tearmeanewone | SEIZE + [Action/Audio]

[September 22nd - 24th]

[Locked to BioShock Infinitely Guilty House]

[Just by looking at the network, anyone would be able to tell that the anomalies in Luceti are coming faster and are starting to affect residents in stranger ways. Somehow, Elizabeth, Gai, Booker, Robert, and Rosalind's house has escaped unscathed. Until now.]

[One quiet, lazy morning, Elizabeth wakes up her husband by wrapping her arms around him from behind. Only as far as she's concerned, they aren't married. Very close, yes, she sings nearly every song he writes-- sometimes even the ones he doesn't write for her to sing. But more importantly, there are some serious-looking crystals growing from her severed pinky all the way up to her shoulder.]

Good morning, darling~

((OOC: If anyone wants to spot Elizabeth running around town with a half-crystalized arm and way longer hair, FEEL FREE. 8Db She'll be at her AU-self's usual haunts: Good Spirits, the library, and doing various gunbattle simulations in the Battle Dome.))

[September 25th - 28th]

[Locked to BioShock Infinitely Guilty House]

[Nobody gets a break. On the morning of the 25th, Elizabeth isn't in her bed. Though there's some smears of blood left on her pillow. She's standing in Booker's room, watching him sleep almost as though she can't believe he's there. She's absolutely still, as though saying something would break the illusion.]

[Wherever she's come from, she looks like she's been through hell. Blood all down one side of her face, bruising and blood at the inner corner of her left eye, her clothes have been practically shredded. Standing and watching Booker looking like this probably isn't the best plan, but...]

[Action]

[The last time this version of Elizabeth had been in Luceti, there was definitely more firm purpose to her step. This time, after cleaning herself up, Elizabeth wanders around the village as though she barely recognizes where she is. Or she's in awe of it. Or afraid that it's going to suddenly start storming and the entire village is going to catch fire. Over and over again, she bends and pulls at her fully-formed pinky. Maybe she shouldn't be making excursions into the village like this, but... it would no doubt be the last time she saw it.]

[Audio - Locked to Eleanor]

I'm sorry Eleanor, I need to talk to you one more time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yes, it's me. The one from Rapture.

I'm just wondering... if you knew anything about a man named 'Atlas'.

Atlas...

[Eleanor says the name as if it was something she hadn't thought of in years. The man who was indirectly responsible for half the horrible things in her life...]

Yes. I...yes. Why?

What do you know about him?

[Basically... she wants to know how it ended. She wants to be sure of what she'd seen.]

[There is a delay before Eleanor answers, trying to decide how to put it.]

His real name was Frank Fontaine. He was the second most powerful man in Rapture, after Andrew Ryan. His...his company was the one that brought plasmids out into the population. They...they started the little sister program and...

[A pause.]

Anyway. He and Ryan had a...war. Everyone thought Fontaine died, but he changed his identity and came back as Atlas. Nobody knew, not until he revealed himself after Ryan was killed. But he died a few days later. At least...that is what everyone says. I was...

I was asleep at the time.

Now, why do you want to know?

[There's some hesitation, but Eleanor no doubt wouldn't be able to alter the timeline. Not if she had been asleep.]

Atlas killed me. But before he did, I made sure he wouldn't last much longer. ...I just wanted to be sure.

He killed you?!

[That is sort of a detail that can't be glossed over.]

After... a lot of other unpleasant things, yes. I gave him what he wanted. What he thought he wanted. And I knew after that he wouldn't have a use for me. I told him to get on with it and he...

Well, he did.

That does sound like him.

...I'm sorry.

I was ready for it, as much as anyone can be I guess. I didn't have any regrets.

Anyway-- didn't Jack come for you? I saw him saving the Little Sisters, but I don't remember seeing you.

Jack? You mean Jack Ryan.

[Eleanor makes a soft noise. There was a daydream she had more than once.]

Mother had already found me by then. She had me hidden away in Persephone while she and Dr. Alexander tried to...fix...me.

You were left behind, then.

[Elizabeth is quiet, feeling a distinct pang of guilt.] I'm sorry, I should have found you.

Mm. I think I was supposed to be. Someone had to be there to wake father, or else all of mothers new little sitters would have been trapped there.

So it wasn't your fault. Although I still don't really understand how you ended up in Rapture, honestly...

I opened a tear to get there. Apparently one version of Comstock went to Rapture to hide from what he'd done, and I followed him.

Mm. [She knows that, but it's not the same as understanding it.]

Sounds like it wasn't worth the trip.

Comstock deserved what he got in the end. Maybe I would still be alive if I hadn't gone chasing after him, but...

Knowing that Jack stopped those girls from being exploited, having their lives and childhoods taken from them, that was worth it. Realizing there were bigger things in the world than just me, that was worth it.

You were probably doomed the second you set foot in Rapture. That city takes everything from people.

It does. But it did give me something, at least. Before the end.

Mm. Finding the positive in the awful. [Eleanor sighs.] I try to do that.

It doesn't always work.

You're not there anymore-- that's a big positive.

[Eleanor makes a sound that might be a little laugh.]

Yeah. Whenever people come on the journals and talk about how awful it is here, it takes everything I have not to start shouting at them. They have no idea how terrible things can really be.

This place is practically a paradise.

It's a matter of perspective. And a matter of what people value.

This place was hard for me because I wanted to travel and see the world. Some people wanted to be at home with the people they missed, some people had things to do. Any place can be hell if it keeps you from where you want to be.

[Paris wasn't as wonderful as she'd hoped it would be. It had been all about the place before she'd gotten out. After that, it was about who she would go with.]

Perspective only carries you so far. Some places are genuinely worse than others, regardless of how bad you might think it is here.

[Eleanor is kind of stubborn on this point.]

From an objective point of view? Yes, that's true. But I don't think that invalidates someone's wish to go home or be free of what they consider to be a prison, do you?

...No. [She sighs.] I just wish they wouldn't constantly assume everyone else here thinks this place is as terrible as they do.

Now that I would say is completely fair.

[Audio - locked]

notyourutopian - 2014-10-07 22:51 (UTC) - Expand

tearmeanewone - 2014-10-08 04:30 (UTC) - Expand

notyourutopian - 2014-10-09 05:25 (UTC) - Expand

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