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

[beholding_archivist]

"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."

[heeeyadora]

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

[beholding_archivist]

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."

[heeeyadora]

"..." 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."

[beholding_archivist]

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.

[heeeyadora]

She frowns, edging away from it with a guilty frown. "...Maybe," she grumbles. "Just...look at something so you can leave. Then it will stop."

[beholding_archivist]

"You mean one of your memories." It's a guess, followed by an odd idea.

"What happens if it reaches us? Can I walk into it?"

[heeeyadora]

"Yeah," she nods encouragingly, and then her ears drop low at his next questions, "...You could," she answers evasively, "But you don't have to..."

[beholding_archivist]

"If it worries you, I want to figure out what it is." Jon replies and stand up, putting a hand on her shoulder for a moment. "Then we can figure out how to deal with whatever this is."

It's a promise. One he may still have to figure out how to even keep, but the Archivist does step forward to walk into that spreading nothingness.

[heeeyadora]

The nothingness encompasses him and then Jon seems to reappear in some other section of the base, a imposing man with red eyes watching as a sword hangs at the center of it all, electric sparks arcing all around. There's a blonde girl bound by her wrists and gagged off to the side, pleading and straining as a grown Catra runs into the room.

"The Princesses are here-" she pants, "There's no time to waste. We need to open the portal."

The man doesn't look back. "Where's Entrapta?" he demands, "I need her."

Catra scowls, and then gives a cruel grin, thinking fast on her feet. "Who do you think let the Princesses in?"

Hordak gasps in betrayal, seething a moment before slamming his fist into the button before him, breaking the machinery. "But she-- She wouldn't," he insists, and Catra laughs, even as he rounds on her.

"Did you really think she was on our side?" His features grow from rage to shock, and Catra straightens, "Oh, you can't trust anyone, especially, a Princess." She turns to deliver a poignant glare to the bound girl. "They'll just use you to get what they want. Open the portal and let's end this."

The girl screams desperately behind her gag and Hordak approaches the switch.

Suddenly they're interrupted by the girl's friends, one of them shouting- "This way," as they burst into the room.

The girl knocks off her gag and screams for her friend, "Bow!"

"Forget about them! Pull the switch!" Catra demands, and that nothing seems to be growing at the edges again, dancing just out of reach.

She's blasted aside by purple magic, growling as she slides across the floor. Hordak fights with the intruders, and soon the room is rumbling ominously, moments away from falling apart.

There's a dangerous, almost feral look in Catra's eye as she looks to the switch, and as she approaches it the girl pleads desperately- "Catra, please don't!"

Catra turns slowly to look at her former friend a cruel smile on her face as her eyes narrow, and without a word she pulls the switch while looking her in the eye.

"Nooo!" the girl cries, the device rumbling to life, the sword throwing off light and increasing arcs of electricity, and then a blinding light swallows EVERYTHING.

For a long while there's nothing but Jon and that blinding white. There's a distorted noise and Catra joins him, not the child, but as she is the memory.

"Just leave," she growls, narrowing her eyes, "You aren't supposed to be here."

[beholding_archivist]

Jon observes the scene in silence, crossing his arms pensively the moment Catra moves to pull the switch. And for a long while he just stands like that within that white nothingness, until eventually he is joined by her.

He makes no move to go anywhere, only turns his head in her direction. "What kind of portal were you opening?" Of course he has questions.

[heeeyadora]

She stares him down a moment, seeming unnerved by his presence.

"...A portal to another dimension," she mumbles, glancing away, "Does it really matter?"

There's a distant rumbling, and voices echo through the nothing.

"Catra, look what's happening! You're going to destroy everything!"

"I don't care. I won't let you win! I'd rather see the whole world end than let that happen!"

[beholding_archivist]

"Why?" He asks further, plain curiosity tinging his voice. "Were you trying to bring something in?" Or send something out.

"And who were all these people?"

[heeeyadora]

"...We were trying to send a message to Horde Prime. To- to bring his armies and help us conquer Etheria once and for all, but the portal didn't work how it was supposed to-"

She grew silent then.

"They're no one. They don't matter."

The rumbling grows louder and those echoes scream out.

"Catra!!"

[beholding_archivist]

"You used to be friends, didn't you." It's not a question. More an observation. "And they used you."

[heeeyadora]

Catra frowns, and more echoes surface from a different time.

"Ah, you know, it all makes sense now. You've always been the one holding me back. You wanted me to think I needed you. You wanted me to feel weak. Every hero needs a sidekick, right?"

"Catra, no. That's not how it was."

"The sad thing is, I've spent all this time hoping you'd come back to the Hoarde, when really, you leaving was the best thing that ever happened to me. I am so much stronger than anyone ever thought...I wonder what I could have been if I'd gotten rid of you sooner."

Catra growls and swipes at the air as though she can silence the echoes, and part of her seems to fracture away into darkness, rimmed with that piercing light.

[beholding_archivist]

Heroes and sidekicks, huh? Curious.

Not quite as curious, however, than what happens when she tries to attack the air, causing Jon to take a step away, his expression alarmed. "Are you okay?" He asks, setting aside the words that have just filled the air around them only to upset Catra enough to strike at them.

wall of text. sorry <3

[heeeyadora]

"I'm fine!" She growls, and appears to lunge at him for a moment, but at the last second it becomes clear her target is behind him.

The blonde girl from before, the voice from the memories, Adora. Catra pins her, straddling her with a wild look in her eye.

"Catra, stop. You have to-" the girl plead, struggling against Catra.

"It's always the same with you, Adora. 'I have to do this. Oh we have to do that'. Let's be honest-" She stood, pulling Adora up by her ponytail, "All of this is your fault," she growls, tossing her away. "If you hadn't gotten captured, your sword wouldn't have opened the portal." She hauls her up again and hurls her back. Adora doesn't fight back as Catra kicks out her knee, knocking her back down and dragging her along. "If you hadn't gotten the sword and been the world's worst She-Ra, none of this, would have happened."

She shoves her back and Adora goes tumbling again with a shout. Soon after Catra retrieve her again, gripping her by the hair. "Admit it, Adora-" she growls, "The world would still be standing if you had never come through that portal in the first place." She pushes her away again.

"You made me this," she insists, chasing after her, kicking her down and stepping on her back, "You took everything from me." Again she hauls her up and tosses her away.

"You broke the world, and it is all. your . fault."

Adora looks briefly broken, caught up in these accusations despite the truth that Jon now knows. But then, determination sets in, brow creasing at last.

"No, it's not," she counters firmly, shoving Catra back, "I didn't make you pull the switch." Catra tries to lunge at her again, but Adora catches her by the wrist, pulling her closer. "I didn't make you do anything." She flips Catra and tosses her away, where she half rights herself and glares from the floor.

"I didn't break the world," Adora continues, "But I am going to fix it. And you? You made your choice."

Catra snarls and moves to lunge again.

"Now live with it!" Adora cries, punching her hard, and abruptly shattering the white that surrounds them.

It's just Catra and Jon again, no longer a child, and no longer that strange broken thing. The door is open, and Catra nods towards it before climbing up onto the one of upper bunks to try and hide.

No worries~

[beholding_archivist]

Watching Catra and the other girl, Adora, fight... it’s an odd thing to witness. But it’s a memory, Jon knows as much. There is little point in interfering with it. There’s a lot of anger in it. Pain, accusations and hurt feelings.

And it’s obvious that Catra won’t want to talk about any of it willingly, given her dismissive reaction followed by that attempt to hide.

But Jon simply looks up towards her hiding place, not making any move to leave just yet.

“What’s the Hoarde?” He asks instead. No way he is making her feel even more abandoned.

[heeeyadora]

Her tail twitches, the only real sign she's heard him at first. She sighs, and an image displays itself on one of the walls of the bunk room. Soldiers dressed in Horde armor, tanks and weaponry, along with a few scattered robots, all stationed in a smoking battlefield, Horde flags waving in symbol of their victory. Above them all stand Catra and Hordak.

"That's the Horde," she mutters, "We're an army. An army that's going to conquer all of Etheria."

[beholding_archivist]

"I see." Jon mutters as he inspects the image. None of that looks pleasant.

"Have you always been part of them?" She still strikes him as rather young.

[heeeyadora]

"Since I was a kid." She shifts slightly, turning to give him a small but more attention since he hasn't run off. "They raised me."

[beholding_archivist]

The Archivist gives a surprised look at that response "Oh? What- What about your parents? Are they part of it as well?"

He sees an odd parallel here to Cal being raised by his Order.

[heeeyadora]

Her head tilts, like she was surprised he hasn't piked up on the fact that whatever parents she might have had once were long out of the picture. "Shadow Weaver raised me," she elaborates pointedly, "Since I was a kid. I don't remember anything before that." Whatever parents she had died or abandoned her, or were otherwise...not there for her, she doesn't know.

[beholding_archivist]

"I... see." Jon simply nods in understanding. Shadow Weaver again, huh? That's why the younger Catra didn't want to be found by her.

For a moment he considers his response. "I have no memories of my own parents either. They died. When I was very young. For me it was my grandmother that raised me." Which is still far removed from being raised as part of an army.