victormakesart | (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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

jarheadclan

"It ain't rescuing if they're that far removed from 'em. Especially if they don't want to go."

From:

victormakesart

"Yeah, I agree. One of my husbands was one of 'em. But people were so cruel, I honestly don't blame them for it. It's a different kind of logic, but it's logic."

From:

jarheadclan

"Doesn't matter to me. People who make unwanted decisions for other folks are jerks."

From:

victormakesart

"That's accurate. Thankfully, crisis averted."

From:

jarheadclan

"You kick 'em off the planet?"

From:

victormakesart

"Nah. We settled it quietly, before the rest of the planet knew that a good chunk of 'em were aliens. That would make everything so much worse."

From:

jarheadclan

"Yeah, probably. Riots in the streets and all that. People don't really react well when aliens come in and tell them what to do."

From:

victormakesart

"Yeah. And if they knew their neighbors were part alien, even if it was a million years down the line, a fraction of a gene, they'd lose it."

From:

jarheadclan

"That bad, huh?"

From:

victormakesart

"If they treated them badly when they thought they were just humans with special powers...."

From:

jarheadclan

"People ain't bad just because they're different. It's the same no matter where you go." He bares his teeth a little, disgusted.

From:

victormakesart

"I totally agree. People just need to chill, basically in all occasions."

From:

jarheadclan

"Well. Maybe not all. There's plenty of legit reasons to get riled up."

From:

victormakesart

"Yeah, but most of those things wouldn't happen if everyone were chill to start with."

From:

jarheadclan

"Most, right. The ones with folks who can talk and reason, anyway. Predators, not so much." This time, when his teeth flash at her, it's more of a grin. "Did I ever tell you about my first day on Pandora?"

From:

victormakesart

She smiles back at him, sheepishly. "I tend to accidentally overlook predators." It's the fault of focusing more on urban predators than animal ones, ones that can answer her back, that she can manipulate. "You didn't!"

From:

jarheadclan

"They took me out in the jungle, to keep the scientists safe while they took their samples and stuff. Should've given me a crash course on the local wildlife but they didn't. Surprised an 'angtsìk herd - they're big ugly guys, real territorial, can't see real well but they're big enough to trample anything. Not predators. Grace told me to stand my ground or it'd charge me, and I screamed in its face. Thought I scared it off when it decided to leave with all its buddies."

From:

victormakesart

"What ended up happening next?" She digs her feet into the soft earth, imagining the sequence of events in her mind, of Jake with a comically oversized cap gun, of big things that, in her mind, look like elephants with mohawks and thick glasses. Of Jake screaming, of them leaving.

From:

jarheadclan

"Turned out there was a palulukan coming up right behind me. They're big nasty critters, about four times my size. Lotsa teeth and claws, very aggressive. It got mad that I'd ruined its ambush and decided I could make up for it by being lunch instead. Oh, and I think bullets were the appetizer, because it didn't care in the slightest that I was shooting it. Not that I got the chance much, I was too busy running."

From:

victormakesart

"Oh, geeze. Your world is crazy with the adrenaline fixes, huh?" She whistles low, grabs onto his forearm. "So it was all like, grar, rar, and you were all running and stuff. How'd you get away?"

From:

jarheadclan

"Jumped over a waterfall," he says with a laugh, showing fangs. "Didn't have a lot of choice, I was going too fast. Good thing it didn't decide to follow me, and the water was deep enough I didn't hit bottom. Well, and that there was water there because it coulda been a cliff for all I knew."

From:

victormakesart

'Wow,' she mouths, then she gives his arm a light swat, and the rest of him a tight hug. "You've got skills. That was really lucky."

From:

jarheadclan

He ruffles her hair with two long fingers, deftly avoiding dislodging her feathers. "Luckier than you know. I got separated from everyone else and ended up having to spend the night in the forest alone. Everyone else figured my multi-billion-dollar Avatar would get eaten and I'd be useless to the base, but that was actually the same night Neytiri found me and Eywa told her not to kill me for being stupid, so I was able to stash my body with the Omaticaya."

From:

victormakesart

Multi-billion. That's the kind of number of money that Victor can't even conceive. Unbelievable. She reaches up, touches those giant fingers. "That is luck. You've got an angel on your shoulder, Jakey."