( open ) i'll fly you to the moon and back

[initiates]

Date & Time: September 21st - September 30th, 11:59 PM
Location: The Hold, the Moon Base
Characters: Any/all.
Summary: The Transports are evacuating to the Moon Base. Those on the Moon Base try to settle in and figure out their next move. Setting info can be found here.
Warnings: Talk of nuclear warheads and reference to immense loss of life. Please contact the mods should any individual thread get graphically violent or anything else of the sort.
Note: Use date and location tags in your subject headlines! Such as "On the moon, 23rd onward" or "On the spaceship, 25th" or "down at the Hold, 29th."

The Hold is a flurry of activity, grim faced members of the Initiative group directing supplies and people with the subdued air of people facing their own doom, and wondering at how to process the knowledge. None of the Initiative appears unaware of what will happen; their eyes linger on the Transports, expressions pleading, hopeful, doubtful, or immeasurably sad in turn.

Every eight hours, the space ship is sent back up with a load of people and supplies. The pilots are worked until they can't; the AI stolen ages ago by the Initiative greets and corrals people and supplies at both ends, and in the middle step between.

The network continues to broadcast on narrow channels between the Moon Base and Exsilium, up until the time that all connections are lost, with the carrier located en route to Exsilium. The first airship will pass by without dropping anything, but it's too early to celebrate. At a six hour delay from behind, the second airship arrives, and with it, the dark promise of the Black Code's nuclear weaponry.

The six hour window allows for time for those left behind, either by choice or circumstance, to be pulled to the Moon Base with the successful activation of the Transport Pad. New characters will ultimately arrive with the remainder of those not yet on the Moon Base, all in time to witness the explosive contact of the nuclear warhead with the ground of Exsilium live on satellite.

But until then, there's only the hurry, the silence, and the potential for full out rioting should the Transports spread word to the Exiles inevitably left behind to face this fate.

Comments

30th

[bumbles]

( He came in on the last flight - some dogged part of him couldn't leave the city sooner, kept trying to find some better solution. For now he's still wearing his Atlas uniform, but he's stripped away the red material that was ripped so badly through their time in the United Earth, so he clad all in black with the gold of his armour, and even that feels too flashy. Being wrapped up in the night sky seemed appropriate, but he has always been so inclined to melodrama, like Selene would say. Stop being so childish, Adonis.

When Donny spots Belle - he can't find it in himself to convince himself he is being Atlas, not really - he hesitates. Things in the UE had been so bloody and violent, but it's his concern for her that wins out over his nervousness, the tension running through him. ) B-Belle.

( Speaking, even with his mask. It used to be so important, but once that started to fracture and fall away, suddenly the pieces were giving way. Gently, cautiously, he rests a hand on her shoulder, but he tries to keep a step or so away so that he's not crowding her. )

OH MY GOD I DIDN'T REMARK THIS AS UNREAD I FUCKED UP I'M TRASH

[lucency]

Donny?

[ she supposes it's rude, in part, but donny will always be donny. he will never be atlas, mask or no mask. it doesn't make him any less brave in her eyes, any less a hero, but a hero under what she considers his real name.

were this a world constructed for vigilantes, her outlook might be different. and coming from a place in which everyone has two separate identities, she does respect the concept. but she has a name for him. and she sticks to it (it's the same in storybrooke, with rumplestiltskin - never mister gold, the pawn shop owner. always rumplestiltskin, the man with the mirrors covered and the teacup on a pedestal).

she turns toward him and she smiles warmly, a soft welcome that's genuine all the same. ]

I didn't know if you were going to show up.

i'm cry

[bumbles]

( Some part of him still grimaces at the use of his name. Or would, more accurately, if he didn't feel undone. Names and identities didn't mean a lot, here. Atlas and Adonis had both failed to save Exsilium, as they all had.

Donny makes an effort to echo her smile, but it's difficult. )

I, um. Thought about staying.

( Quietly, an admission not for everyone, that he had considered staying and trying anything and that he's sure he's not the only one, but he's not sure what it would have done to Max to know he'd broken a promise. She might never have forgiven him, resurrection tech aside. )

H-how-- how are you? ( He is fairly sure that is a stupid question. )

STAAAAAAAY WITH ME BABY

[lucency]

You could've. I'm sure they need help back there, as well. [ it's said helpfully, complete with a gentle smile. it's not a condemnation - why did you even bother following us? because - well - that's not the kind of person that belle is.

she folds her hands in front of her and at his question, shrugs. she doesn't go in for another hug; those are apparently reserved for the battlefield when things are super inconvenient. she's good at that. ]

I'm - I'm fine. Adjusting. Just like everyone else, really.

What about you? Are you alright?

BABY DON'T HURT ME, DON'T HURT ME

[bumbles]

In Exsilium?

( Quietly, but maybe he was talking about something different. He could have stayed in Exsilium, but how much help me might have been able to do was questionable, on the day before the bomb was due to hit. He can't get his head around everything, it all feels fuzzy. )

I'm f-fine.

( It's not emotion that trips his words, because there's a flatness in it. He's fine. He will be fine. He just has to be Atlas, be better, and he's scrabbling to build some kind of wall that all the disasters can go behind.

All that has happened since he got here was failures. Elmer's world being lost, the contagion, the bombing where people got attacked with nerve gas that he should have been able to dismiss with his air magic, Max being infected, Max being taken, and now this. )

in b4 night at the roxbury

[lucency]

Are you sure?

[ she doesn't frown, not yet, but her eyes express an immediate level of concern. he's fine, yes. he can walk and he's breathing and he's at least moderately in control of his wits, but there's a lack of emotion in his voice - no nervousness or shyness or trepidation or anything else that's come to represent donny, or become evident in his mannerisms.

she takes a step toward him, brows knitting together. an attempt to pry? perhaps. it's what she's good at, after all. she's never had a problem with potentially being invasive, even to people she doesn't know. the fact that she is acquainted with him honestly only propels that. ]

You don't sound convinced. Or like you want to be here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zochPeuCI5Q

[bumbles]

( Atlas is able to do some things that Adonis cannot. He doesn't step backward when people approach and doesn't cower. Where Donny might have shifted back to echo her approach, Atlas or this awkward in-between that cannot be either of them watches her, hardly acknowledges the fact that she is rather more in his personal space now. )

V-vigilantes-- shouldn't run. W-we-- ( No, not even we, because he's a hypocrite in many ways and wouldn't have tried to make others stay. Max has always been more concerned with tactics, with the long game. In all honesty, if she hadn't been pushing him Atlas would probably have martyred himself to his own stupidity a long time ago. )

Atlas should h-have-- have stayed. ( Softly. He should have stayed in the city. He should have stayed and tried until the last moment, even with all the logic and reason thrown around as to why they should make a strategic retreat. )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9nPf7w7pDI

[lucency]

You're the same person.

[ again - it's a complicated issue. she knows it. all masks and secret identities. and she wasn't there in storybrooke when the similarities were addressed, but residual rabble-rousing had made its way back through the town shortly afterward and - she agreed. she still does.

the residents of storybrooke are both.

therefore, donny is both. ]

There's nothing wrong with thinking of what Donny needs, Atlas or no.

You're lucky I'm on my phone

[bumbles]

That d-doesn't-- doesn't m-matter. I shouldn't have l-left.

( part of him resents Max, resents everything and everyone beyond reason. Leaving Exsilium wasn't right. Aren't some people meant to die? )

I n-need to-- to n-not be useless.

( quiet, still, but some things are too much for that wall, new as it is.)

xoxo

[lucency]

What? No, no - you're -

[ she can't even begin to explain, but it stabs her in her chest and she stares at him, completely flabbergasted.

the fact that some people will never learn or refuse to accept their own worth astounds her. when all things are possible, why would anyone choose to deny that. ]

Donny, stop. You aren't useless.

[bumbles]

You d-don't know.

( People say things without thinking, without knowing. And when they don't know they can't mean it.

Quiet, colder than he normally sounds, something angry lurking behind his voice. He isn't someone inclined to outbursts, when his anger does come more often than not it is a quiet, contained thing that he tries to push away because he doesn't have the right to be angry, his reactions are selfish, but now there is irritation in the tensing of his limbs, in the way he watches her. )

First home, n-now here. You have n-no idea.

[lucency]

I've seen you.

[ don't tell belle what she does and doesn't know. for all the anger lurking behind his voice, there's something equal in fury hiding just beneath the surface in hers, prepared and ready to boil over if it comes to it. she sets her jaw and it's not often that her eyes steel in the way that they've done now, but do not tell belle what she does and doesn't know. ]

On the battlefield. In Exsilium. I've seen you, and what you can do. You are not useless.

[bumbles]

( Donny's voice drops. ) I-- I introduced Max t-to the woman t-trying to k-- k-kill her, at home.

( He doesn't care. He done caring. He had mentioned his sister to Belle before, but not the full mess of it. ) That's m-my sister. And I c-can't-- kill her, and fix it, b-because she's my sister.

( Barely audible at all. ) We failed in that o-other w-world. And now-- Exsilium is b-being bombed, and w-- w-we're safe up here.

[lucency]

[ mentioned, yes, and she remembers, and for a moment, she goes still. she stares up at him, somewhat disbelieving, caught off-guard, but she shakes her head. ]

That wasn't your fault. You didn't know. You couldn't've known.

[bumbles]

I should h-- have.

( She'd been picking his brain apart for as long as he could remember, memories bleeding into nightmares and back. He has other people's thoughts and their lives bastardised and stitched into his head, he has demons wound around his spine. )

What? Fif--fifteen years of c-clues and I n-never figured it out? ( And Max had worked it out so quickly. He hates this. He hates every layer of skin that he peels back to find out more corruption within himself, things threatening to collapse inward. His jaw twists. )

F-forget it. ( This is stupid. He is stupid. )

[lucency]

She was your sister.

[ belle knows the feeling. her family isn't made up of demons, perhaps, but her sisters aren't exactly paragons of virtue despite their names. belle knows the need and the desire and the instinct to turn a blind eye, because it doesn't affect her.

they've never hurt anyone. not physically. there's nothing nightmarish. but very few families are perfect. ]

There's nothing for you to run from. And you can't blame yourself.

[bumbles]

Is.

( She's not dead (yet, not yet) and he still loves her so much that it makes all of this worse. Does he love her of his own will? Did she manipulate him into that, as well? )

I w-want to-- save her.

( But there's nothing to save, is there? He can't even save his own family, so what hope did Exsilium have? )

[lucency]

[ there's no more harshness in belle's look. ]

And you can. She can't wreak anymore havoc while you're apart.

You're going to have time to do that.

[ really, it's one of the thoughts that belle clings to, one of the things that she has to accept instead of kicking and screaming and tearing her own portal back home. if everything pauses, she still has time to save storybrooke. ]

[bumbles]

Yeah.

( time freezes, but he sounds flat again. He can't save Asteria, not really. He can destroy himself to take her attention away from Max or he can destroy Asteria. She's selfish, she enjoys inflicting pain, relishes it. The most complete solution is that they're destroyed together, and that way they'll both be erased from Max's life.

She hadn't talked about needing him or being his before Exsilium, or him being hers. This place had made things even worse for her. That was the only way she had ever started to talk about him so intimately. That had been the worst realisation he'd had for a long time.

Donny shrugs.)

[lucency]

[ she watches him, not saying another word for a long moment. points of moodiness, dreariness - it's more than that, she knows, and while she can't exactly relate entirely, she can put herself in his shoes. perhaps more than that: the man she loves more than anything was (is, she reminds herself, but she pushes the thought away because she's working on it) one of the most feared men in her home world. the one they turned to when they had nothing left to lose.

she knows what it's like to want to save someone from themselves. ]

You don't believe me.

[bumbles]

The only-- w-way to stop her is, um. W-when we b-both die.

( Quietly, watching the stars through the window rather than looking to Belle. )

Max d-doesn't know that, yet. ( It was obvious, logical, but Max hadn't figured that out yet, or if she had, she'd be in denial about it because somehow she's gotten the idea that she needs him in her head, and that's not right. )

I have t-to, um. That's the only w-way.

[lucency]

What?

[ it sets off her warning bells. she turns, full bodied, to face him, eyes wide and wild and no, that isn't an option. there's a way out. there has to be; such things are made up by the cruelest, most bloodthirsty people and belle has never seen such a thing played out, but there's another solution. there has to be. ]

Who told you that?! Why?!

[bumbles]

Asteria-- she l-likes c-controlling people.

( calmly, if that's the word for it. Maybe just flatly. There's been so much death, and there's so much of it impending, that maybe he'd just numb to it. )

N-no one told me. B-but-- it's the only w-way to stop her. And-- she's m-my sister. She shouldn't, um. Have to face d-death alone.

( He hates her, and he adores her, and he desperately wants to die. )

[lucency]

How do you know? [ of course he would know; it's his world. but she doesn't operate like that. she doesn't take such assumptions - because that's all they are, they are not facts - lightly. ] No. that's not - there has to be another way.

[ he's not going anywhere. not right now, not while she's there to watch him. but she's prepared to drag him back to shore anyway. ]

[bumbles]

W-what-- do you know about um, G-Greek myths? Adonis, and stuff?

( he's going somewhere with this )