home sweet home? (closed)

[bloodbathing]

Who: Leonard Church and Agents Washington, Texas, and Maine
What: Meetings, reunions, and definitely no awkwardness.
When: shortly after the April intro log
Where: Islet #4, Cottage #3
Warnings: canon typical language


[ What's better than a group of space marines with lots of interpersonal baggage? Plucking them all from different points in time, then shoving them in the same house and seeing what happens.

MINGLE POST. Make your own top-levels, tag around, go nuts. ]

Comments

[a_shadow]

I don't know.

[ It's been well over a year since she saw him last and she's experienced too much in that time to have immediate-aftermath-of-the-EMP stuff on her mind. Actually, the main thing she keeps thinking about is how she's moved on without him, how she had a boyfriend on the Moira before she woke up here, and how hard seeing him again is under these circumstances because of that. All stuff she's definitely not going to address. ]

I don't want to compare you to other versions of you, so...

[ She shifts uncomfortably, placing a hand on her mouth. ]

Maybe this is a mistake. Goddammit.

[ She moves onto her knees, tucking her feet underneath herself, so she can shift to be right next to him on the edge of the bed. ]

Just...

[ She takes his hand, like earlier, hangs on to three of the fingers. ]

...forget it.

[ She doesn't know whether he can tell she's omitting things by the expression on her face, but really, when is she ever not omitting things? ]

[motherfucking_ghost]

...No, c'mon, let's actually give this a shot, okay? It...it might be too soon, and we're both kinda fucked up, but at least let's try and put some effort into it, okay? [He lifts her hand and gives it a gentle squeeze in return.] Not like you to give up at the word 'go'.

So. Maybe first thing is, uh. Other versions of me. Be...because Wash already said I got... [replaced] That Epsilon lived on and sort of got adopted to be like me. So, yeah, I don't want you to think of me like other potential versions of me when I'm just...me. All I knew before waking up a month ago was the EMP.

You. In the Meta's head. And all...the others, besides Epsilon.

[a_shadow]

Wait, Epsilon what?

[ She had never been told this part by the Washington she had known. She plans to address the rest of what he'd said but first, that. ]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Uh...the guys never took Epsilon to the UNSC, and Caboose got him to wake up and he thought he was me?

[a_shadow]

Wow. Wow. I knew they didn't take him and turn him in, but not that part.

[ She shakes her head. ]

That really does mean we died for nothing, doesn't it? Nothing at all.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Literally the only part of the plan that went as planned was us dying. Not even Wash died. It's assloads of bullshit.

[a_shadow]

It is.

[ She pauses to go back to what he'd started with. ]

Okay, so other versions of you. From what I know of alternate universes, you all lived similar lives but with minor differences. Which means you, you know, you're different. So yeah, I'll be careful not to mix you up with either of them.

[ She rubs her thumb against his fingers. ]

Time was so short when you joined us. In the Meta. We didn't have enough time to...you know. Do this.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Wait, differences, like how--like, was I human? Was I a woman? Was I a hot human woman?

[You know, the important questions. Don't ask why it's there his mind jumped to.]

Yeah I, uh, I guess everyone else was also vying for attention, and...I know it felt like a long time, but it wasn't enough time, and it was...pretty overwhelming. [He says it with a light, nervous laugh, raising his other hand to his head to rub for a moment. He doesn't think about it. Tries not to think about it. They all felt like family. They all felt like him. Like they belonged.]

[a_shadow]

No, you were a guy. Both times. But human, yes.

[ She declines to answer about his hotness level either time. ]

I bet it was. Theta was so excited. They all were, in their own way.

[motherfucking_ghost]

I'm...sorry. That it ended that way, that the last time we saw each other before then was me yelling at you while you fucked off on a ship and blew up, that it took over a year to find you again.

[a_shadow]

[ She looks over at him, squeezing onto his hand. She really hadn't expected to hear that from him. ]

Leonard, I...

[ She wants to apologize too, but not for taking off. Just for how things ended up. But distinguishing the two is more words than she wants to express. Which is usually the trouble with her, isn't it? She releases his hand just enough to be able to drag her grip to his fingertips, and she curls her fingers around his, as well as she can considering his hands are the robot's gloves. She looks away, huffing a little. ]

I'm not good at...that. Apologizing.

[motherfucking_ghost]

What, and you think I am? I mean, yeah, I said it, but like actually saying it is still really hard, and I don't...know if I should even apologize cuz I don't know what I could've done to fix any of it anyway. Besides maybe not going on Wash's stupid suicide mission. Everything was just so...out of my hands.

[a_shadow]

[ That shames her into silence. She does feel she should apologize too, especially as parts of it had been her fault. But she was only doing what she felt was right, and what else was a person supposed to do in life?

So she frowns, and she moves to sit properly on the edge of the bed instead of on her feet, and she settles back in. Her hand had separated from his when she moved and she doesn't return it to holding his. She's lower now, next to him. She braces her hands on the edge of the bed and leans forward a little. ]

Me, too.

[ It's said very quietly. She doesn't look in his direction. That's as close to an apology as he's getting right now. ]

[motherfucking_ghost]

...We always sucked about talking about the important shit, huh? [He keeps an eye on her out of his periphery but makes a point to not...well, stare at her.]

[a_shadow]

[ She frowns to herself, not aware she's doing it. ]

I know. It always seems easier to...not.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Kinda how we get into arguments and shit in the first place.

[a_shadow]

Heh. Yeah.

[ She glances over at him. ]

Does stuff that happened to me on the ship count? The one I was on between worlds?

[motherfucking_ghost]

Count--for what? For telling me stuff that needs sorted out? Yeah, of course, whatever you think needs said.

[a_shadow]

It's more that I want you to understand what happened to me. Why I'm so out of sorts here. So weak.

[ She pauses, deciding right then to leave out any details that refer to her boyfriend. If she gets back to him, then none of this will matter. And if she remains here, it's not like she can get back to him. And if he arrives here?

Well, that she will deal with as it comes. ]

The Moira was in distress over a new planet, and we had to evacuate. I wanted to save both of my bodies, so I jumped into the robot and put this one— [ she looks down at her slender arms ] —in an escape pod. Something went wrong with the launching mechanism and I had to crawl up the tube to launch the pod by shoving it out myself. But as soon as the pod fell out, I fell out. Both the pod and my body—the robot—slammed into the ground. The doctor put this body into a medically-induced coma and this engineer started working on repairing the robot. The aliens on the planet had a temporary body for my use. So I was in it for about a year.

The aliens there were mind-controlling us and making us lose time. So we didn't know it was a year. Eventually we broke free of that and got back our ship. Then I had to wake this body up and start working on healing it. I couldn't leave it in a coma every day like I used to do in order to patrol, because it was too weak. So I've been in it nonstop for the last two months. But that's why I was so tired yesterday. Because this body was literally in a year-long coma until a couple months ago.

[motherfucking_ghost]

...Wow.

[If he could gape and blink at her over that story, he would.]

That's...really fucked up.

[a_shadow]

[ She snorts. ]

You're telling me.

[motherfucking_ghost]

But you're like okay otherwise, right? Physically?

[a_shadow]

Otherwise? I mean, sure?

Kind of wish I hadn't bothered now though, honestly.

[motherfucking_ghost]

And let a perfectly good body go to waste? Pff, c'mon. Then you wouldn't get to eat or drink or fuck or anything like that!

[a_shadow]

[ He'd gotten to the heart of the matter with that. Still: ]

I like fighting best.

[ A pause. ]

Though fucking is a close second.