| Look Up At The Sun |
| Summary: | A chat amongst some members of the Anadyomene group while they keep watch. |
| Date: | 20 May 2041 AE |
| Related Logs: | None |
| Players: |
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| The Eternal Bridge - Leonis |
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| Post-Holocaust Day: #83 |
| Despite its well-augured name, the Eternal Bridge did not emerge unscathed from the recent Cylon assault. The four-kilometer span that connects both banks of the city is now no more than a broken ruin, its brilliant steel towers jutting up from the riverbed while its deck lies crumpled and sagging. Carved stone casements once held aloft by decorative caryatids are now blackened reflections of their original selves. Bits and pieces of those statues lie with exploded sedans and smashed asphalt on the corpse-covered shores, caressed by softly rolling waves that reach almost to the cliffs. |
There's a small pow-wow of three sitting on the grass currently - Quinn, Samuel and Allie are all sprawled out while chatting. "Yes…and yes," Alessandra says with a smile, the cryptic reply given to Jugs. "Anyhow, yeah. It'd be nice even if only to have someone there to wash my back." If it was just the girls talking Alessandra could probably say that without blushing but with Samuel's presence her face is quick to turn quite red.
"I might do that in a little while," Samuel offers at Quinn's words, glancing around again for a few moments. "Don't worry, won't arrest you for that," he offers a bit lightly to Alessandra now, expression his most innocent for the moment.
Quinn smirks a touch at Samuel's promising not to arrest the woman…"I don't know… after everything, little regs like that?…Seems the most foolish thing in the world. Sure, I can understand during peace time, when this is just your job… you keep it out of the work place. But this is our lives now… there will never be anything else. We… we shouldn't stop living them just because… because of a book that barely holds itself together now." Maggie admits quietly, her eyes distant with thought…"Though, hell, I have no room to talk… myself and my lad were tryin' ta keep things quiet too…" Until Beltaine, then half the ship found out.
Damon's been here, there, out and about. But strange enough, he hasn't been making himself seen all that much throughout the ordeals of the past little bit. Rifle slung and hanging by his side, he raises a tired arm in a wave as he approaches the group on the grass. "How goes the battle?" he asks - it's been his greeting for the last little while. When he greets anyone at all, instead of going off scouting or scavenging away from the main group. Still, being on the ground has put some life back into the Petty Officer. Even when he looks tired, he's still more alive than he's looked for a long time on the Cerberus.
"See, I feel the same way about that reg but it seems like Command is not of a mind to try to change it. And the one time the XO and I chatted about it he said that he'd leave it up to the individual COs of the various commands to decide as far as if they'd be alright with it or not. So I'd probably be frakked." Allie's in such a hurry to get that all out that she doesn't realize that the more she speaks the closer she's getting to giving herself away. "And I get the feeling that the guy might not even be interested so it's really a moot point," she add. "So…er…yup! Shower. Sounds good, right? And thanks, Sammy. Lack of an arrest on my records is a good thing." Looking up once Damon approaches, she finds herself sighing inwardly, feeling all the more sheepish. "Hey. Doing good here." Save for the having been shot and all that. "How's you?"
Samuel nods a little bit at Quinn's words, "And besides, our survival as a people would depend on certain actions being taken, after all," he offers, before he grins to Alessandra, "You're welcome," he offers. Damon gets a shrug and a grin, "Well, there's been days without local wildlife trying to claw, bite, or otherwise attack me, so it's a good time." Offered a bit lightly.
Quinn nods in affirmation to Samuel, "Yes… yes it would… though I'll leave that up to you youngin's, so… Don't lose hope yet, Lucky. We're gonna need ya for more than plane flyin' some day." Maggie grins, joking a little bit… mostly. And then she turns her eyes up in Damon's direction, nodding smoothly to the Marine. "Same as yesterday… damned lucky to be alive and fightin' for tomorrow. You?" of course, not that Maggie's doing much fighting with her pretty much useless right leg.
Damon nods, taking in the responses more or less at face value. If he's heard any of the conversation he's just walked in on, well, he's not saying anything about it. "I'm doing… good." He really is. Not too banged-up or damaged, he's gotten away from the previous encounters more or less unscathed thus far. "It's bad enough we gotta fight the Cylons - but to have the planet killing us too, well, that's something else, yeah?" He sits down uninvited, making himself as comfortable as he can. "Can't figure out which is worse - toasters, the radiation, or the frakking wildlife."
Laying out on her back, Lucky finds herself lulled into a warm, sleepy state of being, the latter part being hard to stave off. "I think I'm going to take a nap now," she offers while her eyes close slowly. As she drifts off a slight smile begins to make its way to her face, Alessandra finally looking at peace.
"Putting lots of pressure on us poor young ones," Samuel comments to Quinn, with a bit of a grin, before he shrugs at Damon, "The radioactive cylon wildlife," he remarks, with a grin. Seeing Alessandra drift off, he grimaces. "I should probably do that as well," he offers, laying back where he's seated himself.
Quinn gives Damon a half smile as Samuel and Alessandra both sink back into the grass to take a nap under the falling twilight…"Just you and me keepin' watch over here, it seems. Though… been here nearly all day and ain't seen a thing. We might just have found the sweet spot around here…" Maggie admits, trying not to sound too hopeful as her muddy green eyes track around the area, searching for any hint of anything that might be off. Just like every other time… it's nothing.
Damon chuckles quietly to himself as Alessandra and Samuel drift off to sleep. He remains sitting with his back as straight as a board, just kind of looking out into the distance. "The quiet is always disconcerting, isn't it?" he asks after a while, loosening off his helmet. "I kinda completely forgot what quiet was like. There's always noise on the ship, any hour of the day, anywhere you go."
Quinn looks over to Damon quietly, listening to that thoughtful statement. She nods…"Yah… it's a bit maddening here, so damn quiet. Too much like home.." Her Aerilonian accent is thick and lilting, the northern provinces dialect, so there's probably little doubt home was on some poor little farm with a voice like that. Also half her life away, Maggie well close to middle age. "Would be nice if not for the dead bodies and radiation."
The quiet's something /beyond/ quiet — as if the blasted cityscape to either side of the river wasn't bad enough. No birds. No crickets. All the better to hear you with, my dear, as Tisiphone stalks in, the sand scuffing underneath her footfalls. Her duty greens are tied off around her waist, and there's a light pink across her shoulders, arms and cheekbones, courtesy of today's relentless sunshine. Looks like someone was off eyeing the edge of the city on their lonesome.
"I like it, actually," Damon says inanely as his gaze draws back out over the ruined landscape. "It's peaceful." Strange definition of peaceful in a place like this, that's for sure. Hearing someone coming toward them, he glances over his shoulder to see Tisiphone, who's given a smile and a nod. "Dead bodies and radiation aside, I forgot what it was like to be… out in the open. To look up at the sky. To have real solid ground beneath your feet."
Tisiphone and Maggie definitely are sharing the sun thing. The freckled red head was not built for this long exposure, especially after over a dozen years working nearly full time in space. She's burnt nice and red beneath her freckles and already peeling in some areas, though maybe that too is the radiation? She looks over as Tisi comes near, wincing a bit sympathetically as Maggie catches sight of that burn…"Damn, Money.. you're gonna be feeling that tonight… don't suppose anyone picked up Aloe from that store?" It's hopeful thinking… and then back to Damon. "Yeah… it… it could be worse. We've been damn lucky so far, truth be told…"
"Close your eyes and look up at the sun and you can almost pretend you're somewhere you'd actually want to be," says Tisiphone, by way of greeting. "Until you open your eyes up again, at least." Saggies: Prone to cheerfulness. She stalks around behind Damon, giving him a quick flick of grin from over one of his shoulders, then the other. "Everyone's favourite fake Ensign," she says to him, halting nearby to slouch her hands down into her pockets.
"Everyone's favorite fake knuckledragger," Damon shoots right back, mirroring Tisiphone's grin. As for him, he's been faring decently well under the sun. "I don't know if there's somewhere that I actually want to be," he muses aloud as he looks up at the sun and closes his eyes. "I've already started to forget… everything from before. I can barely even remember what 'home' looks like now."
Quinn watches the two as they exchange friendly flirtations, her eyes studying them a bit closer, almost a curious smile perking at her paled out lips, but she doesn't bring it up. "Home… well, I remember what the Cerberus looks like, and she's home to me… and damn do I miss her…" And showers. Maggie really, really misses showers. As does her matted red hair.
There's /something/ familiar between the two, that much is plainly obvious. Tisiphone's mouth twists up at the corner as she aims something close to a grin down at the sand near her boot-toes. "Mind's a pretty interesting thing, isn't it? What it hangs on to, what it throws out. I gotta say you're right, Sir-" A brief glance up at Maggie, from beneath her pale brows. "-though I never thought I'd say it. It'll be- good. To be back on-board." 'Good' isn't quite the word she was looking for, considering the pause, but it'll have to do.
Damon is silent for a moment. Amidst all this, he seems… serene. It's a jarring juxtaposition to how hectic and dead-tired he seemed back on the Cerberus. "It'll be good to get back," he agrees at last, though there's an affected quality to his voice. "I'm no good to anyone down here on the surface. It'll be good to have a ship to curse at and bash with my wrench. I don't belong in this armor, strapping on a rifle like I'm some kind of fighter. I should be in bright reflective orange, greasy to the elbows, with a toolbelt strapped on." The words seem sincere enough, even if his expression doesn't seem too eager at the prospect of getting back to the Battlestar.
Quinn nods in agreement to Tisi, even if the words aren't quite right. "Yeah… but… well, gotta wait for the brilliant plan of the century to get us back up there. I'm sure command's got somethin' up it's sleep… Tillman wouldn't just leave us here." Maggie's trying to convince herself of that, even if her words don't sound entirely certain. She sighs, sinking back into the comfortable, cool embrace of the grass. "For now… I guess we try to… Enjoy this?"
"None of us should be playing at Marines like we are. Frak, we're all a bunch of deckies and pilots, not soldiers. If it's what gets us off this rock, though…" Tisiphone draws one hand out of her pocket with the thin, hollow rattling of beads and reaches up to rub at her scalpfuzz. She winces faintly as she does; her scalp is doubtless pink beneath the pale hairs, as well. "Wonder if Stephen heard back from the Cerberus last night like he was hoping," she says. "He wanted that antenna in double-time, and then hasn't said anything since."
"'Stephen'?" Damon asks. He's not really on first-name basis with anyone outside of the Deck. Hell, he's not even on last-name basis with most of the people outside of the Deck - they're all 'sir' as far as he's concerned. On the context, though, he can at least guess who it is. "I'm sure we'll find out about it soon if he has," he shrugs, opening up a beat-up canteen full of lukewarm water.
Quinn shakes her head quietly, "No, I haven't heard anything, but then I haven't seen the JIG around all day. Maybe he's making escape plans as we speak." If only they could be so lucky. She rubs one hand across her face, trying to wake up just a hint more despite the fact that she's sprawled comfortably across the ground and it's now fully dark out. "And… we might be deckies and pilots, but we're all soldiers. We're trained to be soldiers from day one.
There's an expression Tisiphone gets when she uses a callsign in front of someone who'd have no way of knowing the identity of the pilot behind it — the expression she gets when Damon asks his question is a cousin to it. "Uh, sorry," she mutters, offering a faint, apologetic turn of mouth. "Junior Lieutenant Kulko, our Fearless Leader." She crouches down, dropping her hand from her head to the sand in front of her. "You're not eager to get back? Or just not willing to look more than an hour ahead of where we are right now?" she wonders, looking up at Damon.
Damon nods when Tisiphone clarifies 'Stephen' - as he expected. "Well…" he says, drawing out time to think up an answer to her question. "It's not that I'm not thinking ahead. And I am looking forward to getting back, if only to be able to actually shower again." A sheepish grin with that one. "It's just - there's green here. Green that's not olive uniforms or ink on print-outs or a frakking gelatinous pile on my plate in the Galley. Silence. Blue sky. Somewhat fresh air." He shrugs and takes a swig of the warm water. "I was trained to be a soldier, sure, but I'm not much of a one," he says to Quinn with a grin. "Those're skills I never expected to have to actually use."
Quinn turns her head slowly towards the river beyond…"Yeah… I really am considering that damn river. Either the anti-rad meds are workin' or they're not… will a bath really kill me?" SHe half asks, sounding hopeful, but she still doesn't have the courage to go over there and jump in. "And yeah… but we're at war, so…we're gonna be usin' every last skill we got…"
Tisiphone's drawing a spiral in the sand, then tracing it back out again, edging it deeper and deeper into the gritty particles. She's silent for a long while as Quinn and Damon speak, then abruptly sweeps her hand over the symbol, destroying it completely. "If you go upstream to a spot where there's no corpses and don't drink any, how much more radioactive can it be than all of us standing /next/ to the river, right?" This is why Tisiphone is no nuclear physicist. "I'm gonna- I'll catch you guys later," she murmurs. She dips a nod to the pair of them, suddenly distracted, and moves to head off.
"Don't - don't do it," Damon says to Quinn hesitantly as Tisiphone leaves suddenly. "We'll be back on Cerberus soon enough - better to take a good clean shower there instead of risking the radiation here." A frown crosses his face and he gets up himself, grabbing his helmet and rifle. "I'll be back in…" That sentence just kinda trails off as he goes after the Ensign.
Quinn sits up suddenly, as both of them go running off, though she nods in agreement with Damon. she knows the reasons not to do it. Apparently, Tisiphone doesn't. She gives a weakly worried bit of a smile, watching their bodies dash off down the river with a speed she might never run again. And then she stares back down at her splinted leg. Exhaling slowly…"Frak me…"
Tisiphone isn't bolting, per se, but there's a determined distance-chewing stride to her walking. It's a dozen steps or more before she hears other footsteps falling in behind her, and she says, without looking back, "I'm fine, I'm just- I'm so frakking out of platitudes, Andreas. I've got, like, three frakking brave faces left and I need to save 'em for when it really counts." She lurches abruptly to a halt and looks back — to Damon, for only a moment, before the pale stare slides across to the Harriers Captain, as she resettles herself painfully. The words aren't meant to carry, but the quietness of their surroundings most likely betrays her attempt at privacy.
Damon measures her words before responding, searching Tisiphone's face for… something. "Leave your brave faces where they are. The only one you need is your own." The words, meant to be comforting, come awkwardly. It's coming from the man who's puked on just about every major mission he's been on, after all. "Back on the Cerberus, everything was… uncertain. We were floating out in the depths of space, and it felt like it was just a matter of time before the Cylons'd come back and do their worst. But ever since we got here, I've felt, what - purpose, I guess you'd call it. There's a reason again, even if it's only for a brief time." He smiles - really smiles, his whole face lighting up. "We'll be out of here soon. I know it. But until then, we've got to keep it together and keep on doing our duty. I know you can do that; I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm here if you need a hand. Or a shoulder. Or just an ear. Because sometimes, the brave face has to come off, yeah?" It's a rambling, meandering path to his point, but there it is.
Tisiphone's eyes slide back from studying Quinn when Damon starts to speak, and stay on him, uneasily skittering around his face, until a beat after he smiles. /That/ sends her eyes sliding away again, almost guiltily. She starts scrubbing at her scalpfuzz again, the edges of her eyes creasing in a sort of continuous flinch. "You know how frakked she is if that leg's broken and it starts to set wrong because we're stranded out here and-" She shakes her head, agitated. Is this what's got her on-edge? The potential of another person with broken bones, after just mending her own? "I'll- just-" She shakes her head sharply, as if it'll clear the hesitation. "Go back to the Captain, I'll just- be a minute." Raising her voice, to carry to Quinn: "Sir, I'm gonna steal more of Boots' chocolates, you want one while I'm up?"
"The Gods are watching over us." That's Damon's only reply before giving Tisiphone a nod and heading back to where he was just a moment ago, reclaiming his little patch of grass and dirt. "Didn't mean to leave you with the nappers, sir," he says to Quinn, nodding to the others where they lay sleeping. "Just didn't feel right to let her leave with - with that expression on her face." Rifle and helmet go down again as he rests his arms on his knees, eyes scanning out into the distance again.
Quinn blinks back up as she hears Tisiphone's voice yell back to her. She shakes her head, "No, no… just take care of yourself, Money!" The matronly red head yells back from her rather raw voice. And then Damon is coming back in her direction and she just gives him a small smile. "It's… it's alright. You care for her… you can stay with her, if you like…I don't mind watching over them." She nods to Samuel and Alessandra, that consistently protective expression coming out on her features.
It doesn't take Tisiphone too long to return, chewing slowly on something as she walks back. There's melted chocolate on her fingers, which she seems to be delaying in cleaning off for the moment. In the other hand, two little individually-wrapped treats. 'Organic truffles', the wrapping claims. "'ere," she says to Damon, still chewing, balancing the first in the valley between his crossed forearms — the second carried over to Quinn, and offered out, more politely. "Sir."
"Care for…?" Damon echoes, watching Tisiphone as she heads off. "I guess you could say that. Hell, I don't think I know her well enough to call her a friend, even - but I don't like to see anybody in pain." He can't help the glance across to Quinn and her leg as he says that. Another lapse of silence - and Tisi returns, putting a treat down on his arm. He rocks forward a little bit and snags it off his arm with his teeth like a dog going after a treat. "Thanks." He looks all thoughtful now, once again staring off into the distance silently as he's been doing for the last little bit. Once in a while, he squints at something far away, shrug, and keep scanning. After a little bit of that, he gets back up on his feet. "I'm gonna take a quick walk around the perimeter," he announces, shouldering his rifle. "I'll fall asleep if I sit here for too long." A nod is given to the both of them before he takes off, walking with a purpose.