Anya Lehnsherr | Earth 97400 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fridgetothefire) wrote2014-04-29 12:56 pm
fridgetothefire) wrote2014-04-29 12:56 pm
044 ☣ and your heart, as it was then, will be on fire
[Video, public]
My clothes are coming up bloody again.
[She swivels the view. A scraggle of emptied dark blue laundry bag coils limply on the floor beside a heap of clothing like a popped balloon. Individual pieces are dark with bloodstains, neither old and faded nor quite fresh: the matted rust-brown of a few days' procrastination. The marks are splashed or smeared across individual pieces; the stains don't enjamb from cloth to cloth. They were bloodied while she - or someone - was wearing them, not in the bag. Back to her face.]
For everyone keeping track, that's the third sign in the last few days that also appeared right before we encountered the other barge, and at no other time, along with messages on Morgana's mirror, along with people on the network who shouldn't be without a full-scale glitch and messages in Morgana's mirrors. Am I missing any?
Arthas is right. We need to be prepared, since we have the chance for at least a few of us to manage it, and anyone who wasn't there before who wants a better picture of what to expect should find a veteran to ask.
But I'm not sure it will be the same as last time. It can't. That place was falling apart. Not all wardens - let alone inmates - were allowed to leave during ports. Their admiral wasn't answering queries or supply requests, the death toll was becoming unreliable, Ellie blew up the kitchens, and the lower levels were shutting down and turning dark, losing power.
If it exists, if someone restored it enough for people to hang on...well. I'd be trying to jump ship. We've had a thorough reminder that passengers can take over the barge's course, with the right resources. Maybe we aren't running into them this time. Maybe they're running into us.
[What would that change, what could they do. Maybe it's some other manner of encounter entirely. She doesn't know, but it's the only idea she has. If that Anya wakes up in her room - could Anya leave her a message? What message could get her to do something approaching the right thing? There is another Ben from this barge and he is real, he needs you too. Something.]
Anyone who has any idea what actually happened at the end - it might help if we had a clearer picture of it.
[It also might not.]
[Private to Ben]
Everyone you trust should get some of your supplements in addition to whatever else they're stocking. That infirmary wasn't reliable.
[Private to Dean]
...how close were you?
[To breaking. Now is not the time to rely on guesses and arrogance.]
[Private to Iris]
Is there a way to get your bus from here to be a viable resource there?
[As far as Anya has been able to pick up, the things run on pixie dust and loopholes. Maybe there's a way.]
[Private to the Admiral]
...you gave us a warning, before Silent Hill. Not what it was, exactly, but that we needed to be prepared. Some of how. You paired us up into those groups so we could take care of each other, gave us some supplies.
You aren't doing this just to be cruel, I know you're not. We go where we go. But you tried to look after us, that time. And it worked, we only lost a few, it could have been so much worse.
If you have any better idea of what's coming than we do...some tips would be nice. Just so we use the time we've got better. No matter how much they complain I think most of the people here would rather you than the guy over there.
Anyway. Thanks for listening.
My clothes are coming up bloody again.
[She swivels the view. A scraggle of emptied dark blue laundry bag coils limply on the floor beside a heap of clothing like a popped balloon. Individual pieces are dark with bloodstains, neither old and faded nor quite fresh: the matted rust-brown of a few days' procrastination. The marks are splashed or smeared across individual pieces; the stains don't enjamb from cloth to cloth. They were bloodied while she - or someone - was wearing them, not in the bag. Back to her face.]
For everyone keeping track, that's the third sign in the last few days that also appeared right before we encountered the other barge, and at no other time, along with messages on Morgana's mirror, along with people on the network who shouldn't be without a full-scale glitch and messages in Morgana's mirrors. Am I missing any?
Arthas is right. We need to be prepared, since we have the chance for at least a few of us to manage it, and anyone who wasn't there before who wants a better picture of what to expect should find a veteran to ask.
But I'm not sure it will be the same as last time. It can't. That place was falling apart. Not all wardens - let alone inmates - were allowed to leave during ports. Their admiral wasn't answering queries or supply requests, the death toll was becoming unreliable, Ellie blew up the kitchens, and the lower levels were shutting down and turning dark, losing power.
If it exists, if someone restored it enough for people to hang on...well. I'd be trying to jump ship. We've had a thorough reminder that passengers can take over the barge's course, with the right resources. Maybe we aren't running into them this time. Maybe they're running into us.
[What would that change, what could they do. Maybe it's some other manner of encounter entirely. She doesn't know, but it's the only idea she has. If that Anya wakes up in her room - could Anya leave her a message? What message could get her to do something approaching the right thing? There is another Ben from this barge and he is real, he needs you too. Something.]
Anyone who has any idea what actually happened at the end - it might help if we had a clearer picture of it.
[It also might not.]
[Private to Ben]
Everyone you trust should get some of your supplements in addition to whatever else they're stocking. That infirmary wasn't reliable.
[Private to Dean]
...how close were you?
[To breaking. Now is not the time to rely on guesses and arrogance.]
[Private to Iris]
Is there a way to get your bus from here to be a viable resource there?
[As far as Anya has been able to pick up, the things run on pixie dust and loopholes. Maybe there's a way.]
[Private to the Admiral]
...you gave us a warning, before Silent Hill. Not what it was, exactly, but that we needed to be prepared. Some of how. You paired us up into those groups so we could take care of each other, gave us some supplies.
You aren't doing this just to be cruel, I know you're not. We go where we go. But you tried to look after us, that time. And it worked, we only lost a few, it could have been so much worse.
If you have any better idea of what's coming than we do...some tips would be nice. Just so we use the time we've got better. No matter how much they complain I think most of the people here would rather you than the guy over there.
Anyway. Thanks for listening.
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She knew I wasn't hers, either way. Probably wasn't going to risk the latter even if the former was, well-- more my style.
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...[ so faintly: ] holy crap the extended toll. Now we have night-terrors and the losing time folk and..... Iris! Iris!
What if the death toll isn't working right because we're paying back a toll to the barge itself? How many of the people experiencing symptoms entered the bridge?
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Let's go find out.
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It's been done before, then?
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[ Though things are better; Barbara and he have an understanding, and Felix is gone. Felix never forgave him for the perceived insults - Megamind can't honestly be bothered to care about that. ]
But nobody's fed themselves to the barge's heart in the last... twoish years that I'm aware of. Well, on purpose anyway.
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I know we don't have the best working relationship. You need to listen to me.
Do not feed anyone to that light.
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Arthas, I wouldn't feed anyone to the light. But if I may ask: what do you think it is?
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I don't need you to believe me. Just don't let anyone go near it.
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