Awkward Turtle [closed]

[craaazyisland]

Just as he suspected. There really wasn't much to do, even on a giant crazy spaceship like this one. There was a media library, but you could only watch movies for so long before you remembered that you were on a giant crazy spaceship and it was stupid to be watching movies.

That's what made Steve go check out the sensoriums, if only so he could work off a little steam on some kind of training course. That seemed like a popular option. Thinking on it too much had made him ask if it could create the images of people, too, and since then he'd been trying to decide how creepy it would be to go see virtual versions of his parents. Whether it would be more therapeutic than necessitating therapy afterwards was still up in the air.

He wandered the halls glumly, trying to get his mind off of it and forlornly thinking how nice it would be if somebody he knew was somehow aboard too.

He did not expect to get his wish thirty seconds later, when somebody walked by and he immediately recognized her.

"Wait... Claire?"

Comments

[letmelive]

"You'd be surprised," she replied, eyes drifting to the street ahead.

"There haven't been any missions since I arrived, but from what I've heard everyone works with what they're best at." Claire didn't know for sure where Steve's talents lay, but they'd never exactly had much opportunity to ask him about his personal life. She didn't even know how it was he knew how to fly a plane.

[craaazyisland]

That was somewhat disheartening news. Steve had no idea what application there would be for him. He was pretty good with machines... but he didn't look forward to pushing any buttons around here, and he severely doubted whoever was in charge of Stacy needed help flying her. Maybe they'd have some kind of small craft or vehicles for him to operate.

But there were probably tons of people who were far more experienced than him. Maybe he'd end up a glorified go-fer or dishwasher.

"I guess we'll see. But at least they had my guns here somehow," he said. Just in case they needed him for combat. Just in case.

[letmelive]

"Yeah, I guess whatever you had on you at the time of abduction showed up here with you." Claire almost wished she'd been armed at the time, but she knew if it was necessary for her to be packing heat Leon would see to it that she was. The ship as it was, despite the oddness and the unknown dangers lurking in parts of the ship they couldn't reach, was relatively safe.

[craaazyisland]

"Except for normal clothes, of course," Steve joked, tugging irritably at the plant suit. "They gave me back my collar too. Just in case I wanted a fun souvenir from Rockfort to remember all the good times." Besides the tattoo, of course. "I left it in the box. Who wants something like that?"

He had been relieved to find the picture of his family in there. That hadn't been easy to procure on Rockfort in the first place-- snuck out of his father's wallet, in fact.

[letmelive]

"I don't think they determine what's going to upset you or not," Claire shrugged, crossing her arms loosely in front of her. "It would've been nice if they'd left our clothing along with everything else, though." Just like everyone else, she wasn't a fan of the creepy plant suit. But she wasn't about to go joining team Naked either.

[craaazyisland]

He shook his head. "Obviously not, or else they wouldn't design the whole ship like something out of a crappy TV sci fi movie."

It was sad that Steve's live in general was starting to resemble a crappy TV sci-fi movie, more or less. "Who knows, maybe they'll give us some clothes if we behave or do good or whatever it is they want us here for."

[letmelive]

"Maybe, but don't get your hopes up," Claire replied dryly, her eyes rolling to the fake sky above them. "This is probably the closest qualifying thing to clothes as far as Stacy is concerned."

[craaazyisland]

Steve smiled a little awkwardly at that. "Yeah, I won't... besides, getting a good night's sleep is all I really want right now."

The City really was impressively huge. With the fake night sky above, it was getting harder and harder to remember they were still inside that massive spaceship and hadn't wandered out somewhere. "I guess this place is kind of cool if you think about how big it is."

[letmelive]

"Yeah, I guess." She would still much rather be home where she knew where things were normal. Or well, as normal as they could've gotten in her case. Another turn and they were in sight of the precinct, despite still being a ways away, and she motioned at the tall building.

"That's the precinct."

[craaazyisland]

"Whoa..." Steve drifted off, staring at the tall building. "Well, it's definitely easy to spot... I guess that means there's lots of room, too."

Once again overcorrecting himself. "I mean, I won't take up a lot of room. I can use a couch or just a desk or something, that's totally fine with me."

[letmelive]

"There's plenty of space, don't worry about it," Claire laughed a little, reaching over to pat him on the shoulder. "I'm sure we'll be able to fit you in somewhere."

[craaazyisland]

He smiled at her more than a little bit awkwardly, abruptly finding something very interesting across the street to look at instead.

"Thanks for taking me here. It's not like you have to put up with me or anything like that." Steve seemed to have only half a clue what he was saying, speaking rather blankly and reflexively. "I mean, it's not like you really know me or anything, and it was a long time ago... for you, which is. Probably weird or something. So uh. I-it's really nice of you."

[letmelive]

She noticed the extreme awkwardness of his words and cleared her throat, nodding her head.

"It's fine. I'm glad you're here, Steve." There really was no way of getting around how awkward this situation was, but she had a duty to kids of any age who had been survivors of bioterror attacks. And if it weren't for her, Steve would have likely been able to escape Rockfort alive. She had always felt incredibly guilty about that, which was something very few people actually knew.

[craaazyisland]

He seemed to appreciate the sentiment, nodding at her with another very awkward smile. "I'm uh. I'm glad you're here too."

Then he immediately decided to pretend like he hadn't, glancing away and continuing behind her silently.

[letmelive]

Claire let that go, and let the silence continue until they reached the precinct. She led Steve inside and to one of the private conference rooms, shutting the door behind them to allow some privacy.

"So before I give you the grand tour, I should probably tell you what you want to know about.. what happened."

[craaazyisland]

Steve had sunk down into one of the chairs at the conference table, crossing his arms over his chest and looking intently at the top of the table.

"Yeah," he said in response. "I... don't remember a whole lot. The last thing I remember clearly was being in the snow CAT with you. Then after that everything's kind of fuzzy. Like it was a dream or something. But..."

He finally looked up at her. "I died, didn't I?"

[letmelive]

She exhaled slowly, sinking down into a chair across from him, nodding her head as she leaned her arms on the table.

"Alexia injected you with the T-Veronica virus. When I found you... you mutated, and attacked me. I was able to escape, but.." She frowned, recalling what had happened with perfect clarity despite the fact that it had been years since. Everything that happened to her involving Umbrella had frightening clarity in her mind.

"I was caught by Alexia's root things... which are what knocked the CAT over. You somehow fought the effects of the virus and saved me but... you died after that." She wasn't looking up at him as she finished, staring down at her hands folded loosely on the table. It wasn't exactly her favorite memory.

[craaazyisland]

Somehow he thought so. It was too vivid to be a dream, and it still only existed in his memory in bits and pieces, but somehow Steve knew it was all true. The injection mark in his arm that wasn't there anymore, the pain, what he said at the end... Oh god.

His face turned slowly a deep shade of red. But there would be time to worry about that later. Steve reached over and rubbed his arm where he remembered the needle stinging. "But... but then why am I here?" he asked. "How can I be... alive?"

A terrible thought crossed his mind, but he chose not to say anything about it quite yet. "I don't feel dead, Claire."

[letmelive]

Claire shook her head slowly, still not looking up at him.

"I don't know, Steve." She closed her eyes and swallowed briefly. "Maybe when you died, Stacy was able to beam you up and revive you. But..." she hesitated, opening her eyes again and looking up, although she looked past Steve instead of at him. "When Chris and I were making our way out, we ran into Wesker. He's... he was the reason Chris and his team got tied up in that whole mess, basically. His people supposedly collected your body for the T-Veronica sample, and he made a vague threat about... resurrecting you."

[craaazyisland]

"They took me for a sample?" he repeated. "Even after I..." Steve seemed to have trouble processing that all the way through. His eyes widened and he took in an uneasy breath, obviously very close to losing that composure he'd managed so far.

"Why?" he asked, even though he knew Claire wouldn't have the answers. "Why would they care if I was already dead? What if-- what if I'm still infected?" His hand fastened tightly around his arm. "What if that virus is still inside me? What's gonna happen to me?"

[letmelive]

"I wouldn't have brought you back here if I didn't think it was safe, Steve." Not completely true, there was a part of her that had her doubts, but he'd been able to control it once before, after all. "We've got some doctors onboard, I'll talk with Leon and we'll see if they can run some tests."

That wasn't exactly a conversation she was looking forward to. She knew Leon would be pissed she'd brought someone she suspected might be infected with a strain of the T-Virus anywhere in their vicinity. But he'd been walking around the ship for a few days now, and hadn't transformed. Surely if something would have happened, it would have by now.

[craaazyisland]

Claire's reassurances were not exactly working. "So- so I might hurt someone? I could just... I could turn into a monster again and hurt people and then die all over again?"

He took in another shaky breath, reaching up and clutching at his forehead. "I don't want to be a science experiment! I don't want everybody to think I'm some virus freak like that stupid crazy woman!"

[letmelive]

"Steve calm down," Claire urged, looking directly at him and stretching a hand slightly towards him on the table. "Despite what we don't know about the T-Veronica, the T-Virus would have mutated you by now." She couldn't imagine how difficult this was for him. She'd never had to deal with trying to calm down someone who was infected, with no clear hope of a cure.

"You just need to try to stay positive, all right? Back home, there's a cure for the T-Virus, now. If you are infected, it's entirely possible we'll be able to reverse it."

[craaazyisland]

"Maybe that's why I didn't die. Maybe I'm already not normal, but I'm something... something else. I could make people sick... What if curing me will make me die again?" Steve's confidence was altogether gone by now, replaced with obvious distress. He took a few deep breaths and looked up at Claire from underneath his hand, on the verge-- but not quite yet-- crying.

"Why me?" he said. "Why did all of this have to happen to me?"

[letmelive]

Claire's brow furrowed, and she retracted her hand, rubbing the back of her neck and looking down at the table top. She didn't know how to answer that.

"I don't know," she finally replied, quietly. "I wish I had answers for you, Steve, but I don't. So much of what Umbrella did doesn't make any sense."