video; optional action

[nulliverse]

Who: Celeste Blackwell and the fleet
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Can be found sulking around the SS Golden kitchen
When: Feb 6, evening

[The last time this girl appeared on the network, she was in quite a hot rage, so it might be odd to see her looking quiet and pensive now. Sad, despite a slight smile, to those who really look closely.]

I've been away for awhile - don't ask, I don't quite understand it myself - but apparently I've come back just in time for Valentine's Day to be around the corner. And normally I'd be the last person to bring up something like this, but...

[But what? She doesn't say, just asks her question.]

... have you ever been in love? What were they like? What really made you think "My god, this is the one" when there are so many other people out there who might've been just as good? And I mean, if you're in love right now and you still want to answer, it needn't be past tense. I suppose - I just don't quite understand this either, I never have, but that doesn't stop it from happening.

[She appears to be at a loss for a moment, before shaking her head and chuckling to herself.]

My mates would laugh themselves sick if they could hear me now.

[And that's all.]

Comments

[takeabow]

Contract? What contract?

[nulliverse]

Oh lord... this is a long story right from the beginning. Let me see - the last city I lived in, Eudio, had people from all different universes and worlds like this. But they recruited people rather than kidnapping them, and they'd offer an incentive for a stay in the city wherein you'd perform a service for them. Almost like a wish, except that you did have to hold up your end of the bargain.

I'd completed my contract and was leaving for home when Atroma decided they had other plans for me. So I've yet to find out if the last few months of my life actually changed anything for me at home.

[takeabow]

You willingly stayed? Why?

[ not incredulous but curious ]

[nulliverse]

Because I wanted what I'd asked for just that badly. I also changed it, once or twice, but that never changed how badly I wanted it.

And - well, because I made a life there. That's where the man I love is, at least until he's sent home, and a lot of good mates. People who changed my outlook on nearly everything.

[takeabow]

...I can understand that.

[ she really, really can. she doesn't even want to go home ]

[nulliverse]

It's funny, isn't it. I never felt like I had any real place where I came from, like I could do anything right or please anyone. I wasn't sure there was anything left for me. All of that came from a completely different world.

[takeabow]

Do you have to go back to your world? I don't want to.

[nulliverse]

I - yes, I think I do. For personal reasons. Hiding away in a place where the situation and people and - system that made me who I am are irrelevant can only work for so long. I need to go back and face them, and prove to them and to myself that I can make it on my own.

[takeabow]

[ katniss kind of clams up, pulling back any emotion she'd been showing ]

Ah.

[nulliverse]

[And that definitely doesn't get past Celeste.]

Not that it's the answer for everyone, by any means. You said you wanted to go to your boyfriend's home, didn't you? I'm sure I would've made the same choice if it had been offered.

[takeabow]

[ still on the stoic/reticent side ]

Yeah. Well. Who knows if it's the right thing to do.

[nulliverse]

You can never know, can you? [She pauses for just a moment to think about that.] Well - there is a bloke on our ship who says he can see every possible future and every outcome of every event... but I don't think I'd choose that over not knowing. You'd give up surprise entirely.

[But she digresses.]

The point is, you never know if anything's right until you try it. I swear I'm not a romantic, but if you think you love him and you don't think you want to go back - it sounds good enough to me.

[takeabow]

[ she makes a noise ]

Got stuck with Leto, huh? Sorry about that.

[nulliverse]

[She's not expecting any of that, but somehow the dry humour behind sorry about that hits her most strongly, and she ends up sputtering with laughter that won't stop even when she tries to speak.]

Fucking hell. He is - unfathomable. The more opaque he gets, the more I want to see through him and figure him out. It's going to be torture, I can already tell.

[takeabow]

It doesn't really improve. At least in Aather I wasn't on a team with him, but he was on a team with some people I knew, and we played in games together. I want to spit on him just as much as I want to talk to him.

[nulliverse]

Good lord. He's made a worse impression on you than me. [Her smirk might be a tiiiiny bit self-satisfied.] Aather - what was that like? I haven't heard that name 'round here yet, and there are people from all sorts of places.

[takeabow]

It's what took our memories from us. We had to help fight Darkness and save the residents. Lots of magic, lots compulsory game-playing. They weren't all fun. Some could be pretty brutal.