Marina Andrieski (andrieski) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2020-03-18 00:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, marina andrieski |
WHO: Marina Andrieski & Isobel Evans
WHERE: Their room
WHEN: The first day in space
WHAT: Meeting the new roomie
WARNINGS: Nah? Maybe some past trauma via Isobel’s suckass husband
STATUS: Complete
It had been a long time since Marina had had to really share a space. A house, yes. A room? It had been a very long time. Well, she’d stayed with her future wife back home, but that felt like a very long time ago and only a few weeks ago, which made her head confused. She sighed as she made her way through the rooms, wondering just who she was going to be stuck in a room with. It didn’t exactly tell her who or where. Which made for a very long search. It also meant she was distinctly not going to get drinks immediately after. She wanted to be sure that she knew where she was going before getting anything stronger. Also she’d been woken up in a lobby by alarms at an hour that was particularly ungodly. Only the true asshole gods would be up at that hour. She felt groggy, but continued as she made her way past far too many rooms. She was halfway debating going back and getting a drink, but she tried one more room. The door clicked and opened and she turned to look at the number. 159. She took in a deep breath, letting it out as she walked through the door. “Knock knock. Anyone home?” -- It felt like Isobel had only been asleep for about an hour -- though in reality it was probably more like three -- before all hell broke loose. She freaked out a little bit, until she had found Michael, and then calmed some; she was still then halfway freaked out and halfway to excited, but too tired to properly be either. Space, she decided, could wait until she’d had a few more hours of sleep. It took some doing to find her room, but she then threw herself down on the nearest bed and closed her eyes. At least, she was still in her sleepwear, which today thankfully consisted of silk pajama pants and a t-shirt. Not the classiest, but it was covering. Of course, as soon as her head touched the pillow, she was wide awake. Tired, still, but her mind wouldn’t turn off; she could still hear all those damn alarms, and her mind kept thinking about how she was in space. She rolled over onto her back with an exasperated sigh. Probably she should get up and go explore with Michael, but she didn’t really have the energy to get up. And then there was a knock on the door. That finally got her to sit up. “Yes,” she answered, eying the woman that walked in. Somehow she’d assumed that, even though he hadn’t come with her to confirm it, she’d be roomed with Michael. “The door opened for you too?” -- Marina paused, looking the other woman over that was in the room. Seems it went with someone she’d never met before. That wasn’t actually surprising for the most part. She rarely got someone that she knew when she arrived on one of these things, but she’d also mostly forgotten her roommates. “Surprise,” she said flatly, motioning to herself. But she gave her a smile. It was a shame that she hadn’t had a second to put on some winged liner and a red lip, but some things just didn’t work out the way that she’d have liked. What else was new? No books, no ability to work on things that she wanted. She considered asking Tony if there was a way to work on a robotic eye that could store information that it read so that she could at least have a way to access the information while she was away from her books. “I’m Marina. Apparently we’re roommates.” -- “Isobel,” Isobel answered, offering a tired smile in return. It wasn’t the worst thing to have a roommate that wasn’t her brother. She hadn’t gotten to know a lot of people here yet. But it was a surprise. “Did you want this bed or the other one? I don’t really care. It was just the nearer one to the door, and I’m exhausted. But also now I can’t sleep, because we’re in space.” She sighed, ran a hand through her hair to pull it back. “It would have been nice if the portal had waited til a more reasonable hour.” -- Isobel. Marina added it to the list of names she would try to remember. “I’m not too worried about the bed, honestly. I’ll take whichever’s open.” Which was the one further from the door, so she made her way there, settling on the edge of the bed. “That’s the joy of new surroundings. Can you trust them? Can’t you?” She shrugged. Could you trust the people you were staying with? Speaking of, she’d have to work on some wards around the room. She glanced around again, fingers itching to start work, but she could wait. Marina tucked her hair behind her ear. “Letting us get ready might have been nice, but that’s never how these things work. At least in my experience. Hopefully this one won’t start turning people into robots like the last one. Just a hint. Don’t find yourself helping the ship or in general because you never know if you’re going to end up part cyborg before the end. Not that I wouldn’t make a very attractive cyborg, but I’d rather it be something I came upon of my own free will.” -- “Thanks,” Isobel said, “I really didn’t care about which bed, but I also really didn’t want to get up.” As if to emphasize the point, she flopped back down onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. She wanted to be excited about being in space, but she thought Marina was probably right, she wasn’t sure if she could trust it. She was an alien, she had come from space, and she should belong out here. This ship wasn’t right, it wasn’t her people, it wasn’t the planet she had come from -- but it was more than that. She didn’t remember any of this, didn’t know how to function without her feet planted on Earth. “I don’t really know how to help ships,” she said, “So I’m probably safe there.” She vaguely remembered this story from Michael mentioning the airship. “But I hear there were some black holes and attacking aliens and robots last time people were in space? And of course, at home, my spaceship crashed into Earth and then I don’t remember anything before that. So this just seems destined to go well, doesn’t it?” -- As if to prove a point, Marina did a few hand movements and brought her hand down along her arm, light splintering around them in lines, forming multiple triangles. “Usually magic or skill with technology.” She shrugged slightly, moving her hand back up her arm and the lines disappeared. “Just a simple bit of warding magic. Don’t worry.” Just in case she needed to explain herself. She listened to what Isobel said. Interesting. So she was from space. She studied the other woman curiously for a moment. “Well, I’m sure it’ll give us some interesting stops along the way.” She wasn’t sure what all of those stops would be, but she wasn’t going to stress herself about it. “If someone attacks us, well, I feel sorry for them, honestly.” Because they always ended up dead. And she wasn’t going to let someone try to kill her without bleeding them dry first. -- Isobel watched the hand movements, the shape of the light. She wasn’t really sure what to make of it; although magic was ‘normal’ here, she hadn’t had a lot of interaction with it. “Warding against what?” She felt Marina studying her just as curiously. It was probably the alien bit, but she seemed to be taking it in stride, just as everyone else around here did. “I’m not a huge help in a big fight. But I did see how this group did against Maleficent.” -- “Whatever brand of asshole wants to fuck over my life at any given moment.” She was used to people being against her. It was just that she knew that Kady had taken her home. She couldn’t be mad about it exactly. She was able to stay with her girlfriend after the fact. It was more that she thought it was funny that people assumed Kady was the new her. She could try, but she wouldn’t really manage it. Not as far as she was concerned. But she also didn’t give enough of a fuck to worry about it. “I doubt we’ll have an issue with people breaking in because mostly we’re the ones able to get in. Probably the robots.” But she wasn’t sure. She’d probably prepare for whatever. “Most of the time, I don’t worry about it, but sometimes people I know are idiots. Or something tries to attack me.” She leaned back on the bed, hands supporting her from behind. “It would be a mistake for them to do that, but that’s their mistake to learn.” She was quiet for a moment. “So where do your skills lie if not in fighting?” -- “Hopefully that doesn’t include my brother,” Isobel said. “He’d only want to fuck your life over if you were standing between me and him. But keeping the robots out might be a good idea.” She paused. “Unless maybe they have room service.” She couldn’t disagree with people being idiots, though. Including both of her brothers. “I’m an organizer,” she said. “That’s what I’ve always been good at.” It was comforting to have everything in its place, every detail of a plan carefully managed and under control. She didn’t foresee much of that being needed on this ship, and her anxiety might get the better of her without something like that to do. She’d have to find some way to cope and hopefully not drive her new roommate up the wall. “And as for my alien powers, if that’s what you mean, I can get inside people’s heads and make them tell me the truth, or convince them to do something -- but only if it’s something they already wanted to do. But I don’t really do that anymore, ever since I found out my late husband had been using me as a puppet with the same powers. Except way stronger than me.” She threw one arm tiredly over her eyes. “Even if I did use that, it would only work on one person or thing and it wouldn’t work at all if they were set against what I wanted them to do. Barely useful against even one enemy.” -- Marina considered it. “I don’t care if your brother comes over. Not sure I’ll bring anyone by, but if I do, I’ll give a heads up.” It was the polite thing to do. She could potentially manage to keep the robots out, but she wasn’t sure if it would hold up or not. Alien powers. Yes, she had to admit it was interesting. She was certainly very honest, but Marina wasn’t really bothered by it. It was one of those things people here were partial to. Honesty. It helped her gather information without having to get it other ways. “Sounds like a real dick. But that’s men in my experience. I had a professor amputate my memories. I got them back, though. Maybe you should pick up a weapon. I’ve found shovels useful when I’m not able to use my weapons. Put enough strength behind the swing and you’re good to go. Not really as useful draining people of all their blood, but it works in a pinch.” -- “I’ve done that,” Isobel said, nodding. And there were supposedly, maybe, other things she could manage with her powers. She had managed to make small things shake and then explode when she was really angry, but hardly enough to hurt someone, and it had taken so much effort. “I’ve been taking some self-defense classes since I got here. But I wouldn’t trust those skills in a big fight, that’s all I’m saying.” She lifted her arm and looked over at Marina. “Amputated memories? That’s awful. I thought I was having blackouts, but apparently I just didn’t have control of my own mind and body.” She sighed. “The only men I trust are my brothers, and even then, they’ve lied to me plenty of times.” -- She supposed not, but then she was determined enough to bash in as many skulls as she had to to make even a small difference. She just preferred her magic. She’d see how she felt about trying to create magic things for Isobel later. She wasn’t sure it was the time to make any such promises. This was only their first day knowing each other. The shovel would do for now. “I was too far in to take all my memories, so they had to take the parts that counted. The magic parts. The hand movements, the words. They can’t take your knowledge that magic exists from you, so you know it, but you can’t remember how.” She thought for a moment. “I trust Tony. That’s about it. For men.” She shrugged. “He’s going to make me another eye. As a back up. Sort of.” -- Isobel didn’t really have a response to that, which was partly because the experience of having memories stolen sounded so awful -- but she didn’t know what it was like to have magic and lose it. She also didn’t know how to relate to losing an eye, or needing a backup body part. “They sound like assholes,” she said finally. “Not Tony. I’ll reserve judgment on him until I meet him.” She looked around. “He can come over here. Any other people that will be regularly visiting or are you basically warding everyone else out?” -- The backup eye was the most recent annoyance. Mostly because she hadn’t asked for it. But she could live with it. She’d put up with a lot of bullshit and she’d likely put up with more before the end of everything. “Oh no. He’s an asshole, too. He just happens to be an asshole I don’t mind.” She wouldn’t lie. “Fogg feeds off being an asshole. Pretty sure.” She considered the last part. “Julia is probably the only other person.” Everyone else went home. But it just made her sad to say it out loud. So she decided not to. “Do you have other people?” -- “Fair,” Isobel said, cracking a smile. “I’ve known some of those as well. I probably am that person to a number of people… although I imagine they’d use a different word.” She pushed herself back up onto her elbows, and then her hands, since she didn’t seem to be falling asleep. “Not really,” she said, “I’ve made a few… friends, acquaintances, but I’ll probably hang out with them elsewhere on the ship. I’ll let you know if that changes.” -- “Oh, I’m definitely the bitch friend. Absolutely.” She shrugged. It wasn’t something that she really minded. She had designated herself as the Top Bitch in New York. It was true, though. She worked hard to get the magic spells and knowledge that she did and she wasn’t going to just give it to everyone. She watched Isobel for a moment. “People are generally disappointing, so I can understand that.” She didn’t mind that she wouldn’t bring them over. She probably wouldn’t bring Julia or Tony over unless she needed some help with her eye. But she wasn’t going to worry about it. After a long pause, she moved and laid on the bed. “Any weird sleep habits I should know about?” -- Isobel grinned at that. “Well, that makes two of us.” Bitch friend was fine with her. When people hadn’t been able to trust her not to lose control and murder their families… that had been less fun. But that hadn’t been her, after all. She was relieved Noah was gone, glad that Maleficent was done with too, so that she could be at least relatively certain that no one was getting inside her head. She shrugged. “I don’t think so? I wake up sometimes, might have trouble sleeping because of…” She gestured around them. “Being in space. But I sleep normally. I’m neat and organized. I’d prefer it if you are, too, especially if you don’t want me touching your things to clean them up.” -- Marina smiled, turning her head to look at Isobel. “The last person that touched my things bled out, so I’d be careful about that.” It was a joke...sort of. She probably wouldn’t do anything to actually put anyone else in danger. Here. “Kidding. Well, not about the last person that touched my things.” A pause. “But I’m not generally messy, so you shouldn’t have to worry about it.” -- Isobel raised her hands in a peaceful gesture, smiling to show she knew it was mostly a joke. She absolutely believed that the person who’d last touched Marina’s things had suffered bloodily, though. “As long as you clean up after yourself, I won’t touch anything.” It had upset Michael, when she’d stayed in his trailer, that she kept trying to organize his things. But he was also her brother. She could be more respectful of her roommate’s space as long as it didn’t get too messy in here. -- At least they’d had that talk. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep it clean.” She wasn’t exactly concerned with it when she could very easily use magic to do things she wanted. It was easier than actually putting in the effort, but she’d still put in some. “Glad we had that talk. Now I’m going to go ahead and put these clothes away before I go and get a drink.” She made a noise of frustration as she got up, but if her clothes stayed where they were, it would be a mess. And she needed to look her best. |