BABY WE WERE BORN TO RUN

[maskormods]

WHO: EVERYONE
WHERE: THE STREETS OF THE CITY
WHEN: Duration of the event
WHAT: PRISONER TRANSPORT/RESCUE
WARNINGS: Violence and language likely
OOC NOTES: This is a starter log to help kick off the event. Feel free to use or post your own!

The transport process isn’t a fun one. Captured Metas are outfitted with power-nullifying handcuffs and collars, chained into the back of a heavily armored prison transport vehicle. Normally there’s a huge procession that goes alone with this: more back up vehicles, overhead support, government loyal metals in every vehicle. But this rush of new arrivals has pushed the system to its limits- there’s never been a need to accommodate more than a specific number of known Metas. It has the guards in the vehicles on edge, jumpy as they try to navigate through the City without the usual back up. And it’s a strain the resistance is more than ready to push to the breaking point.

In addition to transporting new arrivals to their reprogramming, there are the already-present Meta prisoners that must still be shuffled around, causing a mix of old and new in the vehicles. And irresistible targets for liberation for the resistance groups. When the transport is hit, which will the new Metas side with? Your captors you may still be able to gain a comfortable life working with? Or the rebellion fighting their way into the vehicle?

Comments

[drivesadesk]

Cut him up like a piece of meat...his eyes widen, his breath quickens, remembering what he went through. Quickly, he puts his mask back on, hiding his face and turning away to watch outside the transport for a few moments. He is supposed to be keeping an eye on things after all.

After a long silence, he says, "At least you know the consequences."

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

“Yeah,” Jacob says, words tight and bitter. “Looks like that makes two of us.”

He squints at Jonathan’s mask, trying to see the man he once knew there.

“You really don’t remember me, do you?” He says sadly.

[drivesadesk]

"No. Sorry. I knew a lot of people back in my resistance days. Sometimes it all blurs together."

He's assuming he must have known this guy from the resistance, anyway. Really he has no idea.

"No offense."

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

“Figures you used to resist this,” Jacob says with a nod. “You did the same thing in your home world. Turned against the Reptilian invasion, stopped abducting humans. Do you remember that?”

Forgetting Jacob himself could just be Porter bullshit. But if Jonathan has forgotten his own universe and history, that’s a sign of something much worse.

[drivesadesk]

Wait, he didn't already know that Jonathan used to be in the resistance? But that means...

"Yeah, yeah of course I remember that. But if you think I can just turn away from this like I did with that, then you clearly don't know what kind of situation is going on here. But then, you don't know, do you? You didn't know I used to be part of the resistance. And other than this recent batch of imPorts, no one new's been brought in for the last six years, and anyone else who knew me well enough to know about my homeworld would have known that. That means you're one of the new metas that were just brought in."

Yeah, he wasn't keeping track of which prisoners were from the new batch, and which were recently captured resistance members. There were just too many being brought in now, especially since the new metas were bringing resistance members who wanted to save them out of the woodword.

"Where do you know me from?"

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

All right. At least he remembers where he came from. Jacob can work with that, hopefully. But first, he needs information about what the hell he has been thrown into.

“You’re right, I am new,” he admits, leaning back as best he can in the transport’s seat. “New here, at least. But I was an imPort in another universe- with you. One without all this bullshit.”

He pauses meaningfully for a moment.

“We were friends there. We fought side-by-side. Not for or against the government, but for what we chose.”

[drivesadesk]

"Sounds nice," says Jonathan in a dismissive tone. "But that's not how things work here, so unless you have a way back to that universe, it really doesn't matter."

He turns toward Jacob, taking a step closer. "Here you fight for what the government tells you to fight for. And if you don't...you'll be locked up and tortured until everyone has forgotten about you except for the government, and your only way out is to agree to do whatever they say."

He looks away again, glancing to the outside of the vehicle, just to check on things.

"It's a rough transition, but you'll get used to it."

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

"What if I told you there was a way to that universe?" Jacob says, lifting his chin. "Not through the Porter. But by changing this one."

He can't gesture with his hands tied, so he kind of points with his chin at the transport containing them both.

"Back there, we fought people who wanted to make a world like this one. And we won. It's possible - I've seen it happen."

[drivesadesk]

He laughs. This guy...clearly doesn't know how bad things are here.

"Wow, that is so amazingly cheesy and naive. You're adorable, I love it. And I'm sorry, I tried that here. Didn't work. I try that again, I just get tortured for who knows how long. Again. That's not a risk I can take."

[darkpants_warmfeeling]

Jacob shakes his head. He is not laughing.

"Every day you spend working for this is a day you're sending other people to go through the exact same thing you went through," he says quietly. "Can you really just keep living with that? Because the Jonathan I knew couldn't."

He'd refused to go along with evil before. Jacob has to believe he can do it again.

[drivesadesk]

He sighs and looks away.

"What other choice is there? Let you go, where you'd just get captured and dragged back by other enforcers, and in the mean time I get dragged down and go back to..."

He trails off. He can't go back there again. He's terrified of what they'd do to him if he ends up needing to be reprogrammed again. He looks back at Jacob, panic clear in his voice.

"I can't go back there."