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[Random the Navigator]

It was hard to tell which was spinning more as Ash linked out: her mind or the slowly decelerating rings around the head of her cradle.  She'd left her Avatar - Seze, she reminded herself - at Hometree; she'd link back in tomorrow and ride a Pa'li back to the shack complex.  So for tonight she had her mind to herself...a mind and spirit that had been both blown wide open and brutally humbled by her day with the Tompa'tanhi.

Today she had ( ~ kinda, sorta, ~  she thought) communed with a hot spring.  She had glimpsed for herself at least a little of what Enya felt about "floating blue."  She'd been given a startling new vision of what it was to be a Clan, and permission to try the thing for herself ( ~ right here, right now, with people who can throw me quite a bit farther than they can trust me, ~  she sighed).  She had sat with the Tsahiks, and this time really listened - even when what they said stripped away her pretenses, her notions of her own expertise ( ~ or even competence! ~  she inwardly griped), the inherent superiority of science, or that of the culture in which she was raised.  It'd hurt, but it was a healthy pain; as Ni'ka had said, more or less, it was like reopening an infected wound to let out the pus.

~ But so much pus... ~  She'd come to know the depth of the wound in her spirit, one formed in her childhood by conditions she couldn't help.  Could she have helped the ugliness it'd made inside of her?  Her pride, her self-importance, her pessimism, her need to play the savior - all a cover for a deep sense of inadequacy and the fear that she wasn't earning her keep?  Was that the crack in her armor that the Red had gotten through?

She'd been excused from the mission.  The world was still in danger, but she was to be no part of the solution...  No, that wasn't right.  She had brought the mission (not even her own!) as far as she could - even with her disadvantages, even with the shard in her body or its influence still in her spirit - and delivered it to the Tsahiks who, much better-qualified for the task, would carry it the rest of the way.  She was actually rather relieved about that; the fate of Pandora would no longer be up to her bumbling.  Her only task now: to be a child at play, in a way she'd never been able to while she was actually a child.

The Tsahiks had taken her suggestion that they go together to the Heart of Eywa, the better to strengthen the World-spirit.  That felt good.  She actually had been useful, had come up with something new that could help the situation.  ~ Yay me? ~

But...she hadn't gotten to go along.  Her need to heal inside would just have to wait until the Tsahiks had taken care of business.  That left her here, in this place, at this time, with these people who had all been waiting ( ~ albeit without much hope ~, she was certain) for Na'vie or Eywa to straighten her out, and it hadn't happened, and it wasn't going to happen anytime soon, and how could she face them in the morning?  And that  felt bottom-of-the-sludge-heap awful.

So many conflicting emotions, and she'd seldom opened herself up to her feelings; so of course it always got messy when she did, because she'd never really learned how to manage them.  But she had a more immediate dilemma:

How was she going to explain this day to Rick?  And how was she going to explain it to the others, when she could barely explain it to herself?

She sat up slowly as the link unit's canopy opened: ~ Venus on the half-shell, ~  she smirked.  Swinging her legs over the edge, she felt something tickling her face - a tear, surprising perhaps, yet emblematic of the world's condition and her own.  Was it the sorrows or the beauties of the day that had brought it out?

She caught the scent of pan-fried egg substitute and cinnamon-tinctured coffee, decided for "beauties", and made her unsteady way to the habmod.

[Kiyevanie]

"So, if I maybe...." Rick scratched his head and stared his bare - and definitely slightly oversized - foot again.

By now everyone but the guards had petered off to their assorted hammocks, cots and sleeping mats. Rick, not knowing if and when Ash would link out had offered to take the last watch, the one before the lights went up again. But once he had closed the door of the habmod he had realized he was way too nervous to head to bed and get some sleep; a rare occurance for someone who was used to take a nap whenever he got a chance. But not today... there was so much on the line here. He hoped with all his heart that the trip to hometree, and hopefully to the Heart, would help Ash with whatever still haunted her; physically, mentally and spiritually.

Of all the people in their little group maybe he was the one who could see the change in her the most, as he knew her for the longest time. Sure, she had been determined right from the start, but there had been the playful side, the side who could laugh with him about silly things like Na'vi warriors dressing him up in a loincloth after too much of... how was that stuff called again? The tender side. The side that had coaxed a scared Changed Na'vi girl out of her shell... All those little facets of Ash's personality that had her made his friend and later turn that friendship into more. Rick knew that this part of Ash was still there, he could still feel it, but he also had noticed how she had drawn back, hardened, almost switched into obsession and how it put strain on everyone, including Ash herself.

So it wasn't much of a wonder that he couldn't find much rest and tried to keep his hands and mind occupied. He started with a thorough cleaning of their living space, prepared a snack and some coffee for Ash, just in case, and finally run out of useful things to do, so - in a more or less last-ditch effort to distract himself - he tried to figure out a solution for his footwear issue. Rationally he knew that asking Brenda would be a much better solution, but just for tonight trying different kind of footwraps kept him busy for a bit.

Then he heard the noise of the linkpod opening, the rings of the machine slowing down. He took a breath, put down the abused piece of fabric he had been working with, got up and picked up the mug of coffee, slowly making his way over to the linkpod. "Hey, sleeping beauty", he said, offering the coffee. "How are things at Hometree?"

[Random the Navigator]

[OOC:] "Who's on First?" check:

  Tall Brenda - On night watch
  Kenten - Courtyard (tending fire)

  'Iheyu -    Tsanten's module
  Tali -           "
  Tsanten -   "  (of course)
  Pippin -       "  (in egg)

  Ash - Shack (linked out)
  Rick -      "
 
  Tangek -   Cabin (sleeping)
  Enya -         " (sleeping harder)
  Silronsem -  "

  Brenda -  B-Shack (linked in)

[Random the Navigator]

They met in the passageway between the habitation module and the link shack.  Ash answered Rick's greeting by more or less stumbling into his arms, emitting a huge exhalation, and going limp on his shoulder as if all the air had gone out of her.  "C'n we talk 'bout that ov'r brk'fss?" she mumbled, her voice muffled by his clothing; then, straightening up, she gave him a watery smile and said "Seze's had several, but me? --Just the one, and I'm jealous."

[Kiyevanie]

It would have taken a denser man than Rick to notice that Ash was not just exhausted and hungry but also looked shaken up and confused. Not angry, but somehow... vulnerable?
He took another breath, squeezed her shoulder and then placed her on the least uncomfortable seat they had, put the mug in front of her and nodded. "Breakfast coming up in a few." Even if that just meant putting the eggs in the heater, toasting some bread and dissolving some freezedried orange powder in water. He put all the breakfast stuff in front of her, poured himself some coffee too and sat down beside her. Now that Ash was back his patience was too.

[Random the Navigator]

Ash took several moments to nurse her coffee mug, letting it warm her hands and chest before actually taking a sip.  In those moments she almost seemed to be communing with the hot liquid...and after today in the hot springs, maybe she was.  Perhaps her thoughts ran through the grounds much the same way the water had that it was made with.  These came from a bean, which came from a bush or a tree, which had grown on a patch of ground in a particular country that particular people called home, some for millennia longer than others.  Or, given the much greater likelihood that the freeze-dried crystals were a synthetic concoction...well, weren't the chemicals in it ultimately derived from nature too, from the life of the Earth, even if they had made extra stops in various labs between there and here?

...Ahh, she didn't really have the patience to pursue the thought further.  But the fact that she could even form it was a good sign that she didn't lose everything she'd taken into herself today when she linked out.

So now she wolfed her meal, then considered what she'd actually been asked.  "It's...a lot different than the last time we came," she began.  "Some ways you'd expect, but others...  Umm, I don't have the words for that right now; maybe I'll be able to give you a full rundown in the morning, but it felt kinda...directionless, I guess; everybody just trying to get through the day and keep their little ones warm.  Mostly hunters and healers there now, with just enough crafters to sustain them.  The Olo'eyktan's out of commish..."  She paused, too tired to try to summon up the images, the conversations, or especially the emotions; she couldn't handle those right now, so she didn't share anything but the bare fact.

"To the extent anyone's keeping things together, it's mostly the Tsahiks," she continued.  Then she smiled a little: "I told them my idea, about everyone going to the Heart.  They said they'd been considering it themselves.  First time we've been on the same wavelength since...ever? --Anyway, they're going.  Ni'ka too, since she can be around the shard and I can't..."

And she stalled out; that was as close as she could come to admitting she'd been sent home, which she was still struggling to think of as anything but a failure.

[Kiyevanie]

Rick’s eyes widened at those news – none of them good ones. “Jeez, reminds me of something Tangek said today”, he said. “Divide the clan and the parts are suffering… it’s the same here too, we make do, but it’s straining and not just for the lack of manpower. And I wonder how the refugee camp is doing. It’s hurting their spirits.” He sighed. “And the Olo’eyktan too?” He remembered the man from when he had sent them out on their mission. Old, yes, and worried, but also with an inner strength and wisdom he had admired. No, not good news here. And nothing they could do about, at least not now. It just made what Tangek had said, about them losing their roots, so much more important.

Then he focused on the facts so much closer to home. “So Ni’ka’s going with the Tsahiks”, he mused, then reached for Ash’s hand. “And you can’t…” He hesitated, clearly noticing how Ash had just stuck to the facts, covering the feelings beneath that. It was true, it probably wasn’t a good idea to let Ash travel that close to the shard, but there had been another reason why she had wanted to go to the Heart.

There was the elephant in the room. If Ash couldn’t go to the Heart, would she be able to fight off the last traces of Vrrtep’s mental venom? “What else did the Tsahik’s say?”, he asked. “Do they have any idea how to help you?” For now he tried to keep to the facts too - he had seen this kind of brittle self control before and was afraid that if he dug too deep too fast Ash's control might shatter. He'd deal with that too, but he didn't want to be the one to poke in a wound that probably hurt bad enough already.

Plus, he felt the beginning of dread forming in the pit of his stomach, although none of it showed on his face or in his posture. He was a former soldier, a fighter, a warrior. But the influence of this damn demon, that was something he couldn't fight, not in the physical world, not besides being there for Ash and supporting her. So he was totally okay with leaving this fight to the experts, and that were the Tsahiks for now. If the trip to the Heart was off the table, at least for now, was there something else they could do? He fervently hoped so.

[Random the Navigator]

Ash took Rick's hand in one of her own, then smacked herself on the forehead with the other one.  "God, I'm a mess!" she exclaimed.  "I did this the last time we went to Hometree, too, for my operation...I thought I was sharing news, but I left out all the good parts!"  Of course Rick's immediate reaction had been to worry; he'd probably been worrying himself sick over her all day, and it'd been a long day, and the last time he'd seen her she was only several hours removed from her last  bout of rabies.  "There's a vaccine for that..." she finished the thought aloud with a rueful smile; it was only a non-sequitur to Rick.

"Hokay," she began again, this time with a bit more animation in her voice and face.  "See, the thing about the Clan...  We had a chat with Ra'nah; Ni'ka and I did.  We told him all the good news I didn't mention last time, like about Enya and Na'vie, and about the Blessing...  And I'd been curious whether Hometree had felt the Blessing too.  Short version: It has, in a lot of little ways; but mostly I think now the Clan can believe again.

"But Ra'nah got his own Blessing, like everyone else did, and his Blessing was some wisdom about the Clan.  He said 'The life of the Clan is no longer with me or with Hometree, but with its outliers.'  As in, the families who've left Hometree.  The refugees at that settlement, and maybe others.  Maybe even us, and he thinks we should join them.  It just about blew my mind when he said that...  I'd always thought that a Clan wasn't a Clan without a Hometree.  But there's just a skeleton crew there now, and yet the life of the Clan continues...  Wherever they are, whatever they're up to, they're still the Tompa'tanhi."

She'd slowed down on her coffee, but finished it all the same.  Now, just to feel her body do something for a change, she stood up and poured herself a second cup, helping herself to two pieces of toast.  She stirred in her choice of seasonings slowly, meditatively, while considering the connection between what she'd said so far and what she was about to.

Finally she returned to the little fold-away table and made herself dip up the coffee with the toast.  So much of her lesson today had been to slow down, and she was finding that it really did help her normally fretful mind.

"Which sort of gets to 'What'll we do until it's my turn to see Na'vie again?'..." she said with the merest suggestion of a twinkle in her eyes.

[Kiyevanie]

The cold lump in Rick's stomach started to get a little lighter, on several levels. "You should tell Tangek and the others", he said, wincing a bit at the thought. "I know the two of you don't get along that well at the moment, but that's news he needs to hear - every one does, but something tells me he needs it most. And I think it could help with a lot of decisions they are fighting with. Not just Tangek, the others too. They do feel lost. And spread thin." He rubbed his neck. "About moving... it came up today again and sure is something to talk about with everyone. It'd sure be good for Enya and Ni'ka too." There'd be a crapload of logistics to think about, but right now that didn't matter at all.

He closed his eyes for a second. "And you will get to see Na'vie, just not now, right?" The lump lightened a little bit more. The time till then probably wouldn't be easy, but what about the last weeks had been easy to begin with? There was a then, it seemed and for now that was a bit of hope and perspective.

Then he smirked at Ash's last question. "Oh - about what we'll do until then, we'll have our hands full, even if we decide to stay here for now. For once we've been starting to redecorate the camp and aren't done by far... and we got a new kiddo. Well... kind of. He's still in his egg." For a moment his eyes again showed the wonder of today's events and he decided that sharing the good parts was important for all of them. In dark times like these every little spark of light mattered.

"When we were gathering material we ran into Ni'tingal. She laid her egg and was rather miserable with everything. Enya raced up to her - giving everyone besides Tali a minor heart attack -, found out what was going on and in the end we - with some very fast talking from Iheyu - could convince her to come here and let us help with her offspring. Currently the little guy's in our makeshift medbay", he pointed a thumb in the direction of Tangek's shack, "being warm and cozy."

Then he took a deep breath. "Okay, I'll ask straight away: how are you feeling with everything? Is there something you want to do until it's your turn?" He raised a brow with a twinkle of his own. "You could always join in the lessons I intend to take on survival while living off the land."

[Random the Navigator]

"Definitely tell Tangek," Ash concurred.  "After  I bring Seze home tomorrow evening.  We'll have to ride, you see, and until she's back I don't even want anyone to know I'm here...  Can we just take tomorrow off from everything?  Maybe brief everyone over supper at the fire?  I know I can behave around them; they seemed to like me at that meeting in the cabin, and I didn't screw up too badly with the Tsahiks today even if they did show me things about myself that made me want to cry."  She still wasn't ready to admit that she actually had.  "Not all those things were bad," she clarified.  "You can be moved to tears just by feeling that you've finally been understood.  But a lot happened inside me at Hometree, and I could use a day to let it all settle.  Heck, once I'm properly rested I might even be able to explain it to you..."

Again she favored Rick with a weary smile, a testament to her mental exhaustion if nothing else.  Her brain was full, her Being was full, and she was just trying her best to address his immediate concerns before she collapsed for the night.  That being the case, if anything he said about current events at the shack complex registered with her, she didn't show it; she simply could not take in anything else.

"...but Yes, I will get to see Na'vie again," she finished, answering one of Rick's questions and leading right into the other.  "And until I do, well, the Tsahiks and the Olo'eyktan did kinda give me some homework - and I do mean 'home work'.  And it's gonna involve all of us, or as many of us as are willing to put up with me leaning over their shoulders.  Basically, everyone agrees that I'm a child in all this, and that I've had no business trying to shoulder the fate of Pandora by myself, or even by ourselves, me and you.  They kind of regard us as war heroes or something for carrying the effort as far as we have, and in my case with so much working against me, the shard only being the latest..."  She shuddered, then recovered.  "So they want me to just kick around here and detox, learn to be that child like I never got to growing up, and let the grownups - the Tsahiks and the Clans - take it from here."

Her smile warmed and finally made it all the way to her eyes.  "And you know what that's gonna do? --It's gonna make me as strong against that fucking Red shit as Enya is.  She's growing and learning and loving and healing right in its face - and we all remember how she came back from her dreamwalk with the Suns in her pockets."

[Kiyevanie]

Finally Ash's tiredness and exhaustion made it through Rick's worry. It wasn't as if he had seen that expression on others before, it was just that he had had a long day himself and had been too focused on any news to really recognize it. He shook his head at himself and smacked his forehead. "I'm a skxwang!", he declared, using the one Na'vi word that had quickly made it into the barracks at the Gate. "You gotta be tired as hell after everything. Go and get some sleep there and then ride home tomorrow - we can talk once you're back, rested and up to it."

He smiled a bit ruefully. "Ya know - I won't claim to get everything you just said, and we should get into that once you're back as well, but the idea of some downtime sounds great. It's been a few crazy weeks." He raised a brow. "Should I tuck you in then?"

[Random the Navigator]

Ash's bow creased, whether in confusion or sudden annoyance it was hard to tell.  She wholeheartedly agreed with everything Rick had said ( ~ including the part about being a skxawng, ~ she thought, remembering his, to date, utter failure to keep her in line when she needed it).  But there was something she needed to straighten out with him before she went to bed, and not being her drill instructor wasn't it...

Oh.  That.

"Sure, Tarzan, and you can carry me to my bunk while you're at it," she grinned, blushing a little.  "But there's one more thing...  Rick?  If my eyes turn red again, please don't freak; it's emotion-based, so just tell me they're pretty and sing me a lullaby or tell me a boring story or something, 'k?  I have it on Ngatapa's authority that it works wonders, and he's instructed all his warriors to do the same.  God, that's embarrassing!"  And she toppled forward, laughing.

[Kiyevanie]

"You won't want me singing to calm you down", Rick quipped, rising a brow, while he kept Ash from falling. "Wars have started for lesser reasons..." He suddenly grinned. "But I guess I have an idea." Reciting the military rulebook for recruits had brought whole generations of said recruits to deep sleep - better than any lullaby he'd ever heard of.
More serious he added, "Ngatapa has no idea how grateful I am for that info - those red eyes had me worried. But I deeply trust his instincts and knowledge here."

Several minutes later found both humans in their respective bunks. While Ash had fallen asleep the moment her head hit the pillow Rick needed a few moments to get the last traces of adrenaline out of his system. There had been many things in Ash's words he hadn't really and fully understood. Well, there was time for the whole coherent story tomorrow - or the day after. If he had understood everything right the two off them were off schedule right now, at least from saving the world business. Hopefully that meant that they'd have time to sort out a few things. The last weeks had been spent almost continuously in alert mode, physically, mentally and spiritually and everybody in this little ragtag camp sorely needed as much of downtime as they could get.

He had felt some change in Ash this last hour or so... not that he could point a finger on it yet, but it felt as if the certain sharpness that had everyone on their toes was gone, or at least mellowed. He hoped with all his heart that this was true and not just caused by her exhaustion. He hoped it for him, for their friends - and most of all he hoped it for Ash herself.

And who was Seze, by the way? Wondering about that question he finally fell asleep too.

[Random the Navigator]

  -:-  -:-  -:-

The crack of the next morning's dawn found Ash dead to the world.  This was a condition she shared with almost everyone except for the healers in Tsanten's module (Tangek, about to relieve 'Iheyu); Silronsem, who was tending the fire; and the irrepressable Tali, who was doing his best to make a batch of Enya-style arepas.  Everyone else was still tuckered from helping camouflage the shacks, their soreness and fatigue perhaps a reflection of the less athletic lives they were living in this man-made place.  As there was little hunting to be had anywhere nearby, a day's work now was mostly measured in worry and time, not so much in physical effort.  A restlessness was building up within them, one felt first by Tangek but that had since had time to spread.

Also awake but nowhere near the compound was Avatar Brenda, fresh off night-watch and now foraging in a different area than the one she'd visited yesterday.  In this one she'd planted many of the nuts and seeds from her rations in the hopes that they would grow in the kinds of places they usually did.  They were not sown neatly in rows, but placed in fertile spots such as fungus patches, moss beds, or between the roots of trees.  She had sheltered them against the wind and occasionally fertilised them with Pa'li dung, but otherwise left them to the world's and Eywa's devices.  The ones that survived and grew would provide more forage when they bore fruit or spores or seedheads, some of which would be saved to become more berry bushes, herbs, and nut-bearing trees.

All this, she knew, would take a while to happen, and the crisis might well be over by then.  But if the little group at the compound didn't end up needing them, at least she was giving back to the world something of what mankind had taken from it.

Holding on to that thought, she adjusted the pair of "shades" she'd made for herself from thin mica and Ni'ka's spare flight visor, smiled a little, and made her way to the next "veggie patch".

[Kiyevanie]

Slowly the first rays of light filtered through the windows of the habmod, reaching to the sleeping area. Rick woke up with a start, realizing he had actually overslept. He cautiously peeked to the side where Ash was sleeping, only to find her still out cold to the world. Not that it was a surprise, she had been exhausted last night and he guessed she'd sleep for a good while longer.
Quietly to not disturb her he rolled out of bed, grabbed a fresh set of clothes and made for the bathroom for a quick but thorough scrub. He had no idea what this day would bring - hopefully a few more answers, a few more details...

... and coffee! Whatever they'd be discussing today would go down better with coffee! And who knew - maybe the scent would even raise Ash from the realm of sleep. A few minutes later found Rick standing by the other window, mug in hand, staring out and realizing that everyone else had must have been quite as tired as him and Ash. Village life started early - just not today.

[Random the Navigator]

  -:-  -:-  -:-

Brenda, too, noticed the rising of the Lesser Sun.  She knew the Greater Sun, the other star of Alpha Centauri's binary system, would follow within the hour; she had until then to make her way to some shady spot for the day.  True, her 'sunglasses' had extended her operational limits by a couple of hours, but they still wouldn't shield her from the stronger light of the combined stars, even under the crisis' perpetual overcast.  If she got caught out, she could always find a denser patch of forest and get her "night's" sleep up some tree.  But trees weren't as leafy as they used to be, and anyway she had pending business back at the shack complex.

She wondered if Ash was "home" (linked out), for starters; quite possibly she was, as Brenda hadn't heard the link unit running when she'd headed out.  She wondered what Ash's brain scans from yesterday looked like.  Had there been any problems with the link?  Had she had  "an intense religious experience", as everyone hoped?  Did Rick know where she had left her Avatar for the night? --That sort of thing.  Brenda would much rather discover these things for herself than actually ask Ash.  So she rather hoped that Ash, if present, would be too zonked out to object when she questioned Rick.  That was just the sort of thing that could make the woman go ballistic, and Brenda - never a people person - just didn't need the hassle.

She figured that the earlier she got back to camp, the more likely she would be to find Ash asleep and Rick up and about.  Short of Ash being in the cradle, that was probably the best she was going to get as far as a chance to talk to Rick without his mate being actively present.  It'd be a pity to waste it...

She made it juuuuust in time to put Tall Brenda to bed, link out, shove a breakfast bar into her mouth, slap on a rebreather, and saunter across the courtyard to pick up an arepa or two before making her inquiries at the shack.

[Kiyevanie]

Rick noticed Brenda coming out of the shack, sauntering over to to pick up the arepas and then her beeline over to the habmod. It would have taken a denser man than him to guess her destination. So he grinned, toasted with his mug and then turned back to the kitchen to get out a second one, expecting his early morning guest and the questions she'd probably bring along with the arepas.

[Random the Navigator]

   ...  ...

A short stroll and some formalities later, Brenda seated her now-maskless self at the little kitchen table and laid down the leaf-tray of arepas she'd brought in from the fire.  She'd already confirmed that Ash was sacked out in her bunk in what could almost be an Enya position: belly-down, head turned facing the wall, her good arm dangling over the side.  "Heh...didn't know she had it in her to relax," the veteran driver smirked.  "Then again, I've never watched her sleep; the linkbed doesn't count."

Then she gestured at the leaf-platter.  "We're not gonna be seeing too many more of these," she remarked.  "Word around the fire last night is that our Na'vi are gonna be making wicker ones.  Baskets, trays, that sort of thing; maybe even some toys.  Says something about how long they think they're gonna be stuck here...or maybe about the number of big leaves they think are gonna be left by the time these ones wear out."

Now she sipped her coffee, eyes half-closed in bliss, the better to draw out the experience.  (Her arepa had disappeared before she'd even arrived at the HabMod.)  She didn't seem to be in any hurry to start the main conversation; but this only went back to her notion of Armenian manners, in which it was polite to show some interest in your hosts or guests as people before you and they "got to the point."

"So," she finally said, "did you sleep good?  Must've been quite a day..."

[Kiyevanie]

By now Rick knew Brenda well enough to know that she wasn't the one to dive headfirst into a conversation. Plus, to be honest, it was nice to see someone enjoy the simple joy of having a good cup of coffee. It kinda made this small step from mere surviving to having small luxuries and valuing them. Probably the same like those wicker plates and baskets that would be in the making.

So, while Brenda tasted her coffee he smelled the still warm arepas - another one of those little, nice things to have. "I know you already had one, but want something to go with a second arepa?", he asked, opening the small fridge, checking on what was inside. "Me, I'm gonna go with what they call strawberry jam here - guess my brain needs something high energy." He put a few breakfast items on the table, then sat down opposite of Brenda. "Quite a day - you can say that again."

He yawned. "And don't wonder about Ash being out cold here. When she came out of link last night, you could have taken a picture of her and put it into the dictionary, right next to the word 'exhaustion'. I didn't get much out of her, but it must have been quite the day at Hometree too. Good and bad stuff..." He rubbed his neck. "At least from what I could get. There was a lot of stuff she'll have to tell again once she's awake and rested. Ya know - trying to make sense out of a battlefield when all the intel you got are a few troup movements and maybe a gunshot or two and you know very well that there's so much more going on... " After a short pause he added: "Although if I understood things right last night for now we're kind of released off battlefield and saving-the-world duty for now. We might actually have a chance to take some wicker making lessons." 

[Random the Navigator]

~ Pushy Americans, ~ Brenda thought; Rick was skipping straight to the main topic.  "Didn't ask about Ash's day," she replied curtly.  "I asked about yours.  As far as I know, you've been in here ever since we brought that little Ikran home.  I saw we've gotten your aircraft outta sight and laid down the first layer of camo on these shacks.  What else happened yesterday?  You know me, I'm a day-sleeper by necessity now.  We'll get to Ash's link in a little bit; but in the meantime, I'm asking what I missed."

Completely unexpectedly, a very muzzy female voice came from the "habitation" section of the HabMod.  "Yeah, I'd kinda like to hear about that too..." said Ash from behind the bulkhead that divided the sleeping area from the kitchen.

Brenda really hoped nobody saw her levitate a quarter of an inch out of her chair...

[OOC:]

...'cause that'd be "conduct unbecoming a badass."  *g*

[Kiyevanie]

If Brenda hoped that nobody would see her levitate, Rick on the other hand hoped that nobody saw him flinch. For a second he seriously considered just going back to bed and starting his day all over again. This was not how he had intended to catch up with everyone on so many different subjects. Especially as Ash's and Brenda's first meeting hadn't been a big success - the two women hadn't seen much of each other in the meantime, but Rick still felt that there was some kind of tension. On the other hand, something in Ash had changed and maybe this was the chance they needed to get something like a fresh start. Or at least smooth out some of the rumples the first meeting had left behind. So he took another sip of his coffee, then leaned back, looking definitely more relaxed than he actually felt, sorting his thoughts about last day.

He looked at Brenda, knowing that she had been at least partially around that day; Ash would have to be filled in on everything. "Right, you went off to sleep right after we brought Ni'tingal's egg home. Or do I mix that up?" With everything that had happened the last day - so many intense events, accompanied by quite as intense feelings - he wasn't quite sure anymore about any timeline details.
He turned to Ash then - or at least the bulkhead where her voice was coming from. "Good morning... feeling a bit better now?" He wasn't sure about that, not the way her voice sounded as if she was still halfway asleep.

[Random the Navigator]

Ash didn't get out of bed, just rolled over onto her back and put her arms behind her head.  "Rick...what is anyone besides you and me doing in here before we've both had showers?" she muttered crossly.  "Jeezus, you saw how I came in last night, and I'm only a few hours--"  Now she sat bolt-upright, suddenly enough to make herself dizzy: "Omigod-what-time-is-it-I'm-gonna-be-LATE!!!"

Brenda, having recovered herself, asked innocently "Late for what?"

"Late for my--umm, Seze's ride home!!" Ash squawked.  "The Pa'li Makto are probably standing there tapping their feet right now! ...It's supposed to be an all-day ride...and I don't want to take an Ikran-rider out of commish, the Clan needs them way worse than I do--I mean, they'd probably do it, but it'd hurt them somehow, and why put them through it just because I can't get my own ass out of bed??"

Brenda gave a Mona Lisa smile; of course she'd made the connection between Ash's brief identity confusion and her Avatar, most likely still waiting for her at Hometree.  "Can't help you with the ride, but as for the time? --Little Sun came up a while ago; we're expecting Big Sun shortly.  And if I were those riders, I'd be grabbing myself some breakfast.  Here, hon, have an arepa; 'Seze' will thank you for it."

[Kiyevanie]

Later in life Rick claimed this as one of his major victories in the battle for Pandora: he managed not to laugh at Ash's sudden change from grumpy not-a-morning-person impersonment to pure panic about being late in mere seconds. It was just a grin and that was hidden behind the bulkhead.

He also solved the mistery of who Seze was - obviously Sprout had gotten a new name yesterday. He didn't know what it meant, his Na'vi lessons - aka the vocabulary he picked up here and there - didn't go that far, but he liked it anyway. It was more a personal name for a beautiful person instead of a nickname for a growing Avatar in an incubator. He had been around Enya way too much to not being infected by the thoughts of Avatars being their own personalities. Seze would never be Enya, of course, but she was a being of her own.

He wiped the grin off his face, got up to fill another mug of coffee and strolled over to hand it to Ash, handing it over with a quick good mornind kiss. "Brenda's right", he said. "What you ate last night wasn't enough to keep you over the day. Your body needs the energy for another day in link. Plus - I'm sure the Ikran Makto know pretty well when you came home last night, that you were tired to the bone and that you need some time to rest. Food and sleep are important, no matter if you're human, Na'vi or Avatar.

And while you're eating - if you want to - I can try to sum up what happened here."

[Random the Navigator]

Now that Ash was sitting up, everyone could see each other; she accepted the coffee, but was too annoyed to return the kiss.  "No, seriously, Brenda, what are you doing here at the crack of dawn having breakfast with my boyfriend?" she griped.

"Same thing I was doing yesterday, Ma'am," Brenda drawled.  "Getting into your business.  I taught him - really taught him - how to monitor your pod; it wasn't much harder than explaining it to Enya..."  She grinned at the ex-soldier, then turned back to his mate.  "So now's the quiz, and don't you go giving him the answers!

"But as far as what's happened here, mind you, I slept through most of it.  Except the part about the Ikran egg...and about camo'ing these shacks...and we're kicking around some ideas for a watchtower..."

Ash cocked her head with a frown, a full two beats behind.  "Ikran...egg? --Hold on; I want to be awake for this...  Avert your gaze, Mountain Girl; I don't host people in my pajamas."  She pulled on the nearest thing, which was one of Rick's outgrown fatigue shirts, then went to the 'human maintenance facility' to freshen up and put on a pair of shorts.

Brenda lofted a comical eyebrow at Rick.  "She didn't kick me out...  Progress!" she grinned.

[Kiyevanie]

Rick didn't grin back, instead he frowned. "Give her a break, 'kay? As I said, I still didn't get much more than some basics last night: she'll be going to the Heart. Just not this time, cause having Ash and the shard in the same trip ain't the best idea. But she will be going." He raked his hand through his hair, trying to sum up the parts of information he had.
"We had a lot of things happening here, but there've been a lot of things happening at Hometree too. Some of them our Na'vi friends will need to know, especially Tangek. The Blessing's been there too, ya know? And the Tompa'tanhi might be split up in several locations, but their spirit's not broken. They're still whole, from what I got from Ash last night. Knowing this might help a few spirits to heal..." He paused. "Jeez, you don't know about that either, I've had a long talk with Tangek yesterday, but that's something I wanna go into once you and Ash both are here - no use in telling it twice."

Rick's brow shot up too now. "And about teaching - you'll get your chance, as will everyone around here. There's been something about all of us having earned something like a break. Not shouldering the weight of this moon. Ash said she's supposed to learn to be the child she's never had a chance to be." His voice almost got pleading now. "I know, things have been tense lately, but I hope you and everyone can give her a chance. Whatever happened at Hometree yesterday - and I only know a tiny little part of it - it changed Ash. It changed something in her deep down, I guess that's part of why she's so exhausted right now. And my gut tells me that this change is what she needs to deal with everything the shard, the Red and her past have messed up."

Finally he smiled at Brenda. "Do you know she said that she said she wants to get as strong as Enya? Can you see a better role model at all?"