3 - Late Nite (Sleeping) Action!

[iamawaited]

Who: Nux and the Red Fish crew
Broadcast: N/A
Action: S.S. Red Fish
When: Any night during his first few weeks!

[There are a lot of things Nux really likes about this new life on the Red Fish. Having clean water and food available on demand has already been an enormous luxury. Having a whole ship to play with is even better, even if it's under Zhas's command. He hasn't been sure what to make of the fact that he's been here for a while now and hasn't seemed to get any sicker, but he knows it's ultimately a good thing.

Furiosa had told him to live, and somehow, he is. He learns what it is to stop being hungry and thirsty all the time, he learns about clean. He even stops wearing his war paint.

He's also never had a space of his own before, though. There are probably some people who like that part, too, but when Nux tries to go to sleep cloistered away in his little bunk, the Red Fish suddenly feels very empty and very cold. Some nights, he can handle it. Others...

Well, there are nights those crew members that don't lock their doors might wake up to find a scarred-up, gangly bunch of limbs trying to curl up beside them.]

Comments

[child_of_bhaal]

It's not the greatest idea Nux has ever had. Syeira is not a heavy sleeper, and has had to much experience with things sneaking up on her in the dead of night. Things that usually want to cut her into small pieces.

So when she feels the movement of her blanket, she's in motion before she even fully awake. She kicks out, instinctively aiming for center mass of whatever or whoever was there. It's not freak or fragile, or frantic. It's a precise strike, with force behind it. She definitely know how to fight.

[iamawaited]

Nux does too, of course, and there's nothing that would stop him fighting Sye, except that he's not expecting it at all. Her knee gets him right in the solar plexus and he tumbles back off the bed with a choked-off groan, clutching his stomach.

"It's me!" he manages hoarsely before she can hit him again. "It's Nux! Still Nux!"

[child_of_bhaal]

It's good he spoke because she was reaching for a knife she'd taken off some poor sod she'd beaten the tar out of on a way station a while back. She exhales in a loud rush, and peers down over the side of her bed at him.

"Nux. You okay?" She's pretty sure she didn't kick him that hard, but she needs to check.

[iamawaited]

Luckily, even if she had, War Boys are hardy. It takes him a half a second to recover his breathing, but then he straightens up -- as much as he ever really does -- rubbing his side with a wince and nothing more.

"Didn't mean to startle you," he admits apologetically. "Just... can't get used to being in that room."

[child_of_bhaal]

"I don't sleep very heavily, even if I'm sleeping well." It's spoken apologetically, as she offers him a hand to pull him up.

"Maybe knock first next time?"

[iamawaited]

"Didn't wanna wake you up," he says. In retrospect, that hadn't worked out very well -- even he can see that. He doesn't really need to take her hand, but he does anyway, grateful for the contact. He sits down on the bed beside her.

"Everyone's always around each other back home," he explains quietly. "Never had a spot like that before."

[child_of_bhaal]

She appreciates the thought even if it didn't work out. She rarely gets solid sleep, and its likely she won't get back to it tonight. But it's hardly her first concern.

"I'm used to having people around too. Not to bunk with usually, but nearby." She gets it, a little, of what she's trying to say. And she has no intention of sending him away. Not when he's only on need of comfort. "Even with the noises the ship makes, it's too quiet sometimes."

[mortalcoil]

[once upon a time, Coil slept on a tight tripwire of attention and reaction, snapping awake at the smallest sound out of place. but a year spent in a sleepy tower far away from danger, followed by months and months in the constantly-grumbling belly of a metal ship, has considerably dulled that sensitivity. and refusing to fall asleep until he's catastrophically tired doesn't do him any favors either.

so, he sleeps right through the approach until there's someone right there, and every defensive proximity alarm in his head fires at once.

he bolts awake and grabs suddenly--aiming for wherever his half-sleeping brain guesses a throat might be. because, when someone sneaks up on you in the middle of the night, he's learned that it's the teeth you want to keep away from you.]

[iamawaited]

[Luckily, a previous night's encounter with Sye has taught Nux to be more wary, although apparently not wary enough to just not try this again. But he's ready for some retaliation, anyway, and he jerks back as Coil grabs for him, moving to the edge of the bed.]

It's me.

[mortalcoil]

[Coil's eye glows in the dark, so it's easy for Nux to see the wide confusion staring back at him. Coil is in one of those moments of disorientation that sometimes follows being startled awake, where the internal compass marking his place in space and time spins around a little bit. because he doesn't exactly share his sleeping space very often.

he's not fully awake, yet. the world doesn't make complete sense. he starts signing even though it's dark, because he blearily still thinks that this is Zhas, and it wouldn't have been a problem.]

[iamawaited]

[He can make out the movements, but his night vision isn't especially strong. He shakes his head.]

I can't-- hold on.

[He sleeps in the only clothes he has, utility belt and all, and he digs into it now and resurfaces with what looks like a little pen light. He holds it up and shines it on Coil.]

[mortalcoil]

[--well, that certainly helps wake him up. the light in his face sends him squinting and flinching back, hands coming up to shield his eye.

this is not Zhas. he's finally absorbing this fact, and the realization is catching him off guard.

whatever he'd been signing, it doesn't matter now. he doesn't repeat it. when his eye adjusts enough to the light to do so, he just lowers his hands enough to stare--tense and uncomprehending.]

[iamawaited]

What were you saying?

[But Coil's lack of understanding is apparent, even without his saying anything else, even to Nux. He drops the hand with the light in it to the bed; half-swallowed by the sheets, it more defines the shadows than actually illuminates anything there, but it's enough for him to see Coil if he starts talking again.]

Can't really sleep in there like that. This is how we used to do it back home.

[mortalcoil]

[the semi-darkness is very much a relief; Clearsights can see pretty comfortably in low light, and he's much less pinned and stunned under a tiny spotlight now.

he's mostly absorbing Nux' explanation, but... he's also at least partially distracted by how close they are to each other. the realization is quietly and acutely alarming. even when Zhas would invade his space in the stone fortress of their old home, during the coldest nights without heat, it unfailingly filled him with tension. it's a familiar sort of claustrophobic feeling.

so, he shifts over a little bit. it might seem like he's being accommodating, giving Nux more room to get comfortable, and it might be trapping himself even closer to the wall, but he steals the space anyway.]

[theboogieman]

[the funny thing is that despite being the most aggressive and violent out of all of them, Zhas is the calmest when he wakes.

he doesn't sleep much, and when he does, it's rarely in his bed. proper insomnia; he hates laying down and staring at his ceiling and feeling all of his bones ache with exhaustion, while his mind only winds feverishly on and on about things that he doesn't want to think about. his collapse here was mostly on accident, the result of total exhaustion. he took his coat off, left it and his boots on the floor, but didn't even bother washing off his face paint before smashing bodily down into unconsciousness.

so it's with his face all smeared up and half-buried in a pillow that he wakes, but it's... just one eye, one slit of glowing, jack-o-lantern orange against the dark room, peering up at the intruder with just as much dull apathy as usual.

what. what does it want.]

[iamawaited]

[Nux has taken the most caution of all with Zhas, and ended up surprised to find out that it wasn't nearly as necessary. It had mostly been reluctance to spark the accidental wrath of Sye or Coil again that had brought him here; Zhas certainly wouldn't have been his first choice among the crew. He'd crept in quiet as a mouse, climbed up on the bed so gingerly...

And then nothing had happened, so he'd wedged his skinny body into the little space that was available to him and gone to sleep, comforted by the warmth and weight of the other body near his. He's still sleeping when Zhas wakes up, his pale face unpainted and relaxed, vulnerable.]

[theboogieman]

[for the first time, he wonders how old Nux is.

it's an odd thing to think, in his initial consciousness, but he remembers when he was young and thin and walked barefoot through stone halls in winter. when his dreams overflowed with his grandmama split open, seen through a crack in his closet door. all he really knew how to do back then was run and hide--hide in red hair, hide next to his adoptive corpse. she wasn't so warm, but sometimes she'd put her arm around him and let him stay, and scare all the monsters away.

normal thoughts surface after that. the dog's in his bed, must have sneaked in. looks pretty clean. sure doesn't like him that close, though, even if the thing's been taking care of itself. human warmth tends to gnaw at something deep down in his chest, and he doesn't want to feed it into waking up any more than it already is.

with a quiet grunt, he grabs at a fistful of blankets and the corner of a pillow and tries to shove it between them. pushes himself away, some, since there's room. he's not kicking him out, he just--he doesn't like touching.]

[iamawaited]

[He grumbles and snuffles a little as the movement rocks him, stirring, but not really fully awake. He reaches out half-consciously and grabs for the pillow as Zhas shoves it at him, pushing it under his head and knotting his hand around the edge of it to hold onto it tight. Good: this is his now.]

G'night, Zhas...

[theboogieman]

[and if he's holding onto the pillow, that means he won't be trying to hold onto Zhas instead--so that's fine. he can have it. he doesn't love that one. this way they can exist in the same space, comfortably, without conflict.

the 'g'night' almost gets him awake proper, but only because it's a surprise. no one's said that to him since he was little. he'd kind of assumed Nux hated him, because that's just the way things are. ...but he doesn't mind, and after a moment, he reaches over to pat him on the head. nice and easy. goodnight to you too, weird little thing.

he'll fall asleep again, after that. out like a corpse.]

[blindoptimism]

[Normally Nunnally is a pretty sound sleeper. She enjoys a peaceful night's rest, and has started to feel comfortable in the large captain's bed. But, despite the ample space and her sound sleep she still feels the bed shift as another person climbs in, and as limbs brush near her own she wakes up in a sleepy haze. If it were light in the room he could probably see every emotion on her face as it cycles through.

Confusion, an uncomprehending kind. For a moment she's sure she must be dreaming... When she feels bony limbs nudge up against her for a moment she's five years old again and her brother (long and gangly as sin) is climbing into bed with her. But as the illusion fades with sleep's last sandy grains her eyes widen and she jerks away from him out of instinct. But of course, her legs do not follow her torso and no distance is actually put between the two.]

W-What...? [But she trails off as she recognizes the clean face near her own. Nux? The words tumble out in a heap]

Why are you... here?

[iamawaited]

[Nux hasn't quite absorbed the fact that Nunnally is his captain; it was odd enough to reconcile Zhas with that position in his mind, and Zhas had beat him solidly. In Nux's world, might makes right, and the wheel overrules all, so it's still hard for him not to think of the Red Fish as his ship, under Furiosa's higher command.

But he's been overall polite and gentle to Nunnally despite that, for what passed for politeness and gentleness in the Citadel. She's more like Syeira, like Capable had been: she seems kind (and if he's not sold on her leadership abilities, it has much more to do with that than with her legs).

He feels closer to Coil and Sye, but he's hoping, because she is kind, that she'll let him stay. He tells her honestly:]

Couldn't sleep.

[blindoptimism]

[It's a fair observation on his part, really. Truth be told Nunnally hasn't felt like the captain ever since the tension between Zhas Coil and Cassandra started. It was all fun and games to recite the title and sleep in the fancy bed, but her handling and failure to manage that situation... Well, let's just say that Cassandra leaving hit her hard, and has led to her being more reclusive than she should be. And now, staring at Nux so close and in such a strange scenario, it almost feels like a cold awakening to how distant she's truly been. He's been on their crew for weeks now... and she barely knows him at all.

A chilly feeling like shame trickles down her back, but it also lights a small fire in her gut that stops her from instinctively pushing him away. So no matter how weird or awkward this situation feels, she rubs the sleep out of her eyes and pushes up her torso into a semi-sitting position. She will give this man all the respect and attention a fellow crew member should receive.]

Is something wrong with your room? [she interprets "couldn't" sleep as if something is broken. Her constantly worry is that their lack of mechanic or engineer will solidly bite them in the butt]

[iamawaited]

It's... quiet. Cold.

[There had always been chilly nights in the Wasteland, especially out in the sand or on the salt, but there had also always been someone there to share the chill. Another War Boy, usually, up until those last two nights, but always somebody. He frowns, tugging absently at the edge of the blanket.]

Used to having more people around.

[blindoptimism]

[It's such a child-like answer that she can't help but feel... Not pity, but sympathy. After a moment's pause she uses her arms to shove her body slightly away from the center of the bed. Not to get away from him, just to provide more space to stretch out. She smiles, softly]

It does get quiet at night. [She's never slept in the same bed with a boy who wasn't her family, but his response and demeanor... It doesn't feel strange, somehow. When she's satisfied with the extra space that she's given him, she lowers her torso back to the mattress's warm embrace and turns only her face to face him]

Did you sleep in a dormitory before coming here? [She's 95% sure that's not the case, but it's the only explanation that would be familiar to her]

[iamawaited]

[He shakes his head, although he doesn't actually know what that means.]

Slept in the Citadel. With all the other War Boys.