revivalproject | [Event] Calibrations Waiting Room Mingle

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[Event] Calibrations Waiting Room Mingle

WHO: ALL HE ROWS PRESENT
WHERE: Calibrations Area
WHAT: Mingle log for literally anything you'd like to take place in the waiting room between sleep cycles during the event
WHEN: June 10th to July 10th
WARNINGS: Please mark individual threads with warnings
NOTES: If you have any questions, please go Here

An Agrii, or what may have been an Agrii, led you here, and now you can't get out. From the moment one steps through the door into Calibrations there is no going back. Luck, good or bad, even prevents people from being in the entrance way when another He Row arrives, meaning there's no slipping out to be hoped for. This is because Calibrations at their core keep you from going out and seeing the world, keep you from doing much but exploring the space and interacting with your fellow trapped He Rows. This wouldn't be much of a problem if there was a lot to do in the lengthy hours between the compulsion to sleep. At least there is some modicum of comfort offered to those who were tricked into this timed trap.

Some might find the area familiar, having haunted these halls before. Upon entry one walks down a large hallway before it opens into an even larger waiting room with chairs, tables, and the same food dispensers available in the ships, save that it lacks any Red Fruit Drink. It's a shame, actually, the alcohol might help you get through things, and since there was no warning this time, the dispensers are likely the only source of food available. There is more than enough to feed everyone, even to the point of being overstuffed at every meal. At least there are those small favors.

There are also communal bathrooms - one men and one for women though nothing would stop a person from using whichever they desire - with several toilet stalls and shower stalls in each, including basic shampoo and soap dispensers. All of the dispensers put out a liquid that smells like motor oil for some reason. The water in the showers is pleasantly warm and just perfect for getting clean. Well, it is for good little boys and girls who don't blow up buildings. Given that sort of comfortable temperature hasn't been available in past sessions, it's a real relief.

Branching off of the main waiting room are hallways that lead to a number of bedrooms. The door of each bares a nameplate on it, imprinted with the name of a He Row. Those who are returning here won't find their name plate in the same place it was previously, which might be frustrating in its own right. The doors aren't locked though, and anyone can enter any other room or share with anyone else if they wish to. Each room has a single, simply made queen-sized bed, and a set of drawers. The drawers have a white jumpsuit in the size of the He Row whose name was on the door, as well as a pair of equally white canvas shoes. It's kind of your captors to offer you clothes, and for a change there will be new ones available to you this time through, replacements appearing once every week. You can wear them or ignore them as you like.

Greater pity has been offered this time than before for the He Rows, offering a variety of things to do in the downtime. Given most of what He Rows may have been able to grab and bring with them for their 'escape' may not be much good for entertainment, it's helpful to have even the little things. Shelves are available in the large waiting room, filled with boxes and containers. There are pictures on each box, brightly colored and then defaced with Agrii smilie art, showing all sorts of aliens having fun with games.

Sadly the games are not written in a language anyone knows. Luckily the Communications datapoint is working right this time, and it's possible to translate the instructions for a change, letting people play things with all the fun you need. Unfortunately this year there are pieces missing. Because of course nothing can ever be easy. The only thing that is fully intact is that solid gray puzzle and of course, Monopoly Longest Game Ever. There's even paper and pencils and crayons! It's like the Calibrations area was upgraded just for you!

In fact, you don't have to rely on just the board games to keep you occupied this year. In addition to them, the food, getting to know each other, and probably building forts out of all the beds, there's one big plus offered to everyone: arts and crafts! That paper and those crayons aren't the only thing. There's containers of water based paint, there are brushes and canvases, there's even clay for modeling and glue for pasting paper together if you decide to cut some up. No scissors or knives though. But maybe you can spend some time beautifying your mostly white surroundings. Or maybe committing some graffiti in your frustration. Anything to pass the time.

You can opt to spend time in your room or in the larger, common waiting room. But about every twenty-two hours, all people suddenly feel a compulsion to sleep. Once this starts, you can’t fight it off. You find yourself going into your room for bed or wherever else you feel like you’d prefer to sleep. And then, inevitably, you close your eyes and dream.

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"There is no 'better' or 'worse' in suffering. If you've got some of that then it's horrible," Gladio says. Because it's Steve's world, Steve's suffering, Steve's losses. It's always bad when it's your own.

"Hope you don't have daemons."

The word is so close to demons that it really just sounds like someone saying it with an accent. Easy to try and connect that with other weird shit, right?

Steve has had precious few people older than him that he felt he could take advice from. His parents were out. Hopper was questionable. The Wheelers...well. And Joyce wasn't really a friend. So hearing Gladio say what he did about suffering was filling in a spot of reassurance no one else had been able or interested in attending to. Steve smiles a little, thanks Gladio.

And then decides to unload.

"Demons? I mean, we kinda do. They're these huge monster things. One ate my ex-girlfriend's best friend like, right at the start. And they keep coming around trying to kill us because... Well, I don't know why, actually. I guess because they're like the Germans and we have this magic girl who is America? Wait, you didn't have World War Two. Nevermind. It's all just super fucked up. They actually killed my boyfriend, too. He's here which is great, but from my time he died before I even knew I liked him. Which is...you know. Terrifying. Because what if he disappears like Max does, you know? Or I do? Right?"

Gladio offers a smile back. He's here for you, young man. But the other part...

"So not the sort that you get them every night. Just sometimes. But they're shit. Back home people do what they can to avoid them. Or they did, because the apocalypse."

Though he winces at the idea of a boyfriend going back. Noctis went back to death too.

"There's always that fear here. I find the most important thing is just taking every day as you get it."

Steve nods. He's heard it before from a few different people but of course Gladio's words hold a bit more weight than the others. He seems like maybe he knows a bit what Steve is talking about.

"I just... I wish there was more I could do to make sure he doesn't go anywhere. Even if that meant I had to go back and forget about him and all this... At least I live. This here might be Eddie's only shot to keep going on..."

Steve sighs and pokes at the dice.

"This is getting to be a downer of a game, huh?"

Yeah, it is, just a little bit. Gladio sighs. Because now Steve's got him in the same mental state regarding Noctis.

"Back home, I'd deal with this sorta black mood with a work out."

Edited 2023-08-08 01:17 (UTC)

Steve looks at Gladio's body and back up to his face. "I guess you've got pretty bad depression, then?"

That earns a damn loud burst of laughter. No, not like that at all.

"Professional bodyguard," Gladio corrects him. Which of course doesn't really fit in with the whole claim of nobility, but trust him, it worked out. "Technically the title is 'Shield'."

Steve's mind goes to what little he knows of DnD and the 'tank' role that Dustin talked about sometimes. Yeah, that fits Gladio. And as someone who leans toward the tank role himself, Steve can't help but be a bit interested in doing it better.

"Shield. Is there a Sword, too? Is that your boyfriend?"

Yeah, his party would have agreed on the term too, hilariously enough.

"Nah, he's got a whole different title," Gladio says with a shake of his head. "He's not bad with swords though. Not a greatsword like I like, but he's damn good with a longsword. Though if I'm honest, there isn't much in the way of weapons I haven't seen him take to. Guy's a natural."

And wasted a lot of that talent. But it's fine. Gladio doesn't judge him for it.

Steve's smile goes warm as he hears in Gladio's praise the same sort of way he used to brag about Nancy and how he now likes to talk about Eddie. You could just feel the affection in those words. It was sweet.

"It's nice that both of you here don't have to work with weapons as much. At least I hope you don't. Who knows if he needs to break out the longsword to catch those fish, right?"

Yeah, well Noctis is worth being fond over. Very worth being fond over. Though the idea that he doesn't have to keep up his weapon work has Gladio smirking and shaking his head.

"You'd be wrong there. There was evil giants a few months back. And before that we did a hunt out in Sh'Ka. And then when we were in that Eorzea place, I was a gladiating champion."

You always keep your weapons play up to par, or you loose the edge.

"And no, he doesn't take either of his swords out for that. But I've had my sword and shield in hand more than once."

"Protecting him?" Steve grins and nudges him with a soft shove. It's better to focus on that than to think about the fights that apparently happen here. Steve was thinking about taking the agricultural data point but more and more he's leaning to security just so he can make sure no one he cares about gets hurt. There might not be an Upside Down here but that doesn't mean it's safe.

"Did he fight back home more? With the...apocalypse and war and all that?"

Gladio had to smile. Of course he was protecting Noctis. He'd been born to protect Noctis. Which was impressive given he was the older guy. But that's what his bloodline did.

"He can get away with fishing more here. We don't have to save the world in the same way. And Ignis isn't around to chide him into cleaning or anything. But yeah, he fought more. His gifts for it make him particularly good."

"Cleaning?" Steve is confused and it shows. "Weren't you guys nobility? Who is this Ignis that could make you clean up? Was that the king or Noctis' dad?"

Steve was just a rich boy and barely had to clean anything. How could royalty be doing chores?

"And now I'm imagining Ignis on the throne and laughing my ass off," Gladio says. "Most efficiently run country ever."

And he is smiling but it's a bit... bittersweet. Because... Maybe that had been the plan. Regis hadn't just given his son a brother from a young age, and a friend and confidant, but he'd ensured that someone would learn how to lead and rule a nation for when Noctis was gone. And that pissed Gladio off to no end.

"Ignis is Ignis," Gladio says at last, because he can't explain more without explaining why Noctis would have a close companion that was not only a chamberlain but clearly being groomed to be a chief advisor or regent.

"As for clean up, Noctis wanted out of the life, the mess of it. Got his own apartment, with his father's position. And had no clue how to properly take care of it. Though I'll say not all nobility believes in a wealth of servants. My dad made sure I knew how to clean my room when I was a little kid and I was expected to do so for my whole life."

"That sounds like a good thing to teach your noble son." Steve's had gone the other way whenever he was home. He taught Steve to be a snob, if he taught him anything. To see other people by their use instead of by their qualities. It's nice that there's families out there without that kind of dynamic, even if they are rich and powerful too.

"Did Noctis get out? I mean, before the kidnapping. Obviously he's pretty out of that shit now..."

"Yeah. And he could always punish me for not doing it by removing hours of weapons training."

Gladio had not had a normal life. At all. Ever.

"Get out of getting dragged down here? No. We're sharing a room."

"The royal life," Steve clarifies. "Did he get to just be whatever he wanted?" Hearing about Gladio's 'punishment', Steve's image of what this world looked like is sort of grim. He can't help but hope Noctis found some way to escape it all.

“The noble life,” Gladio corrects again. “My family isn’t in the line of succession. That’s important to keep in mind.”

As for Noctis, Gladio… Sighs. He wishes the guy had.

“Well, he got a part time job at a sushi restaurant. Not that he was amazing at it. And he always got the latest video games. Or went to new movies. But the thing is that with families like ours, there can be… Well, parents can act in one of a few ways. You can get the really worthless folk who don’t care about their kids as anything other than heirs and status pieces. You can get the folks that are very invested in their kids and work to instill values and a sense of duty and prepare us for what our name and lineage mean for our country like my Dad and all Amicitias have done for more than a hundred generations, or you can get guys like Noctis’s Dad.”

Gladio sighs and runs his fingers through some of his hair. He always had to walk the line very carefully when talking about Noctis. Because, other than Link, Gladio didn’t think he’d accidentally let people know that Noctis was a king. Noct would hate that, and Gladio got it, he really did.

“Regis… Regis did his best by his son, even when he couldn’t always be there. Tried to give Noctis as normal of a life as he could. Some people said Regis spoiled him, but he just wanted his son to be happy, find his own way, and walk tall. Which was a pretty big thing to try and give someone when we spent our lives so very, very close to war.”

Steve has no idea why, but he sort of pictured and assumed that this noble-land was something like a medieval fair. Sushi shops and video games? That was like these guys were the royals of California. It was bizarre.

Steve nods when Gladio talks about Regis. "That's nice that he took care of him even when he was away..." What's that like, he wonders humorlessly. "Sounds like a really good dad. Especially with the whole...Noble stuff and wars and everything. It couldn't have been easy..."

Man, so far from it. Hell, where he was from Steve's beautiful car would be considered a quaint classic. Though it might look good outside of Insomnia. Not Gladio's fault that he grew up in what was undeniably the most technologically advanced country in the world.

When, you know, you don't account for technology specifically aimed toward making war. They had magic to support them there and... well, it didn't always help.

"Regis loved Noctis deeply."

Past tense. Which of course meant Regis was in the same category as Gladio's father.

"Life could have been better in Insomnia, yeah. For both of us. All of us."

Insomnia? Steve frowns, not sure if he understands that point, but in the great scheme of things it didn't matter. Especially since he picks up on that past tense pretty fast and, Christ. They must have had a bloodbath back home. Steve understands that all too well.

"Are you...happy to be here, then?" Steve is, sometimes. It is one of the things he feels guiltiest, honestly, but he is.

Ah, that. Gladio nods.

"Here I can be with him," Gladio says. Which wasn't true back home. "Here I can love him and shelter him and care for him. Back home, well, there are lots of other things affecting us both. Doesn't mean I don't still miss our friends."

Ignis would be so useful to have around.

The nod loosens something in Steve's chest that's been pulled tight for awhile. He nods in return and purses his lips for a second before trusting himself to reply.

"I have miss my friends a lot, too. But...home there was always some danger. Something I needed to be worried about. And there was no Eddie." He looks down. "I feel bad about it, but being here is... I don't know. Better? Different? I guess, yeah. Better. Even though that's probably fucked up with my family and friends still in the shit at home..."

Danger wasn't something that would turn Gladio away from his home. He was raised to stand between people and danger, so he would do it. Would keep doing it all of his life. Did it here too. But Noctis... He was worth staying for.

"I know what you mean, trust me. Eos is in the midst of an apocalypse. I was taken right from before what would have been a final battle to win our freedom back."

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