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

[ 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.

[ He actually looks vaguely surprised, his brow furrowed. ]

Surely, you're mistaken.

[She shakes her head.] I'm not. [Then she raises one hand slightly, almost like a hesitant child calling out in school.] I wasn't one of them. I barely knew you. [She lets her hand fall back to her side and gives a little shrug.] But I did know a few of them pretty well, and that's the only reason why I bring it up, even though I know it's not something connected with the situation right now. Because I know that they [that Ikki] wouldn't want you doubting that.

[She meets his gaze evenly with a little, almost apologetic smile, because she knows this conversation is a bit awkward, but she's not backing down.]

Edited 2018-04-07 02:41 (UTC)

[ A myriad of expressions flits through his face. It's hard — practically impossible to picture, but Loki isn't so callous that he'll dismiss her memories on doubt alone. Still, it makes him uncomfortable. It's easier when he's doubted because Loki need not care for their expectations. He can protect himself.

( it helped, long ago ) ]

I suppose it is surprising that anyone knew me at all.

[ Or that there was anything worth knowing. ]

[She gives a wry smile and holds up her hand, thumb and forefinger about an inch apart.] When you're trapped together in a very small space, it's kind of hard to avoid.

[She lets her arm fall back to her side.] How long have you been here?

[ There's the faintest brush of wry humour on his face. ]

A few weeks. No more.

I was in Luceti for about four years before waking up here. [She gives a wry quirk of her mouth that seems to indicate: Give it time, buddy. You'll be surprised at all the people who end up knowing you.] It's very strange, but if what I learned in Luceti holds true here, the only good thing about places like this are the people who are trapped in it with you.

[Which is both a blessing and a curse, because then you want to be happy when they go home... and you can't quite be.

And now she was here, and not home at all, and she grieves for the people she's left behind.]

[ Loki isn't so easily convinced. People can't be trusted. Loki can't be trusted. ]

Four years is a long time for a mortal.

It is. [Though, mortal, and not wanting to think about it too much, has her returning.] Although any amount of time you're trapped someplace you don't want to be seems like too long.

[In other words, how are those 'few weeks' going for you here, Loki?]

[ He doesn't want to talk about it. ]

Hopefully, Thor and I won't linger here too long.

[YUP it SUCKS right?

She nods a little.]

I hope so too, although that sounds rude. I hate places like this. [And she does, to her marrow.]

I hardly think it is an unpopular opinion.

[She raises an eyebrow at that mildest of contenders for understatement of the year.]

No, probably not. [She shakes her head slightly and then returns to the topic she'd wanted to check with him about.] Thank you for walking me out. Will you be going back in there?

[ Loki lets his gaze drift back to the bunker, as if he's mulling it over and not putting on a show. In truth, he'd like to burn it. Erase all existence. ]

Perhaps. There might be something to learn from it.

More than what you already saw? [Books so old they could crumble at a touch, bodies, so many bodies, nearly at the end cycle of decomposition... so many lives, suddenly lost. It reminds her of the villages burned out by the Fire Nation that they saw on their journey through the Earth Kingdom, it reminds her of her own village, decimated by raids, and the smell of burning flesh...

And she doesn't know if it's worse, or better, or if it's just as bad, but in a different way, that their end was not through violence, but through accident.] I doubt it. But if you do, I hope you won't stay down there too long.

[ He smiles faintly. He recognizes compassion if he continually rejects it when it is applied to himself. ]

I tend not to linger.

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