IC contact for lastvoyages

[littlebattles]

[If I don't have an active post up, feel free to use this post to have your character call, videochat, text, or knock on June's door.]

Comments

[spam]

[vampere]

[Normally, Tesla wouldn't literally track his inmate down like this. Especially not with a temporary pairing. But he does like to know who he's actually responsible, and given that reaching out over the network hasn't returned so much as the slightest response he doesn't really have a whole lot of other options.

He doesn't really know what to expect when he actually tracks her down, mind, but he's persistent, if nothing else, and that will have to do.]

[spam]

[littlebattles]

[His item leads him to the library, which seems to be fairly quiet today - there are the usual workers, a couple browsers, and then Zoe Smith, curled up in an armchair with a book. She's the one that his item will persistently point to.]

[spam]

[vampere]

[That's... definitely not what he would have expected. Not least of all because the name the Admiral had given isn't the one she'd given. And sure, it's not like pseudonyms aren't a thing, but still. It's a little odd.

On the other hand, his item is pointing to her, and there's not enough people in the library for it to be pointing to someone else in the same vicinity, so he makes his way on over.]

You wouldn't happen to know a June Harris, would you?

spam for Aloy

[littlebattles]

[From here.

June will show up as promised! She may already be there when Aloy arrives, leaning against the Enclosure door; otherwise, she'll walk up not long after.]

I hope you don't mind those clothes getting wet.

[metalflower]

[Aloy arrives shortly after, dressed in brightly coloured silks and layered sashes, her red hair just barely braided back. Believe it or not, this is one of her plainer outfits.]

Not at all. I've gone swimming in this before.

[Aloy pauses to look June over. It's so strange, getting to stand amongst Old Ones. Breathe the same air. She smiles.]

[littlebattles]

It's so funky; I love it. I used to have some scarves that would have gone well with that.

[She's dressed much more plainly, herself, in a burnt orange pants and shirt set that almost looks like a jumpsuit.]

Have you used this before? You'll have to unlock it, but I can show you how to work it once we're in.

spam for Hange

[littlebattles]

[Like she had with Aloy, she'll arrive on time, either right before or right after Hange herself shows up.]

Have you ever sailed before?

[14thcommander]

Hange stands up straight from her relaxed lean on the wall and gives June a once-over. She didn't respond to the network post, but she did take note of it; so this is their brief impostor.

"Never! I've ridden on a steamboat once. Hopefully I'll be a good pupil, but if not, it's just an hour, right?"

The statement is delivered with confidence. She has every expectation of being a good pupil.

[littlebattles]

"Sailboats are pretty different from steamboats. I hope you won't be disappointed." But she doesn't actually sound worried, and she doesn't expect this lesson to end in disappointment. Sailing is too fun for that.

"Ocean or river? We'll need a small craft either way."

Text

[fork_off]

[A few days after he yelled at her and stormed out of her cabin, with her file, Thomas sends her a message:]

Are you free to meet?

Text

[littlebattles]

[June seriously considers just not answering. She can just hide in her cabin, right? He can track her down there, but he can't get in. She can push the inevitable off just a little while longer.

But then, she reasons, maybe he hasn't read it yet. Maybe, just maybe, she can still get out of this entirely.]

Sure, boss. Anytime.

audio

[omniavincit]

Hey. [ The voice is soft and thoughtful—a little preoccupied. He hadn't known how to approach this, had watched her network confession over again and still been at a loss. He can't present himself as safe or trustworthy: he isn't.

Straightforward it is. ] This is William, Harry Goodsir's former inmate. I'd like to meet and talk when you have time. Somewhere private.

[ Meaning not on the network. ]

audio

[littlebattles]

[Huh.

June has, on the whole, not had much interest in hobnobbing with her fellow inmates. Most of them aren't the kind of people she has any interest in knowing, and even the ones who are can't really do anything for her. She's pleasant enough, of course, because New and Improved June is a pleasant person, but she doesn't seek them out. So one seeking her out is, to say the least, unexpected.]

I know who you are.

[And she well remembers what he did to Tris.]

Is the deck private enough?

[fork_off]

[In early March, Thomas sends her a message.]

Will you be free in the next couple of days? I wanted to talk to you about some things.

[littlebattles]

[Boy, does this ever sound ominous.]

Sure, boss. How about tomorrow evening, an hour before dinner?

[So that she can rush off to her work shift if she ends up needing to make a quick getaway.]

[littlebattles]

[From here.]

I'd feel better on a minimum security prison Barge, but nobody's going to give me that option.

[omniavincit]

Well, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a prison less secure than this.

Do you—do you talk to anyone? Besides Blanky. [ He grimaces around the name. ]

[littlebattles]

[From here.]

Like sleep paralysis?

No. Panic attacks, yes.

[skitter]

No, not like a panic attack.

I don’t think I can explain how debilitating it is to not have a power my brain was redesigned to depend on. I haven’t been human since I triggered and I won’t ever be again.

Would it be a good punishment if I’d used those powers maliciously? Very. But the last port proved to me I wouldn’t have been functional for very long. Too disorienting, too panic-inducing.

[fork_off]

I am sorry I didn't contact you sooner. Are you all right?

[littlebattles]

No, I'm not, Thomas. I was murdered.

Voice.

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess sure did waffle on this one. As far as Tess is aware, no one in the history of the planet has gotten an apology for infection prior to this incident, and the enormity of that thought still just barely comes out on top of how shitty it feels to apologize for something she had no control over.

Living like it never happened might feel shittier, though.]

You alright?

Voice.

[littlebattles]

[And June, in turn, waffles on how to reply. New and Improved June would answer graciously and with unquestioned forgiveness, but New and Improved June has sort of gone out the window as of late. Real June would flat-out ask her what exactly she thinks an apology is going to accomplish, but she's not being Real June with the Barge at large, either. She's in a nebulous in-between state, neither fully herself nor fully a persona, and it leaves her tongue-tied.]

Death tolls are worse than everybody says they are.

If you're wondering if I'm going to make trouble for you, don't worry. I won't.

audio

[omniavincit]

[ He's thought a little bit about what to say. Between her leaving him for dead and Steve Rogers turning around and doing the same thing to the whole fucking boat, the faith he'd had in inmates, in their willingness to look out for each other, has taken a hit.

So he launches into what happened, exactly what happened—both because she should know and because he wants her to feel like shit. ] I almost made it to Misty. [ He says, his voice measured, thoughtful. It's different from other memories—sharper in hindsight, but also remote. He remembers impulses that never went anywhere, terror and seething anger that couldn't so much as twitch a finger. Remembers at the same time his legs moving of their own accord. His face contorting, reshaping. ]

That knife you saw me with [ the blade long and clean, the sheath carefully stitched ] was from her, a gift.

I got to the elevator. I, uh, by then I had to slam my whole body into the button. I was scared—one of those things, you know, where you obsess over some minuscule detail—I was scared I wouldn't... [ He stops. Composes the thought. Speaks clearly. ] I wouldn't have the control to press the right button. I couldn't think of anything worse.

But I did it. Second floor.

When the doors opened, I couldn't move. And then they closed, and the lights went out. I— [ He can't, or doesn't want to, wrap his mind around that feeling—alone in the dark, hearing the far-off groans of the elevator without comprehending them. Body no longer his own, thoughts errant blips. ]

She found me. Somehow it was her. She killed me before I could get to anyone else. [ A sigh escapes him—maybe too soft for the communicator. He goes silent a long moment, and when he speaks again it's more direct, more certain. ]

We could've stopped her. Tess, I mean.

audio

[littlebattles]

[When June hears his voice, she acts on instinct: she tosses her communicator away from her like it's a small, biting animal, then throws one of her shawls on top of it for good measure, muffling the sound. She leaves the room. She doesn't listen. She doesn't want to hear.

She comes back to it an hour or so later, armed with rationalizations, and this time she does listen - not out of a desire to face what she's done, but because, she tells herself, what she did doesn't really matter. He's back, isn't he? He's alive. He's not a mindless, transformed creature. No harm done. And if this is a more fragile rationalization than usual, one so, so easily disproved by her own traumatizing first-hand experience with turning and mindlessness and subsequent death, that's fine, because she can lock those feelings away in a box for the duration of this conversation. And when she needs to bring them back out, it'll be William's words that'll get locked away in their place - all the conflicting details of this story carefully compartmentalized and never allowed to comingle. It's fine. She can make it work. It's fine.

But still, when she finally responds, her voice is strained.]

We couldn't have. I'm not a fighter, and you-- you had a knife, William. You're a murderer. You had a better chance of defending yourself than I did. If you think you can pin any of this on me--