[fic]Will to Live

[vikki.livejournal.com]

This fic is an expansion on a thought that hit me at 1000 mph before work.

Title: Will to Live
by vikki
Characters: Lelouche, Suzaku
Summary: There are consequencses to Lelouche's actions. Spoilers for eps 18-20.



"Suzaku, live!" Lelouche commanded, and Suzaku obeyed.

It's nearly 60 years since everything. Euphemia has passed away; Lelouche is an old man. Suzaku lies before him, his breathing labored, tubes leading in and out of his arms and nose and under his hospital gown. He is white, so white, his hair gone, his skin stretched over frail bone.

Cancer, the doctors had said. Nothing we can do. They had given Suzaku six months to live.

It's been five years.

"Lelouche," Suzaku murmurs. His lips barely move, and his crusted eyes slit open. Lelouche leans forward. He has been there for all of it, from beginning to end. Suzaku is his best friend. "Lelouche, let me die." His hand twitches in supplication.

Lelouche bears it wearily, taking Suzaku's hand. There is nothing he can do. He's tried everything. When he turned up the morphine drip lethally, Suzaku merely slipped into a coma and emerged more ill than before. He is not to be recessitated, but his heart gamely beats on. No matter what he wishes, Suzaku will not die, and Lelouche can do nothing.

The Geass only works once on a person.

Suzaku's irises are red-rimmed twenty-four hours a day. And he will live through everything, until there is nothing left.

fin

dialogue

in all seriousness, I wonder about the Geass. Take the girl that Lelouche has ordered to make scratches on a particular wall every day. What would happen if, for some reason, she were unable to obey? She can never leave the vicinity of that school, because she must obey the Geass. Say she took a trip for a week? Would the Geass compell her to come back to the school every day, come hell or high water, and make the mark?

So far it appears that the Geass can compell people to do everything in their physical power to obey - Jeremiah is an example. So ... anyway. Thoughts are appreciated.

Comments

[clamp-hikari.livejournal.com]

lol same thing I've been wondering. Well I guess you can always shoot the person to death? by cutting his head off?

I want to be geassed like "Be the smartest person in the world!" or "be immortal!"

Then again, I just want the ability of Geass. which one should adapt to me I wonder: command, mind-reading, future sight, or super strengh (so far the types revealed)

[vikki.livejournal.com]

I get the impression that the effect on Suzaku is primarily mental ... but a compulsion to live can do amazing things to the human body. People live through all sorts of things if they absolutely must live.

I'm sure cutting off Suzaku's head would do the trick, though. ^^;;

[whitedestiny1x2.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. God. Wow.

[vikki.livejournal.com]

^^;; thank you. It's a scary implication.

[nayami.livejournal.com]

You and my brother must share a brain because he brought up this very same topic the other day when we were joking about Suzaku's live command. I'm not sure if it holds water thought since Geass is essentially mind control. I think if Suzaku were rendered unconscious, the effect wouldn't work. With Jeremiah, he was specifically ordered to save Lelouch and Suzaku "with all his strength." It was a different level of command. Suzaku's is simply to protect himself from dying. So I'm not sure he could physically fight off cancer, but it is something to ponder nonetheless.

I'm more concerned about the carving girl. Your points on her frighten me.

About the fic, so depressing. I enjoyed.

[vikki.livejournal.com]

So I'm not sure he could physically fight off cancer, but it is something to ponder nonetheless.

It's less that I think Suzaku could physically fight off cancer forever, although I admit the fic gives that impression. Eventually, since it's clearly a losing battle, multiple organ failure *will* occur and Suzaku will die.

But it's been said that people with a determination to live survive cancer far more often than people who give up. There's a high mental quotient in health, IMHO - supported by studies with placebos and such. Take, for example, people who want to lower their cholesterol. In studies, people given a placebo but believing they were lowering their cholesterol still managed to drop it an average of 6%.

I guess what I'm saying is that if Suzaku had the compulsion to live, even horrible diseases would probably string him out far longer than it would the average person. It's a pretty awful thing to do to a person.

[loqi.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, Vikki, I meet you everywhere. XD How are you? (In case you don't remember, I'm that kid who bugged you about your Lotr future-fic.)

Your question reminds me of Death Note, where they created a whole bunch of rules on how much the owner of the Note can manipulate a person before he/she dies. For example, one cannot die in Paris in less than an hour if that person is in Tokyo at that moment.

But Geass is a lot more fleixble I think in that Lelouch can still modify his commands ie. continue control that person, as long as the person is still under Geass. So that girl may never leave the vicinity of the school, or will always come back to school at least once a day, unless Lelouch tells her "You can take go off for a week and come back later to continue drawing crosses".

I'm wondering about what happens to that girl after the Geass though. Will she remember anything at all from the days when she has to draw crosses? Or will she only forget the part where she has to draw crosses everyday?

[tatooine.livejournal.com]

I don't think Lelouch can modify the commands once he breaks eye contact -- no telling Suzaku that he can die now, or the carving girl that she can stop carving now.

[loqi.livejournal.com]

Aha.. yes, you're right. I forgot the eye contact part. ^^;;; I was thinking how he can make someone do something and then ensure that person will forget s/he has met him before the Geass. Like what he should've done to Villetta. But if eye contact is consistant then Lelouch should be able to give more than one command at a time.

[vikki.livejournal.com]

XD;; I remember you! I'm sorry that story has fallen by the wayside; I ran into a huge roadblock (having to have about 10 characters interact at once), and I shied away from it. Then I got in big trouble at home and ... yeah. Anyway.

The Geass only works once, so I suspect that once eye contact is broken the Geass' commands are set. If use of the Geass compelled the people under it to *continuously* obey Lelouche, then Lelouche could have ordered Kallen to not mention Shinjuku and she wouldn't have questioned it. Although that does pose an interesting question: could Lelouche order a person to always obey him, and the person would obey anything Lelouche said, even after eye contact had been broken?

Hmm ... I agree that it's more flexible than the Death Note, but the time limit just works differently - not infinitely.

[loqi.livejournal.com]

Yay! I am remembered! XD Don't worry about it, I've sort of faded away from that fandom for a while now.

And yes, I've completely forgot about the eye contact part (this is what happens when you comment after studying for 3 straight hours >_>). Though Lelouch should be able to continuously give commands to a person as long as he keeps the person under Geass and eye contact. Like when he interrogated Clovis he was able to ask two questions.

could Lelouche order a person to always obey him, and the person would obey anything Lelouche said, even after eye contact had been broken?

That's interesting, sort of like when you can have 3 wishes granted and you ask for another 3 wishes on your last wish. I would say since that is Lelouch's order then that person would obey him. Maybe it has to be like "Obey my every command until you die" or something like that so the person is in Geass mode all the time.

[herongale]

It's awesome seeing you in my new anime fandom/ obsession. ♥

[vikki.livejournal.com]

LOVE. AND HARUHI. HAHAHA.

You write fic for this, yes? Pretty please? ♥

[sai-rin.livejournal.com]

This does prompt me to think deeper into the results of the Geass' power. It's kind of disturbing to think about it, especially for that schoolgirl. I wonder if it's possible for Lelouch to change his command?

[vikki.livejournal.com]

I don't think it is - that's the whole point, after all. Lelouche can only command a person with the Geass once, as long as eye contact isn't broken. After that, a command that has no stated *end* to it, or no specific goal (pointed questioning, for instance), is infinite. I don't remember if it was stated that the Geass would end if Lelouche died, and it seems that C.C. cannot take away the Geass after bestowing it, so.

[tatooine.livejournal.com]

I've thought about this and come to the conclusion that Lelouch is a jackass.

Then again, I'm hoping that Geass will work in kinder ways. Certainly, it leaves the Geassed person with some sense of free will, so I'm hoping that, say, in the case of the carving girl, she'll start to think "Oh, well, I want to be a teacher here..." and decide not to go on those sorts of trips.

[vikki.livejournal.com]

eeeeeee, you have a Princess Tutu icon! AHAHA. =DDDD

XD;; I do like the way the Geass manipulates people neatly. There are blatant changes in personality, but the person remembers none of it, and the altered mind usually neatly sidesteps any issues the Geass may cause with rationalization and/or memory blanks.

I have a theory that if for some reason the girl were to go on a trip, the Geass would make her suddenly decide that she has to board a bus and go back to the school, at which point she would make the mark, then go back. And people would be like "where did you go?" and she would have absolutely *no* idea. ^^;;

[tatooine.livejournal.com]

All credit to amos_hunte; I don't icon that well. &hearts

Well... I don't actually think it changes personality. When Lelouch Geasses punk kids, they act like punk kids and go to the arcade. Viletta twirls the keys, Jeremiah yells at people. Suzaku's the only one, so far as I can tell, who changes personality much, which I think is a lot of the switch between what the GameFAQs group is calling boku!Suzaku and ore!Suzaku and everything Lulu talked about in 17.5. I think it causes the person to try and rationalize what they're doing (ie "I'm bored, let's go to the arcade"), and anything that can't be rationalized (giving a Knightmare away, Suzaku disregarding his orders) is what's forgotten. So if carve-girl could think of a reason to hop on a bus and go back to school "Oh no, I really need ____," she'd remember that part (though... not the carving?), she'd remember that she needed to get on the bus.

Man, I don't even know if that made sense by the end of the paragraph. XD

[vikki.livejournal.com]

You're right, it's not so much personality changes unless it completely and utterly goes against what the person does at their core. So yes; I think you're right. The Geass make them rationalize certain actions.

=D