driftfleet | (no subject)

Who: A ~mysterious anonymous poster~ and you
Broadcast: Anonymous text
Action: In her room on the Bishop, if you really want to say hello
When:

[It's taken Nightingale a while to figure out how to make the anonymous text function work, and even longer to decide it's worthwhile to post. Still, she doesn't have anything else to do, and this has been eating at her for a while...]

I realized recently it's been over a year since I was last home. Over a year since I've ever seen anyone from my world, even. And that year has been kind of a mess. Now I'm two crazy worlds removed from home, and it's not looking like I'll get to go back anytime soon. It's just now really starting to sink in. I'm starting to get homesick, I guess. But I know there's a bunch of people here who have been here even longer than I have. Or have a lot more pressing things to get back to. So... How do you cope? How can you deal with this for so long? After this long, my usual distractions aren't really working so well anymore.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, let's review my options. Either I can distract myself and keep going on here. Or think about how my friends back home likely won't even recognize me anymore once I do return and be paralyzed with loneliness and homesickness. Distraction sounds good.

Not entirely what I meant. Either you can look for ways to distract yourself from how you're feeling, which is a viable option with plenty of solutions. Find someone to sleep with, fight someone, ruin a relationship for the ratings. There's plenty of interpersonal drama to distract yourself with, and that's not even considering planets and waystations.

Or you could find more constructive things to do with your time.

If I could get laid around here, I probably would go for that, but that's never going to happen. The other options don't sound like fun, since I'm not really into getting the shit kicked out of me. Like what?

Way I see it, it doesn't do any good to spend hours obsessing on what's happening back home. Either you're there, or you're not. And if we want to get back, the only option we really have is to try to break the game.

They've been bringing more and more people lately. Ever since the calibrations. Have you noticed? Ships are packed.

I haven't been keeping track, no. I'll look it up later. I'm not obsessing about what's happening back home, I already know nothing's happening back there. I just miss it. And my friends there.

So use that. Let it push you to keep looking for ways home, not for temporary distractions.

You've got people waiting for you, right?

It's complicated. And they're waiting for who I was a year ago. I've changed a lot already in that time.

Sounds to me like you're more worried they won't want this you back.

You're not wrong. Even I don't want this me.

What's wrong with this you?

Well, for one. I'm too much of a coward to talk about any of this without it being anonymous. And the rest would kind of give me away.

Are you worried about what people you've met here might think if you actually just talk to them about it?

I guess. I'm not good at talking to people. And I already feel pathetic enough for this, how much worse would it be if anyone actually knew who I was for this?

You know, there's only so many people in the fleet. And everyone's got a very specific way of talking. Odds are, someone has already figured it out. Also, don't communications augments let people track anonymous posts?

Point is, you may as well actually talk to someone. Might actually find answers that way.

That would be why I'm deliberately talking like someone else.

[it's a total lie, but she didn't even think about that. whoops.]

Someone like who?

[Natasha hasn't 100% positive ID-ed the texter here, but she's at least got a pretty good couple guesses. And the pool grows smaller with every reply.]

Fleet's got a handful of people with counselor augments. You've got friends here, I'm assuming, if you don't want to talk to someone in an official capacity. Or you could grab a total stranger. No shortage of those, these days.

I'm pretty sure all of those options have better things to be doing than listen to me whine.

How many of them have responded already to this?

Enough that there's no way I'm putting my name to this.

Then go find someone and put it out in private. Sounds to me like you could use it. And it's not like no one else is dealing with the same issue, so your odds of helping someone else find their own coping mechanisms are pretty decent.

If you have this perfect solution, then, who should I go to for this?

I'd suggest one of the people who've responded to this post, to start. If they've replied, it's because they're dealing or have dealt with something similar. Or you could try any one of the dozen people here who've been bounced through two separate alternate universes already.

And if you really feel like you don't have any options, you could always swing by the Windrose. I'm not exactly the hug-it-out type, but you already know that.

You're assuming I know you.

[she's going to cling to anonymity until she dies, here, okay. ... And she thinks that offer is a bluff, so.]

But, if you're offering, then sure. When should I be there?

[She's pretty positive who's on the other end of the line at this point, comments about talking "like someone else" aside.]

Yep.

I'll be up on the bridge all afternoon. Just watch out for Officer Snuggles, he likes barking at new people.

[Sorry Nightingale. No bluffs here that she won't follow through on.]

... "Officer Snuggles"?

(no subject)

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