009 ✞ [VIDEO] - Backdated to before the fog rolls in....

[unetrustworthy]

[Midii payed close attention to the Network.  Often.  She saw the conversation passing publicly between individuals.  Noticed the patterns occurring.  Such as the recent increase in people disappearing.  Possibly being sent home.  Coincidently, starting from soon after the Emperor had been killed, except Midii didn't think it was a coincidence.]

[But that wasn't why she came to the Network that day.]

[She had a different question in mind.  Something she had been wondering about more and more, with every conversation she carried here:]

What if...somebody doesn't want to go home?  

Could they make us?  Or would they let us stay?

[Hypothetically speaking, of course.]

[Only it wasn't hypothetical at all.]

Comments

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[washitaway]

[Booker understands. The only thing he has worth living for is Elizabeth. And she's far safer here than she ever was in Columbia, would ever be in a world where Comstock exists. This is the place for them. A chance to make a home together.]

I don't see why he'd have to do anything to keep us here.

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[unetrustworthy]

I don't either.

But I hear people talking. Some people think that we need magic to be able to stay. Like...we all come from different worlds, so we don't really belong here. But if the last Emperor were using magic to break the rules, then this one would have to keep breaking them, or else we would all go back.

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[washitaway]

I've been to different worlds before. It takes a lot of power to open up the doorway, but once it's done, it's done. No going back.

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[unetrustworthy]

You have? How?

[More magic?]

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[washitaway]

[Booker's face twists into something like distaste.]

Physics.

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[unetrustworthy]

[She...doesn't get the distaste.]

I don't understand.

What about physics?

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[washitaway]

Elizabeth knows more about it than me.

[The distaste comes from the fact that he doesn't understand it.]

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[unetrustworthy]

I don't think I know Elizabeth.

But if I happen to see her at some point, I'll remember to ask.

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[washitaway]

She's not here right now, or I'd get her. She reads a lot.

Or if the Luteces were still here. They're scientists.

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[unetrustworthy]

Luteces.

[She only barely registered the name.]

More people from your world, I'm guessing?

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[washitaway]

Yeah. The Luteces are gone now.

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[unetrustworthy]

...I'm sorry.

[Gone could mean anything from dead, to simply having returned home. Either way, it was a loss. Regardless of Booker's relationship to them, Midii felt the need to express her sympathies. They were from his world. He knew them. That was all that mattered.]

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[washitaway]

[He shrugs.]

I didn't know 'em very well. [It's only really upsetting in the reminder that the same could happen to him or Elizabeth.]

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[unetrustworthy]

Does it bother you, though? That they were sent back?

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[washitaway]

It bothers me that it could happen to anyone, whether they want to go back or not.

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[unetrustworthy]

['Me, too' although she was hesitant to admit her own worry so publicly. Especially to a stranger.]

That's why I asked.

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[washitaway]

[Booker nods.]

This place is better than anyplace else I've ever been. The people are better. I'm not gonna give it up without a fight.

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[unetrustworthy]

[She couldn't agree more. If it weren't for this ominous threat looming over them...and the perpetual confusion of some sort of magical presence...Keelai would be pretty perfect.]

Neither am I.

Though...I'm not really much of a fighter, myself. But I also won't give up so easily if there's anything I can do.

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[washitaway]

Sometimes there's more than one way to fight.

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[unetrustworthy]

I know.

[She seems to know a lot of things.]

Though I'm not sure I would call it fighting. Surviving, maybe. Helping. But not actually fighting.

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[washitaway]

That's the best anyone can ask, really.

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[unetrustworthy]

Maybe. Maybe not.

If bad things ever started happening here...well, I don't know. They brought me here for a reason, right? Unless it was just a mistake on the last Emperor's part.

[Another reason why Midii felt she had to be nervous about her continued presence here. How would she be able to earn her stay if she couldn't fight they way they expected her to?]

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[washitaway]

There's different kinds of ways to help. They don't all involve fighting and killing.

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[unetrustworthy]

I wouldn't mind if that's true. I just wish I knew what it was they wanted me to do.

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[washitaway]

Maybe that's something you should work out for yourself?