hecu_marine | (no subject)

Traditionally, sea travel is supposed to have at least some stretch of time during which the ship's crew complement has time to stare out at the ocean and get unaccountably philosophical, or at least stare out at the ocean and speculate about things of their own choosing. The problem with this is that it requires the use of a normal shjip. When you are the commanding officer of a vessel with a built-in portal generator, there is very little reason not to go from your starting location to your final destination in the span of ten seconds, other than maybe needing to come down in open water and pick your way into the harbor to dock safely. That does not leave much time to do anything other than your immediate duty, really.

Shephard's been thinking anyway. His service's old reputation to the contrary.

There's one part of the Cheat River that's been enlarged by rockslide and flood and a dozen different things to the point where it's deep enough and wide enough to hold a ship of Borealis' size safely. Their most recent voyage left from there and hit all the major population clusters left on the planet with nearby bodies of water, distributing the most recent batch of seeds, root cuttings, and animal germ plasm taken from the pre-Combine repositories in exchange for various local products. There were a few places where defensive actions had to be undertaken, but nothing spectacular or over-long, so neither his ship nor his Marines have been particularly dinged up by the trip. (Well, except for the part where Maripyaipok's people got out the damn ants again when the Americans arrived, but that doesn't count any more.) They're back in the Cheat waters now, and they're going to spend a little down time in Rowlesburg, and then there's gonna be the usual trip back to the Greenbrier and business will resume as usual.

Maybe. Shephard's got some people to find and talk to about that.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The snow buildup in Rowlesburg isn't as bad as it is in Greenbrier Colony, but it's enough to bring all above-ground construction to a halt for the foreseeable future. Rowlesburg Below is crowded like never before, with fidgety toddlers getting into everything and harried parents trying to stop them from getting into everything.

One of the few places that isn't crowded is the tunnel near the digesters, so that's where Eleanor has retreated to with a bag of yarn and a book on crochet.

It takes Shephard a while to make his way there. He does, after all, have to say hi to his brother and his momma first; you don't just pass Kate Shephard by. Fortunately she's an understanding lady and directs him to the tunnel in question straight off.

"Damn, it'll be good when folks ain't got to live down here no more," he mutters as he makes his slightly stooped way down the passage. "Eleanor?"

Eleanor looks up and beams. "Adrian!" She puts her knitting aside and jogs over to meet him. "I didn't know you were gonna be in Rowlesburg today..."

"Got done with the Congo folks a mite early," Shephard says with a smile, and holds out his arms. "How's my favorite girl doin', anyways?"

Edited 2015-02-25 03:22 (UTC)

She all but leaps into Shephard's arms.

"Better, now that you're here."

Yeah, he's fine with that. He really is.

"Shit, I knew I'd been away too long," he says, and kisses the top of her head. "Gonna have to do somethin' about that. Town been treatin' you okay?"

"Mmm, mostly." Her smile turns wry. "Ever since word got around that I want to be a teacher, everyone wants me to babysit their kids."

Shephard shakes his head. "That kind of thing's gonna sour you on 'em by the time they git old enough to need teachers, if they ain't careful," he says. "Takin' care of yourself good, though, right?"

"Of course," Eleanor replies. "How about you? Is PIaDOS treating you all right?"

"Yeah, she's been good about that," says Shephard. "The further away from Svalbard we are, the less she frets about me, but she's takin' good care of all of us."

He considers this for a moment.

"Which ain't really the best lead-in a man could ask for, but it does kind of remind me of somethin' I wanted to talk to you about.

Eleanor pulls out of the hug a little so she can look Shephard in the eyes. She says nothing, but the lift of her eyebrows says go on.

"I been thinkin' maybe Greenbrier ain't where I ought to be livin'."

That, he thinks, will do for a start; he can explain as needed.

"Oh? What makes you say that?"

"Couple things," says Shephard. "One of 'em is, Ms. Vance made me Borealis' commanding officer. Ain't nowhere to bring that ship in White Sulphur Springs, and it ain't right to come and go between here'n there like it was some kind of office job or shit like that."

Even if it is a great excuse to push the radium-driven motorcycle's performance envelope to ridiculous degrees.

"'Nother reason is, I got people here. Nothin' against all the folks at the Greenbrier or nothin', but the ones who ain't under my command, I don't know most of 'em from Adam. Everybody I give a damn about's here."

A hesitant silence.

"...are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Edited 2015-02-25 04:09 (UTC)

"Well, see-" He rubs at the back of his neck with his gloved hand. "Thing is, I ain't told nobody else about this yet, not even Pi. Reckoned I'd best talk to you about it first'n see what you were thinkin' about the situation."

Eleanor lets out something between a laugh and a sigh.

"Adrian, I love Rowlesburg. I love everyone here, even when they're being pests. The only thing I don't like about it is that you're not here. And now you're saying you want to move back! What do you think I'm going to say?"

"In my experience it don't usually pay to take a woman's opinion for granted," Shephard points out. "That kind of shit always bites you in the ass. Good to know you're all right with the idea, though."

He might be smiling, a little, maybe.

"I'm more than 'all right' with it, you goof," says Eleanor, playfully slapping Shephard's arm.

"I c'n live with that, then," says Shephard, and smiles properly.

(As it's stupidly difficult to find an image of John Cusack smiling properly, have the laughing out loud icon instead.)

"Matter of fact I reckon I could live with that for quite some time."

"Good." Eleanor pulls close again. "Because I am going to do my level best to make sure you stick around."

"Sounds like a plan to me," says Shephard, and kisses her.

He kind of has a feeling she's not going to object.