un + action/voice

[tearmeanewone]

[Action]

“Booker? Booker?!”

Elizabeth could almost still smell the sulfur and fire, and feel the heat coming from Monument Island. It had felt, for a moment, like the world was being pressed and burned into her bones, swelling up against her ribcage and expelling itself in the form of a brilliant, blinding light that enveloped her, Booker, and Songbird. That was what she'd seen, she was almost certain of it.

But instead of her jailer and her strange fellow convict, Elizabeth was brought out of the sky and out of the clouds and light and into cool water. Not that she'd never ended up in water before, but it was very disorienting. She thrashed and doggy-paddled to the edge of the lake, realizing that if Booker had been anywhere nearby, he would have answered her.

The silence was lonely, and familiar. She didn't like it at all. Even the sounds of gunfire would have been welcome as opposed to the sound of her struggling to slosh out of the lake and onto the shore. Everything seemed to echo, even the drips coming off of the plain dress she had somehow ended up in. New place, new clothes, wings on her back... Elizabeth reached out awkwardly and touched them, drawing a hand back in dismay and shock when she realized she could feel her hand on her wing. Wings. She had wings now, when did that happen?

“It's okay, Elizabeth,” she said aloud, crossing her arms over her chest, trying to calm down and warm herself a little. “It's... probably not this wet in heaven.” She sniffled from the chill of being soaked head to foot, and took in her surroundings while trying not to wonder if she had in fact killed herself and Booker by opening that tear. It had led somewhere significant, somewhere foreign and different where madness was king. She had thought she'd seen a sea, but perhaps it was this lake. Perhaps she was in a different place where madness was king...

“Booker!” she called again, almost desperate. Biting back tears and a lump in her throat, she looked around the lake once more. She had lived alone for years. And in the first scrap of quiet she'd heard in a long time, she couldn't find comfort standing by herself.

Shivering, Elizabeth looked around for any movement and saw a patch of royal blue on the ground. Her dress, folded neatly with a thin book. Who did that...?


[Audio]

[The audio starts up, unexpectedly, but Elizabeth seems to know how this is supposed to work. It's like a Voxophone, right? Only it's somehow transmitted everywhere.]

Can anyone hear this? I don't know what day it is, or where I'm supposed to be. Booker? There's a, uh, lake here, and some trees. [She sighs, her voice wavering.] I'm freezing out here, and if you're running around sticking your head in trashcans I'm going to be really mad!




((Catch her walking through the forest or into the village! She has her journal open too, and will be 'Voxophoning' actively.))

Comments

The sound is probably far too clear for her too. No crackles at all!

[tokennonbender]

Benders. People who can throw fire and lightning from their hands.

What is this clarityyyy. 8| /distrust

[tearmeanewone]

Oh! I... suppose we can? I mean, I wouldn't drink one of those tonics myself, it's too intense. I'm assuming most people don't drink them for the same reason. Are there more people in your world who choose to take on those abilities?

Someone should show her the holo dome thing.

[tokennonbender]

No, people are born with them.

Oh that'd be interesting. XD

[tearmeanewone]

Huh... [Elizabeth sounds thoughtful.] I guess it makes sense that someone would have to have a genetic predisposition to it. Otherwise how would tonics come about?

[tokennonbender]

...I have no idea what that means.

But benders are just born that way. And usually benders have bender children, too.

[tearmeanewone]

Well the ability to alter your genetic makeup, and to produce fire at will, doesn't just come from nothing. There has to be some sort of source. Which probably comes from these 'benders' who are born with the innate ability.

[tokennonbender]

I...suppose.

But I think being a bender comes from the spirits? At least, that's how we were taught.

[tearmeanewone]

'Spirits' like...? [Not the 'spirits' she's thinking of, probably. She can't imagine an ability that comes from drinking, but she's not about to discount anything.]

[tokennonbender]

Well, water benders get their power from the moon and the moon spirit, and firebenders get theirs from the sun.

[tearmeanewone]

Hm... I wonder how that works. [Because 'it's the spirits' doesn't really give Elizabeth the answer she's used to.]

[tokennonbender]

I don't know. I don't think anyone has ever really studied it.

[tearmeanewone]

No one ever? [Elizabeth sounds vastly surprised by this.] But it seems like everything has been studied and written about by someone.

[tokennonbender]

Well, not that I've ever learned about, anyway. I mean, people probably have but more from a spiritual direction than a scientific one.

[tearmeanewone]

But even if it was a "spirit", there has to be some sort of scientific reasoning. People just don't have abilities because something else says so.

[tokennonbender]

Maybe. It's worked this way for as long as anyone can remember, though. If there's some other reason for it, no one has ever figured it out.

There are two Avatar's here though, you could ask one of them? Although I doubt Korra knows...

[tearmeanewone]

Maybe no one's figured it out so they just accept that it is what it is. Kind of like trying to figure out the real reason people wear clothes.

Two avatars of what?

[tokennonbender]

...Why wouldn't people wear clothes?

[Asami isn't quite certain how to answer that.]

Avatars are...they're like figures of balance? They are the only people that can bend all four elements. They're supposed to ensure that none of them become dominant. That's what I was taught anyway.

Usually there is only one, but the current one and the last one are both here.

[tearmeanewone]

Well, there are certain situations where people don't, but trying to discern the ultimate reason why people wear clothes could just be an unanswerable question. It could be the way it is just because that's how it is. You know?

[The fact that there's only supposed to be one at any given time, and yet there are two at Luceti, doesn't phase Elizabeth in the slightest.] Well, if they're in charge of this 'bending' concept, they probably should know how it works. If I see one of them, I'll ask!

[tokennonbender]

I guess I can understand that. Sort of. It probably just happened the first time people were cold.

[A little smile.]

Well...I'm not sure I'd say they're in 'charge' of bending. More like the...top one. But that's not quite it either...

[She had never had to explain avatars before!]

[tearmeanewone]

...is there a definite anything in your world? [Spirits, 'top but not', what was even going on here?]

[tokennonbender]

Yes, of course. Just...not about benders.

[tearmeanewone]

I'm starting to realize that. Well, I guess it really doesn't matter now that we're here anyway. Things run the way these... Malnosso people want it to run, it sounds like.

[tokennonbender]

That's the impression I've been getting too. And if they're powerful enough to hold two avatars here, I doubt there is a lot we can do to stop them on our own.

[And judging by how long people had been here, there might not be anything they could do at all.]

[tearmeanewone]

I could probably do some damage. If I could just get a tear open long enough to do something... [Her tone is bitter, and slightly threatening. She's absolutely had it with prisons though.] This guide doesn't say anything about where they are, though.

[tokennonbender]

...A tear? A tear in what?