ataraxion | rocks fall everyone dies

[ The communicator comes on deep in the darkness of the ship, having been jarred by the movements of its owner. There is only one person on the ship whose footsteps are this heavy, the glinting of crystals and white runes revealing Shale's identity to anyone who may recognize them. It soon becomes apparent, however, that the golem is not walking, not running, but fighting -- her large, stone arms are swinging, her targets making loud, inhuman noises of pain. Still, they keep coming, claws scratching along the floor of the ship.

Shale bellows and some of the creatures hiss in pain. There's just enough light from the magic in her crystals and the screen of the communicator that the next time Shale takes a swing, a creature is reflected, caught on camera. Despite the golem's heavy assault, she's being pushed back by the pack of manticores, close quarters making it more and more difficult to fight the way she's used to.

Then, quite suddenly, the camera angle tips. For a moment, it catches the ceiling, then the manticore that's attempting to leap onto Shale. Something bright is knocked off and away by the claws reaching toward Shale's shoulder -- a crystal, perhaps, and it falls clattering away into the darkness. Then, all three -- golem, communicator, and manticore -- fall.

And fall.

And fall.

And fall.

And, eventually, land. The camera stays on for a few moments longer, but nothing is moving save for a blinking red light, illuminating the now-crushed bodies of the manticore and the golem. Shale is hardly in as bad of shape as the creature, but both look like they've fallen into a singularity and couldn't get up. There's no movement, and the runes etched on Shale's stone dim, then flicker out completely. After a few moments more, the communicator times out as well -- and the red light, presumably, shines on. ]

((ooc: Quick explanation: deep within the ship, Shale accidentally found herself some manticores that some of you may remember from the stasis sickness event! While fighting them, she managed to fall down one of the creepy holes and, ahaha, remember those black holes from the maze and how they'd crush you? Well, that happened to her (and the unlucky manticore that fell with her). Congratulations, TQ, you've found one of the few things that can quickly kill a golem! Also, you know, everyone's probably going to die horribly. Yeah. That too. Much love to the mods for giving me a way to kill Shale in a horrifying manner, and I'll still be around with my other characters! ALSO: Quinlan has dibs on the crystal that fell off her.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[There's a pause on her end too. She knows what it's like, not wanting to be completely open about your past.]

Sometimes shit happens here that's the same as the places people are from. You ever wanna tell me about it sometime, might be it could help.

[He makes a soft noise like a chuckle and even over the line it sounds like it might have a grimace attached to it.]

It's not that I don't want to tell you, sistah. I'm just fairly sure you'd think I'm crazy if I did.

Been on this ship over a year. Nothing hits crazy anymore.

Before coming here I was on an island, and I was told it was vitally important for me to remove a stone from a pool of bright light. And as strange as that sounds, sistah? That's not even all of it. But seeing a bright light like that one? I have to wonder if I'm meant to do it again.

[Not the weirdest thing she's heard, but definitely up there in terms of sheer randomness.]

Was it red?

White. Though hopefully color isn't so important, yeah? Not if it's the same basic idea.

Colour might change the basic idea. Red's a... thing, around here.

Aye. I've noticed. All the more reason for me to investigate, yeah? Might actually put an end to this, if I'm right.

Might just put an end to you.

If it does? I won't be here anymore. I'll be somewhere else.

So either way, sistah? I can't lose.

[Not the kind of attitude Taylor ever does well with, and she's quiet for a moment, something harder to her voice when she does reply.]

But we can. You go out like that, try your light thing and it kills you, that's no help to any of us. You're just another pointless, confused panic through the population.

You might be right, but we don't have a better option. No matter what we do, people are going to die. And personally? I don't wanna wait for the end to come.

We lessen the number of people dying by using a some common fucking sense. I'm not talking about waiting indefinitely. I'm talking about thinking. And the fact that light is red and your light was white? I'd figure that's more than enough to just stop for the minute on the idea of messing with it.

[Desmond's quiet for a moment.]

Is that an order, then?

[He's not being scathing or sarcastic, even if he's made up his mind about going- eventually, once he's cooled down and gotten more information. But the fact that one of the events in his life that got this whole messy story started was a refusal to follow orders isn't lost on him in this moment. His life is a series of repetitions, it seems.]

[She's quiet for a long moment, chewing that over. She doesn't know him well enough, doesn't know how he works on the team, under orders. And the way he's suddenly asking like that makes her think just saying yes isn't going to win her any ground.]

No. [It's rough, the way she says it, frustrated and maybe slightly resigned.] It's advice. And a request to tell me if you're gonna ignore it and go anyway.

[Another lengthy silence, but he seems satisfied with that response.]

A few weeks, give or take. I'll bring someone along, yeah?

Alright. [It's better than him going on his own, at least.] Let me know when.

[An estimate like that is good, but it won't help if he's gone too long and she needs to know if she should send people after him.]

rocks fall everyone dies

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