[ open post | day:042 forward ]

[technologist]

CHARACTERS: Fitz + anyone on the station
WHERE: Station 72
WHEN: DAY:042+
SUMMARY: A bunch of open stuff, SOL to nightmare sharing. Covering bases for station downtime!! If you want to do something else, just hit me up on plurk or in PMs.
WARNINGS: Torture + will update as needed.

( a ) living quarters

[ The rooms all look the same, and even the ones featuring a few scattered belongings feel generic — there's no strong sense of personality, of ownership. He winds up checking out several that he decides aren't vacant, but only after a second of actual investigation. Maybe the bed's made differently; maybe there's an extra pillow, or a glass of water, half empty. It isn't like they've got posters and names on the doors (or doors at all).

Any interruption's met by him stepping away from whatever he's looking at and turning towards the doorway, lightly startled. ]

Sorry— is this yours?

[ He seems calm, but his control of the mental link is frayed by inexperience; curiosity, melancholy, a professional sort of caution. It all leaks through clearly. ]

( b ) everywhere else

[ He doesn't want to be here. He wants to scream and break something or someone until he's anywhere else, back on Earth or back where Earth used to be, wherever Jemma is, but that isn't what Fitz does: he falls in with routine, keeps his own clock and a schedule that's a decent imitation of a day-night cycle, and he studies the ship.

He splits most of his time between the utilities department and the nest, though it's easy to catch him almost anywhere. Deconstructing tech if he can get away with it, or simply taking a close look at it if it seems too essential to mess with. Even when he's in the kitchens, absently snacking on whatever finger food they've got on hand, he'll occasionally become distracted by a panel in a wall or a refrigeration unit.

If he's interrupted he'll offer a very brief smile or a nod in greeting, fine with the break from his own dogged focus; or maybe you just happen to be nearby when he crosses the wrong wires and causes something to spark, prompting a sharply annoyed— ]

Hell.

( c ) night

[ He's bad at controlling his thoughts. During the day, they're transparent and scattered and sometimes intense, but he's still self-aware, reasonable, careful. They aren't quiet, but they do feel contained. At night, the sense of containment doesn't leave — it's still there, solid, stifling. It doesn't keep the thoughts out. It feels like a cage, keeping you in.

( C-1 ) Sometimes you're trapped — you're in a small room, 10x10", the air too heavy in your lungs. There's one window, also small; outside it's only water, dark and infinite before it crashes in, loud enough to feel and then so heavy that it's crushing, tearing the air from your lungs until everything's quiet. The room changes, utilities and computers and the hum of electronics, lights flashing dimly at your back. Your arms are tied down, plastic cutting into wrists and you can hear her screaming, and you can't move — you can't help her, and then you're the one screaming, reaching, trying to get to her as she looks straight through you. She can't hear you —

( C-2 ) Sometimes you're wearing a suit that you can't quite keep clean, and she's someone else, holding you down and kissing you and you're kissing her back. Someone's screaming. You don't care. You're in a lab, white and sterile. The clear curtain separates you from the metal table, the robotic arms that shift above it as they follow their programming, surgical. When you look up at the body writhing on the table, straining against its bonds and crackling under the heat of a laser, you see numbers. You see genetics, code. A piece of equipment that can be stripped and remade into something useful —

( C-3 ) — a man's face, the sound of him saying goodbye over distorted audio. His blood on the lab table, on your hands. You're in an underground bunker, dark steel and dirt. When the water floods in this time it's guilt, and when you can't breathe it's because of panic, and then you hear your father's disappointment despite the lack of words to carry it. And then you're putting a bullet in her leg, and then you're screaming because she won't look at you; she's gone. She's someone else again, hair darker, and her face is burning up from the inside, melting —

And again, desperation and detachment and guilt until something interrupts. ]

Comments

{ night }

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ Nightmares are nothing new to Rogue — in a way, they're oddly comforting, something familiar in a vast sea of strangeness. The fact that she's pulled others into her dreams on more than one occasion is, of course, regrettable, but at least she's not the only one. All of the new arrivals seem to struggle with their shielding, especially those who have likely never had any training in it. Even with her own extensive training, her daytime thoughts might remain her own, but at night...

It's hard to say whose dream it is, at first. Which of them pulled the other in. She's only half-aware that it's a dream, the odd realization slipping in before being muffled by all those terrible emotions. The desperation, the helplessness, a fear that claws at the soul — not for yourself, but for someone else.

The room is too small. Her prison was too large, a round empty room with a cell at the bottom and a torture chamber at the center. But this— It's not someone keeping them here, but something. Something less terrifying than a giant robot, but just as deadly. ]

We can't stay here.

[ Maybe she's talking to herself, but then why is it we, and why is she so afraid... ]

[technologist]

[ The memories are already broken down by emotions and retrospect, distorted. When she speaks, it's another nail in a wall that's already cracking: the repetitive blinking of the transmitter on the floor of their glorified metal coffin, the sling on his arm (but it isn't broken — he can't feel it). He remembers Jemma unconscious on the floor, peaceful. The image splits, changes.

He doesn't know her. The realization's half as jarring as it should be, muted by the connection that's already dragged them here, and Fitz stares at her as he climbs to his feet, dumbly. ]

We can't— there's no way out. I've done the math.

[ The last line's habit, an echo. It doesn't feel right, and his brow furrows slightly in confusion as he tries to figure out why he's said it. He knows why he said it then, but this isn't — she wasn't there. Too many details are off; not the right room, not the right window. ] What is this?

[theycalledmeacurse]

An echo.

[ Like two inks on paper that's gotten wet, the colors bleeding into each other and only vague impressions of the original images left behind. It's wrong, they can both feel it, but she can't quite reason why. What outside influence is impressing upon them in these personal hells? ]

What happened after you escaped?

[ Because he did, she can feel it in her soul, whether by some thread of knowledge slipping through the dream or simply her conviction in someone she hasn't even properly met. ]

[technologist]

[ He did and he didn't, and the details are blurred; the chair, the electric hum, Jemma screaming no down a long corridor. But they did escape the pod, technically — rigging up oxygen and blowing out the window. The reminder makes things change around them, and suddenly it is the right window, and there's the weight of an ocean behind it. The glass makes a light crinkling noise as it begins to crack. ]

Get down— [ It's pointless advice. He's lunging towards her at the same time, throwing an arm over her shoulders and swinging her away from the window, and if the idea is to dodge or shield anything then it isn't a realistic one. The window breaks and water slams in, hits like a car and punches the wind out of them both.

Except it doesn't, really. It's just memory, visceral for him and blurring into hers. It only lasts for a few seconds, then the water abruptly drops and drains away and leaves them somewhere else. Fitz lets go of her and steps back, unsteady, brow knit as his gaze sweeps over their surroundings. It looks like a lab, but it isn't his (not one of SHIELD's, and not one of Hydra's). He isn't looking at her when he answers, absent, a little deadpan. ]

I drowned. [ A great escape, clearly. And a very dramatic response, but he doesn't really care. She probably could've guessed. ] Is this— [ His thoughts hit a wall, angry, then he walks them back with patience. There's an explanation for this. ] It must be the symbiote. There's something wrong with it.

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ The sudden shifts are a rush to the head, like when standing too quickly, everything shifting abruptly and leaving the world spinning. The water ebbing in and out, crashing against them like on rocks along a shoreline, and then pulling back and leaving behind strange shapes in the sand.

He'd drowned, and yet he's here. So he'd been saved, the way she'd died and yet still stands. Turning her gaze from the lab that is all too familiar, she looks to him. ]

There's nothing wrong. We're dreaming. [ It's the only explanation that makes sense, and the realization of it clicks into place with perfect clarity. These dreams are different from the ones she's had before, but they still feel the same. Cloying, desperate, terror lurking at the edges. ]

[technologist]

Oh. [ The explanation is logical in the context of everything else, sure, but that doesn't make it any less bizarre. His reaction's nonplussed, and it takes a moment for him to decide there's no point second guessing her. The pattern in the link flips like a switch when he does. Defensive confusion gives way to curiosity, focus — and concern, which sharpens as he turns to really study the room. ]

Is this yours?

[ Because it isn't his, and the logic follows that everything here must belong to one of them. The logic of shared dreams. Which is apparently a real thing. He'll have questions later, but the how isn't completely relevant unless it'll help them wake up. Fitz steps away from her to approach a table spread with tools, cautiously reaching out to pick one up, see whether it's tangible. It's tangible enough, details filled in from his own memories — cool, sleek metal between his fingers. His appearance flickers; he's wearing a suit, meticulous, then he's back in the worn layers and leather from the Lighthouse. ]

[theycalledmeacurse]

Yeah. [ She isn't overly worried about the 'logic' behind these dreams, since she's fairly certain there isn't any. The symbiotes cause all sorts of problems that none of them can really understand; this must be another one of those. It's very apparent that neither of them are in control here, though, which means anything could be pulled from their minds without their permission. ]

I was here for... years. [ Glancing over to her companion, she catches a glimpse of him in that suit, holding one of the many tools she'd been subjected to over those years, and— There's no hiding the spike of fear that fills the space around them, even as his clothes change with a flicker that reminds her of the Danger Room resetting. Their minds shifting and bending their surroundings, responding to their reactions. Her own responds with the squeaking of metal wheels on a metal floor and footsteps thudding closer, sounds they shouldn't have been able to hear through the thick round door at the end of the lab platform. And suddenly she's back in that grey jumpsuit, the comfortable white clothes of the station long gone. ]

[technologist]

[ It should be obvious that the fear's not his, but it doesn't feel that way. He's used to the way it washes in, hitching up his nerves and making his lungs feel tight. Fitz puts the tool down a little too quickly, hand starting to shake as he turns back towards her. He isn't expecting the jumpsuit, and that distracts him before the sound of footsteps does. Fitz stares at her for a beat before he drags his gaze to the door, wary. ]

I'm sorry. [ Because it isn't his fear. It's hers, and he can't help thinking of Daisy, trapped in the lab and frightened. And then it's Lincoln, distrustful, and then it's Lincoln on a lab table as he cuts him open— Fitz cuts the thought off, but it isn't clean. It tumbles over the walls along with their emotions and the environment distorts around it, accommodating, the ghost of a figure lying on the table that used to be Rogue's.

He isn't sure what to do. He can escape rooms when they're real; he can't escape emotions, and he certainly can't control someone else's. Fitz tries to meet her gaze, his own slightly frantic with concern and guilt. ]

You were trapped here.

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ Trapped. That makes it sound so much better than it was. Like she'd had a hope of escape, that she pulled in by some underground organization and held illegally. But everything she'd experienced had been sanctioned by the government, every government. ] I was a prisoner.

[ Her voice wavers as she corrects him on that fine nuance, watching his expression with something akin to caution, but there's more to it. She can feel something from him, she sees that figure that isn't there on the table. The face bleeds into all the others she's seen there, hundreds of people wheeled into the room over the years, but— It's not a face she recognizes. That man isn't tucked away in her mind. So she asks this stranger she'll forever be connected to: ]

What did you do, sugar?

[technologist]

[ His sympathy's nearly as tangible as the fear. It's hard to look at the table and the tools because of what they did to her — and because of what he did, a disorienting loop.

Is she afraid of him? He can't separate that look from the fear soaking the room, and his gaze drops at the question. There's a lurch of panic with it, like a violent twist of vertigo that hits before it's covered up, muffled. He can't escape his emotions, but it isn't like he's a stranger to them. He just has to focus, keep them under control. ]

I didn't— [ Denial and guilt. His heart's not in it, and he makes himself look at her before he continues. ] I killed people. His name was Lincoln Campbell. He was a— friend.

[ A test subject. His sentences are halting, conflicted and something else. Solid, blank walls before his thoughts are rerouted. The pause before his next words is more intentional, earnest and pointed. ] But I'm no threat. Not to you.

[ He isn't. He doesn't mean to be. He's telling the truth, she'll be able to feel that; it's just tainted by self doubt. ]

[theycalledmeacurse]

I believe you. [ She hadn't felt anything malicious from him since they entered this strange nightmare, nothing like the many villainous minds she'd absorbed during the war and even before then. True evil has a harsh sting as it settles in the mind, a prickling as the tendrils take root like parasitic vines. There's something in him that she doesn't understand, but it doesn't feel like those others. Not quite. But it's confusing and she doesn't understand. ]

Why— [ The words die on her tongue, disappearing into fog as a screeching comes from the distance and that round door opens, slipping in the middle. Another screech of metal, a low droning tone, and a scream that cuts off abruptly. Her fear settles into something thick on the tongue and she reaches out to grab his hand with her own bare one. ] We have to go.

[ It doesn't matter that this is a dream, her instincts are saying to run and she won't leave him behind, no matter who he is. ]

crawls back in here

[technologist]

[ Her trust is met with a pang of disappointment. He's telling the truth, he isn't a threat — he means it, but he doesn't believe it. He needs her to trust him, wants her to; she still shouldn't, and that cold awareness cuts through any relief her answer might bring.

But he doesn't have time to dwell. Fitz's focus snaps back to the door as it splits. He can't see anything. The sounds are familiar, somehow — machines, tech. Screaming. Fitz is backing towards her without thinking, and he doesn't pull back when she grabs his hand, just hesitates for a panicked second before following her cue. ]

What— [ Does it matter what it is? Probably not. It's just fear. Fear that cuts his thoughts off, causes him to lose track of the sentence and then give up on it entirely. ]