There was this guy who said he could cure the virus that was killing everyone. Said we just had to get him to his team in DC.
We spent about a year and a half, almost two escorting him across the country. Keeping him safe from walkers, feeding him, making sure he had water and cover. Keeping him alive. People died instead of him, thinking they were protecting the future.
We were maybe a week out when he told us he lied so we'd do all that.
[Almost two years. Astarion lives his life on a longer-than-human
scale, but that's a long fucking time to be crossing a world festering with
the undead. He feels a brief spike of empathetic rage.]
That's what the world is now. The dead outnumber the living... a thousand to one. Ten thousand, a hundred thousand to one.
We don't get to choose who survived with us. We lost a lot of knowledge and skills when the world fell. Eugene doesn't have a cure, but he knows things that can save lives, so I saved his.
I mean, that blew up in my face too, but. At least I tried, right?
[She does not sound the least bit comforted by this. She sounds like she feels fucking pathetic.]
My point was mostly that I'm glad you have some people you tried something big with still with you. I'm glad there's an out for your world, apparently.
And I hope whoever your mysterious benefactor is, they weren't lying, too.
He's turned out to be...somewhat economical with the truth, in some rather
important ways. But, ultimately, he still wants what we want, and I'm
sure the others can kill him if he tries anything funny at the last minute.
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Re: Private
[She considers a few things to say, to ask. Rejects them all, staring at her hands in the dark of her cabin instead.]
Did I tell you I tried to save the world, once?
Re: Private
...No, you didn't.
What did you do?
Re: Private
There was this guy who said he could cure the virus that was killing everyone. Said we just had to get him to his team in DC.
We spent about a year and a half, almost two escorting him across the country. Keeping him safe from walkers, feeding him, making sure he had water and cover. Keeping him alive. People died instead of him, thinking they were protecting the future.
We were maybe a week out when he told us he lied so we'd do all that.
Re: Private
[Almost two years. Astarion lives his life on a longer-than-human scale, but that's a long fucking time to be crossing a world festering with the undead. He feels a brief spike of empathetic rage.]
What did you do with him?
Re: Private
Nothing.
Well. Abraham punched him out, initially. But I stopped him from killing him, and after that?
Nothing. He fooled us because he knew a lot of things we didn't. We still needed that.
Re: Private
I can barely imagine the frustration of not killing him, after he put you through that...that hope.
Re: Private
We don't get to choose who survived with us. We lost a lot of knowledge and skills when the world fell. Eugene doesn't have a cure, but he knows things that can save lives, so I saved his.
I mean, that blew up in my face too, but. At least I tried, right?
[She does not sound the least bit comforted by this. She sounds like she feels fucking pathetic.]
Re: Private
No good deed goes unpunished, as they say. Blew up how?
Re: Private
My point was mostly that I'm glad you have some people you tried something big with still with you. I'm glad there's an out for your world, apparently.
And I hope whoever your mysterious benefactor is, they weren't lying, too.
Re: Private
He's turned out to be...somewhat economical with the truth, in some rather important ways. But, ultimately, he still wants what we want, and I'm sure the others can kill him if he tries anything funny at the last minute.
Re: Private
[Eugene wanted what they all wanted, too. He just wasn't capable of delivering.]
Still, I hope it works out. Delicate things, worlds.
Re: Private
I don't know about that. Worlds are adaptable. People are delicate.
With that said, I don't want everyone I've ever crossed paths with to die, either.
Re: Private
Hard.