Bastion: At the end of the universe.

Demiurge
Look at us, coming up on the end of this thing. A couple of notes before we begin.

1: There is a potential for harm to come to your characters in this scene. However, I will probably be handling combat (if it happens) in a cinematic fashion.

2: Going along with the above, this is not so much a 'roll dice at things until you win' kind of scenario. It's more about how your characters react to and choose to influence the story. (And there isn't necessarily a right or wrong way to do things.)

3: As always, have fun! And if you have any questions, feel free to let me know.

Demiurge
Given a different set of circumstances (if people's lives were not at risk, if Maddoc hadn't been killed as he had... if Lena were still with them) this place might have been an ideal getaway for a young Virtual Adept and an Etherite. The station had a sparse, meditative beauty to its architecture, and looking out into the glittering darkness of space tended to make one contemplate the vastness of the universe and one's place in it. The people here were perhaps not as Utopian minded as the people of Sulis, but they had an expansiveness of thought and imagination that made even the elderly among them seem young at heart. And there was certainly something freeing about being in the midst of so many like-minded individuals. Of not having to hide their thoughts or their abilities.

They didn't even call it 'magic' here. It was simply a part of every day life. Of the connection each of them had to the greater tapestry of creation. Mind over matter. The evolution of human thought.

They were so far out, here. The last bastion of human civilization before the uncharted territories of deep space. How far had Patience and Grace traveled to get here? Further, likely, than they realized. And they were close... so close to the end. So close that there was nowhere left for them to jump to.

And yes, the station was beautiful. And there were many sights and experiences to be had. Perhaps in this they would find some measure of joy or peace. Or perhaps, so close to the end with no obvious path, they would find themselves once again facing down the frustration of an impeded goal. This Bastion was not an end, but rather something of a way-station. A calm before the storm, perhaps.

After Patience awoke in the med-bay, Atreyu was kind enough to offer the mages a place to stay in his small apartment. His flight training kept him busy most days, which left Patience and Grace to explore their surroundings on their own. But today was a rare day off for the pilot-in-training, and some time after lunch he'd asked if the two women would like to go flying with him. They were sitting at a table in a casual diner beneath a blanket of stars, and Atreyu was swallowing the last of his noodles when the thought occurred to him.

"I think I could probably get permission to take a ship out, if you're interested. It's pretty amazing, being out there. Kind of lonely, but... I don't know, I thought maybe you'd be getting sick of wandering around the colony by now."

Patience
Bastion was the closest place to ideal that Patience could have hoped for, the people here were enlightened, they worked their own form of etheric science and they were open and understanding enough that her particular quirks meant nothing to them, just another offering of uniqueness in an already amazing universe.

She spent much of her time wandering the station, learning of its technical nature and how it survived the harsh environment that was the deep umbra, there were after all terrifying things which lurked in those benighted depths and so such a station would have to be a brilliant point of light in the dark.

Beyond that she considered the way forward, talking to Grace about their potential destinations, perhaps they needed to venture into the wilds of deep space? Or maybe the station itself, or maybe even Atreyu held the key to saving their friends and freeing themselves from this simulated universe.

Of course...she also kept an eye out for those who looked like those who had gone missing, watching for Sid, Kalen and the others.

When Atreyu offered to take them out Patience had been sipping on whatever drink was available here, drinking it down slowly, pleasantly, as she likely had no need to worry about contaminants [Roman water was anything but clean]. His suggestion is considered for a moment, before Patience looked over at Grace before nodding.

"Affirmative confirmation of your hypothesized movational intentions and action plan Atreyu, Such use of temporal unit allocation would be acceptable at this direct particular junction."

Grace
Grace has been doing the rounds of Bastion these past few days, looking for answers in the computer. She talks to people and she tries not to give too much away (after all, what happened the last time they casually mentioned coming from earth?) She's found it's easier to ask Bastion for things than try to use the holographic interface. By the time Bastion figures out what she wants by the neural feedback, the answer appears (whether or not the question was keyed in correctly, or what have you.)

It's almost like the perfect hack-blocking technique, if you have to ask an intelligent 'person' to do your computing for you, whether or not they are a computer in themselves. The only input is thought. And crafting a thought that might break defenses down would be noted before it became an issue.

Of course, she tries not to dwell too much on such things. Those thoughts are being listened to after all, unless she makes some concerted effort to block it.

All that being unsaid, it is a nice place. Nicer even than Sulis. Removed from the need for precious resources, these people apparently don't need war either, unless she's totally missing something. It's not easy to make a complete judgement of a society in a matter of a week.

"I think we should go with you wherever you go, actually. Don't want you to get dragged off and have to save you again," Grace mentions, rather casually (and with her mouth half full of noodles).

Demiurge
Atreyu wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and regarded Grace more somberly for a moment. There seemed to be a flicker of some kind of recognition in his eyes. A memory that both was and wasn't his - that he perhaps wasn't sure what to do with.

"I don't think there's anything out there but the stars."

But Grace and Patience agreed to go, so Atreyu took a final drink of water and stood up, nodding to the server who'd brought them their food. "Thanks Asha."

They knew each other, these two. Had, in fact, been making somewhat less-than-covert eyes at each other periodically since the group's arrival. The girl just smiled at him and looked away, occupying herself with arranging another table's order. Then Atreyu led the way out, waiting for the others to finish their food before taking them to the nearest elevator. From there, it was up... and up... and up.

All the way to the top of the station, where the airfield lay. Whatever permissions Atreyu needed to secure, he did it silently on the elevator ride up. So when they reached their destination, the doors opened before them unimpeded.

The top level of the station stretched out wide and open before them. Rows of docked ships of various different varieties, along with other vehicles and machinery. White lights marked the open roads and landing strips, and above them, a massive transparent dome offered a clear view of the sky.

Just standing out there was impressive enough. (Have you ever wanted to stand in the middle of space? Look up and see infinity stretching out above you?)

Atreyu led them toward an area where a bunch of smaller space-jets were located. Most of these had little symbols painted on them - a remnant of an old military tradition, though these ships were far from military in nature. One of them had a long, white dragon painted above the left wing. As they approached, the lights in the cockpit flipped on, and the ship came to life.

"Hey Falcor," Atreyu grinned as he ran his hand affectionately over the hull.

Patience
If there was an observation deck for the airfield, then Patience had been there, seeing interplanetary ships both at berth and setting out into the unknown would simply be to great a temptation for the woman to avoid, and she likely spent a fair bit of time [more then she should have] in such a place.

But now that they had made it to the actual dock, and passed amongst the ships both great and small Patience simply stared raptly as they passed each ship in turn. She'd likely slow them down in truth, stopping to take in the whole length of each ship in turn, wanting to memorize the details, the structural specifics of each. Perhaps she wanted those data points for her own plans? Or...more then likely she was just a really big fan of ships in general.

When they reached the ship that was obviously Atreyu's she took it in with equal interest, the size of a ship obviously meaning nothing in the grand scheme to the etherite. She studied it for a long moment, obviously noting the white dragon emblem which was obviously similar to the creatures they had encountered on Sulis. But then she heard the name, and Patience blinked, curiosity spread across her features before she asked.

"To what particular attribute or idiosyncratic nature of this direct movational atmospheric pressurization hull and catalyst based drive system do you align your chosen index and reference handle Atreyu?"

Grace
Grace has been to the places she's allowed to go on the station. She's been looking for something or someone. Perhaps a clue, perhaps a door inscribed with an ouroboros? It's hard to say. But she's never been allowed access to the airfield before, and wouldn't risk trying to hack Bastion to get there.

The station is filled with windows displaying the stark beauty of space, but nothing like this. It's hard not to imagine that she's really floating, weightless and serene in the deep dark, without a station in the way. It's a wonder she doesn't run into anything, with her head pointed straight up as she walks inside.

She's still looking up when she answers Patience. "Falcor. Luck dragon. When we get back to Denver, I'll make sure you understand the significance."

It's then that she looks at Falcor for the first time, noting the dragon symbol, and giving a little smirk. Just a small ghost of a smile it is; Grace hasn't smiled much since leaving Sulis.

Demiurge
Atreyu grinned when Patience asked him about the ship. He patted the wing lightly and said, "He picked it himself, actually."

And then a voice resonated in their minds - a low, warm rumble of humor. "Do you fancy yourselves lucky today, my friends?"

The voice did not belong to Bastion. Or if it did, this was a new iteration. The ship seemed to have a jovial disposition, but Atreyu reacted to the question with silence, and the shadow of a frown drew across his face. His eyes glistened darkly in the light reflected from the cockpit window, but whatever he was thinking, he didn't speak it aloud.

(Some people called this place the edge of the universe.)

(It felt as though they were near the end. Of what? A story?)

There were other people out here. Pilots bringing ships into the docking area. Cleanup and maintenance crews. But most of them were a fair distance away from where Atreyu stood with Grace and Patience. And as they all contemplated the nature of luck and fate and stories, the air around them seemed to go oddly still. There'd been a breeze before - likely a product of whatever air-filtering technology they used. But then... nothing.

The air was cold. When Atreyu exhaled, you could see his breath.

He felt it before it made a sound. All of them did. And for Grace and Patience, the sensation would be all-too familiar. Like being hunted.

Vigilant. Lethal. Relentless.

Atreyu whipped around and peered out into the shadows of the slumbering ships. Standing beside one of them in the next row (across the open tarmac) was a massive white wolf. It looked different than it had that night when they'd entered Bastion. This version was sleek and ghostly, and it glowed as though its body was made of electric current. One of its eyes still glowed red, though. And it was unmistakably the same creature.

When it stepped forward, it growled, and the current of electricity running through its new form sparked and crackled.

"Did you think you could escape me? Did you think I would not find you here?"

Patience
The arrival of the beast, the guardian program...was sadly no surprise to Patience. She had expected this, had feared it in truth after witnessing what had befallen their comrade. A program such as it could travel to any part of the system in which it existed to seek its prey, they had simply been lucky to escape its tracing program for so long.

Its arrival and the cold void which it brought with it made Patience grimace, her hands clenching at her side as she wished for a laser rifle or any kind of weapon which would prove lethal to this program. Her eyes flickered to Falcor and she wondered if they would issue a ship to a pilot in training that was equipped with weapons.

"Atreyu, is Falcor concurrently capable of initializing and ratifying the utilization of pacification and termination program's and directly applicable force projective or confined energy disruptive technology?" She inquired hastily. "If affirmative, targeting the aberrant  frotean anomaly is of primary imperative!"

Grace
Falcor's voice in her head startles for a second, like the memory of the Luck Dragon's voice from the movie is taking on new life inside her brain -- but no. It must be another AI (and that continues to be creepy as hell).

She doesn't answer at first. Not until the feeling of a predator returns to her senses. She's only felt it once, when Maddoc Orion screamed as his spine was ripped from his body.

"Not very, Falcor."

She turns, to see the thing -- the glowing ghost of a wolf. She swallows once, with her face tight in fear. "Run. Just run. It's after us. We need to get off the station. Now."

She looks to Patience, "Maddoc was an Adept and he couldn't take it down, we need to run."

Demiurge
"I am afraid... not." The ship spoke in answer to Patience's question. Beside them, Atreyu communicated something silently to Falcor and tapped its hull. When he did this, a door in the side slid open.

(Do you fancy yourselves lucky?)

(Not very, Falcor.)

Patience tried to formulate a plan of attack, but the wolf just... laughed. It sounded wrong somehow, this creature's deep, primordial voice rolling with such human amusement.

"You cannot kill me. I have fought armies of your kind! Wolves at the door, with your weapons and your storms. I have fought, and I have been fighting for so long now I can scarcely remember anything else."

The amusement was gone now from his voice, and as the creature stepped forward, it turned its head to show a patchwork of open scars on its neck and side. Flayed fur pulled open to reveal metal and wires. Something had damaged it.

(Perhaps it could be killed after all.)

"I have fought. And I have failed. And now the universe is gone. Soon this place, too, will be gone. And you... whoever you are. Will have the honor of being my last victims."

"Get in!" Atreyu shouted, his voice rising in urgency. But the wolf... it moved so fast. Like the strike of lightning. And it grabbed hold of the ship's tail and wrenched it from the ground, tossing it back through the air like it was made of paper. Falcor flipped end over end and crashed violently into the next row of vehicles, sending up sparks and broken hunks of metal.

In the distance, people heard the crash and looked up. They came running, shouting and pointing in confusion.

Patience
No weapons, it had made sense that the ship had no weapons. Atreyu was training after all and no one in their right mind gave a trainee live weapons while they were learning the basics.

The next option had been to run, to get inside the ship and fly, to try and escape it in the depths of space. But the wolf cuts off their retreat and turns Falcor into a scrap heap, or at the very least, an unusable wreck. Patience looks about, considering their options, taking into account the fact that the beast had been wounded...and it was a machine.

"Bastion! Hostile mechanical actuality present on primary movation plane, request intercept and direct integration and negation of hostile entity!" Patience declared as she did precisely what Grace had suggested.

She turned and ran, she would not like to admit...that she ran into the oncoming people.

Grace
Grace tries to clamber into Falcor when the door opens, but screeches out a surprised cry when the little ship gets grabbed and tossed. Yes, so much for luck.

"The universe isn't gone yet! Bastion's here!" Grace screams at the wolf -- or rather screams in front of her while running away from the wolf after Patience.

Surely there's something you can do about this? Do you want another death on your hands? Put a holographic blindfold over its eyes or something! Anything! Grace thinks, trying to goad Bastion into some kind of action. But then, she turns and looks behind her. Atreyu. In the story, he fights the wolf doesn't he?

But this isn't a story. And he's their key.

"Atreyu! Run!"

Demiurge
"I am... trying," the station's voice all-but cried out in their minds. "His protocol supersedes mine. I cannot..."

For a moment her voice died out, then came back with an eerie echo. "He is our guardian. He is trying to protect us. But there is nothing he can do. Nothing any of us can do. The storm is coming."

Patience was already running, and she bolted headlong into a couple of older pilots who'd been running to investigate the crash. But when they saw the wolf, they backed up, fear registering in their eyes.

Run, Grace said, and Atreyu did. But not before grabbing her hand and pulling her along with him. (Likely she wouldn't need much convincing.)

All of them ran. Patience, Grace, Atreyu. The other natives of Bastion. They ran headlong across down the glowing white lines of the landing strip, and all the while they could feel the wolf's breath panting like winter wind at their heels.

One of the men fell, but the wolf simply jumped over him. It wasn't after them.

The creature gave a rough snarl, and they'd be able to feel the wind shift at their backs. Even if they didn't look, they'd know it was about to come down on them.

But when Atreyu felt it, he whipped around and put out his arms, as though to block the beast's attack. "Stop!" he shouted. And a white light glowed in his eyes.

And the wolf hit the ground, shaking its head angrily, as though it had been knocked off-target.

"Get out of the way, Atreyu!" it snarled.

Patience
They ran, and though they ran through the heart of a crowd of people, those people remained unharmed as the wolf bore down upon them seeking their flesh, their very lives.

Patience was cycling through alternative ideas now that it had been shown that bastion could do nothing to help them, nothing to waylay their oncoming fate. But as it drew close, its breath felt upon their backs, its teeth nipping at their heels that Atreyu turned, and like his namesake he stopped the wolf in its tracks.

Patience stopped briefly to look back, considering this moment, this change in the situation and she wondered if the man would indeed back down.. It would seem at this point only Atreyu, the system key could stand against the beast.

All they could do was hope.



Grace
"What storm? Are you under attack by something else? We aren't trying to hurt you! That was never the intent!"

Space may be finite, but the space station is not. They only have so far they can run without a ship. Grace's mind pours through their various options, and it finally snaps into place that this is where they likely meet their end.

Atreyu stands between them, filled with new purpose (and haven't they seen him like this before? In Rome, in Sulis? Glowing like that? She reaches out to touch him, reaches to Patience. As much as she hadn't wanted to use the 'magic words' till now, even if they're not facing North, anywhere would be better than here.

"Can you take us out of here, Atreyu? Tu, was du willst!"

Demiurge
Patience waited, and hoped. And Grace... she tried to save them. Tried to take them somewhere - anywhere but where they were.

Those words she spoke. Did she know what they meant?

Do what you wish.

But what is it that you wish, Grace Evans? What is it that you hope for, Patience Mason? To get away? To run?

Outside the dome of the space station, the sea of stars began to disappear. Like lights winking out, one after another. The blackness beyond was a void, swallowing the universe whole. Unmaking, unraveling.

"If you do not wish to hurt us," said Bastion. "Then help us. Please." Her voice broke in anguish and desperation. And now she sounded stronger somehow. Vast and infinite. A shard of something greater than herself - like Atreyu. (A channel, a conduit.)

Atreyu looked at Grace, and she'd be able to see the glow of his tattoo beneath his white shirt and the light of that Other inside his eyes. But there was no opening of a door. No rush of darkness.

Instead he looked at the wolf as it snarled and snapped its jaws. The sound of its teeth coming together was like a crack of thunder.

"There's nowhere left to go," he said, and his voice was a raw echo of regret. He released her hand and knelt down to pick up a shard of metal that lay at his feet, looking at it as though it held some kind of meaning. Or a memory.

"I remember," he said softly. "All these lives. All these stories." When he looked up, he met the wolf's eyes, staring it down. Suddenly fearless.

"...It's all connected."

Patience
Bastion asked for help, almost begging for it as its own systems began to collapse in on themselves, failing under the deteriorated weight of its own vastness.

It wants them to help it, and Patience turned, looking at the wolf, at Atreyu and then about at the whole station in a deep seated consideration of what she had seen, and experienced in their time since entering the system.

"Bastion....identify primary source of systemic corruption and data loss. In addendum, to facilitate aid and recovery diagnostics please grant administrative access to facilitate necessary repairs and preservative actions."

She looked at the wolf then as he stood there, trying to get past atreyu.

"Cease and desist all hostile termination attempts, stabilization and recovery with appropriate available back ups is 99.853% likely."

Grace
"What do we need to do to help you? What do we do?" Grace asks, aloud, even though the voice she hears is only in her head.

There's nowhere left to go, Atreyu says. Does he mean that this is the last of all those worlds? Were they all literally unmade?

Patience puts it in more mechanical terms -- identify the source of corruption and grant admin access. Yes, that.

"I'm a Virtual Adept. Do you know what that means? I might be able to put you back together, but you're going to have to help us help you!"

Demiurge
Grace asked: how?

How could they help? What could they possibly do?

And suddenly, Atreyu blinked, as though waking up from a dream.

"Re-write the story," he said. And he dropped the shard of metal in his hand and grabbed the wolf's head, fisting its white fur in his fingers as he dragged it close, staring it in the eyes - dauntless and unafraid. The wolf snarled and snapped and struggled to break free, its body sparking with raw electric energy. But somehow it could not. Atreyu held on fast, and he repeated again.

"It's all connected. We are all connected."

And then there was an explosion of light. The people standing behind them stepped back to shield their eyes. And when it was over, Atreyu was gone, and the wolf was standing there alone. But its scars were healed, and its eyes were both black.

And it wasn't growling anymore.

"Permission granted," Bastion said. And Patience and Grace could see the skeleton of the world around them. A fathomless infinity of code, written in a language neither of them had ever seen before. The station below them. The people behind them. The ships around them. Even the stars. Even their own bodies. They saw what was there, and what was was beyond.

And they saw the wolf leap into the air and turn into a bolt of light and current. Saw it strike the dome above their heads until it cracked. Until it should have killed them all with the vacuum of space. But somehow it didn't, because something was protecting them. (And because the rules were unraveling along with the stars.)

The bolt of light spread out into space like a web, striking at the dark. Attacking it. Pushing it back.

Patience
They had access,the entire coding system of Bastion lay before them, ready to be altered to be fixed, or as the system said, to be re-written

So she began her alternations, removing deterorated code [or bad endings] and began balancing out the equation. She sought to rebuild the lost worlds, to make them whole and safe, to make it so Bastion never went crazy, that her purpose was to observe and catalogue possible futures and pasts for the betterment of mankind.

She also asked for the safe release of all outsiders currently held within the programming to be released back to their primary hardware, to awaken alive and well inside their own bodies.

She gave Bastion the permissions to create [something it likely already had] and to communicate with the world beyond...but not to override and take from the 'real world'

These things and more besides she wrote with her mind in the code. But above all else, a harmonious balance to keep Bastion healthy and capable of enacting its programming was key.

Grace
Re-write the story, Atreyu says, and then... he is gone. Sacrificed to the wolf to placate it? Or perhaps he was the missing pieces of the wolf all along? It doesn't matter. If all of the worlds have been unmade, what happened to Sid, Ian, and Kalen? They were in one of those worlds. Bleakness threatens to overwhelm her, just as the beauty of Bastion's code does -- a bittersweet victory.

"Atreyu..." Grace whispers, sees the vibrations in air she so creates as waves of encoded numbers seeking out a form. Oh, she's seen the Code of reality. But never like this. Never in this language. Never all at once, everything, at the center of it all.

God, but it is beautiful, Kalen. He was right about that -- about the beauty to be found in this world (and all others).

To be given such a gift, at such a cost...

"What will you do with your new worlds, Bastion? Will you continue consuming people from ours?"

Demiurge
The truth was, it was not what they wrote that mattered. It was the act of writing itself. The force of creation. Of building. Of solidifying reality.

Because that storm out there - that consensus. It sought to dissolve the world. Maybe Maddoc had been right about the abductions. (A dream this vast needs someone to believe in it.)

So Bastion showed them the code, and Patience worked at strengthening what was already there. Pushing back the darkness and remaking the stars. She sought to rebuild. To bring back the other worlds. She remembered Lita's smile and her red hair. She remembered the dragons. She remembered the gladiators in Rome. And although she could not see them, she could feel their life force around her. (We are all connected.)

And up in the sky, the web of light created by the wolf (or by Atreyu in the wolf's form) became a brilliant display. And Grace and Patience would see that the storm - that the corrupted code - was being beaten back. Whole and strong once more, the guardian was doing what it had been built to do. And as the storm receded, Patience's efforts filled in the empty places it left behind.

But Grace wanted to know what Bastion would do if they saved her.

"I have no more consumed them than I have you, Grace."

Above them in the sky, the web of light went out. The storm was gone. And the cracks in the dome above their head had healed. The world felt, somehow, more solid. And the people behind them breathed soft and awed exclamations. The wreckage from the ships was gone, and each of them sat whole and untarnished where they had been before the wolf had flung Falcor into the ground.

Then one of the ships raised itself into the air and approached them, hovering quietly. It had a white dragon painted down the side of its hull.

"Hop in." It said.

Grace
In the rewriting of Bastion's reality, there are familiar faces, familiar lives, all thankful to be again. But there are a few faces missing. The real reason for them being there... isn't. Grace remembers the worlds she's been to, remembers with Patience.

There are other lives here. Loves and connections and people who, even if they might be creations, are just as real as the real world. And she can't help but want to believe Bastion when she asserts that her friends have not been consumed. If it's a lie, it is a beautiful one, to hope that they're not gone after all.

"What do you mean, you haven't consumed them? Where are they?"

Maybe she gets an answer, maybe she doesn't, but it is then that she bends her mind to the Code, to touch the face of God, and fill in Her corruption with new strength. It's the least she can do for the ones who live here.