in a world you've grown | OPEN

[leaderboards]

WHO: Agent Carolina + OPEN (+ state-named castmates)
WHERE: various
WHEN: Jan 5-9 or so?
WHAT: get adjusted + making friends
WARNINGS: n/a for now

a | check out the new training room fixture

[ in terms of familiarity, she'll take what she can get. the training areas are a damn good place to feel at home on a strange ship, so she's going to wind up a regular within her first few days.

there's a lot of time in the rooms set up for martial arts training, beating the shit out of a punching bag or pushing herself through drills. there's even more time on a treadmill, eyes ahead and focused on just keeping herself moving so this feels less strange unless someone takes up a space somewhere around her, when she'll give them a nod. if you're here two days in a row at the same time she is, she might comment on it. if you look like you know what you're doing with any particular skillset... well, she's probably going to comment on that, too. ]

b | being a loner in the atrium

[ it's been so long since carolina really had to be social. chorus doesn't count, being a warzone and all, so there was never anything as bustling as the common areas of this ship there. and besides, a war zone means never having to bother being out of her armour, but it's too weird to wear it here and so she isn't, but then she just kind of winds up feeling naked. there's no way to not feel weird about being here.

the shopping centre reminds her of having a life back before project freelancer went to shit. the residential areas remind her of the mother of invention. she can't live at the gym and her new job. so she's here, looking terribly awkward as she wanders the atrium, eventually finding a place to sit next to a pond and dip her hand into the water. if she looks like she can't quite remember how to enjoy a scene like this... well, it's because she can't. ]

c | she leaves wash alone for like ten minutes and this happens [ closed ]

[ at first it's just the this feels like the moi sensation that has her thinking that the man down the hall, a leash around an uncooperative cat, is someone she knows. surely, surely, wash isn't here and trying to walk a cat. but then he talks to the cat and oh god, it is him. on one hand, it isn't entirely out of the question that if she were dragged here, he would be too - they'd been fighting together back on chorus, along with the local armies - but on the other: really? ]

Washington. [ it's the explain command tone, coming from behind him, carolina's arms folded across her chest. it's not meant to question his presence here, just the cat. ]

d | fun police wildcard

[ maybe you're running in a potentially dangerous public area. maybe you're messing up a store's front display. maybe you're just being loud outside her room when she's trying to sleep and it's really getting to her. regardless of circumstance, you're suddenly getting a hand on your shoulder or a glare-down by a scary-looking redhead. ]

You need to stop.

[ or! if you're lucky, carolina's just lecturing someone else. hopefully she doesn't make that one npc cry in front of you. could be awkward. ]

Comments

[sixth]

[ Admittedly, it's a stupid job. Wash has been on this ship for weeks and he still doesn't know exactly what this so called director of cativities is supposed to be doing. There are a number of cats in the shelter. Most of them are recognizable as the sorts of felines with which he's familiar. There are a few that don't quite fit his general idea of a cat, but they get along with the others and none of them have tried to kill or eat him.

When he goes into work, and with so many little lives depending on him that's every day, he feeds the cats, brushes them, checks their water, cleans out their litter boxes, and tries with varying degrees of success to engage them in play. He's a soldier and has been for most of his life; he doesn't really know how to play with cats but he tries.

Today, he's walking one of the larger ones. It's about the size of a medium dog, long haired, and grey. And while it seems to appreciate being out of the shelter, it isn't overly cooperative where the whole concept of walking on a leash is concerned. Which is why he's trying to coax it into following along when he hears that oh so familiar voice.

Head snapping up, he stares at Carolina—and it is Carolina, he couldn't mistake her if he tried—giving him a look he'd seen so many times during Freelancer and, unfortunately, quite a few on Chorus as well. ]

Carolina. [ In his defense, he tries to be nonchalant about it. He's both happy to see her and somewhat mortified that she's caught him walking a cat, of all idiotic things. After a second, his neutral expression breaks and he smiles at her. It's a tiny smile, but it's real. ] When did you get here?

[leaderboards]

Just this morning. Or... last night. Recently.

[ and she hasn't adjusted to ship time yet, the little shrug says. nor has she been paying attention, too baffled by everything going on here - from the explanations from orientation to her job to the weird lack of military presence - to really care. without structure, she tends to work on carolina time, anyway.

still, her expression's on the softer side, for carolina, her eyes crinkling in confusion as she looks down at the cat again. ]

Did you... make a friend?

[sixth]

[ A hint of surprise crosses Wash's expression at that. He's aware that there are newcomers—the little communication device they've been given has been busier than it was when he arrived—but they've all been strangers. If Carolina's here, does that mean the others are here too? Are they coming?

The mental image that accompanies that thought, of the Reds and Blues accidentally crashing this ship the way they'd all assumed they'd crash the one back on Chorus, really makes him hope that that isn't the case. ]

Uh... [ He follows her gaze, taking in the cat now sitting at his foot and idly scratching its ear. ] That's, um, that's my job. They assigned me to the animal shelter. [ He looks back to her, one eyebrow rising. ] Did you get one too?

[leaderboards]

Yeah, I did. With the Fun Police.

[ there's a particularly dry tone that carolina uses that can be exasperation, sarcasm, or even-keeled wasn't it obvious? truth, depending on the context. she's using it here without context, leaving wash to guess for himself. in her defense, she's mostly busy watching the cat like she isn't sure that it is a cat. aren't domestic cats usually small? ]

a

[genice]

( he'd actually prefer jogging through the atrium, but that's where he goes when he takes his dog out, and he's not jogging right now. he's doing controlled sprints, or more finishing them up, having worked up a healthy sweat and reaching for his filtered water to down some more of it as he steps off the now silent treadmill.

more stretches will follow, and then he should run through some dance stretches and moves, but it's all about weighing and balancing how his form is doing when he hasn't touched ice for the last month. he nods to the woman on the treadmill next to his as he rolls his shoulders, picking up his towel just as the energy through this part of the gym fluctuates, causing the lights to flicker and the active machines to whine. it passes as soon as it hits, a nothing in the scheme of things (and in actuality), but it still has Victor peering upward with narrowed eyes. )

One of these days I really hope I don't learn firsthand what it'll be like to lose the systems supporting this ship.

( gravity, life support, and whatever else. he's pretty sure that will be a truly terrible day. )

[leaderboards]

[ keeping tabs on what everyone else in the room is doing for training is habit with carolina, used to the military, used to having other people to train with. (and against, to be perfectly honest.) so she's been paying half attention to victor while he goes through his motions, something to distract herself with when she runs. and then the power fluctuates and the treadmill slows just enough that she has to do a little half-hop to keep her balance and that paired with his comment has her letting out a little huff as she resumes her pace - half irritation, half amusement. ]

So long as you're not near a hull breach, you might be alright.

[ without life support, carolina means. and only for a while, but a ship this size has to have plenty of redundancy, she knows, so she's not particularly worried about it. ]

[genice]

( near a hull breach... he frowns, pulling on either end of the towel he's now draped around his neck. )

Aren't half the halls here running along the outside edge of the ship?

( the big halls at least; along with what he guesses are life support pods and other systems that aren't dangerous to have too close to the hull. he knows so little, it's as if he's listening to her speak a foreign language using words he assigns different meanings. )

Not that might's so reassuring, but I suppose that's the point.

( a )

[rumbling]

[ Speaking of regulars, Maine is absolutely one of them. The first day he was on this ship he found the training area and has made it a point to come every single day.

Or, at least, on the days he doesn't keep himself locked in his bunk because sometimes he just needs to be alone and not near other people. For any number of reasons. Half of those only one other person on this ship can understand ( two now, he'd suppose... ). Half not even Maine gets. He's not healed or right by any stretch of those words, but he's trying. He knows he's dead ( or something like it, anyway ). He knows he has no AIs ( in a manner of speaking, he has that chip now that he's still hesitant to use ). He knows all the things he's done and sees them with immaculate clarity. Usually at night when he's trying to sleep. Ghosts walk the halls of his mind, just like he haunts the halls of this ship.

When he comes out of one of the side rooms—every other day there's a krav maga class that he likes to attend—and decides he's not yet ready to leave is when he catches something out of the corner of his eye. It's a flash of red and he can pretend he doesn't see the flickers of memories in his mind's eye, but he also really can't. Doesn't mean it is who he thinks it is. The color red isn't that uncommon. Still. Curiosity gets him and he moves silently between the machines to get a better look, spooking a woman on a nearby elliptical. ( He catches her before she falls and he does offer an apology. )

It's definitely Carolina.

Maine knows she's not dead; Wash told him what happened after the whole thing with Tex and the sims. He was relieved to know Carolina made it. Doesn't wash off all the blood on his hands, but just a little bit. Just a little. Part of him doesn't want to alert her of his presence, if only because he knows how she is and disturbing during any kind of training session is just asking for a straight kick to the balls. ( Which Maine gets—he likes to remain focused on his training, too. ) But the rest of him knows they need to have this confrontation. This area is likely the best place to do it.

So, he waits until she finishes one task and he can see just from her body language she wants to do more. He approaches from the side, but he isn't silent about doing it. While he may look like an oncoming threat, he doesn't want to appear as one. Not right now. He doesn't have his comm with him, so he opts for conversing in the way he had been back on the MOI: by letting out a low rumble that he tends to use as a means of greeting. ]

[leaderboards]

[ carolina nearly trips. it isn't much, just a scuffle of her foot over the seams where the floor of the general gym area changes, a little lurch in her step that on anyone else could be justified by the tiniest fluctuation in the ship's gravity or weak legs between workout rotations. but there are no reasons for it with carolina outside of former teammate.

maine here, not just wash's words. maine here, deliberately coming her way. maine here.

she realizes she doesn't actually remember the last time she saw him out of armour. long before eta and iota, it feels like. it must have been, because she can't remember the last time they talked about anything that wasn't important to a mission or the team, even with sigma helping the conversation along. it's been so damn long and just as much of her wants to relish in seeing her friend again as wants to hurt him, get some payback for pulling the chips from her still-sensitive neural port, for the sudden disorienting lost of fragments who didn't want to be in her head anyway, for the snow and the ice and waking up alone with every inch of her frozen and aching from a fall she's still not sure how she survived without her helmet on.

the uncertainty of how she wants to react delays her reaction enough that there's a moment of her just staring at him, her water bottle making a little crackling noise at her side as she squeezes it too tightly. ]

Maine. [ it's her usual tone of greeting - familiar but not warm. she adds a stiff nod, her jaw tight. ] I heard you were here.

[rumbling]

[ Right. Sigma "helping" the conversation along. Because that's what Sigma did. "Help." Except for the part where that's a goddamn lie. The only thing Sigma helped was himself. Still, though, Maine can be glad for one thing in that he's the one who got Sigma. It fucked everything up, yeah, but after everything he went through he's glad it was him and not Carolina. Or anyone else.

If he let it, things could get bad right here. He can almost hear the wind whipping around them, hear the ship settling in the snow, hear the rocks splitting and falling into the chasm beneath them. He can feel Carolina struggling in his hands. He can feel the heat at the base of his skull and feel the drive to keep pushing for more, get more, have more. Take more. There's a tense knot building in his stomach and he can feel that painful throb near the implant entry. It's empty; he knows that. Doesn't make it any easier that in the blink of an eye they're back on that mountain.

This was probably a bad idea.

Still, they can't avoid each other forever. Not with Wash as a neutral tie between them here. So, he nods, the intention behind it that he heard the same. Probably best she heard from Wash first rather than running into him as a surprise. He presses his lips together for a second trying to assess the best way to handle this. Neither one of them are inclined to talking about their feelings. No one in the Project had been, really. He doubts Carolina has vastly changed in the time that's passed since Maine died. They're physical people and get their frustrations out that way.

So, he's giving a sort of peace offering. He glances over to the side where there's things like a boxing ring and mats. Fighting each other won't erase what happened, but it might make them feel better. He looks back at Carolina with a brow raised in question as he gestures with his thumb over there. They can talk with their fists. ]

A

[winscenario]

[ It's the third day in a row he catches sight of her on the training room. While he's been trying to get to know as many people as possible, he also noticed she seemed more interested in keeping to herself more than anything else, so he didn't interrupt her or approach during the first day.

Second day he really only spared a brief greeting and a quick answer to any comment she might throw his way about seeing him around again. But it's the third day, and Jim's curious and interested in knowing as many of the people brought here the same way he was, so he approaches one of the mats for martial arts practice. ]

Don't suppose you're looking for a sparring partner today? [ He could use the distraction, not to mention burning off some excess energy. ]

[leaderboards]

Always am.

[ anything with eye contact before now has only gotten a neutral expression from carolina, but now she's actually got a bit of a grin for him. she was only using the mats to stretch before heading over to the punching bags but this seems so much more appealing, so she just finishes stretching out her back, one arm raised and bent back over her head before dropping her shoulders to roll them. ]

What's your background?

[winscenario]

[ Jim eases a bit when she grins. Not that he's the kind to get particularly intimidated, but it's pretty nice to know his approach isn't unwelcome. Even if he's pretty much offering himself up to get beat up.

Toeing off his sneakers, he steps onto the mat, lips twitching a little in amusement as he answers her question. ]

Bar fights.

[ Well, not just, which she'll likely be able to tell as soon as they start. But he's sure that she wouldn't be familiar with Starfleet if he mentioned it anyway, so. ]

d...

[doxing]

(the peculiar item is snatched from her gloved hands in the moment sombra's distracted from it, the shopkeeper having enough of her haggling when set prices are glaring from shelves in neon. a voice that's commanding enough deserves attention and carolina's lacks nothing in that department. but a hand? touching her without her express permission? in this economy?

she turns sharply on her heel to brush it off, hair bobbing after.)

You can't see that I'm busy here, amiga? (at least very little gets on sombra's nerves for long, the moment of tension rolling off of her with a hitch of her shoulders and some sly smile,) C'mon, you don't really agree with these prices.

[leaderboards]

[ carolina's been either military or under the radar for so long that she really doesn't know enough to have an opinion on prices in a market in her home galaxy, let alone this one, so sombra's attempts at reasoning there are only met with a sigh. ]

It doesn't matter. [ she sounds unimpressed in a flat tone that's perfect for the fun police. ] They said they weren't open for haggling.

[doxing]

Everything in life's negotiable. Clearly everyone here isn't trying hard enough.

(a flip of her hand, before motioning over her shoulder.)

You want me to pay this bullshit price, you buy it for me.

B

[yokunaru]

[The atrium's quickly become one of Yuuri's favorite places to go, if only to see the spot of greenery that's missing from the rest of the ship. For the most part, he leaves the other he finds there alone, figuring that some of them might be there for the same reason--quiet time.

There's something about Carolina that makes him pause instead of moving on, though. Perhaps it's the way she looks...troubled? Actually, Yuuri isn't 100% sure how to read the expression on her face.]

Um...is something wrong?

[It's a stupid question, he realizes, when a growing number of them have been unwillingly taken from their homes. It doesn't hurt to ask, though...right?]

[leaderboards]

[ for someone with all of her thoughts on her face, carolina sure wasn't aware of it until just now, looking briefly baffled by the question before she realizes how lost she looks and tries to act a little more neutral. of course, this only makes her look peeved instead of relaxed or anything like that, but she's trying. ]

No. No, it's just... odd. To have a space like this in a ship.

[ in a ship that someone like her is on, no less. it's such a luxury. ]

[yokunaru]

[The concerned look melts into a tentative smile, even as he nods in agreement.]

I thought so, too, when I first saw this place. I didn't even know they could have all this on a space ship to begin with. [He pauses, looking at her curiously.] Does that mean you're not used to being in space, either?

d, atrium park

[indigo5a]

[ Shaw is bored. And when she's bored, she cleans her gun. Nevermind that she already cleaned it yesterday. Some people like to meditate to clear their minds. Shaw puts her hands to practical use, going through familiar motions that feel good. She likes the smell of gun oil, the smooth slide of the parts as she disassembles the piece. The satisfaction of knowing that the gun will be in pristine condition when she needs it.

So when assholes disturb her moment of peace by yelling and screaming at each other on a nearby path, she gets annoyed. It's a good thing the gun is broken down enough that she can't just point and shoot. But you can still use the butt of the gun to thwack obnoxious troublemakers in the head, right?

Shaw rises to her feet and stalks over, gun parts in hand and ire on her face. Fortunately for the rowdy idiots, someone else intervenes.

'Hey! What the fuck?' the guy turns around and glares at the woman with the hand on his shoulder.

She certainly doesn't look like someone to be trifled with. Shaw tilts her head at her as if to say, 'need help?' Have gun, will travel. ]

[leaderboards]

[ really guys, in the goddamn park?

carolina is unbelievably done with their shit before the conversation even properly starts, dropping her hands to her sides once she has both of them looking at her. of course, then the woman past them with the dismantled gun catches her attention and makes the moment if not better, then more bearable. she meets the stranger's eyes long enough to give a nod - it's acknowledged, but she's got this for now. ]

Look, boys, I don't care what you took from one another or why you're not giving it back, but you can't keep causing a scene like this. [ 'and why not, bitch? ] Because if you don't stop, I'm going to make you stand here and tell me your life stories so I can leave a formal report with Security. You're going to be in trouble. Also, because I said so.

[ neither of those are good answers, apparently, because there's loud protest from one asshole and the other steps in to give carolina a shove, which turns out to be a terrible mistake for him. by the time he has both hands on her chest to push, she's lashing out to hit him in the shoulder, ducking just enough that she can sweep his legs out from under him with her own. he lands on his side with a thud and carolina, casually as anything, uses her boot to nudge him onto his stomach before resting it in the middle of his back. she's not putting any actual weight on him, just... encouraging him to stay down there.

while both of the men are too stunned to respond, carolina sighs, attention turning back to her new friend in the middle of gun maintenance. ]

Ma'am, I know you overheard that. Was I not being clear?

[indigo5a]

[ People can argue if they want to. Shaw understands anger, after all. It's one of the few emotions she has an abundance of. It makes her good at her job. (Her old job, not the new one). But yelling in close proximity to her when she's trying to concentrate on something just can't be happening. Turns out she's not the only one who's displeased by the fight. Shaw stands back and lets the woman do her thing. She seems highly capable.

While the shenanigans are happening, Shaw takes a moment to reassemble her gun. It was clean already anyway. She hasn't fired it since the last cleaning. She glances up when the woman speaks. ]

I thought so. But we are in outer space. They might not get your nuances.

[ She slides the magazine back into place with a click. Maybe that's a nuance that even an alien idiot can understand. ]

D

[remainingtwin]

[She's just taking pictures!! Granted they're all rather at random, since what qualifies as news around here, and mostly she's just bored and pretending she's doing something valuable with her time.

Maybe she looks weird though, because she nearly jumps out of her skin when there's a hand on her shoulder. Mio gasps sharply and whirls around, the camera button being pushed automatically-- enjoy that flash to the face, Carolina.

But for a moment there's a wild-eyed sort of panic in Mio's eyes, before she seems to realize she's not being attacked and can calm down a little. Still, she stares for a moment, breathing heavily, before she reacts the only way she can think of: anger.]

Wh-what was that for!?

[leaderboards]

[ whatever carolina was going to start off with is lost in a little garbled noise of disgust at the flash going off in her face. and then she needs a moment to recuperate, which means instead of just looking slightly exasperated, she looks decidedly cranky.

why'd you have to make this hard mio? ]

You're making the group over there uncomfortable. I just came to ask you to shoot somewhere else.

[ and now she kinda wants to yell about the flash in her eyes but she's not going to. probably. ]

[remainingtwin]

What? [Her breathing is still harsh, still trying to separate herself from old, clawing memories-- this isn't the village, she isn't being attacked, she's... disturbing the peace? Mio blinks once, twice, and takes a deep breath.

She looks around and spots the group in question, though they seem to have gone back to whatever they were doing upon seeing someone's handling the situation. Mio looks down at her camera, then to Carolina] Oh. Well-- I'm just doing my job. Or at least the one they assigned me here.

[Bitter? Her? No way.]

...Well, it's not like I really care. I'll stop. [Um.] ...Sorry. About the-- Camera. Flash. Thing. [Mio shifts awkwardly. It was instinct, okay!!]