goneawayworld | Your Friendly Neighborhood Shadowrunner

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Your Friendly Neighborhood Shadowrunner

Who: Saturday… and you?
What: Open prompts
Where: Locations noted in title
When: in the period between the intro and the next big event
Warnings/Notes: Second prompt may lead to discussing disturbing events in Saturday’s past. No sexual assault, but warnings for violence, child abuse, and eldritch horrors.

1. Free Tickets to the Gun Show [location: communal bathrooms]

Saturday looks at herself in the mirror and nods, satisfied. Even Maggie couldn’t argue the rightness of this; these uniforms were hideous, and too long, and she didn’t like them. Therefore…

She picks a thread out of her newly-created sleeveless jumper. It won’t stop unraveling, so she yanks and breaks it. Her former sleeves lie limply on the sink before her as she admires herself. The room is empty (to the best of her knowledge); her dignity is safe. She starts striking poses.

In her defense, those muscles are pretty impressive.

2. Let Sleeping Adepts Lie? [location: gardens]

The gardens aren’t really gardens, except for the patch that Bunny and Gadget have taken over, but they’re green and they’re quiet and it’s easy to avoid people. These qualities are why Saturday is kneeling in a remote corner of them, hands cupped open in her lap the way her father taught her. Holding emptiness. Control is an illusion. Go with the flow.

Keep your distance, and she looks peaceful. Come closer, and you can see her jaw is tight and trembling, and tears are trickling out from under her closed eyes.

3. Come Fly Away (Or Dream You Can) [location: rig exterior]

The rain never actually stops, but sometimes it lessens into a misty drizzle, the kind of thing a true Seattleite scoffs at. Saturday, being one of those, is out on the deck. It’s evening, going on full dark; the western horizon in orange fading into pink, and the sky above is clouded velvet. She’s tied cloth around her hands and feet for grip, and is running the pipes. Her shoes are sitting neatly at the base of a large beam. She has no destination in mind, no particular purpose; she isn’t in the training area because she wants to be outside, unrecorded, unmeasured, moving for the sheer glory of it. It almost feels like freedom.

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Catra's reply is to make a rude gesture with her hand.

"Well stop suggesting crap. Last time I had someone this concerned with how I was acting and whatever her name was Shadow Weaver. Stop acting like I need your help. I don't need you or your stupid suggestions or anybody else's!"

Edited 2020-05-03 17:29 (UTC)

Saturday raises an eyebrow. "All right, then."

"Why are you so damn calm all the time?" Catra seems to be getting even more irritated that Saturday refuses to fight with her.

"You think you can just come into my life and like... fix stuff, like you can actually make things better! Like it's easy. Letting go is so easy, Catra--!" The anger is bubbling over now and Catra doesn't know how to stop it. Doesn't know if she really wants to. It's perverse, how good it feels to be angry in the moment and it reminds her how gratifying it was to sink into all the anger and hurt and aim it at Adora like a weapon. Lashing out feels good. At least right now.

"I didn't ask for your help!"

Edited 2020-05-03 17:52 (UTC)

"Because I meditate," Saturday can't help responding, with an easy smile that fades into seriousness as Catra yells. She listens, and thinks a good long while before she responds, silence stretching between them. Eventually, Saturday nods.

"Okay. Fair point. What would you like, instead?"

Judo, like meditation, is a mindset.

"I want people to stop acting like there's something wrong with me!" Catra hisses. "Like I need to learn to meditate, to be more like you."

Edited 2020-05-03 18:38 (UTC)

"There isn't anything wrong with you. You don't need to be more like me." Saturday runs a hand through her hair, thinking how to say it. "I offered meditation 'cause it's a tool I find useful. Not to make you like me. This isn't an exchange, Cats; I don't need you to be any particular one thing in order t' think you're worth knowing and deserve looking out for."

A corner of her mouth turns up in a smile. "Be nice if you didn't start yelling at the drop of a hat, though."

"If there's nothing wrong with me why do people keep wanting me to be different than I am now?" Catra says. She's still bristling, but at least she's not yelling anymore. Of course, that's a trick question. Not even Catra likes herself how she is now.

"And I wouldn't yell if people didn't make me yell." Oops, that's some nasty internalized stuff right there.

"'Cause you keep acting like you don't really like the person you are now." Saturday says softly. "You're hurting. When people see someone hurting, they want to try and help, make the hurt stop. If they're decent, anyhow."

Saturday considers adding that people couldn't make her yell if she was in control of herself, but, hmm, that's a step too far on this unsteady bridge.

"I'm fine with who I am now," Catra said, like a liar. "And who said I was hurting? Don't make stuff up about me." She's not yelling, but she's still tense and angry and ready to go off again.

"All right, then." Saturday shrugs. "Sorry for getting the wrong impression."

"Good." Catra crosses her arms. It's quiet again for a long awkward period, Catra stubbornly refusing to say anything else that might prove Saturday correct.

"...I hate this place," she says in a quiet voice, finally.

"Yeah. It sucks major balls." Saturday exhales heavily. "And that Planker guy, jesus. What crawled up his ass and died?"

"I want to claw his eyes out," Catra says with a snarl, then shrugs.

"He's bad. Some of the Horde drill instructors could be bad too... Kinda want to see how far I can push him."

"Just not breaking'll push him to the edge," Saturday says with confidence. "Dude's entire ego is wrapped up in the idea that he's the hardest motherfucker in the room. And in this room, he definitely ain't. Be harder than him, and he'll go insane."

Saturday may or may not have already started testing this theory.

"Yeah, but I wanna see what happens when I get him mad." Self-destructive? Maybe. She laughs.

"If I could deal with Shadow Weaver, I can deal with him."

"How come?" Saturday looks honestly curious. "What's the point of drawin' aggro for no reason?"

She's not going to touch the Shadow Weaver thing.

Edited 2020-05-03 22:20 (UTC)

"Because it annoys them." That's it. That's the thought process. Yes, she'll get in trouble but if she can make a headache for the people who have charge of her, however small, it's almost worth it.

Is worth it.

"And that accomplishes, what?" Saturday is honestly curious, because the answer is always a little bit different for everyone. "What's the endgame?"

"I don't know. It makes me happy?" Happy is probably the wrong word. It gives her some sense of satisfaction, maybe. Some tiny bit of pleasure to make up for the misery and pain and hurt.

"Does anything else?" Her reasoning makes sense; when the only control you have is enraging people, exercising it is the closes thing you have to power

"Adora did," Catra says after a moment. She doesn't want to seem like she's miserable, but it was kind of true. There was Adora and there was making people angry. Catra shrugs.

"I dunno." Catra is sometimes not sure she really knows what 'happy' feels like.

"Well, you liked the sandwiches, right?" Saturday says encouragingly. "There's a decent amount to do here, books and games and flatvids. Let's go mess around and see what you like."

"Yeeeah sandwiches are pretty good," Catra admits after a moment of stubborn silence.

"Sure, why not? I mean... yeah. Sounds cool."

"Okay!" Saturday grins a bit like a labrador retriever. "Uh - you gotta figure out how to work the tech, though. It'll break if I try, trust me."

"Oh, yeah. No problem. I could work all the computers and stuff back home," Catra says breezily.

"Just point me at it."

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wheyoftheadept - 2020-05-04 02:59 (UTC) - Expand

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