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[wheyoftheadept]

[Saturday looks like hell.  She's showered, at least - her hair is wet and there's a towel around her neck, but her visible skin is covered in scrapes and bandages, and there are bags under her eyes.]

Hi, guys.  Just got back from - well, I'm gonna be real honest here and tell you my own memories are a little fucked. Jorg pulled me right outta medical to run escort on some civvie caravan.  We ran into a Stuff storm.  They tell me it's been like two months?

 [She runs a hand through her hair, wearily.] 

What have I missed?

Comments

[takenalive]

I'm actually on the small end of average sizes, as men go. I've known some who couldn't maneuver in these spaces at all. What a terrible thought.

[wheyoftheadept]

Jeez, I bet I'd rattle around one of your corridors like a bean in an empty tin. I could probably get some real good momentum going, though.

[Please be reminded that Saturday is five feet tall.]

[takenalive]

Andalites are inclined to claustrophobia. We build with more open space. It's not uncommon to use holograms to make it seem like an area is much larger than it really is.

If an area isn't too highly trafficked we build in a supportive mesh and the appropriate lighting to grow hardy grasses and other groundcover that can survive being tread on. Otherwise we simply have very different opinions about what floors should be like than humans do, apparently.

[wheyoftheadept]

[Saturday blinks, looking thoughtful.]

That sounds really nice, actually. There's not a lot of green where I grew up.

[takenalive]

All of our ships meant for more than one or two people have space and plantlife. It's the defining feature of our capital ships - one end has the bridge, the engines, the weapons, and so on, and on the other end is a module containing a field with trees and water, about a third of a mile across. We need to run through living plants to feel healthy and at peace. Besides that, literally everyone hates portable rations.

It's not all green though. Most Earth plants are somewhat monochromatic.

[wheyoftheadept]

[Saturday grows increasingly boggled, imagining this. She can see it clearly: a little patch of blue and green like hurtling through a void of stars]

[Or at least, she thought she could, until the last bit arrests her.]

"Monochoromatic? How d'you mean?"

[takenalive]

Most Earth plants are shades of brown and green. Yellow when unhealthy. Certain Andalite plants are green, but many others are variations on blue or red. Many trees bear leaves that are pink as they first grow.

[wheyoftheadept]

Oh - like everything is a flower. That sounds really pretty. [She sounds a little wistful, as she says it] Do you bring like, birds and stuff with you, too?

[takenalive]

Not on military ships, or on ecological surveys. There are some insects, but modified so that they are nonfertile or outright cannot long survive if they leave the installation, to try to forestall invasive spread. Larger animals introduce more variables, and even a Dome is a closed and limited environment.

[wheyoftheadept]

I guess that makes sense.

Anyway, how've you been? Aside from shapeshifting stinkbeasts and all.

[takenalive]

Much as I was. I suppose it was too much to hope for, that I would grow accustomed to being without a master so soon. I was years in the breaking, and I will be years in the mending, especially without mind-body healers.

[wheyoftheadept]

Hey, now, don't be hard on yourself. Not bein' at a hundred percent yet doesn't mean you ain't farther then where you started, right?

[takenalive]

I'm unsure that I have made any progress at all, in fact, except that I've managed not to sing without realizing it so often. But it seems that when I'm confined in place I stop thinking entirely.

[wheyoftheadept]

[Saturday frowns, not knowing what to say. Finally she settles for the truth.]

I wish I knew how to help. If we were back home, I'd know how get you a decent shrink, or something - I'd know someone - but I don't have anything here but me. I'm willing to listen, if you ever want to talk. If you think it might help, or somethin'.

[takenalive]

I don't imagine it would be productive. These are things that take training and an understanding of the Andalite psyche, as well as a professional distance. As with mind-body healers.

It is kind of you to offer though.

[wheyoftheadept]

You never know. Sometimes just gettin' it out helps. Not a lot of professionals where me an' my friends have been.

[takenalive]

And none where I've been, exactly. Some things don't need a direct reflection of experience.

Besides, I've already had a long period of someone knowing exactly what every thought and difficulty was.

[wheyoftheadept]

All right, then.