( closed ) scouting the wall

[winscenario]

who: Jim Kirk, Beverly Crusher, Rodney McKay, John Sheppard, Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, Chyler Silva, Hana Song, Emma Swan (+ anyone else who's still interested! feel free to PM me, no worries)
what: team mission
when: February 7th - 17th
where: along the wall of the Abandoned City
warnings: monster fighting & consequent injuries at most

With the prospect of more power in the near future, the Government of Riverview is looking for multiple teams of people to take a survey of the wall surrounding the Abandoned City and note all structural damage and areas where the integrity of the wall is compromised. The objective is to note the location and nature of any structural damage or interference with the tech components (laser emitters, etc.) that is compromising the integrity of the outer wall.

The team assembled by Jim Kirk will head out on the shuttle, making the trip at least far quicker, although long stretches of the wall are done by foot, in smaller groups or pairs. No one is advised to be out there on their own. Everyone will be given a handheld scanning device to study the wall, and a device similar to a tablet where they can store all the data, complete with detailed instructions on how to use both. The shuttle will be available to pick people up and drop them off at different points of the wall as needed, to try and make the trip as quick as possible.


[ ooc: this will work as a mingle log, so everyone is free to write up their own top levels and/or tag around as much as they like. ]

Comments

[childofaxios]

She waits and watches until she's satisfied he's actually going to eat everything on the tray (which means she's waiting and watching for a good minute and a half) before she finally sits down and applies herself to her own mediocre-but-serviceable meal. It could be nothing but bread and water but she'd be satisfied, eating with John. Knowing she had a part in making sure he took care of himself.

"It's past time." She takes a swig from her canteen to wash down a particularly dry mouthful. "You should be asleep, sir."

So should she really but details.

[deploy]

"I'm an adult. I can stay up as late as I want." John lifts a spoonful of something resembling jello to eye-level, watching it jiggle before dropping it back onto his plate. Yeah, that one's not going in his mouth. He generally leaves anything sugary and wiggly to Rodney.

"Isn't it past your bedtime?" The tea he actually enjoys, and takes his time drinking, settling back against the bulk of his gear bag. John's more of a coffee guy on a day to day basis, but he'd never turn down a mug of hot tea on a chilly night. The damp always brings out the best of every old wound he's ever had.

"Y'know, I could tell you a story, if you asked nicely." An innocent sip of his tea.

[childofaxios]

Chyler brightens, straightens, then promptly realizes she's been had and very very nearly sticks her tongue out at John.

"I have duty in a half hour." Which might be just enough time for him to tell her a story, or part of a story at least. She loves everything he's ever said about Atlantis, loves it even more with the possibility that she could go there. It's such a tentative hope, something she's not sure she believes just yet, the thought that she could go somewhere with someone who matters to her and not be trapped in this place forever.

A moment, then, "Is there one short enough?"

[deploy]

"Short, like you, short? Sure." If he didn't earn a stuck-tongue (or middle finger) before, he probably has now. John loves to bug her. What are cadets for?

"Could tell you about the time I got two Wraith ship to blow each other up." John likes to keep his stories on the victorious side. He's got hundreds of stories about Atlantis, after years of living and fighting in the Pegasus Galaxy.

It's just that some of them are too painful to think about, never mind tell. He's experienced so many things that could've been beautiful, if they hadn't gone bad. Killed people. Too many of their adventures are losses, in his mind. Failures, on his part.

Another sip of his tea, stretching his legs out in front of him. Knees sore. One mission he'll get around to wearing pads, but not this one.

[childofaxios]

It earns him an eyeroll that is very much the picture of an exasperated teenage girl. "Eventually you'll get tired of those jokes."

It's fruit that hangs so low even she can reach it.

Still, she settles in, folding her legs into a tailor's seat without so much as a twinge. "Go on. Tell me how you saved the day."

Even with that little edge of sarcasm, Chyler is still bright-eyed and eager.

[deploy]

Eventually. When she's taller, thirty, or isn't so fun to tease. Chyler's looking at a life sentence of being given a hard time if she comes back with him to Atlantis. It's all part of being family.

Family. Whenever John thinks of the word, it startles him, because he'd deliberately tried to erase it from his dictionary for so many years. It's a word he didn't need, or want, synonymous with heartache, rejection, and pain.

Atlantis changed the definition. John's still not sure exactly what it means, but seeing Chyler sitting in front of him, looking up at him like that, he's starting to figure it out.

He settles his cup in his lap, warming his hands, and makes himself comfortable.

"If you think about it, I probably saved multiple days taking them out. There are hundreds of Wraith darts on those ships, not to mention a thousand or so drones, two queens, that's at least a couple planet's worth of trouble. Anyway, it all started when we got captured, which was definitely Mckay's fault, and I needed to find a way to turn it around-"

[childofaxios]

She listens. She's a good audience, even if her version of cheering is just a smile at the right time, even if her version of laughing is a twitch of the lips and rolled eyes. She listens with all of her, leaning in as he talks, feeling a quiet sort of pride in John and Rodney and these people she's never met. She already feels like they belong to her, like they're a part of her unit.

It's the way John talks about them. If she's a good audience, he's an even better storyteller.

So she listens, for as long as she's got before her shift, and imagines this world and its battles, and little by little makes them her own.