cradleproject | WEEK 14 - I have been — and always shall be

the pygmalion. . .

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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.

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[He seems to pause and really mull over all of that, giving her a blank look as he thinks of the best way to explain what he's thinking and share everything he wants to say. It's Yuno. He's not afraid of her, really, but he also knows better than to antagonize her too much. She's still a fifteen-year-old girl, and an unstable one at that. He can understand that, and above all else she's still something of a friend. That's enough for him to fall silent enough to really unpack his thoughts.]

I do know that. It's a fact I know very, very well, but you still felt like you needed to point it out anyway. Why? Will that chance anything? [It's a genuine question.] Yuno, I'm going to tell you a story. It's going to be the last story I tell you and it's up to you if you want to listen or if you want to just think I like hearing myself talk.

...when I was a kid, I met a girl. She was someone like me, the only other one like me I'd ever met. Her dad's Zeus and her name's Thalia. Thalia was my best friend and...I might have really loved her if I got the chance to. I definitely liked her, but things happened and she sacrificed herself for me and Annabeth. Her dad turned her into a pine tree to save her soul, but that was also after so long of her dad ignoring her and the gods ignoring both of us. Years later, when I joined Kronos's cause, I worked to revive her because I thought that she'd join me. We wanted the same things back then. We were both hurt. People had hurt us and we'd lost a lot. I would have destroyed the world for her.

But she didn't want that. Actually, she fought me, kicked me off a cliff, and then worked with the others to try and kill me. I was wrong. [A hand comes up, idly touching his scar.] I don't expect you to promise anything for Dave, but I also hope you don't ever think or speak for him either. That's unfair to both of you. Do you know what I mean?

[There's another pause.] I couldn't afford to be wrong in this. You ought to know that. I never would have stood by something I didn't have confidence in. [And he bows his head a little.] If you ever find us and Adam says it's okay, you know I'd welcome you for a while. But not if this is something that's going to keep coming up. I've said my piece and you've said yours and I'm not going to keep saying I'm sorry when once should have been enough. If you keep repeating something over and over again...does it start losing its meaning? Or do people start taking it seriously?

[ is he mad at her? yuno doesn't like that, actually. it makes her deeply uncomfortable, because luke is right. at her core, she's just a child. a little girl who is struggling to survive in what she feels is a world that doesn't want her to be happy. in a way, his words are like a slap across the face - which is familiar, sort of. her breathing stops, but she doesn't notice it until luke asks her if it loses it's meaning to repeat a pointless song and dance.

the difference between luke and yuno is that he's already seen the wrong in his actions. yuno's fated to commit suicide in a few months for yukiteru amano, to become something of a footnote in the cosmos. that's not against her will, really. as long as she dies happy, it's all she could hope for. but she thinks about it, because luke's tone is something that reminds her of family; an older sibling scolding his baby sister, perhaps, as gently as he can. there's a long pause, and then she exhales, blinking curiously. ]

I--

[ she doesn't know, actually. mostly she's-- ]

I'm frustrated.

[ yeah. ]

Because you betrayed me. You weren't on my side at all, in the end, were you? I wanted you to be. But you cared more about getting the alien than us. That's what it feels like. It's hard to get over that. If you hadn't caught it, then I'd have had to kill you, Luke. Because you and the rest were thinking about attacking us, weren't you? Anything to get rid of the alien, but not to take care of us. Is that what you would have done differently?

[ but there isn't really anger or bitterness in her voice. she's tired - it's been a week of nothing but hatred, and now she's got a ring on her finger and a home to return to, she thinks. she's tired. she just wants to be happy. ]

It's not that it'll keep coming up. It's that we haven't spoken since the trial. I know it's tiring. I'm not sorry, though. I'm - we're just going to have to work through our feelings, I guess.

[He's not mad. In a way, he's also frustrated but that just comes from stress and his own issues, so when Yuno admits she's frustrated, when Yuno actually listens to him...she'll find that he looks at her for a moment before bending and plopping himself on the ground to sit. He's staring up at her, curious if she can actually sit with how her burns are but also doing this mostly in good faith to show he's at least willing to try.]

We've got time, I think. Unless you've gotta jump for Paris or I have to jump for Henrietta. We've got time. [There's a pause. Yeah. They have time for now, he thinks.] ...a while ago, Adam and I spoke with the Nuwa AI. Sunny. Dr. Lin. She goes by a couple of names. [She doesn't go by Sunny...] She spoke with us before she spoke with all of us as a group. She told Adam and I that if we found and executed an alien, we'd be able to save ourselves and also the Nuwa. That's a lot of people's lives that were in our hands and I...let myself get carried away. I thought that by doing what I was doing I was on everyone's side because exorcising an alien would be saving the person. It was the casualties I didn't think about, and maybe in a way it's because I've never thought of casualties. Demigods learn how to fight from a really young age, and when I joined forces with the Titan Lord, a lot of causalities died due to my actions. And I didn't care.

I care a lot more now. I cared about getting the alien, you're right. But I had hopes that weren't entirely realistic, I guess. Should've known not to trust an all-powerful being. Sunny told us not to tell anyone...maybe that's what I would have changed. [Even that's not true. He's not sure what he would have done differently.] Do you really think I would have attacked someone without genuine proof? Or you mean verbal attacking?

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

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