sixthiterationlogs | things happen, that's all they ever do.

Entry tags:

things happen, that's all they ever do.

WHO: Reyes Vidal
WHERE: The bunker; the inn; the village generally
WHEN: Dec 2-5
OPEN TO: OTA, multiples for inn/village allowed
WARNINGS: Nothing really

Arrival in the Bunker (now locked to Kat)
The last he knew, he’d been trying to hitch a ride off Port Meridian, the crashed ark turned human city. He’d been standing in the elevator while it rose sluggishly towards the shuttle bays. Boring enough, yes, because the elevators always seemed to run far too agonisingly slowly despite their complexity, but it hadn’t been nothing out of the ordinary—

Until, the next he knows, the elevator has filled with water. The thought Is the ark malfunctioning manages to run through his head, but then he’s far too busy trying to find the door, failing, running his fingers along the crevices and edges of the container, realising it isn’t actually the lift anymore, and then, his worst nightmare: panicking.

Reyes’ nerves are steely even at the worst of times, but water is simply inexorable, unstoppable, unbargainable. Thankfully, the wait isn’t long before the seal hisses open and the water starts draining and someone (his liberator, he supposes) is helping him out, shaky and wobbly-legged and swearing in Spanish.

South Village Inn, a couple days later (OTA)
Predictably, Reyes gravitates towards the inn. It’s the closest thing to Tartarus, the bar he used to haunt — communal spaces where he can people-watch, get a sense for the group as a whole, possibly even eavesdrop.

But unfortunately, this place is nothing like the neon-soaked dive bar on his slum planet.

The room starts off empty when Reyes begins his inspection, but after a while he hears the creak of footsteps on ancient floorboards, and his head pops up from behind the bar, looking a little sheepish — and empty-handed, dusty. Poking around every single cabinet and shelf has led to absolutely nothing. “Is it true?” he asks with a gesture towards the empty bar, with the sound of a man who’s recently received a horrifying diagnosis from the doctor.

Around the village (OTA)
Reyes will be doing the usual for his first few days: roaming, information-gathering, people-watching, committing the layout of the area to memory. He’s also trying to suss out who lives where and if the fuss of a house is worth it, so can probably be found lingering and staring thoughtfully at the empty buildings, where a neighbour can catch him. He would also appreciate anyone willing to show him where to get/find food etc!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It's an island. I'm not sure where exactly." She made sure he had a firm hold on the bottle before letting go. Kat wasn't usually a touchy feely person but she didn't want to watch him go tumbling to the cave floor. "We're in a bunker. I don't know a lot about it but I was here when the alarms went off. I didn't want to leave you in there."

Kat didn't have the answers that he wanted but she'd try her best.

"I think the clothes in your pack are dry. You'll want to change before we go. It's winter." In case it wasn't cold... wherever he came from. "I can try and answer other questions for you but I arrived the same way you did, a few months ago. I don't have too many answers."

Even with her careful consideration and attempt to ease him into this gently, it was still a dizzying amount of information to parse: Bunker? Alarms? Why do I have a pack? Months? Winter?

It was a good thing, then, that Reyes used to parse flurries of information on the daily, sorting through logistics and plans for a sprawling criminal syndicate with connections across an entire galaxy. He breathed out, instinctively tried to smooth his hair back, then took a few more sips of water as he gathered his madly-spinning thoughts. Everything still ached, a little.

“Have we been kidnapped?” he asked, suddenly. Rebels had been kidnapping human colonists, for a time, and the prospect suddenly seemed plausible, even if he had no memory how he’d gotten here. Perhaps he’d been poisoned, or knocked out. “Where are you— where are you from?” The young woman didn’t look familiar, but he was sure he’d have taken note; even with the stream of faces through the port, a star-shaped face tattoo was noticeable.

"Yes." Kidnapped was the easiest way to explain it though Kat didn't think that their situation was that simple. This wasn't just another world but a world that had taken away her abilities as a medium. Nothing here was as simple as it seemed and she'd grown cautious over the last few months.

"I'm from Limbo City. I doubt that you've heard of it." Besides Vergil, no one else had known of her world.

She paused and slowly began to release him. It looked like he had his foot and while he appeared to be wet, he was sipping at the water and starting to look better. "Here. Let me get you a jacket while we talk. It isn't warm down here and I don't want you to catch a cold."

“I haven’t heard of Limbo City. Which planet?” Reyes asked mildly. “Or station, I suppose.”

The stunned shock and jolt of adrenaline was starting to give way to something more familiar: cold anger. (Who could have taken them? Could it be some straggling survivors of the kett, swooping in on the victors somehow?)

When she started rooting through the backpack, pulling out a fresh jacket and handing it to him, he accepted it gratefully and pulled it on over his wet shirt for some warmth; plus from the sounds of it, he’d have to change the whole outfit before leaving the shelter of this anyhow. (Winter! He wasn’t accustomed to cold weather.) More importantly, although he stood there half-shivering, he finally started sizing up the young woman properly. This stranger was kind, but the thief looked mistrustfully on such altruism; kindness came at a cost, and it felt like he was racking up a debt.

“My name is Reyes. Who are you?” he said, “and pardon me if this question is impolite, but — why are you helping me?” It could be some kind of simpatico between prisoners, but in his experience, even that would never have been enough.

Kat shook her head. "I don't know. We don't have space travel. Not with stations or anything." Which was probably for the best. Her home wasn't a pleasant place though she wondered if there were angels and demons everywhere and, like her home, people were blind to it.

"I'm sorry. The only world traveling I did before I arrived here was to Limbo itself." She didn't make it sound as if it was the same as Limbo City but a world of its own.

"I'm Kat." She should have probably mentioned that before.

His skepticism didn't bother her. She was used to mistrust and this wasn't an easy situation. She had been here when he woke and there was no way for her to prove that she was trust worthy. "I'm helping because-" She exhaled and just went with the truth. "Because this is the only help I can give. You don't have to believe me and you don't have to trust me."

She paused and then exhaled a tired breath. "I'd like to take you to the inn because there is a fire and food there but you don't have to see me after that." He didn't have to follow her to the inn but she hoped that he would. It wasn't safe out in the wilds.

No space travel? But how was that possible—

Reyes’ mouth opened, then snapped shut. He had a million questions, and more each moment as their conversation went on. Case in point, he’d found the device on his left wrist, where his omnitool normally sat, and he found himself plucking restlessly at it. He couldn’t find the catch or release, and it wouldn’t come off. He’d never realised exactly how naked he would feel without an omnitool.

“I’m not planning on letting you out of my sight just yet because, selfishly,” he started, “I have a million questions. Besides, all honesty, I don’t think you’re about to shank me. Are you?”

He was finally waking up properly, shaking off the stupor from the tubes, starting to snap back into his sharp, canny focus. Reyes was a fairly good gauge of character (it came from being an untrustworthy character himself), but Kat seemed earnest enough, and the water she’d offered him hadn’t poisoned him. Yet. He was ready to latch onto the first person he saw here; she could at least be a resource, a source of some answers, even if they were ultimately dissatisfying.

Kat nearly smiles. "I don't have a blade on me, so I think you're safe." She held up her hands to show him that she was unarmed and had no pockets in the dress she wore. She did have a jacket, much like Reyes, but it was resting across the computer monitor to their left.

"And I don't mind if you're selfish. How are you feeling?"

It was hard for her to remain passive when someone needed her help. She knew what it felt like to be helpless and it was a feeling she'd wish on anyone else.

"If you're up for it, we can head to the inn to get you something to eat. It's a bit of a walk and we can walk along the way."

“Damned disoriented,” Reyes answers honestly, then, “Yes. Let’s.” His answer is firm, immediate, grasping at any sense of agency and purpose that he can.

He winds up changing clothes behind a terminal while Kat averts her eyes, the man zipping up into some blessedly dry clothing, then shrugging back into the warm jacket before they step outside the bunker. Reyes normally takes the lead, but this time he follows along by the young woman’s side and his attention drifts while they walk, since he’s busy taking in their surroundings; it’s a good chance to get to know the terrain, building a mental map in his head while they walk. Sizing up the extent of this situation.

It’s a longer walk than he expects, but the physical activity keeps his muscles moving and helps him warm up. It’s waking him up. “So. You said you’ve been here a few months? How did we wind up here? What’s the island like?”

From what he can tell, their surroundings are florid, flourishing — it’s a far cry from Kadara.

Kat was polite and looked away as he dressed.

She had her own jack and a pair of warm gloves that she had borrowed from the inn. She tried to tidy up the bunker as best she could before they headed to the elevator that lead to the islands surface. It was freezing outside and the wind was biting cold but the town could be seen far off in the distance.

"I don't know how we got here. Nothing matches up." She shook her head gently from left to right. "The island is relatively calm. From what I've seen there are four seasons. There are others in the village, everyone tries to help each other."

Months. Seasons. This girl had spent months here without an answer as to why she was here, or how she even arrived? Reyes could feel a muscle in his jaw tightening, a suddenly strangling strain, the shock of his immediate arrival wearing off and the unfamiliar anxiety beginning to sink in instead. He’d started looking up at the sky while they walked — and the emptiness of that sky, without the moving glimmer of distant ships, no small shuttles taking off and landing constantly at port, was what finally hit him as being different from, well, anything in his galaxy. His boots felt land-bound. He couldn’t even jump-jet across this landscape to make the walk to this village faster. It was an odd kind of anti-vertigo that struck him, then, and Reyes paused, a hand against a tree, as if catching his breath.

“We can’t leave?” he asked.

Relatively speaking, Kat hadn't been in the village for very long. There were some people who had been trapped in the village for over a year or longer. All while being blind and bound by the constrictions of this island.

Her head shook as she cast a solemn look around the large island. It was difficult to see the edges of the island through forests and mountains but you could feel it in the air if you knew what to look for. Kat knew but only because she'd spent her life in a city that had been locked by land. It was different but not something she can put into words.

"There are miles of water around us and nothing to say where more land might be or if it exists. Technology is limited. That watch on your wrist is the most technology that we have. It allows us to contact each other and likely for our captors to keep tabs on us. There is no way to remove it."

Captors. That word put it all into stark contrast. “We lost colonists,” Reyes said slowly. “Rebels. They were kidnapping them. I never thought—”

Because he would have fought back, if it was him in the crosshairs, with his not-inconsiderable resources at hand. He was in a good position. He had technology, a stable port, power, weaponry, and most importantly, information. They’d won the battle for the galaxy. So why the fuck was he here?

That cool facade was starting to splinter, but the smuggler took a deep breath. In, and out, counting one two three, willing his pulse to settle.

“Do the captors ever come out to interact with people? Have you seen them?” Aliens was where his mind automatically went; in his experience the most sensible and rational explanation for something like this. Some mysterious force out of the darkness of space, whisking people up and taking them away.

"Colonists?" Kat didn't understand the context. She knew what the word meant but as he continued, she realized that his world, his home, was likely in the middle of a war or siege of some kind. This likely wasn't related to that. From what she's seen and experienced, this was above a single person's situation that pushed into new realms but she didn't expect him to believe her. People rarely saw what was outside of their own personal sphere.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She admitted in a soft voice. "But I'll listen, if you'd like to explain." Kat wouldn't push if he'd rather keep it to himself but she felt better after the offer had been made.

"And no. We have never seen the people who have taken us. They could be aliens, angels, demons or something new. The only clues we have been testing materials of different kinds. The room I had found you in, it has a computer that seems to…" Her voice trailed off and Kat found herself pausing, trying to find a way to approach a delicate topic.

"I believe that we are clones of our original selves. That we have been created and are being tested in some way." She looked over at him and wondered if it was too much at once. "I could be wrong. The other possible situation is that we are simulated in some way. I don't know enough about computers to know if it's possible. My world didn't have that kind of technology."

Reyes stopped walking completely, then, looking at her. An incredulous laugh made its way out of his throat, but it cut off once he realised that Kat looked deathly serious, simply staring right back at him: a little thoughtful, a little tentative. You’re kidding me died on his lips, unsaid.

“My world does have that sort of technology, but— but that’s absurd.” He literally pinched himself, felt the sharp reassuring jab of pain. But then again…

His mind was whirling with the almost sickening array of possibilities. It would almost be easier if he could reject the idea entirely. “Ford v. Huerta,” Reyes said, more thinking out loud for his own benefit, and then at Kat still looking lost, tried to explain: “It was a recent legal case in my… where I came from. A president died. And his brain functions were transferred to a computer. He remained president for a year afterwards, kept ruling, and the courts eventually declared it was legitimate. That it was still him. So it…”

His legs felt weak, but he kept standing. There was precedent; it shouldn’t even matter if he had been cloned somehow, it was still functionally him. And yet Reyes’ body did matter to him. It was his. In a life where so much had been taken from him, it had often been the only thing he could rely on.

“What does the computer seem to do?” he asked (demanded), picking up on what she’d trailed off. He knew, immediately, that he wanted to take a look at it. Later. Once he’d settled in, and quelled some of this roiling nausea in the back of his throat.

Kat patently tried to school her expression. For most people, this was hard. She'd been so disconnected from her life that it hadn't phased her. It didn't matter what body she wore, she was herself and no one was going to take that away from her. It wasn't going to change what was happening right now or what she had experienced and remembered.

"It's not possible where I'm from. My world has angels and demons and different forms of magic but nothing like this." She exhaled and glanced down at her feet before looking towards Reyes again. She felt awful for telling him this. "We are on the sixth iteration. There was a computer that we found in the bunker below us." The one they had just come from. "It had names of people from other tests. Our names and people we knew were listed."

He'd have to take some time and explore the systems in the bunker. "A lot of things are locked and even names are blurred but it looks like this is a place to test people and the lists are those who have died before us. My name was on there a few times." Which was where the cloning theory had first formed.

"It'd be easier for you to see firsthand but we should get you settled first. A place to rest and food. We're all figuring this out but we need to survive while we do that."

The word survive, thankfully, helped crystallise his attention, sharpening his focus back to what mattered in the here-and-now. Reyes forced himself to start moving again, one leaden foot after another. (Honestly, it was probably a good thing they hadn't taken the pod -- considering the timing, he'd likely have come into the village as a stunned zombie, overwhelmed with too much to process at once.)

"That's right," he said, mentally backtracking, thinking. "You mentioned an... inn. I don't have any money. Would they still take me without money?"

It was a too-familiar situation to be back in. Goddamnit, he'd only just gotten comfortable and settled back home, too. Now he was back to square one, or more accurately, zero.

Kat shook her head. "You don't need money. Most of the time things are traded but for the first few weeks it's understood that people are getting used to being here. You can help out if you want but it's up to you." She turned and continued to lead the way towards the village.

They pass Kat's home on the way, near the outskirts of town. She pointed it out and invited Reyes to stop by if he ever needed anything. She didn't expect him too but she lived alone and enjoyed having company.

With Reyes safely escorted to the inn, she left and gave him space to figure things out on his own.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

things happen, that's all they ever do.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

lol sorry kat, you broke his brain a little but he's dealing

hugs his brain

<3 + we could probably wrap soon w/ a fadeout on the rest of their walk-and-talk?

Sounds good! I sorta did a wrap up, hopefully that's cool!

perf <3