'cause it's better than nothing

[thespaceopera]

[ Calibration Rooms ]
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ROOMS BY CHARACTER

N - P Otono-Tachibana Makie Pavel Chekov Peter Parker Pidge Gunderson Prompto Argentum Psycho Mantis

Q - S Randolph Lyall Remy LeBeau Sandalio "Biffy" de Rabiffano Sanza Stark Shin-Ah Sorey Steve Rogers

T - V Taako Thor Tim Drake Tyrion Lannister Ulaz Vash the Stampede Victor Frankenstein The Vision

W - Z Wanda Maximoff Zaveid

(last updated: 1/25/19)

Comments

Steve Rogers | MCU

[brooklyn_boy]

Theaters haven't really changed since the thirties. They have the same red, velvet seats. The same draped curtain and art-deco sconces on the wall. Really, the difference between a theater then and a theater now has more to do with cupholders and reclining leg-rests than it does with anything substantial. Which is why it's possible, upon entering this room, one might not be aware of where they are. Or when they are, as it is. Not that it really matters.

Not like it's really real.

The room isn't large; this is a theater used for small, unpopular movies at the end of their contracted run. All the seats are empty save one in the dead center. The man there is staring up at the flickering, yellowed light that covers the area of the screen as though he sees something interesting there. He doesn't turn as anyone enters the room.

It's Steve, of course. But like the rest of the room, he's as he was in the thirties. Young and small and coughing, now and again, as the dust irritates his asthma. He's not smiling but he does look at peace. Far more than anyone who had known him might remember ever seeing him.

The projector is standing in the back of the room, clicking as it plays nothing for the lonely viewer in the audience. Underneath it is a table with two film reels: one looks like it's rolled around in dirt, half rusted over in places while the other is clean with a red label, lovingly held in a clear box. They're the only things there, but it's not the only things in the room. If someone walked toward the screen, they would see a broken television shoved off into a corner. On top lays a videotape splashed in blood and another film reel, half hidden behind the old tv set. It's freezing to the touch, hurting whoever picks it up.

Closer to Steve is a black box, resting on the seat beside him. It's heavy and metal with a lock sealing it shut. Steve rests a hand on it if anyone gets close, stopping them from going any further.

But otherwise, he just sits and waits and watches the sepia-colored nothing on the screen.

[TW for superhero violence and some death scenes. Only characters who have CR with Steve can access the box and only after talking to him]

[outstandingbalance]

Natasha walks down the aisle, nearly silent as she studies the scene. Her eyes dart from Steve, to the projector, to the blank screen. Her first instinct is to approach Steve himself, even if it's not the version she's known personally. She knows things in here will be a lot more complicated than that.

She has a theory or two why he might appear this way, even if it's beside the point.

"Hey. This seat taken...?"

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve isn't startled as he looks over at Nat. If anything, he seems even more calmed at having someone here that he knows. "No, not at all." He pats on the velvet seat and grins with youthful enthusiasm as he turns back toward the screen.

"Kind of a boring show, isn't it?" He nods with his chin at the blank screen. "They used to put the news before the shows. Did you know that?"

[outstandingbalance]

"I did know that." She says it softly, polite in a theater even if there's no one else in the audience. "Suppose it would be hard to keep up with the news these days."

One of many ways the world has changed since Steve was young.

"You think there's another show coming up after this?"

[brooklyn_boy]

"Up to you."

He smiles over at her, calmer than he might have been had there been other people in his head. Nat probably knows most of the things scattered around here. Not all but most, surely. He takes his hand off the box next to him, opening that up to her as well.

"We could always just talk, too. I don't know what to do in my own mind normally. This just makes it weirder."

[outstandingbalance]

Steve's projection of himself is friendlier than her own had been. It's not unexpected, but it makes the fact she has to be here a little easier. Hopefully Steve will feel the same when he wakes up.

"Never have a problem talking to you." That's truer in spirit than in practice, but she does mean it. "Do you know what's in there?"

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki squints at him. ]

Did you shrink?

[brooklyn_boy]

[Steve turns and looks at Loki quizzically for a second, as though trying to place where he knows him from. A second later he's smiling]

Sort of.

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki is tempted to poke his ribs. are they meant to be that visible?? ]

How are you even alive in such a state? Unless this is a metaphor for something. Justice, I imagine. Or the American Way.

[brooklyn_boy]

[Steve laughs and shakes his head. If only Loki knew]

This is how I looked before the serum. You might argue that it's the 'real' me. Maybe that's why I look this way right now. [Or maybe it's just because he spent most of his life like this. It's familiar and comfortable in a way his new body sometimes wasn't]

Funny enough, I was barely alive like this. Heart condition, asthma, fevers, bad nutrition... Don't get born in the 1910's if you're sick, pal.

[dothelokimotion]

[ his nose wrinkles. ]

Mankind is so primitive at times.

[tiedonastring]

[Hux had never been in a theater and had no clue what he was walking into or understanding it's importance. He stared at the big screen, but really didn't see anything there.

He then saw Steven there, but wasn't sure if he should interrupt him. The other appeared to be focused on the screen before them. Yet, he appeared to be younger? That difference held his attention. Would Steven still recognize him?

He decided to observe him a little longer before he went to interrupt Steven. For now, he studied the two film reels. He had never seen anything like this. He wondered why one was caked in dirt while the other appeared to be clean. With a gloved hand he picked up the one caked in dirt.]

Wall of teeeeeext

[brooklyn_boy]

[As soon as Hux touched it, the sepia-colored light of the screen spread out, blurring the theater into nothing before a new scene started instead.

It's an alley, grungy and wet from a winter storm that just started melting into the dirt. On the floor was a boy in a ripped coat, no older than six though malnutrition made him look younger. His breathing was labored, wheezing, but his eyes flashed with righteous fury as he looked up at a much bigger, older kid who smirked down at him.

'Gonna gimme that baseball now, Rogers?'

The young Steve got to his feet, hands tight over the ball in question.

'Leave me alone!'

But the boy won't. He was still smirking as he raised his fist. Steve flinched back, ready for the strike, but it never came.

Out of nowhere, a brown-haired boy appeared, standing between them and taking the punch meant for Steve. There was a fight, then, ending with the bully getting punched in the face and then running off, crying in surprise at someone actually hitting back. Steve stared at the boy who saved him, both awed and embarrassed.

'I coulda handled him,' he mumbled. The other boy grinned and brushed some dirt off his ratty coat.

'Yeah. Well, I had nothing else to do. Thought it might be fun to take him down a peg.'

They smiled at each other for a moment, the embarrassment fading away.

'The name's Bucky Barnes,' he finally introduced himself with. 'Wanna toss that ball around?'

The memory ended there, the light coming back and replacing the alley with the theater once more. The film reel was gone, now. Steve still stared ahead.]

Best friends since childhood. [He was quoting a museum exhibit Hux would never see] Wouldn't be the last time he saved me from getting beaten up.

[tiedonastring]

[Hux could relate with Steven as he watched the young boy struggle to hold his own against the others. He was all to familiar with being such a candidate due to his small frame. Unlike Steven, he didn't have someone to stick up for him.

The scene switching back to the small theater caught him off guard.]

Steven, you okay?

[Hux questioningly called out. He still wasn't sure if he should interrupt the other, but he seemed aware that Hux had seen that memory.]

[brooklyn_boy]

No.

[He turns, a practiced smile on his face] But it's not so different from normal. [He stands up, facing Hux as he looks at where the reel had been]

He's here. Bucky. Doesn't remember me, but he's here.

[He scrubs a hand over his face and exhales]

I'll warn you now... There's worse memories than that in here. That is one of the better ones.

[tiedonastring]

....What happened?

[He hesitantly asked. He wasn't sure what to expect. He decided to reach for the film reel that was cleaner.]

[passingthrough]

[Childhood is how Kitty places the theater because while they may not have gone through updates where she's from they did go through destruction. They were either caught up in the culling of cities by Apocalypse's forces or they were scavenged and picked over by refugees who were fleeing in any which way they could. But she remembers going to see movies with her parents when she was young. She can almost smell the buttered popcorn and taste the fizzy cola as she looks over the room, but her eyes go to the occupant of the room. She doesn't let her mind wander too much. There's always a mission.

She doesn't recognize him from the back of his head so she carefully moves toward the front down the aisle, keeping her eyes on him. She hears a cough which slows her for a moment before continuing on. She takes in some of the other objects she's approaching but her eyes are ever on the man until she's close enough to make out his features. Confusing features that are too familiar to mistake and too different to ignore. She'd heard he was back in the fleet. She saw it really on the roster one day. Names return as easily as they vanish. She'd almost called him that day, but he wasn't going to recognize her and while she's been through that more times than she can count she wasn't ready for it then or the next day or the next and she figured they'd eventually run into each other. She didn't expect it to be quite like this.]

Steve?

[brooklyn_boy]

[Steve's head turns at his name, slowly as though he already knew she was here. Which, of course, he likely did. But as he sees here, there is no recognition there. If anything, there is the invisible mark of a question written all over his face as he wonders who this person is and how they knew his name. Then again, this wouldn't be the first time he's crossed paths with someone who knew the person he'd been here before. It won't be a shock for it to be happening again.

He stands, quietly, nodding his head by way of a greeting.]

I don't know that we've met. Or, at least, I don't remember if we've met. I'm sorry... [Bucky, long hair and a confused face, pops onto the screen for a second before vanishing] I know how painful that can be. To be forgotten.

[passingthrough]

[She looks away from Steve to the flash on the screen for a moment, just barely recognizing Bucky in time. It's interesting to see an image from a more "current" for lack of a better term Bucky. She thought maybe this Steve was from an earlier time before the serum and he probably is in form, but he must not be in mind. That or she was seeing a reflection of the Bucky he would have met in the fleet. Maybe it's a mystery better solved in the waking world. Or more than likely she'll see more before leaving this space.

Her eyes settle back on Steve.] It's okay. [He didn't do anything wrong. No one in this position has. It's just the way things work. Too bad practice doesn't make perfect. It probably is easier than it should be. It's certainly familiar. This is far from her first time.] I'm Kitty. If I'm going to meet someone again you're a pretty good person to do that with.

[brooklyn_boy]

[Steve smiles, glad at least that she's taking this awkward situation well. He has no idea if he could handle seeing people he was close with returning and having no memory of him. He's done it enough already just with Bucky. If he had to do the same thing with Nat? Or with Loki or Hux, now? It would be a hard thing to stomach.

He's not sure if it's also comforting or not that Kitty seems used to this sort of thing. God, how often does it happen? He doesn't want to know.]

Nice to meet you, Kitty.

[He looks around his room and gives a sheepish little smile.] I'm not sure if this is the same that you would have seen...if you saw the last Steve's room. Strange to think we were probably different people but still the same.

[passingthrough]

You too. [And it is. He may not remember her but he seems as warm as ever. He has a calming sort of presence. At least that's how she always felt it.]

It, mm, it was a museum with him last time. I don't remember too much about it, but it was about him and World War II. The rooms can change even if you're the same person with the same memories though. Mine has. [It's strange being in this place being aware of her own "room" and what happens there. What might be happening there right now for all she knows. Or maybe these things don't or can't overlap. She's not sure.]

[stillgotmyleftarm]

Bucky's had a long day, to say the least. But the strangest, most unsettling part by far, maybe, is the fact that he had definitely been far too wired to sleep, and yet had felt himself falling asleep without being able to stop it. Even now, dreaming(? He really fucking isn't sure), he feels wired and alert and restless.

And now he's standing in a theater that looks like the ones he used to go to with Steve, and he feels like he's been punched in the gut. And then he sees the back of a blonde head in the center seat, and he feels like he can't breathe, period.

It just never gets easier, does it. Life just never stops lobbing fastballs right at his face.

"Steve?" he says, and it's not even the first time he's said that name today in that strangled, half-reverent tone. He starts making his way up the aisle, when his eyes catch the flickering light and, "There's nothing on the screen, pal."

!!!!!!!!

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve turns toward the voice and he already knows who it is. He smiles, more relaxed than he'd been a moment before but only by a small degree. His hand stays on the box next to him, Steve's subconscious representation already knowing that this Bucky needed to be protected from what was inside. He's been through enough as it was.

"Nothing's there yet. Pal," he shoots back. His voice is the same as it was, before. Before his lungs had been repaired and he could shout and scream like everyone else. There's even the whisper of the rasp in it he'd had after a bad cold. If anything would make Bucky feel at home, it would be that.

And Steve wants him to feel at home, here.

He looks around at his memories, exposed and raw for anyone to touch. For Bucky to touch.

"I have to warn you, though. There are things in here you really don't want to see." His eyes drift to the cold film reel hidden behind the TV as though to say 'things like that'.

:DDDDD

[stillgotmyleftarm]

God, it already feels so much like home, it's stifling in this way he doesn't actually want to change. Bucky's breath hitches a little, and then he stops when he reaches the aisle where Steve's seated, not missing the way he's holding that box - or the way his eyes flick to the corner of the room.

He can't help it. He looks, too.

And then he keeps walking, past Steve, and over to the TV, reaching out to pick up the film reel half-hidden behind in, almost flinching when it's cold to the touch. "Things that I don't want to see," he asks quietly, glancing at Steve, "or things that you don't want me to see?"

His voice is gentle, the farthest thing from accusing. Frankly, he'll force himself to watch things he might need to know. He won't force himself into Steve's privacy. Not like this.

whelp. whoops, Bucko

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve opens his mouth to stop Bucky from touching it but by the time he realizes what his friend is going to do, it's too late. "Both," he says as the light on the screen starts to spread out in a haze. He watches Bucky as it starts to overtake them both and braces himself for what he's about to see.

"But it doesn't work like that, in here. We don't really have a lot of choice..."

And speaking of choices...

The light covers everything, drowning out the theater. When it fades, the theater and young Steve are gone. Instead, Bucky will be on the edge of a mountain, the air freezing as Steve turns and talks to a Bucky, heedless of the one watching behind. And as they jump onto the train, the one watching will find himself following along. Seeing a scene that is probably familiar to him.

One he knows the end of, but in a different way.

When it ends, the theater returns with Steve back in his seat, looking down at the floor.

"I'd put that reel down now, if I were you." It's still there but warmer now with bullet holes punched in the center.

There is more for it to show.