...And also these.

[thespaceopera]

[ Calibration Rooms ]
( for N-Z characters )

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ROOMS BY CHARACTER

N - Q Nami Natasha Romanoff Nelkeila Tarid Nux Nyssa al Ghul Octavia Blake One Peggy Carter Phèdre nó Delaunay de Montrève

R - U R. Daneel Olivaw Rapunzel Remy LeBeau Riku Robin Redbreast Rogue Santanico Pandemonium Shawn Hunter Stefan (Alesci) Salvatore Steve "Orion" Rogers Steven Quartz Universe Souji Seta Stiles Stilinski Syeira Tadashi Hamada Tekhetsio

V - Z Vash the Stampede Vima Sunrider Vision (The) Wanda Maximoff Wrath Yamanaka Ino

Comments

[mylegacy]

[Everyone is alone, but we can be alone together.]

[He looks at it for a little while, thinking. He's spent so much time alone, hasn't he, and now . . . everyone's trying to pull him out of himself. Trying so hard, trying all the time. Sometimes alone is good, though. Sometimes--]

[He wonders abruptly if this is how Ino feels. That she's meant to be alone, that nothing can ever last. It's different from how he feels, that he was destined for destruction, revenge, or death, nothing else, but the core feeling, the sick knot in his stomach, the emptiness, that's the same.]

[After a moment, he laughs, quiet and breathy.]

Jojo would yell at me for agreeing with you.

[Which implies, of course, that on some level he does. On some level, he believes what Joseph tells him: that everything will be all right, that he can't give up, that it's not allowed and he won't let him. He believes in Joseph the way he believes in the sun. But on another level, he knows loneliness better than Joseph ever will. He understands it, and it understands him.]

It doesn't seem so bad there. Since you have company.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

[that almost gets Robin to laugh again. he lets his free hand rest on his leg, sitting up against his strings, wincing a little as they pull tight against his throat.]

I'm sure he and I will just eat each other, one day. The whole thing'll... go up in flames...

[he sighs, closing his eyes. in Caesar's fingers, the card has turned into a small knife. he could either cut him open, or cut him free.]

But I think... Sometimes all you really need is someone who'll help you fall asleep.

[mylegacy]

[Oh. This is different, now. He isn't sure when it happened. But he knows what to do with a knife, of course, even if it isn't his favorite weapon.]

[. . . His favorite tool.]

Hey.

[He turns to look down at Robin again, eyes wide and curious and hopeful.]

Can you hold very still for a moment? And then after that you can go to sleep, and I'll stay right here.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Huh...? [he opens one eye to glance over at him.] ...Yeah, I think so.

[he can try, anyway. he closes both eyes again, takes in a very careful breath, and waits--as still as he can, putting his fate in the hands of someone he still barely knows.]

[mylegacy]

[Maybe the funny thing about this is that all in all, neither of them would probably be too upset if he chose the other option. But that's not the one he wants right now. He's tired of seeing thread tight around Robin's throat, so he opts to get rid of it.]

[His hand comes up to cup Robin's face in his palm. The other slides the knife under the string, against the skin of his throat, turns it just so until the blade comes to the right angle against the string . . . and it snaps.]

[birdsbirdsbirds]

[like it's nothing. it falls, light and useless--and the truth is that none of these strings were ever very strong to begin with. they only got bad once there were dozens of them, because then they seemed so impossible, a mess of tangles he could never unravel.

Caesar could have honestly snapped them all with his fingers, or even with a bit of broken glass and some insight... but how he does it doesn't really matter. it's the choice, the intentional decision to keep moving forward instead of giving up, that's going to save them both.

a couple more strings around his neck snap on their own, following suit, as if they've been weakened just by the effort.]

[mylegacy]

. . . All right. Good.

[A small smile curves on his lips, not grim or self-deprecating or anything like that this time, just soft and pleased and maybe even optimistic. He goes through and cuts a few more strings with the same intense care, then a few more after that, working as quickly and carefully as he can until finally, Robin is able to break free.