realityshifted | paint the man, cut the lines

Entry tags:

*meredith sault

paint the man, cut the lines

[Meredith appears on a platform with a screen beside her. It is a hologram. Wherever your character is, if they are on the Plane, they are seeing this.]

Some of you expressed concern about what would be done to the individual chosen in the vote, and I can tell you now. We gave him his wish. We made him immortal. You didn't pick the responsible person, but it isn't a problem. The conditions were met.

[The screen flickers on, and it's the Master. He is bound to a table and his body is painted in an odd pattern. A hooded individual lowers the knife towards the line that starts at the Master's navel. And no one can keep from screaming forever.

The transmission cuts after that first burst of noise.]

It's just more of the same, so you don't really need to see more. But I can show you any time you want to check in on him.

[For all this, the even expression under the hood has not changed.]

You might want to know what the conditions were. Some of you already know that beings who want sacrifices can be selective. It's why we needed your help to select a subject. The subject had to be voted for by more than fifty percent of the voters. If no one had won that many votes, no one could be selected. Every person that didn't vote made it a little bit more likely that someone would meet the requirements.

To people who voted, we're sorry that the others didn't counter what you did. You tried, though. Perhaps knowing that will help.

I should also mention that one voter alone guessed correctly. If those of you who voted come together, you might be able to work at who really did it.

[She pauses, listening to something outside of the projection's range. Then...]

Be careful in the library.

[And then the hologram goes out.]

[ooc; You are free to use this as an IC discussion post if you wish.]

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[stares, shocked and appalled by the sight] You...you can't! How... [shakes his head, disbelieving. he knows Meredith probably can't hear him, but he can't stop himself] What could it possibly be for!? How could you...how could anyone do that? That's...that's horrible...

[Rose is watching, looking and feeling very guilty. She approaches Oliver, looking away from the screen and putting a hand on his arm]

Hey, I don't think they can hear you. That's not gonna do you any good right now or anything.

[whirls on Rose, too frustrated and upset to even connect for a moment who exactly is there] But they're torturing him! How could...how...

...Rose?

I don't know. How could they go and do half the things they're doing?

[she bites her lip, looking down]

I voted for him. I thought he had to be the one. It looks like I was wrong, yeah? [she looks back up at him] Did you vote?

You... [but he's speechless, too frustrated and angry and overwhelmed to have any idea what to say to that]

I...yeah. But not for him.

I keep thinking maybe my vote is the one that got him over that halfway mark, you know? But that's not going to fix any of it.

Who did you vote for? They said someone got it right. Maybe it was you or something?

[frowns. he wants to be angry at the people who voted for the Master, but...he can understand why, too] No. It's...not like you knew.

I... [hesitates. even if his vote may have been right--even if it was one vote toward saving someone from that fate, he's still ashamed of himself for it] Leela. I thought...after what we saw, maybe they'd tricked her into making a choice. Maybe she didn't even realise she'd done it.

But even if it was right, does it matter? I could've made them do that to her with my vote! But if I hadn't voted, I would've helped make that happen to the Master. Either way, we lose. [bitterly] I bet they wanted it to be like that.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was all sorta designed to trick people into making choices that would end up being twisted. It's like that, ah, you know the Monkey's Paw or whatever that was and all that 'careful what you wish for' sort of thing.

Just, maybe if we get it right, they'll stop whatever it is they're doing to him or something. I don't know.

I wonder how many people did end up voting.

Yeah... I'm sure it was. All the choices I heard about--they did something to twist them, one way or another.

[frowns] Maybe... But how would we even know if we did? That person still either doesn't know they did it or doesn't want to tell anyone else. But... I'd still like to know. [sighs, frustrated] It's sick, isn't it? I should apologise to Leela. Somehow.

[shakes his head] I don't know. Enough for what they wanted, I guess.

It's...yeah, it's beyond sick. I don't even know what that is.

It's just, she said it like if more people voted then even if he won there wouldn't be enough votes to do that to him. It had to be a majority or something, or else they wouldn't be able to do that to anyone. I mean, for all I know, it might've been just you and me that made that choice.

This entire place is... There's gotta be a way to stop whatever this is.

[shakes his head. he has no words for what that is either]

No, it was more than us. If it was a majority, there had to be more votes for the Master. But the people who didn't vote--they were risking being trapped on the Plane! I mean, it sounded like voting was the bad choice, but...

[softly] I...I thought there was. But now...

Yeah, but, I dunno. It sounded like...like the more people who vote, the less likely it would be for someone to get more than half the votes, yeah? Because it would be all scattered like so it'd be harder to have that high of a percent. So if it was just you and me, then one vote would be half right there.

[she holds his hand] You can't just give up like that. There's still gotta be something to stand up against and a way to stop it, yeah?

No, I know... But I mean, when they told us to vote, they made it sound like we had to if we wanted to leave. That's what I thought. But now... People who didn't vote, who risked getting stuck here, are gonna think it's their fault, too! It's...it's sick.

[shakes his head, not meeting her eyes] If I were anywhere else, I'd say there was. But not here. We stopped the death matches, but what if all this happened because of that?

I guess it goes to show you can't believe anything they say. They could be lying about the votes or the reason they're torturing him too or something, just to get us all turned against each other.

Then we're making a difference if they had to do all that. And we keep fighting and don't give up. We have to really be scaring them if this is what they're gonna resort to, yeah?

Yeah...that's a good way of looking at it. Who knows what they're up to... Especially Meredith. [his expression hardens slightly]

[looks up at her, trying to catch her gaze. he wants to know if she really believes that] That's...that's a good point. Maybe they are afraid of what we could do together.

I don't know that much about her. Don't really need to know much about her after...that, but...it sounds like you do know more than that?

[she squeezes his hand and smiles at him. It's one of the lessons she learned from being with the Doctor, that you don't give up and that you keep fighting until you can't anymore. She does believe it, because she doesn't want to believe it could be anything else.] Yeah, so we can't go and start thinking it's pointless and all that sort of thing. If anything, we gotta fight even harder than we were before.

[shrugs uncomfortably] I talked to her after the voting. She told me she doesn't care about us. Just...flat-out, like that.

[smiles back, weakly, relived that she means it. he's usually just like that, believing in the best possible outcome no matter what. he's a bit ashamed of himself for letting things get to him to this extent] Yeah, you're right. We do. We have to keep trying to work this out.

If she can do something like that, it's not too surprising. You got her talking though, that's something right there. Even if she doesn't care about us, there's gotta be something she cares about. Maybe if we can get to that we can make a difference here.

[blinks--he hadn't thought about it that way. brightens slightly, looking at least a bit less gloomy] You're right. I did.

[frowns] That's a good idea. I wonder if we could ask around? Like, would the Twins know, maybe?

...no, wait. [his expression takes on a decidedly dark cast then, as he remembers a conversation he had with Felix] I might already know.

You do? What is it?

This one bloke I know, Felix, he talked to her once. She told him she'd give him information--if he gave her childhood memories.

Oh no, you can't go and do stuff like that. Memories aren't meant to be like, bought and sold all like that.

[immediately] I know! I told him to say no, too.

Not much help, really...

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paint the man, cut the lines

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