Trooper Station | Saturday

[knife_bender]

Diego had noticed the plaques when he came into work today. How couldn't he? He was surprised to find he actually had one, though a frown quickly followed when he read it.

"Most Improved, what the hell does that mean?" It didn't help there was a little umbrella etched into it either. It felt like his father was mocking him.

At least his name was spelled right.

[Open!]

Comments

[defenderofdesmoines]

What a shock: a text from Annie came through.

good morning from space.

She was calling it morning because Annie had just woken up and was drinking magic space coffee, but who knew what time it actually was. Space was weird.

[knife_bender]

Diego was happy to get Annie's text. For one, he was always happy to hear from her. Secondly, it kept him from getting into a fight with Ralph over the size of his plaque. A plaque measuring contest, if you will.

Good morning from Earth. Is space everything you hoped it would be?

[defenderofdesmoines]

honestly there's been a lot more trash than I expected?

Seriously, that last planet was like an early 90s PSA about pollution.

but I'm drinking space coffee on a spaceship right now so it's pretty cool. how's the island?

[knife_bender]

Boring. I miss you

Guys. It had been like a day.

[defenderofdesmoines]

I miss you too. ♥ ♥ ♥

Like seriously. It had maybe been one full day. Come on.

did you water our plant friend? She was pretty sure that was going to be a no, but see how she was helpfully reminding him? And also anthropomorphizing the plant while she was at it because why not.

[knife_bender]

I will when I get off work.

So yeah he totally forgot.

See anything cool in space yet aside from trash and coffee?

[defenderofdesmoines]

That seemed like a prime opportunity to send him the selfie she had taken with her new best friend the bear monster yesterday.

This is Chewy. Of course she didn't know it ended in an -ie. She didn't even know it was short for anything.

[knife_bender]

What the hell is that? Seriously, what the hell was that? If it was a pet it was the biggest pet Diego had ever seen.

[defenderofdesmoines]

he's something called a wookie and also my new best friend.

Seriously, she loved him. But she also might change her tune once she met BB-8.

we carried stuff out of the base onto the ship together yesterday. And Annie took some pride in how she'd been almost able to keep up with a freaking bear monster alien thing in terms of what she could haul around. (It had been a fairly wide margin of 'almost' but still.)

[knife_bender]

Should I be jealous? Kidding! You could tell because he used the goofy face emoji and everything. Aw yeah, he was an emoji man now.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Aww, Annie was so proud of him for improving his texting game! He had come so far.

I mean he speaks entirely in yelling growly noises but true love can overcome any language barrier, probably.

Which was swiftly followed by: idk though he's kind of hairy. might be a dealbreaker.

Accompanied by the winky face, just in case he couldn't tell she was kidding, too.

[knife_bender]

There go my dreams of growing a beard.

Oh the long hair and beard days were coming, just you wait.

[defenderofdesmoines]

It's more the REST of the hair. I think you'd look nice with a beard if you wanted one.

Ugh thinking about his cute face just made her miss him more.

(Again: one day.)

[knife_bender]

So is that guy like Rey's friend or something? He could relate to being friends with hairy dudes. Look at Pogo.

[defenderofdesmoines]

yes and she understands him, somehow. Annie genuinely was kind of actually jealous of that. there was a pit beast yesterday, too, though I didn't actually see it. kinda getting a crash course in alien creatures.

Surprise, they were not short or grey or large-eyed, so far.

[knife_bender]

I'm kind of jealous you're getting to meet all these aliens.

If only he knew that he was raised by one.

[defenderofdesmoines]

I asked Rey if the new base might be full of space spiders and she said not to be surprised about the creatures and that the pit beast was harmless.

Which, you know, she'd let it go but that hadn't been the definitive, 'no, there aren't any space spiders, Annie,' that she'd wanted.

so like don't be too jealous. I might get eaten by a pit beast or a space spider or something, still. Probably not, though.

[knife_bender]

I would prefer you not to be eaten by beasts or spiders, please That probably went without saying.

[defenderofdesmoines]

I'll be careful, just for you. And also, like, her own well-being in general.

the last planet was super gross and the new one is a forest, I guess? so I'm kinda hoping this new one has cute aliens if anything. Like more space raccoons more than space spiders.

[knife_bender]

Space raccoons could have space rabies!

I'm glad you're getting a chance to sightsee while helping Rey move.

Because, really, most of the time when you helped somebody move you just got a free pizza out of it.

[defenderofdesmoines]

That had been what Annie had expected, really! It was kind of disappointing how there was no free pizza, though the magic space coffee (fine, caf) was kind of in the same vein, at least.

only a little. mostly it's been hauling stuff around and sleeping on the floor of this spaceship.

Followed by: but, you know, spaceship, so I'm not complaining. Because that part was still cool, even if she had slept terribly and was still in her blanket nest.

[knife_bender]

Wow and right now my biggest problem is having the big bed to myself. Just rub it in, Diego.

[defenderofdesmoines]

He got a whole text that was just a dozen sad faces in a row for that.

sounds lonely. At least her sad spaceship floor situation was kind of like a slumber party, even if her neck was killing her.

[knife_bender]

Yeah turns out our plant friend isn't exactly fun to be around.

Very silent, that one.

[defenderofdesmoines]

I would kind of worry if it was. And now she was worried the plant was going to end up becoming sentient at some point.

Something to look out for.

hopefully I'll be back soon? because that bed sounds awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwesome right now not gonna lie

Yes, Annie included just enough Ws there to not break it into two texts. She really wanted to get her point across.

[knife_bender]

You know, that did get the point across. And it made him smile.

Twoish more days? We can handle this.

[defenderofdesmoines]

we def can. Unless something went wrong or she got eaten by a space spider, which seemed unlikely. I would say to keep your schedule free but tbh I'm so tired already that I might be bad company.

Mostly just sleepy, cuddly company. Oh, no, everyone hated that.

[knife_bender]

I'll keep my hands to myself and let you sleep, I promise.

After she woke up was a whole different story.

[defenderofdesmoines]

way to somehow make me miss you more.

Because seriously, she had wanted to be in the bed before his hands were even mentioned, sigh.

will show you how much when I'm all well-rested. See, she could make promises, too.