I'll undo what time has done [OPEN]

[futilecycle]

Who | Sigma Klim, Initiate Fraysong, Zombie Not(?) Diana, and you!
What | Sigma finds the zombie version of his lover, and is killed by her.
When | Week 4
Where | Lurking about the Arena.
Notes/Warnings | Sigma's death is closed to the Initiate, but the rest of the log is open! All confrontations, from attackers to allies, welcome. Warning for zombie-related violence. And as before, Sigma and his lover have a significant age difference, so steer clear if you are bothered by that.



The warnings hadn't made it any easier.

After speaking with Homura, Sigma had not been granted the time to brace himself for his zombified companion. There was hardly a delay between meetings before the tall young woman appeared from the fog... her orange hair shone even in the dim light, her dress was torn from clambering over debris, her braids had spilled from their hairpins and were beginning to unravel at the ends. Sigma dared to hope, for a fraction of an instant, that she were Luna, Diana's oil-and-steel twin who could not succumb to physical pain or illness. Once Sigma made out her head lolling back and forth between every step, arms swinging as if to clear the fog, his worst fears were realized.

His voice betrayed all of the weakness he had tried to bottle up. Whatever the Capitol had done with her had been ineffably cruel, but nothing even compared to the disgrace of returning a woman who had already survived two death games to the Arena. Sigma could hardly believe she was capable of moving. "Di..."

She did not look at him. Starting towards her at last, Sigma held his breath as he met his lover, too appalled to speak. She was a dead ringer for a patient infected with Radical-6, and Sigma wondered if that is where the gamemakers got the idea; infecting the woman who destroyed the world with the very virus she had released was the ultimate insult. Her pink lips parted to release a groan, and in response Sigma raised a hand to secure a strand of her hair behind her ear, inadvertently smearing her cheek with mud. For the first time since the Arena began, it dawned upon him just how disgusting he was...

He stood there in disbelief, tears parting clear lines in the filth caked on his face. He unfroze a long while after, kissing her on the forehead tenderly before taking her by the hand. Enough. They had to go.

Sigma began to lead his lover carefully forward, patiently waiting as she stumbled through every step. Soon it became difficult for the dazed woman to even keep upright, and Sigma curled an arm behind her back and another beneath her knees to sweep her into his arms. To the cyborg she weighed next to nothing, yet Sigma refused to carry her upon his back, slung over his shoulders as if she were a corpse. This way, it was easiest for him to pretend that they had never left the Rhizome, that she were falling asleep in his arms after a long day of study. That they were still lovers and nothing else, not even the extinction of the rest of their kind, mattered at all.

Yet they were vulnerable. With his arms tied up, Sigma could not fight back against the threats that would cross their path, but there was no way he was leaving her behind. Even if she were a clone of herself (which Sigma knew was entirely possible), it seemed wrong to disrespect her memory so; one did not leave the body of a loved one to the wolves. And so Sigma began to stomp forward, hatred blooming in his eyes, prepared to rip whomever approached him to pieces with his teeth if he must.

He needed to find the Initiate, immediately. He'd know how to keep her safe...

Comments

[carnagecarnival]

When Sigma finds him, it will be on the road, moving past the abandoned homes. His paint is smeared some, as it often get by this time. His teeth are grit. Gamzee is on his back, head on his shoulder. And the Initiate drags a leg that's bent just a bit wrong.

His head is spinning fast again. He knew the calm what all he'd found was temporary. It could only be such. He keeps trying to beat back what he's just walked away from-- corpses, The Signless, how motherfucking badly he's fucked everything up. He's walking away from Signless, trying to leave behind a motherfucker what ain't ever going to leave him as long as he lives (he knew, the Neophyte had spilled that to him, culling all the followers, erasing them, a full fucking obsession no one else understood). Leaving behind the one troll what had given a damn once all over. And it's sunk in now, everyone who's watching will know. He feels like he's been scraped raw.

It's making it harder and harder to focus. He needs a place to stop, where he can tend to Gamzee-- and his own self too he guesses. He needs a place of grounding.

And then he spots Sigma, relief going through him, lifting his expression for a split second.

And then he spots Diana.

His face falls, turning bitter. His eyes close and he curses, "Motherfucking dammit." His eyes open and he sighs. It's a slow go, dragging himself along, but eventually he'll get there.

"HER TOO," He says, flatly.

[futilecycle]

Sigma loses what he is certain is the last of his hope as he finds the Initiate and Gamzee. Diana was one thing, but Gamzee was still a child - and with the Initiate's leg broken the way it is, Sigma registers the pain himself, like a parent empathizing with their child's injury. He stiffens a moment before remembering himself.

"...Her, too," he admits quietly. His cybernetic eye has not yet left her. Sigma twitches, as raring to kill as the Initiate has ever been, his ability to care for anything but his own eroded. Temper on a hair-trigger, he needs sleep as badly as the Initiate needs treatment. "...Homura had a guest, as well. It seems we are not the only ones burdened." He is in love, but he is honest. "No doubt there is mass confusion. We may have the time to rest..." Nodding towards the Initiate's leg, Sigma readjusts his grip on Diana's body and prepares to move again. He hopes the other has some idea of where they could find shelter, as the places Sigma had hidden suited not a child nor a lady.

[carnagecarnival]

He understands Sigma's movements, his expression. Truth told, it sets old instincts alight, telling him to flee before Sigma enters a proper blood-rage for the harm done and he gets culled as casualty of not getting out of the way. He's amazed Sigma's so composed. Even a proper troll knows that to touch a quadrant means to bring the quadrantmates down like holy fire.

A descendant not so much; he doesn't know anything about descendants except that the Empress culled all her challengers, and other trolls just... left possessions hidden, he thinks it was said, so that they might carry on duties passed after death. Speaking of Heiresses...

"Saw her. LITTLE FISH. And her champion. HE WARNED OF THINGS TO COME."

He catches Sigma's nod to his leg. In the same instant he wants to do just that; rest. But he is a troll and he is a prideful one.

"Ain't bad as seeming. MY KIND, WE'RE STRONG. Could knock out his teeth, they would grow back. HE'S BROKEN THIS BEFORE. He can heal." But that all said and done, he looks around him. "STREET THERE AIN'T NO GOOD. Motherfucker gone pan-crazed and taking over. HAD PLACE IN CARNIVAL, SAFE AND CUT THE FUCK OFF." Which he'd left, for nearness to the orchard, some kind of food that could be squashed down in attempt to feed. "S'far as being from here now. COULD MAKE IT BACK EVENTUAL ENOUGH." But. He is not so prideful he ain't tired. "There are hives about what can be made use. HE CAN STILL FIGHT AND CULL THOSE WHAT DARE. Gamzee don't get in the way." Gamzee doesn't do anything.

He's glad that Sigma doesn't ask. Sigma doesn't question his want to keep Gamzee around, doesn't point out that Gamzee ain't got use as for nothing but cullbait and he doesn't tell him that he should put Gamzee down.

[futilecycle]

To question the Initiate's decision to keep Gamzee alive would be a threat to Diana's presence, as well; Sigma knows neither of them have a justifiable reason for lugging around such dead weight. Instead the Doctor listens to the Initiate's explanation of his territory with his head raised, tensed, as if sniffing for blood. His words are sudden and sharp.

"Let's try for it, then. If your injury is not as bad as you say, we should be able to make it." Sigma has no patience for anything less than honesty. "The two of us together should be able to stave off any Tribute, even in our condition. Nevertheless, let us hurry." He is more than grateful for the Initiate's help, but fears if he thanked him, all of his weaknesses would tear loose. Instead, Sigma turns his back abruptly and begins to head in the direction of the Carnival. He 'shares' one last glance with the limp woman in his arms, and smiles a smile reserved only for her, reassuring and warm. He would try and similarly convince Gamzee that they would be safe, but he is much more practiced at lying to his lover than to a child.

[carnagecarnival]

He nods, firm and resolute. His pain tolerance is extremely high. He's made it this far with his leg, he can go further. He will go further because he has Gamzee on the line now, and Sigma has his own. He avoids thinking what it means that they both have people. They can't both get Capitol to repair their family or quadrants in his case, but he will not consider the meaning that comes of that.

and the Initiate sees, just as he did before, that Sigma truly pities this woman. Might even choose her over other things. But he understands. The same would fall if he had a matesprit he pitied. It still falls with Gamzee, who ain't even supposed to mean a thing to him, but does. But he is even less accustomed to looks of reassurance. He ain't exactly had many what to do so for.

So he trudges forward. He drags leg, keeping his breath steady and not daring to allow a shudder. Until he can't no more and he gasps, even if it be quiet. They've gotten a decent ways but he still looks from the house to Sigma.

"HAVE FOOD IN MY PACK. Been crushing up the fruit for him. DON'T EAT OTHERWISE. But with that it be something up at motherfucking least," He says. He tells himself it ain't an excuse to rest, as he nods his horns to the hive at their side with creaky looking stairs.