lifeaftr | November catchall

Who: CT and you!
What: Hanging around, trying to recall her lost memories...or maybe just enjoying life without them
When: Early to mid November
Where: Enso
Warnings: None!

CT followed a ghost off a cliff last month, with a result that honestly shouldn't surprise anyone. The gap in her memory became apparent pretty quickly, but although she knows she's missing a lot, try as she might, she hasn't even been able to remember so much as a second of it.

On the one hand, that sucks. She hates not knowing what had happened to her, hates how cryptic Wash has been about the whole thing, hates the fact that she can't even remember the man who urged her to her willing death. Helplessness has never sat well with her, but in this case, there doesn't seem much that she can do.

On the other hand, she's living without the burden of a lot of pain and horror and loss that's been weighing on her for months. Rather than mooning over her absent fiance and dreaming of the day she'll get back to him, she's actually enjoying life on the islands. It is, after all, the first real home she can remember having. Intermittent horrors and punishments for dying aside, it's actually pretty nice here. She lives with her friends on a tropical island, she has no worries and no responsibilities beyond figuring out what to eat and how to get Wash to wear actual clothes rather than his armor once in a while, and whenever she's able to forget that gaping hole in her memory, she's actually pretty content.

The recent renovations to the huts and cottages mean that she's no longer working just to get the roof patched up and the floor resembling, well, a floor. But that doesn't mean there's nothing to do. Today, she's hanging around the cottage that she shares with Carolina and Wash, opening the windows, occasionally sweeping out dust, and going in and out of the door, occasionally picking a few wildflowers in the grass outside to take back inside.

God help you, Freelancers, your roommate's being domestic.

(Feel free to use the prompt or your own, or hit me up for a closed starter!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She hates things that are out of her control. Always has. No doubt Doctor Grey would have a field day psychoanalyzing her. Thankfully Carolina has never let her close enough to do so, and she isn't here to follow through with it. She has always seemed far too happy, and not exactly in a good way, but she can say that the doctor had gotten people to talk that even Carolina hadn't been able to.

She'd done her morning routine - waking up far too early for most people, putting herself through that vigorous morning workout to chase away all those what ifs that nip at her until her muscles scream and she's all but ready to take a seat and never get up. She always does though and this morning is no different as she returns, stretching out her calves.

There is still veins of annoyance and frustration in her, that she couldn't do more, that she had failed... She knows that she would have been a mess herself, had she seen- but she hadn't. Brushing her palms against her sweats, she enters back in to the place called home (although home is a concept that she hasn't really had), glancing around. It isn't hard to spot CT, although what she is doing is what catches her attention. Surprise, but as Carolina stops to think about it, maybe she needs a distraction.]

... need a hand?

[She is someone who tends to keep things neat and tidy, although it's more an after thought than anything else, really.]

Oh.

[ CT freezes where she is, carefully arranging wildflowers in a makeshift vase. It occurs to her then that she hadn't ever actually consulted with her housemates before starting to decorate. Wash, she suspects, won't care one way or the other - if he even notices. Carolina, on the other hand...Well, she's never failed to make her opinions clear, whatever they happen to be. ]

Hey. I was just...trying to brighten things up a little, you know?

[It's not like it is generally something that Carolina puts much thought in to. Even recently, in retirement, it wasn't as if she had gone out and bought a lot of items to decorate her room. Likely a good thing anyway, as Donut had burned them down.

After the death of her mother, she hadn't exactly grown up in a normal household either, and aside from the necessities in life, she doesn't tend to think too much outside the box. Arguably once she might have said something about regulations, but... Well, it's not Freelancer here.]

It's- well, not something that would have crossed my mind, but I don't exactly have a green thumb anyway.

[She'd likely have picked something poisonous or such.]

Oh, these are just from...

[ She waves a hand vaguely in the direction of the window, the grass beyond. There are plenty of flowers around, after all, and most of the time they aren't even the kind that give you deadly emotion-based diseases. ]

I didn't grow these.

I was thinking, though...it might be nice. A garden outside, just some...some herbs, and vegetables. Stuff we can eat.

[ Denny aside, they're pretty much on their own for food here, after all, and it's not like there's a grocery store around. ]

[Green thumb at growing, and green thumb at keeping things alive after the fact as well. While she might secretly have enjoyed flowers, plastic ones would have been far better with her.

She does contemplate that, knowing that veggies tend to be somewhat easier. Not like you really need to worry about what kind of light- at least she doesn't think so. Plant them, and keep the watered, but not too watered. Make certain no one eats them, but CT's pet might actually be enough of a visual deterrent.]

It would beat the food that you find at that Denny place. Enough land here, anyway. Water, too.

And it's not like we don't have time.

[ That's part of why she'd started in on the cottage - to give herself a project, something useful to do. CT had spent her entire adult life in the military, right up until those last few weeks, and the lack of structure here is...well, it takes some getting used to. ]

I guess we'd just need...seeds? And, uh, maybe find someone who...can tell us how to keep them alive.

[ How much sun, how much water, how to keep bugs and larger animals away. CT's never done this before either. ]

Freelancers to farmers.

[Who would have thought it... Although farmer might be a bit of a stretch. She's good at being a soldier. It's what she knows. She's picked up other things along the way, skills and abilities, but not anything quite like that.]

There even anything like that? Or maybe find something in the wild and transplant it?

It could be worse.

[ There are definitely more unpleasant fates. And besides, this isn't real farming, with all the backbreaking labor and waking up at dawn that implies. Just a little bit of gardening. ]

There should be, right? Or we could transplant whole plants, if they're not too big.

[ She doesn't even realize she's saying we, implicitly including Carolina in this effort, but maybe that's just because the other ex-Freelancer actually seems interested in the idea. Or at least she hasn't shot it down right away. ]

[They'd probably actually do well with real farming, if they learned it. Dawn wake ups? Been there, done that. Backbreaking labour? Again, they've done that. Settings goals and accomplishing tasks - likely shit that happens with farming too. Surprise, a flood. Surprise, a drought.]

Are there even seasons here?

[It doesn't seem like it would go through drastic ones if there were.]

Otherwise, could probably start as soon as we got things in order.

Not...here, I don't think.

[ There's Nuidan, of course, geographically divided neatly (and improbably) into each of the four seasons. But she's never noticed any drastic weather changes here on Enso. ]

There shouldn't really be, anyway. The ocean should regulate the temperature pretty well.

[ They shouldn't ever get snow here. At least, if this island's climate keeps obeying the laws of nature like it should. ]

And animals don't usually talk.

[Soft quip as her mouth gently twists wryly as she glances around.]

But, we can try. Worst that will happen is that we'll have to try again.

[ She has a point. CT smiles, shrugging her shoulders. ]

So...does that mean you'll help?

[ Even now, she can't entirely hide her surprise. This is Carolina, after all. It's hard to imagine her doing something as mundane as gardening. ]

[Don't expect her to wear an apron and put flowers in her hair... But she nods, one shoulder rising ever so.]

It will serve a good purpose. SO sure.

[In case anything does happen. Not that she expects all the food to disappear, but if it does, at least they will have an alternate available there. Be ready, after all, before you're caught in a situation that you can't get out of.]

[ A part of her almost wants to make her promise. To say she'll hold her to that. Another part, the part full of still-fresh memories of Carolina as she used to be, Carolina the unrelenting hardass always fighting for the top spot on the board and never with a free moment for anyone else's shit, doesn't dare.

Instead, she merely smiles, clearly pleased and gratified. Not only that she'll help, but also simply that she hadn't shot down the whole idea right away. ]

Thanks, Carolina.

November catchall

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