WEEK 14 - I have been — and always shall be — your friend.

[al2955]

the pygmalion. . . ONLINE CAPTAIN'S LOG: WEEK (14)

monday (41) survivors You stand with your friends, your family, and your enemies, shoulder to shoulder. The deceased and the living are the same, now, and you've been reunited with the person trapped on the opposite ship. You have four choices. Four options laid before you - five, if you're smart about it. You have the option of staying on the Nuwa, a ship pre-programmed to land somewhere safe, soon, and then it's your's for the taking. You have the option of entering the Nuwa's virtual reality and crafting your own perfect world, but knowing it was a perfect world created by your own hand. Your third option is one of the Cradles, a machine created to bring you bliss, and permit you the dream you've always wanted, without the knowledge it's a virtual reality. Your fourth option lays in front of you, on the bridge of the Nuwa, and it's a tear in the fabric of reality, but you can see your home waiting for you. It looks idyllic, perfect, just the way you'd want it to be. Your fifth option lies in another tear - the tear of a friend. Perhaps their heart is kind enough to take in a stray. The choice is your's to make, and whatever you choose, know that, for the first time in fourteen weeks, it's your choice. taken list profiles private conversations setting rulebook ENTER COMMAND_

Comments

[bloodbiter]

What are you thinking about?

[it's said from a ways behind him, from a smiling face. she raises a hand in greeting.]

You seem to have a great deal on your mind.

[chiseler]

[He turns and it doesn't hurt that it's Adelina. She in turn earns herself a broad grin as he moves to approach closer, simultaneously distancing himself from the tear in the meantime.]

Isn't that always the way when it comes to life-altering decisions? I don't know if I have a lot on my mind, or just one giant thing taking up a big amount of space. Think there's a difference?

[bloodbiter]

Something tells me that isn't your world.

[glances towards the tear he's looking through]

If it were me... It seems a much better option than reincarnation, or anything else they've offered to us.

[chiseler]

You've always been smart. [His own glance back at the tear.] ...a while ago, Adam and I talked about maybe getting both of us back to our world. I think I didn't realize until this moment that that was really a strong possibility. It was more something to hope for than anything. [He scratches the back of his neck.] Our kind usually don't get to have nice things for very long.

[bloodbiter]

That's what's making you hesitate, then? It seems too perfect and too easy.

[a pause.]

You know, from the graveyard... We all had time to watch. Your struggles, your hard won battles, all the trials you solved successfully. All the times you bested the aliens and how they hurt all of you. Despite all of that pain, you all triumphed. You ended in the place that even I couldn't have expected.

So, what's being offered to you now - the chance for happiness and freedom? It's not something to hope for. It's something you earned, with sweat and blood. It was something you all fought for. Now all that's left is to claim what's rightfully yours, Luke.

[chiseler]

Pretty much, yeah. [A lopsided smile. It's hard to just accept things as-is and he knows he's being stupid about it, especially when Adelina continues. Of course by now he's earned it. This was just another long, expansive quest wasn't it? A goal to reach, monsters to fight...and in the end he came out victorious. They all did, really. They all get the freedom to choose now.]

See the thing is that everything you're saying makes a lot of sense. And I know that...I know you're right. [...Adelina might understand, if only due to the circumstances that've befallen on her.] Addie. Being revived here means we'll stay revived no matter where we go, right? You think the work put in for this project will uphold itself in the tears?

[bloodbiter]

[she takes a moment, and then nods.]

I'm alive. For around a month, that wasn't so. Despite that fact, I know that I'll be alive once I return home. And to speak to the contrary...

When we were in the graveyard, Elizabeth and Bull and I and everyone else... Everything began to cave in around us towards the end. It was a code, a simulation - and it ended. I don't think the option to stay here will remain much longer than our non-reality did.

[chiseler]

So what you're saying is that I probably don't have much of a choice, I'm going to stay alive, and I really shouldn't worry about disintegrating upon stepping through a tear that isn't my own. [There's a tentative laugh.] I think I'm still wrapping my head around it all. People usually don't escape the Underworld and now I'm getting off without consequences to go hide somewhere else. Maybe I should feel bad about that.

[...but he doesn't.] Where will you go from here?

[bloodbiter]

I just mean that you shouldn't hesitate if you know what you want to do. Though... I don't see why you would disintegrate at all. And I certainly don't think you should feel, ah, bad.

[a tilt of her head]

To rule, I think. If anything, this place has taught me not to hesitate, and my father can't be allowed to continue the way he's been running our country.

[chiseler]

Monsters tend to do that when they die where I'm from. But I see your point.

[He tilts his head.] So you'll become a queen? Or something else?

[bloodbiter]

There's an important difference here. You aren't a monster.

[she nods]

If he won't pass the crown along formally... Nobody believes in him or trusts him. I think they'll listen to me whether I hold the title officially or not.

[chiseler]

Something I'm still surprised by even fourteen weeks later.

[Though he seems to be appraising her briefly.] I think you look worthy of the crown either way. How hard can it be to overthrow the guy? [And a small grin follows.] You'll make a great leader. After everything that's happened here? I wouldn't be surprised at all.

[bloodbiter]

That you aren't a monster, or that you haven't disintegrated?

[a pause, her smile growing a bit warmer]

...Thank you. After everything that's happened, it means a great deal to hear you say that.