heart and soul

[soldieronwards]

The ground falls out beneath you. You're in midair, you're surrounded by swirling clouds, and there's nowhere stable to put your feet. The space between your body and the turbulence around you feels poorly defined as well; where do you end and your surroundings begin? Is there a stable you in the first place?

But eventually--

[ Join channel #nobodystaysdeadincomics on IRC. ]

Comments

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[soldieronwards]

You can shield your hands and do that, but more just keep pouring in from nowhere you can tell.

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[seasidelove]

[well!!

she's going to. try to keep pulling them out.]

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[soldieronwards]

This room feels pretty stubborn. The pictures keep pouring in, but eventually, they do slow down a bit...

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[seasidelove]

[well... that's good. SHE WILL... keep doing the thing for a little longer, but eventually stop. 8( Plz don't burn all of the good things.]

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[soldieronwards]

There aren't many pictures left in the engine by the time you're done...

Above you, the gears slow quite a bit in their turning.

The floor shudders and sways a little.

There's a faint, intermittent sense of falling.

Hey, remember how there were clouds outside those windows?

I wonder what happens when you're in some kind of structure in the middle of the clouds, you find an engine, and you start to take away its fuel.

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[seasidelove]

[... oops.

okay yeah maybe she will stop the thing BUT DO YOU GET THE POINT NOW BUCKY HEART. THAT YOU SHOULDN'T SET EVERYTHING ON FIRE MAYBE.]

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[soldieronwards]

Probably not.

After a couple seconds of that alarming falling feeling, the lights flicker once, and a toneless voice comes from somewhere nearby: "Security system activated."

A hologram suddenly flickers into a staticky existence next to you, of a middle-aged man in semi-military uniform with an eyepatch over one eye. "What the hell did you think you were doing, kid?"

He doesn't look impressed.

But at least the falling sensation is gone, and the engine has started up again.

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[seasidelove]

[well I look equally unimpressed so.]

I'm trying to help Bucky! Good things shouldn't be set on fire and ruined.

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[soldieronwards]

"Don't be so quick to judge, kid," the hologram says. "We've been using that stuff as fuel for a long time here, and we can't switch over to a different method of power generation so easily now."

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[seasidelove]

I'll stop.

But that doesn't mean that good things should be burned, either. You don't have to change right away, but maybe you should find a different kind of fuel.

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[soldieronwards]

The hologram rolls his one visible eye. "They're just pictures. We can always get more. It's important to keep the engine running."

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[seasidelove]

You can find something else for the future! Don't just make an excuse to keep doing the same thing. I don't want the engine to stop running, but it's probably not a good thing to burn everything that's good. Who cares if it's just pictures! That doesn't make them any less important!

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[soldieronwards]

The hologram squints a little at her. "All right, all right, you're not going to screw with the fuel tank any more, are you?"

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[seasidelove]

[SQUINTS BACK]

Do you promise you'll find something else? I won't forgive you if you break it.

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[soldieronwards]

"Kid, you might have your metaphors all wrong here," says the security system with a sigh. "You haven't figured out what the engine represents, have you?"

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[seasidelove]

[... she pauses, thinking things over—before looking incredibly sheepish because wow she kind of did kneejerk didn't she]

—The good things keep him going? It's just—It's really alarming to see a lot of good things being set on fire!

Re: THE ENGINE ROOM

[soldieronwards]

"It's a little more complicated than that," the hologram admits, "but you might be on the right track there. Just be more careful in the future. You've already broken enough stuff here, got it?"