Streets of Fandom, Sunday Morning

[okteiviakom]

It was early in the morning, at least for a Sunday.

And Octavia was out, roaming the streets. Or at least walking around, eyeing everything with the kind of wary looks that you gave things when you weren't quite sure you could trust any of it. Or believe it, even. None of this was what she was used to.

And maybe she looked it, in her warrior gear.

She stopped at a shop window at random. The place was closed right now, but there was a window display full of merchandise, and it looked so foreign and alien to her. Not the things themselves – although comic books and collectible figurines also weren't really within the scope of Octavia's life experience – but the way they were being displayed so proudly behind a glass for seemingly no reason.

Look, she understood what shops were. She just wasn't used to them.

So she was frowning at the window of a comic book store. That was not weird at all.

[ooc: Open! Feel free to run into the wary warrior lady either outside Android's Dungeon or just somewhere in the streets.]

Comments

[retired_hero]

"Hello," Anne called with a smile. She had been getting a lot better at getting out for some fresh air in the mornings. Before the summer heat really started beating down. Still, it was warm enough for short sleeves, which made it even harder to miss the fact that her left arm was just gone at the shoulder.

Anne was still a little bit self-conscious about that, but was finally starting to get used to it.

"I'm not even sure that they're open on Sundays," she pointed out, trying to be helpful.

[okteiviakom]

"I noticed," Octavia replied dryly. "It doesn't matter, I wasn't interested in going in anyway."

Except maybe she was a tiny bit curious. But not enough to be thinking about coming back on purpose when it was open.

[retired_hero]

"Yeah?" Anne looked at the window herself. "Actually, I've never been in myself, but now I feel like I should check their hours." Because, why not? It actually looked kind of interesting.

She glanced at Octavia curiously, clearly noticing her outfit, but she didn't say anything else for the moment.

[okteiviakom]

Much like Octavia had taken note of Anne's missing arm, but wasn't drawing attention to it. Wasn't her business.

"Why?" she asked. "It doesn't look like they have anything useful."

[retired_hero]

"I know." Anne grinned slightly. "I've been trying to learn to appreciate things that aren't useful recently. Got a houseplant and everything."

It was quite pretty?

"Though I suppose that's probably not for everyone."

[okteiviakom]

"A houseplant?"

Funnily enough, those hadn't been a thing on the Ark (not counting Farming Station, obviously). And even less so on the ground.

[retired_hero]

"Yeah. You know, just one of those plants that sits on a table and looks nice?" She shrugged. "I think it was a good thing that I got one that doesn't take much work to care for, though. Turns out sometimes I forget to water it."

[okteiviakom]

"Well, if it's not dong anything useful..." Octavia replied, trailing off and shrugging like it was obvious. A pointless thing was pointless.

It was going to be a while before doing things for the hell of it – or having things just because they looked nice – were going to start making sense. It was a post-dystopia problem.

[retired_hero]

"Well, it looks nice?" Anne shrugged a bit helplessly. She was still figuring out the house plant thing herself.

"Sounds like you don't do a lot of things that aren't useful." Which was something Anne could sort of understand.

[okteiviakom]

"It's been a long time since I had the time."

Or the opportunity. But maybe that was a little too private.

[retired_hero]

"Now that's a feeling I know." Anne smiled a bit wistfully. "Up until I ended up here on the island, free time wasn't something I really had."

[okteiviakom]

Oh, hey. This looked like a chance for Octavia to not talk about herself. She was going to take it.

And she was genuinely curious. "Did you come here by choice?"

[retired_hero]

"Yeah."

Wait.

Anne frowned slightly at Octavia.

"You didn't?"

[okteiviakom]

Well so much for not talking about herself.

"No," she said, tone dry and expression impassive. "One minute I was in the woods there, the next I was in the woods here."

[retired_hero]

Yeah. Anne might even be sorry about that if she'd realized Octavia's intention.

"Well."

Anne shook her head, her frown deepening.

"That's disconcerting. Are you stuck, now, or did you figure out how to get back to wherever you were?"

[okteiviakom]

"My brother's been here for over a year." So hey, silver lining! Ish. Kind of. "He says there's no way back. He's tried."

[retired_hero]

"That sucks."

"Oh, not your brother being here. That's good. But being stuck..."

Anne grimaced.

"Do you have more family that's waiting for you back wherever your from?"

[okteiviakom]

Ahahaha. Now there was a loaded and complicated topic.

Good thing Octavia was so stony-faced to begin with. "No. It's just the two of us."

[retired_hero]

"Well, at least you're together?"

Anne considered that for a moment, then sighed. "Though I suppose that's cold comfort when you're so far away from everyone you know."