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[kickbancaboose]

[ looks like someone figured out how to use his communicator! good for church, but quite unfortunate for the passengers of the moira. hope you kids like your morning coffee with a generous helping of salt because church is making it rain. ]

golly gee willikers i never saw this plot twist coming

you know i thought i was finished with this dying and not dying bullshit but if this is how it's going to be for the rest of my infinite undead lives then fine whatever, like i give a shit. i'm not fighting fate and i give up. officially. someone write this down so it's on record. leonard church gives the fuck up, full stop. boom. done.

most importantly i'm actually really hungry and i haven't eaten in forever or basically never depending on who you talk to so if someone could point me in the direction of a cafeteria i'd appreciate it.

okay well thanks

[ if he knew how to do the text equivalent of finger guns, he'd be doing it right now. ]

bye.

p.s. i'm on moro deck 1

Comments

[a_shadow]

[ Tex gives him a look from under her brows, both in response to his words and the look he's giving her, but she doesn't speak. Not until he asks where she's staying. ]

Mero deck number 12. It's right next to my name in the manifest. [ In other words, if he'd been paying any attention earlier, he would have noticed that when she texted him in the first place. ]

[kickbancaboose]

[ church absolutely catches her meaning and slants her another look, folding his arms across his chest. ]

Sorry, I was slightly distracted by you not being dead. My bad.

[a_shadow]

[ No response to that one. She affects the same neutral expression as earlier as she finishes her food and pushes her tray back as she stands. ]

How extensive do you want this tour to be?

[kickbancaboose]

[ he shrugs and leans further back in his chair, kicking at the table leg with the toe of his shoe. ]

You were here before, right? All the important stuff, I guess. [ speaking of: ] When were you here last, anyway? Was I here, too?

[a_shadow]

No. It was just me.

[ She rests one hand on the table, looking down at him. ]

It was two years ago there. But only four months ago here.

[ The timeline nonsense doesn't surprise her at this point. Neither does their timing. She doesn't know who programmed the Ingress but she does know they're sadistic fuckers. ]

[kickbancaboose]

[ he squints, and then his chair scrapes across the floor as he stands and shoves it one-handed back against the table. ]

Two years ago? What was that for you? Freelancer?

[a_shadow]

Just after.

[ After the crash, after trying to rescue him at the ship. Things he doesn't remember, or at least not properly. She signals with her head that he should follow her, clearing her tray before heading out to the hallway. ]

[kickbancaboose]

[ church starts to follow her without clearing his tray, before he thinks better of it and doubles back to quickly pluck it from the table. first impressions are everything, after all, and he might as well take care of his shit if he's going to be here for a while.

a few moments later, and he's ducking into the hallway to meet with tex.

the temptation to press her for more information on everything she remembers is still there, but church honestly isn't sure if he wants to know just yet. better off left alone for now. so, straight to business. ]

Where first?

[a_shadow]

This way, I guess. Might as well show you your department first.

[ She walks along beside him, leading the way there. She knows that there's still a lot unsaid, and she's expecting him to eventually broach the topic of what they shared before they came here, but for now she's going to just keep the silence and enjoy it. Occasionally she glances over at him; it's weird, the fact that they've both been given some kind of clone or something to live in. It's weird how the faces are similar enough to recognize who they're originally based on while still being the face of someone else. She'd say, looking in the mirror, that she resembles Allison—that much was recognizable right off the bat—but she doesn't think this is a clone of Allison's body. Same thing with Church. He looks like Leonard, but not just like Leonard. Where had these bodies come from? Lab-grown, or somehow duplicated from someone else within the Ingress?

She doesn't dwell on it for long—she'd thought about that plenty considering her previous stay here. And she doesn't like thinking about things she can't do anything about. ]

[kickbancaboose]

[ for now, church is trying to focus on what he thinks he remembers versus what he actually remembers. his actual memories are a disjointed and painful mess, and it's so much easier to pretend that he's always been like this, that he's always been leonard church, a man deployed to a dead-end war in the middle of a box canyon.

there's no ai backstories in that world, no ex-freelancers sweeping in with their bullshit agendas to very literally shake his existence apart.

it's easier. he doesn't want to think about it. he never wants to think about it.

(coward)

all that matters now is that somehow, by the grace of whatever diabolical presence that rules over everything, he's been reunited with tex. even with so much left unsaid between them, it's nice just being with her again, walking side-by-side in silence, listening to the familiar shuffle of her footfalls and the steady rhythm of her breathing. (except that last part's wrong, wrong.) ]

What do they have you doing? [ he breaks the silence, finally, glancing at her quickly from the corner of his eye as they walk. ]

[a_shadow]

Teaching. For the kids on board, or for adults who want to learn new skills.

[ Something she's surprisingly looking forward to doing, considering her usual levels of patience for other people's stupidity. It's different when it's someone who's come to learn, though. Especially when it's a child. ]

[kickbancaboose]

Teaching?

[ there's a position he never imagined tex in, but he supposes she wouldn't make an awful teacher, even if she isn't the most patient of people sometimes. it's not like church is one to talk.

better her than him. ]

What kind of new skills are you teaching? [ especially to tiny children. ]

[a_shadow]

[ She shoots him a look. ]

Don't sound so shocked.

[ She lifts her chin slightly, considering. ]

I was in a couple of positions when I was here before, so I'm qualified to teach people the weapons systems and how to repair the transporters. Other than that, I guess people will have to say what they need.

I don't know how many kids are on board.

[kickbancaboose]

[ fair enough. that makes sense.

he gives her a nod and looks away, dragging his fingers along one wall as they walk. ]

Hopefully not a lot. I mean, this ship seems okay, but it'd be kind of fucked up to bring kids here.

[a_shadow]

Is there something about the way we were brought here that makes you think anyone here cares about that?

[ She still doesn't know if the captains are the ones programming the Ingress, but she certainly was never asked where she preferred to go. She doubts that whoever was doing this was concerned whether children should be exposed to the things they were exposed to here. ]

[kickbancaboose]

Touché. Still pretty shitty, though, you gotta admit.

[ church hasn't thought much of the people that run this place. they're shady as fuck, even if they aren't responsible for who the ingress pulls onto the moira. though he's thinking they've got to be pulling some strings. how else did they come across this ship? luck? did the ingress just magically poof into existence? ]