SO YOU WANT TO STEAL SOME CHILDREN (Endgame Catchall)

[facultwist]

Welcome to the container for your endgame! This will be the place where you can perform your polterheist (we really love that portmanteau), and where you'll be able to commentate on the final trial!

ICly, the whole heist will take place Monday, while the final trial watch will take place Thursday. For anything not related to endgame, please continue to use the main deadland post!

Comments

cw aggressive non-acceptance of death

[sweetsynergy]

Oh fuck that, if she's dead she's STUCK HERE FOREVER like we are. They all are. Christ, I thought I was selfish but I at least still want them OUT OF HERE and having a CHANCE at happiness. You think if the situations were reversed Hawke would want you dead too?

[protomartyr]

Of course not.

[ Said simply. ]

Hawke's a better person than me. And you were willing to kill her too, don't forget.

[sweetsynergy]

Yes! Yes I was! And that was terrible and fucked up, and you're wishing for the same! Be fucking better than ME.

cw: institutionalization, ableism, cult reference

[protomartyr]

It's not like I want Hawke to die. What I want is for Elsa to take revenge. What I want is for her to be able to do what I never could. You don't get it. Elsa deserves it. And if Elsa's revenge means Hawke joins us, then I'll make it comfortable for her. I'll make a community for us. I did it out in the wilderness, and I can do it again, I -

[ When did Lottie start breathing harder? When did her heart start racing? ]

- my parents locked me up, too. I know how much it hurts. I don't want Elsa to be trapped in that. It's not fair.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

Miss Lottie.

[ Rinne remembers what Lottie did for her when she first woke up here, frightened and panicked. ]

Miss Lottie, can you breathe with me, please?

[protomartyr]

[ Lottie looks at Rinne for a few moments. Even though she's an actual ghost, and what's real and not real is so far beyond the fucking point, Lottie slips into her old habits, making sure she sees Rinne's lips move before she responds.

Lottie nods, and begins breathing in time with Rinne. ]

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

[ Rinne makes eye contact with Lottie. In truth... She made the occult her whole personality because a single girl was nice to her. She didn't have the kind of experience Lottie did. The comfort she received from it wasn't in that terrible, horrible experience that Lottie had.

It's the sort of thing that makes her want to help her. To help a girl who has suffered like this, after masquerading for so long. ]

In... Out...

In... Out...

That's good. Just like that.

[ Her voice is kind and gentle. Like the good, perfect girl she's always wanted to be. ]

[protomartyr]

[ Rinne is perfect, and Rinne does it perfectly. ]

I don't want our friends to suffer. I don't want them to hurt. I want Elsa to hurt every mother, and father, and nurse, and doctor, and counselor who ever did something like this. You know?

[ Laura Lee understood her, but Laura Lee is gone. What Lottie wants, really, is for someone to understand her. ]

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

I know.

[ It's not a lie. Not a pretty word to make others like her. It's just honest. ]

It's not fair, what happened to her. With all that time, with all that pain... Perhaps...any of us would become just as angry and bitter.

cw: institutionalization, ableism, cult reference

[sweetsynergy]

Her shitty ass parents have been dead for hundreds of years, there's no one left to take revenge ON. And Hawke- and Mariko, and Dagr, and Thomasin- they're not an acceptable loss. Not-

[Aaaaand then the trauma hits. She's. She's gonna back off and let Rinne help here.]

[protomartyr]

[ Once Rinne helps her through it, Lottie responds. ]

It's not for the parents. It's for her, and what she needs to feel whole.

I'm not saying they're acceptable losses, or that any of it is good. Just that I can make things easier for them, if they do die. [ A smile, small and distant. ] You should have seen me out there, Vanity. I helped the team.

[sweetsynergy]

I'm sure you did.

[No actual shade, but she's salty enough right now that it might sound like that.]

So is this really about helping them, or about you getting to be useful to people?

[...]

...I'm being an asshole again, fuck- just. Fuck it, that can all wait 'til later. I'm still fucking pissed you'd even suggest it'd okay at ALL for them to die, though.

[protomartyr]

[ Lottie takes a moment to think about this. She might be fucked up, but let no one say that Lottie doesn't have capacity for self-reflection. ]

Neither. It's about how much I want to hurt my parents.

[ But this decision isn't in their hands, so Vanity is right. It can wait. She nods. ]

[sweetsynergy]

...okay, that one I get.

[But, uh, yeah, shutting up now.]

[thatsplato]

You—-

You don’t mean it.

[protomartyr]

[ Lottie looks over at Misty, her eyes bright and shining. ]

You want it back. Right, Misty? What we had out there?

[1/2]

[thatsplato]

[She’s angry. She’s so angry that Lottie would suggest this, that she would suggest that Hawke should die, that she’d let her get hurt, that—— ]

[2/2]

[thatsplato]

[What they had back then.

The first time Misty had felt part of something. The first time she’d really been a member of the team. The first time she’d made a friend. She’d been important. Appreciated. It was cold, everyone was scared, and hungry—- but for the first time in her life, Misty Quigley had been appreciated in the wilderness. She was useful. She kept them alive. Just like she did for everyone, when she killed Sayo and the heat had turned back on.

Hawke had said it back then. She’s a helper.

They could be together again.

Misty joins Lottie’s side. She nods.]