worthallthis: (wary)
worthallthis ([personal profile] worthallthis) wrote in [community profile] theclipper_tlv2022-08-01 03:00 pm

Not A Safe Space [OTA]

Who: B and OTA
Where: Various, see prompts
When: First half of August
Warnings: PTSD reactions, some disassociation


I. Arrival

The first thing B does upon arrival is check his cabin. Sure enough, there are dogs, cats, goats, a dinosaur egg, and his goddamn left arm in there. The arm's connectors no longer work, but hey, the Nurse thoughtfully left him the arm itself. At least there's a promise he might be able to use it again someday.

He sits on the bed for a little while, hugging confused dogs, petting cats, shoving goats away from his blankets dammit, and trying not to cry. He's not back home. There's a chance the Authority will change their mind. This is temporary. It's temporary.

Then he shoves his backpack and some of those afore-mentioned blankets into his closet to keep them all safe from the animals and treks out to explore his now (temporary) home. He's relatively okay, giving the soft and rounded furniture a look that's more amused than disturbed, until he finds sickbay, and hears about the padded rooms. The forced sedation. The button on his wrist-band that paralyzes people.

Then he disappears for a while into his room to panic.


II. Goat Removal

Okay. He's okay. He'll manage. He's managed with worse. First things first, find somewhere else for the goats, because they cannot live in his tiny cabin room. B spends a while knocking on cabins with doors, looking for one that's empty. If he hits yours, you'll get a sheepish smile, and, "Sorry, just looking for an empty one."

When he finally finds one on his floor, then it's time to remake it all over again. He hauls a mattress out and down the hall to his own room. He requisitions some ratty blankets and some dirt and the closet thing to hay he can get from the Nurse, and turns the spare cabin into at least an approximation of the room they had on the Barge. Then he can be found guiding the goats out of his room and into the new one.

And then doing some cleaning on his room, because, y'know. Goats.


III. Custodial

B enjoys cleaning things, so being put on custodial is fine by him. He spends a solid chunk of his time quietly using his single remaining arm to scrub something, or polish something, or do laundry. He oversees any patients who want to show up for their allotted time leniently. He'll encourage work, but won't force it.

B won't force anybody to do anything. He won't. That's not how you make people happy.

But he does play music sometimes, while he works. Anyone working with him on any given day can scrub to the sound of 30s jazz or 90s pop or occasionally a bit of 70s glam. None of the songs that mention violence remain among his CD collection, but that still leaves a lot to choose from.


IV. Pet Project

The rest of B's time he spends in the common room with two dogs, two cats (the kennel cat came, as well), and two goats, hemmed in with some of the furniture to make a pen that the goats try to climb out of (but B stops them; this is why there's only two of them, so he can keep an eye). "Daily animal time's still happening," he tells anyone who comes by, with a small but friendly smile. "It helps. Promise."

Surely the Nurse can't complain about something that makes people smile the way animals make people smile.

The cats can be found anywhere in the common room, not trapped by the couches and over-turned tables, but B keeps an eye on them regardless. It wouldn't do for someone to snatch one or anything.


V. Falling Apart

B has seventy years of putting on a mask at his disposal, for his public face. Of course, HYDRA didn't want him smiling, didn't want him showing emotion of any kind except occasionally fear, but the skill isn't really much different when you're masking with a smile than a blank face.

It doesn't mean he's not a complete wreck inside. He only uses the big public showers late at night, when hopefully no one else is in there-- and if someone else comes in, he hurriedly finishes up and grabs a towel to wrap himself up in. It's not that he has problems with nudity, exactly... it's that he cannot be naked in a big open space like this without his brain trying to throw HYDRA images at him.

People coming up behind him make him visibly flinch, though he quickly brushes it off with the same small smile he wears all the time and an apology. "Just kind of jumpy today, I guess."

He spends more time staring at the buffet-style meals than he should, tray in his single hand and trembling a little with his tension, stymied by choice again for the first time in years.


VI. Communication - for the Clipper

The Barge was a living, feeling creature, B knows. She communicated. She found ways. B has to wonder if this ship speaks, too, in her own way. Some evenings, he'll wander the halls and tap on the walls in Morse code. Hello, are you there? Will you speak with me? He has no piano, here, but he'll organize the scrabble letters into the same message, or play songs from his CDs in the hopes of conveying the message.

Will you speak, Clipper?
hisblueskies: Blond-haired boy stares 1/4 stage right, serious expression. (Serious)

[personal profile] hisblueskies 2022-08-20 11:55 am (UTC)(link)
That, at least, explained why all these newcomers were causing so much talk.

"Was the ship you came from - this time - all right with that?"

Looking more curiously at B now, he waits before continuing. "At least it's easier to understand why a ship would have a hard time communicating with us; we can see how they're different, why they would think differently."

Once one accepted that they were thinking in the first place.
punched_hitler: [beard] ([ce] unsure)

[personal profile] punched_hitler 2022-08-20 03:50 pm (UTC)(link)
It's nothing, really, B. Now that Steve's figured out why B's switched his bathing schedule to the middle of the night, he's more than happy to help out. It's not exactly a hardship - and he'd help even if it was. After everything B has been through, he more than deserves to be able to shower in peace.

Besides. There's so little Steve can do for him, here. This feels like something, at least. He wants to do it.

He pokes his head into the tiled, echoing room - nothing immediately obvious - then slips fully inside to double-check. It doesn't take long to confirm that no one else is in here; in a way, he's not surprised. The kids aren't up this late (or if they are, they're not showering this late) and the public nature plus the lukewarm water don't really encourage anyone to linger or seek the place out for relaxation. (There's more than enough "relaxation" to be had elsewhere, anyway.)

He sticks his head back out the door, nodding. "We're good, come on."
wildguardian: (cop business)

[personal profile] wildguardian 2022-08-20 04:46 pm (UTC)(link)
"... kind of creepy, considering they bring people back here all the time," Yunlan notes. "But I guess it's nice to know someone cares?"
hisblueskies: Blond boy with candle, smiling (Candle)

[personal profile] hisblueskies 2022-08-22 01:09 pm (UTC)(link)
"Even knowing that much sounds like it helped a lot," he says.

Nodding quickly, Alfredo adjusts his grip on the blankets.

"Sure," he replies, taking as much as he knows he can hold at a time, carefully setting some of it down just in case - better something straightforward to pick up than a complete spill!
punched_hitler: ([aou] unsure in the farmhouse)

[personal profile] punched_hitler 2022-08-24 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
Steve keeps an eye on the door as B heads deeper in, trying to give him a little privacy, too, even if he doesn't think B necessarily wants to hide from him. There's still precious little privacy on a ship with quarters this close, period, and if it feels like it's pressing in on Steve... well. He figures B must feel the same way. Even the semblance of privacy can be precious.

Still, he doesn't hesitate to turn at the question, shuffling a little further in so he can hold out his hands. "Sure," he says, offering B a little smile as he takes the clothes and says, "I know it's probably not your first instinct, but you can take your time, a little. If you want."

Yeah, showering in lukewarm water isn't necessarily enjoyable, but if B can slow down enough to at least not rush through it, Steve thinks it'll be good for him. Or at least not bad for him.

His plan is to turn back to the door, completely blocking it with his bulk. At least that's still good for something. "It's too bad there's nothing big enough to use as a tub we could drag back to the room," he muses.
hisblueskies: Blond-haired boy looking off 3/4 stage left, looking dubious. (Concerned)

[personal profile] hisblueskies 2022-08-24 12:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Alfredo, small as he is, slips in without too much of a struggle, rooming equipment held tight.

Being near so many animals is definitely a change, but he holds himself calm as he can manage, the better to let them get used to him.

"It's going to be all right," he says to them softly.

"We're going to do what we can to look after you."
Edited 2022-08-24 12:20 (UTC)
punched_hitler: [beard] ([ce] yeah I guess so)

[personal profile] punched_hitler 2022-08-24 02:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Steve grins a little, mostly to himself, though it's probably audible in his voice when he says, "Yeah. Exactly like that." It'd been what he was picturing, too. "Could double as the table. Or just fill it with blankets, the animals'd probably love it."

He really doesn't think there's anything that big - and watertight - that he's seen, and they can't really make anything without tools. But it's a nice thought.

"Maybe we'll hit a port with something." He has no idea how long they might be here, after all. And B is an Assistant. He can leave the ship. Steve is sure someone would help him get a tub (or something to use as a tub) back on board.
punched_hitler: [beard] ([ce] yeah I guess so)

[personal profile] punched_hitler 2022-08-27 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
"Louise said it's not common, but it happens," he confirms. "Patients can't leave at all, but Assistants can. We'll get Norton to help you out - " Then he hears himself, and laughs a little. Norton does not seem like a tub-carrying kind of guy, does he.

"Or maybe someone else."
thenurse_tlv: (clipper)

[personal profile] thenurse_tlv 2022-08-28 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
LOS NT GRAD

Just like the Barge, the Clipper has its history of comas, disappearances, and less frequent reappearances, if B asks any of the veteran inhabitants.

It's one of the cats that traipses through the tiles next, leaving one of the words undisturbed and scattering others.

GRAD GOOD

In true cat cat fashion, it changes its mind and marches right back through the other way, before flopping down near B to lick one of its legs.

NT GOOD S NOGRAD
punched_hitler: (Default)

[personal profile] punched_hitler 2022-08-28 11:08 pm (UTC)(link)
"I don't see why they wouldn't," Steve's saying, even as he realizes that yeah, sure, it's not inconceivable that someone could weaponize a tub - well, mostly by drowning someone in it. But it would be in B's room. Behind his door.

But who knows how an entity who thought B's left arm was too dangerous to leave attached to his body would feel about a bathtub, he supposes.

"I guess we'll see," he ends up agreeing, not liking the fact that it's their only option, but it really is. "In the meantime, I'll just get really good at telling people to move along." He says the last two word in his very best Captain America voice. "So far so good, though." It's been quiet out there, as far as he can tell.
wildguardian: (following close)

Re: got an anwer from the ship so now I can continue this...

[personal profile] wildguardian 2022-08-29 11:57 am (UTC)(link)
"Well -- that makes sense." Yunlan hitches one shoulder up thoughtfully. "I mean. I figure most of the decisions about who comes to the ship and who goes are decisions whoever runs it is making. The ship's basically following directions.

"That said, I think the ship might wind up in the crossfire just because we can reach the ship and not the Nurse...."

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