ten_fwd | (no subject)

Dylan's been spending less time in the lounge lately, less time in the places where he's forced to be around others. He's been practicing in the gym, shooting hoops and trying not to remember doing just that with Gaheris on the Andromeda, finessing his combat technique in the martial arts training area, working himself to exhaustion more often than not.

He's been avoiding his crew, too.

Still, he has to eat, and he's not in the mood to talk to Lucie, so he's come to the lounge and taken a table that lets him stare at the stars as they pass, though he feels little of the wonder traveling faster than light without Slipstream first made him feel. He's toying with the remnants of a meal, though it's clear he hasn't eaten much.

Beka, if she were here, would call it brooding.

Gaheris Rhade is here.

His best friend. The man he'd trusted with everything he cared for: his ship, his crew, his life. His fiancée. His friendship. Gaheris had been the one man he'd trusted above anyone else, and Gaheris had betrayed that trust. Because of Gaheris, Dylan lost Sara, lost his crew, lost his home and the whole world he'd ever known, his friends, his family, everything but Andromeda, and it was only by a near-impossible chance of science that he had his ship and his life.

Gaheris had tried to kill him, and his sabotage had nearly fed Andromeda to the black hole. And Gaheris is here, acting like none of it ever happened.

Starfleet would tell him not to interfere with the timeline, not to let Gaheris know what had happened, that he knew the plans for betrayal and the destruction of everything Dylan believed in that his two-faced supposed friend had fostered for so long.

Dylan couldn't do it. He couldn't face the man who'd haunted his memories and his nightmares, his flashbacks and his fears, and pretend they were still the best of friends. So Dylan had pulled a weapon on his best friend and driven him away.

He wants to believe he doesn't regret it. He doesn't miss Gaheris. He doesn't long for any contact with the world he'd thought was gone forever.

It's not as easy to believe as it should be.

[ OTA but particularly to his crew and those with whom he has substantial CR ]

Threaded | Flat

Harper slunk into the seat close to Dylan. Close enough that if the Captain wasn't so careful then that dinner wasn't going to be his much longer. Food just shouldn't go to waste and well Harper would happily see to it that didn't happen.

He was also concerned.

As much of an annoying brat that he could be, he cared about Dylan. More than he said.

So he quietly sat there and waited. An amazing feat for someone who could be a tornado of destruction and mess all by himself.

Edited 2014-12-18 07:34 (UTC)

Ezri slid into the seat next to Dylan, and promply mimicked the look on his face, putting her hand up on her cheek and resting on it like Worf just killed her dog. She gave him a few minutes, before arching an eyebrow and looking at her new friend.

"Is it helping? The moping? If not we could work our way up to self flagellation, or list all the ways you are probably a horrible human being. I bet I could help even more if you'd tell me what's wrong. I'm really good at this stuff. I bet I can come up with some really great ways you can punish yourself, since this doesn't look like it's going to help any time soon."

Chang similarly doesn't want to do much socialising. But neither does he have a quarters to mope in yet, so he's forced more or less to eat and drink here.

The food is replicated (and, as such, dead) and the drinks are non-alcoholic (or worse, synth-holic which is the most idiotic invention in all of creation in Chang's view) so he's not really pleased as far as that goes either.

So the moping Dylan was something of a good fortune. He'll make for insurance some talkative human will try to engage him and, moreover, probably appreciate that Chang isn't going to do it either.

There's the occasional grumble, of course, but that's not really directed at him.

The door at the end of Ten Forward opens, and the Doctor comes in.He's not there for anything in particular. If anything, it's more out of boredom. Boredom is corrected with socialization, and this seems the proper place. And when he sees a man sitting off by himself trying very hard to brood, The Doctor would have none of that. So he takes a seat at a table not too far, then in a deliberate (But totally not planned way. Totally.) motion turns to see the man. And recognizes him.

Well, vaguely. This man fits the description of the man that Lucie was bunking with.

"Hello hello, sir. Just curious, you wouldn't happen to be bunking with a young northern girl named Lucie Miller, would you? Blond, bit of an attitude, stubborn as an ox?"

"Hey Cap'n." She stands undecided for a moment before sitting down next to him. She was reminded again of Mal, maybe with a little less sitting there. If he sat around at the table on Serenity it would only lead to Jayne runnin' his mouth and things getting worse. Before it all calmed down again.

"You look like somethin' bad happened." Kaylee didn't like to see folk sad. "Kinda look like the Cap'n when things gone really wrong. Which either leads to a fight with Jayne or Zoe, that don't last long. Or another job, which ain't always the smart idea an' then Zoe tells him off again. Still callin' him sir."