TILT-Log 7: War Never Changes
Apr. 5th, 2024 12:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xp_dominion posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
xp_logsJesse and Shatterstar wake in the world of Fallout
Everything was chaos.
Jessie didn't open her eyes at first, not quite sure what was happening. She must have been dreaming, right? Maybe she had fallen asleep at the convention center. It was just a really vivid dream, probably. The cement under her cheek felt so real and - why was the ground shaking?
She sat up, opened her eyes.
And almost closed them again.
Because she knew the scene in front of her. She had seen it a million times, through multiple replays and watching videos on YouTube. But it was impossible, right? The ground shook again, and she looked over her shoulder. And saw the giant robot ambling down the bridge.
"Shit," she whispered. She was about to run when she noticed the mess of red hair at her knee. "Shatterstar!"
Jessie dove at him, shaking him furiously. "Come on, wake up, we gotta move!"
If this was a dream, it was a terrifyingly convincing one.
Shatterstar's eyes snapped open at the shaking and he grabbed at the figure who he didn't recognize. They looked a little bit like Jessie, like they could be her cousin, but he was sure he had never seen this person before in his life.
The ground shaking underneath him had him instinctively looking for Julio, sure the earthquake was him, but instead he saw the huge robot. Somewhere around them what must have been a radio cracked a jazz song, but he couldn't identify the source of the discordant sound. Over it there was a mechanical voice spouting lines about democracy and America. Slowly, like he was walking through mud, his brain recognized the robot.
He had never played the game, but he'd watched others play it- this wasn't supposed to be part of the VR experience.
He got to his feet, pulling the other figure up with him and looked to them for direction. "Which way?"
His head throbbed.
"Um." Jessie looked back at the robot. She knew the answer, and she hated it. "Well, that way seems pretty occupied. Forward I guess!"
She grabbed his hand and pulled him along as she started running toward a large, round building in the distance.
Shatterstar knew enough about the game to know that you could get injured by being in the robot's way so he willingly followed, trying to remember what the round building was.
And wasn't there a way to turn the VR off? He went to tap the side of his head like they had been told but nothing happened. He wasn't sure he should tell her.
Jessie had never been a runner.
Her father had tried in vain to get her into sports, but that had resulted in a nearly broken arm and her mother furiously taking her out of kiddie football. She had always preferred staying inside with her comics or computers or books or video games - all things that definitely made for an out-of-shape twenty-year-old. She'd always hoped that would be different in VR.
But she was still winded by the time they reached the end of the bridge and stepped off to the side, and that was lame. She looked at the robot, at the edge they were standing on, and then at Shatterstar. "You okay?"
It was only now that his senses were in order that he realized that the person in front of him must be Jessie Drake- he was sure she was a shapeshifter, but he'd never seen her look like this before.
"I'm okay," Shatterstar said though he had been slower than he was used to to when running. His whole body felt off. He realized with a start that everything seemed muffled. All the gunfire and explosions should be worse than the where with his slightly advanced hearing.
He tried to reach for his power as the ground started to shake again in case they were shot at but it was gone. It wasn't even buried somewhere he couldn't get to it, he couldn't feel it at all.
"Jessie," he said in an even voice so as not to worry her. "Are your powers working?"
"What?" Jessie frowned, tilting her head. "Of course they are, I..."
Her voice drifted off as she reached for her hair. The blue-green ombre she had decided on for the morning was gone, replaced by her regular blonde hair. She reached up to carefully probe around her head, feeling the broader nose, the slightly bigger ears, the Adam's apple...
Oh.
"Maybe... not." Her voice was a little high-pitched. Later. There would be time to deal with that later.
So it was likely that his powers were well and truly gone. He had no weapon. They had to keep going.
"We need to get to shelter," Shatterstar said urgently when a shot barely missed them. Maybe then he would be able to find a weapon. He wasn't sure if Jessie had any skills to help them get out- he didn't know her well at all. "Do you know where we are going?"
Deep breath. Jessie nodded, turning toward the rotunda once more. "If we're where I think we are-" and how weird would it be if they weren't? "Then we'll be going that way."
He trusted her knowledge and moved to cover her from where the fire was coming from. "Lead the way," Shatterstar said.
***
"Remember those logic puzzles, Miss Coriander? Like, two guards are at two doors, one leading out of the maze and one leading to certain death? And you can ask whatever you want, but one will always tell the truth and one will always lie? You were supposed to ask all these intricate questions that force the guards to build enough information that you could tell which was lying versus which was telling the truth and choose a door. Always struck me as a wasted effort. Cut one guard's throat and ask the other if he's dead yet. Based on those answers, you make your choice. Just needs one dead body to solve most problems." Arcade said, watching the monitors. "Just one."
***
In the video game there were ways, if you had the right mods, to get around this puzzle. You could send the companion who was immune to radiation in to die. You could send the robot. But even though this was based on the video game, there was only Shatterstar and Jessie. There was only one way out.
Would one of them die if they died in this video game world?
Shatterstar realized with startling clarity that he didn't want to die, not even if it saved someone else. He had to protect the body. He had to protect Benji. It was what he was for. But there was no way to ask this girl he barely knew to die in his place. There was no way of knowing if they would live if they died here.
"I don't..." He trailed off and looked at the chamber and then back at Jessie, expression on his face very young and very aware of his own mortality.
Jessie remembered the first time she had played Fallout 3, without the Broken Steel DLC and the continuation of the Wanderer's life. At the time, she had easily chosen to send her character into the room. It had fit the story arc she had created - an angry orphan finishing the work her parents started before joining them in death. It was poetic.
There was absolutely nothing poetic about this situation.
She looked at Shatterstar, meeting his gaze, sure that there was fear in her expression as well. And she did what she's always done best - covered up with a slightly manic smile.
"Yeah." She laughed. There was nothing humorous about it. The machine whirred in the background, acting as a soundtrack to this depressing scene. Couldn't they at least get dramatic music? "Yeah. Me neither."
What if they just waited it out? Would the game wait with them until they made a decision? Or would they both die? It didn't matter - it wasn't an option Jessie was going to suggest. But she wondered how long they had to debate this.
Even Shatterstar could see the fear in Jessie's face, even through her grin. It did nothing to help him steel his own, even as he tried. He had to protect the body, he had to protect Benjamin. He gripped the railing of the bridge they were on, white knuckled as he looked at Jessie. One of them could very well be the last face the other saw.
He didn't want to die. He was scared. Shatterstar wasn't sure he had ever felt how overwhelming fear could be when it wasn't divorced from himself by being Benjamin's emotion. His breathe was shaky and his eyes were wet.
But... Wasn't this what the X-Men he revered did? Didn't they sacrifice themselves? And... There was a chance he might survive.
"I... I have a healing factor," he said, taking a steadying breathe as he stiffened his spine. "I might..."
Jessie was already preparing to point out that it probably wouldn't be enough - wasn't this how the Tenth Doctor had died too? Was that even a good example? - when she remembered something else.
"No powers," she said with a small, sad smile. Something about seeing him scared was making her... not feel better, because nothing could make her feel better in that moment. But she took a deep breath, trying to collect herself. Her mother would be so sad if Jessie died. But she had her family. And her new boyfriend. She would be okay, right?
That was right. He had forgotten so soon that he was without any powers to protect him, not even the slight healing he took for granted. (Not that it was likely to have done anything, Shatterstar knew). He didn't understand how Jessie could be smiling.
Wasn't she scared too? He reached out to offer her his hands, to try to offer any sort of comfort. He blinked a few times, trying to not seem like a fearful little boy, even if the gaping maw of a slow, painful death made him feel like that.
Why wasn't there a way they could both get out? It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair.
"Jessie..." Shatterstar started to... He didn't know. Beg? Ask forgiveness?
Jessie skipped his hands and went straight to hugging him as tight as she could. She didn't know if he was a hugger, but this was a situation that called for the biggest bear hug she could manage.
Of course she was scared. She was terrified. She'd sat on the edge of suicidal once, in one of her darkest times before the divorce, and she had hoped it would be a long time before she and Death were that close again. It hadn't even been a decade. She didn't want to die.
Maybe it wouldn't be permanent death. Maybe there was a respawn or something. Maybe she could find another way out once Shatterstar escaped. Find a robot to send in instead of her. Never mind that this was the actual End Of The Game, maybe she could find a way to re-do it.
The thoughts were hollow and not at all reassuring, but it was the best she could do to comfort herself in that moment.
Shatterstar wasn't a hugger. He never had been. But in that moment he held Jessie tightly, tucking his face into her hair and making sure she knew how much she meant. He couldn't unmake the choice that was clear to him when she had brought him in for the hug. He wouldn't, couldn't ask her too. They both had a kid to protect, even if Shatterstar was the kid in Jessie's case.
This was something he could never make up to her, even if somehow she survived. Maybe the game would start over from the beginning? Or they would get a DLC?
He shouldn't ask this of her, but he couldn't ask her to back out either. He was too cowardly for that. Perhaps if had only been his soul on the line, but he wasn't the only one in this body.
"I'm sorry," he told her. Shatterstar didn't know what else he could say. "I'm sorry," he said, wetting her hair with tears.
She allowed herself a few tears as well. That was fair, wasn't it? "It's okay," she said, pulling away, hands on his shoulders, and giving him a shaky smile. "Just... do me a favor, okay? Tell my mom... actually, don't tell her I died in a video game, she'll think you're telling a joke. Just tell her something so she's not waiting for me to come home. I think that'd be worse.
"And this is stupid, but keep an eye on Ashley, please? I don't want her to be too sad." Sure, they had only been roommates for two months, but it felt like they had known each other for years. Like Ashley fit perfectly into a space in Jessie's heart that she hadn't known existed. She wanted her to be okay.
He tried to look steady for her, so that the last face she might ever see was not one crying or scared. He didn't attempt to smile, but he kept his hands on her shoulders a while more.
"I will," he promised solemnly. "I will tell your mother and look after Ashley. I swear to you." He meant to keep these promises to her, no matter what happened. That is... If he even got to get out of the game after Jessie sacrificed herself. But he didn't want to think like that. He would get out and Jessie's sacrifice would not be in vain.
He would bear the responsibility of telling a mother her daughter died for him.
Jessie took a deep breath, gave Shatterstar one last smile, and turned to look at the room. "Okay. I dunno what's gonna happen after I walk in there, but if you see a way out, move fast." Ending the game had to end this, right? That was how Jumanji worked. Finish the game and everything goes back to normal. Easy!
***
"Why isn't security here yet?!"
"What, you mean they're not having an expedited response to 'cat loose in the control room'?"
"I've got it trapped under the desk," reported an operator as he backed away from the clumsily stacked office chairs that now comprised the world's most ergonomic barricade. "If we just let it calm down-"
The chairs exploded away from the desk, kicked aside by a pair of very long, very human legs.
"Is wrong."
A tall, purple-haired young woman emerged from beneath the desk, heaving a computer tower with her.
"I will not be calm," Sharon said as she regarded the operators. She bared her teeth in a predatory grin.
"And I cannot be contained."
Sharon hurled the tower.
***
Jessie let out a long breath as she stepped into the chamber, her mind racing. Did dying from radiation hurt? It looked like it hurt in the game, but maybe that had just been played up for drama. She didn't dare look back at Shatterstar - she didn't want him to see her crying.
Just put in the code. Push the button. It's easy. Just like in the game.
2-1-6. Enter. The machine whirred to life, and...
The room went dark.
Well that was certainly not how it went in the game.
Shatterstar could see the shape of Jessie in the dark chamber. He had watched her go in, of course. He couldn't let her die without being witnessed. But with the power seeming to go out, the world around them seemed to fade as well.
There was a way for them both to escape.
It had been a simulation after all.
"Jessie!" He yelled for her, eyes slightly reflective on the side of the already fading glass. "Come on!"
It took Jessie a moment to snap out of her confusion. One moment she was preparing to die, the next she... wasn't dead. That was a lot to process.
Shatterstar's voice shook her out of her daze. She staggered back from the console and out onto the scaffolding once more, running straight into Shatterstar in her haste. "What happened?" Her voice was definitely a little high-pitched from the sudden whiplash and stress.
Shatterstar steadied himself and grabbed Jessie's hand as he started to pull her towards the only light- something that almost looked like a glowing exit sign.
"The power went out! It's over... We can get out." It hadn't been real. At least, he didn't think it had been. Then again, the shots had been so real, everything had been so real.
"It's... what?" Over? That didn't make any sense. Jessie looked around again, blinking a few times, stumbling to keep up with Shatterstar. "How do we get out, though?"
"How else? Through the exit." He started running now, in case the power came back on and they were trapped in the video game again. Or maybe this was a new trap... But it was better to take their chances then let Jessie die without at least trying.
It took Jessie a moment to shake herself out of her haze. She broke into a run, keeping up with Shatterstar. She loudly declared, "This is not how it went in the game."
Shatterstar slammed the side of his body into the emergency exit, light bursting into the room. Guards rushed to their location.
Everything was chaos.
Jessie didn't open her eyes at first, not quite sure what was happening. She must have been dreaming, right? Maybe she had fallen asleep at the convention center. It was just a really vivid dream, probably. The cement under her cheek felt so real and - why was the ground shaking?
She sat up, opened her eyes.
And almost closed them again.
Because she knew the scene in front of her. She had seen it a million times, through multiple replays and watching videos on YouTube. But it was impossible, right? The ground shook again, and she looked over her shoulder. And saw the giant robot ambling down the bridge.
"Shit," she whispered. She was about to run when she noticed the mess of red hair at her knee. "Shatterstar!"
Jessie dove at him, shaking him furiously. "Come on, wake up, we gotta move!"
If this was a dream, it was a terrifyingly convincing one.
Shatterstar's eyes snapped open at the shaking and he grabbed at the figure who he didn't recognize. They looked a little bit like Jessie, like they could be her cousin, but he was sure he had never seen this person before in his life.
The ground shaking underneath him had him instinctively looking for Julio, sure the earthquake was him, but instead he saw the huge robot. Somewhere around them what must have been a radio cracked a jazz song, but he couldn't identify the source of the discordant sound. Over it there was a mechanical voice spouting lines about democracy and America. Slowly, like he was walking through mud, his brain recognized the robot.
He had never played the game, but he'd watched others play it- this wasn't supposed to be part of the VR experience.
He got to his feet, pulling the other figure up with him and looked to them for direction. "Which way?"
His head throbbed.
"Um." Jessie looked back at the robot. She knew the answer, and she hated it. "Well, that way seems pretty occupied. Forward I guess!"
She grabbed his hand and pulled him along as she started running toward a large, round building in the distance.
Shatterstar knew enough about the game to know that you could get injured by being in the robot's way so he willingly followed, trying to remember what the round building was.
And wasn't there a way to turn the VR off? He went to tap the side of his head like they had been told but nothing happened. He wasn't sure he should tell her.
Jessie had never been a runner.
Her father had tried in vain to get her into sports, but that had resulted in a nearly broken arm and her mother furiously taking her out of kiddie football. She had always preferred staying inside with her comics or computers or books or video games - all things that definitely made for an out-of-shape twenty-year-old. She'd always hoped that would be different in VR.
But she was still winded by the time they reached the end of the bridge and stepped off to the side, and that was lame. She looked at the robot, at the edge they were standing on, and then at Shatterstar. "You okay?"
It was only now that his senses were in order that he realized that the person in front of him must be Jessie Drake- he was sure she was a shapeshifter, but he'd never seen her look like this before.
"I'm okay," Shatterstar said though he had been slower than he was used to to when running. His whole body felt off. He realized with a start that everything seemed muffled. All the gunfire and explosions should be worse than the where with his slightly advanced hearing.
He tried to reach for his power as the ground started to shake again in case they were shot at but it was gone. It wasn't even buried somewhere he couldn't get to it, he couldn't feel it at all.
"Jessie," he said in an even voice so as not to worry her. "Are your powers working?"
"What?" Jessie frowned, tilting her head. "Of course they are, I..."
Her voice drifted off as she reached for her hair. The blue-green ombre she had decided on for the morning was gone, replaced by her regular blonde hair. She reached up to carefully probe around her head, feeling the broader nose, the slightly bigger ears, the Adam's apple...
Oh.
"Maybe... not." Her voice was a little high-pitched. Later. There would be time to deal with that later.
So it was likely that his powers were well and truly gone. He had no weapon. They had to keep going.
"We need to get to shelter," Shatterstar said urgently when a shot barely missed them. Maybe then he would be able to find a weapon. He wasn't sure if Jessie had any skills to help them get out- he didn't know her well at all. "Do you know where we are going?"
Deep breath. Jessie nodded, turning toward the rotunda once more. "If we're where I think we are-" and how weird would it be if they weren't? "Then we'll be going that way."
He trusted her knowledge and moved to cover her from where the fire was coming from. "Lead the way," Shatterstar said.
***
"Remember those logic puzzles, Miss Coriander? Like, two guards are at two doors, one leading out of the maze and one leading to certain death? And you can ask whatever you want, but one will always tell the truth and one will always lie? You were supposed to ask all these intricate questions that force the guards to build enough information that you could tell which was lying versus which was telling the truth and choose a door. Always struck me as a wasted effort. Cut one guard's throat and ask the other if he's dead yet. Based on those answers, you make your choice. Just needs one dead body to solve most problems." Arcade said, watching the monitors. "Just one."
***
In the video game there were ways, if you had the right mods, to get around this puzzle. You could send the companion who was immune to radiation in to die. You could send the robot. But even though this was based on the video game, there was only Shatterstar and Jessie. There was only one way out.
Would one of them die if they died in this video game world?
Shatterstar realized with startling clarity that he didn't want to die, not even if it saved someone else. He had to protect the body. He had to protect Benji. It was what he was for. But there was no way to ask this girl he barely knew to die in his place. There was no way of knowing if they would live if they died here.
"I don't..." He trailed off and looked at the chamber and then back at Jessie, expression on his face very young and very aware of his own mortality.
Jessie remembered the first time she had played Fallout 3, without the Broken Steel DLC and the continuation of the Wanderer's life. At the time, she had easily chosen to send her character into the room. It had fit the story arc she had created - an angry orphan finishing the work her parents started before joining them in death. It was poetic.
There was absolutely nothing poetic about this situation.
She looked at Shatterstar, meeting his gaze, sure that there was fear in her expression as well. And she did what she's always done best - covered up with a slightly manic smile.
"Yeah." She laughed. There was nothing humorous about it. The machine whirred in the background, acting as a soundtrack to this depressing scene. Couldn't they at least get dramatic music? "Yeah. Me neither."
What if they just waited it out? Would the game wait with them until they made a decision? Or would they both die? It didn't matter - it wasn't an option Jessie was going to suggest. But she wondered how long they had to debate this.
Even Shatterstar could see the fear in Jessie's face, even through her grin. It did nothing to help him steel his own, even as he tried. He had to protect the body, he had to protect Benjamin. He gripped the railing of the bridge they were on, white knuckled as he looked at Jessie. One of them could very well be the last face the other saw.
He didn't want to die. He was scared. Shatterstar wasn't sure he had ever felt how overwhelming fear could be when it wasn't divorced from himself by being Benjamin's emotion. His breathe was shaky and his eyes were wet.
But... Wasn't this what the X-Men he revered did? Didn't they sacrifice themselves? And... There was a chance he might survive.
"I... I have a healing factor," he said, taking a steadying breathe as he stiffened his spine. "I might..."
Jessie was already preparing to point out that it probably wouldn't be enough - wasn't this how the Tenth Doctor had died too? Was that even a good example? - when she remembered something else.
"No powers," she said with a small, sad smile. Something about seeing him scared was making her... not feel better, because nothing could make her feel better in that moment. But she took a deep breath, trying to collect herself. Her mother would be so sad if Jessie died. But she had her family. And her new boyfriend. She would be okay, right?
That was right. He had forgotten so soon that he was without any powers to protect him, not even the slight healing he took for granted. (Not that it was likely to have done anything, Shatterstar knew). He didn't understand how Jessie could be smiling.
Wasn't she scared too? He reached out to offer her his hands, to try to offer any sort of comfort. He blinked a few times, trying to not seem like a fearful little boy, even if the gaping maw of a slow, painful death made him feel like that.
Why wasn't there a way they could both get out? It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair.
"Jessie..." Shatterstar started to... He didn't know. Beg? Ask forgiveness?
Jessie skipped his hands and went straight to hugging him as tight as she could. She didn't know if he was a hugger, but this was a situation that called for the biggest bear hug she could manage.
Of course she was scared. She was terrified. She'd sat on the edge of suicidal once, in one of her darkest times before the divorce, and she had hoped it would be a long time before she and Death were that close again. It hadn't even been a decade. She didn't want to die.
Maybe it wouldn't be permanent death. Maybe there was a respawn or something. Maybe she could find another way out once Shatterstar escaped. Find a robot to send in instead of her. Never mind that this was the actual End Of The Game, maybe she could find a way to re-do it.
The thoughts were hollow and not at all reassuring, but it was the best she could do to comfort herself in that moment.
Shatterstar wasn't a hugger. He never had been. But in that moment he held Jessie tightly, tucking his face into her hair and making sure she knew how much she meant. He couldn't unmake the choice that was clear to him when she had brought him in for the hug. He wouldn't, couldn't ask her too. They both had a kid to protect, even if Shatterstar was the kid in Jessie's case.
This was something he could never make up to her, even if somehow she survived. Maybe the game would start over from the beginning? Or they would get a DLC?
He shouldn't ask this of her, but he couldn't ask her to back out either. He was too cowardly for that. Perhaps if had only been his soul on the line, but he wasn't the only one in this body.
"I'm sorry," he told her. Shatterstar didn't know what else he could say. "I'm sorry," he said, wetting her hair with tears.
She allowed herself a few tears as well. That was fair, wasn't it? "It's okay," she said, pulling away, hands on his shoulders, and giving him a shaky smile. "Just... do me a favor, okay? Tell my mom... actually, don't tell her I died in a video game, she'll think you're telling a joke. Just tell her something so she's not waiting for me to come home. I think that'd be worse.
"And this is stupid, but keep an eye on Ashley, please? I don't want her to be too sad." Sure, they had only been roommates for two months, but it felt like they had known each other for years. Like Ashley fit perfectly into a space in Jessie's heart that she hadn't known existed. She wanted her to be okay.
He tried to look steady for her, so that the last face she might ever see was not one crying or scared. He didn't attempt to smile, but he kept his hands on her shoulders a while more.
"I will," he promised solemnly. "I will tell your mother and look after Ashley. I swear to you." He meant to keep these promises to her, no matter what happened. That is... If he even got to get out of the game after Jessie sacrificed herself. But he didn't want to think like that. He would get out and Jessie's sacrifice would not be in vain.
He would bear the responsibility of telling a mother her daughter died for him.
Jessie took a deep breath, gave Shatterstar one last smile, and turned to look at the room. "Okay. I dunno what's gonna happen after I walk in there, but if you see a way out, move fast." Ending the game had to end this, right? That was how Jumanji worked. Finish the game and everything goes back to normal. Easy!
***
"Why isn't security here yet?!"
"What, you mean they're not having an expedited response to 'cat loose in the control room'?"
"I've got it trapped under the desk," reported an operator as he backed away from the clumsily stacked office chairs that now comprised the world's most ergonomic barricade. "If we just let it calm down-"
The chairs exploded away from the desk, kicked aside by a pair of very long, very human legs.
"Is wrong."
A tall, purple-haired young woman emerged from beneath the desk, heaving a computer tower with her.
"I will not be calm," Sharon said as she regarded the operators. She bared her teeth in a predatory grin.
"And I cannot be contained."
Sharon hurled the tower.
***
Jessie let out a long breath as she stepped into the chamber, her mind racing. Did dying from radiation hurt? It looked like it hurt in the game, but maybe that had just been played up for drama. She didn't dare look back at Shatterstar - she didn't want him to see her crying.
Just put in the code. Push the button. It's easy. Just like in the game.
2-1-6. Enter. The machine whirred to life, and...
The room went dark.
Well that was certainly not how it went in the game.
Shatterstar could see the shape of Jessie in the dark chamber. He had watched her go in, of course. He couldn't let her die without being witnessed. But with the power seeming to go out, the world around them seemed to fade as well.
There was a way for them both to escape.
It had been a simulation after all.
"Jessie!" He yelled for her, eyes slightly reflective on the side of the already fading glass. "Come on!"
It took Jessie a moment to snap out of her confusion. One moment she was preparing to die, the next she... wasn't dead. That was a lot to process.
Shatterstar's voice shook her out of her daze. She staggered back from the console and out onto the scaffolding once more, running straight into Shatterstar in her haste. "What happened?" Her voice was definitely a little high-pitched from the sudden whiplash and stress.
Shatterstar steadied himself and grabbed Jessie's hand as he started to pull her towards the only light- something that almost looked like a glowing exit sign.
"The power went out! It's over... We can get out." It hadn't been real. At least, he didn't think it had been. Then again, the shots had been so real, everything had been so real.
"It's... what?" Over? That didn't make any sense. Jessie looked around again, blinking a few times, stumbling to keep up with Shatterstar. "How do we get out, though?"
"How else? Through the exit." He started running now, in case the power came back on and they were trapped in the video game again. Or maybe this was a new trap... But it was better to take their chances then let Jessie die without at least trying.
It took Jessie a moment to shake herself out of her haze. She broke into a run, keeping up with Shatterstar. She loudly declared, "This is not how it went in the game."
Shatterstar slammed the side of his body into the emergency exit, light bursting into the room. Guards rushed to their location.
no subject
Date: 2024-04-08 06:29 pm (UTC)Aw, man, them both being genre-savvy is actually making this worse.
This was actually oddly sweet, guys. Jessie's got Big Sibling Energy with Star that I really enjoy. Jessie's past experience with suicidal ideation also makes a lot of sense in how her actions have been informed here; even though she's moved past that point in her life the fact it was once something she considered means that death is already something she's devoted a lot of thought to. The shame and helplessness Shatterstar felt as an identity created to protect himself and survive was a poignant counterpoint.