goneawayworld | Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. [ CLOSED ]

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Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. [ CLOSED ]

Who: Catra, Setsuna, Richard Washburn, Adora shows up later.
What: Catra has racked up a Violation and is getting her just reward
Where: Gym/Exec Level
When: After Planker's punishing obstacle course
Warnings/Notes: PUNISHMENT. Catra is gonna get zapped pretty bad. Physical abuse, mental and emotional anguish.

Catra had done something stupid. She knew she'd done something stupid and yet she couldn't find it in herself to care overly much. She had been so angry, so exhausted, after her run through that torture chamber Planker called an obstacle course she had gone for him, hoping to at least claw a few reminders that she wasn't to be fucked with into his skin.

Unfortunately, a quick zap from the embedded... whatever it was inside of her had put a stop to it and she found herself flat on the floor with the asshole yelling at her, demanding she run the course again to make sure she 'learned her goddamned lesson.' And so she had, teeth grit and anger pouring from every inch of her body. She had run it again with Adora in tow, been cut and bruised and shocked and humiliated again in a dozen small ways until at last she had labored free. Then, of course, she had been summoned. Summoned by Washburn so that she could be given a stern talking to, no doubt. Setsuna had been dragged along too, probably because she had been her partner in crime during the inciting incident, and was needed to give evidence. Or just to be yelled at. Catra, still feeling disgusting, stepped out onto the executive level and made her way past chattering office workers and executive assistants. So far she had pointedly ignored Setsuna--she didn't want to talk to anyone, she just wanted to claws every single bastard's eyes out and gloat about it.

The receptionist took one look (and one whiff) of the pair and then hurried them inside a side room, saying that 'Mister Washburn will be right with you.' That left the pair in a closed little lounge-slash-meeting room with sleek, modern furniture far nicer than anything that they saw on their own level. Catra immediately sprawled across one of the couches, kicking her feet up.

"If he expects me to say sorry, he has another thing coming..." She said sullenly, half to herself.

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"Yes, you do." It's a quiet reply but no less firm for it. Setsuna sucks in a breath, reasserting her grip a Catra's side, behind her, backing her up just like she said she would. "Yes, you do," she repeats, emphatically. "Whether you need anyone's help or not, you still matter to both of us so we're giving it to you, anyway."

Patient, angry, hurting, exhausted, of this place, of Catra's stubbornness, of her own inability to be useful - the whole spectrum of bruising, not just the physical, shades the tone of her voice.

"She's always been this stubborn, hasn't she?" Setsuna says, over Catra's shoulder, to Adora, as they both double up on the job of keeping Catra upright. "No wonder she finds it so hard to forgive you for leaving."

She does not - quite - regret the words as, or after, they leave her mouth. She means them, and the sentiment, the piercing frustration, behind them, too much for that. But she does know it's probably something she wouldn't have said aloud, right now, if she'd been less spent to the bone beforehand.

"I'm not about to forgive them for this, either," she says, smoothing over the roughness of the loaded observation she just offered by following Catra's lead, instead. "I can be my own kind of stubborn, when I need to be."

Catra's words cut. They always do. And it feels like more of the same - the same refusal to accept help, the same refusal to want anything to do with her and there's a spike of anger in her chest. She bites back some of the words she'd like to say as Setsuna steps in. She listens as they hobble down the stairs together, one slow step at time. Their voices echo in the stairwell, but Adora's not about to care whether they're overheard right now.

"She's always been stubborn. We both are," Adora replies, shooting Setsuna a look over Catra's head.

"And whether she forgives me or not, that's up to her," she continues, expression set, "But if she really doesn't want my help, if she really wants nothing to do with me, then fine. I can leave her in your room and maybe we can just... be coworkers until we get out of here and then we can go our separate ways. If that's what she really wants."

Catra is tired. She is so, so tired. She doesn't think she's ever felt this exhausted before--her whole body feels like it might simply fall out from under her at any moment, and each step is fresh aches and pains that radiate through her whole body. She whines softly as an ankle wobbles, but the support of the others keeps her from turning it or worse.

"I know you're just doing this because you feel sorry for me," she insists in a hoarse croak, her shame and guilt crushing down on her as they always seem to do. She can't even bring herself to feel angry at Setsuna, because she's right. Probably. She has nursed the hurt and pain of Adora's departure for so long, it's like a constant friend these days. Of course, Adora threatens to just... Go. To leave her alone, to separate once they're free of this place and i feels overwhelming. She doesn't want Adora gone--she wants Adora with her, but to admit that is to make herself vulnerable, to make herself small. To open herself to rejection.

"Adora," her voice shakes and Catra hates it. Hates that Setsuna is here to listen to her being weak and helpless and desperate.

"...Stay." Her hand gropes, tries to find Adora's wrist or something else she can grab hold of to anchor herself.

"Please. Stay." Please, I miss you. I miss you and I want you so badly it hurts is what she wants to say. Of course, she can't say that. She never could say that. Because Adora doesn't want her the same way that Catra wants Adora. She probably never will.

Setsuna is tired enough that she's ready to snap at one or the both of them if they keep pushing at each other like this when what they all really need to do is help Catra recover right now - she bends as Catra nearly goes down on her ankle, shifting rapidly to keep the older girl from doing anything awful to it that the obstacle course runs and the convulsions didn't already do - and then Catra's voice breaks and Setsuna's words catch in the back of her throat. Her shoulders go rigid and she suddenly finds herself looking forcefully away, awkward and slightly ashamed to be a witness to this level of vulnerability, after all that has happened today.

She's supposed to be helping Catra heal, or at least recover from this, after all - maybe she'll have to open a few wounds in the process to get them cleaned well and good but it's not her place to stand inside them and pry. This feels a lot like prying.

She flashes back, uncomfortably vividly, to her own conversation with Adora, at the welcome party, when they both talked about Adora's relationship with Catra, before she'd realized they were talking about Catra, and swallows heavily, uncomfortably silent.

She just keeps trying to put one foot in front of the other, carrying Catra, dreading and hoping and waiting on - whatever it is Adora will say, being handed such an ask.

Adora was prepared to have her heart shatter, but then - then Catra does something unexpected. She knows Setsuna is right there, that she shouldn't be doing this in front of other people, but she's honestly sick of Catra always pushing her away, no matter what she does. If that's what she wants, it's what she'll get. But Catra - Catra asks her to stay. She feels fingers close around her wrist and her hand shifts to interlace their fingers and squeeze.

"...OK."

She nods and breathes out. She doesn't smile, because there's still so much to do, so much to go through, but the step that Catra has just taken is immense and she feels a bit of a weight lift off of her chest.

"Let's get you to a shower, OK? We can get you cleaned up."

She shoots a look at Setsuna and arches a brow in a silent question. Is that OK? Will she be along for the ride? To Help?

When Adora's fingers lace with hers, Catra feels as if there is a weight gone from her. She isn't happy--she's not sure she has the energy to be happy now. It's relief, it's a feeling that maybe she is not quite so hopeless and worthless after all, if Adora is agreeing to stay. Catra squeezes tight in return.

"...Someone on the network said there was a bath to soak in. For the... animal. Thing. That sprayed us," Catra says quietly. She and Setsuna do smell rather, uh, skunky for lack of a better term. At least she's being productive now? Or at least not fighting.

Setsuna just sighs in relief, or is it a sob, it's hard to tell.

She tries very hard not to look like she's in any way going to have any comment on what transpired just now because she very much does not want to accidentally shatter - this. Whatever this is. She's talked to Adora, and Catra, just enough now, to know how much they both probably wanted this and also assumed, for multiple reasons, that it'd never happen, or that the other person would allow it.

"Thank you," she says, after a moment, and giving Adora a firm nod. "For staying." She is, the gesture is clear, also staying. She is also helping. This - being here for Catra - is a thing she's committed herself to being a part of, too.

And then she does a slight full-body shiver, refocusing on the matters at hand. They do, in fact, still smell horrifying, because they haven't cleaned up at all, and - "Oh. I ... haven't looked at the network at all, to know anything about that ... will a shower not be enough to get this smell off?"

She sounds almost comically distraught at the thought that this might be true. What kind of thing was that, that they sprayed them down with.

"I have no idea about the smell..." Adora wrinkles her nose, "But it can't hurt, right? Besides, getting cleaned up sounds like a great idea to me."

The tension seems to have eased just a little and she's grateful. She shoots Setsuna a little smile behind Catra's head as they start on the next set of stairs. Having someone to help is honestly great, even if she feels a little awkward about that argument. And Setsuna is a good person - she understands.

"I'm getting covered in it too, so we might as well all go, right?"

Catra is too exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally to make much more fuss. She wants to get down the stairs, she wants to get into the bath she had heard about and stay there until she turns into a wrinkled, fuzzy prune. She clings to Adora, hard, her body trembling as they take each painful stair.

"...Okay," she says quietly, agreeing to whatever it is that Adora has proposed. "Okay. Yeah. I just want to stop smelling like this." She wants to stop feeling like this but she suspects the only thing that will help there is rest.

"Do you think they'll give me the day off tomorrow?" she says weakly, her voice tinged with some sarcasm. It's a joke. Of course they won't.

Edited 2020-06-16 17:11 (UTC)

"I'm going to fight them off at the door if they don't," Setsuna says, tone deceptively light, for all that the humor in her voice is genuine. "You're going to get some rest! And I'm going to make sure of it."

She pauses, then smiles over Catra's shoulder. "Adora's welcome to help me bar the doorway, too, if you'd like."

And then maybe they can have a conversation about Catra, the two of them, that Setsuna's even more ready to have with Adora than she already was before all this started - an actual conversation, too, like she'd wanted.

For now, though ... "Which way is it to the, uhm, special bath, exactly ...?"

"I'm with Setsuna on that one," Adora nods, "If they don't, they'll have to get through me, too."

The question makes her furrow her brow. She'll have to check her communicator and she starts to dig it out of her pocket with her free hand as they reach the next landing. She's mostly just glad Catra isn't dead, even if she's burning with rage at the people who would do this to her.

"Uh, one second-"

"I think..." Catra is trying to string thoughts together and make a coherent sentence, but her exhaustion is making that a bit difficult.

"Kevin said something about the showers?" She says finally as she leans up against Adora. The pause has given her a moment of rest, but they still have stairs and stairs to go. Every muscle in her body feels like it's creaking when she moves, like some kind of demented old structure that's threatening to collapse in on itself at a moment's notice. Whether or not she gets the day off, she has a feeling that Setsuna and Adora are serious. Which is surprising. Nice, though.

"I'll be fine," she tries to insist stubbornly, though it's not the same kind of aggressive denial of aid that she had been uttering a few minutes before. Instead it's an insistence that they needn't worry about her. Perhaps the same in practice, though not in motivation.

"Just. Need sleep."

"Then we are going ... to the showers," Setsuna says, as certainly as she can manage to sound, and begins to help nudge/carry Catra with that destination specifically in mind, instead of generally "the baths, and dorms, and everything that can can all 'our' part of the Rig is that way".

As they walk, she sucks in a breath, and the dogged determination of earlier slips back into her voice. "I am not fine, Catra, and I didn't just get zapped for an entire minute, or run the obstacle course twice. I just ran it the once ... and I'm not fine. You are not fine."

She looks straight ahead, pressing her mouth together. "You can be fine after we've gotten you cleaned up and you've had time to rest. Worry about being fine then."

"Setsuna's right," Adora agrees with a firm nod and a firmer grip on Catra. She's not about to let her slump or fall and at this point she's half-carrying her down the stairs as they go (with help from Setsuna), "That course kicked the crap out of me and you had to do it twice and then got fried!"

They're finally reaching 'their' level and the exit to the stairwell looms.

"No more arguing. OK?"

"Adora, we both know that I am way tougher than you," Catra cracks in a wheezy, exhausted voice. She sounds halfway intoxicated, or like she might well just fall asleep on her feet now that the adrenaline rush of being tortured is finally starting to die down. She stumbles a little as they finally hit the New Hire floor of the rig, but the support from either side of her keeps her upright.

"Ughhh you two are so much alike sometimes," Catra mumbles, sounding resigned and a bit grumpy as they start down towards the showers. "But fine. I'll shut my stupid mouth."

Setsuna just starts tittering slightly hysterically at Catra's observation, an open-mouthed laugh that chokes itself on her own exhaustion more than anything else.

"Adora said the same thing to me, once," she says, her smile dimpling her cheeks, it's so broad, "did you know that?"

Won't be long now. The promise of relief after all this hellaciously hard walking - the Rig has never felt so vast before - almost makes Setsuna's own legs buckle, but they're so close, it gives her the strength to pull herself together instead.

Adora's in better shape than either of them and again she finds herself wishing to be She-Ra. She laughs along with Setsuna, an exhausted smile curving over her face.

"Kind of wish I still had the sword. I could carry both of you without a problem..."

"What, that you and here are really alike? 'Causer it's true!" Catra protests. Her voice is weary but she makes herself keep moving, one foot in front of the other. Every step is another one closer to the sweet, sweet relief of hot water and the removal of this stink from her fur.

"I can't believe they got you but not the sword--wait, right. Broken. Ugh."

This line of thought catches Setsuna off guard, and she does a slight stumble in her walk, eyes blinking wide. "Does Adora ... have a magical transformation friend, too?"

She ... doesn't say 'fairy', she doesn't assume everything works the way it does for Cures as it does everywhere else, but she's startled enough it's a near thing.

"I, uh, had a sword, but it's broken... I guess Swift Wind count as a magical transformation friend?" She shoulders the door open. Home stretch. Showers are just around the corner.

"I broke the sword before I got here, though..."

"I still can't believe you broke it. Well, I can. Because that's exactly something you would do. But--Actually never mind." Catra trails off. She's not in the shape to have this conversation and she can't focus. Her head hurts, along with everything else.

"This place sucks," she croaks after a moment of silence.

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Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. [ CLOSED ]

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