antagonize | week 13, shove baby out of the cradle

Entry tags:

game: cradleproject

week 13, shove baby out of the cradle

[When the gang arrives, they'll find themselves smackdab in the middle of what appears to be a busy college campus. It seems clean and well maintained; no graffiti, no obvious piles of trash, and a couple of green areas for students and staff members to enjoy. Students move hurriedly from one class to another, bookbags on their backs and overly expensive books tucked under their arms. If Adam, Elizabeth and Luke aren't very careful, they might get run over by some of the more frazzled students. Nobody has any time to watch where they're going during midterms, it seems.

A glance to their left will easily reveal where they are. On a nearby wall, the institution's logo is displayed. Gotham State University, it says, in an obnoxiously large font. Further in the distance, there's a lot more campus left to explore. A glance to their right, however, and they may notice a small group of students amassed around a table, signing and picking up brochures about some subject or another. Some of the students are wearing matching society shirts, pushing a clipboard and a pen at any unlucky straggler they find along the way. One of them, situated further away from the table, seems pretty familiar.

Weird.

What will they do now?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He has to be the adult here, but that's always messy business. He needs to keep Elizabeth on track, keep Adam from being a shit, and keep Jason's attention all at once. He's still holding onto the clipboard though and waves it a little teasingly, already heading for the table Adam had motioned to.]

Tell you what. You come listen to us and help us out a bit, all three of us will sign your petition. We got a deal?

Jason. Though I get the feeling you already knew that.

[Yes. He's starting to get suspicious now. There's still a smile on his face, but he's sizing the three of them up. No one gets this pushy over student petitions, do they? No. Not really. And add to that the insistence that they know each other, and... Well. Death or no death, he's still one of Bruce Wayne's kids. Paranoia is handed down through osmosis.]

Hah— You really must want something if you're holding my clipboard hostage. I don't need your signatures that much, y'know.

[He will follow them nonetheless, but they might want to convince him to stay and fast.]

[ Elizabeth crosses her arms, a bit awkward and defensive, but she pipes up. ]

Please. [ ... She doesn't want to do this. If she can catch his attention, she starts towards the tables off to the side which Adam indicated. Luke may have the clipboard, but she's the one who's being more transparent now. ] We only met around 13 weeks ago? It wasn't fairly long ago, but - ...Oh, Adam, I can't -

[ She can't look at Luke or Adam, but she just... sits down on the nearest chair, trying not to get emotional. ]

[ Yeah, they're pretty suspicious. He gets that and lets Elizabeth explain, sitting down with her. When she can't finish, he frowns and puts a hand on her shoulder, then looks at Jason. ]

Look, we have something very important to tell you. Something you want to know and we can prove it. Will you hear us out?

[Unlike his friends, he doesn't sit down. Instead, he's on his feet and holding the clipboard, fully prepared to move in case Jason tries to walk away. He gives Elizabeth a reassuring squeeze to the other shoulder and he looks at Jason firmly over the top of Adam's head, thinking of the best way to phrase this.]

Seriously, don't make us do it the hard way? I don't like the hard way. Not nearly as nice as decent, civilized conversation. [...he grins.] Not that there's much civilized about where we're from, but that's just part of the story. [Also is anybody else still getting used to the fact that Jason has two eyes again? Because Luke is.]

[... And this is the point where the smile on Jason's face becomes something more familiar. More of a sneer than an expression of happiness or anything like that. He huffs out a laugh, looking between the three of them and reminding himself of possible escape routes. He can tell Luke is prepared to stop him if he moves away, but the other two are seated.

That's an advantage if things go sour.]

Oh yeah, big guy? What's the hard way? Because the way I see it, your little ragtag group of friends showed up and started acting like we've met before. Are you even students at this school? No — don't answer that. I already know you're not. [The tone is familiar, too, though he's far more nicer even now.] So, tell me... Is this a cry for attention? Some kind of publicity stunt? Because you're really barking up the wrong tree.

[He's significantly more PG-13 and has both eyes. There are a lot of things to get used to here.]

[ The more defensive Jason becomes the more scared Elizabeth becomes. She's torn between seeing him happy - normal - and ... well, putting him at risk on the ship again. Adam and Luke's hands tether her, but before she can even think she blurts out - ]

This isn't your life, Jason. [ It's poetic, utterly vague. ] I know it.... I know it's hard to grasp that, trust me... Just please keep calm and we can help you.

[ There's an audible sigh when Luke starts throwing out threats. This was not part of the plan. He reaches over to grab Luke's wrist to make him calm down and not start anything. ]

There is no hard way. [ He nods over at Elizabeth, telling her she's diong the right thing. ] She's right. This is all fake. We know the real you and this is all in your head. That's why we're not students here and why we don't belong. [ Just. Motions to Elizabeth. ]

Also if I were going for publicity stunt, I'd do something more drastic. [He mutters to himself, but ultimately calms when Adam takes his wrist. He sighs deeply, bringing his free hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose and stare at Jason carefully before facing Elizabeth and Adam.]

...truth is, Elizabeth is your girlfriend, Adam and I are friends. Sort of? About as friendly as you can get when fighting an alien. [Gods that sounds crazy, let's dial it back.] Anyway, s'like they said. This is gonna be hard to believe but this isn't your real life. We all know the real you and how things really go. But you've gotta hear us out.

[For a moment, he stares at all three of them in disbelief. Not his life. It's all in his head. His girlfriend. It's all so completely and utterly absurd that the only natural reaction to all of it is to laugh. This is ridiculous. He thinks they're insane.]

Keep the clipboard. You guys are fucking nuts. [Waves a hand at them, dismissively. First threats, now this. It's hilarious.] You should go pay a visit to Arkham. I bet the lunatics there would love to have you.

I don't know if Jason considered us courting but...

[ She mumbles under her breath at Luke. She wishes so badly she could pull out some bit of information Jason disclosed to her - about any of this, but even with the memories of their 'secrets' being revealed... she falls short. Jason was a private guy, after all. ]

I promise you, there's nothing wrong with our mental stability. I..

[ She lowers her head and leans to Luke and Adam. ]

If I can focus... I can... ...I can show him his world - show him a window to it. Give me five minutes and if he doesn't come around, allow me to show him what his world is really like...?

[ It was all hush hush, of course. ]

Edited 2016-09-03 21:57 (UTC)

Yeah, yeah. It's crazy, but we're all going to tell you the same thing. [ He kind of hesitates to bring up the spaceship and aliens because. Wow seriously they're crazy. How else to explain it... ]

We do know you. We know that you... your skills. You can hack and lockpick and you have some medical experience, like... performing blood tests. [ Seriously he knows nothing about Jason. He gives Elizabeth a subtle nod to agree to her plan since it seems like they might need it. ]

[Elizabeth also gets a short nod because...last resort. It's all they can do. He watches Adam grapple for something to use and he frowns to himself, testing how tight Adam's grip is on his wrist. When he finds he can't move much, he rolls his eyes instead.]

Jason Todd, age 19. Six feet tall, two-hundred and twenty-five pounds...somehow. Skilled with lockpicking, hacking, medical knowledge, hand-to-hand combat though also good with blades and firearms, multilingualism, and decisively not a detective but someone who's prepared with above average observational and deductive skills. Someone who doesn't back down from opinions and also would play with a lightsaber if given the chance. And also somebody with the color scheme of a traffic light on occasion? Green's real distracting when it's on your ass, especially when the cape's not that long. [...there's a short smile.] A little bird told me all this...a sparrow, I think? Wait, wait no...I think it was a robin? Yeah. Yeah that sounds right.

Edited 2016-09-03 23:00 (UTC)

So it's folie à deux. Or folie à trois — mutual insanity. Nice to know you're all getting along so well.

[Multilingualism is confirmed to remain true in this illusion, at least. His expression remains virtually the same; only a raise of his eyebrow as Luke begins to list his skills. It's not until he brings up robins that he shakes his head at them.]

Do you usually comment on little boys's asses? [In this world, there is already another Robin. The difference is that he's more at peace with it.] If you're implying I'm the brat that hangs out with Batman, save it. I'm not. I'm just a student. No hacking, no lockpicking, no medical experience, no nothing. Sorry to disappoint, but recurring to vigilantism isn't really my brand of heroics.

Edited 2016-09-03 23:33 (UTC)

[ Elizabeth takes a moment to look away during the entire conversation. Luke was talking about the profile cards, going forth with Adam's lead into it. If the boys looked over, they'd see Elizabeth with her eyes shut, her fingers tense and tearing away at nothing in her lap. Her fingers struggle, as if there's resistance, but she is very... very casual about it.

While they bicker back and forth, a heavy glob of blood trickles from Elizabeth's nose due to the strain, a wince and flinch of her body before the tear opens up a few yards behind Jason. It's grayscale, static ring opened similarly to a window - a 6 by 6 opening of ...

It was dark. The moon barely catching the light between the dead branches of the tree that overlooks the grave of Jason Todd. The marker was simple - decorated with Here Lies Jason Todd. Even the patches of grass that press into the sides of the cement was dying and decayed, but from the boys viewpoint? The 'window' was undoubtedly showing a grave.

If they inquired deeper - or even stepped through - they'd see the dirt mound of the grave begin to shift.

Once the tear is open, Elizabeth lifts her fingers up to wipe away at the blood, smearing it just barely as she tries to play it off. This was such a harsh world to find for some reason, one that seemed to stuck between retcons and realities? Who knows - but Elizabeth felt that it was worth it to show. She has no clue what this pertained to - no understanding of context, but this... this is what she had to show as a backup. ]

Edited 2016-09-03 23:49 (UTC)

[ Nope, his grip is tight and it only tightens when Luke tries testing it. Jason is stubborn and they all expected it, but he doesn't know why Luke is working against this. ] Seriously, can you stop?

[ That's to Luke. When he looks back at Jason, there's... something. He thinks it's a glitch in the cradle at first, but then he looks at Elizabeth and gets it. She may not know what that scene is, but he can guess. He hasn't forgotten that little trivia about Jason crawling out of his own grave.

Which is horrible and he sighs, glancing off. ] Jason, behind you.

[He doesn't get a chance to say anything about what Adam's doing, if only because he's suddenly distracted. He's worried about Elizabeth but doesn't get to say so, if only because he's watching the tear open and he falls silent when Adam tells Jason to look. It's...a harsh reality, he thinks. He doesn't quite know how Jason feels since he never broke out of his grave prior to the cradle project, but this isn't easy for anyone to watch. He stops fighting and instead steps a bit away to give Jason a clear look into the tear.]

[He notices the glob of blood trickling from Elizabeth's nose as he finishes denying the truth. While he still believes that the three of them are completely and utterly insane, that doesn't change the fact that seeing someone wince and flinch as they bleed is extremely distressing. He eases up for a moment, unsure of what's happening here.]

Hey, are you—? [Okay, he means to finish. But then everyone looking at something right behind him. It could be a trap. He's aware of that, which is why it's with some resistance than he tentatively casts a glance behind him.

He's just in time for the show.

A second after Jason has turned around, a hand punches through the mound of dirt. The fingernails are damaged and gone, blood dripping down the fingers while splinters of wood bury deep into the flesh. It's every bit the stereotypical horror movie imagery, and the rest does not disappoint. Another hand scrambles out from underneath the ground, digging and tearing and pushing dirt aside to make space for the rest of the body. Slowly but surely, a boy that is unmistakably Jason at a younger age emerges from the ground. He's bleeding — covered in cuts, flash burns, and looking very much like someone hit him with something heavy and metal until he dropped dead. By all rights, he should not be breathing at this very moment.

The older Jason, the one on this side of things, turns around before his counterpart can finish crawling out of his grave. He looks pale and shaken, but also unmistakably livid.]

You— Whatever the hell you think you're doing, stop it now!

[... And in case the three of them had forgotten about where they are, yeah. The students that are still around the area after class changes are reacting. Some of them running away from the display of metahuman abilities, others taking cover while simultaneously taking out their cellphones... and so forth. Jason's friends from earlier seem to be gone.

It might be a good idea to change locations, just saying.]

[ Elizabeth remembers the fear on the street when she's used her tears - the panic, the disgust - the fear and she tries to shut it out. Her eyes shut and she can't look - she saw the hand jet out from the cold ground and it was enough for her. It's stupid that she cares so much about a boy she knows nothing about, but here she is.

Here all of them were. Jason's raised voice makes her shoulders go up defensively and the tear remains. They see Jason's body crawling out and the confusion and rage in his youthful face. Elizabeth wants to cry, her eyes swelling with tears as the students yell out Who's the meta?! Someone call Superman! in the distance. ]

I'm sorry... I'm so sorry.

[ Adam hadn't cared much about the people around them because they're fake anyway and if Jason would just cooperate, they could leave already. But during that scene, even Adam has to look away, looking at Luke like he's trying to figure out what to do.

Elizabeth seems out of it now so he stands up. He has to get this under control. ] Jason. Take us somewhere we can talk about this.

[Well this sure is bad. There are people staring and Jason's yelling and without a lot of warning, he rips his arm away from Adam and shoots him a brief look of apology.]

Adam, grab Elizabeth. Liz, close the tear. [This is all hissed more or less as he looks at the fake people, immediately turning to Jason again.] ...seriously man, we need to talk. All of this will stop if you just hear us out.

["Bad" is an understatement. The beginning of a headache is weakly thrumming away behind his temples, some kind of pressure building up on the bridge of his nose as he tries to understand why he was shown an illusion of a younger version of himself crawling out of his own grave. It's fake. He knows that much. There's no way he died, after all. But it doesn't stop him from running a hand down his face in an attempt to get control over himself. It felt so real.

Explaining this scene away will be hell, come tomorrow.]

Fine. We'll talk. But after that — I want you gone. You have no idea what kind of mess you're causing.

[And without any further prompting, he's turning around and taking them to a more secluded part of campus. A private enough area that they don't have to worry about students or staff members intruding.]

[ Elizabeth's finally able to close the tear once the younger Jason crawls to his feet. She can't - it's too much. She barely shambles to her feet, holding onto Adam's bicep. Physically weak? A tiny bit, but she wants to get out of here. People were trying to hunt down the meta and frantically trying to call people on what she can assume was portable telephones?

She follows with Luke and Adam who try and diffuse the situation, to move into the area which Jason felt was safe. ]

I didn't mean for that - you have to understand. I had no clue he'd see himself - not like that...

[ Adam wraps an arm around Elizabeth to keep her upright and steady, checking to make sure she's not still bleeding or close to passing out. He follows Jason, glancing over at Luke to try to figure out what to do now. When Elizabeth tries to explain, he shakes his head. ]

No, we get it. It worked, didn't it? [ Maybe that's harsh of him but it did manage to do something. ] Jason, what she showed you was the real you. We told you this was all fake.

[With Adam guiding Elizabeth he nods and follows after them, but he's shooting her a weak smile anyway.]

We know. But we all knew this wouldn't be easy either. [He looks back at Jason when they finally get somewhere private, folding his arms over his chest.] I'm sure you've got a lot of questions now...we'll answer them as best as we can, but you've gotta believe us. We were brought here to bring you back to where you belong, which is with us. We need you if we're gonna survive.

I don't give a damn about what you guys need.

[He's blunt, clearly pissed off by now. Gone is the friendly attitude from earlier as he watches all three of them carefully. It doesn't seem like he's armed for a confrontation, but it might not be a bad idea to stay light on their feet. Luke's threat from earlier still hangs in his mind, after all.]

You can't expect me to believe all of this is fake. Coming here, causing a scene, telling me I died — do you seriously believe that makes you trustworthy? [He shakes his head, clenching and unclenching his fists. His hands are uncovered, which is likely a rare sight for two out of three here.] This is real. I would know if I died, so... Whatever stunt you're trying to pull here, it's not going to work.

[Except, the more he thinks about the scene Elizabeth showed him, the stronger his headache becomes. It's better to focus on other things, isn't it?]

It's not a stunt!

[ That was the last straw. Despite how emotionally and physically draining it was, she takes offense. It's hard to accept, she knows that heartbreak. She knows that despite everything, maybe it would be better to live in this blissful. But since the first trial, Jason did his best for the good of the ship. ]

I wouldn't so recklessly display something like that to you - never to you. Jason, it's hard to imagine but this is all... It's what you've wanted. After dying, I suppose this is what your ideal world would be. You don't remember... But I promise you... We aren't lying.

[ She tries to just stammer it out, get the painful memories out but - ]

Adam and Luke - we're your friends. We met because of... poor circumstances...

Edited 2016-09-05 06:43 (UTC)

[ Adam nods to Elizabeth to encourage her to keep going. He's also becoming frustrated but honestly, he can't blame Jason. They haven't made themselves the most trustworthy or clear. ]

What do you think we're doing this for? All you have to do is believe us. You're stuck in something that's showing you everything you want, we're going to bring you back to reality. That's what you trusted us to do.

[This is tricky, he thinks. Elizabeth's upset and Adam's doing his best to support her and Jason's being frustrating. He lets the others say their piece and he keeps his arms folded over his chest carefully, hand running over his scar.]

I really don't like being the bearer of bad news, but they're right. You trusted us to jump in here and pull you back out to reality and you know? Reality sucks. But it's a lot better than this where nothing's even real. [There's a pause.] What do you remember prior to this moment? What memories do you even have of this place?

Yeah. Because everything I want is a normal life with 18 credits worth of classes and an overbearing parent. Sounds about right.

[Come the weekend, this will be extremely hilarious in hindsight. But for now, it's Jason stating exactly what this is all about. A normal life. A normal young adult experience. A normal, if not still slightly strained, relationship with his adoptive dad. It's a stupidly simple desire, and he's totally going to be mortified about it once the gang is successful.

But for now, his face twists as he tries to answer Luke's question. It's— Trying to find the answer makes him feel wrong.]

What are you getting at? I graduated high school. Enrolled here. I have tons of memories of this place. This is real.

Think, Jason.

[ Elizabeth knows this all too well - so, she'll take it upon herself to dig into the hoodie and - look, it's a handkerchief. It happened to her in both Columbia and in her cradle, so she offers Jason something to wipe away at his nose if his memories continue to conflict. ]

Adam's right... you trusted us. Sincerely. Try and think deeper. Past this place - dates, times, feelings... They don't add up, do they...?

[ She sounds crushed to be so blunt... so she gives him an apologetic, tearful glance. ]

You died, Jason... before you could have any of this.

Edited 2016-09-06 19:27 (UTC)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

week 13, shove baby out of the cradle

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

I FUCKED UP I DIDNT KNOW YOU TAGGED.