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(no subject)

Who: Nova & U
Broadcast: fleet-wide; video
Action: On First Breath
When: August 14th, early morning

[ Nova looks... tired, especially if you saw her on her first day. She's sitting up on her bed and her space looks pretty immaculate and not at all lived-in. She looks a little anxious, and rebraids the bottom of her hair before speaking, visibly uncomfortable with the camera. ]

Uh. Hey. I guess. I hope I'm not waking anyone up. I'm new so... I don't know. I can't sleep. Does anyone have any tips? Or something? It's... well, it's not exactly quiet, because things make noise. But it's... sterile? It doesn't sound right, or smell right.

I don't really want to think about it too hard. Anyway. If you could tell me what you did when you were new...

[ She trails off, awkward and tired and lets the silence go on a little long ]

It's probably just a personal problem.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, maybe.

[ runs her hand through her hair ]

Maybe I'll just check out the medbay.I used to have a thing that helped but it was more... magicky.

You have a lot of that, where you're from?

[The existence of magic is something she accepts just fine. Whatever its source, how it works, it's more or less real, at least here. But that doesn't mean she's any more comfortable with the idea of it being used on her.]

No. I was somewhere else before here. That's where I met the... other woman.

[Katniss--Nova's--choice of words is ironic. After all, aren't they close to the words she'd used to refer to the man calling himself Orion? "The other one." Not Steve Rogers, not anymore, not for a long time. She's not nearly as sensitive about the name, not as long as the person using it understands there's a distinction.]

Guess that means you're not part of my future. That's probably a good thing. I personally draw the line at screwing with timelines.

[It could be a joke, if you tilt your head sideways and squint.]

...Aren't I automatically part of your future, now? Or at least the present...

I don't know. Time is confusing.

But yeah. It's probably not something like that.

I tend to treat this place like a bubble. No impact on things back where I'm from. It makes things slightly less complicated, especially with the whole multiverse theory we've got going.

But you're right. That doesn't exactly make it less confusing, here.

Do you think time's stopped outside of here? That's what people thought at Aather.

Aather's the place you were before?

[With the other Natasha, she thinks but doesn't say.]

It's possible. Honestly, I don't think there's much point worrying about it. we'll go back, or we won't, and it'll be the point we left from, or it won't. It's not something we can do much about, either way.

Yeah, we just came from it.

And it's— [ pauses, trying to figure out how to word it ]

I don't want my sister to miss me.

Guess it's harder for some people than others. I can see how having someone to go back to could make you want to have a solid answer.

I'm sorry I don't have anything more reassuring to tell you.

Yeah.

I was supposed to be getting her and then going somewhere else, but I ended up here.

A surprise detour, huh? I'll keep my fingers crossed you get back on the road soon. We've all got places we'd rather be. Most of us, anyway.

What about you?

What? Do I have somewhere else I'd rather be? Sure. Spending months crammed into a tin can with five strangers isn't exactly my idea of a vacation.

Where?

Fiji. Monaco. Iran.

[The last one's a joke, though the kind specifically found in her lineup--unfunny, also over the head of her audience.]

Basically, anywhere on Earth in my own time period. I'm a girl of simple needs.

Well, it's worth asking.

Asking where I'd rather be? It's nice to think about being somewhere else, but it doesn't really do me much good here. Any wishful thinking just means I have less focus to spend on what's in front of me, and I really can't afford that. [She shrugs.] I'd like to go home. But I'd also like to survive to go home.

What about you?

I... want to go get my sister, and then go to Stiles' home. He showed up here with me, and we met in Aather. It just seems like his world is better for us. Maybe my sister could actually become a doctor.

[She remembers seeing Stiles' entry post; one of several she hadn't responded to. No need, yet. But she does file away the information that he's from a different world than Katniss--Nova--and that he'd also come recently from a place called Aather similar to this one, at least in that it was run by inter-dimensional kidnappers.]

She wouldn't be able to do that where you're from?

We don't... have a lot of resources. Or, we didn't. It's complicated, but I probably ruined things for her.

[Lack of resources she understands. Lack of money, lack of connections. It's stopped a lot of good people from doing a lot of good things. But it's the latter part that interests her.]

That doesn't seem like the kind of thing you'd say lightly.

Is it really bad enough you'd leave for an entirely strange world?

[She's heard the competitions, the talk of how bad this thing or that thing is back on a fleet member's homeworld--but never anyone who didn't want to go back to their own.]

It's... complicated. Like I said.

I'm in a situation that there's no way out of.

Must be pretty bad, if you're considering ditching the entire planet. But if it's what you have to do...

[She shrugs.]

I'm not anyone to talk about complicated situations. Sometimes running is the only thing you can do.

It's either that or... everyone I know is probably going to be killed.