03 ▒ EVENT: STRELA OUTPOST ▒ ASSIMILATION

[ataraxites]

CHARACTERS: Ensemble production!
LOCATION: Strela Outpost.
WARNINGS: Mind horror, hivemindery, etc.
SUMMARY: Communal brainwashing.
NOTES: Divided by locations; players are free to indicate which day/stage, and to begin new subthreads wherever they'd like!

Looks like the authorities have apprehended you and have brought you in for processing. After being forced to wait in the waiting room, you're brought to the assimilation room - a terrible white cell, where you're trapped for hours, sentenced to be slowly stripped of your individuality.

Comments

[amethysts]

There. Won't. Be. A fucking trial.

[She spits it and retches again, struggling to sit up and glare at him.]

This is a fucking stockyard. I know this fucking place, you stupid fuck. If we're lucky we die.

[jurisimpudent]

[He pushes her back down and glares at her.]

Or whatever it is! Whatever the endpoint of this is, you need attention before that.

But what's that supposed to mean, it's a stockyard?

[amethysts]

Don't fucking touch me!

[She all but screams it, bravado not hiding terror for a moment because she knows he can't and won't do that but it still--she always remembers and it's too close right now.]

[jurisimpudent]

[And he jerks back, stunned, hands coming away from her at once and horror written all over his face.]

[amethysts]

[Libby curls almost fetal and shakes.]

Don't--I can't do this again, just kill me.

[jurisimpudent]

I'm - sorry...

[He realizes - realizes and despises himself as a complete idiot. Slowly he sits back, swallowing, not knowing what to do - because he doesn't even know what to do ever when he himself is overcome. All he can do instead is mutter the words he always wants to hear after a dream - ]

It's...not real.

[But that's stupid, utterly stupid, because the situation they're in is real. Fatally so. And maybe that's what she means by do this again - maybe it's not some flashback. So all he can do is offer again:]

I'm sorry.

[amethysts]

[Libby won't cry. She cried for Loki and she cried for Jesse, but she won't do it for this. She looks at Edgeworth with bleak, merciless exhaustion instead.]

They'll just kill you. You'd be a shitty pet. But me--nah, this is what I'm for.

[She laughs hideously.]

You don't know a single fucking thing. Real. This is real.

[jurisimpudent]

[He swallows hard and shakes his head.]

No - Ms. Libby, it's not like that. That's not what this is.

[amethysts]

You--

[If she could stand now she would punch him. Probably break her hand, she's no fighter, but that's not the point.]

Then what is it, you stupid motherfucker?

[jurisimpudent]

It's - They see us as a threat of some sort. Look - we're not being brought in here based on qualities that would make us desirable. You pointed as much out yourself. It's just all of us who came here from the Tranquility. Not the people in the city who are the most attractive. Nothing like that.

[amethysts]

You think--you think I think that because I think I'm fucking pretty?

[jurisimpudent]

[His brows furrow.]

No. That's not it at all. I think you think that because it's been your past experience, but I'm pointing out that...Just like you said. If they were looking for people to capture for that purpose, they wouldn't be taking this demographic. Like myself. Do you understand?

[amethysts]

[Libby spits in his face.]

[jurisimpudent]

[He jerks back, his expression stunned. And then actually quite grossed out.]

That's - Libby, that was unsanitary! [He wipes it away with the back of his hand.] I'm just giving my honest assessment.

[amethysts]

You better walk the fuck away from me before I can stand up.

[She's angry all the time. But this is different.]

[jurisimpudent]

[He shakes his head and doesn't move.]

If you wish to hit me, that's fine. I simply fear I don't understand what I said that upset you.

[amethysts]

Get the fuck away from me. I don't owe you fucking anything. I--you arrogant fuck. Walk away or I swear I will tell Nikolai you tried to hurt me.

[jurisimpudent]

[He looks down a moment, and then lowers his head in acquiescence. Guilt gnaws at him. All he'd wanted to do was to reassure her, to pull her out of her fear, but like usual...The chief detective, back home, had cracked a joke after seeing Edgeworth interacting with a witness for the very first time - said it was a good thing he was going to be working homicide cases, because get him in the room with a victim and he'd drive them to suicide regardless. The detective had found this uproarious; Edgeworth was still bruised from it.

Four months ago it was, now. Hard to believe.]

I'm sorry.

[He stands.]

[amethysts]

[She's lying. He just saved her life, even if just for a while. But it hurts too much that he's so--fucking good that he doesn't know what's going to happen to them, and Libby can't watch. Wren can't watch. She can't watch him get shattered so he has to go away.

Maybe someone will save them. She doubts it. But maybe. She closes her eyes when he stands and thinks about not saying anything--]

I just need to be alone right now.

[jurisimpudent]

[He nods shortly and settles onto a bench, well away from her. Very politely, almost exceedingly politely:]

I'm going to be monitoring you for changes in your health. So please do not be alarmed if I am watching you; there is no malice intended by doing as such.

[amethysts]

Whatev.

[She keeps her eyes shut and blocks him out. He's not here, not to her. Not anymore.]

[jurisimpudent]

[And he settles back on the bench, battling with his feelings of guilt and of fear, trying instead to simply find a way out of all of this.

He wishes he weren't so afraid.]