciking together.

[Asch never feels like getting chummy with Luke's friends. But they're his friends, too! He journeyed with them...

But it's not the time to argue things like that.]

... But--

[That's actually a really good idea. He trails off for a moment, then sighs lightly.]

If you want to keep the link open that long, I can handle it.

[He seems somewhat mollified by being able to talk to Asch the whole time, but he still wanted to fight by his side. Oh well.]

[Oi, oi. That's pushing it. What is with his replica and jumping to extremes?]

We can't keep it open all the time, even my focus isn't that good. Or do you want to spend the entire battle dealing with this double-vision?

[Bad enough that he sees what Luke sees when he's standing still and connected like this. In motion, in the heat of battle? It sounds exhausting, and it'll get them killed.]

I'm talking about relaying messages from one area to the next. Talk to Jade, I'm sure he'll want to make use of it.

(no subject)

wildsaber - 2014-06-17 08:17 (UTC) - Expand

[It's only natural that Jade seeks out Luke shortly after people have come to their senses. Likely after Ion and Anise.

He has to make sure that Luke is properly functioning, so that he could still be a benefit on the battlefield.

And, maybe he also wanted to see with his own eyes that Luke truly was alive and whole once more.]

[When Jade finds Luke, he's still kneeling, his eyes closed as he tries to get a hold of himself. Jade's presence is felt more than seen, and so Luke eventually opens his eyes and looks up.

His eyes are red, and there are obvious tear trails running through the dirt on his cheeks.]

Jade...?

[Maybe he's hallucinating and Jade is just the form of the ferryman, here to guide him across to the land of the dead.

Luke ducks his head, wiping furiously at his cheeks. He's embarrassed that he's crying when he should be moving. He doesn't want Jade to like, slap him or something. No one's dead, but that doesn't erase what they experienced... what they all experienced.]

We all died, didn't we?

[Jade frowns.

As refreshing as it may be to see Luke again, the feeling is weighed down by how broken the replica seems. It's not the time for slapping, no. That will come later.

He stands above Luke once more, at first. But then he keels down to Luke's level and speaks calmly, candidly, while looking directly towards him. There's a hint of a smile on his face.]

Yes, I suppose that we did. And in another sense, we never have at all. [He gives a light shrug of his shoulders.] We seem to be very much alive at the moment.

[If only Luke could shrug it off as easily as Jade does. But this is Luke's first draft, and his first 'death' since coming here. If he had died by falling apart, that would've been one thing... but it felt so much different. He's horrified.

Still, he knows they can't just sit around forever. They were brought back for a reason.

Having Jade there helps bring him back to reality. He's there if Luke needs to reach out, literally and figuratively. But... Luke's not a child. Tears aside, he's fine now that he knows which end is up.]

... It's not over. [His hands tighten in the fabric of his coat.] If we're alive, that means we have to fight.

[He looks at Jade seriously.]

What do we have to do to get out of here? To end this?

[It might be as simple as a shrug for Jade. But that's the image he wants to give to Luke. Rigid consistency. Jade continues to look at Luke, no longer smiling, but still trying to speak to him candidly.]

Our primary objective is to find that bomb and stop it before it's set off. We don't have to win beyond that. We just have to survive until the Malnosso are ready to pull us back.

We cannot overlook the rare opportunity that we've been given, Luke. People like us have wished for the ability to go back in time and undo horrible disasters. And for once, we have the chance to do that. [Even if neither of them are responsible for the bomb going off, the horror and scale of death makes stopping this bomb something like preventing another Akzeriuth.]

We just have to survive...

[Jade's words don't go unheeded. It's just the kind of calm that Luke needs right now. He nods, steeling himself, and letting go of his coat so he can grab his sword instead.]

You're right. We can stop this. We can do it this time.

[You can bet that even if he wasn't the source of the bomb, he's feeling the loss of life as much as if he had.]

Edited 2014-05-28 06:22 (UTC)

Now that's the Luke fon Fabre attitude that I like to hear. [He briefly claps a hand on his shoulder, then he rises to his feet and adjusts his glasses.]

Are you truly ready?

[Physical affection from Jade is unusual, and it catches him off guard for a moment. He glances at his gloves, then clenches his fists and nods.]

As ready as I'll ever be.

[It is unusual. Jade will later look back at that moment and wonder if he was subconsciously utilizing a trick learned from Erwin Smith back when they temporarily shared a world. But that's not relevant at the moment.

Right now, Luke is up and ready to fight again. That's the important part.]

I'm glad to hear that. We should be ready to march soon enough, and I'll relay instructions for how to handle the problem.

[He smiles for a moment as he looks towards Luke.]

I'll be hoping that you return to the village alive, Luke.

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