Room 210- Saturday morning

[seriesofbaddecisions]

Sabine was absolutely over this. She could deal well enough with the clothing disappearing- her armor hadn't counted and she'd managed to find a rash guard in a tree that meant she was at least about as covered up as she always was.

The real problem was that the weather was kind of killing all of her outlets this week. Her warehouse was too dark and stuffy to work, it was too hot for painting without a disaster, and it even felt too gross to sit and read without focusing on how gross it was. This was starting to result in her being too annoyed to try anything, and since she was up too early because it had been already too hot to sleep, she was sitting on her bed with her sketchbook and drawing the things she wanted to paint but wasn't about to chance right now.

It probably wasn't really helping.


[Door and post so, so open. This is probably your only day to ever get answers out of her, mwahaha.]

Comments

[white_oleander]

Astrid didn't have much of a problem sleeping in the heat, but she did have a problem with moving in it too much, and while she expected she'd be spending another day just soaking in the ocean, that required getting up, which she didn't feel like doing yet, she just stared up at the ceiling when she finally woke up, a while ago, trying to astral project herself somewhere cooler.

Eventually, when she couldn't ignore Sabine's movements anymore, she turned her head and looked at her roommate, almost feeling too dull to speak, but found something eventually.

"You'd think a school that can afford twice-annual luxury field trips could afford a generator for the dorms during heatwave, too..."

She was sure it was more complicated than that, but she just wanted to complain.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"They probably think it's funny to make us suffer," Sabine said with a sigh.

Yes.

"Times like this I miss being having access to ships that have temperature controls and can leave for a few days."

[white_oleander]

"Where would you go?" asked Astrid, turning her eyes back up to the ceiling, her hand drapped across her stomach clad in the swim-suit she'd basically been living in these past few days, ready to paint the scene of Sabine's answer on the blank space there in her mind. "If you could?"

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Wherever the supply run would be," Sabine said with a shrug. "Probably Lothal. Where doesn't matter as much as getting people help."

She did frown at that. She wasn't sure she'd ever talked about that outside of one of those trips, so she wasn't sure why she was volunteering it now. Maybe the heat was melting her brain.

[white_oleander]

Astrid's head tilted a little at that, before she turned her head to look across the room at Sabine again.

"I figured you would have just said 'wherever it's cold,'" she admitted. "That's a much..." There seemed to be a pause, as if her brain didn't know what word to use. "...nicer answer."

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Is it? I don't think anyone's ever told me I've had a nice answer," Sabine said, setting her book down.

[white_oleander]

"It is a nice answer, though." Astrid turned her head away again, shrugging slightly. "You thought of helping people first, instead of just what would be more comfortable. I definitely wouldn't have answered with helping people."

[seriesofbaddecisions]

A few years ago the answer might have been different, and then this place went ahead and stuck that seed in her brain.

"What would you have answered?"

[white_oleander]

"Wherever it's cold," said Astrid, sending a faint grin over at Sabine before she found the answer turning into something a little...more truthful, even though her first response wasn't false, either. "Probably Iceland. Remember that trip? Before I left...I think about that trip a lot, and what would have happened if I just stayed there and didn't come back..."

There was a slight pause.

"I wanted to stay there..."

[seriesofbaddecisions]

The other thing was, there were a lot of things Sabine hadn't asked, either, because once Astrid got back it was clear things weren't okay and then she wasn't sure she should ask.

"Why did you want to stay that bad?"

[white_oleander]

And then there was another thing still, that sometimes, the truth was so complicated that, even when you suddenly found yourself compelled to tell it, you just didn't even know how to find the right words.

Especially when you never even had your own words.

"Because then I wouldn't have to come back," Astrid said, staring again at the ceiling with some small level of horror that she was even saying anything. "But probably wouldn't matter. A whole country and twenty-seven years wasn't far enough; what difference would an extra ocean make?"

Apparently, there were words after all, once Astrid never expected to be spoken outloud to anyone. So then she was very still, as if, if she didn't move, maybe Sabine wouldn't have noticed.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

Normally Sabine would respect that this was not the time for her to ask more leading questions, and she wanted to. She really did. But she'd also had questions, so unfortunately what she said was, "What are you trying so hard to get away from?"

[white_oleander]

Astrid tried to say something to dismiss that question, she tried to think of something else to say to swing the conversation away.

"My mother," was all that came out.

And then she sucked in a deep breath as if she'd spoken some curse that would now send the fires of hell roaring through their bedroom or that would cause the walls to come crashing down. Or even worse, summon the woman herself with her calculating smile and her impossible to escape gravity.

"I'm sorry," she then said, meaning it in several ways, because it was not only difficult to talk about Ingrid, but also dangerous. "I really don't want to talk about it."

Despite the fact that she apparently was compelled to.

[unusual_sith]

Lana was, by now, down to a sports bra and shorts, and even using the Force to regulate her temperature...well, she could only keep it up for so long.

She looked into Sabine's room, nodded at Astrid, and groaned a bit theatrically. "It's as hot as Korriban out there, and nearly as humid as Dromund Kaas. If the power doesn't come back soon, I'm writing home to requisition a generator."

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"How long would that take and can you make it faster?" Sabine asked.

Not that she was suddenly worried about anything when she kept talking this morning.

[unusual_sith]

"That probably depends on what sort of mood Darth Vowrawn is in," Lana said. "I try not to annoy any Councillor more than necessary."

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"I can't blame you. I'd always feel like I was walking on eggshells," Sabine said.

Which she probably wouldn't have said outright normally.

[unusual_sith]

Lana, on the other hand, saw nothing unusual about it.

"More like dancing on them, but yes. I was going to give it one more day. How have you been doing?"

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Not good! For some reason everything I don't want to say is falling out of my mouth and I hate it."

Sabine facepalmed.

[unusual_sith]

Lana frowned. "How do you mean?"

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"I mean Astrid ran off before we could start talking about families," Sabine said. "This is my least favorite day."

She'd rather be a toy. She'd rather face a goat man. She'd rather a whole summer in radiation over actually talking.

[unusual_sith]

"This is a Fandom thing?" Lana asked. "I don't remember this one." But then, outside of Sith politics, she believed in saying what she meant.

"Do you want me to go?" she offered. "I won't deny I'd be curious to ask you a lot of things, but I'd rather not damage our relationship."

Well, okay, she had rather meant to say 'friendship', so maybe there was something to this.

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"I don't want you to go. It's just hard," she said.

She should probably go.

But before she could stop herself, Sabine asked, "What are you curious about?"

[unusual_sith]

"Everything," Lana said. "How you grew up, what your time is like...what you plan on doing when we graduate, where you see us going..." She shrugged. "But I don't want you to tell me anything you'll regret."

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"I appreciate that," Sabine said, and realized, "That's a lot of things."

Maybe she was even less forthcoming than she thought.