My name is Max. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
theroadwarrior) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
driftfleet2018-04-02 02:11 am
theroadwarrior) wrote in driftfleet2018-04-02 02:11 am
Entry tags:
The Bunker of Nariba Relia | OPEN PLOT MINGLE POST
Who: Everyone!!
Broadcast: N/A
Action: The bunker in the surrounding desert.
When: Sometime recently, see this post for full information. Below is the excerpt of information listed there. Feel free to make a top comment and thread out the sad truth and whatnot.
[Records buried in the library, the research facility, and cues from the power plant will eventually reveal the bunker in the surrounding desert. The passageway leads several yards underground, and it doesn’t appear to have been used in a long time. Those brave enough to venture inside will find that it is not much more than a tomb. Eerily enough, the emergency lights are still on, casting a soft red glow over sheets and the once-bodies beneath them.
It has been long enough that paper journals, books, and personal belongings (like bags and such) have deteriorated to the point of being extremely fragile. Handled with care, however, they are eager to tell a story.
“The engineers should have been more careful. I’m not sure I’ll be able to recoup my losses from this… At least I have enough money to buy a ride off this planet!”
“No one could have known this would happen. Hopefully it stabilizes so we can go home soon. In the meantime, I’ve been teaching my daughter how to count. She doesn’t understand what’s going on, and I don’t know what to tell her.”
“It’s not getting better. So many people have died that we’re running out of room in the morgue. We had to move all of the food to another room so that the smell doesn’t leach out, but we all know what’s back there.”
“The replicator was supposed to repair us, too.”
“I don’t know if we can go back yet, but it doesn’t matter. Even if the city was back to the way it was, there’s no cure for us. The dead are dead, and we lay down next to them as we wait for our turn.”
There is nothing that can be done for these people except to give them the eternal rest they deserve. Ultimately, the fate of Nariba Relia is a sad one and not altogether preventable.]
Broadcast: N/A
Action: The bunker in the surrounding desert.
When: Sometime recently, see this post for full information. Below is the excerpt of information listed there. Feel free to make a top comment and thread out the sad truth and whatnot.
[Records buried in the library, the research facility, and cues from the power plant will eventually reveal the bunker in the surrounding desert. The passageway leads several yards underground, and it doesn’t appear to have been used in a long time. Those brave enough to venture inside will find that it is not much more than a tomb. Eerily enough, the emergency lights are still on, casting a soft red glow over sheets and the once-bodies beneath them.
It has been long enough that paper journals, books, and personal belongings (like bags and such) have deteriorated to the point of being extremely fragile. Handled with care, however, they are eager to tell a story.
“The engineers should have been more careful. I’m not sure I’ll be able to recoup my losses from this… At least I have enough money to buy a ride off this planet!”
“No one could have known this would happen. Hopefully it stabilizes so we can go home soon. In the meantime, I’ve been teaching my daughter how to count. She doesn’t understand what’s going on, and I don’t know what to tell her.”
“It’s not getting better. So many people have died that we’re running out of room in the morgue. We had to move all of the food to another room so that the smell doesn’t leach out, but we all know what’s back there.”
“The replicator was supposed to repair us, too.”
“I don’t know if we can go back yet, but it doesn’t matter. Even if the city was back to the way it was, there’s no cure for us. The dead are dead, and we lay down next to them as we wait for our turn.”
There is nothing that can be done for these people except to give them the eternal rest they deserve. Ultimately, the fate of Nariba Relia is a sad one and not altogether preventable.]
no subject
Let's walk back to town. I haven't much desire to stay out here for longer.
[And he might need a drink at the end of this discussion.]
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So now was the time focus on the present, and who she was walking with. She glances up at Thor as they begin, but as she isn't sure if he wants to talk about it or if he just wants to walk back to town, she's not going to break the silence just yet. She doesn't want to push him, but she doesn't want to move past the opportunity she gave him either, so it's his move.
Part of her absently notes as they move side-by-side, just how much taller he is in comparison to her.]
no subject
He does keep his stride short in consideration for Katara's smaller size; he's gotten used to doing that for many people. After a few minutes walking, he speaks again.]
When I say we lost our home, I do not mean just the city or the buildings. The realm itself was destroyed.
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The realm.
The -- she stops short to look at him in horror.] The - whole land?
[She is thinking "kingdom", like what Ozai wanted to do to the Earth Kingdom.]
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Yes. My task now is to settle everyone in a new land. My hope is that goes as smoothly as possible, given the circumstances.
[Hope won't get them through it, not entirely. But it certainly needs to push them the rest of the way.]
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Oh, I'm so sorry. [She can't help it; she knows the words don't really help and she can't help say them anyway.] Is there no chance of resettling?
[She's just... trying to picture the damage. It's easier (though still horrible) to measure in loss of land than in loss of life.]
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There's nothing left of it. We need to go elsewhere and start again.
[After a moment, he tilts his head, expression clearing.]
Which we will. I'll see to that.
[There is absolutely no doubt in his mind or in his voice.]
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[She... tries to imagine that kind of devastation. Even after fire had torn through a place, after time, life found a way.
Nothing left.
For a moment, she's speechless. She really should say something... but all she can do is bring herself forward and start to walk with him again.
It takes the movement, coming alongside him to jolt the words loose, words like: I'm glad, and I'm sure you will and I hope so.
But they're not enough.
...and she doesn't know him. She can't imagine he'll appreciate a hug very much, even though she's tempted to do so. But once she comes alongside him she does, for a moment, just reach out to put her hand on his shoulder. She stands with him in this, without words.]
no subject
None of us will forget what happened. Not like this place. [And that's what really disturbs him about Nariba Relia - that so many died and seemingly no one noticed. The very idea that the same could happen to the survivors of Asgard under his watch makes his blood run cold.] But Asgard isn't a place - it's a people.
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The pain and the determination are both clearly displayed in eyes. She can hear that sentence like it's some sort of - core truth for him. She doesn't have the words for it, but she recognizes it by the feel. She has a few of those herself.
Simply:] It's still hard. But it's good that the people have lived to be able to start again.
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It is. It's what I was working on before I got brought back to this place. [Crossing his arms again, he casts a glance towards the town, where at least one of the Fleet ships is visible parked nearby.] The Atroma have terrible timing.
no subject
[It had to be killing him to be so delayed, to feel as though he'd left his people unprotected after such a terrible thing had happened.
The wasn't sure what else to say, but this wasn't about what she could say - it was about listening.] ...how did it happen?
no subject
It was a consequence of having to defeat my sister, Hela. She had taken over Asgard and was preparing to conquer the rest of the universe.
no subject
Oh.
[ She wasn't exactly sure what to say. Her voice took on a smaller quality, almost uncertain: ] ...but you stopped her?
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[The cost was high, but he'd been willing to pay the price for Asgard's survival. He shakes his head a bit, not wanting Katara to worry about that point.]
It was the only way, in the end.
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Good. I'm glad you stopped her. [ She gives him a concerned look. ] So what happened?
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[A prophecy of doom, one that had haunted Thor's dreams for months. Now it's the memory of the event he sees when he closes his eyes - Valkyrie's voice beside him, "I hate this prophecy". Still, his tone is even. This is a story he wrote the end to himself.]
Well, my sister was the Goddess of Death. I couldn't defeat her in a fight, though I certainly tried. Her power came from Asgard itself. I realised that the only way to stop her was to destroy Asgard - by unleashing Surtur upon it, and her.
no subject
The whole world? What happened to the people?
[ Because... stopping a goddess of death or not (whatever that title meant), if he'd been responsible for the destruction of his own people--
But then -- she knew he wasn't, he'd said that he needed to go back to help settle them so -- but still, the whole world? ]
no subject
We saved all that were left by the time we reached Asgard. But Hela had already killed a great many people before we even got there.
[Turning on his heel, he gestures to the desert landscape around them.]
You should understand - Asgard was not so large as this planet. It has always existed as a realm unto itself. In sheer size it did not match other worlds. So I know that there would have been few, if any people left in it beyond those we got onto the ship to escape.
[Because Heimdall had told him. Because beyond the main city of Asgard there were only a handful of settlements, none of which they could have reached in time to evacuate with Hela on their heels. The people had already told him some of what happened to those on the outer reaches. They had not been spared the brutality of Hela's undead forces.]
prepare yourself for a wall of tl;dr, and i'm sorry
Her eyes widen again, and she tries to assemble the information he's given her into some kind of order. He said he'd been brought here a few days after this had happened. How long had he been on the fleet? How many people from his world had survived? How were they going to cope with this loss - die, break down, plant roots, grow, she knows, she knows, she knows the cycle of loss and recovery, but still...
And at that, her gaze narrows slightly, turn assessing. She does not know Thor well, but she is a warrior and a doctor now by choice, and there are ways of measuring someone for tension, for pain, in their posture and in the narrowing of their eyes and in what side they favor and -- he wears that eye-patch like it's more than a wound -- and she tries to simply See him - how is he still bearing up? Where are the places he's been torn apart - do they overwhelm the person he is at the core, will he be able to continue?
She can't answer those questions with a glance. She does not yet want to ask them. But she does see him, all that he is sharing with her, and she doesn't look away.
Initially, her voice is tight when she speaks. ]
When I lost my mother in a Fire Nation attack, it felt like I lost my world. [ She brings her hand up to touch her necklace at her throat, but still she doesn't look away from him. It seems like all she can do is to see him and acknowledge his pain, so that's what she'll do. She takes a breath, and her hand drops to her side, her tone more normal. ] I can't imagine what it is that you're going through. I can't imagine what it feels like to have had to sacrifice my home to save my people, my world. I'm so sorry that you had to go through that. I'm sorry that Hela killed so many of your people. And I'm so glad that you were able to save who you did.
i love scaling these walls
He hasn't spoken fully of Asgard's end since appraising Natasha and Steve of what had happened. That had been more of a report than anything. Speaking of it to someone as young and uninvolved as Katara doesn't sit easily with Thor. For himself, he can't and won't forget the tragedy of what's happened, but he doesn't want to let it drag him to a standstill. He needs to move forward. He needs to be a pillar for his people to believe it. Even so... there are times when his uncertainty and fear of the road ahead creep up on him.
They're breathing down his neck now. But Katara's earnest words are enough for him to set them aside. After a long moment, he exhales and smiles faintly.]
Thank you, Katara. I find there really aren't words for it. One day the storytellers will find some, I'm sure. By then I hope it is a distant memory about a dark time in our history, told in a time of peace.
good, 'cause here's more
But he is a long way from home. In a place where his returning is outside of his control, and she knows the way that silence and waiting can press on grief and pain. It's one thing to be able to remain busy, feel as if you are a step ahead. It's another thing when the echoes of loss find you in the dark.
She hopes that the fleet will not become a dark place for him, but she fears that he won't find any escape from his pain here, not with the relentless boredom she'd heard was so much of this place. She remembered the times in Luceti, how she and others had been so hurt and tried to bury it...
...but she didn't think that was what Thor was doing. He was telling her, after all. And it had all happened so recently. Still... she was concerned for him, heart broken for him and his people. ]
I hope so too. [ She takes a half-step toward him to place her hand against his arm, her gaze clear as she does not look away from his. ] I believe you, when you say that you'll lead them into a time of peace. That you, and they, will hurt and grieve, but you'll adapt and grow as well. I believe that too.
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I appreciate that. And thank you for listening, as well. I haven't had much cause to speak of it before.
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Thank you for being willing to share it. That can't have been easy.
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(no subject)