[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

[ex_enlisted288]

I've got enough sense.

[ No, he doesn't. Not about getting into fights.

She's right, though. Bucky has more sense than both of them when it comes to being willing to rush headlong into trouble. Especially if they're protecting others. ]

No, ma'am. I know better.

[ arguing? maybe. listening is a different discussion. ]

[womanofvalue]

You have as much sense as you do willingness to fight, but I'm not sure the two balance out some days.

[Sometimes, the sense wins. Sometimes, the fight. Peggy knows that with her, it's her stubbornness in her beliefs and her refusal to back down from a fight once she's made up her mind, but then, she's also perfectly sensible.

Giving a soft huff, she gives him a disbelieving look at the 'ma'am'. ]

It's good that you've remembered your respect. Next time you're ready to rush into something that looks particularly juicy, drop by and find me. It's been too long since I've had a good fight.

[ex_enlisted288]

[ Steve shrugs idly and adds a few touches to the sketch, then closes the pad and sticks the pencil behind his ear for safekeeping. ]

Everything balances out in the end, usually.

[ Or at least it's that thought that keeps him going. ]

And I'll try to remember.