driftfleet | 'cause it's better than nothing

Entry tags:

'cause it's better than nothing

[ Calibration Rooms ]
( for N-Z characters )

Before you post your toplevel comment, please:
1. Check the first letter of your character's name as its written in our tags. N-Z names comment here, and A-M names go to the other post.
2. Make a note in your comment if anything especially triggering or graphic might show up in the Calibration. If you're not sure if something's worth noting or not, we suggest listing it anyway, just to err on the side of caution.
3. Put your character's name (it can be shortened or different from the tag, this time) in the subject of your comment. This will help visitors find you easily, and help us update the list below.
4. Post your comment! It's fine if everyone's Calibrations end up looking and reading very different from one another. As long as you're having fun and following our guidelines, you're good to go. :)
5. If you have any questions or concerns during Calibrations, you are welcome to send them towards the mod team at any time, as always.

ROOMS BY CHARACTER

N - P

Otono-Tachibana Makie

Q - S

Sandalio "Biffy" de Rabiffano

T - V

W - Z

(last updated: 1/25/19)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.]

A museum. Interesting.

[Steve smiles, almost imagining what that could have looked like. He can see how that would have been his room, were things just a little different. Who knew where that version of him had been grabbed from. For all he knew it was right after the war itself. It's impossible to know without interrogating people and that didn't seem right at all.]

What did you see, there?

In the museum? I don't know. There were displays. His...your uniform from World War II. Lots of red, white, and blue everywhere. Photos and something was repeating on a speaker. [She closes her eyes for a moment to try and remember.] Honor, bravery, and sacrifice.

And he was there in uniform, but wasn't the one with the star. It was a basic uniform. More like a business suit in a drab color. [She shakes her head.] I'm sorry. I don't remember anything else. Which is true. She generally remembers most of her encounters in this place, but not all. It wasn't uncommon for some things to be fuzzy or missing. And even if it weren't at what point is it a violation to be talking about another Steve to this Steve?]

Any idea why a theater? [He seems pretty aware of the circumstances. Maybe he does.]

[Steve smiles as he thinks about the other room. He can see it He almost feels like, if he wanted to, he could concentrate and bring it to life, here. But he doesn't. The theater is comfortable. Familiar. It settles him in a way that he hasn't been in a long while. At Kitty's questioning as to why, though, he almost pulls up blanks.]

I feel sometimes like a theater brought me to where I am now.

[He smiles a little ruefully at that thought. He's more aware of what is going on here than most, perhaps. But he's always been a navel-gazer. It makes sense that he'd overthink everything. Even his own mind.]

I saw the war. Saw men fighting and needed to be part of that. And then I was up on the screens myself and... It wasn't the same. Wasn't what I had thought of as...my way to help. But even so... I guess theaters are just. A slice of home? Real home.

Real home? [It confuses her for a moment thinking of the fleet first. There was a part of her who thought of it as home, but she's been there for two years. She doesn't know why Steve would feel that way. But no, of course that's not what he means.] Your time? Before they woke you?

I guess that was almost like training to get abducted to a place like this. You already knew how it felt. [Losing everything. Leaving it all behind whether you wanted to or not. Starting fresh in so many ways with only your memories and who you are as a person. She's done that a few times herself. She never jumped forward in time exactly, but back home becoming an X-Man in the world they lived in was quite a jump. And then twice being abducted by mysterious overlords. First in the underwater prison and now here in the fleet.]

[Steve laughs mostly because he's had that exact thought a few times. It's his lot in life to be picked up and dropped off somewhere vastly different, apparently. If five years passed and he didn't get abducted, he'd probably have to imagine something was terribly wrong.]

Yeah. Doesn't make it too much easier, but at least it's familiar.

It's something, right? This is my second time in one of these places, so I kind of get it.

[She tilts her head a bit, eyes glancing down before she nods to the seat next to him.] What's in the box? [It looks out of place in a theater, but then this is no ordinary theater of course. Still, it's hard not to be curious. It might be the only cat-related power she actually has.]

[Second time. Christ, that means she's been here at least two years. Steve hates hearing that because it indicates just how long he might be here as well. And, even more troubling, it shows that Calibrations will come like clockwork.]

Yeah...

[Mentioning the box, Steve looks over at it and then back up to Kitty. His hand doesn't move.]

When you have precious few good memories, you protect them. Even here I want to keep them safe.

[Three years here and an unidentified amount of time at another place where she was captured by different mysterious overlords before it where time didn't move at the same pace. She used to think she was there a year but now she thinks it was longer. Maybe much longer.]

It's the good ones you keep locked away? [She finds that curious, but then it was all too easy to find her darkest memories in her room. Maybe she did the same sort of thing in a less obvious way.]

Peggy?

[Steve recoils visibly, stunned at what Kitty just said]

How do you...

[He remembers belatedly that Peggy had been here too. Loki had even said she got married although he wasn't sure to who. Kitty must have known her from then.]

You knew her?

[It occurs to her to lie for a moment. She could say the past him had just mentioned her. Maybe it would make it easier somehow so he doesn't have to think of her also having been abducted and now gone, but all he'd have to do is search the network for old transmissions she'd made or have someone else mention her.]

Yeah... [Softly.] She was here for awhile before.

[Steve had just gotten used to her death before he was dragged off here. Now he's getting used to the fact that she was here. That she could come here again. That he had missed her and missed such important moments in her life. But the fact that Kitty knew her is....comforting, in a way.]

Was she happy?

[A moment of surprise passes over her features before a warmer expression settles in its place.] Well, of course she was, Steve. You were here too. [Spoken like that part is obvious.

Seeing them both go had really hurt. She knew how much he loved her and it was a small mercy they at least disappeared near the same time. She knows just how hard it is to start over in this place not knowing if you'll ever see the person you wanted to spend the rest of your life with again.]

(OOC: I don't think they got married in the fleet. I couldn't remember it, and when I search their tags I only see the engagement and then another basic "hanging out on a planet" post from each of them before the end. They might not have tagged it, but I think they dropped before playing it out.

(OOC:Steve's just going off what he heard from Loki about doing her hair for the wedding. But he is a trickster soooo WHO KNOWS?!)

[Steve had known they were hear at the same time but the idea that he had in some way made her happy while she was here warms up the longing feeling in his chest. He'd loved Peggy. In another universe they would have gotten married and maybe had a family but, even without it, he'd loved her. Loved the life she'd lived without him.

But here? They'd had a moment together. And that was beautiful even if he couldn't remember any of it.]

I'm glad. That she was happy and that I had something to do with it. That is...more than I could have hoped for.

(OOC: Well, I could be wrong! Maybe they did it in an inbox. Or maybe it was a trial run for the hair or for attending a wedding that wasn't her own. I'm just going to ask the old players because now I'm curious.)

Well, I don't know if you were wondering if you seemed the same as last time or not, but you do seem just as sweet. [She really wishes they hadn't just vanished together. Staying together would have been better. This place gives second chances just to take them away.]

[Steve blushes and ducks his head a little bit.] I'm not trying to be sweet. Just... [He shrugs, still red.]

I'm glad I'm not disappointing you there, at least. Would be awful to learn I was worse than my past self somehow.

It comes naturally. [She finishes that first line for him.]

And there's still time. [She smiles at him. Kidding. It's a joke. She doesn't expect the worst from him. She miiiiiiight fan girl him slightly. Shhh. She's trying to be cooler this time around.]

[And he turns redder. Good job, Kitty.]

I have a lot to live up to, it seems. But at least I'm only living up to myself. I think I can manage that.

[He looks around the room and exhales.]

You probably know more about me than I could ever show you.

I don't know about that. There's always a lot to a person. I understand if you'd rather not have me peeking though. [It might mean she'd be there longer, but she didn't mind just getting the chance to speak to him like this. Still, the Atroma usually get their way with these things one way or another.]

[Steve spreads his thin arms wide.]

Everything here is open to you. Half of this is in textbooks and movies anyway. I don't have anything that I want to conceal.

[His eyes dart to his box for a second]

Only some things I want to protect.

Well, it's not like those textbooks and movies are here. Okay, technically there is a recording of one musical number you were in on the network. And full disclosure...things were different in my world, but there was some overlap and my grandpa might have read me old propaganda comic books about you when I was a kid. [You know, just might have. Why confirm or deny such things? She turns away, definitely not even slightly embarrassed that she might have ever fangirled him a little.]

So, memories are probably things like...this random TV at a movie theater? [She steps closer to it finding a videotape splashed in blood once she gets closer.] Huh.

Are you sure about that everything being open thing? [She picks it up.]

(OOC: Turns out past Peggy and Steve never threaded out the wedding, but they did handwave it, so that explains the confusion I had!)

[Oh no. God help him. Why would anyone upload one of those? They were terrible. And the comics, too? Steve is about to start asking Kitty not to hold those things against him when she walks over to the tape. And...yeah. Okay.

He's going to have other things to talk about with her, soon.

As soon as she touches it, the screen clicks on with static. Static that grows outside of the TV and fills the room until it clears. And then Kitty will be alone, watching one of the worst moments she could have found.

When it's over, the theater returns and Steve is back in his seat ,looking forward]

Did you see that one with the last Steve?

Edited (wrong link) 2019-03-11 01:10 (UTC)

I did not. I heard something about this I think. A split in the Avengers. There were accords? [What she just saw looked so personal though. She's not sure it's related. She recognizes Bucky easily, but the other man...She has seen him before. Talked to him once or twice maybe. She's not even sure if that was here or in Marina now. She never got to know him well.] Is that what this is?

It looked like a hard battle. [Not because it was so physically difficult although that too. She was impressed with how he held up against the weapons fire and assumed augmented strength of that suit. But it looked tough emotionally. Like the stakes were very personal.]

It...was the hardest battle. He was my friend. But he was going to kill Bucky and I couldn't...I couldn't let him do that.

[He keeps looking straight ahead, remembering that time. Remembering before. It hadn't been an easy call but he'd make the same one all over again.]

We still haven't spoken. Maybe we never will.

Of course you couldn't. I'm not sure you could have if he wasn't your friend either. [Steve standing by and watching an injured man killed in front of him? It didn't sound right to her. But she's missing context too.] Why was he going to kill Bucky?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject