make a wish and i'll count to three [ota]

[resleeves]

» WHO? kovacs + you
» WHEN? mid june
» WHERE? various
» WHAT? backpack discovery, drinking, nostalgia, introspection
» WARNINGS? language, for sure. anything else, i'll update.

001. mess hall

[ hello unicorn.

it's the first thing that kovacs sees when he walks into the mess hall to get something to drink. hello unicorn emblazoned on a pink, dirty backpack. for a second, kovacs is taken right back to bay city, right back to that shitty dealer and his need to buy the whole fucking stash of drugs.

he can feel the harsh lights of the various establishments and smell the stench of booze and blood and death. for a second, kovacs just stares at the backpack, thinking it some kind of trick. when he realizes what the fuck he's doing, he steps closer and grabs the backpack.

it's light which means it's empty but it's still his and he doesn't waste any goddamn time in hefting it on one shoulder and then sitting down to eat.

hello unicorn. ]

002. bar

[ he's still wearing the backpack. in fact, he hasn't really taken it off since it showed up and he doesn't plan on it either. it doesn't matter that the fucker's empty, it matters that it's hit, it's from bay city and that's enough for a signal for him to tell him that he'll get back there one day.

but, today is not that day so today, he's drinking. while he drinks, he settles the backpack on the bar and goes through it again. there's still nothing but he wants to make sure he hasn't missed anything.

and then he decides to slide a bottle inside of the backpack and zip it up.

now, it's not empty. ]

003. observation area

[ that stupid fucking backpack's made him think of quell. he doesn't know why since she'd never seen it before, not even when she decided to pop up and fuck him up even more. but, he's desperate enough that he doesn't even mind when she appears to him and only him.

he misses her. that's the bottom line. he misses quell but it's a fucking stupid thing to be experiencing because she's dead and she's not coming back. not this time. her stack's probably in little pieces over harlan's world.

why hadn't he stopped to try and find it?

waste of time. ]

Fuck you.

[ and then he punches the observation window, doing absolutely no damage to the thick glass but cracking his knuckles a bit.

good. ]

Comments

[resleeves]

That's right, you're not.

[ just so they were clear on that. crystal clear. ]

Doesn't it just? That's the beauty of it. It's horrible and awful and painful and exhausting.

[ perfect way to torture someone and yes, he had some intimate experience with it. he'd only managed to withstand it because of quell. thank fuck for quell. ]

[raverie]

I'm sorry for what happened to you.

[ It doesn't seem like a big leap, to assume he's got a personal stake in the conversation, given his reaction. ]

That's not what I do. I would never...

[ She cuts herself off, won't say she doesn't hurt people, because - well, that would be a lie, wouldn't it? She's seen the results of her power. Just because there isn't physical pain doesn't make the emotional ramifications any lighter. ]

I'm not after anything from you.

[resleeves]

Don't fucking apologize. You didn't do anything.

[ it had happened, it would probably happen again. but it wasn't going to happen here if he had a fucking say. ]

And I didn't think you were. Just setting some boundaries.

[ as you do. ]

There, now we can bond.

[raverie]

[ “Now we can bond.” It’s so unexpected that it startles a sudden laugh out of her. ]

Is that like the opposite of getting pleasantries out of the way?

[ Just wondering. ]

Anyway, not being responsible doesn’t change that I’m sorry it happened, Kovacs.

[resleeves]

[ he shrugs. ]

It happened but I survived. Best outcome you can hope for.

[ he'd also gotten to kill every single on of the shits that had done it to him so that helped too. ]

Not something I recommend that. Fucking painful.

[raverie]

[ Wow, is it ever difficult to read this guy! Survival, at least, she understands on a gut level. As much as she wants more than just survival for her and mutantkind, she's not picky. Willing to start small. ]

Yeah, if this is my world's idea of torture, I think they could stand to up the setting.

[ Respect for people who have actually suffered that kind of experience. So far - despite her worst suspicions about this place, Kovacs is rude but hardly torture - she's been lucky. ]

[resleeves]

[ oh, he prides himself on being difficult on every single fucking level. he appreciates that you've noticed, sonya. ]

You think you were sent here before of something you did?

[ maybe he was just reading that wrong but hey, it wasn't a terrible idea either. if the tech was available, he could very well see bancroft and his fucking meths trying to get him sent here to keep quiet and out of the way if he'd uncovered something that would damage his pretty reputation.

but rei would find him. if that was really her he'd seen, she had to find him. ]

[raverie]

[ On the bright side, it means she doesn't have to worry overly much about his opinion of her, in return. ]

I was arrested before I came here. I thought this was just another kind of prison.

[ Being left to her own devices this way - the free will of it all - has her second guessing though. That rat-faced doctor and his cronies hadn't struck her as the patient type.

Turns out she's Tim Robbins which makes you Morgan Freeman, Kovacs. See u in Zihuatanejo. ]

Now I don't know what's going on. Last I checked, we hadn't even been to Mars.

[resleeves]

Arrested, huh? What for?

[ look at that, they were criminals. it was something they had in common, don't you know. but it doesn't seem like she'd been basically deactivated and put on ice for two centuries. ]

Jaywalking? Steal something pretty from a store?

[ you'll grow to love him. really. okay no you probably won't. ]

[raverie]

[ Now that it seems like he's not going to storm off and/or attack, Sonya settles on the opposite side of the bar with her glass and bottle, keeping the sideways distance between them.

But it's friendly. Almost like a regular conversation but with forced perspective. ]

Sabotaging a power plant, actually.

[ Her turn to be dry. Speaking of dry. ]

You need a refill or are you just pulling straight from the bottle?

[resleeves]

Sabotaging a power plant.

[ there's no disbelief in his voice because that's very plausible but why the fuck would anyone want to sabotage a power plant? ]

What the fuck for? Don't people need power? To live? And luxuriate in their masses of money?

[ he glances down at the bottle, shrugs, and waves away her attempts at the refill. ]

Bottle's fine.

[raverie]

[ Fair enough, she'll keep the bottle to herself, then. Though she does lift her glass in an ironic 'cheers'. ]

It's kind of a long story?

[ Not brushing him off so much as a warning. She taps her fingers against the rim of her glass in thought. ]

Short version: it powered a facility that has some of our people captive. Too much firepower to assault head-on.

[ Hence the power outage. Attempted. ]

[resleeves]

[ ugh did that she was some white knight hero? there was always one of those, striding in and acting like they were going to do everything in the world to make things better.

they tended to just fuck shit up more.

but he did give her credit for just destroying everything when she couldn't get the obvious attack to work. ]

Our people?

[ was this a whole fucking superhero team? ]

[raverie]

Oh.

[ Right. She takes a sip from the bottle, winces before continuing. ]

I meant mutants.

[ She offers a little wave, like she's introducing herself all over again. ]

People with abilities that go beyond what your average human from Earth can do.

[ Not that she's looking to like, remind him what she is with the way he reacted to her abilities but. She's not in hiding here either. ]

Are you even from Earth? I never asked.

[resleeves]

Uh huh.

[ people with abilities that went beyond wasn't an entirely unheard of concept but they weren't called mutants where he was from.

they were called terrorists. earth was full of horrible people, wasn't it? ]

I'm not from Earth.

[ and if harlan's world hadn't been tainted and filled with death and ghosts, he probably would still be there. ]

Spent a lot of time there. It's shit.

[raverie]

[ Hey, you're in luck, friendo, because mutants are terrorists in her universe too. Kind of part of the problem, really. Except he says he's not from Earth, and that does pique her interest. ]

You look human.

[ Meant as observation, not insult. What are the chances that another species would evolve that way, on another world? But yeah. ]

It... Can be.

[ Shit. She knows it. ]

I wasn't exactly thrilled with the place, but it's home. Or it was.

[ Now, presumably, they're trapped in a tin can until they run out of oxygen, or whatever. ]

[resleeves]

Do I? What's to say I'm not?

[ he was. he was just a little different than most humans, had a few more addons that made him special and unique. ]

Earth's shit no matter what. That's what I've learned. It's shit and it's always going to be shit.

[ safe to say he had some issues with earth. some real, visceral issues that he wasn't going to get into but safe to say, his mind would not be changed. ]

[raverie]

Not being from Earth, mostly.

[ Every human she's ever met was born there, so she just assumed. ]

You won't get any argument from me. [ Earth's where everyone she loves lives, but she wouldn't exactly call it a utopia. ] Right now it's Earth or nothing. Are there better choices, where you're from?

[ JUDGING BY HIS ATTITUDE she's guessing not. ]

[resleeves]

No.

[ mostly because the fucks on earth had made it that way. they wanted to be the center of the universe and be the galaxy's preeminent power so other planets had to be subordinated so they wouldn't fucking get in the way. ]

There are other planets but if you want to be someone, if you want to make money, you live on Earth and strive to be a fucking Meth. Or you live among the cockroaches and enjoy being a Grounder.

[raverie]

[ Slow down there, Aldous Huxley. It's actually not that difficult to follow, though some of the specifics naturally get lost on her. ]

Meth's a drug where I'm from.

[ When she's from might be more accurate, given some of the other things she's read and heard. Or maybe it's both. What is it that everyone strives to be? ]

Are they Grounders because they live in the ground or on it?

[ Those are the only two possibilities as far as she knows... ]

[resleeves]

It's short for Methuselah.

[ did that help differentiate? he's sure meths thought they were some kind of drug sometimes. expensive and heady when they got around other people and in demand to all those who were underneath them. ]

I'm sure you're smart enough to parse together why.

[ or maybe she wasn't. maybe he'd have to explain it. again. ]

We don't live in fucking caves or underneath the dirt. It's not that bad.

[ yet. ]