The Sad Blanket Tour [Open]

[unrecovered]

Who| Wash and whoever else wants to join in
What| Those last two missions were terrible, and Wash is checking in on his friends to make sure they're okay and nudge them in that direction if they're not
Where| All over the ship
When| After Silent Horizon and No Sanity Clause; the rest of the afternoon/evening after Kid Q's briefing
Warnings/Notes| This is mostly for Wash's extant CR, but I'm absolutely down for him meeting new people. He's not going to turn anyone away right now, after all. Also, behold the mighty planning spreadsheet.

It has been, to put it lightly, a shitty day.

They'd beaten the Joker but lost one of their own. Half the team had been through what sounded like literal hell. Clown in a fridge victory aside, things hadn't gone well for anyone.

So, once Wash had gotten himself out of medical with a promise not to do anything strenuous until he'd healed completely, he'd hunted down as many blankets as he could find and gone looking for his teammates. He couldn't fix what had happened, but at least he could try to help.

Comments

[unrecovered]

Wash leans gingerly against the wall, closes his eyes, and takes a moment to breathe. Pidge is petting DC - it's hard to argue with an insistently affectionate kitten, after all - and for the moment, things are okay. He'll take it.

DC meows loudly and shakes his head as the tear hits it. Stop that! He doesn't like being wet!

The meowing catches Wash's attention, and he looks up to see- well. So much for things being okay. He crosses the room and sits down next to Pidge, putting an arm gently around her shoulders. "It's okay. It's over."

[isthisapidge]

Pidge sniffles and sobs, furiously scrubbing her eyes before wrapping an arm around Wash's trunk.

"But it's not over! I'm off the ship but it doesn't change that we fell into a trap or someone set it up!" He's the second person to say that to her, and while he probably means the ship, she just can't stop thinking of everything. The whole picture is where she has to live because of the way her brain is wired, and the fact that someone besides the big bad likely set this up as a trap just won't leave her alone.

She keeps one hand on DC's back to ground herself in something non-human and totally incapable of judgement.

[unrecovered]

He winces and stiffens, biting back a noise as Pidge wraps an arm around him, pressing into still-healing wounds. He takes a breath and lets it out. He's fine. He's fine. Focus on Pidge, who's just been through hell and is too goddamn smart to ignore the big picture.

"You're right - it's not going to be over until Chronoblivion is gone, and right now we have a mole on the ship." Which is something he's still struggling to come to terms with, thank you horribly justified paranoia. "But if you only look at the big picture, you'll drive yourself crazy. Break it down into steps. Step one, get off the Silent Horizon, which you did. Step two, give yourself enough time to rest and recover. Step three, take another look at the data. But step three can wait until at least tomorrow. Right now, you need to take care of yourself."

[isthisapidge]

Pidge doesn't miss the way he goes stiff -she's holding on to him, after all- so she withdraws her arm. She doesn't need to ask what happened, she just knows he's hurt. He hid it well up until then, or maybe she was just wrapped up in her own thoughts.

Well, she still has a cat to pet.

"You're the second person to say that to me," she sniffs when she has a voice again. "I just...don't know how. I can't focus on one thing unless I'm focusing on it to the exclusion of everything else."

[unrecovered]

Wash keeps his arm around her. Just because he's in pain doesn't mean she doesn't still need the hug.

"Set a timer, then. Work for an hour, give yourself fifteen or twenty minutes to do something else, and actually take those breaks. You can focus longer if you don't wear yourself out at the beginning." It's hypocrisy on his end - he hyperfocuses badly at times - but that doesn't mean it won't work.

[isthisapidge]

She lets herself sniffle against his chest for a minute more, just to be held with a fuzzy cat in her lap. It's good advice but right now she feels overwhelmed with everything she knows now, and maybe her work habits feel so hard to change because...everything feels like it's on the brink of falling apart.

"I'll try...There's just so much to do now." She wipes her eyes. "I'll...probably need your help."

[unrecovered]

He stays where he is, stroking her hair gently as she sniffles. He can't fix everything - can't even come close - but at least he can be here for her. That has to be worth something.

"That's part of our deal, isn't it? You come to training, I help in the lab." He ruffles her hair. "Though part of that is going to be making sure you take breaks now. I hope you know that."