when were you happy? (open)

[travailed]

CHARACTERS: Beth and YOU
WHERE: here there and everywhere
WHEN: any day and every day
SUMMARY: open prompts for downtime. if you'd like something specific hit me up at pineappamatic!
WARNINGS: N/A! will update as necessary


i. hello, it's me

[Beth doesn't like the sensation of the mental link, like a lot of people. She feels like it's been enough time that she should be used to it by now, but she isn't. She doesn't mind people seeing into her head, though, as much as she feels like she's infringing on others' boundaries, or inflicting the tangled mess of her mind on them.

So, she's making a point to meet and get to know everyone. Really get to know them, the old fashioned way. Where people reveal information about themselves as they feel comfortable.

It's kind of a tall order, but she's trying.

It could be anywhere: in the rec wing or the nesting deck or just in a hallway. The ice doesn't need to be broken first, either; if Beth makes eye contact with a stranger long enough, she'll muster up the courage to break it herself, stepping forward enough to catch their eye.]

Hi. [Her voice is soft but her eyes are steady. She holds her hand out to shake.] I'm Beth. I don't think we've met before.

ii. push it

[On occasion, Beth can be found in the training wing. There isn't a set pattern to when she shows up; it's more that there are good days and bad days, and on her bad days she feels a need to be productive. She needs to be better. Stronger. She can't get complacent or comfortable. This place isn't any safer than where she came from, it's just a different kind of danger.

The thing is, though, she's small. And she's never had any sort of proper training regimen; most of what she knows is a combination of physical feats made in fight-or-flight situations and what people could teach her in the scant moments of spare time they could find back at the prison.

But she can start by lifting some weights.]

'Scuse me. [She points at a set of hand weights that they may or may not be standing in front of.] Can I get at those?

iv. choose your own adventure

[Hit me with a prompt of your own, or let me know if you'd like to plot out something else!]

Comments

II

[earthborn]

Beth, right?

[Shepard says it with recognition, turning to face Beth with a water-bottle in her hand. It's more like a water-bulb, actually. It looks like something made for a space-themed amusement park, not for regular use.]

Sure. I haven't seen you in here before. You come here regular?

[travailed]

[She bobs her head. She is indeed Beth, right. Her eyes linger a little on the water... thing, but she's too polite to call it out as anything other than a normal water bottle.]

Not regular. Just sometimes. [She smiles a little.] I haven't had this much free time in... a while. Sometimes I feel like I should— [she makes a hand gesture vaguely resembling "lifting weights" before she bends down to actually pick up the ones she was after.] Practice. You know? Just, just in case.

[So: when she feels antsy, she means.]

[earthborn]

Practice lifting weights?

[Shepard regards Beth with an expert eye. She's... Well, not weak, exactly. There's a nervous sort of steel in her that Shepard thinks is more an impression lent by the Symbiote than one visible to the casual observer. Shepard thinks, maybe it's good steel too-- the kind that's already been tempered once or twice. It's work making something of.]

Alright. [It's not a deliberate cruelty, but the it's your time to waste is clear in the casualness of the shrug, the easy lift of eyebrows.] Y'know, we haven't talked much, for all we're...

[She trails off, making a you-then-me gesture, to indicate the connection, then sighs.]

...I hate the word "brood." Makes us sound like insects. What about you?

[travailed]

Or chickens.

[Her smile slants a little, sardonic. She doesn't like the term, either.]

I like to think of it more like a team. Or... roommates. [Head-mates? Either way, they're up in each other's business probably more than they would like to be, like roommates.] Sorta.

[Weights aren't specifically what she's looking to practice, but it's something to do that's physical, so it's close enough. She isn't really here to prove anything to anyone other than herself, so she does a few easy curls just while she's standing there.]

We can talk, if you want. I'd like to get to know everybody better. Y'know, without.... [She taps her temple, awkwardly. Without snooping.]

ii

[deployed]

[ Beth reminds him of home sometimes. Her presence in his head is tidy, somehow. Bellamy never finds her invasive. And she sparks the same kind of protectiveness in him that the delinquents had at home. Even without asking, the flickers of thought that's bled out of her mind gives him the impression that she's been struggling to survive. Bellamy can't help but want to ease that for her while she's here. ]

Trying to bulk up?

[ He steps aside, but he doesn't go all that far. ]

Can you fight?

[ They might as well be blunt about it. Bellamy isn't good at easing into that particular topic. He'd been blunt with the kids on the dropship and what was left of the Ark guard. There hadn't been any reason not to. ]

[travailed]

[At least Bellamy asks. Beth's used to most people just assuming the answer is no.]

Yes.

[The answer is crisp, maybe a little colder than usually comes from her. She doesn't mean it to be, it's just that sometimes that's what it takes to get people to believe her.]

But I know that I'm not— It's easier, with a gun. That's not always an option. So I figured... while I have the chance. You know?

[deployed]

The weights are a good start.

[ And the idea that they had the luxury to start with such a basic thing as building strength feels incongruous to Bellamy. They'd never had that on the ground. And he hadn't been in the guard long enough to participate in those exercises. ]

But you're probably better off learning to work with what you have.

[ Though even as he says that, Bellamy feels the undeniable truth that he's hardly the best person to be giving instruction. ]

Do you have someone here to teach you?

[travailed]

[Working with what she has. She thinks so too, deep down— it's just basic biology that the odds of her bulking up much more are slim. She's definitely stronger than she was before the outbreak, physically and otherwise, but she still lags far behind most men and women who were physically larger than her at the outset.]

I might. [She looks down at the weights in her hands. Misato would probably agree, if Beth asked.] I hadn't really got that far yet, to be honest.

i

[greentech]

[ Time has seemed to pass slowly. Or very quickly. At times Pidge isn't sure which. So much has happened, but with no real set structure or goal, each day on the station seems to bleed into the next. It's maddening. She's taken to trying to keep a calendar and to update it, taking notes on events. She's in the middle of updating it, perched on a seat in the rec room, laptop precariously balanced on her knees when Beth catches her eye and she glances up curiously. New face.

Oh, they're doing introductions. She extends her hand with a slightly awkward smile and shakes. ]

Uh, hi. You're... new. Right?

[ There's a pause. ]

Oh! Right. I'm Pidge. Or Katie. Either works.

[travailed]

Okay. Katie. [She assumes "Pidge" is a nickname; it feels more polite to her to use Katie for now.] It's nice to meet you.

[She takes another of the empty seats and fiddles with a pack of cards in her lap, shuffling and reshuffling.]

I didn't mean to interrupt you or nothin'. I just don't know everybody yet, so I wanted to at least get everybody's names, you know?

[greentech]

[ Katie is fine. She's just not entirely used to it again after all this time, even if Misato does use it. ]

It's fine! And, yeah, it's not like we're a giant crew or anything. Although I guess it's about six times as large as my last crew, which is saying something.

[ She tends to babble a bit. ]

So, uh, you just... came aboard, right?

[ She doesn't want to say 'hatched' or 'spawned'. Her eyes fall on the cards and she eyes them curiously without saying anything. At least not yet. ]

[travailed]

[She appreciates that. She doesn't much enjoy thinking of herself as a fish or a bug.]

Sorta. There's folks newer than me, I think. But I've only ever been on the station.

[She hadn't really thought about the relative size of the crew, just that she'd been surprised when so many more people came back after she and Misato and the others woke up. It makes sense, though. Most space missions at home only had a handful of astronauts on them, right?]

Have you been in space before? Before— this, I mean.

i!

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ Except for with a very small handful of people, Sam's default is to keep his shields up strong - especially with those he hasn't met before. He doesn't want people in his mind, sure, but his is also out of respect for other people's boundaries. They're already hard enough to maintain here.

So his mind is quiet when he runs into her in the hall, giving off nothing but a faint sense of calm. He's got a satchel of vegetables from the garden on the station hooked over one shoulder, and he shoots her a smile in greeting even before she introduces herself. ]

Sam. Good to meet you. [ His hand is callused, grip firm and friendly as he shakes hers. ] How long you been here?

[travailed]

[She's not as good as he is at keeping everything behind a wall, but the calm steadiness coming off of him helps a little bit. It's nice, sort of like habituating to a hum in an otherwise quiet room.

It helps relieve some of her awkwardness, too, and she returns the smile with a small one of her own.]

It's been a while. Since before the rest of y'all came back from Concordia. [She's proud to remember the name, now, even if she never saw it for herself.] I was tryin' to keep track of the days, but.... It gets harder the longer we go, I think.

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ Practice, really. He's spent a lot of time focusing on it, and compared to someone like Prince he's got a long way to go - but he's okay with where he's at, when it means he can hold a conversation like this with someone without either of them having to worry about giving off or getting more than they plan.

He gives a little chuckle at that, making a face at the difficult of keeping track of days on the station. ]

On Concordia it wasn't so hard, because they had real days and kept their own time, but up here... it's weird as hell without the sun, you know?

[travailed]

Yes.

[That's a little more... emphatic than she usually is. But look, she's a farm girl. The sun is a big deal.]

I mean, I know what you mean. I got pretty good at trackin' the time and the days back home, but without the sun it's like we don't even have them. [beat] I mean, I guess we don't. But it makes plannin' your day and stuff even harder than it is already.

ilde option

[erbier]

[ Ilde has a fancy for distance weapons. She has yet to have occasion to use one on a mission, she has only ever played with them in the range, and it is sporting for her. She likes the fantasy of keeping so much space between herself in danger. She has always been forced to embrace it up close, bloodying her hands. She practices with the variety of options available, guns and knives, other missiles, but today she has chosen a bow. It is an old fashioned thing, with none of the pulleys that guide a modern bow. It is more challenging to aim and to pull, and when it comes to training she prefers a functional activity over jogging or weight lifting.

She pulls back the bowstring with a strong fluid motion, bracing her back and shoulders firmly as she considers her target. The Station is a good environment for arrows, with little natural interference. She compensates for the natural pull to the outside of the knock, and aims fairly well.

Only then does she really notice Beth, pausing in her competition with herself to wave hello. ]

[travailed]

[Beth waves back. She hadn't wanted to interrupt (knows firsthand how intense archery, and archers, can be), but once Ilde has seen her she feels more confident walking up to her.]

Hi.

[Her eyes hover on the bow. She's never used a traditional bow before, or ever met someone who did; Daryl's crossbow had been heavier than this one looks, almost too heavy for her to heft up to her shoulder, but she's sure the firing process had been easier.]

Are you practicin'? I don't want to get in the way if you are.

[erbier]

[ She rolls her shoulders thoughtfully, feeling out the ache in them from the time she has already spent. ]

Nothing so serious as that.

[ She decides is the easiest answer. ]

I have had no real occasion to use one of these weapons.

ii!

[doublesmall]

Yeah, sure.

[Chuuya doesn't immediately move, though, taking a moment to size Beth up; not the type he'd expect to see here, but the fact that she is here still says something, as far as he's concerned. He can't really judge too much, given that (and considering the fact that he's pretty damn small, himself. They might be close to the same size.)

Then he steps aside, arms folded, head slightly tilted.]

How much can you actually lift, anyway?

[travailed]

[She lets him. She knows that look; evaluative, a little surprised. She gets it a lot.]

I'm not sure. [There's no reason for her to pretend otherwise. She bends down to pick up the weights and tests them in her hands.] I never counted before.

["Counted" seems like the wrong word, but she really doesn't have a better one. She smiles, just a little.]

Horse feed weighs more than you'd think, though.

[doublesmall]

Not surprising, they look like they're pretty damn big. Can't say I've ever had to see one up close though, so you've got one over on me there.

[He returns that smile as he finds something to perch on, one corner of his mouth quirking up.]

So you must be used to working then, huh. How long've you been at this? [That comes with a little nod toward the weights.]

i have no starbucks only lateness | i.

[martyric]

( elena is not good at this mental link business. she's trying very hard to be, but without actually reaching out for help it's a slow and arduous process trying to keep her thoughts her own. at any given point it's easy enough to skim below the surface of her calm front and see the confusion, the stress and turmoil swirling just underneath. she's trying, it's just that trying isn't always enough.

naturally trying and failing leads to wallowing -- elena would never call it wallowing, but that's totally what it is.

she's only in the rec wing because it's empty. the physical distance from other people certainly feels like it helps with all of this, feels less invasive. it's easier to focus on what is her and what is others when she can't see anyone else, it seems. when someone else walks in elena is tempted to keep her eyes trained on the floor in front of the seat she's tucked up into, but something tugs her chin upwards. curiosity, probably, or more accurately nosiness, but hey. she comes from a small town, nosiness is practically a prerequisite.

she's not expecting a girl barely older than herself, but there you go. )

Hi, no. I'm...new. ( it feels like a strange way of saying it, like she's transferred schools rather than woken up on a hivemind space station, but she still smiles and shakes beth's hand in return. more impressively, it's actually a genuine smile. ) Elena. Have you been here long?

no worries my dude

[travailed]

[Beth smiles back. She gets it, the feeling of being overwhelmed and not having an outlet for it, since everyone can tell anyway. She hasn't perfected walls yet, either. She's not sure she's even really been able to approximate them. Most of what she's doing is just drowning out the things she doesn't want to share with things she doesn't mind sharing.]

Not longer than most folks. I've never even been off the station. [It bothers her, a little, like having a bizarre case of cabin fever, and it bothers her that it bothers her.] It's not so bad, though. There's plenty of stuff to do, at least.

[martyric]

( it makes sense that they would leave the station, those flight decks aren't just there to look pretty, but hearing it confirmed concerns her slightly all the same. loathe as she is to admit it, the station is at least consistent. there's a certain comfort in the unchanging nature of stark plain walls.

Eventually she'll probably end up stir crazy too, but right now she's finding great comfort in routine. )

Yeah, at least we're being kept entertained. ( she's amused when she says this, mostly, and elena's head nods in the direction of the ping pong table. it's a source of great confusion for her. ) Is it weird that I almost find that the strangest thing here? It just seems so...normal.