trans_9 | [open] rebuilding what we can at the cost of what we can't do

Entry tags:

[open] rebuilding what we can at the cost of what we can't do

Sakura look a left turn between two disparate pieces of architecture, eyes sliding over them both without truly appreciating what they saw. An inventory of places that were problematic for being hiding spots, possible ambush zones, tactical advantages in territory ran though her mind, along with figures and numbers for things she kept track of to make sure her thoughts weren't allowed much time to wander.

As it was, they were still getting away from her, heavy with emotions and logical conclusions that played off loyalty and desire to protect all at once. It left her looking pensive as she walked through the city, making her way toward the Great Wall of a country she would never see.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That's pretty much all of us," Ren admitted. "Always something going on." He wasn't going to call her out on anything, not when he had his own issues he was steadfastly not talking about with people.

Giving her a wry smile, he said, "I only bother with manners when they're needed." Which...really wasn't far from the truth. He'd just gotten nicer over time, not politer.

She smiled, then laughed. "I guess knowing when you can be rude versus when you can't has a value." One she knew, if practiced more among friends. "Kind of like being blunt, or sparing someone's feelings, only... not quite."

She had her hands clasped behind her back, body turned toward him. Attentive body language to back up her shift in focus to the here and now. "Life's like that. Not to mention it's almost always busy around here, with one project, mission, or attack or another."

Such pleasant thoughts. "Were you involved with Lirath at all?"

He managed not to flinch at this. He had a feeling it would come up, given how they hadn't actually seen much of each other in a while between GLaDOS and everything else.

"Yeah," he said. "Fought on the ship for a bit, then joined the battle outside. Got hurt out there, but I've been recovering."

Was it obvious he was being purposely vague?

"Recovering?" Obvious enough, if it was in her nature to be particularly sensitive to things relating to injury. Not of the mind -- she never knew how to handle that, or memories. Of the body, on another hand?

Sakura had that under control.

"How were you injured?"

Well, it was a good thing for her that Ren wasn't going to talk about anything even resembling emotional injuries, wasn't it?

"I tore a ligament in my knee, and they had to reconstruct it once the swelling went down," he explained. "I'm still doing the physical therapy, but it's feeling stronger than it was."

A nod, as she turns over the physical therapy course he might be going through. She should check his records... but ah, maybe that wasn't ethical.

Ethics were strange.

"It's good you're slowly building up strength again. Better for you in the long run."

"It's slow going," he admitted. He knew that he was healing at least twice as fast as he would back home, but with everything that had led up to it, he couldn't help but feel like he wasn't recovering fast enough.

"Any tips?" he asked.

"Don't rush it, as much as you can help yourself." She smiled wryly, expecting that particular advice was both common sense enough to be well known, and also fairly easy to ignore. "As a medic, I can tell you it'll be better in the long run if you build yourself back up properly while we have the luxury of time to do so. Use the time you have when you have it."

She perked up, struck by some idea out of -- she didn't know. Stacy's nose, perhaps. Smacking her fist into her open hand, she smiled. "Hey, have you tried onigiri using the slop before?"

Ren tried to avoid eye contact at this. He wasn't always good about following doctor's orders, and more than once, he'd had to rest with a cold compress for a while after overdoing it.

At the second question, he looked over at her again, but in confusion. "You mean bringing it into the sensoriums?"

Something close to irritable amusement crosses her face as she notes him avoiding contact. People were people, and boys were boys, no matter their world of origin.

She shook her head. "No, I mean actually onigiri." Sakura smiled, small and oddly shy. "Remember way back at XaXing? Of course you do," she added, embarrassed. "Part of the supply runs I did back then were for things like rice, for use every so often, and emergency rations."

It was really hard to forget XaXing, no matter how much he tried to push the Melting Clock out of mind.

But he'd also picked up rice and other easy-to-store foods there, for pretty much the same reasons. "So as a filling, then?" He wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that particular recipe in that case.

"It's better than it sounds, promise. It'd be great if we could figure out a refrigeration system... maybe something with the river?" She thought on that for a moment, considering.

Ren doubted that, but he sighed, "I'll trust you on that." If only because he did trust her judgment.

"That might work. Otherwise, Engineering probably can come up with something, but it'd probably take time."

"Not sure if I'd want to distract them. War first, niceties later, you know?"

She'd never put it so bluntly before, if it followed her thought process fairly accurately.

"Yeah," Ren admitted. It wasn't a pretty, though it was the truth. Being in a state of perpetual war meant you constantly had to think along those lines.

"So the river, then?"

Sakura nodded. "Our best be for now. Another side project." She grinned, rueful. "I could use another one of those."

Like a bullet to the head.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[open] rebuilding what we can at the cost of what we can't do

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject