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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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.]

[sophos]

No one's really gotten past the moon yet back home. There's the International Space Station, but it circulates the Earth and doesn't go far out there.

[ she's not sure she likes the sound of that, but she did end up here almost at random herself. annabeth files it away as a note on creating her own domain in the horizon and the struggle to go hog-wild versus keep her privacy. ]

I never really expected to be in a spacecraft of any kind. Is it.. yours? Like, are personal space ships normal for you?

[furibund]

Your planet has a long way to go before it'll be making jumps across the universe.

[ Mildly as she shifts her position to step back from the overlooking area with a shrug. ]

Sure, personal crafts aren't unusual. M-Ships like this one are the standard for solo travelers. Cost a helluva lot of units to get one.

[ Or you steal it. ] This one was "mine," but it was destroyed years ago.

[sophos]

No arguments there.

[ she's not sure she'll even live long enough to see that, but that's all the more reason her interest is piqued by all the space people she keeps encountering in abraxas. she's just trying to be cool about it. ]

Cars back home can get pretty expensive, or so I've been told. [ annabeth chase does not know how to drive at all yet, she has no sense of car cost! she can hop on a pegasus and get anywhere. why does she need a car. the teenage desire to drive simply is not in her. ]

[ there's something sentimental to be said for remaking a lost vehicle in the horizon, but annabeth isn't going to call nebula out on it. ] And they can all travel far distances?

[furibund]

[ The idea "cars can be pretty expensive," in fact sounds like a joke to Nebula. Her mouth twitches like she wants to say something on the matter - that they're better off walking. She doesn't, if only because she tries to stay her tongue. ]

[ Even if she thinks really hard that those pieces of shit aren't worth ten units, and instead just answers the question. ]

Not all. Some ships are made for planetary work or short distances. No sense in a work ship being able to do jumps like a cargo ship would.

[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. ]

[catholica]

Standard M-Ship means very little to me.

( he says it with a little laugh. )

Never really taken my feet off the ground. Not even in an airplane. Kind of get air sick because of the blindness and all.

[furibund]

Guess it wouldn't.

[ But she (unhelpfully) does not offer more of an explanation on what it could be. ]

Never been on an airplane, but any decent ship handled by a good pilot would feel as smooth as walking on ground.

[catholica]

I'm a little different.

( felt things a little more than most people especially when it came to his senses. )

This was your ship, then? From back home?

[furibund]

Something like that.

[ A beat. ]

Or it was. Like I said, it's been destroyed for a few years.

[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? ]

[theidlemaiden]

[ A cheekier vibe might have had her saying that it's too bad she already has and can't very well take it back now - but she's always known how to read a room, and that comment might not be so well received. It's probably better to save it for another time.

The fact that Nebula is talking though and hasn't completely booted her out of her space is a good sign though. Maybe? ]

I haven't seen it yet either but the way he talks about it really makes it sound like he cares for her a lot.

[ There's another glance around the room, possibly an attempt to distract from her own nerves before it lands on the table. ]

Are these common in ships too?

[furibund]

[ She snorts, half-heartedly. ]

Sounds about right.

[ About the Doctor - he cares too much about every little thing. Even so it wouldn't have sounded particularly odd. Men had an odd habit of naming their ships and being overly attached, Rocket wasn't much better sometimes. Quill was the worst. Not that she knows the Doctor's particular sentiments. ]

[ Her brows furrow over now too light eyes as she answers, incredulous: ]

A table?

[theidlemaiden]

[ It takes her a moment to clue in to the fact that she might have said something silly or stupid. Hilda's expression goes from cautiously curious to a furrowed brow. ]

Wha - no! I know it's a table.

[ She points towards the make shift set up across it. ]

That! That's what I mean.

[furibund]

[ Bonus: At least she's not trying to be mean (right?). Hilda clues in and Nebula's eyes fall to where she points - the downward twitch of her lips would be the only normal visible response. Would be, but now her eyes are that soft lilac color and there's a flash of something before - ]

No. I doubt there is.

[ After a moment, but she doesn't elaborate. Just turns her head away as if to avoid it. ] You can look around if you don't get in my way.

[ Sorry, Hilda, if you want more of an answer you'll have to ask more :( ]