driftfleet | The Bunker of Nariba Relia

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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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[At least it doesn't smelled like burned flesh. At least when they died, they weren't alone.

...Katara can't decide, though, if a life cut short through horrible accident is somehow better or worse than a life cut short by violence. So many people...

Her cheeks are wet; she hadn't even been aware that she was crying. She makes a small motion with her fingers, and the water flicks from her face to the ground. She's not ashamed of crying, or of feeling ill, but she knows very well that she shouldn't waste water in a desert.

All the same... all the same...

She whispers, more to herself than to the man who she sees beginning to stand, though he's included in it by sheer proximity:] Something should be done for them.

[She's not sure if dragging them out to be buried would be more or less disrespectful... many of these bodies would fall apart along the way. Burn them inside the bunker? Seal this place back up like a tomb? She's not sure what, but... something.]

We lack the right. Or the privilege.

[ Loki is a lot of things. Proud, self-centered. Unlikely to lend kindness to another, no matter what the circumstances. But his face is smooth as stone. ]

This is the place they chose. Let it rest.

[The place they chose... it sounded good. But they hadn't come here to die. They'd come here hoping to live.

Still.] I don't know if it's about right or privilege as much as it's about... respect and honor. Acknowledging where life was... [she shuts her eyes more tightly, remembering the tiny body under the blanket] ...remembering.

[The practical issues of burying the bodies keep coming up. She doesn't even know the funeral rites of these people. Opening her eyes she finally drops her hands and begins to straighten.] But it might be best just to... seal this place up before we go and an erect a memorial. So they're remembered, and so no one who comes here has to disturb them again.

Perhaps.

[ There is logic in that. He knows his reluctance stems elsewhere. He would not like other people intruding on Asgardian rituals. Asgardian people. He grimaces slightly to himself. Either way, Loki doesn't want to handle this. Or deal with it. ]

I doubt anyone would complain if we sealed this place.

[Finally, Katara glances up in Loki's direction. Her eyes widen. She recognizes him.

Or, she tells herself a moment after, she recognizes someone who looks like him. She has no way of knowing if the history was the same, and it was highly unlikely he remembered Luceti. Ikki would be sad about that, she thinks. Katara isn't anything but... well, slightly more cautious. Her emotional barriers are already broken down by where they are. Loki had been... if not kind, than understanding. He was not a threat at the moment.]

Probably not, though some more people might want to come in and see what happened.

[She's glancing toward the exit now; she's seen enough.]

...I hate the thought of animals getting in here.

Edited 2018-04-04 04:55 (UTC)

[ If he notices her recognition, Loki makes no sign of it. If anything, Loki is going to make a studious case of "ignoring anything from people who knew him before". He hates impressions that he himself have not made. It's one thing to have a reputation, but Loki's regard for infamy varies. ]

If they haven't before, I doubt they will start now. There are more serviceable sources of food around.

[ But had the door been opened before? She didn't know. But she did know that... well, she hadn't seen many predators here, and the smell of death, plus the electricity...

And anyway, they couldn't rework the handle once they shut the door behind them. Things would be fine; she just wasn't thinking particularly clearly.

So she nods. ] Right. [ A deep breath, glancing down. ] Okay. [She glances back up at him.] I think I'm going to go.

[There's nothing she can do for anyone here. She hates that. And she wants to see the open sky again, even if it is in the desert. And she wants to find a quiet place to cry some more and then go do something almost violently life-affirming, if she can think of it. Certainly hug her brother and Aang and tell them not to go down here.]

That is for the best. Why linger?

[ Loki puts the journal away. Melancholia has its hooks on him and he struggles to shake it off. Why should he care? His fingers itch to bring this place to its knees. How deeply frustrating. ]

[Katara gives him a brief, assessing look.

She wants to ask him if he's planning on staying, and get him to leave too, but somehow - she doesn't think he'll appreciate that.

So she makes it a simple question, one for him to grant or deny:] Will you walk out with me?

[ Loki blinks, caught off guard by that request and he pins her with a sharp look as if to assess her in a new light. After a long pause, Loki sets the journal down on the counter. ]

All right.

[Her gaze on him is steady through that assessment, and when he agrees, she just nods.

Loki may notice that her balance is a little off as they start to walk out of the room, but she also doesn't hesitate to give him her back. If he doesn't say anything, she'll be quiet until they step outside - a rare thing for Katara, but... what words could possibly encompass this?]

[ Once they're outside and the hot air hits Loki's face like a blast. He scowls faintly at the desert. ]

You know me. Don't you?

[She'd been going to thank him, but... this was easier, a question she could focus on. She pulls the scarf off of her face.]

Maybe.

[She gives a half shrug, then turns to look at him.] Or maybe I know somebody who looks just like you and has a completely different history. Who can tell with these kinds of places.

[Either way, it's pretty clear that he doesn't remember her, which is okay. They had a few conversations, mostly about Ikki, and that one horrible experiment where he'd taken the place of Hama, but besides that... he was not a friend, or an enemy, or even truly an ally. Or he had not been one. Like she said, she didn't really know him, and that was good enough for her.] My name is Katara.

[ His eyes are still darkly assessing before he lets up a little. ]

Loki. Though I assume you knew that. I take it you knew of me in one of those pocket dimensional locations.

[It's not that Katara is not the sort to be afraid; quite the opposite. She is afraid all the time, she just... acts in spite of it.

But right now, after the horrors of those bunkers and bodies and... how many were there... he can stare at her as darkly as he likes, it's not really going to register beyond the weight in her soul for what she's seen.

She nods.] I knew someone who looked like you, with that name, in Luceti. Not very well, but -- [she smiles a little at that thought, and almost says it: but he was great friends with my granddaughter, except she doesn't want to think of Ikki, doesn't want to share her with a stranger, or all the mess that came with her. So.] --well enough to recognize your face once I saw you.

[ Luceti. Another name he doesn't recognize. Loki dislikes the lack of information. It makes enemies around that he is unaware of. Not that he has much of a problem with that. Everyone is an enemy until proven otherwise. ]

It must be disorienting. Meeting people you know and yet do not know you.

It happened there too. [Her hand goes up to loosely curl over her heart, fingers almost touching her necklace. This is an old pain, but it isn't healed, and as such the power of it forces some feeling through the numbness of that place.] People would go home, come back, and forget. It's not fun.

[It's a loss, it's like a death, but it's not a death because in Luceti, no one really died.] But it's not fun to have it happen the other way, either. [Her hand drops back to her side and her posture straightens slightly.] That happened to me when I first showed up here. Apparently I'd been here, years before, but I don't remember anything about it.

So have I.

[ But Loki shrugs it off easily. The weight of expectations comes and goes. There's no Asgard to think about when he looks back. He runs a hand through his hair. ]

Is it truly worth remembering?

[Still somewhat occupied with the thought of where they had just come from, and with what she had said about making a memorial, the importance of remembering, Katara is a little uncertain about how to answer his question.]

Is what truly worth remembering?

Whatever that was forgotten about this place.

[ Loki deems it unnecessary at least. ]

[Katara thinks about that for a moment.]

...if I could remember it, I'd probably want to keep remembering. [She thinks about it a moment more, frowning slightly.] Right now it doesn't feel like it happened to "me", so it's hard to be too upset about it. [Pointless, too, really.] I wouldn't mind remembering, for the sake of the people I left behind, but it doesn't really bother me too much. I'm still me. [With a little shrug. She knows far too well how memories can change a person, and also if she was here and had forgotten, well, she trusts herself to be herself.]

What about you?

[ Loki shrugs loosely. ]

I don't know these people. Why should I regret not knowing?

[...heh. So nonchalant. She wishes she could feel that way.]

I don't know. But you might know, if you remembered them.

[It's hard to care about things that haven't actually happened to you - or at least when you can't remember them happening to you.] I guess I've found that the best way of dealing with it is being willing to start over. At least, I know that's what feels best when people have forgotten me. So I'm trying to do that.

[ Loki frowns. ]

I doubt anyone is that invested in me.

[...oooh boy. There's a lot she can say about that that she... doesn't want to say, doesn't want to get into.

...but she can't ignore it either. She shrugs a little.] There's only one way to find out, I guess.

[...ugh, she can't not...] I know that there were people in Luceti who cared about you very much, actually.

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