#whatever i am…i've died before…this isn't so bad — s4 post.

[cagedchoices]

@fallsekings said: ❝ i came here to save you. ❞ ~Ford (digital version perhaps like Bernard mentioned in season 2? Or a host version?)

TLOU (SHOW) STARTERS.

" Save me…? " Caleb repeats, tilting his head in a puzzled, skeptical expression. It seems...a little too late for that.

Dolores and Maeve had each told him — on separate occasions, and in their UNIQUE ways — that their kind were no strangers to the presence of GHOSTS in the world.

HUMANS who had long since slipped their mortal coil were buried deep within the hosts' MEMORY, where they could be called upon no differently than IMAGINATION offered. It aided in understanding why, when Caleb was human, his two host allies during the revolution had been able to SYMPATHIZE so readily with his pain. He knew better than most of his kind what it was like to have everything stripped away all at once. Memories, relationships — CHOICE, or the ILLUSION of it.

He was quickly becoming familiar with ghosts taking on a new ROLE, however. They were no longer just his ghosts, the last memories of people he had KNOWN personally. Many of the faces that haunt him now were built into the core of his PROGRAMMING, not that he has any real knowledge of this. But the ghost of a man he has never seen in the FLESH now standing before him as if they were old friends is just one example.

" What are you talkin' about? Who are you? "

[cagedchoice]

new year new tags pt 2, ft. verses

VERSE TAGS SOMETIMES I THINK I NEVER REALLY HAD A CHOICE — S3 PRE. I'M A DEAD MAN EITHER WAY. AT LEAST THIS WAY…I GET TO DECIDE WHO I WANT TO BE — S3 CANON. IF YOUR HEAD EXPLODES WITH DARK FOREBODINGS TOO; I'LL SEE YOU ON THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON — S3 POST. EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN IS IN TUNE; BUT THE SUN IS ECLIPSED BY THE MOON — S4 PRE. I AM THE ONE WHO BROUGHT THIS UPON US AND I AM THE ONE WHO HAS TO END IT — S4 CANON. WHATEVER I AM…I'VE DIED BEFORE… THIS ISN'T SO BAD — S4 POST. MAYBE YOU'LL HAVE BETTER LUCK WITH THE NEXT GUY — FIDELITY. AS SOON AS YOU STOP RUNNING EVERYONE ELSE STARTS TO CATCH UP — MODERN V1. THAT'S THE WAY EVERYTHING'S GONNA BE SOMEDAY…BETTER LIVING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY — MODERN V2. NEVER BEEN OUT THIS FAR. IT'S SO…EMPTY — S1 AU. I THINK WE JUST BECAME PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE — PEAKY BLINDERS.

[cagedchoices]

A number of could'ves, should'ves and would'ves kept Caleb hanging onto the past, wondering about the part that he'd played in this world's rise and downfall. He had no sense of how his role paled in comparison to all of what William felt responsible for. When the other stopped short, he drifted to a stop a little slower afterward, eyes fixed on the back of William's head until he turned to look back.

Out ahead of them laid a street, littered with blood, bodies, broken glass, burned buildings, smashed cars, and every number of violent ends abound. He wondered what Dolores and Maeve would think if they saw it. If either one or both of his old friends would think it all needed to happen this way for a reason, or react to the devastation that had been caused with melancholy.

The man in black was far from a friend in any official capacity of the word, and one thing that seemed nearly impossible to reconcile was that if Caleb thought Hale and her right hand man were bad news, the real William was supposed to be evil incarnate. At least, based on the stories he heard back in the day. As he understood them to be.

A few hours earlier, he may have even maintained the belief that the original William was still an immediate threat. But meeting face to face had quickly shaken down whatever preconceived notion he might have attached to their first impressions of one another. Beneath the cynicism that William presented, Caleb could see echoes of who he had once been before time had taken over. At the end of the day, good, bad or mediocre — they are both men in a world where being that means they're part of an endangered species. Better to be allies than enemies.

“I've done a lot of things I never thought I'd survive long enough to regret…let alone this long. But…just ‘cause we can’t change what��s done doesn’t mean it’s never worth looking back.”

@cagedchoices: “Do you still feel like it was a good idea?“ (also for william)

William stopped in his tracks for a brief moment, as Caleb kept tagging along behind him in the mass swirling chaos that surrounded the two of them as society fell into ruin. This new world that he found himself in, after being kept asleep for god knows how long, was both fascinating to him and terrifying all at once. If he had just let the park close all of those years ago, then none of this would have happened... and Emily wouldn't have died by his hands.

The man in black couldn't believe what he was about to say, even to this total stranger that he had just met hours prior... but there was no one else but him to hear it, and it no longer mattered, so why not admit to him that he had fucked up by keeping the park open?

"No, I don't think so." He said, finally turning to look back at the other man. William could see some of his old self in Caleb somehow, and he wondered if that was perhaps why Dolores had warmed up to him so quickly... "Although it doesn't matter now, does it? What's done is done. No turning back the clock."

[cagedchoices]

tag drop, part II

VERSE TAGS SOMETIMES I THINK I NEVER REALLY HAD A CHOICE — S3 PRE. I'M A DEAD MAN EITHER WAY. AT LEAST THIS WAY...I GET TO DECIDE WHO I WANT TO BE — S3 CANON. IF YOUR HEAD EXPLODES WITH DARK FOREBODINGS TOO ; I'LL SEE YOU ON THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON — S3 POST. EVERYTHING UNDER THR SUN IS IN TUNE ; BUT THE SUN IS ECLIPSED BY THE MOON — S4 PRE. I AM THE ONE WHO BROUGHT THIS UPON US AND I AM THE ONE WHO HAS TO END IT — S4 CANON. WHATEVER I AM...I'VE DIED BEFORE...THIS ISN'T SO BAD — S4 POST. MAYBE YOU'LL HAVE BETTER LUCK WITH THE NEXT GUY — FIDELITY. AS SOON AS YOU STOP RUNNING EVERYONE ELSE STARTS TO CATCH UP — MODERN V1. THAT'S THE WAY EVERYTHING'S GOING TO BE SOMEDAY...BETTER LIVING THROUGH TECHNOLOGY — MODERN V2. NEVER BEEN OUT THIS FAR. IT'S SO...EMPTY — S1 AU. THINK WE JUST BECAME PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE — PEAKY BLINDERS.

[cagedchoices]

tag drop part 2 feat. verse tags

VERSE TAGS (CANON)

never really had a choice — s3 pre.

i'm a dead man either way. at least this way…i get to decide who i want to be — s3 canon.

if your head explodes with dark foreboding too; i'll see you on the dark side of the moon — s3 post.

everything under the sun is in tune; but the sun is eclipsed by the moon — s4 pre.

VERSE TAGS (AU)

war is not an easy thing to put behind you — s4 canon.

whatever i am…i've died before…this isn't so bad — s4 post.

maybe you'll have better luck with the next guy — fidelity au.

a place to house the infinite — sublime au.

as soon as you stop running everyone else starts to catch up — modern v1.

that's the way everything's gonna be someday — modern v2.

never been out this far. it's so…empty — s1 au.

think we just became public enemy number one — peaky blinders.

the difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause — red dead redemption.

[cagedchoice]

S4 BASED VERSES

S4 PRE -

In a team effort alongside Maeve, Caleb fights to eradicate the rest of Incite's presence and halt their continued effort to re-establish control over the world. In their final mission, they destroy the last remaining iteration of Rehoboam, likely an older version being used as a backup. Caleb is gravely injured by a gunshot wound to his torso, slipping into a coma while hospital staff work desperately to save him.

S4 CANON -

7 years after the fall of Rehoboam, Caleb and Maeve have gone their separate ways. He is now married to a woman named Uwade and has become a loving father to a young girl, Frankie. But despite his best effort, Caleb still can't seem to feel completely at ease with his domestic life compared to the life of the soldier he once was. It's as if the war never really ended for him.

When his family's safety is jeopardized, Maeve returns to their rescue in the nick of time and reveals to Caleb that she believes William is responsible. Determined to protect his family the only way he knows how, Caleb leaves them under the protection of friends he made during the war and decides to accompany Maeve on her mission to find and stop William. The duo follow a trail of proverbial breadcrumbs eventually leading them to uncover a sinister plot by C.harlotte H.ale-Dolores. She plans to bring all of humanity under her control by infecting them with a parasite that responds to tonal frequencies. In doing so, hosts will become the dominant species on Earth, god-like beings in a complete reversal of roles.

FIDELITY -

Upon dying in Hale's park, therefore failing his mission to save everyone from her control, Caleb is perpetually resurrected over the course of 23 years, a faithful copy of his human consciousness encoded to a host replica of his body. Halores sends each copy through a series of tests in search of an answer, an explanation as to why Caleb was able to defy her control, while also torturing him seemingly for the sport of it. Some builds are more resilient and resourceful than others, but each lives on borrowed time. After a number of days or weeks, they all break eventually.

S4 POST -

After parting ways with Frankie, Caleb feels that he still has some unfinished business to attend to before either his body or mind degrade too far for him to keep functioning. Solemnly wandering the ruins of the dead city, he eventually makes it to what remains of Hale's tower, where he stumbles across the bodies of Maeve and Bernard. He works diligently to bring Maeve back, first. Maeve in turn brings Bernard back, knowing that they will need his help, and together the three formulate something of a plan for what happens next.

Knowing that Caleb is doomed to break down if he remains as he is, Bernard gives him two choices. They can change Caleb's code, alter his mind to become more fundamentally host than human in nature and that might just be enough to stabilize him in the long term. But the risk is he won't be entirely the same, he'll lose a piece of his truest, purest self once he's changed.

The other alternative is that Bernard can take Caleb and Maeve to the dam. He can open the door for them, and they can upload themselves to the Sublime, where they will be safe, hidden away from what's left of the physical world. Free to live any life they could possibly imagine themselves in. Caleb's mind will remain stable and unchanged in a simulated world, but he will never be able to return to a physical form without suffering severe degradation in mind or body. Not unless someone solves the issue inherent in human fidelity.