Other Worlds: V 2.0

[initiates]

Date & Time: May 21st, beginning at 0900.
Location: The Initiative Hold and all throughout Elmer's world
Characters: Anyone participating in the fighting, anyone staying behind.
Summary: Elmer's world is fought for and lost.
Warnings: Violence, death.

They reopen the portal at 0900, May 21st. The first scientist who stepped through was killed within thirty seconds; the rest who followed made it back through to Exsilium, albeit not unscathed. The portal was shut again by a panicked operator, although a second operator knew to keep the coordinates locked.

Within ten minutes, the alert had been sent out. There's no time to wait for the Transports to gather en masse; as soon as they have a sizable enough force to stand a chance at fighting through and clearing their gateway's location, the door is opened again.

Immediately inside the door is a desolate, grim scene. What had previously been the coast of Japan is now scorched earth, blasted sand, and little else. As the first point of contact for this world, it has undoubtedly suffered the worst. Here, the UE didn't stop at governments, financial centers, and capitols — the UE destroyed everything in sight. There are enough UE soldiers remaining in the broken country to give the Transports a difficult battle, although by now the bulk of their forces have moved on.

The Initiative will soon realize the necessity of opening more gateways, just as the UE had done. Transports will be deployed to London, Berlin, Paris, DC Washington, Moscow, Beijing, New York City, Hong Kong, Madrid. Through each of these windows, the destruction is staggering. Buildings are more husks than structures, everything that can burn is alight, and the death toll is off the charts. Blackened bodies seem to line every street, while pieces litter the ground among the rubble. There's no doubt that the UE has no need of the people of this world. They're after resources only, and anything and anyone already here is to be removed.

You can find UE soldiers everywhere. They move in coordinated squadrons of 20, and each of them carries a small arsenal. Even without their incredibly advanced and destructive weaponry, they're fearfully formidable. Each soldier, while still only human, is a genetically perfect clone, further enhanced by technological implants. They're all highly trained in physical combat. Even if you can disarm one of them, don't count on close-range attacks being any easier to handle. They've brought along cannons, small flying craft, and lightweight tanks. Each of these is the top of the line in terms of technology, geared toward destroying as much as it can, as quickly as it can. The United Earth is here to destroy, and they won't stop to wonder why their targets go from being civilians and scrambling, off-guard, comparatively primitive militaries, to trained and powered Transports.

For anyone staying at home, they'll find that any Initiative presence has withdrawn fully to the Hold. All Initiative employees are needed, and most of them in the med bays. The majority of the Initiative focus is on recalling and resurrecting fallen Transports, but attention is still needed for the living-but-wounded. Any Transports who stay in Exsilium and offer their help will have it immediately accepted; they'll be put to work in the medical wings, runnings supplies, or simply set at a machine and told to keep an eye on the numbers: Transport vitals, UE movements, and maps upon maps of changing statistics and colors.

At 1500, the Initiative will recall all Transport soldiers back to Exsilium and seal shut the gateway. The UE numbers are too great, their soldiers too powerful, and Elmer's world is lost.

Comments

[tragicomedienne]

Then what was the point?

[What's the point of any of it, if this can just happen again and again? As far as she's concerned, this was anyone's last chance at maybe going home.

Nanami tightens her jaw, navigating around Asuka (not looking) to lead her back out front. Then she says, still walking away, looking forward.] You shouldn't have gone.

[redheadcarrier]

To buy time? I don't know.

[She follows Nanami, steering herself as best she can and still acutely aware of the fact that she's still slightly disoriented. She keeps herself moving, though. If she stops, she'll have time to think again. Nanami's words make her shoudlers tighten up and her stomach knot itself up and she stops for a moment, eye locked on the floor just behind Nanami's feet.

She could yell at Nanami and tell her that she did great things. She could argue. She could scream or cry or a thousand other things that would push the responsibility for her injury onto someone else or onto the Initiative. But she went because she wanted to prove something. She went because she wanted someone's approval. And she hadn't accomplished anything other than adding another body to the long lines of injured and wounded.

She wants to curl into a ball and die.

She croaks out a response (she has to force the words one by one, fighting against the ingrained habits of the last eight or nine years of her life).]

...yeah. I shouldn't have.

[tragicomedienne]

There just isn't one.

What did they expect would happen? What did they even think...?

[Not even 'what did you think. Nanami's voice is cracking and she swallows angry tears. Her face feels numb and wet, like she's been standing in the rain too long. In compensation the rest of her feels far less numb than it has for the past lifetime it feels like she's been here.

Nanami can see too clearly now the lines of manipulation, the song that people have been singing in various tunes for so long now. It's not that she ever didn't believe it - it just stings more now, obvious and raw.]

Hey. Does it hurt? Why don't you have them give you something?

[Her chest and stomach heave nauseously and she swallows again.]

[redheadcarrier]

They weren't thinking.

[Her tone is flat. It seems obvious to her (she's fifteen, after all, and knows everything, even if she thinks poorly of herself). Honestly, she's tried not to think about the pain or the injury and Nanami's question stings. She takes a few steps forward until she's standing next to Nanami, eye locked on the corridor ahead of them.]

...yeah, it hurts.

[It's still flat, her voice a bit stiff.]

And I don't want anything that strong. I don't -

[She shouldn't admit this to her of all people, but she seems to understand so much else, even if Asuka hates her.]

...I don't want to be that helpless. Or useless.

[Her lips twitch.]

Does that meet your approval, princess?

[tragicomedienne]

[Having Asuka standing next to her only heightens Nanami's discomfort. She wants nothing more than to bolt away like a spooked horse, or to be sick.

She doesn't want to be sick, but she might.]

No.

I think it's stupid.

Why don't you look out for yourself?

You're not thinking, either! They don't care if you carry around a box of bandages! Make them give you something! Make them pay - pay you back...

[Nanami blinks. Her eyelashes are wet; how strange.]

I knew you were stupid, but not enough to care if they think you're useful or not.

[redheadcarrier]

You just don't get it, do you?

[Her knuckles are starting to turn white where they grip the box she's carrying.]

I can't be useless. I can't be nothing. If I'm no good to anyone, I might as well be dead.

[tragicomedienne]

[This is not the opportune time to recognize something in Asuka, so of course this is when she does.

To be useful, to be loved - whatever difficult to quantify desire for feelings.

She hates seeing it now, for the first time.]

...I don't think you get it either!

They don't care if you're useful or not! So why do anything for them? If you're going to be selfish at least own up to it.

They don't care about you at all, so just do things for yourself.

[If Asuka had wanted to lie down and die she would have done it already - and all these people coming back from death, who's to say they wouldn't have traded with her in a heartbeat?]

[redheadcarrier]

[How is she supposed to explain this to someone? Especially her? How does she tell someone she despises that she hates herself most of all and that she can't be expected to do anything for someone so worthless? How does she explain that she needs someone else to love her because she can't love herself?

She can't and she's not sure she wants to.]

I can't! I can't do it for myself! How canI, when I'm not worth anything?

[She's turned to look Nanami in the face now, even if she's disgusted by what's happened to Asuka. She hurls the box she's holding against the wall as all of the feelings of inadequacy and anger and hurt come boiling out for a moment.]

You don't understand at all!

[tragicomedienne]

[Nanami is in no state, physically, mentally, or emotionally, to deal with the outburst. She isn't mature enough to handle this, or to comprehend what it's like for

Even when she wished the worst misfortune on people she despised, she had never been able to conjure up a mental image that matched this kind of suffering.

She bursts into tears.]

Pick that up... [Louder, her voice shaking:] Pick it up!

If that's what you think, then it's not going to matter if they pat you on the head afterward or not!

[redheadcarrier]

[Why is she crying? Asuka doesn't understand it. She's not the one-]

Of course it matters! Why don't you understand, you stupid-?

[She's bared a part of herself to Nanami and she can't take it back now. She glances away with a frown, biting back something sharp.]

Why do you care, anyway?

[tragicomedienne]

[She's angry, that's all. Angry and tired and...scared. Nanami wipes her eyes furiously.]

I don't care!

You're stuck here like the rest of us and you're wasting your life living for others like that and they're not going to care in the end! You won't ever get what you want and I just can't believe someone like you doesn't get that!

I know -- [I know where you'll end up, she thinks. She spoke too fast to stop herself.]

... Why don't you help someone else, already?

[redheadcarrier]

What else am I supposed to do?

[Asuka's words and tones are biting. She feels guilty and terrible, because she knows Nanami is right and she's tried to live for herself, but it's hard and she can never find it in her to actually love herself for who she is.]

What do you know, Kiryuu? What do you know so much about?

[Asuka follows Nanami, crowding her personal space.]

[tragicomedienne]

I was unimportant all along!

[There it is.

That's what he knows. Some people just don't get it, and never will, how crushing it can feel.

Nanami recoils rather than stand her ground. Maybe it's the tears, or the grotesqueness of Asuka's injury, or that she doesn't want to explain what she does know.]

Back off!

They're the ones who got you hurt in the first place. [Her eyes are distant.] That's what I know.

So drag yourself down if you want. Just back off.

[redheadcarrier]

[She can't say that - how dare she say that? No one else understands how Asuka feels, no one else feels what it's like to be unwanted (says that unhealthy part of her that wants nothing more then to drag her down). How can she say she was unimportant? Asuka's expression twists and she's not sure whether she's going to start crying or screaming or both.]

So what? So what? At least they'll pay attention to me! At least they'll praise me when I finally get it right! At least they'll acknowledge I exist!

[She's cracking. She has people who care about her here, but it's not enough (it's never enough). She keeps falling into the same trap, no matter how hard she tries to pull herself out. It's far too easy to backslide, after all, for those nagging feelings of inadequacy (no one loves you) to come creeping back in.]

That's got to be better!

pSSH I'M SORRY i was brooding on this tag for a long time

[tragicomedienne]

Just listen to yourself! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

It's not better! You'll lose more than an eye next time! Nobody's going to praise you for that.

[It's like this girl would rather be told she was worthless - why can't Nanami just indulge that?

She lifts a hand, maybe meaning to slap her. Nanami gives in a little. She feels lightheaded from the constant and sickening taste of blood, and she doesn't want her hand anywhere near Asuka's face. She snatches for her wrist instead.]

You're getting in my way now! You're going to a nurse station.

Hahaha noooo problem

[redheadcarrier]

Maybe they will!

[Her emotions are finally boiling over. She's been keeping them pent up since this started (it still hasn't really registered that she's lost an eye) and now they're finally coming out, in front of her of all people.

Really, Asuka might sound a bit hysterical.]

Maybe someone will finally care-

[Nanami grabs her wrist and she's too startled to react. For a moment she just stares - she never dreamed the other girl would actually lay a hand on her. She tries to yank it out of her grip when she starts to recover, feeling vaguely sickened by... well, everything.

Actually, she feels like she's going to throw up.]

What do you care if I go to a nursing station or what-?

[Asuka starts to go a bit green around the gills, so to speak, face starting to look far too pale.]

[tragicomedienne]

Hey... Hey!

No one cares about that right now! Won't you listen already? You need to stop this!

[She puts her other arm up and braces her hand against Asuka's shoulder, standing near her side. At least, if she (ugh, the thought makes her tension and nausea flare) throws up or faints, then she won't be directly in the way.]

I hate it when people act dumb. [And she's so stubborn; even this has become a challenge to her.]

Sit down, already! [She puts some pressure on her shoulder.]

[redheadcarrier]

I don't need to sit down! You can't make me-!

[Actually, sitting down sounds like a good idea right now. She slumps back against the wall and slowly slides down until she's sitting. She still rolls her head so she can keep glaring at Nanami.]

I'm not dumb, either! I'm a protege! A wunderkind! Ugh-!

[And then she puts her head forward, feeling a bit faint. Her next response is weaker, almost a bit trembly (but Asuka doesn't get scared in front of other people).]

Go away.

[tragicomedienne]

[What's that mean here, though?]

Fine. [While Asuka is likely in no position to be alone, her concern extends this far, and not much further, where it turns wispy and intangible. She lets go of her wrist as quickly as she grabbed for it.]

I'm sending a nurse over.

[redheadcarrier]

[Asuka slumps and buries her head in her arms with a muted groan.]

Fine. Do whatever you want.