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

[socloverit]

[Sour as their last real conversation might have gone there at the thing that wasn't Adrien's trial, it may as well not have happened, the way Clover smiles wide when she turns around and sees Luke. It isn't the same bubbly beam anything at all would get in the weeks before her brother died, but it's as close as anyone's seen since.]

Imagine how long it would've taken if we had anyone else behind the wheel. [She did a great job okay!!!]

[chiseler]

And why do you think I didn't bother stopping you? [It's not the same Clover he met in week one, but he's also not the same Luke. It works out. He's relieved to see there's some happiness at least and though he doesn't enter the room to draw closer he does smile.] When you want to get something done right, you do it yourself. And when you can't do it yourself, you get the next best person.

So...what happens now for the Fields? Any ideas?

[socloverit]

[There's something about her that manages to brighten more, somehow, sincere instead of silly, hearing Luke say that, Luke who called her clever and took care of her and still has all this faith in her.]

Doesn't matter too much, so long as the Fields are doing it. [Fields, together like they should be, like she's always wanted. Luke knows what's waiting for her past her tear, though, and she leans against the edge of one of the control chairs.] Maybe there's another end of the universe with something for us. Maybe we'll go find it.

[chiseler]

[This is a face he likes. This is what he loves to see, people he still cares about being happy and settled no matter what happened. But he understands that the Fields need to be together and he nods in response.]

I think this has proven that the Fields are pretty inseparable. [A tilt of his head.] I kinda wonder what else is out there…think about how maybe I'd like to see the end of the universe and see if I could survive it, but…then I think about how maybe I just want a fucking break. I'd say "don't go looking for fights you don't have to" but what else do we know at this point? And if you don't find the end of the universe, what then? Maybe find yourself in someone else's universe?

[socloverit]

[She tilts her head just so and almost, almost laughs at the idea of not picking fights. It isn't funny at all, that that's all she knows anymore, all she's known for ten years now—in a bitter, careless sort of way, the idea of a Clover who doesn't seek danger whether she means to or not just might be, though.]

If we don't make it to the end, then at least we've seen what's on the way. [Her face scrunches up, considering. Never has Clover been eloquent and she can't find the words to articulate her issues with the idea of someone else's universe. None of these tears will welcome her; forty-something worlds placed out before her and there are none that would not stifle her, no one quite ready to bear the burden of all she is who she would be willing to place it on. By now, there's nowhere she belongs but by her brother's side, and she cannot, will not contort herself to fit into a space shaped all wrong for her.

And more than that, it's someone else's. Selfishly, she's unwilling to share. If anything is hers then of course it's Light's, too, of course it's Alice's, but she wants a universe for herself. She doesn't want to be a part of someone else's anything anymore, she wants something, anything to be hers, hers, hers, and after having everything taken away from her, she can't feel any shame for being greedy enough to want a universe. She'll make herself a space where she fits as she is.

She doesn't know how to say that, isn't sure how to begin. What she decides on instead:] So maybe we find a new one for ourselves instead. See who's willing to come along for the ride. ...I think it's better that way.

[chiseler]

[Honestly he expects nothing less but hey.]

Never would have pegged you for an optimist after all this time, but in a way that's almost exactly how it should be, I think. Don't they say that it's not about the destination but the journey or whatever?

If you find one…you should let me know. I'd like to hear about it, I think. [There's a pause, unsure of how to phrase the next piece.] It'd be nice to hear about a place where things just are instead of a place dictates what you should be. I'm going somewhere I've never been before and I'm still trying to convince myself it's a good idea. The whole "choice" thing is new to me. [He's not doing this solely to make this about himself, but he does think Clover might understand and in a way he's saying that yeah, he can understand what she's saying, too.]