recolle | [open] 006: The Human Zoo

WHO: Beast Boy and You
WHERE: Dreamdive
WHEN: August 20th
WHAT: You know what
WARNINGS: Some mild body horror, violence, can definitely opt out of anything that you'd rather not see.

[He hasn't wanted to make a fuss over it. The timer on his hand... The timer that everyone else had... Of course it didn't feel quite right. It would probably end with the detonation of a bomb that leveled Recolle or something horrible like that. So he ignores the pulsating feeling... ignores the increasing tension and pressure...

Until it is too much to bear.

He collapses in the middle of a street and the world around him vanishes.]

[I: Admission]
[You are in a zoo.

A dark, dilapidated place, falling to pieces. The sky above you is blanketed with billowing, purplish-black clouds. The cages are rusting and all of the animals inside are restless, uneasy. There is not enough space to maintain these exhibits. There is no bedding, no food, no habitat. Just... an empty steel cage.

The animals are commonplace, at first. Raccoons and squirrels and chipmunks and finches. One animal to a cage, every one of them staring out warily at those who pass by. But as you progress, the animals become... more exotic. Cassowaries. Leopards. Caimans. And then... and then you turn a corner and you are face to face with a Tyrannosaurus Rex, barely constrained within a cage in which it can barely move, its razor sharp teeth mere inches from your own.

But it does not attack. It simply glowers... And you are free to move on. ...There is much to see here, if you care to linger. Every animal you could possibly imagine. Maybe some you can't.

...Is that a unicorn?]

[II: Feeding Time]
[The path through the zoo is circular. A wide subtle loop, so that it might not be obvious that you are going around in circles. But as you clear the outermost loop and you progress further into the heart of the zoo, the exhibits change.

Monkeys become apes. Apes become unidentifiable simians. And then...

Humans. Humans in masks. Masks and costumes, each of them standing stock still as if they are made out of wax. There is a boy in a domino mask wearing red and green with a cape billowing out behind him. A tall man, perhaps still a teenager, half his body made of mechanical parts. There are more like this, people who look... exactly like one would imagine superheroes to look. Superheroes... and supervillains. You can take a closer look if you'd like.

At the end of this path, one of the exhibits glances up as you approach. And without any provocation whatsoever...

The figure draws two swords, casually slices through the bars of his cage like butter, and begins to walk straight towards you.]

[III: Special Exhibit]
[You've escaped Slade. Or perhaps you managed to miss his exhibit altogether. You're through the second loop and you're closer to the heart.

And now, the cages become few and far between, but as you approach the first one, you can see that trapped inside... is Gar.]

H... Hello?

Hey... Who is that?

[But if you begin to speak with him, you might find that it's not quite the same Gar you know. For each person who comes by, they'll find someone a little different in each cage...]

[IV: The End]
[You've satisfied the various manifestations of Gar's anxieties and hidden desires and needs and longings. Perhaps they were a little too needy, but... they've let you on towards the end. And it really is the end, at last.

At the very center of the zoo, sitting cross-legged on the ground, Gar is contemplating a thick, tangled knot.]

...Hey, dude.

It's me.

Like... really me. [...] You can tell 'cause I said 'dude'.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[And away he goes...

As he is being borne away, he will find, to his surprise, that the water is much deeper than he thought, because while he was standing on his own two feet a few moments ago, he is plunging down, down, down into the depths of the river as he is being carried away.

He might think he's in danger of suffocation, but...

Whenever he begins to gasp for air, he will find that he breathes perfectly fine.]

[Elliot is trying to swim against the current, but he's a pretty weak swimmer, so it has no effect. Like any human though, he tries to hold his breath as long as possible, flailing and trying to get to air.

Finally, only when he runs out of air (which take awhile because music nerds got lung capacity), does he gasp out and notice...he is breathing just fine.

What the heck?]

[There is a discomforting aura down here. If he tries to move, he will find that he can maneuver by swimming, even if it does not feel very wet. ...Here and there, Elliot will catch glimpse of more cages - these house marine animals, fish and dolphins and sharks and turtles.

More relevant, though, is Gar's cage - now suspended in the water and completely barricaded off as the flood, too, had overtaken it.

And in this dark and sunken place... he may or may not notice things flickering at the edge of his vision.]

[Oh cool. this is clearly yet another creepy segment of this zoo place. Just what Elliot wanted to find.

He glances up first at Gar's cage, trying to figure out if he can reach it. But as he does that, he notices the flicking on the edge of his vision. He'll glance to see what it could be]

[...It's unclear at first. But the longer Elliot peers at it, the more focused it becomes and eventually, what bobs into vision is... a child.

An unconscious red-headed boy floating in the water.]

[What the heck? he mouths to himself in the water, but you better believe he'll be swimming towards the child. Since hey, leaving kids in water to die is bad or something]

[Elliot probably doesn't remember Gar well enough prior to Retrospec to know that he's looking at a younger version of him.

But as he draws nearer, the child's eyes fly open and he begins to flail frantically underwater.]

[Nope he doesn't, but that won't stop him from trying to swim to help the poor flailing child. He swims near reaching for his hand, and looking around to see if there's any spot where they can break surface.

I mean sure Elliot can breath, but maybe this kid can't and anyway talking is harder underwater. ]

[Elliot can swim upwards if he needs to. He will leave behind the blocked off cage as he does so, but he will eventually surface in...

Somewhere completely foreign.

It looks like a river in the middle of a jungle...

The boy surfaces as well with a choking splutter.]

[Well...this is weird. But first thing's first, he'll sputter up is own water and check on the kid]

Are you okay??

[Before he says anything else, the boy frantically flails around and calls out -- ]

Mom! Dad!

[It is about now that Elliot may notice some other details - mostly, perhaps, the large amount of wood splinters floating in the water, and a slick of oil coating the surface.]

Mooooooom! Daaaaaaaad! -- Where are they?!

[ Oh no ]

I-I, uh-

[this is bad. He tries to look around for shore]

H-Hold on, we need to get you to safety first!

N-No, stop! Mom! Daaaaad!

[He tries to flail away and go paddling towards the shipwreck, but it's pretty clear that he barely knows how to swim. Not too surprising, given that he looks to be five or six at the oldest.]

[God not only does he feel terrible about this, but he can't help but get a terrible sense of deja vu. Deja-vu he didn't expect to have, but now it was tightening his chest and making him feel sick.

But...there was no time for that. He had to make sure this kid got somewhere safe. He had to make sure he didn't drown in the process either. So using what little strength he had in his body, he'll be trying to get a hold of the kid while swimming himself, looking for any place of land or even just a big piece of debris to put the kid on. ]

I-I'll look for them once you're safe! Okay?

Nnngh -- no no no no --

[He's thrashing, but also he's five and weighs like twenty pounds and can't actually swim, so it can't be that hard to pull him away. The shore nearby is within reach. Actually, the river is not that unruly at the moment, so it's safe to surmise that whatever calamity caused this wreckage has already passed.]

[Elliot feels awful doing this, but what choice does he have? He has to keep this kid safe. So he'll keep swimming ahead, slowly since he's not a strong swimmer even when he's swimming alone. But eventually he'll be bringing this kid up to shore]

Ah...finally... [He's a little out of breath]

O-Okay, just stay here. I'll...I'll go look.

No no no no no --

[is what the kid continues to repeat to himself as he whines and moans on the riverbank.

...he'll... probably be fine...]

[He does not seem fine.]

Um...

No what?

[After a little while, he finally stops making distressing noises and keels over at the riverbank.]

They're gone......................

[......

He looks back at the ship. With the waters still as they are....and no other signs of life.

...He'd be deluding himself going back, wouldn't he? Even if he did find them, he wasn't a strong swimmer. It was enough of a challenging carrying a small child and...

...

He goes to the shore and pulls himself out of the water. Moving to sit down next to the kid, he'll put a hand on his shoulder and say very softly]

I'm sorry...

[Elliot doesn't get any particularly useful reply at the moment, apart from that the boy jerks away and begins to cry even harder.]

[...Yeah. He can't fault him there. There's really nothing anyone can say here. Especially not a stranger.

So he'll sit next to the kid for now. Willing to wait as long as he needs to cry it out. ]

[open] 006: The Human Zoo

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