5754/Reality Check

Reality Check
Date of Scene:	27 March 2021
Location:	Lower Deck - Milano
Synopsis:	Shortly after Gamora's nice moment with Quill, Nebula angrily confronts her with the reality of their situation, and assures Gamora that her death or retrieval to Thanos is not off of the table.
Cast of Characters:	Gamora, Nebula

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Gamora has posed:
    So Gamora's quest to turn down the music didn't go as planned. She has left the room, the volume no quieter for her interference, and she didn't even use every tool in her arsenal to quiet it. Quill is both alive, and unharmed. Hell, he's happier than he was before she went in!

    Moments after having parted ways with Quill, Gamora walks the halls of the Milano, holding her removed cloak with one hand so it drapes over one shoulder, heels clicking on the floor as she looks downward with, it must be said, a slightly... silly look on her face. And she's... humming? "Hmmm hmm munna hmm yuh hmmm... you make me feeeel like..."

Nebula has posed:
    You make me feel like shoving you against the wall for all that loud music was resonating through the Milano. Louder than normal. So Nebula does push Gamora against the wall with one hand and says with harsh but soft conspiratorial tones, "Nice? It was ... Nice?!"

    She looks disgusted and angry. The angry is normal. The disgusted is new. "You don't _dance_ with a Terran and call it Nice Gamora. You've become weak. Pathetic," she says with a reinforced push of her shoulder. "Tell me you were playing him. Make me believe it."

Gamora has posed:
    It is further testament to how much Gamora seems to have lost her way very recently that she is caught utterly off guard by her sister's attack, possibly for the first time since they were children. She grunts as her back hits the wall, dropping the cloak and grabbing the wrist of the hand pinning her to the wall.

    Yellow hued eyes are ablaze, only to extinguish promptly when Gamora realizes what Nebula's seen - how it must have looked - and what she's accusing her of.

    Gamora looks angry... and embarrassed. Likewise, the anger is nothing new. Embarrassment is positively alien to her body language. "I-... you..." she stammers as she endures conflicting instincts; the embarrassed impulse to lie and play it off, and the defensive instinct to tell Nebula it's not a big deal.

    Problem is, she's not actually sure it wasn't.

    Gamora seethes for a second and harshly - if hushedly - replies, "It is none of your *concern*, Sister. Peter-" Gamora grimaces, "-The Terran has elected not to attack us, or turn us in. I wished only to gain greater insight into his... nature. I... I got..." Gamora's eyes shift to the side in unconvincing fashion, and lamely finishes, "... carried away, that's all."

Nebula has posed:
    Nebula watches all the facial ticks, all the facial cues.. where her cybernetic insights and her own mental insights begin and end is a mystery to her after living with them most of her life. The point being - she can tell that Gamora isn't being entirely truthful.

    She lets her go with a look of mild horror and says, "You're a fool sister." There's even a touch of a sneer.. once more Gamora has put her in to a terrible situation and there's no easy way out of it. "Do you even know why I'm here? with you? on this stupid stinky little ship?"

    She taps the side of her head and says, "I record everything. I have no choice. That stupid commercial you insisted we do. You dancing and humming with the Terran. Everything. You know who will see it.. one day, when I am returned to him. It is inevitable Gamora."

Gamora has posed:
    If anyone needed proof that a Zen-whoberian can turn pale, Gamora provides it. Indeed, there are visible waves as the depth of what Nebula's told her hits her one gruelling fact at a time, ranging from a kneejerk embarrassment to be seen in that way by the man her life revolved around, to the sheer scale of how he may react, what problems he might perceive with it... and how he may seek to fix it.

    Gamora had not straightened up for long before she slumps back against the wall, wide eyes looking downward as she reels from this thought. Her breathing quickens for several seconds, but... slows as her jaw sets, and she looks forward at Nebula again. "You will not be returned to him." She says firmly, as if it's that simple. "He won't find us."

Nebula has posed:
    Nebula scowls at Gamora's declaration that Thanos won't have her back. She then stares at Gamora, "Such hubris, to think that you have any such control over our father." She frowns and her lips become thin lines. It is then that she betrays her own failing.

    "I was sent to retrieve you, and if I could not do that.. kill you." And instead she's been paling around with her sister and the weirdos of the Milano for months doing her level best to protect Gamora. Because this was the first time she had ever seen her sister actually happy. Too happy. Today she crossed the line.

    The worst part of it is, if she does take Gamora home alive she'll receive a slap on the wrist for her running away.. Nebula knows she will be tortured greatly for her disobedience. "You disgust me sister," she says in annoyance not at Gamora, but at herself. She disgusts herself.. weak, pathetic as she called Gamora.. is how she thinks of herself, for allowing this indulgence to continue.

    "Everyone on this ship will die," she adds with certainty, not a warning. For how could father ever tolerate these creatures continuing to exist knowing what they know about his daughters. That they are inferior.

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora expression sets into a dangerous kind of focused stillness when Nebula voices her true reason for joining, though she also looks somehow... disappointed. Not surprised, though, no sir. It was too much to hope they Nebula had simply taken an opportunity to escape, as Gamora had. It was absurd to believe that Nebula ever had any motivation besides their Father's will; or at least surviving it. Not so deep down, Gamora... figured. But over time, it seems, she'd gotten better at ignoring that possibility. Got better at pretending.

    Maybe she really has become weak.

    "... Kill me, then." She says coldly, sounding, at once, more like the Gamora you know, yet she's expressing a sentiment completely alien to her when divorced from Thanos' will. "You fear Father more than you fear me. You'd surely take my blade over his vengeance. "What could possibly have motivated you to wait this long if you don't think there's a chance?"

Nebula has posed:
    Nebula has a simple but probably impossible life goal: kill father. It is at odds with Gamora running away. The plan always involved pawns and Gamora was a knight. It'd be much harder to kill father without Gamora. Her black eyes scan across Gamora's face searchingly and she asks, "Why do you do this? you know what he's going to do to me. You only make it so much worse. Always, so much worse."

    She lets go of Gamora and takes a step back, shuddering. The logical answer is the one she gives, a falsehood, because she can afford it. "I can still retrieve you, so I do not need to kill you.. yet," she says softly. Weird, to think, that she truly could kill Gamora right now. How is that possible? what has that Terran done to her? "The punishment for not bringing you in alive will be so.. much worse." ...than the punishment for bringing her in so late.

Gamora has posed:
    Gamora is not the most expressive person in the Galaxy. She comes from a passionate race, and struggles with intense feelings, but her entire life has been built around control, discipline, and... consequences. And yet, perhaps to your point, she hasn't quite enough self control to avoid betraying a sort a pain. Perhaps even... guilt.

    So much of Nebula's torment came at Gamora's hands; the price for defeat. And as much as she'd wished otherwise - for as long as she'd wished otherwise - throwing a fight was never an option. One does not... volunteer for the price of failure. Not with Thanos. But would it have been as bad? Would Father truly have treated Gamora as harshly as he treated Nebula?

    Perhaps she simply never had the courage to find out.

    "... I'm not going back, Sister. No matter what. I'm not..." Gamora looks frustrated for a moment, "... I can't be the person he needs me to be." Which isn't to even neccessarily says that she thinks Thanos is *wrong*, but... to kill so utterly indiscriminantly... it became too much.

Nebula has posed:
    A smirk from Nebula. Perhaps at the slight look of pain? or may be from her admission that she can't do what father wants. She is not feeling kind today. This ship somehow got more ridiculous by inviting a bunch of Kryptonians on board. Not that she hasn't been considering using Power Girl to kill father...

    "Father will ... fix you," she says extremely darkly. Like he fixed her, right? "Coward," she adds with a touch of genuine anger. And yet, here they stand. No one is trying to knock anyone out, no one is trying to kill anyone. For all the complex and intense emotions that are shared between them.. it is a truth that Nebula is already in too deep. She's already taken too long to complete her mission -- what does it matter if there's a few more months until the mission is done?

    With that shared revelation she narrows her eyes, "You'd best watch yourself sister, father does not accept no as an answer."

Gamora has posed:
    Just a few short months ago, to call Gamora a coward to her face would be to invite dismemberment, or worse, even for Nebula. Thanos' world is not one where sentiment wins the day, and there's a non-trivial part of Gamora that thinks every second Nebula is allowed to stay upright only reinforces her accusation.

    'The fiercest woman in the Galaxy', Father had once called her.

    What a joke.

    The background hum of Quill's music now seems like a cruel mockery of the mood between the two sisters as Gamora stands up straight, and evenly says, in a tone with an ominous quality that overshadows the apparent naivety one could read into the words: "... He won't have to." before she begins to walk away.