ataraxion | 003. Video

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003. Video

[ Did someone say don't put on the masks? Casey doesn't remember hearing anyone say that. Maybe suggesting caution but not outright saying 'kid don't touch that it might bite your face off'. Besides, his looked pretty cool. What's the harm in trying it out? What's the harm in doing anything just because he wants to?

Whoever said compulsion was such a bad thing?

So here is Casey on the network chilling away his off-time with a video feed to the network. His unreasonable sense of humor is still very much intact despite the difficult few days. He puts on his very best robot voice. ]

Attention passengers. Your deaths are imminent. Resistance is futile. You will be exterminated.

[ A second to let that sink in, and then Casey's face is back on the network, sans-mask, not quite smirking but still distinctly amused at his own reindeer games. ] Nothing strange here, just a guy in a cheap mask. It hasn't even got a voice-changer.

[ He holds it up in front of his face again, but just for a moment to demonstrate that it isn't about to come alive all on its own, then tosses it carelessly aside. ]

And I thought I was the one taking everything way too seriously.

[ How he got through this message without uttering the words 'I'll be back' is beyond him, but there you go. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You're just lucky playing with my mask is all that I was doing.

As long as you aren't making the flight crew look bad, I don't care what it is you do on your breaks, broadcasted or not. But this could piss people off.

[ Could. Will. Close enough. ]

That makes my job a hell of a lot harder.

[ Make the flight crew look bad. Oh right, he's meant to be working as part of a team.

The thing is the way he usually works as part of a team is to do whatever the hell he wants and let other people pick up the slack later. ]

Maybe if I was doing it in uniform. [ Seriously, Carolyn? Well if you want to do it like that he can play that game. ] Are you really going to use this an an excuse to bust my balls, Ma'am?

Your number's attached to every message. It says OPR. That's a uniform.

[ She's still short on sleep. ]

If I wanted to bust your balls, I'd step on them.

[ Well okay he'll give her that. But trading blows like teenaged girls is definitely happening here. ]

It's a uniform? It's not even khaki.

You're more short tempered than usual.

My uniform back home is blue.

[ Just saying. ]

You're acting like more of an idiot than usual.

At least someone around here is enjoying themselves.

In case you haven't noticed, we are trapped on a spaceship with no idea how we got here, no way to get anywhere else, and just lost power -- and have no idea how it came back on.

Well, you can't have everything.

I'd settle for some cooperation.

This is me cooperating.

[ Actually it is. ]

You need to work on it.

[ She sighs heavily, crossing her arms over her chest. ]

Let's do something productive with your time instead of this. You wanted to "throw down", didn't you?

[ There are no actual airquotes, but they are pretty heavily implied. Carolyn is not hip with the lingo. ]

[ That depends if you're going with 'throw down' with the same double meaning as Casey was going with when he actually used it. ]

I did. You offering?

[ She probably isn't at the moment, no. She just knows they might as well hit each other and work this out. ]

I am.

[ Hit each other not hit on each other, got it. That's the way he prefers it too. ]

Holodeck 1 in ten minutes, then.

Leave the mask behind.

[ And she cuts the feed. ]

[ That is. So. Mean. He was totally ready to bring it, too. But he resents leaving it behind just as much. What if someone comes and takes it? But why would anyone do that? Casey shakes his head hard, hides the mask under his mattress and then backs toward the door.

But it's not enough. No sooner has he half opened his door, then Casey is taking out his knife and heading back over to his bed, using the sharp blade to score a gap into the underlining of the mattress and pushing the mask inside to hide it. Good, that's better. Not brilliant, but it'll have to do.

With the knowledge of his hiding place none the less itching at his mind, preoccupying him, Casey left his room, heading up toward Holodeck 1. ]

[ Carolyn's own mask is shoved away -- it'll show up on her door again when she returns to her room for the night.

She's just inside the holodeck when Casey gets there and hasn't been there for long; she barely even bothered to get some of the engine grease off of her. She's taking her utility belt off though, dropping it to the side so that her knife is out of her reach for this. ]

[ Casey is still wearing his jump suit, filthy from spending days in it, with burns and grease stains all of his own that are rolled back into his sleeves. When he arrives, though, he empties his pockets of knives and laser pens and things, unzips it down to his waist and slides his arms out of the sleeves, pulling them loose so that he can tie them into a double knot around his waist.

Because if he's going to wrestle, he's not going to leave her anything to hold onto if he can avoid it. There are scars pockmarking him. Clear, ragged gouges made by gunshot wounds and knife wounds alike in his torso and on his arms, flak from grenades, clear burns and scraped away skin from near misses, powder embedded in his forearm that occasionally stings. He's one man and a warzone. ]

You sure you can handle this?

[ Her gaze flickers over when he speaks and she nearly starts. Carolyn had known, logically, that Casey likely had scars. She simply hadn't thought he would have so many, and she stares for a moment before shaking herself out of it. ]

I'll be fine.

[ From the looks of things, she's not the one who needs to work on dodging. The top of her jumpsuit stays up, though it's less for any modesty reasons than because she doesn't want to show off her own scars. ]

[ Hey. He'll have you know that he's dodged most of them. It's just the ones he's dodged doesn't leave such nice scars. And he's not showing off.

Well maybe a little.

The empty holodeck is quiet as Casey heads over, dragging some of the large mats left down here from fight club into the center of the room. It's not like they need them, but it gives them a hot zone. When one puts a foot on solid floor, they break hold and come at it again. ]

Any training in anything like this?

Some Judo.

[ Before Alice left, anyway. ]

I'm probably better with a knife at this point.

[ It's something she never thought she would say, never thought would happen. But things change, and people change most of all. Haymitch has been incredibly helpful when it comes to learning how to handle a knife properly. ]

We can do Judo.

[ That was easy. Judo was something that Casey, with his upper body strength, had been quite capable of getting down. Smaller had it on him, admittedly, it was hard to anchor yourself when you were as tall as he was against a smaller attacker, but it gave her a good advantage, at least until they were actually on the ground.

But she had to be strong enough to actually throw him, too. He assumed the opening stance, shoulders low, center of gravity over his hip, close enough to her to grab or be grabbed. ]

Whenever you're ready.

[ She's not going to be the one to try and grab him first. She's been the one to do it in her most memorable "fights" and the one who had ended up on the floor each time, so she simply moves into the stance Alice had taught her, exhaling slightly in an attempt to calm down.

It doesn't really work. ]

I'm ready.

[ Judo was about trying to use jabs and kicks to try and get the other wrestler off balance, try and get a grip on them and then somehow to get them over onto the ground and pinned. It was balance and strength and skill - but mostly it gave you a good idea as to how to use your body to escape from holds, since the idea was to make the hold unbreakable, to respond quickly to shifts and never submit.

It was the martial art of never give up, never surrender and it was exactly what Carolyn needed.

He slides in quickly, light on his feet, ready to dodge back if she makes a grab for him, reaching for her shoulders. ]

003. Video

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