it's a war in there [March OTA, including memshare]

[not_the_last]

Who: Cassandra de Rolo & those visiting her memories / OTA
When: March
Where: Around the Serena Eterna; also Whitestone, at various points in the past
What: Things are beginning to crack
Warnings: Game-typical angst; in memshares, murder, torture, vampirism, mindfuckery both magical and mundane, and potentially noncon/dubcon; other warnings to be added in reply headers as needed

A. you're just like them, you're unprepared

Cassandra's noticed the cracks, of course. Before she brushes against one, they seem alarming and inexplicable; are they a trick, a trap, a sign that this whole little artificial plane is starting to come apart?

(The thought she barely lets herself contemplate: a way out?)

After her first few encounters with them, the nature of them seems more apparent -- although there's no guarantee they aren't also any of her previous thoughts. The first time her own memories double on her, with faces she knows from here appearing in them, she locks herself in her cabin's bathroom and curls up on the floor of the shower, arms wrapped around her knees, struggling not to begin screaming for fear that she might never stop.

[This prompt is for interacting with Cassandra in the present setting! Feel free to run into her anywhere on board, either before or after memshares begin, or PM/ping me on discord to discuss a more specific prompt.]

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B. cause you don't know the terrain

Several cracks about the ship, as it turns out, lead to a world called Exandria and a little city-state called Whitestone. Those who tumble into them will encounter a younger Cassandra at some point in her past.

[Specific pre-discussed prompts are below! If you would like a different one, see the plotting post here or PM/ping me to discuss.]

Comments

[ss_buttcrack]

"Yeah. I think so too. Cassandra... are you--?" Once he gets a better look at her, he's quickly at her other side, helping guide her to a sitting position.

"Hey, Cassandra, I need you to stay with me. Can you answer me?"

[not_the_last]

She slumps down into a sitting position, crumpled like a dropped doll. "Mh," she says, and then, blinking, visibly dragging herself back awake: "Yes."

Percy sinks down cross-legged beside her and starts rummaging through the bag. "If they gave us flint and tinder," he says, "then maybe ... unless you have?" This to Crichton, in some hope.

[ss_buttcrack]

Okay. Maybe she's only tired and not... quietly about to dissociate like he was afraid of.

"I have a shortcut," Crichton answers, bringing his gun around in front of him. "This will light it. Here, can you go through the pack and find us something to eat while I get this going?" He looks at Cassandra again, not-so-subtly also trying to signal that Percy should check in on her too while he's at it.

Crichton uses the last of their dying light to guide him while he sets up shards of bark and twigs into a small triangle. Then, after setting the gun to low, he fires one shot into the middle and a fire immediately sparks to life.

"Oh, that's already better."

apparently I just didn't get any notifs on 7/1 :/

[not_the_last]

Percy nods, apparently catching the signal, and sits down next to Cassandra to coax her into helping him look through the pack. More bread, an irregular hunk of cheese, half of a long sausage that will probably look and smell to Crichton rather like hard salami; a small tin pot, badly dented but not cracked, with a little cloth pouch in it that proves to contain tea. "Oh, gods bless that man," Percy says fervently at that last, and immediately takes the pot the few yards down to the river to fill it with water.

He's back in time to see Crichton light the fire, and his eyes go very round behind his cracked spectacles. "That thing isn't magic, is it? How does it work?"

code push ate it

[ss_buttcrack]

Crichton nods along with that sentiment. That old farmer was a saint. He wishes it would have been safe to at least get his name.

Oops. He's been caught using his future tech. He should have seen that coming. Oh well, he's changed enough already, is this really going to hurt?

"It's not magic," he confirms. "But I can't tell you exactly how it works either. I didn't build it."

[not_the_last]

"May I ... look at it? For a moment?" The growing firelight has turned Percy's spectacles into opaque circles of orange light; there's a strange note in his voice, fascination along with a touch of something almost like recognition.

Cassandra looks up from rummaging further through the bag, and glances from Percy to Crichton and back.

[ss_buttcrack]

Crichton considers that seriously for a moment. "Okay, but I need you to listen carefully before I let you see it. It doesn't have an off switch, but this dial here?" He points to a dial on the side. "You can't turn this. If you do it wrong, you'll blow us all up. You understand? I'm setting it down to stun now, just to be safe."

[not_the_last]

Percy nods. "I won't even handle it, if you would prefer not. I'd just like to ... study it, if I might."

And study it he does, with an odd dreamy intensity, as they're eating their scanty-but-welcome dinner. There's no cup, only the little tin pot to both brew the tea in and drink from; they pass it hand to hand, holding it by the stubby pot-handle, alternating with the remains of the jar of buttermilk. Cassandra falls asleep sitting up, with the crust of her bread squashed in one hand, and very slowly slumps sideways against Crichton.

[ss_buttcrack]

"All right, here, I'll hold it and give you the tour." He'll proceed to point out the various features of the weapon, including the oil cartridge and and the strength dial.

Still with a mouth full of bread, he ends by explaining, "I call her Winona. I've owned other pistols like her, but she's the most reliable."

He goes to swallow and the bread sticks in his throat. Thankfully, one last swig of the tea helps unstick it. But it's then that he notices Cassandra has fallen asleep. He decides not to move her yet. Maybe now would be a good time to talk to Percy privately.

"Hey," he nudges the boy gently, "I know you're probably trying to keep a brave face for your sister, but if you need to talk about what they did to you, make sure you do. Don't hold it in. Find someone to confide in. Take it from me, ignoring the pain won't make it go away. It will pop up when you least expect it."

[not_the_last]

Percy gives a bare shadow of a smile on hearing the weapon's name, but otherwise only listens.

When Crichton makes his overture, Percy looks away from the gun for the first time, gazing into the fire.

"If she weren't here," he says, almost inaudibly. "If you weren't here. I don't know ... "

[ss_buttcrack]

"Don't," he warns gently. "Don't torture yourself thinking about all the could haves. All you'll do is wind yourself up in knots. If it will give you some peace of mind, I can tell you that your sister was always going to rescue you. Even if I wasn't there, she would have."

[not_the_last]

Percy starts to say something, stops. Breathes out, slowly, maintaining his fragile self-control.

"How did you ..." He looks up at Crichton, blinking behind his glasses. "How did you come to be there? You're not from here, I know that much, but I don't think you came with them either."

[ss_buttcrack]

"The how is a little fuzzy for me too. But, you're right. I'm not from this... world. I'm from somewhere very different. I don't really know how to get home, but I don't mind it so much at the moment. I think I'm where I need to be."

[not_the_last]

For a moment, Percy looks just a touch blank.

"You're not a Celestial," he says, in a tone suggesting he would be rather alarmed if he suspected otherwise.

[ss_buttcrack]

"I don't know what a Celestial is..." So, no. He's not.

[not_the_last]

"... Messenger sent by the gods," he adds, cautiously.

[ss_buttcrack]

"Nope. Sorry, Peanut. There's nothing divine about me. I'm a mostly normal human. I just happen to live a very complicated life."

[not_the_last]

Percy looks just slightly affronted at Peanut, but not enough to pursue it. Possibly because of what he says next.

"Well ... I'm very glad, and very grateful, that your complicated life brought you here when it did. I don't ... I don't know if we'll ever be able to reward you for it as we ought."

[ss_buttcrack]

That look is so funny, Crichton can't help cracking a smile. He's going to be 'Peanut' forever now.

"I don't ask for any reward. I'm just doing what I think is right. We all gotta help people where and when we can. If you can't pay it back, pay it forward. Help someone else when you have the chance."

[not_the_last]

Percy nods, slowly, and returns to contemplating the gun.

He falls asleep, eventually, leaving Crichton to decide whether to try to sleep himself, keep watch all night, or wake one of the kids part way through.

[ss_buttcrack]

No way in hell is he waking these kids. No matter how tired he gets, he's determined to stay awake and alert the entire night. He has to shove some snow down his shirt on a few occasions, but he manages it. Come the first morning light, he finally, gently, shakes them both.

"Sun's up. We better get moving."

[not_the_last]

It takes them about a week and a half to get to Drynna, following the river to have a sure source of water. The farmer's hastily packed food doesn't last them anything like that long, and they can't risk trying to find anyone to beg more from; by the end of the hike they're subsisting on foraged nuts, scarce fish, one winter-lean rabbit.

Standing watches through the night becomes a habit. Cassandra usually takes first, keeping her eyes open until she can't, waking either Crichton or Percy when she knows she's about to fall asleep; the other two split the remainder of the night between them. Aside from a wary fox that pads into their clearing one night and carefully backs out of it again, nothing disturbs them.

It gets less cold, at least, as they descend toward sea level and emerge from the woods. The mountains loom behind them, higher each morning than the one before.

And then one morning they come upon a place where the river bends, and begins to run alongside a broad dirt road. They should reach the little town of Drynna by midday.

"Maybe a cart will come along," says Cassandra in wistful hope, "and we can ask for a ride."

[ss_buttcrack]

One day, if he ever makes it home, he's going to kiss his dad for teaching him how to trap, fish, and clean his kills. Those lessons are more valuable now than all the years he spent at MIT. What he wouldn't give for some coffee, though, on those long nights standing watch.

"Oh, wouldn't that be nice," Crichton sighs right along with her. "His boots are better quality than either of their shoes and still his feet ache with every step. His everything aches. Cruise ship beds and lukewarm buffets sound like a dream come true right about now.

"What do we say if anyone does come by? They're bound to ask us what our business in Drynna is. They'll notice our clothes aren't exactly the kind people travel in willingly."

[not_the_last]

Brother and sister exchange glances, each with a measure of unease, and look back to Crichton.

"We could ..." Cassandra, tentatively. "We could tell people we were set on by bandits. And they stole everything else we had."

"Or that our house burned down," Percy suggests. "That would explain ..."

A beat; his gaze drops to the ground, and hers flicks away, a moment before he starts speaking again. There's a note of effort in his voice. "We don't look like a typical family group, is all I mean."

[ss_buttcrack]

Crichton looks at them both, long and hard, then glances to a fallen tree on the banks of the river and motions to it. "C'mere. Come sit with me a minute."

Gently he'll corral them toward that log, prompting them both to sit so he can kneel down in front of them and look into their eyes, glancing equally between them as he speaks. "This is all new, and it hurts but right now you're probably telling yourself it's better not to think about it. Right? You don't have to bottle it up. You can, if you're not ready to let it out yet. But...I lost my mother. Not the same way; she died from an illness. But there isn't a single day that goes by that I don't think about her. It still hurts and I'm not going to do you the disservice of lying and saying one day it won't. You two... you have a lot of hurt. Your family was stolen from you and it's not fair. Your home was taken from you and it's not fair.. None of this makes any sense and there's no amount of justice that's ever going to set it right. But you can talk about it. You can say what you're feeling. I'm not going to tell you it's wrong."

He puts a hand to each of their shoulders. "I promise you, I promise, I'm not going to leave you two alone. I'm sticking with you, whatever happens. You've trusted me this far. I know that's been hard, because I'm a stranger from a strange place. But, believe it or not, I've been in your shoes. I've been lost, far away from everything I ever knew and ever loved, running from danger, scared of what's around every corner. And there were people who took me in, picked me up and told me they'd never let me go. They got me through it. I can't pay them back for that, so..." he looks meaningfully at Percy, "I'm paying it forward. As insane as it sounds to say, I love you both. I'll do whatever it takes to protect you and I'll never regret that. No matter what. We may not be a typical family, but we are one. If you'll have me?"