[audio] @riku; testing recovery limits [open]

[equinoctials]

Hey, this is Riku.

Between the ferry sinking, the loss of some supplies and a bunch of newcomers to get up to speed, I know we've all got a lot going on.

It could have been a lot worse. It wasn't because a lot of you stepped up to help. That's exactly what's going to see us through.

...So, thanks.

[ He pauses to rub his hands together, the resultant rasp could be anything. ]

Not to rain on our parade, but the crash got me thinking. Specifically, about dealing with injuries.

If anybody can teach basic first aid, I think everyone would benefit from learning.

[ There's a soft crackle, wind skimming across the tablet's microphone, a bit of a shiver in his voice: ]

For the ones using magic or other abilities to heal others, knowing what limits being here has imposed on those abilities is hard enough without finding out in the middle of an emergency.

I have an idea how we could test these limits in a pretty controlled environment. Contact me if you're interested.

[ He already feels like he's been talking too much, but there's a little more to say: ]

If no one's heard about it yet, we located an armory to the east over the river. There, you'll find weapons, knives and swords, stuff like that. In the basement is an area for training and target practice.

Aziraphale did most of the work, but there's a bridge over the river now. I left a torch at the armory. Should make it easier to find.

If anyone can figure out how they made that building practically invisible, might be worth putting it around a more central location in case of an attack.

That's all I got.


(Appended to the message is a list of respondents and skills they're willing to teach.)
Rosalind Lutece: first aid (lesson in exchange for 1 hr lab assist)
Soldier: basic field medicine
Jason Grace: first aid, improvised first aid kits
Clarke Griffin: advanced medicine, long term care
Matt: first aid
Daylight: Galateion first aid
Javert: wound dressing, stitching

Other stuff to think about
- everybody should carry first aid kits
- save rags & cloth scraps for bandages & splints
- central medical area?
- (Bruce) ask Will about an alarm for medical help

Comments

[originallutece]

Why shouldn't I?

[She shrugs as she grabs something. It's heavy, but not as heavy as the things he's going to carry.]

It's something to do, to begin with. A way to keep myself occupied. It's the same as learning to fight, or my making those birds . . . I grow restless if I don't occupy myself.

More importantly: if I can make this work again here, there's a bit more hope for some of my more complex inventions.

[She straightens up, panting softly with effort.]

A doorway out of here will take years regardless, though.

[equinoctials]

[ Her answer doesn't surprise him once he's heard it in full. Perhaps that's because Riku can relate with that need to keep productive, to keep busy. In his own case, it's a relief from the thoughts that crowd in around him when he has enough time to dwell on them. The regret and the loneliness. At least when he's arranging exploration missions, organizing resources, and making repairs he has somewhere to focus his energy.

It's not that he gets restless, exactly, it's that he'll brood, and he can't afford to waste time mired in darker thoughts. ]

A doorway?

[ It's not the first time he's encountered the concept of manufactured doors leading to other worlds. ]

...If only we had that much time. You've done something like that before? Made a door to another world?

[originallutece]

Yes.

[A beat. She glances away, busying herself with another piece of machinery, and adds:]

It's how I met Robert. He isn't from my world, not originally. But he decided to come to mine.

[Would she have told him that if he hadn't seen her break down? Unlikely.]

[equinoctials]

[ Robert. A normal enough name, carrying an unlikely significance of sufficient weight to have driven her to angry despair. Riku doesn't talk about the time they sat clasping hands as she wept through her grief as he began to grapple with his own. ]

...That's sweet.

[ He doesn't look at her. ] Sappy, but sweet.

Our friend Kairi, she came from another world, too.

[originallutece]

It isn't sappy.

[SHE'LL GET TO KAIRI IN A SEC BUT HOLD ON]

[equinoctials]

Yeah it is.

[ It's seldom that Riku smiles anymore, his mouth seems to flirt with the idea. ]

Lovers who breach the boundary between their worlds to be together? Come on.

[originallutece]

It was practical. We couldn't very well continue communicating through unstable windows and doorways.

[HUFF HUFF]

In any case . . . how on earth did your friend manage to come from one world to the next?

[equinoctials]

She couldn't remember anything. We were really young.

[ He's reluctant to say anything more on the subject, because it's hard to talk about someone whose grave he visits every day, and he knows once he starts talking about worlds falling to Darkness, she'll have plenty of questions. ]

I hope you manage it. A door home.

[originallutece]

Oh, I will. I've done it before. It's simply a question of if I can manage it before our deadline.

[She's honestly just curious now as she adds:]

Did you ever discover her world? Where she came from, anything like that?

[equinoctials]

Eventually.

[ That's a short answer, and Riku's blunt response suggests he isn't interested in carrying on that conversation. He instead asks: ]

I wonder... if we're really dead, even if we go back, what would happen to us?

[originallutece]

[Hm. Another time, then.]

I suppose it depends on how we return. And what we ourselves are.

[It's something she's thought about, on and off.]

Are we spirits? Will we return to our original bodies? That would cause a great deal of problems, not least of which I imagine my corpse has long since rotted. [HOW CHARMING.] Or, are we duplications? Brought here while our bodies lay in another world. Or were there no bodies to be found for any of us?

It's difficult to say. But . . . I believe we'd manage it. The universe does not enjoy having two of the same person existing in the same world, but if one copy is dead . . . we should be perfectly all right.

[equinoctials]

[ Whether he even has a body to return to has crossed his mind, as well.

It's not what stops him short, sets him to visibly thinking over what she's said. It's her use of the word duplications, his own experiences with his own replica, and how he eventually sought refuge inside Riku's own heart when his replica body fell to ruin in the realm of darkness.

What if they are replicas, unaware that they weren't their original selves, created like they're just being borrowed to save a world, to be discarded to sort out their existences when it's all said and done?

It's not like that's a story Riku hasn't heard before. The idea is almost too large to get his arms around right now, with so much else demanding his attention. Nevertheless, the universe does not enjoy having two of the same person existing in the same world, and Riku's not so sure he agrees. ]

What if two could coexist? You mentioned duplicates, but where I'm from, we call them replicas.

[originallutece]

It depends on what you're speaking of. A clone, or replica, a duplicate . . . I should think that would be perfectly fine, because it obeys the order of the universe. You can theoretically clone anyone, after all, and it's no stranger than, say, two of the same book existing. But . . .

[Hmm. She waves a hand, metaphorically starting over.]

To forcibly bring in someone from another world is . . . tricky. The mind distorts. There only ought to be one of someone, and to have two is . . . mm. The mind constantly struggles to reconcile it, forcing false memories and causing hemorrhages when one fights through it. If we aren't clones, or replicas, but rather new beings with the same memories carried over in this world . . .

[. . .]

Truly, Riku, I'm not certain. I think the odds are on our side, but crossing universes is highly dangerous for a reason. Humans aren't meant to, not truly. We may have to prepare ourselves for the worst.

[equinoctials]

[ Riku doesn't know what he expected. Reassurance? She's honest and he appreciates that, she doesn't hold back.

And her perspective is refreshingly knowledgeable about things most people don't seem to care about, let alone have experience in.

His thoughts stray to Eleven. Here twice, pulled from different times and never with any recollection of this place. Did that mean the first Eleven was truly gone, so another could take her place without coming to harm?

Riku considers the implications, if they might not be themselves truly, because humans aren't meant to cross universes, if it means Sora is doomed to an empty existence. No - he wouldn't consider it meaningless, not if he might help someone else live happily. That's just the kind of person he is. ]

Guess so. Did others ever cross universes into yours? Besides Robert?

[ Because Riku's kind of wondering how she knows about the ill effects, and can't help drawing a line when he sees dots to connect. ]

[originallutece]

A baby, once, but she didn't exist in my world, so there were few of those side-effects.

[PLENTY OF OTHERS THOUGH but let's connect one dot at a time.]

. . . but yes. To answer your unasked question: Robert suffered several side-effects. Fascinating, once the initial terror was gone. He was the case subject for my next book.

[equinoctials]

[ Rosalind quick wit and sharp mind aren't satisfied with keeping up, always steps ahead. Riku would've found it vexing if he didn't find it so stimulating. What tempers his response is the knowledge of what he meant to her, his gaze turning away from her to the contraption they're building together. ]

That must have been hard on both of you.

...Did you have anything to do with the baby coming to your universe? Or was that someone else?

[originallutece]

No, that was me.

I had my fingers in every instance of universal travel and doorway making. Robert and I were the only people in the world-- in nearly every world-- who understood how to do it. A few could replicate it, I suppose, but not well.

[equinoctials]

[ To his credit, Riku is not very quick to judge. There were many times when Riku did - or considered doing - some atrocious, unethical things for the sake of an outcome he deemed too important to be slowed down by questions of morality. He takes responsibility for those choices he made.

He's hardly in a position to condemn others in some snap judgment; she likely had her reasons. ]

Why? Why a baby?

[ That doesn't exclude his curiosity. ]

[originallutece]

[Ah. That's a question that, surprisingly, she isn't keen to answer. Not because it will reflect badly on her (although it will), but because the baby in question is here now, and it's as much her story to tell as anyone else's.

Besides: Rosalind has yet to determine just how much Elizabeth knows. She won't have her hearing her own life story from some third party.]

Because a father wanted a child.

[It's soft. An answer, but not nearly as good as the ones she normally gives.]

Ask me again some other night, Riku. And I'll give you a proper answer.

[equinoctials]

[ But what about the mother of that child?

She says ask me again some other night so the question dies before it can make it past his lips, knuckles going pale when his fingers reflexively curl around themselves, around the metal he's holding. ]

Mm.

[ A compromise. Maybe he'll be ready to talk about Kairi by then, too. ]

[originallutece]

[Her eyes flick over him. Silence, and then she sighs sharply.]

Ask me again some other night, as I said. But . . . I'll allow you one more question.

[In no small part because it'll drive her mad to wonder what aspect of this story he finds most curious.]