open 💫 lights out tonight

[furibund]

Who: nebula & you
When: post event 18
Where: solvunn, horizon
What: may-june catch all
Warnings: None intended but it's Nebula. Mentions of past trauma/non-consensual body modifications/child abuse are always possible (but will be warned for).

Feel free to make up your own prompts/adust as needed/wildcard/or reach out to plot with me! These are all just backbone for whatever. hopewillbloom or discor are the best ways to reach out to me!

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solvunn — goat racing

[furibund]

[ Let's disrupt the tone first, by this we mean Nebula is... annoyed and a touch perplexed. She's never been particularly fond of the goats that Solvunn is known for, even if she has helped in wrangling them from time-to-time most recently. Like with most things, Nebula isn't even afraid to show her disdain for the animals. ]

[ She doesn't hurt the animals and - perhaps - those who knew her even a touch knows she wouldn't. Probably. But she sure does give them angry looks, especially when they start bleeting noisily. The clearest answer here is she hates goats and wants them to know it. She's petty like that. ]

[ Which is why she would have never come into the primary settlement today if she had known that all of the goats would be out in full force on some makeshift track with people shouting, cheering, and all manner of nonsense. Like they expect the goats to actually do something spectacular and follow orders. They won't. She knows they won't, they know they won't - it's all stupid. ]

[ She makes no attempt to get close to the festivities, but the universe has ways of annoying anyone just right. Some older woman half abandons her goat with her and Nebula scowls at it as it chews away on a piece of fabric it probably shouldn't have. ]

[ Not her problem. ]

Do you even understand what's said to you?

[ The goat puffs out its lips and spews saliva along the fabric it's obtained. She guesses it'd probably have screamed its retort if not for its mouth being full - small blessings. She rolls her eyes: ]
I'm not a goatsitter, go away.

[ It does not move. ]

solvunn — routine

[furibund]

[ There are two facts at play for Nebula's direct response to... well, everything. The first is that as a person she was never taught what it was to have "down time". Her hobbies growing up, if you called it as such, was just trying to survive, to train. Her father did not afford time for anything than what would make a better warrior of his children. Any other skills - like her capabilities as a pilot, mechanic, or hacker - were hardly hobbies either. ]

[ Until several years ago the word "fun" was absent in her vocabulary, a word more foreign than what it meant to bleed. Having learned it, it's a rare and hard earned moment to get her to relax let alone to have fun. There was always work to be done and she didn't have time for fun. Even as a Guardian of the Galaxy, there was always a mission to do or repairs to make Knowhere habitable. ]

[ In Solvunn things are markedly different. Nebula has more free time on her hands than she's ever had before and there are moments where even the locals can't find a chore to give her. Not that she wants to do all their work for them, either, but she can't help but admit to herself her need to be useful and inability to waste time has earned her some note... At least in the sense, she's seen often around helping out just for want to keep busy. ]

[ And with her mind so full of everything keeping busy is something she wants to do. If you asked her how she was doing, her answer would be a snapped remark. As it was, she doesn't have a way to encapsulate how she's feeling - funny enough when another her appeared more at tune and comfortable with the jumble of feelings she can barely parse. ]

[ In natural fashion ignoring them simply works better. ]

[ She can be found then, first and foremost with spear in hand, helping to hunt for meat in the neighboring woods or going deeper in for a proper fight. She sinks into these instances, able to turn off, maneuver, and fight feels far more natural than other manners. It's natural, but it also often ends too quick. ]

[ More often than not, Nebula can be found in the Primary Settlement itself: Helping to repair shops and rebuild fences. When they come to get supply for rebuilding ships, she helps to carry or work on them. They've quickly found she's got a steady hand for it and - unfortunately (or fortunately) - goes for long hours even after others have moved on. Work said to take a day or more finished in less time just by sheer nature of her bulldozing through it. ]

[ She's like that. Especially when she wants to avoid other issues. ]

[ But if she sees someone passing by either to help or not there's one of two ways she might direct them: ]

Can you pass me that? [ She'll gesture to a tool, currently both hands occupied without fully looking back. Pause and then add: ] Please.


[ Or: ] Got something better to do?

[ Feel free to pick/choose/wildcard whatever might be most fun! ]

[aquaveiled]

[ Despite her infinitely more laid-back nature, Himeka is also someone who desire to be useful--much of her childhood, her path to priestess-hood, and subsequent journey to becoming and adventurer and the Warrior of Light all hinged upon what she could do, what she could offer to others and the world at large. As such, she dislikes being idle for any prolonged period of time, but she can find meaning and enjoyment in a myriad of different things.

And one of those things? Deliveries.

Sure, fetch quests may seem almost laughable after fighting a god or saving existence itself from annihilation, but a lost goat or an urgent shipment of cheese may make someone's day. And isn't existing just getting through each day? She thinks it's best to make those as good experiences as possible.

Himeka built much of her early reputation in Solvunn upon doing these little tasks and traveling from village to village, settlement to settlement. Over the years that much hasn't changed and she's managed to form lasting relationships with many of the locals. So when she can, she does like to devote time to errands as she once did. A few smiling faces can heal some of the deeper aches.

(They don't make Nero come back, no. But he also liked to keep busy.)

It's on one of those little errands in town that she spots someone else keeping busy that she hadn't exactly expected. Himeka looks down at her parcel and decides that it isn't urgent and she really can't miss the opportunity to surprise Nebula.

Surely the other woman must be asking someone else to pass her the hammer, right? Well, Himeka slides right up and hands it over like she's been here the whole time. ]

Here you go.

[ :) ]

I hadn't realized the smithy had been hit so hard in the storm.

[furibund]

[ Nebula definitely wasn't expecting the help to be Himeka's sudden materialization. Once, her emotions would have been more difficult to read. Now with those dark eyes replaced with (sort of) familiar lilac, her eyes widen as she stiffens. It's for half a second, not long enough to notice at all — Or so she tells herself. ]

[ Her mouth feels its stuffed with cotton as she swallows hard and huffs out a breath: ] Thank you.

[ She does not smile back and diligently ensures that their hands don't touch as she takes the hammer from Himeka's hand. She's quick to turn her eyes away, but between the work and the other's statement she has an excuse. Shifts to start the pounding work before adding: ]

Not much of a surprise. By the time things cleared up to start work on anything it would start back up again. It's a product of damage over time, rather than getting hit all at once.

[ She half shrugs a shoulder. ] The inside is fine, the outside's the one that took a beating.

[aquaveiled]

[ It is a curious thing that they have almost all retained something of their selves in that world, that tentative future they experienced for a few weeks. Himeka's own usually long hair was now so long that it would drag on the ground behind her if she didn't bother braiding and wrapping it up. (Which it is for the moment. She's still uncertain what she wants to do with it.)

But eye are truly the windows to the soul and she remembers enjoying staring into Nebula's quite a bit, though she's clearly making an effort to look anywhere but back at Himeka. It doesn't deter her, unfortunately for Nebula's sake. ]

Mmm, that does make sense. I hope no one got hurt, though.

[ To Nebula's benefit, she looks away to inspect the damage done to the building. She's right, of course--the damage is mostly cosmetic rather than structural, though... ]

...that hole does look oddly goat-ish, doesn't it?

[ She points. ]

[furibund]

[ Hair envy!! At least Himeka could choose to cut her hair if she ever wanted - Nebula is stuck with this (well, unless they tried for more gruesome details). And she's not sure how she feels about this particular development - however long she might have wished for her own body back. ]

You know as well as I do some of them definitely did. [ There were reports now of some drowning from boats at the very least - she doubts twisters were as fun as all that for those picked up by them. She heaves a breath: ] Besides, not all injury is physical.

[ Losing your homes could be just as damaging. She swallows it down to follow Himeka's gaze and grunts out: ]

Of course it'd be a goat.


[ Nebula's long-standing feud with goats becomes more evident as she adds: ] I wouldn't mind if there's a few less of those around.


[ She doesn't mean kill them. Probably. Hopefully. Mostly? ]

[aquaveiled]

[ Nebula is right, some did. Many people in Solvunn escaped any serious harm, which is for the best, but it doesn't make her hope for it any less. She's ready to flash a sheepish smile Nebula's way until the remark that not all injuries are physical.

Ah, yes. Something she knows well...there are wounds she cannot heal no matter how much she tries. So instead Himeka's smile is a little less bright, but accepting. ]

No, those tend to be worse.

[ The goat-hole is a much less heavy topic, at least, not that either of them haven't broached more introspective conversations on a whim before. The mention of less goats is enough for Himeka to chuckle. ]

Not fond of them? Don't say that in front of Eli. I'm convinced he can understand us perfectly fine.

[ Which is why he does exactly the opposite of any request they have of him. The jerk. ]

horizon — anew

[furibund]

[ Nebula already knew without question that she was one of the universe's favorite chew toys. She told herself again and again that it was fine — at least unlike most people she could take whatever it threw at her and still remain standing. She'd been forged in cruelty and violence, there was nothing that could shake her... At least, that's what she told herself again and again as she ignored the soft underbelly of what her nature really was. ]

[ That nature that was so much more delicate and desperate that she'd ever be able to vocalize. Nebula had always wanted a home and again and again the universe took it away from her. First her home world, then any believed sisterhood with Gamora, then gaining that and losing her (Gamora), losing that small family that had let them in, nearly losing Rocket, losing the rest again... And now, the space she had created here could not be hers - would never be. A fake life forged for a person who would be more at home with who they were and how they existed than she would ever be. ]

[ It's not her home - the Horizon. But it sure as hell feels a lot like losing another home, another family. And she is so damned tired of loss after loss after loss. Especially when it feels like this was so much greater than it should have been, that something important slid from her grasp. ]

[ Now, she's in the Horizon and after deciding that what was here previously had been too personal... She didn't want people to know so much about her, especially if any relationship was so stupidly fragile... Now, now her space in the horizon has become the inside of a ship - ]

[ It's a decently sized craft, but it's not meant to hold a lot of people. It hosts a dedicated piloting/flight area and crew area. A singular bed, simple and not built for comfort, and a wall dedicated to being decorated in weapons. While there are other spaces - the maintenance room, a simply kept bathroom - this ship is kept neat, tidy, and with little more going for it. If anyone knew - and all of one person might - it was the very ship that Nebula had once spent four years alone in trying to hunt her father like a dog. ]

[ The main view - the draw of the ship - is that the large windows give the view of a sea of stars in all directions. A nebula - not this nebula - bursts and colors in the visual distance. ]

[ Nebula can occasionally be found leaning against the balcony overlooking part of the pilot's area - one elbow against a rail why the other nurses a cup of something (your guess!). If she hears someone's footsteps, she only inclines her head in their direction with an ill-amused kirk of the lip: ]


Sorry. All out of fuel.

[ It's a bad joke to say there's no going anywhere - even in this ship. But if only the other person knew how literally she had that experience once, in a ship dead in space with nowhere to go and no oxygen. Her mouth twitches at the thought, she looks away: ]

Stupid joke.

[ It's half an apology she doesn't fully utter - she goes back to downing her drink. ] I shouldn't have said that.

[ Closer, not quite. She doesn't explain herself. ]

[ But if that's not a good enough option: Feel free to explore the ship! Question how someone can live like this. You can even notice that a table seems to be a makeshift ping-pong table... lacking the ping pongs. But there is a folded up shiny paper football. Maybe she's not all work and no play? ]

[sophos]

[ annabeth feels weird about running into random domains. she's getting the sense that the habit isn't particularly unusual for the horizon, but whenever she thinks about a stranger slipping into her own, she gets testy. it's why she decided to create sections. ]

[ but she's curious, despite herself. she wants to know things, all the time. the high priestess is on her person in the horizon for a reason, apparently, and it's her endless desire to poke and prod and understand. and she wants to understand the horizon. ]

[ so, one day, she stumbles herself upon a... spaceship. she knows a decent amount about astronomy and space, tries to keep up with cool nasa projects, but this is different. this is a real, sci-fi looking spacecraft way beyond nasa. it's not very big, but annabeth feels like there's still a lot to take in, so she nearly misses the person actually there as she just gets lost in observing everything she passes. ]

[ nebula, she remembers, though she looks different here. she pauses, but only because she doesn't know if she should be apologizing for being onboard. ]

Don't give me hope that it could zip out of this whole place if there was fuel.

[furibund]

[ It's not the first time Nebula has seen quizzical Terrans in a spaceship, though the Benatar had more space than a M-Ship for its crew. The expression isn't wholly unfamiliar, even if she turns her eyes away quickly. To pretend she didn't see or doesn't know the younger woman more than she'd like - that much goes uncertain. ]

[ She does snort, a sound that's more unpracticed than it isn't. ]

Please. This ship would be halfway across the galaxy before you could blink, the universe in a couple of hours. [ You know, if they forged entirely that mammalian species shouldn't take that many jumps at once (and she has and would, depending on the circumstances). ] But this ship isn't capable of getting us off this stupid planet.

[sophos]

Space travel where I'm from definitely isn't that advanced.

[ they can't even get people to mars yet. ]

I've never even left Earth before now. Sorry if it's - I don't know, rude to be here. I'm still working on Horizon rules.

[ as if she isn't prone to break the rules anyway. but that's neither here nor there, and she doesn't need to announce that. she does try to be a little more respectful of nebula's space, but annabeth is inherently curious. that much is similar about her nature as a god. she can't help but still take peeks at the spaceship she's suddenly in! ]

[furibund]

Not surprised. [ She stars offhandedly, ] The only reasons Terrans got further than their moon recently is because we helped.

[ It's the truth as she knows it, though she doesn't know the Skrull had been on Earth even longer... But same difference, Terrans haven't advanced that far. ]

[ For a moment she takes a drink instead of responding, thinking before huffing out: ]

Even if it was personal, not like this place doesn't dump you into whatever Horizon it wants. [ Which is probably part of why she doesn't like it, ] You can take a look around, you won't find much.

[ Anything personal she means.]

[catholica]

( it's like the beginning of a joke: a blind man walks into the magical domain of someone that he doesn't know very well and ends up laughing at her quip. )

What is it?

( a vehicle of some kind, he guesses. he has a few of those in his domain that keep the place looking like new york but it's not like he drives them or anything. )

Car? Train? Plane?

[furibund]

[ Does she know what a train or a plane is? Not in the terms he's speaking in, perhaps, so it makes her frown. Miss the humor in the moment with a tilt of the head he can't see - ]

None of those. It's a ship.

[ Most places it abbreviate it as such - but thinking quickly about nautical travel she heaves a sigh: ] The kind that travels through space.

[catholica]

Ah, one of those.

( he's definitely aware of those especially now after spending so much time here but matt doesn't ever plan on going up in one himself.

he's fine with his feet on the ground. )

Yours? Or just one that showed up?

[furibund]

It's a standard M-Ship.

[ Nebula remarks first, as if it's the answer. It could easily just be something that showed up subconsciously. She pauses and thinks about it, ]

Piloted one for a few years before I nose dived my father with it.

[ Which is to say, it looks a lot like that one however unintentional. ]

[theidlemaiden]

[ It doesn't immediately dawn on Hilda whose domain she's wandered into. After everything that happened to them and the time she's tried to take in order to separate fiction from reality, she still finds herself drawn towards the Horizon. Whatever they'd gone through had tried to pry memories of home away from her and the closest thing she'll ever be able to get to Fodlan is, ironically enough, a place she observes with a hint of wariness that hadn't been there before.

That wariness explains why she strays from the tranquil fields of her domain to a place wholly unfamiliar to her. She's never actually been on a spaceship despite knowing people who claim to have flown through space. It makes the exploration of this particular domain all the more fascinating.

She tells herself that she'll leave soon, but it's difficult not to caught in the wonder of it all - especially when she comes across the ping-pong table. Spotting the folded up shiny ball she picks it up to turn it curiously in her hand. So engrossed, it's likely she doesn't register footsteps approaching until it's too late. Realization dawns on her face, pink flaring to her cheeks as she quickly places the ball back on the table. ]

Nebula! Hi! I'm sorry I didn't realize this was your domain -

[furibund]

[ Nebula's gaze falls first to the table turned to makeshift ping pong table with a scowl - then to the other woman's hand where she catches the glint of silver foil. Her first instinct is to snap to put it down, she refrains which rewards her with Hilda putting it back in the first place. ]

[ She exhales, a sound low and rough: ]

How would you know? Not like you've ever been here before.

[theidlemaiden]

[ A rare, nervous laugh spills from her lips. ] 

You're right, but I'd apologize all the same even if I had been. 

[ Then again would she have step foot in here if she had known? Being a chatterbox it's not often that she falters or stumbles on her words, but she does here. Thankfully the silence isn't as long as she makes it out to be in her mind. ] 

Is this what a spaceship looks like? Rocket and the Doctor told me a little about them but I haven't seen one before now. 

[furibund]

Well. Don't.

[ Apologize she means, but the gruffness bleeds in with any sincerity. She keeps her distance in the way a feral cat greets a stranger. For all intents in purposes, isn't that what Hilda is? They'd met once before and then - then all of that. And her skin itches at getting closer, because she doesn't like that persnal kind of betrayal. ]

[ And yet she remains. She'd claim it's because this is her Horizon, stubborn as she is. She moves forward to snatch up the folded paper. ]

It's a fairly standard passenger ship. Base model you can get just about anywhere with the right money. I don't know what the Doctor's are like.

[ ... At least she's answering? ]

🦝🚫

[furibund]

[ It's not the first time Nebula's been to the Treehouse. Although, up until now she had made a point to never drop in - between privacy and not wanting to appear needy. Even if she probably had every right and permission to do just that, she hadn't. If she didn't have words for it before she has more for them now. She can recognize now that it was likely in part jealousy - jealousy that Rocket had found a place and likely a new family. ]

[ At least this time she didn't try to kill him and said group out of said irrational feelings. ]

[ But for someone who had so desperately wanted a home for so long and everytime she got close to one - or someone (in this case Rocket) - to feel like she lost it again worked up some irrational fear and anger. Eight-hundred years of make believe hadn't really helped much with that, if anything the intangibility of it and the current positioning only makes it worse. ]

[ Yet, she cannot deny how easy it was to agree to stay here. She's not entirely sure it's her rational choice or influenced by that time that wasn't really time. It still feels awkward and wrong and she still tries to tell herself not to get used to it. Even after Wanda helped make a room, especially after that, and she pointedly kept it barebones to not confuse herself. Also, she's just herself and she doesn't see the use for too many things but still - ]

[ Don't get comfortable, some ancient part of her croaks, something will always happen. ]

[ Maybe that makes her slightly on edge in her own way, as Rocket gives a tour through the house. Not entirely necessary, but she appreciates it, and the way through his room. Suspicious cat tunnels included. All until they make their way back to her own which is a lackluster, completely orderly affair. She thinks he'll leave after to let her settle in, but he lingers. She glances at him, brows pinched over now lilac eyes as she huffs out: ]

You don't have any obligation to babysit me.

[ At least she doesn't think he's doing it because he thinks he'll get into trouble. She kicks off her boots before glancing back: ] Something up?

[respiting]

No, I know.

[ It feels weird being back here.

The treehouse feels different; it feels too empty, even when it isn't actually. The same amount of people are here under its roof. It's just been ... shifted around a little.

Fuck.

His head's all full of memories spanning literal centuries, like he can remember being in control of everything around him, but now he's got no control. He's back to staring up at everything, and there's an additional hollowness in his chest that feels a hell of a lot like what happened when Yondu died. It hurts like a dull ache and it's annoying and frustrating, and it's got him in a mood.

He doesn't like being in a mood. ]

It's just a lotta shit's happened. [ He takes a breath, but it doesn't release the tension — or the itch. ] You know? And now we're back here and everything's supposed to go back to normal?

[furibund]

[ To her credit... Or no. No, it's not to Nebula's credit because she had changed. Even without that headache of a lifetime, Nebula had evolved from the person she once was. The being that had been so full of anger she could paint the sky red had finally... been free - to be herself, to find herself, to just be. ]

[ She was not that person who lived in spite and in a survival mode. Even if this person now felt like she stretched far more than she imagined, that the shriveled ball that had been her repressed self expands too slowly in some ways and too fast in others. Or that some part of her detests the part that expands on principle - because it's weak and this part can't compromise on the fact weaknesses is a danger. She would die from weakness. ]

[ She is not the same person. She does not avoid the awkwardness of studying him, listening intently. Caring in a way she would have once scoffed at. Because she's changed and he's still - he's still family. No matter what this place shoved at them. ]

And? Shit's always happening around us.

[ It's not wrong. They probably laughed about it over some drink during those years that feel like a lifetime ago, both lifetimes. Her mouth twitches and maybe this is where they're different. Nebula had noticed the change, had noticed he'd seemed to relax here in ways she's not fully seen him capable of. That this place could be "normal". ]

[ That part of her she doesn't let herself scratch open is jealous. Jealous because he's family and one day, just like Gamora he'd replace her. She knows this part of her is petty and childish and is that fearful child left over from those years, she ignores it. Because she trusts him more than most anyone else.

It still doesn't stop her from offering:]

It's never been normal. [ A beat. ] We've never been normal.

No use getting stuck in it now, we have to keep moving.

[respiting]

Yeah, but it's not this shit. It's different shit, it's worse shit —

[ He raises his arms to gesture around him; around them. The Treehouse, this part of the country, this whole damned planet. He's moved around for so much of his life, and for so long it feels like he was never going to find a real home.

And while he'd found one with the Guardians back home, that had been snatched away from him too. It had left just him and Nebula to pick up the pieces, and that was so goddamned unfair, but they lent their tattered edges to the other Avengers anyway. It still hadn't been normal, but after they set the world right again maybe it could have been —

And then he was brought here.

Here, where he hated it at first. Here where he tried to resist getting to know anyone outside of the faces he knew from home, wanted to throw kindness back in the faces of those who would offer it to him, because that's what made him comfortable. But he didn't. He punched a freakin' devil guy, and he had good laughs, had fun playing pranks, making fun of silly pamphlets (while not-so-secretly being delighted by said pamphlet), and building ridiculous, absolutely extra obstacle courses. ]

This whole fucking place is just —

[ He was an 800+ year old god, and he could grow to the size of the tallest tower in this place. He couldn't remember half of this painful shit, as though godhood had numbed it to nothingness the way drinking does now, and it was fine. It was good.

But he remembers everything now. ]

I can't just 'keep moving', Nebula. I don't want to.

[furibund]

[ It's all shit, Nebula thinks but does not say. Stiffens only at the idea this is worse shit. They're trapped on this stupid planet in this shitty village, but it's a boring mundane life. Mostly. Except for that - for those years that weren't years but sure as hell feel like it. At least in certain ways, it feels like a skin they've shed or a shirt that didn't quite fit right. ]

[ It wasn't real, but it was also real. ]

[ There's something more to it though - there must be - because she knows her. She knows him, because there was always one commonality they shared: two beings who'd been taken apart and put back together again and again. She would rather live through those 800 years then spend another day under her Father's thumb. And knowing more intimately than she had before - then she should know - of the scientific words they wrote and spoke of him... She'd think it would be the same. ]

[ Or perhaps because it wasn't real, because she never had that freedom, it felt like being taken apart and put back together all over again. Stuck in the same way she'd always been. She doesn't think about it, because this isn't about her. It's about Rocket.]

[ She swallows, hard, because something swallows her. The feeling she might be losing him and not know how to help or pull him back. It's funny really, if she could find such a thing funny, and instead she asks in that clipped way that bars real emotion: ]

Then what do you plan to do?

[ What can you do? ]