LOG.01

[ximilian]

● ● ● L O G . 0 1

// PART I. summer cleaning  

The more days that pass on the station, one thing becomes increasingly apparent: the station is woefully unprepared for so many people arriving there at once. While the materials found in the lab or the armory are lacking, and characters don’t have many sets of clothes to change into, the most glaring problem is food: after days and days of nothing but dried jerky and canned beans, things may start to seem a little… well, dire.

But one morning, those who completed the tasks in the training room with the promise of a boon will wake up to a message on the network:

Congratulations! You have earned one (1) boon of your choice. Please enter your desired item here.

After they have entered whatever item they wish to get — well, at first nothing seems to happen. But after some minutes, those who are either in the living quarters or the kitchen area can hear the unmistakable whir of power turning on… and clatter. Lots of clatter.

1.0   Congratulations, it seems that the teleportation devices have finally stored enough power to send in a variety of items! On the platform near the living quarters, there is everything one might imagine from different planets: piles and piles of clothes in different styles, books, tools… oh, look, a headband and a comb! And that sure is a yoga mat. Best go sort through the pile and get what appeals to you, before someone else does.

2.0   For those characters who requested an item as their boon, the good news is that whatever they requested is there in the pile! The bad news is… it’s there in the pile, so good luck finding it — and convincing others it’s really yours, so give it back, please!

3.0   It’s not just the platform near the living quarters that is functional, now: it’s also the one near the kitchen. And that one is brimming with produce: fresh fruit, coffee beans, bread, different cuts of meat, cartons of milk and juice… there’s even some ice cream, though best get that to a freezer quickly! Enjoy the variety in your dishes, for now.

TOP

// PART II. lights out  

Two weeks before their first mission is supposed to start, in the middle of the day, everyone’s earpieces start to crackle with static. It starts faint, a sound barely there, but it grows into a persistent buzz that nothing seems to help — not attempts to contact someone else, mute the sounds, nothing.

Just as you’re about to go crazy and chuck the earpiece as far away from you as can be, the static suddenly stops.

And all the lights on the station suddenly go out, leaving nothing but darkness behind.

The static starts again, and finally, Viveca’s voice filters through.

// VIVECA.AI

It’s no good, the platforms took too much power, we need ——. I’ve tried fixing it, but it’s not enough. I —— the backup ——.

The characters may try to answer, but their comms aren’t connecting — it’s as if they’ve tuned into a radio channel they’re not supposed to be hearing. And perhaps more surprisingly, the next voice they hear is not Viveca at all.

// ?̴̳̥̱͎͓̼͇͖̫̄̉̐̇̄̋̇?̸͙̼͎̙̙̳͖͈͆̓̈̓̊͆́̂͗̆́͠?̴̛͓̬̮̏̈́̃̍̍̌͗̈́͘̚̚͠?̸͙̼͎̙̙̳͖͈͆̓̈̓̊͆́̂͗̆́͠?̴̛͓̬̮̏̈́̃̍̍̌͗̈́͘̚̚͠

Sorry, —— will have to keep ——————. Try to ——... emergency mode?

The crackle keeps getting louder and louder.

// VIVECA.AI

I’ll —— but —— help! They have to ————

With that, the earpieces go silent… and even if characters attempt to contact Viveca, they will receive no answer.

4.0   Left in the darkness, minutes stretch into hours without a flicker of light. The hallways are eerily quiet, with only the faint hum of machinery assuring you that the station itself is still functional and not dead. Of course, you may stay where you are and hope that the lights miraculously return… or you can navigate your way through the hallways and rooms with nothing but your memory to help you. It may be a good idea to get someone to go with you so you’re not bumbling around in the dark on your own.

5.0   Those optimistic about the lights returning will have to be disappointed. After several hours and nothing but radio silence on Viveca’s end, it seems clear that this is a problem she can’t fix on her own. If you don’t want to be left in the dark (literally) forever, it’s best to try and do something about it.

If you’re technologically inclined, the lab is the place to be: you may be able to connect to the station’s system, at least enough to figure out what’s wrong and try to fix it. But perhaps you have other abilities, those of more magical origin… with those, you may be of assistance in helping to replenish the station’s diminished power supply.

TOP

// PART III. mad world  

Eventually, everyone’s efforts will pay off and the station seems to regain some of its power back — at least enough for the lights to flicker back on, first in the living quarters, and then around the rest of the station. The resurgence of power also affects the simulation room as well, quiet and unassuming at first … but something seems a little off, the longer you remain in the space. For one thing, it flickers colour and light in a way that isn’t worrying, exactly, but doesn’t feel all that stable. And just when you think you should probably head back out, the doors close and a world builds up around you in meticulous detail — is it something you recognize or is it something altogether unfamiliar?

6.0   Creature Comforts: The simulation room picks up on the cues of its inhabitants, snatches of memory and knowledge of worlds that it isn’t wholly familiar with but seem to fit within the parameters of its code. Whatever world you’ve come from, you might note the familiarities, might even feel a little homesick. And so, the world around you might resemble a historical time period befitting of swords and gunpowder and large dresses with too much frill. Or maybe the simulation goes back even further than that: lush jungles and prickling heat, the sharp buzzing of hard-shelled insects hidden in foliage and the hiss of something else that seems a little ominous. Maybe the simulation slowly materializes into the place you’ve just come from before waking up here — all the way down to that coffee shop you like so much, the one with the really perfect latte.

7.0   A Fish Out of Water: It’s hard to say whether the simulation room has a sense of humour of its own, or if the power outage has made it a little unpredictable. Either way, the space around you fills up with images entirely unfamiliar to you, putting you completely out of your element. If you’re from a small town or a place where life’s a little simpler— castles, large stretches of field and open sky, say: what you see will be futuristic skyscrapers with all the lights on, and colourful bright screens everywhere. Is that a flying car? Geez, you’ve never seen one of those things before (not that you can reach it from that height). Or maybe you’re from a Dystopian wasteland: if so, welcome to experiencing an idyllic paradise with just the right amount of density, the right amount of kumbaya to fill in the questions you might have had of what life was like before you were born. The simulation room is here to put you out of your natural element without you realizing it.

8.0   101 Ways To Break Out (J/K, it’s 1): Of course you’re not stuck in this room. There’s always a way out, a lock to pick, the slight shimmer in the air that guides you to the seam that unravels the whole thing and lets you out. Depending on the setting your character happens to be delicately trapped in, it might take a bit of doing to find the One Thing Slightly Off anchoring you back to reality— a totem if you will. Find that thing, find the shimmer in the air and stick your hand through it, and you’ll find the room going dark around you, but in a ‘Hey, You’ve Completed this Simulation! Congrats!’ kind of way. The doors will slide open and you’ll be free to go, maybe on slightly shakier legs but in one piece nevertheless.

The TL;DR: Due to the power outage aboard the station, the simulation room is temporarily on the fritz. Here you’re free to choose the manner of simulation you want your character to stumble into, all the way down to the most minute detail. Go crazy! Remember whatever happens in this simulation stays only within this simulation and the room; it cannot and will not affect the rest of the ship. Simulations may have the possibility of changing halfway through, and depending on how many people enter the room after you, could end up changing more than once. The constant will be to find the exit trigger once you’ve been locked in.

TOP

F Y I

• The events in this log span the month of June.

• No one will be able to contact Viveca after Part II, even after the lights come back and the station’s power supply has been replenished. If your character wants to talk to her before Part II, feel free to use the Ask the AI page.

• For Part I, those who completed the tasks in the TDM will be able to ask for one thing they want to receive here. It can be an item from their home, or something else they’d like to have. If they ask for something living (like a dog, for example), they’ll receive a plushie of said living thing instead. Note that you can handwave completing the tasks on the TDM — we're not going to demand links to threads or anything!

• For Part II, those who want to try and connect to the station’s system can ask questions and suggest what they’d like to try to do here. How your attempt goes is up to chance, as the mods are rolling the results. Note that this is not mandatory and the mods are fine with handwaving what exactly gets the power to come back, and it can (and likely will) be a combined effort of many characters. There is no one right thing to do, but if you’d like to ask questions of what your characters would be able to do or find out when connecting to the system, feel free!

• Throughout the month, remember that all the locations in the two wings and the center of the station are available to use, even if they’re not detailed in the prompts in this log. So feel free to make your own wildcard prompts using the training room, the armory, the living quarters, the infirmary, the sunlight room etc.

• For those who didn’t get to play out their character’s arrival on the TDM, you can read more about what the characters see upon arrival here. Feel free to make your own prompts for that!

▶ NAV

Comments

[callada]

Ah.

[Well, given his own tendency to accidentally light things on fire here and there when just trying to have a smoke, he figures he shouldn't judge too harshly. This is one wild mistake, but it's just a mistake, and he gives a sympathetic nod.]

Well, let's get this cleaned up first, and then maybe I can give you some pointers. There's got to be a scrub brush in here somewhere, right?

[callada]

[Kids don't join up at twelve unless they have nowhere else to turn. That's not just his own story, but the story of any other dozen chore boys and girls out at Marineford, scrubbing ship decks and learning their knots.

So he'll hold off on asking about that, unless the information becomes volunteered at some point.]

I never was any good at science, but the folks who are always impress me. None of that sounds simple in the slightest, [he admits with a self-conscious chuckle.]

But I can picture that sort of thing being really useful for military uses. I bet someone always wants a better gun, bigger bombs.

[callada]

Another on the list of probably somewhere else, then. The thought occurs to him that it would be easy for someone to lie, to be from his world and say otherwise, once the general pattern became obvious. But they wouldn't have a reason to do that, would they? Especially if they didn't already know where he was from.

So he dismisses it. A healthy amount of paranoia has been largely responsible for keeping him alive at home, but judging when it's helpful and when it isn't is still important.

"Yeah," he says. "Normal, boring human. Though maybe not normal compared to all the other worlds since I've had a few people comment on my height."

He shrugs. It's weird to him that they're all so small; that he's the only one here he knows of who could touch the ceiling with the top of his head if he stood on his toes.

Human, though, through and through.

[chrysology]

Yeah. In Amestris, alchemy is used a lot with the military. Us State Alchemists are basically like their human weapons. Xing on the other hand with their alkahestry is more medical based, apparently. Depending on how you use it. Alchemy's pretty versatile. I've used it a lot in fighting or in fixing stuff that broke or such.

[He of course needs both hands. Or at least his left and something to draw with for the transmutation circle. But still. Even without going into detail, that is probably enough basics to kind of explain? Sort of.]

[cruelyethuman]

I was trying to find as- [the Darkling waves his hand through the air, even if neither of them can see it] the thing that goes click and then the lights come back.

[He huffs with frustration, keeping his fingers against the cool wall of the-- this.]

For give me, I'm not used to things that go click, or for the light to go out so completely.

4.0

[peasant]

[ her crawl through the corridors is an artless, graceless thing — nothing like years of ana kuya's voice echoing down tunnels she and mal had created themselves, mazes of chairs and books only a child could squeeze through. the cold metal is less forgiving than the warmth of mal's hands, than the scrape of wood pressing into her knee; it scratches her fingers as she clings to the wall, blind and half-panicked, stumbling through the hallways like a newborn fawn braving a strange new world.

she can already feel the bumps and bruises beginning to blossom on her skin, hissing out a breath when she fumbles into the corner — again — and knocks her hip into its sharp edge. it's poetic in the worst way, to be trapped back in the cold grip of darkness — a sun summoner that can't reach for the light, fizzing out every time she struggles to grasp it, in some vain attempt to illuminate her way through the ship. a frustrated sigh parts her mouth, breezing through, just in time for it to transform into a yelp as fingers pry into the delicate bones of her wrist.

her body senses him before she registers the demand of his voice, buzzing to life like the bulbs that have gone out above them, electric and whirring — only for her summoning to draw up short, flickering and fading into nothingness. an irritating confirmation that there's nothing for her power to draw upon, even amplified by aleksander's presence. she feels like a worse fool for hoping his touch would bring the solution, after all that he's done to bind her power to his control, biting back on her disappointment as she shoves her palm into his chest and pushes.

if he's truly followed her here, if they're truly trapped together, there's little more she wants than to scurry away before he can catch up to her again. ] Let go of me.

[callada]

[There's something about this he doesn't quite understand, clearly. He has a draw from his cigarette, but as his hand drifts back down, his expression is puzzled. How to word this question...]

When you said it was about analyzing matter, I figured you did most of your work in a lab. But now I'm starting to think that's not the case. "Human weapon"?

[cruelyethuman]

[He hasn't been a kind man in decades, and when she pushes hard at his chest, the Darkling lets her go, the fabric of her dress slipping through his fingers. Let her fall if she wants it so badly.

There is no way to see her, to know what happens next, except to listen to the sounds of clothes rustling and maybe her body hitting the floor.]

Careful what you wish for, Sun Summoner.

[And he buries his hope beneath contempt. Buries the deep disappointment that his touch didn't spark her Sun beneath layers of long-practiced disdain. She tried to kill him not that long ago, her and her tracker friend, the fight at the Fold and the cold, cruel embrace of the Volcra. His hand hurts just thinking about Alina.]

I might be tempted to give it to you.

[peasant]

[ gravity does the work of jostling her into the metallic embrace of the wall, momentum tilting her balance. the bone of her hip connects once more with an iron clang, but she refuses to give him any satisfaction beyond the sharp and pained suction of air between her teeth before she can bite it down. countless centuries he's survived, honed his craft and bided his time — but what disturbs her most is how obnoxiously human it is for him to behave like a cruel, bullying child.

thankfully, she's had her fair share of experience in enduring those. he won't be the one to break her as he had tried, remolded into his weapon. small fingers grope at the strange piping etched into the wall, relieved for the chasm of distance between herself and kirigan — even as a fist clamps around her lungs and squeezes at the sharpened point of her title spearing between her ribs. sun summoner. saints, what a fool she had been to believe she had been so valued, so wanted, when she's never been anything to him but a vessel for his own ambitions. just a girl conveniently containing the power he had sought for so long.

that fury — at his manipulation, at her own foolishness — twines together, dual flames that burn brighter. it heats her into imperious defiance when she bites out, ]

That's hardly a threat. I would take a thousand falls over letting you lead me through the dark.

[ he's done far worse to her than leave her with what will inevitably be a nasty bruise. there's a sound of fabric shifting and the sound of her tentative footfalls as she slides along the wall, unwilling to wait for him — and endlessly frustrated by her inability to get away from him quickly when she can scarcely tell left from right.

there may be no light in this hallway to draw to her fingertips and light the way ahead, but — he can't be faring any better, if he's going around grabbing at strangers. unseen, her lip curls into a purse, a stab of spiteful satisfaction tearing through her. ]

What's wrong? Can't find your way out of it on your own?

[cruelyethuman]

[Her waspish words echoing through the dark hallway, and the Darkling clenches his hands hard enough for his nails dig in to the soft part of his hand to stop himself from responding in kind.

About the sacrifices he had made, all the plans for peace that she ground to dust under her small heels. In her ignorance and her foolish, misplaced pride. He had built the Little Palace for Grisha like her, had hunted the stag, and he had kept her safe. So that his dream of peace for Ravka could be brought to life. So that all Grisha would finally, finally be free to live the lives they were supposed to have. Not bound by oafish kings or the whims of the otkazat’sya, but free. Free to own land, to build a home, raise a family and to be, without the threat of being burned at the stake or thrown in a frozen lake hanging over their heads.

But all of those carefully made plans had come crashing down.]

We were ordered to help each other, the voice was clear on that.

[And he had had so many plans. Had spent centuries dreaming them up and carefully setting everything up for the day, the hour, when he would finally meet his equal. The mythical and iconic Sun Summoner, the one to bring him balance. The Light to his Darkness. The one who would live forever, with him.

The dreams of that day had been varied. Would it be a child, found by the Examiners, that he had assembled. The first line of defense to make sure that Grisha children were found and protected as soon as possible. To make sure they weren't killed or left to starve by ignorant villagers. Maybe they would have found the child and brought him or her to him. To raise without the sickening fear of having to bury them a few decades down the road. Or a liberated prisoner from the camps in Shu Han, rough and mistreated and grateful for the protection.

For years, there had been the bone-chilling fear of the Sun Summoner being captured by Fjerda without his knowledge. Burned and forgotten long ago, and he would have to wait in vain forever. The years stretching out, endless and alone, to a bleak future. One lifetime after another.

But it hadn't been any of that - it had been Alina. A First Army map maker. Too stubborn and too something to see the gift that she had been given. Too full of fear to see what he had been trying to show her. And she threw him to the volcra.

The Darkling's lips twist in the dark, as he feels his way forward towards her voice.]

Maybe I can't. Maybe I had hoped that your Sun would work here. It seems that I was mistaken.

[peasant]

[ help. the word burrows into her skin, gouging deep — as piercing as the shards of protruding bone cloaked by the heavy, draping fabric of her borrowed dress. there's no doubt in her mind as to what the darkling's help looks like when she, herself, is a reflection of it: collared, grotesque, twisted. self-consciously, her fingers tug the swath of dark fabric higher, folding over her throat with a deepening scowl. ]

You only want to help yourself.

[ a scoff gusts past her mouth, disbelieving. she has to sink her claws into that skepticism, refusing to release it, refusing to dwell on the sudden, unbidden curiosity that bleeds into her mind. asking after the regret that brought him here feels like digging fingers into a raw wound, too vulnerably human of him to bring her any comfort. she swallows the question down, letting it scrape her throat like shards of glass.

perhaps his disappointment is its own answer, in that regard. a slip of remorselessness over binding her, mourning that her power hasn't risen to his command here. her eyes narrow through the cloak of inky black, uselessly glaring in the direction of his voice. ]

Well, it doesn't work here. [ she snaps, a half-truth; it had operated well enough in the simulation, in the comfort of her own room when she had willed it to her for the reassurance it brought. panic colors the seams of her awareness, gripping and suffocating, but she stubbornly pushes through it. ] So you can haunt someone else.

[ in the aftermath, she wonders which would have been the more foolish choice: admitting that her summoning hasn't fully abandoned her, or leading him to believe she's useless. a chill shudders through her, struck by a vision of what aleksander must do when he discards an asset that no longer benefits him. maybe she's made a stupid miscalculation in hoping it would convince him to leave her be. ]

I have it — [ her knee jerks into a bend in the hallway when his blind reaching brushes his hand against her side and sets her jerking away, too loudly to be played off as anything but her own clumsiness. and still, stubborn as ever through more clanging as she edges into the next hallway, she grits out: ] I have it handled without you.

just wanted to add - unreliable narrator over here. Warning - evil lies, even to itself?

[cruelyethuman]

It pleases you to think that, doesn't it?

[And just like that, it's the skiff all over again. It's the Army tent on the dead sand in front of the Fold, and her face twisting up in anger and revulsion at him. As if he hadn't handed her the greatest gift in the history of the world. Had handed her a mistake, even. Because the amplifier was not, had never been, a one-way street and he should have known. He would have known, if all the decisions hadn't had to made in split-seconds and if all of his careful plans hadn't been ruined by her.

The Darkling knew that he felt it, every time they touched. That she felt it too, like calling to like, his powers surging under his skin to reach her and he misjudged the Stag. Had made a play that came around to bite him, that this one would be just for him. To let him use the Power she didn't even want.]

That all I do, I do for myself. I assure you, it's not.

[Never had been, not even his greatest mistake. The one he'd get a chance to undo by doing this. By being here and following orders from the voice in the little button he had put in his ear.

The only thing he had done for selfish reasons in the last century, had been her. To keep her. And all of the friendliness and kindness he had forced in to his voice while talking to the other people. To the ones from distant worlds as the notes and the voice kept repeating - trust each other, help each other, work together and your wish will come true. It disappears, and the Darkling's voice drips cold and angry.]

It will come back, Alina, and when it does you will come to me. Who else are you going to run to? No one here could possibly understand, no one here can help you. You'll have no one but me.

[None of this is going to matter, not when he gets to undo a mistake. A wrong turn in the forked road of his long life. Not Alina, not this strange place and not the Fold.

He would get it all right the second time around.

So, he stops. Stops moving and he slows his breathing until it's barely there. Close to soundless as he stands in the dark, waiting her to run. Again.]

sorry for the delay!

[totheright]

kaoru will ask for a sewing machine and some thread, please, thanks, he got brought here in his pajamas, he can't live like this.

(related question: will kaoru be able to plug in the machine somewhere on the ship to actually use it? if so, i'll assume he won't be able to when the power goes out!)

7/8 also i hope it's okay that i'm late!

[volumes]

[ He knows what it is. Not that he'd ventured far from Missouri when he was still on Earth, but he knows it's one of the bigger, human cities. New York, maybe. ]

Something out of the movies. [ His answer is unhelpful. And also sudden; he's just stepped up next to this other guy, and is looking fairly out of place.

Or maybe just uncomfortable. ] You ever hear of a planet called Earth? I haven't been there to really venture around in awhile, but that's where I'd place my bets.

[ And he does not want to stay. The idea seemed cool, great, awesome for approximately thirty four seconds and now Quill is completely done with it. ]

[coordination]

Hmph. They better be picking up the slack if I'm not there! [ He sounds cranky, but there's nothing in his tone that implies he's actually assuming 'they' would be that lazy. Whoever 'they' are in his own case. He just had to be overdramatic. ]

But I don't really like having to leave any slack to pick up in the first place. [ Ever the hard worker, Yzak has a bit of a problem when it comes to asking for help. Even when it comes to his best friend. ]

I'll make it up to them, though, by accomplishing our mission here. No matter how long it takes.

[coordination]

[ They can hate feeling out of their depths together. ]

There's plenty to be done. If there's an issue with the main power, the first thing we need to do is figure out what the issue is, and then from there figure out what to do to fix it. Some of this technology is pretty advanced, even to me, so I'd hope any issue is easily fixable and created in the first place to not critically fuck up.

Machinery like this isn't my specialty, unfortunately. I have some experience with basics, but it'd be great if someone else here had a better deal of it.

[chronosynthesis]

"You are taller than any human I've met." But far too gangly to be a Norn. Though his brow quirks up at 'boring'. "Are most humans where you come from so tall?"

Humans, at least, make sense from other worlds. They're not even native to Tyria.

[chronosynthesis]

Right, the button. [He's seen enough machinery to understand, at least, how power switches work.] But I worry this may be a much deeper issue as I have not seen any working light through the building.

[Neither of them know what a space station is.] Did you hear anything before it went dark?

[chrysology]

Well, yeah most alchemists have a lab and a library. It is a science and there is research involved. But it all depends on the way you use alchemy. What you use it for. I've helped fix things for people and helped try stop a flooding river for example. I'm also aware that as a State Alchemist I could be called up by the military to use my alchemy to fight if we were at war. I can make weapons, assuming I have the metal, for example.

[But evidently. Whatever his motivations on joining the military they have more to offer him that he considers that risk of being called on to fight worth it. Or at least he did. He's kind of about to become a fugitive and all.]

LMAO warning: when you're such a practiced liar, you lie to yourself without realizing it

[peasant]

None of this pleases me!

[ her shout lashes like the sharp strike of a whip, barreling in an echo down the corridor. alina would flinch from the exposure of it, their argument rattling through the metallic insides of this ship for all to hear, if not for the sudden outpouring of her fury — and the reminder of the flint that had sparked its explosion. his betrayal, her enslavement. her naivete, and the endless centuries he's spent crafting the lies that fill his pockets, every glittering promise he had handed her as though it was treasure.

there's nothing pleasing in discovering how stupid, how wrong she had been to let him lure her, dangling acceptance and adoration like bait on a hook. to witness the lives he was willing to destroy, all that he would take from her to sate his lust for power. at her sides, her fists curl, accusation venomous on her tongue when she spits, ]

All you've done to me was for yourself.

[ even now, the promise of his help feels like a pointed threat aimed directly at her. a warning that promises punishment for her resistance. alina fights through the sudden shudder that wracks her, chilling the blood in her veins into an icy sludge. she thinks of the alliance kaz had extended, thinks of how easily aleksander could rend his limbs for daring to offer it at all, and bites into her tongue to prevent herself from insisting you're wrong. i do have help.

and to prevent herself from hearing how unconvincing it rings. only aleksander knows the shackles of this power, has felt the chains of eternity. she shoves past the thought, furiously shaking her head in the dark. ]

I know what your idea of help looks like. [ her fingers beat against her collarbone, avoiding the piercing thorns of bone that rest in her skin, hidden beneath the drapery of her dress. she swivels her glare in the general direction of his voice, squinting like she might be able to see him. ] Am I supposed to believe your summoning works here? I thought you would be used to navigating shadows. Can't you just ... banish them out of your way?

[chrysology]

I dunno if this is a dream if the others know we are gone or whatever back home. I guess I'd just hope Al and the others aren't missing me and worrying.

[They were anyway because Ed ended up passing out and all and separated from them but. Regardless. It isn't like they can do anything about that. He's trying not to think too much on how worried Al might be. The last he recalls was trying to deal with his injury after falling down the mines fighting Kimblee.]

But yeah. I plan to do what I can too. To get however many of these orbs I need to keep my promise to Al. Not that there's anything we can do from here otherwise, really.

[cruelyethuman]

[What he should do, is leave. Walk away, and leave her to her ill-advised and childish tantrum. What right did she have to be angry? She's the one who stabbed him in the heart and left him to get devoured by monsters. The Darkling had granted her a gift, a powerful amplifier, and he had granted her wish - take these powers away from me. Had taken the obligation and powers in to himself, to do what had to be done.

He sneers in the dark, lips pulled back from his teeth as he listens. Her voice echoing down the black corridor, and his heart beats stronger than ever.]

Using shadows on darkness is like pouring oil on a fire. I already explained this to you, months ago.

[Was it months? It could have been weeks, or years. Time is slow and too fast, all at once, after so long. The only clear memories imbued with strong emotions and caught like insects in amber, forever unchanging.]

How easily you forget. Did you also forget how willing you were to give yourself to me? [and the warmth seeps back in, hiding the truth in the lies he tells himself.]

[cruelyethuman]

Just a loud and very annoying buzzing sound. Nothing that made any sense, and something- [Another thing he doesn't have a word for, except] I heard someone talk.

I haven't wandered that far yet, and light might still be around the next corner. In the kitchens perhaps, or the room with all the... things.

[Since being inactive certainly wasn't doing anything, the Darkling starts walking down the hall again, his hand touching the wall the whole way.]

Come on, then. If you're going to explore with me, you might as well follow me.

I backtag forever, so come at me, starlord!

[cruelyethuman]

Earth?

[Like it's a word he's never heard before, and the Darkling sneers at the people, the loud noises and everything else that's just unnatural and chaotic. It's nothing like Ravka, like nothing in his whole world. This Earth, which is a movie? All of these twists and turns and strange things are testing his patience.]

And why- [he says slowly] would I be on this Earth? This isn't what I asked for at all. Did you do this?

[cruelyethuman]

[Again, it's words and phrases that make no sense in context and it is only the total darkness that hides the frustrated and angry look on the Darkling's face. He huffs.]

Alright, fine. But if I- if we [he corrects himself] find this machine, you stand a chance at fixing it. Fixing some of it.

Well? What are we waiting for, we should find this thing and you will fix this.