exsilium | video; a work in progress

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video; a work in progress

( Audio picks up the sound of industrial construction, either things familiar in woodshop, car garages, or anywhere of a similar sort. When the feed goes live, Collette is framed to one side, looking forward and away from the camera. She's clearly resting on her arms, and given the angle of the ground on the screen, she's probably lying on her stomach in order to do this. She glances over her shoulder, eyes going to something behind the tablet being used for recording, then smiles as her eyes drop down to the tablet itself. For all intents and purposes, the camera is positioned to make the viewing audience seem like they're side by side with Collette, wherever it is she is, keeping a low profile in this industrialized looking area. Concrete floor that she's resting on, packing boxes ahead of her, bundles of cables and chains glimpsed somewhere past her head. )

Guys! ( She keeps her voice low, not a whisper (they carry further, and can't be heard about the ambient noise), but low to avoid excessive attention. ) Anyone else catch where they dragged the ship off to with that giant crane after the crash? I wondered about that. But I've got news!

( She makes a waving motion at the camera, and it shifts, jarringly, to leave Collette off screen and show something covered in plastic and wiring and cables, a few Initiative workers using welding guns, others wheeling parts away or calling out shouts of questions over the sounds of construction. )

They say the spaceship's salvageable!

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You know, a better time to discuss things like this might be when you're not in the process of breaking and entering already.

[ He feels the need to point that out, that it isn't exactly the best time to work out further details on... whatever it is. This. Thing? He's not entirely sure, even if he did agree to it. Did he? Was sharing crazy plans even a part of that exchange? ]

( Usually she'd stop at laughing, but right now she nods and gives a half laugh and says: )

Yeah, sounds good! After we're thoroughly done breaking and entering, I'll come find you or something. Rein check until then!

( ... and then she's not sure if that makes the conversation... over as a whole, or just that line, and so she looks out and away and thinks spaceship spaceship spaceship because it's a lot less of a personal subject than thinking boyfriend boyfriend boyfriend? and not knowing what to make of that.

It makes her smile again, so there's that, even if the situation is pretty silly at the moment. )

You can tell me all about what they're doing in there when you get back from it, too. [ Because he's lazy and there's already a bunch of other people rushing down there, so it's not like he's about to miss any details. ] Though should I be worrying about flowerpot guy?

[ Aaand monitoring everything else going on in this thing, apparently. ]

Lazy!

( Which is one way of saying yes, by pointing out the obvious.

She blinks, surprised. Which is silly, since she tends to do the same thing in other people's posts, but for whatever reason she wasssss hoping no one other than ellie and oz were paying attention.. ) Um... well you, personally? He doesn't actively hurt people who he thinks are human.

( ... which highlights the problem she's having, but she waves her fingers, offering something of an almost sardonic smile. she glances back to her helper, too, rolling her eyes. )

I'll explain him later, too? But I don't think so. He mostly doesn't try to...

... There's nothing to worry about right now!

That implies he's actively hurting those who he thinks are not. [ Like, say, her. ] Talk about a poor health choice in a place like this.

[ But if she doesn't want to discuss it here, so be it. He's still voice-only, but it's not hard to imagine his typical shrug in response to that. ]

Alright. I'll take your word on that.

Well... yeah. ( Awkward pause. ) You're right, though, it's a really stupid way to work around here! So's any way that ignores the idea of team work or says no two worlds can be any different from each other or what they might have in them!

( She settles back into an amused tone of voice. She's cool. Unaffected. And grateful. )

Thanks!

More or less that, yeah.

[ He's not so sure he buys into the 'unaffected' tone she takes on over this, but if they'll talk about it later, it'll be later. Speaking of which... ]

Talk to you later. Don't cause too much trouble over there.

If I do, I'll blame two fifths of it on you!

( Said with a very cheery, very jaunty wave.

To be fair, she doesn't end up in too much trouble, just chased out of where she first was to hang out by the entrance when the Transports she wanted as backup had arrived.

Safety in numbers, so to speak.

She does live up to her end of the promise -- was it a promise? -- and heads around to Caesar's room once evening has well and truly settled in. Coming up to a window was probably not the best idea, and defintiely not the warmest, but it did give her a great excuse to try out her owl at night.

Which probably wasn't supposed to end by smacking into the window and clinging on with talons and and awkward beak-hold on the siding, but there you have it. )

< Aah! >

[ It doesn't help that Caesar takes his sweet time going to open it, first having to wake up and all (he had, naturally, dozed off after monitoring the network until it got too boring). He can't be blamed, though! This wasn't her usual entrance point and he had to fumble a bit with the window latch. ]

An owl? [ He sticks his head out the window to eye the bird skeptically. ] Someone needs to work on their landings.

< I think that totally rated at least a two our of ten! >

( She fluffs her feathers once he opens the window, blinking slow and lazy before pertly bird-waddling past him. Crouching at the sill on the inside, she gathers herself for a short, flapping soar-leap to his bed. )

< But hey, if you insist...! >

( She's a small owl, one who'd have no trouble perching on even Caesar's fist, if he'd been possessed with the urge to hold it out. She manages to maintain her landing with sufficient backwinging -- looking a bit birdy flustered. Her feathers settle back in place and she preens one off her shoulder. Yes.

See, she's totally got this covered. )

< Tadah! >

[ What a tiny thing. He even laughs at her second landing, it's so ridiculous looking, before closing the window and walking over tot he bed after. He crouches down and holds out a finger, as if expecting the owl to hop up on it. ]

Where did you find this one? I didn't think owls came in this size.

< Balder introduced me to his one-eyed friend! >

( She leans forward, balancing to lift one leg and make grasping motions with her talons. Here, Caesar Caesar Caesar...! )

< Flies absolutely silent. Small and stealthy! Not to mention, light as two feathers bundled together! >

The same one he brought along to the UE? [ He thought that had been bigger, although he'd seen it from far away only. ] There's a breed of owl on the continent I'm from that grows to be giant.

[ An pointless aside about home, one that seeing owls reminds him of. He never dealt with any of them up close, but he knows they're out there, somewhere. Caesar moves his finger close enough for her to latch onto it with those talons if she wants, trusting she won't stab him with them or anything like that. ]

So how's the ship?

< A giant owl! >

( She closes her toes around his finger, tugging on it experimentally before putting her weight on it, pulling herself up altogether with another wild flapping of wings. )

< I wish I could see that! >

( Once settled, careful not to hold on too hard or accidentally puncture his skin, Collette's ready to report. )

< Systems are functional on a really basic level, but not back in operation yet. We're missing parts we need to get everything fully functional. But! Both Transports and Initiative says it can be done, so I have a feeling it will be, though I don't know how soon. They scrubbed it down really well. Most the damage was kind of containable. >

[ Owl now perched on his finger (and most of his hand), he carefully lifts her up to take a closer look at the form. It's so... ]

This is way too cute to be a night-dwelling rodent death sentence. [ It just is, really. ] So basically it's ship-shape? That's good. I have no doubt that between them and the Transports, it'll be up and running again in no time at all, though I wonder if a trip to steal the missing parts is in the near future.

[ Which is funny to say, since they'd be going into the past to get the parts in the... yeah. ]

( She laughs at his statement, twisting her head to the side slowly to regard him from almost upside down. )

< The owl gets to be criminally cute. I see! >

( Blinking one eye after the other, she straightens her head out. )

< I think there has to be, or else they'll find stuff in their stores from earlier missions? Is that even possible? This is like a living junkyard, they might have more on hand than they realize! >

( She hopes that's the case, to simplify the process. Otherwise... )

< But yeah. It should be fixed before too long. I wanted to see for myself, and then Oz was feeling low after Ahiru left, so I thought... >

( Here Collette trails off, holding herself still. )

< Do you want me to let you know before I do stuff like that? >

[ Otherwise, more raid missions. Those, at least, were simple. ]

Oz? So that's who you had with you.

[ Also not very surprising, since his roommate had wandered off not too long before the broadcast. He almost launched into a joke about whether or not she'll be able to pencil in their date between all her other ones, but then she goes and asks that.

He has to consider it for a moment, though ultimately he just shrugs. ]

If you want? [ He lowers his hand back towards the bed. ] If it's going to be dangerous or you're going to be gone for awhile, it would be nice to know, but it's not like I need to know every detail of your life, Collette.

[ Because he sure isn't going to be letting her know the same about his! ]

Edited 2013-05-20 04:37 (UTC)

( She hops back off his hand, which meant hopping toward him rather than away. Good! She's not planning on sharing all the details of her life, especially the boring or slightly alarming or downright uncomfortable parts.

Like, for one, she was never going to tell him when she was -- you know. Around that time of the month. Or for a less reoccuring piece of existence, the fact she was, technically, dead.

But those were just some of the things that went through her head or on in her life that weren't worth talking about, for vastly different reasons. Why tell him hr schedules? He'd figure them out or he wouldn't. That's at least easy... and heck, he probably sorta knew half of them anyway. Let him know before she does dangerous stuff?

... Well sure! Though recounting what dangerous things she's done in recent memory, most of them were spur of the moment. Is she going to have to check herself before she rushes into things? She's not... so good at doing that. )

< That'd mean dropping a note off before I go running out to look for survivors during bombing barrages with lung-destroying gasses throughout the streets? >

( She plays that like it might be a joking statement. It's easier, since he wasn't around for the bombings, and only one person knew how often she'd gone out. Barnaby wasn't around to remember her yelling at him over the exact same thing. )

Uh, why would you do that at all in the first place?

[ That made no sense. Run out into lung-destroying gasses? Is she being serious? ]

I would kind of hope you'd know better than to do something like that, but no, I don't mean split-second decisions. There's only so much you can do when it comes to spontaneous actions.

[ Especially in a war. Things happen, things change, both very suddenly. Sometimes you just have to deal with it, as far as he was concerned. ]

Edited 2013-05-21 03:52 (UTC)

( Oh... what futile hopes. She preens a feather on her chest, to give her some other focus as she responds. )

< Some jerks think they're more indestructible than others. The Initiative needed help getting people into the catacombs. After that, the people who kept slipping outside needed help not dying, or getting back inside. Upside to morphing: bodily harm doesn't tend to stick! >

( It is one of their advantages, to an extent. She fluffs her feathers out, settling them back down again and turning wide, owlish eyes toward Caesar. She seems unaware of the jest in claiming other people think they're more indestructable than they are in actuality. )

< I'm a very spontaneous person, you know? >

( There's not always going to be much lead time before she's doing. She can plan, but it's not her strong suit, and not how she generally reacts to the world. )

I know that. Look, you're the one who brought this up, not me. Maybe it's you who needs to figure out whether this is something you want or not.

[ Because he hadn't even thought about it before today and, in his defense? He'd only noted it because the ship had been a team effort, not a relationship issue. When did it suddenly become that? He's not sure, but oh well.

With another one of his patented 'whatever' sighs, he gently pushes the part of the comforter the owl is on over so she's out of the way when he flops down to sprawl across it. ]

Edited 2013-05-22 00:05 (UTC)

( Collette takes what he says to mean she needs to figure out if accountability is something she wants; open communication, things she's never had to think about before because she's never really had things to keep away or tell others about. Lying about the cause of her paraplegia had been one thing. Lying about where her brother was had been another. The first big secret of her life had been the one she'd died for, and she doesn't know so much what that has to do with anything else.

She flaps her wings when he flops down, shaking herself off and cocking her head to the side.

Maybe it's you who needs to figure out whether this is something you want or not.

She doesn't think he's wrong. She's just not sure it's all one way like that.

Collette treks across the valleys and folds of his comforter to walk alongside him, taking the scenic route toward his head. )

< I think it is... >

( She trails off, which feels like a cliffhanger rather than a pause or hesitation. )

< I'm just used to lying so people won't worry, and the easiest way to do that is through omission. So I don't think about it. I don't want to be a burden. >

( She reaches out to tug on some of his hair, the last thought coming out in a rush that turned it from a sentence into a landslide: I-don't-want-to-be-a-burden. )

[ The tug on his hair gets him to turn his head, giving him an eyeful of owl fluff, so close he could see his breath ruffling feathers. ]

Is that what you're worried about? [ It seems like a ridiculous thing to fret over, to him, but in retrospect? If he thought about it from her point of view? He had felt that way, for a bit, during the body switch fiasco. ] I know a lot of people worry about whether you can take care of yourself or not...

[ Which was all the more obvious thanks to Kate's message before their big trip. ]

But I don't. Your recklessness, sure, but that's a different problem. You know the original reason I teamed up with you, right?

( Her head tilts to the side, wide eyes blinking slowly. First one, then the other, as she listens. She hops back instead of answering straight away, even while brimming with curiosity. )

< Not exactly. > ( She admits that much right off the bat. ) < Outside of my charm and wit, obviously! >

( It's an easy, silly joke. She doesn't even mind making it at her expense, since she does figure she hass some sort of charm, and yes, she can sometimes be witty. Turning around, she walks purposefully off at a perpendicular angle. )

< I'm demorphing. Keep your eyes safe! >

( That counts as a warning in her mind. Close his eyes, look away, or watch the disturbing process -- he'd feel her weight returning as she'll cause his mattress to sink down with it, but rustling fabric is otherwise the extent of actual noise generated. )

[ He opts to close his eyes, not caring for the view demorphing gives even one bit. ]

Because you were useful, even before I knew about the morphing and the fighting. You had contacts all over the transports and the city already in place, without even trying. [ Considering she doesn't even think of her network of friends in that way, it obviously wasn't on purpose. ] I told you that before and I still mean it, it's a more powerful resource than you think it is.

That's hardly something a burden would have.

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suddenly action?!

when left to my own devices... and of course I lack the owl icon whoops

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