theairlock | Week 4

Entry tags:

!round 5,
!week 4

Week 4

[After everything that this case was, you probably don't want to deal with anything else. But you wake up on Sunday, just like before, with some new memories, and some new stores to check out.

Let's see what this week brings.]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

(( Don't forget to check in, and check your memory regains! You can also stop by the gacha machine and Xander's office hours. ))

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The storm was... the storm was going to destroy the town. Because of me. Because I used my powers to save Chloe.

What? Why, what did that have to do with... Is it like some kind of Butterfly Effect thing?

I... guess? But the more I used my powers, even though I was helping people as much as... as much as I could, the worse the storm got. And it turns out, when you get caught up trying to catch a serial kidnapper, you can start having to rewind time a lot.

...Yeah. Yeah, that I understand.

Hey, why don't you start from the beginning? Just... tell me what you want to. I know how that kind of thing goes.

Uh... shit, a lot happened in that week. So I moved back to Arcadia Bay a little while ago - it's... where I grew up, but we moved away to Seattle for a while? I'm going to school for photography- anyway, one day I get time powers and they help me save Chloe. And... I haven't really seen or talked to her since we were kids at this point, so we reconnect and we really hit it off. Just like old times, except... she had a life while I was gone. Obviously.

Her best friend, Rachel Amber, went missing before I moved back. She went to the same school I'm at now, and like... Chloe and I realize that rather than using my time powers to dick around at the junkyard, we might be able to figure out what's going on. So we start investigating. You know, amateur teen detective stuff. The Hardy Girls.

Sure, I understand. You're talking to Mancy Drew right here.

[He puts two and two together, and...]

Chloe--she was involved in that shooting you said you stopped, then? That's where it started?

Yeah. I... I saw her get shot, and the shock of it made me rewind time by like fifteen minutes. And as we went on, Chloe kept... accidentally dying, but I could save her every time, because, you know. Powers.

[ She has seen Chloe Price die a fair few times. ]

Anyway, we... asked around, started looking for clues, and wouldn't you know it, classic "in over our heads" stuff. [ Max... draws in on herself a little. ] Nothing quite like figuring out the school's spoiled rich kid bully is funding a serial kidnapper dabbling in serial killing. Or that he's your photography teacher. [ Dislikes: Mark Jefferson ]

I... Christ. Yeah, geez. [After a pause, he reaches out gently to touch her shoulder.] That's really screwed up, Max.

There wasn't any way to... I don't know, tip off the police? Get someone older on your side?

[ She lets out a little nervous laugh. ]

The Prescotts are the richest people in town. They... in small towns, there are people the police just won't go after, no matter what. Too important to the local economy.

We didn't even know who they were funding until Chloe and I found... Rachel's body. And then Mister Jefferson, uh... [ ahahaha oh wow she is conflicted about discussing this part ] Kidnapped... me. So that sucked.

Yeah, no kidding. ...You don't have to talk about it.

[He'll talk about his kill murder die games till the cows come home, but remembering that feeling of abject helplessness--the sense that the floor would fall away from right under his feet, that nowhere was safe anymore, not even the apartment he'd lived in for three years and seven months--the memory of being kidnapped from his own home, he doesn't talk about that.]

Did you get out okay, though?

I... I got out. Had to watch people die again to do it, but...

[ God, Victoria, who ended up down there because Max tried to warn her... David... ]

When I got out... the storm had hit. For real. And it was destroying the whole town. So I found... I found Chloe, and I realized what I had to do to stop it. To make sure that I could... that I could save everyone, for real this time. Everyone except for-

[ She swallows, hard. ]

Except for Chloe.

...Oh, no.

No, that's... the hell. That's not fair, asking you to make that choice. Max...

[He wouldn't have. He'd have wiped the whole town off the map for Akane. Let the whole planet descend into hell.]

What was I supposed to...? I... I literally watched reality start breaking, I ran into myself, I...

[ Oh good she's on the edge of tears. So much for only crying in the Cinnabunny! ]

I saved everyone in Arcadia Bay, except for the one person there who I cared about most! And no one... no one's ever going to know it happened, or what Chloe did, or... I had to look her mom in the eyes while she said it was too bad the girl I love and I didn't get any time together since I got back into town. I...

[ She tries to... pull some of it back, at least, to collect herself a little. ]

... Sorry. Things just suck.

Yeah. Yeah, they do. C'mere.

[No pulling anything back, Max, we feel our feelings here like men. Junpei reaches over and then pulls her into a hug, as strong and steady as any he ever offered Akane or Clover or--or a girl, a woman he can't quite remember, smiling like the devil with hands full of dirt and weeds.]

Things suck. Things are bullshit.

[ The hug is... unexpected somehow, but it's nice. She can't help but cling a little when she hugs back, just trying to stay grounded. ]

They sure as fuck are.

You didn't deserve that. And I don't know your Chloe, but I'm sure she didn't, either. Maybe...

[No. No, alternate histories don't work the same for everyone, and even if they did, it wouldn't help this Max. Not the Max who has to live here and now in a reality where the girl she loves is gone.]

Maybe, all of us left, we find a way to make them less damn fucked. But if we can't... I'm here, all right? And I get it. I get a lot of it.

Thanks. Thanks a bunch, Junpei. For cereal.

[ Somewhere out there there's probably a Max who didn't save Arcadia Bay. She's probably a lot happier. ]

You know, it's funny. In the movies, people usually come out of the whole "sacrifice one person to save a bunch more" deal happy? Who the fuck do they think they're kidding?

People who've never known what it is to love someone so much the whole damn world doesn't matter. Probably.

[Junpei's actually pretty good at hugs. He must hug sad girls a lot.]

[ i mean realtalk if you throw a stone in his canon alone it's gonna hit like three sad people from what i remember ]

Probably. It's kind of a hard feeling to imagine if you've never had it.

[Yeeeaaahhh that's accurate.]

Yeah. But it's not a feeling you ever forget, either.

[He rubs her back. He gets you, girl. He's got you.]

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Week 4

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cw abduction mention but im gonna matrix dodge any jefferson cws unless prompted

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