[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]

You're my friend. [Yes, it's a terrible diplomatic move. Clarke doesn't actually care about that at the moment. It's a lot to ask someone close to her to take a chance on an unknown group, especially given their body count. That wasn't her tack with Sanctum, though part of that was messed up because of Jordan's intervention.

(Basically: the kid bragged about all the "cool things" Clarke and the others had done, which are not things that sound cool from the objective observer.)]

If Attolia has to be an option and coming here is just a waypoint to somewhere else, it's better that you know. Besides, I tend to get involved with politics the moment I turn up. You'd have to be prepared for that.

[kleptocratic]

[ He makes an expression that's someplace between a pout and a grimace. ]

Nothing good ever comes from politics.

[ Not that Eugenides hasn't considered this. Not that Eugenides right now isn't considering whether and how he could turn Clarke's warlike people to his hypothetical advantage. The balance of power between the crown's mercenaries and the barons was already delicate, and so was the situation with the Mede, but sometimes the best move was to throw out the whole game.

In truth, though, it was an offer he made on impulse, without thinking. And Eugenides found that questioning his own foolhardy impulses was rather like looking down off the edge of a rooftop. Likely to make you dizzy and rigid and not anywhere closer to solid ground. ]

I have to go back, you know. If I can, I have to go back.

[strove]

[Nothing good ever comes from politics. It's a sentiment that he's expressed before. Clarke—somehow, despite the years that should interfere with her memories—recalls that vividly. These days, it leaves her smiling. Being a leader is political in and of itself. Trying to define it any other way is foolish.

She nods, understanding what he's saying. Not only does he have his people, but he has his wife, as well.]

I understand. Most people don't want to escape a bad situation. And if I couldn't, and if my people couldn't, I'd go back to them without hesitation. But I'd prefer to find a way around that and give us a new chance, one that we can make for ourselves.

[They hadn't known what they'd find on Sanctum. The planet itself was dangerous in ways that this one wasn't. Clarke knows her people would struggle in both settings, but they know the Earth and irradiated land. At least they would be starting on familiar ground.]

[kleptocratic]

No. [ Eugenides remembers her world, what was left of it. The parts of it he saw, anyway. He also remembers a vision he had that caved in all the expensive glass in the old solarium, how he could feel his skin breaking, but not the blood. ]

It will be a bad situation. If I don't go back. [ He presses his lips together. ] I will probably make it worse.

[ But he has to try… something. That's what his experience here has taught him. ]

[strove]

I understand. [What he owes to his people. Lexa had been the same way. Clarke wonders what it would be like if her subconscious version of Lexa had met Eugenides now, fully aware of the burdens that he carries. But then, isn't that just Clarke herself, having learned lessons from Lexa?]

I'd like to hear about it sometime. I know it doesn't seem like you'll remember being here, but maybe we can change that someday. I—I'm better at being a precautionary tale, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

[Politics in Clarke's world are extremely ... explosive.

To say the least.]

[kleptocratic]

I will tell you. It's not exactly a secret. At least, not to anyone with two crowns to rub together.

[ But instead of saying more, for some reason, he hesitates. He's always hesitated, to talk about this part of his life, here, even if he can't see an obvious tactical disadvantage. ]

i can't remember if they were already holding hands so whatever

[strove]

[The hesitation is noted. Clarke reaches out, taking his hand. Her emotions will feel different now: steadier, more focused and resolved. Clarke's been through a lot. While her guilt is always there, the foundation around it seems thinner and more fragile.]

i don't… think so… so whatever is accepted

[kleptocratic]

[ Eugenides has a fair amount of practice keeping his emotions out of his face and voice. It's something he's actually practiced. But he still feels very much. ]

Eddis and Attolia are only recently at peace, and Sounis, our neighbor, is currently engulfed in a civil war that even my spies can't sort out. [ A sadness here, not for Sounis, but for his friend Sophos, who is missing, likely dead. ] This is usual. Attolia and Sounis are always fighting over this port or that river, and trying to extend their own grasp at the expense of the other. And perhaps it could go on so for another hundred years, but the Medes, our neighbors across the sea, have caught their eye on our little peninsula. [ Eugenides hates the Mede, with no moderation. He snorts to cover this up. ]

Perhaps you do not know this, but it is the way of bigger countries to eat up the smaller ones.

[strove]

No, but there was a clan that knew they could defeat all other clans if they struck out and tried to change things. Azgeda—the ice nation. They did what they could to trick Lexa into failing time and time again, but, surprisingly, they weren't involved with how she died. They're the closest I've seen to it. [Apart from what she's heard about the workers rising up to try to overthrow Jaha. They had very nearly succeeded, if it weren't for a few other factors. (Namely: the Mountain Men's communication interference blowing up their ship as it came down.)

Clarke doesn't think they exist on the same level.]

I assume there's no one among the Medes who can be elevated as a favor to keep them out of your business? [Hey, it worked with Roan.]

[kleptocratic]

That is exactly what the Medes want. A foothold, some pretext to meddle in our affairs. If they invade unprovoked, the greater powers of the continent will step in, to preserve the balance of power. But if one of our warring factions solicits their aid?

[ His voice trails off, suggestively. ]

[strove]

So, appeasing them to get them to lay off is exactly what they want. [Clarke wouldn't be surprised to find out that they caused some of the conflict, including the civil war that Eugenides mentioned.]

It sounds like you know which angle they're going to take. Shoring up that weakness is what matters, but I'm willing to guess that Sounis is too prideful to take local outside help, rather than help that's less involved.

[kleptocratic]

It depends on Sounis. If the king can remain Sounis.

[ Or if one of his barons takes over. It has happened, before. The king isn't a product of a long and storied lineage. ]

But they will have to be made to in any case.

[ He takes his hand away, then. Not suddenly, or jerkily— he's a trained pickpocket, and always has been clever with his hands. But this is something he doesn't even want to be honest with himself about. ]

[strove]

You mentioned a civil war. [That means there are opposing forces. Clarke doesn't read too much into the removal of Eugenides' hand, thinking it to just be a need to hold his limbs closer to himself and nothing more. He is clever, after all.]

Does one side foolishly believe that they can get out unscathed with the Medes' help?

[kleptocratic]

Maybe not unscathed. But desperation breeds desperation.

[ Eugenides didn't think Sounis would invite the Medes, but one of his barons certainly might. A man does terrible things to gain a throne. ]

Some people will spend all their coin on one nights drink to make starving in the winter more bearable. It's easy to trade tomorrow for today when you might not see tomorrow.

[strove]

Yes. And even easier when people expect you to do something, or even demand it of you. [That had been less of the case for Clarke throughout her life. As much as she can be difficult, her pride is one where she's arguing for what she feels is better for the largest number of people. But, again, she thinks of Azgeda, and thinks of how difficult they were to manage as an entity.]

I'll ask for more if it ever comes to me going there. I believe it's the least I can do.