Zompania Draft - Draftees only, days 1-3.5

[lucetimods]

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

Comments

[wildsaber]

[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?

[yourfononsarewhack]

[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.

[wildsaber]

[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?

[yourfononsarewhack]

[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.]

[wildsaber]

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.]

[yourfononsarewhack]

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?

[wildsaber]

[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.

[yourfononsarewhack]

[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.