Sweet dreams are made of these...

[thespaceopera]

[ Calibration Rooms ]
( for A-M characters )

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1. Check the first letter of your character's name as its written in our tags. A-M names comment here, and N-Z names go to the other post.
2. Make a note in your topcomment if anything especially triggering or graphic might show up in the Calibration. If you're not sure if something's worth noting or not, we suggest listing it anyway, just to err on the side of caution.
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4. Post your comment! It's fine if everyone's Calibrations end up looking and reading very different from one another. As long as you're having fun and following our guidelines, you're good to go. :)
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ROOMS BY CHARACTER

A Abigail Hobbs Aiya/Gray Nightingale Adrasteius Anor'thalion Ahsoka Tano Alex Russo Allen Walker Anders Anthony Crowley Asteffiel Axel

B - D Belthazar Spellscry Beverly Crusher Bran Stark Caesar Zeppeli Cayde-6 Cheese Sandwich Clay Terran Coil Cole Davesprite Duke Pantarei

E - I Elecman.exe Elena Gilbert Elize Lutus Felix Harrowgate Fenris Finrod Haruka Tenoh/Sailor Uranus Imperator Furiosa Isabela Issac Lahey

J - M Jade Harley James Barnes/Jim James Barnes/Winter Joseph Joestar Katara Katniss Everdeen/Nova Kirito/Kazuto Kirigaya Kurt Wagner Leanne Loki Maladict(a) Max Caulfield Megaman Mordin Solus

Comments

[mortalcoil]

Don't know.

[it could be because there is someone currently in his room, setting him on edge, or he might always be full of busy energy, because he continues to putter around the room once the tray is slid under the dripping stream of water. maybe this is just a space that he constantly needs to maintain. he shuffles a stack of papers into a neater pile, puts a few of the arcane trinkets together in a decorative bowl, lights a candle that has sputtered out on the altar.]

...She'll go away, though.

[and sure enough, a minute or so later, there is silence on the other side of the door.]

[child_of_bhaal]

[The silence is almost is vaguely unsettling. Gone but not forgotten.

Syeira isn't quite sure what to do with herself. So she looks around, hunting for a way out, other than the door. Though she crosses her arms, to keep from touching anything she shouldn't. It makes the searching both awkward and slow.]

[mortalcoil]

[this isn't all that different from the last time they were trapped in a cavelike space together. he continues to ignore her presence while busying himself with his work--though he sneaks little glances in her direction to keep track of her.

and while she searches for a way out, she'll likely come across the other door here. it's the sort of door that probably leads to a closet or other small space, and the wood is so waterlogged, it hardly seems very appealing.

but, at the very least, she'll probably recognize the heavy black coat hanging on the door. it unmistakably belongs to Zhas.]

[child_of_bhaal]

[It's all well and fine thinking that she'll just keep her hands to herself. If she doesn't touch anything, she doesn't have to get blindsided by anything. Right?

Except she runs across something that will get her to give in. She never usually refrains from touching stuff. And Zhas' coat hanging here raises curiosity. At least she realizes she's doing a not smart thing, even as she teaches out for the black fabric.]

[mortalcoil]

[and just as it had done with the earlier trigger, the door pops open again. it doesn't slam against its own chain this time, however. it hangs against the tether without much force, only waiting quietly.

and there isn't the angry glow of firelight spilling through the gap this time, either. it's dark out there, and the only sound coming through is of heavy footfalls crunching over broken glass.

Coil looks up at the sound, watches the door with a sad sort of wariness, but doesn't walk over to look. and he doesn't seem to mind if she sees, either. whatever is on the other side of the door, he doesn't hate.]

[child_of_bhaal]

[She sighs, mostly at herself. She knew she shouldn't touch anything. For a moment she wonders what would happen if she just waits. Would the scene play out with no one watching? Would that be best, over intruding on more private moments in Coil's life?

But on the other hand, she'd triggered something. It could have some kind of clue to getting her out of here. Witnessing it might be key.

She casts a glance at Coil, and when he doesn't seem to be overly vexed by this out her seeing it, she strides back to the door. Holding it open as far as it allows, she looks through the gap.]

[mortalcoil]

[it's the same manor as before, though perhaps a different room in it. it's a different view, and lit with nothing but moonlight peering in through a high window. the hall has been razed, with the toppled angles of broken furniture lying among the softer, fallen shapes of bodies. it's all wreckage, with very few things left unbroken.

and one of them is a familiar teenage boy with one moonglow eye. he's scrambling to his feet, tears streaming silently down his face, and staring up into a set of orange eyes that have the same light to them. the tall, skullfaced stranger is terrifying, but the man doesn't hurt him. instead, he motions for him to step forward, away from the bookcase he's cowering against. because, the skullfaced man has decided that he's worth saving.

the glow in his eye-- the color is brimming with a potential for power, a potential to understand. it's a spark he's only ever seen a couple of times in his life in anyone else. and as he watches the boy break his gaze to look over the still, ruined bodies of his family, it reminds him of too many things.

so, as the boy steps closer, Zhas shrugs off his jacket.

it's not the motion of something done on a whim, and it's not something with a great deal of weight to it. it just has to happen, so he does it with neither grudge nor grandiose gesture.

stepping forward just as certain, he swings the coat up and over the kid's shoulders. he pulls the collar forward to make sure it hangs well, reaches into an inside pocket to pull out a kit that he'll need later. And then he steps back, returning them to their separate boundaries.

"I'll need that back," he says, half-signing the words anyway, "Don't lose it."

and Coil looks so small. the coat makes him look like a child, with weights dragging down on his shoulders. as if the thing weighs a thousand pounds, it makes something about him buckle and crumble beneath it.

it's because the gesture brings reality pressing down. it's something sudden and tangible, and it isn't what he'd expected. it surprises him, hangs on him, pins him down to the present. everything is a little more real, then.

he's grounded now.

the heaviness helps still his shaking, it pulls him back together. as the man heads out of the room and leaves him with the finality of his surroundings, Coil steps and sinks back against the bookshelf again... but the coat keeps him on his feet.]

[child_of_bhaal]

[If fate was trying to make Syeira reconsider her feelings about Coil, this was doing the trick. She quietly shuts the door, stepping away.

She turns around looking toward Coil, but she can't think of anything to say. She'd known they were like family.]

He saved you.

[Well maybe she can think of something to say after all.]

[mortalcoil]

[he keeps his gaze lowered on whatever trinkets he's busying himself with at the table, but he nods. it's a shallow motion; a very quiet admission.

and after a pause, he remembers his voice again. the whisper is barely audible, this time.]

...When I lost my family.

[child_of_bhaal]

He gave you another.

[She nods too, a gesture he can't see with his back to her, but she does it all the same.]

I've judged you harshly. I'm sorry.

[mortalcoil]

[he glances back, at that--peering over his shoulder to get a look at her face. he's a little confused, maybe. or wary. he's got that carefully-guarded and neutral way about him, as he assesses what she means.]

[child_of_bhaal]

I told you before, someone once did terrible things to me. You reminded me of him, and I let that dictate how I've treated you.

I've looked past many things in those I call my friends, but I wasn't willing to do that for you. It was wrong of me.

[The apology is made with true sincerity, and she doesn't expect him to forgive her, and so she doesn't ask for it. If he wanted to forgive, that was up to him and she'd hold no grudge over it.]

[mortalcoil]

[if anything, her apology seems to baffle him. it's clear enough, but maybe the fact that her opinion is altering at all is what is strange to him. it's not as though people often do that in the world that he's surrounded by.

and he opens his mouth to speak, but another knock on the door pulls his attention away. it's a softer sound, followed by a woman's voice calling his name, but a different one than had been calling before. the first woman had demanded that he open the door for her, but this one pleads.

her voice is liquid and distant, and hearing it makes him look both immediately sad and impossibly tired.

his shoulders sag. he'd really like this to stop.]

[child_of_bhaal]

[She sees his body sagging under the emotional weight of the woman banging at the door. They aren't quite on terms where she feels he'd accept comfort from her, so she swallows the urge to do just that.]

Do you think, if we find the way to get me out, that this will stop?

[mortalcoil]

[he wanders over to the door, and looks like he's considering opening it up... but ends up turning around to rest his back against it instead. and after a moment, he sinks down to the floor with his knees drawn up.

he shakes his head.]

...They're always trying to get in.

[child_of_bhaal]

[She watches him, all the way through his sliding down to the floor. She has a moment of indecision of what to do with herself, and then mentally shrugs. Her instinct is to get on his level, and that's what she does; sitting down on the cold floor across from him. Not so close as to encroach, but close enough that she's sitting with him.]

What happens if they succeed?

[mortalcoil]

[he looks a little wary, and confused by her question--like he hasn't thought much about it before--but he doesn't seem to mind her sitting with him beyond that.

he mulls the question over for a minute, listening to the patter of leaking water against stone, but he doesn't come up with much. eventually, he just shrugs a shoulder.]

They'll... mess everything up.

[child_of_bhaal]

[That actually makes a lot of sense to her, vague as it is. But it does make sense.]

Do you think this will keep them out forever?

[She nods at the door.]

don't feel obligated to reply if this is too old!

[mortalcoil]

(continued here, if you want!)