Abandoned Dig Site in the Unexplored Wooded Area, Saturday Morning

[becauseshesang.livejournal.com]

Coming here had been a long and arduous journey. While no new creatures had spawned in the night, there were enough around to make Elizabeth's trek a long and dangerous one, regardless of what companions she had had. But she couldn't stop here, now; not after what yesterday's conversation with Joker and Doctor Lecter had brought to the light.

Had anything even been brought to the light? She felt as if she knew less and less about her own self.

"There you are," she said softly, as her eyes finally fell on the device. She took a step closer - and then something slammed her mind hard, a series of confusing-- a songbird, a man, a library, a lighthouse, an island, a finger, no finger -- images that scorched through her and left her feeling burnt in their wake.

But she persisted.

"Are you afraid of God, Booker?"
"No, but I'm afraid of you."

... Again.

"Why do they call you a weather machine?" she said quietly to herself. "When you break universes?" She dropped to her knees by the machine's side - a boat, a man, a lighthouse, an island, the sky. "Why do I remember you?"

She reached out for it.

a machine an island a plague a lighthouse a man people vampires snowmen books machines a syphon
doors

Doors.

She could see doors.

She dropped to the ground with an audible groan, splaying her hands out-- there was a thimble where a pinky had been, why was there-- of course there was one.

"You are a weather machine," she breathed. "Take the weather from one time and copy it for another-- whoever made you was clever, but they couldn't see past all the doors... didn't take into consideration that out could be as easy as in... Booker thought about it, but he couldn't see, not like I can... how did I forget that I could see...?"

And then it all struck her at once, and she collapsed, breathing, awake, as all the doors in her mind opened at once.

[[ open to spectators, anyone who wants to mod themselves having accompanied elizabeth, or anyone who wants a direct link to this before the finale. the monsters and aus will remain until the final finale post tonight, au NPCs will be around until tomorrow evening. ]]

Trooper Station, Saturday

[fjordicswagger]

You know, whenever this current crisis got solved - Tamsin felt the vikings could stay. They drank hard, didn't whine about their feelings, and they'd pulled at least three hilarious pranks on Ralph over the past 24 hours.

The one thing that could go, though, was the viking-era hovel the trooper station had turned into overnight. Okay, it was mostly just the furniture, but that crap was seriously uncomfortable and she hadn't exactly missed it this past millenium.

"This is all your fault," she informed their prisoner. "Why didn't we kill you again?"

[[ open ]]

The Perk, Saturday Morning

[suitably_heroic]

The island was going to hell in a handbasket right outside the Perk's newly-art deco-style windows. Jaq didn't care. He'd seen planets burn - an island breaking apart from the inside? Nah. That was nothing.

He sipped his coffee casually, ignoring both the creatures hurling themselves at those precious windows and the Perk's staff, who had plastered themselves against the far wall. They were cattle. He didn't need to care.

Frankly, a little death would do this island a whole lot of good.

[[ open! ]]

From the Dig Site to... Wherever..., Saturday Afternoon

[becauseshesang.livejournal.com]

It took Elizabeth a while to rise. And yet it took her no time at all: time was relative, and only now she realized - no, again, she realized - just how relative it all was. It might as well have been an instant. It might as well have been a thousand years.

She climbed to her feet, and her self hummed with white light. She saw the story unfold before her now. The story that had been. The story that would be. The story that was.

"Lives, lived, will live," Elizabeth whispered.

She turned towards her crowd. Here. There. Anywhere. She had seen behind the doors and she knew which people had the greatest chance of success. There were variables, of course. There were always variables. But if she just plucked up enough of the right people...

When she spoke, it wasn't just here. Her self had dispersed all across the island to bring this message.

"There was a plague," she said. "A terrible plague. And Booker - he had his daughter. He didn't want to submit. So he clawed his way down into the belly of the island and found a machine that could fix it for him. But something went wrong... he lost his finger... he lost his child... everything got lost."

Elizabeth took a shuddering breath of air. "Our universe doesn't like its peas with its porridge," she droned, as if it came to her from a memory. Which maybe it did. She wasn't sure. Not anymore. "There's a piece of him... where it shouldn't belong. A piece of Booker lives in a universe with another Booker, and the multiverse won't stand for it-- not from us."

She looked puzzled, briefly, as the last few memories sank back into place. "No. No. He lost a finger?" she muttered. "No. Not the right door. I lost a finger. So I can do... I can do what he did. More than that."

She stared straight at them.

"You need to go," Elizabeth whispered. "You need to try all the doors. You need to find him. You need to stop him. He can't... he can't make it to the island, okay? If he doesn't make it to the island, then none of this could have happened. Will happen. Is happening."

She shut her eyes, shimmering a serene white. "I need you to go," she said. "I need you to try a couple of doors. They're all... possibilities. Constants. Variables. Lives. Lived. Has lived."

She opened her eyes.

She reached into a tear and dragged her candidates straight on through. Eleven of them. Enough to try all the doors. Six? Six. Six would make it through, and which ones didn't matter. Not to any conceivable extent. As long as they were one of these eleven.

"You need to find Booker," she yelled after them. "He can't make it to the island!"

The rift slammed shut, but it didn't matter. She could see them no matter where they went... and no matter how lost they got. That was the easy part.

The hard part was making sure the eleven's personal futures and pasts and presents didn't come seeping in through all the doors Elizabeth had opened. It had been far too long since she had done this, and quantum manipulation was not, in any way, like riding a bicycle.

( Six doors, eleven people. )

[[ to be continued... ]]

The creepy, abandoned butcher shop, Saturday afternoon

[lovemykilt]

Some men just wanted to watch the world burn.

Or, at the very least, a local business or two.

After what had been a particularly delightful -- if overwhelming and occasionally confusing, uncontrolled touch telepathy plus kinky sex would do that to a person -- evening, Priestly had been a bit late to rise. That didn't stop him from remembering Dinah's promise of setting something on fire, though.

The butcher shop was so desiccated by this point, it barely took more than a match. That didn't make it any less satisfying to watch the blaze.

And, you know, smash the occasional zombie piranha into it. For funsies.

[ooc: primarily for the literal partner in crime, but also open to any other lunatic out and about pre-finale. AUed butcher shop arsoned with permission.]

The Park, Saturday night

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Arachne had gone out looking for more monsters and villains and Vikings to fight, only to find nothing. Nada. Zilch. So eventually she took a seat on a park bench and waited for any sign of anything.

And as she waited, something changed. She wasn't thinking of herself as Arachne, CIA supersoldier. She was Jessica Drew, Agent of SHIELD, aka Spder-Woman. The bloodlust she had felt was replaced by confusion. Then realization. Then anger.

Roxxon was still around on her Earth and because of whatever this was, she had no idea how many more lives they had destroyed with their evil.

Jessica pulled out her phone and booked the first portal she could back home. It wouldn't be until tomorrow night, but she could live with that. She could wait one more day. But after that, she was done with waiting.

..... Apparently for now that waiting was going to continue at this park bench. Sitting there in her costume. Um. She'd probably head off to get some sleep eventually.

[OOC: Hi, I've been doing IT on my computer since basically 1 am last night. I need entertainment. Open park!]

From ... Elsewhere ... to an Abandoned Digsite in the Unexplored Wooded Area, Saturday Evening

[becauseshesang.livejournal.com]

( After this flash of light, there were eight... )

[[ and done! first part here. thanks to all the excellent folk who participated - allie_vamp, bitten_notshy, voiceoverdue, tigerundercover, bigdamndean, spin_kick_snap, whateverknight, furnaceface, robinonadderall, angelo_wings aaaand filleauloup *breathes*. post is open for finale-participants who will wake up in the dig site. the rest of you may return to normal at whatever speed you wish for, as long as everyone's back to their old selves tomorrow. ]]