OPEN

[2leftfeet]

CHARACTERS: Shepard & YOU
LOCATION: Various
WARNINGS: N/A, will edit if necessary
SUMMARY: Catch all for pre-recon
NOTES: Feel free to wildcard the starter or contact me for something else if you're not feeling any of the ones I have up! Prose or action aokay.


I. DECK 023 REC ROOM

[The rec room farthest to stern on 23 has slowly been rigged into a hub for these recon missions, couches and low tables pushed around into a semblance of order and and video screen son the wall mainly re-purposed for going over and archiving data. She and a few unlucky volunteers have most categorized everything workable from the last recon, but she's clearly expecting more work in the future and has pinned down the space for the foreseeable future.

Anyone who isn't a volunteer for recon is likely to be on the receiving end of a steady, sidelong look and a pointed 'Looking for something?' There's something honed down and steely about her that mostly does a serviceable job of chasing anyone not totally determined out. For anyone part of the mission or looking to speak to Shepard in person, her kitbashed war room is the safe first bet as she can usually be found there sitting on one of the couches, one leg tucked up under herself, absently worrying her teeth against the inside of her cheek as she carefully sorts through reports and messages from various sources.

They're leaving on round two soon and there's still a lot of crap to get sorted.]

II. GYM

[Not holding the fort down in the rec-room-turned-war-room? Better check the nearest gym. Call her single minded, but there's something pleasant about the work: if not paper work, then running herself ragged (literally) as she jogs carefully timed, deliberate laps around the outside of the large room. Most of it's just practice: moving through form and technique with a certain level of aptitude brought along by years of practice, though she'll jump at the chance should a sparring partner show their face.

She'd give her right hand to be spending more time in gunnery but with limited ammunition, she's not going to burn through her reserve on target practice. This though? She can run her body pretty hard when she wants to.]

III. WASHROOM

[Freshly showered, dressed in an undershirt and jumpsuit with the arms of the latter tied around her waist, she's standing in front of one of the many sinks in the communal washroom and patiently wringing her hair out over the sink. It must be off hours; there's no one else in the bathroom and it's... quiet. Bone deep. Residual warmth from the steam of the shower trapped by the seal of the door clings to the faucets and the edge of the mirrors, her skin. Her hair's gotten long, she thinks somewhat suddenly an frowns at the dark, uneven ends in her fist. She needs a haircut. Thinks maybe she should just hack it all off.

And for a moment, Shepard straightens - lets the towel in her other hand sag around her shoulders - to regard herself in the mirror. She thinks she looks strange with her hair down as it is. Carefully drawing it up, N7 dogtags clinking around her neck, she squints at her reflection and tries to imagine what it'd look like cut short.

The moment the hatch yawns open to admit another passenger, she makes to snap her hands down.]

Comments

[2leftfeet]

[That-- gives her pause. Shepard frowns, corner of her mouth tightening briefly as she shifts up from the table, taking her plate with her as she moves back to the stove top. That's apparently a yes in regard to his first question, but she's more than capable of helping herself.]

When we were on the bridge, the only reason we got back in time for the jump was because someone overrode the door and got us out. There was a message on the wall that makes me suspect it was Smiley and apparently that's not the first time it's helped someone out of a jam.

[Moving back, absently sucking a bit of juice from the side of her thumb, Shepard sets her plate back on the table but doesn't quite move to sit.]

And there was some guy who died after getting 'close' [--she actually uses airquotes; the future is a bright and wonderful place--] to it, but that could've been the ship or the old Crew trying to stop him from accessing information.

[darkart]

There is, frustratingly, just enough information to support a wide number of theories. Most of which contradict each other. But not enough information to lean in any one direction.

[ Something he feels might be deliberate, as if constructed that way. But it's just as likely as his theory of multiple voices using the same speaker. There's no way to sort it out. Yet. ]

I suppose we could always vote one person to die every other jump and have them wait somewhere crucial and record until the last second.

[ THIS IS OBVIOUSLY A JOKE a really gallows humor joke but still not a real suggestion. ]

[2leftfeet]

Don't let Tyke or Edgeworth hear you say that. [Also a joke. Sort of. Severus has enemies on the ship; luckily they don't seem like the proactive type.]

And I'm not sure how many volunteers you'd get for that job. People up here seem to get a kick out of killing themselves on accident but aren't too big on doing it on purpose.

[She sits then, chair scraping gently on the deck, and picks up her fork again.]

[darkart]

[ Severus shrugs, unconcerned. As if he'd ever joke like that in front of them, for one, and for another, the minute SEC starts policing anyone for hyperbole, the ship is going to have significantly more problems than just the ship. He is critical of how Security is run, but he doesn't expect them to turn to fascism any time soon. 'Enemies', in his opinion, would be a stretch. ]

Half the ship thinks you're doing it on purpose, [ he says mildly. Recon missions and all the clutched pearls over them. ] But the truth is we're all already dying at a rapid rate, isn't it? Life expectancy for anyone chronically late is about a month.

[ What with the jumps killing anyone outside their pod, and all. ] I think it frightens people to be reminded of the danger we're in at all times.

[2leftfeet]

In my experience, people like to ignore problems until they're right on top of them. [This ship, Reapers. If it isn't knocking on your door or actively ruining your day, then there's obviously nothing to worry about.]

But I don't have time to wait around for three plus solar years until the ship decides to do something with us.

[There were people on the Tranquility who'd been there twice, three times as long as she had and they didn't seem to know much more than the people who'd arrived last jump cycle. If anything, it sounded like the ship had gotten more dangerous, more unpredictable since then. She doesn't have the patience or time to sit on her hands and wait for someone else to figure it out for her.]

[darkart]

Mm. [ Monosyllabic noise of agreement; obviously, Severus feels similarly, or he wouldn't be helping her - and certainly he wouldn't be putting quite so much work into it. ]

It tries to keep us to a level normalcy, pushing back and forth between crises and letting people find 'solace' in the downtime. But it doesn't seem to like change. Did I tell you about the genetics labs?