Some people have a bad day. | Calibrations

[heeeyadora]

WHO: Catra, OPEN
WHERE: Catra's Calibration Room
WHAT: Catra's Calibration
WHEN: 3 June - 10 June
WARNINGS: Child abuse, violence, possible She-Ra spoilers (up to end of season 4)



The room you step into is one of utilitarian design, metal walls and bunks with perfunctory mats that serves as mattresses, along with a single pillow. By it there's a crude drawing of two girls, one of which seems to be scratched out.

A small shape sits on the end of one of the lower bunks, hidden away under a thin blanket and sniffling, though she'll hiss if you approach. She holds a letter clutched tight in her fists, and that may be what has her so upset.

Meanwhile, the longer you're here, more you might begin to notice, something seems off. Part of the room seems to be fading away, being slowly devoured by whiteness. Will you avoid the impending doom or explore it?

Comments

Kitty~

[beholding_archivist]

The room is disturbingly bare. Jon moves through it slowly, deliberately. It's not like there is much clutter here to miss anything of importance, but he doesn't merely pay attention to the visual clues. There is... A certain dread lingering here as well.

A dread very much tied to the being hiding under that blanket.

"Hello?" The Archivist addresses what he assumes to be a kid as he slowly approaches, not yet anticipating to be hissed at.

[heeeyadora]

The crying figure scuttles back, and she hisses weakly at the stranger, peering out from beneath her blanket. Mismatched eyes full of tears narrow in an attempt to be frightening, not overly effective when followed by a sniffle.

"Go away~" she whines.

[beholding_archivist]

"I don't think I can do that, sorry." Jon replies, his tone soft and he crouches down at a safe distance, trying not to intimidate this room's occupant entirely.

"Can I do something to make you feel better while we're here?"

[heeeyadora]

"...No." She frowns thoughtfully, watching Jon suspiciously before tugging the blanket down a little, revealing a head full of fluffy hair, and two cat ears pinned down in distress.

"...Who are you? You're not part of the Hoarde."

[beholding_archivist]

"No, I'm not." Jon confirms and offers a smile to the revealed face "I'm Jon. And I won't harm you. But for the time being I am stuck at your place." That's the truth as far as Jon has been able to figure out so far.

"Will you tell me what upset you? Maybe I can help?"

[measuringdistance]

Well, this was different. Chikai wanders around the space, not doing much more than idly glancing at different things and occasionally giving one of the bunks a poke just to see if he'll get a reaction. It's not until he gets a row away that he hears the sniffling.

"Oi, someone here?" he calls - he can see the blanket and shape, but from the size he's assuming it's a kid of some sort. Better to give 'em some warning he's here than just try and yank the blanket away, he figures.

[heeeyadora]

"Huh?" Catra scrambles back from the strange, now appropriately 'kiddo' sized compared to the last time he saw her, but given the hiss she directs at him, this version of her doesn't seem familiar with him.

"How'd you get in here?!" she demands.

[measuringdistance]

"I walked in, kiddo," he says, sounding a bit amused. Despite her age here, she's easy enough to recognize. After all, as far as Chikai knows there's only one cat-person around. "What, there supposed to be security or something?"

[heeeyadora]

She seems just as annoyed to be called kiddo at this age as she had at her considerably more adult size, huffing softly and looking away.

"Only like a whole bunch of Hoarde soldiers. And you don't look like part of the Hoarde to me."

[measuringdistance]

"Well you're right about that, I'm not. I'm way sneakier than some dumb soldiers." Said with all the confidence of a man who knows he won't have to back up his claim. He leans down to take a look at what she's got in her hands. "So hey, what's got you down? Get a bad grade or something?"

[hulkintraining]

It's not a very cozy place, wherever it is that Teddy has ended up. In fact it closely matches what he would think boot camp or military barracks would look like right down to the identical mattresses and bedding on each of the bunks.

The only thing ruining the same-ness of everything is the small bundle of blanket sitting at the edge of one of the bunks. He hears the sniffling for what it is, either the beginning of tears or the end of them.

"Um, hello?" This is a really awkward way to introduce yourself to someone, but there's no turning back now.

[heeeyadora]

The bundle startles and hisses at the stranger before peering out of her blanket warily, narrowing her eyes and hurriedly wiping away the tears as though that would mean he couldn't tell she'd been crying.

"What are you doing here?"

[hulkintraining]

It's hard to be very intimidated by a small, cute cat girl. Even one that is hissing. But seeing as he's a strange guy popping up in her...home? He's going to keep his distance so that he doesn't come off as a threat.

"I...um...I'm not too sure either. My name is Teddy. What's yours?"

[heeeyadora]

"That's a dumb name," she mutters, lashing out a little despite the very low threat Teddy seems offer, eyeing his warily.

"...Catra." Her ears twitch and give an absent flick, "...you don't look like a cadet."

[hulkintraining]

His brows raise. "You're name is Catra and you're part cat," he states, not meanly but exasperated. "Can you really give anyone grief about their name?" He's not really bothered by it though. Kids say dumb stuff sometimes. It's a universal truth.

"Cadet? No, I'm not. Is this place really some kind of boot camp or something?"

[in_extremis]

It was a challenge to place who this room might belong to on first encounter, making Tony stop short, hands carefully in his pockets, searching quickly for clues. Military, maybe, that could have been a couple of people Tony had met in Temba, but no one in particular came to mind until he stole closer to the hiding lump and was treated to the hiss.

Of course.

Ducking under the upper bunk, Tony dropped down onto the bed next to the bundle of Catra, crossing his outstretched legs at the ankle and sighing like he might be settling in. "You're right, it is really nice to share," he said, as though that had been in any way near her intent when she tried to take over his forge.

[heeeyadora]

She frowned at the man settling in, and this version of her didn't appear to recognize him, so that call back was missed. She edged away, wiping at her tears to try and hide the obvious crying.

"What are you talking about?" she accused with that same attitude she sported at her proper age, though it wasn't quite so sure coming out of a small child.

[in_extremis]

When most people didn't get or appreciate his jokes, they typically didn't point it out, and that was a fine arrangement for Tony. He pursed his lips, shooting Catra an irritated sidelong look for this disrespect of the arrangement, but it didn't look like she was testing his sense of humour. Great, not only was it a difficult, emotional kid, it was one that didn't even know who he was. "Trust me," he said, "you're crying because you missed me. So you can knock it off now."

[heeeyadora]

Catra snorted, rolling her eyes in the same way she did all grown up, and only belatedly seemed to think to retort, "I wasn't crying." She crossed her arms with a huff, all ready poofy hair seeming to swell in size.

"Are you joining the Hoarde? You seem pretty old for a cadet."

[in_extremis]

Tony sniffed and nodded, obviously, glancing away as though he had been very interested in the room all along and hadn't noticed the crying thing at all, actually. That Catra would then strike him down with this slander was dishonourable at best. Tony gasped, delicate hand to his chest, glaring at Catra for suggesting he was too old for anything, let alone something he had no concept of the requirements for. "You seem pretty ugly," he retorted.

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve looks around the new room he woke up into. It's strangely comforting compared to some of the others. Spartan decorating and the almost military-like efficiency in design makes him feel like he's back at home on The Bishop. Or even on the Quinjet. He can't help but smile a little as he glances around the whole area and walks carefully deeper.

As he walks, however, he can see that the room seems to be dissolving. It's like someone was drawing the room and had made a mistake before slowly starting to erase it. Carefully, Steve walks closer to it and extends a hand. He doesn't want to go further into it until he knows he won't be erased with the walls.

[heeeyadora]

For the moment at least, he seems to be all right, though that nothing is definitely advancing, slowly but surely. After a short moment though it's clear that the closer he is to it, the more in danger he is of fading away too, the edges of his fingertips starting to ghost.

"You shouldn't touch that," the girl huddled under the blanket warns.

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve spins around, looking at the girl under the blanket and then back at his fingers. As they start to vanish, he pulls his hand back and steps away from the creeping whiteness. He hooks his thumb over toward it as soon as he's a comfortable distance.

"What is that? Some sort of...blank spot?"

[heeeyadora]

"..." The girl looks evasive, and maybe a little guilty. "It's from the portal," she explains, not that it will mean much of anything to Steve. "You should go before everything is gone."

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve looks back at the white space and then to the girl. "From the portal? What portal?" He hasn't been in a room that was in a real sort of danger, before. It almost makes his latent hero-instincts perk back up. But it is still just a vision, here. It wasn't real. Right? No, it couldn't be.

It never had been before.

"Can you stop it?"