[open]

[strove]

WHO: Clarke Griffin + anyone
WHERE: New Amsterdam
WHEN: The very end of November 2511 into December 2511
WHAT: Returning from a canon update, reintegrating.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Likely references to loss of autonomy, death, bodysnatching without consent, and spoilers for the entirety of season 6 of The 100.

[Arriving back in New Amsterdam is a shock to Clarke's system. She wakes up in her bed—her bed. Not Josephine Lightbourne's. Her body. Not Josephine Lightbourne's. Whereas she has handled all of these complications back home, there's still a haziness in adjusting here. Two lives lived parallel. Whereas before, she had been certain that her life would be lonely, barely lived—her mind works to correct. To repair. To adjust. She can't adhere to notions that she held before. It will take time. Adjust. Adapt.

Adapt.

And do better. That's the one mantra that stays with her. Being here doesn't change that. Do better. Josephine had mocked that need, but that just tells Clarke that she was on the right track. That she is on the right track. Do better. So, she will.

Once Clarke has slept about a whole day to feel better, she takes some of her vital signs to make sure that she can manage being on her feet. It turns out that a good night of sleep was all she needed (and a good part of a day, at that). That's fine.

Otherwise? She has to acquaint herself with the city again. A cursory glance told her that she has a lot of reading to do. And a lot of seeing how things are in New Amsterdam proper. Clarke makes a to-do list:

a. get a new job. Giles Bell is surprisingly forgiving about her absence, but she tells them that she doesn't think it's the path she'd like to take. Having an evil scientist in her head really did a number on her, so she's willing to avoid too much science at the moment. She'll be hitting the streets to look for ideas.

b. Ask around about the animals that are getting into the city. Clarke hasn't seen any yet, but she knows they're around.

c. Check into travel to and from the city. This is for a future project, one important to all of the Displaced.

d. Start volunteering. She has enough medical training that she can do that. It's a place to start.

e. Otherwise, just be around for the first time since she came back inside of the walls after the EMP. She hadn't stuck around for long, either. Her disappearance was near immediate after she came back with Jyn and Prompto, vanishing before she even hit her apartment on her way home.

Clarke will look different. Her hair is more purposefully cut, and she starts to tend toward a darker wardrobe, with some splashes of red and blue where needed. She is older by six years, and carries herself in a way where someone may pick that up. But she's not exactly going to go around announcing it, not yet.

She has things that she has to do. A lot of things.]

[ooc: I'll also be putting prompts below! If you'd like a thread with Clarke, hit me up in PMs, on plurk @ medieval, or on Discord @ alison#8996.]

Comments

[strove]

[It definitely is a very them thing to joke about. Clarke takes up her drink, taking a long swig off of it. Since they've been talking, it's gotten warmer.

But ... well. Clarke isn't a girl who minds a warm beer.]

Well, try this. My, uh, title back home? [A beat.] It's Wanheda. It means "Commander of Death." I think that means I win. Not an achievement anyone would want, but ... here we are.

[resleeves]

Okay, that's impressive.

[ he hadn't actually had an official title like that. ]

All I got was terrorist. Or pet terrorist. I'm a little jealous you got something as fuckin' cool as that sounds.

[strove]

Pet terrorist. Does that mean that they believed that you of all people were under someone else's thumb?

[In Clarke's experience, "terrorist" is a term that can be applied when someone is simply an enemy. Pike is proof of that.]

[resleeves]

Pet terrorist, freedom fighter, super soldier. I'd gotten all those labels and then some.

[ it all depended on the person. ]

Just depended on who was talking to me. Most people went with terrorist though. They didn't understand what was going on and what I did.

[ they didn't understand quell and the envoys. ]

Fuck them.

[strove]

Hard to believe that someone wouldn't agree with them. [It's an interesting way of looking at it. On the Ark, rebellions were crushed most of the time, making it difficult for anything to get very far. On the ground, the factions were split and divided in a different way: by clans, by a loose definition of a "people." Going against that was seen as wrong, and occasionally weaponized to prove a point.

It's precisely what Lexa—and later, Octavia—had fought to stop. Had tried to prevent. Those lines would always have a way of returning, flaring up like an old wound coming to haunt someone.]

You believe in what you did, right? For you and your own. Your people.

[resleeves]

I would do it again in a fucking heartbeat.

[ he would follow quell anywhere and listen to anything she said. her thoughts were his thoughts and while she would cringe at that, that doesn't make it any less true. she'd given him a purpose and a reason when he'd had little else to point himself towards. ]

If they want to think I'm some fucking monster, let them. I know what's true.

[strove]

What is true? What did you have to do? [As much as Clarke has decided to have faith in him, she realizes that she has to ask. Bring it out in the open, rather than leave it as an elephant that hasn't been allowed inside. For once, she doesn't tender information in return: doesn't offer up anything with her questions.

Knowing Clarke? She will.

Just not yet.]

[resleeves]

Followed my heart.

[ sarcasm. ]

I joined a group that people thought did more harm than good. They didn't understand what was going on.

[strove]

[Definitely sarcasm. Definitely a non-answer.]

You don't have to tell me.

[Because Clarke senses that he probably won't.]

[resleeves]

Telling you about them is a long story. They're called Envoys, though. That's what I am and I'm the last of them.

[ unless he could, somehow, find quell and bring her back. ]

They would be like...I don't know, like whatever fuckin' rebel group exists in this place.

[strove]

[An amused sound rises in her throat.]

You mean like the one that looks after most of us when we arrive? Though it is better that we don't say their name.

[resleeves]

Hence rebel group.

[ he gives his fingers a wiggle in her direction. ]

Ruffians. Those people. But yes, that's what I mean. There are similarities but I'll keep those to myself just to keep us from being looked at like we're lepers.

[strove]

Ah, yes. Very clever.

[She leans back, relaxing.]

Did you want another drink?

[resleeves]

If you're buying.

[ he would never say no to more booze. ]

Even if you're not, I'll probably have another one.

[strove]

I'm buying. I'll do what I can for my friends right now.

[Since she is going to be unemployed shortly.]

[resleeves]

[ kovacs taps the bar and then gestures her to keep going. ]

Then, I'm drinking.