betterthanaplan | 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]

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From:

okteiviakom

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.

From:

betterthanaplan

As long as she seemed to be enjoying it, he was happy to keep up the rubbing. Though he started to shift away from the tattoo itself a little, so as not to irritate the skin too much.

"Guess that makes sense. If they want to call themselves Azgeda, I am definitely in no position to argue."

Even setting aside the part where he would never meet any of them, telling people what to call themselves was rude.

From:

okteiviakom

"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.

From:

betterthanaplan

"Big and tough?" Duke paused and shook his head. "Strong and tough." And called 'Ice Nation'. He wondered if that meant Canada had decided to just take no shit post-apocalypse. "So you've got the people on the water, the people in the forests, and the people in the snow. Sangedakru are, what, plains?"

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia shook her head. "Desert," she said. "And that's not even half the clans. There are twelve, not including Skaikru."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Weren't there twelve Ark stations or something, too?" Duke asked. "That's kind of an odd coincidence." Almost like it was a thematic trope or something. . . .

From:

okteiviakom

"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.

From:

betterthanaplan

"I have," Duke acknowledged. "Should I stop?"

From:

okteiviakom

"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.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke nodded. "Let me know if you change your mind." He continued the gentle motions with one hand while reaching for his pizza with the other. "So, Skaikru's the people from the Ark, right? The bunch of you that got sent down to the ground."

From:

okteiviakom

"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.

From:

betterthanaplan

No wonder Octavia had mostly met warriors. The tribes on the ground had probably thought they were being invaded.

"Had to be a hell of an adjustment. Even just . . . dealing with weather."

From:

okteiviakom

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."

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke shook his head. "Man, I can't even imagine that. I don't think of myself as claustrophobic?" He lived on a boat, even a large one like the Rouge still made for some rather small enclosed spaces. "But just thinking about that's kind of freaking me out."

He'd mentioned as much when Jack was still around, too. The whole idea of living in space messed with his head. There wasn't any air out there!

From:

okteiviakom

"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."

From:

betterthanaplan

"I spend, like, half my time on deck when I'm at sea." A beat. "And when I'm not at sea." He spent a lot of time hanging out on his deck. "Yeah, I'm not surprised you're not looking to go back to that."

From:

okteiviakom

"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."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Damn right," Duke said softly. She hadn't just lived in space, she'd lived in captivity. The very idea made his skin crawl. "That part of why the preserve's so comforting? Not just because it's like the ground, because it's . . . open?"

From:

okteiviakom

"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.

From:

betterthanaplan

"I know that feeling," Duke said. "Not as much in the trees for me, or at least not back home. Haven't been out on the preserve much yet. Mostly just seen it from the water."

From:

okteiviakom

"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."

From:

betterthanaplan

"Target practice is fine, so long as I'm not the target." He smiled back. "We should get on that. I believe I also owe you an aquarium visit at some point, too."

From:

okteiviakom

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.

From:

betterthanaplan

"It's not," Duke agreed. "And we definitely don't have to go if you don't want to. But I got a guy who can help get us in after hours, if you change your mind. Nice and quiet, no crowds. Just us and the fish."