( CLOSED ) how could this be done by such a smiling sweetheart?

[oorah]

» WHO? Frank & Kamala
» WHEN? Late at night, sometime this past week.
» WHERE? 6.18 & 6.19
» WHAT? Frank receives a lead about the people who came before them on the station feat. a spooky hologram lady.
» WARNINGS? mentions of murder/bad dreams, general spookiness, loud noises.

Frank wakes bolt upright - 3 AM. Well, isn't that familiar. But there are no visions of splattered gray matter dancing through his head. He doesn't even think he's been asleep long enough for REM, truthfully. He grabs his knife from beneath his pillow, something raising the hair on the back of his neck and down his arms tellingly. Something is here. Is it the same thing that keeps visiting him, leaving things behind in his room? Max seems to sense it too because he stands up at the foot of the bed, barking his fool head off. The cacophony is bound to wake his neighbors, but all that's on Frank's mind is neutralizing the threat, his waking brain animalistic and simple.

The visage of an older woman, maybe a little older than himself, appears wearing a Reverie Terminal jumpsuit - just like that. He's sure he hadn't blinked and yet there she is. His heart's going a mile a minute, kabar held close to his body as he circles in closer to the lady, as if afraid she'll disappear the closer he gets. When she starts to speak, Kamala - Kamala? - flies into the room like her hair's on fire. Briefly distracted by her appearance, his gaze lights on hers. Thankfully, Frank sleeps in his jumpsuit and magboots, always ready to go, so she's not getting an eyeful.

"Do you..." That's all he gets out, waving his knife at the vision of the woman just as she speaks up.

"Be ready to initiate lockdown," she says, voice clear and crisp and body language straight and professional. It's like a looped memory, like the voice they'd heard upon arrival. He swallows, unable to tear his eyes from the woman though he knows she can't see him.

Comments

[morphogenia]

Kamala is pretty deep into sleep by contrast, curled in on herself and drooling in the relative safety of her bed. She hasn't gotten any mysterious visitors with gifts yet so there's no more paranoia going on with her than usual. What wakes her up is the sound of a dog barking. At first her half-asleep brain has her mumbling out a warning to Lockjaw about her parents until her body goes cold. Lockjaw and her parents aren't here. That's Max.

She gets up before a coherent thought can form and runs for the room next door. She's dressed similarly if only because she took Amos' advice seriously like the good little nerd she is. The only thing different from waking Kamala is the messy hair going in fifteen different directions. She shoves some of the dark waves out of her eyes as she enters Frank's room to take in whatever spooked Max.

And there's a ghost. If she were more awake, Kamala would definitely scream. Since she's not fully awake, she follows whatever wild thought pops into her head. She needs to document this. Her device flies into her hand and she's recording in seconds with practiced ease.

It's a good thing she plays constantly with technology because she pales once she glances down at the device. The ghost lady is on the screen. God she's in a bad horror movie.

"... I see her. So does the device." Kamala looks over at Frank with wide and uncertain eyes. What are they supposed to do now?

[oorah]

When she starts to film, he realizes he should have thought of that first. There needs to be a record of everything that happens to them on this damn station. All the hair on the back of his arms raise at once and rather than try to get too close he pitches his knife at the woman so he doesn't get in the way of the video. Naturally, his ka-bar sails right through her. Hologram? He's guessing, but it sure feels spookier than that. Max is still barking, but he seems afraid to approach too, jumping down from Frank's bed but staying low and crouched near its frame.

Frank moves over to Kamala, his hand reaching out for her shoulder. Though he isn't sure whether it's to comfort her or himself. "Good job, sweetheart."

[morphogenia]

Either way, she's drawing comfort from it. The woman disappears as easily as she came. Kamala shuts off the device in response. It's over as quickly as it happened. She's understandably unnerved by it. She shoots a quick glance at Frank and tries to smile.

"Thanks. I just... we have to keep track. It's the only way we'll figure out what's happening to us."

[oorah]

He nods stiltedly and then abandons his own rulebook to pull her into a firm hug. His heart's pounding fast, but his chin slots in over her head like it's the most natural thing, one broad hand rubbing high on her back. "Seriously, you saved my butt." Now he won't have a hundred angry Reveries breathing down his neck when he tries to describe what just happened. This saves him and everyone a lot of grief.

[morphogenia]

She really wasn't expecting that if her delayed reaction was any indication. It's a good kind of surprise. Her heart is in her throat as she thinks of how much she misses the way her parents held her like this, especially her father. His pounding heart reminds this could have easily been a true threat rather than spooky thing. It's at this point she hugs him back tightly. She's glad she was here for him even if it didn't get as bad as it could have. She's glad he's okay.

"You're my friend. Friends look out for each other." For once she spares him the cute, nonsense title and puts an honest label on them. She cares about Frank. She's here to look out for him too even if it turns out all he needs her to do is think to hit record when a creepy ghost invades his room.

[oorah]

Frank squeezes his eyes shut and gives as good as he gets, clinging the same way she does to him. It's times like this he can't help but think of his Lisa. That she'd be Kamala's age if she were still alive, that she'd feel just like this in his arms.

"That's right, sweetheart. We've got each other's backs until we can get out of this place." He slowly starts to let go and pull back, running a hand over his face to hide how close to tears he is, though his voice wobbles tellingly anyway.

[morphogenia]

She hear it in his voice as he pulls back. Kamala stares up at him with open concern. "Are you okay?" Her voice sounds small and young even to her ears. She swallows and tries to sound a little more grown up or at the very least dependable. "It's okay if you're not. Even tough guys are allowed to be scared."

[oorah]

He nods after a moment, squeezing her hand before pulling away completely. He knows he's allowed, and he's scared all the time honestly. The difference is, usually he can do something about it. On Reverie all he can do is wait until the next terrible thing happens to him or his friends.

"I'm... I'll be okay," he amends more truthfully. "Are you?"

[morphogenia]

"I'm okay." She insists. Alright maybe not entirely true either. It's mostly true? Kamala is quick to elaborate. "Nothing happened to you and Max. I know it's dumb because you're way tougher than me but when I heard him barking I was so scared I wouldn't be fast enough to help you guys. Also dumb since I can cheat. Which I did for the record. Anyways, you're going to be okay so I'm okay."

[oorah]

He's way tougher than her? It earns her a look of pure incredulous disbelief. He wishes he were, then he could protect her from all the horrors this station had to offer. "We're all okay," he says, as if to push the point home as he walks to the other side of the room to pick his kabar up off the ground. Max lags behind him cautiously. But there's nothing there, no source. Just an empty space where the image of the woman was before.

"...Do you wanna go for a walk?" He catches her eyes, he feels restless and he's betting she feels the same. Who could go to bed after that?? But naturally, Max hears the "w" word and he's vibrating with excitement, his tail whipping so hard and fast it nearly lifts him off the ground in the low gravity. Frank is grabbing his jacket from his dresser like she's already said yes before crouching down to slip the knife back into its slot around his ankle. Once he's near the ground, Max plows into him and licks at his throat even while Frank ineffectually bats him away and curses at the dog, having to grab onto his broad neck to keep himself from falling over. "I wasn't talking to you, douchebag, but fine you're invited."

[morphogenia]

She catches that look. Kamala wonders if it's because of the powers. She's not sure she's strong enough to handle whatever gets thrown at them next emotionally. She thinks about saying that before he asks her that. Kamala is visibly relieved in response. She's not going to sleep after this. She's way too freaked.

Max has a way of lightening the mood though. She lets out a soft laugh. They really are a pair. "I could use some exercise... Okay a lot after that. I don't know how I'm going to sleep again."

[oorah]

"The awake marathon starts now," he proclaims, looking around the room like he forgot his keys or something, but of course there's nothing else for him to take along. So he just herds Max and Kamala out into the corridor and stuffs his hands into his coat pockets. even he can admit it's a strange callback to his life on the ground, but it makes him feel more in control as silly as that probably is. "We've been taking walks every morning, looking for people... who might show up here. Is there anyone you know... like that?"

[morphogenia]

Kamala stays close to Max as they walk. It feels so normal that it calms her nerves a little too even if it feels weird not to look to the side and see Nakia or Bruno with her. Well at least she isn't walking alone, right?

She snaps out of her head long enough to answer. "That looks for people? Not really." Wait that doesn't make much sense. She should really stop sulking about being lonely for five seconds. "Or do you mean something else?"

[oorah]

"People you know we should look for," he clarifies, realizing that was disjointed. He's mostly been looking for David, as much as he's convinced himself he doesn't want his brother here. He's terrified they'll need him though. And he's been looking for Holden too, the Rocinante's captain. He wonders if that guy ever does show up what he'll think about the Punisher being honorary crew.

[morphogenia]

"Oh... actually yes." She claps her hands together as she thinks it over. "I mean obviously if you see someone with this nose and skin color yelling about where the heck they're amazing daughter/sister Kamala is you should find me immediately because they will keep yelling. We're a family of yellers. If there's a tall, bean pole guy who looks like me try to just nod at whatever he's saying and find me before he annoys you to death with his religious sermons."

It doesn't take long for her to get who she really wants here. It's selfish, but she's lonely. Also Bruno would be more useful than her. "You should look for Bruno and Nakia. Let's start with Nakia. She's a hijabi so she'll be hustling someone for some cloth. Give her your hoodie if you find her first. Don't even ask. Just hand it over and look away as quickly as possible. Ammi will be cool about it if she ever showed up here, but Nakia will be super upset so just try to make it a little easier, okay? Unless this place decides that will be the one time it will actually be helpful to its Muslim prisoners." Kamala rolls her eyes. She's still bitter about the food situation and having to figure out which direction she should be facing while praying. "Anyways, she's really tall, mocha skin, and her eyes are the same color as mine. She has a much cuter nose and face though. She's basically an amazon." Kamala sighs wistfully. "Bruno will be much easier. He's Italian like you, shaggy brown hair that kind of curls a little, and will be ranting about how this is probably my fault. In his defense, I'd assume it was my fault too. He'll also be trying to hack into stuff or break into things so please don't let him hurt himself."

[oorah]

"You? Yelling? I can't picture it." Insert a disarming smile here even as he listens to her [LOUD] commentary about her friends and family and files it all away just in case. "Um, give Nakia my hoodie, don't let Bruno hurt himself. Got it."

And she should know by now that he really would, no questions asked, just because they're Kamala's friends. After another long moment of hesitation, he decides it couldn't hurt to have someone else looking out for the people he might recognize.

"My friend David might show up here," it's soft, he can't look at her while he says it. "He's Jewish, has messy curly hair and blue eyes." The bluest eyes he's ever seen, really. He takes a short breath in. "He will also probably be yelling about how this is all my fault."

[morphogenia]

Something warm builds up in her chest. She realizes she's never even called her friends by name here. It feels right to share with Frank. It feels even better to be shared with in return. Her loneliness grows smaller for just a tiny bit. "Wow he reminds me of Bruno. Is he really good at science stuff too?" Maybe she's projecting. She is kind of desperate, huh? Sharing so much more with him than everyone else and running to his room to protect him. She wonders what he must think of her briefly before diving into a safer topic.

"Bruno is so smart. Every school wants to give him a scholarship. He even got an offer from a school in Wakanda. You have to be like the perfect American citizen to even be considered to go there. I am so proud of him." She misses him terribly. What's new? "He'd have probably made more progress than the two of us by now."

[oorah]

It gets a soft breath in bemusement and admiration both. So they both have smart friends they rely on for shit like this - it's starting to make sense why they're not here.

"Yeah, he's smart like that. He can do anything with a keyboard and an internet connection." He doesn't even bother covering the pining tone since she doesn't. He's allowed to miss his friend, right? "I hope they don't come here, but the flipside of that is if they do we'll probably be on the first lifeboat out the next day."

[morphogenia]

Kamala claps her hands. He sounds cool and useful. She likes him already. "Oh so he's a cool hacker type! Bruno is more of an inventor. He actually made a polymer for my suit that lets me use my powers without burning so much energy on my clothes." Kamala sighs loudly. "They'd be perfect here. No wonder they picked us. We are totally tanks who are going to need months to find the lifeboats."

[oorah]

Frank lifts his eyebrows. "Smart." But he suspects she's right about the rest though he'd initially thought it was random who was chosen. Still- "My friend Karen is smart too. She's here, and she's a journalist back home. One of the best. If anyone can unravel this conspiracy it'll be her."

[morphogenia]

Kamala actually stops at that. She commits to her drama as Frank may have noticed by now. "Wait! Your friends with Karen? Loves Iron Giant Karen?" She starts walking again without any warning. "This is great! She's awesome and smart! We really have a chance of making it out of this before I fail all my classes! This is such a relief." Yes, she's worried about her GPA still. Those scholarships are not going to get themselves, Frank!!

[oorah]

"I didn't... actually know that about her." Though, who doesn't love that movie? His kids sure had. A shallow smile touches his lips for the rest. "I really believe in her. We'll be okay."

[morphogenia]

"Yeah..." It might sound like placation to anyone else. Kamala is complete sincere as always. Franks says have faith in someone who already made a great first impression? She'll have faith. It's that simple. "So how do you know her anyways? Did you unravel a conspiracy together or something? You look like someone who could totally be muscle on that kind of a mission." She laughs. "No offense? Is that offense considering you're the tough guy around here?"

[oorah]

"No offense," he echoes numbly because... wow, that was a really good guess. He works his jaw, trying to think how he should say this- "That's exactly how we met."

[morphogenia]

Kamala hums thoughtfully. This seems like a table subject. She asks as carefully as she can. "Is it a grown up thing?"

[oorah]

He smiles softly, then nods. "Yeah, sweetheart. It's a grown up thing."

[morphogenia]

"I thought so." Kamala sighs in exaggerated disappointment. "Let's try something easy. How about... favorite stuff to do! Stores? Books? That stuff. You go first since I got locked out of the last one." They will go on and on until it's time to crash again without any ghosts.