𝛃 - 013

[inmylight_comdr]

[An open journal picks up a sharp intake of breath and a couple gasping coughs. The protesting moan of a mattress and rustling sheets as someone sits up. There are a few moments of just breathing, until it comes even. When Kat finally speaks, it's soft and dark, barely picked up by the journal

Comments

[encryptedlock]

[Okay, so. Someone was waiting outside her door with crossed arms and a stopwatch, keeping an eye on the nameplate and hoping that was enough to keep it from disappearing. Paranoid? Maybe.]

You're twenty-two hours late, Noble-Two. Supposed to be two weeks.

[inmylight_comdr]

[Is that an echo? She sees the words appear on her journal, but it certainly sounds a lot closer than that.]

You'll have to forgive me. Someone forgot to set a waypoint.

Go ahead and let yourself in.

[encryptedlock]

[Well, at least he knows it's not locked. That would be because he dropped her armor off yesterday, complete with shiny new shield enhancements.]

...Welcome back.

[inmylight_comdr]

[She hasn't put her armor on yet, hasn't made any other move beyond sitting at the edge of the bed, barefeet on the cool floor, hands perched on the mattress, shoulders slightly hunched. She tips her head just slightly as he enters.]

Status? [Not prepared to relax until she knows exactly what happened.]

[encryptedlock]

"Isis" is back to normal. Six dead, two during the rescue effort. Everyone else already came back.

[He rubs the back of his neck near the implant slot.] Earned yourself a permanent grave in the graveyard. Oh, and you just missed a week of everyone acting like someone slipped them nasty pills.

[inmylight_comdr]

No permanent casualties then, good. I'll want a full report, when you get the chance. [She wants to see what she could have done different, where she might have gone wrong. Six dead shouldn't have happened with a Spartan around; she'd become lax.]

[A little nod at her new gravestone, a little scoff at the past week.] One thing after another. Almost beginning to feel like home.

[She looks at York and then gives a nearby chair a kick, subtle suggestion, before leaning forward and rubbing her face]

[encryptedlock]

[Oh, right. He should probably sit down. - good thing the chairs in her room are built to handle armor.]

It's in your CastleNet inbox. Keyphrase "Hang-Jazz-Racket". [Oh, UNSC encryption. You and your random keyphrases.

He's silent for an awkward moment.]

I upgraded the shields on your armor.

[inmylight_comdr]

[She drops her hands and leans forward, nodding confirmation about the report, and then looking over and giving him a small ghost of a smile when he tells her about her new shields.]

Appreciated, York. I'll need all the help I can get in this place.

[encryptedlock]

[Somehow that makes him feel worse. If a Spartan needs all the help she can get....]

Yeah, well, I had to do something.

[inmylight_comdr]

[She's no Master Chief, not used to working a solitary deployment, and her sheer inability to combat this castle and all its magic shit thus far has been a building frustration. Of course she'd take any additional help.]

[She's quiet a moment, looking down at her hands, before speaking softly.] The last time I was laying helpless like that I was in so much pain I couldn't talk. It's quite different knowing you're perfectly capable of doing something, you just can't. [There's a definite sharpness to her tone.]

[encryptedlock]

[...He really doesn't want to know what "last time" was, did he?]

Capable? Kat, I know if you were capable of busting out of there and taking her one-on-one, she wouldn't have stood a chance. [Doesn't even notice he just used her name there.]

Look, as far as I'm concerned, "restrained by magic" just means you were being held down by a force field or ropes made out of some material we don't know about--hell, why not? you can wish for anything here, as long as it's not something useful like a map home.

[inmylight_comdr]

[Lets just say that one of the other members involved is now pictured on her little shrine.]

[Snapping, these were some of her last thoughts before she died, and continued to pick at her now that she was alive again] I could have tried to coordinate with the other sacrifices. I could have tried to talk her down, stall her, something.

I can't fight it directly so I need to find a way around it. This was unacceptable.

[encryptedlock]

And that could have made her start killing people faster and then there'd have been even more deaths. You can't think about what you could have done.

Just about what you'll do better next time. What you won't let happen again.

[inmylight_comdr]

[She glances up to glare at York, and then heaves a sigh and hangs her head, rubbing the back of her neck.]

Right then, next time. [Which included, among other things, making an effort to learn about the intrinsic nature of magic. If she could understand it, if just a little bit, she could find a way around it]

[encryptedlock]

And next time I'll keep better tabs on you, too. Wash I expected to disappear on me without saying something, but...I'll know better.

[He points to Wash's nearby gift basket of anonymous, high-quality liquor.]

You want anything? Water, food, something to drink? I could order us a pizza.

[inmylight_comdr]

Even if it's simple as status checks. It is something we should keep up on. [She's thinking on a much wider basis, of course.]

[she nods, looking over at the basket and the bottles within.] Pizza and a drink will do, I think. I'll take the Gray Goose. [Yes. The whole bottle, she means.]