The Lost and the damned

[greyerrant]

Who: Garviel and you!
What: Being sad, sparring, Eating, Gardening
Where: Rig Gardens, Top of the Rig, Cafeteria, Gym depending on prompt
When: Post Babadon't
Warnings/Notes: Will add if they become necessary



Prompt one: Garviel is eating in the Cafeteria. There are plenty of seats nearby as he consumes the best slop Jorgmund has seen fit to send his way as nutrients. He doesn't appear to be enjoying it, just scowling and it gamely. He is approachable enough, and seems ready to talk if someone were to approach.

Prompt two: Loken is doing sword forms in the Gym, 3 blades lying out and ready for use, his chainsword, which is exactly what you might think, an oversized sword with chainsaw blades which he cycles doing his practice, a Power sword, which is a large two-handed weapon with crackling energy pouring off it once activated, and a gladius force sword, which has intricate circuitry which doesn't do much as he continues close combat forms with it, a lot more punching, stabbing, and shorter cuts than the other two heavier blades.

Prompt three: Loken is breaking a sweat in the Gardens, planting a few columbine plants as he continues to dig and transfer them from pots, covered in sweat and with cut-down overalls that barely contain his too large to be human form as he labors mightily to create a little ephemeral beauty in a sad, ugly world.

Prompt four: Garvi is on the top of the rig at night, bundled up in his best attempt at clothes that fit him that are mostly just other people's stuff sewn together in a sort of cloak. He'd probably look a lot more badass in his actual war plate but Jorgmund has got that locked up, as usual. He stares off into the distance as the below-freezing cold hits him, sternly refusing to acknowledge the cold beyond his clothing. It's like a contest between him and the weather. Or maybe he's just dramatic and likes to stand outside at night on top of large buildings. He watches the Helipad and seems to be occasionally looking over the rig and taking note of -where- things are. Like he's planning an assault, or an Exfiltration.

Comments

[greyerrant]

"Set them down, grab a hoe, we are spreading that over what I have planted all ready. Just don't cover over the columbines entirely or we shall have a difficult time growing them." Loken takes up a hoe himself and demonstrates on some already dumped soil.

He shrugs. "I just knew she was your friend and roommate, and I had assumed you two understood each other well. It is natural to miss comrades, particularly in a place like this that is unfamiliar, strange, and probably very alien to you. There is a lot to worry about here, from shapeshifting infiltrators to whatever strangeness the stuff brings."

[garmr]

Well, Loken nailed all those observations right on the spot.

Guts does as he is instructed, making a big pile of soil and spreading it with the tool as was shown. He’s known very little else but wielding a sword, but this doesn’t seem so bad.

“Guess I just sleep better in this iron cage when I have someone watching my back.”

[greyerrant]

"As if you have only one."

He smiles a bit, and continues to spread the soil as well.

"I have made a fair amount of connections here, all things considered. Nora, you, Saturday, Dan, the Abominable intelligence, and..."

He frowns and hesitates. Best not to discuss that quite yet.

[garmr]

Guts continues working the soil with the hoe.

"...You don't gotta talk about her if you don't want to."

He gets it. He really, really does.

[greyerrant]

"I do not see why it should be a problem. I am just frustrated my thoughts have strayed several times to her in situations of possible battle, or in idle time. She is distracting me."

He begins digging more holes to insert more columbines from the pots, apparently done spreading soil for now, scowling.

[garmr]

He sets down the tool and moves to observe, waiting to see what Loken might need next. That hadn't been so bad for his first attempt at farming. Could've ended a lot worse, really.

"She does have a way of makin' a first impression."

Aliens. Head explosions. Guts still remembers it vividly.

[greyerrant]

"More soil." He says, as way of an answer to Guts' unspoken question, and nods at his comment about first impression. "She's a soldier, through and through. Seems to have been a less glorious job than working as an Astartes. Closer to an assassin, it seems." He looks morose. "I do not think she had any brotherhood in her battles."

[garmr]

“I know I’d rather be in the vanguard than an assassin. That kinda work stays with you in a way the other doesn’t.”

Even now, several years later, the night he had slain Adonis in his evening clothes sits vivid in his mind. He hesitates for a moment as the unpleasant memory washes over him, then continues to add more soil.

“She must have a lot going on, then. Or she’s got a real heart of iron.”

[greyerrant]

Garviel nods, "I have not liked my life as one of Malcador's agents, fighting in the shadows and tricking allies and foes alike, sneaking and marking foes for assassinations as much as I preferred being a battle captain at the fore of the fray. But I suppose after the betrayal at Istvaan I was a broken sword, more useful as a knife than as a warblade." He looks at Guts, clearly similar memories of a dead Dark Angel astartes playing back in his own mind. The struggle outside the cell. The shot, not fired by him but required because he couldn't subdue him fast enough or cleanly enough. The blood of a loyal son of Caliban on his hands and armor.

Definitely time to change the subject, "I want to reach her but I don't know how."

[garmr]

"You too, huh..?" Guts remarks, in that same way he always does, feeling an awfully close familiarity but seldom ever indulging in the details. A broken sword. That metaphor was far more apt for both of them than he wanted to admit.

But back to the subject at hand.

"It ain't gonna be easy, with a job like she had."

[greyerrant]

"I was not made to do easy jobs. Nor do the easy things have much reward. What is your suggestion, my friend?"

He tries to smile a little. It mostly works, but there is is a touch of falseness about it. Not like he's trying to manipulate guts, but more like whatever in his past got stirred up is still dancing around behind his eyes, haunting him.

[garmr]

Guts packs the dirt in silence, considering the answer to his question.

"There's only one person I've met that made me feel the same way," he says, in a tone softer than Guts had ever spoken thus far. The green of the foliage made him miss the wide open fields of those days.

"For a while, I never thought of her more than a comrade-at-arms. We were all mercenaries at the time, and she was the toughest of all of us. Never really quite realized it was somethin' else until I was asked if I wanted to hold her."

He glances back up at Loken.

"So, what about you? Did the thought ever cross your mind?"

[greyerrant]

" I have not really told you the story as it puts me in a helpless light, but I held her and kissed her before I realized that was actually a pleasant thing. " It was awkward as hell and he revealed he is a psyker to her so that sucked. He smiles, more awkwardly and with less pain in it, and thinks about what guts said. "I would like to know more about this person of yours. I am not surprised she is also a warrior. "

He frowns after saying that though, adding one thing. " Wanting to hold or be with women was not understood well in the astartes. We had no intimate connections like that. But with my body and duties changed here the idea keeps... Lingering. "

That said he was intimately emotionally connected to a few women in the past, just not in the huggy-kissy way.

[garmr]

"Well, didn't really expect things between us to turn out the way it did. We started off on opposing sides of a castle siege. Ended up trying to kill each other the first time we met."

That's the mercenary life, though!

"After that, we were officers in the same army. Stayed at each other's throats for a while. Things didn't really change until our secrets were laid bare for each other."

Guts pauses, if only because he's just realized out easily the words came out. For a long time, thinking too much about those days usually ended with a terribly dark rage. Somehow, he'd found the ability to talk about her and remain in that warmer place.

"It took time, though, and it wasn't only about how I approached her. Sometimes, the best thing I could do was to be by her side until she was ready to talk. And when she did, to make sure to listen."

[greyerrant]

The silent wolf (as the xenos named him) nods his head. "I can do that. It would appear all we have here is time."

He finishes up with planting, now all that's left is more spreading of soil. He looks over it, and sighs a bit.

"I have always hated secrets. Never sat right with me." And boy was he justified in his disgust for secrets, given the nature of the warrior lodges and what they hid or sheltered. "I am glad you got past them." He pauses, quiet for a moment. If this were a real environment and not an artificial habitat like the rig he might be waiting for the wind to change. When it doesn't he simply asks, "Did your story end well for you both? Is it over yet? Has Jorgmund stolen you from her?"

[garmr]

"No, it's not like that. It's probably for the best if she stays away from me for a while."

His current situation with Casca is complicated, and still quite painful. But she was safe and recovering, and getting along with people he cared about. For Guts, that knowledge is enough to keep him content. Maybe one day they could see each other face-to-face again.

"You never know what'll happen, so... Make the most of the time you get."

[greyerrant]

"I see. Well. I hope you two are able to re-unite in the fullness of time. When you are both able and ready to do so." He looks at Guts, thinking about when he was separated from Mersadie after thinking she was dead. Realizing in that moment she'd already been posssessed, and existed as a trap for them both. A touch of grief plays across his face.

He nods his head. "It would seem I am at something of a quandary then. Be patient and wait, but make the most of what time I have? Perhaps this means i should simply value what happens, and not attempt the force the pace of... well, whatever is happening.

[garmr]

"Yeah. Something like that. Sorry it ain't much of an answer..."

Guts scratches his head. Maybe he really shouldn't be giving out advice when his own experience had gone rather horribly.

"You're a pretty honest guy. If there's something you really wanna say to her, I imagine you'll just tell her."

[greyerrant]

"That is my intent, yes. But I am somewhat uncertain about the extent of how I feel, and about how I am supposed to or am permitted to feel, given my oaths and my commitments to humanity as a whole."

He scowls. This would be easier were he not an oathsworn son of Horus, as it were.