Endgame: This Broken Jaw of Our Lost Kingdoms; Part One

[animusmods]

Characters: open to those trapped in cells
Setting: the cells
Format: any
Summary: Those left abandoned in the Tower have some time to speak to each other. In the middle of the room, a clock counts down...
Warnings: general animus endgame warnings

Comments

[warriorscribe]

Somewhere down below...

*Enoch is tired. With only the weight of their imminent failure in the air, it's tempting to just try to sleep until it's all over. But he resists the urge. He's got to keep pushing forward, somehow. Struggle until he can't anymore...even if it's only struggling to meet the end awake.*

It was only we who said anything to her...but she captured everyone.

[silencetoreason]

[That voice... The name takes a second to come to France in his frightened state. Enoch... Yes, that's him.

His first reaction is a twitch of anger. He wasn't involved in any of the fighting, so why does he have to get wrapped up in all this? He wants to go home just as badly as everyone else, but he doesn't have a death wish. If this has sealed their fate--

No. It's not their fault that they're trapped, stuck under the rule of a certifiably insane child with god-like powers. They were only doing what...

What I didn't have the courage to do.]

Captured? Forgive me, my sweet, but we were already trapped. [He lets out a breath of laughter, more frantic than anything.] Whether we can move freely or not, it's all the same, isn't it?

[warriorscribe]

Not when the difference is a chance to fight back...

*Now they're just sitting here waiting for the other shoe to drop.*

[silencetoreason]

[France considers that silently. A chance to fight back. He's no stranger to warfare, and in fact, right now he's almost aching for a fight. But in this Tower, surrounded by people with abilities he'd never even dreamed were possible, against a foe stronger than all of them, what can he do? For once, he wants to fight. He just wishes he were stronger.]

Ah... You are right.

[He smiles, lets out a breath. It's another moment before he speaks again.]

You know, I have been in my fair share of struggles for freedom... It's never a very pretty thing. But I must say, the odds have never seemed quite so highly stacked against me.

[warriorscribe]

I think most of us can say the same.

*And it could have been just a little bit better. Could have been a little less in her favor. But no. No, Riki's corpse hadn't been sufficiently destroyed...*

...She still doesn't realize that's why we fight. She can't see what we want as freedom.

[silencetoreason]

The ones in charge never do.

[France sighs, drags the tip of his finger down the barrier.]

Everyone thinks they know what is best. Give anyone power, and they will try to do what they feel is right. Keeping us safe from the silence of death... [His smile, what little of it there was, abruptly fades.] ...by giving us a painful life. If you think of death as an end, it almost makes sense...

[warriorscribe]

*Death as mercy. It is far from new to him, and yet...*

There have been times I've wanted to die. But...I've found that there are usually better answers. There was likely a better solution to her loneliness, as well. Pain can be blinding.