isobel evans (whatwouldbeydo) wrote in noexits, @ 2021-12-06 19:28:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread/narrative, → week 026 (animal crossing matrix) |
ac matrix plot | week 1 - week 2 real world time | narrative
WHO: Isobel Evans
WHAT: Getting out of the matrix ~ getting in contact with Michael ~ going back into the matrix
WHEN: Day 1 of week 1 thru end of week 3/4, real world time, handwavey-ness something something
WHERE: Real world, in the pod -> whatever ship or w/e she ends up on -> back to the Matrix
WARNINGS: Vague reference to previous mind control trauma
Less than an hour had passed in the strange mind-palace (or simulation, or drug trip) Isobel had found herself in, but what she came out to made it seem like she had been under forever. All the physical and mental strength she'd fought so hard for, to never feel helpless again -- gone.
The feeling of powerlessness was almost absolute, except... except. Except at least she was in her own body, in control of her own mind. If she died, she would die as herself, and hopefully outside of the reaches of whoever or whatever had put her in that pod.
She was slipping in and out of consciousness by the time there were people there, and there were hands on her. She wanted to fight, but she couldn't, and they didn't put her back in a pod. The last time she fought her way back to consciousness, she had clothes on, and was in something that passed for a bed behind what looked like a closed door, and there were still no tubes attached to her.
She fell back asleep, then, still uneasy but in a semblance of safety.
~
Fighting her way back to physical and mental fitness was even slower than the first time. It was unbelievably, painstakingly, slow.
She did physical exercises until she literally couldn't move anymore, and then spent the rest of her time trying to do things with her mind.
Then she fell asleep, woke up, ate, and did it all over again.
~
Her hair was growing in and her powers were mostly back, but there was still no physical or mental sign of her brother. Either of them, but she was only expecting Michael, because Max had never been here.
She was exhausted from throwing herself against the limitations of her body and mind. She was tired of this whole goddamn situation. She was, most especially, tired of her family being pulled apart and forced to fight their way back to each other.
She trained until she was beaten and bruised and exhausted, she threw herself again and again out into the mental void where Michael's mind should have been, hitting the invisible wall of his absence until she finally broke herself on it.
And then she screamed, out loud and in her mind. "MICHAEL! WHERE ARE YOU?"
Something went out. She felt it, the burst of power breaking past the wall, but she didn't know where it had gone. No matter how many times she tried again, she couldn't replicate it.
~
Then the letter came.
He was stuck in the matrix. Of course he was.
She was able to write letters, but they were so short; she didn't know how to use words to get through to him. Michael was stubborn, she could waste a million characters trying to get through to him and it might not work.
There was a way back in, and she knew it. She hated it. But at least she would be in control this time.
She trained, somehow with even more fervor than ever before. It wasn't helpful, the obsession of it, and she knew that -- she still didn't want to be a lone wolf anymore, but in order to have a pack, she needed her family. And right now, her family needed her.
She trained. And then when she was strong enough, she plugged back in.