revivalproject | Some people have a bad day.

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Some people have a bad day. | Calibrations

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?

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"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?"

She frowns, not looking overly trusting, tugging the blanket closer and trying to push away the tears in a way she thinks the man won't notice.

"...I got in trouble," she admits with a grumble.

"Oh, I understand." Jon gives a brief nod and shifts to sit cross-legged on the ground, looking at the girl for a moment before glancing upwards and offering her a piece of himself in hopes of reassuring her at least a little "I used to get in trouble a lot when I was a kid, you know? Police had me bring home at least three times by the time I was eight. My grandmother wasn't very pleased."

"...Yeah?" Her expression softens a little after some thought, and she shuffles a little closer.

"...I'm Catra," she offers finally.

Jon gives her a small smile and a nod "Nice to meet you, Catra." He leans against the bed with one shoulder and tilts his head to the side slightly.

"So. Do you want to hear of my dreadful misbehaviors as a kid? We can trade stories, if you like."

"I guess that'd be okay," she agrees, tail giving a guarded twitch as she nods, "As long as Shadow Weaver doesn't catch us."

"What are those things on your face, can I see them?"

"Fair enough." Jon nods at her request, then reaches a hand up to touch his glasses "You mean these? They're my glasses. I need them to see properly." He explains and takes the item in question off before offering it out for her to inspect.

"Just be careful, please. They do snap quite easily - And the world gets blurry for me without them."

She's not exactly gentle, but she's trying...maybe, turning them about curiously before peering through them, trying to hook the ends over her ears, but they don't exactly fit the same.

"How do you see with these things??"

Jon gives a soft little chuckle "Pretty sure the way you see everything with my glasses is similar to how see it all without them. My eyes need a little assistance to be as keen as yours, Catra." One of the little side effects of spending most of your childhood reading, regardless how dimly lit a room may be.

"People don't wear glasses where you're from?"

"No one I know." Which effectively means no one to her current understanding of the world.

She passes the glasses back, edging a little closer and flashing a tentative smile, showing off a sharp canine. "So tell me your stories all ready."

"Fair enough." Jon replies with little chuckle as he accepts his glasses back and replaces them on his nose before glancing up towards the ceiling in thought.

"Well, let's see... I believe I was... Five. Or six. Around that time. My grandmother took me to the zoo in hopes of keeping me occupied with the animals. I got into a heated debate with one of the caretakers first and later... Climbed a huge horse statue because I was convinced I had to make sure it had the correct amount of teeth." He pauses. "It hadn't. I complained about it the entire time while they tried to get me down safely.""

"How many teeth is it supposed to have?" Because that definitely seems like the most important detail. Kid Jon had the right priorities.

"...We went into Shadow Weaver's room," she offers finally, ears flattening back, "She got mad."

"Oh, between 36 and 40, actually. I think the statue barely reached twenty." Which has been a very upsetting discovery to make back then.

He gives a short tilt of his head at what Catra told him "Shadow Weaver. Well, that name is ominous enough that I'm not surprised. Even my grandmother got mad when I opened the wrong cupboards and she could be frightening enough without such a name. Just as that time I wandered off into the storage area of the supermarket we went shopping to every week because I got bored and started to rearrange their good alphabetically. They weren't as impressed as I hoped they would be."

"..." Catra pauses to run her tongue around her own teeth to try and guess at how many she has in comparison, brow furrowing. That sounds like a lot.

"It's not that strange." People around here have pretty obvious names. "What kind of goods? Like their ration bars?"

"Oh, anything I could reach and carry around. Vegetables, canned food, toiletries... Of course I didn't just put up a group of shampoos but sorted them in by the brand names on the different flasks." He smirks a little, almost sounding a little proud of himself. He certainly was when he was a kid.

"I'm actually not sure if they had ration bars... Or even protein bars?"

She blinks at him like she really doesn't understand half of what he's saying. "What's a vegetable?" she asks, and then she looks a little concerned, "If you didn't have ration bars what did you eat?"

He raises a brow "Ah- You know. Vegetables are- Food? Tomatoes, cucumber, salad - Edible plants? Aside from that, meat of course. Or fish, fruit, bread..." His expression becomes a concerned one "Are you only getting ration bars to eat?"

He's met with an entirely blank look until he mentions plants. That at least she knows a little about, though there aren't a whole lot of plants in the Fright Zone.

She blinks at him, head tilting. "Yeah? What else would we have? There's two kinds."

Now that's a terrible thing to learn - And leads to a quick decision from the Archivist.

"Guess we will have to introduce you to something more enjoyable once this is over."

She looks intrigued, ears cocking like she can't quite imagine what that would mean.

"Does that mean you're staying here?"

"Until this dream ends, certainly." Then they'll be back in the tunnels "But I won't go searching for your memories, Catra. You can tell me what you're willing to share in your own time."

"...What if I don't want to tell you anything?" she asks, giving him a skeptical look like she doesn't quite trust.

And he just shrugs in return, pushing aside that nagging sensation of needing to know regardless.

"Then you don't have to tell me anything. I just- I don't like forcing anything you might feel uncomfortable with."

"..." She doesn't seem quite sure how to take that, glancing off into the corner where the encroaching nothingness is growing.

"...Maybe you should go before something bad happens."

He casts her a concerned look, then follows her glance with his own eyes, turning his head a little.

"Honestly? I'm not sure if I can. These dreams..." He shrugs. "...do you know what that is?" He asks, pointing a single finger at the nothingness.

Edited 2020-06-16 02:12 (UTC)

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you have a freaking icon for this omg

sure do~

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