7 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
to_defend) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sixthiterationlogs2018-12-19 07:20 pm
to_defend) wrote in sixthiterationlogs2018-12-19 07:20 pm
Entry tags:
Closed to Eddie, but visible to people in the Inn around lunchtime
WHO: 7
WHERE: The Inn, later the forest, separate text to Altaïr
WHEN: Lunch (Day after for text)
OPEN TO: Eddie (Altaïr for text)
WARNINGS: Panic, will add as needed, Venom
WHERE: The Inn, later the forest, separate text to Altaïr
WHEN: Lunch (Day after for text)
OPEN TO: Eddie (Altaïr for text)
WARNINGS: Panic, will add as needed, Venom
Lunchtime
A routine had not so much been established as it had organically grown into being; 7 waking up mid-morning, going through ablutions and touching up the braided hairstyle that Altaïr taught her, which kept it up and out of her way. Then, she'd join Eddie for lunch at the Inn. She was warming up to the idea of people in general, even as it seemed more and more sifted in everyday; and while she may not be as relaxed as Eddie, she's not quite darting eyes about as she used to. One major change is that she's stopped carting her spear about everywhere she goes; this is not a hunt, it's a casual meal, and she's grown to the point that she recognizes it does not need to come with her here. All in all, it's a normal day, normal routine, normal conversation ... until there's an alert on her wrist device. She stares at it, frowning, then glances to Eddie before back at the device. Hesitantly, she taps the alert, and a little timer pops up.
It feels so good that people know now. Especially 7. It's hard to tell if it's Venom spilling over into him when he looks at her, but Venom is allowed his pleasures too. Indeed they're in more of an accord and while he sips at his water. It's peaceful. He nods to her and smiles, feeling awake and pleased to be here for the first time since his arrival. When she looked at the phone he paused, peering over and...
"When is that --" Before she can finish her thought, there's another little alert ping as a file message is received. 7's staring at it like one might stare at an angry rattlesnake - machines made her nervous and wasn't this just a miniature one? - but eventually reaches forward to open it, curiosity getting the better of her.
In The Library
There are books - open books, stacked books, old and musty and illustrated with simple lineart plates; something about alchemy. But the focus is that these books are Very Big; the perspective is narrowed in to a collection of burlap and canvas dolls - and a pair made of from gardening gloves - all only a few inches tall. Some are are adorned; one has a fancy hat with wire and a coin detailing, another wears a birdskull.
"Like 2! He always had to know -" One of the canvas dolls - the one with the fancy hat, a '1' drawn down the length of his back - reaches up to the book and tears off a handful from the page, gripping it in metal fingers and shaking it as if to make a point. "- too much!"
"I was right!" A burlap doll - unadorned - challenges the other; "You did send him out to die."
"He was old. He was weak."
There's an audible gasp from another of the burlap dolls; one eye, half his face patched with heavy leather, a makeshift quiver and crossbow across his back, behind him a doll with black and white striped cloth and splotches of ink across his body clutched a drawing to his chest.
The one with the birdskull glowers, but '1' continues, hand to his chest and the other in the air as if he spoke a singular, irrefutable truth.
"'Sometimes one must be sacrificed for the good of many.'"
"You coward!" Rage in her voice, the one wearing the birdskull leaps and swings her spear towards 1 in a single, fluid motion. Her white canvas back is covered with a faded red patch, nearly obscuring the '7' that had onetime been inked there. She attacks the other, her spearhead sliding in just under his chin, against his neck--
-- and that's where the video cuts.
The moment the video had stared, 7 had frozen stock still; seeing them all again - seeing this moment - when she's least expecting it is an absolute punch to the gut. She feels her blood turn to ice and her breath catches in her throat and that anger - palpable, unresolved, tucked away but not forgotten, flares up and for a moment she's not even sure where she is. When it cuts out, she pulls in a sharp breath, suddenly aware of the Inn again and glancing around like a rabbit that somehow inadvertently found its way into a fox's den. She looks at Eddie, part of her wants to say something, to explain, to get rid of this terrible burden that's weighing her down, everything between the loss of 2, the anger toward 1, the Machines, being here, being human, and how it's no longer just her secret.
"...What the hell?" It just bursts out as V stirs awake inside of Eddie. Are those toys?Is this some sort of...movie? TV show? he blinks at 7, at her horror, "...Did you- I take it you didn't mean to get the TV?"
Had the video continued, it would have shown 7 doing exactly what she does now; instead of answering Eddie, she pushes away from the table, ignoring any words or actions that speak otherwise, she turns and tears out of the Inn and runs as fast as she can towards the seclusion of the woods; somewhere dark and alone where she can tuck away from everything and everyone and try to process what just happened.
Text to Altaïr
UN: windmaker
hey. i was wondering if you were free today? i have something I want to show you.
[It was hard enough sending that text, so it takes a little longer after she's actually sent it to send the followup;]it's important. i think. it is to me.
no subject
No. We're not moving. Settle in.
"You said I reminded you of one...I remember..."
no subject
She'd go on to describe each of them, and admit that during the illness she'd seen Eddie as the one-eyed 5. Eventually, they'd get tired of sitting on wet cold ground and head back to the village.
Eddie wanted to stop back by the Inn, but 7 - emotionally exhausted from the ordeal - opted to head back to the house instead. She slept, long and deep, but when she woke up she wasn't exactly feeling rested. She wondered why the video had popped up, why this was all it showed, and why this moment in particular.
She thought about going out; it was past sunset and she could join Venom in the hunt, but she skept finding herself drawn back to the device and the video.
Settling herself cross-legged on the bed, she took a breath, and took a look at her messages. It was there, still, nestled on sporadic texts to the friends she'd made here. Steeling herself this time, she let it play through.
And then again, because 15 seconds was short. But everyone was there - except for 2, who was gone, and except for 8, who was guarding them.
It finished and she looped it back. She's not sure what she's trying to gain from watching it again; some sort of closure, maybe? But her anger still stirred. Her grief was highlighted, and before she realizes it she's fallen down an obsessive hole of watching it on repeat, shoulders tense, always expecting 9's call at the end that stayed her hand but it wasn't here, she didn't hear it, and she kept watching.
She couldn't stop.
no subject
Sleep Eddie.
Nodding to every human he encountered, Venom bolted for the house, gently moving through the door and knocking on 7's door.
7? Are you awake? Eddie is asleep. I am here and you must point me at this machine so I can eat it. Or at least dismember it.
no subject
"The Machine isn't here, Venom. That was in my own world." She looks at him, hulking in the doorway as he is, and wonders what sort of chance he'd have with the Fabrication Machine. He could probably take out the smaller ones without too much trouble; the Seamstress, and the Flying Machine. But a whole factory? "Even if it were here, you'd have your work cut out for you." She heads back to her bed, leaving the door open, sitting and queuing up the video again.