This Is Not A Test [Audio; available only to people in After These Messages]

[unrecovered]

[Wash sounds oddly calm for having spent any amount of time in TV hell. He'd seen a few of his fellow Legionnaires in various shows alongside him; hopefully they've all survived up to this point. If they're all lucky, they all managed to find a way out of the studios like he did. He's worried about them, enough to reach out through the omnicomms (eerily silent with the main Legion World network still inaccessible) and check in.]

This is Agent Washington, codename Freelancer, of the Legion of Superheroes, sending a message on a secured frequency. [As secure as he can make it, at least; he'd feel a lot better with Cortana or Delta around, but right now he's just happy to be alive and have his equipment back in his hands.] If any other Legionnaires can hear this, please respond.

I've managed to get my equipment back and escape the TV studios with the help of the local resistance. They call themselves the Indies, and evidently they've been against this whole global TV thing since the beginning. They've also seen the piece of Metron's throne - evidently it's still disguised as a book page, and who uses paper anymore? The good news is, they know where it is. The bad news is, it involves going back in the studios for a retrieval mission, and I don't know about any of you, but I do not want another fifteen minutes of fame.

[He says, yelling into the void for all he knows. There has to be someone out there who can answer, right?]

I talked with the leader of the Indies, and evidently their world wasn't always like this. They made contact with something nasty years ago, and it took over the government, wrecked the planet with years of war, and pretty much drove everyone underground. It's also the thing running the whole murder television operation. It calls itself the Producer, and they think taking it out is the first step to returning their society to normal.

To be completely honest, I've had it up to here with homicidal cosmic entities, and the last thing I want to do is die in yet another dimension that isn't mine. As far as I'm concerned, getting the piece of Metron's throne and getting out of here is priority one.

But if we happen to topple a bullshit government and kill another Cthulu knockoff along the way, I wouldn't say no.

Comments

[hallaifyouherd]

It's not always that simple. It seems like it should be, but people will rally together and unite to fight a monster far easier than they can settle their differences on their own, amongst each other.

I've seen it happen, Dipper.

[ She's been there. Felt the same way, hurt for those people in fear and oppression the same as he does now. But good intentions will not save the day. Sometimes, interfering makes things worse. ]

And I know you don't want to leave them like this. It seems cold-hearted. But letting them fight this on their own, when they've already started a resistance, may be the better option.

[captainbuzzkill]

[His voices goes shrill. He doesn't want to shriek at Marjara after everything she did for him, but he doesn't even realize how high and screamy he's getting.]

I've read a history book! I know there'll probably be a power vacuum, and there'll be bad people that take advantage of it, and the second the big horror monster isn't there for them to rally against, they'll probably find reasons to turn on each other and have some kind of big stupid civil war or something.

That's just people. I'm not saying we can stop them from being people and magically make everything okay. But if we leave it to them and they ever manage to take the Producer down on their own in the future, they're going to have to hit that stage and settle their differences on their own after that anyway. If they ever manage to get free, it's going to happen no matter what, whether we help them get free or not.

What we can help them do is make it happen sooner. The sooner he goes down, the sooner they can get to their stupid infighting or whatever it is they'll get to afterward, and the sooner they'll be able to eventually stop being stupid to each other and rebuild their stupid society.

Besides, if we don't help them, he might never go down at all. You guys are being way too optimistic about the idea of them fighting off a nightmare-monster that took over an entire world. We have the power to do that kind of stuff. Normal, powerless people? Don't.

[hallaifyouherd]

[ If he were an adult, she'd scream right back. But he's a child. A child who's been through far too much, far more than he ever should have had to.

His argument isn't without reason, either. No, she absolutely would have argued the same thing, two years ago. And nothing anyone would have said could have convinced her not to feel that way. Only loss and heartbreak and consequence taught her any differently, and maybe you can't be spared that lesson in order to learn it. ]

None of us could do it alone. We have to come to a decision together. Leaving you here by yourself wouldn't help them. Not the way they would need. It'd upset the balance, but not enough to save them.

...but I think you know that. You just can't see yourself living with the alternative.

[captainbuzzkill]

[And that cuts right to the quick. All the building steam just escapes, and he deflates, because the truth is something you can't fight against, can't hurl yourself at until you break.]

[What's left behind is quiet and quivering and barely staying upright.]

I just watched myself die. [Those kids in that stupid game show before the DnD stuff. With Bunny. The acid "slime." The screaming. The parents crying.] This almost was my world. And they were my age, being treated like -

[Like something you just threw away. Like meat thrown to the dogs, all for the sake of...whatever this whole system was. They weren't even important enough to be considered a "sacrifice," they were just chewed up and spat out.]

["Oh, and 8 Ball, Teeth, you've earned a treat, have the kid for a snack."]

[He finds his nerve again and this time he doesn't sound angry or overwhelmed, this time his voice is steel.]

And I watched them die and some of you want me to keep letting them die without even trying - without trying - when you know Kid Q and Brainy and some of the others would try. They always try. They look at the ten impossible things that have to be done to help everyone the best way they can be helped, and they figure out how to do them. That's what they do. That's what we do.

If we need to ditch in the face of some unstoppable evil because we just can't win no matter how hard we try, we need to ditch - and we need to have a plan for ditching - but ditching should not be Plan A.

[This isn't the same as Murderworld. He knows that. If he's truly honest with himself, the page changes everything.]

[And at the same time it changes nothing at all.]

We all took an oath and that oath wasn't "I make this solemn pledge to do anything it takes to stop Chronoblivion." It was "I make this solemn pledge to fight for justice and protect the innocent."

And it was "the innocent." In general. Not "some innocent."

No limits. No exceptions.

[hallaifyouherd]

[ He's not wrong...except that there are limits. There are always limits, always choices that turn out bad no matter what, one way or another, and choosing the less evil option is sometimes all you can do.

But Dipper's made up his mind, and if he's willing to throw himself the wolves, nothing will dissuade him. ]

If we can help them, we will. If we cannot, then we have to take the fight where it will make the most difference.

[ She pauses. Oh what the Hell. She's survived enough outlandish things. What's one more? ]

...and if you will not return with the others, when the time comes, then I will stay with you. No one should face this sort of horror alone.

[captainbuzzkill]

[That just makes him wince, because...because he knows Wash is right about some of it. If any of them get left behind, they're not coming back.]

[Heck, anyone that stays behind might not even survive the fight. They probably won't.]

No. Look, if - if we have to run, if the team runs, I'll run.

But I'm at least trying to fight first. None of you are going to be able to talk me down from at least trying once. I'm only willing to leave if that doesn't work.

[hallaifyouherd]

...give me your word.

[ He'd already done so much to himself, saving her from being made into a Star. He's suffered enough for one damn mission. ]

We fight together, and we leave together.

[captainbuzzkill]

[It takes him a moment because he has to figure out if it'll be the truth.]

I...I promise.

[His fingers aren't crossed for once.]

[He owes it to her.]

[hallaifyouherd]

Then I give you my word. Today is not the day we break our oaths.

We will do everything we possibly can for these people.

[unrecovered]

[It's...hard to hear, to say the least. On one hand, Dipper's not wrong: there's pragmatism, and then there's actually living up to the oath they swore when they joined. No matter what the ring on his finger or the emblem on his armor say, Wash isn't a hero - he's a soldier, through and through, and that's not changing.]

[But that doesn't mean it can be his be-all and end-all, either. People get lost in the bigger picture, but that doesn't mean they're worth losing, and that makes reminders that he's lost them all the more staggering.]

[On the other hand, Dipper is a child who managed to destroy his transdimensional entity before it got good and settled and apocalyptic on a global scale. This dimension is already way past that point, and even if Dipper knows that, he's still playing too heavily into his emotions - into his own pain, which keeps getting compounded with every mission he goes on. He has a point, but that doesn't mean he's completely right; most importantly, he should not be in the field.]

[But there's nothing they can do about that until this is over. For now, Wash just sighs, and tries not to let the weight on his shoulders show in his voice.]

Get some rest, Dipper. We'll talk about this more when we have more information.

[You can't save everyone, Dipper, is what dies in his throat. It might be a fact, but it's not going to help either of them right now.]

[captainbuzzkill]

[For a moment, there's a twitch in his eyebrows, and a tension in his shoulders that shows that his brain is still searching for a fight. That's...a bad sign. Him reacting like he has to fight the entire world now.]

[But the way he takes a breath and lets it out, letting everything go still again, is a good sign. It's not like after Pidge got roboticized, when all the emotion suddenly cut off. He's still angry, still hurt, still scared, but able to self-soothe a little.]

Okay.

[And he means it. He's going to try to rest until it's time to move.]

[That a part of him is constantly looking for a fight, expecting an attack at every turn, means something's very, very wrong.]

[That a part of him is still able to find a moment's peace means there's still something there that can be saved.]