Day 283 [OPEN]

[bastionpc]

Who: Nathaniel, Zulf, and OPEN
Open: Open
When: Day 283
Where: by the monument
What: EXPOSITION PLOT STUFF
Format: action
Warnings: Zulf

[After a couple days have passed, and everyone is getting better from both the sudden madness waves and the lovely grenade Colin had thrown, Nathaniel will go ahead and call a meeting.

He is also trying to ignore the fact that he looked less than stellar not too long ago. Let him have his pride okok]

So uh. I was going to wait until we found another core, so that I could double-check the numbers, but after the shittastic last few days- [No pun intended.] -I think everyone could use a bit of good news.

The Bastion is almost completely repaired. By my count, we only need about four more cores before it is fully functional again.





[NOTE: We're doing this in one long comment chain, just join in to the comments we have going already.]

Comments

[freedom_engineer]

All right.

[His gaze is locked on Zulf, and he starts to speak, though it quickly trails off.]

I...

...

You...

[He scowls and turns away, throwing his hands into the air.]

I have no idea how to ASK what I need to know to get the answers I need to give an informed opinion. None of you think in four dimensions, and I doubt I'm smart enough to teach you how!

But suffice it to say, ripping a hole in time and replacing it with a prior moment in time is not something that will siphon energy and make the reaction weaker. Gods above and below, even ONCE is enough to cause damage that can't be fixed!

[He glances at Tobias, and he hopes that Tobias can read his thoughts, 'cause there's so much he isn't willing to say right now out of disgust and anger.]

~Time is uniform, but the perception of time is what varies. And when time is damaged, HOW it's damaged dictates how the anomalies manifest. Odds are spectacularly against both of us having similar experiences.~

[notachickenhawk]

<Depends on what's doing it. I've encountered myself through what's probably a 'hole in time', but things turned out okay in that instance. But it's not relevant to here, to this universe.>

[He can't read Colin's thoughts, but he does have questions for him later.]

<Anyway. Zulf - what happened when you went back, exactly? You remembered everything?>

[hellpyre]

[Rin was another that had been quiet, almost too quiet for her usual self, throughout all of this. She had a good reason for it, though. That stupid, pointless fight all those months ago where Zulf and Nathaniel had went off the edge of the Bastion had revealed a lot of this stuff to her already. And Zulf had already hinted to her once before that time travel was possible by his own experiences.

But there were, of course, details missing even back then. And it wasn't as though Rin could understand half of it anyway. She was just latching on to things that made sense to her and figuring out the pieces in between slowly.

As tensions rose through through group she, surprisingly, didn't jump in to the mess. A part of her had wanted to go to Zia and try and comfort her, but that much was aborted when she saw Zulf attempt and fail to.

So she went back to quiet... up until the point where Colin was rambling just enough to grate on her nerves.]

Shut up. It happened. It happened to them, not you. You have no fuckin' clue what they went through so just shut up and let Zulf talk. God...

[Yeah. Not exactly the most helpful right now. Sorry, guys.]

[freedom_engineer]

[Colin's eye twitches, and he turns a downright livid glare at Rin.]

I'm sorry that a culture with their scientific heads lodged so far up their asses that they can give themselves amateur colonoscopies happened to someone here, so of course we should be respectful of that.

The fact that their mistake could be killing BILLIONS of people in BILLIONS of different worlds, each second, with each and every passing second, should of course come secondary to someone having to relive something they kept secret.

Nobody else here may have the brains to appreciate just how many people are being ERASED from existence, but I do, and I'm not going to apologize for the fact that I'm horrified of what's probably still happening because one group of PRIMITIVE QUACKS decided that they didn't like another!

[He exhales then, his skin flushed and red, and he starts to walk away.]

I'm too angry to contribute to a discussion that most of you will hold against me anyway. Another exponential billion lives won't make a difference in the meantime...

[daughterofursa]

[Zuko huffs, her breath hot enough to spark, and if she stood any closer to Colin she might have finally punched him.]

Go ahead and leave if you can't keep your superior attitude to yourself. Just because we don't have your technical know-how doesn't mean we're too stupid to be angry or upset.

[She turns back to Zulf, not looking any happier with him.]

Go on. I want to know exactly what happened when you "restored" things.

[notachickenhawk]

[Tobias screeches, high-pitched and sharp. He flaps his wing insistently, glaring at Colin, sending him a private thought.]

<We understand that. We know that's a problem, but getting mad at people who have information you need is generally a bad tactic. I understand very well the cost of worlds. Maybe not as close as you do, but I've heard the horror stories. Don't think that just because someone's a 'less advanced' race that they're stupid.>

[He turns his attention back at the group, settling down a bit. He turns to preen his feathers, trying to calm himself.]

<... Zulf, you were saying?>

[fuckthemancers]

[Zulf is trying to get his thoughts together when the argument breaks out, and he squeezes his eyes shut like that can help block out the noise. It's only when Zuko and Tobias speak up that he finally opens them again.]

Yes, we did remember everything- what happened prior to the first Calamity and after. Yet the idea of time traveling is... something still not normal. There was no way to prove it, either. The only person absolutely certain of it was Rucks... and he had made no effort to contact any of us after it. Zia and I had to find him ourselves.

The First Calamity started because... [A pause as he glances guiltily at Zia. He doesn't want to spill something so personal, but he can't lie now.] Someone accused Zia of being a spy to the Terminals. In order to keep her out of prison, her father agreed to work for the Mancers on the Calamity weapon again. He used it, and it wiped out all of Caelondia along with a good portion of the Terminals.

When everything was Restored... We managed to avoid the event that would get Zia or her Father in trouble that way. Everything else, we've told you beforehand- how we attempted to have Rucks sabotage the weapon so that it simply couldn't be used at all. It was the only thing we could think to do, with the Mancers' paranoia ready to go off like a time bomb at the slightest idea of an Ura attack.

[hellpyre]

[Rin made no effort to stop Colin, confront him or even continue the argument. Nor did she care how she had been the one to set him off so thoroughly. She was at the end of her rope emotionally after what happened to her just the day before, and Colin's constant rabble about how none of them were smart enough to understand had worn what little patience she had in all of this to it's breaking point.

Which, of course, let to the oh-so-mature raising of her middle finger to his back as he departed.

But at least she didn't continue talking over Zulf or make the situation any worse than it already was.

Focusing on Zulf with that in mind, she listened until he finished, only to quietly add:]

But it still happened again, right?

[followsthevoice]

[It was getting harder and harder to keep his mouth shut as time went on, but the minute Colin started to raise his voice, Raile did something that in the entire time Zulf and Zia had known him, he'd never done. Not when fighting, not when facing down things twice his size, not even when having his wounds tended to.

He flinched.

It was so visible it might as well have been audible, even if his face had taken its usual blank gaze. The truth of the matter had always been clear to him, but with all of Zulf's encouragement prior to this, it had been a little easier to gloss over. Not anymore, not with the scope of the truth shoved hard into his face, it was enough to make him grip the hammer at his side so hard his knuckles turned white.

He wasn't about to interrupt Zulf...he wasn't even sure he could unhinge his jaw at the moment, but he shot a look up at his friend and it spoke volumes. He wasn't about to let this conversation end without everyone here know that he'd pushed that button, that he'd brought everything back, that it was him that put this entire screwed up situation into motion.

If they deserved to know about these things, they most definitely deserved to know that part of it too; and if Zulf wasn't going to say it, then he was going to step up soon.]

[cyan_maid]

[Colin's outburst is nothing short of startling to Jane. He'd always presented himself as calm and intelligent (in the short time she'd known him), so for him to blow up like that is pretty scary.

At the same time, she recognizes her own habits in that sort of outburst. He's frustrated. They all are. But Jane knows from her own regrets that the only way to get answers is to remain calm and listen.

And add to things, now that she's found herself involved.]

I think that can go without saying, but what I'd like to know is how it happened again in the first place. Mister Zulf, I don't expect you to know what prompted the use of this weapon for the second go-around, but if you've got any inkling of what might've made someone push the button, I think we'd like to hear it.

[Will it solve anything? Probably not, but curiosity is a rarely sated beast.]

[evacuate]

[She meets Zulf's glance—and he says it, he tells them what had happened, and this time her heart jumps again, wild, and then goes still. For a moment the gravity of it all weighs too heavily to leave room for anything that isn't the thought of how could you, how could you, but then it falls and it crushes her and where there was too, too much before, there is nothing. Nothing at all.

Her wide-eyed expression goes cloudy. A moment ago she had gasped, hadn't even realized; she sets her open mouth into a hard line instead, and looks away from Zulf, stares at nothing.

Until Jane's question. Her focus sharpens and shifts to Raile. It's his question to answer, and she expects him to—she's resigned herself to it, more than anything; he can speak, so he will; things can go wrong, so they will.

She almost, almost frowns. The shift in her expression is slight, but there; it's harder to hold up walls of stone in front of him.]

[followsthevoice]

[It really was his question to answer, wasn't it? He'd experienced it twice now and even if he didn't know the specifics, he knew enough from Rucks. He gave Zulf a few pats on the back; his friend had done good in explaining things here, he knew the whole ordeal twice over had been more than Zulf should have been expected to handle, but his part in this was more or less over.]

I'll answer that one.

[His voice wasn't shaky at all now. It was crisp and clear and easily heard among the crowd; you had to speak clear on the Wall after all, sometimes your words were the only thing between someone and injury, so every syllable counted.]

Things ain't never been too good 'tween Caelondia and t'Ura, so much so that a war started out 'tween the two. Caelondia won, but I guess we were all too jumpy 'bout things we didn't understand...'bout people we didn't understand, so t'Mancers whipped up that weapon; easier t'jus' get rid o'th'boogeymen outside our walls than worry 'bout diplomacy I s'pose. I weren't 'round fer t'sabotage attempts...but I can guess people messin' round with their plans got t'Mancers' trigger fingers that much itchier. Didn't even need a reason I s'pose...weren't a good reason in the first place either, but weren't nothin' no one coulda done.

That said though, ifin' ya'll got any more griefs 'bout all this, y'take it up wit me. If yer gonna hold anyone responsible fer this mess, hold it t'the one who chose t'restoration option in t'first place.

[His face was grim, about as grim and gaunt and responsible as an 18 year old kid could muster, but he wasn't about to back down from this. He knew what he'd done, he might not have known with what Rucks told him that this could even happen, but that didn't by any means mean that he hadn't pushed the button. This was his part of the burden to bear after all.]

[hellpyre]

[Rin let out a sigh at that, shaking her head slowly.]

The only one who needs to hold you responsible is yourself. So long as you're willin' to do that then no one should have any beef with you, especially 'cause you were only doin' what you thought was right.

[She glanced to where Colin had wandered off to, towards the hospital a second after that and then back to the group.]

It sucks... it does, I ain't gonna deny that. But there's also shit all we can do 'bout it except learn from the mistakes and hope we don't make an even worse one once this is all over.

[She's not happy about it, nor about the reasons behind it, but like hell she was going to let Kid get tossed around for admitting the truth.]

[scary_music]

Right, right, what Rin-chan said. The only beef Ibuki has right now is in jerky form!

[... and to punctuate her point, she pulls out a piece of chocolate chip jerky and noms on it]

[bastionpc]

[Surprisingly, it's not Nathaniel who speaks up this time, but Zahi.]

So...if I'm hearin' y'all right, if we do this restore thing, well all go back but with our memories intact? And we'll get another shot at preventin' all of this?

[fuckthemancers]

It doesn't work.

[Zulf's tone is outright high and strangled now, and his hands are curling into fists.]

And I can't go through all of that again. [He just can't.]

[notachickenhawk]

<So you keep trying until you make things right. I've got a world I need to get back to and fight to keep safe. It's - if I don't, then it means turning my back on over six billion people.>

[He can't let them all down. He just can't.]

[blackblooded]

W-w-we can't. [Restore. Reset. The world back to the way it was before and then the calamity again.]

We can't. Th-th-that's what that means, doesn't it? It means that -- that we can't fix it. Um. If we go back, we can't fix things. Zulf might, but um... if they tried once...

It won't work.

[hellpyre]

If they've already tried to stop it once and failed, what makes you think that any other outcome is gonna be different?

[Rin isn't smart. She's the first to admit this, in spades no less. But she can figure out one thing from this discussion so far.]

Look, if we could all go back and warn them not to push the damn button, sure, I could see that maybe workin'. But if we reset, what happens? The rest of us are gonna go back to our worlds, right? Even if we remember this shit, I don't think any of us are gonna have any way to even get to Caelondia, let alone warn them!

... 'cept maybe Colin. And I doubt even wants to entertain the idea right now.

[She waves a hand then, looping it around in a circle.]

We'd keep goin' through the same thing, over and over again, probably worse each damn time. Yeah, I'd wanna save my friends, too, but not at the cost of repeatin' this hell.

[scary_music]

... we already know that restoration didn't work the first time, right? Right?

I mean, no way, there's no way we should go and push the button unless we know like over nine thousand percent for sure like... completely for sure that the calamity can be stopped the next time!

[she hesitated a bit, glancing at Rin. Ibuki really didn't want to get sent back to her world, and Rin was one of the few people that would know why. She'd told Rin some of that story just yesterday, after all. She liked the people she'd met on the island, true, but still...]

Besides, I...

[... might die if she gets sent back. If she ends up on that island again... and she wouldn't see anybody here at the Bastion ever again, even if she did somehow survive.]

[... but, was it really okay to put herself before the lives of... billions? Even more than that, even? At that thought, she just fell silent.]

[notachickenhawk]

<But ->

[He falls silent. He knows they're right, but... he misses the others so much that it hurts. The idea of never seeing them again is... unthinkable, really. He looks away, glad he's not in human form right now, or he'd probably be crying.]