open

[onlyimmune]

WHO| Ellie and OPEN
WHAT| Ellie's sticking her nose into everything.
WHEN| From the end of the mini-arena up until now.
WHERE| All over the capitol
WARNINGS| Swearing. Lots of swearing.

The Mini arena was hard on her. Despite it only being a day long, despite everyone trying to distract her, it was still hard on her. She sneaked away from her own room in the middle of the night and broke into Joel's - empty while he was fighting for his life - and curled up into his blankets and watched the reruns of everything she'd missed. She was still there in the morning when the arena ended.

When the family members came, Ellie spent a few brief seconds hoping beyond hope that she'd finally meet her mom. Riley had come back from the dead, so why not her family? But in the end, no one had come for her, and Ellie's heart had fallen and she'd left. Tess being brought for Joel was good, but it also meant that he was preoccupied. That was fine. He deserved time with Tess, and Tess deserved time with her, and she'd leave them to it.

She started avoiding her other friends. It wasn't that she didn't want to see them, but they all seemed to all have their own stuff going on, and she didn't want to get in the way. It was stupid, to be disappointed that her mom wasn't there, but she was. So she did what she did best, and got into trouble.

Stole a scone from a bakery, or tried to, and flipped the owner off when she nearly got caught. Spent an entire 24 hour stint in the arcade. Went to the top of the tallest building the Capitol just so she could scream off the roof.

And if she ran into anyone, well, they would probably just end up getting dragged along.

 

Comments

[gunshiptotheface]

"I don't wave around a red flag screaming suspicious activity." He replied cooly, but she was right, of course he'd always get looks. It wasn't as if aliens were common here.

"Let me guess, still have nightmares about it?"He wasn't being arrogant about it, if anything it was a quiet question with enough understanding in it for it to be genuine. He still had nightmares about the death of his team on occasion but the first time you get jumped never really leaves you. Even he remembers the first time he was attacked and almost killed.

[onlyimmune]

The blunt question took her aback and she looked surprised, then suspicious, and then frustrated and embarrassed, unable to meet his eye.

"I have nightmares about a lot of stupid shit," She said lowly. Which meant 'yes'.

[gunshiptotheface]

"Yeah, you're not alone in that category." And he watched her for a moment, rolling his shoulders in a shrug.

"You might not like me, but I've dealt with enough backlash from this from everyone else. So I'm giving you an open offer, I can train you to fight if you want it, it might help with the nightmares."

[onlyimmune]

"You and Shepard have pretty weird ways of dealing with trauma," Ellie said, under her breath, glaring a bit before looking away.

"You'd have to make me a few promises," She said finally, after a long moment. Because making demands of people offering things is totally how you do this, Ellie.

[gunshiptotheface]

"Military bred and raised, best way to fight monsters is to know how to take them down." It was the best theory he had at least.

"Alright, I'm willing to negotiate." Which was more than most turians would say.

[onlyimmune]

"We ever meet in the arena, even if we're the last fucking two left alive, you walk the fuck away," She said, completely seriously.

"You let the fucking game kill one or both of us, but if you ever fucking raise your hand to fight me again, I will kill you. I will kill you every fucking chance I get and I will never talk to you again."

[gunshiptotheface]

He was impressed, he had to admit. Although the sheer hell he's been through thanks to the racial profiling of the rest of the moronic humans in this place was more than enough for him. He's suffered enough for killing her once, he's not about to do that again.

"Deal," he was completely serious and held out a hand. It was a weird human custom but he figured it might help in this situation.

[onlyimmune]

She looked at the hand warily - people didn't shake, in her time, what with a giant plague and all - but she knew of the custom. Slowly, she reached out, took it, and gave it a firm shake.

"Deal."

[gunshiptotheface]

"So, if you want a training session I'm usually in the training centre. Just drop by and I'll teach you a few more tricks than Shepard knows." It was an open invite, he didn't want her to feel pressured, and he wasn't exactly the best teacher in the world. So he left it up to her.

[onlyimmune]

"Yeah. Sure." She didn't really want to, per say, but there wasn't much here that she wanted to do. She backed up a few steps.

"See you around or whatever," She said, before taking off without another word.