Drown Your Sorrows In The Sea | OPEN

[earthborn]

Who| Shepard and OPEN
What| That feel when your boyfriend ain't coming back
Where| Various drinking establishments, and also the Tribute center roof
When| A few days after Thane's death in the arena
Warnings/Notes| Talk about death, crude language, spoilers for mass effect maybe

1; A random Bar, or the Foxhole (your choice):

An hour ago, she'd just been getting started. In three, they'd kick her out of here. Half an hour ago, she'd sized up someone else for a barfight-- and only just barely let him go. There he was in the corner, a big guy with his skin dyed a fashionable emerald-green, daisy-yellow shading to his elbows, and lips painted pink. He looked like he lifted weights and masturbated to Arena footage for a hobby; Shepard amused herself by imagining his day job was something menial, like a janitor, or a sewage inspector. Something too important to give to an avox. Something nasty, and difficult, that he couldn't talk about over dinner.

God damn it, it wasn't worth it-- screwing with capitol civilians was a real easy way to get yourself in real deep trouble. But with every shot she had, it was starting to sound like a better idea. Why don't you slide on in here, stranger, and give her a distraction?


2; The Tribute Center Roof:

Shepard was drunk. She was drunk in a way that she hadn't been in a long time-- perhaps ever. She couldn't remember it ever being this bad, not without the assistance of hallucinogens or bloodloss, without that touch of venom to put an extra whirl in an already dizzy world. She was drunk enough, now, that she could think that far without wincing from it.

She'd been kicked out of three bars today, and turned away at a fourth. Even the fucking pillow fort felt too claustrophobic and so she'd abandoned it for the rooftop and bottles of piss-yellow beer. If she were honest, maybe Shepard could admit that some of this wasn't about how much she'd poured down her throat today. Most of it, really-- even the Capitol couldn't completely kill her metabolism, not this close to a revival.

But even if she wanted to be alone, she didn't really. And that pissed her off too-- so have an angry ginger up on the rooftop, Tributes, chucking bottlecaps and glass over the guard-rails and hating her life. Do with that what you will.

Comments

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy winced watching Shepard's bottle fall out of sight. She'd once asked if those force fields were deadly and had been informed that while they would destroy things like bottles human bodies would simply be left stunned and picked up by Peacekeepers. They didn't want any tributes throwing themselves from the roof after all.

"I uh...I'll buy you another?" She offered sheepishly gesturing to a vending machine nearby. Unfortunately the only alcohol on tap in there were cans of bubbling pink champagne, hard lemonade and orange juice mixed with vodka. Nothing as rough as what Shepard had been enjoying.

[earthborn]

No, we can't have that. No nice, simple, relatively painful impact-deaths, here, not when there are so many more expensive, marketable ways to die. Not when it was already so easy. Strawberry jam on the morning commute was bad press, after all; if a tribute wanted out that badly, there were plenty of nice, private bathrooms to do it in.

"No. I'm..." She doesn't need that. Well, maybe she does, in the same way she needs things like a hundred pounds of fudge, or enough red sand to bliss out for a week, or to take a peacekeeper's weapon out of his hand and-- "You don't have to do that."

She shouldn't be like this in front of Sandy. Shouldn't be like this in front of anyone. This, this Shepard, this woman isn't the Commander, isn't even second-place to that fierce, towering figure of repute. This isn't who she needs to be to win this war. The war. No the... the other...

Shepard sighs, and it's deep, like a groan. She can feel the air vibrate behind her breastbone. The weight of responsibility is like a physical burden.

"Did you need something, Sandy?"

[justoutrunyou]

There was some hesitation. Life was always easier when you could trust your gut instincts but Sandy's were a mess right now and so instead she was questioning every little thing. Was this one of those situations where Shepard would respect her more for leaving and dealing with her own problem? Could she even help Shepard with this? Was this only going to make them feel worse?

"I just...needed to see someone." She started moving closer to Shepard deciding that turning back would be worse then plowing directly into whatever mess she'd stumbled into.

"Pruna's gone again." She added feeling her throat tighten up trying to choke the words from her before they could escape into the air.

[earthborn]

Little did Sandy know, respect had little to do with it. It was stress, pure and simple-- Shepard never did know how to really delegate. She knew, but never really understood that some things couldn't be her fault.

"Yeah," She hadn't known that, but the news wasn't a surprise. Pruna, it seemed, was unbreakable, hard as diamond. It didn't make things very entertaining, "Sorry to hear it. You wanna talk about it?"

That was the right thing to say, after all.

[justoutrunyou]

"Not sure what else I can say." She continued closer till she was leaning on the railing next to Shepard. The small girl still only came up to Shepard's chest. She never grew more then an inch before a new arena had her killed and her body reset.

"She already did this once before and I had another breakdown. Then she came back just in time for me to get us all in trouble in that mini arena. And now she's gone again back to her world." There was a heavy sigh that betrayed the weight on her shoulders.

"I don't think they'll be bringing her back again. Maybe it's for the best."

Internally she cursed. Just seconds ago she'd been hoping to help Shepard with whatever was on her mind and she was already talking about herself again. Great job Marko.

[earthborn]

Don't blame yourself, Sandy, Shepard does it to everyone. If you can't get them talking about themselves with personal questions, ask about their culture. You think Shepard doesn't know how the Turian military ranks work? She knows. Every Alliance Soldier knows; the First Contact War wasn't all that long ago, y'know. She asked Garrus anyways, because even if she didn't give a shit about why a C-Sec commission was worth the price of admission into Heirarchy citizenship, she needed him to think he cared more about him than he did about her. And maybe even, it was true.

"I know it hurts. She was good friend, but-- I think you're right," Things got muddy, when you got attached. You ended up like this, drunk, on a roof, trying to sort out your spinning wits long enough to lie to a child, "Sometimes, you can't fight fate. Pruna didn't come with the skills she had for no reason: she has a job to do. And the only way she can do that is by being where she was meant to be. I don't know if that's Karma or Fate or..."

Kalahira, mistress of inscrutable depths, I ask forgiveness. Kalahira, whose waves wear down stone and sand. Kalahira, wash the sins from this one and set her on the distant shore.

"...Or whatever. You remember what I said, last time?"

[justoutrunyou]

Fate, Sandy was really starting to hate that word. It seemed like some kind of bully knocking people around and twisting them around like toys for it's own purposes.

"Not to let them see how much it messes with me when they do stuff like this." She paraphrased. "And not to do anything stupid like last time ever again." As if to confirm that last part she brought a hand up to her hair brushing back her bangs to show a perfectly smooth and clean forehead. No scars, no fresh wounds, no branding.

[earthborn]

"Good girl. Y'know, I watch you, when I get out first-- and after. You did good, this time around."

And she had. There was no real good in the Hunger Games, but there were shades of competence. There was, would always be, a difference between someone who died because they got caught out by the odds, and someone who did so because they lost their head. Because they were a coward.

"You're coming along pretty well, all things considered. Be proud of your progress, I know I am."

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy felt a sudden warmth in her face, so hot she was sure she must be glowing. A grin snuck onto her lips before she could stop it.

"H-heh...thanks I...I just tried to stay out of peoples way unless I thought I could bargain with them. I guess I probably should have just run from The Initiate but..." She shuffled her feet sheepishly "I've been told it's better to be dead then one of those zombies."

She had been acting out of mercy in a way. It hadn't been that effect sadly.

[earthborn]

Better to be dead...

Shepard laughed, at that one, and turned to lean her elbows against the railing. She should pat Sandy on the head and get rid of her, but the urge rose up in her. She remembered...

"Back home, we got these things, they're Reaper units. They're called Husks, and they used to be Human. Not... technically a zombie, but the effect is pretty close. Those things are so fucking creepy," She remembered Eden Prime, the first time. Remembered seeing the corpses pinned up like bugs on display, and then the horror when you realized they were still alive, "Did I tell you about that before? Anyways, that shows good judgement. You have a friend gets turned into something like that, you put them down."

It'd been so damn long. She wanted that again; a good fight, against an uncomplicated target.

"And you'd better hope they'd do the same for you."

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy nodded, and even took some pride in noticing she didn't shudder at the idea of some kind of weird alien not-quite-zombie. Instead she smiled ruefully.

"We've had a lot of zombies in the games. Once I figured out what was happening I kinda put it together. But then that girl Clementine made sure I understood. If she or anyone from her world dies we gotta make sure they can't come back or they do that thing."

Unfortunately for Sandy there hadn't been someone to put her zombieself down the last time she was turned but fortunately for her once she had "Died" She was safe in District 12's suites watching as zombie-her shuffled along looking for food.

"I promise in the totally almost impossible case of you becoming like that I'll kill the shit out of you." she offered throwing in a curse word to try and sound cooler then she knew she was. Then after a moment she added "But I'll check first to make sure."

Maybe like, poke her with a stick or something.