in all my life all i wanted was the keeping of someone like you
The video was posted to Youtube. It immediately got taken down for violating their Terms of Service, and the account was reported to the authorities. Most people thought it was a hoax. Some new movie or something. Others said it just felt too real. Either way, it went viral, even without Youtube's help. Then the news picked it up, and well... it
( Read more... )
And she watches. She watches.
"Oh my god..." she breathes, her mouth hung open in shock.
Cassie wants to look away, but she can't. She's glued to the spot staring at the blood, hearing the screams and the pleading and the voice of the man doing those... those things. Her face has drained of all colour and she feels nauseous. Her stomach's churning and churning and oh god, she's going to be sick. She puts her trembling hands to her mouth, tears streaming down her face.
She wants this to be some sort of sick joke. A fake movie or something. But she knows. She knows. They're talking about Wanderers. This is the thing she's heard so much about. Those... those people who want to hurt Wanderers. That... they're a terrorist group or something, aren't they? Liberation force. They're real. Oh god, they're real. And the fear hits her. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god.
She's gonna pass out. Or throw up. Or scream. Or something.
Reply
She's found herself at the same storefront, a throng of gathered people blocking her passage. Some of them are weeping. Some of them are staring, the expressions on their faces horrified or numb. There's a palpable sense of panic and disgust that she doesn't have to reach out to feel: it's thickening the air like rain.
To Iris, a girl from a pre-technology world freshly fallen out of the Rift, the first hurdle to get over is how she is seeing this. Her first, immediate thought is that there are people behind the glass, trapped inside some kind of... crystal mechanism? Is that man holding them hostage there? Or is this a projection, a magical image superimposed on reality? Whatever's creating these appalling scenes is... it's energetic, in some way, strong lightning energy thrumming in her veins when she reaches out to press herself against the storefront glass, but that doesn't tell her anything about whether it's an illusion or not.
She doesn't understand half the words being spoken, but the ugliness, the sickness, is all there in the tone, in the bitter knife-edge of the man's voice and the actual edge of the actual blade and people are dying, right there in front of her are men, women, dying, why isn't anyone doing something, why isn't anyone....
"...Why isn't anyone doing something?" she manages to scream out half-coherently, turning to face the crowd with tears and rancor in her eyes. "Break it down!" She doesn't know what that thing is, but maybe it's another portal, maybe there's a way they can break the crystal, get inside there, and even if it's all for nothing isn't somebody even going to try?
She's afraid, she knows they're afraid too, but... someone has to try! She's still injured from her spill down by the warehouse, but... she has to try.
What happens next might be comical, if the crowd weren't already in shock: about ninety pounds of not-at-all-well-muscled girl throwing herself against the store window. Repeatedly. Because she thinks she can break the television down and save the people inside. Until, having exhausted her body's tolerance for being slammed into glass for now and the quite foreseeable future, she gives up, and crumples to the ground in tears.
"Somebody do something...."
Reply
Cassie manages to stop staring at the screens as a young girl cries out. It's the first thing she says that she picks up on, it's the second. It leaves Cassie confused, she doesn't understand what's she's asking. She stands, staring at the girl looking bewildered - she knows she has a point, even though she doesn't totally understand. Why is this happening? Why can't people stop this?
What the girl does next startles Cassie. She's flinging herself against the window of the shop. No one else seems to do anything, or say anything - they're either too shocked by the video or unsure how to react to the girl.
".. Stop... Stop it, you're hurting yourself!" she manages to say, although it's difficult to get the words out.
But she doesn't seem to stop. She rushes forward, tears her eyes and kneels down beside her when she finally does give up. "Hey.. hey, it's okay..." she says softly, pulling a comforting arm about her shoulders.
"Shh, don't cry.. it's okay," she tells her, her sisterly instincts kicking in. All her own fears are pushed to one side, they don't matter now. She doesn't look much older than her younger brothers. Poor thing. "It's gonna be okay,"
Reply
It's too much like seeing him die, and it's wrong, and people shouldn't die like that, ever. It wasn't that death was always bad, but not like that, not that way. To go down screaming, mired in your own fear, begging for your life....
She suppresses a shudder, and makes herself look up at the woman who's holding her, who's showing her this much concern. It's comfort amidst the chaos; this place is fearsome, like nowhere she's known, but it's always strengthening, at least, to be reminded that there are people here who feel and care like people.
She wants to say something strong, supportive, but she can't make herself do it. Not after that.
"...It's not okay," she says, in a small-voiced parody of defiance. "How... how can that be okay? Why isn't anyone doing anything?"
Reply
Cassie looks at her with a sad look, trying not cry herself. She knows it's not okay. It's far from ever being okay. But she knows that saying that everything isn't alright won't help the young girl at all. She's still confused when she asks why anyone isn't doing anything. She's not sure how to answer it. She glances up at the screen again, lips pursed. "We can't save them, but we have to stop it,"
She doesn't know how, but it has to stop. Because even though she doesn't want to show it to the girl, she's scared too.
"Come on, let's get you out from this crowd, yeah?" she tells her softly with a small smile, encouraging her to get to her feet.
Reply
But that doesn't make it right to do this to people, to blind them, in their last moments, to everything good in the world. To exchange not only life for death, on your own whim, but the beauty of life for the misery of agony. The world... despite everything she's been through recently, she still believes the world is a good place. No one's last memories of it should have to be of fear and desperation.
She's seen that happen once, even before this. Once is too much. Two, three times... is beyond her capacity to bear. She's not going to let it happen again.
She lets the woman help her up, taking in deep breaths, trying to steady herself. She won't be any use if she keeps freaking out, either.
"...Do we know where they are?" she says, as they step away from the throng. "How we can reach them?"
Reply
Her mind's still processing what's just happened. Wanderers were just murdered. There really is a group out there that want to harm Wanderers and she's just seen the proof. Cassie feels sick and it's taking a great deal of strength not to freak out. She tells herself that this young girl wouldn't need that and more seriously, she might be hurt too..
Cassie shakes her head, "I.. I don't know," she tells her quiet. We, "All I know is that they really do exist and they're going to kill us Wanderers.." she purses her lips for a moment, "But I don't know whyWe haven't done anything wrong..."
As soon as they're far enough away, she settles the girl down on a bench. "Are you alright? Like.. are you hurt?"
Reply
At least physically. She's done worse to herself in the last couple of days than slam her body into a plate glass window... mostly, slam her body into another plate glass window, but it hurt more that time. She's a bit sore and definitely shaken, but she doesn't consider it much to comment on. It'll heal.
Now that she has the space to breathe and really look at her, she can see that the other woman is struggling to keep her composure. As can well be expected, at a time like this. Nobody should have to witness that, to say nothing of those who were actually there. There's a clot of fear and panic coming from around the crystal device: nobody who saw that happen came away unharmed, in some deep way inside.
"What... what about you?" she asks, her fear and horror becoming quickly drowned out by concern. She's not the one being... put through that, and in the meantime, people are suffering, in myriad ways. "Are you okay?"
Reply
She bites down on her lip, trembling slightly. She tries to stay strong, but she's only human. "I'm... I think I'm alright," she lets out a shaky breathe. Part of her wishes that was real. That it was some kind of hoax. But she knows somewhere, deep in her heart - that is really did happen. "That was horrible. How could they do such a thing?"
Cassie shakes her head. "Why on earth did you try and run into the TV?" she's still confused about that.
Reply
The other woman seems amenable to hugs, so she bundles back up next to her, partly to soothe her own self, partly to comfort her companion. And partly just for the cold; it's chilly out here. She hasn't really learnt to dress for the city, yet, still in the thin vest top and skirt in which she came through the Rift; she's washed out the blood and city grime, but there's still a big slash in the back, where the glass went through her, though the wound itself is healed with just the faintest of scars. She looks like she either narrowly escaped from a knife-wielding maniac herself, or like imitating someone who has is her style. It's a little hard to tell which.
"The... TV?" She looks up at the woman, still parsing that. The rest of her words made sense, as a description of what Iris just did, so she figures that TV is the name for that thing that's showing the images. "I... thought I could get to it. I thought if I broke down the glass, maybe I could get through, or something, to help them.... I didn't understand. I didn't understand why no one else was going through."
Reply
The fact that the young girl doesn't know what a TV is tells her that she's probably a Wanderer from another world that doesn't actually have such a thing. That's a pretty weird thought, to be honest. All the other Wanderers she's met at least have some kind of TV.
"Yeah, it's short for television," Cassie tells her with a nod of her head. "It's a electronic object that projects images and sound - but it's kind of one way. We can't get into it or anything like that," She looks down sadly, "No one could help... What we saw was a recording of... what happened. It already happened some time ago, I'm not sure when,"
Reply
She looks up at the sky, blank and featureless against the backdrop of metal spires, stretching for what must be miles above the earth. It makes it seem so much further away than she's used to, so much more unreachable. "Back home, it was like I could touch the clouds," she says, mostly to herself. "I feel so small here." It's both a literal and figurative statement.
She just continues to hold the other woman as the chaos clamours around them, unsure of what more she can do.
Reply
She nods her head in understanding, just letting her cling onto her. She really doesn't mind, honest. "It's not easy here. I'm lucky I'm from a city like this; London might not've had as many tall buildings - but it was still easy to feel lost. It's always so crowded and stuff," Poor kid. Her home sounds nice like that.
"Have you been in Chicago long?" she asks.
Reply
In a way, that's kind of exciting, for her. Growing up in a village where everyone knew your name and there were ugly looks, and worse, for those who stepped out of line, she's ever-so-slightly relishing being in a place where no one behaviour's expected of her. Even if it's big and noisy, that's an advantage, in its way; she can blend in a little, here, amongst the rats and the angels and the whatever else. No one's going to think badly of just one alchemist.
But now, she's seen that the people here are unfathomable in bad ways, too. For all that the people she knew were... perhaps unimaginative, in their thinking, they'd also never have gloated like this, over torture. They wouldn't have said those sick things, wouldn't have laughed and jeered as they watched her parents' house burn to the ground, with them inside it. They'd just wanted to get rid of the alchemists. They hadn't wanted to make them suffer. ...Right?
She doesn't know any more, and right now's not the time to turn it over in her head. She's only going to make herself feel worse. Better not to think about who she can't trust, and focus on this one person in front of her, who seems trustworthy enough.
"...Not... not long, no," she says in response. "I came here just last night. I... how long have you been here?" She said she was a Wanderer, too, but she seems much more familiar with the place than Iris does.
Reply
The only exciting thing about Chicago is the fact it's in another country. She never went abroad back home. Family holidays were always out in the countryside, away from the hustle and bustle of London. Out to Wales or to Cornwall beside the sea. The cities are similar in the way can just get lost in them. Hell, Cassie's been lost in London before. It's a pretty big place.
"Last night?" she asks, surprised at her being here at such a short amount of time. "I'm glad you managed to find someone who could take you somewhere safe. Chicago at night... it's.. well, it's not very fun," she looks awkwardly at this, knowing full well by her own experiences before answering her question. "Just under four months. You kinda needa learn fast, I guess,"
"Oh, and.." she realises that she's never introduced herself. But she's not really had the time/chance to. "I'm Cassie by the way,"
Reply
"I don't know whether to be happy or sad that I'm here," she says. "It's nice not to feel like I'm the only one who's strange, any more. Being an alchemist, you're usually alone. But if this"-- she waves her arm in the direction of the TV --"is what it means to be strange around here, then it's... that's not the kind of thing that should exist. I don't know." She shakes her head in resignation. "Sorry, I guess I'm... still just getting used to things. This place is just so...." She waves her arms around. "Different. Big. Scary. But... full of hope, too." There are good people here, after all. This woman seems to be one of them.
She nods at her next comment. "I... the people I've met have actually all been really nice, so far," she says. "I've seen monsters and things, but as far as the people... this is the first time I've run into anything scary. Everyone's taken such good care of me."
She hasn't introduced herself, either. Well, it's been chaotic. "I'm Iris. Pleased to meet you. ...What kind of place are you from, originally?" She's quickly catching on that she can't expect to know anything about a person's world, just from looking at them. People look the same, but the places they're from are nothing alike.
Reply
Leave a comment