021 ☣ Open floodspam + stuff for Erik

[fridgetothefire]

[She wakes up early, even though there's no sunrise coming through her window, no harsh, glittering mountain vista, and no chickens to feed for the last two years. She spends a few minutes - three, maybe - excitedly exploring her room, treasuring the weird feeling of belonging and safety and freedom it gives her. But that doesn't last long, so she pushes out the painted door and immediately goes next door.

He's not her father, but he is, and it's weird. But she knows how she feels, and she trusts herself, trusts her instincts. She knocks on the door, excited pounding with all the strength in her little fist.]

Daaaaaaddy! Daddy wake up!


Hallways

[Anya is six, though she looks closer to five to anyone used to children raised on modern nutrition. Her hair is in little pigtail braids, a little less neatly pleated on one side, because she did them herself and she's not ambidextrous. She wears skirts with the hems let out, and stockings, and a blouse whose sleeves don't quite cover the ridged, shiny burn scars that skate up the outside edges of her arms like defensive wounds.

She roams the halls looking for her friends - because she has friends now, she's sure of it, a steady warmth in her chest even if she can't remember the details, eager to investigate everyone she comes across in case they make the little compass needle resting there twitch. She runs in short bursts, short braids trailing behind her, then pauses to bend over and gasp for a minute, still not used to the new limits on her lungs, or simply living in hope that if she pushes them enough, they'll eventually give.]

Wait up!


Library

[She flits around, stares at the shark in fascination for ten minutes at a stretch. She climbs one of the wheeled ladders and tries surreptitiously to ride it, almost - but not quite - falling off. She trails through the shelves, staring in glee at the bewildering array, even more impressive than the one in the fortress. She might end up falling asleep over a very large illustrated compendium of Oz, dwarfed by the large armchair she's nestled in.]


Deck

[She's sitting on the railing, ankles tucked around the lower bar, perfectly steady in her perch, head tipped back, staring at the stars as they go by. It's strange and beautiful and endless. She loves it.]


Common room

[The plastic knitting needles are almost as long as her forearms, and her lip is trembling a little. The hat she had half-started is a bit beyond her current capabilities, and the more she tries to fix what she's done, the more it becomes snarled. She can do it, though. She's not going to cry.]

[OOC: replies will come from flatscamp.]

Comments

Library

[itstopped]

[It should come as a surprise to literally no one ever that Felix eventually found his way to the library, and has found it as much like going to the toy store as... well, as the adult Felix. He's currently perched sitting on the top step of one of the wheeled ladders, his nose buried in a book of medicine, when the ladder Anya was riding veers forward and bumps into his. He looks up, blinking owlishly.]

Hello?

Library

[flatscamp]

Oh. Hello!

I'm Anya.

[She loops one arm through the ladder's slats for balance and holds the other out to shake.]

Deck

[darknessb4me]

Hey!

[Arthas speaks first so as not to startle the girl on the rail, but quickly comes up behind her.]

You can't be up there, what if you fall?

Deck

[flatscamp]

I won't fall! I'm being careful.

[It's just really pretty and she likes perching on things.]

library

[surrenders]

[There's a brief stab of panic when she sees the kid on a ladder ride, and even if she's trying to find her kid real quick, since she isn't answering, she rushes to steady her before she comes crashing off, and traps both little girl and ladder against the shelf.

It's both the face and the arms that tell her who it is, and even if it makes it worse that she almost got hurt, she's relieved more than anything, glad both that Anya's safe and she found her.]

Been looking for you.

library

[flatscamp]

[She hunches up just a little, not afraid but definitely the nervous side of sheepish.]

Well...you found me!

[Hopeful innocent smile?]

Library

[notdreaming]

[ Kara has always been a bit of a nerd, a habit strongly encouraged by her parents and not quite yet discouraged by her peers. When she's bored with everything else on deck she finds the library, and almost immediately zeroes in on the young fiction section.

She frowns at the covers, hoping to see something at least passingly familiar. When she looks up she spots the other girl passing by. ]

Hey! Hello. What are you gonna read today?

Library

[flatscamp]

I dunno. I can't read these letters as well as Russian ones. Can you?

Hallways

[burnmythoughts]

[Jean is roaming the halls looking for straggling children. She loves and hates this flood; loves, because she really does like kids, and it's not like she gets to see them here. Hates because it's dangerous.

She doesn't recognise Anya's voice, but she does stop and turn her head, smiling softly.]

Hey there.

Re: Hallways

[flatscamp]

Hi.

[She ducks her head, suddenly a bit shy, because she doesn't remember details. But she takes Jean's hand anyway. If she doesn't mind, Anya thinks she doesn't have to worry.]

Okay, we can go now.

spam;

[wecanavenge]

[Erik has always been a light sleeper, it's something he's carried with him from necessity to habit. So the tiny pounding and - eventually - the calling, wakes him easily enough.

There's a second when he just lays in bed, wondering if it was a dream, was he dreaming of other lives and other worlds again - but the thump thump and the cry comes again, and he's out of bed in a heartbeat, tugging the closest shirt on over his sleep pants; he throws the door open before he's even there, and--]

Anya? [Help. Somebody help, he doesn't know how to parse this.]

Re: spam;

[flatscamp]

Good morning!

[She hugs him around the waist.]

Can we have pancakes?

Common room

[breakingmyheart]

[By now Toshiko's sort of used to the Barge, but she's still wandering aimlessly. She doesn't really want to stop anywhere too long and she definitely doesn't want to go back to her bleak, cold little cabin.

The clicking of needles is an unfamiliar sound - she doesn't know anyone who knits - and she follows it to the doorway of the common room. She doesn't recognise the little girl sitting there but there's an implacable sense of warmth, almost like gratitude, that she feels looking at her.

It's what makes her step forward, put her hand on the doorframe.]

...are you alright?

Common room

[flatscamp]

I'm okay.

[But her tone is obviously dejected. She lets the mangled knitting slump in her lap.]

Common Room

[darknightdamsel]

[She only meant to peer into the common room. She needs to keep moving, cover as much of the Barge as she can.

But there's a little girl, all alone, and she looks so upset.

Inwardly, Batgirl sighs at herself. This really isn't what a masked vigilante should be doing.

But helping people comes in all shapes and forms.

She approaches slowly, smile warm beneath her cowl.]

Hey, need some help? I think those are a bit big for you.

Common Room

[flatscamp]

...I messed it up.

[Her tone is as much apologetic as sad, even though it's her project, not the older girl's. She's supposed to do things right.]

Common room.

[spetsnaz]

It looks you have problem there.

[He's not sure he knows who you are, but he has a handful of guesses. Approaching without aggression, jeans and a t-shirt and no uniform, but it's hard to disguise how much tight physical fitness is in his form. How dangerous he can be.]

Common room.

[flatscamp]

[She is used to men with danger in their step. Men who pay attention to her knitting problems, not so much.]

I thought I could just finish it but it's so complicated! I'm sorry.

[concuss]

[He hears wait up and obeys instinctively. Yes, okay, he'll wait up. He looks behind, watches for her running on her little feet, and he doesn't smile, but looks like he wants to.]

Hi.

[flatscamp]

[She puts a hand on his shoulder while she catches her breath, half to brace herself, half to keep him from getting ahead again.]

Are you exploring too?

common room

[brothermayi]

[Cassel is suddenly, silently at her side, one gloved hand tapping her elbow: a distraction.]

What're you making?

Re: common room

[flatscamp]

...it was supposed to be a hat.

[wedonot]

[Charles likes kids, even if the prospect of actually taking care of really little kids is really intimidating, which is sort of silly, considering he did basically raise himself and Raven, but in any case, it is sort of overwhelming to realize how many people he cares about have suddenly been shrunk down to at least half their normal size.

Erik's told him about Anya already, so it's not surprising when he finds her in the common room struggling with the yarn.]

Do you need an extra set of hands? [It's not a demeaning question, or said in a way that suggests he thinks she's silly for trying to do it herself. He honestly wants to help if she wants it, and if she doesn't, he won't try to take it away from her.]

[flatscamp]

[She squirms and makes a frustrated wordless noise, hiding her face behind the lopsided bulk of yarn. Uncle Charlie why are you looking at her when she messes up???]

Deck

[halftheman]

[ Harvey comes up to smoke on the deck with a fair bit of regularity. He likes the relative peace of watching the strange skies go by, the discordant colors and space rippling in the distance. He's got his favored spot-- the same place he dragged himself when he first arrived-- and he heads there when he decides to catch some air. ]

[ When he sees another figure there, a small one, he's wary. Ivy'll have her eye out from the greenhouse on the young ones. He doesn't want to tangle with her again. So he approaches cautiously, keeps some distance. ]

Careful. Hear there's trouble if you fall off the boat. Might not want to sit on the rails.

Deck

[flatscamp]

[She bends over backward to look at him until she's hanging upside down from her knees over the top of the railing, ankles securing her in place hooked around the middle bar.]

I won't fall. See? I have good balance.

[ Deck ]

[warisart]

[No one here seems to care where Ben goes or when, and after a few bewildered hours, he's finally begun taking advantage of that. It's taken him several more hours to creep as high as the deck, but he's making his way ever and always up, unerringly headed for the highest point he can reach.

He's seen plenty of children, of course, and some of them are bold and some of them are timid and some are causing trouble and others are self-absorbed. He sees Anya leaning on the railing like that, though, and he hesitates. He, too, looks at the stars, but he doesn't recognize any of the constellations.

He stands there for a long time, a skinny kid with shortshorn blonde hair that will someday darken to brown, bright brown eyes, wearing a plain grey t-shirt and black BDU military pants and boots; there's a barcode on the back of his neck. He stands quietly, saying nothing because he hasn't been spoken to, wanting to pull her away from the edge, and trying to see what she sees.]

[ Deck ]

[flatscamp]

[She can stare at the vastness for a long time, for a six year old, but not endlessly. She glances around and waves when she sees him.]

Hi.

[little_red_wolf]

[Red is exploring everything,

Every. Thing. Everything.

It's only natural that she'd be running through the long barge halls, right? Being thirteen. She almost doesn't see the littler girl, as a result. When she does, she tries to screech to a halt before they run into each other.]

[flatscamp]

[Nope, too late. Anya goes sprawling. She scrambles too her feet, bracing a little on the wall.]

I'm okay. I'm okay.

[theitsybitsyspider]

[Peter's pretty impressed by the library too. He wishes his dad could see it, but abruptly feels super sad that he can't and won't be able to tell him about it, so he tries to distract himself.

It helps when he spots another kid, a girl who's climbing down a ladder with a couple books in her arms. It looks kind of hard, like maybe she should have gotten a grown up to help her with it, but there aren't any adults around. That leaves him with one option.]

Do you need help?

[flatscamp]

Um.

[Yes. No!]

...maybe?