[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

[oorah]

Once Aretha sees Aloe getting attention, she wants in on it, and Frank doesn't try to stop them both from nudging at the boy's hands for pets. He looks like he could use the reassurance too, honestly, from his brief glance over his shoulder from his task.

"Get anything out of it," he asks after another second, paintbrush pausing as he thinks about what he saw back there. Town Hall meetings in Reims had been much more... informative, and contained far less feelings. He was technically in group therapy before he became a 'world-hopper' as Sora had called it, but now he doesn't think he has anything in common with these people. There's nothing he wants to share and besides, after all that he's seen that bunker really hadn't bothered him much. Seeing Elena die to get to it? Well. That was familiar too.

[cinere]

The boy kneels when the second dog approaches and pets each dog with a hand, two cute dogs, two hands. It worked out perfectly. He would forever deny needing anything, but that was pride, he needed it.

"More than I cared to, honestly." He admitted, as he pet the dogs his green eyes looking from them to the man speaking a moment. "I wouldn't normally go to such a thing, but I arrived last night and it seemed a good source of information....though I suppose arrival is the wrong word." It left a bitter taste in his mouth to say it.

[oorah]

"I get that," he admits right back with a knowing little sigh. If this kid just got here, he's looking for something Frank isn't in a position to give - not anymore. It makes him nervous, turning back to his task and licking his lips. "You come through the fountain?"

[cinere]

"Been here awhile?" It was fine, the dog's were actually the best thing to happen so far. Something simple that wanted nothing more than a little attention. No battles, no plotting and scheming and no expectations, just two adorable dogs. He pet both because in that moment it was the best thing.

"Yeah, about this time last night." He offered, before asking. "Do you need help with that?" He was enjoying the dog time but, he knew he should offer to help.

[oorah]

"Eighty days," Frank confirms, it's just habit to have a running tally. It's not something he actively knows he thinks about until someone asks. He's glad the dogs and Asch can comfort each other now because he's not capable of helping either of them. But when he's asked that, he gives a visible pause before standing up and wordlessly passing him the brush. Then he plucks up another and goes back to his task. It's a pretty self-explanatory task, so he's content not to have to give instructions for a change. A beat goes by before he speaks up again after he gets settled next to Frank. "You know anyone here?"

[cinere]

"A little over a month." He replies without much thought. His worlds calendar is strange. He was glad for simple answers, it felt more like what he was used to, just without the weight of the world added in. One last ruffle given to Aloe's head as he stands, and pushes his long hair back behind his shoulders and took the brush. No he didn't need instructions, he simply got to work.

"No one at all." It was both a blessing and a curse so far. "I don't expect anyone either." He added after a second.

[oorah]

He blinks, about to correct him when he realizes... it doesn't matter. It's as arbitrary as it's ever been, isn't it? As anything is, in places like these.

"We never really get what we expect." Just as a heads up. Maybe it's better to be on your own, Frank had never had the luxury of knowing.

[cinere]

"That's the story of life itself." He stated matter-of-factly, quietly working the brush in even strokes. "I should rephrase that I don't want anyone following. They have work to do, I'm dead so what use am I back there?" He gave a shrug of his shoulders not really bothered by his death as much as the idea of being a clone of someone who hates clones. Irony at it's finest.

cw: allusion to suicide

[oorah]

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess it is." It isn't the first time and it won't be the last Frank has heard about people being dead where they're from. Kilgrave is a glaring example. Time doesn't ever work right in places like these, physics a hilarious concept. All he can really do is nod. "That's a good way to look at it." It's not so different from how Frank feels, even if he isn't dead - not technically. But he does feel like he's of more use here than he could ever be back in New York. Let this place wring what's left of him out so he doesn't have to die a coward's death when he inevitably goes back there for good.

[cinere]

Asch nodded even if he figured it wouldn't be seen while they painted. The truth was he wasn't bothered by his death because he died in an honorable way opposed to the fonic breakdown that was going due to kill him anyway. Better to die with sword in hand than exploding because of science. "It's not like I could have fought it, I was destined to die, it was foretold long before my birth. I managed to put it off as long as I could but, I am sure the other's will take care of the problems left behind." Another shrug given.

"Anyway, what I meant to ask is, what do people do around here. How can I be of help, I suppose?" Idle hands were the devils play things after all.

[oorah]

In Reims, he would've had a whole list for the kid. Would've had no trouble at all putting him to work. Here, Frank still isn't sure where he fits himself, or what he's supposed to be doing.

"It's pretty standard stuff. Cooking, cleaning, looking after the fields and the animals. You know anything about construction?"

[cinere]

It was a new world, and he hadn't even decided yet if he would be staying at the inn or going off on his own. Yet, he was looking for ways to be useful at least. Better than just going off and locking himself away.

"I can cook pretty well, you have to be able to cook in my line of work or you may starve. Cleaning I'm not great at, pretty much the same with the rest but, I am a quick learner. Show me something once and I can do it. " He spoke very sure of himself.

[oorah]

Here it goes. His annoying propensity towards helping people he doesn't even know.

"I'll teach you." Hook, line, sinker. Fuck.

[cinere]

Frank was a good man, and Asch actually looked surpised, his green eyes a little wide as be blinked it away.

"Thank you." he replied a touch unsure, like he's not used to saying the words. "I wont get in the way," He added quickly. "I'm Asch." He had signed the sign in book for the bunker watch, as Asch the Bloody, but otherwise so far hadn't spoke his title allowed.

[oorah]

He nods once, it's all he can really do. Whether Asch gets in the way or not, it's Frank who fucked up.

"Frank."

[cinere]

Asch went back to painting quietly, went back to moving the brush. "Is there a leader for this village?" He asked after a few minutes.

[oorah]

His least favorite question, but at least it's easier to answer than it had been in Reims. No Constance, no Mayor Hotdog. Just a bunch of unseen assholes and their kidnapping victims. "Nope."

[cinere]

"Lovely." He grumbled in return but left it at that to quietly do his task.