[ video ]

[hostage]

[This post goes up very shortly after Jesse comes out of his catatonic state, on the evening of the 23rd. He's a little frenzied, a little wild-eyed and panicked, but he has to know he didn't imagine all of it. There has to be someone else who saw it, too.]

Did anybody - Did anybody else just get back? I mean, like... Were any of you guys ported out, too? To the future, or whatever it was. I can't be the only one. I mean, I saw some of you there. It was De Chima, right? We were just in De Chima? But our bodies got left behind here, I guess. I dunno. What was it? Was it a dream, or... Like, did we seriously just see the future? Because I think that's what it was. I think that was the future. I wasn't alone. I mean, I know I wasn't alone there.

...Right?

Comments

[earnedmystripes]

It's not the same. The punishments here might not amount to much, but at least it's something. There it was like....applauded, like it was all for the greater good. Like those people's lives didn't even matter.

[He looks off to the side, away from the camera.]

No one even tried to stop 'em.

[hostage]

Were they criminals? The people getting killed.

[earnedmystripes]

...Yeah. But that doesn't mean they deserved it. And they were just...normals, too. They could've disarmed 'em and forced a surrender easy. It was like taking a machine gun to someone who just had their fists.

[He rubs at his face.]

All they had to do was say they were acting in the public's best interest, and they'd get patted on the back, free to go. Weren't asked to have someone to back up their story or anything.

[hostage]

At least they weren't innocent people. You know? Not that I'm saying we oughta kill criminals, but... It's better than what some imPorts have done. Like Lucifer. Going after people that didn't deserve it.

[earnedmystripes]

No one deserves to die. And that group might've been criminals, but who knows about others? That kinda thing is scary as hell, 'cause if it's that easy to get away with, think about how bad it can go, from there. People just killing anyone that pisses 'em off, claiming that they were dangerous? No one should ever be that far above the law.

That's the exact kinda thing that could lead to the shithole of a future you saw.

[...Well that's. An unsettling thought. He rather wishes his mind hadn't just gone there. Ugh.]

[hostage]

...Yeah.

[That is a disturbing thought.]

[earnedmystripes]

[Well. Shit.]

What year was yours?

[hostage]

2025.

[earnedmystripes]

....Same here. So--it probably is someone just screwing with us. You don't get between those kinda extremes in less than a year.

Thing is....if it's not an imPort who did this, and I don't know why it would be, then this might just be the beginning. Like a warning, or a lead-in to something like that Hornet virus, before.

[hostage]

Didn't there used to be heroes before us? What if it's one of them? One of their powers? Maybe there's gonna be a choice we gotta make, and it'll swing us one way or the other.

[earnedmystripes]

I thought all the heroes before us got sent home twenty years ago. The ones that weren't originally locals, anyway.

[But maybe it's one of them...? Some of the missing heroes from that one swear-in at the cemetery turned out to be Hornets, after all.]

Or maybe this has to do with that Salvatore Quisma guy? Hadn't he said something ages ago about things imPorts would have to do?

[hostage]

Quisma's got the power of possession, too. He'd be able to hold us like that, all brain-dead and frozen like we were. But last we heard, he was getting weaker, not stronger.

[earnedmystripes]

They let Holiday out of that psych ward, right? Maybe Quisma found a way to fix himself.

[hostage]

Maybe...

[Is that a good thing or a bad thing?]

If it was him, you think he was trying to help us? Showing us that stuff.

[earnedmystripes]

I dunno.

He was all about imPort rights and stuff when he was alive, wasn't he? So maybe. It coulda been a warning of some kind. Or maybe a message. Like hell if I know what about, though.