( Sunny and bright, perhaps, from all the sulfur— but if she recalls correctly, that was the one with hundreds of active volcanoes. When the bartender brings them their drinks and she gathers hers up, he's clinking glasses and she's smiling, seeming to work the toast around on her lips before answering with her own, ensuring she makes eye contact: )
Prost! I'm glad to hear you're doing all right, at least. And that they haven't tried to chase you down to the surface yet. Have you had any company?
[ he's holding his judgment. if only because there doesn't seem anyone left to judge. his gun's at his side, as ever, just in case. ]
The people here... don't want to leave because of what's down there.
[ he points vaguely, angie will know what he means. the pods. of course he gets stuck with a bunch of sentimental earthers. nevermind that he goes down there to talk to his own earthers every day. ]
I can understand that; it was a difficult choice for everyone who's left, I believe, but I know that there is little I can do with them. And staying with an essentially comatose friend who can't hear you speaking to them through the pods isn't beneficial for them, either.
The best we can do is grow acclimated to the world below and ensure there's a place for them and we have as much knowledge to share as possible.
( Which isn't meant to be a lecture; it was her personal reason for eventually heading down to assist in Nadril, the frozen landscape to the Northwest, and for wandering Olympia where all walks of life gathered. For exploring Wyver and its humid jungle-like canopies, risking the dragons just to visit a friend.
She takes another sip, seeming to savor it this time with a flutter of her lashes to the burn in her throat, looking at all the different-colored glass bottles reflected on the wall. )
What would you tell them, if someone were to wake up and ask?
( About the planet. Their options. What it's like. )
[ that earns her an odd glance, but he doesn't dispute it. he's perhaps not the worst company she could come across in a place like this, and it only benefits him for her to think so. he's noble but only so noble on a failing station with minimal passengers left, ya feel? ]
Only an Inner would ask that. Let me guess: Earther?
[ he'd "met" a martian, but almost everyone else he's encountered has been from earth. interesting when he considers what happened. an event no one else seems to remember here. since she has to ask he'll just launch into an explanation without making her work for it. isn't that magnanimous? ]
I grew up on a space station, like this one, yeah? They're maybe... a third of Earth's gravity in the outer quadrants and less and less as it gets in. Sometimes close to zero. [ he holds up his fingers in a little "o" shape. ] I've never set foot on a planet. My bones would turn to dust.
[It's not high praise when you consider she chose to live with people thoroughly rejected by society at large and rather violently kicked out the ones who were preying on the weaker members of the community. He ranks a little above the guy who pushes a shopping cart around because at least he's bathed recently.
Riley folds her arms over her chest and listens intently. Her eyes never stray from him as he offers an explanation. Back home, Riley would think he was off his meds. Here? Everything seems plausible enough.
She waits until the end, brows only furrowing at the mention of what will happen to those bones of his.] So they saved you to what? Stay here with sleeping bodies until you die?
[She's in the minority here. Most people seem capable of letting go.]
[She can only stare in disbelief and hope she heard that wrong. That's a little too much for even her to contend with: the idea of the dead coming back. Riley can only play it off and hope in vain he's insane or this is some kind of metaphorical death.] You're chipper for a zombie.
[She tilts her head in the direction of the pods.] Don't you want to see if you'll catch them awake someday?
[ the people he's been painstakingly looking after just like she watches those kids. he smiles, but it's wan. ]
The stars are better off without us, you know. [ he manages to make it sound wistful, but then he's glancing over at her- ] Well, me. I don't know you.
[She only looks at him at first question, bemused. Yes. Them. What he says after strikes a chord. Riley can only shrug and glance away from him.] I've outstayed my welcome. The stars just haven't caught on yet.
[Riley's brows knit together. She saw some strange things while asleep; the kind of things that make her wonder if she ever truly woke up.] You think we're still asleep in there?
Well... [ he glances around like someone might be listening in on them. mostly because he figures they must be. ] It makes it real easy to go along with this when all our loved ones are in here, "asleep," right.
[ he does the air quotes and everything. ]
What if I told you I saw something before I died that could reanimate corpses? Maybe even... bring them up to basic sentience again. [ he expects her to just think he's a crazy old man, honestly. but that's fine - he tried. ]
[Riley does consider for a long moment that he is insane. At least some of what he says rings true. They brought a pair of kids she risked her plan for. It's the same for all of them.
She had been on death's door when the storm caught up to her at her family's gravestone.] Before I woke up here, I'd ask if you forgot your meds again.
[Fair warning and all.] I was bleeding out before the Storm hit. [Which is her way of saying go on.]
[Her lips curve up into something close to a smile. That's the one thing she's heard that doesn't sound crazy.] That I could believe. I've played dead before.
[Riley nods because their part in this has always been sketchy. The reasons she keeps playing along are right here though. The only way to stop is to do the one thing she thinks Carly would never forgive her for. She's here for better or worse.] They got in the way of my plan.
[To die. There's no need to get into that now.] What else can we do? I don't see a way out.
[ he strokes a hand along his stubbled jaw and shakes his head. ]
There's always a way out... [ but suicide pact is a little grim, even for him. ] But you're right, for now we're stuck, ain't we? I guess I've been trapped worse places.
[She gives him a firm look after out. Riley doesn't want to go there. It's already enough that the memory of Carly has to hold back that urge.] We can move...
[Riley corrects herself.] I can move if I actually wanted to. That's something.
Yeah, well, go ahead. No one's stoppin' you. I'll even offer to babysit.
[ whether they knew it or not, miller was watching after everyone in this room after the mass exodus to the planet. he's not about to leave anyone behind, not again. ]
[Riley gives him a onceover. God Maria and the boy would be so screwed if this guy was their protector.] Remind me to get you something sturdy if I do.
[ he snorts plainly at the dig, not concerned about what she thinks of him. it's typical of an earther, to insult a belter's physiology, the way it's different. that they can't sustain the things an earther can just by breathing. though he may oppose the extremists of his people, miller is a belter through and through. he's never denied it. ]
There you go. Because you're your own person, right? You make your own decisions. What, do you want a medal?
[ when miller levels her with his stare, he realizes his mistake. this woman isn't criticizing him, but herself. he sees something familiar in her he didn't pick up on before. ]
I'm more substantial than I look. [ at least, for a man with hollow bones. ]
[She lets it roll off her. Riley exists in a state of comfortable numbness. She doesn't need anyone to understand what she's saying or thinking for that matter. Still it's nice when he seems to get it. She might need that babysitter one day.] I guess I shouldn't talk. I didn't always look like this. It didn't hold me back when it counted.
[Taking out a corrupt cop with a metal object and a ton of anger was a fine moment for her. Truthfully she was only a little thicker than he was at the time.]
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1.08 mercy
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( Sunny and bright, perhaps, from all the sulfur— but if she recalls correctly, that was the one with hundreds of active volcanoes. When the bartender brings them their drinks and she gathers hers up, he's clinking glasses and she's smiling, seeming to work the toast around on her lips before answering with her own, ensuring she makes eye contact: )
Prost! I'm glad to hear you're doing all right, at least. And that they haven't tried to chase you down to the surface yet. Have you had any company?
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[ he's holding his judgment. if only because there doesn't seem anyone left to judge. his gun's at his side, as ever, just in case. ]
The people here... don't want to leave because of what's down there.
[ he points vaguely, angie will know what he means. the pods. of course he gets stuck with a bunch of sentimental earthers. nevermind that he goes down there to talk to his own earthers every day. ]
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The best we can do is grow acclimated to the world below and ensure there's a place for them and we have as much knowledge to share as possible.
( Which isn't meant to be a lecture; it was her personal reason for eventually heading down to assist in Nadril, the frozen landscape to the Northwest, and for wandering Olympia where all walks of life gathered. For exploring Wyver and its humid jungle-like canopies, risking the dragons just to visit a friend.
She takes another sip, seeming to savor it this time with a flutter of her lashes to the burn in her throat, looking at all the different-colored glass bottles reflected on the wall. )
What would you tell them, if someone were to wake up and ask?
( About the planet. Their options. What it's like. )
1.14 riley
[ that earns her an odd glance, but he doesn't dispute it. he's perhaps not the worst company she could come across in a place like this, and it only benefits him for her to think so. he's noble but only so noble on a failing station with minimal passengers left, ya feel? ]
Only an Inner would ask that. Let me guess: Earther?
[ he'd "met" a martian, but almost everyone else he's encountered has been from earth. interesting when he considers what happened. an event no one else seems to remember here. since she has to ask he'll just launch into an explanation without making her work for it. isn't that magnanimous? ]
I grew up on a space station, like this one, yeah? They're maybe... a third of Earth's gravity in the outer quadrants and less and less as it gets in. Sometimes close to zero. [ he holds up his fingers in a little "o" shape. ] I've never set foot on a planet. My bones would turn to dust.
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Riley folds her arms over her chest and listens intently. Her eyes never stray from him as he offers an explanation. Back home, Riley would think he was off his meds. Here? Everything seems plausible enough.
She waits until the end, brows only furrowing at the mention of what will happen to those bones of his.] So they saved you to what? Stay here with sleeping bodies until you die?
[She's in the minority here. Most people seem capable of letting go.]
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That's about the size of it. It's not so bad, you know, dying in good company. And most guys don't get to do it twice in a row.
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[She tilts her head in the direction of the pods.] Don't you want to see if you'll catch them awake someday?
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[ the people he's been painstakingly looking after just like she watches those kids. he smiles, but it's wan. ]
The stars are better off without us, you know. [ he manages to make it sound wistful, but then he's glancing over at her- ] Well, me. I don't know you.
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That's one way of lookin' at it. I'm still not convinced this is all really happening... as lame as that probably sounds.
[ he scratches at an eyebrow, suddenly sounding even more tired than he looks. ]
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[She gestures to the pods.]
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That's an interesting theory, but... Guess we won't know until we wake up again, huh?
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[ he does the air quotes and everything. ]
What if I told you I saw something before I died that could reanimate corpses? Maybe even... bring them up to basic sentience again. [ he expects her to just think he's a crazy old man, honestly. but that's fine - he tried. ]
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She had been on death's door when the storm caught up to her at her family's gravestone.] Before I woke up here, I'd ask if you forgot your meds again.
[Fair warning and all.] I was bleeding out before the Storm hit. [Which is her way of saying go on.]
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What if these Natha characters aren't as gone as everyone says they are?
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[She didn't know what she was doing then.]
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It's just awful convenient that we remember negotiating with them, right? And they're nowhere to be found.
Don't know why I would do that anyway- I liked bein' dead, personally.
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[To die. There's no need to get into that now.] What else can we do? I don't see a way out.
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[ he strokes a hand along his stubbled jaw and shakes his head. ]
There's always a way out... [ but suicide pact is a little grim, even for him. ] But you're right, for now we're stuck, ain't we? I guess I've been trapped worse places.
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[Riley corrects herself.] I can move if I actually wanted to. That's something.
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Yeah, well, go ahead. No one's stoppin' you. I'll even offer to babysit.
[ whether they knew it or not, miller was watching after everyone in this room after the mass exodus to the planet. he's not about to leave anyone behind, not again. ]
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[She tacks on:] I'm not really up for the waking.
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There you go. Because you're your own person, right? You make your own decisions. What, do you want a medal?
[ when miller levels her with his stare, he realizes his mistake. this woman isn't criticizing him, but herself. he sees something familiar in her he didn't pick up on before. ]
I'm more substantial than I look. [ at least, for a man with hollow bones. ]
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[Taking out a corrupt cop with a metal object and a ton of anger was a fine moment for her. Truthfully she was only a little thicker than he was at the time.]
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I'm pretty spry for a dead guy, so. [ he's doing just FINE thanks for asking!!!! ]