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Who: Julian Bashir
Broadcast: Fleet-wide
Action: Marsiva
When: 17-June until shuffle

[Most people wake up fairly fast, but Julian doesn't. He hasn't slept properly in weeks and being somewhere fairly warm and comfortable and quiet is a luxury. When he does stir, it's slowly, eyes blinking open and shut again, almost looking like he's going to go back to sleep. He looks young and peaceful, if a bit thin and scruffy.

And then he realises he isn't where he should be and he's not with who he should be with. He sits up abruptly, looking around.]

Garak?!

Martok? Davik? Worf?

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Yeah. It sucks. For... a lot of reasons. But we're not at a bar and you don't need to hear me crying into a beer I'm not allowed to drink. [Be positive! Hey, maybe it'll get him to laugh.]

A real genius? Oh man, you must be as smart as Delta. [He is the smartest person she knows, which is super impressive.] And it sounds like you know all sorts of cool stuff. I'd say lucky, but you must've worked really hard for it.

[Oh god why is he talking to her then, she feels dumb as a brick when she doesn't have a sword in her hand. Oh boy. Then again Delta likes her for some reason, but she's pretty sure that one's a mutual love of kittens.]

Ah, aliens. Okay. Those aren't any I know about, but they sound like they're not trying to kill you, so that's good. Not like the... what'd Maine call 'em. Covenant.

Oh well, it was worth checking. But people do seem to show up from all over. It happened at home, and now it's going on here. Small universe, I guess. Um. Multiple universes.

Edited 2015-06-25 05:04 (UTC)

[It draws a wan smile, but he just can't find that sort of suffering amusing, even if she's completely allowed to make jokes at her own expense. Possibly needs to to not go crazy about it.]

I- well, yes, I work hard to stay near the top of my field. And no, Bajorans aren't trying to kill us! The Dominion would like to enslave us all, but there's a lot more friendly xenological species than unfriendly.

[A smile is good, though. She'll take it. And yeah, she does need it to keep her own morale up. Joking about things means they can't hurt you so much.]

That's great. Being good at your job is the best thing. [She has a thing about working hard. Probably not actually her thing, but it's so ingrained now she'd rather not think about it too hard.]

Okay, so Bajorans are good, Dominion is bad. Got it. Hopefully there aren't any of the Dominion people around here, though. Everyone's been very friendly to me so far, so I'm sure you'll find a lot of good people too. Most everyone is kind and generous. [Qualities that are, in her opinion, only a slight second to hard work.]

We didn't have any aliens on Zeus. Just dysthrophe. Aliens that wanted to kill us might have sucked less, so I can't say I'm sad to be away from that.

Zeus, named for the Ancient Greek god of... thunder? Lightning? Storms? Something like that.

No, there's not likely to be anyone from the Dominion here. They would've let you know, immediately.

I also don't know what... dysthrophe is?

Something like that. We probably went over that in school. [...which she doesn't remember.]

Oh good. I love it when assholes go out of their way to tell everyone they're assholes. No mistakes, no surprises.

I guess no one who isn't from Proles does at this point. I think it was some kind of fucked up bioweapon, but no one really knows for sure. Right after the Crash happened--that's when some shitbag terrorists blew up the commsat and started and orbital debris cascade--the other cities started picking shit with mine because everyone thought it was the end of the world or something. That's when I signed on, I guess since we had the tiniest army and almost no heavy weapons capacity. And because...[Almost there, the statement almost leads somewhere, and then it's gone, down a memory hole. She does her best to just keep rolling, because this is embarrassing when it happens and she always feels bad about it.]

Anyway, a few months in...shit, I think it was right after I got my field promotion, our nearest neighbor, Notus, kind of... imploded. It was some kind of disease and it moved through everyone fast, and then people were coming at us, and... it's pretty fucked up. You get sick, and then you get all this uncontrolled muscle and bone growth, and then you go crazy and start trying to eat your friends.

And that's why Proles is the only city left on Zeus. We held the Line around the city for over a year until they could build a dome and seal everyone in.

A Founder might not, but there'd be no way to identify them... except in close living quarters, it's hard for them to hide, they have to revert periodically to rest.

[He stops talking and just listens. And listens. And gets pale under that naturally olive skin as she talks about the horror that ravaged their world.

When he manages to find his voice again, it's just a whisper.]

I am so sorry.

Tell me about Founders. [A little bit of a wry smile here.] Unless the other ships are way different from the one I'm on. It's really close quarters for everyone.

[Oh shit, she didn't mean to upset him, he'd already looked like he wasn't doing great. Way to go, Wrath. It's not that she doesn't think what had happened is a big deal, but... It's life. It's the daily reality. Maybe that's why it doesn't seem so bad. Or maybe because the inner deaths are a bigger deal to her, the way people just... Forget things. Dysthropes are a tangible thing she used to be able to fight, so it seems less horrible than everything else in recent days.]

It's okay. We're tough as hell. That was all like twenty-five years ago and we're still kicking. As long as you don't go outside the dome without an exosuit, you're fine. Other than...

[Other than it isn't fine. Mass execution of potentially infected citizens that everyone then forgets. Just forgets. No. This is not a thing someone who already looks like she punched him in the sternum probably needs to hear right now since it's not like he can do anything but feel like shit about it. She doesn't want to be that kind of asshole. Subject change time.]

This Dominion thing sounds like a big problem you have though.

[Smooth like butter.]

The Founder... They're natural metamorphs. Their natural, base state is a slightly reflective, copper toned gelatinous liquid? But they can be objects, animals, people.

[He's quiet a moment.]

Apparently, while I was in the camp, there was one pretending to be me on the station, to my friends. They can just... be something and watch you for days, weeks, and you never know. It's sort of... terrifying.

They founded the Dominion. They started off subjugating other solid species to make them realise there was nothing wrong with not being a natural solid but... they became the very monsters they claimed to fight. They genetically engineered slave races to serve them and force every species they encounter into compliance with their vision of 'order'.

[He gives another shy smile and shrugs.]

It's not... really a cheerful topic. Sorry.

So they can be anything. Holy shit that's... Cool. But apparently not cool.

So they can pretend to be anyone or anything but if you're in close quarters with them, they have to go back to being goo to rest, so that's how you tell. [Wrath's been paying attention; she's not actually stupid, even if she believes she is half the time. You don't survive as long as she has be being dumb. Thanks, Compliance.] What kind of window are we talking about here? Several hours, like human people have to sleep?

[There's a definite flinch at the word "compliance," a little glance over her shoulder that's like a nervous twitch.]

People like that... Suck. I hope you're fighting them hard.

[But hey, there's that super cute smile again, so she can't help but grin.]

Gosh, Julian, and I've been nothing but a ray of fucking sunshine this whole time.

Edited 2015-06-25 13:53 (UTC)

Basically, yes. Eventually, they need to recuperate. Even holding a solid form is tiring for them. They can last sixteen to eighteen hours before they literally collapse back to their natural state.

[Someone else might recognise it, but Julian's best friend is a hyper paranoid ~~ex-spy~~ tailor and he thinks nothing of that motion.

But then she makes that last comment and he laughs.]

I think I've forgotten how to have normal conversations.

That's good to know. Okay, if I catch anyone sleeping in a bucket, I'll let you know ASAP.

[That's better.]

I don't know if I ever knew how to have normal conversations. It's not like they make sense anyway, so screw it.

[Grin.]

I'd say we should go get a drink but I'm not allowed to drink and you're still stuck in a giant, black space toaster for a couple more days.

[Julian actually laughs loudly this time.]

Yes, well, the bucket sleeping will be a bit of a give away.

I sort of got that I was trapped here for now. Still, once I get out, we can undoubtedly catch up with one another?

[Oh my gosh he's so cute!! Down, girl.]

Just for a few days, I think. Once a week they put people on ships. Maybe you'll get put on mine! I'm on the Windrose now. Which is definitely the prettiest name for any of the ships.

But if not, that would be great! Share some protein paste or something.

Mm... protein paste.

[He pulls a face that says just what he thinks of that and then grins again.]

It sounds like I might actually miss ration bars after a while.

It comes in more flavors than rat bars, so that's good, right?

[She grins evilly.]

And all the colors you could want!

Well, I made my own ration bars, actually... they had more nutritional value. And tasted better. Okay, I made them as candy bars, but they were still healthier than rat bars.

[He laughs.]

Oh good, strange, probably unnatural colours, just what I like in my food.

That would have to taste way better than regular rat bars. Okay, next time I'm in a siege, I call dibs on you being in my platoon. [If only it was that simple.] Promise I'm not too much of a hard ass.

Come on, the color distracts you from the taste. And then you can play impressionist mealtime.

Edited 2015-06-27 04:33 (UTC)

You probably don't want me in your platoon. I'm not much of a combatant. I mean, I'm Starfleet, I know the basics but, I'm not... well, I'm a doctor.

[There are a lot of ways to answer that, and she's not sure even which is the most honest, let alone the best. Interacting with people is hard sometimes, especially when you want then to think you're cool. Well, this is just fun and all she really wants is for Julian to laugh, so the fun answer is the right one probably.]

Nah, medics are a thing, right? Everyone likes having a medic around. But you have to like hovercycles. And speed.

[It's not like she'd be in charge of a platoon again, ever. She got mustered out. But hey, if they're playing pretend...

Grin.]

And you have to learn how to howl. It's required.

I'm not much for racing. And definitely not for howling.

[But he smiles anyway.]

I hate to be rude to a beautiful lady, but I haven't slept properly since I arrived at the camp a month ago and this bed is notably lacking a cold draft, murderous cell mates and parasites, so I think I need to do some catching up.

[Okay, she might preen just a little over being called beautiful. It's different when it's someone who doesn't know who you are.]

It's not rude. I'll probably be around later. [Feels weird to say that for a lot of reasons. But optimism!] Sleep well, Julian.

[That went well! A+, Wrath. Hopefully there'll be a next time.]

Thank you, Wrath.

[He disconnects after a moment, presumably to go and sleep.]

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Thank you!