video | day 71

[voliere]

[ Okay, so figure out the things you know, Elizabeth. List them off for sure.

This is solid ground. She knows - it's a little disorienting, really, because as stable as Columbia is, you're always aware you're on what is essentially a giant hot air balloon. Sort of. Not really. The physics are complicated.

She's in a church. It's devoid of the imagery she's used to, though. No Prophet, no Lamb, no False Shepherd. No Booker. No men trying to capture her (yet). And no tears, or at least, none she can see at the moment. The thing on her wrist is a little like a voxophone with a screen, she's thinking, squinting at it thoughtfully. It had spoken to her a few minutes ago, but she hadn't been able to get it to play again. In fiddling with it, she's managed to start recording herself, though she has no idea that she is on camera.

Alright. So that's figured out. Now to find Booker. He has to be here - did she accidentally bring them somewhere? They'd just been outside the Hall of Heroes - she had heard gunfire, and then she was suddenly here. What's going on? ]

Mr. DeWitt? [ She calls quietly, the camera only half on her face as she opens the door to the outside, frowning. ] ... Booker?

Comments

[persolvo]

[ This job just keeps getting worse. He's still buzzing from drinking the Shock Jockey, but everything around him has changed so suddenly, it's hard to tell if it's actually the vigor's fault, or plain old disorientation.

It's warm, and -- this is a cemetery. A church looms close by, and he can hear the ocean, smell it, like something real. In fact, he, too, notices the difference in the way the ground feels. This feels like solid ground. How in the hell did they get down here?

He doesn't get the chance to think about it before he hears a door open, and hears a voice that sounds like Elizabeth's. Booker pushes himself up off the ground, gives the headstone behind him a wary glance, and moves toward the voice, patting himself down to check his belongings. A pistol -- didn't he swap that long ago? ]

Elizabeth? That you?

[voliere]

[ She's pleased to hear that voice in return! The girl on the screen said that Booker probably wouldn't be here, but she seems to be wrong. And, well, Elizabeth is glad that she was. A familiar face, even one such as Booker's, is nice to have around in such an unfamiliar place. It's been a long, long time since she's been on the ground. ]

You are here. [ She scoots out of the church quickly and approaches Booker with a small smile, dusting the front of her skirt. ] Are you alright? No life-threatening injuries, I hope.

[persolvo]

[ Once he's done checking his things, his attention is grabbed by the thing around his wrist. He frowns at it, looks it over, pulls at it -- nothing. He's pretty sure he heard a voice coming out of it earlier, though. God, he's getting sick of things happening to his body. ]

Nothin' more than a pounding headache, but that ain't new. [ She looks alright, too -- he's glad. Booker scans the area. It's so quiet. ] This one of your tears gone awry?

[voliere]

[ Well, maybe if you wouldn't just pick up bottles of random who-knows-what and drink them, Booker - but that's besides the point. Elizabeth is looking Booker over for more serious wounds - he tends to downplay them, she's noticed. But he seems alright, and if he's not, well - she'll handle it when it happens. ]

I will keep an eye out for painkillers as always. [ She assures him, glancing around. ] But no, I don't... believe so. I'm not capable of that much. It looks as though we've found ourselves out of Columbia, but I'm not entirely sure how.

[persolvo]

Out of Columbia. [ He starts walking, wanting to see what's on the other side of that church; he can hear waves, smell the ocean. ] I'd say it's nothin' short of a miracle, 'cept for this tagging business. [ He indicates his wrist, looks down at hers to see if she's stuck with the same thing. ]

That thing talk t'you too?

[voliere]

[ She lifts her own wrist to show him that she has one as well, brow furrowed and expression displeased. ] It did, but I couldn't get it to repeat itself. I think it mentioned a house, but I can't be sure.

[ Man. This is strange, walking on solid ground. And there's the smell of the ocean, real ocean, so much more real than the kind in Columbia, manufactured. The lure of the water makes her pause, and then take a couple of excited steps forward, ahead of Booker. ]

... Is that - Mr. DeWitt, is that the ocean?

[persolvo]

Think so. [ Still looking at the communicator, frowning, he glances up. Surely enough, on the other side of the church, the land stretches out to an unseen beach, and beyond that is just -- ocean. It makes him a little uneasy, and he isn't sure why. ]

Looks like the coast to me. Could be the Atlantic, if we somehow -- hell, fell out of the sky. [ He clenches his left hand, glances up and down the road, before catching up with Elizabeth in a couple of steps. ] Don't rush ahead, we still don't know what we're dealin' with.

[voliere]

[ But she's never seen it before! Not for real, anyway - and if she has she can't remember very well. She completely ignores Booker's warning, wanting to be on the beach - where Booker feels unease, Elizabeth feels thrill, eyes wide and smile huge. In the face of this, it's easy to forget, just for a moment, that they're someplace strange, that there's more to her parents than she thought, that they should be trying to get out of this.

She gathers her skirt up and pulls off her boots. ] I can't see how a beach could be dangerous. I'll be right back, don't you worry. [ Because she's totally going to go stand in the shallow water, properness be damned. ]

[persolvo]

Elizabeth --

[ He doesn't chase her, but he does grumble to himself and grab her boots, then follow behind, eyeing the area around them. A house, what looks like a general store, something resembling a school house -- and out in front of them, nothing but waves and water. The sound should be comforting, but it just reminds him of his entry to Columbia. ]

You don't know what's in that water. All this could be a trap, and if not, we've gotta get our bearings. [ But -- fine. Put your feet in the FREEZING WATER. For a second. ]

[voliere]

[ She WILL. And she does, with a quiet, involuntary squeak at how cold the water is. She gets used to it quickly enough, smiling widely, and it's not the first time she's been entirely stress-free, but it feels pretty nice regardless. ]

I had spoken to a girl who lives here already, a few moments before I found you. She called this place Cape Kore, which isn't any city I've ever heard of before, and that we were kidnapped. [ She frowns. ] I find that unlikely, seeing as I have no memory of any sort of kidnappers.

[persolvo]

[ He stays a few feet back, watching her, just to make sure nothing... gets her. Like a rogue wave. Or a bear. ]

What, where's she now? [ He looks around again, hand close to the gun in his belt. ] 'Cause if you ask me, that smacks of bullcrap. How's gettin' kidnapped back down below even make sense?

[voliere]

[ Yeah, watch out for those sea bears.

Also Booker, the gun is totally unnecessary, come on. Elizabeth doesn't quite glare at the hand on his belt, but it's close. ] I don't know, she was on this. [ She waves the communicator. ] Could it be those who hired you? You were sent from below, right?

[persolvo]

[ He wants to say they don't have the means, but he also didn't know about the fucking city in the sky until he was blasted into it. Booker shifts uncomfortably, glances at the thing on his wrist. ]

Doubt it, but we won't find out for sure until we get a look around. I don't like this.

[voliere]

[ Elizabeth steps out of the water and over to take her boots back from Booker. Her feet are still wet and sandy, but she ignores it in favor of just pulling the boots back on. ]

Well, let's look around. We'll accomplish nothing just standing on the beach, I suppose. [ But she is going to come back later. ] There could be a tear that helps us, somewhere. Let's go.

[enchangement]

Don't swim too far [ Comes a voice from somewhere more or less behind Booker, not quite in reachable range but still too close to have gotten there unnoticed (so how did she? MAGIC! No, not really, River is just trollishly quiet and there's a lot of new people today ] there's a squid...

[ Peering at Booker forever and ever, amen. ] Not a bear.

But a squid, and it dances, and you lose, and you can't stand for a while, it's very annoying.

Welcome to the experiment under glass! [ River throws her arms up in the air. ] We have no confetti, sorry to say, but the welcoming committee can't do everything.

[persolvo]

[ Booker turns, suddenly - wobbles a little in the sand, god damn it - and pulls out his pistol, but doesn't fire, very much surprised by what he sees. A girl -- maybe the one Elizabeth spoke to? Still, he doesn't trust her. ]

Experiment. [ That's even worse than kidnapping. ] You better start tellin' us what exactly that means and how we got here.

[voliere]

[ Elizabeth jumps when the voice comes from behind Booker, and makes a protesting noise when Booker goes for his gun - but he doesn't shoot, thankfully. Way to start off on the wrong foot.

A squid, huh? Elizabeth pushes past Booker quickly so she can see River better - she was going to ask about the squid, but it's the experiment part that gets her, and she looks a little worried. Or a lot. ] What Mr. DeWitt means to say is that we've only just arrived, and we're still confused about the specifics. [ Right, Booker? Elizabeth takes a step closer, with a small smile. ] My name is Elizabeth. What did you mean by experiment?

[enchangement]

[ River is about as non-plussed by that gun as possible, giving a half shrug at it before refocusing her attention on Elizabeth. They're both actually fascinating in their own ways, entwined but not, similar but not. Trying to follow the threads of it in her head makes her dizzy and River sways a little in place before she remembers the horizon is there to center her mind.

Maybe she should've brought someone along with her. Ned or Charles or Erik. Even Zatanna might be better at this. But, here she is and here they are so they might as well get down to business. Business being information, that is. ]

He means who are you and what the hell and should I waste the bullet? River suggests not; making new ones seems an expensive but not impossible endeavor, but they aren't just laying around either.

An experiment. You know. [ She gives Elizabeth a pointed look. ] Under glass and under observation, marked and tracked and tagged and changed. People come, people are taken away; sometimes they come back, sometimes they go home, sometimes they return, sometimes there is no home to go back to. Sometimes we don't know. Isolated moment in time in a timestream moving out of control. Here is the current hypothesis held by one: it's gotten out of hand, they can't stop the inflow-outflow but, but, there's no proof.

It's all just theory.

What is known, what can be proven and collaborated by the others, tagged and trapped to is this: we don't know how we got here. We don't know how to get home. Our captors don't show their faces, people are taken from their beds, sometimes they return and sometimes they don't. Time moves strangely. Uncertainty lies on whether or not we're on Earth, another planet. Different realities and histories and points in time converge amongst those trapped here. What's future to one is past to another, what's fact to one is fiction to another.

Once there were half to a hundred of us, and now it's dwindled. A dozen and a dozen and not quite a dozen again.

[persolvo]

[ That... what. The gun lowers a little, but it's a lot for Booker to process, and he looks over at Ellizabeth as if she can make sense of this rambling. Another planet? Different realities? How does she know about Elizabeth? TOO MANY WORDS. ]

Sounds like crazy talk to me.

[voliere]

[ Thankfully for Booker, Elizabeth is listening closely, following River's flow of words with a concentrated look on her face. Experiments. Elizabeth does know - or at least, she does now. Her whole life up to now has been full of scientists and experiments and tests, even if she wasn't aware of them.

But she gleans information out of all of this. They're stuck in a city that's much like her tower in the way of observation, some people are taken, some people don't return, and time doesn't flow the right way. And when River slows down to a stop, Elizabeth nods. ]

I understand. [ She tells River, folding her arms across her chest as she glances over at Booker. ] This may be a different reality. Like a tear. Another world.

It would explain how we ended up down below. [ She turns again, scanning the beach. ] From one cage to another. [ She won't let that happen. ]

[enchangement]

[ River gives Booker a look that could be translated best as 'no shit, Sherlock' ] That would be due to the speakers insanity but she could say "please forgive", but, why? The way she was before the way she will be after. Today is a day of arrivals. Maybe there is a clearer pattern to influx and outpouring, but this set is mostly noisy, noisy makes for a different sound, and at least she's trying, gunslinger.

But what is a tear? Rip, shred, undo, unstitching in time location meaning? New term, new concept. Not a commonality elsewhere.

[persolvo]

[ Well, at least she acknowledges she's crazy. Booker peers back at her, frowns, looks at Elizabeth. What, she knows more about this other-world crap than he does, so he's looking to her to make sense of this. ]

I don't like the sound of that. I didn't sign up to get caged.

[voliere]

[ Neither did Elizabeth. She ignores both of them for the moment, because she's found her tear, the one she was looking for. Nobody can keep her locked away, she won't allow it. Elizabeth takes a couple of steps forward, closer to the water, and braces herself, digging her fingers into what looks like nothing. One. Two.

Three.

Elizabeth yanks the air apart, and a fuzz of static ripples through the air. There's a rowboat where nothing was a moment ago. It's a shoddy sort of thing, planks missing on the bottom, the ones still there rotting. It's quite the achievement, but if Elizabeth looks unhappy with it, she is. That's not what it looked like when she first saw it. ]

I don't... I don't understand. It's supposed to be in better shape than this.

[enchangement]

[ River is impressed, even though she picks up on Elizabeth's disappointment. ] Limited. Abilities are limited. At the edges ...[ She points towards the woods, the edge of town and the horizon in turn. ] and for you, perhaps, at the core. Escape is difficult. Not impossible, impossible doesn't exist, but difficult. Not to be done in a moment or a day.

[persolvo]

[ Alright, he thinks he's getting his head around how this girl talks, because he's pretty sure he understands this. Elizabeth's ability is being tampered with. Naturally, since that would be too easy. ]

So we'll do it in two. I got a job to finish.