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 swallows. It's the air choking him up down here, it has to be. He can't... he can't be stupid about this. He can't put her in danger, even if he just wants to see her, wants to know she's all right.

If he knows, though, Hypatia will know. She'll find out, somehow. If he wants to do anything, he needs to disable his eye, and even then there's no guarantee.

"Wish I could say the same." It takes him a moment to compose himself. "But I'm. M'glad you're all right. M'glad you made it."

She snorts bitterly. Yeah, she made it, and now she's useless. Which isn't entirely true, but it feels true. "Yeah, well. I'm alive, anyway. Which I guess is more than I can say for some..."

She lets out a sharp breath.

"Do you know if... We never found out what happened to Buffy. May still hopes she'll be brought back from one of the raids, and nobody-- Sorry, I'm not really..." She's not going to fall apart, dammit. "You could stay. Sollux could clear out any residual programming. You could stay here."

She's not begging. She's not. And there are people still up there, like Jade, and she knows he'll say no for that reason alone. But dammit, he's her friend and she has to ask.

"Buffy's alive. She's... one of the successful conversions." It's so hard, not leaving his cover to see her. So hard. But he curls a scaled hand into the ground, holding himself in place. He can't.

"Hypatia's in her head, but if you guys can break the hold she's got on her..." He feels himself shudder involuntarily. He isn't sure if it's the atmosphere getting to him or a reaction of desperation and revulsion. "Just. God, if you do. If you can, get Jade outta there."

Toby may not be willing to beg, but Ladon's abandoned all semblances of pride a long time ago. "I can't. Not yet. No one else's left who ain't a slave or lost their mind."

"Oberon," Toby breathes, and something in her heart breaks a little. She wants to rescue Buffy, for her own sake, and for May's. But... well, if she was a successful conversion, maybe she's at least not scared or in pain or wondering why no one's come to rescue her yet.

"They try. I'm pretty sure every time they run into her they try, May says that some of the kids have come back seriously beat up from trying to get her. I tried too, before--"

She doesn't finish the thought, just sighing quietly.

"I know. You ever notice we're both a similar brand of idiot?" She hesitates, then adds, "But don't think I won't be telling Sollux to let people know that you're still you. At least I can try to make sure you don't get your dumbass self killed."

"It's destroyin' her. I dunno how much she's got left in her. She's still Jade under it all. Almost wish the bitch'd wipe her memory completely, save the poor kid the torment..." He's really digging those claws into the ground now, more out of anger than anything. The things he wants to do to Hypatia after what she's done to the people he cares about...

"It'd be better if they take me seriously when I show up. Tellin' 'em I'm still me would just make them vulnerable and tip off Hypatia." He rests his head on the rock, staring up at the sky. "I dunno how much longer that's gonna be the case anyway. I got one foot in the junk heap, and that's only if she don't manage to stick somethin' in my head tellin' me what to do."

"So I'm supposed to know you're out there possibly rescuable and I'm supposed to not... tell anyone? Fine, but you get yourself killed, Ladon, and I swear by Oberon and all the firstborn my stupid mother included that I will find a way to bring you back just so I can kick your ass."

Her voice is not shaking. She is not going to break down crying the moment she's alone.

"I'd say it was good seeing you, but I don't see much of anything. It's good to... to know you're alive, anyway." Not okay. But alive.

"Sorry, I never wanted--" That... doesn't really matter anymore, though. He just sighs, leans forward to prop his forehead on one hand. "If you manage that, doll, I won't even put up a fight."

He's not sure what she means about not seeing much. Can he really just leave it at this? Can he really turn around and go back to that hellhole of a space station with just her voice to go on? If he never sees her again, can he be content with just this?

No. He can't. He isn't. He's going to seek her out again otherwise.

Hypatia can fuck herself. He reaches up to his cybernetic eye, summons up a good helping of electricity in the same hand and zaps the hell out of the thing, until the vision dies off on one side.

It's going to leave him open on one side until he gets back to the station and it hurts like hell. But he is not compromising Toby just because he needs to see her, know she's there.

He stands then, slips out from behind the rock, and his breath hitches when he gets a good look at her. God, she's changed so much and yet so little at the same time.

She hears it, the electricity, his movement. Her sword's held low - easy to whip up if necessary, but not actually threatening anyone or anything yet. Her eyes look fine and healthy, thanks to the glamour, and they're flicking back and forth as if she's looking for the source of the sound, but...

Well, they don't focus on anything.

"Ladon?" she asks cautiously. "You're gonna have to reassure me all that noise wasn't you getting shock collared or something, 'cause you're being awful quiet all the sudden and it's kind of making me nervous."

Now that little, off-hand comment makes sense. It's like a knife to the gut, because he may be part machine now, but he can still tell magic when he sees it, especially when it winds up being relatively ineffective at this close distance.

Oh Toby.

"No collar, just me. I'm gonna come closer, all right?" And as he does, he takes her hand, guides it up to his face where she can feel the difference between the warm flesh of his cheek and cold metal where the eye implant starts. "Disabled my eye. She can see through it when it's workin'. Good thing I'm pretty damn defective, yeah?"

His sense of humor is still pretty terrible.

Oh fucking hell.

It's one thing to know that there has to be some sort of synthetics in him for Hypatia to have even a the most rudimentary control over him, but this...

She sucks in a sharp breath, feeling that difference. Right, she might not be able to look him over, but she'll do the next best thing and fuck you if it embarrasses you, Ladon. She carefully sheathes her sword and presses her hands to his cheeks. Runs her hands through his hair a little, across his shoulders, down his chest.

It may not be a thorough examination, but he doesn't feel like he's on the verge of death, anyway.

And also screw being all badass and shit, she's going to throw her arms around his neck and hug him for all she's worth.

"You were never any good at being a badass," she mutters into his shoulder. "Fuck, Ladon. Just... fuck."

Ladon's unfortunately something of a mess. Where he's not wired or augmented, every few inches of skin is interrupted by patches of scales, and his breathing is something akin to a constant rumble of lungs that don't really belong in a compact human body. He has no fingers, not anymore, just black claws that manage to thankfully be at least proportional to the rest of him. He's whole, though, like some strange patchwork quilt. He mourns the loss of her eyesight, but at the same time, at least she's spared actually looking at him.

He doesn't resist in the least when she hugs him, immediately closing his arms around her and taking a stuttered breath, breathing in that wonderful copper-and-cut-grass smell she always has. He doesn't want to let go.

"Only good at pretendin'," he sighs. "You've always been the stronger one, doll."

"Root and branch, boss, you are full of it." No, she's not letting go just yet. She is not stupid enough to count on seeing him again, not with everything that's happened in her life thus far.

She rests her forehead against his shoulder and just... soaks it in. She hadn't realised exactly how much she missed him until right this second. They'd never been huggy or anything, generally speaking, but this is really the only way she can sear him into her memory one last time.

In another lifetime, or if he'd escaped as well, maybe they could have...

Well, it's not worth thinking about, or bringing up. It would only make everything worse when he leaves, when he dies, because that's something that will happen, and soon, if he keeps doing things like disabling the tech Hypatia's put in him.

He's wrong, though, about her. She's a selfish bitch sometimes, not strong at all.

"Don't go," she whispers. "Please don't go."

A lot of maybes died when he failed to make it out of the station. Maybe he could have done something, maybe she'd still be able to see, maybe things would have worked out for the better.

But maybe not. Maybe he'd be dead by now anyway. Ladon wasn't the hardiest individual. He'd been through a lot, but nothing like life on Asphodel, nothing like the war he still managed to tip-toe on the outside of. And then there were the kids. Would Jade have gone insane? Would the prisoners have died? He couldn't say his own happiness was more important than theirs. Years ago it was possible he would have-- but still unlikely.

He cringes when she whispers, pulls her a little closer. "I don't want to. God, I don't." He's thankful his fake eye can't produce tears. "But I gotta go back. I'm sorry."

If she were someone else, maybe she'd take this opportunity to kiss him, like the day they first met only without mistletoe compelling them to it. May would do it, steal a kiss to remember him by, and part of Toby thinks maybe, maybe she should do that, too.

But it's not her. She takes a deep shuddering breath, presses a soft kiss to his cheek, and steps back.

She attempts a smile that really doesn't quite make it past "wince", and nods as if something's been decided.

"I'll see you around, boss," she says quietly. It's a promise that they both know they can't keep, at the heart of it, but she can't say goodbye.

If she says goodbye, that's like giving up. Even if the odds are a million to one, she can't quite do that.

Had Ladon been a different person in a different set of circumstances, perhaps he would have kissed her too. Instead he brushes her hair back, and though she can't see it, he smiles. It's pained, but it's genuine. He's happy he got to see her again, even if there's no telling it he ever will again.

"Keep your chin up, doll." He unfolds his wings then, slowly lets her go. "I'll send as many down to you guys as I can."

That's really all he can promise after all. Any more hesitation will just hurt, and so he takes off running, wings beating, and then takes to the air, forcing himself to not look back.

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Dark Future Meme

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