ataraxionlogs | hello time bomb [closed]

CHARACTERS: Rey and John "Kable" Tillman.
LOCATION: Hanging around the passenger's common area in the wee hours of the night.
WARNINGS: THROUGH THE FIRE AND FLAMES I don't know.
SUMMARY: With her quarters mysteriously out of commission, Rey hobos it up for now.

It had been something of an honest mistake, though it may not have looked like it much.

Of course, trying to make a credible excuse for why your sleeping quarters was set on fire sometime in the middle of the night seemed shady as it was.

So it wasn't so much as the entire room had gone up in flames, but the burnt, human-shaped hole in her bed now threw a wrench in her sleeping schedule. Then again, it wasn't like that was a huge loss here. Rey decided she'd walk it off before figuring out a new arrangement, if there needed to be one at all.

At first, she figured she would just think it through, but the more she did so, the more tired she became. Her skin still burned, her insides still ached. She was vaguely reminded of her conversation with Natalie -- knowing that this pain hadn't gone away ever since.

The longer she opened her eyes, the more difficult it became to distinguish the contour shapes of the surrounding area. Before long, she had stopped walking.

Which ended up with her standing there in the middle of the room, eyes closed and only slightly swaying from side to side.

And yes, there was slight snoring as well.

...sleeping while standing up. How classy.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Good idea, Tillman.

Then there was staring again. In spite of her own confusion, she was aware of what she'd done -- or had almost done, rather. She could have always just played dumb.

"No." Pause. "Sorry."

Except that it was a pretty hollow for an apology.

"There's kids here, you know. And others who might not evade you quite as effectively," he pointed out casually, just to see her reaction and get a feel for what he was dealing with. Not that it was his business, but gathering intelligence seemed like a better way to spend his time than aimlessly wandering the halls.

"...I'm aware."

It wasn't like she had intended to lash out in that manner, however disconcerting as it was. When she had been just walking one minute, and the next...

Well, she didn't really know.

That would be the disconcerting part.

Tillman quirked an eyebrow. He never really was good at dancing around a subject. The direct approach was more his specialty.

"If you're going to continue to sleep," he said the word a bit doubtfully, still wondering how she had managed to pull it off, "in the hallway, I'd recommend one with less foot traffic. Attack someone and there's going to be a lot of unfriendly types breathing down your neck."

His gaze flicked down to her wrist, the number there. "You.. are aware you have a room, right?" It's like he's going for his merit badge in 'assisting strange women on a spaceship.'

Rey brought her arm to her shoulder, tightly clenching it while simultaneously covering the tattoo. She couldn't say that most of her actions were driven primarily off of instinct, no matter how close to the realms of truth it was. Sure would've helped if she had known what she was doing half of the time.

So instead, the expression she gave him spoke volumes, and practically said noted, or some kind of affirmation to whoever's relief it was intended for.

"...I'm aware." Seriously, was anyone starting to hear an echo in the room by now? "Doesn't help that my room went out of commission a few hours ago, though."

Or, she assumed it to have been a few hours, if her internal clock was any indicator.

Tillman raised an eyebrow, but didn't otherwise react to her defensive posture. While he did not intend to push her buttons, he was somewhat out of touch with how to have a normal conversation. Of course, he was conversing with someone who could sleep standing up in a hallway, so perhaps abnormal was alright.

"Out of commission?" His brow furrowed briefly. Her phrasing implied that there was no assignable blame, which meant that it had somehow happened spontaneously-- perhaps her tattoo key wouldn't unlock the door. He thought of being unable to reach his guns and became uneasy. He did not voice any of this, however. "How did that happen?"

"Don't know. Wish I did. But it's all burned up now, so it doesn't matter." She spoke so matter-of-factly on this, as though it was more of an inconvenience than something that one should be legitimately concerned about. The most she thought about it was the fact that she was going to have to find someplace else to sleep, not Oh god, my room is on fire!

Priorities. Rey has them.

Tillman blinked. The lack of concern threw him. "Your room caught fire and you don't know why? Have you told the rest of the ship?" This was the kind of occasion that he assumed the network was designed for. Other people should probably be made aware of potential spontaneous combustion or pyromaniacs running wild or the ship itself attempting to exterminate them...

"No, I didn't really think about it." She was tired. And on top of everything else, the controlled nature of the fire itself and the fact that Rey had been the only one present in the room... was a little odd. Maybe even suspicious. In hindsight, she was starting to wish that she hadn't said anything about it in the first place.

Tillman's lips thinned into a grim line. The conversation had stirred up concerns that he was grateful to be aware of. Air in outer space was a bit of a hot commodity. A fire had the potential to do some serious damage.

Did the ship have safety measures in place for that kind of thing? What could have caused it?

"If you see any other fires you should probably sound an alarm," he suggested.

"Mmhm. Noted." Her tone came off vaguely automatic-sounding, like it was something that she imagined she would be saying in a situation such as this.

Just came to her, like a reflex or something.

Who knew why.

hello time bomb [closed]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject