kore_logs | For Fear of Nightmares

Who: Martha and Open
When: Day 104
Where: Around the Island
What: Martha is not sleeping much at all. It's going to catch up.
Note: None for now...

Martha took a sip of water to sooth her throat, and crawled out her window yet again. She doubted her roommate would notice, but still, it was easier to just leave.

The latest nightmare had been really difficult. She had relived Japan again, but this time she saw it from The Valiant. A last look before her own execution. Her screams woke her before he could kill her, but she was shaken.

The sleepless nights were starting to catch up to her. She was trying to eat, but she was too exhausted to even feel hungry. And all possible exertion had to be saved for clinic duties. And helping people from the sea monster attack. So a few nibbles of crackers here and some canned something or other there was how she nourished herself. Ned would not be pleased.

If she were honest with herself, Martha knew she had to sleep. Had to deal with it. But the nightmares... she couldn't keep facing them. She'd rather die than be forced to watch Japan burn again. Or any of the other things she kept reliving. And so Martha walked through the night, hoping to find distraction until morning.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A little way out on the edge of town, Dilandau's lying on the grass in the dark, looking up at the bare moon and the alien constellations. Sometimes he thinks he sees star clusters he recognises, but that's probably wishful thinking. He still looks for signs, hoping that as the year slowly turns the new stars coming into view will show him where he is in the universe. It's peaceful, as long as he's not hoping too hard.

When he hears her steps he rolls up quickly, coming to crouch on the balls of his feet, sword drawn and in his hand. When he makes out who it is in the dark he relaxes and rises to his feet, resheathing his sword in a fluid motion.

"Don't tell me you're chasing patients this late at night, Doctor?" He calls out to her.

Martha wearily looks up at him and shakes her head, forming her features into a hard mask to try and keep from looking like she was about to fall over from exhaustion.

"Felt like a night walk is all," she commented shortly.

He's seen that look enough times to know what a mask it is. He's also worn it enough times to know how irritating pointing it out is. That wouldn't necessarily stop him, but he's not feeling particularly combative tonight.

"So you want to be a patient instead of a doctor? There's enough rabbit holes down the path you're walking to earn you a nice cast around your ankle."

He sweeps his gaze over her briefly, looking for signs that she's armed enough in case something comes out of the woods. It's unlikely, but not as unlikely as it was before the power went out.

"I'm rather good at walking in the dark," she replies just a tad indignantly. Then she realizes that perhaps that was more information than she needed to share.

"Enjoying the stars?" she asked. Martha's not above changing the subject to turn it away from herself.

He makes a mental note about how she reacts to having her competence questioned, at least when tired, but only shrugs in reply.

"They're different. I haven't seen one I recognise yet." But, like her and her problems, he's in no mood to discuss the sense of isolation with a stranger. "But they're better than staring at a ceiling. Are these the stars that hang over your world? I've been deciding my own constellations, but if there's a way to use them for navigation I'd want to know."

Martha looked up. "See that one there? That's Ursa Major. The part that looks like a bowl," she points out the four stars, "form the Big Dipper. You can follow those two.."

Here she points at the two on the end and traces an imaginary line across the sky, "all the way there. The constellation is the Little Dipper, but more importantly, the star those two point to is Polaris, or the North star."

He follows her fingers, picking out the shapes she shows him. He'd already picked out the bowl of Ursa Major and had decided it was a shield, so he manages to track her finger easily enough.

He points at Polaris, marking it in his mind for future reference. He'll keep a close eye on it in future nights.

"How north do I have to go until that star's overhead?"

"You'd have to get to the North Pole," she replies unhelpfully.

"Which we can figure out by estimating our latitude." Martha holds up a fist just underneath the North Star and her other fist below the first. She walks her fists down to the horizon and gives him a number. "It's only a rough estimate though. I don't have a sextant with me."

"Sextants? We use octants in our airships." But he makes note of her method. It'll be useful for when (not if, never if) they escape, if his burning rampage of vengeance accidentally destroys their captors' navigation equipment.

He glances away from the stars and at her. A small smirk curls on his lips.

"So, Doctor, do you actually know my name yet?"

"An octant? Well, the fist is approximately 10 degrees. And one always has it on them. And I've never done the type of traveling where I have to be pinpoint accurate."

Martha does look amused when he baits her about his name.

"Dilandau... and most certainly not a mister," she replies.

"It's an eighth of a circle, so forty-five degrees."

It's a measure of how far his expectations have sunk that someone actually remembering his full name pleases him.

"Squadron Leader Dilandau Albatou. I haven't been a Mister since I was eleven."

She smiles at his need to explain it to her, but doesn't comment. She's more interested in his name.

"Squadron Leader. What army do you lead?"

Suddenly all his discussion of soldiers versus civilians makes sense.

"Generals lead armies, Squadron Leaders lead squadrons." Led squadrons. He breaks their gaze and goes back to staring at the stars.

"I'm in the red-copper army, as the leader of the Dragonslayers. It's a frontline guymelef unit, specialising in capture and destroy."

He glances at her and then glances back at the stars. He's been here long enough to know he needs to explain what ought to be obvious. It's a habit now to describe any piece of technology that's not found off of Gaia.

"You don't have guymelefs on your world, I'm told." A sign of how obviously backwards earthlings are, guns or no guns. "They're suits of armour five times as tall as you, piloted from a cockpit in their chest. A man here calls them robots, though they don't think by themselves. My unit's 'melefs were one of the first batch that flew."

The Guymelefs were interesting, but Martha was really more interested in his other information.

"There's dragons on your planet? I've never seen one. They're just stories, but we have so many stories about dragons in my world."

She's assuming dragons are probably a bad thing based off the fact that his planet has slayers for the creatures. But the idea is still enchanting.

"In fact, my country on Earth involved some dragon lore. Quite a bit of it."

For Fear of Nightmares

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

I'm writing this as though they are Earth's stars since I couldn't find anything that said different

no subject

Grr... just found out Martha would have called it The Plough... not Big Dipper

Don't fret, I didn't even notice it was an Americanism until you pointed it out.

Re: Don't fret, I didn't even notice it was an Americanism until you pointed it out.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject