tearmeanewone | TREIZE + [Action]

[Forward Dated - April 20th]

[Action]

[The structure burned.]

[Elizabeth watched it with an air of simple philosophy. It had only taken one little spark, and the whole forest-based waystation for the sheltering of New Feathers lost in the woods had gone up. The bedding, the supplies, the spare clothes, everything. From one little flame.]

[Just as she was one little flame. One little flame that would baptise the world-- every world-- in fire. Beginning with this one. She would burn it all to the ground if it meant being more trouble than she was worth, she would burn it to the ground if it meant snuffing out the foolish things her better-off had grown to cherish.]

[Disappointment, and pain, and despair. These would be the things that would make her live up to her true potential, turn her into her father's daughter. And it would only start when she left.]

[She walked away from the blaze, breathing and feeling the sheer amount of power that was ripping through her shoulders and arms. The siphon was a kind of leash, put on her by her father, never removed for fear that she would find herself just as obedient as when it had been on. Her fears were realized. Tears extended glad, welcoming arms to her, nearly opened right as she passed them they were so eager, but she didn't reach back. She did not believe in Lutece, she only believed in the word of the Prophet-- science had cured her.]

[But apparently, that science had not followed her to Luceti. And she was older, and stronger, than her younger self. Whatever the Malnosso had in place, it only held her back so much. It was possible to use her power... and it might also be necessary. She was alone, and she only feared dying before her work was done, losing the memory of what she had to accomplish. She extended a trembling hand, and opened one-- an abandoned, bloody crossbow for her troubles, and only a twinge of pain and a moderate increase in heart rate. She shouldered it and pressed on, to the item shop where she might arm herself for the coming night.]

[When darkness falls, Elizabeth walks out of the forest, pushing a strange device. The thing protests when she tries to start it up, and Elizabeth realizes with some trepidation that whatever she's pulled out of the tear, it doesn't have an endless amount of fuel in it. It'll be no more useful than scrap once it does.]

[But it starts, and Elizabeth climbs in and takes off, hovering just above the various community buildings. Despite the recent upheaval, it seems quiet. The silence is like nails on a chalkboard, Elizabeth can almost imagine what deplorable things are happening in the homes below. What dreams are being dreamt, what happiness is being lived in complete naivete.]

[In the dark, she sees the roof of the house she had allowed Booker and the Luteces to live in while she hid herself away. Every day Dewitt lived was another day Elizabeth grit her teeth and prayed for patience, every day he attempted to reach out to her, every moment she saw him drinking to forget how he had abandoned her. No more.]

[Elizabeth picked up a bottle, lit the rag on the end, and dropped it over the side of her transport, aiming for the roof of that quiet little house.]

Amen.

((OOC: Elizabeth has been AU'd to a version of herself who was left to be broken by Comstock. She has quite an arsenal of improvised weaponry, as well as a few tear and vigor-related tricks up her sleeve, but she'll be dropping incendiary things in a line straight through the village-- obviously, no unwanted property damage will occur. But anybody who wants some damage/wants to face off with a superpowered maniac with daddy issues, who pretty much thinks you're a filthy sinner, COME AT HER, BRO! Only stipulation is she's finally going to be stopped by Gai, but if she's not a match for your character she'll turn tail and retreat.))

((Replies will come from

godspeedthyjudgement!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Booker... [Elizabeth presses her forehead against one of the bars and looks down at him, an exhausted and exasperated hint of a smile on her lips.] You're not supposed to say 'I don't know' when you know which answer will save your life.

[The smile pulls back into a line, because even if Booker is being so very Booker (and missing opportunities to just lie to her), she's curious.]

Who's 'she'?

[[It's a brief moment of peace between them both and Elizabeth's smile - however faint - gives him some small modicum of hope that maybe he won't be incinerated. Maybe. At the question though, Booker's mind snaps back into the now and the tension seeps back into him as if he were a sponge.]

You. A ... you from a future timeline I guess?

[Booker really never was good with this whole multiple universes thing.]

I was trying to catch up to Songbird after he - [Come on Dewitt, say it.] - took you.

And then I guess she pulled me through a tear into her world because suddenly there was snow everywhere and ... she gave me something that helped us get out of Columbia. Destroyed the siphon too.

[It's heavily edited but he doesn't want to tell her the horrible things he saw. She didn't need to know them - or so he thought. New York on fire and those godawful Boys of Silence to name a few. ]

[Elizabeth doesn't have to hear Booker say what he's thinking. She knows that the only way he would equate her to someone from a future timeline, where Songbird always stops Booker, would be if she was acting the way that future self had. Destroying something for the sake of the twisted morals Comstock had imposed on her. She wouldn't change, when she was old she would not depart from the ways he had taught her.]

[But in the end, apparently, she would reject and unravel it all. Destroying the siphon would end it all, yes. It would mean certain escape. Blindly, Elizabeth reaches for the control on the hovering contraption, and lowers it slowly to land on the ground.]

So in the end... what I suffered through means something happens that's bigger than just the pain. Because I wasn't saved... she could be.

[She looks up at the house, eyes flicking over the flames as though looking for something in them. Finally she swallows and holds her hand out for Booker to help her down.]

Hold me up, Booker. I need you to help me.

[The blood smeared under her nose is easy to see now and Booker bites back a comment on it. Seemed to be a common symptom between them. It's easier to see how thin she is, how she looks more like a machine than a person now.

Again - Booker bites back any remarks he might have to make and instead takes her hand in his to heft her up.]

Come on, I gotcha.

[It's just idle chatter, there's no meat to his words and no thought to them either as he helps Elizabeth stand.]

[Elizabeth stands easily enough, it almost seems like she doesn't actually need him to help her stand up. She doesn't let go, though, as she approaches the burning house.]

Don't let me fall, or collapse, or faint. And no matter how much I scream, don't try to discourage me. [Her eyes flick over the fire again.] I have to repay my debt to her.

[Elizabeth digs her fingers into the air and a tear appears. She pulls and falters, letting out a shocked and pained gasp and pausing for a moment. But then she's pulling again, and working harder at the tear than Booker has probably ever seen her work. One thing is abundantly clear, though: it's hurting her, and it's enough to make her vocalize her pain.]

What? Elizabeth what are you --

[He knows what she told him to do. Keep quiet and make sure she stays upright. But, then again, he never was very good at doing what he was told.]

Stop -- stop it!

[Booker didn't know what to try and do to appease her to just... leave it alone. It didn't occur to him to just tell her it'd basically all grow back.]

[She knows the leash is still in place--it hurt to pull the flying machine through a tear, but it's absolute agony trying to pull an entire house through one. She can do it, she knows she can, but that 'training mechanism' is doing its job, unfortunately.]

Good try, Booker-- [Elizabeth holds the tear open a mere four inches, still struggling to open it, nearly shaking with the effort.] --What are you going to do to stop me, exactly?

[She bares her teeth and digs in, opening the tear to nearly three feet. The house is in tact and calm beyond the opening, so Elizabeth keeps pushing, nearly screaming with the effort now.]

[Not a damn thing. Booker has had this conversation before, and he volunteered to put the blood on his hands instead of Elizabeth.

Somehow she still ended up with plenty of red on her palms.

He doesn't seem to think she is quite understand what he's seeing. That she's just...needlessly putting herself through pain for...for what? Not much.]

You're hurting yourself, Elizabeth!

[He doesn't know how to stop her. How do you stop someone from literally tearing into another universe.]

You think I didn't realize that? [She spreads her arms out and holds the tear there for a moment, breathing, hands in fists trying to control the pain.]

It's the leash. Every time I tried to do this, every time I tried to escape, I couldn't make it past the pain. I gave up on trying because-- because what was the point if I didn't have anyone to travel with?! Why was I hurting myself to get somewhere that was just as awful as where I was?! Why was I trying to get back to someone... someone who had abandoned me...?!

[Elizabeth's voice cracks as she remembers all of the doubt, and heartbreak, and loss of hope that she experienced waiting for Booker. Enduring the procedures to wrap the leash around her neck, so to speak. She'd held out for almost a year, and then...]

I should have known that the people who hurt me would also lie to me to break me. I should have known, but I was so lost. I'm still lost. [Elizabeth redoubles her efforts, nearly screams at the push she makes.] But she's not! She doesn't have to become me, she doesn't have to lose everything!

[Booker might not be the most paternal person (an understatement) but he can't just keep listening to Elizabeth scream and hurt and try without acting. He's never been able to do that very well. Shrugging off the possibility that it might very well kill him or do worse, Booker grabs her shoulder (not getting in front of her because somehow standing between Elizabeth and a fluctuating tear doesn't sound like a smart idea) to try and shout some sense into her.]

She won't! Just... just let it burn! It's going to be back in the morning!

[A little late on the update? Oh yeah. But it's not really something he considered needing to tell her. Even if she isn't the same, she's still Elizabeth in a way. She's still his daughter.]

Elizabeth! Please stop!

TREIZE + [Action]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

ohshi ithought i replied to this D: