( catch all )

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WHO: Carolina + others
WHERE: dreamscapes, around New Amsterdam
WHEN: july 2512+
WHAT: a catch all log
NOTES OR WARNINGS: general space marine ptsd; will update with anything else.

currently have one open dreamshare! will match prose if you feel more comfortable and feel free to hit me up if you want to plot something else: eflat or streetsongs#5551 or pm

Comments

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[ carolina doesn't notice drake until he actually addresses her, so there's a flicker of surprise on her features before she can catch herself. but she stops, turns to face him, respects drake enough to give him a clear answer. ]

A long-stay hotel on Chorus. [ a planet she's mentioned enough for drake to know she's spent a great deal of time there. ] This is where I was living, before we turned up at that music festival.

[ it's very clearly a living space for one person, so she'd been there alone. ]

[braveoff]

Oh...

[ It must have been while Wash was recovering. Was he still in the hospital? Drake looks around and it's clearly a single space, not enough room for two. That must have been an adjustment for her, he thinks. ]

By yourself?

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[ she nods, expression furrowed as she steps past him to go to the window. the view directly outside of it is clear, but if she turns her head in either direction, her memory has filled the rest of the block with vague shadows and darkness. ]

The Reds and Blues were away, having their adventures, and Wash was in the hospital. And then his own place. [ which made her feel like she had to visit less than she did at the hospital, and that made her ache. ] It... wasn't so bad. I knew some people who lived nearby.

[braveoff]

[ The place feels cold, somehow. Sterile. Like it's not hers, which he supposes it isn't, but... he's gotten so used to seeing Carolina around her people, it's hard to imagine her on her own as she is now. As she described herself how she used to be, sure, but now this woman. ]

Still. That must have been lonely.

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Mm, it was.

[ and drake's one of very few people she could admit that to. he knows her well enough, knows enough about how close she is to her people. ]

It always struck me as funny that a city was quieter than sharing bases with the guys, most nights. Less than a dozen idiots, louder than a whole capital city.

[braveoff]

Having met a handful of them, I'm not surprised at that.

[ He smiles at her, both thinking of her friends and to acknowledge that she shared something private with him. ]

I'm sure if you put the whole city in one base it'd be pretty chaotic, too, though. Tell me about the people nearby?

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[ carolina shifts her weight, turns enough that drake can see the flicker of her appreciative little smile before she starts talking. ]

It was just a few of the soldiers who'd gotten particularly attached to my friends, our first visit to Chorus. I... didn't really bond to any of them, like the guys did. [ surprising no one, probably. bonding is hard. ] These two that really looked up to Tucker and Simmons eventually figured out that I'd tell stories about them if they actually got me to something social, so they'd invite me out. And then so would a few soldiers who lived in the apartment block next door, and a medic, on the next block.

[ she pauses, shaking her head, but it's more of an amused gesture than strictly negative. ]

They mostly made for incredibly annoying friends, but when Wash didn't need me, it was an excuse not to be alone. And I did genuinely like Jensen, she's clever, a sweet kid. Simmons having faith in her did a lot to help her grow into the person she is and I hope he's proud of that.

[braveoff]

[ Drake listens to the explanation, smiling faintly at it and the way Carolina talks about the younger soldiers. She liked them all, he thinks, at least in a way. You don't keep going out with people that just annoy you, or just out of loneliness. He's glad she had them. ]

That sounds nice -- and like it might've started as them hoping you'd tell stories about the others, but they didn't have to keep inviting you all the time. They probably looked up to you a lot, too, as one of the leaders.

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Maybe.

[ she's not sure she's been anything worth looking up to in the past few years, no matter how hard she's tried. some of the locals don't dislike her company, carolina knows that for sure, but she's not sure she's on the same level that the reds and blues are in their eyes. ]

I just know how much they complained when I took over training them sometimes, back when things were still such a mess here on Chorus. I'm apparently a much meaner drill sergeant than Wash is.

[ there's an almost laugh in her tone there, though. that she can get a little abrasive over training is never a surprise to hear. ]

[braveoff]

[ Drake grins a little. ]

Meaner? What does that even mean, I thought that's how drill sergeants were supposed to be.

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That's what I tried telling them, but they didn't seem to believe me. The Reds and Blues voicing the same complaints probably didn't help, though.

[ she shifts her weight a little, arms folding across her stomach as she leans against the edge of the window out to the street below, still blurred by her dream, but something she found herself staring at more than she would have liked, when she'd exhausted every distraction she had available to her. ]

It's hard to make any soldier listen when their captains are loudly complaining about how bossy or bitchy I am.

[ her tone is still distinctly fond, though. in hindsight, she doesn't mind how often tucker and grif made her attempts to help the news an endlessly frustrating endeavour. ]