( open )

[leaderboards]

WHO: Carolina + open
WHERE: Red Wings + dreamscapes + ???
WHEN: IC March 15-31 or so (eta: and later!)
WHAT: dream sharing + catchall for the month
NOTES OR WARNINGS: mentioned alcohol in two of the starters + death and some psychological horror in the other two (see comment headers for more on that)

( prompts below! feel free to reach out to arrange something new or talk about just how traumatic you do or don't want the dream sharing to go: eflat or streetsongs#5551 )

Comments

[requiemshark]

[ This conversation keeps wading into territory that Ephemera doesn't know how to tread. By rights he should leave. It would be simpler for everyone if he did. Whatever its original cause, Ephemera helped fight that war. He made it worse for those people, who had done nothing at all to him. He has no right to know what became of them in the aftermath. And yet— ]

A bunch of kids?

[leaderboards]

[ carolina pauses to pick her words with a little frown, gaze back on the far door. she can't really speak for all of chorus, just the soldiers who'd latched on to the reds and blues during the war, the competent people kimball kept around her. ]

It felt that way, at least. They were all civilians, really, and anyone with real military experience was dead long before we got there.

[requiemshark]

[ He supposes it makes sense. The people on Chorus fell like anyone else he's ever gone against. Perhaps a little easier in some sense. Ephemera rocks back on his heels, not sure how he's supposed to feel about that. ]

I guessed that. Or parts of it. Think the others did, too.

[ He's quiet for a moment. ]

What happened to the other prisoners?

[leaderboards]

I don't know how much of Hargrove's forces were prisoners, but there were some casualties, before we got the war over with.

[ some. the people of chorus wanted to be better than the people who'd tormented them for so long, but killing is often much easier than taking prisoners. she doesn't have to explain that to ephemera, she knows. ]

A lot of the mercenaries, we were able to detain and hold long enough for the UNSC to take custody of them, for whatever that would turn into. But I'm sure some slipped away.

[ locus had, after all, and while he'd been the most formidable mercenary left standing at the time, carolina doesn't kid herself by thinking everybody involved is getting some sort of textbook justice. ]

[requiemshark]

[ Ephemera nods slowly. He hadn't had any friends among the prisoners, but there had been a couple he hadn't hated. That corpsman, the Insurrectionist who taught his cellmates how to sign in order to send messages across the ship. He doesn't know if they survived the initial purge. He didn't looked for them afterward. But maybe one or two of them survived. Maybe one or two of them found a way out. ]

Locus and Felix?

[leaderboards]

Felix is dead. My team killed him.

[ she's pretty sure he deserved a harsher punishment than that, something more fair, but she's still proud of the sims for taking him down. she's proud of them for a lot of things. ]

Locus is... doing the same thing we are. Trying to do better, to be something else. [ carolina pauses, lips pursed. ] He saved our lives, a few months before I got here. Without him, the Reds and Blues would probably be dead. Wash definitely would be. It's how I know he's trying, too.

[requiemshark]

[ Unsurprising. Ephemera never liked Felix. The man had a way of sucking the air out of the room, demanding all the oxygen for himself. Even the other mercs hadn't liked him, only tolerated him. And now Felix is dead. Ephemera wonders if he ought to feel something about that. He doesn't, really. Felix was a means to an end.

He'd respected Locus, though, in a vague sort of way. And now he knows the man isn't dead. ]

I didn't know Locus. Not...as a person. But I respected him. He was fair.

[ As fair as anyone in their profession could be, at least. ]

I thought about going back to the Insurrection for a bit. I had friends there. And they did...they tried. Most of them tried like hell. But it went wrong last time.

[ His causes always seem to go wrong. ]

And sometimes I think about going back to Chorus. Trying to make things right. But I doubt they'd want to see me again.

[leaderboards]

[ 'it went wrong last time' is the exact reason carolina keeps trying, keeps desperately looking for something she can do that's good, something that makes her feel as though she's made up for some of her mistakes, at least. she keeps stubbornly throwing herself at causes until something sticks, but she can't deny the appeal of just... not having one. she gets where ephemera is coming from. ]

If you wanted to make things right as one of the mercenaries, I don't know what kind of response you would get. But if you could go back there and just... be someone who wanted to do a little good, I doubt you would find anyone but Kimball who recognized you.

[ there's a beat of hesitation and then, dryly— ] But maybe keep the shark motif subtle, just in case.

[ she knows it's probably moot, they're probably in this universe indefinitely now. carolina has no desire to go back to where and when she was, not so long as wash and maine are both here, alive and well. and they both know how ephemera's story ends there. ]

[requiemshark]

[ He huffs at that. Almost, but not quite a smile. ]

I can do subtle. Sometimes.

[ Maybe one day he will. It's a thought, at least. ]

[leaderboards]

Uh-huh.

[ it's almost familiar, almost teasing, that little noise of disbelief. carolina hears it, at least, opens her mouth to say something to course correct when the locker room door opens and another one of the night's fighters walks in. ephemera's opponent, maybe; carolina didn't look all that closely at the evening's matches.

regardless, it feels like the bubble that had isolated the locker room from not only the rest of the building but the rest of everything bursts with their arrival and carolina has no desire to stay.

she and ephemera talked. it was honestly kind of nice. she's not pushing it.

carolina straightens, throws her bag over her shoulder. prepares to leave. ]

I'm sure you don't need me to wish you good luck, but have a good fight.

[requiemshark]

[ He watches her for a moment, then nods. ]

I'll see you around, Carolina.

[leaderboards]

See you around.

[ it seems better to parrot him there, returning the nod before she turns to head for the door.

the win in her fight earlier had been unfulfilling, frustrating. the win of having another successful, civil conversation with ephemera is much more satisfying. ]