[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.

---

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]

"Yeah, well... Guess I've always had a soft spot for strays." Spoilers: he's not just talking about dogs here.

[symbolizes]

"That count for people too?" Clark is simply going to ask. Don't read into it despite him being the ultimate stray dog.

[oorah]

Frank snorts. "Depends on the person, I guess." That's a 'yes.'

[symbolizes]

"It's a good quality to have. My parents were the same way." He finds himself confessing out of the blue. Something about Frank puts him at ease. Maybe it's the fact that he has no secrets to hide around him.

[oorah]

He nods, thinking about who those people might have been. Might still be. Are they waiting for Clark to come home, like Kamala's parents? Or are they long gone, like his own? It's something he can't bring himself to ask, something that's understandably touchy for him. "It's human nature, right? To see something helpless and wanna protect it." At least, that's what he tells himself so he doesn't come off as a good guy, even in his own mime.

[symbolizes]

That hits a nerve with Clark visibly. His attention settles fully on Frank, looking somewhat wounded by the comment. "You think so?" He chews on his lip as he mulls it over. That would explain a lot, wouldn't it? "I was never able to stop myself no matter what my father said. I always helped because I was the only one who could." He tacks on another confession after a few seconds. It's relevant and maybe, just maybe, he wants to see how someone reacts to it somewhere they can't get to his beloved mother. "I'm not human by birth."

[oorah]

"I dunno what I think," Frank admits a second later. Yes, Clark, he heard you. You're an alien. So what? He can't help being a little dismissive, even when he cracks a tiny smile to show he's not actually making fun of him. "You think that makes you special or what?"

[symbolizes]

"It did." Clark answers immediately and plainly. There's no pride in it for him. He feels at least the anxiety pass. The knot in his stomach that formed after he said the words aloud lessens. Frank isn't going to reject him or make the next however long they're together a living Hell. He quickly realizes that doesn't undo the hurt of the past. It just makes the future less bleak here.

"Not in a good way." He clarifies. There's a painful story behind that. If it wasn't obvious he was testing the waters before, it is now.

[oorah]

Oh, for fuck's sake. Here we go. "Go ahead. I'm listenin'."

[symbolizes]

Clark glances at him and dismisses the idea with a shake of his head. He only tells stories that need to be told. "I don't need to talk about it. I just needed to know if I could expect the same reaction if it comes out."