[network/action] @LELRIC; MAPS AND MEETINGS; Day 008 and 009

[armoured]

A: Network (Voice); 8am - Open

I've been doing some thinking.

[Al jumps right into it, as all forms of 'hello it's me' he rehearsed in his head, seemed stupid and awkward. He sounds content, though determined.]

My previous advice to travel westwards and southwards may not be the best now. I've been as far west and south as I can, and I've found almost nothing in the way of food or water supplies to sustain just me, let alone more of us. We need to find a place where we can scavenge, or even hunt, and that isn't to the southwest. If anyone has found any clues to where we could find anything to help us survive, please share it with us.

I know a few of you already know this, but Stephanie started a map that we're trying to put together collaboratively. It's not an exact map, that's impossible without the dimensions of this place or a frame of reference, but it's possible for us to start filling in routes based on where we have travelled in relation to the snow wall. You can find it here. The more people that can help with this, the better for all of us.

[He pauses, before exhaling audibly.]

Finally... there have been more deaths reported, and I know at least one more of them never talked to anyone here on the network. Please, if you're out there listening, don't make that mistake. We're a team here, you have to talk to us and trust us. We need to start thinking of each other as friends, not just as strangers stuck here, and that means learning about one another. So... won't you all talk to me? Tell me where you come from, and who's waiting for you to come home?

B: Closed to Clarke (Action; Day 008)

[Aside from a brief meeting with a woman early in his travels, Al has seen nobody else in person here. So it surprises him deeply when, as he is tramping through the snow, he catches sight of something out of the ordinary amongst the sea of white.

A splash of colour.

A person!

It only takes a heartbeat for Al to start running towards her, arms waving wildly to try and get her attention.]

Here! Over here!

C: Closed to Tadashi (Action; Day 009)

[After meeting with Clarke the previous day, the two of them had struck out together under the assumption that it was better to stick together. Perhaps in the enthusiasm of seeing someone else, or perhaps just out of necessity, it was close to the warning period when they eventually came upon shelter that day.

After a quick look inside, Al has slipped out again to inspect the perimeter before lockdown. Imagine his surprise when he sees a familiar figure walking towards him. He may only have seen Tadashi over the video of the tablet, but he recognises him at once. The same probably can't be said in reverse, as Al always uses the voice function. So Tadashi may not be too happy about being charged down by a seven foot suit of armour with large spikes.]

D: Closed to house 60, square J11 (Action, Day 009

[Quite a few people are surprisingly converging on the same house this evening, all looking for shelter against the night cold. This section is an open one for all people in house 60 to interact with one another, not just Al.]

Comments

Voice; ID: max;

[feralone]

You're going to make it hurt worse.

[It was an odd thing to say to a kid. It was also, surprising, a lot less blunt than he usually was despite the fact that it was...still fairly blunt. He made this argument once before, something similar anyway. He had been as blunt as could be then. But that had been to an adult that he knew would understand him.

This was...different. Harder somehow. Not that he would admit it. And not that it kept him from still saying the harsh words that needed to be said. Or maybe they didn't need to be said, but just wanted to be said.]

voice @LELRIC

[armoured]

[Al will never understand this way of thinking. He grasps the principle behind it, but not the circumstances that could lead someone to ever feel that way. He feels a sudden rush of sympathy for Max, and for the unknown things that have brought him to those conclusions.]

You're wrong.

[Gentle, but firm.]

The bonds of friendship can motivate people to work harder, and look out for each other more diligently, than being faceless strangers.

Voice; ID: max;

[feralone]

Not everyone will survive.

What will you do then when you can't fix it?

[Because Max knew from experience what the price became then: madness.]

[armoured]

[Al sits in silence for a moment. It's a good question and Al will give it the consideration it deserves, his voice dropping to become a little more somber, though no less firm.]

Then I'll keep working until I can fix it. I'm going to make mistakes, and... maybe some bad things will happen, but that doesn't mean it's alright to give up. I'm going to keep moving forwards until I find a way to fix it, no matter what.

[feralone]

[Damn, kid. That's some serious case of naive hope (from Max's point of view anyway). It's just not that easy in practice. Saying it was one thing...

Max made an unimpressed sound. Disappointed, perhaps. Disapproving, maybe. Definitely negative one way or another.]

Not everything can be fixed. Some things... Some things don't come back.

[Like the dead.]

[armoured]

I know, but that doesn't mean there aren't other people left who can benefit when a solution is found.

[Al, unlike a lot of people here, fully accepts that dead is dead.]

I don't want anyone else to get hurt, and I'll do my best to protect everyone, but... but even if they do, as long as there's one person trapped here with me, then it's worth fighting forwards to find that solution and make sure they stay alive.

[feralone]

[For some reason this conversation was frustrating Max. He should have just ignored it like he did so many other things. But a part of him found that hard now. And he had already engaged and--]

Why? [The question probably surprised Max as it came out of his mouth just as much as it might surprise Al to hear it.] Why do you fight so hard?

[Max knew his reasons... he had gone back to those women and brought them back to the Green Place in a bid for redemption. He had failed so many times in the past. But his heart and soul had finally won his inner struggle of instinct versus humanity and he had gone to them. Helped them. Tried to find a little redemption for his past failures.

But why would this kid feel this need so fiercely? To protect people? To protect strangers? From his point of view, in his perception of the world as it had become, it made little to no sense. He had forgotten how the world worked before its downfall. It bewildered and confused him. It had the unfortunate effect of making him think about it. All of it. Past, present, and future. Especially the past.]

[armoured]

[Al is still a long way from understanding Max, but he is at least getting used to his taciturn presence and realising that he's probably not unfriendly, he's just... wounded somehow. So an actual question coming from him warrants proper consideration, so that Al can do his answer justice.]

For the future.

[He looks inwards as he speaks, seeing the faces of the people who are already gone. His Mom, Nina, Hughes... but he also sees the people who are still fighting.]

No matter how dark the past is, or how hard the present is, there's always hope for the future. People will always try and fight with all they have for a better life, and a second chance, and... and I know that the people who I've lost wouldn't want me to give up hope for that myself. I look around me and I see everyone else fighting with such determination for their personal happy future, even if it seems impossible to attain, and it gives me hope and strength to do that same.

I fight because I won't accept any less from myself. I'm going to protect, and I'm going to help, and I going to keep moving forwards while there's even one person left for it to make a difference for.

[feralone]

[That was some answer, kid. In a former time of life, Max might have been impressed. At the moment all the answer does is make Max struggle with his inner self. He understands the concepts because once he knew them, he felt them, he fought hard and long to uphold them.

But he's not that man any longer. Things change. And in his world, it's always for the worse.

There is a long, long pause from Max's end.]

There is no future. It doesn't get any better than this. [This. This hellhole. This end. Death and isolation, a bleak nothingness that is all that is left in humanity's wake. It was all the same.] Desert wasteland. Snowy wasteland. No difference. It's all the world ever has to look forward to.

[He can't. He can't go back. Hope was too much. Hope was...too maddening. Too painful. It only led to disappointment, and insanity.]

[armoured]

You're wrong.

[He sounds painfully gentle, his heart aching for Max and what he must have been through to get to this point.]

The landscape doesn't matter, the situation doesn't matter... in the end, the only thing that matters is you and the people around you. If even one person has hope, and has the determination to try, then they can shape a better future. Maybe not for the whole world by themselves, but for their slice of it. And if more and more people try, then the world can change.

[feralone]

People only know how to fight. War. Always war. They cause it. They killed the world.

[Angharad's words, Max realizes belatedly, only he was giving an answer to the question: who killed the world? We did. Humans. And humanity's wars against one another.]

That never changes.

[armoured]

Maybe.

[He doesn't know what's happened to Max's world, so he can only speak from his experiences at home and here.]

But people know how to heal too. That's why wars end, and why people rebuild. Homes, lives... that never changes either. What does change is you, and the choices you make, whether to be someone who perpetuates war and destruction, or someone who perpetuates peace and rebirth.

[feralone]

No. The world is dying and we did that.

[There's no way for Al to understand what Max means exactly without explaining the state of his world, how it was literally dying due to radiation poisoning, and that what few humans were left were slowly dying off, too. Poisoned, mutated, and with short lives to spend due to cancer and sickness nobody can heal anymore.

And on top of all that the warmongers inherited the earth because no one was left to oppose them. No one has without dying. So now it's scavenge and ravage what's left just to survive. Don't care about anyone else if you want to live. Only protect yourself and stay clear of others. That, or join a gang that kills and loots from others. That was Max's world. And nothing ever seemed to get better for long.

He'd played his part. He'd tried protecting others. Most of the time they died. Eventually, everyone died. So when he helped the women take over the Citadel he couldn't stay. He couldn't watch them build something beautiful only to watch it fall to the destructive hands of others that would come. Because eventually, they would.

Maybe that was just an excuse. Maybe he wasn't a man anymore. Just an instinct. Survive. Nothing else.

Max doesn't know what else to say, doesn't want to say anything else, and with a frustrated noise he logs off the network and let's the trudge through the snow-covered city distract him from any thought.]