The Beach, Sunday Morning

[not_a_whiner]

Yesterday had been busy-- getting everything settled in, finding the picnic, reporting back to Alliance HQ about his progress, getting his protein and his sleep in. This morning had started off roughly the same way-- reports, food, then exercise. Kaidan needed to get the lay of the land anyway, so he went for a run.

The problem was... that that was it. Wouldn't be teaching his class for another few days. Didn't have anything new to report back home. Downtime. Quiet time.

Maybe time to start doing that thinking he'd promised himself he'd be doing out here.

The beach was quaint. Nothing like what he was used to back home. He supposed the tall rocks recalled Virmire just a little bit, but not... really. It was quiet, though. The view wasn't too bad. So... that's where he sat down, picked a rock, rolled up the sleeves of his Alliance casuals so he wouldn't be sweating quite as much.

He took a breath, then let it go. "Okay," he said. Two... three weeks now, since Shepard died. Two months since Ash did, on Virmire. He had to start letting it percolate, except whenever he did, there was pain, right under his bones, and he couldn't even... begin to think where to start.

Quiet time. Maybe should've begged Alliance brass for a combat posting after all.

[[ open, naturalmente. ]]

Comments

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

Because someone was also insane enough to be jogging on the beach in the middle of summer, all that emo was bound to be interrupted.

"Hey."

Newbies.

[not_a_whiner]

Well, at least it was a pleasantly mono-syllabic interruption.

Kaidan looked up from the water, and promptly lost his train of thought. Sigh. Later, then. "Hey," he returned.

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

Well, it was pretty interesting water, at least?

"Lemme guess, new in town."

So many of those lately.

[not_a_whiner]

Hey, the newbie picnic had just happened. It was a likely thing.

"You could say that," Kaidan said evenly. "I was just scoping out the view."

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but how do you explain his clone? You can't.

"Right," Guy replied, looking over at the water. "Very watery."

[not_a_whiner]

...Kaidan wasn't a bio geek, but that sounded like an interesting thought experiment.

He shrugged one shoulder. "I like watery," he said. "Guess it's not for everyone."

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

"Riiiight. Guy," he said, offering a hand. "If you're gonna make a habit of moping on my jogging route, I'd like to know a name."

[not_a_whiner]

"I wasn't moping," Kaidan said - evenly, again. He'd gotten enough crap over the years that he mostly cast it off his shoulders these days. "Kaidan Alenko. Just got here. I'm representing the Systems Alliance." He got onto his feet - mostly for the purpose of taking Guy's hand and shaking it.

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

"What systems are those?"

[not_a_whiner]

"Earth and its colonies?" Kaidan offered. "I hear there's a complicated... temporal situation out here, so it might not sound familiar."

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

"Temporal and universal," Guy replied, taking a seat on the sand. Because he could. Deal with it. "I'm guessing you don't have Green Lanterns running around there."

[not_a_whiner]

"Never heard of them," Kaidan said. "Sorry."

That was as close to an invitation to talk as you were going to get, Gu.

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

"Think of 'em as cops for space. Only, instead of guns, we get jewelry," Guy replied, tapping his thumb against the green ring on his finger.

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan raised an eyebrow. "Really," he said. "Where I come from, every species patrols its own space. Unless you count the Spectres, of course."

He'd rather not think about the Spectres. Except hadn't that been the whole reason for coming out here in the first place?

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

"Spectres?" Guy asked idly. "Oh, they can control all they want. They just have to deal with us if their wars spill over into collateral damage."

[not_a_whiner]

"Council's right arm. A kind of... special forces, I guess," Kaidan said. "You get a lot of wars out in your neck of the woods?"

This was still very, very weird.

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes," he said with a shrug. "Now I'm stuck in sector 2814, where all the shit just happens on Earth. It's kind of boring."

Not really. But shhh.

[not_a_whiner]

"I don't know," Kaidan ventured. "Earth seems like a cushy posting."

Yeah. He was really starting to regret not demanding a combat posting.

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

"Earth is not the center of the universe." Literally in this case. "What'd you do to get this cushy posting then?"

And the moping. God, the moping. It was like dealing with Kyle when he was in a relationship. HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN HE DATE THAT DIE?

[not_a_whiner]

"The ship I served on got shot down," Kaidan said. He didn't have anything to hide in that respect. "So Alliance brass thought they'd give me something quiet."

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

Guy gave him a long look out of the corner of his eye. "Well, I wouldn't call this place quiet."

[not_a_whiner]

"No one's shot at me so far."

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

Guy looked up and down the beach. "You've probably jinxed us all, you know."

[not_a_whiner]

"Well, if they do start shooting," Kaidan said, reaching out with one hand so he could sink back down onto the rock he'd sat down on before, "I can handle it."

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

"I'll keep it in mind."

And possibly make Samus not talk to the guy. Oh god, he wanted to see that now.

[not_a_whiner]

"You get a lot of things coming in here and shooting at you, Guy?" Kaidan wondered.

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

"There was a time that shit mutated and attacked everyone." That counted, right?

[not_a_whiner]

"Not quite the same thing, but I guess I'll accept it," Kaidan said with a light chuckle. "I was told to be ready. But not by how much."

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

"Usually it's just annoying stuff. Like yesterday." He was still cleaning the outside of the house from all that shit. "They warned you about turning into a chick yet?"

[not_a_whiner]

"...Sorry, what?"

So no. No, Guy.

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

Guy snorted. "Yeah, happened twice to me now. You wake up the wrong gender for a weekend."

[not_a_whiner]

"I... think you might have been spending too much time on the extranet fetish sites," said Kaidan. Who had clearly never done any such thing.

[onepunchguy.livejournal.com]

Well, can't say he didn't warn the guy, right?

Guy laughed, smacking him on the arm. "Yeah, ask around about that. You get used to this. Nowhere near as bad as turning into a five year old."