goneawayworld | HARK! How the bells, sweet silver bells...

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HARK! How the bells, sweet silver bells...

Who: Everyone
What: Holiday Events
Where: Piper 90 - The Rig
When: Post-Rose Tattoo
Warnings/Notes: Holiday cheer, smooches, tactical snowball action

It's the Holiday Season in the Gone Away World and on the Rig in particular! Though they claim to be open to any cultural celebration of this time of year, the dominance of Santa Claus, reindeer, and elves in decorating really kind of blunt that claim. But the PA system, when not blaring alarms or fuzzy announcements for working party C to show up at the maintenance bay, play Christmas tunes of all sorts at inconvenient volumes. Decorations hang limply from the walls. And every worker with children has been issued a shotgun and a bandoleer of shells loaded with pellets of cold iron.

Just in case.

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York is released onto the rig to explore after what he considers a rude awakening and very strange orientation. But hey, he's alive, even if he isn't certain what to make of things just yet. Jorgmund does offer free healthcare but he's got a bad vibe, something he's learned to trust after Freelancer. He'll certainly behave enough not to get shocked, but he'll keep an eye (his only eye) out for trouble.

Speaking of his good eye, he almost thinks something is wrong with it when he steps into a corridor and little white things float through his vision. But no. It's... snowing...? On the rig. As he walks through it, it gets thicker and has started to stick on the ground as well, until he's trudging through it and very tempted to just flop down and make a snow angel. Curiously he reaches down for a handful of the stuff, and yes, he's able to pack it into a cold ball.

It'd be in poor taste to throw a snowball at someone he doesn't know, of course... York wouldn't do that... or would he? There's the telltale crunch of someone coming around the corner and York holds up his ball with a grin. Might as well have some fun, being alive and all, but he'll ask first.

"Wanna play?"

North expects someone he knows from the rig when he rounds that corner and sees a figure standing there. He can't help it when he realizes it's York—he grins widely. He and York had been thick as thieves, so to speak, on the MoI, and he'd missed York for years, even though they'd been able to occasionally keep in touch on the planet where they'd ended up when the MoI had crashed.

"Hell, yeah, of course I do," he says, bending to pack a snowball of his own.

He understands that York has the advantage in this situation, having already prepared by quite a bit.

York blinks when he realizes just who the person rounding the corner is. Wash had mentioned that North was here but not how York could find him (or Wash himself, for that matter) once they got back. Once it does click he holds up his free hand, shaking his head in bemused delight.

"Whoa, whoa. Just a second here. 'Of course you do'? Not hey York, how's it going York, haven't seen you in ages York, get over here and give me a hug already York?"

Should North look up from his snowball-packing he'll see York coming towards him with a huge grin, making a 'get up' sort of gesture, snowball still obliviously in his other hand.

"First things first, man."

North laughs, dropping the snow he'd started to pack together, and approaching York in turn.

"Sorry, man, I'm used to more treachery in these things," he says, not really thinking about the irony in his using that word in referring to how his sister behaves. "Missed you."

When they reach each other North is not at all hesitant in wrapping his arms around his friend and giving a long squeeze.

It's not until he's already reaching for North that York remembers the snowball and tosses it over his shoulder to better have both hands free for hugging.

"Did Wash punch you in the face, too?" It sounds like he's on the verge of a laugh when he says that, though, like it's totally fine. So whatever Wash hit him over couldn't have been too bad. Nothing to worry about, North.

"Shit, it's good to see you again." He holds on tight for a long moment before pulling back, hands clasped on North's shoulders to look him over. "You good? You've still got Theta?"

"He probably should have," he says, shrugging, but that's all water under the bridge now, isn't it? The fact is that North had had to much to worry about with dealing with getting his injured sister off the MoI without going back for Wash, too. Wash understood that. He thinks.

He moves his hands to the outside so he can clasp York's shoulders around his arms. "Still got Theta," he confirms. "Want to talk to him?"

York instantly knows exactly what North is referring to as the reason Wash should have punched him -- it's something he feels bad about, too, that he didn't think to grab Wash before fleeing. But Wash hadn't seemed angry. So he shakes his head at North's guess.

"It was an accident, I startled him." It was honestly pretty funny now. And North will feel something tense in his shoulders ease up when the blond says he's still got his AI. "Yeah, let me say hello. You miss us too, Theta?"

Theta's hologram pops up then, and North grins at him, releasing York so that there's a little space for Theta to project himself in.

"I've missed you guys soo much!" Theta effuses. "Wait... Do you have a second Delta?"

He understands the whole timeline fuckery of this place as well as anyone.

"Oh, uh." York realizes what he said, and the raw wound in his mind where Delta belongs aches. His smile falters a bit. "No, buddy, I'm alone. Just habit. Have you seen him and South lately?"

He's got a fight to pick with her, and would like to know that D's okay.

"Every day," North says. "We're rooming together. At least, for now."

"She doesn't like me," Theta says in a definitively unenthusiastic tone. "She never has."

North seems like he might protest that, except that he knows there's no way to refute that. He sighs. "Yeah."

"It's not about you, Theta, okay? Sometimes people are just mean."

His thoughts are a bit harsher than what he says aloud but he bites choice words back for North's sake. Even if he doesn't at all try to soften what he says next.

"Perfect. You'll show me where that is so I can give her the fight she said she wanted?"

Yeeeeeah, he wants to kick your sister's ass. Sorry bestie.

North snorts.

"She's not mean, she's just..."

Goddamn, is delving into that a complicated topic.

Besides, York had gone on after that.

"I... I mean, maybe I should talk to her about giving you Delta, instead."

York gives a little sigh. He loves North, he does, but the guy has a soft spot a mile wide for his incredibly selfish twin and after what Wash told him, York's not going to just passively wait for South to decide to be nice.

"I don't know what you could say that I didn't. She didn't seem impressed by either of us."

He sighs.

"I don't even really know if we're on speaking terms, so..."

"Then your sister's got a problem and it wears gold armor and loves cheesy pick up lines. Even if this wasn't killing me she's holding D against his will, I can't just let it go."

It's just honesty. As much as York would like to say he'd do anything for North... he doesn't know how long he can hold off confronting South again, should the chance arise.

He nods.

"Yeah, I... I understand."

He pauses.

"Let's go get something to drink, huh?"

"...Sure." York eases up a bit, rolling his shoulders to forcibly relax himself.

"Wait, you do mean booze, right? Because I could use some."

He chuckles and gives York a slap on the shoulder.

"You bet your ass."

He starts leading the way to the mess. The beer there sucks, but it's beer.

"I could use some, too."

"You can tell me all about it once we start drinking. I'll listen."

He probably won't make any grand efforts to repair the twins' relationship, but he'll let North get it out for his own sake. Something's obviously bothering him.

"I could use a listening ear."

And York's about the only person he'd be willing to unload that kind of emotional baggage on, so it's all working out here for him right now.

"I got you."

He follows North's lead because he still doesn't know his way around, but the mess is recognizable enough as such. The other soldier gets them beers and York leads them to a table on the far side, sitting beside North at an angle rather than across from him just because he can. It's been far too long since he was around somebody he could have casual contact with and North tends to be a depressive drunk. He'll probably need it.

"So what happened?"

He takes a drink, makes a face at the horribleness of mess hall beer, then takes a second drink. He's obviously in somewhat of a hurry to get drunk. Comparatively speaking.

"Have you talked to Wash?"

"Yeah, I have." He says it almost warily, because Wash mentioned that South shot him in the back and ran off with Delta, which certainly doesn't bode well for her relationship with North given that. Uh. Wash also said North was dead too.

York waits to see what parts of that North is going to bring up.

York's tone seems to confirm that North doesn't have to deliver every detail of this situation.

"Ah. Yeah. You had the whole conversation with him, huh?"

He doesn't really think he needs to clarify what that's referring to.

With that, he needs to figure out how he's going to start. He imbibes another seconds-long swallow of the beer before beginning.

"She showed up not too long ago. I tried to... I tried to.."

He frowns.

"I tried too hard to pretend everything was okay, I guess. And then even Theta was getting on my case about it."

He's red around the eyes by the time that comes out. His tone of voice doesn't waver, not yet, but he's obviously trying not to cry.

"But then, South made it a point to admit to what Wash had accused her of."

"What do you mean accused her of? She didn't deny that she shot him in the back... something else?"

Something bad enough that North just decided to bottle it up and pretend.

York reaches out and sets a hand on North's back, because it's hard to see your best friend struggling not to cry and just sit there.

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