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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"I'm not doing it," Catra repeated with a hiss, "It made what people wanted and then it fell apart. This is what the portal does. This is why she tried to stop it."

Again, Tony went, "Uh-huh," not sure how Catra could go on in so much denial when the events kept on playing out in front of her, too, but Tony had some serious blinders on when he was a teenager, too. Maybe that one wasn't a personal problem, for once, and he watched Catra more carefully then, hoping it wouldn't take getting her heart shredded to lose them. "So you stopped being an asshole to her," he suggested, letting his head loll like he absolutely didn't believe that was the outcome of this revelation, that Catra could have seen what she perceived as exactly what she wanted and made any course correction to make it happen.

She huffed, but this world of memories didn't seem content with Tony's refusal to follow along, and the world shifting to catch up with the girls. They were in a wood, the world behind them crumbling away, and the skiff they'd sped away on crashed. They each rushed for the stun baton, and Adora caught Catra in a headlock to keep her from getting to it.

"Catra, you can't. We need to get as far from the Fright Zone as possible or we'll be completely erased along with everything else," she pleaded as Catra strained against her.

"You think you can convince me by kidnapping me?? What is wrong with you?" Catra countered, flipping Adora off of her.

Before she could reach the baton Adora kicked it away. "I won't leave you behind again."

"...Why can't you just stay? We have everything we ever wanted."

"It's not real, Catra," Adora insisted, despite the hurt look on Catra's face, "As much as I wish that things could be simple the way they used to be, there's no going back." She took Catra's shoulders, trying to make her look at her, but Catra shouted and slapped her hand away, running from Adora.

She didn't get far before Adora tackled her, and the two faced off again, each panting.

"Why did you do it?" Adora accused.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Catra denied. The sky lit up, the forest crumbling away with that brilliant light.

"There's no time. We have to go." Adora insisted.

Catra shook her head, holding herself, eyes squeezed shut tight.

"I promise. Everything will be okay if we just stay together," Adora continued. "Help me fix this. Please. This can't be what you wanted."

"Don't you get it?" Catra retorted suddenly, rounding on her, "I am never going to go with you."

She gave a crazed laugh and pointed at Adora.

"You always have to go and ruin it, don't you?" She lunged at her, swiping and yelling, while Adora dodged in shock before pushing her away.

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

"I don't. care," Catra insisted, voice raw, "I won't let you win. I'd rather see the whole world end than let that happen."

The ground fell away beside them, and rather than flee, Catra tried to grab hold of Adora to ensure she couldn't.

"Catra no!"

The ground fell away, and Catra fell with it, clinging to what remained of the rock below.

"Catra!" Adora screamed, crawling back to avoid falling after her and looking down at Catra, hanging in that same precarious grip that Adora once had. Catra looked up at her, and then, the rock crumbled away dropping her into the light.

"Oh, wow, you didn't, what a surprise," Tony muttered, stroking his chin as Catra took this chance to shout her friend down in the memory, pointedly not looking at the Catra on this journey with him. It didn't take Adora dying, it didn't take being directly confronted with what Catra wanted most, maybe it would just take a nice chat over a cup of tea for her to figure it out. As the memory Catra fell, Tony just leaned slightly over to watch her with a pout, and said, "Honestly, it's like, dramatic irony or something at this point, it has to be. This is just a dream you had, this is what you wanted?"

"I told you I didn't want you in here," she growled, increasing frustrated as Tony continued to insist this whole thing was a construct. It might have been her fault, but it wasn't controlled by her. She just pulled the switch. This wasn't supposed to happen.

Out of the nothing Catra crawled and climbed her way back up. Fractured and broken, half consumed with black, and rimmed with that blinding white. She looked half feral, and lunged abruptly Adora appearing just in time to be tackled.

Catra pinned 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 growled, tossing her away. "If you hadn't gotten captured, your sword wouldn't have opened the portal." She hauled her up again and hurled her back. Adora didn't fight back as Catra kicked 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 shoved her back and Adora went tumbling again with a shout. Soon after Catra retrieved her again, gripping her by the hair. "Admit it, Adora-" she growled, "The world would still be standing if you had never come through that portal in the first place." She pushed her away again.

"You made me this," she insisted, chasing after her, kicking her down and stepping on her back, "You took everything from me." Again she hauled her up and tossed her away.

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

Adora looked briefly broken, caught up in these accusations despite the truth. But then, determination set in, brow creased at last.

"No, it's not," she countered firmly, shoving Catra back, "I didn't make you pull the switch." Catra tried to lunge at her again, but Adora caught her by the wrist, pulling her closer. "I didn't make you do anything." She flipped Catra and tossed her away, where she half righted herself and glared from the floor.

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

Catra snarled and moved to lunge again.

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

They were back in the portal room, everyone looking confused, stretched up on the floor from the explosion. Catra rubbed at her cheek, but had only a moment to wonder before the portal started up drawing scattered debris towards it. And then- it stopped. Everything hovered in mid air and Catra gave a frightened gasp.

The portal emitted a blinding light, and from the other side stepped She-Ra, sword drawn and face determined. She was a good 7 feet tall, but the features were unmistakably Adora.

She turned and sliced through the portal with a shout, and the device fell with a crash as the room rumbled around them, about to collapse.

Catra ran to Hordak, pulling at his arm as he started at the destruction. "We have to go. Now."

He hesitated a moment before running on ahead. Catra paused to look back, met with a hard look from She-Ra who turned to face her fully, eyes narrowed with promise.

Catra's own eyes widened before stepping back fearfully, slipping out of the room and at last the memory ended.

As hard as Tony was being on her, and as much as an undeniable asshole she was being to her friend, that punch that broke the whole world made Tony flinch enough to step back and offer a hand on Catra's shoulder. It didn't last long, and Tony was stepping away as they were finally released from that tumultuous memory, cautiously at first because he was sure this was just another dramatic jump, then loping back toward the bunk where they had started, to collapse and moan, "That was exhausting. Aren't you exhausted?" No one else had this much that they seemed to want to show him, the memories kept coming out of Catra in suffocating waves.

"..." She half flinched from the touch, but allowed it with an uncertain expression, her tail swelling and swaying warily.

She breathed out a sigh when they finally returned to the start, and gave Tony a pointed look at his question. Of course she was exhausted. Too exhausted to even offer a snappy line. She crossed to the door, palming a button and they slid open at last.

"Well you don't have to stick around any longer," she muttered, moving back to the bunks, shrinking down again to that child she'd been when he entered and climbing up onto the top bunk.

A moment later, Tony was peeking over the edge of the bunk hands on the mattress and eyebrows raised curiously. Eventually, he asked, "Did you ever apologize?" Even if Catra really didn't think she was in the wrong in any of that, when she clearly was and Tony didn't know how she justified it anymore, especially after the way that woman treated her--if Tony knew he was anything like his dad to his friends or especially any of the kids, he'd be curled up in his bed resenting himself, too, he supposed. But even if Catra was committed to that denial, she had to see how it was prudent to apologize to the Amazon lady with the big sword.

"..." Catra lowered her ears and tried to look anywhere but at Tony.

"I won't say sorry. Ever," she muttered. It sounded like a phrase she'd repeated a lot. Long enough that going back on it now was difficult. However sorry she might feel, it was reflex now to lash out. To deny and to fight rather than accept her own fault in any of this, however much it was eating away at her.

"You don't have to mean it," Tony suggested, what could be seen of his head tilting slightly as he watched Catra carefully, not sure how she would take his meaning. There were some cases where he meant that eventually she would mean it if she said it enough, and some cases where it was just the fastest way out of a tight situation that wasn't worth conserving one's pride over. Pride had gotten him into enough trouble, he could at least pass on that hard earned wisdom.

She gave him a look, not sure how she felt about that suggestion. "...It's too late. And she's not here anyway. There's no point."

There must have been plenty of times in Catra's life that her friend wasn't around, this one shouldn't have felt that much different. Being in the bunker was certainly demoralizing, but they shouldn't have been resigned to spending the rest of their lives down there yet. "I'm going to get us home," Tony promised with a shrug. "You'll tell her then. Tell her how you went to another planet and realized how big the universe was." He finally slipped away from the bunk then, heading for the open door with his shoulders stretching back, more than ready to move on from this abusive mess.

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Some people have a bad day. | Calibrations

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