driftfleet | You can check out anytime you'd like.. [Hotel Corona Mingle]

You can check out anytime you'd like.. [Hotel Corona Mingle]

Who: The Fleet!
Broadcast: If you want
Action: Hotel Corona or Planet Ikke
When: December 7th onward

a wheel-shaped space station

[After the mystery and isolation of their last destination, the Marsiva seems determined to head to brighter, busier territory. After a long journey through remote, nebula-painted space, speeding along at a brisk pace for the Host ship, the Marsiva brings her Fleet to a sudden and prominent point of traffic.

It seems that the Fleet has happened upon some sort of vacation destination! Maybe Atroma thinks that the passengers deserve some rest and relaxation... or just wants to distract them with something huge and shiny.

Welcome to Hotel Corona! Feel free to enjoy yourselves and enjoy the sites! If a hotel resort isn't your thing, you can head on over to the nearby planet and explore it's icy wonders.

In order words: it's a mingle!! Everyone get in! ]

[>> Plot Post]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

They must keep the cycle going.

Well, that's how you make money, right?

[ He huffs, amused. ]

Clearly.

[And she is leading them to an ice cream shop. There's one close, since murdering people with go-karts is hungry work that needs ice cream.

She's getting strawberry, by the way.]

Maine used to take me out for ice cream when I was feeling shitty and sad. He'd buy me the biggest cone they had so he could steal half of it.

I always liked pistachio. Do they still have that flavor?

[She squirms between some people to get up to the counter and press her nose against the glass.] They do! It's an awesome green color.

[ He chuckles, fishing through his pockets for money. ]

All right then. One strawberry and one pistachio.

[Money passes hands, Wrath gets the ice cream cones, and hands Charles's over. She's very pleased with the strawberry. Though she eyes Charles's speculatively too.] Can I have a taste? You can totally have some of mine if you want.

Help yourself.

[ He holds it out. ]

[She takes a bite off the ice cream rather than licking, because that's like a courtesy thing. And ends up with a dot of ice cream on the end of her nose in the process.]

Oh, that's tasty.

[She sits on the arm of Charles's chair again, since it's a good way to talk quietly.]

There's a lot of shit I don't remember from my militia command, you know? But I remember the hardest part being when all the other sins went away, because I didn't have anyone left I could talk to about normal shit.

[ He nods. ]

It's not easy finding the right person to talk to.

At this point, when you're in a position of command, there aren't that many people who even can get it. There are lots of people who actively avoid that level of responsibility. Or commanders who suck at what they do so they're not really good people to talk to.

I'm not exactly a commander of any kind.

Not military, yeah. But that's not the only kind. You've put yourself in a position of command. I wonder if maybe it's harder because when you do that outside the military, you don't have a support structure or regs in place to help you.

I have Hank. IT's not as bad as all that.

[ He pauses. ] Not being military means people leave.

Hank isn't really in charge of things like you are. This isn't an insult to him, but there are some things he's not going to understand as much as he could.

[She gives him a sad smile.] That's not how the military works, Charles. At least not where I'm from.

[ He knows that. But there's no one else at the helm now. New enemies will come and go. While he remains at the school. Charles loves the school, loves what he does. It's his home but it's one of the last safeguards for mutants.

He'll never have anything outside of that. ]

No, of course not.

It's natural to feel isolated.

. . . Is it?

When you're at the top of a necessary hierarchy and there isn't anyone else running in parallel? Yeah. Because shit happens to you in a way that other people don't have to deal with regularly. You're responsible for stuff others aren't necessarily going to understand.