[Semi-Open, Arrival] Dreaming Wide Awake

[oyedeng]

WHO: Naomi Nagata, James Holden, Amos Burton, a Rescue Crew and OPEN
WHAT: A woman falls out of space and onto Thedas. Some damage is incurred, some recovery time is needed, some reunions are happening. Also: Space resident's first exposure to snow.
WHEN: Covering arrival, quarantine/recovery and first steps in a snowy Kirkwall
WHERE: Wounded Coast, Riftwatch Infirmary, Kirkwall
NOTES: If you want to continue any CWs for description of/discussion of injuries sustained, pain suffered, Holden being a sap

At first, there is nothing. She floats, as she has done all her life, when the ring gate decelerates everything in an instant, and Naomi is knocked out cold.

Her dream is a simple thing. To stand aboard the Rocinante, to hug Alex, to touch her forehead to Amos', to hold Holden close. To tell them all she has to say, and to be welcomed back.

Instead, she comes to when she falls, thin body impacting on hard ground, vision flooding with flickering green, and beyond... the horrifying sight not of metal, not even of the darkness between stars... but of a grey, cloudy sky.

[ ooc: Closed and Open Prompts in comments below. If you'd like to do something else or discuss handwaving/continuing TDM threads, feel free to shoot me a message: inkcharm or Discord: inkcharm#4573.

Please also take a gander at Naomi's Permissions/CWs/Opt-Outs as well as her Info post. ]

Comments

[oyedeng]

"Give near anything enough time, you can master it."

Someone probably wrote that in an essay somewhere. Or else someone smart saidsomething like that in a vid.

"Why'd you have to practice? If you want to share."

[justashotaway]

Laura does, and she doesn't. People tend to react better when they don't find out by chance, and when they don't find out in a fight. But explaining the why of it...

Silently, she holds one of her feet out. A claw appears. (It comes through a pair of around-the-Gallows boots she wears, one that's already suffered some claw-related damage.) Made not of metal but of light, a silvery-blue colour comparable to lyrium or a spirit blade. It's long and knife-like, slightly curved, and glowing in the dim room.

And then it disappears again.

[oyedeng]

Naomi's thoughts go to body mods first - technology, sometimes experimental, sometimes not, that enhances and changes a body. Used for medicine, sometimes, like Holden's implant, or for treating severe injuries - she's seen crushed spines made functional again, missing limbs regrown, strength bolstered and limbs weaponized. Much of it is experimental and can mess a person up.

This is different, of course. Naomi frowns, in thought more than anything. Magic is still... weird to her, something she doesn't understand and can't figure out, like an unknown field of science. She's sure that nuclear fusion seems much the same from the flip side. She compartmentalizes though, and focuses instead Laura's face with a small nod.

Practiced walking. So, it would follow, didn't always have... those.

"Is it still uncomfortable?"

[justashotaway]

Laura shakes her head. Those are old scars, the ones that lead to the lyrium on her bones--an experiment close to a decade past--and those that might be visible are difficult to see against the pale skin of her hands.

"You will improve as well." It simply takes practice.