01 | All lies and jests; still a man hears what he wants to hear

[sinistral]

WHO: the Winter Soldier (sinistral) and you
WHERE: Calibrations waiting room, calibration room, and network
WHAT: midway through the Calibrations cycle, the Agrii decided they needed another victim "he row"
WHEN: 06/28 through 07/10
WARNINGS: Literally every calibration room prompt will have elements of violence and torture (physical and mental).

---

SECRET TUNNEL
→ Waiting Room;

This is complete bullshit. Complete. Bullshit. The Soldier has strong feelings as it is about waking up in a place entirely different from where he'd gone to sleep. It had happened far too much in his life and invariably makes him tense and irritable; between HYDRA and the Atroma — and apparently these Agrii now — he's just done.

The tunnel looks nothing like the Marsiva or the other ships of the Fleet but has him on guard regardless. He's pretty sure they'd escaped that imprisonment, won their way free of the Atroma. Certainly he's seen no evidence of them in the year since. But perhaps they'd gotten too lax in their freedom, in the rush of exploration and enjoyment of each other's company.

It's possible anyway.

Still, he can't focus on that right now, and certainly attempting to break out hadn't worked. Had the impact of a metal fist against the wall woken anyone? Potentially not, if this really is like the Calibrations he remembers, the way sleepers couldn't be woken once they'd drifted off. Or perhaps people will hear it and come looking. Doesn't much matter to him and he gives it up quickly enough when he sees that it's not doing any good anyway.

Well, whatever.

After a last glare at the tunnel he returns to the interior chamber and proceeds to go over every inch of it. Under the Atroma, it was impossible to escape the Calibrations area until those beings decided their time was up. If this really is modeled after that there'll be no escape, but he still intends to make sure. Perhaps some detail has been overlooked.

→ Calibrations Room;

The room itself is plain, utilitarian. The walls might be grey, or a grimy institutional beige. The only furnishings are a large glass-and-metal tubular chamber in the corner and a metal table in the center of the room with a single lightbulb hanging above it; an old incandescent bulb sheds yellowy light on the surface of the table and not much further.

On the table rests a sniper rifle, a combat knife, and a mouthguard. There appears to be no one in residence.

NETWORK
→ Text;

The Drift Fleet. Atroma. Calibrations. If you know what I'm talking about, speak up.

[That's it that's the message.]

WILDCARD
→ Elsewhere;

Want something else? Have an idea? Hit me up at sometimesamuse or via PM. Open to wherever, whatever, and though I write starters in prose I'm more than happy to switch to brackets if it's your preference.

Comments

[sinistral]

Sometimes the biggest cruelty is a result of ignorance, and that only because of the senselessness of it: deliberate cruelty, that with means and motive behind it, can be easily painted as evil. Accidental, ignorant cruelty can hurt more deeply given that one cannot always predict its target or intensity.

Which it is for these Agrii though, he doubts they have any way of knowing for sure.

"I wonder how they define hero." The Soldier certainly doesn't consider himself to fall under that description, though he readily acknowledges how useful his skills can be. "Or if they based it more on convenience of however they bring us here."

[hulkintraining]

"That's the thing. I don't know that they have much control over who they actually grab. Because not everyone here is a hero. Some don't even have powers of their own."

As far as he knows very little is known about the actual process the Agrii use to bring people.

[sinistral]

“Dangerous to think of it in terms of your definition of the word.” Because there’s one thing that seems certain: they’re playing in a game whose rules they don’t know. Even so he frowns at the idea Teddy presents. The Agrii not having complete command over the technology they use (and possibly abuse) doesn’t sound good at all, and he somehow doubts that the Agrii will be the ones paying the price should things go wrong.