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[Furiosa spends most mornings in the gym. Honestly, she'd prefer the Enclosure, but she needs to be moving long and often enough that she can't justify using more than her share of the precious time in the false environment. She works out quickly how to run on the treadmill, but most of the other machines remain a mystery to her. If the right person is using them, they may see her watching, or so may decide to approach.

Some mornings her prosthesis is on, and others it is off, tucked protectively and nearly underfoot, out of habit, though this doesn't seem like the kind of place where anyone is likely to get any ideas.

When she is done, she usually ends by slipping upstairs, showering quickly, and permitting herself what feels like the decadent luxury of putting her feet into the pool. It takes her until about the fifth time to get up the nerve to walk in to the water, to lower herself down in it until she feels it lap up around her neck, then to hold her breath and gingerly, cover her mouth and nose, and cautiously, gingerly slip under the surface and just let herself float, suspended.

She can be found in any of those places.

Still, a workout isn't the same thing as practice, really, and the conversation that has been going on here has weighed heavily on her, though she hasn't participated. So, finally, she takes a break one morning in the gym and turns on the feed.]

Video

[She has to clear her throat to start, and wipe the sweat off her face. She's sitting in the frame, bare feet apart, elbows rested on her knees, metal arm down at her side. Furiosa isn't comfortable, exactly, talking to a little plastic box that will take her words all over the ship, but this is important to her.]

My name is Imperator Furiosa. I'm human. No powers. I'm in the gym.

If you need, I've been teaching people a little about how to fight. If you don't need, but you're--

I could use the practice.

[Short, unceremonious, she disconnects.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

witness_this

I know when I don't know something. Why should I assume that no one else knows better?

From:

ukan

I suppose I've always wanted proof that someone knows what they're doing before I let them do it. No one here has the best interests of anyone else on board in mind, which makes me wonder why they're reacting the way they are.

From:

witness_this

They care for her.

[She says, because she thinks that's obvious.]

You can want something, and still care for others while you want it.

From:

ukan

Of course. But ultimately there are sacrifices to be made.

[Fact of life, which he's sure she needs no telling about.

He grits his teeth and is quiet a while, then decides, fuck it.]

Right now, I feel like one of those sacrifices they're making to avoid hurting the feelings of people they care about. When I got here, I was sure I was here to be dissected. I'm not convinced my friend isn't here, in pieces.

Now I know there is literally someone on board who will dissect people, and I don't think it's unreasonable to want something to happen besides turning a blind eye. The man clearly needs help.

From:

witness_this

It will not be nothing, that comes of it.

[She knows that much.]

But I'm not the one to talk to, about this. Wait until an appropriate moment and ask Dean's warden, if you're uncomfortable.

From:

ukan

[He looks at her as if trying to decipher if she's making fun, or if she's being serious.

He's disappointed to find that she is. If he says what he's thinking, though, it would be backtracking, so he just pushes it aside. He'll talk to Sylvanas about it later.]

Do you know how to swim?

From:

witness_this

[She sees something of it in him. Allows;]

I've been here- seven days now. I"m not the one to talk to, yet.

[A sort of an apology. It's the most she can give.]

And no. We don't have anything like this, at home.

From:

ukan

[He offers her a flicker of a smile. Almost-apology accepted; the darker mood dissipates.]

I can teach you. It might be handy, if we're ever stuck somewhere and have to swim for it.

From:

witness_this

Show me.

[Before she says yes.]

You can cross into the deep water without sinking?

From:

ukan

Yes. It's better to practice in the shallows first, but yes.

[It's hard to swim in sodden jeans but he's swam under worse conditions, and he shows her a few strokes out in the deep end before he swims back]

From:

witness_this

[She nod, tentatively- okay. They can try that, she'd like to learn how to do that.]

What do I do?

From:

ukan

[The back stroke is easier, if you've never done much swimming before. Less chance of inhaling water, less exertion required. So he teaches her that: how to balance her body so it floats, how to kick her legs and move her- well. Arm. Which means she'll be great at turning but will have to rely on her legs to get her moving in a straight line.]

From:

witness_this

[She does as he shows her, slowly, patiently- and gets a mouthful of water now and again, but is at least game about it. Finally, after a few strokes, she has to stop. Take a breath.]

Lark?

From:

ukan

[he's been drifting, but he reads closer, in case she has a question about a technique]

Yes?

From:

witness_this

I've been under bad knives.

[Dissection, she means, operation, other things.]

If I believed there was a chance you were right, I wouldn't be here. I hope you can tell that that's true.

From:

ukan

[He doesn't know the first thing about her, and hasn't been known to lightly hand his trust over to people he does know inside out. But he'd defy anyone, anyone who pays attention, to see her arm and her scars and her eyes, and not believe that she has some intuition about what's what.

He swallows heavily, and coaxes himself to look at what is, instead of what he's afraid it is.]

What will you do if it turns out I am right?

From:

witness_this

Same as last time. I-

[She opens her mouth, and hitches two fingers in like she's hooking them behind her bottom front teeth, and presses with her thumb like she's pushing up through the soft underside of her jaw.

Mouth open like that, she affects a small, tearing rasp, and then flicks her hand, like the bottom of her face has been torn off, lightly tossed away.

Shockingly explicit.]

From:

ukan

[He smiles, slow and with a much, much more sadistic edge than he would normally let anyone see. But she's seen him change; it's hard to feel like there's much left to hide when someone has seen that and is still around afterward.]

When was that?

From:

witness_this

Eight days ago.

[And she's been here seven, he know.]

From:

ukan

[His smile shows just a hint of fang, then, and he floats onto his back.]

I was this close to getting that sort of closure. It was right there in front of me, and then...suddenly I was here.

[He doesn't mention how hard he had worked, that he had lost everything and had been on the verge of getting it back, that he had sacrificed lives and clawed his way back up, and finally been close enough to taste victory. He doesn't say that that's why he was in a rage, and that's why he was bleeding, and that's why he'd been prepared to use anyone he could to get Blue and go back home.

All he does say is:]

So I reacted very badly to this place, and I wish I hadn't.

From:

witness_this

No one intelligent will hold that against you.

[She promises, going to sit on the steps out of the pool, to rest.]

From:

ukan

[He lifts his head, and lifts an eyebrow]

Even someone who was only giving me help and ended up with me naked on their floor?

From:

witness_this

I don't trust you because I don't make a habit of trusting anyone. I don't trust you any less than I trust the rest of them.

Fair?

From:

ukan

[He smiles. It's warm this time, no trace of wild in it.]

Fair.

I think I'd be afraid to be in the water with you, actually, if you did hand out your trust that easily.