i hear the voices getting louder

[resleeves]

» WHO? takeshi kovacs + ota
» WHEN? throughout the weekend and next week
» WHERE? chapel, fitness area, bar, and various others
» WHAT? causing trouble
» WARNINGS? language but nothing else as of yet

001. chapel

[ he's not here to pray.

he's not here to do anything but sit in the quiet and think. it's been a few weeks since the arrival of the backpack (which sits on the bench beside him) and he'd thought, for a few hours, that maybe more things would arrive. maybe a gun or an oni or fuck, he'd take ortega herself showing up. but nothing else familiar arrives.

he's even started seeing less of quell. she's still there when he sleeps but the glimpses of her he used to catch from the corner of his eyes are happening less and less. he's not sure if that means his fragged mind is healing or getting worse.

maybe it seems she's alive somewhere. yeah right, what a fucking miracle that would be. he'd seen her explode and he'd probably walked on the ashes that had been her body as he'd tried to get off harlan's world.

while he's alone, he reads a few of the quotes off the wall and then reaches into the backpack to physically throw garbage at the ones he doesn't like (which is all of them). he knew that some of this shit would come in handy and making a mess was juvenile but he had fuck all else to do.

it wasn't like anyone would notice. this place was a mess anyway. ]

002. fitness area

Well, this is just fucking boring.

[ ever since the new sleeve, he's never really done a lot of solo training. quell's training two sleeves ago had stuck and from then on, a life spent being hunted and taking out those he'd been paid to kill had left him in decent enough shape.

then, there had been the life sentence and over two centuries spent on ice doing absolutely nothing. ryker's death had left a physically capable sleeve behind even if it was a sleeve that she had a fucking attachment to, unbeknownst to him until he'd been wearing the sleeve for awhile.

he drops the backpack on the ground and circles the room, staring down at the pool and making a face. didn't look like any place he wanted to take a swim in. plenty of people had probably pissed in that.

these facilities were a long way from even carnage's shitty little spectacle. at least he'd had a cheering section and some competition. ]

Ain't none of that here.

[ of course he'd think that. of course. ]

003. bar

[ even kovacs could tell the alcohol was running low. he kept expecting to stop in (during one of his daily walks through the station) and see more of it. but, that hadn't happened yet. bottles were half empty, knocked over and collecting dust.

kovacs spends some time behind the bar, remembering the one time he'd had a bartender who made some decent drinks before she'd up and disappeared. lucky fucker. if she wasn't here, she had to be somewhere better.

and yet, he's still here, stuck. one of the bottles he picks up and brings up to sniff is filled with something so strong that it burns the lining of his nose and actually makes him blink. ]

Smells like fuel.

[ which meant it was fucking perfect.

kovacs made his way over to one of the booths and laid down, long legs dangling over the side. the backpack was placed on his stomach and the bottle on the table. he stared up at the ceiling, wondering how plausible it would be to just kick his way out of this place.

answer: not plausible at all.

where was poe and his arsenal when you really needed him? ]

004. wildcard

[ got something else in mind? feel free to make it happen. hit me up at spoonishly to plot! ]

Comments

Re: » 002

[resleeves]

[ even though he's not looking at her, the voice is familiar, niggles at the back of his mind until he remembers she'd been the one talking about dying and death and blindness.

what a pleasant conversation that had been. ]

It's not. But, I've never really looked around.

[ he'd come in here once, just to fight with ricki, and then he'd left. it hadn't seem very desirable to just hang out in here but with the alcohol running out, guess he's going to have to find something to outlet his tension in.

he pulls his attention away from the equipment and looks over at her. she's not what he pictured when they'd been talking but he takes in the scars, the the hips, the torso and the tattoo. he takes it all in quickly and then looks back at her. ]

How's the sight?

[ she seems to be doing better with that, at least. ]

Looks like it came back, huh?

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ Look, if she'd been able to avoid having that conversation, she would have. He's the one who brought up expectations of waking up to a bloodbath on the station.

The once-over doesn't surprise or bother her. She's used to it, and used to not being what people expect. It's something she's learned to embrace over the years, and sometimes she even enjoys thwarting those assumptions of who and how she should be. ]

I've still got some peripheral blurring, but it's getting there. Thankfully. I was worried for a while that it wouldn't.

[resleeves]

[ kovacs doesn't actually know what he'd do without his vision. he has to assume there are some sleeves like, blind or deaf, and if you're inserted into one of those, you just have to figure out how to live or you had to kill yourself.

and that was generally frowned upon. only meths had the ability to pick and choose their bodies. if you weren't a rich prick, you got what you were given. ]

Good for you.

[ neutral tone, blank expression. but that was just his way. it was good to know, just for future deaths (that would more than likely happen), that any side effect would go away with time. ]

Guess that means you haven't died again, huh?

[ very sensitive. now that he thinks about it, he eyes the pool and then her. ]

No lingering fear of this place?

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ After everything she's been through in her life, losing her vision had simply been another in a long string of terrible things she'd just had to learn to deal with. She'd absorbed blind people before though, so at least she'd had a few of their memories to help her begin the adjustment process. It hadn't helped the pervasive loneliness though - it's hard to find comfort in being around others when every sound might mean they're too close for their own safety.

She shakes her head at his first question, not all that bothered by his tone or the lack of emotion in his expression. There's an impression there that it's not exactly from apathy or disinterest, it's perhaps just how he is. He wouldn't be the first she's met like that. And honestly, she appreciates his bluntness. ]

Honestly, not much of the room itself. What happened happened because of circumstance and whatever is wrong with the station. I do keep my boots on all the time in here now, though, just in case.

[resleeves]

Yeah, I keep mine on too.

[ because this station had made him look like a fucking idiot when he'd taken them off and he allowed one of those to happen before he killed someone.

couldn't really kill a ship, though. besides, it was acting like it was already dying anyway. ]

I'm just waiting for the day when that's not enough.

[ it was one thing after another with this place, wasn't it? what was neck, the top blowing off to give them a convenient and deadly sunroof? ]

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ She doesn't mention that there have been a few panicked moments here and then when the station had given a little shake and she'd scrambled to get her boots to the floor. Like her own personal drill, she'd gotten pretty quick at it, and it almost made her wish there was a way to practice moving through zero gravity. Almost. ]

With the way things have been going, it'll happen at some point. Can't let that stop us from continuing on, though, can we?

[ They couldn't just spend their days downing terrible alcohol and lamenting their circumstances.

[resleeves]

[ no, they couldn't do that because all the fucking alcohol was almost gone. that was when the true horror would start. ]

Continuing on to what, though?

[ people had gotten a door open a few weeks ago and that was a big thing. a door. what the fuck were they going to do next? open a can? turn on a light? ]

No one knows what the hell we're heading towards.

[theycalledmeacurse]

That's true of life anywhere. We never know if someone more powerful is pulling the strings, if a war is waiting to break out on top of us, if someone will come around the corner with murder in their eyes.

[ A little shrug and she crosses her arms over her stomach. ]

Most of my life has been lived in uncertainty, I guess I just feel like I can't let this keep me from living what I have left.

[resleeves]

I don't intend on dying.

( because fuck that especially fuck that when it comes to this station. he wants his fucking pardon and he wants his fucking sister back. he's not going to let some fucking horror show of a station kill him. )

Not permanently, at least.

( which meant he was going to have to tell someone about his stack, make sure someone else knew what to do. )

Still, this isn't much of a life up here. I'm just waiting for the first person to snap.

( darkness and close quarters didn't mix well. )

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ She hadn't intended on dying up here, but no one had really asked her opinion on the matter. And afterward, she'd wished it had been permanent, but again, her wishes hadn't mattered one bit. Hopefully he has more control of his own situation than she ever has. ]

We have to make the best of what we've got. I realize that's easier for some than others, though. So you're right, someone's going to break at some point.

[ The fact that they have no method of dealing with that inevitability hasn't escaped her notice. There's no psychiatrist up here, no way to properly restrain anyone. They can't help each other in all the ways they might need... Maybe someone intended it to be that way. ]

What's your opinion of the theory going around that this is some kind of experiment?

[resleeves]

( it's going to get bad in the next few months, kovacs thinks, if they don't get some way off this station. maybe not to get back home but down to the planet or in a ship or something. these walls are gonna start closing in and things are going to get bad. )

The more time that we're here, the worse it's going to fucking be. Trust me.

( her mention of this station being one grand fucking experiment has him frowning. )

I think it's the right call. Has anything good happened to anyone here? Anyone gotten a fucking raise? A pardon?

( he could answer that one. the answer was fucking no. )

Or has it just people getting themselves fucking killed or hurt or messed with? We're mice in a maze.

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ Back when she'd first arrived, this place had seemed like paradise. Freedom had finally been in her grasp, and she hadn't been the least bit concerned with ever leaving the station, certainly not with getting back to the home she'd left behind. But then she'd died, and she'd been brought back, and now her opinion is quite different than what it used to be. ]

But why? The last time I was experimented on, there was a purpose behind every test. What's the purpose behind these?

[ The scientists liked to tell her about it sometimes. And sometimes they didn't. Depended on the mood of the day. ]

[resleeves]

Entertainment.

( for once, he's deadly serious. it's happened to him before, someone torturing him just to get their rocks off. of course, dimi had also been pissed off about his stupid fucking twin but it had been for cruelty's sake above all. )

To see how we react. To see who goes over the fucking edge first. To see who begs for mercy.

( it was going to take more than this to do him the fuck in, thanks to quell. )

Some people don't need more than that.

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ She's quiet for a moment, watching him, then her expression shifts into something less questioning and more... amused with a side of incredulous. ]

You're a real cheery one, aren't you? All two of our conversations have been absolute sunshine and rainbows.

[ Not that she minds it in the slightest. It takes all sorts, and he's not the first person she's met with this particular dark outlook on life. ]