tearmeanewone: (047)
Elizabeth ([personal profile] tearmeanewone) wrote in [community profile] thisavrou_log2016-08-31 09:22 am

[open] your focus

Who: Elizabeth DeWitt (The Adult) & You
When: August 31st
Where: The Library
What: The stress of having her abilities back, keeping them a secret, and handling the changes aboard the Moira finally puts a crack in Elizabeth's control.
Warnings: Character injury, LOUD NOISES!!one

[She's exhausted. Maybe she should take a cue from her three-year-old self and take a nap or two or five before she works herself into the ground.]

[In truth, since Egan and Ira arrived, Elizabeth's overall workload has lessened, but she's still putting in more hours than she realistically should be. Perhaps on principle, perhaps from a bull-headed notion that she worked for her position and would continue to do so no matter who showed up an pronounced themselves in charge. She has a responsibility to the crew, and she's going to do it even if it's redundant, even if she has another person to share the work with. Elizabeth has done it herself for months, she'll do it herself now.]

[Even if it's making her extremely high-strung. Constantly pushing herself to work more, finding one excuse after another to not go have lunch or stay up one more hour, she hasn't seen Ivan in days (he's seen her upset enough, recently), has left her with a short fuse. Not to mention her ability.]

[Elizabeth studies her hand, splayed out against the spines of the shelf she's trying to straighten, her eyes fixed on her severed pinky. Miles had said it would be easy to keep the secret for three months, but somehow knowing he was gone made the task seem that much more difficult. Ivan was her ally, yes, but Miles tended to have better advice. 'Keep your head down' only worked in so many situations, and it wouldn't work at all if she was faced with another battle situation. She'd open the ship wide before she let the crew be killed. She knew herself too well, knew how bloody altruistic she could be at extreme cost.]

[She puts her forehead to the shelf and closes her eyes tightly. What happens when-- not if-- her secret gets out? Imprisonment for the ship's safety, induced coma, Ingress research, experimentation--]

[A shrill and loud bark cracks through the silence of the empty library, and Elizabeth's heart jumps into her mouth. A fifteen-foot wide expanse of starry space opens in front of her and oxygen starts rushing out of the library, stopping her from stringing every swear she knows together while she struggles to close the tear. It shuts, but not before a wedge of metal speeds through, the tear cutting it clean in half but not doing much to slow its momentum. It clips her and crashes into the shelf, burying the space junk and her in books and leaving the shelf at an awkward tilt.]

[Elizabeth shakes her head, effectively stunned and unable to move. Her MID is blinking, maybe alerting the medical bay, maybe someone's trying to get a hold of her. She lifts her arm, recognizing that she's bleeding, and drops it back down in resignation. This hasn't happened since she almost got run over by that car in her tower. The little white dog trots over to her, looking very proud of himself and panting excitedly. Elizabeth gives him a flat look.]


I'm glad you're having fun.

[She looks over at the space junk currently embedded in the shelf. It's hard to figure out what lie she's going to tell about this, her head is pounding.]

Dammit Vorkosigan... what have I done this time?
psychadrellic: (i am concerned)

well this is perfect (8

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-01 04:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[Thane had just been chilling out, minding his own business and enjoying the quiet, peaceful library atmosphere when he was rudely interrupted by a dog, the telltale feeling of atmospheric decompression, a sudden chill, and then what he assumes is the loud noise of a very large number of books all falling off a shelf together at once.

The decompression doesn't last very long - a few seconds at most, but long enough no one's going to convince him he just imagined it. It stops as abruptly as it started, thankfully, because if it didn't that would have been extremely bad.

Of course he immediately hurries to investigate, not only because of the barking dog but also to see what caused the decompression, because if there's a hole in the ship that's just been conveniently stopped by a bookshelf (which is only something that happens in really bad human sci-fi movies in which the writers/director have an unusually terrible grasp of the concept of total vacuum), then he needs to see what the situation is and inform someone immediately.

There's no obvious hole, just a little white dog, a pile of books, a chunk of metal, some random debris, and a young woman half buried underneath it all.

He's at her side in an instant, naturally, already shifting books and debris away from her even before speaking.]


Are you alright? What happened?
psychadrellic: (that's enough idiocy for one day)

he's right here, kiddo!! ;u;

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-02 04:44 am (UTC)(link)
[He has a difficult time working out if the long stare before she replied to him is because she's never seen a drell before, or if it's because she's hit her head...so:]

Did you hit your head?

[Best to just ask.

And she can't be feeling too badly if she's trying to stop herself bleeding all over the books though, right? Whether or not that's the case, he'll help her move them away from her bleeding limb, since they'll need to be moved eventually anyway.]


Are you hurt anywhere else?
psychadrellic: calibrations (can it wait i'm in the middle of some)

/pat

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-02 05:50 am (UTC)(link)
[He reaches out and places a gentle hand against the elbow of her uninjured arm to assist her to her feet, if she needs it.]

I was nearby, but I didn't see what happened. I'm fine.

[He smiles softly, the corners of his mouth upturned in a reassuring expression.]

What did happen? Did you see?

[He can't help but notice she didn't answer him when he asked before...not that he blames her, she's obviously had quite the tumble...But he's not going to just let it drop, either.]
psychadrellic: (status of collar: popped)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-03 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[He'll even help her step completely away from the pile of books and debris, too! Just a few steps over to this nice open area where it would be difficult for more shelves to fall on her.

He frowns at her description of events, glancing briefly at the dog when she mentions it, and tilting his head curiously when he returns his gaze to her face.]


That's...quite concerning.

[Just a bit of an understatement there.]

Perhaps the Ingress is malfunctioning...

[If it, someone ought to be informed about it...even though no one actually seems to be able to do much with it.

But that can wait for a moment or so more while he makes sure the young woman is okay.]


We should get you to the medbay.
psychadrellic: (Default)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-08 03:53 am (UTC)(link)
[What sort of life does this young woman lead that normalizes life-and-death bookshelf collapsing accidents?

He shakes his head a bit at her offer.]


I don't mind; truthfully, I've been still for too long. It will be good to stretch my legs.

[Also, he would feel like a total shit if he just let her go off on her own in this condition, especially since she admitted to having hit her head.]
psychadrellic: calibrations (can it wait i'm in the middle of some)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-09 02:53 am (UTC)(link)
[He follows her lead when she begins walking, close enough to offer aid if need be but distant enough to be polite.

He'd seen her name on his information collecting adventures upon first arriving on the ship...and now he has a face to go with it.]


Thane Krios. It's a pleasure to meet you, despite the circumstances.

You were pulled here from elsewhere as well, I take it?
psychadrellic: (that's enough idiocy for one day)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-12 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
I'd spent a lot of time on board ships similar to this one, before being pulled here. The act of space travel is not a new concept, of course. The workings and running of this particular vessel have taken some getting used to, however. I've never before traveled on a ship as a member of the crew in the capacity I've been assigned here.

[Normally when he traveled it was as a passenger….paying or otherwise. Even his role on the Normandy, as a member of the crew, had been vastly different to the one he's taken on here.]

Tell me about Columbia? How is it you had a flying city, but no beginnings of space travel?
psychadrellic: (i am concerned)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-12 06:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[He listens attentively to her explanation, grateful that she takes the time to expand on the premise of the "ark" - he's somewhat familiar with human religious mythos, but as it's not a topic that generally comes up in his day to day life, and as humanity has a lot of different ones, the context she provides is appreciated.]

I see. [He pauses thoughtfully for a moment to reflect on that information, before asking curiously:] What happened to it? Is it still there?

[There's something about the way she had said she wasn't interested in playing God...]
psychadrellic: (so that's what that looks like)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-13 05:07 am (UTC)(link)
[Well, damn.]

That's quite the history.

[Again with the understatements. It's like he has a thing for them.]

How do you like it here, after living in such a place?
psychadrellic: (well that's very unfortunate)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-15 05:25 am (UTC)(link)
[It's amazing how much one can tell about a person by how that person chooses to word the important questions. Because while "What the heck are you?" is a perfectly valid question, and one he doesn't mind answering, it's still nice when people are polite about it. Elizabeth gets full points for diplomacy.]

I'm a drell. I was born on a world called Kahje, which is the homeworld of the hanar - a species I'm told resembles a creature called a jellyfish.

[Well, she gave him a pretty thorough history...time to return the favor.]

The drell are native to a world called Rakhana - a mostly dry, arid planet, basically the complete opposite of Kahje, which is almost entirely covered in ocean. About two hundred years ago, the hanar made first contact with the drell. Normally they would not have done so, as Council races don't typically make contact with species that haven't yet achieved space flight, but the drell were in a...unique sort of trouble. Thoughtless industrial expansion and unchecked population growth over several centuries had basically doomed the entire species to a quick extinction. The hanar intervened before that could happen, and rescued a small percent of the drell and brought them to Kahje.
psychadrellic: (i need a strong drink)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-15 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
It's still not something the species as a whole is acclimated to. The hanar have been working on how to introduce genetic adaptations since settling the drell, but it's a slow process.

[And not one Thane benefited from. :')

He shrugs.]


Yes, that's correct. The Citadel Council is the governing body of Citadel space, and have a good deal of influence - though not authority - over different planetary governing bodies. Which is why there were no negative consequences for the hanar when they chose to disregard the standard guidelines for first contact.
psychadrellic: calibrations (can it wait i'm in the middle of some)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-15 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
That does sound rather unpleasant.

[To put it mildly.]

It's generally agreed on that once an intelligent society has developed the technology to exit their planet's atmosphere, it's also typically advanced enough socially and intellectually to interact peaceably with the other societies it's going to find.

To be honest, I'm still not quite sure what the hanar saw in the drell that prompted the initial intervention. Based on the way my ancestors had squandered their resources, other intelligent races might conclude that a people with such a lack of foresight would not integrate well into the galactic society.

[He offers another shrug.]

Whatever the initial reasoning, however, it has been a beneficial arrangement for both drell and hanar.
psychadrellic: (so that's what that looks like)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-17 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
[He smiles at the sound of her laughter, a brief but warm upturn of his lips.]

I've been told that before. I'm happy to hear that's still the case

Regarding the hanar...well. As a species they're a bit of a physiological anomaly compared to the majority of the other races in the galactic community. They have no skeletal structure and rely on mass effect fields to travel outside the ocean. The drell assist them as bodyguards and retainers. It's a task we take on happily, in gratitude for the second chance.
psychadrellic: (i'll never unsee that)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-19 04:23 am (UTC)(link)
[...He thinks he can tell what she's thinking. Shepard thought it too, when he explained it to her, and was much less diplomatic than Elizabeth about her response and subsequent questions.]

...I've heard the arrangement between the drell and the hanar likened to slavery, in the past. It's...interesting, that this is the leap humans tend to make when they learn of our history. I suppose it may appear that way from an outside perspective, but no individual drell is obligated to serve. The majority simply choose to, in one way or another. The hanar are kind almost without exception, and many share a deep bond of friendship with their drell companions.

[Aaaaand there's the question of Thane's occupation. He tries to avoid answering it where he can, and so far no one's actually directly asked him until now. Probably due to his rattling on about hanar-drell relations. He'll have to remember not to do that in the future.]

No. I was an assassin.
psychadrellic: (i need a strong drink)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-22 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
The human commander I worked with prior to being pulled here had similar concerns when I explained the situation to her. Her reasons for questioning it were the same as yours.

[He's not a mind reader, just very intuitive! Please accept a good-natured and apologetic smile, Elizabeth. He didn't mean to make you uncomfortable.]

I was an assassin for a collective, not any specific individual. Politics, politicians, and political maneuvering are an unfortunate commonality among all species intelligent enough to develop such things. Sometimes the nearest way to tie up a messy situation is with a sudden and convenient death.

[He's not judgemental as he says this, merely factual. It's just how these things go!]
psychadrellic: calibrations (can it wait i'm in the middle of some)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-09-25 02:53 am (UTC)(link)
I don't mind at all. But now you have me curious...how are you picturing an assassin, if not quiet and disciplined?

[Please please please tell him about the adventures of Booker "Trash Dad" Dewitt!]
psychadrellic: (that's what you think)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-10-01 05:26 am (UTC)(link)
Oh? It sounds as though you have first-hand experience.

[It also sounds as if the first thing she described and the second are connected somehow. He leaves his remark open-ended on purpose. She's free to provide details if she likes, and free to choose which details she wants to share, if any.

If nothing else, he now has the impression that this seemingly mild-mannered librarian with a wounded arm and possible concussion lead a much less quiet life before finding herself here.]
psychadrellic: (well that's very unfortunate)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-10-03 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
I see. That sounds like quite an adventure.

...Which, I realize, is putting it mildly.

[Even Thane can acknowledge his penchant for gross understatement every once in a while!]

Did you manage to get out?
psychadrellic: (who ate all the crickets)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-11-02 03:28 am (UTC)(link)
[Well, that's a bittersweet ending if he's ever heard one. It's good to hear that she'd gained the freedom she'd pursued, but less good to find out that she'd had to part from her companion. The way she's talking about him...]

I'm sorry to hear that; parting ways can't have been easy.

[If only you knew, Thane.]

Was it very long after that before you were pulled here?
psychadrellic: (guys is my mascara running)

[personal profile] psychadrellic 2016-11-04 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
[Reliving memories may not be as intense for humans as it is for drell - as far as Thane knows, anyway - but it sure looks to him like that's what Elizabeth just got swept up in.

He frowns briefly when she asks him to repeat himself, and reaches over to gently touch her shoulder in silent support. There's a haunted look in her eyes, as though she'd just waded through an unpleasant memory, which he has a sneaking suspicion he just prompted due to the trend of their conversation.]


Was it very long after that before you were pulled here?