For lastvoyages Twenty-first vision (video+spam for pub)

[can_has_vodka]

 [Arkady's standing in one of the hallways, looking a little lost.]

...Oh. So this is what it feels like.

Um...Dr. House's door has returned to Barge normal. So...he's left us. 

[She hopes it just means he woke up on the damn operating table. She has to convince herself that that's what happened.]

I'll be down the pub if anyone needs anything.

[Friends filter]
I could use a hug. I'll be all right, but I could still use a hug.

[Private for Reaver]
So I heard you're interested in our little establishment. Well, there's a bit of learning involved and I'm happy to help with that. Perhaps we should start with a tasting?

[Spam for pub]
[Arkady is puttering around, teleporting now and again to save time or rescue a dropped glass. She's clearly coping with her loss, but wears the occasional sadface. She's pretty much letting in anyone who knocks.]

Comments

[Private]

[wedonot]

I'd be the last person to begrudge you for that.

[Private]

[can_has_vodka]

He was bloody brilliant, that one. Ah well. I do wish him well whatever happens.

I um...well, I was wondering, since I'll have a bit more time for a while, if you'd like to meditate together. There's something I'd like to show you.

[Private]

[wedonot]

Certainly. Let me know when's most convenient for you.

[Private]

[can_has_vodka]

After breakfast I'm usually free, if that works for you?

[Private]

[wedonot]

Perfect. Where should I meet you?

[Private]

[can_has_vodka]

Oh, I do love the gardens, don't you?

[Private]

[wedonot]

I don't know anyone on board who doesn't. I'll see you there. [And I'm up for spamming if you'd like!]

[spam]

[can_has_vodka]

[Arkady has a nice spot picked out in the main gallery, well away from the areas being worked on at the moment. Her shields are down, and she does carry a wistful sadness, but it has an ephemeral quality to it. This too will pass.]

Hullo! How are you doing?

[spam]

[wedonot]

I'm well, thank you. [Charles' shields are, for the most part, down, but there's still a fair amount of stuff that he's keeping tightly locked away. It's nothing personal and certainly nothing against Arkady, he just isn't really in the mood to talk about it with anyone, and probably wouldn't be for quite some time.

He comes over to her, picking up on the sadness and admiring that she was already doing her best to keep going. The Barge needed more people like that.]

I'm sorry about Dr. House.

[spam]

[can_has_vodka]

I believe that he will land where he needs to.

As for dealing with this sort of thing...? There's tricks to it. They're teachable. I had to do it after the disaster because there was literally no time to deal with the stresses going on and the things I saw. And you know what sort of things happen when someone with serious power lets themselves get too upset.

[spam]

[wedonot]

I do. [And there's a brief but powerful thought of Erik that probably filters across for a moment before Charles reels it back again.]

The disaster?

[spam]

[can_has_vodka]

I'll show you then. Once you have seen what I have it becomes more difficult to ever completely despair.

[A touch of worry, for him and his clanmate, but she backs off, not prying.]

Yes. The disaster that crippled Britain. [She hesitates, but...of all people on the Barge this is one person who needs to know. It could happen on his world.]

It happened when we were fifteen, and had just escaped from captivity in a government laboratory.

[spam]

[wedonot]

[There's a moment where he feels sort of embarrassed for the slip up. While his mutation had developed when he was younger, and he'd spent the better part of his life learning how to control it, he still wasn't used to it in many ways that Arkady was, simply in that he'd had no one to "talk" to until recently, and the only person who had been comfortable with him just wandering in and out when he wanted to was Erik.

And while he was usually good at filtering back his own feelings and keeping them locked safely behind mental barriers, he generally felt like the Barge was wearing his defenses down, and he was tired and wanted to go home.

So he nods, signalling that he understands and she should continue. He's not really sure if he's ready for it, but he hasn't really felt ready for anything since a young woman with a mutated MCR1 gene approached him in a bar in Oxford, so there's no use going back now.]

[spam]

[can_has_vodka]

[A soft sigh.]

They came after us with helicopters and tanks. We ran for our lives and they chased us everywhere. If they could not control us, they wanted us dead.

Eventually they surrounded us. I couldn't teleport yet. There was no way out. We panicked...and joined our powers, hoping it would be enough to cripple their forces and force them to withdraw.

...it did a lot more than that.

[Her face crumples and she looks away.]

[spam]

[wedonot]

[He didn't know that fear, not quite. He knew by proxy through what he'd seen of Erik's past, and for one horrible moment on a beach in Cuba, but he'd been lucky.

It's easier to talk this way. Charles has always been good at being supportive, but it's still hard to articulate things sometimes, because there just weren't words to describe how genuinely sorry you were. But with telepathy, you didn't need words, you could just show the other person how you felt in a way that went beyond platitudes, and he made sure to express that now.]

I'm sorry.

[spam]

[can_has_vodka]

We've been working to fix the land and the infrastructure ever since, and help as many people as we can. But we can't bring the dead back to life.

[A soft sigh.]

What we faced then and in the aftermath made most of us very good at coping with horrible things.