Week 6

[airlockedmods]

[Six weeks later, and fifteen people are dead. All of you have lost someone important, from friends to family to lovers. Yet there is still hope. Most of you banded together to protect your own yesterday, and with an entirely unexpected act of mercy from Blaze Dudely, it seems like the winds may finally be starting to blow in your favor. It even feels a bit warmer in the penitentiary this week, though tension still hangs heavy in the air.

On Sunday morning, the last of your memories will return to you. There is nothing for you now but - maybe, somehow - to find a way out of here.]


Sunday | Monday | Tuesday

(( Welcome to endgame, everyone! As you can see, this week will ICly be shorter, with endgame beginning for your characters on Wednesday, but rest assured, the final investigation/trial will still be on Friday and Saturday as usual. Keep an eye out for an OOC endgame post on Tuesday.

There will be no official AC this week, just a check-in, and all characters will now be at their true canon points. Also, Monday is your last chance for regains! Get those benefactor threads in! ))

Comments

[empathiser]

[wowsers, max.

He does actually... blink at her a little owlishly there. So. Time travel would explain a little about her whole "alternate Chloe" discussion the other week, yes.]

Oh.

[Helpful.]

What sort of problems?

[helladoptera]

Using it... made this big fuckoff storm, that was going to destroy Arcadia Bay. And I used it so much that... I broke time, and then I fixed it, and then...

[empathiser]

[He just remains quiet for the moment, to let Max finish speaking when she's ready. This doesn't feel like something to interrupt.]

[helladoptera]

[ She's tearing up again. ]

I... the only way to stop the storm was... the only way I could see was to go back and... undo the first time I used the time travel powers. To save...

[ She tears up. ]

I let Chloe die in that fucking bathroom.

[empathiser]

[And that was not what he was expecting to hear. It's broken and fragmented in between Max's tears, but... she used her powers to save someone the first time, and then had to undo that in order to stop a storm...?

...

After a moment, he just pulls her back into that hug again. What do you say to that? "It's okay? You did the right thing?" What kind of bullshit hollow comfort is that? Saving the most people is arguably the "right" thing to do, but destroying something that's important to you in the process can make it feel worthless. He's created, and been collateral damage in people's plans before. Neither is good. Neither is fair.]

I'm sorry.

[What else does he say? Do? She said she's time travelled, so everything had been reset for everyone but her, and then she hadn't remembered until now? Has Max even had a chance to process this and mourn in her own way?

He doesn't need an empathy disorder of any kind to have an inkling of how she might feel right now.]

[helladoptera]

[ She... in lieu of a real verbal response, Max just kind of... hugs Will back and cries into his shoulder.

She's not even sure it makes her feel better, but it's what makes sense in the middle of all these memories, and this last month and a half or so of murder prison. ]

[empathiser]

[ After a moment, Will just gently strokes her hair. Crying is, well, cathartic at the very least. He's not going to interrupt her while she's crying because... it needs to be done. He's not the best at words of comfort anyway, but this? This he can do.

So he waits, until her crying is growing a little quieter. And then he tries, at least. ]

Even if you do something for the "greater good" [ and the words are so heavy marked with quotation marks you can almost see them ], if you lose something that matters to you along the way... it hurts. And it never really stops. It dulls, it stops being so fresh. But when you love something, losing it is never just "okay".

[ He pulls back, just a little. ]

And it's not something someone your age should ever have to deal with. Not on your own. [ Because that's the crux of it, isn't it? If Max can change time, other people must just... forget. They forget and keep going, and Maxine Caulfield is left alone to gather up the pieces that are left and keep going like nothing happened. No one should have to do that. ]