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

[heeeyadora]

Her hair floofs and stand on end, fixing him with a wary look at the contact, but eventually relaxing a little.

"No," she grumbles petulantly, "She left. They all leave. I don't need her or any of them. And I don't need you." She swipes belatedly at his hand, eyes narrowed.

[measuringdistance]

He pulls his hand back amicably enough, a bit of amusement in his expression. "Hey now, who ever said you did?" Chikai thinks he gets how she feels, more or less. He's certainly burned plenty of his own bridges over the years, a good chunk even not on purpose. "'s not a bad thing, y'know, not needing people. Means you're tough, right?"

[heeeyadora]

"Mm," That seems to work, and Catra gives a determined nod, features brightening. "I'm the toughest cadet in the whole Hoarde," she agrees proudly.

[measuringdistance]

That’s more like it! Clearly he is the best at being comforting and reassuring. “I bet you are,” he says with a grin, “You can probably do some serious damage with those nails, huh?” As he says that, he happens to notice the scratched out picture on the metal and raises his eyebrows. “Like, really serious damage.”

[heeeyadora]

"Mm hmm!" Catra looks rather proud, though she frowns at little when she follows his gaze, like she doesn't remember doing that.

"...What happened to Adora?" She crawls out from under her blanket to examine the picture with a frown.

[measuringdistance]

"Oh, you don't know?" Chikai scoots closer to it too. The marks sure look like claws, and squinting at him doesn't produce any enlightenment. "Weird, coulda sworn this was something you did." He reaches over to touch them, maybe get a better idea what might have made them if not her.

[heeeyadora]

The young Catra fades away though the setting stays the same for this memory, the Catra Chikai's more familiar with sitting in her bunk, looking over at the unmarred drawing with longing before her brows crease.

She grunts and slashes across the face of Adora angrily, and then gasps, looking upset over her actions.

She kneels on the mattress for a moment before letting that anger and hurt out, slashing and punching it to pieces as she cries and screams in frustration, giving in a few good pummels that make her fists aches, teeth grit tight.

She's left panting for she sits back, staring at what she's done, and wiping the tears away.

The memory doesn't fade yet, but the child Catra appears behind Chikai, seeming to try and hide behind him.

[measuringdistance]

Despite himself, Chikai winces a bit at the sight. It was almost embarrassing, how much it reminded him of his own outbursts when he was a stupid kid. At classmates, teammates, his parents, even Toi...

No, no point wasting time thinking about that shit. He grew out of it anyway, so it didn’t matter now. Instead, he glances down at the younger Catra just behind him and asks, "This Adora girl... guessing she's someone important?"

[heeeyadora]

"No," she mutters sullenly, a tone which very much implies the opposite is true.

An figure glides into the room, hovering above the floor, face masked and dark hair floating eerily around her.

"Catra!" she shouts, and the older Catra jumps up so fast she hits her head on the bunk above, ignoring the pain and running out to meet her guardian with crossed arms.

"What do you want?" she demands testily.

"Impertinent as always I see," Shadow Weaver notes, "With such a grand failure under your belt, it would benefit you to show more respect, cadet." She reaches out to stroke her fingers along Catra's jaw before gripping her chin and pulling her forward.

Catra's hands move to her hips. "I did exactly what you told me to do," she counters, pointing up at the woman, "You're the one who didn't warn us there would be princesses there."

The woman rises higher, crowding closer to Catra and forcing her to back up, "I gave you a simple task: bring back Adora." Tendrils of shadow rise up around her, and begin to enclose around Catra, who looks increasing anxious.
"Instead, your squadron is ravaged, your war machines destroyed, and Adora is still missing."

Catra remains defiant. "Newsflash, Old Lady, if Adora wanted to come home, she'd be here right now. Adora's gone. She defected. And I'm starting to think she had the right idea. So maybe it's you who should be showing a little more respect to me."

"LIES!" Shadow Weaver grows in size, towering over her, the lights of the bunk room bursting one by one, "I am out of patience to address your incompetence and your insubordination, cadet. You will answer to a higher power." The shadows swirl and grow, closing her in as Catra tries to back away. "Lord Hordak himself." The room goes black as the shadows fully surround her, and then it's over, the child Catra trembling behind him.

[measuringdistance]

Well, shit. That all was pretty damn bad. This was some kind of army, so the weird lady must be her boss or something... she obviously had a lot of power over the kid. He was starting to feel that whoever this Adora person was, she kinda sucked. Leaving someone who cared about her behind, to deal with someone like that all alone? No wonder Catra clawed her picture like that.

Speaking of Catra, he struggled to figure out what to say to her. The only impulse he had that seemed like it might do some good was to give her another headpat. She seemed to not hate the last one, even if she'd batted him away eventually. "Hey, c'mon, you're okay. She's not really here." C'mon, what else, what else... "You're the toughest one in this place, right? No way some goth drama queen could scare ya."

[heeeyadora]

Catra doesn't immediately retreat, ears lifting a little before she frowns and scurries back.

"Mm..." she gives a determined nod then and straightens up, "I'm not scared," she agrees, and she reaches to grab his wrist and tug him along. "Come on- you need to get out of here before everything goes away."

[measuringdistance]

"Huh? What're you talking about?" When he takes a quick look around, though, it doesn't take long to figure it out. There's a spot of whiteness at the other end of the room that he was pretty sure hadn't been there before. "The hell is that?"

[heeeyadora]

"It's coming. You need to go before everything goes away again," It's not much of explanation, but she looks anxious, pulling him along towards the door, "If you go it will stop."