Intro: action/video

[tothefly]

Who: Natasha
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva
When: pre-Shuffle (4/18)


[Audio/Video]
[The beginnings of this broadcast are nothing but a black screen, a soft rustling, the sound of regular breathing. After a few seconds the breathing stops. Dead silence follows, then more rustling as the screen goes from blackness to a brilliant white, then a spinning blur that finally resolves with a clattering noise into the lovely white ceilings of the Marsiva. After another moment of silence, a head of bright red hair creeps into the image as the comm is picked up, eventually revealing the face and shoulders of a woman in her twenties who is clearly Not Amused. While her expression is more or less schooled, there's definitely a sense of things being repressed, emotions hidden, and words carefully chosen.]

If this is your idea of a joke, Stark, there is nowhere you can run that I won't find you.

[The threat is obvious.]



[Action, early:]
The bump on the back of her neck was obvious and irritating. Invasive. It was the first thing she'd noticed, taking stock of her own body, the loss of her weapons which galled her almost as much as letting herself be rendered unconscious. That implant seems to be the source of all the knowledge she's finding herself with as she strides down the halls, some foreign part of her mind supplying helpful names and details as she takes in her surroundings. None if it is immediately useful, so she continues to file it away in her own mind--

Until she hits the viewing bay, and even Natasha looks shocked by the view. Enough so that she barely notices the other bodies in the room as she stares, lips parted and eyes wide.

"Bozhe moi..."


[Action, later:]
They can put her in space, put things in her brain, but they can't make Natasha anything but what she is, and what she is is resourceful. Anyone visiting what passes for a gym and hoping to exercise will instead be greeted by a partially disassembled piece of equipment, and Natasha herself busily invested in the practice of trying to remove a panel from the wall by one of the entertainment console using a piece of metal presumably from said equipment, as her comm beeps at her insistently.

Comments

[tothefly]

Natasha feels eyes on her back, but doesn't stop to look, since whoever it is isn't moving. They can watch if they want, though truthfully she'd rather not have people paying too much attention to her. She feels exposed enough as it is. The question she's asked goes unanswered for a long moment, her breath held as she maneuvers the metal shard a little deeper, and pauses to set it.

"Not in the slightest. Why, you have a better idea?"

[openhands]

What are you trying to do?

[Cassandra ignores the question and simply asks another. Which in a way is an answer all on its own. She doesn't understand how anything on this ship works. But depending on what Natasha is trying to accomplish, Cassandra might think the experimentation is a waste of time or not.]

[tothefly]

"Are you asking because you're interested, or because you have nothing better to do?"

She can play twenty questions all day. Natasha isn't particularly prone to giving answers if she isn't getting any in return. In truth, she's only half-focused, since she can feel the end of the metal hook catching on some spot further down behind the panel...but one slight motion and it slips, leaving the redhead leaning against the panel with a silent curse.

"It doesn't matter. Unless you've got a crowbar on you, I don't see it budging, anyway."

[openhands]

Would I have stood here watching you if I wasn't interested? [Cassandra asks with a hint of impatience. It's the only reason why she's still standing here, in fact. Otherwise, Cassandra very well might have ended the conversation there and moved on.]

[tothefly]

"You're a stranger, how should I know?"

She shouldn't be as amused by answering a question with a question as she is. Still, there's little enough to be amused by right now, so she'll take what she can get.

And maybe actually give some sort of answer. "I'm breaking the rules, according to the thing in my head. You want to help, or just watch?"

[openhands]

I'm content with just watching.

[So, if you get in trouble, you're on your own.]

[...Plus, she really has nothing in her world to compare any of this technology with. She doesn't want to start messing around with something she can't put back together in a pinch.]

[tothefly]

"Suit yourself. More fun for me." For certain definitions of fun, anyway. She's capable of being patient and doing nothing, but she's never been the sort to handle peaceful captivity well. It's easier when there's someone trying to hurt her.

Natasha spares another look for the woman and her odd clothing, then turns back to try her luck again. "You just get here?"

[openhands]

Recently, yes. I have been here for a few days.

[And still generally having a hard time believe that any of it is real.]

You?

[tothefly]

Welcome to the club, sister. It's why Natasha's digging around at the wall, trying to find some sort of answers.

"Long enough to know this isn't how I want to spend my vacation. I was thinking a couple weeks in Monaco, maybe a long weekend in Prague."

There's a brief thunk as her pry bar catches on something. It sounds promising.

[openhands]

[Cassandra arches a brow, having heard of neither Monaco nor Prague before. But there's a better question than asking about locations she's never heard of.]

Your vacation from what?

[tothefly]

The panel makes an enticing creaking noise, a small click....then nothing more. Nothing until her pry bar starts to bend with a protesting groan, and Natasha stops, leaving it wedged in the panel gap. Instead, she diverts her attention finally from the wall to focus on the other woman.

"What do people usually take vacations from?" She shrugs.

[openhands]

That's not an answer.

[Cassandra doesn't particularly like it when others are more evasive in their answers. That often means they have something to hide. Rarely is that something good.]

[tothefly]

You ask a lot of questions.

[Natasha isn't the sort to share well, in case the other woman hasn't noticed yet. But it seems like they're both in good company, in that regard.]

What's your name?

[openhands]

And you answer none of them.

[But fine, she will answer this question.]

Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast.

[tothefly]

I answer some of them.

[The ones she feels like answering. Not that Cassandra has any room to talk. There's a brief moment of hesitation, a briefer hint of smile, before she offers at least one more answer. This one, without even the question.]

Natasha. Are you enjoying the Marsiva, Cassandra?

[openhands]

[Cassandra will take all the room she likes to talk, thank you very much. Even if she technically has no claim to it. But ssshhhh.]

I wouldn't say enjoying, but I have been in worse conditions.

[tothefly]

[She can stay in denial. It only makes it more amusing.]

Conditions don't have to be bad to make a situation unenjoyable. Personally, I'm not a fan of cages. Your mileage may vary.

[openhands]

And that is how you view this place then? A cage?

[tothefly]

What else would you consider it?

[Are they back to playing the question game? She likes that.]

[openhands]

I'm reserving judgment for now, but cage seems too restrictive from what I have seen so far.

[Or she could also be in denial about being trapped. Or it's a little bit of both.]

[tothefly]

Does it? Look a little closer, Cassandra. No doors, no way out. It's big, but that doesn't make it any less a cage.

[openhands]

No doors and no way out, yet here you are.

[tothefly]

What can I say, I've never been very good at waiting around for someone to come rescue me.

[openhands]

[Okay, that earns and appreciative smile from Cassandra.]

That is a surprising piece of optimism from you, Natasha.

[tothefly]

[That might be the first time anyone's ever used her name and the word 'optimistic' in the same sentence. It gets a small smile of her own in return, a quick twitch of one eyebrow.]

Oh, that's absolutely me. All sunshine and puppies.

What about you, Cassandra? Resigned to your fate, or just biding your time?