Tom Mason [Falling Skies] (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
historicizing) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
makingthisupasigo2018-07-05 08:15 pm
historicizing) wrote in makingthisupasigo2018-07-05 08:15 pm
And the Deeds of the Desperate - for Jacob Stone
cw: ptsd, mentions of war and war atrocities, violence, gore, death, torture, paranoia, abuse
He'd just been scouting for enemy patrols and food when he came across the cave.
Tom would have ignored it, too, but then something inside had started glowing and despite having to make recon, he went inside to check it out. They were symbols, all over the place, the walls marked in carvings, old, human.
And... glowing.
"What the..." He stares, in disbelief, trying to decipher them but to no avail. But something still triggers his memory and after a moment he remembers reading about it, a lifetime ago, in a book on American legends. This place, supposedly once a gateway to another world, far away. A different world, not unlike his, but one that still had its magic and a sanctuary keeping it safe. A place of unspeakable power.
Tom does not want to know what it would to to his reputation if anyone could read his thoughts right now. It's unlike him even considering it but there is the writing, glowing on the wall and as he follows it he reaches an old stony archway, that, as soon as he approaches, lights up into a glowing portal.
He stops, staring.
It could be them. It could be a trap. It probably is and he never wants to set foot on one of these ships again, the memory of the interrogation and torture too vivid still. But... desperate times, desperate measures.
A place of magic and great power. Tom had never been in the camp of believing that aliens built the pyramids and Mayan temples but then again, aliens had just overrun the planet and killed millions, harnessed kids with mind-controlling biotech devices, so... maybe it's time to believe. Just a little.
Rifle readied he steps through...
... and suddenly finds himself in another world.
Suddenly he's dreaming.
Suddenly everything is unreal.
It's a library and the most beautiful one he has ever seen. After all the destruction, all the wisdom and books lost, infrastructures crumbled and civilization shattered, the golden halls are breathtaking and he turns in circles, wide-eyed, speechless, breathless. He's panting, tears springing to his eyes because such a place doesn't exist. It can't exist.
It's insane. He's insane. He's lost it.
He walks the room, crying quietly to himself and reads the labels on the display cases which cause him to burst into hysterical gigglefits.
The Spear of Destiny. Pandora's Box. The Golden Goose!?
Artifacts of humanity's history, lined up, like a museum of... of magic.
Another label reads Zeus' lightning bolt and he stares at the handle before reaching out and picking it up. It comes alive in his hand, crackling white static and oh God.
Suddenly all this becomes very real very quickly.
This thing here against a mech or one of their warships... He figures how to deactivate it and quickly stuffs it into his backpack.
And then there's nothing more holding him back, he's quickly running down these aisles, checking the labels, putting everything that looks like it can be weaponized into his bag and pockets.
He'd just been scouting for enemy patrols and food when he came across the cave.
Tom would have ignored it, too, but then something inside had started glowing and despite having to make recon, he went inside to check it out. They were symbols, all over the place, the walls marked in carvings, old, human.
And... glowing.
"What the..." He stares, in disbelief, trying to decipher them but to no avail. But something still triggers his memory and after a moment he remembers reading about it, a lifetime ago, in a book on American legends. This place, supposedly once a gateway to another world, far away. A different world, not unlike his, but one that still had its magic and a sanctuary keeping it safe. A place of unspeakable power.
Tom does not want to know what it would to to his reputation if anyone could read his thoughts right now. It's unlike him even considering it but there is the writing, glowing on the wall and as he follows it he reaches an old stony archway, that, as soon as he approaches, lights up into a glowing portal.
He stops, staring.
It could be them. It could be a trap. It probably is and he never wants to set foot on one of these ships again, the memory of the interrogation and torture too vivid still. But... desperate times, desperate measures.
A place of magic and great power. Tom had never been in the camp of believing that aliens built the pyramids and Mayan temples but then again, aliens had just overrun the planet and killed millions, harnessed kids with mind-controlling biotech devices, so... maybe it's time to believe. Just a little.
Rifle readied he steps through...
... and suddenly finds himself in another world.
Suddenly he's dreaming.
Suddenly everything is unreal.
It's a library and the most beautiful one he has ever seen. After all the destruction, all the wisdom and books lost, infrastructures crumbled and civilization shattered, the golden halls are breathtaking and he turns in circles, wide-eyed, speechless, breathless. He's panting, tears springing to his eyes because such a place doesn't exist. It can't exist.
It's insane. He's insane. He's lost it.
He walks the room, crying quietly to himself and reads the labels on the display cases which cause him to burst into hysterical gigglefits.
The Spear of Destiny. Pandora's Box. The Golden Goose!?
Artifacts of humanity's history, lined up, like a museum of... of magic.
Another label reads Zeus' lightning bolt and he stares at the handle before reaching out and picking it up. It comes alive in his hand, crackling white static and oh God.
Suddenly all this becomes very real very quickly.
This thing here against a mech or one of their warships... He figures how to deactivate it and quickly stuffs it into his backpack.
And then there's nothing more holding him back, he's quickly running down these aisles, checking the labels, putting everything that looks like it can be weaponized into his bag and pockets.
no subject
He's strolling into the Library, a box tucked under his arm with a fabled--and powerful--necklace that was thought to be lost to the ages, conveniently picked up in a smuggling ring just outside of Boston. He's got what looks like it's shaping up to be a black eye, but other than that, it's been a fairly successful day.
Until he notices immediately there's something missing.
Multiple somethings.
His first instinct is to call out--get Judson, Charlene, they could be in danger--but there's a small window of opportunity here where he might be able to catch them without a fuss.
Of course, there's also the little problem they might be there for him, but he's sure he can handle himself.
Maybe.
He hears someone running down the aisles, the sound of rustling and commotion.
One guy. It's one guy. Jake peeks around the corner, and takes the necklace out of the box he's holding, and hastily puts it up on a shelf, half-hanging off so the light will shine off of the ruby crystals.
Hopefully the guy will take the bait, and he's just going to crouch here behind the corner, ready to tackle him when he comes near.
no subject
Maybe he can see if he can bring at least one. Once he's done with packing the important stuff.
With a small sigh he finally lets go of the leather binding and moves forward, hand coming to rest on his weapon. That necklace doesn't look very weapon-ish and his interest is mild at best. He's not here for shiny jewels. But he approaches anyway, he can at least check it out. Who knew, maybe it could fire a magic laser? Wouldn't that be the thing...
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As soon as he's close enough, Jake darts out from the corner of the stack and launches himself at the intruder with a yell, aiming to knock him down as fast as he possibly can.
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Stupid, stupid, STUPID, he should have known that a place like this wouldn't be left unguarded?
The wind is knocked out of him when Jake hits his midsection and he goes down but his surprise only lasts a split second. He grunts and shifts the strap of his weapon to give himself more room and bring the hilt down at Jacob's back while trying to ram his elbow into his face. His attacks are swift and strong, fueled by the edge of living in a battalion and the desperation that every fight can very likely be your last. If he can just get him off, get some distance between them...
no subject
And he didn't try to go after himself. Definitely not the Serpent Brotherhood. It's enough of a contrast that Jake decides a different approach-
--that and also because he got a hilt slammed on his back and an elbow to the face, causing him to fall to the floor, rolling to the side.
"Ow--hey! What's your deal, man? You don't even know how to use these things, do ya?"
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"One wrong move and I'll show you just how much about these things I know."
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"Okay, okay--be cool. You're robbing me, that's great, armed robbery, it happens. But I got a question for you."
A pause.
"How did you get in here?"
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He stares him down, clearly nervous but his hands are steady. "Alright, my turn. Where am I? What is this place? And who the hell are you?"
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"You're in the Library. I'm Jacob Stone. The Librarian." He squints. "Where did you find the portal? Like the exact location?"
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His eyes dart around again and there is something upset in them at the sight of the beauty of it all. "How can this place exist?"
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That's an interesting look on his face.
"...magic." He says the word carefully, watching his reaction. "It exists because of magic."
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He shakes his head and laughs. He's about to say that magic isn't real but then again, he did just put Zeus' lightning bolt into his bag, so...
"What's it doing here? What is all of this DOING here when out there is being... like it is!?"
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A frown. "Which is why you need to put back the stuff you took. The whole point of the Library is to protect magical artifacts and keep magic out of the hands of...people like you." Okay, probably shouldn't have said that...
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Yeah, he did not appreciate that. Tom stares him down, his eyes burning.
"So all the while the world's falling apart and you're holed up in here? Sitting on all this? Doing nothing?"
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"I've been doin' plenty, and I wouldn't say it's falling apart. We don't use the artifacts, we just keep them here. That's my job, that's what I do. Sometimes I want to, sure, but magic is dangerous, you think you're saving somebody and you end up cursin' them, or cursin' yourself." He trails off. "It's unpredictable and dangerous, and that's what you got in your bag."
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At the scoff and his words, fury explodes in Tom's eyes and he raises the rifle a bit higher. The thought that all this magic has been sitting here, untouched, all these months... It's too much. The thought is too much, and it's too much to imagine that someone would be here and decide not to bringt it to the fight.
"You son of a bitch! Cities are leveled! Millions are dead! Our kids are being enslaved! How much more falling apart do you need!?"
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Jake's mouth drops open, and he just stares at him. Unless something really wild happened in the last few minutes--unlikely--this guy was delusional.
"I was in Boston five minutes ago! There definitely weren't millions dead, and the city didn't look leveled at all? Except maybe those construction zones!"
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Now it's Tom turn to look confused. The guy doesn't look like he's lying but what he's saying is absolutely impossible. Unless he stepped into another world but that seems even more impossible.
... Maybe not more impossible than Zeus' lightning bolt.
"The invasion? You must have heard about it, even in here."
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Okay, this is just...Jacob waves a hand in front of his face.
"Hold up. I can show you Boston, if you don't believe me."
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It's impossible. It can't be.
But he needs to make sure.
"Show me."
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And please don't shoot me in the back.
Jacob gets up and walks carefully, slowly over to another set of doors, leading to a room full of more shelves, more everything, but with a busy workspace and various things other scholarly and magical scattered about. There's a globe next to a set of doors, and Jacob quickly does something or the other to the device, before there's a loud noise and a woosh, the doors glowing brightly. Jacob opens them, and steps back.
"There's Boston."
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Tom stares through the door and there it is, a back street, buildings, a busier main street in the distance. Noises flood through the portal into the annex, birds, cars, people talking and chattering and laughing. Somewhere a TV plays. Metal clanks. A siren. A baby crying.
Life.
"No, Boston was... destroyed." His voice breaks, too overwhelmed by the images presented to him. "It's all been..."
He turns back to him and steps forward, clearly upset now. "What is this?! This is some kind of trick. Are you trying to get into my head!?"
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...he came from somewhere else. Or somewhen else.
"It's real, look--you can go out there, you can touch it!"
Instead of taking offense, Jake just feels sorry for him. He lets his hands fall to his sides.
"This isn't your home, is it? You're from...elsewhere. What happened to your world?"
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He steps closer to the door and stares at the intact structures in the distance but doesn't dare to step through, can't bring himself to step through.
"We were... invaded. Aliens. They came a little over a year ago."
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With all the beings that he's seen and met, he's still surprised at his own surprise that somewhere, out apparently in another world, aliens have invaded.
Made sense why the guy was reacting this way, but still. It's nice to know he himself hasn't gotten jaded by the job yet.
"There's no aliens here." His voice is level, kind. "In fact, it's kinda my job to stop things like that happening. Not aliens though, we don't got aliens here. But other things. Mostly evil societies and things like that are the ones with enough ambition to try to take over the whole world. The occasional warlock."
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Tom still stares at the Boston beyond, untouched, beautiful, bathed in the sunlight of a late afternoon and his breath hitches.
"Their weapons are superior to ours. They took out our cities, our military, our infrastructure within a few days. Governments have fallen. We're few and we're scattered but we're resisting. We're resisting." His voice changes, taking on a more steely, preachy tone and he lifts his chin. "If we make this invasion too costly for them to be worth their while, they'll leave. Happened many times throughout history. We just have to take the fight to them. And we will."
He finally manages to tear his gaze away from the other Boston and in a way, he's glad. It's too painful to look at. A part of him wants to step through, to experience it and another part of him tells him he can't. That his heart wouldn't be able to take it.
His eyes settle on Jake once again and he lifts the weapon, though only halfway.
"Which is why I'm taking these... artifacts. I don't want to rob you but we need them. My world needs them."
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Full-on invasion by an alien force isn't something Jacob thinks about often, but he's seen enough movies and read enough books and played enough video games to know the gravity of the situation. And from what he's read about battles and war throughout history...
"I'm sorry, I--"
He looks down at the weapon, back towards Boston, and then back to Tom.
Protecting the world. This world, but what about another? Another world suffering and dying? He can't let him take the artifacts in good conscience, but he can't let him go back empty-handed, either.
Jacob swallows.
This is not a good decision. He's sure he's going to regret it.
"I can't let you do that. Those artifacts are my responsibility. If you take them, I'm coming with you. You give 'em back to me when you're done."
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"You don't wanna go where I'm going. Your world is still alive. Untouched. You can't possibly imagine what it's like."
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He motions a hand towards Tom's pack.
"Magical artifacts that you probably don't even know how to use, much less know how dangerous they are? And besides, I've seen action. Not...alien level action, but I'm not bad in a fight."
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Tom studies him, trying to gauge what to make of his offer.
"Now I don't know about magical portals but they usually don't last forever, do they?"
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"Then they'll get another Librarian."
It would be devastating if he couldn't come back, couldn't see his home again.
"And your world will still have powerful artifacts, unprotected, with unknown properties." He bites his lip, rubbing his face. "I don't know. I can't let you take them. But if what you're saying is true and your world is that bad off...I can't just stand by..."
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That ups you in the respect scale considerably, Jake. Tom lowers the weapon and after another moment's hesitation, puts the safety back on.
"... I'm not a thief. I wouldn't do this if it wasn't... that bad off."
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"I get it." He glances as Tom puts the safety back on.
"Listen, this--nobody's ever done this before, and if we don't get back at least the artifacts are...technically still safe and protected, and won't be a threat to this world. So I'm still doing my job."
He pauses. "I gotta write a note for Jenkins. Maybe he can...can find me a way back if that portal closes."
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Tom doesn't know who Jenkins is but there's not really time to argue. He needs to get back soon. What happens one way could happen the other – he really doesn't want to get trapped in this dreamlike dimension, no matter how nice it may be.
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He shuts the doors, the glow disappearing and the mechanism next to the doors falling quiet. Jacob runs over to the work table, grabbing a paper and a pen and quickly scribbling something down. He puts a paperweight on the note and hopes that Jenkins will, in fact, see it in time, but it was just the chance he was going to have to take. For all of this.
He digs in a corner and pulls out a messenger bag, filled with all the things he needed for a quick mission. He hopes this will be quick. Get in, get out. That's it.
"Okay, show me where you came in from. The portal should still be open. And I gotta take inventory of what you got as soon as we arrive, okay?"
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Tom starts walking, slowly, but he feels bad, bringing this guy into the hell that awaits them. He shouldn't. He should leave the artifacts, too, because deep down he knows he has no right.
If he leaves, he will drag an innocent person into this war. It's an impossible choice. It's wrong. He can't be responsible for it.
"Why are you doing this?"
Tom studies Jake as he leads him back to the portal.
"You have no reason to believe me. I could be lying to you."
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"You didn't come after me. I mean, initially."
It's a simple statement, and he shrugs a shoulder.
"If you were one of the many, many factions in this world that somehow figured out a way into the Library, you would have taken me out. Or you would have taken me with you."
He rolls up the sleeve of his plaid shirt, and points to a tattoo on his forearm. It looks like an ordinary tattoo, with circles that line his wrist and near the crook of his elbow, with the Chinese word hún, or soul, displayed prominently in the center.
"This is a gift I got from a friend in Shangri-La. Soul magic is one of the the most dangerous there is, and one of the most powerful. Up to and including turning an immortal being mortal. Possibly could do the opposite, not that I ever tried." He speaks clinically, almost tiredly. "Needless to say I gotta watch my back at all times because to certain...Serpent Brotherhoods and the like here? I'm nothin' more than one of those things you got in your backpack."
A pause.
"Now you could just have bad intel and you're gonna attack me now...which I'd admit would be a pretty bad move on my part tellin' you about all this, but I don't think you will. I think you're a good guy."
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"I like to think I am." The bag suddenly feels a big heavier on his shoulders. "I'm not going to attack you. Or force you to come with me."
Except...
"... Serpent Brotherhood, really?"
Come on now.
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A wan smile. It's a terribly heavy decision, but right now it hardly feels like a decision at all. How could he have any choice when there were people that needed help this bad?
Except...
"...yeah, I know, I know. They have ninjas, too. It's...a thing."
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Maybe he shouldn't. Maybe it's wrong, pulling in someone from another world but Tom recognizes the need to fight, to set things right when he sees them. And he already has a feeling he won't be able to talk the guy out of it.
"Thank you."
Except.
"A Brotherhood of Ninjas?"
It's not that much weirder than a worldwide alien invasion but it's still pretty weird.
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Except...
"Yeah." It sounds fairly defeated. This is just what his life is like, Tom. "Ninjas. They even found me when I was in Oklahoma."
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Except...
"Ninjas in Oklahoma?"
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He shrugs. "I ain't so bad. I shoot maybe once or twice a year. Not really my style, though."
A beat. "That's what I said!"
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But at least he's familiar around a firearm, that's worth a lot. Tom remembers his first few weeks, completely out of his depth, holding a gun for the first time. How much he had hated it. How much it had scared him.
How he can't imagine his life without one anymore.
"Ninjas. Well, now I've heard everything."
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"You kinda get used to it?"
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He walks quietly with Jake for a while, heading back to show him where he came through. There's a dull, uncomfortable feeling sitting on his chest and he recognizes the guilt for what it is. "... I'm sorry. I shouldn't put you through this."
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Jake takes a look behind him, wondering if he's going to see the Library itself again. Or if he's just going to die in some otherworldly battlefield. Maybe he's making the worst mistake of his life right here, right now. He has a chance to say no, he has a chance to back away.
"But I have a job to do." A wan smile. "I'm lookin' after those artifacts you got on loan, and then I'm takin' them back when you're done."
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"Then I'll do whatever I can to make sure you and them get back here. That's a promise."
What's that, Jake? Looks like you got yourself some kind of Guardian here.