voice.

[ex_striking429]

[ katniss has had a month of bored recovery after being seriously mutated by last month's illness. she's still embarrassed about the loss of most of her hair, and she isn't a big fan of texting, so this is voice, though she's just sitting on her bed, playing with the pearl she found in the pocket of her suit from home, rolling it between her fingers. it's late. she woke up screaming. she wonders if she should apologize to tyke, sometime, or if that's not something you bring up to your superior. ]

[ initially, she was going to ask someone to take the wedding dress out of her locker before the next jump, so she doesn't ever have to see it again, but instead all the frustration and restlessness and uselessness that's plagued her since her arrival on this ship coagulates into an angry ball. so when she presses play, she just asks one question, direct and simple and with a grit of fury to it that could be interpreted as either petulance or passion. ]

Why are we here?

[ because no matter what happens, no matter how many theories get floated, she still doesn't have an answer to that question. at least the Games had a clear end point, even if the goal was to kill every other person. ]

Comments

[wolfchild]

[ between her duties aboard the ship, caring for three animals and running between her room and the forge on top of any surprises the day might throw at her, arya ends the days tired enough that she should drop off to sleep immediately. should. sometimes she's too exhausted to sleep.

arya has the volume on her comm turned low because there are four others in the room with her, all of them asleep. nymeria has her head pillowed on arya's thighs; glaurung's nose is pressed against arya's neck. she can feel every breath he exhales like a little puff of warm air against her skin. on the bed across from hers bran and summer sleep together.

maybe a pointless talk will help. her vision goes cross-eyed when she tries to focus on the keyboard so she gives up and opts for audio.

quietly ( tiredly ), ] You would get more answers asking in the morning.

[ as if there is true morning on the ship. but that may be what she means. ]

[borntorebel]

[Leia thinks long and hard before she responds. It's something she's thought about a lot in her own captivity.]

That's something that I'd like to know the answer to as well. I'm afraid that unless we find the original crew, the people responsible for abducting us, we may never know.

[ex_striking429]

I can wait for people to wake up.

[ it doesn't really bother her who responds, only that someone does. she's hoping for more than just a chorus of "we don't know". she wants to do something, but she also knows that the people who take action suffer the consequences. ]

And that didn't answer my question.

[voice]

[yardbird]

My guess? In all the time that I've spent here, I've gathered one thing.

Something... whatever it is... wants to keep us. [That's what he's heard it say. That's what he's felt it do. Between the complacency in spite of everything else that's happened to him here -- so many have gone, but he's still here.]

voice

[jurisimpudent]

[ That's the sort of question that's typically asked once someone is near the breaking point. It is not, of course, Edgeworth's duty or desire to quash emotionality; everyone is entitled to it. But he does consider it his duty to, at the very least, assess the mental state of those in Security, and to help them as best he's able to cope.

Not that he's really able.

Still, his voice is a little bit gentle when he speaks. ]

What has spurred that question, Ms. Everdeen?

[ex_striking429]

[ she hates this answer, though she manages to sound abrupt instead of angry, because she knows it's not leia's fault. ]

No. There has to be an answer closer than that.

[skjalf]

( it's late and she's tired; also, coincidentally having woken up screaming from nightmares of her own. but she thinks she knows the answer, as simple and unsettling as it is. )

We are the crew of this ship, as I have come to understand it. Whether we join a department or not. To work is generally expected.

Why, or where we are going, however—remains a mystery.

[borntorebel]

[It's not an answer that Leia likes to give. It's incomplete and reeks of inactivity. And passivity has never been something Leia's good at.]

Maybe there is. Have you tried looking into the case? Asking for help from others to investigate parts of the ship that are normally dangerous to go alone? I'm sure there are many others here who feel exactly the same as you do.

Like myself.

[voice]

[ex_striking429]

[ oh, that's interesting. ]

Something?

[voice]

[yardbird]

Well, I thought it might've been a someone at first, but after bein' here for so long... I'm not so sure.

[seidhr]

Ah, yes... one of the great mysteries of life.

[Hey Katniss, your helper is here. To be helpful. This time, he sounds much less like he recently swallowed a handful of glass.]

[wolfchild]

You didn't ask the right question.

[ after she says it, she makes a face. smiley pissed her off enough when he'd say ( write it ) — but she also came to rely on having a red message painted on the comm before everything happened. where was he last jump when they all took ill? that should have brought him out of hiding again. ]

voice

[ex_striking429]

[ what has spurred it? frustration, mostly, but she doesn't want to admit that. ]

I want to know. I want to do something.

[ex_striking429]

That's it? Just to do our jobs?

[ it makes sense, but it also brings up more questions. ]

If we're supposed to work, why do terrible things keep happening?

voice

[jurisimpudent]

[ A small noise of acknowledgment. Then: ]

Are you well, Ms. Everdeen?

[ She'd had a rough month; Edgeworth knows that. He knows who was able to come into work and who doesn't, and how diminished their capacities were when they were there. ]

[skjalf]

There is a woman present here who perhaps was part of the original crew. When we met, she knew me by name and said that she had seen information archived in the medical bay about every one of us here.

A mystery which has yet to be solved, as I understand it. ( she pauses, her tone becoming more serious, and softer. )

Because we do not only work; we look for ways to escape. Every time someone attempts to venture into the darkened corridors, we are punished. Thus, I partly agree with the man who said the ship wishes to keep us.

Though I think it is the red smile who haunts this place more than the ship itself. Why, however? I know not.

[ex_striking429]

Is it?

[ katniss comes, after all, from a world entirely and one hundred percent free of religion. she's never questioned her metaphysical existence. ]

Life on the ship, maybe.

[ex_striking429]

I want to start with this.

[ though honestly she hadn't really considered it before. this is the first time since haymitch told her not to that she's been frustrated enough to want her stick her nose in it. ]

With what people already know. But if there's something I can do, I want to do it, too.

[seidhr]

Indeed. Many spend their lives steeped in the philosophy of why. Why life, why any of this, what's it all for? The question's been spun far and wide, well beyond the walls of this trifling vessel.

[ex_striking429]

What does that mean?

[ arya why are you always so cryptic! you're like a riddling old lady. ]

[wolfchild]

It's the answer we always got. "You're not asking the right questions." "You have all the answers already."

[ a little pause. ]

Do you know of Smiley?

[ex_striking429]

[ bluntly, ]

I don't care about that. I'm asking why I'm not somewhere else.

[ home. obviously. ]

[ex_striking429]

Haymitch mentioned him.

[ but not much more than that, and it was a while ago. ]

[wolfchild]

Well, he always seems to know everything that is going to happen before it happened. And everything that had happened before. But his answers are always like that. You have to guess at what he isn't saying. Everyone calls him "he", but no one's sure if he's a he or a she or an it. My friend used to call him Himself like he was a god.

[ bedtime stories with arya stark. ]

It's queer, [ she voices her thoughts next. ] He always put up a warning before anything happened. I didn't see anything last jump.

[voice]

[ex_striking429]

Zero zero six. That is a long time.

[ quiet acknowledgement. and it means she takes him seriously, too. ]

But you think it's just one... thing.