victormakesart | (no subject)

(no subject)

Vic's been spending time on the spa planet, not to do spa things, but to spend time barefoot with the birds people, to meditate, and try to be less miserable.

But everytime she sees one of the little feathered kids, with their round healthy bellies, she can't help thinking about a few nights ago, the rescue mission, what was on the floor.

She's been spending a lot of time helping them garden the greens and harvest the rocks that give them the calcium that they need. But she needs another perspective, needs to get out of her head.

So she invited a military man over, someone who might know what she's going through. She doesn't want to burden Cole, Clark's been through enough, and she's sure James wouldn't even know what to say to her.

Most of the swelling has gone out of her face, now there's just a purplish bluish blotch on her right cheek. She waits.

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"Boring, you say. Sensible, I say."

"No one ever made history by being sensible, right? You gotta take risks. Live a little."

"Oh, I live. I live dangerously. But I try to minimize risk."

"That ain't dangerous enough, then. Not for me anyway."

"You are much braver than I am, by scores, I'm sure of it!"

"Not a lotta room for caution in being a Marine. Or an Omaticaya. I mean yeah, it's good and everything, but you'd never eat on Pandora if you weren't willing to risk getting your ankles gnawed a bit."

"Yeah. The way I grew up showed me that I had to keep my nose down and turn off if I was gonna survive. If someone was pushin' me around I had to just take it, 'cause then it'd be over and I'd move on. And that if I fought, I'd just end up hurt worse than if I just waited."

"Man, I could never do that. Too dumb to know when to quit. Someone pushes me, I'm gonna push 'em back."

"I'm like that with being a smarta-- smart aleck. But, man, I got so ruined when I was younger. I learned how to just become... nothing. How to not care about getting hurt and to care about what's right, and how to not run into things and to spend a little time thinkin' first."

"The way I see it, it ain't good to be at either end of things. You gotta find a balance somewhere in the middle or you'll get your ass shot off."

"Yeah, you really do. I've been there, for sure. I think I'm still tryin' to find that balance in noncrisis situations, but I think I do pretty good when I'm in trouble."

He lightly knuckles the top of her head, still trying to keep her mind off the reason why she needed someone to talk to in the first place. "Hey, you got a better head on your shoulders than I do. Or did, anyway. You haven't been thrown outta any bars lately, right?"

"No, never!" she chirps, grabbing onto his wrist with both hands. "You did, though? What's the story?"

"No one story, just lots of gettin' tossed out on my ass. Usually stickin' up for girls getting harassed by strange dudes. Most guys don't think much of a scruffy guy in a wheelchair, but I gave 'em hell."

"I bet you did! I do that kinda thing sometimes, too, but I can get away with just pretendin' to be her gal pal and whiskin' her off to the bathroom."

"Yeah, that didn't work so well for me. Much rather knock the bastard on his ass and show him he's not the toughest."

"You got the muscles to go along with that claim." Victor flexes her arm. She's got wiry muscles, nothing to sneeze at but nothing half-impressive, either.

"Yeah, but you gotta remember, I was a lot smaller then. Had my puny little human arms." In reality, of course, his arm muscles were well developed from having to push his chair, although his legs didn't turn out so well.

"Psh. Puny little Marines arms. Even as a human, you were like twenty times more awesome than I am."

He shrugs. "Well that's all behind me anyway. And I'm just fine with that."

"Yeah. 'Cause things change, and this was a really good change."

"You ever spent time in another body?" he asks, figuring with the Nexus, you never know.

"Yeah, a few times. Once with a... with a Clark Kent. Well. Twice. Different Clarks, though. Have you met him?"

"Sure have. That's April's guy." While he wasn't quite able to attend the wedding, as he'd stick out like a thing that really sticks out, he did get to visit with her at the Nexus-side reception. And also has no clue that there's a little Kent on the way, either.

"Yeah! Yeah, April's fellow. That was amazing. I got to be so strong, and fast, and brilliant." She sounds kind of wistful and kind of sad and kind of mournful. "It felt like... being whole."