Panem Events (
etcircenses) wrote in
thearena2016-05-10 07:54 pm
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Entry tags:
The Last Flower Girl
Who| The rebels and a scientist from the Districts. For now… (later: EVERYONE)
What| The Revival Mechanism is discovered. Things fall into place. (A Whole Lot Of Meta.)
Where| A facility nestled in the mountains between District 2 and the Capitol.
When| Now.
Warnings/Notes| Please put warnings in headers. The Scientist’s spot will unfreeze for commenting when this log reachers 20 comments or when time is up.
Regardless of whether District two became a win or a loss for the rebellion, they’ve managed to claim the most important of prizes while the Capitol and District was distracted. In the mountains just between the many cities of District two and that of the Capitol itself, a secret base has been uncovered and claimed. Offworlder-loyal rebels call for it to be investigated personally by them. Though the call itself had been vague, it’s not hard for the rebels arriving now to see why they were called.
Nestled in a cave carved out of the mountain, the secret base features a number of hovercrafts at its entrance, and inside, stark white lab rooms lit up bright with many offices to the front. A wide hall cuts straight through them with wheeled hospital beds sitting unused to the sides.The hall opens to a cavernous area, the walls and ceiling all made of the mountain’s natural stone. Desks for scientists, mechanics, and medics are all around but it’s the center of the room that truly pulls the eye.
An enormous metal machine with a circular frame sits in the center. Within it lies a vortex of such color and light it becomes difficult to look at after mere seconds. Yet for all it deters the eyes, it calls, especially to the offworlders. The closer one gets, the stronger the sense that passing through it will correct some cosmic flaw. It is for this reason that it seems to be well blocked off with clear gates. These gates can be pushed through but sticker signs upon them warn not to do so. The sign, drawn like a typical hazard warning, shows a person being disintegrated into little dots by the portal upon reaching it. A note explains that only pure energy can pass through the Revival Mechanism. Attempting to pass anything through the portal will reduce it to energy. It seems things may come out but not go in-- without being turned to energy first that is.
Over along the side of this are many rather massive machines and computers. The computers show many a near-indecipherable code. Others are a little more recognizable as showing coordinates of sorts. Upon further investigation, rebels may find these coordinates are not for any place in the Districts, but for worlds and times far beyond. It maps out like brain synapses, stretching on eternally. Certain coordinates have been marked with red and are noted hazards. The ones lit with gold seem to be ones with a missing person or two-- people that may very well be standing there and looking at said lights. Many others have a blue-ish-grey light. These seem to indicate another issue entirely; “Energy seize. Port no longer reachable”. If one takes a particularly close look they’ll notice familiar names in the blue-grey sections, people who haven’t come back for a long time. They may also notice one of the golden lights has the coordinates for… Panem itself. The name of the person is encrypted heavily.
Not everything is kept on the computers however. There are many, many complicated and detailed notes left upon the desks. Some discuss things like Tribute vital signs. There’s a long analysis written in clinical terms of how the pull-process of the Revival Mechanism essentially kills the person by reducing them and their closely associated items on pass-through to pure energy. However, in bringing them to Panem, the Revival Mechanism quickly reassembles that energy. It seems that the process of destruction and recreation is the major cause of Offworlder unconsciousness when being revived, allowing Offworlder Transport to bring them back to the Tribute Tower before they ever wake.
An electronic wipe-board over by a set of table and chairs goes over the nature of what can and cannot pass through the portal. There are scribbled words on the edges, formulas, circled sentences, and lines that criss-cross over the page. It seems that purely material items cannot be pulled into Panem. At least, not on their own. All items passing through have some strong and close connection to the spirit or “energy” that is grabbed. How this works seems a mystery even to the scientists involved but is suspected to have to do with memories. There is a hypothesis with many question marks that a memory chip, if reduced it to energy and sent through the portal, could possibly go back to the worlds offworlders came from, allowing them to keep memories even back on their world. This is noted to be untested however.
A second board looks at why bodies may duplicate but seemingly not objects. It appears inanimate objects are too identical for physics to function properly and the items simply merge, preventing a paradox, while living tissue is changed enough after being in Panem even for a short time that this only happens to non-living objects that are pulled, not people. There is further aggressively scribbled debate on whether robots count as people. The conclusion is that “they damn well must be if they’re here at all”. A paper on the table explains how most of the robots are transferred via chip to a mutt-body and the brain registers the chip to fill out personality and memories based upon it, thus making the robot essentially human. This is done for further study in reviving people.
Former Capitol-soldiers may recall that robots aren’t the only ones with muttation bodies. Some are animals and others, like Venus Dee Milo, have a portal transfer very specific to them. On one of the mechanic’s desks, blueprints lay for making much smaller portals that may be put within the mutt body and transfer the soul into it stating Venus’s name on the first prototype designs but not on the last. The blueprints note a disintegration system with these so the portal doesn’t stay within them. More blueprints can be seen for another full scale portal, using the one in the mountain there as a prototype. One final blueprint can be found, not for a portal, but for what looks like a weapon. Though it has the shape of a gun, it doesn’t appear to fire bullets. Apparently, it’s a relatively recent invention, from late december. The finalized design is dated for February.
By what looks like a station for hovercraft pilots to collect their gear is a clipboard and typed out list. The oldest ones to the back show revival deliveries from the arenas. As one flips to the front, these lists become those offworld soldiers who died in battle and were revived with all the relevant timestamps, serial numbers, and delivery location (the Tribute Tower and the Detainment Center). However, there are some anomalies, like names that have been blacked out leaving only serial numbers, timestamps, and, curiously, an entirely different location. This location is only listed as Center V. The timestamps date from the start of the war to a mass exodus very recently.
Rebels rush in to investigate the area, quickly capturing anyone working there. Despite the size and clear need for more hands in the facility, there’s only a handful of individuals left behind. One, a scientist, is ready to speak to the offworlders in charge as offworlders finish the investigation of the Facility. Something in here is sure to explain the mysterious “illness” offworlders have been facing. Hopefully rebels can find it fast, before it’s too late…
What| The Revival Mechanism is discovered. Things fall into place. (A Whole Lot Of Meta.)
Where| A facility nestled in the mountains between District 2 and the Capitol.
When| Now.
Warnings/Notes| Please put warnings in headers. The Scientist’s spot will unfreeze for commenting when this log reachers 20 comments or when time is up.
Regardless of whether District two became a win or a loss for the rebellion, they’ve managed to claim the most important of prizes while the Capitol and District was distracted. In the mountains just between the many cities of District two and that of the Capitol itself, a secret base has been uncovered and claimed. Offworlder-loyal rebels call for it to be investigated personally by them. Though the call itself had been vague, it’s not hard for the rebels arriving now to see why they were called.
Nestled in a cave carved out of the mountain, the secret base features a number of hovercrafts at its entrance, and inside, stark white lab rooms lit up bright with many offices to the front. A wide hall cuts straight through them with wheeled hospital beds sitting unused to the sides.The hall opens to a cavernous area, the walls and ceiling all made of the mountain’s natural stone. Desks for scientists, mechanics, and medics are all around but it’s the center of the room that truly pulls the eye.
An enormous metal machine with a circular frame sits in the center. Within it lies a vortex of such color and light it becomes difficult to look at after mere seconds. Yet for all it deters the eyes, it calls, especially to the offworlders. The closer one gets, the stronger the sense that passing through it will correct some cosmic flaw. It is for this reason that it seems to be well blocked off with clear gates. These gates can be pushed through but sticker signs upon them warn not to do so. The sign, drawn like a typical hazard warning, shows a person being disintegrated into little dots by the portal upon reaching it. A note explains that only pure energy can pass through the Revival Mechanism. Attempting to pass anything through the portal will reduce it to energy. It seems things may come out but not go in-- without being turned to energy first that is.
Over along the side of this are many rather massive machines and computers. The computers show many a near-indecipherable code. Others are a little more recognizable as showing coordinates of sorts. Upon further investigation, rebels may find these coordinates are not for any place in the Districts, but for worlds and times far beyond. It maps out like brain synapses, stretching on eternally. Certain coordinates have been marked with red and are noted hazards. The ones lit with gold seem to be ones with a missing person or two-- people that may very well be standing there and looking at said lights. Many others have a blue-ish-grey light. These seem to indicate another issue entirely; “Energy seize. Port no longer reachable”. If one takes a particularly close look they’ll notice familiar names in the blue-grey sections, people who haven’t come back for a long time. They may also notice one of the golden lights has the coordinates for… Panem itself. The name of the person is encrypted heavily.
Not everything is kept on the computers however. There are many, many complicated and detailed notes left upon the desks. Some discuss things like Tribute vital signs. There’s a long analysis written in clinical terms of how the pull-process of the Revival Mechanism essentially kills the person by reducing them and their closely associated items on pass-through to pure energy. However, in bringing them to Panem, the Revival Mechanism quickly reassembles that energy. It seems that the process of destruction and recreation is the major cause of Offworlder unconsciousness when being revived, allowing Offworlder Transport to bring them back to the Tribute Tower before they ever wake.
An electronic wipe-board over by a set of table and chairs goes over the nature of what can and cannot pass through the portal. There are scribbled words on the edges, formulas, circled sentences, and lines that criss-cross over the page. It seems that purely material items cannot be pulled into Panem. At least, not on their own. All items passing through have some strong and close connection to the spirit or “energy” that is grabbed. How this works seems a mystery even to the scientists involved but is suspected to have to do with memories. There is a hypothesis with many question marks that a memory chip, if reduced it to energy and sent through the portal, could possibly go back to the worlds offworlders came from, allowing them to keep memories even back on their world. This is noted to be untested however.
A second board looks at why bodies may duplicate but seemingly not objects. It appears inanimate objects are too identical for physics to function properly and the items simply merge, preventing a paradox, while living tissue is changed enough after being in Panem even for a short time that this only happens to non-living objects that are pulled, not people. There is further aggressively scribbled debate on whether robots count as people. The conclusion is that “they damn well must be if they’re here at all”. A paper on the table explains how most of the robots are transferred via chip to a mutt-body and the brain registers the chip to fill out personality and memories based upon it, thus making the robot essentially human. This is done for further study in reviving people.
Former Capitol-soldiers may recall that robots aren’t the only ones with muttation bodies. Some are animals and others, like Venus Dee Milo, have a portal transfer very specific to them. On one of the mechanic’s desks, blueprints lay for making much smaller portals that may be put within the mutt body and transfer the soul into it stating Venus’s name on the first prototype designs but not on the last. The blueprints note a disintegration system with these so the portal doesn’t stay within them. More blueprints can be seen for another full scale portal, using the one in the mountain there as a prototype. One final blueprint can be found, not for a portal, but for what looks like a weapon. Though it has the shape of a gun, it doesn’t appear to fire bullets. Apparently, it’s a relatively recent invention, from late december. The finalized design is dated for February.
By what looks like a station for hovercraft pilots to collect their gear is a clipboard and typed out list. The oldest ones to the back show revival deliveries from the arenas. As one flips to the front, these lists become those offworld soldiers who died in battle and were revived with all the relevant timestamps, serial numbers, and delivery location (the Tribute Tower and the Detainment Center). However, there are some anomalies, like names that have been blacked out leaving only serial numbers, timestamps, and, curiously, an entirely different location. This location is only listed as Center V. The timestamps date from the start of the war to a mass exodus very recently.
Rebels rush in to investigate the area, quickly capturing anyone working there. Despite the size and clear need for more hands in the facility, there’s only a handful of individuals left behind. One, a scientist, is ready to speak to the offworlders in charge as offworlders finish the investigation of the Facility. Something in here is sure to explain the mysterious “illness” offworlders have been facing. Hopefully rebels can find it fast, before it’s too late…
no subject
Roland does not think on this long. He does not think on the choice in front of him, either. What is left for him, in that other place? Nothing. He wouldn't go back to it even if there was. That life is over. It's time to leave it behind.
Roland meets Sigma's eyes, and wraps his metal fingers tightly around the man's wrist. His other life in those other worlds are gone, and Roland is done with mourning them. On the other side of him he stretches out his hand, rolling it in an impatient gesture.
"No wasting time," he says, to whoever's nearest. "Do it or don't."
no subject
Her gun slung over her back, the princess looks fearfully side to side, and sees one of her former District-mates holding out his hand. Technically, she was his Mentor, before the war started, but that doesn't matter much now. She takes a deep, shaky breath.
"Okay."
Okay. This is it. If she takes Roland's hand, she can never go home. Never see Arendelle again. Never be the person she used to be, either.
She exhales, and clasps her tiny hand around Roland's beef-jerky hand. Her other hand reaches out for the next person. She's doing this.
no subject
And more than simply enough is his family, those he's had from the beginning - he gives Jet a meaningful look - and those he's gathered through shared experiences here in Panem. Sam, Initiate, Terezi... and their close friends and allies; Barnes, Meulin, Clint, Porrim. Even Sigma, he's surprised to find, makes the list of their ever expanding circle. Make the list of reasons to stay.
He takes Anna's hand carefully and with a nod to echo her single spoken word, cold metal meeting her dainty fingers as light as he can manage while still holding on to keep the chain intact. He doesn't want to crush her. His other hand he extends outward to whoever will catch it first, joined to their singular purpose.
He won't deny anyone who also has their reasons to stay and see this through.
no subject
She ached for the horrible smells of Gotham and the world of fun she had been torn away from. The Capitol had been fun but...all of that was gone now.
But as she gazed into the portal she realized something else, there was no Harleen Quinzel in her world. It was a world full of chaos and silliness. A world for Harley Quinn.
But in this world there would be people who would spend the rest of their lives suffering because of what had happened. People who would need someone who had been there in the worst of it.
But...but there had to be other people right?
And for the first time since the Capitol had beat the madness out of her, Harleen acted upon impulse seizing Albert's hands tears streaming down her face. In all the noise her farewell to the life she'd lost. The love she'd probably lost forever.
"Goodbye Red."
no subject
And then everything starts falling apart.
When the explosion goes off, he turns to see what’s going on and is immediately seeing stars when one of the flying chairs smacks right into his head. No big deal; he’s had worse. But the shouting of the scientist is all just meaningless noise to him in the ringing of his ears, and he doesn’t even pay any mind to the damaged portal anyway. They have the scientists, it can probably be fixed or something—that’s a problem for later.
But his friends—Roland, Phil, Luna, Eowyn, Sandy… He has to find them and make sure they’re okay.
Claire had described one of Firo’s gifts as being able to simply act without asking questions. He doesn’t decide—think of alternatives, outcomes, consequences—so much as he just does. That’s what he does now, grabbing the nearest hand before he even sees their face. Doesn’t recognize them. He whips around to catch what glimpses he can of any other friends—that’s what’s important right now, that they’re okay. He focuses on that, not yet realizing what he’s just lost.
He holds out his hand for the next person, hoping it's a friend, but willing to help hold onto anyone who needs it.
no subject
All it would take was a few steps and she wouldn't be able to stop herself. She'd go pitching through that portal to...to what? A church full of screaming children? Monsters falling from the sky?
Her father...
She had a chance...didn't she? One chance to put it all right. To save the children, to find her father.
Could the girl who had lost so much, and so many times finally win?
But then her eyes settled on the chain of bodies trying to save...well everything else. This world that had ripped her apart and put her back together. This world that had taught her bravery, loss, love and absolute terror.
She saw Firo, the boy who had saved her life and treated her like family and somehow though the brainwashing still held tight on her images of all those she had considered family bubbled to the surface.
Phil.
Shepard.
Peta and Katniss.
The Initiate.
Mindy.
Effie.
Pruna.
"Fuck."
Turning her back to the portal the word came gushing out of her mouth again and again as she dug her heels into the tile and pushed for Firo's hand.
"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!"
Springing forward she snagged his wrist and gripped it tighter then a girl her size ought be able to.
As much as she hated it, as much as this world had taken from her it was more her home now then the world she had left behind.
Because in some small way, she had helped shape it.
no subject
Rhizome Nine was home and its inhabitants the closest to family she'll ever have, despite the cruelty of GAULEM life. But the Rhizome is the past in her eyes, and Panem is the present. And even if her feelings about herself have changed, she still wants to see a better future for this world as well. Maybe for herself too, one day.
Luna doesn't think twice before making her way towards the human chain, shielding her eyes and fighting the backwards pull of the vortex's edges before she gets close enough to grab onto--
She recognizes Sandy only after she's taken the girl's hand, and if there were more time and less urgency she'd like to talk more. But there isn't such luxury, not right now, so Luna only gives her a grateful "Thank you!" before reaching out to the next person.
no subject
Alternia is there, he knows, just a few steps into that whirling vortex. He used to think he'd go back in a heartbeat if he had the choice. There was work in his world still to be done. He knows that if he goes back, he dies, and his death will be instrumental in shaping the future toward the course it's meant to take. In that way staying is selfish, but he came to terms with that years ago. That part of himself is dead, has died slowly piece by piece the longer he's been here and the longer he's given himself to this cause and these people. His work here isn't done, and that means walking through that portal now would be just as selfish as staying. The rebellion still needs him. Twelve still needs him. All his friends, all his loves, all the people bound to him simply by this shared experience -- they all need him. This chain, right now, needs him.
He takes Luna's hand, grips it hard. She's not one of the ones he knows, but that hardly matters. They've all been brought together by this one goal; everything else has been pushed to the wayside. It puts a fire in his chest that hasn't really been lit there in years. The embers have been there, barely glowing, but here he's found himself again. This is what he was meant for. He gives her an encouraging nod, his eyes brighter with the light of the portal and some internal glow, and then turns.
"Come on," he says to whoever's nearest him. "It's working. We can do this."
no subject
If he never goes back, he loses his church, his promised family. His Messiahs may never again be as clear in his mind and being as they used to be. He loses his throne, he loses his chance to change that future and make it into one where his quadrants and their family all live. He never sees the descendant teased before him. He loses the only place he really ever knew. He'll never speak, never say a word, and never preach to a Carnival of faithful faces like he always dreamed. He loses every wonder, even for all the death and destruction.
He really won't see Da ever again, no matter how long he searches that horizon. And it's strange, how even after being abandoned, after being angry so long, he still wants to try and chase after that slight sliver of care he recalls.
But he was abandoned. And his future can't change there. The timeline is locked. His future is empty. All those dreams he has, they're just dreams. No resetting this time. No more sacrificing for something already doomed. This time, he takes a look around at what's already about him.
Sigma is just up the line, not his Da but his father. Albert's there and Jet won't be far. Sandy's near, Luna beside her. He glances back for others like Clara, The Punch, Shepard, Porrim (even wonders about Azula and Kevin and Pasha wherever they are). The Nameless, the Neophyte, The Disciple, Gamzee, His Other... Mituna, as he knew him, as the Helmsman. So many motherfucking others he lost but who taught him more and gave him more all the same. He sees Terezi, his beloved, his heart keeper. And there's Sam, an angel, a soldier, so much more, so much good; a moirail. And then here he is... Signless.
Kankri.
Brother best.
The first person he ever met, the first one to give him a chance, tell him he could be more. The first to see him here what's still being here. The first hand he ever took.
Warm in his as it ever was, he grasps Kankri's hand tight. He has a family here. He has a future. He has his heart and soul and mind, for fucking once. He's not alone. He, like his pale brother here, was hatched to be a gaurdian of earth. This time, they would win. This time, at last, they would know some motherfucking peace.
And so, like he never would've done on Alternia, like he only learned to do here cause of all them about him, he holds out his hand.
no subject
What would happen to her if she went through? Better not to find out.
The line is chaos and all she can pick up from lips and hasty signs is that something is happening. The portal pulls at them, an irrevocable force and when her first instinct is to find something to cling to, something else is planned. A chain, slowly built, but spiraling out her way. It's fate that has her nearest the Initiate when he grabs Signless and reaches back for her.
His hand is thrust her way, palm up, the lines of a life lived upon it, scars in the folds. Her hand hovers in hesitation. Her mind wars. This isn't just making a chain. It is Kurloz's hands at the elevator, it is her own in another life on a rooftop. It is speech and a line to other lives, ti everyone, to each other. It is more than that. It is trust.
She grips it tight.
Her other hand flings back behind her, open, reaching, for someone who trusts her enough in kind.
no subject
He decides that Panem is that world and as he grabs Meulin's hand. She is part of the reason he will stay: Panem has become the home he desperately wanted to have, where the people can live safe knowing they will never have to fight for their lives again. He will miss his friends, his fellow Survivors but they will understand why he stayed.
Once his hand is firmly in Leijon's, his other free hand reaches out for the next link in the chain, "UP AN' AT 'EM IF Y'ALL ARE STAYIN'!" He calls out to the next person, they're really in this for the last push.
no subject
But as Ellis' hand reaches out to him, Alain sees Roland down the line. There's nothing for him beyond the portal, and here there's pain and suffering and all the aftermath of the war they've wrought. But there's a victory here, as well, an end that he never saw in his own world. And there's Roland, who is at once family and friend and tet, and the bond between them is tattered by all they've been through here, but it is still strong, still stronger than Alain's longing to be finished.
I would walk with you to the end of the road, Ro', he thinks, and his stocky fingers close around Ellis', and he closes his eyes as he reaches for the next in line. Gods help me, I guess I'd walk with you beyond it, too.
The choice is made. He exhales, long and slow, and lets it go, looking to his other side to keep the hold going.
no subject
Joe. Pyunma. His brothers were on the other side of that portal, maybe even the rest of his family, they could still be out there somewhere. The most important people to ever happen to him and he still hadn't apologized to most of them for a decades old injury.
It runs through his head quickly and leaves just as quick. On this side of the portal was Albert, with him to whatever end and they're new family. This family was one they'd earned themselves, not inherited from memories stuck in their heads of past lives. These were the people they'd come to love of their own accord, through shared pain and happiness. This world was their own. Here, they weren't clones. His eyes found Terezi, Initiate and Sam and he smiled.
No, it was never really a question.
He grabbed Alain's hand tight, locked eyes with the kid and gave him a nod. Jet looked over his shoulder and extended his hand to the next closest person.
no subject
Maybe it would have been more noble to step through that portal, to face that darkness for the sake of whatever help she might be able to provide. Maybe a more dutiful Seer would have sacrificed her happiness, but she was done being that person.
Panem was her home as much as Alternia had been, and these were her friends as much her companions on that meteor. And for the first time in a long time, she had something she wanted to do. A future that she wanted to strive for. A matesprit that she wanted to make happy. An...almost-moirail that she wanted to protect. Friends that she wanted to laugh and talk with. A country that she wanted to rebuild. All over Panem, there were people that she cared about, simply because she had fought and died with them and for them, and there was no way that she could leave them now. They were important to her.
This is a future that she can change. And as far as she's concerned, there's no going back. All she can do is keep moving forward--and hold on for dear life.
She grabs a hold of Jet's hand, squeezing tight. There's a moment of determination in her expression, a vote of encouragement for him; before she turns and reaches her hand out to the next person she finds.
no subject
So he takes the opportunity, hanging behind as his men move to clear the room. When the portal starts going haywire he immediately changes plans, ordering them into a hasty retreat, unwilling to gamble with time when he’s already lost so many of their comrades. He’s about to go too when the scientist voices the plan, and he stops in his tracks, looking back across the crowd.
He thinks of shrapnel, of missing limbs and bloodied faces, the horrors of war resting in hospital beds and closed coffins. He studies the distance to the console for a fleeting half second, observes the quick joining of hands, and decides that proffered solution is better than none.
"You heard him!" he shouts to the two last fleeing peacekeepers. "Let’s get this shut off!"
He bolts to Terezi, seizing her hand and stretching out his arms, his two colleagues following suit. Fully armored as he is, his face isn’t visible behind the darkness of his visor, but his voice is recognizable enough as he raises it over the blare of the alarms.
"Everyone spread out as much as you can! Make the line as long as possible!"
no subject
She doesn’t dawdle; she takes Quintus’s hand, biting back the disgust that rises in her throat, because allegiances don’t matter right now. They have to fix this, even if it means holding hands with the enemy. Her other hand stretches to her side, waiting to be joined by the next person. This has to work; there has to be a future for her beyond this damned mountain. She has too much to live for—too many people. Sam, Initiate, Signless, Terezi, even Alain and Clint and Barnes. They’ve all become family, whether she’s known them for a year or a month. They’re the people who make her want to keep fighting. They’re her reason.
Her fingers wiggle, impatient, at whoever’s beside her. “Hurry. Please.”
no subject
Stephen steps up and takes tight hold of her hand, giving a grin that not even their current crisis can completely repress. He gives a two-fingered salute with his free hand.
Maybe joking at a time like this is inappropriate, but everything is terrifying and all they can do about it is hold on, so in Stephen's opinion, now is the best time to joke; it'll keep the horror in the room at bay. He's missed Porrim so badly, he's been more worried about her than he's been able to tell anybody, but now's not the time for tearful reunions. He'll have to settle for holding her hand and hitting on her, because maybe that'll bring something normal back to this crazy, unbelievable situation -- and maybe it'll do something about those tears in her eyes. Besides, he's felt so upset for so long that it feels like it's gone through sentiment and out the other side; any bigger display would feel strangely egotistical. What's happening is bigger than him, bigger than Porrim, bigger than anything he might be feeling right now.
It's odd. Even though the place is falling to pieces around them, even though they're all in incredible danger, even though his brother is going to kill him for even coming here, Stephen finds that he isn't as afraid as he thought he would be. This is the collapse of the device they were using to bring in offworlders, and Stephen's happy about it. It means the Capitol isn't unshakable. It's not unassailable. It's been a hard thing to believe in these past few months, but having the evidence in front of him? That's goddamn reassuring, that is. He feels a thrill, of course, but it doesn't feel like just fear. It feels like profound, earth-shattering change.
"Well?" Stephen says, holding out his other hand. "You heard the lady. Hop to it."
no subject
"I'm hopping to it! I'M HOPPING TO IT!" When everything is happening all at once and crashing down around you and you're not even sure why, you've got to take action. And so she grabs Stephen's hand as tight as she can, then snaps her free one out behind her, wide-eyed and frantic and determined to do her part, small as it might seem to be.
no subject
So he grabbed Felicity's hand and his glare is that of a concerned relative. They have a LOT to talk about, especially with Stephen as her boss. His other hand swings wildly to the next as he calls for the nearest person, "MAKE YOUR CHOICE AND MAKE IT COUNT."
no subject
Behind the visor of her Peacekeeper uniform, her face is set close and hard as she snatches Leonidas' hand. "Hurry up!" she shouts, her gloved hand going out to find someone else, anyone else, to carry on the chain.
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...and he'd be a coward if he did it. This war wasn't won, and for all he had struggled and failed and fallen down and gotten back up again, for all that he had learned time and again that he could not fix everything and was not the all-powerful hero that he had built himself up to be, he could still do something here in Panem. His world had other wizards. He'd half-heartedly joked before that they could handle things without him, but in all honesty, they could. He was needed here, and he wanted to be needed here. He wanted to prove himself to those that had come to trust in him, and atone for those he had failed to save. If he stayed then.... then he was something more than just a Wizard.
Haruto breaks away from where he'd been holding on tight, rushing for the still-growing line. Even if they crushed his rings and destroyed his driver and tore Dragon out of him, he still still had two legs that could run and two hands that could hold on. He grabs for Beck's hand, holds firm, and then extends his own with a shout behind him and a grin. "Come on! I've got you!"
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Fine for Nitou, anyway. Maybe not so fine for Panem and everyone else who had been pulled into this crazy mess. Leaving and not knowing what happened to this place--to everyone--didn't sit very well with him, either.
Staying is a terrible idea. It is an awful idea. He can already feel Chimera inside him, rumbling about food. The monster's going to have to eat something, and Nitou doesn't know where he's going to find it. He should just go home and see to it that someone gets fed. But then there Haruto goes, throwing himself at that human chain. Of course Haruto's going for it. Of course. "Can't let you do this alone, man!" Nitou reaches out to grab his fellow wizard's hand. "Just don't get any ideas with the hand-holding!"
In danger, there is opportunity. This option is, Nitou thinks, a prime example of that. He can find some other food for Chimera; this place is bound to have magic ruins he can explore somewhere, after all this is over.
Nitou reaches behind him, holding a hand out for the next person. "Come on! We're gonna make magic happen!"
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So would it be selfish once more to stay in Panem and away from Mary? His entire mission in Panem had been to revive her, make sure she was happy. But it was a dream spawned in the madness of a grieving husband, spurred on by the Gamemakers. But something changed, something he wasn't expecting: he moved on. Whether or not Clara chose to stay in Panem with him, she changed him. Their brief tenure of happiness and acceptance had been enough of a start for Sunderland to understand the other side of his guilt: the absolute loss of someone so dear.
So when this strange man, Nitou was he, offered his hand to continue the link, James took it, and let out a frantic chuckle, "Maybe!" He doesn't care if he lived or died in Panem, there was a brave new world to rebuild and a true selfish monster to destroy. He paid the favor forward by holding out his hand to the next link, they're here for this one last push.
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Those words jolt in Phi's brain like an electric charge. They can go home. Sure, it looks like a terrifying vortex of destruction, but it's hard to feel properly terrified after the number of timelines she's spent staring down an antimatter bomb. The temptation is real. Real enough, that when her thoughts catch up to her, she doesn't immediately join the forming chain. Her eyes quickly scan the room, jumping from face to face and searching for someone familiar. She has to know--
There. She spies Sigma already in the line, clasped hand-to-wrist with people that Phi doesn't recognize. For a moment, she's surprised. Even with everything that was going on back in their world, and everything that might happen to him here... He was still staying? A brief surge of betrayal catches her off guard, but only long enough for uncertainty to fill in the empty spaces it leaves behind. If she left now, she might be able to save her world. There were six billion people who were counting on her. But if she left now, what would happen to Sigma? It wasn't as if the old man had earned himself many friends. He had played both sides, and when this war finally came to its quickly approaching end, how many people would he have to vouch for him? How many people knew Sigma the way that she did? His options were dangerously slim.
A knot twists in her stomach, and she remembers a timeline in that world that was waiting for her. With her hand resting on the handle to Door 9, Sigma had shouted at her: Are you sure this is how you want it to end? Once she went through that portal, there was no going back to this place. She looked back to the portal again, then back to Sigma. There would be no convincing him to leave; she knew that already. It was six billion humans... or Sigma, and she was hesitating.
No.
That wasn't true. It was more than that. There were others here, too. Derek and Kurloz and Meulin... Chuck and Anna, too. The small and strange family that she'd been begrudgingly enveloped into. And there was Luna, of course. Possibly the largest question mark on the short list of people that she gave a damn about. But that list was still larger here than it was back there.
Maybe there was a timeline where she went back. That Phi would work with Sigma and everyone else on the Mars Mission Test Site. That Phi would help them reach the elusive Point E and save humanity from Radical 6. But that Phi wouldn't be her. She was going to see this through to the end, whatever destination this road led her to and whatever happened along the way.
She doesn't know the man whose hand she grabs. Him being a stranger doesn't seem to matter, only that they have the conviction to stay in this world. Maybe to make this place their home. She wouldn't go as far as to call it that herself, but it had the potential. She reaches her hand out to the next person, waiting impatiently.
"Hurry up and make up your minds! We don't have all day!"
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It didn't matter though, because Phone Guy had work to do in Panem. He had people to take care of, people like Firo, Sansa, Luna, Sandy, and people to help heal their wounds like Emily and Linden. They had become his family, his reason to get up and keep fighting, even Stephen and Sigma right up the line. It warmed Phil's heart to see their true colors, willing to help both natives and offworlders. Even if Phil is probably going to punch Sigma for what he's done.
When Phil sees the girl calling out for the next link, he vaguely recognizes her from Celebrus, Sigma's daughter, right? Either way, he has a feeling he can trust her...so he takes her hand and offers his own for the next person. Whether Panem rebuilds itself or falls once more into Snow's hands, Phone Guy is here for whatever comes next.
"Come on!" his voice is full of energy and drive.
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