Endgame: This is the Way the World Ends - MACHINE ROOM

[animusmods]

Characters: open to those staying in the machine room
Setting: machine room
Format: any
Summary: The time has come to make decisions about what will happen after everything is over.
Warnings: psychological horror (eventually)

Comments

[oathshackledbird]

Naoya...I do have a thought, if I may?

[While Naoya was working with the terminal, Diarmuid had noticed some very familiar markings on the man's hand. What servant had contracted with him was a question for another time then. Now...seems to be that time.]

You are bound to a servant who is fighting above, are you not? If you cannot go to her, perhaps your servant can go in your place. You should be able to connect to him through your bond and deliver a message to him.

[crouching_sin]

... Right.

[He tries to take a deep breath and sends a thought to Gilgamesh. 'Ruana is old - much older than you would think. She's around my age. The scientists were trying to achieve immortality. Be very careful. We saw a video of her trying to destroy herself and she failed. I don't know yet what it would take to destroy her.']

[He runs a hand through his hair as he glances back at Lancer.]

At least Gilgamesh knows, now.

[bowandblade]

[The sent thought doesn't interrupt Gilgamesh in anything particularly important; with so many throwing themselves at Ruana, he had taken to observe the struggle -- not unlike how he might have watched things back in his world.

His eyes narrow at the revelation. 'The age-old search. What idiocy humans commit themselves to repeating.

She may not be able to kill herself, but we have yet to properly measure our true powers against hers.']

[crouching_sin]

['Exactly. Let me know if you need more mana. There's not much to be done here right now but wait and stay in reserve.']

[He just shakes his head, and lets out an annoyed breath. Why anyone would want to live forever is beyond him.]

[bowandblade]

['Yes, yes. If need be, I am sure there is something in my treasury that will be useful.'

His thought conveys some agitation over this news, but it doesn't completely rid him of that normal tinge of boredom.

'She is irritated that we have Zo with us. If she will attack us with full force, it will not be long now.']

[crouching_sin]

['We'll stay on the defensive here. I have a few of my own tricks... and I might see if I can find some materials to build a barrier that might at least give us a few extra seconds.']

[oathshackledbird]

[Gilgamesh? Really? Well, Diarmuid supposes it could be worse. It could be the Gilgamesh from his version of the war, instead of the one from his brother's. He starts to speak, but stops when he notices the look of concentration on the man's face. It's obvious that he is actually having a conversation with his servant, so Diarmuid waits until the conversation seems to be finished before speaking.]

What did he have to say?

[crouching_sin]

[He shrugs a bit. ]

He suspects she may attack full force soon. She wants Zo, from the sound of it.

[oathshackledbird]

[Diarmuid nods.]

I can't say I am surprised. Especially after what we just saw. Saying he is important to her is the greatest of understatements.

[crouching_sin]

True. We might want to see if we can move things to start making more of a barrier...

[oathshackledbird]

Not a bad idea and it sounds like you have a plan. How can I help?

[crouching_sin]

Grab everything you can and start piling it against the entrances. It's that simple. If we need to make a fast entrance we can always just blow it up.

[oathshackledbird]

Ah! An actual physical barrier and not a magical one like you did before. I can handle that. Let us know if Gilgamesh sends you any updates, all right?

[He bows his head to Naoya and then sets off to work on the barrier as requested.]

[crouching_sin]

I will.

[He'll just leave Diarmuid to do the heavy lifting. He's strong, but not Servant strong.]

mind if we merge?

[savedbyasong]

Well... that was educational. Shion frowned at the machine and looked around at the others. He wished he had his notes, but they were glamour and no use anymore. It wasn't like he didn't have everything memorized anyways, it just felt... better to write it all down.

"So... the immortal soul... that's what they wanted?" And what seemed to have been achieved, a soul that did not die when the body did, so much suffering because people wanted to live forever.

He looked around at Diarmuid who had begun moving things, a barrier. That made him worried.

"We need to work quick." He went over to help drag furniture, he was much less effective than Diarmuid.

"Does anyone have any ideas of what can be done at all?"

[crouching_sin]

"They did. I'm interested in figuring out how to break this for personal reasons, but this... we need to figure something out."

He moves to carry some of the lighter things. "We might get a few extra seconds with a barrier."

[deloreandriver]

Marty had been sitting back, watching the security footage and keeping quiet. Observing, mostly. He had no idea how to help, and the situation just seemed so impossible, but they had to keep going. Knowing Ruana's fate, Marty could sympathize. He had been stuck for, what, a year? And he had been afraid he had been going insane, especially when he thought he started hearing voices. But while the others were discussing the barrier, something stuck in his mind that wouldn't let go.

"Look, guys. Uh... Jesus..." Marty rubbed both hands over his head briefly, looking helpless. "They were looking for immortality so they were focused on humans, but it isn't just sentient souls she's... uh..." He swallowed, his mouth feeling suddenly very, very dry, but he started to help move things to make the barrier. "It's every life form in every universe she's... visited that got sucked." He paused. "Where'd they all go? We aren't even a fraction of what that machine's brought here. If we figure that out maybe we'll be closer to fixing everything."

Another thought struck him. "What about a reverse procedure? Or another failsafe? I mean they had Zo but... there's gotta be something more." Marty kept working on the barrier, the physical activity helping process some thoughts.

[provenworth]

[Elena, like Marty, had taken on more of a passive observer as the details unfolded. At some point arms had folded over her chest, her hands gripping at the cloth of her sleeve. As each new piece is discovered, the horrors of what work had been conducted, her grip tightened. When the last bits of information are digested, she gave a slow, hissing breath.]

And here I thought Hojo's ethics were bottom of the barrel. But this...

[Her head shakes, looking to each person as they speak.]

Okay, so lets walk through this for a second.... She wants Zo. But why? Does she see Zo as the boy from the feed - who I'm horrified to think was maybe her son - and has implanted a maternal sort of connection to him? If that's the case, we've made ourselves the enemy a mother trying to get to her cub. But, at the same time, giving Zo to Ruana isn't an option.

I don't suppose having Zo try and talk to her isn't an option. If she's too far gone, it wouldn't serve a purpose. But if that connection between Ruana and Zo - even if it is one-sided - is strong enough, maybe he can break her out of her rage just long enough for...something. I don't know what...

[She's rubbing at her temples now, eyes moving to those helping build the barrier then back to the brain-tank group.]

If there was a reverse procedure, wouldn't it entail having Ruana sit on that throne? She barely looked like a willing participant in the video. I think getting her to go through that again would be more than difficult.

[attheclocktower]

[Truth be told, Xion has a lot of thoughts right now. Few of them good ones. But she has to focus on what they can do right now. The other questions she can wonder later. She shakes her head at some of Elena's suggestions though, sadly.]

The problem is... I'm not sure if that's really possible at this point. Zo and the others have already gone off to face her. I'm not sure we can contact them, and even if we could... they're probably in the middle of fighting her right now.

[Which would make any kind of contact - and therefore distraction - dangerous. Especially since Zo couldn't save them if they died now.

After a pause though, she brings up her own thoughts.]

I think it might be worth it to try to figure out what kind of "failsafe" that Zo... or, well... 1369[She grimaces at using a number instead of a name, even though she knows that Zo and 1369 aren't exactly the same person... she thinks] was supposed to be. I know it seems like it would've been a failsafe for then but... maybe it's really here. Maybe that's how we can fix things. Like you said earlier [She adds with a nod to Marty] go back and stop what she started before it happened, or something like that.

Or at least it could give us an idea, maybe. Somewhere to start. I really don't think anything involving Ruana's an option.

[oathshackledbird]

[Diarmuid listens carefully to the others as he continues building the barrier. He's not sure that he agrees with Elena that the connection between Zo and Ruana is mother-child. He sees is more as a sibling connection despite the difference in their 'ages,' but that point really isn't one of the things they need to debate at the moment. A familial connection is a familial connection. Besides, another, more important idea, is taking shape in his mind. He stops working and turns to face the others.]

All of the 'life' from her world went into Ruana when she was given her immortality. When we were drawn...did she do it so she didn't have to be alone? The plague hitting the worlds, then, would be the immortality process draining all the life of our world and putting it into...us.

[Diarmuid looks down, placing his hand over his heart.]

For a while, we had monsters here--monsters that were connected to our worlds. Some of them more literally than others. As the energy faded, they disappeared. Where did those parts of our worlds go? Did they just vanish or were they drawn to the only thing left familiar to them? The immortal soul from their world?

[Suddenly, the idea of permanent death is much more terrifying to Diarmuid. If this is true, it is not just them dying if they die now. It is their whole world....]

[crouching_sin]

Most likely. It would be a sort of base for them to latch on to. Unfortunately I realize this makes more of you hesitant to do anything that might be considered rash - but don't let this knowledge stop you.

[Biased? Him? ... Nah.]

[savedbyasong]

So our souls are holding our world? [Shion frowned, his head going dizzy at the mere thought of that. But he has grown since entering the tower, grown since Reno began to train him. The impossible doesn't scare him anymore, he doesn't expect the laws of the universe he grew up with to work.

He thought Ruana and the boy she had based Zo off had been more like brother and sister but he guessed it didn't matter what their connection was exactly, a connection was a connection.]

I agree with Xion, I don't think we can get Ruana. The best we can do on that front is hope that the others are able to deal with her.

[And with Marty that maybe they had to go back and change things, but he was pretty sure that even if a thing were possible they wouldn't have the right equiptment.]

Maybe we just have to make it seem we went back, reset the system to a date before it happened. We know they have the technology to trick our souls into believing a longer time has past... they did it to some of us. So maybe we could use that...

[oathshackledbird]

[Diarmuid considers what Shion is saying for a long moment and then shakes his head.]

That might work if we had all the time we needed to figure things out, but I honestly don't think we have the time to do that. It sounds like a very complex process and one we might not have the tools to make work...

[There isn't anything near him to add to the barrier, so Diarmuid starts pacing in front of the area where he has been working instead, hoping the movement will help him think.]

Are we making this too complex just because we have so many possibilities before us? What if we just focus on what we have: Zo and the machine? I have to agree with Shion and Xion. We probably shouldn't include Ruana in our plans. Even if we find a way to subdue her without killing her, there is no guarantee she will stay that way for long.

Zo's specialty is barriers and he has been growing stronger at an almost unimaginable rate. Could it be so simple as to just have him shift our barriers from immortal to mortal again? Might that release the life we have taken from our planets back to them?

[Of course, there is one draw back to this idea that hits Diarmuid as soon as he stops speaking and actually causes him to pale some. Would doing that cause those who were dead when there were brought here to die again, since they had no life to begin with? Or were they actually pulled here just before all life had left them leaving a little for them?]

[fionnuisce]

...

[Waver reached the same unsaid conclusion as Diarmuid as he listened, the idea causing him to frown in aggravation and cross his arms.]

I think the logic there is valid, for whatever measure of 'logic' this entire situation runs on. At the absolute least, it may be best to exclude the variable of Ruana from the larger equation.

[...He really couldn't leave it unspoken as a possibility, though.]

The question is what becomes of us after that.

[crouching_sin]

We survive or we don't. But if we don't stop this now, it will happen to every world everywhere. Forever. Our well-being factors very little into this.