thisavrou_log | Lost the World [CLOSED]

Entry tags:

red vs blue: agent texas

Lost the World [CLOSED]

Who: Carolina and Texas
When: Today
Where: Kauto, Region 5
What: Two Freelancers meet...
Warnings: Will change if needed

It is Carolina's intention to recon the two planets, and she has started with Kauto. A part of her still things this is some test, some illusion, something that is simply going to be stripped away from her like the Temple. Yet, each morning she wakes up, still here.

She has done a few jobs to make a bit of money, knowing that she likely should invest in some items beyond her armour and the few things that she had arrived with. Yet between, she continues to explore, dressed in that distinctive armour, although she is less annoyed and frustrated than her initial appearance. Less hostile, perhaps, even, although that wariness remains. There is still so much that she needs to learn, more information that she needs to collect, to piece together.

Time, for now, is on her hands.

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Tex is out and about, riding her motorcycle, enjoying the freedom she has to do so now that she's gotten some household administration stuff and her weekly chores taken care of. There's not a lot that she thinks she could see here that could knock her for a loop, not after everything that took place on the Moira as they traveled to arrive here. She took the cycle out of town and sped down the highways, then drove back and weaved between the city streets at a slower speed. Still, she's going too fast to suddenly stop when she sees a suit of teal armor. It's unfamiliar to her, and she has no reason to really question it considering the many different places people have been brought here from. Yet...for some reason she does want to check. Caboose has been here, and he had armor of a similar design... Maybe it's Tucker. Maybe it's no one of import.

Tex rides her cycle around the block, and approaches the armored person more slowly this time. She pulls up even with the person once she reaches them and cuts the engine. "Hey there," she says. Surely it's no one she knows, or it will turn out to be Tucker, like she suspected.

There are times when she moves to speak to Epsilon, although it is only silence that greets her. Carolina would never have thought about how much she would come to enjoy the AI's company, to see him as family, to find those rag tag soldiers in Blood Gulch as friends Even their antics she finds herself missing, not that Carolina would openly admit to that. But they have left their mark upon her.

She does take note of the motorcycle, although only listening to it. Other than that, it doesn't catch her attention, at least until it stops by her. There is a tenseness to her as she turns her head, starting to speak, although it is only silence that lingers for several moments at the sound of the stranger's voice, before one word is spoken.

"You." It isn't Caboose. It isn't Tucker. Her voice might be as much a shock to her as her voice had been to Carolina.

It's Carolina, then. It really is. If it hadn't been for the fact Tex had suspected as much, deep down, the realization of it would have left her reeling. They had left so much unresolved between them, and so much had been lost. They had been at odds so many times, yet there had been a lack of animosity on Tex's end of things that Carolina likely can't comprehend. She doesn't want it to seem like she's holding anything back now, so she takes off her motorcycle helmet, to show she has nothing to hide. "Yes," she says. "It's Tex." Tex, in a human body. In a form Carolina would never have seen.

The helmet hides her face, which is likely a good thing. To say that she is confused would be an understatement. That her mind jumps from thought to thought, trying to put it together, yet each conclusion that she comes to does not make sense. Then again, this place in general doesn't, and Carolina thinks she is really going to real to roll with the punches here.

It is a moment before Carolina removes her own helmet. Older now, yet she is still much the same. With narrowed eyes, she regards her, but simply staring isn't telling her anything. "How?"

She doesn't like being inspected like that, and she has to force herself not to frown. "The Ingress," she says. "As far as I've been able to tell, it cloned a body for me and installed me into it. I had a twin when I arrived. A woman named Trish."

It's not lost on her that Carolina looks different. She looks older, more careworn. From what she knows of the Ingress's abilities, though, all it would have needed to do was bring a Carolina from another universe, one with a different outcome to her own. So that doesn't mean anything. It's her turn, though, to study the woman in front of her.

Texas is still standing, and Carolina hasn't made a move against her, which does say something beyond herself physically having grown older. Truthfully, she's not too certain what to do with this knowledge being presented to her. Two for two who have passed, and Carolina is starting to wonder what exactly this place is, and if someone has happened to her back home that she just isn't recalling...

Her own lips purse lightly in response, although it is clear that Carolina's simply processing what she's saying. For so long, she had been chasing her, seeking to be better, stronger, faster, to regain her top position from Texas, and what had it gotten her? The silence may grow again, but Carolina does eventually make a noise. There is a certain dryness to her voice, although there isn't the hardness that used to be there, rather she finds a bit of irony in it all. "Even here, I'm following. You made quite the impression on the Reds and Blues."

Which might answer some of Tex's thoughts, but raise plenty more.

"Following?" she says. Indeed, she finds Carolina's words confusing. "You mean the Reds and Blues from Blood Gulch?" she asks after a pause. It doesn't make sense for her to know them, she was already dead by the time Tex met them. But again, that's easily explained by alternate universes. She sets her helmet down in front of her. "How did you meet them?" She expects to hear something that will prove this Carolina standing before her isn't the one she saw go over a cliff, thrown by the Meta's hand.

The scoreboard. What C.T. had found. Arriving at Blood Gulch. Coming here. Arguably the last isn't something that she counts as anything, as Carolina is still learning more about this place. There is some frustration, for various reasons. What has just gone on where she was, the fact that there is still Freelancer technology out there...

Her head tilts slightly, red bangs shifting over her eyes. She knows how York had taken the knowledge, although she'd had a closer relationship with him, once upon a time. "Only recently in my search for the Director."

There is that neutral tone. While she certainly isn't as angry as she had once been, Carolina is still not certain how to feel about all of this. Still, Texas had been a Freelancer, and that had meant something, and she had been used as much as anyone else. She just hadn't realized it until it was all gone. It is what allows her to speak those words, gaze shifting into nothingness, before those green eyes pin her back down. "You probably thought I died from the fall as well."

"I did," Tex says, eyeing her. She survived the fall over the cliff. So does that mean this is 'her' Carolina, after all? "You know, I have the feeling we have a lot to talk about." She slings the helmet onto the handlebars and dismounts the motorcycle. "I'd offer to take you to my place," she explains, "but I'm not sure you'd fit on my cycle with me wearing your armor. Want to find a place to sit and have a bite to eat?"

Just tack it on to the list of things Carolina never expected to do. Epsilon would probably be laughing at her right now, which is what she deserved. Of course the animosity that she felt towards her has tapered, left, even if there are times when it might rear its head again. At the moment though... The images after the enters the portal flash through her mind, watching them die in front of her eyes... She had realized that it wasn't something that she ever wanted to happen again.

"A lot has happened." And that is Carolina putting it mildly, hearing those words again. ...no matter how tough she is, no matter how hard she fights, she's always going to fail. There is an awkwardness to Carolina, as it isn't as if they're suddenly best friends, but she also knows more now, understands things better. "I've time for that."

"Good," she says mildly. "I have plenty of cash, if you don't have anything." There's a diner just a couple doors down from where they stand, one which serves the local cuisine, and she starts off in that direction. "You'll have to tell me all about it. I have a feeling we've both kept pretty busy since we saw each other last."

And there, the hackles raising a little, although as soon as Carolina realizes that, she takes a breath, letting it out slowly. Years of thinking a certain way don't just vanish over night. "I've got some."

Not a lot, mind, so hopefully the place that Texas has chosen isn't over the top, although given the impression of her, somehow unless she has changed a lot, that doesn't seem like her style either. Her eyes do narrow for a moment as Texas takes the lead, although not everything is a challenge, and she falls in to step beside her.

"I've more or less pieced together a lot of what went on." Although some of it has been hard to understand. Caboose has a unique way of processing information, and Tucker... should be glad he isn't singing in a female voice.

The tension is readable in Carolina's posture, even through her armor, and Tex makes sure to draw up even to her and keep a neutral expression on her face as they continue.

"On my end, I'm completely in the dark," she says. "I never saw any evidence you'd survived that fall afterward."

And she had looked—scoured the radio transmissions for any mention, and for the sound of that familiar voice. She'd been forced, eventually, to conclude the worst. It had settled into her like some deep sorrow, though she had never let it show—not to York, and not to Church. It had been her burden to bear alone.

Having two AI ripped from her, falling from a cliff, having fought with York ... Carolina could say that she hadn't been in the best position mentally, or been in any mood to be found. Everything that she had known had been turned upside down and it had taken her time to pull the pieces together. "No one did."

Not for quite some time anyway, and it had only been because she had run up against dead end to dead end to dead end. Of course she wouldn't have thought that Tex would have been looking for her anyway, and the meeting would have gone a lot differently anyway than this one.

"I didn't want to be found." Words echoing what she had told York, although she knew how it had hurt York to say that. How all her actions had hurt him, hurt everyone.

A pause, and a nod. "Then I understand why no one found you," she says. If Carolina, of all people, didn't want to be found, then she'd be incredibly conscientious about not leaving any evidence, any trace. And yes, Tex knows she's the last person Carolina would have wanted to have find her. Which makes this situation all the more ironic, she supposes.

They enter the diner and are seated. Tex picks up the menu, glances it over, then looks at Carolina. "I've been in this universe for almost two years," she says. "I've gotten used to needing to eat. I didn't have this kind of body during the Project, though."

Considering that she had been searching for the Director in order to kill him, she hadn't exactly broadcasted her whereabouts. Then again, she had had to find information first, but dead end after dead end had left her frustrated. And there had still been that perceived slight over everything that had happened in Project Freelancer.

Once, Carolina wouldn't even have been having this conversation. Once, she would have acted completely differently. She was still not certain how to accept all of this. York. Texas. Again. Yet that frustration and anger from before wasn't there. It's detached from what it used to be.

She did take a seat, mindful of her armour. The fact that her and Tex were in a restaurant was slightly laughable. There was so much history here, between what Tex had represented, and what Carolina knew. Still, her words do take Carolina by surprise. "Two years? And you've been here for this whole time?"

"Not here," she says. "We've only just arrived here. The Ingress that brought me here was on a ship called the Moira, which was traveling to find this place."

Luckily the chairs here seem sturdy, and Carolina's armor doesn't seem to be straining its construction. Tex sets her menu down with her hand in it.

"There was a lot of stuff going wrong with the Ingress on that ship—we found out later it was the only traveling Ingress in existence. We spent some time on various planets and star bases, but for the most part we were trying to find the Midway Hub. Once we found it, the Ingress there brought us here."

She flips the menu back open, looking at it.

"But yes, I've been in this universe for two years. That doesn't necessarily line up with time as it existed in our home universe, though—the Ingress brings people from all times and situations. I'd actually been here once before, too, for a couple of months. I went home and didn't remember anything about being here."

She leaves out many details, for now, things that Carolina may have to ask about to discover—things like the fact that Alpha Church has been here twice, or that she has become involved with someone. It seems like a lot of things to just dump on her all at once.

Carolina supposes that two years in space shouldn't sound strange. After all, with Project Freelancer, they had been aboard the Mother of Invention for vast periods of time, and it isn't as if space travel is an unknown to her. Maybe it is just the thought of Tex still kicking around, living, that makes the whole mental image odd.

Yet she does listen, those green eyes focused and intent, still as intense as they always have been. The menu sits beneath her own fingertips, and it might as well be high heels and a skirt for all she's seen one recently. Despite herself, it seems that Tex does know a fair amount, which does make Carolina want to do a quick study on everything, although she does push that thought back. It's not a competition and there is no score board, but it isn't going to stop Carolina from trying to get a feel for everything.

There are questions that she has as she stores that away. The information on arrival had been lacking, which had annoyed her to no end. Yet, after seeing York, there are also some other questions that she has given what she has learned from him. "And the last thing you do remember before coming here?"

Tex is a very self-possessed person, or at least she always was when she was in her robot body. Facial expressions are a little harder to control, though, and there's a momentary frown that flashes across her face before she answers. "I'd been taken by the Meta," she says. "Washington found the Alpha and brought him to where we were confronting him. The last thing that happened was he killed all the AIs with an EMP." Yes, including herself. She has no explanation for how she survived this and arrived in this universe.

There is something to be said about that, as Carolina finds one eyebrow arching ever so as she watches her. Of course she knows now why Tex had never used her locker on the ship, and does wonder just how she has found everything here. That does answer it though, and whatever this place is, and whatever it can do, it hasn't let her have any knowledge of the drones. Not that Carolina would have thought so, but who the hell knows. This place seems to play by its own rules.

"I guess I don't need to explain anything about that then." There is a certain gingerness in her voice. It isn't a situation like Carolina where Texas has survived a fall... She muses inwardly for a moment, turning that over, yet there are some things that she can supply, blanks that she can fill in, new information that Tex wouldn't know about. "Wash is still there, or rather, still helping them, helping us all."

"Washington was here," she says. "He was absolutely unrepentant for what he'd done." She might go further in explaining about that, but their server arrives then, and Tex places an order for a drink and an appetizer. That's all she really needs. There's much to ponder as they discuss this together, and there's no call to be stuffing her face while they get situated.

After Carolina's done ordering, Tex changes the subject. "Caboose has been here as well," she says. "And Church. You know about Church?"

It is her own brow that furrows at that comment, although in the grand scheme of things, Carolina isn't one to comment on that, especially after everything that she has done. In many ways, she can connect with Washington, and he had been more than happy to call her on her bullshit when she had pressed too hard. Of course their paths have been different, but in the end, she knows that Wash considers those from Blood Gulch as much family as she does.

Her own order is just for a cup of coffee. She's too worked up for anything else, and even that cup of caffeine might be a bad idea but after so long with rations and scraping by, she'll do it anyway. She might make a small noise at the mention of Caboose, akin to a snort, although the mention of Church has a nod of her head. "I do. I know what they did."

The Director. Project Freelancer. Blood Gulch. "Epsilon. He helped to fill in some blanks, where he could, anyway."

"Epsilon," she says. "They got him away then."

She knows of the details of the plan from the brief reunion she had with Church, but had never had the opportunity to learn if they had succeeded. The server returns with their drinks and she takes a sip of the soda-like concoction.

"I guess I ought to be up-front and say I don't ever intend to go back," she says. "I don't know if that'll bother you or not, but since I am essentially dead there, I don't see the point." She stirs her soda with her straw. "I've actually met someone who I intend to go back with, once they find the way back to his world."

"He'd been taken back to Freelancer Command." After Washington, although that goes without Carolina saying anything about that. There is so much more that makes sense now compared to back then, pieces of the puzzle that she hadn't even known had been missing. "I'd only heard the story, in which Caboose plays a part."

Which again, given that Tex has met that particular soldier, she can likely understand that Caboose had had his own way of doing things. Annoying ways, although she'd lie if she said they hadn't grown on her. Her lips might twitch a little that the thought.

Yet she sips of own coffee, gaze silent at that revelation. Silent and slightly more focused at the additional piece of information. Her cup does settle with a small chink. "It doesn't."

Which is true. Tex is destroyed back home, although what that says about this place and her being here... Truthfully, it sounds like a story Caboose would have written. "They're in decent hands, the Reds and Blues, and I won't rest until I get back every piece of tech from Freelancer."

Tex's brows lower slightly. There's never been anything that made her think there's a reason to go back to her home world, but she feels a little tug at that wording—what does Carolina mean, get it back?

"What's happened to the tech from Freelancer?"

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Lost the World [CLOSED]

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