→ 003 | action | OTA

[cactusy]

WHO: Sameen Shaw and OPEN
WHERE: Around Temba
WHAT: Memoriiiiiiiiiies
WHEN: Throughout the energy storm
WARNINGS: Imagery of death, gunshots

Shaw is incredibly prone to stir-craziness and quite sensitive to feeling like she's spinning her wheels, so hunkering down for the duration of the storms was never going to be an option for her - especially not when they're intermittent, random, unpredictable. What is she supposed to do, just stay inside for days or even weeks on end? No thanks.

But this is her first energy storm, and even as a big believer in forewarned being forearmed, it's still a lot. The first time she sees a vision of someone from home, she does a double-take, and nearly calls out to them. She wants to call out to them, desperately, but the reminder that this might not really be them is a powerful one, and it holds her back - but just barely, and only to a point.

A: the time a teammate sacrificed himself for Shaw

The man she's trailing stops suddenly, and bends over a table with an open laptop that's materialized right there on the street. The imagery of it pings something deep in her hindbrain, and she quickens her pace.

"Cole--"

"Shaw!" he shouts, urgent and frightened, as he leaps for her and tackles her to the ground amid a hail of invisible gunfire that comes from nowhere.

B: the time Shaw sacrificed herself for her teammates

The group of four rushes down the hallway together, two of the men carrying the third in between them, propelling him along as best they can despite the fact that he's badly injured and dead weight. Without the rest of the setting around them, the freight elevator they're headed for looks like a freestanding box in the middle of the street - a metal cage that they're about to trap themselves in.

"Will they get out?" she asks urgently, talking to herself as much as whoever is standing nearby. "I don't know if they can get out without me. I need to help them again, right?"

Comments

a

[thepurpleone]

Donnie's regretting not buddying up but he hadn't really anticipated just how badly one can get turned around when a storm's actually behaving like one.

Like Shaw, he's been hesitant to call out to people he sees, or thinks he sees. He's only heard how such manifestations come about, stomach twisting at the thought of coming across any of the rest of his family, just to realize they aren't really here. ...he needs to find Leo. At least he knows he's real.

But there's someone else, someone he knows to be physically present in the city- unless... Did the strange apparitions cover people who were actually here too? Ah, there goes his overthink. He hesitates as he notices other movement, Shaw's...following someone?

Curiosity and confusion win out over paranoia as he starts towards her, mostly just hopeful that it is Shaw and he won't have to wander around alone. "Hey-" he starts, but suddenly things happen.

There's a lot of oddities that don't add up. The man busies himself like he isn't in the middle of a storm, but the more Donnie focuses on the strange scene unfolding before him, the less it seems like they're in Temba itself. But they are, and he's sure he can still feel the rain and the wetness pooling at his feet.

"Shaw!" the man shouts, and he's lunging for the woman. The sound of gunfire is enough to make Donnie react as well, throwing his arms over his head with a yelp as he ducks down. What? What?? What is happening?

[cactusy]

Instinctively, Shaw's hand goes to her belt, reaching for a gun that isn't there to try to return gunfire that she can hear but not see or feel. The sound of Donnie's cry jars her out of it, and she rolls to the side, sliding off the man who'd pulled her to the ground - and in doing so, leaving behind the imprint of herself. That duplicate Shaw does have a gun, and from the ground, she fires it towards a door that's freestanding in the middle of the street. From behind it, there's the sound of multiple falling bodies thunking to the ground.

"Close your eyes, cover your head!" the real Shaw instructs Donnie, as she ducks lower and follows her own advice. "They're about to throw in a flashbang - a stun grenade."

[thepurpleone]

This shouldn't be possible, who's even shooting? Donnie's mind tries to reason out. He can't help but stare when he sees Shaw essentially split into two, one that's reacted to him and another caught up in whatever sort of a predicament is trying to materialize.

"Wait, what-?" he starts, but at her warning he does so. He's never experienced one but he knows what a flashbang is enough to not want to get caught off guard by it. He can hear his kneepads squish in the puddle beneath him as he tucks his head down, arms and hands curling over his head as he braces himself.

[cactusy]

Just a second or two after Shaw gives her warning, a new door materializes, several feet away and perpendicular to the first one; it creaks open just enough for the grenade to be tossed in. The memory version of Shaw covers her head too, now, but the man whose torso she's sprawled across stays still, arms and legs sprawled out as he stares dazedly up at the ceiling.

At such close range, the grenade's effect is dizzying even though they've prepared for it; it'll spot their vision with white and leave their ears ringing. "Stay behind me," the real Shaw tells Donnie, again trying to reach for a weapon holster that isn't there. "He's going to have a gun, and I don't know if--"

The door flies open, and a figure wearing a gas mask and tactical gear enters the room, waving a flashlight and firing as he comes. Memory Shaw fires back, and she hits him before he hits her; he falls, and she jumps up, slamming the door shut and stealing a wireless communication earpiece from the body.

"We need to move, now," Memory Shaw says to the other man, and he hisses in pain, not even trying to stand as he groans, "That's gonna be tough." He'd gotten in between Memory Shaw and the bullets, and in doing so, had taken several to the back - and they'd gone in deep enough that there's blood blooming through the front of his shirt.

"How do these work?" Real Shaw whispers to Donnie, her gaze trained on the scene in front of her. "Can they see us?"

[thepurpleone]

If this is the memory of flashbang then Donnie sure doesn't want to experience a real one. But then that's what this is, right? he thinks. A memory.

He flinches, squinting as he tries not to fall over but he's still disoriented, only barely managing not to panic as he keeps telling himself it isn't real in the back of his mind. Jury's still out on just how real any of this is, Donnie's still trying to convince himself. But Shaw's here and he sticks close, even as he starts to look back towards the apparitions beyond as they continue to go through the motions.

The man...does not look like he's in good shape. Oh...ohh but that is a lot of blood. He almost jumps when Shaw speaks to him again, wide eyes flicking from her to her copy and back.

"I-I don't know," he stammers, once he realizes what she's asking. "I thought we only saw people during these things, not whole situations..!"

[cactusy]

"He's going to die in about ten seconds," Real Shaw says flatly. "So I guess it doesn't matter." Even if they could call for help, it wouldn't come in time.

Memory Shaw doesn't have that memo, though. "All right, come on," she murmurs, pulling him up as carefully as she can and dragging him about a foot, leaving a smear of blood on the street as she does.

"I'm sorry," he groans.

"No, no, no; don't talk," says Memory Shaw, moving back around to crouch over him as she assesses the damage. It's clearly not good; urgency leaks into her voice, and non-demonstrative as she is, she manages a brief pat to his shoulder. "All right, look, I'm gonna call Control, and, uh-- we're gonna get you some help."

Real Shaw's hands ball into tight fists, and anger flashes across her face. She moves to stand, turning to walk away, even as the scene continues.

"I was trying to get your back," the man says.

"Always trying to be the hero, huh?" Memory Shaw shoots back, going for a lighthearted tone; the man does a half-grin, half-grimace, chuckling through the pain.

"No," he says, talking more and more of a struggle with every word. "Just yours."

Real Shaw misses the deer-in-headlights look on Memory Shaw's face in response to that, but it's not like it matters. She remembers all of this like it was yesterday.

[thepurpleone]

He shouldn't be watching this. This is something that Shaw has had to go through, this is a delicate memory that no one else should be privy to. It's just like...

The thought gets put on pause as he gets caught up with the two, or rather the oddly out of character look that touches the memory of Shaw's expression at that point. He hurriedly pushes himself to his own feet, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment as he tries to calm himself down.

"This...it's not supposed to happen this way. The Storm... I've never heard of entire memories coming to life," he starts to say as he trails after Shaw, grounding himself on information. Nice solid information, no emotions attached. "This is different, but it's familiar. It's... like that time we were locked up in Calibrations..."

[cactusy]

"What's Calibrations?" she asks, walking away from the memory scene without looking back.

[thepurpleone]

The rain had never stopped, but as they distance themselves from the memory the wetness becomes more evident. At least it's lessened from a downpour, not completely masking their view. Donnie's circumvents a particularly deep puddle forming in the uneven street.

"A trap," he replies, his eyes watching the ground now, wanting to avoid seeing any 'ghosts' that might trigger something else. "There's a tunnel on the southeastern side of the city. It dead-ends, but there's actually a hidden door. I've only been inside once, but I've been told that on occasion it's opened and people are lured in somehow or another. And then we get locked in and can't get back out again until something or someone decides we've had enough.

"...we're given rooms to stay in, a centralized place to...socialize, I guess? It's a prison no matter how you look at it. And then at a given time, we're compelled to sleep." He makes a face, not liking how such unknown outside influences can affect them so easily. Mermaids, he reminds himself, thinking of the entire city being walled off and him not knowing what had happened to anyone within.

"We dream," he continues. "Except it's a very vivid space, somewhere from our memories, somewhere that means something to us. And there are things there that don't really belong there, objects that represent memories. And we're not the only ones in these dream-rooms. People wander through each other's dreams somehow, and if they touch certain things, it triggers a memory for everyone there to see. Whether you want it or not."

b

[playingtough]

Billy doesn't know how he ends up here. But he's here now, maybe a little grumpy about it, but there's no much he can do. It feels similar to the ordeal from last year. Just less beating people up about a dresser here.

He looks to the strange woman next to him and frowns a little. "Is this a movie or something? I haven't seen it." But it doesn't feel like a movie. It feels like something more personal. Like someone's home movie for memories on a VHS being acted out in real life. He points to the memory version of the woman.

"Is that one you? What do you mean help them again?"

[cactusy]

Shaw doesn't answer his first question. She doesn't even look at him. Her whole body is as tense as a taut wire, ready to spring as soon as she lets herself loose.

"It's not real," she says, though she doesn't sound convinced. "It's just a memory. But I was there by this point, I should be there with them, and if I don't get in there and help them, I think--"

Suddenly, there's a blur of movement from behind them, and a twin of Shaw - a memory version of her - brushes past them, heading straight for the group.

"I'm out of ammo, Shaw," says the other woman as they all pile into the freight elevator, and the Shaw next to Billy - the real Shaw - reflexively checks her coat pocket for a handgun. No such luck.

[playingtough]

Something feels wrong. Billy crouches next to her. It's then that she explains and he looks up with wide eyes. A memory? Like——

The memory person - Shaw, it seems - joins into the group while another states they're out of ammo. Blue eyes look at Real Shaw wide. "Are we awake?" It's whispered, almost frantic.

Billy doesn't want what he thinks is happening, to happen again. But they weren't in a bunker, this was all wrong. Real Shaw is checking her pocket. "If it's a memory, you can't alter it. Checking your shit isn't going to do anything."

[cactusy]

"I think we're awake," Shaw says, and unfortunately, that's about all the certainty she can muster. Despite Billy's warning, she takes a step closer to the scene, though she goes unnoticed by everyone in it.

"We need to go," one of the men says urgently. "We might not get another chance."

"Second chances are overrated, Harold," retorts Memory Shaw, as the man - Harold, apparently - starts mashing at the buttons, trying to get the elevator going. Nothing happens, and Real Shaw takes it upon herself to dart over, looking around for something outside the elevator.

"It should be here," she mutters. "There's supposed to be a button--"

[playingtough]

They were awake? That wasn’t right. Maybe this was just a freak storm that effected the two of them. Billy pushes his own memories and thoughts aside so he can focus on this memory in front of him. He follows Real Shaw.

"What the hell are you looking for? A button? Like a pin button or an electronic one?" Would it change anything? Could it? "Maybe we should get out of this storm instead—"

[cactusy]

"A big red button," the real Shaw says - still pacing along the street, looking for anything out of place that might be part of the encroaching memory. No such luck.

"The desk," says the memory version of Shaw, staring off in the same direction; and lo and behold, a desk pops into existence about eight to ten feet from the front of the open elevator cage. "There's an override button. Someone's gotta get to that button and hold them off."

"Whatever," Real Shaw mutters under her breath, spinning back around and giving up her search. She knows that the kid is right, and that there's no point in trying to derail something that happened a year and a half ago - but just standing around and doing nothing isn't her style, and her fingers clench and unclench with the frustration of it all.

"Sameen," says the other woman in the memory, reaching to catch hold of Memory Shaw's arm, "If you even think I'm going to let you--"

"I'll leave in a second," Real Shaw tells Billy, as she watches her past self give the woman a frustrated, irritated look that so perfectly mirrors the one on her own face. "Seems kinda disrespectful to just walk away from myself when I'm about to get shot."

It's said with tired flippancy, a grim sort of joke, but there's a note of truth behind it, because she doesn't walk off. She watches as Memory Shaw grabs the woman and pulls her into a hard and desperate kiss goodbye, then uses the momentum of that grab to shove her backwards into the elevator, pulling the grate down so that she can't follow or try to stop her. Now a big red button pops into existence, and Memory Shaw makes for it, unholstering her gun as she goes. As the rest of her team looks on in horror, as the woman she'd kissed clutches impotently at the door's grating, she presses the button that starts the elevator rising, and catches a bullet in the gut for her troubles. The woman in the elevator screams, and Real Shaw grits her teeth.

"Hey!" she calls out, though she can't really expect them to hear her. "It's fine, I didn't-- I don't--"

God, verb tenses are annoyingly complicated when you're experiencing in the present a memory from the past. She takes several steps towards the elevator cage, looking up at it as it rises.

"Root. Listen, stop crying, I'm not going to die. Listen to me, look at me."

She doesn't. None of them do. By not playing along from the start, Real Shaw has solidified herself as not a part of this memory - and so as far as the memory is concerned, she's not even there.

[playingtough]

About to get shot? Jesus what—— It felt like there was a lot going on. Billy's own memories weren't even this chaotic. He tries to follow Real Shaw but gets Memory Shaw mixed up with her instead.

Instead he can only really watch as things play out. The way Memory Shaw pulls the woman to her to give a kiss that Billy can recognize. One of desperation, but one that practically shouts goodbye while saying nothing. Billy watches the rest of the scene unfold, watches how Real Shaw tries to say that she's not dead or anything.

He finally looks at the Memory Shaw and the blood from her bullet hole, then to Real Shaw. "...Did you though?"

[cactusy]

"I'm here, aren't I," she says tiredly, as the scene around them fades away: first the desk and the button, and then the rising elevator and its passengers, and finally her own body, eyes open as she bleeds out on the floor. "No, I lived. Got patched up; got to spend some time as a captive. It's all good."

She watches the space where the elevator had been, Root's scream echoing in her head.

a

[ziedrich_bearer]

Heading out into a storm is foolish. Gladio knows this. He's done it a few times. Has seen how they can lure and trick you, how they seek to hurt you. And if he knows one thing, it's that people fall for it.

That's what he tells himself as he heads out into the weather. Not that he's actually sort of desperate for the brief, though fake, glimpses of people he loves and misses. People he's not sure he remembers the look of properly anymore. That's why he's out there.

But he's not alone. And this time it isn't a storm ghost he thinks. No, that looks like Shaw. Shaw who Gladio doesn't think has been here since the last storm. Shaw who won't know just what danger she's in.

HE starts toward her as she calls out toward what has to be a storm given apparition, ready to jump to tell her that it's not real. That they lead you toward danger.

Except it turns and shouts her name, then jumps at her. And there is gunfire.

Gladio curses and hits the ground. Who knows if it's real, but it could be. And that makes it dangerous. Damn the storm for robbing him of his shield. That thing could definitely turn bullets.

"Shaw!" he calls out, knowing he's echoing the vision she's seeing, but dammit, she's got to get to safety. They both do. "Shaw, keep your head down. It's not real. Probably."

[cactusy]

Not real, probably describes so much of her life for the past year and a half that she doesn't even question the phrasing. Her reactions, too, reflect that duality: she doesn't try reaching for her handgun, because she knows she doesn't have it here and she knows it wouldn't make a difference even if she did. But she also spread-eagles herself on top of the man who'd pulled her down - trying to shield him, even though she knows that won't make a difference, either.

"Amicitia," she gasps, turning her head to face him. "Stay low, don't get up. There's more coming."

[ziedrich_bearer]

"More?"

How could she know that? At least Gladio's reasonable enough not to test how real it is. He's been shot before. Not a fan. He is belly crawling toward her though.

"What's going on, Shaw?" he calls back, because any intel is good intel.

[cactusy]

"It's a memory," she says - and even though she hadn't fired back, she still hears the double thump-thump of the shooters' bodies hitting the floor. Now it's flash grenade time, and she preemptively ducks her head and covers hear ears. The little device sails through the air and lands next to them. It won't shoot off shrapnel - it's not that kind of grenade, but it sets off with an eye-searing flash of light and an ear-splittingly loud pop.

"You good?" she gasps to Gladio, as she rolls off of Cole's body.

[ziedrich_bearer]

Ah. That's fair. Memories here carry strange weight. He just didn't expect to run into one that was more active than the ghosts had been before.

The flashbang, though, that GLadio wasn't prepared for. They weren't really a thing back home that he had to deal with, so he was not prepared to deal with it. Rolling away from the thrown device isn't enough either. He's left on the ground, eyes closed as he groans in pain, hands over his ringing ears.

[cactusy]

Cole, as important as he is, isn't real - so she leaves him for a moment, crawling on hands and knees over to Gladio's side.

"Are you hurt?" she asks, looking him over.

[ziedrich_bearer]

See, here's the thing. Her ears are ringing so damn much that he can't even hear her question. He groans and lowers his hands, but that doesn't help. So when he opens his eyes, she's there. And he looks absolutely shocked. When the fuck did she show up?

"Shaw."

[cactusy]

"We should get out of here," Shaw tells him, and then Cole groans in pain behind her, and she suddenly goes still.

"That's gonna be tough," grunts Cole, hands going to the gunshot wound at his stomach, and it's not real, and it doesn't matter, but goddammit--

"You shouldn't have done that," she says, turning to help the dying man sit up. "I was a field agent, you dumbass; I can handle myself, and it got you killed."