the sun in my disgrace [OPEN + MINGLE]

[rangerbecket]

WHO: Raleigh Becket
WHERE: 6I village, Inn
WHEN: 21 August - mid morning
OPEN TO: All + Mingle
WARNINGS: Put on your Eclipse Glasses TBD

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Raleigh had been on his way back from his normal morning routine of checking his traps and fishing for a while when he noticed the sun wasn't quite the way it normally looked - he'd caught a glance at the reflection and saw that the sun, normally perfectly round, was looking a little like a lemon that had gotten beaten up at the grocery store. Huh. An eclipse. He hasn't seen one since he was in Ranger training and he hadn't gotten a good look at that one because he hadn't been directly in the path of it (and, obviously, he'd been preoccupied).

This one, though, looks like it's just starting so Raleigh has time to go to the Inn and tell the people there that there's an eclipse starting and they should get something to try and look at it. He's not exactly sure of the science behind it but he remembers being a kid and making something with a box and earlier he'd done pretty well with the water. Maybe they can take pots outside with water and just look at the reflections? Might work. Maybe, too, one of the scientists has a better idea of how to get a look at the thing.

For his part, it's just something that's different from the norm. Raleigh hopes it's not a sign that the sun's going to start moving backward or staying up all month like it had a few months back and that it's just a perfectly normal, natural event. After earthquakes and people getting sick with some kind of crazy illness, it was good to just have something...mundane to focus on.

Comments

[pretendtoneedme]

You gave him the opening, Nat. You left yourself open for more sort-of-lyric-quoting. The elbow's something he's used to - it's not nearly the first time she's shut him up - and he knows it's coming so he just goes with it, ooofing in reaction and letting her drive the air from his kidney. "It's like the less-fun, less-space-living version of being in Mystery Science Theater 3000. Seeing how long it takes for us to crack, and how much it'll take. The experiment needs some good test cases, even if they didn't conk us on the noggin and shoot us into space." Their thoughts are going down similar paths, but that's nothing new for them. It's been that way for years now.

Also she's probably going to kill him for that reference, but what else is new.

"I was gonna throttle you for staring into the fire to smoke 'em." Clint remembers that mission very well - only his second after his long recuperation from the shit Loki had put him through, and he'd only felt even halfway confident about it because he'd been with Nat. At least getting to go to Australia meant missing a lot of the early-winter nastiness - and, coincidentally, in the path of the total eclipse that had passed over the Southern hemisphere. Clint'd put any amount of money on Fury having done that deliberately for his benefit after a month of isolation and three of counseling, basically bribing him to go on a mission that'd been not so serious in the long run with a rare treat. "We were dragging each other up to Cairns to make sure we saw the full thing for two days before that. Got there too late to find any glasses in the stores."

[unmakeme]

He's got to be expecting the second elbow that comes at his ribcage, but she's smiling.

"It was worth it, and it was beautiful." She hadn't been sure they'd make it in time, and when no one had glasses available, she'd absolutely been ready to steal a pair off of a child for Clint. She might have, if he could have found a . child to steal from. Most people had come equipped with pinhole viewers and reminding someone that miraculous things still happened in the world by letting them look at a miracle through a hole in a cardboard box was so not good enough. "At least that time I had dust goggles to start with, not broken bits of an ancient computer."

She turns her face carefully toward the sun, in increments. It's good. "Don't get me wrong. These work, and I'm brilliant, but we're not exactly stylish at the moment." Not stylish, but together. It counts for something. It counts for a lot. Without looking over at him, she reaches out to make contact again. Though, this time it's not her elbow and his soft spots, but her fingers and his. Shut up, she totally doesn't want to hold your hand, old man.

[pretendtoneedme]

Oh he's totally expecting it, because he knows her. He knows exactly how she's going to react to that. It's not like he minds her reacting that way, even if he might have a bruise forming from the amount of elbow hitting him, because she's engaged and "with" him in a way that was so hard to peel out of her when he'd brought her in. Nat's an amazing person who all too often doesn't believe that about herself, and he always likes seeing her react like this, even if he suffers for it in the process.

"Yeah - sure was." Clint would've objected to her stealing glasses from a child - they probably could've found someone who'd be willing to share their glasses - but in the end it hadn't come down to that. They'd gotten what they wanted without robbing anyone, which was always a plus if sometimes necessary. Standing here with the cobbled frames literally tied to his head, watching the eclipse move towards apogee, it's almost like they're back in Australia for the moment. Almost. "Cooper and I went up to Canada to watch the partial in 2014. It was awesome, but it wasn't the same." Still awe-inspiring, still a miracle, but just on a slightly lower level. Probably too many movies and TV shows with shots where something's passing in front of the sun or the moon has made that particular image more rote than it should be. But he doesn't object, or even look down, when Nat's fingertips touch his. He's well-versed in her little ways of non-communication, and he turns his hand to catch hers, tightening his grip briefly to indicate he understands what she's trying to say. He doesn't make a verbal response, since one's not needed.

[unmakeme]

"How did I not know that?" she asks, her face turned to the sun as well. Not that she's mad. Just wondering. "Cooper is supposed to share everything with me. I'm his favourite adult." He had mentioned a camping trip, actually, just not the eclipse. It's something to talk about, though, something that doesn't really matter on the surface to hide what does matter being said beneath it. It's what they're best at. Talking without talking.

Thinking about Cooper hurts. Thinking about all three of the kids hurts. Even her namesake, who's barely old enough to be interesting, she'd give just about anything to watch him sleep and drool right now. Thinking about Laura hurts. It's an important kind of hurt, though. It's the pain of missing something vital, of knowing what you're holding on for, what you're fighting to get back to. "There's one next year, cuts right across the U.S. from Washington to Florida," she says, softly. "We should go. All of us." Because of course they're getting home. It might take them a while, but they're going to get there.