Reflect What You Are [video]

[wormintheglass]

[It's not that Bianca hasn't been enjoying the party. She's been everywhere, but fleetingly: pouring drinks, drinking toasts, absorbing the ambience, drinking some more. She has made no effort to take centre stage - till now.

It's during the last days, when everyone is feeling the worse for wear and the riotousness has died down some, that Bianca appears on the network.

She is not on a stage, not using one of the karaoke machines. She's in her house, the lights low, and one of her pet hyenas props her back up while the other acts as a footrest. She has an open bottle of tequila in one hand, and the carcasses of several empties lie around her. When she stares into the video feed, the unfocused look in her eyes suggests that standing up might currently be beyond her power. Her mirror lies on her lap.

Instead of speaking, Bianca starts to sing. Her voice is deep, powerful and true, and she doesn't speak until the song is finished.]

My cavemates. My friends. I fell here from a great ship between the stars, one just as inescapable and dark as these tunnels, just as full of monsters.

It had its own mirror, its own equal and opposing force. I shall not bore you with the tale of the two ships' struggle for dominance, of how I changed sides and fought at my own side for love and redemption.

[She says these words with derisive emphasis, and then smiles.]

I was sure I would die. What does one do, after one's great heroic sacrifice is rejected? After one wakes from the final battlefield to find oneself on another battlefield, ridden by yet more gods and monsters?

[She answers her own question by raising her bottle shakily to take another deep swallow.]

I am Bianca. Tell me, my children, where did you arrive here from? Where is your home?

Comments

[voice]

[circumitus]

[Rey has always liked music. From the day of her creation, it's had a calming quality about it. With no radio beyond her music player with an unsavory variety of the same songs, she more than welcomes the tunes coming from her communicator.

[There is silence following, after hearing what Bianca has to say in the wake of her song. It's a revelation that demands some thought before an answer can form itself.]

Was supposed to die as well, but that choice was taken away -- repeatedly. Was angry about it at first. Not so certain how to feel about it now.

Haven't yet figured out what one is supposed to do about it yet.

[wormintheglass]

Where there's life there's hope, or so they tell me.

[She does not spit the word. She merely looks as though she would like to.]

As though that were an acceptable trade-off in any universe. What did you choose to die for?

video

[unfollowing]

[Not even the network is safe from all this partying. Fan-fucking-tastic. And not only is this drunken bullshit, it's dramatic drunken bullshit. At least this Bianca lady can sing.

But just.

Goddamnit. Everyone needs to shut up or take the party elsewhere, holy shit.

Emily looks a little disgruntled, but put together (it's how she rolls) when she videos in.]

So you came here... to help all us children.

[Riight.]

Okay. I'll play.

I came here from hell. My home is hell. There's people with flamethrowers there, it's on fire, and it's also frozen over.

It sucks.

video

[wormintheglass]

[Bianca, conversly, is perfectly gruntled, if not quite put together just now.]

I doubt it, dear heart. I suspect I - and all of us - were caught in the trawling net of our "gods" by pure chance.

Do you find conditions here better?

[Video]

[thechoiceisyours]

[Well, a lot of this sounds... Familiar, in a way. Not the part about spaceships--if that's even what she's talking about--or about the mirror, at least other than the mirrors given to them by Hope. But about some of the rest of it he can understand, even though a few months ago he never would've thought he'd be able to say such a thing.]

I uh... I dunno if you were here for the whole wendigo thing, but that was what was going on at home. We'd just gotten out of all of that and ended up here.

[So yeah, out of one terrible situation and directly into another. That isn't the only part of what she said that he can empathize with, but it's the only part he's willing to talk about.]

[Video]

[wormintheglass]

[Bianca laughs brightly.]

I was. Such a welcome. I had to shoot a boy I barely know - though I suppose he wasn't precisely a boy at the time.

Is it endemic to your world?

voice.

[bekommen]

[... Oh. Nick knows this song a little too well. Kennedy used to sing it at open mic night sometimes; sometimes she'd sing it when it was just the two of them, together, alone. Hearing it again, sung by someone else - it's more painful than Nick expected.

A lot of what Bianca says doesn't make sense, or maybe Nick's just a little too far on this side of drunk to follow it. One thing does stick out to her though, through the deadening haze of alcohol:]

What if you don't gotta home?

voice.

[wormintheglass]

[Bianca laughs, throaty and deep and rich, for nearly too long before answering.]

Then you deflect questions by asking everyone about theirs in public, dear heart. What else?

[video]

[mismanagement]

You have a lovely voice.

[Maketh isn't drunk when she responds, though she is out of uniform - hair down, face a little softer than usual.]

I came from a place called Lothal.

[She thins her mouth.]

Then I died there. I suppose I have no home, then.

[video]

[wormintheglass]

[Bianca's smile is real and radiant.]

So kind. Thank you.

Does death mean you no longer have a home?

video

[prespangled]

[Steve has a lot of questions, things to say, things to answer. He's not even sure to start, but he's gonna start somewhere.]

I don't know that song, but you have a really nice voice. And to answer your question, I'm from Brooklyn.

[video]

[wormintheglass]

[She smiles, inclining her head as graciously as her drunken coordination allows.]

Last time I was there was during the Prohibition. It made life exciting.

[action]

[foundafamily]

[The sounds of singing catch Firo's attention, and he strolls into the room just in time to catch the tail end of her post. He'd been trying to nurse a headache from all the ruckus, but it was a fruitless endeavor. At least this was interesting.]

You've got some pipes on you. Dunno what any of that means, but it sounded good.

[He settles against the wall, arms folded. The question she'd closed the broadcast with echoes in his mind. He finds himself thinking back to their first meeting and smiles as if they're sharing a secret.]

I probably don't have to tell you much about the place I was in before. Unless--I dunno, maybe prison's different for ladies.

Anyway. That place definitely wasn't home.

[action]

[wormintheglass]

[Bianca smiles sloppily up at him.]

There were two prison barges, you know. My counterpart, on the mirror version of mine - she called it home.

I couldn't have done that. Is there a place you miss, my Firo?

[morphinum]

[ Aw, well isn't that poetic? Johanna's perched on some rubble from an ill-fated firework experiment, bruised and grinning like a jackal. She's got a bottle of hard, cheap liquor in one hand, which she raises for Bianca. ]

They'd whore you out with a voice like that, where I'm from.

[ It's pointless to pretend that Capitol performers are anything but. Johanna's been in the propos. She knows.

[wormintheglass]

[Bianca doesn't often grin, but Johanna draws it out of her.]

For a suitably high price, I hope and trust.

video

[trybelieving]

Before I arrived here, I was in Storybrooke, Maine. Home is somewhere else.

[She hasn't had one of those in decades, it's no surprise she ended up here instead of the land she came from.]

[wormintheglass]

What makes it home, as opposed to just another place where you once lived?

voice;

[hotspurred]

[Bianca's singing is a breath of fresh air compared to the wretched karaoke, druken shrieking and inescapable, endless 'music' abound, which convinces Henry to engage. It will serve as a distraction, if nothing else.]

One fights anew.

[There is a tired edge to his sharp voice. Delight's expanded party is making restful sleep a difficult prospect.]

I was dragged here from France. But England is my home.

[video]

[wormintheglass]

Let me guess, you were at war?

[The details of European history blur, these days, and Bianca currently has no means to check her facts. But the man's syntax is suggestive of a pre-industrial timeline, and she remembers enough to know that England and France were at war a great deal in those days.]

video

[64th]

Johanna's right about your voice. [ as painful it is to say that. ] They used to make my brother and me sing duets. Love songs, mostly.

video

[wormintheglass]

Johanna strikes me as someone right about many things.

[Perhaps Bianca has picked up on the grudginess; perhaps it's only that she's rather pleased by Johanna.]

Does he look like you?

action;

[drinkupmehearties]

[ He's been out nearly every day since the celebrations have started -- drinking his fill of liquor and returning for more, socializing, doing his best to drown out the reality of where he is and where he's not.

When Jack does return to the apartment, it's just as Bianca begins to sing. He lingers near the doorway and listens to her, only making his presence known once the song is finished. ] I hadn't known that you've such a lovely singing voice.

[ Jack strolls over with unsteady steps to where she is, a bottle of liquor clasped in his hand. He's been taking full advantage of the festivities, clearly. ] I ain't from anywhere in particular, to answer your question. But I find meself curious about where you are from. Where your home is.

[wormintheglass]

[She spots him long before she finishes her song, but Bianca has been a performer for centuries: there's only a brief eye contact to let Jack know she's seen him - seen him and is suitably grateful for the lack of interruption.

She smiles.]

Why, we're compatriots, then, my Captain. I'm amazed we didn't meet sooner.

text;

[mainiac]

FROM NOWHERE. CREATED MYSELF

[Hi Bianca. Someone is feeling Talkative today apparently.

Hey it's better than his other main form of entertainment?]

[text with video]

[wormintheglass]

[Bianca knows perfectly well he can hear her, but she only smiles on the video feed while she types her reply.

It seems politer, for some reason.]

for a very long time, i regretted having no family, no homeworld. for a very long time i continued to crave those things.

[Never mind that her mirror proves she still does. Bianca has never had a problem with selective facts.]

but it's much better this way. we're stronger.

what name should I call you, sweet one?