open | all I want is the moon upon a stick

[vaccination]

Date & Time: October 10th onwards.
Location: Around the base.
Characters: Ellie and you.
Summary: Ellie's hangin' around, totally over this moon business.
Warnings: Swearing.



a. the cafeteria
[Ellie sits at one of the tables in the cafeteria, a pyramid of upside-down cups stacked in front of her. It's certainly not the sturdiest of structures, but she's spent some time on it, and she's vaguely proud of her accomplishment. They only clattered to the floor once or twice.

Now that she's done, she leans back and slides down a few inches in her seat. Well. That killed twenty minutes.

She reaches out a hand to slowly nudge one of the cups at the bottom corner of her pyramid. That might be loud if she keeps going.]

b. the observatory
[Space is cool. It kind of makes her feel like she's falling when she looks out the window or through any screens, but she keeps coming back to the observatory to do just that. She's not sure if she likes that feeling or not. The wasteland where Exsilium once was is still visible, but Ellie doesn't seem to pay it much mind right now. She's lying on her back on the floor, sneakers propped up against a wall, comic book held over her face.

Every now and then she makes some sort of noise. This comic is so intense.]

Comments

[vaccination]

Siege engines? Like... those tower things?

[She's read a few fantasy novels.]

[governorkang]

Not just towers. Trebuchets and ballistae as well, and battering rams.

[vaccination]

What's ballistae?

[governorkang]

[He pauses to think.]

Do you know what a crossbow is?

[vaccination]

Yeah. Like a bow, but more... horizontal?

[governorkang]

With a spring-loaded mechanism.

[Kang nods.]

A ballista is a much larger version of that.

[vaccination]

How the hell do you load that thing?

[governorkang]

Very carefully.

If you'd like, I could show you sometime.

[vaccination]

Show me? How? The VR room?

[governorkang]

[He nods, leaning back in his chair and shifting his wings to get more comfortable.]

[vaccination]

Do you have a lot of wars and shit where you're from?

[governorkang]

No more than most other worlds, I'd say.

[He shrugs.]

What about your world?

[vaccination]

Not really. There's fighting and stuff, sure, but not actual wars.

[governorkang]

There's always fighting. One of the constants of the multiverse.

You mentioned... infected before, the first time we talked.

[vaccination]

Yeah. The infected... there are so many of them that they're what all the bombs were used on, I guess.

[governorkang]

[...oh, a world like that. He shakes his head slightly.]

A nuclear strike?

[vaccination]

Not nuclear, no. Not where I've seen anyway. Just... normal bombs, I guess.

[governorkang]

How much of the population?

[vaccination]

All I know is that they said 60% of the population is gone.

[governorkang]

[He grunts, shaking his head again. That's a lot of people.]

I'm sorry.