legionworld | beach episode (semi-open)

Entry tags:

beach episode (semi-open)

Who| Carolina + Freelancer squad and friends (aka anyone with close enough CR with one of the Freelancers, Locus, Tucker or Grif to be invited).
What| ~~Beach episode~~ water park shenanigans.
Where| Carolina's habitat.
When| After the PR plot + Carolina talking to Tucker.
Warnings/Notes|

Considering Tucker had been the first to visit Carolina's habitat, it was no surprise that the fact she had a water park based on the one they'd had back home was quickly disseminated around to the others from back home. It wasn't exactly the same - there was a longer lazy river in this one that circled around the apartment complex.

Once she'd returned from the little jaunt around the planets, Tucker had suggested that maybe she let the others visit the water park. And given what she'd been doing during her last mission? She was inclined to agree.

She wasn't throwing a party, she wanted that noted. There was not a grill in her habitat right now, and tofurkey or beef-flavored tofu wasn't the same. So - what passes for chips and dip is set out nearby. She did get a couple boxes of synthehol, and had managed to sway one of the bartenders into letting her have a bottle of actual, real whiskey. And she'd let the other freelancers know they could come by, and bring friends if they really wanted to.

Other than that, it was BYOB and food. She was just providing the entertainment. And the entertainment was the waterpark itself, complete with Carolina sitting on an inner tube, dressed in a swimsuit. She's temporarily lifted the lock she normally sets on her habitat so it won't stop anyone from coming inside.

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Her habitat has been... quiet.

She can, privately, admit she understands why she asked for the recreation of Chorus. It's what feels closest to home, now, even if it doesn't have the bustle of the Reds and the Blues in it. Asking them to place a recreation of her home from New Alexandria - she's not sure what she was thinking when she asked for that.

It's something she thought she'd let go of. And even though it doesn't have the lived-in feel that her original home had, it's still there - looking mostly like how it did.

The water park is safer to sit in, but tonight - tonight she's out there with a six-pack that she managed to sway out of one of the suppliers, sitting on a deck chair in shorts and a t-shirt, and it just feels.. quiet.

Before, even when she was being left alone she could hear the others. And even if she was truly alone, she had someone in her head to keep her company. Someone that's been missing for almost a year now.

It's why she ends up pulling out her omnicom, sending a picture of the water park to the only other person she knows is missing Epsilon - Tucker.

You know, he would have hated this, she adds on before she sends it.

Tucker was lying by his own pool when he received that text; coming from Carolina, there was no question as to who he was. It had been almost a year, a long year since the shattering the quiet in the suit after, a year since he heard the Ain’t that a bitch speech. How many times had Tucker replayed it? How many times until he memorized every inflection, every word, every stupid pause for breath he didn’t even need?

Caboose was loud in his grief, obvious. Tucker kept it quiet, close, partially for the sake of those around him, partially because talking about it sucked.

But commiserating it with Carolina was different; she was the only one that missed him in the same fashion, the same outlet as he did. Sure, Tucker hadn’t been his sibling, but fuck had they been close enough. And it was complicated by Alpha, by the memories Epsilon didn’t have, by the ones he did. Everything was tied up and weird and hard to make sense of, but damn did they try.

He looked at the picture and found his lips quirking a little. Already, he was getting out of the pool and let his wet feet slap against the ground as he knew how to take a hint. Who are you kidding? He hated everything. He would've been bitching across the networks every day.

He would have been telling everyone what he thought they were doing wrong. But he'd also be happy, because they'd hang off his every word.

She's still holding a beer, curled up on a beach chair. When Tucker makes the inevitable trek to her habitat, he'll find two things - one, she keeps it locked, not open. Two, the lock will prompt him to scan his omni-com, and it will open for him, and he'll find her with that beer in hand, staring at the waterpark.

The guy lives to tell everyone else how wrong they were. It's like his kink.

Lives. Present tense. These habits wouldn't, couldn't stop. There was a pause, and then--

He just likes to have people hear him bullshit and not flip him off in the middle.

It'd take ten minutes for Tucker to show up, still in his aqua, decidedly small and tight swim trunks that occasionally dripped water. Towels were forsaken, forgotten, and instead he was interested in the lazy river and a beer. He was surprised that he had entry to something (her home) locked, but it was them, it was from the moon, it was the place and comfort they had together. So, cool. Whatever.

He walked until he found her, standing over her close enough that his shadow stretched across her stomach where she lounged while his hand reached for the beer in her hand.

"You know he would have hacked into the timers and controls of these water sprayers and totally got me in the face every chance he would, the asshole."

Thanks, now I have to kinkshame an AI.

But she doesn't send anything else until she hears Tucker approach, the wet slap his feet and, when she glances over, a too-small pair of swim trunks that has her rolling her eyes and letting him steal the beer out of her hand.

"Are you kidding? He would have hacked into the fire system and sprayed suppressant on you when you passed by." She says with a little sad quirk of her mouth upwards.

Oh, yeah, today was going to be a beer day, many, many beers. Tucker felt the cool glass against his hand and he took a deep drink before offering it back; they were partners in this painful memory mourning. They sure as hell were going to share the only good thing that came out of it.

"Yeah, and tried to shoot Caboose to keep him from trying to catch him like a firefly." He sighed a little and sat on warm pavement - heat was a nice touch. He looked out at the river, watching it gently move, the sun flickering off the surface of the subtle current. Yeah, he'd be going in there soon.

Hey, uh, I just want you guys to know that, out of everyone I've ever met... I hate you all the least.

"...he's such a fucking asshole."

"Apple didn't fall far from the tree."

And that's the first she's going to cryptically acknowledge the truth with, to Tucker. That what Epsilon was was related to the person she also cared about deeply, who manipulated her and her friends. She sighs, taking another drink from the beer and offering it to him again.

She looks out at the water. She enjoys the park, as much as she denied it but...

"Even with Grif and the Freelancers here... it's too quiet."

It's not Red and Blue teams.

There was A Look, something confused and curious, but he let it go as all Freelancers seemed to have to You Must Be At Least This Cryptic To Ride This Project mentality. Sometimes he pried. This...just wasn't one of those times.

Grif. He made a face because that was a complicated set of feelings right there now that she told him that Grif came back. That didn't erase him leaving, that didn't erase what the fuck he said to Tucker while he was here, but it made things...different. It was another dimension tacked on and he didn't know exactly what to say, to do.

"Anything without Caboose is too quiet." He leaned his back against the chair, holding out his hand for the beer without looking. There was still the extensive quiet that he continuously waited to get shattered by Caboose's yelling or Donut's innuendos or Sarge's speeches. It was annoying. It was empty.

"It's quiet because he's not here."

Epsilon.

"... He always had something to say about you guys," Carolina says after a moment, looking out at the water. There was no Caboose riding the slides again and again, no Sarge swimming after team members humming the Jaws theme song or Simmons fussing at Donut about proper pool etiquette.

"A weird story, a complaint about what you were doing... So much I forgot what it was like to not have someone else in my head, talking to me."

She closes her eyes. "I feel like it's my fault."

“Calling it “complaining” is like calling a hurricane “cloudy”. He was bitching, Carolina. Call it like it was.”

But Epsilon didn’t bitch nearly as much as Alpha did, didn’t have the bite to it in the same way; he had always seemed calmer. A little more distant than the Church Tucker knew from Blood Gulch, and still stubborn as fuck, but friendlier, too. Maybe they didn’t apologize in the way normal people would, but he was still Tucker’s best friend.

He always would be.

“You weren’t there, Carolina.” He closed his eyes tight, frowning a little. “You were saving a shitton of people on Chorus, stuff no one else could do. He went up there with me, he did it so I could run the fucking suit, to protect us. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine.”

He brought his knees to his chest, resting his forehead against them. “I’m the one that didn’t bring everyone home.”

"He's the one who told you to get into the suit."

If there's nothing else Epsilon had told her when he'd left a message - it was that he chose to do this. He could have chosen to keep himself alive and possibly lose one of them - but if he wanted to make sure all of them got out, he had to do it. She still wasn't happy, still blamed Felix, Hargrove and Locus for what drove him to do that.

"You brought everyone else home, Tucker. I'm not saying people dying is all right, but ... you did good, given the circumstances."

Hey, she wasn't the only one doling out all the accusatory glaring, and Tucker had a list of motherfuckers that still needed a sword in the gut, but at the end of the day none of those things would bring Church back. All they had was this mission, the last remaining chance, and even then...

...even then, it wasn't Epsilon. It was Alpha.

"Yeah, but I didn't have to; I had my suit. I could have fought them off." And died. One of them would have, and if he was honest, it probably would have been him after a blind rush if any of his team was threatened. He heard in that cockbite's recording just as much. The figures sucked blah blah whatever.

Her praise was nice, and normally he would be all over it, but..yeah. "I think all of us were ready to die up there, really. As long as we took Hargrove down, the rest didn't matter.Do you know how sick he was? Have we told you about the shit in that room?"

"Church alluded," Carolina says, but she'd only seen the remnants in the battle's aftermath - Texas' helmet, her pistol, the brute shot.

"He was messed up. And at one point, I thought he was an okay guy. A businessman, yeah, but so were a lot of people cleaning up after the Director. Somehow, I wasn't surprised in the end."

She sighs, finally sitting up, curling her arms around her legs and resting her chin on her knees. "And if any of you had died, Tucker - I don't think I could have..."

"One of us did die."

Sorry to belabor the point, but it was true. Epsilon might have been an AI, might not have been a whole one at that, but he sure as shit was one of them. And maybe that's what it was so hard to let go; they hadn't gone through this before, not an equal. Not one of them.

But he knew what she meant, too. And that...that deserved recognition.

"It was stupid. He was all so fucking pointless and stupid and--" The heavy sigh slid from his lips as he turned look at her. "I probably would've done the same fucking thing if I had been him. We're all stupid enough to die for each other."

And there was a pause.

"Well, most of us."

She doesn't know what his beef with Grif is - and she's not going to get into it right now. If there's anything that Tucker and Epsilon's reconciliation had shown her, she just didn't get their kind of making up.

"He's different," Carolina finally says, quiet, looking out at the water. "I've lost him so many times, in so many ways." When her mother passed away, when she joined the military, when she joined the project, and finally - at the end.

Edited 2017-09-22 06:00 (UTC)

He hadn't lost Church in so many ways, just a handful; even dead the first time (dead? ha), he still haunted them as a "ghost". It wasn't until they were all shipped out and away that he lost Church, while he was stuck out in the sand. Then when Epsilon was captured in the memory unit. Then when he disappeared with Carolina. Then... well, then now.

Not so many ways, but enough ways. Hell, one way was enough, and maybe that's why Caboose was so fucked up, maybe it just helped with his own mountain of private shit. Maybe. Maybe.

"We need way more beer for this shit," he muttered. A case, at least.

"You've lost folks before." His eyes stared at her, begging for a lie, just give him a lie, Carolina. "Does this bullshit get easier?"

Carolina wishes she could lie to him. Tell him it does get easier, that you miss them so much less, but -

"Not for me," she says, staring out at the water. "The first time, it's horrible, and you don't know how you're going to handle it. And when it happens again, it's just as bad. You just get... better at learning how to deal with it."

Well, that's about as comforting as a swift kick to the balls. And really, he shouldn't be surprised; she wasn't about to lie to him, even if he wanted her to, even if he needed her to. That...wasn't how this was supposed to go, not kid gloves and bullshit.

There was a long look back at her before he was eyeing the waterpark again. Slowly he got up, walked to the water's edge, sat down, and dipped his legs into the pool. The concrete was warm beneath his thighs, heated by the sun.

"We're going to need something stronger than beer at this rate."

"Don't think they sell much that's stronger than beer."

Carolina watches him get up, finally unfolding herself, grabbing what's left of her six-pack, and walking over to the edge of the water. She slowly sits herself down next to him, shoulder to shoulder.

"I mean, they aren't supposed to have it, or meat either. But apparently alcohol they'll smuggle that in on."

"Of course not. If we can't get real bacon, why would we get real booze?"

He felt her sit down next to him rather than watched her; her shadow was suddenly there, casting over him before she sat down. Her shoulder was close, and without looking, he leaned over to bump his against hers, before shrugging. Talking about Epsilon hurt, but talking about it with someone who understood felt a little better. Misery screws company or something.

"You think everyone else is okay?" he asked quietly. If he can't save Epsilon, he can worry about the others at least.

She nudges him back with her shoulder, a little hard but - an affectionate response none the less. When he asks about the guys, she laughs.

"C'mon, they've got each other and you, as far as I know. Simmon's probably criticized whomever is guarding you into insanity and you've gotten out already."

Dammit, Carolina! He wasn't expecting that hard nudge and he nearly tipped over, stopping only because he caught himself on his elbow instead. She didn't get her strength sometimes, he knew that, but shit, she was strong.

So he leaned back up and nudged her right back, affectionate and hard. They were so, so mature sometimes.

"Yeah, but...we're here. So, you know...maybe shit's different. I don't know." He sighed a little. "You know how Caboose gets when he's the only Blue around."

"You know how Caboose gets when we're short one Blue team member, let alone three." And that's her admitting that she's a part of blue team, not refusing to be on either or a part of Red team, as Sarge so often insisted.

She's gentler when she elbows him in the side after he nudges her, a little smile slipping onto her face.

"We're going home to a disaster, you know." Robots on the march with Caboose as their leader. All the walls would be drawn over in crayon. The hugs they would get would break their bones, and while he wouldn't admit it, he was looking forward to all of it.

He smiled back at her, the grin stretching his lips as he moved his legs a little back and forth in the water. It felt good, seeing her smile felt good, all of this... it reminded him of him. Speaking of mourning and old friends...

"How are you doing with all your old Freelancer buddies here?"

Yeah, way to eaaase into that. Ahh, if there was only a way to lube a question.

But then again, wasn't that what the beer was for?

Oof, what a question. The grin falls off her face like a rock, and she looks forward, out at the water, kicking her own feet in it.

"I don't know," She finally says. "Some of them have started to move on, some of them seem to be stuck in the past, and they're all.. just how I remember them," she says finally, looking at her feet. "Like they didn't die, they just got stolen away."

Ugh, he hadn't meant for that heaviness to happen, for her smile to disappear like that. Shit. But if they were going to talk about it, now was the time, when so many other things were hanging overhead, so many other delicate topics were being discussed. Epsilon would have probably broached it if he was here, but he wasn't.

She was stuck with Tucker.

"Kind of fucks with your head when you put it that way." He frowned a little, before lying backwards, hands under his head and warm cement against his back. "You should go do something fun with them. Maybe take the tension off."

"Mm. Maybe." She's not sure how much she wants to do that, but she tries to think of something positive.

"... I got to apologize to CT. She tried to tell me something during the project and I didn't believe her. So I'm glad I got that chance, to see her."

CT. CT was... She was something. He smiled a little, different than the normal smirk of someone trying to get some and throwing out lines likes bands threw out guitar picks at the end of their set; there was an undertone of investment that didn't seem capable by someone like him.

"Yeah, she told me a little." Their first talk, when the desert was fucking him up, her story was fucking him up. "She's a pretty awesome chick. Glad you're getting your shit together."

You know, while she had the chance.

Oh, she catches that cute little smile. And she seizes upon a subject change like a lioness getting food for her cubs.

"So, you've met her. What do you think of her?" She leans in, elbowing him. "You know, besides awesome."

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beach episode (semi-open)

closed to tucker; a few days before the get-together

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