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

[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?

[openhands]

There is something to be said for patience, isn't there?

[tothefly]

Suppose there is.

There's also something to be said for initiative, though.

[She offers a small smile. It's almost a peace offering.]

[openhands]

[She returns the slight smile.]

Perhaps a balance is what's most needed in this situation.

[tothefly]

Guess you could be right. It's not like I'm getting anywhere with this.

[She motions back over her shoulder towards the wall, looking just a touch rueful.]

[openhands]

I'm sure you will think of something else.

[She seems tenacious. Hopefully resourceful as well or else there is a lot of wasted energy at work here.]

[tothefly]

I've got a few ideas in the works. Might go faster if there were two of us. [Especially since even with her enhanced strength, Natasha's only 5'3". Cassandra doesn't seem like the type to lean towards defacing public property, though.]

But if you're still settling in, I suppose I'll accept a raincheck.

[openhands]

Another time, perhaps, [Cassandra says as she moves back towards the door.]

[So not entirely ruling the possibility.]

[tothefly]

Suit yourself. I'm sure I'll see you around, Cassandra.

[She watches the other woman leave, then turns back to the entertainment panel, looking it over again for other means of access. It's something to do, at least.]