Daycycle 113 [ October 23 - October 29 ]

[computerized]

daycycle 113

[Oct 23 - Oct 29]

[OOC Plotting for this Dacycle can be found here.]

[Specials can see a Specials Supporters Anonymous chat leaked onto the network in the wee small hours of the morning, here.]

Early Morning [0800 - 0900] — All Troubleshooters Report for Duty

Allison Argent and Peggy Carter, have been selected for today’s mission. Details are below:

‘There have been multiple reports of sightings of unregistered mutants near the south sewer entrance. Go investigate with caution.’

Please debrief the computer on the status of your mission by the end of the Daycycle here.

---

Morning & Afternoon [0900 - 1600] — Service Firm Positions
All Troubleshooters not assigned a mission should report to their Service Firm for their daily duties, unless specifically assigned a different shift.

---

Evening [1600 - 2200] — Citizen Improvement
All Alpha citizens are encouraged to better themselves through Alpha’s wide variety of educational, entertainment and cultural opportunities offered each evening. Attending these sanctioned events are not mandatory, but is highly encouraged by The Computer. Citizens choosing not to take advantage of these opportunities, have a growing number of other options available to them in how to spend their hard earned credits and free time.

Tonight’s event will be at 2000 in Warehouse 97 in the R&D Sector and will be hosted by the Alpha Fight Club. Martial Arts and Boxing are skills all Alpha Citizens should have. Join us as we demonstrate how to get started and how to fight properly.

---

Alpha Curfew Restrictions
All Alpha citizens should be in their quarters within the Wagon Wheel by 2200, unless they’ve been given permission from a GREEN or higher clearance level citizen. Sleeping Aid gas is dispelled each night in the Wagon Wheel at 2200 to assist citizens in getting a productive sleeping period.

Confession Booths
There are hundreds of confession booths available around Alpha Complex if a citizen would like to communicate directly with the computer. Please use these confession booths to report mission statuses, report treason or terrorist acts, unregistered mutants, confess your trespasses against Alpha Complex, request propaganda or speak with Your Friend, The Computer, at any time.

Comments

All Day | Open

[whattingawhat]

m o r n i n g

Mornings without coffee are rough, but Buffy isn't taking the chance that today's coffee is drugged. She's embarrassed herself enough for a lifetime. She's hobbling around with a sprained ankle (she should probably stay off it but...) as she grabs her breakfast and a free table. She's fine. Seriously, don't worry about her. After breakfast, she'll head straight to her trouble shooting duty. At work, Buffy is going to request patrol duty so she'll spend a good part of the day walking around the complex with her billy club in hand, ignoring the pain in her ankle because it's totally fine (and if she had her powers back, she'd be healed already).

a f t e r n o o n

After lunch, she goes back to patrol, mind still caught in a loop over the things she did yesterday. The drug, whatever it was, had caused her to act on her basest instincts, but they'd been her slayer instincts, not the woman she is, the woman she's fought to be and to hold onto. What had been the point to fighting and becoming that person if a few cups of drugged coffee could take her away? Who is she really if a little drug can turn her into someone that computer says she's not anymore, someone that she's never been? Sure, she didn't stake anyone (and who would she even, because no one is actually a vampire or werewolf or demon), but she'd still acted like a slayer with only the most primitive of instincts.

e v e n i n g

Buffy could probably use the combat training, but she's far too wrapped up in her own head to do any training. Besides, her ankle is sore. She'll find herself wandering the halls after dinner without any real destination in mind. Eventually, she'll end up at HQ curled up on the sofa, wishing they had any of Molly Ringwald's movies that she could get lost in so she could pretend to be normal for a little while.

evening

[rouxgaroux]

Alcide has spent the better part of the day avoiding both Buffy and Derek. He isn't proud of himself after yesterday. He's worked just as hard not to be one half of himself and to be the better half. That that was so easily stripped away from him is unsettling. To say he feels like a douchebag is an understatement. To say he'd rather be alone right now is also an understatement. By the end of the day though, when curfew is nearing, he reluctantly goes to their shared room... only because he feels like he made progress today on a lot of fronts and he doesn't want to get in trouble and fuck all that up.

When he walks in, it's to an empty room, Alcide thinks. Then he spots Buffy across the way. His chest flutters with what he assumes is nerves and he mentally curses himself for it. She was right there with him, wasn't she? Only Alcide, when he isn't being controlled by his Alpha, isn't that kind of guy. He doesn't think Buffy is either, which makes this even worse. Especially since Buffy is (presumably) already seeing someone. The other roommate he's been avoiding.

Lucky for the both of them, Alcide might avoid stuff until the cows come home. But when confronted with something, he meets it head on. He lifts his chin a bit. "Hey."

Then, after a brief pause, he takes a step toward her, his hand pushing his hair back and rubbing at the back of his neck. "So what happened yesterday, it happened. Can't really pretend it didn't. Don't think either of us were in our right mind. Not that it wasn't great. It was. But it... we..." Then he notices the wrapping on her foot and narrows his eyes, suddenly concerned. "What happened?"

evening

[whattingawhat]

At least they've got that in common. Buffy hasn't been avoiding Derek so much as she has Alcide, but she can live with the stupid, embarrassing incident that Derek saw and participated in. She is having a lot harder time dealing with what happened between her and Alcide. She doesn't think of him as a douchebag. She knows he was probably affected as well and can guess that he wouldn't have behaved that way otherwise.

Her ankle hurts from all the walking she did today and she thought she'd come back to a quiet room, maybe even turn in early for a chance. She looks up when he walks in and considers pretending she's asleep, but she's sitting up in bed so that doesn't really work. She could always duck out and insist she needs a shower, but they will have to deal with it eventually.

It could be later, right?

Then he's talking and she's watching him and later isn't an option. She swallows hard at his slight ramble. She shakes her head a little at his concern. "It was stupid. When Derek and I went exploring last night, we thought we heard something. I turned a corner and kicked a wall. Hard. It's okay." They really do go legitimately exploring.

As for the rest of his ramble. She sighs a little. "No. It was great, but I'm not usually that girl. I wasn't thinking. At all." She'd simply been feeling.

[rouxgaroux]

She kicked a wall? As far as injuries go, that's pretty tame, if it's the truth. It sounds like something Sook would do, overreact before she knows the score. "Did you go get it checked out at medical?" He's been casing medical all day in his free time. Never saw her. Maybe she went in while he was at work.

Yeah. Exploring. It seems they both have the same code word for it, which is kind of cute if they're a couple. Of course, they could actually be exploring. But with Buffy looking the way she does and Derek looking the way he does, Alcide finds that hard to believe. There's no reason for him to be jealous. He's known Buffy three days now, Derek even less. And yet, it leaves him with a twinge of jealousy over Buffy and an awkward feeling toward Derek because how do you apologize to someone you want to get along with for sleeping with their girlfriend?

What a fucking mess. And the way she looks at him, what she says... well, he feels horrible.

"I try not to be that guy either." Different from her usually not being that girl maybe. Because unfortunately, that guy is in him. When the power of being Pack Master took over, Alcide found that part of himself hard to resist. It's one of the reasons it was so easy to walk away. He doesn't like that part of himself. Although, even on a normal day he follows his heart over his head. If he's feeling something, he feels it. "It's like, something took away my inhibitions, I guess. It made the wolf..." Well, it's obvious what it made the wolf want and take and have.

He shakes his head. "I'm sorry."

[preemptiveforgiveness]

m o r n i n g

Fortunately, the YELLOW level coffee wasn't affected yesterday. Matt had a normal. quiet day at the office. He's only just now hearing about the debacle as he sips his coffee and listens to the conversations around him in the commissary. He's been doing a lot of thinking about his vision implants, the secret societies and how he feels about both of them. In any case, he's quiet at breakfast opting only for coffee instead of the soylent. Once people start heading for their jobs, he'll go as well. He spends the morning at his desk, listening to files. He still prefers to have them read to him rather than reading them himself. He knows how to read; he learned when he was five just like every other kid, but he hasn't actually read in twenty years. It's far more comfortable and productive for him to be read to.

a f t e r n o o n

He eats at lunch, mixing real food with his soylent. He listens to the conversations again just as he did at lunch then opts to walk around the complex listening to the files he's had Lydia and his assistant record for him. Sometimes it helps him think if he can get up and move around. His thoughts are miles away from any of the casefiles or residents in the complex. His thoughts are still preoccupied with his vision implants and what he wants to do about them. If he knew he could have his other senses back, the way that he had them back home, the way they are in the glitches, he wouldn't question it. He used to want his vision back in order to see the sky, to see the sun, to see the stars. There are none of those things here. The only thing he's really interested in seeing is Lydia. He's got a good image of her in his head now. He thinks he could stand to go back to being blind and he's pretty sure that he wouldn't have a constant headache the way he does now. In any case, anyone that encounters Matt this afternoon will find him lost in his own thoughts.

e v e n i n g

Evening finds Matt at Citizen Improvement. He actually finds worth in this evening, unlike most evenings when he attends simply to look good in front of the computer. Especially if he's considering getting his implants taken out, he needs to use this time to study sparring, to see if he can figure out how to do this without his senses, without his sight. He'll welcome any help and he'll be glad to give out help. He's not bad, but he's slower than he would like, more clumsy. He's not capable of dodging things the way he once would have. He needs to work on that. Though, the specials probably aren't the people he'll need to defend himself from, it'll help to practice with them.

EVENING

[missromanova]

Although Natasha rarely finds it necessary to go to Citizen Improvement, this is one of the rare weeks that she and the Computer are on the same page. Learning self defense is something that she's always an advocate for, and despite the fact that she's been trained to take down a fully grown man since she was eight years old, she's not foolish enough to think that she knows everything. There's more that she can learn, perhaps more that she can teach, and that's why she shows up in the first place.

The lessons aren't much in the ways of detailed self defense because they're mostly for beginners, but that's alright; still necessary. However, after her arrival her attention falls on a man, one who holds himself... strangely. There's confidence in his stance but he holds himself with a way of reserve, and that mixed with the fact that grown men are rarely confident enough to show up for fighting lessons in the first place is what drives her to approach him. Maybe he wants to learn something more than what's being taught; maybe he can teach her something. Either way, Natasha smiles when she gets close enough.

"Looking for someone to teach, or a lesson?"

EVENING

[preemptiveforgiveness]

Matt has to wonder if the Computer planned this evening with self-defense in response to all of the attacks from the secret societies. In any case, it's certainly something he's in support of as well. He's glad to see it's gotten a good turn out.

Definitely still necessary and Matt is here to help teach, to show support, but also to practice with his vision implants and without his senses. When Natasha catches sight of him, he's trying to determine the difference between a sighted move and the same move without his sight. He's involved in what he's doing and doesn't notice Natasha until she speaks. Even then, he seems to turn his head so that his hearing catches anything before his sight. Looking at her is something that he does secondary.

"The latter, I suppose. Though I can help teach if there's someone that needs help." Because from her stance, from her body language, he assumes she doesn't need help at all. "Matthew Murdock. I don't think we've met." He does hold his hand out to shake.

[missromanova]

To the normal eye, there's a delay in the way Matt turns to look at Natasha, and even a skilled fighter may not pick up on exactly what that simple tilt of the head could mean. Natasha, however, recognizes it instantly; he's listening. For the longest time, Clint Barton was the only person that Natasha would ever call a friend, and spending that much time with someone while also putting your life in their hands comes with a necessity to understand that person inside and out; strengths, ticks, disabilities, and everything that comes with them. Clint is deaf in one ear and she notices every time he tilts his head before he looks, as if trying to catch someone's voice from a certain angle. She doesn't know if this man is hard of hearing or not, but there's something there. That much she can tell.

"I may have a thing or two that I can share." She offers him a smile, and when he offers his hand she takes it, shaking it firmly. "Natasha Romanoff. It's nice to meet you, Matthew- wait," her brow pinches a little with recognition. "Matthew Murdock, of... Nelson and Murdock?"

Afternoon

[sanguinescry]

Lydia puts one of her bots in charge of the shop around lunchtime, letting Steve and Gracie go for their own lunch breaks as well. She makes mention to Gracie that she'll save the other girl a piece of fruit from her dinner as an extra thanks for help with the commercial, but then Lydia goes her own way. Admittedly, she's looking for Matt.

They've been getting a little more serious even if neither of them seems particularly inclined toward admitting it. Lydia stays with him — or he stays with her — now almost every night. They're breaking their own semi-unspoken rule and it's like when she's not specifically focused on something, she's always thinking about him.

She finds him sitting alone, mixing soylent with real food and she wrinkles her nose a little as she settles down beside him. "Really, babe? You're going to keep eating that garbage when your clearance level gives you access to real food all the time? They really got in your head," she teases him playfully before shifting closer and leaning in to give him a little kiss. Lydia actually just assumes he's doing that so that he can save some of his food to share with lower clearance Specials. She knows that he and Steve do that sort of thing and she thinks it's really nice of them. Hell, she's benefitted from that generosity on more than one occasion.

Afternoon

[preemptiveforgiveness]

They have been getting more serious and Matt is well aware of that even if he isn't ready to admit it. The more serious they get, the more difficult Matt finds it to sleep without the sleep aid or without Lydia. He knows he's in deep, and he's reasonably sure that Lydia is in deep as well.

He hasn't seen her since early that morning when he'd snuck back into his own room to get ready for the day so it's nice when she finds him at lunch. He looks up at her, watching her slightly longer than usual. She gets a smile out of him and he shrugs. "I've acquired a taste for it, apparently." He will be taking some of the real food down to HQ to make sure that some of the other specials get some real food, particularly the fruit and vegetables. When she leans in to kiss him, he turns into the kiss, drawing it out for just a moment. "How's your day going? You were shooting that commercial, right?"

[sanguinescry]

Lydia hums softly with contentment against Matt's lips when he lets his kiss linger. Then, she draws back a little. "Yeah, actually...so far, so good. Steve's pretty good at this and Gracie's such a sweetheart. So after lunch, we're going to do Steve and Allison's scenes and then just Allison's and then we'll be done and I think Gracie is going to cut everything together for me," she answers, picking at his plate absently and taking a little carrot stick to pop into her mouth. It doesn't occur to her that she's crossing a boundary. That's probably an indication that she is, indeed, in pretty deep at this point.

"What about you? How's your day going, sweetie?" she asks, leaning against him a little to give him a gentle nudge before turning her attention to her food. It doesn't look all that appetizing. Lydia tends to save the real food for dinner, like a pat on the back to herself from herself for a day of hard work. So lunch is kind of gross. It is what it is.

All Day | Open

[stillplaying]

He had been right. It's one of the first thoughts to filter through Katniss' mind when she wakes up that morning. Derek had been right. Although she can't speak to his personality yesterday, it's all too obvious to her that she hadn't been herself. Everything about the previous day comes rushing back to her. Katniss remembers everything about the previous day in crystal-clear detail. She remembers everything about the past two days in crystal-clear detail.

That hadn't been her. In either case, it hadn't been her. Maybe, under other life circumstances, she would have easily sung as much as she had. When Katniss had been five and much more innocent to all the tragedies life had to offer, she had eagerly sung whenever provided the chance. That girl had disappeared the second Katniss had actually comprehended what was happening in the 65th Hunger Games. And understood clearly why they occurred.

Someone had done something to her. She's seen the effects alcohol could have on Haymitch and the effects morphling had at dulling the pain of those addicted. It stands to reason that some kind of drug had been affecting her too.

So Katniss avoids the cafeteria, spending mealtime wandering around the hallways and keeping to herself. She isn't moping like she had her first few days in Alpha Complex but most strangers that tend to look her way are greeted with a scowl. In fact, Katniss does her best to avoid most social encounters all together. She doesn't want to be reminded of how lose she had been with her kisses. She doesn't want to be reminded of any of her behavior the previous two days.

Some people are easier to avoid than others. She goes to work and keeps as busy as possible with clients. She makes certain not to be anywhere near the cafeterias when people go in and out. And when evening comes, she finds herself hiding at one of the firing ranges, shooting arrow after arrow at a target. By then, she's at least acquiesced to drinking water. But her stomach grumbles loudly. It's okay, she can handle it. Hollow Days were a large part of her childhood after all.

Or so those damned glitched memories say.

lunch-ish

[whattingawhat]

Buffy has only sworn off coffee so she eats lunch, but she does it quickly, not wanting to run into Alcide in the commissary. She's doing her own version of hall wandering when she spies Katniss. The scowl that (probably) gets leveled her way, doesn't bother her. She spoke to Katniss a couple of days ago and she's looking for distraction from her own thoughts. Saying hello seems like a decent distraction.

"Hey," Buffy says in greeting as she falls into step beside Katniss.

[stillplaying]

Her scowls tend to be reserved for strangers that attempt to befriend her more than anyone else. These past couple of days, drunk on the happiness provided by the drugs, she's already made the mistake of opening up to others. That's not a mistake that Katniss intends to make anymore. Everyone, herself included, is better off if she stays to herself. If she's going to accept the glitches places in her mind, then that's a part of it. She's not a good person. She's not the kind of people others should befriend.

So while she doesn't scowl at Buffy, Katniss doesn't say anything in greeting. She nods her acknowledgement as she continues to walk. But her pace doesn't change. Katniss doesn't mind the company as much as she may pretend to.

[whattingawhat]

Buffy is well accustomed to taciturn people. She's learned that sometimes they're the best people to talk to when you're a chatty kathy the way that Buffy is. In any case, the fact that Katniss doesn't say anything doesn't deter Buffy. In addition, she remembers Katniss' first day here and she wants to check up on her, make sure she's doing okay.

"Did you handle yesterday okay? Or were you not hit at all?" To sort of put Katniss at ease, Buffy confesses. "I got hit. Hard. I think it was the coffee. At least, that's the rumor. Though, I still haven't figured out the why."

Late afternoon

[duelo]

Waking up that morning, Derek had been very much aware that his suspicions about his own behavior the previous day were, in fact, founded. He's more than a little embarrassed about his ridiculous bout of paranoia that had come on the heels of the day, while exploring with Buffy, but more over...

He's been watching Katniss on and off all day. She's keeping herself plenty busy and it's not like he doesn't have things on his plate, as well, but he can't help noticing that she's avoiding him. He also can't help feeling a little hurt by that. She doesn't owe him anything and he doesn't think she does, but at the same time...he meant it when he'd said he wanted to revisit the conversation with her when they were both feeling more themselves. The fact that she's avoiding him like the plague isn't lost on him and he has a feeling that unless he approaches her, the conversation will never happen.

Maybe it shouldn't happen, because maybe he should not be thinking about how nice it felt to hold somebody for a minute, again, or how nice it was to feel wanted again. He probably shouldn't since he's getting the message loud and clear that she regrets it and she doesn't want anything to do with him. So, he decides, he'll initiate the conversation just to clear the air and let her off the hook. That way, maybe she won't feel so shitty about it and maybe he'll feel better, too. He doubts it, but it's worth a shot.

Derek abandons his post when his line finally lets up and he moves to hers, hovering a few feet away from her off to the side while she finishes up with one of her clients. And, once the client goes on his way, Derek clears his throat a little. "...hey."

Right, he needs to not leave it at hey because that forces her to be the initiator. So Derek goes on. "Listen, about yesterday...I can just pretend that didn't happen, you know? If you want. It's fine. But we have to work together and Specials should have each other's backs, so if it's easier, you know, for you then...we can just pretend it didn't happen."

[stillplaying]

Katniss hasn't forgotten that Derek wanted to talk once they were both feeling more themselves again. She also hadn't forgotten how little persuasion it had ultimately taken Derek to dance with her. Or how what might have started as something to appease her seemed to turn into something that he actually enjoyed. Most of all, she hadn't forgotten the way he had kissed her back and the way it had made her body hunger for something other than food. No matter how hard she tries, she's never going to be able to forget a kiss like that.

But it hadn't been her. Derek had been right in saying they hadn't been themselves. She had been some other girl. A girl that she'll never be if she manages to avoid any other drugged foods. She doesn't want to subject Derek to the girl she really is. That girl is only good at hurting other people; exactly as she's doing now.

Every now and then, when she thinks Derek's too preoccupied to look in her direction, she glances in his. He doesn't look all that happy and it's easy to imagine that she's probably the result. Who'd want to be kissed by her to begin with? He's probably angry at her and Katniss wouldn't blame him one bit. She'd be furious if someone randomly kissed her, too. That Derek doesn't approach her for most of the day isn't that much of a surprise to her. He's probably changed his mind about wanting to talk. She doesn't blame him. Katniss wouldn't want to talk to her either.

The odds never exactly stay in her favor though. They make it through most of the day without talking but towards the end of their shift, as she finishes up with her last client, Derek approaches. Her face pales as he approaches but as tempting as it is to run, Katniss stays put.

He speaks and speaks and though Katniss knows she should say something in return, the words escape her. She's not good at this. She's not good at talking or emotions or figuring out anything about yesterday aside from how mortified she is. Her sister died - her sister died in a rebellion Katniss helped to cause - and she had spent her day kissing other boys and dancing. What kind of person is she? Why should anyone be this kind to her?

She swallows hard and shakes her head. "You're right. You're better off not knowing me."

Afternoon | Locked to Tony Stark

[missromanova]

Natasha isn't saying that she's worried about Tony because that would be ridiculous.

She's still angry with him. She's still angry with him and Steve, actually, but not in the outward way, where it shows on the surface with fire in her eyes and white knuckles. Her anger between them is deeper; it simmers beneath the surface and its roots are tangled in disappointment and hurt, because that's where it comes from. Disappointment. Hurt. Acknowledging her anger would be risking the possibility of having to approach those two raw, private emotions and share them aloud, and Natasha can't do that. Instead, she stays quiet. She lets it simmer and she ignores it, because it'll go away. After she adjusts how she thought Tony and Steve saw her from their point of view, it'll go away. It's her own fault for assuming they had a higher level of respect for her anyway, a level where they would never ask her to pick a side or hold whatever side she did choose against her. In the end, they were selfish and Natasha felt caught in the middle of that; somewhere along the line it became personal. It was no longer about the Accords, it was about Steve and Tony feeling a level of betrayal from each other and that was a war Natasha never wanted to fight in. But, really, who ever prefers war?

Maybe that's why it was so hard to see Tony the way that she saw him, because she was still angry with him and the idea of losing him while being angry would haunt her for the rest of her life. He made it and it still haunts her, the possibility of watching her friend die while animosity still gripped her heart a terrifying one that Natasha doesn't even want to consider. So she's less angry now, if only because life is too short. She's still hurt. Less angry.

She makes her way to the HQ and pulls the door open to be greeted by the back of Tony's head in the room, and for a moment she lingers in the doorway before taking a few steps in to keep the space between them respectfully large. She's not a hugger. Neither is he. They both value their personal space.

"And here I thought you would be missing a leg. I told you that you would be fine, you're such a drama queen."

[im_ironman]

Keeping to himself had seemed like the safest course of action after yesterday. There's a lingering headache that Tony can't seem to get rid of hammering the back of his head, and he had woken up with the worst mood in the world, so focusing on work had been the safest course of action. Reading through the chat log amused him to some extent, but even that had managed to grate at his nerves to the point that he ended up shutting off the PDC until a few hours later. He just wasn't in the mood, he was cranky, and he really didn't fucking care who knew about it.

Except, when Natasha's message comes through, Tony doesn't ignore it. Hell, he even manages to forget about his crankiness for a bit. Saying that he's okay isn't a lie - he really is as okay as he can be - but it's also not an absolute true. It's really not surprising at all that Natasha knows he's bullshitting her, and it's also not a surprise that she's ready to hunt him down if necessary, so he just cuts to the chase and admits where he's at. The way he sees it, he has already given Natasha enough reasons to be irritated with him, he really doesn't want to give her another one.

Besides, Natasha isn't the only one that had come to see things different after the bombing. He knows damn well that he has made a lot of mistakes, he knows that he has screwed up a whole lot of things and relationships since the Accords came up, and while he's still trying to figure out how to fix them...he just doesn't want that to be how things end between him and his friends. He hates the cliche of being that person that has 'seen the light,' in a way, after almost dying, but a lot of shit had gone through his head while laying in the rubble. He had also gotten a lot of time to think in the hospital, and after screwing up for so long, he just wants to at least get something right again.

When the door opens to the lab, Tony had been sorting through some scrap pieces of metal that he had dug out of his hiding spot this morning, and he glances over his shoulder when she speaks. "No, no peg leg. Although, who knows, maybe they did and I just wasn't told." Which wouldn't surprise him, really. Leaving what he had been working aside, he turns to face her, the glow of the arc reactor perfectly visible under the jumpsuit. He doesn't even think that this might be a surprise for her, figuring that maybe she has found out through Clint or Steve, which is why he doesn't exactly bring it up. "...and was it my imagination, or did you actually call me Anthony?"

[missromanova]

Despite the fact that Natasha is a reserved individual there's an undeniable look of surprise that crosses her face when Tony turns to face her, the glow of his reactor trying to burn through his red jumpsuit with an almost purple tint. Her eyes flicker to the glow of it and then back to his face, and although she doesn't say anything it's obvious that she knows. The reactor being back, it's like a step back for him, he had advanced past this. This place, the Complex, took that away from him, and Natasha can relate to what that feels like more than she'd like to admit.

"That's your name, isn't it?" She responds to his question with another question, her tone passive and nonchalant as she slowly starts to approach him and close the space between them. "The fact that you remember that is why I did it in the first place, it's enough of a shock to pull ground you and keep you from passing out. You pass out, your brain shuts down, your brain shuts down, you don't wake up." She says all of it with a casualness that she doesn't really feel, because the thought that it could have happened terrifies her. Losing Tony was a real possibility that day and Natasha can handle losing troops and soldiers. Friends... she doesn't have enough of those to lose any.

Once she reaches him her hand lifts and she runs a finger against the glow of his jumpsuit, closing that personal bubble momentarily to feel it because she has to be sure, and she swallows past a dry throat when she feels the hard metal of the reactors rim. That's it. It's back. Her hand falls away and she looks back up at him, this time with a gaze that's searching his face for any sign that she can use to read him. He can't be okay right now. She wouldn't be. "See you got your nightlight back."

Open | Throughout the day

[namegenerator]

MORNING

By the second day after the explosion, Cisco is feeling just shy of one hundred percent. There's a relief in that that he can't even describe, because he hasn't had time to really wrap his head around the whole healing process. Not that he's complaining, because he isn't, but it's just...the truth. He feels good and he's glad that he's not waking up sore again. He's all about that. So when he heads down to the Commissary for breakfast and then for the morning meeting, he's in good spirits. ...it helps that he's been thinking on his encounter with Gracie yesterday more than a little bit. Cisco has a feeling that she was acting weird because they'd drugged her with HappiTime pills she hadn't actually needed but all the same, maybe that just means that it was a little exaggerated. Maybe the base still had merit; maybe Gracie was kind of a little bit into him. That would put any guy in good spirits, Cisco thinks.

AFTERNOON

Even though Bot Processing is still down, they've found plenty of busy work to give to Cisco now that he's in better physical shape. He talks his supervisor into believing that he's still not really feeling that great and that he'd probably be more productive if he could work remotely from bed where he isn't straining himself too thoroughly. Of course, all of that is a lie. Cisco spends most of his afternoon down in Specials HQ.

The first couple of hours, Cisco cranked out all of the work that was supposed to last him the full day, and he's been sending little bits and pieces back to his supervisor via encrypted messages on the network, to make his supervisor think that he's working through all of the asinine paperwork slowly and thoroughly. He isn't. Instead, he's been making further tweaks on the Cold Gun. Hopefully, within the next couple of days, he'll have it finished and he'll only need a couple more components that, hopefully, Barry might be able to score from the forensics lab so that he can make the thing actually a Cold Gun rather than just largely a semi-functional shell of one.

EVENING

Cisco probably should go to the Citizen Improvement thing, he thinks, because he really could use the information; God knows he can't fight to save his life. Maybe if he was in a slap fight with a twelve-year-old girl, he might win, but beyond that he's pretty hopeless. But...he's lied to his supervisor to get out of being in an office pushing papers all day and he has a feeling that showing up to an activity that physical is just going to get him side-eyed at best.

So, he skips it and hangs out in Specials HQ a little bit longer before making his way to the room he shares with Natasha and Blue. When he's in there alone, he's mostly dicking around on the PDC trying to see if there's any way he could program some kind of video game into it to pass the time when he gets bored. It's been a long time since he's done any computer programming though, so more likely than not, he'll end up passing the hot mess of code to Felicity to see if she can make something out of it. Worst case scenario, it passes the time before lights out.

Open | Throughout the day

[satnalahcsauoyekil]

MORNING

When Zatanna wakes up, she feels unrested and even more surly than normal, largely due to the inexplicable nausea that had her spending the larger part of her evening yesterday in the bathroom being sick. She has no idea that it was entirely due to withdrawal symptoms from having had her last cup of coffee mid-day yesterday and if she did know, she’d be angrier still. But by the time she’s finished what she’s willing to eat of the slop they like to call breakfast in this nightmare of a place, she’s feeling much better.

There’s a little bounce in her step as she makes her way to the briefing and when she drops down into a chair beside a fellow Special, Zatanna gives them a bright smile. “Morning!” she chirps. Today is going to be a good day, she can just feel it.

AFTERNOON

After the morning meeting, Zatanna makes her way to her service firm and actually delights in her Semantics Control position. She finds a humor in it that reminds her of Robin and the silly words he’d make up by removing their prefixes back home and she’s in good spirits when she heads down to lunch. As expected, the day is going smoothly and she’s glad that finally she’s having a good day in this place. They’re apparently very hard to come by, what with all the terrorist attacks and crappy food selection, but she finds that by lunch, she doesn’t really mind the soylent that much. It actually doesn’t taste half bad, for a chance, even if the consistency of it leaves a lot to be desired.

Zatanna sits alone, but mostly because she’s hungry and less because she’s feeling anti-social for a change, so when she sees someone approaching in the corner of her eye, she looks up with a smile, happy to have company.

EVENING

Citizen Improvement has been something that Zee had steadfastly been ignoring for the duration of her stay so far in Alpha Complex, but the activity tonight is right up her alley. Zatanna has learned from some of the best how to fight and she’s eager to share some of that knowledge with others. While she doesn’t really require any learning, she still watches demonstrations and goes along with the class, but she’s likely to be helping out the Alphas around her when they seem to have a little more trouble with some of the techniques.

If there is one thing that she’s confident about without the magic, it’s her agility and her fighting skills. She has Artemis mostly, but the whole team, really, to thank for that and she’s happy to share her knowledge with anyone willing to listen.

Morning

[stillplaying]

There are things she doesn't want to remember. There are so many things that Katniss doesn't want to remember. But like it or not, she remembers that false happiness of the past few days. She remembers how easily smiles came and how conversation seemed to come far too easy. Yesterday and the day before, Katniss hadn't minded her positive attitude and friendly demeanor at all. Now, she just wants to keep forgetting everything.

It's not all that easy though. Some things are seared in her memory. And though she's doing her best to avoid the cafeteria and the food it offers, thirst eventually gets the better of her. So by lunch, she cautiously slips into the cafeteria. The water she gets tastes plane enough. If it winds up being her drink that had been spiked, she'll find out soon enough.

She doesn't say anything to Zatanna as she sits down at the table across from her. Although Katniss would prefer to sit alone, if she does that there's a chance someone she knows might sit across from her. This has to be the safest way to avoid any awkward conversations.

(Afternoon)

[satnalahcsauoyekil]

The girl who sits across from her is vaguely familiar in that way that she knows she's a Special, but she doesn't know who she is. A couple of days ago, Zee would be right there with her, scowling and settling in silence because it's better than having to talk, but today she feels fantastic.

"Hi there!" she greets the other girl as she sits and Zatanna offers her a smile. "I'm Zatanna. You can call me Zee, if you like; most of my friends do. It's just easier. What's your name?" she asks.

Her lunch is momentarily abandoned in favor of giving this girl her undivided attention because it would be rude not to, wouldn't it? When she's trying to strike up a conversation? Poor Katniss has picked the wrong day to sit with Zatanna Zatara if she had been looking for a quiet lunch with no conversation.

Lydia and Steve Commercial Shoot

[a_man_out_of_time]

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