2020-07-01: Welcome Back

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  • Log: Welcome Back
  • Cast: Loren Voss, Lan Lilac
  • Where: Damzena Desert
  • Date: July 01, 2020
  • Summary: Loren makes a return to base and Lan checks in. Loren considers the paperwork situation. Lan provides some aesthetics advice (and sandwiches).

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    In his office, Loren Voss, Captain, sits at his desk and tries to ignore the paperwork. This is not particularly a difficult task, since his mind is preoccupied with other matters.

    Such as, for instance, his extended personally-directed mission to attempt to work to neutralize area threats.

    Technically speaking, it went off (nearly) without out a hitch.

    But.

    Was it really enough?

    That's the question that's been plaguing Loren Voss after his return to base. Should he try to push the connection further? Or would it only serve to make them suspicious?

    He runs his hands through his reddened hair (when is the dye going to wash out properly?) and sighs, before leaning forward to then halfway sprawl across his desktop. This is somewhat impeded by the pile of paperwork that has collected in his absence.

    And then, there's the real elephant in the room, the thing he's trying not to think about because he's going to come unzipped if he does.

    But eventually Major Sadalbari will force the matter.

    His brother's wife.
    His brother...

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    She thinks she's finally got it just right.

    It's not hard to remember how that Lan had acted, had spoken - because it was so close to how Lan had always been. She can do it. She has a plan.

    She taps gently on the door to Loren's office. She hasn't seen him since he got back, and it's a good idea to check in on him anyway. The last time Lan had seen him, he was kind of a wreck.

    She's got two meals on a tray - nothing fancier than a pair of wrapped sandwiches and two bottles of water, but she's never known him to turn down food and it might improve his mood if he's in another one of his sulks.

    And then of course because Lan would never wait, she lets herself in.

    "Hey, welcome bahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacck??!"

    Lan's first impression is that someone else has let themselves into Loren's office and is... napping? On paperwork? Is that even comfortable?!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    Something taps distantly at his door. Loren doesn't hear it, not with his face buried in his arms.
    He can barely even remember at this point. It's like trying to chase a shadow. And yet--
    And yet, it's just going to get worse from here, isn't it?

    He doesn't want to think about this at all. Just let him live his life without all this--

    And then suddenly, into a period of intense brooding, Lan happens.

    To say 'Loren pushes himself up from his desk' would be an understatement: he does so at speed.

    "Lan-- what--"

    A pause, then.

    "Don't you know how to knock?"

    His hair might be a different color but he's still Loren, askew glasses and all.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    He shoots up off of the desk's surface and Lan doesn't quite know what to think. Is this another part of Loren's past attempt to look a little nicer. Does Anaitis like redheads? She hadn't considered Loren to be the kind of person who experiments this much with his appearance. It's not too far from blond, she supposes, tilting her head a scant few degrees to the side as she observes him.

    Still, even if it does look pretty natural with his pale skin and freckles, she's not sure it's an improvement.

    "I did knock," she tells him, bringing the sandwiches and water over to his desk. She just didn't wait to enter, because why would she?

    "Welcome back to base," Lan tells him, not unkindly, and tries to find a spot to set the tray down on his desk. "How did it go out there?"

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    Loren has for a long pregnant moment the sense that something about him is being weighed. Or judged, maybe.

    He's not stupid. He knows what she's looking at.

    "It was for the mission," he mutters, his expression turning quite dark indeed. "It should... wash out or something."

    Eventually.

    Or maybe it'll grow out, first.

    She did knock, she points out. He gives her a dubious look.

    And then glances down at the tray. "Oh-- uh," he starts.

    A few things have started to click into place, and he locks up for a moment, trying to grapple with the fact that she brought him food and the reality that his deck is absolutely covered with paperwork. He rises to his feet awkwardly, nearly stumbling over his own chair and picks up one stack of papers and... pauses again.

    There's not exactly a lot of furniture in his (small) office. Just the desk and chair, a spare chair, some mostly-empty bookshelves...

    Fine. It goes onto the bookshelves. He hastily dumps the pile of paper there before shifting another miniature mountain over to the bookshelf. What in the world have people been doing in medical since he's been out if there's this much--

    "So... uh..."

    He's not sure why he's so taken aback by all this. It's isn't as if she's...

    ...it's nothing he shouldn't have expected...

    ...just...

    "How have... you been?" he asks, his back still to her.

    He hasn't answered her question.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    "It's not a bad look," she replies, with her usual attempt at some diplomacy. "But blond works better on you." It's the color of so many of the so-called First Class citizens... but it's also the color of Lan, for better or for worse.

    She waits patiently as he moves paper. What's he been doing in here? Did everybody just drop their junk on his desk while he was gone??

    But how has she been doing while he was gone?

    She puts the tray down on his desk and takes one of the sandwiches for herself. "I'm doing better," Lan says after a moment's thought. "I did a lot of thinking and I slept a lot. But I haven't had any more nightmares in a while." She unwraps it and peeks between the slices of bread - chicken or turkey? And cheese, an unheard of thing in Little Firelight's arid weather.

    In the admittedly short time she's been here, she seems more stable. More... herself. The self that Solaris had frozen her into. Maybe the instability was fixed. Maybe it smoothed itself over, the brain healing an anomaly all on its own.

    Maybe she was rewritten again.

    "I'm sure it'll wash out pretty soon. You can use lemon juice to help hurry it up." Lan sits down in the spare chair and takes a bite. Homf.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    He's... not sure what to make of this, a reaction which is patently clear from the look on his face.

    "...Thanks?" he hazards, treading what may well be the finest of lines.

    Apparently, they did! Though at least it's all functionally within his roles and responsibilities -- there's nothing from engineering (unless he's gotten really fortunate for a change and Anaitis slipped a note into his pile) for instance.

    There is a pause after he shifts the last pile over onto the shelf and dusts off his hands.

    "Oh. That's good."

    Had it just been stress because of the nightmares?
    Or maybe he'd imagined it. Or-- or, whatever's happening with his brain. After all, if it had really happened, wouldn't the Major have...?

    He turns, walks those few paces over to his desk chair, and slumps into it. Reaching across the desk, he grabs a sandwich and starts to unwrap it.

    "...I think it worked out," he says, finally.

    'You can use lemon juice to hurry it up'.

    "...Seriously?"

    He's already had enough of people (when they think he can't hear them) comparing him to van Houten or wondering if they're related. Irritated, he snaps into his sandwich, taking an oversized bite before chewing furiously.

    Once he's swallowed, he says, "I infiltrated Odessa without any problems. Hopefully, they'll assume I'm dead with the others. ...And I guess I'll see if it worked. Even if it doesn't, I've got a better idea of how Odessa operates. The Major will want that."

    She'll also want to know, probably, that Lefanu is a FUCKING VAMPIRE but first things first.

<Pose Tracker> Lan Lilac has posed.

    Stress. Maybe that's all it was.

    Lan watches him hesitate for a moment before he turns to join her at the opposite side of the desk. Even if she's still mad at him, even if she was betrayed, there's something comforting about slipping into the facsimile of routine. The facsimile of their odd 'friendship'.

    "That's good, right?" Lan doesn't know too much about Odessa, but even she's managed to hear a few snippets of rumor and gossip beyond the speech that interrupted the planet. How much of it is truth she doesn't know. "Especially if it'll make Leah happy." Even if 'happy' isn't quite... a concept that really jives with the Major.

    "If you want, I'll help you fix your hair later on. But it's good that you came back safe." She continues eating her sandwich, crossing her legs beneath her on the armless chair in a delicate balancing act.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    Perhaps they're on the same wavelength, there.

    He stares at his sandwich and frowns himself. "...'Happy', huh... I wonder."

    She hadn't been very happy when she'd paid him a visit. But then...

    How did she feel, knowing he was forgetting 'him'? Forgetting her?

    The only thing that still sits on the desk is his notebook. Now that he's back, maybe he can start writing more, all those things he didn't dare write while he was 'with' Odessa. Maybe he can even find some way to remember what he's lost, or...

    "Yeah," he says, nodding in agreement with her offer to help him out with his hair. It's that or dye it again.

    Can he really call this 'back safe', though? His shoulders slouch and he stares at his sandwich as if he expects it to sprout legs or something. Still--

    "Thanks," he says, and perhaps that's already all the suggestion she needs to know he's got something on his mind.