} open

[givingback]

Who: Brianna Randall (givingback) & OPEN
What: Heading back to where everyone's hanging out in stasis.
When: September 12th.
Where: The Station
Warning(s): death of a parent conversations likely.



[ It's not even mid-month yet, and already, Bree's had a more exhausting September than she's ever had in her life. Her mother? Possessed - literally. That would be enough, but the ghosts, the wailing, the missing of the dead was all too much. Enough to push Bree into finally getting back to the station, back to where everyone is still in stasis.

It's not hard to find the room once there, and as she stares at all the pods she wonders how they choose who gets to wake and who doesn't. A daughter needs her father with her, right? Or maybe it's enough that she has her mother. Maybe it's enough that she has a father she doesn't even know well yet. Walking among the pods, she finds Frank easily enough. His glasses are on his face and she closes her eyes for a second against a laugh that's half amusement half...something else. ]

Can't forget your reading glasses.

[ She murmurs that softly, touching the pod feather lightly before looking up at his sleeping (?) face. ]

You have no idea how much I miss you. Sometimes, back home, it still felt like a dream. I keep walking back through that day because it seems so impossible. You were alive in the morning when I came downstairs. You were alive when I went to the library. You were alive when I was at the movie. And then you weren't. You were just gone. You were gone in between me buying popcorn and watching Tunga Khan executing all the missionaries. It isn't fair.

[ Taking a deep breath and wiping away a tear, she slides down and sits on the floor right by his pod. And she talks to him. About everything. He probably can't hear her, but she tells him she knows about Jamie, about the stones and all the rest of it, talking to him for hours before finally sounding like she's wrapping up. ]

I wish they would wake you up. I'm here, and we could have more time together. All you have to do is wake up, dad.

[ She's not even aware that anyone else has entered the room with her, sitting with her knees curled up to her chest. ]

Comments

yes hi

[warhorns]

[It's been a long time since Robb has been alone as he's been here. He's grown up surrounded by family and the other people in Winterfell. Even at war there had been people everywhere, soldiers, advisors, his mother... and later Talisa. Loneliness drives him back to the station, seeking out his family.

The moment he comes across a young woman speaking to one of the sleeping people he knows he should make himself known or leave... but he doesn't. Robb watches and listens as she talks. It's a little comforting to know that he's not alone in wishing his family were here.]

Maybe he will, in time. [Robb don't just comment without introducing yourself first that's rude.]

perfect good, yes

[givingback]

[ Her breath catches in her chest a flood of adrenaline making her heart thud at a sudden voice. But she clears her throat and turns to look up at him, suddenly aware of the fact that she was crying, hoping her eyes aren't red-rimmed. What a great first impression. ]

I don't know if it really would be better or worse.

[ A pause. ]

Do I know you?

[warhorns]

I don't think so. I've only been awake a few days. [He gives her a sympathetic smile, showing no sign that he's judging anyone for tears or emotion. He knows it's how he feels about his own father's absence.

He comes closer, nodding at the girl.] I'm Robb. My father's not awake here either.

[givingback]

[ Oh. She knows that name. ]

Stark? I...my mother knows a lot of people from your world. I think we live in your old home.

[ She's not sure if it was ever his or if his father built it, Claire never went into that much detail. Just that it was the Stark home. ]

Did your father die, too?

[ Bree doesn't mean for it to sound callous; she assumes if he was listening that he put together hers is. ]

[nineteenfortyfive]

[Claire doesn't visit Frank, ever.

There are plenty of ghosts around these days, and she hopes he never wakes up. It was less cruel, before Brianna herself came out of stasis, but she can't imagine a life with Frank in it now. She's not the woman he married before the war, and even more so now she's not even the woman who had him live a lie for two decades. No part of her wishes Bree to carry the grief that she does, but she can't imagine her seeing how ugly her mother and father could be would help matters.

So, while she passes by Frank's pod each and every time, she does still spend some of her time in stasis, visiting others. Jon. Sansa. Jenny. She's even found Joe Abernathy here, her dear friend.

She doesn't expect to hear her daughter's voice drifting down the rows as she walks. For a long moment, Claire considers turning around and leaving. This feels like an intrusion of privacy despite it not being a private place at all. She doesn't need to see her or make out the words to know who it is she's talking to or what she's saying.

Her poor girl.

She can't leave her daughter again. Not even if she might want to be left alone in her grief for a while. So, Claire moves to the proper row, though she hesitates near the end so as not to startle her too badly.]

Bree?

[givingback]

[ It's only because Claire's voice cuts through the silence that Bree doesn't jump, but her heart does give a lurch of surprise. How long has she been listening? Bree tries to tell herself that it doesn't matter, none of this was a secret, she just needed to tell her father. Turning over her shoulder, she sees her mom and then turns back, pulling her knees against her chest and wrapping her arms around them. ]

I didn't know you were coming here today.

[nineteenfortyfive]

Neither did I.

[It's the truth. She doesn't often plan on when she comes to stasis--it's more of a certain mood that has to strike her. As she quietly walks over to where Bree sits, she glances at Frank's sleeping face before looking away as she sits down beside her daughter. Their daughter, really.]

What do you think he'd think of all this?

here i am

[claudel]

[ Fergus comes up here to see Marsali. While he's happy with what he has, Jamie and Claire and Bree, it issad that he scarcely got to enjoy his marriage before all of this. But at least he knows she's safe.

He doesn't actually get as far as Marsali, though. Fergus hears Bree, a familiar voice by now, so he follows the sound to find her sitting on the floor. A slight smile comes to his face, in an attempt to be comforting but understanding. ]

It seems that this is the place to be right now.

so glad you're here <3

[givingback]

[ As far as brothers go, Bree really enjoys Fergus. And in a moment when she thought she'd be embarrassed to be caught, she finds herself not minding that it's him.

Still, she does try to compose herself a little bit. ]

Is this the first time you've been?

[ Asked as she brushes away errant tears. ]

[claudel]

Since we left the last time, yes. I wanted to visit my wife. Perhaps I can introduce you to her once you are feeling better.

[ He smiles, ready to crouch down to see how he can comfort her, but he's curious to see the father she's crying in front of. He glances at the pod and his actions seem to freeze. Fergus isn't normally so outwardly shaken but he seems to have taken a fright at this sleeping form. ]

Room for one more?

[summertimeblues]

[That time again, isn't it? Plenty of refugees are sticklers about holding regular vigil. Richie's upped his visits from every two weeks to once or even twice a week. The cuts were still fresh from losing the humble horde he'd made pals with since waking, and at times it seems he's got more stops on this tour than Cher makes in all fifty states. He'll do his monster first (that's what the nickel-plated flask is for) and then his hometown pals for sweet solace after. Following that he's got to follow more turns than Theseus in his labyrinth to hit up all the sleeping bodies he'd met in Olympia.

One such turn takes him down the wrong path, and course correcting sends him further off. He's cussing himself, it's been a while since he'd lost his bearings up here but the rows stretch into infinity and the new stops enroute confound his sense of direction.

The confession drifts up from seeming silence, the exact words jumbled by faint echoes. A familiar voice he has trouble placing until he's wandered into her hall. Copper-haired Bree, spilling her guts out to an older man lying prone as the rest of them. "All you have to do is wake up, dad."

Oh hell, he's got the world's worst timing. Richie freezes up for a moment. Then he looks to his flask, lips pursed. He waggles the it in the air.]

Looks like you need this more than I do today.

[He tosses her the flask with a light hand.]

always, for you!

[givingback]

[ Instead of jumping, Bree closes her eyes for a second, trying to keep her heart from slamming out of its chest as she clears her throat and then manages to catch the flask with both of her hands, like a football. ]

You have really great timing.

[ She doesn't even pause to see what it might be, just opens the flask and takes a long pull from it. It seems fitting; she'd happened upon him once, and now in a totally different setting, here he is. ]

Come here often?

[ Bree sort of chokes that out, around the burn in her chest. ]

[summertimeblues]

[It's just scotch sloshing around in there. Richie's had about two and a half shots for himself and there's seven more left. He's happy to share, particularly when she doesn't look like she's kidding about his timing.]

A little too often, speaking frankly. Lots of folks went back to sleep this past month.

[He takes the address as an invitation to move forward, hands tucked into the pockets of his trench as his eyes skate over the man in the pod. Stiff lipped, lines cut severly into his cheeks and silvered ends to his brown hair. Thick rimmed glasses that make him pat his own nose in reminiscence. Not too unlike the specs of his past. That's sixties chic there, impeccably dressed from head to toe.]

It was recent, wasn't it? His passing.

Oh no. Dead parents. His one weakness.

[smithandwesson]

[It wasn't often Sanzo had found himself wandering the stasis chambers. He had preferred to not hold on to the past, to not grow overly attached to the thought of all those had been lost. But occasionally, despite his own better judgment, where he was.

He was minding his own business, casually roaming the halls of the stasis chambers with no destination in particular (liar) when he had heard the faint voice of a young girl.

Curiosity is a nasty beast to conquer. His dower expression keeping fairly unchanged as he walked upon the sight of a girl in the midst of grieving.]

He's here. It means the possibility most certainly is there.

[It was perhaps a bit invasive to speak up and get involved in someone else's private business. But this was perhaps a time, for the first time in a while, that he felt his previous life as a monk would have come in handy.

He never could handle the sight of kids grieving for their fathers.]

It seems, at least, Dharma had managed to fight hard in making sure his life had been spared from your world's destruction. Which means he has the possibility of being recovered.

Better than the other option of him not making it at all. There are still so many who have yet to find any of their loved ones.

You have hope.

how did i find THE one

[givingback]

[ Bree looks up from where she's sitting with her knees pulled to her chest. Maybe he's right; her mother was here for over a year before Bree woke up, and she wasn't even damaged or hurt or otherwise dead as far as she knows. ]

I do hope. I'm having hard time understanding how it could or ever would work. How someone who was dead for months is even here to begin with. A part of me doesn't think it's actually possible. That it ever will be.

obviously you're targeting him or something of the sort. How cruel~

[smithandwesson]

... He was dead?

[It wasn't the first time Sanzo had heard of such things happening. But this was his first time coming face-to-face with one of these "revived refugees", even if he was still in a state of stasis himself.

Walking in closer, Sanzo took a moment to look and really take in the appearance of the man this girl was mourning.

So this was her father, huh?]

Perhaps it won't be. But it's also just as likely that he may come back as well. These situations, the healing process with these pods, it's unpredictable in how they work. But he would not be the first one to come back from a brush with death.

Until then, it is futile to get hung up on it all. It is good to remember and mourn, but you must also keep moving forward with your life as well.

[They were common words for those who had dealt with such loss, but that didn't stop them from being any truer.]

Our moving forward is the only thing that separates us from those trapped here.

super late, but i need this cr in my life

[directives]

[ she makes the trip up here periodically, more content than she's willing to admit to just spend time in the presence of the crew she's worked so hard to get home, even if they're still in stasis. even if they may never be awoken from it. if all she can do in the here and now is ensure that they remain safe within those pods, she will spend the rest of her life doing so.

it's on her way out as she's tucking her tricorder back into her pocket that she spots the other redhead curled up on the floor next to one of the pods. ]

Everything alright?

i could cry

[givingback]

[ Bree raises her head and quickly wipes away any tears still lingering on her face before clearing her throat. Saying 'I'm fine' would be ridiculous and an outright lie, so instead, she looks up at the woman, pressing her lips together before shaking her head. ]

My father died, at home. Before we were all put into stasis.

[ She looks up, indicating that this is in fact, said father. ]

I miss him. I never even got to say goodbye to him.

[directives]

[ my father died.

now that's something kathryn can relate to in ways she wishes she couldn't. she lost her own father some time ago, back when she was just an ensign wearing science blues. it had been quite the traumatic experience for her, one an invasive non-corporeal lifeform they'd encountered in the depths of the delta quadrant had seen fit to exploit for its own benefit. and while the loss of her father in that shuttle accident on tau ceti prime wasn't something she enjoyed revisiting or being reminded of, like most things, she buries it. she shoves her own discomfort and pain aside to focus on this girl's. ]

I am so sorry to hear that, [ she says gently, moving to squat before the younger woman. ] That couldn't have been easy for you.

also....super late....

[breadmuffs]

[The station is not Caleb's favored terrain but he's here because Nott wanted to check on the rest of the Nein and since neither of them particularly like the station...well. Safety in numbers.

While Nott checks up on the others, Caleb wanders the rows of pods. He hasn't spent all that much time in here, primarily because it just makes him...uncomfortable. But on the other hand he wants to know exactly who from his world has been deemed ready to be woken up. Eventually. (He also has some vague thoughts about what he might do if he found certain people. But only vague. He's still trying to be on good behavior.)

He doesn't find any of those people. What he does find is a young woman spilling her heart out to a man resting in a tube.

He'd meant to leave her in peace, because emotion is not Caleb's forte. Neither are people. But then she says that last thing. And well. Perhaps Caleb has a thing. About families. About parents. And the way she phrased a certain thing....

For a few long moments, he's indecisively caught. Now would be the perfect time to have Frumpkin curl up into her lap but it's just Caleb. And his imperfect social skills. He begins to walk as if he's moving away from her, his steps quiet.

Until he deftly hooks his foot under an errant cable. Which pitches him forward. He manages not to actually fall flat on his face, but there's a loud painful thud as his knee hits metal and his throws his arms out to catch himself. Caleb curses unde his breath, and then picks himself back up, turning in Bree's direction.]

Sorry, sorry. I was trying not to disturb you.

[Because, you know, he couldn't just approach her like a normal human being.]

I ACCEPT

[givingback]

[ Bree jumps at the sudden commotion, and for a second she looks at this person getting ready to sprawl out face first and she's moving to help him even as he manages to get up. ]

Are you okay? I mean, it's fine, you didn't, I didn't even realize you were here. Maybe you should sit down for a second.

[breadmuffs]

[Well, that definitely attracted her attention. Which Caleb meant it to. But he didn't mean for her to be this concerned. A miscalculation.]

Ah, nein, I'm not hurt, it's alright. [He holds up his hands, a sort of placating gesture.] Please, don't worry. I don't want to interrupt your time.

[His eyes flicker back towards the pod she'd been sitting by.]

lot of people walking in on her having a moment but here's another one

[pullsheavendown]

[Sometimes Roxas goes to pod storage to visit Namine, with or without Axel. At first it felt strange to talk to someone who couldn't talk back, but it started feeling more normal over time. And sometimes he goes for no particular reason, with no particular destination in mind. (That's a lie, whispers a voice in the back of his head. You know who you're looking for. Three sleeping faces that wouldn't recognize him even if they did open their eyes.

When he crosses paths with other people doing the same, he doesn't usually do more than nod at them in passing. But usually he doesn't come across someone who's crying. He hesitates for a moment, torn between saying something and turning to leave her be. But what if she's hurt or something?]

Oh, I'm sorry. Are you—are you okay?

it's what she gets for doing this in public!!!

[givingback]

[ Bree wipes all of her tears away the best she can, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, nodding. It's a lie she can't maintain though, she stops mid-nod. ]

I will be.

[ Eventually. ]

There's just a uh...a lot going on that I wish my dad was here for. That's all.

yeah bree GOD why don't you know better!!!!!

[pullsheavendown]

Oh.

[Her dad. What does he know about dads? Roxas feels as though he's stumbled onto something really personal, something he shouldn't be here for. But instead of making a quick excuse and backing away, his gaze drifts to the man in the pod across from her.]

Is that your dad? I'm sorry. It really stinks to have to wait for someone to wake up.