OoM: Avatar compound

[hallelujahpilot]

The trouble with Hell's Gate is that one cannot simply vanish on days off. The best Trudy has ever been able to manage is the time she got stranded at the Naukograd for four days thanks to a hurricane. The radio-silence was nice; other things...not so much. Scientists tend to get neurotic when left to their own devices for too long, and Trudy and Schidmt had been too worried about their Samson being damaged to really enjoy said radio silence. All in all, she does prefer being at Hell's Gate.

At least, this is what she is telling herself as she buttons up her uniform's shirt and finds the spikes for her boots (not all the Marines wear the spikes, but Trudy'll take the extra grip they offer over an obscure sense of pride any day).

(And she is aware that she shouldn't be this annoyed, given she just ran off to Carl's Earth for three months, but days off are days off.)

Trudy knows what Grace is doing. Mostly. A little of it might just be an unthinking, Queen of the Lab, people-do-as-I-ask. But most of it? Putting Trudy through her paces. And Trudy can't really say anything - and wouldn't, because she's a Marine, and she's been there and done that in bootcamp - but it is getting to be more than a little annoying.

(and oh yeah, does she ever cop grief for it as she stomps her way out of the barracks)

At least for her sense of pride, she knows her way to the Avatar compound without having to ask directions. This is both a result of having lived at Hell's Gate for three years, and because the SecOps Marines use the obstacle course. The fact that she's bringing along her sketchpad (in a bag slung over the top of the filter-pack on her back) is also partly to make her feel better about being summoned; if she's being summoned by the Queen Bee, she might as well bring along something she wants to do.

(fine, sure, Grace's comment that Trudy'll have a better understanding of transporting the Avatars if she actually spends time with them and observes them makes sense, but there are principles involved)

Adjusting her filter-mask slightly, Trudy moves out into the unpressurized part of the complex, and then outside. It'd be beyond Grace to mention where she'd be, wouldn't it? Sighing briefly, Trudy shakes her head in an effort to shake off her bad mood, straightens her shoulders, and sets off towards the longhouse.

Comments

[donthidemycigs]

Beyond her? Yes. Of course, if Trudy can't locate a ten foot tall blue Avatar on her own, then they've got bigger problems than Grace's inability to make things easy on her.

She isn't in the longhouse, point of fact. There's a court on the compound designed for the Avatars; someplace enclosed where they can participate in various forms of physical activity. One small group is attempting a game of basketball.

"Hey, Marine!"


(We say attempting, because Dr. Grace Augustine has just taken the oversized basketball, and tossed it in Trudy's general direction.)


"Think fast!"

[hallelujahpilot]

Trudy thinks fast: she reacts even faster.

She sees the basketball heading towards and dives to the ground, hitting the dirt and rolling, handgun grabbed from her holster even as her legs move to get her standing and



(it's a basketball)




(it's not a threat)




she points the gun to the sky, staying in a crouch.







"Doc," she says, which today is code for what the everlasting fuck?

[donthidemycigs]

"What, didn't recognize me?"

It's not a hard code to interpret, it's just that Grace is too busy being tongue-in-cheek to care about the anxiety attack she likely just gave her science pilot.

She did notice the restraint on Trudy's part, though. She would have expected a delay time of at least a full second once she found her feet, before she eased off her gun. The marine has a sharp eye.

So. You're an artist?

"Glad you could make it. Too bad you left your civvies in your quarters."


Yes, a game between an Avatar and a Human is a completely fair match.

[hallelujahpilot]

Trudy inhales slowly, holds it, and then just as slowly, exhales again. Then she smirks and gets to her feet.

"Take my shirt off, it counts," she retorts, the world clicking back into place. Doberman puppies, she sometimes likens her fellow Marines, and for good reason - they tussle. Spring jokes, spring kicks, wrestle and tussle and constantly test each other.

She's pretty sure the basketball was part of something similar.

[donthidemycigs]

"Hey, I'm all for that--"

"Take it easy, Warner."

Grace fixes her large, golden eyes on one of the other Avatars.

"Chacon, what the hell's the matter with you? Saying something like that in front of a bunch of scientists -- do you know how long it's been since some of these guys got laid?"

There's an unintelligible cacophony of grumbles and complaints from some of the other Avatars on the court.

Grace blissfully ignores them.

[hallelujahpilot]

Trudy? Just smirks.

"Nothing wrong with their hands," she says, with the serenity of one in possession of a very attentive boyfriend who is very good with his hands. And his mouth. And other parts.

(she's a Marine. Sometimes, it shows)

[donthidemycigs]

Ten feet tall, blue ... frankly intimidating to any human not used to seeing them, the Avatars are scientists. Sometimes, it shows.

Like now.

Grace facepalms.

"If it's all the same to you, my guys have to handle more than just their guns. And I don't want to think about what they do in their off time." She swivels on Warner. "Gloves."

And that's all Dr. Grace Augustine has to say about that.



"Marine, mind grabbing the ball?"

[hallelujahpilot]

That smirk of Trudy's? Not going away any time soon.

(Sometimes, she reflects that maybe she gets too much enjoyment about making all of these folks with their shiny Ph.Ds completely speechless.

Still, she's well aware of where the line is, she knows not to cross it. And if they don't, well. She can deal with that)

Trudy tosses Grace an easy salute and runs after the ball, in size looking more like a child playing with an adult-sized basketball than anything else.

"There a reason y'lobbed at it me, or are you just...happy to see me?"

[donthidemycigs]

"Actually, I just wanted to see you try and carry it."

Grace gets caught somewhere between amusement and exasperation when her team goes speechless. On the one hand, it's part of her job as their boss to make sure they feel expendable from time to time -- keeps them on their toes -- and there's nothing more useless than a shiny PhD that can't compete verbally with one little marine. On the other hand, that little marine just single-handedly took out every useful braincell her team might have been trying to rub together.

Marina takes the ball -- smirks at Trudy -- and while Grace is pretty sure their thoughts are still on rubbing something together, it's not going to do a damn thing for her research.

"And I wanted to get your attention."

(In other words, just calling out to you is boring, Trudy.)

"You been having fun in the brig?"

[hallelujahpilot]

Warily, "Yeah. Loads. Can't wait to be back."

[donthidemycigs]

Grace's lips flatten out.

"Think you could manage to get your ass back in your bird beforehand?"

[hallelujahpilot]

"Only because you ask so nicely."

What? She's off-duty, dammit. If Grace wanted her to play nice, she could have waited until tomorrow.

[donthidemycigs]

She rolls her amber eyes, killing any and all snickers with a practiced, sharp glare.

"Cut the crap, would you? I need to ask you something."

Yes, attitude or no, this is Grace asking. Not ordering.



At least, not yet.

[hallelujahpilot]

Trudy - ignoring the snickers - raises her eyebrows.

"Yes, Doc?" She says, tone back to being professionally even.

[donthidemycigs]

Grace glances to her team, and without a word they move back to the hoop and resume their game.

"Come on, Marina! Try using those legs for once!"

"Yeah, yeah, you just try and keep up!"


Grace nods for Trudy to follow her.

"You ever work with Visnjic?"

[hallelujahpilot]

"Sure, but not that much. We tended to be on different shifts, when I was still pullin' transport."

[donthidemycigs]

Grace's expression is, quite simply, unimpressed.

"He's mouthy, obnoxious, and a piss-poor pilot compared to you," she grunts.

She's walking slow. It takes Trudy about two and a half steps to cover the ground Grace does in one.

"Don't let it go to your head, but I'm sure as hell glad you're back on duty. I forget just how shallow the gene pool is around this place when it comes to the kind of neanderthals they let climb into the cockpit."

[hallelujahpilot]

There is silence for a moment.

And then, in a tone of voice that says that she can't not say this, "You...do know that Neanderthals were actually 'bout as smart as Homo Sapiens, right, Doc?"

[donthidemycigs]

"Yeah, and about twice as carnivorous."

She glances sideways at Trudy.

"Don't have to be dumb to be bloodthirsty. Just have to be bloodthirsty."

[hallelujahpilot]

Ah, so, it's going to be one of those conversations.

"What's your point?"

[donthidemycigs]

"You swung a bottle into a geologist's face."

Just, you know. In case she forgot.

"Why?"

[hallelujahpilot]

Trudy doesn't stop walking - it's easier not to look at her - but she does talk.

"Because I'd spent the afternoon trying to retrieve as much of a platoon of people I lived with and worked with as I could. Ever had to spend hours picking up the corpses of your friends, Doc? It ain't pleasant. Because we die for you, and people like McKinley, and all we get are insults. And because Ingrid Schmidt was one of my closest friends, and my co-pilot, before she was killed." She remembered my birthday, and then she died. "And, well, McKinley didn't back down."

[donthidemycigs]

Grace lets her walk. Lets her focus on something other than her. She can, at times, listen.

And anyway, she doesn't feel the need to answer her question right now.

"You were in a room with hundreds of eye-witnesses, including a number of your superior officers. You knew there would be consequences for your actions."

[hallelujahpilot]

"I did," she says, calmly enough. "I was angry enough I didn't care."

[donthidemycigs]

Grace smiles; just a little one, but it's there.

"Isn't that a big thing for you marines? Falling in line? Following the chain of command?"

[hallelujahpilot]

"Part of being professional military," Trudy agrees, not entirely sure where Grace is headed.

[donthidemycigs]

In fact, that's exactly what Grace was digging for.

"The thing is, there are some who take the 'professional' in professional military more seriously than others. Since the incident with Falco's team, Selfridge is insisting I bring a military detail with me to the school."

The frustration in her voice chimes clear as a bell. It's not angry as much as it is inconvenienced; the school is Grace's baby, and military presence is like a babysitter with tattoos and piercings that charges $15 an hour.

"I don't have to tell you how unsteady relations between the Na'vi and humans continue to be. I'd like to have someone there I trust, who thinks with their own head and not the hive mind."

[hallelujahpilot]

"Either of the hive minds," Trudy says. She knows exactly what Grace is getting at, but she wants to be clear about the ground rules. "Do you want someone who agrees with you all the time, or someone who makes up their own mind?"

[donthidemycigs]

"If I wanted someone who agreed with me all the time, I wouldn't be talking to someone who just broke rank to start a bar fight."

Grace stops walking, turns, and faces -- well, looks down at -- Trudy.

"Now, there's one of two conclusions here. Either you're a loose canon, who deliberately ignored the rules because you were itching to draw blood, or you made a calculated decision after weighing all the consequences to stick up for what you believed was right.


"I'll be disappointed if it's the former, after I gave you such a stirring defense."

[hallelujahpilot]

"I know you don't think much of us Marines. But I am a Marine, and a retired US Marine at that. If I didn't believe in standing up for what I believe is right, no matter the consequences, I wouldn't have made it through boot-camp."

Trudy Chacon is a believer, in God and Corps, and it's perfectly genuine.

[donthidemycigs]

"I don't think much of anybody whose response to the unordinary is to try and squash it before they understand what it is."

She recognizes there is a difference. Just like some geologists are useful to her, and others are assholes.

"What I need is someone who'll respect the Na'vi and their culture. Regardless of how they feel about me."

[hallelujahpilot]

"I already do, Doc," she says simply.

Honestly.

[donthidemycigs]

"That's what I'm banking on."

She looks like some overblown heroic figure, standing ten feet tall and akimbo, smirk playing at her lips.

"Since I've already requested you on the detail. I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page."

[hallelujahpilot]

Grace's stance makes Trudy want to draw her.

With a cape, billowing in the heroic breeze.

(She manages to keep the smirk from her face, though.)

"And we're on the same page now?"

[donthidemycigs]

That all really depends on a lot of things, most of which she and Trudy haven't even breached yet. More like Grace has a theory she's right.

This doesn't seem like the right kind of thing to say to Trudy, however.

"You tell me," she shrugs. "You want the detail?"

[hallelujahpilot]

It goes against the grain to volunteer. But this isn't exactly volunteering, and this is...

Different.

"Yeah, I do."

[donthidemycigs]

"With all it entails?"

[hallelujahpilot]

"Y'know, I've been in worse situations with the local population. So, yeah, I think I can handle it."

They aren't actually at war with anyone, nor are they there to stop a civil war. Peacekeeping sucks.

[donthidemycigs]

"Good. I think we are on the same page, then."

Of course, Grace would never tell her that she's also read her file.

"There are details I want to go over. Things involving the Avatars, the layout, time and placement. But I've got a whole court of colleagues waiting on me, and if I remember right, today's your day off."

Smirk.

"Meet me at the longhouse, say... 1500 hours?"

That gives you plenty of time to yourself, right Trudy?

[hallelujahpilot]

"Works for me, Doc."

Beat.

"Mind if I stick about for a bit, and draw, though?"

[donthidemycigs]

The request takes Grace by surprise.

"No, go right ahead."

The fact that she didn't jump on the opportunity to make a run for it just gets added to Dr. Augustine's internal list.

[hallelujahpilot]

Trudy tosses Grace a casual salute, and then turns to walk over to the longhouse. She trusts sitting on the steps more than she trusts sitting on the ground and, true to her word, she pulls out her electric sketchpad, and starts to draw.

She draws the plants, she draws the buildings and she draws the people. It's a point of pride, the latter bit - Army artists draw vehicles, Navy artists draw ships, Air Force draw planes. Marine artists draw people. And so Trudy draws the Avatars, people with tails and ears, and she studies them, and sure, part of this is practice; it'll be easier talking to the Na'vi when she's used enough to the Avatars to pay attention to ears and tails as social cues, rather than ears and tails.

And, besides, it's an utterly beautiful day, and she refuses to spend it inside if she can help it.