[MINGLE] Post-Bunker Support Group

[markwatney]

WHO: Mark Watney
WHERE: Town Hall & Inn
WHEN: 6 September 2018, Evening
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
WARNINGS: Warn on your threads, please. PTSD is probably a given.
NOTES: Support group mingle! If your character needs some support after the latest meta plot or just generally, send them on over to Town Hall. Also, feel free to do top levels having to do with signing up for a tube monitoring shift. Please let me know if you want a Mark thread, I have notifs off for the post.

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So, I have been down to what we all seem to be collectively calling the Bunker. It is... something, to say the least.

For some people it feels like hope and for others despair, and I can honestly see both sides of it. Some people need to feel like they have some control, even if it's illusory — Having a puzzle to possibly solve makes them feel less adrift. For others, it's too much reality, or the perception of, anyway. I can't say I'm personally convinced by any of it.

See, I've been here since the start of whatever this is, with a group that's almost entirely gone now. It's been five months since we were birthed into this expanded world, and I don't know if it's any more real than the last. That isn't me putting on a tin foil hat, that's just respecting the environment. Mars was the same way: You do what you need to do to eke out a life, to survive or even thrive, but it's dangerous to think you have any real control. Everything can go to shit in the blink of eye, and then you're tumbling around in an airlock while your entire food supply is turned to dust.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying people should stop hoping to get home, stop trying to figure it all out. I'm just saying we might all be a little easier mentally if we could express how scary it is to know, deep down, that the rug can be pulled out from under us at any moment... And then to accept that feeling that way is okay.

With that in mind, after a little meditating during my daily work in the fields, I put up two notices on the blackboard in the South Village inn:

Volunteers to monitor the bunker tubes for new arrivals, please sign up for a shift on the paper on the bar.

That's one thing we can do, at least. Just the illusion of control, but still important to some people, and definitely helpful for anybody new.

Below that:

Support Group Tonight
Town Hall - 7:00 PM
Everyone Welcome

I don't know how many people will actually show — We've got a surprisingly stubborn, resilient group, in my experience. But even if it helps just one person, it's worth doing.

Comments

[theluckygirl]

Claire arrives a little late, not on purpose but because she'd found another box on their porch that was far too heavy to carry in one haul given the 16 various bottles of booze in it. So she had no choice but to lessen the load by taking half out first before transporting the rest inside.

As soon as she does enter the Hall, she sees Karen and she knows how hard things have been for her. Both of them have been thinking a lot about home lately, of losing Matt and of course, everything going on there.

Sliding in beside her friend, Claire doesn't say anything, just slips her hand into Karen's and holds it supportively.

"How are you doing?" she asks, only she somehow knows the answer.

[digging]

The hand-holding is nice. It's simple, comforting, asks for nothing in return. Claire's pretty great that way — Even when she doesn't have a special power that takes away pain, she finds ways to manage it.

"Honestly?" Karen begins, and huffs out a soft, sardonic laugh. "Pretty shitty." She gives Claire's hand a squeeze and leans over, laying her head to rest on her shoulder.

"Do you remember the room that was in the canyon wall? I think maybe Margaery found it, it was before I showed up."