⋙ Mission IV

[angelgressor.livejournal.com]

[ Action ⋗ Arrival ]

[ Upon awaking, it takes Lamia a few moments to register her surroundings. Trees, animals, her clothes...

A very strong sense of déjà vu hits her. It is as though she had returned somewhere that she left long, long ago, but at the same time she felt she has never left. ]

The Gardens...? What's happened to me?

[ Video ⋗ Public ]

[ Having been here before, even if she felt inexplicably hazy about it all, makes it much easier to figure out what to do.

...Which isn't much, to be honest.

So, a beautiful, busty woman still clad in her default wear appears on the Vine. ]

I am Lamia Loveless. I've been here before, but it seems like I've been gone for a while. I'm not sure how long...

[ A beat. There weren't many people she knew from before, so she wracks her processors to think of someone she remembers from here. ]

Signum. I think that's--are you still here?

Comments

[angelgressor.livejournal.com]

...I suppose it's a waste of time to mull over possibilities not available to us.

Has anything changed since I had left? Any progress regarding our situation?

[brustriese.livejournal.com]

People have both disappeared and reappeared, somehow. Sometimes with previous memories of this place, sometimes without. The Queen allegedly was going to let us all go free at some point, but her subordinate Incarnae launched a coup to persuade her otherwise, and the status quo was maintained. There's now a portal into a different pocket dimension filled with machines instead of plants, the central Necessities stabilized some buildings that are useful for residences, and half a dozen things have randomly cropped up to assault or try to kill people.

I think that's everything major.

[angelgressor.livejournal.com]

It seems I've missed a lot. Thank you, Signum.

[brustriese.livejournal.com]

You're quite welcome. I'm sorry you couldn't come back to something a little less...this place.

[angelgressor.livejournal.com]

It's alright. I haven't been dragged from anything important.

[brustriese.livejournal.com]

Lucky you...

[She thinks for a second]

Although...all the people who were actively in combat when they were captured managed to leave the Gardens. I was still in the hospital, and Vivio was quite sensibly at school. Maybe that's why...

[angelgressor.livejournal.com]

...You were in the hospital?

[brustriese.livejournal.com]

The last thing I remember is being seriously injured by one of the terrorists my team was trying to arrest. Unless I died and was brought back here, which I sincerely doubt, Eclipse or no, that means I was unconscious in a medical bay or hospital somewhere.

[angelgressor.livejournal.com]

[ She thinks of Alfimi; dying and being brought here is certainly a possibility... ]

I'm sorry; I shouldn't pry.

[brustriese.livejournal.com]

We're both soldiers, aren't we? Accepting the possibility of injury or death is part of the business, especially when circumstances forced me to rush in before I was ready.

Once I get out of here, I'll just have a hell of a scar to wear, and I'll obliterate Cypha of Huckebein if one of my allies doesn't get her first. All in a day's work.

And if by some chance she did manage to kill me, there are worse concepts of the afterlife. I suppose.

[angelgressor.livejournal.com]

[ The afterlife? That's somewhere I can't go, so how can this place be it? We're both soldiers, but in that sense you have more to look forward to in the end than I do, Signum... ]

Yes, of course. Dying is always highly likely for any soldier. Still, I hope you do recover, Signum.

[brustriese.livejournal.com]

I appreciate that. I guess I'll find out when I finally rejoin everyone.