savetheearth | [plot] Invasion: Day 3.2

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[plot] Invasion: Day 3.2

Who: EVERYONE + Returnees
What: Day 3.2 of the Invasion!
Where: UP INTO THE SKY AND BEYOND
When: ICLy: The 1st of May! OOCly: May 16th to May 21st!
Warnings: Please warn in your subject line if anything that deserves a warning occurs; this includes R-rated things as well as things worthy of a content warning/trigger warning.

The Central info post

Description: People will get to space either with a spaceship flown by one of the characters who were clued in by Badri (though they can of course pass their knowledge on further) OR by their own means - magical girls who are space compatible, someone's own starship, mechas, etc.

They will get to a place where they will encounter more enemies, so combat types must come along - but they are not the ones who will define how this turns out. Those who will define how this turns out are others. A number of other abilities need to be combined, and a number of people that may have combat powers but don't have to must combine their forces here:
- Any characters dare to talk to the Enemy peacefully and alone, though children, animals (or people with animal companions) or grandparent types have a bonus. Important is that these characters are not initially aggressive or condescending towards the Enemy.
- The Cures with their purification powers, and any character with similar powers.
- People who belong to one of the following groups and will tell of their "field": Gardeners or people who otherwise have a strong connection to earth and nature/environmentalists; artists (especially musicians); religious persons with an inclusive approach; people who feel a strong, healthy and friendly love for another person, be it romantic or otherwise.

What this day is for: Invading the aliens' home base. Everything else that happens on Day 3 should take place in the Day 3.1 post.

How this works:
- Day 3.2 continues what happened in Day 3.1 and the days before and includes the counterinvasion. If you have any questions, please as them here!
- There will be toplevels on this post for encounters with The Boy and for general alien territory exploration. Please start your own threads freely in reply to those toplevels or to the post, if your thread doesn't fit any toplevel! Please format the subject line like this: "Location(s)/Network | ota/closed/etc". Please keep in mind that each character may change location twice per day (= a maximum of three different locations) and that day 3.1 and 3.2 are the same day.
- Fighters whose muns aren't interested in the fight/explore option can go straight after the boy, too, if they can ICly justify their character doing that! But there are also chances for Boy encounters in the fight/explore option.
- This post can be used for both network and action threads.
- Keep in mind that returnee characters must have checked in and must request their echoes if they get any.
- Please direct all questions to this thread on the General Invasion Guide
- For the returnee registration, please go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

In spirit, he still wasn't a warrior. Not like his Other, the strange high and glee that came from battle left him drained and ill once all was said and done. He's fairly certain that wasn't the case for Dante, the strange inhuman man he still knew very little about. He was a warrior, lived for it, but not Tony. Tony just uses what strengths he has to try to protect those he loves. He's gotten better, but it still isn't enough. Even now his home crumbles far below them, and they're very likely waltzing in to their own destruction.

But at least no one can say they didn't try.

He's still armed, not here for combat but ready should the need arise, but truth be told he's worn out and done with fighting. Tony would much rather a peaceful approach, and one feels like it might be more permanent than what they'd be facing otherwise. The Earth would need to raise new guardians because the Boy would return, just as he has this time. He'd have liked to bring Lady with him but taking her outside of the Echo boundaries wasn't feasible, so she'll stay home and poor Shou will just have to deal with her.

Honestly he hopes he's not too off-putting and ruins L and Nathan's chances to talk. He skulks at the back, hands stuffed in his pockets and shoulders slumped like he's trying to bear the weight of the world on them. Truthfully, he almost is.

When they step through the airlock, they steps into... nothing.

Everything around them is white. A bright, almost blinding ...white. Not light, not clouds, not really a colour - a nothingness that is the opposite of dark.

They are suspended in this for a long moment before... it isn't nothingness anymore.

It's what for lack of a better word could be described as a small chapel or temple. Above them, sunlight filters through stained glass windows that form strange but clearly deliberate patterns. All around them, statuettes and abstract forms are placed, some decorated with flowers, others having incense burning in front of them, and still others holding strange kinds of candles.

In the middle, a high pillar with a finely crafted platform is located. If one were to stand on their toes to peer on it, they will find that there are various seeds on top of it.

Pillows and low chairs on the ground invite the onlooker to take a seat.

Looking around, there seem to be no doors - but the Boy is there, sitting in front of one of the more abstract sculptures, fully concentrating on it. He's holding something small in each hand, his fingers wrapped tightly around the items.

Edited 2015-05-26 08:14 (UTC)

Lazarus has never seen an absence of color so complete, bright and pure. Considering he's bleached the hell out of every porcelain, enamel and linen surface he's given responsibility over, that's saying something. He squints against it, arm tightening around Nathan in an attempt to keep him close; if something is going to happen to all of them, here, he can't stop it, but if he can protect his younger protege, he's going to try. Tony is a different story; the young man, echoing back a being like a demon, is there to protect them.

When their surroundings take a shape, it's one that strikes Lazarus to the core. It's deja vu in a way he recognizes from his own echoes, despite having seen nothing like it in this life; it resembles rooms in that safe haven that belonged to them, once upon a time, and the religious imagery isn't lost on him. Though a cursory glance reveals no exits in case of emergency (not that it would matter if they wanted to flee in this environment they clearly do not control), it seems like they won't have to go far to find what they're looking for.

He steps forward, stopping without going past the cushions or taking a seat. He steels his nerves, and with that he's officially leading. If this goes badly, the majority of the blame will fall on him... but if it goes well...

It has to go well. There is no other option.

He brushes his hair aside; the tattooed numbers on the palm of his hand are visible, as is the one below his ear, a delicate green and black design of leaves and tendrils. Quite clearly, it's a seedling; despite his frail and sickly appearance, this is not someone who has ever been afraid of showing the world what he is.

"I'm Lazarus Lawliet; these are my brothers Nathan Brooks and Tony Sparado."

An introduction, a start. We're in this together.

"We are here to appeal to reason and compassion. Whether or not you believe we are capable of understanding those things... please listen."

Edited 2015-05-28 12:40 (UTC)

He holds his breath when they're suspended in the white, half afraid that if he lets it go, he'll never get it back. Even after the whiteness fades into something more solid, he's hesitant to release it. But he does, quietly. The environment seems to demand quietness.

His eyes drink in the new surroundings. They should be calming, pretty. But the enormity of the task before them leeches some of that away from him. This could be where they die.

He watches the Boy, instinctively studying him, and isn't sure what to make of him overall. This is who is commanding the destruction of their home, but he appears to be trying to create something. It's something backward to him, unexpected. But if there is an urge to create, then perhaps there truly is something they can appeal to in in this being.

Nevertheless, Nathan does not begrudge Lazarus the initial approach, even with the twinge of instinctive worry in his gut. Maybe it's cowardly of him to always let someone else take the first step, someone else take the risk, but he can't help it. He's not that strong, to go ahead of others. It had taken everything he has just to be here to begin with.

Something in him warms when Lazarus calls him his brother. That's . . . really what they all are, isn't it? Family. He feels like that, too. Both Lazarus and Tony deserve that distinction along with his mother and far more than his father. He's here with family.

His throat feels dry, but he swallows. "We wish to end this without further death on either side. There has been too much."

The nothingness is disturbing on several levels. The most alarming of which being the sense of utter helplessness when they suddenly find themselves floating without any footholds. Even the Ghost Zone wasn't this bad, sure gravity didn't work quite right but it still worked in a pattern that could be predicted and learned, but this? Tony flails, desperate to right himself, then realizing he has no idea which way is up just twists uselessly and claws at the air much like a cat tossed into zero gravity.

It's a great relief when the scenery changes, though the chapel motif isn't especially calming Tony's never been happier to have his feet on solid ground. He grips the sword on his back, shifting it briefly as he takes in their surroundings. They don't appear to be in any immediate danger, but that doesn't really mean much if they're in an area that can be so completely changed by their enemy's whim. The lack of escape routes isn't exactly comforting either.

Still, they're not there for a fight, ideally at any rate. Tony's just being prepared. Satisfied that they're not about to come under immediate attack he stuffs his hands in his pockets and saunters along after Lazarus and Nathan. They're probably more suited to talking things out than he is. While Lazarus speaks Tony inches forward to try to catch a glimpse of what the Boy's holding, he'd really not expected him to actually be a kid. Nor everything to look so... sunny and warm.

He's quiet for now, lacking anything particularly helpful to add until the Boy himself so chooses to speak. Or just obliterate them, y'know both could happen.

He doesn't turn around at first, concentrating on his task, but finally he does turn his hand, and when he drops the items in his hands into his lap, Tony will just be close enough to see that it are two stylized figures of an adult - one of a woman, one of a man - who hold a baby on their arm. Parent, they almost scream. They are only semi-realistic, but while it is clear that they follow strict patterns of artistic tradition, it is no tradition that Tony or the other two would recognize.

They are covered by a hand quickly before he turns to Nathan and Lazarus.

He sounds pretty petulant when he answers. "It isn't right anyway, though. It doesn't even work properly."

Lazarus swallows. He is keeping his distance, out of respect rather than cowardice, but this means that he wasn't quite close enough to see the quickly-covered figures in the boy's hands.

"You're right," he says softly. "You couldn't be more right. There's a lot down there that was broken long before this invasion."

He thinks about his dysfunctional family, the sickness in his skull, the scars on his wrists.

"...but it's what we have. It's all we have. There's nowhere else for us to run to start over, and if you stop this... whether or not it 'works properly', we'll keep it and try to make more of the world the way it should be. If you think we've not been doing well so far, we're... just young. We need more time to use what we've learned."

Nathan fidgets uncomfortably with the strap of his backpack. The words hit him in an odd way -- broken, wrong, deserves harsh punishment. Sentiments he'd been on the receiving end of his entire life. That he'd believed and to some extent still does; it's too deeply ingrained to have been eliminated by a few months of support and encouragement.

But this is wrong.

His voice is quiet, but his speech is steady. Or as steady as he can make it; there is at least less faltering in it than usual. "That something isn't working right is not an argument to destroy it. That takes away any potential for it to improve. Something that doesn't work right now may be able to do so in the future, given time and the proper care."

Though he'd seen them, Tony was temporarily distracted from the figures by the subject at hand. He shoots L an incredulous look, narrowing his eyes. "Who's to say that? It might not be perfect, but it's our home. Sure it's a little rough around the edges but that's part of its charm," Excuse you, don't go selling out mother Earth so quickly now. "Besides, like they said, can't fix it if you just up and throw it away."

Tony's more offended than anything, not so quick to agree that their home is damaged beyond repair. You don't toss something aside just because it's inconvenient to you, especially something as important as lives. He knows what that's like and it's a pretty dreadful thing to do.

After scowling at his companions briefly he turns his attention back to the Boy, creeping forward just a bit. "Say, those things you're holding? They look like parents, are they yours?" It didn't seem too far-fetched to Tony that perhaps the Boy had come from someone else. After all, he's a kid, it'd make sense wouldn't it?

"But it didn't improve. I looked at it ages ago and looked back now and it was still not working properly. I don't think you can unbreak it. If it has potential, it isn't using it." Tony's comment surprises him though, he hadn't looked at it like that before. He looks at the man imploringly. "Why do you think that something that isn't right is a thing that you want?"

And... "It's statuettes of them. They're there so I can keep contact with them even though they are gone and have left me."

Time and proper care are powerful arguments, but Lazarus senses that it would really only be so for someone who had witnessed those things in action, nurturing something dead and broken back to life. Despite his youthful appearance, The Boy is an aged cynic, a condition that both Lazarus and Nathan seem to have recognized and related to. Maybe it's the wrong approach; they're appealing to reason and compassion, but not necessarily emotion and innocence, and that's where Tony seems to lead next.

I don't think you can unbreak it. The reality is that maybe they can't, and it's one that L accepts unflinchingly, but Tony's faith comes through, as does his empathy.

"Keep contact? How do you mean?" he asks, latching onto the conversational detour and all of the childish, vulnerable implications. The chapel-like room is filled with young men who are orphans, or as good as orphans in Nathan's case, who have discovered a tribe only very recently. Surely this is a place they can find some commom ground.

He ducks his head a little at the look Tony gives them. Had what he'd said come out wrong? It would hardly be the first time. But they have to keep going.

It isn't until Tony points out the little figures that Nathan notices them. His parents? Nathan had admittedly hardly considered such a thing, even with the Boy's appearance. This being is, after all, far older than he looks. But at what age does one stop being influenced by the people that raised them?

"What happened with them?"

The fact that the Boy even has these is an indication that he misses them, the phrasing a suggestion that they'd either died or abandoned him. He doesn't know which, so he is careful with his own phrasing.

"What d'you mean by 'broken' in the first place?" Somehow, Tony doubts the errors they see in the world are the same as the errors the Boy speaks of. What would he care about social instability and the homeless problem? At the question he just spreads his hands in a nonchalant shrug. "Well, because it's my home. Besides, I'm not quite 'right' according to other people but I don't think that I should die just because I don't fit their expectations." That's what's happening here, isn't it? He wants to kill the world that isn't fitting in with his ideal, whatever that is.

But the statuettes do indeed offer some common ground, casually Tony digs out his worn and beaten wallet. He didn't always carry it with him, but he'd started once things had gone to hell. "I hear you, I've got a picture of mine for the same reason." He holds it up, a faded photograph of a small family; Mother, father, and a young boy who had decidedly not white hair once upon a time.

He nods in agreement with Nathan's question, what had happened to them?

"It's broken when it isn't like it should be. People should be nice to each other. They shouldn't try to hurt another or be mean to them. Babies shouldn't die. Nobody should be there when a landslide happens, or they should be pulled out of the rubble in time.

But those things just happen on Earth, and they don't stop." But it is an absent minded answer, and he concentrates more on the other part - murmuring a few words in a language none of the others will understand, in a way that implies a short prayer, and then holding up the figures for them to see. "They're clear now. You won't die if you touch them.

...they sent me away. They cried when they did." His brow furrows at that.

Lazarus nods guardedly, attentive even as he tries to make sense of what the child is saying. It's almost as if death itself is the "problem" with the world as it stands, or at least within certain boundaries. Infants. Accidents. Cruelty, whether or not it leads to harm.

"Those things happen on Earth," he confirms softly. "But there's so much good that happens, as well. That's why we want to keep it, in spite of the bad things."

But The Boy doesn't seem focused on this any longer; instead, his attention has been redirected to the figurines and talk of parents who sent him away long before any of them were born.

"I'm sorry they sent you away. If they cried, it means they missed you... an that they felt like they didn't have another choice," Lazarus says. "Do you know why they had to?"

Nathan rather fails to see how that means everyone should die. The Boy is upset about death, but then orders it for everything? Perhaps he thinks that in the end, there is actually less death this way. Regardless, it's a point that Nathan doesn't bring up; this new path seems to be a better one.

Something about his face softens almost imperceptibly when the Boy holds up the figures of his parents. Though the phrasing of 'you won't die if you touch them' implies they had been lethal to the touch before, for some reason. Why is something Nathan isn't quite sure he wants to think about.

"It sounds like they wanted to protect you from something and there was no other option available to them."

Something that Nathan had done himself, for his parents. When the invasion had started, he'd tried to make arrangements to get them both to safety. Whether they've been successful or not, he has no idea.

It's very black and white, isn't it? Very simplistic, but lacking in logic. There was a time Tony could recall that he felt similarly. That no bad thing should ever happen for any reason. But at the same time... it was the bad things that had made him a better person. Had he never known suffering he'd have never realized how terrible it was, and even though sometimes he's still furious about all of the things he's had to go through, ultimately it made him who he is.

That made it worth it, didn't it?

"If bad things never happened how would we know what was good?" You learned to be careful by falling down and scraping your knees, and compassion was the same though that came from some far more harsh life lessons. He nods toward L's answer in agreement.

But now he's distracted by the figures, the style definitely isn't familiar to him, but the subject matter is fairly universal. Rather than ambush him with too many further questions Tony grows silent, just watching while the other three talk.

"But there shouldn't have to be bad things so there can be good things. Good things should be there without the bad things. You don't have to drink beer just to eat candy, either."

He hands the figurines to Tony, carefully, before answering the other twos' comments on them. "I don't know if there'd been another option. But something bad was happening, and everyone was scared and people died, but they said that they would be okay." He bites his lower lip, the doubt clear in his voice. "I think they lied."

The logic is childish and simplistic and inaccurate, but Lazarus bites his tongue on pointing any of it out. Emotion is the road to reason in this instance, and that means respecting it and treating it as tenderly as any parent would treat a child who would mourn and miss them for eons.

He watches the Boy relinquish the figurines to Tony; he wants to examine them, as well, but for now he's careful to avoid breaking the tentative bond that's clearly formed between the two orphans.

"If it was a lie, it was because they thought they were being kinder to lie," he offers. "Parents don't always know what's best, but... good ones try to protect their children, don't they? No matter what else happened, you lived, which was the best gift you could have given them under the circumstances."

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[plot] Invasion: Day 3.2

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