Jan-Feb catch-all for Rosinante (OTA)

[callada]

characters: Rosinante, OTA
location: Harbor, scrapyard, library, Solis' lab, wildcard at me
date/time: January 25-February 5
content: Working on pet projects, collecting supplies, planning an expedition and trying to keep warm.
warnings: n/a

1. there's an arbor of distant ringing bells

Out at the scrapyard, Rosinante hacks away with a hammer at ice covering the ropes of the boat that he and a few others have been working on repairing. It's looking in pretty good shape now, actually - except that the last month of snow and freezing weather means there's no water to even get that boat out onto if they managed to drag it to shore.

Ice shatters and rattles on the deck, and chained not too far off, the scrapyard dog is howling and barking to join in the noise. There's nothing much to be gained here from what Rosinante is doing, he's just frustrated. All this work, and for what?

2. there are figures on the shore

Their little group might have dwindled down to almost nothing, but the few who remain have gotten very good at what they do. They work as a team, the lab regulars, and this cold February day proves it - the supplies are good, and nothing ended up out on the frozen surface of the lake, or hung up in trees.

Rosinante has a makeshift sled from a piece of scrap metal and rope, and at the harbor he stacks boxes onto it with gloved hands, but the lantern shows the blue tint to his pale face under all those warm clothes. It is cold out here, colder than any day on the North Blue he experienced in life, and no number of layers is enough of a solution.

"Hey," he calls out. "Help me with these!"

Doesn't sound like a request, though he's not going to chase down anyone who ignores him, but he's starting to wonder if he still has toes.

3. at the laundromat they're whispering of war

Time to see if the map that the spirit had pointed out to him before has anything marked on it that relates to the missile silo in the dead soldier's journal. Rosinante trudges into the library, and sighs in relief that even though it's cold in here, at least it's not that bone-threatening chill.

When he reaches to pull the book out from the shelf, another book catches on it somehow. He doesn't seem to notice as he tugs, and suddenly he causes a thunderous avalanche of paper. He yelps as he's thrown to the floor under the weight of reference volumes.

A hand reaches upward through the pile. Legs stick out at the other end. He's breathing, but winded from the blow to his poor dented lantern. Distantly, the librarian floats a "sssssh!!!" over the cold air in his direction.

"Mmph... sorry..."

4. hold, hold, hold your ground

As the temperature continues to drop daily, Rosinante finds one of the warmer places in town is the lab. All of the equipment inside puts off a lot of heat, and the ground insulates it well. Again and again it becomes clear just how well-planned Dr. Solis' life had been before she made her last critical mistake.

When he's not looking over Will's shoulder and trying to learn about computers and plutonium from their very attractive resident genius, he finds himself curled up on the floor in Dr. Solis' study reading through her collection of books, or sometimes he brings over treats for the others who spend time there. Today, he's restocking the kitchen of the little living space with coffee and tea from the general supplies, and already has the kettle going.

"Want a cup?" he asks, if you come through - but if he finds you sitting at a computer or poking around in the sample archive, he'll just hand you a mug with whatever your usual is, steaming hot.

"Here. You look like you could use this."

5. wildcard

Have an idea? Go for it, I'm not your mom.

Comments

[worthallthis]

Soldat shoots him a quick, almost joking salute, and moves around the back of the boat to start prying at the ice and snow off with the metal arm. They keep Dog occupied by tossing the bits of ice and snow for them to chase and catch.

"How long have you been at this?" they ask between punches and digging fingers into cracks.

[callada]

"Not long enough to lose any toes," he says as he clears ice out of pulleys and then reaches down over the side to try and (carefully) break an oar loose from where it's very embedded against the hull at the moment.

"I shoulda covered this up months ago, but winter wasn't so bad for a while, and then I got busy with everything else... hell, who knows if we'll ever even get to test it out, now." A depressing topic, but he mostly just sounds pissed off at the idea of dying before getting to sail it.

[worthallthis]

Debating a beat, Soldat decides not to remind him that they still haven't worked out how to even get it to the lake. "Maybe we'll be lucky. And kill the thing and still survive, ourselves," they offer.

They're still not super hopeful, not after losing Javert too, but it's still in their nature to be optimistic despite it all.

[callada]

"That's the hope. That's why it's worth it to keep this thing in shape. Wonder if a bunch of torches and a blanket might do it, since they don't seem to go out. Use the blanket to help trap heat, get it to melt faster, leave it like that until spring."

Is that a dumb idea? Can the torches be smothered? No - they've been dropped in water before, so he figures this is nowhere near as bad, and since fire doesn't ever catch, the blanket should be safe.

"Heh. You turn up and immediately I'm thinking of real solutions instead of beating myself senseless against the ice," he says, shaking his head in mild amusement.

[worthallthis]

Probably because just sitting around hacking at ice alone didn't make him think about how dumb it was to do, but hacking at ice in front of someone else did. Soldat decides not to say that, and instead says, "We're used to strategizing together. Besides, you did it for me." Not that long ago, either.

[callada]

Both good points. Rosinante dips his head and runs a hand through his hair, then sighs. "Been here too long, trying to hold it together. Thanks for the wakeup call."

He turns and leans his back against the hull, rubbing his hands together to warm them up, then lights a cigarette. "This place is frustrating as hell sometimes. I kinda lost my head."

And he's willing to admit that now more readily than before, so that's something.

[worthallthis]

"Don't blame you," Soldat says soberly, not missing that last bit, themselves, but also not stupid enough to comment on it. "Feels like I lose my shit all the time. I've. I have to believe we've got a chance, though. Or I won't do any damn thing."

[callada]

"Yeah. I'm not about to give up. Not just for myself but everyone else. Doesn't look good if people start losing hope. It gets harder and harder to keep everyone motivated once a few throw in the towel," he sighs, then looks to the sky. Still not a star in sight through all the clouds, unfortunately.

"Felt good to break a bunch of ice, though," he admits with a note of amusement. "Satisfying to just punch things and have them shatter. Have you been by the gym in a while, do you know if anyone ever salvaged that punching bag?"

[worthallthis]

"I did a lot of punching the ice for the spirits' tree, last month, between looking for Javert's lantern," Soldat admits. "It was nice having something to punch that was actually productive." Instead of just punching trees, which is their usual outlet for frustration.

As for the bag (which they can't use without shredding, sadly), they say, "It's at the armory now, where we'd moved the classes." Classes which... Soldat isn't really holding anymore, unless someone wants to just visit for practice one day. Without Javert, and with so few students left anyway, there hadn't seemed like much point.

[callada]

"Ah. Haven't been by there in a while, didn't even think of that. That's a good place for it. You know, we should probably make sure everyone here brushes up on their combat knowledge if it's not something they're used to. Not that I think punches or pistols will help against a World Eater but I'm more worried about spirits turning on us, or us turning on each other, if that thing gets in anyone's heads like the last one did."

Not that he's going to advocate for shooting each other either, obviously, and they don't have enough guns for everyone, but it can't hurt for everyone to know the basics of how to help hold someone down or make themselves harder for the spirits to kill if it comes to that.

[worthallthis]

This is why Soldat's lessons for newcomers focused very heavily on breaking holds, hitting really painful points and then bolting, and knowing how to fall without getting hurt and how to roll back up to their feet quickly. Anyone who actually showed up ought to know all those things, by now, unless they really tried not to learn anything... or didn't show up. There's always people who didn't show up.

"I think the non-combatants should be down in Helix Station," they say. "If we can convince them. The rest of us know how to handle that sort of thing. But anyone who isn't really... a fighter should be safe. Especially if we fail. Then they won't die, too, maybe." It's just convincing them. Ardyn, Misty, Hope, Ingram... Weaver for sure. Pudding, if they can convince her.

[callada]

"Maybe." All it takes is for the World Eater to find that there are people in the station, he figures, and then they could end up tearing each other apart from within even if it has trouble getting inside. He remembers well enough being in the room with the small one, and heard stories from those who were unknowingly directly beneath it in Soldat's group in their first trip down there. Would a fully-grown one have the same range of effect? Who knows, but the thought is too horrifying to dwell on.

"You're right, though. All of them should be down there, and they need to be ready to use the portal to escape if they have to. At some point they can't wait for us. We should make sure they're ready for that."

[worthallthis]

Soldat is holding out hope that there's something about Helix, whether being so far under the water or some property in its make-up, that protects from the World Eaters. Otherwise surely in the past seventy years, it would have found them by now.

"We can put the unused torches from the bonfire down there, too," Soldat says. "Keep that safe, too. The aurora might be coming back soon, that'll be plenty of light for us. And keeping the light alive seems. More important than using all the torches we have out, for thirteen people."

[callada]

"Yeah, I think Will was going to move some of those down. I'm not sure that concentrating them all down there is a perfect idea, though - spreading them out to several different places might be better. A concentration of light all in one place sounds like a risk."

Eggs in one basket and all. The people of the Night Market had survived down there without being detected, but would that remain true if a hundred torches were down there instead of on the surface? Can World Eaters "feel" light like haki users feel life signs? Who the hell knows, not him.

[worthallthis]

"There's more light down there than anywhere up here," Soldat points out. "And more people. The World Eaters still never found it. In all this time. But maybe we can put some other places, too." They'll think about where else could be safe.

They finally run out of ice on the motor and rudder, and start to swing themselves up onto the deck with Rosinante, going carefully in case things are unstable up there. "Has someone worked out how to actually direct the portal in reverse? For people to escape." Probably not themselves, but the non-combatants.

[callada]

"Think so. Weaver said she worked it out, since people asked if she could look into it. That guy Alastair, some of his theories worked on inanimate stuff. Hasn't tested it on people yet."

For obvious reasons - they can't risk anyone right now. He cracks ice where it overlays the furled sails he'd added, then starts removing them entirely to stow for later. They're not going to be sailing any time soon, might as well keep the material covered up better.

"Someone's going to have to be the first, if we ever want to leave this place."

wow did NOT realize how long this had been, sorry :(

[worthallthis]

Soldat approaches to help taking the sails off. They admit, haltingly, "I'm. Not sure if I want to. Leave. If we don't disappear with the World Eater. I don't have anywhere else, really."

[callada]

He frowns as he tugs one of the furled sails into a tighter bundle and tucks it under an arm for now as Soldat finishes with the other.

"Really? Nothing left for you back home?"

Despite all the freedoms he's found here in Beacon, and the relief he's felt in shedding some of the pressures of home, he does still miss it. Will he go back? Maybe, maybe not, and he's still not sure if he even can (how does death work?) but he can't dismiss it so easily.

[worthallthis]

They give a half-hearted little shrug. "All I had was HYDRA. I can't even go back for Steve. Unless I go back to the very instant I left, he died when I did. There's almost no chance he could have survived. Everyone else I knew was either HYDRA or were from seventy years ago." They pause in folding half-frozen sails to look around. "Everyone I love is here."

[callada]

It takes him a moment, but slowly he nods, and even smiles at the corner of his mouth.

"Then I'm glad. I hope you get to stay with them for a long time."

Isn't that what everyone needs, after all? To be loved, and to have people they love in return? For those who needed a second chance, or a third, Beacon may have truly proven itself to be what they needed most.

[worthallthis]

That sounds strangely final. Soldat is silent a moment. Provided they don't all disappear into smoke or fall like puppets with their strings cut, if they somehow win this... "Are you going to leave? Do you think? Go back to your life?"

[callada]

"Heh. No, I can't go back," he says with a shake of his head.

Well, unless Law decides to try and convince him. They'd have each other to lean on, and maybe even Will would agree to come along (gods how he hopes, but he wouldn't insist) but he's grown fond of the freedom he's discovered and isn't that eager to jump back into a world where he's made everyone his enemy for Law's sake, even if he misses the endless sea.

"But I might still leave. We'll see what happens. I want to make sure other worlds know about the World Eaters out there in the night sky, and there might be a better place to try and send that kind of signal from. Will's world, maybe."

[worthallthis]

Soldat can think of three different problems with that, but they don't really have solutions besides just... staying here. Or go hunting.

Even if they beat this one World Eater-- big if-- they'd need to work out how to find, get to, and destroy the rest. And they certainly can't go hunting alone. They can't think that far. It becomes a nightmare of too many choices.

"Maybe," is all they can say, subdued.