Melanie King (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ghostbullet) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ph_logs2025-01-03 06:05 pm
ghostbullet) wrote in ph_logs2025-01-03 06:05 pm
[OPEN] January Catch-All
Who: Melanie King (ghostbullet), Daisy Tonner (hadnoright), Alice Dyer (closureisformovies), CT (liesdontfindyou) & you!
What: Catch-All for Blue's character
When: January, and some backdated December stuff
Where: All over! See character prompt headers.
Warnings: In specific headers where relevant.
Melanie, Daisy, Alice and CT all have open prompts in the comments. More may be added, depending on if anything gives me reason to/I think of anything else worth putting up. Closed starters are also available upon request if these prompts don't work but you want to do something!
Ruby Rose and Gwen Stacy have their own open top-levels at the links that I'm also still very open to tags on.
ghostbullet), Daisy Tonner (hadnoright), Alice Dyer (closureisformovies), CT (liesdontfindyou) & you!What: Catch-All for Blue's character
When: January, and some backdated December stuff
Where: All over! See character prompt headers.
Warnings: In specific headers where relevant.
Melanie, Daisy, Alice and CT all have open prompts in the comments. More may be added, depending on if anything gives me reason to/I think of anything else worth putting up. Closed starters are also available upon request if these prompts don't work but you want to do something!
Ruby Rose and Gwen Stacy have their own open top-levels at the links that I'm also still very open to tags on.
no subject
"I would've," she confirms. She would've done her best, at least—sometimes the self-doubt about how much good she's ever been capable of doing still gets under her skin.
The questions don't surprise her. There's something reassuring to how everyone who finds out worries enough to ask.
"I'm fine, it didn't turn into a fight. She doesn't seem to want a fight, I gave her every opening, even put a gun in her hand, but she's... I don't know, different. Things have changed since I died, apparently. All the others are dead, too. Almost all of them, anyway."
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"I'm sorry, CT, for all of it, but I'm glad your squad leader didn't want a fight because I'm not convinced you deserve that. Clearly, neither was she. I guess my next question is how do you want me to approach her?" Because he's going to. That part is certain, he's just trying to get a sense for how hot he should be coming in on it.
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"She wanted to test out the weaponry here. I figured either she'd shoot me and I'd learn something, or she wouldn't shoot me and I'd still learn something while also having offered a sort of... fucked up olive branch, I don't know."
An olive branch of wood, metal and gunpowder. Yeah. She realises how grim that is.
It was a risk. One she considers to have been properly calculated, and that showed her Carolina wasn't going to just attack her for no reason, but a risk nonetheless.
She picks at the scar across her palm as she thinks about the second answer, chewing at the corner of her lip thoughtfully. "...honestly, I don't know. There's no use in hostility, but be... cautious, I'm still not sure how much she's changed in the last few years. She was a good leader, once, I just couldn't trust her and, apparently, she followed the Director's orders until the program fell apart around her. She's turned on him now, but... I don't know."
Not knowing so many things is something that's driving her more than a little mad.
"She knows I work here and she knows I have friends, so she shouldn't be too surprised if you know who she is. She's, uh—5'11" or so, red hair, green eyes. Like, vibrantly red and green, it's hard to miss. And her codename is Carolina. The Director named us all after states."
no subject
He's also taking the time to more seriously consider her second answer. A lot of those notes are starting to sound familiar. Was she a leader who wanted to believe in the cause so much that she only woke up to the truth once it was almost too late? Sad, but common. Not, however, unsalvageable. It's always better late than never.
"So I'm looking for a red-headed pistol. Think I'll manage that just fine. And, before you get too worried, I'll be nice. Cross my heart. I'll hear her out before I make any judgment calls." He can't promise more than that but he intends to be fair about it.
"Why states? You didn't have a Florida in your team, did you? That's where I hail from."
no subject
She huffs the faintest laugh at the words red-headed pistol, lips quirking despite herself. "Good luck."
She's not too worried about how he'll handle it. Really, if she's worried about anyone's behaviour in that interaction, it's Carolina's, but Crichton's good at adapting on the fly. He'll figure it out.
"I'm not actually a hundred percent sure why the Director chose states, except that he's an Earthborn American himself. He lived in Texas for most of his adult life, I think?" He seemed to have a fondness for the state, anyway, possibly through his wife. "But we had every— or, no, almost every state. There was only one Carolina. So, yeah, we— had a Florida. He was... strange."
Being generous. He actually fucking terrified her, by the end, featured in her nightmares. Hard to think about him without flinching.
no subject
"Texas," he huffs, "That'll do it. Never met a Texan that didn't love to tell me he's a Texan. Did he wear a gallon hat and all?" He's joking, but he's also not going to be surprised if the answer is actually yes.
He's not surprised his own beloved state of Florida has that kind of representation either if he's really being honest with himself. "Strange sounds about right. A certain class of guys from the ol' sunshine state used to make mixing too much sun, boats, and beer as a hobby. And I'm not even talking about the military base."
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She shakes her head with a huff of a laugh. "No, he didn't, that probably would've been too close to actually fun of him."
And he wasn't exactly about much fun outside of his own dickwaving behaviour. Which was only fun for him.
"Our Florida was... for most of my time with the program I knew him as the oddly cheerful guy who'd turn up, say something weird or ominous, then disappear again. By the end he was an active threat. He was one of the Director's right hands and he— nearly caught me, a couple times. Once was very close. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life."
no subject
"Shit, I'm sorry. I'll quit poking fun at it in that case. No need to bring up any other bad memories for you."
no subject
CT waves him off. "It's fine, I'd rather detooth the idea of him than let him keep— sticking in my head the way he does. One of the nightmares someone came through with me actually ended in me managing to kill the bastard, which was... cathartic, at least."
She's had that particular nightmare a little less, since. Which is one silver lining of that whole mess.
"He really did used to just be... odd. Eccentric. Once he walked in on us talking about which kinds of weapons were worse, the standard kind or the Covvie plasma kind, and said something like—" she waves a hand around vaguely, "a hole in your body's not a big deal because every body has holes in and you can always add more if needed! And we just stood there after he walked away wondering what the hell just happened."
no subject
"I don't know, man, sounds like more than one screw was loose in the guy. Shame it turned out that way for you all. He's not doing anything to help the reputation of my fair state, I'll tell ya that. But what he said wouldn't have sounded that out of pocket for the kind of guys you'd meet down at the surf during low tide, either."
no subject
"Maybe the Director gave him his state because he recognised the vibe," CT jokes, touch of a crooked smile on her lips. "Actually I wouldn't be surprised if he did have reasons like that for state assignments. He gave the twins North and South Dakota and, well, I was actually rather surprised they gave me Connecticut. Given their emphasis on not sharing our real names. Not that I complained."
It was convenient, getting to go by the nickname she'd gone by all her life. Until she became CT, at least.
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"Connie..." he says, a little subdued. "You ever consider going back to that or... is that something you'd rather leave buried?"
no subject
"...I don't know."
It comes after a long pause. CT picks at the scar across her palm, not bothering to stop herself this time.
"It came up a lot in those nightmares. Like— like they were bashing me over the head with it. I told Ripley not to use it." Hasn't had a chance to talk to Gaeta yet, but she has a feeling he won't bring it up unprompted anyway. A lot more happened in that dream that's more... pressing. "Every time Carolina said it I wanted to rip the word out of her mouth. I told her Connie died the day Massachusetts did. She tried to tell me I was letting the Director win by saying that."
She huffs dismissively at that.
no subject
"Listen, no one has the right to tell you how to feel about it. It's not about the Director, it's about you. If that name doesn't feel like it fits anymore, then that's all I need to hear."
no subject
A vague affirmative noise.
"Mass was... the only other agent who worked primarily on intelligence—on data, coding. We spent hours together in the computer centre and we—" she laughs, emptily, "hated each other, for most of that time. Ze didn't like hackers and I didn't like zir attitude. But I took a chance and asked for help when I realised what was going on. Mass had experience with AI, so... it made sense at the time. Then, when Command tried to have me killed the first time, they succeeded in killing Mass."
Pure luck, that she herself survived. If Wyoming hadn't taken a stray bullet she'd have died on the motorway at the other end of his gun, blood pooling on the asphalt. Mass didn't get lucky. Mass was dropped off and left to die.
"I hid behind that. I let them think they'd disposed of their mole. And— and I think the moment I truly realised that it was my fault, that I got Mass killed, that's when CT started to feel real."
Before it had just been a name, just something she told the others on a whim when she was angry as she started to see through the smoke, but that night it became real. That night CT became her and Connie became... something else.
"...I don't really know where the line is, anymore."