[ OPEN ] Hot Springs Episode!

[shri]

CHARACTERS: EVERYONE
WHERE: The Second Flight
WHEN: DAY :022
SUMMARY: The Sauna!
WARNINGS: Nekkid times.

[ A few hours after the murder, she hasn't blown the ship up, and here they are. Another knock knock on everyone's brain: ]

( For those of you that are interested - I have secured us a place at the Sauna. Free for us to be use without interruption from outsiders.

You are to be clean before you come in. )

[ Maybe you're here because she bullied you, maybe you want to soak - maybe you're the poor bastard that is standing guard at the door. Either way, welcome to the Suana, have fun. Or don't. ]

Comments

[shiro2hero]

[It's easier to look at her face, at this angle. And there's a definite note of gratitude in his thoughts. Stronger, he hopes, than anything else.]

[His left hand trails in the water, idly, right one draped across his knees.]

Is there anything you need to say? [With the unspoken offer of an ear, if she needs it. What happened... happened. He still holds Seviilia in high respect.]

[miscreant]

[There is a soft exhale out of her nose one glowing arm folding over the other. Shiro might have been modest, but at least he only ever tried to listen — on most topics.]

Nothing that you have not heard me say before.

[She could still feel a nervous itch in the back of her head, left over from her broodmate’s breakdown episode. Thinking about it causes her to change the subject almost immediately.]

How much of your brood remains, Shiro?

[shiro2hero]

Doesn't mean you can't say it again, if you really need to.

[On that, he'll be adamant. Everyone else has been, for him. So why shouldn't he be for her, too?]

... three, counting me.

[It comes out more quietly than he meant it to. Once again, the last time he'd been in contact with one of his broodmates was an argument. Once again, he regrets it. He falls silent, before looking back up to her.]

It's less for you, isn't it? [Why else would she ask?]

[miscreant]

[Rather than look at Shiro, she tilts her head back to stare at the ceiling until she thinks she can feel her eyes carving a hole into the rock.]

It is just Murphy and I. Most of the others had fallen to slumber before I awoke.

[She isn't upset about that, necessarily. Murphy was enough to handle -- in fact, she couldn't imagine what she would be dealing with if more brains like his were attached to her.]

I have always wondered. It is almost impossible to tell, but...

[Now she's getting philosophical. How many broodmates had Lavellan's death effected? How many others before them?]

The system does not feel as efficient as I first imagined it to be.

[shiro2hero]

[Again, he's quiet. Letting her talk, say her piece. He'd offered that, after all. What would that have been like? To wake up knowing there were always going to be holes in your head -- no one was going to wake up and fill them.]

[Or... wake up on your own. Quiet in your brain.]

You're just now thinking that?

[It's meant more lightly than accusingly. He leans back on his hands, stretching his legs out in the water.] How did you think it was going to be?

[miscreant]

[Shiro’s reply isn’t unreasonable; come to think of it, she had only really discussed it with Murphy. When she sits up, she adjusts some of her wraps to avoid accidentally flashing him, and leans on her knees.]

I am familiar with how a people functions under one mind. I have also seen what happens when that mind is taken from them.

[She let’s him absorb that before elaborating.]

This is not like that experience. The confusion, bewilderment, all expected. But the rest— [Pain, physical and emotional.] — not so much.

[shiro2hero]

[There's a flicker of gratitude toward her. She didn't have to fix the wraps. He'd have dealt with it if she didn't -- but still.]

[Silence, though, as she speaks. Chewing his lip. This is all far out of the range of his own expertise. Give him space, give him a ship and a crew. This metaphysical stuff is far, far more difficult.]

The people you saw didn't have an emotional connection? Like... we do here?

[miscreant]

No. We moved as one mind, with one purpose without division or distraction. At times, we ceased to be individuals. Tying emotion to it would have hampered its efficiency.

[She has double downed on that opinion since waking. Emotion was terrible, and got in the way of allowing her to act as she normally might.]

I cannot help but feel we would have made more progress here if things were more similar in operation.

[shiro2hero]

If none of us had autonomy. If... we were all just one being.

[Sorry, Seviilia. That's not something he can really get on board with as things stand now.]

[He studies the ground -- or, more accurately, the water.]

Wouldn't working more as a team accomplish that, too?

[miscreant]

A hivemind typically removes bothersome things, such as conflicting morals or petty offense. It can be accomplished of course, it is simply easier to accomplish such things when there is automatic consensus.

[She offers him a gentle shrug, watching him stare into the water intently. She doesn’t necessarily expect agreement — having tasted both walks of life, free will was nothing to take for granted. But she would be lying to say that she didn’t find it inconvenient at times.]

I also do not recall feeling the individual’s mind quite so keenly.

[This time, its a little bitter. It isn’t that she doesn’t like Murphy, but he was rather emotionally volatile — an area of living she will never quite be used to.]

[shiro2hero]

There's other ways to accomplish that, too. Talking and planning. But... since I've been here, those things just seem like they're running us in circles more than anything.

[Which isn't something he likes to dwell on. But there it is.]

... that's... not all bad, in some cases. Like when you care about someone.

[miscreant]

Yes. Interesting, don’t you think?

[Hivemind club is the future, Shiro. But she isn’t here to preach, so she leaves him with his obviously disturbed thoughts.

Besides, what comes after is far more disagreeable.]

I am afraid I must disagree. It is dreadful.

[She fights very hard not to think of The Darkling as the exception to the rule. She had not necessarily cared about him in the way she is sure that Shiro is implying, but things between them were quite good in more ways than she would care to admit out loud.]

[shiro2hero]

"Interesting" is... definitely one way to put it, Seviilia.

[There are other ways, ways that are less... charitable. His own opinion borders on "frustrating".]

[Even the team back home was never this dysfunctional.]

There's nothing beneficial about it? For you?

[miscreant]

[There is a brief smirk — a knowing, suggestive sort, as she peers pointedly down her nose and lets the cloth wrapped around her shoulders slide down just slightly as she leans forward.

Its not really a view, but she knows it will probably be enough to fluster hin.]

I am charmed by your interest...but I do not believe you are as interested in that answer as you think you are.

[shiro2hero]

[It is.]

[His head snaps up, and his eyes focus determinedly on the wall across the room. On the interesting rock fixtures there.]

It's -- not that kind of interest, Seviilia. [Yes, there is undoubtedly something attractive in her muscular shoulders, and her command. But -- spoken for. He's spoken for.]

I'm asking as a friend.