And we will hold this fort...

[dino_zarf]

CHARACTERS: Wash and OPEN
LOCATION: SHuttlebay
WARNINGS: Are unlikely
SUMMARY: Wash makes good on his promise to help the kids build a pillowfort in the shuttlebay
NOTES: Characters interested in joining Flight are free to use this as an excuse to meet the CFO in the most dignified manner imaginable


It's been a rough few weeks before the jump. Not that they seemed to have another kind these days. And there are too damn many kids here stuck going through all of it. So Wash is doing what he can to make sure they have something fun and normal to distract them.

And besides, he'd promised Takeshi and Muscovy a pillow fort, and he wasn't inclined to break a promise. So he's gone up to the upper decks to retrieve pillows and blankets and is setting about building a fort out of them. In the end, he's a big kid at heart. So it's a fairly impressive fort.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your chief flight officer.

Comments

[mikangirl]

Nami arrives at the shuttle bay with directions from Death (yeah, she's not thinking too hard on that okay) with no real thoughts about joining any department right now. She's here because apparently the only windows on the ship exist in the shuttle bay, and she wants to see space up close for herself. Everything's been pretty stressful and frustrating so far. Par for the course for new arrivals, probably, so she feels free to grump her way around the place.

She wasn't exactly expecting to come across a grown-ass guy messing around with pillows and blankets down here, and for a moment Nami just stares at him. Ah. That's...

...worrying.

"...please tell me you're just a big kid at heart and there aren't actually children here."

[dino_zarf]

Wash extracts himself from the fort with a sad shake of his head. "I wish I could. But there's a handful of them." Not many. But any was just too damn many as far as he was concerned. This was no place for anyone, but especially not kids.

And he worried that Gavvers seemed to like it better than home.

[mikangirl]

"Well, that sucks." She comes a little closer, crouching down to peer at the fort. Cute. In the shuttle bay, though? This place looks kinda vast and businesslike.

"I guess they don't have the luxury of parents here, either. You look after them?"

[dino_zarf]

"Newt and Gavvers are both on the flight crew. They wanted to learn to fix shuttles." And who was he to refuse to teach kids something like that? If things had been different, he would have loved to teach Emma these things.

"Gavvers has an older sister here, but Newt's been on her own since her friend from home vanished." She's pretty independent, but she's also seven. So he keeps a quiet eye on her. "They've all managed to find someone to look out for them."

[sleepallthewayhome]

Newt is here helping, probably after being convinced that this is not just a game. She's too old for games no she's not.

[dino_zarf]

"So." As far as Wash is concerned, a kid Newt's age should definitely be playing. But rather than press that point, he's just going to present a lot of irresistible fun opportunities. "Think you can climb up there to tie this blanket on?"

[sleepallthewayhome]

Newt will look over at it then nod.

"I think so."

[deservesadaisy]

Instead of, like a normal person, responding to the call on the Network or even texting, Ivan just turns up at the shuttlebay. He found himself strangely thrown by Raven's absence (foolish, he thinks, to get attached in these circumstances), but if he's looking to score community service points, she's given him exactly one useful skill to bargain with.

He comes up quietly, mainly because he would have to make an effort to move any other way, and considers the fort for a long moment before saying, "I was looking for the Chief Flight Officer."

It's dry, but not especially critical. He's just thankful, after the jump he's had, no actual children seem to be immediately in evidence. Ivan gives the impression of subdued class, even for all he still looks a bit under the weather.

[dino_zarf]

Wash emerges from the fort showing no particular signs of shame. There are kids here. Kids need to play.

"That would be me." He holds out a hand. "Name's Wash."

He needs to build forts more often. It gets people down to the shuttlebay with non-larcenous intentions.

[deservesadaisy]

Ivan's look is resigned, as if to say he had been rather afraid of that news, but he shakes the man's hand without hesitation. Ivan's hand is chilly, but his handshake is confident.

"Ivan. I... well. I thought I would speak to you and let you know that Raven Reyes taught me to fly a shuttle. I've even been out, under her supervision. But I've hesitated to commit myself to a more formal position on the crew."

[throwsdown]

"You're great at building, Mr. Wash."

Don't y'all know, Takeshi is so on board with all of this — and what a nice person Mr. Wash is, for doing all this after their talk. He's uncharacteristically a bit subdued, quiet; he had lost someone very, very important to him, and everything feels like it hurts. It's good, though... to be focused on something. He paints on a mildly strained smile and helps straighten up the fort walls.

"We should make the walls stronger! So they can handle more stuff!"

[dino_zarf]

Wash is pretty sure something is bothering Takeshi. Mostly from a lot of it reminding him of how he felt last month when Zoe and Kaylee both went missing at once.

Kid doesn't seem quite ready to talk about it though. So Wash is just going to keep him busy. "We should put a layer of pillows in behind the blankets then."

[throwsdown]

Takeshi nods, crawling to get to work.

"Did you make forts a lot for a living?"

Because you're good at that. He starts shoving layers of pillows over, to fortify said blankets.

[muscovy]

Muscovy arrives with two more matresses - he can carry them, but they are so big that he is hardly visible from under them, and it's rather awkward to manoeuvre - and after a moment emerges from other them, looking around to see if anyone is around.

[dino_zarf]

Wash waves at him. "Hello there, mattress." Despite everything, he's a bit surprised at just how much Muscovy can carry. But he's just going to roll with it. It's far from the strangest thing on the ship.

THat would be the walking skeleton.

[muscovy]

Muscovy would probably agree with that. Personified deaths aren't really new to him, there was one where he was before, but a skeleton that just walks around shouldn't actually be possible.

"I brought two." He gets to his feet, feeling a bit wobbly and disoriented from the sudden change of ...well, general situation, the light is very bright for a moment and such. "If you don't need them any more, we can build another one. Or make it larger."

[cantfixtime]

Serah has been surveying the decks lately, with her boredom and nemployment getting to her. Since the strange headaches and bloody noses kept her confined, she's been pretty immobile, but with more freetime that isn't dedicated to making sure she's surviving, her life has been checking every nook and cranny for a gate or an artefact.

A pillow fort is neither of those, but makes her stop anyways. She'll try to get around it, but it's pretty big and she steps on a blanket, pulling it off.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, let me--"

It's an older man. Maybe he has a kid?

"help?"

[dino_zarf]

Wash steps clear of the fort. Apparently building something fun for the kids just brought everyone down to the shuttle bay.

He doesn't seem particularly embarassed by his current state. But he does figure it's worth mentioning. "Bit of a long story. I'm Wash, I'm in charge of the flight crew."

Some of whom are old enough to not play in forts. Their loss.

[cantfixtime]

"Oh, okay." Serah accepted that it was probably related to something to do with a kid, and so her confused look changed into a smile, offering him a hand.

"Serah Farron. I had a friend back home who was part of a flight crew. This looks like something he'd do for his kid, actually."

[ex_question191]

Stiles blinks when the first thing he sees is pillows. "Man, stuff really has changed around here," he murmurs, laughing, though he doesn't really mean it: he has fond memories of camping out on the Flight Deck, playing that weird card game.

"Hey, uh, do you know where Caroline is?" he asks the first person he sees, which happens to be Wash. Though his jaw is steeled, like he already expects the answer he's gonna get. Basically no-one he knew is still around.

[dino_zarf]

"Some of it's temporary." As is the nature of children's forts. Though the fact that they don't need to get all the building materials back for bedtime does make a difference on that front.

"She's been gone a while now, I'm afraid." He still misses her. She was a sensible sort and they'd needed her. He holds out a hand. "I'm Wash, the current department head."

Who plays in pillow forts.

[ex_question191]

Stiles' shoulders slump a little, even though he kinda figured. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure nearly everyone I knew is gone." But that's about it for angst; he can be pretty mature for a teenager, especially when it comes to loss, so he shrugs physically as if shrugging off the weight of it.

"Wash, huh?" Stiles crutches down to pillow fort level and extends a hand. At least he's asked the right guy for his purposes. "I'm Stiles. I used to work here."

[thecag]

Once he was settled in, Lee's sense of honor and duty goes on its usual overdrive and he has to have a role in keeping the people of Tranquility safe. The obvious choice where his talents would shine is with the flight crew. Easy enough, there's only one pilot left in his universe that has him beat and she's not in this world. To date, there's nothing Lee hasn't been able to fly. Space bus, Battlestar, you name it and this fighter jock didn't just have the skills he was head of all squadrons in service back home.

So, that cool and confident pilot sure is flown for a loop when he drops in to find a man named 'Wash' and finds the hangar deck turned into a makeshift daycare. Seriously, what is the deal with this place because NOTHING about Tranquility is what it ought to be.

"Uh. I'm looking for a guy named Wash?" Lee's raised voice is pleasant but obviously confused. There are several ships in various states of repair about but that juxtaposition with a blanket fort doesn't leave Lee feeling like he's actually where he should be. "I was told I could find him in the hangar but I think I somehow got turned around. Again."

Damned labyrinth of a ship.

[dino_zarf]

"No, you're in the right place." Wash gestures vaguely towards several shuttles that aren't currently supporting vast amounts of bedding. Easy mistake to make, really.

It was funny how building a fort seemed to draw all sorts of new people down to the hangar. If that was what it took to get new recruits, he'd have to try it more often.

Down to business though. Wash steps away from the fort and holds out a hand to the newcomer. "I'm Wash, I'm in charge of the flight crew. Who are actually mostly adults." Mostly.

[thecag]

The only reason Lee hasn't made himself a part of Flight Crew sooner is the sheer fact of having so recently arrived. Flying is a piece of him that is so completely innate, there is nothing where he believes in himself more. Everything else in Lee's life has been hit or miss but his flying is ever on point.

A strong handshake in return, coupled with a friendly smile.

"Lee Adama, call sign Apollo back home."

Blue eyes pan over the bay to better take in the state of the ships. Now that he is certain of where he is, looking around is worth it. Lee's eyes settle back on Wash's, ever pleasant. Back home, between Helo and Athena, along with the Chief and Callie, kids on deck weren't so out of place. Though, the deck was far busier and more dangerous than this one seems to be. Odd, given the magnitude of Tranquility is so superior.