text;

[nostraightlines]

Who: José Ramse and YOU
Broadcast: fleetwide text
Action: the Starstruck
When: now!

Celeste Blackwell went home. At least, I figure that's where they sent her. So much for my plan to be as boring as possible to get sent back.

...

Does anyone here know where I could get sleeping pills or anything like that?


[ Ramse can be found on the bridge of the Starstruck, staring down at the unfortunate moon. He's definitely in a mood. ]

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video > action

[nostraightlines]

See you soon.

[ He turns off the feed and heads for the kitchen to put on some water for them, then to the cargo bay to meet Kitty, all the while wondering who Storm might be. It's a better nickname than Meathead, anyway... ]

[passingthrough]

[So much better than meathead. It is a little funny the way sometimes codenames or real names roll off the tongue for her. She looks around as she steps out of the shuttle.] Hey. [She kind of feels like she should be better company to be here when he's going through something rough. Someone who would naturally give him a hug. Instead she stops in front of him with a nod.] So here I am.

[nostraightlines]

Hey. Kitchen's this way.

[ He leads her though the ship. The kettle isn't quite whistling yet, so he gets out the tea and mugs. ]

I figured heartbreak was better with actual company.

[passingthrough]

Yeah, I mean, like I said, it was a long time ago for me. Four months or so. [Which feels like a life time especially with the time divided between the fleet and the prison. She finds herself looking around the ship, taking it in. She hadn't actually visited it before even with Ororo aboard.]

[nostraightlines]

Four months is no time at all. [ The kettle whistles and he takes it off the heat, pouring the water over the tea. ] What happened?

[passingthrough]

The person I was with...Reid, he disappeared one day. It was less than a week before he was back. [But that wasn't common for people to come back so quickly. She didn't know if she'd ever see him again.] When he came back he remembered me, but he remembered being in love with someone at home too. He'd just watched her die moments before they brought him back. It made things...complicated.

[nostraightlines]

That's... more than complicated. I'm sorry.

Did it mean you couldn't be together anymore?

[passingthrough]

No, but him breaking up with me did. [Voice softer.] We were both in bad places and the prison doesn't make it easy.

[nostraightlines]

[ Ramse nods, sympathetic even if he doesn't fully understand. Being in a bad place is more reason to be with someone, to him, for help working through it. For less loss. But they're different people. ]

Prison doesn't make anything easy, huh? [ He fiddles with his teabag string. ] How long after that did you wind up here?

[passingthrough]

Every few days they throw something new at us. Maybe just a party. Maybe they erase our memories or make us think we're married to someone we barely know or turn us into monkeys or make it rain fruit punch or attack us with dinosaurs. [You kind of get used to it and ride it out, but when things are already broken it definitely doesn't help.]

[She was the one who kept fighting for them to stay together. She wanted to make things work and weather the hard times together. Part of his reasoning—not that he shared it—was that he was hurting her by being such a mess, but what really crushed her was him ending things. She'd never felt so unwanted which probably wasn't fair but the turmoil had brought up a lot of things she'd never dealt with. It all might have been easier if she could have just been mad at him, but she knew how much he was hurting and she just wanted to help. While he wanted her out of his life.]

After the break up? About two months. But I came here immediately from prison if you're asking if I went home first.

Things were starting to get better between us again. [Maybe it was kinder that the Atroma grabbed her before those seeds of hope really took root.]

[nostraightlines]

Those are some crazy things to throw at you. [ And she sounds so nonchalant, like she's used to it -- he doesn't think he could ever get used to being turned into something else or being attacked by dinosaurs. ]

At least you didn't leave on a bad note? I got pulled to Eudio... after something really awful.

[passingthrough]

[She nods. There are a lot of different kinds of bad and different levels. Having no resolution or ending things harshly would have been worse. It also would have been worse to leave at the height of it when she was the most in love and happy and content with her life and seeing a future for the first time in a long time. Maybe what happened was the kindest option for ripping someone away from what they'd started seeing as home.]

What happened? [She won't push too much, but sometimes it helps to tell even to someone you don't know that well. Maybe especially to someone you don't know well. You're not that invested. It's easier to take the hit if it separates you.]

[nostraightlines]

[ He's quiet for a moment, considering Kitty and what she might think of him if he tells her... but he's an honest person, and if she doesn't want to be around him after finding out then it's probably better they know now. He's no saint. ]

I had to fight my brother... and I stabbed him. Thought I killed him, actually.

[passingthrough]

Oh, wow... [Her eyes widen slightly, but it's more concern than shock or horror that he'll see. She's an only child, but fighting family like that?] Why did you need to fighting him? [Already assuming his intentions were as they should have been.]