EVENT: MELPOMENE ▒ HOME

[ataraxites]

CHARACTERS: Ensemble production!
LOCATION: Corridors in the belly of the Tranquility
WARNINGS: Creepiness, disturbing imagery, violence, etc.
SUMMARY: Characters discover slices of sanctuary deep in the maze.
NOTES: Open to all! Covers Stage Four of the plot & Escape.

You've been running and fighting for what feels like weeks now. Exhausted and desperate, you find another door, stumbling through into— You're home, finally, far away and safe from monsters or spaceships. You're not alone, someone here who's been waiting for you, and they're so happy to see you. Relief overcomes you; you just want to rest, and there's no reason to believe anything here isn't what it seems, is there?

Comments

[exponentiate]

[ simulations upon simulations. a fascinating collective consciousness affected by personal nightmares. tobias would love to investigate it if he wasn't stuck in the middle of it.

he's worn in a way that goes beyond the merely physical. the unexpected has been greeting at every turn even when he comes to expect it: battlefields of a magnitude he could not imagine, immense forests, wide plains. tobias wipes his palms on his pants and fixes his grip on the gun. the weaponry on the ship is more advanced than any he has known; he spent long hours in gunnery until he could shoot as easily with them.

real or not, he doesn't plan on dying.

he has the rifle to his shoulder when he bursts into the room. a quick look around and there doesn't seem to be any immediate danger. only anderson and another woman, but he knows better than to drop his guard. the gun remains up though not pointed at either woman. ]

Anderson? [ are you okay, check box y/n ]

[mindtricks]

[ there's someone bursting into the room and under normal circumstances, anderson's training would kick in, she'd already be extending her mutation to figure out what the person's intent is, whether they mean to harm or not — anything to give her an edge over a possible opponent. even the fraction of a second can mean the difference between life and death. she knows the statistics, but more than that, she's experienced them in peach trees.

right now, there's no tension in her shoulders, and it takes her a moment and the mention of her name to drag her eyes away from her mother. her mother!

he has his hands on his gun, doesn't drop it. she'd be proud of him, if this were training, even though she hardly needed to teach him a thing, except perhaps how to handle some of the models of guns they have aboard. ]

It's all right, Four. [ a slight smile. ] It's my mom.

[exponentiate]

Your mom, [ he repeats. his eyes go from anderson to her mother and back, looking for the similarities that should exist between a parent and a child.

still dangerous, just in a different way.

( there's no feeling of loss in him. only relief that neither of his parents has manifested, and dread that one will. ) ]

Is she a passenger? [ tobias takes care to keep his tone curious rather than cautious. simulations can shift in the blink of a eye, and he doesn't want to risk alienating anderson. ]

[mindtricks]

[ he is keeping his tone curious on purpose, she can tell as much because the intention is there, but she doesn't mind it. she doesn't feel threatened. her mom is here and she's home and she's been hurt so badly, but it's going to be all right now, isn't it?

it's childish, something she hasn't been allowed to be in over a decade. the world she comes from was never kind, but her mother always was. ]

No. But she's here now.

[exponentiate]

Okay. [ no argument. no mention of his rising unease. ] Bring her. We have a lot of people to find.

[ a reminder. anderson didn't strike him as the type easily distracted; still doesn't. one's parents, however, can exert a strong influence. his still do.

and there is something else that he can't aptly describe. they've been manipulated from the start, gone through hell — nothing good can lie at the end. it is never so easy. ]

[mindtricks]

[ he doesn't need to mention his rising unease; she feels it anyway. his reasoning is sound and she hesitates over it for a long moment — only to see something superimposed over his face, distorted.

his thoughts and emotions feel real. so do her mothers.

morgoth made her question truth from lie until she was no longer standing on solid ground, her foundation shaken. she's been regaining it bit by bit, but with the burning house on arima so fresh in her memory, she hesitates now. ]

You go ahead.

[ she doesn't step closer to her mother, who's been watching silently so far. anderson gets a sense of trust from her, and comfort, and the strong desire to keep anderson here and safe, trusting anderson to make the right choices.

the only thing is — her mother is dead.

and still, it's so difficult not to want to have a moment longer, to see her again, to talk to her, especially when she smiles, voice quiet and gentle: ] I've missed you, Cassie.

[exponentiate]

[ this is cruel. this is — the fears were less terrible than this. tobias presses his lips together, and shifts his weight. ]

We stick together, remember? It's easy to get lost.

Anderson, [ he's pushing now, and he's expecting the worst, ] we have to go.

[mindtricks]

[ the distortion returns, his face unrecogniseable for a long moment, and both he and her mother feel so real but might not be. her mother is dead, he does not look real for all that he feels it.

quietly, slowly, looking neither at her mother nor at four but meaning both of them: ] I don't think any of this is real.

[ i don't think either one of you is real, is what she means. ]

[exponentiate]

[ isn't that his fear? that none of this is real? that their escape too was imagined, and tris remains in danger?

as it always does, the thought of her makes his stomach clench. everything else has been so unreal tobias has to believe she's safe — else he'll lose it entirely.

he can't convince anderson of something he's not sure of himself. ]

Neither do I, [ he admits. ]

[mindtricks]

[ she knows that the ship is real, but she doesn't know anything about this. she must still be on the ship because she left arima behind and this is not mega city one for all that it looks like the apartment she lived in until she was ten, until her parents died.

another illusion, another instance of not being able to trust her own mind. she never use to doubt this much, but morgoth changed things.

it isn't real, and she should leave — doesn't matter whether it's with him or without. he may not be real, either, but at least he's on the ship whereas her mother isn't.

odds are, he is real, but the distortion of his face makes it difficult to believe that. she just wants a moment more with her mother, illusion or no. ]

You go ahead. [ is repeated, head bowed. ]