bothbarrels | Sanctum IC Contact

She's the head of her own platoon, so there's not so much interaction between us.

[ He notices her pushing the bottle in his direction and after draining the mug of its contents he pours himself another couple fingers of the stuff. ]

What have you been up to? Doing all right since you woke up?

[there's a frown again. surely coordination between teams would be better? Then again, maybe she's just a little too aware of things that have gone wrong without communication..]

You should fix that.

I'm not allowed back to work until the end of the week. So long as Whiskey is satisfied, I'll be able to get back into the swing of things. Courier job's fussing about it, so no doubt I'm not going to have a lot of jobs available-- [Downside of an offshoot of the reigning parent company 'kingdom']] --but Balder's have given me a few assignments for review. Look them over, check over likely candidates. Make a few suggestions.

[roster work is easy. and it makes for a good distraction.]

It's forthcoming, don't worry. Right now we're just trying to get our teams trained.

I know it must be frustrating for you to be out of commission. You're not really big on sitting still.

[there's a soft snort] I can be patient. [...with..effort. a LOT of effort.]

But if there's something I could be doing, I'll do it. I hate having idle hands.

Fair enough.

[ There's a pause and he stifles a sigh as he glances down into his cup. He's finished his second portion of the drink and he doesn't want to look greedy and pour himself a third.

He's still suffering from flashes of it, though, thoughts of what had transpired between York and himself. York was right, the intense emotion of it had begun to fade, but there was still the knowing. The remembrance.

But he can't let that show. At least not for now. ]

At least it won't be long. Will it?

[ Maybe she picks up on what North needs right now, or maybe her own glad is a third full and needs a top up. Whatever the case, Carolina's the one that reaches for the bottle to pour herself another helping.

It's hard to miss those little flashes, the shadows in North's eyes, though she doesn't give any indication she notices when his attention slips. ]

God, I hope not. It's no replacement liver or limb, at least. [she takes a quick mouthful, glad she saved the burner for future rounds.] If Epsilon calls because I'm threatening to pitch him out the window, I promise, it's because he's being an annoying little shit in close quarters.

[ Keep it light, play it patient. When he's ready to talk, he will. She thinks. She hopes. ]

[ That gives him permission and he pours a little more this time, since she's willing to go so full with hers. ]

Nobody can get under your skin like roommates.

[ How true that is. ]

Tell me about it.

I missed him, funnily enough. I guess he grows on you. But I think I was getting used to being by myself again too.

[albeit with friends in easy reach. and not six feet under.]

Both have their good points. But I was glad when I arrived that there were people I knew here.

It helps.

[There's a very slight sadness to the smile she offers him over the rim of her mug]

Though I think my arrival could have had better timing.

Could it?

[ Seems like there's a story behind this, one he hasn't heard. ]

There'd been... Some incident. Imperfect clones, people you knew - usually dead people you knew, or even youself. Which didn't survive long. Traumatic for those affected, to say the least.

And about 3 days after the aftermath of that, I showed up.

[another sip] I think South took it best, of the three of you. [because you don't remember it just being you, York and South. But Carolina does.] Though you were both distant. I never really got to find out why.

York got drunk. [as Yorks will do] And requested I stay away for 3 more days, and if I didn't die after that, we'd talk. [shrug. sip.] It wasn't a lot of fun at the time.

Edited 2014-11-17 00:24 (UTC)

York told me about that. How he'd seen CT. How she ended up...melting, is the term I think he used.

[ And North can't help but feel sympathy for Carolina, knowing how difficult it must have been to be rejected like that. ]

I'm sorry that happened to you.

That's how he described it to me, too.

[She's gotten used to rejection. To a point. She shakes her head a little dismissing the need for his apology.]

I might have been the same way, in his shoes. And it's not like I haven't had plenty of chances since then to learn how much the Dome likes to mess with our heads, you know?

Edited 2014-11-17 00:38 (UTC)

Still. You didn't know at the time.

[ Every time he thinks of York there's that lingering guilt that they'd given in to their impulses that afternoon, and this whole conversation seems to center around York, so he finds himself absently gazing at his cup, running his finger over the mouth of it, as he continues. ]

He showed me some things when I came here. Stuff about how I'd been here before, but it was all stuff I didn't remember. Things about being caught outside the Dome and about a serial killer.

Some of it. The full extent? That came later.

Not the hardest wait of my life, but, it was up there.

[ Funny how conversations can so easily circle around York. A magnet for trouble, and much else besides. She's content to drain her mug a little further, settle back in her chair and listen to North. ]

Those were before my time. I saw some of the news on the network, about XXX, but I was fortunate. I never had to deal with that myself. Kilo was bad enough.

More? [because there's still plenty of bottle where this came from] Or you can try something else if you want.

If you don't mind. This other bottle looks good.

Go right ahead.

[ He reached over and poured himself a draft of it; paused to take a drink before speaking again. ]

Doing all right with the reflections? Looks like you've got most everything here covered up that you can?

Too many featuring dysthrope for my liking. Although.. There was one where our lives were like one of those twentieth century Westerns. [Bizarre. Fun, kinda. But bizarre, when you're a future space marine.]

Nothing peaceful. Guess that's a little too much to ask. You?

I've seen a lot of things. Mostly...

[ He raises his hand slightly to look at his fingertips, rub them together. What he'd seen this afternoon is still in his mind, like an afterimage after looking at the sun, still burning bright in his vision. ]

...mostly things about Freelancer. [ He licks his lips. ] And I didn't know about the touching.

[ She stills a moment, watching the hand gestures, taking in the movements coupled with his words. ]

I don't know if I'm lucky or not that I haven't seen anything about the Project yet. [yet. right now, she's beginning to think it's only a matter of time] Experiencing things. Something that happened to you during Freelancer?

Not to me. To some other version of me. That's—that's what we think these images are. Or at least some of them. They're other universes, other lifetimes.

And...

[ A long pause. He takes a drink, forces himself to look at her instead of at the blank space over her shoulder. ]

It was good. It was so good. But I wish I'd never seen it.

[ She stares at him, eyes widening slowly, and there's a short intake of breath when he finally...say something she didn't expect. Of all the conclusions that she could have come to, that it would be something good? Had not occurred to her. ]

..I'm sorry. [and she means that, quite sincerely] It must have been something very special.

I've never felt anything like it before. And the fact that I...me, that other me, got to live in it and keep it for himself...

[ He won't tear up, he's cried for its loss already, but his gaze is haunted and distant. A hand comes up to rub his cheek. ]

Me and York. It was me and York. And we were...so in love.

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