InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "um...noooooo."

Nebula (abluemeanie) wrote in snapthread,
@ 2019-08-02 14:51:00

Entry tags:

nebula (mcu), tony stark (mcu)

Who: Nebula and Tony
Where: Her home
When: Today
What: Nebula asks for help

After the arrival of the room in her home, Nebula had given it a wide berth any time she needed to pass it. It had been traumatic that first day, convinced that Thanos would find his way out of there and put her back into those restraints - Gamora had been able to talk her down and convince her that though the room was now there Thanos was not.

But even with that knowledge Nebula did not enjoy having the room there in her home. She had found something though, a small thing left in her bedroom that same day, the folded bit of scrap that she and Tony had used in those early days for their very first game.

Maybe that was why she sought him out now - because of that reminder.

In any case it seemed like the right move. She could have ripped the room to pieces, torn it from it's foundations and ruined it all, but she thought perhaps it could be put to better use than that. Potentially at least. So she sought out Tony today, finding at his shop. "Tony," She greeted him, in a way that was warm for her though would likely be called stiff by anyone else.

"I have a request." If there was anyone there in the town who could both help and potentially benefit from this it was him she was certain.

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allaboutego
2019-08-04 02:16 am UTC (link)

The thing about this place was that it did seem to bring good with the bad, even though it sometimes felt uneven and you'd miss it if you weren't squinting -- well. Sometimes, anyway.

Tony couldn't really miss the good that had come this time, because it'd come in the form of a completely revised workshop. Several levels of it, in fact, all set up for him in the building he'd picked in the square to be his new make-shift shop.

It was pretty fucking glorious to have all of his tools and his bots and everything else he'd had before. Even if it came at the assumed price of having metal stuck back into his chest like it'd never been gone at all. The last week had been difficult, and even now Tony was taking it easier than he normally would, working on something that only require sitting and a little movement as opposed to something grander. Still. It was getting easier. Like riding a bike. Or relearning how to breathe with limited lung capacity. Whichever.

He looked up when Nebula entered, and didn't miss the warmth in her greeting. It was a clear difference from when she wasn't friendly with someone, and he was well aware of it. "A request?" he asked, eyebrows raising. "Shoot."

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abluemeanie
2019-08-04 03:47 am UTC (link)

The shop was different than the last time she had been by, Nebula noticed - it would seem that she was not the only one to have a change recently. This place just got stranger and stranger. But he was there, and that was the important part of it all - so she came in further to greet him as he looked up.

"I -" She started and paused for a moment. "A room appeared in my home," She said instead, trying to think how best to describe it and how to get Tony to understand what she needed in that moment. "It was - On Thanos' ship. There was a room, just for me to be held in stasis if my father was in a good mood. Or to pull me apart piece by piece as painfully as possible when he was not." It was not a place she expected to see again in her life, not after the ship was destroyed, not after Thanos and his armies had been killed. And yet it was there in her home.

"It is there now, in my home. The equipment still functional and ready to be used again." She held herself still as she spoke, without fidgeting though she wanted to - she wanted to clench her fists and look anywhere but at one of the very few people in the universe that she knew would never use such technologies against her. And yet she was still afraid of it, though it was no longer the same fear that had gripped her the day it had appeared she still needed it dealt with.

Tony would be the right person for it. "I would not trust anyone else with the technology, and rather than destroy it, perhaps you would like to have some of it?" She offered.

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allaboutego
2019-08-05 02:31 am UTC (link)

Well, at least the changes everywhere made it more easy to really get it when someone came up and said that they'd had a room appear in their house. That wasn't normal. Hell, Tony at his most amped back home with a whole night and endless tools on his hand couldn't just make entire rooms appear.

His jaw tightened when she explained what it was that had really shown up, the gravity of it all. It wasn't a good room, not in the least. It was, perhaps, the equivalent of the cave he'd been tortured in -- but worse, because Tony's bad place hadn't lasted for all that long at all.

The point she was making here -- what Nebula was offering was the chance to make something good out of something so bad. He got that, and he appreciated it. Nebula was -- better than most. Tony didn't think she was even aware of it. "You sure you don't want to just take it out back and go at it with a baseball bat?"

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abluemeanie
2019-08-05 03:45 am UTC (link)

"I was tempted," Nebula agreed - she had not heard that phrase before but she understood the meaning. There might have been a kind of catharsis at tearing it down, pulling it apart piece by piece the same way she had been throughout the years. But more of her simply wanted it gone and no amount of destruction would aid her in making that happen, it would still be there, but in pieces, and that would not help her either.

She shook her head, "I am not sure if you will be able to make use of any of it, but if there is anyone who could-" She held out a hand as if the answer was obvious. Of course it would be Tony who could find some use for the technology used to torture her for so long, and if it could be changed into something new, something that could help? That felt better than giving in to the part of her that wanted nothing more than destruction.

"Thanos spent his life destroying everything he touched," She told him. He said it was in service to a greater purpose, to save the universe, to help those who would not help themselves. "I do not want to follow in his path any longer."

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allaboutego
2019-08-06 04:25 am UTC (link)

No, he supposed she wouldn't get the reference completely even if she could still get the gist behind it. Nebula probably wouldn't care for Office Space. That was one that might take a few more years of Terran living to really sink in the way it was meant to.

Now wasn't really the time for jokes anyway. Not even remotely.

"Right," he said, and actually moved to stand -- so often he felt like his workshop here had become an impromptu office and this wasn't just some... weird town request. Obviously, Nebula was family. A friend. "We'll make something else of it," he said firmly. "Even if it's just scrap metal for something else. It'll go to something good." And that was a promise. "Do you want to show me? It's okay if you don't."

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abluemeanie
2019-08-06 06:03 am UTC (link)

She nodded when Tony agreed that they could make something else with it. It didn't matter what it became, so long as it was gone, so long as she did not have to fear that it would be used against her again at some point. "Good, it should - be something else." Something that she could look at without fear.

And then he asked if she wanted to show him and a very large part of her did not want that at all, but she would not hide from this, not when he was giving her what she asked for - the chance to be rid of the room that had haunted her since it arrived. "Yes, I will show you." She agreed, turning then to the door intending that Tony should follow - he'd gotten to his feet after all - so of course he was coming with her.

Their home had changed much since they arrived, it still looked the same from the outside, nothing about it looked all that different, but inside the rooms were different, first Gamora's and then the additional room, and then her bedroom as well. That at least was a welcome change, the sound of the town was too quiet, she missed the hum of a ship. And her new room was one that gave her that, appearing just as suddenly as the other room had done.

She lead Tony from his workshop to her home and inside to the room. Outside the room though she stood for a moment, hesitating to open the door that they had not opened again since Gamora had closed it for her the day it had shown up. It was a little easier this time when she did finally reach forward to open the door, it didn't leave her paralyzed in fear the way it had that first day. Inside the equipment hung down from the ceiling, the spotlight illuminating the center of the room where she had been held in stasis so many times. And the control panel along side that could be used to piece her together or tear her apart, or view her memories without her permission. There was nothing of her that had not belonged to Thanos then. But she was free of him now.

"Once you have taken what you can, we will seal the room." She told him. It was a large space and maybe could have been used for something. But Nebula would never be able to stomach being in there even with the equipment removed.

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allaboutego
2019-08-07 10:16 pm UTC (link)

Tony followed dutifully (of course he did) his nanobot housing in his back pocket because the reactor had come and stolen back the spot where it used to sit so -- he was going to have to do some work on that front some time soon, he figured. But now was for this.

He paused at the threshold to Nebula's actual bedroom, curious about the noise for a moment before moving on because he had to. And because the sound of engines didn't really do it for him. Maybe some day he could go into space for a reason that wasn't for work. Maybe then he'd change his mind.

"Well," he said, looking at the room once it was opened up -- and he didn't miss Nebula's discomfort. "That's the worst, isn't it." He settled a hand on her forearm, comforting before nodding. "I'll take care of it. And then I'll even help you seal it off. I'm gonna look around for a bit, see what kind of tools I need for the job. You don't have to stay."

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abluemeanie
2019-08-07 11:27 pm UTC (link)

If she had been anyone other than who she was she might have flinched at the touch, as it was she looked at his hand on her seeing the gesture for what it was - an offered comfort in this space that held so many terrible memories for her. Terrans were like that, and Nebula who had never had that kind of thing in her life - at least not until she'd met Tony had been unused to it for a time, but she had crown more aware of it and accepting of it the more time she'd spent in their company.

Stark's daughter was especially fond of those kinds of shows of affection. And Nebula was fully aware what a gift it was to find something like that in someone so small.

"Yes," She agreed, it was the worst. But rather than go on about it, or try and ask her questions about the equipment Tony simply told her that he'd take care of it. He even offered to help her seal the room off once it was taken care of.

"Thank you," She said, both for his willingness to take care of the room but also for giving her the permission to leave the space while he looked around. "I will just be-" She nodded back toward the direction of her own room. It had been a surprise the way it arrived, like the room they were in, but now more than ever it was a comfort she hadn't known she was missing being here. It made her feel better to have it, to be able to retreat to the familiar space that didn't hold the same kind of memories that the other did. The hum of engines settled something deep within her that she never could name.

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