singularityderp | Dark Future Meme

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Dark Future Meme

Ten years later, humanity and the synthetic life on the station are at odds
Hypatia has inducted as many citizens of Sacrosanct into a private military and launched
an all-out war against organic life and the people of Asphodel.
Some were kept on the station as captives, some escaped down planet-side
to become part of the resistance, and countless others were re-purposed into
Hypatia's willing slaves.

Now, tensions are at a peak and both sides are preparing for a throwdown. Skirmishes break out on the station and planet. Many of Hypatia's prisoners have been freed, but many more have fallen to the clutches of reprogramming.

Where will you be?

How this works:
-If you are synthetic or part-synthetic, OR if you have special armor (Looking at you, Spartans, Troncast, EVERY ROBOT EVER) you are a target for re-purpose.
You can still have escaped down to the planet, but she'll be after you. Going to the station is dangerous, once you enter her wide-area-network you are at risk of being hacked

-If you are fully organic, you are either dead, kept prisoner and made to work on the station, or part of the resistance on Asphodel.

-Anything in-between? You decide. Be creative with this.

-Fill out the form below to give us an idea of what your character is up to, what happened to them etc. Thread with each other! RP it out!

-Also, bring in your extra journals! There won't be the same people on the station ten years from now! If you're planning to app someone, or just have something interesting lying around, toss them in!

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He stands as a sentinel there, unmoving for a long time. Some distant sound occasionally drawing his attention, only to dismiss it as the ground settling.

Something eventually spooks him, something falls in the darkness and he's at attention, weapons warming as he aims off down the tunnel. His lithe form hops up to perch on Nemesis' shoulder...

After several moments of silence however, he lowers his weapons, but stays perched there, staring off down the tunnel.

Such does the time pass.

He cannot be anything but efficient, this day and age; in enough time, in enough period of not-restfulness, and systems recycle and restart. Optics, at first, flickering white before returning to their dark state - sight is helpful, in restoring his processor while the codes cement him in the present and here and now. Only once he's brought himself to it can he engage the other protocols, restoring other functions, and stirring with a low hiss from his vocalizer.

Nemesis hates being asleep, but he hates waking up even more.

When he starts to wake, the former scientists slides down to the floor of the cavern again, bristling, watching him stir.

He says nothing, but waits for him to come online fully so they can move on.

Peering down the dark passage, he's ready to move, getting antsy.

"..."

He cycles his vents - more a chuff than a sigh, and more at himself than anything else - before getting to his feet, slowly. Fuel levels are...not optimal, but the recharge helped. He'll be able to make it last, with enough rest.

The other, he is slightly more...aware, of. He cannot make use of him dead.

So there is more of a reason to continue, and he glances left, then right, gauging where they've come and where they should go next. His map of the place is...sketchy, at best, even though he has been doing his part in ensuring they do not retrace their steps...

He treads lightly, very wary.

Though for an hour, nothing happens. No words are even exchanged. They just walk through the tunnels until they open up into a wider corridor.

Something that looks older. Less recent.

The former shuttle tenses, sensing something in the darkness.

He holds up a hand, signaling for Nemesis to stop.

Vigilant for signs of trouble, Nemesis stops shortly enough, looking down at the figure before raising his head to slowly look around.

...these are not the same sort of tunnels they had been walking through. From the native wildlife? He frowns, beneath his mask, running a quick check on his weapons systems...

...he could use them. It will lower his energy, but he could.

The former shuttle moves down the tunnel to investigate briefly, slipping into the darkness ahead of them.

A few moments later he comes back.

Sprinting.

Right past Nemesis, only offering one brief, almost yelped word as he passes.

"Run!"

What comes barreling down the tunnel is probably one of the largest worms he's ever seen.

Yep.

Run.

Oh.

Battle routines judge the nature of the threat and his own condition near-instantaneously; if at full power, he could stand up to such a beast. It would be a fight, but in the end, he would triumph.

Now?

Rumbling a growl, he punches the wall, and not just out of frustration. If nothing else he has his strength, and perhaps, if a few rocks drop on the beast, it may seek easier prey...

May.

He's running a moment later, already wracking his processor for other ways of discouraging it.

Well. It doesn't really seem in the mood for slowing down. It's all they can do to run for their lives.

Jetfire does his best to try to map a proper route that won't lead to a dead end, but it's mostly guess work. He tries to pick smaller tunnels. Something that the worm would have to take it's time to dig through to get to them. Put some distance between them at the very least.

Briefly, he risks a glance to check and see if Nemesis is still with him.

The choice of picking smaller tunnels is a logical one...to a point. But then comes one that can fit Jetfire just fine...but a being more than twice his height?

Nemesis' processor races, and he makes a decision, throwing himself forwards on to his stomach, metal screeching and shrieking as it grinds against rock. It's painful, the damage adding up quickly, but-as he looks over his shoulder and pulls up his feet just before they're brought in to the beast's maw, he decides it worth it.

Now comes pulling himself through, and hoping it doesn't get even smaller. As it stands, the worm has some rock-crushing to do to get to him, and it doesn't seem about to catch up.

When he hears the clash of metal on rock, it does stop him running only briefly. He stops and ensures that his old friend is able to get up before continuing on.

It does open up some, but it's generally tighter, but manageable. The sound of the worm still working behind them is enough to urge them on.

The tunnels wind and weave, widening and narrowing at random until at last, there is the muted red light of the outside world up ahead.

Name: Terezi Pyrope (CRAU)
Current location: Sacrosanct
Current Physical Appearance: Older (almost 12 sweeps, approx 25.5 years), thinner, somewhat malnutritioned, connection terminal socket wired into the base of her skull (a la The Matrix).
Summary: Escaped with the other trolls/kids when shit went down. She spent her time working almost nonstop with Karkat's portion of the resistance, doing whatever she could and sometimes forgetting about sleep and food. Things were smoothed over with Vriska, and when Davesprite was captured, Terezi stepped up to be her surrogate moirail. When accompanying Vriska on one of her recklessly dangerous assignments, Terezi was caught in the aftermath. There's been no word to the Resistance if she's dead or alive.

Upon capture, Terezi was turned over to Hypatia for strategic purposes. A terminal connection was surgically implanted into the base of her skull, which allows Hypatia direct access to her mind. Terezi now remains strapped to a chair and wired into a mainframe, drifting about through her subconscious while Hypatia sorts through her visions of timelines. She hasn't been allowed to surface to consciousness in over a year.

Karkat's faced a lot of losses over the years. When he closes his eyes, he sees their faces. Jack, Buffy. Jade. Kanaya. When he opens them, he forces himself back to work. He can't dwell, because he knows if he starts, he'll plunge face first into depression and not be able to fight his way out. So he grits his teeth and works for the Resistance, excelling in planning and rescue missions, keeping everyone sane and working together. It gives him a purpose. Eventually, when Sollux's nonstop hacking starts to pay off and they begin rescuing prisoners, for once in Karkat's life, he doesn't feel like a complete failure.

Until he loses Terezi.

He spent the next week locked in his respite block, first blaming Vriska and her rash behavior, but then realizing that, honestly, he should have seen it coming. He should have known how Vriska would have reacted, and he should have fucking known the trap they were facing. He should have kissed her goodbye.

Now, when he closes his eyes, he thinks of her. When he opens them again to stare at his plans and to work, he still thinks of her. He sees her grin and hears her laugh and hates himself more and more every day.

Karkat understands Vriska a little better now. He finds himself taking more and more dangerous missions, and despite Sollux's worries that he's going to wind up dead, and despite how much the resistance needs him, he can't bring himself to care. Because it feels like a vital part of him is missing, and he'll never be whole again.

Today's mission is ridiculous, and honestly, Karkat wouldn't have allowed anyone else to take it. There's been some suspicions about Hypatia's ability to predict where and when rescue missions would strike, and Sollux was able to trace one of Hypatia's main planning centers. It's about as deep as you can get into the robozone, and despite all that Karkat's done in the past, he's partially convinced he won't make it out. That idea worries him less than he thought it would.

But it's where he finds her. Terezi. Thin and tiny and still so beautiful and without even bothering to check if the place has been trapped, he's calling her name and rushing to her side.

If she can hear Karkat's voice--if she can still understand words at all, she doesn't respond. Her wrists and ankles are strapped down to the chair that she's reclined in. At one point, they served a purpose in restraining her, keeping her from pulling herself out...From disconnecting herself. But they lost their usefulness after a while, when her own muscles began to atrophy from disuse. Even if she was conscious, she couldn't lift her head now, let alone pull herself out of the chair.

Tubes and needles feed into her arms and hands. Water, nutrition, anything her body needs to function. Just enough to keep her alive. Her skin is a pale, unhealthy hue of grey. A mask covers her mouth and nose, filtering the air that she breathes in, lacing it with a general anesthesia. It doubles as a blindfold for her other senses.

Worst of all are the wires laced together into a single cord, inserted into a connector at the base of her skull. They connect to a machine on the other end, data flashing across a screen too quickly to be read by eye. The sound of her own name echoes across the room and is met with the same background of beeps and hums. No alarm sounds--not yet.

Her eyes are closed when Karkat reaches her. Her lids flutter minutely but refuse to open, and there's movement behind them like she's watching something unfold. And she has been... Continuously.

It's the only thing she knows anymore. Timeline after timeline. She's been through so many ifs and maybes and loops and dead ends, all at Hypatia's whims, and there's no telling which is the real path anymore. There's no telling what has happened or what will happen, or what is happening right now. Most of the futures are terrible. Friends and loves ones dead or enslaved, bodies scattering the ground, hope crushed, Hypatia reigning triumphant--those are the ones that she's forced to focus on.

She doesn't have a say in the things she sees anymore. She's just a passenger in her own mind.

He can see the distress on her face, and god, it hurts him. As a moirail, it's his job to protect her-- emotionally and physically, and damn, he has failed miserably. He can feel that failure in the pit of his stomach, seeping into every atom of his being, screaming.

He needs her, but she needs him too. Hell, it looks like she needs him more. So Karkat places a hand on her cheek and shooshes her.

"Hush, Kanaya. Shooosh. I don't need past you. I need you you. I need you happy." Karkat leans down and kisses her forehead, refusing to acknowledge the fact that he can feel tears streaming down his face. If that means he's barring his throat to her, the fucks he gives are minimal.

He calls her name again, more quietly now, as he (so cautiously, shakingly, what is he so scared of) places his hand atop hers.

"Oh god, what has she done to you?" Karkat can feel every individual bone in her hand, and it physically hurts to see her like this. His fingers find the various tubes attached to her hands and arms, and slowly, he begins to pull them out. Wherever he tears skin, he quickly delivers a chaste kiss to the wound.

"Terezi, oh god, Terezi, it'll be okay. I've got you now, okay? So just sit tight for a bit, got it?" He knows she can't hear him, but talking calms him down, and he's going to need to be calm to get out of here. Karkat doesn't remember what the original mission objective was, but the nihilistic attitude he had before is completely gone. He needs to get out for Terezi's sake. They need to get out together. He needs to have her in his fucking arms, and he needs to never let go.

Next, he goes for the mask. Her face is as unnaturally gray as the rest of her, and as he leans up to kiss her nose and brush her hair from her face, he feels his helpless woe turn to fury. No one should ever fucking strap Terezi Pyrope to a chair. No one should mask her and leave her in some darkass building to rot, and no one, no one and nothing, ever has the right to hurt her.

"She's not going to get away with this, Terezi. I know how justice is your thing, and it'll be fucking served, so don't worry." He cuts the straps holding her to the chair, and catches her as her weight and gravity push her forward. It's only then he notices the cord at the back of her head. It's in a place too delicate and vital to tear out, despite however much he wants to. While his mind races, he holds her gently, one hand rubbing her back (feeling the bones, god this is wrong), the other poking and prodding at the cord.

After a new minutes (he knows he's running out of time), he realizes he can simply snap the thing out. Which he does.

"Come on, we're getting you out of here." Which is precisely what he does as he picks her up bridal style and goes.

Edited 2012-04-08 21:56 (UTC)

"I would have someone else if you know, I had a moirail or someone else to bounce my words off. But, yo know... kinda missin' everyone important to me to a point. Sort of."

Not going to mention that he had you know... actually seen Gamzee lately, but he didn't want to talk about it. He turns his head a little bit, looking a little bit dumbstruck. "You'd... do somethin' like that for me?"

"Yeah, I would. But it means you've got to get your ass working. You can't just give up. I'm not going to be around to plan all this shit forever, and even before that, I can't make all the plans all alone."

He points to the seat next to him. It's covered in maps and shit, but whatever.

"So sit your ass down for a bit. We're going to have a brief lesson in plan-making, and then you're going to practice. Got it?"

Terezi's body gives an involuntary shudder when the cord is removed, accompanied by a heavy exhale. It's a relief, even if she's too far gone to realize it. There's no pulse of input directing her thoughts, there's no channel funneling output from her visions. For the first time in too many months, she's finally alone in her own head.

An alarm sounds now, a red banner flashing across the bottom of the empty data screen and low buzzing sound echoing through the room. Error. Invalid input. No signal. Reconnect.

She's light as a feather when Karkat lifts her from the chair, nowhere near what she used to weigh. Despite being taller than him, she folds into his arms easily, her head lolling against his shoulder. Her eyes are still closed, but a whimper issues from her throat--hoarse but audible. It's hard to tell if she's aware of his presence or if it's simply the jostling disturbing her.

There's alarms in the hall, the same buzzing issuing everywhere Karkat turns, red lights flashing ominously from the corners. Security breach, security breach. At some point, Terezi finally half-opens her eyes, staring with groggy blindness. Her breathing doesn't change from it's slow and steady pace, but she takes in the scent of her surroundings with a detached sort of awareness. Nothing strikes her as strange. She had visions like this before (or were they fantasies? the made-up product of her own imprisonment...), she knows how this ends. It won't be long before she's whisked off to a new place in time. There's no point in dwelling on a scenario where they succeed.

There's no point in hope at all, but the what if sends of twinge through her heart. She wants to believe that Karkat is holding her. She wants to believe that he came for her. These were the visions that always hurt her the most. Even after a year of imprisonment and solitude, each time the possibility of escape arises, it only makes the thought that much more painful. She closes her eyes again as tears well up, spilling down her cheeks. She doesn't care if it's not real. He smells real, and that's all she needs right now. However long it lasts.

Edited 2012-04-08 23:39 (UTC)

Kanaya relishes in his tears, not because his sadness makes her happy, but because he is expressing so well what she cannot. The pressure of lips on her forehead makes her sigh and there's a quick fleeting flash of memory when he used to push himself up on tiptoes to do this when they were young. She can smell his blood through his skin and moves her head to his throat, opening her mouth to press against his jugular.

But she can't do it because there is pity welling up in her chest and spilling over to what little troll parts of her she as left and instead she closes her mouth and presses her lips to his throat before burying her face in the space between his neck and shoulder. "I can't feel. I don't feel. Not anymore. I don't know what this feeling is. It's the first in so long. I don't understand."

Edited 2012-04-09 03:13 (UTC)

He supports her head with his arm, pulling her up gently until she's sitting. She's got dirt in her hair, and her clothing is ratty at the seams, and Kanaya should never look this sad or confused. So Karkat wraps his arms around her, brushing dust off her back and out of her hair.

"It's okay, I've got you. I've finally fucking got you. I know you're confused, and it's hard, but it'll be okay." It's ridiculous how many times Karkat has closed his eyes and imagined finding her. He'd rush in like some big goddamn hero, killing robots with one hand and holding Kanaya's with the other. Even if this wasn't like his dreams, holding Kanaya and just talking to her was worth it completely.

"It'll take you a while, but I'm here now, and I'm not going to leave you again." He means it.

Edited 2012-04-09 09:21 (UTC)

Karkat clutches her to his chest like a lifeline. A reminder that he needs to get out, regardless of how many paths are blocked or how many robots are sent his way. He knows the layout of the building by memory (thanks Sollux) and knows precisely where the security system is attempting to lead him. It's a trap, and if they think he'll be playing by their poorly designed, bullshit ambush games, they've got something else entirely different coming. Specifically, they have bombs coming. Lots and lots of bombs.

Before finding Terezi, he had been setting bombs that he could remotely detonate to bring down the building. While he hadn't finished planting them all, enough was in place to cause a distraction or two.

Boom, motherfuckers. The building shakes. Robots, trying to quickly assess levels of threat (explosions or escapee?) pause, confused by their own processing. He has to place Terezi down for a few moments to clear a pathway, but it doesn't take long, and in an instant, she's back in his arms, and she's crying?

"Shh, Terezi, I've got you. So don't--" As Karkat moves his fingers across her face to wipe away the tears, there's a sudden overwhelming sensation of pain in his arm, and he topples to the floor, having enough sense to cushion Terezi's body with his own. There's red everywhere and the glisten of a robot's ocular receptors, not quite defeated. Karkat's profane exclamations shake the heavens. He had missed one of those miserable fucking machines. Before it can take another shot, though, Karkat instantly ejects random shit from his Sylladex. Considering that the vast majority of his Sylladex is made of bear traps rigged with explosives (thanks, Jack), it doesn't stand a chance. The bot is obliterated in no time. The troll stumbles back to his feet, struggling with balancing Terezi using only one arm, but eventually figuring it out. Time to run again.

Karkat knows they won't immediately be making it off Sacrosanct. Too much commotion, too much noise. Hypatia was probably checking the usual rebel locations of entry just to make sure. So he heads for the garden zone of the sector, since her reach weakens the further she is from her facilities. It's surprising how well his explosives worked; they obviously weren't expecting an attack, and it seems like the region is sparsely fortified. Due to the Rebellion's tactics of striking quickly and fleeing, Karkat doubts anyone would expect the culprit to be hiding so near his work. Just to be sure, though, he travels as deep into the garden region as he can-- where the artificial sun is hidden by the high tree canopy, and everything is cast in shadows.

It's here he lays Terezi down and begins tending to his wounds.

Terezi doesn't flinch at the gunshots or the explosions. She doesn't flinch at the scent of cherry blood assaulting her nostrils. What would flinching do, anyway? What would anything do?

She can't count the number of times she's been through this. Watching their escapes, only to have the hope viciously yanked from her. Maybe Hypatia will gun him down this time. Maybe she'll capture him. Maybe she'll torture him. Maybe she'll simply blow him up. She's only done that one twice, Terezi thinks. If he is meant to succeed... It doesn't matter. She'll be rip away from this reality so fast that her head will spin. She expects it, honestly. Any second, and she'll be somewhere new. Any second, now.

Throughout the escape, Terezi doesn't say a word. She lies complacently in Karkat's arms, aware but distant. Like this is something happening to anyone else but her. When he sets her on the ground, she can smell the heavy dampness of the soil. Her fingers twitch against it, feeling the dirt and foliage beneath her.

Any second... Any second... But the seconds keep ticking by. Nothing changes. Hasn't it been long enough? Her visions don't usually make it this far. A sliver of hope winds its way through her mind, and for a moment... For a moment, she's terrified to believe in it. There's safety in her visions. They aren't absolute truth, just possibilities. It doesn't matter how many times she watches him die, as long as he keeps appearing, it means that he's still out there. He's still okay.

If this isn't a vision, there's nothing to fall back on. There's no consolation. There are no second chances. And Terezi knows... She can't really watch him die. Not because of her. It would destroy her completely.

"Is this... real?" Her hoarse whisper is just barely audible, the first words she's spoken in well over a year. "A-are you...?"

Edited 2012-04-09 14:11 (UTC)

Get up...only a little. But a little is enough, and his doorwings only scrape every so often on the rock rather than constantly.

(Aside from a part where they're literally flattened to his body. He grunts once as they're pressed tighter, but jerks himself through in to the widening tunnel.)

When the light hits his optics, he mistakes it for reflection, at first; then, he pauses, helm snapping towards the illumination. Nemesis gestures for Skyfire to wait as he flicks out one arm's gun, allowing it to power up to minimum as he guardedly approaches.

He nods sharply and hangs back, keeping close and watching his old friend's back closely, covering the rear... as it were.

He can still hear that damned worm, chewing it's way through the rock. They'll have to get out soon before it catches up. It'll take some time for it to tunnel, but he doesn't want to be there when it comes out even more pissed than before.

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Dark Future Meme

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