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

Entry tags:

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

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( Steph found her first. Collette hadn't been allowing herself to track the time when the last shuttle was due in. It helps that the tablet still blurs under her eyes, like they don't want to focus on its particular bright screen. Words swim, video moves too fast and shaky the few times she's hit play. Audio is the best.

But she doesn't want to listen. Learning Ellie is gone, in the gone home sense, feels like more of a blow than it should. It's the sheer immensity of size of loss coming closer and closer, and while it's less immense than the entirety of the world, it's about as striking.

How to process something like that? She doesn't think she can. She avoids thinking about it, turning her mind toward solutions, coming up with theories that were maybe possible, others that went into the realms of the absurd. She needs all of them, and holds on to those hopes with a practical approach: they will find something that works. Time is with them. They're set to survive. They'll change this, and maybe, just maybe, it'll be a change for the better.

Like the second mission run after Russia, undoing the damage all those monsters had done.

It's those swirl of thoughts that finally get her out of her room, eyes red but not so puffy as they had been. She doesn't aim to be anywhere in partcular. In fact, she stops by the restrooms, unisex no matter what the taped up signs read. She doesn't care. There was more embarrassment in the Holding Compound for all she hadn't had. She makes her use of the area, then heads out, not having liked the face that stared back at her in the mirror. It looked tired. Those red eyes didn't look very nice.

She swallows when she rolls into the Observatory, the single largest expanse of space they had access to outside of the warehouse. In a way, it seems perfectly natural there here she finally sees Caesar.

The Observatory. The one who watches. There's no other place he'd be, regardless of what he might wish, or might not. It's such an immense crashing of relief that she goes boneless, shoulder slumping and chin tucking in as her neck hung forward. He's okay. The worry that had been nibbling at her stray thoughts was firmly kicked out, left to find others to prey upon. The vise around her chest began its slow unwinding. She pulls her head back hp, swallowing hard.

He's probably not going to leave. Caesar... he has this habit. She can only hope the dampening of spirits that had plagued him after Elmer's world doesn't return. She'll need him thinking and processing to find out which of her ideas were the most harebrained, and which ones had merit and worth and might work with what the rest thought of -- things that might get done. Ways to change the course of history that didn't demand this inhospitable destruction.

She needs him, because for the moment, he is still here. Ellie gone, gone like Barnaby and Miles, reminds her how precious a reality that even is.

When she makes her way to his side, that's the thought in her head. Her rolling progress is slow. She looks at the monitors like he does, seeing the feed from the Hold in it's silent lag. She's watched that feed too often the last week. Has it been a week? More.

Coming to a quiet, silent stop at his side, Collette sees the different views and different magnifications of the city she's spent more than a year living within. it's had better days, and worse days. This one was the cruelest. She opens her mouth to speak -- but finds she can't. The lump's still there.

Observers in the observatory. She wonders if Caesar ever gives himself a break. )

[ Her approach goes without note or comment. Caesar's attention is fixed to the monitors, the ones that offer the best view of the city as a whole. He stands so still, bags from his arrival still clenched in hand and held at his sides. With those, it's apparent he came here straight from his arrival, rather than stopping off anywhere else first.

And that's how it'll be until it happens; the bright light, the cameras going out, one by one, the sudden, inevitable loss.

Regardless of how everyone else in the observatory acts, he watches on with an unreadable look on his face. It doesn't betray any emotion, not any beyond a thoughtful look. Just observing, like he said before. Watching until the end and there it is. Only then does he exhale a long, low sigh and the tension in his shoulders tapers off, leaving them to slump, his bags nearly reaching the floor from it now. ]

I'm...

[ He's what? He's not sure. He just watched five hundred thousand lives go out in an instant, or so he hopes. What lingers for the initial survivors is too horrifying to consider, even for someone like himself. Right now, there's nothing. He can't dredge up any particular emotion, so he simply goes with the usual, forever convienent stand-in. ]

...tired. What an awful trip...

[ He sounds distant, drifty, so it's no stretch of the mind to pin 'tired' to it. It isn't a lie, after all. ]

( She's not as passive, attention moving between the screens and watching his face, the impassivity of it, from by his side. Eventually her figers reach out, brushing against his wrist. She doesn't take hold. The tension of his shoulders and arms in keeping his bags as they are, while he stands unmoving, isn't something she holds on to.

If her breathing hitches while they wait, it only does so quietly. Collette keeps her words to herself, unsure what, if anything, to say. Caesar relying on that mask that made his distance with the world only makes sense. She just doesn't have the same thing.

It's after everything, feeling numb herself, that she makes herself smile. There's a huff of laughter as if, for the moment, any more is too much energy to part with. Caesar slumps, and her fingers slide off him, hand moving briefly over his on the bag's handle between them. )

Yeah, you weren't much for space flying the first time. ( A pause. She considers. ) Come on! I can show you to where Oz is staying! They remapped this place with the roommates we had before.

( It's such a normal, inane thing. Roommates, layouts, places to be, beds to rest bodies in even if minds refused the bait. She pulls on that warmth from earlier, past the numbness brought on by the events turning monitors dark across the room. They flicker back to life, but now they're all images from a distance. One shows the Earth setting as the moon makes it's orbit around the beautiful blue, green, white marble of a planet.

Her eyes flick to the screens, her expression briefly wavering. )

We need to rest before... Before the rest.

( There's a firmness there in her voice, along with a surety. Before they make their move, and before they change this world's history, before the word nuclear could be scribed in stone about the ending of the island refuge and prison called Exsilium. )

I can take this one!

( She nods to the one bag between them. )

It's not so far away.

Edited 2013-09-25 19:19 (UTC)

[ That someone replies at all seems to startle him for a second, giving a slight jump when Collette finally speaks up. He did know she was there, kind of, in that 'someone is near you' kind of spatial awareness way, but until that second, he'd felt completely alone. It didn't matter if the room was somewhat crowded with people doing exactly the same thing, they didn't matter, they won't matter for a few days yet.

Not to him.

Collette matters, though, so he does turn to pay attention to her. ]

You'll take what?

[ But as soon as he asks, he realizes she means a bag. That's right. He's carrying stuff, stuff in bags, so he hefts the one she nodded to up enough to set it on her lap. ]

I couldn't justify saving the saddle. We'll have to get a new one...

( The saddle. Of all things, he mentions the saddle. She laughs in her own lighter way, a short burst of amusement because what the hell else is she going to do?

With so many things to take away from that, what she goes with is much less shocking than it might have been. )

It pinched a little on my shoulders anyway. No big deal! We'll work on that later. Oh! Tell me you have your hat!

( Adjusting his bag, she pulls back on her wheels, inviting him back and along with her with a wave of one hand. There's some strain in acting almost normal, and she knows she doesn't hit all the right notes. She doesn't expect that she's supposed to, just feels like she has to try. )

[ He waits for her to start leading the way, only then does he begin trailing along after her. It seems a better idea to go single file for now, since he'd rather lurk behind unseen. ]

No. [ He says, voice finally breaking with some kind of emotion, even if it's only gloomy misery and, thankfully, not anything remotely weepy. ] Why would I need a hat on the moon?

( She's glad to hear the break in tone, if gloomy misery was a pretty rotten state to be in. Understandable or not. She leads on, keeping to a sedate pace. )

Oh, for lots of things, I expect! Taking siestas, gardening, marking your room as taken so your roommates don't bother you for a while, collecting things, as an extra fan, to toss at people who are bothering you...

( She lets it be a silly sounding list of lamentable hat uses. Passing into the hall leading to the wings of rooms, she gestures to a larger entranceway they pass by. )

Oh, those are the restrooms right there! They're kind of unisex -- both men and women can use them -- and the showers are timed. But the water gets hot, and as long as you don't take a shower at the same time as everyone else, it won't go freezing!

( More normalcy, a list of details that will be good for him to know at some point. Partially a distraction, because she didn't expect to feel a pang of sadness over a hat of all things. )

Too bad about the hat though.

( If she'd had the chance, she'd probably have tried to pack it. More for humor and memory's sake than practicality. Practicality would have distilled her to the bare bones, but Gilbert had taken that choice away from her. )

You don't need a hat for any of those.

[ Seriously. He only ever used it to keep the sun off and there won't be any sun in here! On missions, perhaps, but he has to wonder how many of those a cowboy hat would even be suitable for!

But then she mentions the bathrooms, so that derails everything. ]

Unisex? [ He stops, turning to give the entranceway she gestured at a vaguely horrified look. ] The... stalls have doors, don't they?

( She hears him stop, checking her progress to stop as well, looking back at him over her shoulder. The look on his face prompts her into laughing. He's so modest! Not that she blames him. It's just soemthing that still surprises her, every so often. )

Yeah! You won't see anyone, unless you're trying to. It's not like in the --

( She cuts herself off, deciding it's probably no more worth mentioning now than it had been before how the showers were set up in the Holding Compound. )

Anyway, the stalls for showers, toilets, stuff like that, they all have doors. The shower ones seal right up! So it takes them longer to open and close. Don't worry (small>( she teases ) you'll be bathing alone! No group showers here -- except by choice!

( Which, being that it'd be a five minute choice, doesn't sound particularly appealing to her. Then again, she had to sit in the downtimes as it was, but she didn't bother talking about her own bathing difficulties. At least there were seats in the showers.

So she shoots him a grin. It doesn't quite make it to her eyes like usual, and it's more because she says these sorts of things normally than any actual intent in this case. )

Let me know if you need anyone to wash your back , huh? You can fit two people in there.

( Usually she'd wink, but right now, she just smiles and closes her eyes. She's waiting for an indication from Caesar when he's ready to move, or if she's sufficiently shocked him into dismay of a different sort again. )

Oh...

[ Okay, that's not quite so bad, except for the five minute showers. Ugh, he's already missing that apartment. There he only had two people and a cat to deal with. That settled, he turns to start moving again.

Her teasing garners an eyeroll, however. ]

You wouldn't even be able to reach my back.

[ Not that he would ever consider it in the first place, but! But honestly, he's too tired to play the 'shocked by modern Earth girls' game today. ]

Edited (because it's not really an act. o u earth girls.) 2013-09-26 07:05 (UTC)

( She sounds a touch smug: )

Says you. I, however, have a very good idea of what I can and cannot reach.

( Which explains approximately none of the amazing leaps in belief and understanding she makes. Collette does not, in fact, pay attention to her knowledge of what she can or cannot reach. )

And you aren't exactly six feet tall!

( Another tease, considering she doesn't spend much time at all considering his height or lack there-of. He was taller than she was. What more did she care? He's easier to reach like this.

Having resumed moving, she adds a few other notes of places that occur to her as she moves. )

There's one big cafeteria, to the left of where we came into here from that big main room. Also, there's my door!

( She points to it in passing. )

Yours is just a bit further down, same side though.

I could be if I stood on something.

[ Yeah! He... no, okay, he's short, shush. As they move along, the cafeteria gets a bored look. Her door, he'll have to try and remember that one, though they all look the same! ]

It is? [ He slows to a full stop again, peering down the hall. ] Do you think they'll already be in there?

Like my chair? Who knows. Maybe if I find more mistletoe before Christmas...

( Now there's a thought. More of a sideways memory, such as it is, though it makes her smile. Caesar hadn't been the only shorty she'd asked to help her hang the sprigs and ribbons in doorways and halls.

Warmer halls than these, that was for sure. She comes to a stop, hearing his footsteps cease behind her. A half turn makes it easier to look back at him, considering his face, how he stood. )

Lenalee waited like you did.

( A statement she keeps neutral. She smiles, after a tick. )

Oz might be. Do you wish they weren't?

Your chair still puts me in reach. You'd just knock me back down to your level.

[ No, he would have to take a different high ground! ~~The high grand gives you +5 agility!!!~~ Oz, though... He might be in there. Does he really want to talk with anyone else yet?

Caesar's gaze drifts down to the floor, the smooth, sterile surface of sudden interest to him. ]

No. It's not that. They're both going to be so nosy and weepy, that's all.

It's not so bad, being a little weepy every once in a while.

( She says it softly, watching him. Her lips curl up into a lopsided smile. )

Not around people you trust. ( Or trust not to go blabbing on you. She takes it as a mixture between what he doesn't want to deal with, and maybe some of his own feelings, or lack thereof, under the numbness. )

It's such a terrible thing, having friends who care about you! Always pressing and questioning and crying for you since they can't do it with you... though who knows? Maybe you need to outsource that stuff anyway. Besides, Oz doesn't connect well enough to know when he should cry. Or be happy, or angry, or much of anything. He's getting better, but there's been a lot of emptiness behind his smiles for months, probably years.

( Among the four of them, Caesar was, in some respects, the most honest. Collette the most emotionally honest, though Lenalee felt things to similarly expressed levels. And while they all lied, by omission or otherwise, Oz was perhaps the most chronic. )

We can handle it.

( We in part because she needs a we. We also because she doesn't want to leave him alone, not even in the face of weepy nosy roommates. (Though they were very fun ones, and she appreciates their nosiness as much as anything.) Collette gestures with her free hand, a come here motion lost if he doesn't so much as glance up. )

Hup hup!

[ Crying for him? Maybe he needs to outsource that stuff? He will agree on one thing, at least. ]

He does have an awful smile. [ Something he's told Oz already, several times before. He supposes that explains why that is. The rest, though... ] I don't want or need anyone crying for me because I won't, Collette. As if I'm incapable of feeling all the same things!

[ Just because he does it differently! Or doesn't react however everyone thinks is normal! ]

I thought you might get that, at the very least. [ He looks up, the motion caught in his sight on the end of it, but he doesn't move any closer. ] Is there anything else I need to know about this place or are we done?

I'm sorry.

( Her lopsided smile stays in place. )

What makes you think that I don't?

( Her tone sticks to conversationally curious rather than defensive. She hardly finds him emotionless! She'll have to work on her humor delivery. It's falling flatter than usual.

His last question has her snorting, shaking her head. She doesn't offer anything else. Of course there's more, and also less, depending on one's perspective. But she doesn't offer any of that. She's tempted, for a moment, to tell him he's not to turn off the gravity. It'd be liable to see him bouncing off the walls! )

Well! Because you said things like...

[ He loses some of his composure here, like maybe even he isn't entirely sure. Did he miss something? He waves his free hand around a bit, that gesture like he's trying to explain what he means without actually saying it, but that rarely ever works. In the end, it ends up running over the top of his unruly hair, to rub the back of his head. ]

That. That I have to outsource emotions! That's absurd!

[ Very absurd. Absurd enough that he frowns over it, now that he's focused on it. ]

Or... were you just kidding?

Edited 2013-09-27 07:08 (UTC)

( She rests her free hand on top of his pack. )

It was a pretty lame joke. ( She admits, keeping her tone light. ) Ended up getting your goat, and me not even trying!

( Pulling laughter out from somewhere, she shook her head, glancing down before looking back his way. Following a lame joke with a lame bit of wordplay was a paltry effort, but she does try. )

I don't think that way about you. I never have.

( Tilting her head back down the hall, she nods a little in the direction they'd been traveling. She lets her question be silent for the moment. Shall they go on? )

Well... Good.

[ Was there really more to say to that? No. Not really. If he can slide by the awkwardness of having gotten that all wrong, all the better. Was he really on that much of an edge if he'd taken it so seriously?

At her nod, he does likewise, only his is a nod of agreement. Let's go on. ]

( The nod is enough to have her moving again, both hands back on her handrails as she shifts the chair, pointing it down the hall rather than slantwise. She rolls herself forward, glad Caesar's not in a quick mood. Around the bulk of his bag, it'd get a little uncomfortable on her chest.

She leads them on to his door, or just a door, one among many. Collette glances up at it, then looks back over her shoulder. She can't get a good look at Caesar this way. She hooks her thumb toward the door. )

407, more or less! Want me to knock?

( She'd test for roommates for him, no problem. Even try to pull them out regardless of how tired she was, if he wanted that time alone.

It'd be crashed not long after when her patience wore through, but there was something of considerateness in her thoughts. That and strange cravings for raisins. )

No, it's fine. I can handle it from here. Even if they are in, where else is there to go?

[ As much as he wants time alone, he also wants time alone somewhere with a bed. Hopefully. If these things have beds or... space... beds? His last few steps bring him to stand at the door next to her. ]

Thanks, though.

( She shoots him a lopsided smile and a shrug, pulling the handles to his bag up for him, One hand slips over the side to hold her handrail, making sure her chair wouldn't move without her deeming it appropriate. )

You're welcome. See you later?

[ He takes the bag back, pausing for a few seconds when he leans over closer to take it from her. In that time, he looks conflicted about something, frowning at her (or just frowning that just happens to be in her direction, who knows), but then he takes the weight of the bag in hand and leans away. ]

I guess. In a place this small, you're bound to see me eventually.

Or hear you. Or smell you.

( She tosses out with a weaker laugh, tapping the end of her nose. No point in not pointing out that she has a variety of resources all her own to call upon, should she choose. There's a high probability she will.

Her eyes flick to his face, watching, though she doesn't say anything else. It's suddenly hard to, around a lump in her throat. So instead she smiles, and hopes the conflicted emotions she feels don't show on her face. )

blue moon, you caught me standing alone

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

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject