[OOM] Simulator Room

[fighting_mad]

Plourr may be on vacation -- (vacation; the word is still a foreign one, but this is the first break she's gotten since well before she left the Rogues, and she isn't about to begrudge herself it) -- but that doesn't mean she won't take any opportunity possible to fly, even if it's in a simulator. When the grand entrance of the country estate opened on Milliways rather than the front gardens, she'd grinned broadly and stepped right through.

Thus, upstairs in the simulator room, a pilot-turned-empress sits in a sim with the seat cranked back and the curtain drawn open, her hair pulled into a loose braid and a once-lovely flower forgotten and drooping behind her right ear. She's tan and her cheeks are awash with color, as is the norm these days, and she wears a loose tunic with the sleeves rolled up, wide-legged trousers, and her favorite battered boots.

Grinning from ear-to-ear, she sends the little image of 'her' X-wing into a tailspin through the space battle.

This is the most relaxed she's been in what feels like years.

Comments

[fighting_mad]

"I know," she says. "I don't think I'd like him much if he would."

Plourr reaches out, though, and she lays a hand on the first part of Aeryn that she can reach, which happens to be her elbow. "He'll be alright, Aeryn," she says, quieter, her dark eyes steady. "You'll keep him safe."

She knows how Aeryn feels about Crichton.

She knows she'll fight tooth and nail for him.

And she is certain that there is very little in any universe that can stand against a determined Aeryn Sun.

[just-a-soldier.livejournal.com]

You've spent your whole life thinking it's going to be one way, you never prepare for the eventualities. What if you fell? What if you found something you needed, more than you thought was possible? You'd just have to be stronger then; you couldn't afford mistakes.

"He's so much. So much more than I ever imagined." If she had ever dared to imagine; even soldiers dream.

John was the type of person she'd always thought of as weak. Naive, gullible, a fool by any account. She loved him. The very heart of her, the very soul; even soldiers have soul.

"I care about him a great deal." She could bare that part of herself to Plourr. Plourr had gotten foolish, Plourr had fallen. She had broken the code of strong women and let a tiny bit of weakness invade her heart. They both had.

[fighting_mad]

'He's so much. So much more than I ever imagined.

What can Plourr say to that, when she agrees for her own reasons and for her own 'he'? Nothing, without coming across as a hopeless sap.

She may be married and she may be an empress and she may be pregnant and she may (though she might not admit it) be happy, but Isplourrdacartha Estillo will never be a hopeless sap.

'I care about him a great deal.'

"I know," she says, her face still upturned to the other woman. "That's how I know he's going to be fine. You won't let him be otherwise."

[just-a-soldier.livejournal.com]

A curt nod. The moment had passed and like all soldiers, the mask went back on. You fight and die, showing your own feelings only as much as you need to. It was how to survive.

"I feel like shooting something." Aeryn clapped a hand on Plourr's shoulder. That she could admit.

[fighting_mad]

She cocks an eyebrow at her, and starts to grin. "You wanna?"

[just-a-soldier.livejournal.com]

"Volunteering?" The left side of her mouth lifted in response; a cocky smile aimed at the other pilot.

[fighting_mad]

"Not as a target," she says, rolling her eyes lightly. "But there happens to be this big open space outside..."

[just-a-soldier.livejournal.com]

"Disappointing." The soldier teased, her eyes lingering on the well-muscled arm.

"I never get to practise on a moving target."

[fighting_mad]

"Two for the price of one, even," says Plourr dryly. "Sadly, I think you might have to settle for a can or a tree or two."

[just-a-soldier.livejournal.com]

"You're too slow to be worth it." A fast change of mind as she moved to the door, flashing a too-innocent smile at Plourr.

"Practically waddling." You'd never catch Aeryn Sun like that. Not even with foreshadowing!

[fighting_mad]

"Oh you bitch--"

Plourr is, for the record, pregnant, not slow. Slower, certainly, but not slow.

She proves this by the way that she lunges after Aeryn.

[just-a-soldier.livejournal.com]

"The truth is painful." She intoned with a barely muffled laugh, breaking into a slow jog to avoid the beating Plourr certainly planned to administer.

Just like old times.

[fighting_mad]

Beating? No.

Punching Aeryn in the shoulder, since Plourr can certainly catch up with a slow jog? Absolutely.

But she laughs afterward, shooting Aeryn another fond insult as she falls into step beside her, the two women shoulder-to-shoulder and off to go shoot at unsuspecting targets that don't stand a chance.

Just like old times.