tearmeanewone | un + action/voice

Entry tags:

un + action/voice

[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.))

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[Uh, wow ok um. He's never heard of either place, and this woman was still acting so sure she was talking to someone she knew. Just what the hell?]

Lady, I think you- [Oh, she's still talking? Upset talking this time....really upset--is she crying? What the hell is a voxophone even!? Not exactly wanting to get this woman anymore worked up for the wrong reasons, he comes out from the behind the tree and approaches her.]

Hey, hold on just a moment! I think you got the wrong guy.

[Done faking it, Elizabeth turns around to put Booker firmly in the doghouse for hiding from her. Of course she doesn't have the wrong guy. Who else sounds like Booker DeWitt--?]

[Oh.]

[This scary-looking guy, apparently.]

[Screaming, at the Unexpectedly-Not-Booker-Man, Elizabeth chucks her dress and journal at him and takes off. To find something else to throw, obviously.]

[The startled reaction was to be the expected, the screaming and being thrown stuff at, not so much. The clothes and a journal didn't really slow him down much though. All he had to do was just step over to one side and be done with that.]

You got to be kidding me. [He made a disgruntled sound and goes on after her. It won't take him long to get caught up with her. Once he had lessen the gap between them, he reached for her arm in an attempt to stop her.] Hey! Hold up just a moment!

[Elizabeth looks back, slowing down to see if she's still being followed. She is, but she can't run much faster in no shoes. And this man can book it, obviously.]

[She screams again as she feels his hand wrap around her arm, but then she turns right around and pulls back her free arm into a fist. She's punched someone in the face before, she'll do it again if she has to.]

[Jesus christ, woman. Yea, ok, he's not exactly the most handsomest guy in the world, and he is a merc--ok this doesn't really help him.]

Geez, is this how you greet everyone? [he noticed that fist, but he didn't seem threatened by it with how calm he was trying to stay.] I just want to ask some questions.

Let go of me! [Elizabeth pulls at her arm, disregarding the question entirely. She could just punch him, or knee him right between the legs--that usually worked. But even though the face is completely unfamiliar, the voice isn't. It's hard to resolutely decide to punch someone when their voice usually means reassurance and safety. As much as she could hope for in Columbia, at least.]

[Did you even--He makes a look of annoyance, glancing off to one side for a second before looking back down at her.

He decides to listen to her and he lets her go, hands raise slightly to hopefully prove a point he's not here to cause trouble. If she runs again...well, time to decide if it's worth chasing her again or not.]

If you're going to run your ass off again, at least run to get your journal. That's kind of important here.

[She snatches her arm back as though just being held burned her, and backs up a couple steps. But in the end, Elizabeth will always be curious and wonder why things are the way they are. In this case, now that she's been let go and this man isn't reaching for a gun or something equally unpleasant, she's wondering why he sounds like Booker when he very clearly isn't. Was it a hallucination? Had she hit her head?]

[Holding her arm across herself and watching the man warily, she takes a minute to catch her breath. And ask her own question.]

Who are you?

[Jake just stayed where he was, glad this woman didn't decide to run again. He shrugged when he was asked the question.]

You know, that's what I wanted to ask. Who did you think I was?

[Jake, you don't just answer a question with another question. And this is not how you keep a person from not being intimidated by you.]

Booker DeWitt. [Elizabeth answers without really thinking about if there are any consequences for revealing his name. None that she can think of off the top of her head, aside from that whole 'False Shepherd' craziness.]

You sound like him. You even have the same tone of voice and tendency to swear. [Which would be amusing if she didn't feel so very upset about it. For a moment, she had thought they would face this timeline together too. Not just her wandering around by herself.]

Maybe you don't sound that much like him and I'm just imagining things. But he's the only person I really know. At all. I was hopeful for a second...

[Well that's....kinda creepy.] He's not also popping bullets into mutating, virus-infected people is he?

[Maybe if she said Wesker it might have not come off as strange, even if he had never heard the man speak himself, but she said some guy name Booker? That's a complete blank in his books.]

Well, sorry to disappoint, but my name's Jake.

...some of them look a little mutated, but most of them are just people. [Elizabeth's starting to feel the weird factor too. She shifts from foot to foot and nods awkwardly.]

No, I'm sorry I threw my dress at you. I just expected to see him and I'm more used to strangers chasing after me while shooting. [She smiles wryly and shrugs lightly.] I'm Elizabeth.

[He just raise a brow at that entire statement. He was just making a joke about the infected people and then she had to go and say all of that. What was this woman's story? He crossed his his arms and looked at her with curiosity.]

What did you do to piss everyone off?

[Elizabeth gives a short, sardonic laugh.]

Existed, I guess?

[She shrugs again, uneasily.] I did escape from my home, but I was being watched without knowing it. I knew I was a prisoner, I just never knew I was a specimen until he got me out.

[Jake goes quiet, feeling a slight chill at some of the similarities he and Elizabeth shared. As if he wasn't bothered enough after learning about a guy named Booker. But really, he's been in that situation of being watched, people knowing who you were before you even tell them, and treated like some experiment. Not a good feeling. He looked away for a moment, speaking in a sarcastic tone.]

You're gonna love this place then. [He looked back to her, speaking in a more neutral tone.] Sorry for scaring you earlier. Unless you're going to go terminator on us, I don't think anyone stuck here are going to come after you.

If what I've read can be trusted, then I love it already. [She crosses her arms over her chest, clearly extremely uncomfortable with this line of conversation. Thankfully, they're shifting away from it.]

...Terminator? [Slow eyebrow raise...]

Robots. Sent to kill everyone? [...he just shakes his head and turns around with a handwave.]

You know what, let's just go find your things.

[Like Patriots?] Oh! Oh... No, I'm not going to do that. I'm not an automaton, first off.

[She follows after Jake, walking back along the path she ran over.] I know the journal's important, but I'd really like the dress though. This is getting a little clammy. [Elizabeth smiles weakly and pulls at her damp New Feather dress.]

[...Automaton.] You got some interesting names for stuff. Automaton, voxophone, where are you from?

[Jake is glancing at the ground ahead of them to notice what Elizabeth is doing.] Shouldn't have thrown it in the first place.

Columbia. It's not your typical place though, so I'm not surprised I use words nobody else does. It used to be a part of the United States, and then seceded.

[Elizabeth frowns and picks up her dress and journal.] I apologized, didn't I? You've never once been startled after being dropped into a strange place? [She puts a hand on her hip and gives Jake a disbelieving look.]

What, the capital got tired of hearing everyone complain? [He thinks this was some strange version of DC. Not like he paid much attention on world history. He gives her a back glance and shakes his head.]

Pissed off is more like it. [He'd be a terrible merc if he jumped that easily.]

Uh... Sort of, I guess. From what I understand, Columbia led an unauthorized military strike during the Boxer Rebellion. Then the capital told Columbia to stand down and so they just... seceded. [Elizabeth makes a face at the ground.] So I guess everyone was tired of hearing the capital complain, so they just took their toys and left.

[She rolls her eyes and looks through the clothes to find her jacket. Leaving the corset and skirts draped over a low branch, she slips it on.] I'm angry, sure. I don't really like being an experiment in a new, if bigger, prison. But I'm also not a walking battleship and lately people who look like you have made a sport out of grabbing me. [Elizabeth collects her clothes and journal and stands close to him, expectantly.] We can't all have absolutely no fear.

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