theclipper_tlv | network audio/actionspam [OTA]

[network; audio; immediately after arrival; being a cliquey bitch in front of god and country]

Hello - roll call, please! The Authority wouldn't tell me anything; did we all make it? Did we all get chosen by the same ship? Pagan--

[Her voice quivers a little when she says her warden's name, and so she makes herself stop and breathe for a second or two, until she can sound smooth and airy and cheerful again.]

I'm an assistant now, so if you need anything - favors or perks, or, um, requests - I have clout! I think it goes without saying that we should all stick together as much as possible.

[actionspam; first few days after arrival]

[Misty's feelings about all this are deeply ambivalent, to say the least. On the one hand, she has no real attachment or loyalty to the Barge as an institution, and her prospects as a Clipper assistant seem much better than her prospects as a Barge inmate had been: all she has to do is graduate a patient and keep them on the straight and narrow for three months, and she can go home! And that should be the most important thing.

But on the other hand, there are people that she worries about; people that, already, she misses desperately and can't stand being universes away from, without any warning. Even beyond them, there are people that she thinks and wonders about - far more than she would have expected. The Barge residents hadn't been her team, but they'd been something, and to have all that ripped away throws her off-kilter.

So, naturally, she backslides immediately, making herself feel better by indulging in her worst habits of light stalking and petty power-plays. She patrols the circular hallways, keeping an eye on patients, enjoying the feeling of having power that she can use however she'd like. During at least the first few days, she participates fully in the morning and evening group meetings, and makes careful mental notes of who does and doesn't do the same. She'll dole out kindnesses and favors to those who treat her well, she decides, and to those who don't... well. She'll just have to see.

She spends quite a lot of time ensconced in the assistants-only treehouse, where she uses the binoculars to spy on people for hours on end: sometimes aimlessly looking around the whole visible space, and other times picking a person at random, dedicatedly following them until they exit the panopticon area and leave her sight. And when stalking people who are mostly strangers stops being enough, she retreats to her cabin, where she watches her saved security camera footage of Natalie, Shauna, and Taissa, thinks about how she doesn't even have a photo of Pagan, and - in private, out of the public eye - allows herself to cry.

She always carefully cleans her face and puts on eye makeup before leaving her cabin, wiping away tear tracks and concealing any puffiness. But whenever she spots anyone that she recognizes from the Barge, her public facade drops a little.]

Oh, my god--

[She'll say as she rushes over to them, uncertainty and anxiety clear on her face.]

You're here! This is crazy, right?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I haven't met any of those people. I did meet a Givens-san; is he a friend of yours?

Raylan? He-- yes, sort of.

[Enough that she looks relieved, at least.]

He's here. He's a Patient, though. Apparently, he thought he was going to be an Assistant, so he was upset.

[ She considers it again.]

Oh! And I think Norton-san was new too!

And he's an assistant, even though he was an inmate on the Barge, like me. Maybe we're all swapped? Inmates are assistants and wardens are patients?

[While she's giving names, Misty pulls out her phone and, very predictably, shows Haruka one of the pictures that she does have.]

What about them? Have any of them ever been here?

[ She looks at the picture carefully before she shakes her head. ]

No, Quigley-san. None of those women look familiar. I'm sorry.

Darn it--

[She squeezes the phone so hard her knuckles turn white, and her teeth grit together. After everything, couldn't she at least have had this? Kiryu's daughter is here. Why couldn't Natalie be?

... God, Natalie would hate it, though.]

[ She thinks for a moment.]

Givens-san asked me to look around for people, so he might want to help you look if you need it too.

Yes, obviously; this is something we'll work together on.

[Her voice shakes, and she can't make it stop, so she pretends it's not happening instead: she gives Haruka a wide smile. It probably looks a bit deranged.]

It's just very frustrating, Haruka.

[ ...given her time here, she's seen it before. Her lips press tight in a sympathetic expression that isn't really a smile. ]

I know.

[ She puts her hand to her heart.]

Wanting to be with people and not being able to is the worst thing in the world. It's why I'm here.

I'm guessing you have a deal to bring someone back to life?

He's not dead. [ Just a little wry.] It's to make it safe for him to come back to us. My second deal will be to bring someone back from the dead, though.

Kiryu is the first.

[She knows enough to feel pretty solid about that guess.]

Who's the second?

[ A quick nod. Because yes, of course. Then her eyes drift a little away.]

It's my old manager, the one who discovered me in Okinawa. She died because of-

It's complicated, but she was murdered. And she deserves a second chance at happiness.

A yakuza thing, right?

[ There's a glance over at Misty that's a little wary before she nods.]

They made it look like a suicide. It was to lure out Uncle Kaz and Saejima-san.

[ Because her ex-husband she'd been planning to reunite with was Majima Goro. ]

Edited 2022-08-02 15:07 (UTC)

I know all about the yakuza stuff.

[Not even remotely true.]

So, really, you can tell me anything; I've probably heard it all before.

I don't really know that much. Uncle Kaz did his best to keep us out of it.

[ And like hell was she talking about anything recently. Between her son who has the blood of a Triad leader running through his veins and everything that'd happened before Uncle Kaz had 'died', it's not something she CAN talk about here. It's too emotional.

Not to mention what her nose is telling her.]

Edited 2022-08-02 15:24 (UTC)

And what about your son? Do you keep him out of it, too?

[ There's just a glint of mama bear in her eyes as Misty asks.]

I do. I do my best to keep all of the kids out of danger from anyone.

Right. Because you have a responsibility towards them. I know exactly what you mean, and that's why I'm so torn.

Are you a mother, Quigley-san?

[ She's not trying to 'test' her, she's just trying to find out more. ]

Well, no. I mean, not exactly; I have a parrot, which is more like having a child than you'd think. But I still have people that I protect.

[ She shakes her head as if to dismiss the idea she was trying to qualify anything re: having children. ]

I didn't mean it like that. I was trying to figure out if any of the people you're looking for are kids. We have some here but they're notorious for being everywhere.

Oh, no, they're all adults - here and at home. We have-- had?

[God, this sucks.]

There were teenagers on the Barge, but no one super young.

[ That's another nod.]

I hope you get to see them again. Maybe it just took them longer to get here?

(no subject)

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