stardustly | au scenarios open post

Nia should've died the day she put Costia's head in a box at the end of my bed. [It was merely justice delayed. The real weakness was not Lexa agreeing with Clarke, it was her letting Azgeda and their Queen stomp and snarl like they were owed more than their due.

They were not.] You forget I have been here my entire life, at war my entire life.

[Lexa presses a soft kiss to Clarke's lips, it's only fleeting an attempt at comfort for her, or both of them maybe.]

A chip? The city of light... [That sounds damn familiar.] What does this chip look like?

[ A deep frown pulled at her lips and it took all his her willpower to not pull Lexa into a deeper and more passionate kiss. They really didn't have time but when did they? Things were always threatening to tear them apart and into pieces. ]

But this is a greater divide, Lexa. There's a lot of unrest with more of the clans.

[ Talk of the chip worried her more, though, and she quickly tried to describe it and the city of light. Little did she know that Raven had already started to help Jaha there at the capital, paving the way for him to enter. ]

Do you know anything about it?

You don't know that; you weren't here. [She points out. Skaikru hadn't even known life went on down on the ground until they got here themselves, they knew nothing of the struggles and infighting.

Lexa purses her lips slightly as she considers something.]

There has been scandal and the taste of war my entire reign, I have displeased them, always, because I am not them and I will not be bowed down or twisted around their fingers.

We will get through this, and if I do not make it the natblida's know what to do, Clarke. They will look after you and your people and assure our peace if I fail.

[They were just children, but she had been a child when her mantle was rested on her shoulders and for all the terror and blood she had caused, there was so much good, too. It was the way of the Commander.]

Could you draw it for me? Your paper and charcoals are over here... [She gets up, nearly stumbles but rights herself, taking in a sharp breath as she goes to get them.]

[ While she might not have been on the ground as long as Lexa, she existed there long enough to know how some things worked. She had been there long to see the decline and the raging wisps of oncoming war growing stronger and stronger. Soon enough, it would overcome everything they tried to build to counterbalance it all.

With a frown, she took a tiny step from Lexa, putting a little breathing room between them. ]

I've seen and have been involved in plenty, Lexa. I can see what is going on here and how quickly things can change.

[ The frown only deepened on her face. ] Don't say that. Nothing else is going to happen to you. [ The stumble had her quickly reaching out and grabbing for Lexa, taking the drawing materials from her. ] I told you to rest. You sit and I'll draw what I saw. Since I don't have the chip I don't know what the city looks like.

[ Sitting down, she quickly sketched it, showing it to Lexa. ]

You have seen terrible things. [She has done terrible things, just like Lexa had done when she first found herself in a position to lead. Sometimes, it was the only way but those first months dragged on like years. Aged her far more than the Spirit of the Commander ever could've.] But you haven't seen much.

[Truthfully, Clarke still barely knew anything about them. The basics, sure. War, clan, a fondness for making clothes out of rubble... but she didn't know their stories, their pasts, their love.]

I do not intend on dying, Clarke. But I also didn't intend on getting shot. It could happen. [She sits, though, happy enough for the excuse to do so and pulling her jacket tighter around her so Clarke won't notice the splotch of damp black on her shirt.

When Clarke draws this "chip", Lexa frowns, taking the drawing and staring at it.]

It bears the sacred symbol. [She turns, too quickly again, a sharp pain making her pale slightly as she pulls her hair up and over her shoulder and the back of her jacket down to reveal the large infinity tattoo on her neck, over a smaller, perfectly straight scar. An incision.] It looks like the flame... but in a different shape.

[ Over the past few months on the ground, Clarke learned plenty about the culture and customs but she knew there were still other things she didn't know. Probably some things she didn't want to know with the brutality she encountered in a personal way and with the rest of her people. As leaders, they were all marked, the fight taking on a whole new level to maintain survival. There were too many depending on them to fail.

Giving a nod of her head because she knew Lexa had a point, she turned more of her attention to the chips. They needed to figure things out before Jaha and the others had too much of a stronghold.

Moving forward, she ran her fingers over the mark and the incision. Did that mean - ]

Lexa. The flame might be the origin - the original chip. All of this might connect together.

[ Here was a point where she needed more information on grounders culture. ] What exactly does the flame do? The night blood connects with it but how.

[ With being closer to Lexa, she noticed a few things. ] You popped your stitches, I need to fix that and you need to rest. I mean it.

The flame holds the spirits of all previous Commanders, back to Bekka Pramheda. We are given it on the day of our ascension. [There's perhaps a little bit of annoyance in her tone at the idea that something so sacred could just be a "chip" that any old person could bear - she had fought and killed for the right to bear it at an age when she hadn't even been sure she wanted it.

Now Jaha was doing... something with something like the flame?] They have never shown me a city. Sometimes when I meditate or sleep, they advise me on things to come but never has there been a city. As for why natblida's, Titus says it kills those with red blood, finds them unworthy.

It is just a little blood. We must work this out first.

[ Oh, she heard the annoyance in Lexa's tone but couldn't do much about it at the moment with how many thoughts were running through her mind. Things were not adding up and she knew she needed to figure it all out quickly before more died or worse happened.

The first commander created the chip and night bloods to be the only ones to possess it. How were they made? A way to combat the environment? Those left behind needed to way to survive and if Lexa still connected with them it had to be with the chip. Lexa's chip had to be the main and all the others hooked in with it. Would others see what Lexa witnessed?

The first commander must have been a scientist and created a pool of subjects. ]

If you collapse from blood loss, it won't help anything. I'm thinking about this. Can you access what you see with the flame anytime? Maybe you can ask them. They might know what jaha is doing. Who is helping him.

But sit first. You cannot move so wildly.

I will not collapse. [Somedays, it seemed like Lexa was intent on bending the world to her will just by words alone. Today is certainly one of those days. Azgeda would not attack her, Jaha would not win, Lexa herself would not fall to a wound inflicted on her by her own flamekeeper.]

I remember all I have seen... but they come to me when I meditate, or dream, as I said. [It had always been this way for her, but...] Legend says that the other Heda's, back in the time nearer to Praimfaya could talk freely with Becca and those who came before them. I have not found that to be the case.

[She purses her lips slightly.] They have opinions, though. On me. On the Coalition. On us.

[ with more time, Clarke knew she could figure more things out and take it all easier, especially with Lexa but they needed to hurry and uncover the information before Jaha had more influence. He had such a terrible power at his hands and she knew Lexa connected to it somehow but she didn't want to possibly offend her and her beliefs either. ]

Wait, what opinions? [ her forehead scrunched up as a million different thoughts crashed through her mind. ]

Can anyone else see what you see when you meditate?

Unless you have divined a way to see into my mind, no. It is only ever me and them.

[She pauses, then, looking at Clarke and quite certain she wants to spit something out but won't. Perhaps love was a weakness, only of a different kind than Titus or Gustus had ever meant.]

They think you distract me. [They weren't exactly wrong, but Lexa felt stronger with Clarke by her side, uplifted not broken.] That I would save you and doom myself.

[ the sharpness of the words and the implications behind them did not phase Clarke as they probably should have but she did not want to dwell too long.

We must not be distracted now, Lexa. We have to figure out what Jaha is using and how to stop him. Azgeda is another problem. They're going to claim you weak.

[ would they demand a battle for the title? She had a sinking feeling about so much. ]

We need all the information you can get from them.

I am not distracted. I am simply telling you what you wished to know.

Azgeda has always thought me weak. It is why they killed Costia, because she was mine. [But Lexa wasn't weak, she did not crumble under her own suffering but push forward harder, stronger.]

I will try to find out - but Clarke, whatever he has done now they may not know. It has been a long time since Becca. [Still, she pulls away and sits a little apart from Clarke, her steps and breath still uneven as if caught by surprise by the littlest of movements. Eventually, she closes her eyes and tries to focus.]

[ concern filtered through her eyes and she wished she knew of another way to obtain the information they needed. Putting Lexa at risk hurt her deeply but she would make sure she rested afterwards.

Breath hitching in her throat, she tried to not think of azgeda or the thousands of other things causing issues for them. ]

Take it easy, Lexa and see of there is anything on the city of light.

[ she wished she could have a look at the chip and try to figure out how everything connected together.

She also didn't want to think about having to leave, either with or without Lexa. ]

Edited 2017-12-30 16:40 (UTC)

[Even with her eyes closed, Lexa doesn't need any flame or "chip" to know that Clarke is staring after her worried. She was going to tire herself out before Lexa did, and no amount of telling her to stop it would help. They trained their children different on the ark. They were not prepared for such conflicts and so it made them jitter like a foal in its first storm.

With a sigh, Lexa forces her mind still. She focuses not on Clarke and her unsteady, almost quietly terrified breath but on the wind outside her bedroom, on the sigh of the old stone of her tower. She lets her mind drift until Clarke's presence is a mere afterthought.

It's here, somewhere in the stillness that Lexa has always found the others. Sometimes they are clear, like standing face to face; other times they are shadows, foreboding, lurking.

Today there is only one she wants. Becca Primheda. She is the one who would know about this City of Light and Jaha's chips, if any of them would. Or maybe the second Heda might... but technology and the knowledge of it had fallen to the wayside as the mountain had stirred, as people split into warring clans and simply surviving life as it became more necessary than remembering whatever had come before the great fire.

This is where she belongs, in the quiet, in the sureness... in the grief hidden behind withdrawn expressions as she passed them. It was like a great hall, or was it a winding staircase like one that might wrap around the tower? It doesn't matter. Lexa can feel her, somewhere deep within the flame. She has no doubt Becca is there, she has heard her speak before though she is quieter than the rest.

Eventually, she finds her, the room is suddenly white. Lexa is clean, her hair flows freely over her shoulders, over garb she does not recognise and there Becca is before her once more.

There is no need for words in this place, Becca knows her every thought just as well as any of the others. And eventually, Becca begins to explain and maybe it's the chip - because gods know Lexa doesn't know most of these words or what they mean but she retains it all, or most at least. She retains that sense of what Becca is saying, what memory she drags up from the flame, old and unsteady but ever present.

Eventually, Lexa opens her eyes.]

Becca Primheda says that it is A.L.I.E., an AI she created... She says that this is how the world ended the first time. The flame, too, is an AI. Different. It does not control me, nor the world like the first got into everything to try to end humanity's suffering. [There's a sharp formalness, almost alien-quality to Lexa's tone as she tries to perfectly recite what she has been told, certain Clark will make more sense of it than she can and equally certain she never signed up for whatever an "AI" was.]

She supposes that the City of Light is some kind of Uplink, like the space in which I speak to Heda's who came before me, only without an opt out. Perhaps even without the concept of pain. An attempt to follow the original orders that were taken too literally even then. But A.L.I.E. has had a lot of time since Becca, so. [Could be wrong.]

...what is an AI?

[ carefully focused eyes watched Lexa with an unwavering intensity that followed. She knew of the gist of what Lexa meant with connecting to the others via the flame but she still did not want to take any chances and have something go wrong. The weakness from the bullet wound made her less inclined to let Lexa attempt anything but they needed information and she couldn't very well head back to the camp to find answers. Pike would likely adore using her as an example or bait if given half the chance to.

Letting out a sigh, she worked on fortifying the room, talking in hushed whispers with Murphy. They planned for him to sneak out and find Octavia to gather news for them. Normally, she would have suggested Bellamy but she did not know where he currently stood with everything. The issues with Pike made her question everything she once knew about her group.

He left a little before Lexa pulled out of the trance like state and began to talk. The confirmation of both devices being AIs made everything else she feared click into place. Great. As if they didn't have enough issues already to contend with. ]

An AI stands for artificial intelligence. It's something based in technology but is human like. It blends the two things together. That's what makes it so dangerous.

[ There were more things to it but she didn't want to overwhelming Lexa with information, especially when details weren't too important. ]

If there is an uplink that means there is a way to shut it down. If that's true and it takes wills away - Jaha could form an army against us. We wouldn't be able to stop the inflicted without - [ She really didn't want to finish that sentence and before she even could a banging started and lots of yelling.

There were plenty who wanted to assume the commander throne and Clarke had to wonder if that was one of the sources to the conflicts she kept hearing. ]

We can't stay here. It isn't safe and I need to get to some computer.

[To Lexa there was nothing artificial about the flame, save, perhaps, that you were not born with it but inherited it only after a great loss. She rubs gently at the scar on the back of her neck, trying to think. It was Becca Primheda who says these things and so it cannot be a lie but it sends everything she has ever known spinning off its axis.

Swallowing the vague wave of nausea at the thought Lexa looks at Clarke.]

Killing them. [It's the same thought that Lexa has expressed time and time again, much to Clarke's distaste but sometimes it was the way of things. Lexa pushes herself to her feet, her wound still leaks the black blood but she makes for her armour and weapons regardless. She has extras she can toss to Clarke.]

We do not have computers, Clarke, and Azgeda destroyed the mountain. [Arkadia was out of the question as well. Lexa's breath is sharp as she bends to grab something.]

Were it only that you could trade me for Becca then perhaps we might have a plan, I have no skills with the weapons you need to fight this. [That girl, Raven, she might - though Lexa had her tortured and doubted that would be overlooked. Hrm.]

[ Killing them. The ease in which Lexa stated it unnerved Clarke but for the time being she kept it to herself, knowing they needed to focus on plenty of other things. They needed to make quick decisions and hopefully ones with the fewest casualties. Clarke refused to have violence be the answer if it did not have to be.

Sighing the Lexa moved again, she walked over to check the wound. ]

You need to rest until we leave here. It won't help if you pass out from blood loss!

[ She did try to help with the armor, though, nudging Lexa back to the bed. ] When you're given the flame is it in a certain room? That might help us.

[ Even the mere suggestion of losing Lexa made Clarke sick and she shook her head hard. Lexa meant everything to her, didn't she know it by now. ] You're what I need. We will figure this out together. I - love you, Lexa. Don't - plan anything reckless, please.

I will not pass out. [It's said with a bit of bite, maybe because she's had some time of Murphy putting her back to bed like she's a sick toddler, or maybe it's that things feel a lot more urgent now than they had not long before.

Maybe it's the nausea of her whole life possibly being for nothing.]

There is a temple beneath the tower. [She says, letting Clarke back her up until her legs hit the bed. There is no time for this foolishness or worrying about her mortality, hadn't Clarke said as much herself?] It is where Titus keeps all his information, the sacred things.

[Titus who had served her for years, who told her she was unique, Titus who had tried to get her to kill Clarke and when she failed had tried to kill Clarke himself, resulting nearly in Lexa's own death.

Her hands catch at Clarke's and when she says I love you, that soft disbelief returns to her eyes, a fine tremor in her hands that has nothing to do with blood loss.]

I love you too. [She had tripped over it the day they stumbled into her bed, replacing it with something else but Clarke surely knew what she meant. Still, the brush with death makes her want to say it clearly now, at least once.]

[ The biting tone did not really hurt her feelings since she knew there were a lot of things for Lexa to deal with at the moment, including a bitter betrayal. The truth about the flame and the chips wouldn't help either but Clarke didn't have much time to they and soften the blows for her even if she wished she could. More than anything else, she wanted to protect Lexa from everything.

Nodding about the temple, her eyes lingered on Lexa's neck, wondering about the objective with the city of lights. Did Alie just want to take over people? What could be the end result for her? ]

What I need will probably be there. If -

[ The returned words stalled anything else she might have said and carefully surging forward, she pressed a kiss to Lexa's lips. ]

I'm going to help you get this armor on just in -- then I'm going to the temple to see what I can find. You stay here, rest and I'll come back for you. Then we'll get out of here together, okay?

[The kiss is almost enough to distract her. It certainly makes her smile, a brief flicker of warmth in her otherwise confused, hurt gaze.

She raises a brow at Clarke, wondering if she would even know what to find.]

I could go down just as easily as you, it is not stairs after all. [She reminds Clarke, though considering who has been bedridden and who hasn't, it's likely Clarke has been up and down the tower more than she has in days.] Do what you must, but if you are gone for long I will come find you even if I have to climb down.

[ After one last lingering kiss, Clarke made her way out of Lexa's chambers, her heart pounding so painfully in her chest the entire walk down to the temple. It took her a little longer with how often she had to duck and evade anyone wandering around. There were a lot of things happening and nearly too quickly to keep up with. What if they weren't able to get out of the city?

No. Lexa would have to know something and plenty of secret passageways.

Finally, after what seemed like so long, she entered into the temple, finding it oddly vacant. It unnerved her but she quickly moved around, trying to find any clues and she did she ever. The thirteenth station rested before her very eyes, her breath catching in her throat.

It meant things were established since the beginning and it gave her confirmation on nightbloods being scientific in nature.

Grabbing a few things, she rushed back to Lexa. ]

We need to go. Now.

[In spite of herself, Lexa is half asleep again when Clarke's ever noisy steps stir her, a bag with weapons and tools on her lap, perhaps a few tiny sentimental trinkets tucked into her pockets. Blinking, her green eyes look wider and younger without the war paint. A girl, not a commander, woken from her rest.]

Did you find what you were looking for? [She rises to her feet, still unsteady but willing herself past it.]

[ The sight of Lexa had her heart clenching painfully in her chest and she only wanted to lay both of them down, curl carefully around Lexa to allow for her to heal but they couldn't. At least, not here.

They had Pike to worry about, the chips and the uprising for a new Commander. Lexa hadn't died, of course, but they would see the wound as a weakness. ]

I did. We can talk more later. I'm going to get us somewhere safe, okay?

[ Gathering the things from Lexa's arms, she wrapped an arm around her to try and ease them slowly out and away from the tower. ]

[More than part of Lexa wants to argue, she is the Commander, she does not run. Not from her home, her seat of power. Polis was too much to abandon, it was the jewel of her people. A sign that with prosperity they could be more.

Yet she knows she could be killed easily in any fight, and had she not nearly died from a betrayal from within her closest circle of trust?

So she straightens herself up, takes one last regretful look at her room and moves over to Clarke, letting her lead them out.]

I know a place.

Edited 2018-03-14 15:19 (UTC)

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