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

No one expects you to.

[ His gaze slides off. ]

But I doubt this fate of this place is the only thing on your mind.

No. It just brings thoughts of home back to the front.

[Which Thor resents, on some level. What happened here was not the same. The way they died, the way they've been forgotten. The way they still have a planet to be discovered on. He has to be honest with himself about it, though. Asgard is always on his mind; this has just been a slap in the face to stop him distracting himself.

Looking back to the sunset, he clasps his hands together and rests his chin on them.]

There were more people here than remains of Asgard.

[ Hilariously, Loki's thoughts follow a similar train. Though he's less likely to hide it. Softly, he responds. ]

Hela was very thorough.

But we still remember.

[Thor dips his head slightly. Hela and Surtur both. Most days he still can't wrap his mind around it any further than the horrific scale of the loss. On an individual level ... it's too much. Especially when it comes to people he knew.]

Yeah. And I don't think anyone remembers these people.

[It adds to the hollowness of the whole place. There was no one left here to speak of what happened. Even if random drifters like themselves can still come across this place, no one lives to tell that story. In that regard, Asgard fares better.]

We're fortunate. [In this one thing. They weren't wiped out without a trace.]

[ Loki huffs. It's not quite a laugh, edged in bitterness. Thor is the lucky one. Loki brought the ship but he also set Asgard ablaze, proving old words he said long ago. All I want is a good seat to watch Asgard burn. ]

Perhaps. Though perhaps that isn't the word to use. We survived.

[It's the word Thor has to use, to keep from falling too far into melancholy. There were many ways in which things could have ended worse for Asgard. If Loki hadn't come, if Hela hadn't been stopped, then they would not still be here to talk about wordplay. Thor tilts his head to eye Loki again.]

Yes, and someday soon we'll do more than just survive. We'll begin again.

[ His lips twitch slightly. ]

We shall see.

I still don't think Midgard is the best choice though.

[That gets a lopsided smile out of Thor.]

So you've said, many times. [It fades away as he returns to his thoughts.] I don't agree, though. Of all the Nine Realms, Midgard is the best place to turn to.

You've been away from them for some time, Thor.

[ While Loki had watched. Partly out of paranoia, and partly because it was entertaining. Watching them run around like headless chickens. ]

Though I'm sure your friends briefed you on that.

[Thor's eyebrows go up, because he wouldn't have thought Loki would have bothered looking in on Earth while masquerading as Asgard's king.]

They did, but I'm surprised you know of it. Given how busy you were.

[Pointedly. Writing plays about his own death, pretending to be Odin. That stuff.]

[ Loki sniffs. ]

It is wise to keep track of one's enemies. Though they are hardly that now, making enemies of each other instead.

[He hardly thinks Loki is one to talk about making enemies out of friends, given everything that's happened in the last few years. It wasn't that long ago that Loki had fought Thor tooth and nail on top of Stark Tower. He's really not going to get dragged into discussing the Avengers' troubles though, not when he wasn't even there himself.]

The Avengers are not the ones who'll decide what happens when we reach Earth, and you know that.

[ He shrugs nonchalantly. ]

Do I? It's not as though you've regaled me on your plans.

[Thor just snorts.]

I'll give you some of those papers soon.

[Once he figures out where they are in the absolute disaster zone that is his desk.]

[ Loki smirks. ]

I look forward to it.

[The sun has disappeared below the horizon while they spoke, the heat of the day steadily starting to leech away. It's a strange thing to think about the world continuing on as always, knowing what lies under their feet.]

This is the worst place we've been.

[It's an idle comment, but heavy with truth. The other systems Thor's seen on the Fleet were comprehensible, and not laden with sadness. This place... he hates it.]

No.

[ His tone is quiet. ]

Not the worst.

[A half-smile, quickly gone.]

I meant the Fleet.

[No, it isn't the worst place Thor and Loki have been. The burning ashes of Asgard come to mind, then the empty wastes of Svartalfheim, and Thor has to unlock his fingers to straighten up again.]

As you said. We remember, and that's more than what these people got.

[ You had more, Loki wanted to say, you got to say goodbye to mother. Your last words to her weren't a recrimination. You saw her pass on and you left me. There is a wedge of bitterness in his throat which he swallows down. Because in the end, it's nothing. It might even be his imagination. ]

Perhaps. I don't particularly care for what these people got.

[Thor does, in a way that's two steps shy of true sympathy. It's the hearing of a long-ago tragedy that reminds him too much of what his own people have lost, but doesn't quite follow. Comparing the two is pointless and unfair. He does it anyway, despite himself.

He shakes himself slightly, and gets to his feet. A slight turn back has him looking askance at Loki.]

Don't you?

[An open question. He's not about to prod Loki into responding if his hackles raise even more.]

[ His smile is shallow. ]

I'm not like you. I have no heart for strangers.

[His brows pull together before he hums, turning away again. Loki has made clear many times what he thinks of sentiment. Only some of it is obfuscation, the rest inhabiting the darker mysteries of his brother's thinking.]

[ A strange question for Thor to ask him though and Loki picks up on that. ]

What do you think of this place then?

I think it's sad. Maybe if it had been handled differently, it would not have ended up like this.

[Thor likes to think he would do it differently if something like this happened to his own people. But maybe that's just a desire not to align himself with whoever ruled this world, whose designs went so badly wrong. He turns around and steps back over to Loki.]

What I don't want is for our story to end up like this.

[ His expression softens minutely. ]

It won't.

You're not like them.

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