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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Elizabeth, at least, is close by. She's on the gasping side of hyperventilating while trying to stop her nose from bleeding. This is the first time she's died though, and her brain is rebelling against the idea while still in extreme shock from seeing that thing that had been watching her.]

[She's focused on her hands too, but she starts trying to call for someone while wheezing for air. While she's cycling through a list of names, they're really not very discernible.]

[He sees her before he really hears her. And, in a moment, Robert is beside her.

His jacket's suffered enough abuse -- he sacrfices it entirely to tear a strip of cloth and bundles it up, putting it under her nose while his other hand touches her cheek.]

Tilt your head back. Just try to breathe.

[Elizabeth realizes who's next to her, helping her, when the cloth goes under her nose. She holds it there too, her hands over Robert's in a strange pseudo-hand hold for comfort and stability. She follows his instructions though, and just focuses on breathing until she can do it normally.]

Did you see it too? We all died, didn't we? Did you see it too?

We all died.

[Is that a comfort or that much more terrifying? He isn't really sure. Still, it's the truth.]

I saw... something.

[What it was, he wasn't sure.]

Something I don't remember from before.

[Because he's died. Been aware of his own death. Felt the pain and the disconnect. Then the feeling of being infinite.]

[Elizabeth breathes deeply and closes her eyes tightly trying to ward off the headache. She's coming more to grips with things, fortunately.]

Well... thank God for that. I don't want to be melted into everyone ever when I eventually die.

It might not have been death.

[It's a strange theory, but... Well. He's been through enough, seen impossible theories be true.]

It might have been a kind of tear. Something interrupting whatever sort of nexus this world is.

We might have seen behind the screen.

[Elizabeth stares at Robert, horrified by the idea.] You mean, all of this is-- is like a movie we're watching. And that thing that was watching us, is somehow related to this just being-- being an illusion?

[Clearly, this upsets her. Her tears start to flicker around her as she searches the crowd and the field. For Gai for Booker, for some clue, for reassurance that this was real, everything.]

Not as much that...

[Robert was better at emotion than Rosalind, yes, but he was a scientist first and foremost. And this... This presented a very interesting idea.]

As an illusion we have created. Perhaps even collectively.

[Because Gai and others couldn't be created by them. They were too removed from anything they had experience with.

But if multiple subconsciousnesses could be layered on top of one another, controlled by someone with the technology to manage all of that... And perhaps they were able to wake. Catch a glimpse at what was really going on.

Before succumbing to the dream again.]

Death here might be the very same thing...

A violent start to wake. What we perceive as a week for the sedatives to work again. And the death penalties... The subconscious knows something is wrong, reacting to the sedative, so it manifests as something missing.

[He sounds detached, very much the physicist rather than the artist.]

A fascinating hypothesis.

Robert-- [Elizabeth is trying to sound calm, but she sounds a little like she's taken a bank hostage instead.] I know you're trying to be comforting right now, and that's the only reason I'm not going to scream or slap you. It might be absolutely fascinating to you, but I'm still trying to forget the feeling of my skin melting off!

[She rubs her nose again, leaving a bright red streak on her sleeve, and starts to pace.] Why? If we're in control of the illusion, collectively, why are we here? Why did we just die if we're in control?

Not much different than being electrocuted.

[Which is the least of his worries. He's died before. Felt his heart stop, felt that all-encompassing pain, then... when it stopped.

But, oh. The secrets of this world. That's far more interesting.]

Most people can't control their dreams.

I don't think it's so much control as... influence. The subconscious building. Good and bad, terrifying and wonderful. Each person's meshing with those around them, and the resulting hybrid is what we perceive as Luceti.

Perhaps with suggestions from... whoever's behind the scenes. Whatever we wake up to.

[The shifts, for instance. They might be... from anything. From hearing poetry or prose read, from music played, from sensations caused.

It was a theory, vague and elusive, but...

But it was something to grasp at. A place to start.

A glint of light in the darkness for a mind that had been searching for it, for some fraction of an idea to grasp, for far too long.]

Wonderful! Guess I don't have to wonder what it's like to get hit with a rogue bolt of Shock Jockey anymore! Thank you for volunteering that, Robert!

[The more Elizabeth turns over what Robert is saying, the less she likes it. The more she's reminded of her own life being unmasked as a complete charade, influenced subtly by someone who refused to give her an honest choice. She's getting more and more upset, and finally one tear opens and settles a grainy blue image of the bedroom in her tower over them. Of course, she recognizes it immediately, shuts her eyes and pushes through the crowd and away from the tear.]

Think about this all you want, I can't-- I can't!

A rogue bolt?

[Perhaps it's because the ideas are shooting through his mind faster than he can process them. It's a reminder of the lack of infinity, of no longer being able to think in all directions at once and pursue every thought.

Or maybe it's much more base than that.

The will to survive and the anger at being unable to do so. An old scar now with pressure applied to it. A wound that went deeper than he realized.]

No.

[The word's cold, harsh.]

A rogue bolt might cause pain, but not like that.

Not every nerve in your body frying, every muscle seizing. Hearing someone else's scream in your ears and knowing you caused it.

[He's never really processed it. Never had to. That impossibly long second in which all Rosalind's warnings had crystalized. And he hadn't gotten just himself killed. But her, too.]

What happened just now? We're fine. Shaken, but fine.

You can still touch something, still speak to people. There's a life to be lived still.

[Everything at their fingertips... but nothing to be grasped. All the "somedays"... turned into impossibilities.

It's not her fault. He shouldn't be angry at her. And yet...

She's more like DeWitt than she knows. A casual, flippant remark. Meant to jolt him and steady her. But it cut deep and it cut wrong.]

[Whatever weakened siphon is still in place, whatever is preventing Elizabeth from simply opening a tear and walking them all out, has been severely affecting her ability to control what she sees and how much she sees. She can barely choose what to see on the battlefield. The second Robert starts describing it to her, she can see it, right behind him. The electricity and the screaming, and it takes all of Elizabeth's focus while she keeps her eyes shut to close it and lock herself out.]

[She's still afraid to open her eyes, she doesn't know what she's going to see. She keeps her head between her hands and tries to build up the courage to open them.]

If this is what the rest of my life is going to be like... controlled and watched by someone, trapped and unable to change anything because things are being 'suggested' to me, turned out to fight on a field with my tears malfunctioning... I don't want to live it. I can't, I can't do it knowing my life will never be my own.

...I'm sorry, I never thought about how it, the machine, malfunctioned-- I'm sorry, I didn't think, I can't fit anything together anymore...!

[There are too many things that have tried to bring the memories back.

The first Shift he went through. When the world went upside down. When he was strapped to a table. Electricity jolting through him, forcing him to relive it again and again. Remember what he did. That it was his pride, his certainty that he could fix what he'd done.

And hearing her...

It clicks.

She isn't Rosalind. Theories like this... He'll share them with her later. Poke and prod at the possibilities with someone who'll see what he does. Or maybe not, and, therefore, test his theories.

But Elizabeth...

In so many ways, she's still a child.

So, he takes a deep breath.]

Shock. [It's all that he says at first. Another breath.] That's all it is.

I'm sure... we all have our own way to try and explain what we saw. What happened.

[The artificial calm and measured warmth... is all he can give right now.]

A theory isn't a fact. I'm hardly infallible.

[Not any more.]

You were before-- I'm used to it by now, it's going to take more than this for me to unlearn it. [That's supposed to be a joke, but Elizabeth can barely even smile at it. She still can't open her eyes, but she can still see that image of Robert and Rosalind burned into her mind.]

I don't think it's shock, Robert. I think my tears are driving me insane. I can't tell what's what, I don't know if I'm looking at what's happening in this world or another one. I'm losing control over everything, I'm going to fall apart before we even start up again if I can't-- just-- get a hold of myself and stop this!

Elizabeth.

[One word. One simple word.

Robert steps forward, putting his hand to her cheek. A bit of contact, something to keep her focused.]

Elizabeth.

Look at me.

[It's a complete shift for him. Because it's easier to focus on here right now. Comfort her. Ground her.

Better than thinking about how he's failed her. What he dragged Rosalind into.

But she's closer to the Infinite than he is.

So he keeps his mind on her and now as best as he can.]

Look at me.

You can control it. You can focus.

I have seen you do it. I see you doing it. I will see you do it.

[Calm, repetitive.

Something she can hold to.]

It was, is, and will be.

Even if I do, I'm still afraid. [She finally opens her eyes, feeling miles better when she feels Robert's hand on her cheek. Something tactile, something she knows is real and happening now.]

I'm afraid this is the end. I'm not ready for my life to end, I have too much that I want to see and do.

[That makes Robert smile.

It's not a warm smile. Not gentle. But it's there.

Certain.]

It's only over, Elizabeth, when you stop fighting.

[Very true, and Elizabeth doesn't think she can bear to add any caveats or ask more questions. She'll take the encouragement and hold onto it. Really, that's all she wanted from the start was some kind of human reassurance.]

[She nods and sniffs sharply, trying to pull herself and her nose back together. Then she pushes herself into an embrace with Robert.]

[Robert couldn't help but sigh as he hugged her.]

Even if you don't --

I have faith in you.

I know you, Elizabeth. Nothing can stop you if you don't let it.

It's true... if I'm fast enough, absolutely nothing and no one can stop me. [She swallows.] I think everyone should be more afraid of that than I am, but I think it's all backwards anyway. [She forces a wet laugh into Robert's chest.]

Speed has nothing to do with it.

Determination. The will to survive.

[The words... Aren't as true as he'd like them to be. He doesn't have the conviction he normally does. But he knows what's expected, and what he has to do. So, he'll offer them.]

That is what makes you unstoppable.

That's what keeps me thinking quickly. If I see something I know I can use, I just bring it in now. I don't wait for a signal, I just do it.

I've stopped thinking about what it means when I open a tear in the middle of a crowd.

Good.

You have to embrace it. Everything, all at once. You don't have a choice about what you see, but you choose how much you let it overwhelm you.

[He'd tell her it's like swimming with a current... but she's been in her tower. It's a reference DeWitt would understand better.]

I've seen you do it. You will be fine.

[Too bad the only time she actually swam in the ocean, she was pulled into a wave and thrown. But that's beside the point--]

When you saw me do it, was I wearing red lipstick and a short skirt? [She swallows again.] Because I saw her almost everywhere I looked before the bomb went off.

Zompania Draft - Draftees only, days 1-3.5

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