betterthanaplan: (um what)
Duke Crocker ([personal profile] betterthanaplan) wrote2019-11-18 05:38 pm

The Cape Rouge, Port of Fandom, Monday

Bolstered with caffeine thanks to the Perk, Duke had returned to his boat to see just how much damage his younger self had managed to wreak over the weekend. The place was a wreck, especially the galley, with weapons (that had been toys, which was reassuring and terrifying in equal measure) strewn about wherever wee!Duke had happened to drop them, and a sticky film of grape jelly coating pretty much everything. He'd thankfully been quick enough even as a ten year old to keep the small fire he'd started trying to use the waffle iron contained to a very small space, so that wouldn't take much more than replacing the outlet and maybe resanding part of a cabinet.

And, as predicted, there were five pizzas, two giant cookies, and a rather unholy amount of Pepsi leftover in his fridge. Also, most of a frittata, at least half a serving of beef stew, and several stale and/or smashed cookies. He fed those last items to the porgs, who were all terribly pleased to see him, and set about making the Rouge a proper home again.

He had the door to the deck propped open to air out the smell of small semi-feral boy and to be able to hear if Octavia -- or anyone else -- came around. And, well, if he ended up humming some Violent Femmes under his breath while he did, well. Not everything he remembered from being a kid was a bad memory.

[expecting one, but also open]
okteiviakom: ([neu] no srsly queen)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-18 11:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia took her time. Between her extended training bout in the preserve and then returning to the apartment for a shower and tattoo maintenance and then a quick store run in town, the late afternoon was turning into the early evening as the sound of her boots across the gangplank and then along the deck heralded her arrival.

She was carrying a bag from Turtle & Canary which did not have any Oreos in it, thank you very much.
okteiviakom: ([neu] yeah that'll suck)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-18 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's me," Octavia called back, more comfortable raising her voice now than she would've been before the preserve. Not that it was that necessary a confirmation, considering she was making her way in soon after. Carefully, yes, and raising her eyebrows just a little at the reason for it. "Guess we did some damage."

She was willing to take partial blame/credit. She'd been here for a while yesterday, too.
okteiviakom: ([neu] head on straight on)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-18 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
"I noticed."

In so many ways.

Octavia held up the bag. "I brought... some fruit and juice, mostly." She'd had cravings for fresh things after three days on a diet consisting 75% of cookies. "There's some chocolate in there, too."
okteiviakom: ([pos] oof)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 12:11 am (UTC)(link)
"I never want to see another Oreo again," Octavia drawled dryly, only a little bit hyperbolic. But, hey! She'd managed to get some tones back into her voice since this morning.

And also: "Other kinds might be fine. Guess we'll find out."
okteiviakom: ([neu] second dawn sinner)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 12:33 am (UTC)(link)
"Good," Octavia replied, setting one bottle of apple juice down on the table before brushing past him to stick the other one in his fridge, and also to pull out a pizza, probably. "Actually hit the target a few times."

Well, she'd mostly just nicked the corners, but it was a start.

"Beau gave me one of her throwing stars, I was practising with that."
okteiviakom: ([neu] willing to hear you out)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
"It didn't help," Octavia said, like she hadn't already given ample evidence that she'd just ignore pain when she felt like it. "But, no. I use a small target, and the star takes precision."
okteiviakom: ([neu] no srsly queen)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 01:01 am (UTC)(link)
Octavia pulled out a pizza box, and peered into it. "My sword was plastic." Along with all her knives, yes. "I don't think I touched it even once all weekend."

Tiny Octavia, you were a disappointment.

(Or possibly not.)
okteiviakom: ([pos] oof)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 01:06 am (UTC)(link)
"You don't think I would've tried to slice someone's face open?" Octavia drawled, with a glance over at him. "I did grow up on some violent myths."

Yes, but those parts hadn't stuck.
okteiviakom: ([neu] yeah that'll suck)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 10:43 am (UTC)(link)
"Fear is a demon," Octavia drawled with her gaze downcast, sounding like she was quoting something she'd heard more than once. "I knew how to slay it."

Then she looked up again, and nodded at the pizza she was holding. "Warmed up, or are we doing the standard leftover pizza barbarism?"

She could say that because she was kind of a barbarian herself!
okteiviakom: ([neu] I am always right)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 03:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia snorted, and said, "Suit yourself." But it was an act, just an affectation for the sake of clinging to the comfort of being something a little more Trikru and something a little less... tiny, scared Space Girl.

She had a healthy appreciation of both ovens as well as warm pizza. Probably evident in the ease with which she went to use the former to make the latter happen right after saying that.
okteiviakom: ([neu] i had a dream once)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 03:46 pm (UTC)(link)
"Makes sense," Octavia replied mildly, after taking a second to figure out the oven and get the pizza safely in there. Then she straightened up again. "Get it while you can, that kind of thing."
okteiviakom: ([neu] at least it's quiet)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 04:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia went to empty the rest of her shopping onto the counter. An entire pineapple (because fruit was better when there was knifework involved), a few oranges, a thing of strawberries. And a bag of those mini peanut butter cups because those were kind of a comfort thing, not that she'd say so.

"It's why I'm half made of Oreos now, too," she said. "And cake."

Liam had used his precocious adorableness for good to get them that.
okteiviakom: ([neu] wait what's that)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 05:03 pm (UTC)(link)
At least going overboard with grocery shopping was still her healthiest coping strategy of the day.

"My mom made it for me," she said, as she popped the strawberry container open. "His name was Bunny."
okteiviakom: ([neu] nonchalant reveal)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 05:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, look. That question alone made the tequila seem all the more appealing. Also made the fruit all the more interesting, judging by where Octavia's gaze was now.

"Yeah."
okteiviakom: ([neu] look down)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 05:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia picked up the knife for the pineapple, then glanced around for a cutting board, and a bowl or something.

Focusing on doing something with her hands, instead of her words.

"You asked about Unity Day," she said, after a long pause.
okteiviakom: ([neg] prepare for sarcasm)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 05:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia's voice dropped quieter again. "Bel had just been made a guard," she said, as she began cutting the pineapple. "And after sixteen years of me just staying stuck in our quarters, he convinced me that he could take me to this stupid Unity Day dance. Said it would be okay 'cause everyone would be wearing masks anyway. Said we'd be back before Mom ever knew we were gone."

And she'd believed him, both because he was Bellamy, and because she'd just wanted it so badly.

She sighed. "He took me to watch my first moonrise, and we went to the party, but --" Here her voice got much more dry. "-- surprise, surprise, everything went to shit when there was a solar flare alert."
okteiviakom: ([neu] not again)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 06:15 pm (UTC)(link)
At least that question had a clear and factual answer. Even if it was threefold.

"Demoted Bel to working sanitation, threw me in a cell to rot... And floated Mom."
okteiviakom: ([neu bel] kom bleikkru)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia kept working on the pineapple, predictably quick and efficient about slicing off the peel. Probably helped keep her voice mild and steady, too.

"I already told you, once." The first time she'd been on his boat. Which felt to her like a lot longer ago than the month and a half it actually was. "Getting locked up for being born probably sounds like a quip without the context."
okteiviakom: ([neu] yeah that'll suck)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 06:55 pm (UTC)(link)
He was not wrong. Octavia reached for the glass almost immediately, for a quick first sip.

"Guess that's the apocalypse for you," she drawled. "Everything just gets worse."
okteiviakom: ([neu] no srsly queen)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia took another sip, while giving him a quick sidelong glance. "No one's ever going to be as much in favor of me running away as you," she noted, setting the glass back down so she could finish off the pineapple.
okteiviakom: ([neu] second dawn sinner)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 08:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Funnily enough, Octavia was thinking about that. Not that she knew quite that much about Floukru yet - but Lincoln had told her enough that her reasons for calling him that weren't just that he had a boat.

But she wasn't saying that now. A quiet "Mm" was her only response. Then she let the silence stretch out for a little while she finished chopping up the pineapple, before she asked, a little more lightly, "Still think my first nickname's a dumb sigh?"

Well, she'd been thinking about names, just now.
okteiviakom: ([neu] yeah that'll suck)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 08:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia snorted, which probably said enough about whether she minded, just by itself. "It doesn't matter, I don't want anyone using that but Bel, anyway."

No one called him 'Bel' but her, either.

"And I was lying to you a lot, anyway," she added, cleaning up the pineapple carnage to throw away the non-edible bits. "Felt bad about it, but stil."
okteiviakom: ([pos] dumb boys)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 08:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"Well, I did say Bel was a friend I'd known for 'a while'," Octavia replied, shrugging a bit. Lopsidedly, of course. Much like the uptick of one of the corners of her mouth that followed. "And, I noticed. You know, that you like 'Tavi' at every age."

She did not mind that at all.
okteiviakom: ([neu] I am always right)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 08:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia snorted, picking her drink back up. "As opposed to now, when I'm kinda cynical, jaded, and still mysterious?"

She'd been called out on her hidden depths enough lately to know that one still applied to adult her, too.
okteiviakom: ([pos] tease)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 08:53 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's fine," Octavia drawled lightly, picking up the strawberries to bring them over to the table. Something in her expression had a faint flicker of mischief, if you knew how to look. "Branwoda."

Tiny!Duke wasn't alone in being kind of a dick, was her point.
okteiviakom: ([pos] tee hee etc etc)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)
No. But Octavia huffed out a quiet, rough chuckle. "You know that's not right."
okteiviakom: ([pos] dumb boys)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 09:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"Em ste non-non," Octavia corrected, but it didn't matter. He was learning. And she was taking a seat. "Nom-nom sounds cuter, though."

Was it the training in the preserve or this space feeling oddly safe for her that made her throw around a word like 'cute' that comfortably?

Might've been the drink, too.
okteiviakom: ([neu] might be positive)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's --"

Yeah, Octavia was no linguist, and neither was anyone she'd learned Trig from, so she was going to have to take a second to think on it.

"It's like the difference between yu ste briyon and yu laik briyon hef," she settled on. "Like if it's 'smart' on it's own, you say ste. But if it's 'smart man', then it's laik. Also if it's just 'man'. Yu laik hef."
Edited 2019-11-19 21:40 (UTC)
okteiviakom: ([neu] bright child)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
"Oso," Octavia provided, because that was easy, at least.

(If only because this was not the time to get started on the difference between oso and osir.

... Or yumi.)
Edited 2019-11-19 22:19 (UTC)
okteiviakom: ([pos] gentle ribbing)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 10:32 pm (UTC)(link)
"En," Octavia replied, so if he'd said his 'and' a little lazily, he'd already been close. She also raised her glass a little. "Good toast," she added, quietly amused. "A lot less wordy than what Shunsui usually goes for."

That was where most of her experience with toasts came from, yes.
okteiviakom: ([neu] hope)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 10:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia raised her eyebrows just a little. "What's that mean?"
okteiviakom: ([neu] still go my own way)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 11:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"That, and 'cheers'," Octavia replied, with a tiny nod. "Good to know. Though mostly I think I'll still just let him make the toasts."
okteiviakom: ([pos] oof)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia snorted. "Yeah, that is not my thing. Being polite."

Which really made her 'thank you' at the Perk this morning all the more impressive.
okteiviakom: ([pos] a breeze)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 11:35 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm blunt. It's part of my charm."

Yeah, she didn't actually think that. She followed it up with a big bite of pizza and some thoughtful chewing, all the same.

"And it gets things done." That, she actually did believe.
okteiviakom: ([neu] no srsly queen)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-19 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
There was another lopsided shrug. "That's for other people to handle."

She worked best if someone else did the diplomatic talking.
okteiviakom: ([neu] at least it's quiet)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
"I guess," Octavia replied, with another shrug.

... And apparently two of those in a row were enough to finally annoy her into putting down what she was eating so that she could unzip her hoodie and peel it off. Even though it was oversized and baggy on her, the tank top underneath still meant less fabric over the tattoo.

She tried not to be obvious about her little sigh of relief as she settled back down. "Can't wait to have a functional arm again."
okteiviakom: ([neu] wait what's that)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 12:39 am (UTC)(link)
"Sure," Octavia replied, looking down her arm as if anything would've drastically changed since the last time she'd looked at it, a few hours back. Then she looked at him again. "I'd like that. Thanks."

Maybe she couldn't do polite, but she could do quietly sincere.
okteiviakom: ([neu] new dawn fades)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 01:59 am (UTC)(link)
Octavia watched him move, taking a second to compare him to the kid she'd seen here just yesterday. And to think of a few other things - small wants.

She stopped chewing on the inside of her bottom lip as soon as she realized she was doing it.

"Some kind of ointment I was recommended."
okteiviakom: ([spec] emotional intimacy)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
Octavia nodded. The movement was tiny.

But then so was the word that followed, too. And soft. "Sha."
okteiviakom: ([neu] shoulder)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 09:49 am (UTC)(link)
His hands were warm.

That was Octavia's main takeaway from this.

She drew her hair over her other shoulder, and tilted her head away, for the part that traveled up to the side of her neck. "Still mostly just sore," she said. "But getting there."
okteiviakom: ([neu] i had a dream once)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 03:13 pm (UTC)(link)
"Thinking about healing was never one of my priorities," Octavia murmured.

Because she stubborned her way through things, and dealt with the consequences as they came.
okteiviakom: ([neu blodreina] mmmmhmmmmmm)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 03:41 pm (UTC)(link)
"Not really." There were a fair few scars on display right now, as if for proof. Just faint, small ones, though - and they'd made sure to not have the tattoo overlap with the existing scar tissue. The bigger and uglier ones were all hidden under her clothes.

"Think this is the most care I've ever actually put towards healing."

That was true on a few levels. More than she realized, too.
okteiviakom: ([spec] emotional intimacy)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 05:35 pm (UTC)(link)
"Maybe," Octavia replied softly, with a little sigh. Glancing over at him and then looking away again. "Lincoln never told me, except that the process was important."

And that he'd wanted to help her through it.

"I just know they were a big deal. Every warrior had tattoos."
okteiviakom: ([pos] oof)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 05:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Something wry crept back into Octavia's tone. "I think it's debatable whether Trikru actually had anyone who wasn't a warrior."
okteiviakom: ([neu] new dawn fades)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 06:27 pm (UTC)(link)
It was kind of him to entertain the idea Octavia had been looking in the first place.

She shook her head. "Not many. And not for very long. I... spent some time around the Seconds from the other clans, especially the ones from Azgeda and Sangedakru, but that's it. We were deep in Trikru territory."

And deep in a war between them and Skaikru for most of her time on the ground, no less.
okteiviakom: ([neu] nonchalant reveal)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 08:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Did Octavia know she was slightly leaning into the rubbing?

Probably.

"Don't know," she said. "It means Ice Nation. But Trikru is sometimes just Trikru, and sometimes Trigedakru, and sometimes just Trigeda, which means 'forest'. Maybe Azgeda do the same thing amongst themselves."

She and Atohl hadn't exactly chit-chatted enough for that to come up.
okteiviakom: ([neu bel] kom bleikkru)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
"From what I've heard about them, you probably wouldn't want to argue with them about anything else, either," Octavia noted, with the tiniest sigh. "Emo ste yuj en tofon."

She had a healthy respect of all the clans, to be honest.
okteiviakom: ([neu] at least it's quiet)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 09:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia shook her head. "Desert," she said. "And that's not even half the clans. There are twelve, not including Skaikru."
okteiviakom: ([spec] emotional intimacy)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
"No matter what number of people there are, they'll always split up into as many groups as they can?" Octavia suggested, shrugging her uninked shoulder. "In space or on the ground." Though technically the stations had come about because of factions on the ground, but, anyway.

She looked down her arm, to where his hand was. And noted, softly, "You've run out of tattoo."

It wasn't a complaint.
okteiviakom: ([neu] shoulder)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
"No." Octavia shook her head, then inclined it a bit in time with half a mild eye roll, directed entirely at herself. "I was thinking of asking you to sit next to me, earlier, anyway."

Actually she'd thought about asking him if he wanted to, because there was nothing greater than distancing yourself from your own stupidly small wishes as much as possible.
okteiviakom: ([neu] i had a dream once)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 09:54 pm (UTC)(link)
"Originally, yes." The little sigh was both for the continued touching as well as for the entire business of the Ark. It was a multipurpose sigh. "By the time I ended up here, it was every survivor from the Ark."

Well, the ones they'd known about, anyway.
okteiviakom: ([neu] open)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 10:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Funnily enough, that was exactly what people thought when you fell out of the sky right into their territory.

"My great-grandfather's generation was the last to know Earth before us," Octavia noted softly. "Sunlight, the wind... It was all new for everyone."
okteiviakom: ([neu] new dawn fades)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 10:32 pm (UTC)(link)
"It doesn't feel much different from this," Octavia replied, picking up her drink again. "When you're used to it. The difference is just that you can never go up on the deck."

With her history of captivity, though... Yeah.

"It's not something I really want to go back to, either."
okteiviakom: ([neu blodreina] mmmmhmmmmmm)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 10:43 pm (UTC)(link)
"You saw how I was about being outside this weekend." Granted, so very much of that was due to the obvious, depressing reasons. "I couldn't disappoint that kid by going back to living in space."
okteiviakom: ([neu bel] kom bleikkru)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 11:02 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's open," Octavia agreed, "and I can pretend it's just me and the trees for miles and miles and miles."

It was the spot on the island where she could really let go of her sense of place, the way she really couldn't anywhere else, because there was always something reminding her of exactly where she was.

But he'd probably seen how much she'd liked being out on the water, too. The principle was the same.
okteiviakom: ([pos] oof)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-20 11:20 pm (UTC)(link)
"I was supposed to take you," Octavia replied, looking over. "Offer still stands."

And, would you look at that: there was a faint, crooked smirk.

"With or without added target practice."
okteiviakom: ([neu] wait what's that)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 12:01 am (UTC)(link)
Octavia's eyebrows climbed up. "I... don't know about that." And there was something of the tinier version of her in the uncertainty of her expression. (But in the faint, odd sliver of hope mixed into it, too.) "Wasn't that on the mainland? That's -- not exactly just you and me for miles and miles."

She should never have checked how many people lived in just Baltimore.
okteiviakom: ([neu] atlas)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 12:11 am (UTC)(link)
"... Oh."

Hear that, tiny Duke? It could be a positive sound, too!

"I think I'd like that."
okteiviakom: ([neu] I am always right)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
"Definitely not before Thursday." Because she needed Tuesday and Wednesday to herself to recalibrate.

(This right here was a part of her recalibrating, too. But this was different.)

"Everything past my shift on Thursday is free, though."
okteiviakom: ([pos] gentle ribbing)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 12:58 am (UTC)(link)
"Friday's good," Octavia replied. And smiled, just a little. "So, Friday."

Her head tilted a bit, as she watched him for a second - and then, seeming to come to some kind of a decision, moved to take the hand he'd had rubbing her arm.

And to lace her fingers with his.

Maybe she owed that to her kid self, too.
okteiviakom: ([pos] tease)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
"If you'd like," Octavia replied, while shifting to lean against him some. Touching was hard and she'd barely just begun figuring it out again, but she could take little things as they were offered to her. "I'm bringing mine. I know you've seen it in action, but you've never tried holding it."

The weight was going to explain some of the muscle in her arms.

"Much less throwing it."
okteiviakom: ([pos] gentle ribbing)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 12:11 pm (UTC)(link)
"A little," Octavia replied, shrugging the tiniest bit. "They're personal."

After the last couple of years, her sword was an extension of her. A part of her.

"But, you might be a jaka, but not one dumb enough to take weapons from yu bezer gona. You're fine to try it out."
okteiviakom: ([neu] I am always right)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 03:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"Try not to slice off anything important, either."

That was more teasing than anything else.
okteiviakom: ([neu] second dawn sinner)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 04:03 pm (UTC)(link)
"Good," Octavia replied, leaning her head against his shoulder. "I'm not much of a healer."
okteiviakom: ([pos] tease)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 06:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia snorted. "Wouldn't have expected you to. You're not very perceptive."

The little squeeze she gave his fingers said otherwise.
okteiviakom: ([pos] downwardly amused maybe)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 07:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"The Russians?" Octavia offered, quiet but amused. The Russians who did not live in space, so she couldn't either. "And my four days- worth of cookies. Though you weren't paranoid about those, as such."

It was just something that had stuck with her.
okteiviakom: ([pos blodreina] quiet smile)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
"Should've seen me when I found them all on Friday morning," Octavia replied, smiling just a little bit, if wryly. "I was losing my mind with joy."
okteiviakom: ([neu] i had a dream once)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'd say let me stay the night sometime," Octavia replied lightly, "and try to catch me with a surprise in the morning, but, let's face it..." She trailed off for a second, like it fully dawned on her mid-sentence. "I don't know what would get a reaction like that anymore."

... What a bleak feeling that was, wow.
okteiviakom: ([neu] nonchalant reveal)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia's cheek rubbing against his shoulder didn't count as nuzzling when she could claim it was just her shifting a little bit. "Honestly, cookies might feel like an insult."

Half-hearted attempt at a joke, but it was good enough.

"Anyway." Enough about her. "You were a cute kid, too."
okteiviakom: ([neu] bright child)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 09:48 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm sure you did," Octavia told him with a little nod that also wasn't nuzzling. Conveniently. "But you also didn't want me to be afraid."

That was like the textbook opposite of a terror.
okteiviakom: ([neu] I am always right)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia let out an amused huff. "Wanting to fight someone you've also suggested was your enemy at this age doesn't make you a terror."

If anything, it was consistency.
okteiviakom: ([pos] dumb boys)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 10:15 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm sure that was adorable."

It was a word she generally reserved for porgs and kittens, if she said it out loud at all, but she'd make an exception for little kids calling other little kids 'Grandpa'.

"Also no, doesn't count."
okteiviakom: ([neu] hope)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 10:26 pm (UTC)(link)
"Just how many of those do you have here, anyway?"

So many, Octavia. So many.
okteiviakom: ([neu] second dawn sinner)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 10:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Octavia tilted her face up a little, for a glance up at him. Not a very thorough one, considering her head wasn't leaving his shoulder.

"I think that's an answer in itself," she drawled. "Is it all guns?"
okteiviakom: ([neu blodreina] mmmmhmmmmmm)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 11:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Some people might've found that list a little unsettling.

It just made Octavia feel more at home, somehow. For better or for worse.

She nodded approvingly. "I think I'd like a closer look at some of those, sometime." But not right now. He felt warm against her, and she knew that if she got up or let him go right now, she probably wouldn't be able to talk herself into returning to as cuddly a state. "You're better stocked than I am."

Still, there was a knife in her boot even now.
okteiviakom: ([pos] oof)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 11:41 pm (UTC)(link)
"These days, it's usually a knife or two for me, too," Octavia confirmed, her lips tilting into a lopsided little something. "Sometimes the sword, for the days I want to be more obvious."
okteiviakom: ([pos] yeah as if)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-21 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"Or I can just leave stealth to nine-year-old Octavia."

She'd genuinely been better at it than the adult version was.
okteiviakom: ([neu] bright child)

[personal profile] okteiviakom 2019-11-22 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
Octavia tried not to be obvious about her little sigh, though she knew it was useless. He was too close for hiding.

It was a good sigh, anyway.

"I think they did," she rasped quietly. "Eventually."