dualislogs | If I can't undo what's been done

Entry tags:

If I can't undo what's been done

WHO: Arkady + OTA!!
WHAT: Arkady can see the pat and future and other things when she wants to and she finally wants to! So if your character is new or you haven't been able to find a way to get your character some plot information, this could be for you!
WHERE: Dorms rooftop, Central Square Park, wandering streets at night
WHEN: Different times throughout December, feel free to specify a date/time you want.
WARNINGS: Alcohol consumption, discussion of violence and murder, discussion of overdosing, drugs, existential crisis???

A. ROOFTOPS

Hank said not to blame herself. Not to beat herself up over could have been. But he doesn't know. Nobody knows. That's the problem when you don't really talk about yourself. Nobody really understands. There's so much she can do. Or should be able to do. Some things are all mucked up here. Teleporting has limits. It shouldn't. Projecting has limits. It shouldn't either. Back home she's pretty sure there's nothing she can't do. Especially together. Though she's not together here. It's just her. A thought she refuses to entertain for long.

"Work to be done." The sun's setting and so far she's been lucky enough to not run into people up here. She has her legs dangling off the side of the roof with her FreakAngels jacket crumpled up next to her. There's a bottle of alcohol next to her that's only half gone so far. "I haven't let myself look but it's time." Her eyes close and when she opens them back up they're glowing a bright white.

Images flash inside her mind. A man? Two men. The same man twice. Another person. A bot? Yes. A bot. Two more. Four more. Five? There's so much fear inside the man. A name. T? Travis. He's so scared. Oh no, oh...he's so so scared. The bots move to him and they start to--

Oh. Arkady's expression twists as her mind shows her the bots circle the man and then putting their hands around his arms, legs, and head. They pull like it's nothing. Nothing at all to them. They keep pulling, ripping his limbs off while he screams and screams. There's blood, so much blood, so so much and she wants to stop looking but she can't. There's flashes of other people being ripped apart. Limbs. Blood.

Finally she screams out loud and her eyes turn back to their normal violet hue.

"Is this how they do it...?" There's tears coming down her face as she reaches for the bottle next to her. "We're all super fucked."

A. WALKING AROUND THE STREETS

For once Arkady's got her jacket pulled tightly around her. It's not that it's cold. It's more that she's cold. It's getting worse. That much she's noticing the more she looks with her abilities. And that's what she's doing. She's walking around the streets in the afternoon and she's looking. Sometimes when she walks by someone her eyes glow briefly as she slips into their mind and hits the wall. It doesn't hurt as much as it did that first time. That's probably not good that she's getting used to the feel. It's like hitting your head against a steel wall over and over. At first it's shocking and it hurts. Her nose bled that first time. Now it's just numb and...scary.

She's scared. She pulls the jacket around her tighter as the realization hits her. Scared. A tiny laugh escapes her lips as she passes by another person that has the wall feel. It's a nervous laugh. How many people that have been brought here like her know about this? How many people realize the number of citizens that are replacements? The thoughts are weighing on her and she's not really paying attention as she walks and then bumps directly into someone with her glowing eyes.

"Oh, you're not--" she cuts herself off before shes says that they're not a replacement. "Sorry." She blinks, her eyes returning to violet, and then she smiles at the person. "It's good you're you. Stay you!"

A. CENTRAL SQUARE PARK- NIGHT

It's night when she goes to the park. Every time she's passed by it recently she's felt something off. Something wrong about it. A chill down her spine. There's whispering sometimes. Or she thinks there is. Maybe it's just something in her head. It's hard to tell all the time. Maybe she's really actually going crazy this time. Or maybe there's something there. Or something will be there? She's been getting bits and pieces for days. Or maybe weeks. She's so bad with time sometimes. It all blurs together. Answers won't come from outside the park though.

"Time to go in." She says to herself, holding on tightly to a bottle of vodka she's brought with her just in case. Just in case what? Sometimes it's overwhelming. When she steps into the park it's dark. Death. It's heavy with death and bad. Bad bad things. She moves further in and eventually just plops herself down on the ground without any concern for getting dirty. Or if anyone else is around to watch a bald girl with a bottle of vodka sit down in the center of the park.

One leg folds over the other, her eyes start to glow, and then she opens up to what there is in the park.

"I can't die now. Not yet. There's so much I still have to do. I have tot ell him I loved him." It's a voice she doesn't know but the voice is so frightened.

"I don't want to die like this. Please, please gods don't let it go like this." Another. Just as panicked. Just as scared.

"Who knew it'd end like this. I never imagined this would be how it all ends..." Defeat. That's all there is in that voice.

There's tears. So many tears. "Why is this happening? Why are you doing this to us?" The voice is pleading. Desperate. "Why?"

"No, no, please, please..." there's more begging. Invoking gods names that she doesn't recognize. Pleading. Death. Death is coming. Or it came. Or both. Why is this happening? What's happening to them?

Tears start to stream down Arkady's face and she chugs half the bottle of vodka she has with her and then lets out a scream. She can't help herself. It's anger and sadness all in one. She pushes a hand out and a force of telekinetic energy smashes a nearby tree.

"Sorry, tree. You didn't do anything," she says with a frown on her face. Anger doesn't usually get the best of her like this. Her eyes start to glow again and she reaches out towards the tree in an attempt to put it back together. The pieces move and push together leaving it almost like nothings happened to it at all.

"There. At least I can fix that." Even though it looks like they can't fix anything else here.

[ooc: ping me on discord at selkie#4018 if there's a different scenario you want to play out! If your character has psychic abilities or is able to sense things feel free to have them pick up on the spike of power. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"One of the strongest weapons you can have in your wheelhouse is havin' people ready to fight. That's my reckonin'. I don't really want to discourage nobody, not when there might be a fight on our hands."

Drifter's smiles are only ever half truthful. Half, because he's learned to find humor in the most ridiculous of things.

What she says next, though, draws him right out of that meandering train of though to something darker. "What do you mean, Sister? Why aren't they people no more? ...Yeah, I was attacked by a uh... 'me', I reckon." The vague inkling of something more sinister has started.

Half truthful smiles are something she knows. It's an odd thing to take comfort in, and yet she does just that. she takes comfort in the half honest smile and continues to hold one of her own.

"The us wanted to be us fully." Maybe it's not that they want it. She's not sure fully on that. Do they actually have their own thoughts and feelings? That's a question she's not got an answer to yet. "That's what they were sent to do. Take our place. I think. But they weren't...us-us yet. I wonder why they got free too soon..." Another question without an answer. How exactly had they gotten free before they were done? An accident? On purpose? Sabotage? Too many unknowns. She hates the unknowns. She always has.

"But others weren't so lucky." Darkness washes over her expression as she looks at him and then looks around. "A lot of the people aren't them anymore. They're those things."

"...So that's what it wants. I thought maybe it just wanted our brains for its own use? But no, it wants to replace us. I gotcha." So a far different situation from Rasputin. It didn't want cloned rats. It wanted to get rid of the originals.

He gets it. Sort of. Maybe the black-out had messed up its plans.

"Right. So by a lot, how many do you mean?"

'Cause depending on how many people this bastard killed? Drifter sees an opportunity to shove the damn Head's work right back at it. And hoo boy, he doesn't take joy in the misfortune of innocent people, but if it happened? Their lives shouldn't be a waste.

"Is that what you're feelin'?"

"I don't know for sure. At first I wasn't able to tell the difference. I should have been able to though!" There's a definite strong sense of indignation in her voice with that. There shouldn't be anything that Arkady can't do, but here things didn't really work out that way. To say that it annoys her would be a vast understatement.

"But then the robo-me attacked me and I tried to read it's mind. But it just hurt." Which also causes her mild annoyance. Something that simple shouldn't have hurt, but it had. "It let me know what it felt like though!" She's trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel for a positive outlook to have on the situation. The experience may have hurt but it let her know what kind of feeling to expect and look out for.

"Someone said that maybe there's only less than a few hundred people-people left. I've been trying to see if I can feel it." But then she shakes her head at his question. "But that's not what I felt at the park. There's something...." She trails off and closes her eyes. "There are voices. Bad feelings. People afraid. Worried about dying. Begging not to die. I wish I understood more."

Drifter's expressions smooths out. So it really is most everybody?

"And you can feel all that? ...I can't exactly feel it." But Ur could. Ur knew, and had been agitating him about it. "But I got another way to tell things are off. I guess it's good to finally put a good solid finger on it."

Then he admits. "I uh... Kinda burnt mine up when I was done with it. Didn't spend too long gettin' to know it. I shoulda, but I don't really respond well to people tryna kill me."

"I just felt bad when passing by a lot. So I decided to see if I could feel more." Which she vaguely regretted now. It's good to know what may be coming or have gone on but it's still...not something she's happy to have seen and heard. "I can't tell if it's happened or going to happen. But so many voices were begging for their lives and for more time. Someone was praying to a god, saying they didn't want to die like this." She shakes her head. There's so many questions that came up because of what she heard. "Something bad is going to happen?" There's a question to her tone, almost as if she's waiting to see if he thinks the same. There's nothing wrong with getting second opinions, especially now that she's found people to try to get some from.

"You did right. I don't think anyone could have learned much." Maybe it's a tad bit arrogant to think that way, but she's young and a bit too powerful for her own good. "Except what they feel like. Or maybe what they wanted. I think most people reacted to them badly. They came suddenly and quickly."

"Oh, I burned mine up. I did find someone else's, though.... Burnt it up, too. But had enough time to figure out it weren't all that special mechanically. That shit's mostly a frame. All the special happens 'cause of what's in the biological matter."

He gestures loosely with his free hand, because this poor woman has the gunsmith still hanging onto hers.

"My guess he cain't make anything special on his own. He needs us to do it. I'm pretty good at seeing what makes things tick. Skills that you had to develop to survive any good amount of time back home."

"We're lucky they don't have powers like us. Yet." She muses the thought aloud and then just shakes her head. The idea of fighting something like herself with her full set of abilities is pretty overwhelming. Especially when she thinks about what it might be like if the robo-her didn't have the limitations she does. Now that's a disturbing though. She shakes her head.

"So you think we're being used like templates?" As far as theories goes it sounds pretty solid. "I wonder if they had to start over and make new versions of us. Maybe it'll slow them down? Or maybe it's easy to make them. I wonder where they get made."

"Yet." Drifter replies, pulling a hell of a face. "So... Alright, to give me powers, bastard can't just copy me. He's gotta copy something else. An uh... well, can't necessarily call it an 'item'. Parasite ain't right either. But he doubles me, it's gotta be useless."

The Head can't copy Ghosts, can it?

Well, if it can? ...He wants to know how. Not that he wants another one, but hoo boy. What useful tech that'd be. The Head's turned itself until a hell of a resource.

"Not gonna lie, I'd like to strip it to the bones," Funny for a man holding her hand to say. "It'd deserve it, after what it's done. I'm figurin' that we're templates. An' I'm figurin' it learns a little bit from each of us it brings."

"Yet." There's definite trepidation in her expression and tone as she repeats the word. Yet. It feels like it'll happen though. If it hasn't happened already. She tilts her head curiously at his explanation of his abilities. "Does the something else have thoughts itself?" Because if it does and the Head can copy that it's even more intimidating. And big. And bad. The Head's already intimidating enough.

"We'd have to find the Head's place first wouldn't we?" She squeezes his hand and frowns at the thought of it just learning more and more by each new face that arrives. "And the things in our heads. It learns from there." And she really hates that. If she could get that out it might change a lot. At the very least she would certainly feel better.

Oh shit.

Oh shit.

Suddenly Drifter realizes why he was wanted. Not for him, no. Not at all. This piece of damnation wanted his Ghost.

He suddenly whirls on Arkady, grabbing her closer and looking at her intensely.

"This thing makes me immortal. And that's somethin' the Head doesn't need. I need to get this outa my head right now before it learns any more." He'd wanted the head's info on the different universes, but now? He needs to destroy it.

"Anybody got any info on the damn thing?"

Her eyes glow white briefly, it's not meant as a threat though it is done in mild surprise at his actions. She blinks and meets his eyes with her own violet ones.

"I am too. Immortal. I don't like it knowing that either. Especially since..." she drifts off and looks around again, still quite paranoid. "When I die, I come back, but with more powers." And that's also one of the last things the Head needs access to. "It's downloading things though. I think it's where our roboyclones information came from. Some knew things about us." Since he just set his on fire it occurs to her he might not know that tidbit of information.

"I wanted to try to take it out but I don't know for sure if I'll come back here and..." she looks down. And she really doesn't want to be replaced by a roboyher.

She looks a little like an Awoken there for a moment. Just for a bit. It passes. He's not actually threatened by it; it's not that unusual to him.

"But no one else is immortal here. If he's done this a million times before, he must still be tryin' to figure that out." But hell. If she's immortal, too, then... okay, he'd still have been cagey about his own immortality even if he knew.

"I'll tell you what, I'll get mine out an' I'll tell you how it goes. Rip it clean out of my head. Then my little bastard buddy'll either bring me back? Or I reckon a double will pop up."

"Immortality is important." She can't even begin to imagine what people would have thought if they'd realized one of the powers the kids had was immortality back home. The government probably would have wanted them even more. Which is certainly quite a sobering thought in this place with Head.

"Are you sure? That seems dangerous for you." She doesn't particularly want to see anyone replaced with a robot them. At the same time it does seem like something they need to figure out.

"The thing that brings me back is outside of my body. Well, er... when it brings me back, it is. So if I kick off? It'll still be around."

He'll accept the danger. He's suddenly desperate to get that piece of shit out of his brain, no matter what it takes. What's a few more deaths on lifetimes and lifetimes of them. But the idea of this thing putting him through a whole other one fills him with a special, gut-rending sort of resentment.

"What if it's not?" She asks with a very concerned concerned expression on her face. There's no way for her to not be worried about this idea of his but she's pretty sure there's no deterring him now. Plus, she does see the benefit of it. They need to know and maybe he can figure something out.

"I can't convince you not to try."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If I can't undo what's been done

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject