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As well as one can in a hulking ship careening its way through the vast unknown of space. I think I'm doing pretty well.

[ A sit down. Yeah, Alva's not filled with confidence with this at all. He leaves the bigger flasks upturned on a tray, toweling a smaller one in his hands. ]

What's up? You don't look so hot.

[ Steve's not sure what to make of that comment, though he doesn't say as much. Instead, he just leans in his chair and idly rubs at the back of his neck. What opportunities they've had to speak hadn't exactly been the most conducive to bridging the gap between them, and what he wants to ask might not even be his business. Of course, it's too late for that considering he'd already contacted him, so. ]

I'm good. [ He breaks for a pause, and then: ] I thought I could ask you more about the place you're from. If you've got the time.

[ The answer pulls him up short. Home is a giant hole of trigger warnings. The Houses, the labs, the three generations of Gloriana -- it's a long talk looking forward from when he had the roughest introduction to the Kerns-Norman gene.

Alva puts the flask down, folds hands into the towel as his gaze disappears at an unseen distance. ]

I don't mind talking about it, but why? What about it do you want to know, and why now? There's no bad blood between us. You know that. You're a friend to Andyr, and he's family to me. That extends to you.

—Is this about him?

Edited (phone tagging suxx) 2016-10-19 09:08 (UTC)

[ Why is something easy to answer, but it's also very complicated for him. He also feels it's not something he should mention here, when he hardly knows anything about Alva aside from a handful of things he's picked up from Andyr and the man himself, and really, while he wants to know more about both of them, he also wants to know about their world and what it is they call home. ]

Curiosity, I guess. I didn't come to see you to start trouble. [ Because that's not how he does it, and he wouldn't want to risk making him or Andyr mad. Alva's second question is quickly answered with a quiet, ] How did the two of you meet?

I know you won't, you don't have the eyes.

[ He doesn't explain what he means by the eyes; it's hard to explain anyway, that hyper-specific look that's always cued him to someone starting shit in the labs. It's the same look in people, whether or not they were KN - this look that preluded someone going off the script for what the scheduled horror was set up for the day.

The actual question Steve has for him, though — Alva starts off with a small chuckle that rolls on out into a full-blown laugh. ]

Ah, jeez. That.

Well, okay. We're from different Houses — like, camps, you know, he's from one place and I'm from another. Sometimes one House brings in people from another House to help with things. Techs, doctors, research people — sometimes they borrow people for a weekend or two, just for the hell of it. Parties, dinners, weddings, whatever they felt like.

Andyr was— You've seen his ports? "Property of Hapsburg." He's their centerpiece, probably because they've had him for so long and he still hasn't died from all the shit they put him through. And he fights. A lot.

First thing he did when we first met - the first actual meeting - he spat at me. Perfect aim.

Guards said he's had years to practice.

[ It's a comment he brushes over, something that doesn't need to be elaborated on. Some people think they know him just from his name and others from the way he looks; that's never changed, even before the serum, and anyway, Steve doesn't want to talk about himself. The more he hears about this world, the less he likes it and the more he wants to go there and take it apart from its center.

Steve doesn't laugh, but his mouth curls just a little like he might smile. ]

Sounds like something he would do. [ Unfortunately? He doesn't know, but it isn't the absolute worst way to meet someone. And all that information is tucked away to be thought on later, crossing his arms as he regards Alva. Some of the similarities between them are still strange to him, but most of them end at the physical. Steve's never given his own reflection as much consideration as he does the man standing in the room. ] And your House? Is it like Hapsburg?

[ Because he knows a decent amount about what it is they do there. Or, at least, what they've done to Andyr, though he's sure none of them were probably ever known for being kind. ]

[ Like a switch being flipped - Alva shutters down his body language, evening them out to a near-flatline as he pulls himself up a chair.

He's taking the scenic route for this one. ]

When I first held my little girl, she was— [ he holds out roughly two hand-spans and a half's width between his palms. ] Fit neatly into the crook of one arm, you know. Her head would be right here, over my heart. The nurses let me hold her while Nora was sleeping off the anaesthesia.

They were the most perfect, beautiful, happiest five hours of my life. Just looking at this little human being in my arms.

Then all of... that. All of that happened and I had to—

[ He misses her. Every damned day, he misses his little girl. ]

Gloriana's compound, you know the first thing you see when you come into the labs? After the foyer and the elevators, past the doors, there's this long hallway, practically laser-straight. Entire walls made of glass. On either side of you's a nursery. Boys on the left, girls on the right. You could see right through each one of them.

The first kid I worked with, they didn't even want to save her. They just wanted for us to pull her apart, see if there was anything worth breeding into her next life.

Did he tell you that? The memories? How they get passed on every iteration?

She came back to my table two months later and she didn't recognize the men who had cut into her over a hundred times, but she remembered butterflies. That she loved the ones we had in the garden, but she knew she'd never seen them before in her short, five-day life.

Every House is different.

[ Every House is a different kind of evil. ]

[ Scenic isn't exactly what Steve would call it, but it paints a picture he'd rather not have to imagine. Those are the differences that separate them beyond different worlds, what family is and what it means. The way he shifts in his seat reads uncomfortable, but it has nothing to do with Alva's story or what it means to be too deep in something that prides itself on that sort of experimentation. Hadn't that been the start of things back home for him, a personal nerve that's struck each and every time someone mentions it? Eventually, quietly, Steve's shaking his head. ]

We don't talk about it much. [ Not since that first moment they'd met, and Andyr had wanted to break his neck when he thought he'd been Alva's iteration. ] I don't know if it'd be something to bring up with Andyr, and I'm sorry I asked you. [ But he figures Alva's level of honesty wouldn't have been the same as Andyr's, and he wants to keep the conversation as level as possible. ] I wanted to help. If I could.

[ There's a low sigh. ]

Stop them from doing that to more people, to Andyr. Get your daughter back. If there's a way, I wanna find it, and I'm not going to give up until then. [ His expression thins. ] Unless you think it's a bad idea. [ But that still doesn't guarantee he won't try. ]

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