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» WHO? The Roci Crew and whoever else wants in on this mess
» WHEN? after the gravity is back
» WHERE? A few different places
» WHAT? A few different prompts as well as a catch-all for any roci crew or related logs for the month of june
» WARNINGS? these are all just terrible people what do you want from me

001: Alex, Bobbie and Amos are Judging You

The Martians and the Earther are sitting at a table in the Mess Hall, and they've started a game. That game? To rate everyone else on the ship in order of attractiveness. Want to be rated? Find the comment header below, drop a picture in of your character, and watch the comments fly. Feel free to overhear them and give them hell.

002: Closed, Alex >> Frank

Going on the morning walk-about to search for Holden was ritual, at this point, and Alex was very used to Frank coming over first thing before they headed out. So the door was already open, waiting for him. Alex was fishing through his drawers, trying to find where he'd stashed that singular glove that he'd found, to show him for a laugh. But instead his fingers found something else - a thin sheet of plastic, creased and bent a hundred thousand times, and Alex's heart nearly stopped.

He pulled it out of the drawer like it was made of plutonium, careful not to touch the edges of the drawer with it.

Christ. Oh, Christ.

003: Open, Alex >> Anyone who wants to find this wrecked man.

He goes straight to the bar.

It's not that he isn't a fairly regular fixture there, anyway, but especially right now, all he really wants is to drink until he numbs everything. So hi, have a depressed Martian with a bottle of who knows what, sitting at the bar and just staring at a picture of a woman and a child smiling lovingly at the camera. He keeps stroking his thumb over it, then looking wrecked and saying something like 'god damn it' under his breath before he pours himself another drink. One of his arms is still wrapped up in a sling against his chest.

If he recognizes you, he might look up when you get close, and sigh. "Hey, partner. Everythin' alright?" Because it's a lot easier to worry about other people, than to keep being miserable about yourself.

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He swallowed, hesitating, but then nodded slowly.

He didn't really want to be there at all, and certainly not alone, but-

He also didn't want to feel crazy. Wanted to see what Miller saw. So:

"Yeah. Yeah, I do."

After a long beat: "Okay." Miller turns towards Deck 6 and gets moving. Yes, he knows where you all live. No, don't make a thing out of it!!!! "We'll check it out. But real scientific-like. If you have to leave the room, leave." Full-on detective mode is being deployed, sorry Alex.

The detective mode was close enough to officer mode for it to actually help calm Alex down, rather than anything else. The sense that someone else was in charge of this, and he just had to follow orders.

Twenty years in the military made it a very comfortable position to be in.

So he just nodded, and followed a half step behind Miller as they walked to the room. When they got there, he opened the door for him, but waited outside until Miller went in first.

He nods his approval when Alex waits outside, pulling out his gun to clear the area even though he's reasonably sure there's no one inside. Every nook of the small room is searched including the shower stall before he waves for Alex to come in. He puts his rhino back in his jumpsuit back pocket, remaining by the pool of sweat and crouching down to get a closer look.

The room is a mess, just like he left it, only there's also the jumpsuit he'd been wearing, tossed over the end of the bunk, stinking of sweat and sick. The stain on the floor looks like the water just pooled out of him and then left a crusted, salty stain, but it isn't the only place. The bed looks very similar, crusted into the sheets. In the bathroom, the glass he dropped still lays shattered on the sink.

He steps in, glancing at the door almost a little nervously, before back to Miller.

"See? It can't have all been in my head, right?"

Touching his fingers to the spot, he brings them up to his nose and sniffs. Yeah, that's not imagined. He gets up to inspect the broken glass, staring into the mirror while he thinks.

"Something happened in here, that's for sure." He works his jaw, knowing that much is obvious. "What do you remember, exactly? Start from the top."

Slowly, haltingly, Alex tells the story. He tells it as accurately as he can, though he leaves out a bit about Talissa and Melas - just says that he heard voices that condemned him for leaving Mars, for leaving his family. Miller doesn't need to know specifics, there. But the gist might help.

He has to stop a couple times, and by the end of it he's just outside the door, unable to stay in the room even as he tells Miller about it.

He finishes by telling him about waking up.

"... Then I stumbled over to Prax's and - probably raved like a lunatic."

Miller takes pictures with his wrist device before moving over to the bed, pulling a spork out from under his hat to move the sheets without touching them. Old habits, and all that. It's not like they have a lab here to process any of this shit anyway. "How could he tell the difference?" That too is dry - automatic. Then, suddenly, he's looking up and straight through the door to meet Alex's eyes. "Do you believe in ghosts, Duster?"

Alex shook his head.

"No." Or at least, he didn't. Now, he's not so sure. But he's more likely to believe that something is just horribly wrong with him than otherwise.

"Huh," he grunts, tongue going to a back tooth as he thinks. "Then I got nothin'." Which doesn't mean he's giving up, but this shit is weird even by their standards.

"Amos said that maybe it was a - a flu, or somethin'." He said it carefully, as if hoping something in Miller's head would click and then it would all suddenly make sense.

"But I- a flue wouldn't leave a stain like that, right? A normal fever - ya ain't gonna sweat that much?"

"Not like any flu I've ever seen." Wtf Amos. "If this place wanted you dead, you'd be dead, right? Stands to reason anyway." Miller looks around, up at the ceiling, through Alex's desk. There's nothing. No sign of a combatant or anything that could have set this in motion.

"Maybe... to scare us. Keep us in line? That girl." He thinks, then snaps. "Kamala, she said this place was a prison." He narrows his eyes, doing another slow walk around. Nothing is adding up and it's getting all the way under his skin.

"You say that. But - you remember what Rogue posted to the network? About drownin' and then - wakin' up later, totally fine, except she couldn't see a damn thing."

He nods along, though.

"Yeah. Apollo floated that idea, too. With a 'warden', and everythin'. How many prisons have open bars, though? This place is - this place is awful, but it ain't a Martian Gulag."

Miller nods, offhand. He'd seen the post, though at first he wasn't sure he believed it.

"No, it ain't." But... "That doesn't rule out someone keeping us here. Or something." He meets Alex's eyes seriously. Even if it's not the protomolecule, it could be something like that. Something intelligent.

"... No, it don't. A station is a pretty damn effective prison if you can't get off it."

He looked at Miller helplessly.

"I don't know about you, hoss, but I sure as hell haven't done anythin' to warrant gettin' locked up out here. Especially not with..." He shuddered, gestured to the stain on the floor.

Even saying it, though, made Melas' voice echo through his head: Why did you leave?

He swallowed, roughly.

"Who, me? I've never done a bad thing in my life." Alex you said that to the wrong guy, you brought this on yourself. Also, he's trying desperately to lighten the mood. Miller takes one more quick look around before meeting him in the hall, pressing the button to close the door. "Come on, let's go to my office and talk about this." He grabs at Alex's shoulder, thinking he might need a physical push to leave at this point.

He does need a push, but there's little resistance once he gets it - stumbling back out of the room in a bit of a daze.

"Yeah. Your office." He says it like that's definitely both a thing that exists, and a thing that makes sense to exist.

Look. He's a little out of it.

Miller knocks his shoulder into Alex's gently to get him to turn around, then he starts walking that way before waiting to see if the man will follow.

"Just wait til you see what I've done with the place."

He does follow, though it takes a few seconds for the command to process from his brain to him limbs, and he keeps getting distracting by looking at his hands and expecting them to suddenly start dissolving on him.

But he followed.

He keeps jostling the other man a little as he walks briskly, trying to get Alex to the bar as quickly as he can and also keep him from retreating inside the instant replay of that awful moment.

"You ever been to Ceres, Duster?"

Edited 2018-06-29 00:30 (UTC)

"Uh - yeah." The question is far enough from left field to work as a distraction.

"The Cant used to dock there - took plenty of shore leave there. That's- that's where you're from, right?"

"Yep. Eros was the first time I ever left." He smiles grimly at the memory, saying goodbye to Muss and everything he'd ever known. "When's the last time you set foot on Mars?"

"... Little over five years ago, now." The guilt cut through him painfully, the demanding questions from the night before - the voices - echoing in his head.

Why did you leave?

"Kept meanin' to go back, but..."

Touchy. Miller wonders if it's because of recent events or if he's always touchy about this. He'd never had cause to ask Alex about his family before, but he knows. He'd seen his ring, the picture he keeps at his pilot's chair. Sorry, Alex, this is [probably] for your own good. He almost feels a little bit guilty about reopening an old wound, at least?

"Family life doesn't compare to the nonstop thrillride that's your life now, right? I get that."

"That ain't it." Touchy was right, apparently, the denial immediate. "Unless you somehow think ice and gas haulin' is a thrill ride."

He looked queasy, and he tried not to check his hands again. "I just- I couldn't hack it, alright? Any of it. I tried."