taxonomites | [audio/location: Anywhere in the city. You pick] Feeling slightly lost

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{ hoban washburne

[audio/location: Anywhere in the city. You pick] Feeling slightly lost

It wasn't that Gwen had been avoiding people in the city. Okay. Fine. She had been avoiding most of the people in the city due to her own misadventures of trying to find a way back to her ship and crew. Neither seemed to be something she was able to find any answer to other than that she was stuck for however long this place kept her. It felt like being back in the Alliance POW camps they shuffled all the Independents off to after the War trying to get them to swear allegiance to powers that be none of them trusted. Which was the reason the red headed Captain was sprawled out on a set of steps with her jacket under her head just looking up at the way to pretty sky. Where was the rain? Lightning? Snow? Yeah- none of it was good enough or natural enough for her.

Call her slightly picky. Most of her crew does anyway.

Giving off a heavy sigh the woman started to sing mostly to herself, the mandarin spilling forth at a natural rate of someone accustomed to speaking it. The song sounded sad even if it was supposed to be a happy one. She couldn't help it though. Gwen just felt.. lost.

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Taxon wasn't the most interesting place to walk. It was all a bit too ... static. Nothing changed, except the new arrivals, but, since they didn't want to be there, they didn't add much to the ambiance. Still, Wash was the sort of person who could put a good spin on anything. It was all about counting the positives instead of the negatives.

His wonderful wife was here. Most of the crew were here too, and the Shepherd could probably keep Jayne in check wherever they were. Even Serenity was here. He could fly, even if it wasn't very far.

And the replicators - and all that real food - couldn't be brushed aside lightly either, of course.

Yes, he was a little bit bored and a little bit land crazy. But he was alive and safe and his stomach was full. There was a lot to be said for being alive and safe and having a full stomach, and it was all very good.

He made his way across Sanctuary Square and stopped when he heard a vaguely familiar song drifting across towards him in a way that would have been very poetic if it wasn't so melancholy. It wasn't supposed to be such a sad piece, was it?

"I think you might have got the tune wrong," he said, helpfully.

Raising a hand to shield her eyes, her nose scrunching up as she did so. It was just to gorram perfect of a day. Gwen hated it... kinda. Being stuck dirtside was starting to get to her as well. "Eh.." she replied looking up at the blond before sitting up rather stiffly. Stairs were not meant to recline on. "Depends on th' planet you are comin from I reckon."

With a smile the captain studied the pilot carefully before offering him a wide little grin. "Maybe you can enlighten me as in how it's supposed t' go?"

"Which planet are you from?" asked Wash, taking her smile as an indication that it was safe to sit down next to her. Although there was still a chance that she was crazy - the former Mrs Malcom Reynolds had taught the crew of Serenity that you couldn't judge by looks alone, after all - there was an equal chance that she could turn out to be a friend.

"Oh, you don't want to hear me sing," he said, with a grin of his own. "The planet isn't ready for that."

"Verbena before th' War. Now pretty much wherever my ship touches down on for work. If, you know, you actually know what I'm talkin' 'bout." There were a few people that would that she had met or spoken with. Everyone else thought she was out in left field for talking about living on a ship in space. "Seems most folk 'round these parts don't."

Cressi had a very tight crew. Some folk didn't make it while others did- those that could survive the others who had been there for years giving them weighing looks. Gwen knew all about what the other man was thinking about. Her smile widened just a hair more as she offered Wash a hand. "Gwen MacKenzie. Captain of the Cressida."

"Verbena?" A planet with strong ties to the Independents, once. He wondered if Mal or Zoe had spoken to this woman yet. They could bond. Or they could if they'd actually talk about the war, anyway. They'd need to track down some Alliance soldiers, and then bond over the brawl. "I've never visited. But at least I've heard of it. I must get some points for that?"

He accepted the offered hand, and shook it warmly. Seeing someone from his world - someone that wasn't a member of the crew, anyway - was a nice surprise, regardless of who she turned out to be.

"Wash," he said, "Pilot of Serenity."

Oh she had talked to them a few times though never had met them. In fact she was slightly jealous of Captain Reynolds having ship and crew both in this place. It made her homesick, making her feel that much displaced away from her own crew. Gwen's smile never faded as she nodded her head a little. "Heard some interesting bits about your ship. Mostly just bits an' pieces floatin' around certain circles and such."

"Yeah. A few." Giving a soft chuckle the red head carefully scrubbed at the back of her neck. "Verbena ain't worth much of nothin' after the Alliance got hold of her. Converted most of the farm lands and ranches over to plants for their own use. The whole trying to 'create strong ties' with them that formed the Independents." It was a bunch of bull if you asked her. Perhaps it was one of the stronger reasons she was working for the Resistance.

"Well, she's an interesting ship," he said cheerfully, though, behind the grin, his words were somewhat cautious. The 'circles' could be Alliance circles, after all, and the information would still be considered interesting. Unpleasant, but interesting. He wasn't a naturally secretive person, and he wasn't a much of a liar, but picturing Zoe's face - and her possible reactions to possible indiscretions - kept him in check most of the time.

"And Verbena isn't the only planet to be adapted by the Alliance," Wash acknowledged, without - hopefully, anyway - giving away if he was for or against that sort of behaviour. "The sky has always been my home anyway."

Oh Gwen would never be caught alive in any Alliance circles. She'd rather shoot herself than even get near an Alliance ship if she could do it. Sadly? That never seemed to be the case and having a brother amongst their ranks that the Captain all but despised made things even, well, worse. "Oh I know. Bèn tiānshēng de yìduī ròu Alliance makes it near impossible to find a bar to have a drink on 'U-day'. Course ain't like I openly look for one that ain't... gotta have a good tussle every now and then right?" With her green eyes sparkling with mischief the red headed woman all but rocked on her feet slightly.

"With a good ship, crew, and some jobs person don't rightly have the need to set foot dirtside much. Unless you are stuck here." Yes she was getting antsy. The last time she had been dirtside this long was when she was first assigned to the Cressida over four years ago.

If Wash had still had any doubts about her allegiance, the expression on her first when she mentioned the Alliance would have brushed them aside. Gwen was one of theirs, then. Or one of Zoe and Mal's, anyway, and therefore tangently one of his.

"You'll have no problem getting a drink here," he said, helpfully, "There's nobody to stop you. And it's free."

That was, as far as Wash was concerned, one of the few good things about this rock. And it was a very good thing. If Serenity ever did reach the open 'verse again, she'd be weighed down by her well-stocked cargo hold.

That was a good thing! Open bars without barfights! But it made Gwen start to pout a little. What was the fun part of having a drink on U-day when there couldn't be a little fight here and there? It kept the blood pumping and the 30-year-old Captain feeling young. "Aw.. well at least I'll get that quiet drink I promised myself when I was like.. eighty." Quickly the slight pout was gone, replaced with a rueful grin and flash of mischief in her green eyes. "That is if none of them show up here."

"So how long y'all been here? Any... I don't know.. ideas or a plan t' get the guĭ outta here?"

"Eighty?" Wash repeated, "Most old soldiers go for seventy. Me ... I'm thinking ninety at the earliest."

He was grinning as he spoke, but it was fairly obvious that he was joking. As dull as life was here compared to life out in the 'verse, he'd never say no to a bit of piece and quiet.

"A few months," he replied, "And the plans are still forming. It's a working progress."

"A person is only as old as they feel. I'll be doing right good t' finally get a peaceful drink when I'm eighty the rate my crew and I are going." Shaking her head a little, the Captain chuckled, fingers raking back through her hair gently. "And stopping at seventy? Ugh.. No thanks. Maybe eighty-five if I'm lucky."

It felt good to have a little laugh- a true one not some forced concoction that Gwen managed to bubble up for the majority of things around here. Perhaps she needed to push herself with speaking more to Serenity's crew.

"Any way t' get in on these plans? Know my fair share of ways 'round.. things." Explosives, rifles, armored vehicles.. Gwen didn't know if her skills would be needed, but she was going to put them out there on the table.

"You'd have to speak to Zoe and the Captain about that," Wash said, and a careful listener might note that it was his wife's name that the pilot said first. (Yes, Mal was the Captain, but Zoe was the one he had to live with and therefore the one he generally deferred to.)

As far as he was concerned, anything - or anyone - that might be able to help them get out of here was welcome to join in, but he knew how secretive Mal and Zoe could be. They wouldn't be happy if he simply invited Gwen to Serenity, which was what he was tempted to do.

"I don't see why they'd say no," he added, since that was the only helpful comment he could really make. She was an old soldier as well. If anyone could understand their reticence, it would be her.

Nodding her head once, Gwen reached down, picking up the worn and faded brown duster that had more holes stitched up in it than not. "May do that then. More heads together trying t' figure this out might be a good thing."

Carefully she shrugged in to the jacket pulling her hair out from under the collar. "Ain't really talked to either of them before. Just brief in passing through the tablet when I first got here." Oh Gwen knew how secretive ships could be- her own was.. well.. very secretive.

"It can't make things any worse," Wash pointed out. Which was true. They were already very firmly trapped, and Gwen couldn't make that worse if she tried.

"You'd like them," he said, with both honesty and undeniable affection for a crew he loved. "Mal's a great captain, and Zoe ..." He paused, struggling to find the words that could adequately sum up his wonderful wife to a total stranger. "You've never met anyone like her."

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[audio/location: Anywhere in the city. You pick] Feeling slightly lost

[Location: Sanctuary Square]

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