Calibrations Waiting Room Mingle

[trpmods]

WHO: ALL HE ROWS
WHERE: The Secret Tunnel, which has become the Calibrations Waiting Room (or was it always...?)
WHAT: Mingle log for literally anything you'd like to take place in the waiting room between sleep cycles during the event
WHEN: June 3 - July 10
WARNINGS: Please mark individual threads with warnings

For those that have heeded Ga Re's warning, the door within the secret tunnel - which looks suspiciously like the hatch to one of your shuttles - is wide open, waiting for you. You walk through... and the door behind you disappears. You’re now standing in a cavernous, cold, white waiting room. There are hallways leading off the main corridor with names above each. One of them has your name and will draw you toward it, inevitably.

And on the wall, in pink, running letters is written this single greeting:

‘Welcome to Calibrations’.

The secret tunnel has become a large waiting room with chairs, tables, and the same food dispensers available in the shuttles. There are also communal bathrooms - one for each gender - with several toilet stalls and shower stalls in each, including basic shampoo and soap dispensers, like you might find in a hotel. The water isn’t hot, so hopefully you don’t mind lukewarm showers. Somehow, at least, it never goes cold.

Branching off the main waiting room room are the labeled hallways. At the end of each short hallway is a door, with the same character’s name written on them. Anyone can enter any room, regardless of the name written on it. Everyone has their own room, though of course people can share. Each room has a simple bed (approximately queen-sized) and a set of drawers.

You can opt to spend time in your room or in the larger, common waiting room. (And if you do, you can thread it out here!) But every 16 hours, you'll feel a compulsion: You need to sleep. Right now. You find yourself going into your room (or someone else's, if you really want). But you’re drawn to the bed. You can’t help but lie down. And then, you fall asleep.

Comments

tables

[theladyofwinterfell]

Sansa has spent so much of these calibrations inside memories she's cherished and loathed and being awake almost seems like the dream at the moment. Being awake, though, means she can have her baby with her and she keeps James so close every morning she wakes, spending hours with him before she seeks anyone else out.

She's still starving most of the time, though, so she has James in his sling when she seeks out the ables and when she sees Cloud, she gives him a little wave and laughs at the idea of a hot shower.

"Gods, yes. I would stay in a shower for an age."

[backoff]

Cloud sits up at seeing Sansa but tilts his head at seeing the sling and James. New life on this planet? His lips pull into a faint smile but he's still a little confused. From the way Sansa talk she's been away from her own world for a while. Would that be the same for him?

He gives a wave back to her while nodding to her.

"I'm getting tired of basically almost cold showers. Hot ones would provide a better overall clean feeling."

[theladyofwinterfell]

"Hot anything would be nice," Sansa says with a laugh. "But they don't like to make us too comfortable, I don't think. We'd start to actually like it and then we'd be too happy, now wouldn't we?"

It's mostly a joke but she knows Cloud is serious from how he'd been with with her in the calibration so she'd like to try and make him smile.

[backoff]

Cloud is a mixture of serious while opening his mouth at her. A brief of a smile spreads his lips.

"Oh, we couldn't have that." Cloud hadn't really been all that comfortable since he got here. It's a way in his life that he's used to. He tries to not let things get to him. He'll try to figure out what to do.

"Down here it's different. It almost feels like training in some way." He shrugs. The army put you through all sorts of random training, missions, monsters and through mental courses.

[theladyofwinterfell]

"It does, doesn't it? Training for what, I do not know, but it does seem to be preparing us for something even if we don't know what that something is." She clutches the baby a little closer, needing his comfort to brace her against the unknown both outside and within the calibrations.

"I try not to worry myself with it or I would worry all the time. It's not something I can let consume me because I wouldn't be able to do anything else."

[backoff]

"I know in my world they had their SOLDIERs train in battle simulations that seemed all too real." He notices the way Sansa holds the baby closer while also stating how she can't worry too much. It's true, most of the time he would be like that as well.

"Hmm. I will have to remember that." Because he's good at letting things consume him.

[theladyofwinterfell]

"Well, for now we just have to live our lives as they unfold. I hate that because I'm someone who likes to plan for every eventuality and plan for the worst case scenario no matter what happens," Sansa says, "But no matter what I do to plan, I cannot account for what the Agrii are going to do."

She tips her head a bit. "They do seem to be kinder than the Atroma were - they're the ones that gave us the ships. They used us for games to amuse one another. The Agrii are...different, somehow."

[backoff]

"We're stuck in a tunnel, with a large common room, with rooms that are showing everyone our memories." Cloud tilts his head to the side while looking at her. "There's not much we can do but wait this out. However you want to do that."

He doesn't want to intrude in that matter. But there's no point to planning if they're stuck somewhere with no real way out. "I saw the ships. How do they work exactly? I didn't really get a chance to go inside of one. And what do you be that they are different?"

[theladyofwinterfell]

"The Atroma used to play us for ratings," Sansa says. "They observed us as if we were entertainment for them, a mummers' show, and if we did well enough, they would reward us for it. The Agrii don't seem to be interested in that necessarily. They seem interested more in us helping them solve their problems. Not altruistic by any means but not...cruel."

The Calibrations aren't something she expected to return, though.

"That's why I'm surprised the calibrations are here. It doesn't seem like the Agrii to do such a thing."

[backoff]

Cloud didn't like the sound of the Atroma. Being used for entertainment purposes is a disgusting thought. He knew how corruption works too. The Agrii seemed to want to help them but why tell them to come to the tunnels with the Calibrations. Did both races study them in different ways? Or was this something more? "We're trying to solve a problem in which we don't fully understand what it means."

He could say he had a thought but it's one he needed to get with Reeve on. But it's not particularly easy for him to bring it up.

"What do you think the Agrii are using the Calibrations for? Is it the same as when you were with the Atroma? Is there anything different?"

[theladyofwinterfell]

"It's precisely the same as the Atroma did it. I think they used it to lay us bare and embarrass us, to show us they had power. I'm not sure if the Agrii want to use it that way. Perhaps they just want to know us better."

Sansa shrugs and exhales a bit, slightly indignant. "You'd think they'd just ask, though. We might be more willing to tell them things if they'd ask instead of take."

[backoff]

"The Atroma and the Agrii are different in the sense of what they are doing. But you know what the Atroma's motives were for the rooms. The Agrii, I can't say much, I recently came here. I can only judge based on what gets told me until I see it for myself." Cloud frowns a bit knowing that there's something else bothering him.

"What are the Agrii using the rooms for? Why have they trapped us all here? Do they expect us to keep trusting each other based off of the knowledge we find out?" He still thought it was a training exercise. A mental one of some form and maybe it really was about trust. Would trust bring forth a door?? That sounds almost entirely stupid and idiotic to bring up in a conversation. A thought that would probably not resurface later.

[theladyofwinterfell]

"If we all know one another's private secrets, we have leverage on one another. We can be turned against each other," Sansa says. "And if I were trapping people, I would want that discord. I would want the chaos and have them seek me out because they couldn't trust those around them."

She folds her hands a bit. "You have to know every angle. You have to know every outcome, every possibility. That's how you win."

[backoff]

"Why not force it to make us trust each other? I know that information can be used against you in a manipulative way." Cloud knows about that in many different ways. He didn't want to say the worst possible outcome. The more information they gained could mean trusting each other. He didn't want people getting hurt. Frustration could happen.

"Sometimes you don't know the outcome. What do you do in that case?" He doesn't give up so he'll continue to keep going even if it meant people didn't trust him. Cloud would go through anything just to be able to see what they may or may not be up against.

[theladyofwinterfell]

"Then you must trust in yourself," Sansa says. "Because you're the only person who can protect you. No one can protect anyone. I don't trust in it any longer, anyway."

Here, she'd felt safe. She'd felt safe even after delivering her son when she was at her weakest but now she isn't so sure. She does know she has to use her mind here to make sure there's a delineation between herself and what the Agrii can have of her.

"You just have to trust your own judgment."

[backoff]

"I've tried doing things alone after having many friends help me during a long journey. I found myself again knowing that my friends would be there for me and I for them when they need it." Cloud's not sure if that made any sense but he's going to be quiet over it.

"I guard myself in other ways." Hiding his own feelings deep within and not speaking about them. He's still does it because he might feel too embarrassed to say them out loud even to himself.

He taps an index finger on the table. "That could get you into trouble."

[theladyofwinterfell]

"It can get you into trouble," Sansa agrees. "But other people have done me more harm than good, really, and I know that I can trust myself or trust my family. That's it. I've relaxed that a little here, though. There's not the same political motives."

No one cares that she's Sansa Stark here, after all. She's just Sansa, no more and no less.

[backoff]

"Your family would be what my friends mean to me." Cloud sighs softly knowing that things were going to be different here. "Trust is hard to give to anyone. I understand that not everyone here will be giving it easily."

He's not really giving it easy for some to trust him. Cloud doesn't really trust people who don't seem honest. "Basically you're yourself here." He says that so softly it almost comes out with a hint of sadness.

Cloud may still be discovering himself in ways that others would already know about themselves. He had all but his childhood past, some of his teenager, but that chunk of years where teenager to adult is a giant blank void. He's had all but two years really to figure out things.

[theladyofwinterfell]

"I am myself here. You can't trust anyone but yourself, in the very end, but I've learned to trust a handful of others. My family back home, certainly. My friends I've known for over a year now. It's hard to open up and not fear being burned. I have been burned many, many times. I am not looking to be crossed again."

Sansa laughs softly. "That's not an endorsement to start a friendship with me, is it Cloud?"

[backoff]

Cloud glances down at the table as he rolls his lips together. He looks back over at Sansa with a tilt of his head. "I will need to make connections here. If that brings along a friendship I won't deny it."

There's a shift in his chair as he sits up straighter in it. "That choice is yours."

[theladyofwinterfell]

"I would be honored to be your friend," Sansa says, meaning every word of it. Cloud is kind and seems very honorable. These are things she seeks in friends these days and she can already tell he's a good person.

"I have begun to trust people once more and let them in and I am glad for it."

[backoff]

Sansa's words came out truthfully. Cloud could hear that she meant them and spoke from her heart. "I'll try to be there for you when you need it." He could hope for the same thing of her but friendship was still new to him. He didn't really know what to expect from them or what may be expected of him. He'll adjust if he picks up on what he needs to work on.

"I will try to do the same." It will most likely be needed if they all end up staying here longer. Cloud would need to build friendships, just like Reeve had done when he and Vincent weren't here. He wouldn't need to feel alone either.