cactusy | IC contact for lastvoyages

[Shaw stirs without waking, murmuring something wordless and nudging her head more firmly into the t-shirt-covered pillow... and then the penny drops, reaching her even in sleep. Her eyes fly open.]

Root?

[ Well, that's an emphatic reaction. ]

Hope you weren't expecting someone else. Unless it was the dogs. They're allowed.

You were in a coma.

[Her expression doesn't change, and she doesn't pull her gaze from Root's face: it's muted shock all the way down.]

For a month and a half.

Stasis, [ Root corrects, straightening as she shifts so she's sitting on the floor. This gives her both space and time to digest this.

A month and a half. That explains the look on Shaw's face. ]

No wonder I feel so rested. I must've missed so much.

You're gonna get mobbed as soon as the dogs wake up.

[Shaw warns, glancing over at the dog bed where they're both sprawled - and at the way Bear's eyes twitch behind his lids at the sounds of their voices.]

You missed a crappy port. Probably just as well.

[A beat.]

I thought you were going to disappear.

Can't wait. [ She loves those boys so much.

She leans in close again, no longer smiling. ] I'm sorry.

[ Not that this was her fault, but still, it's an expression of sympathy. ]

How can I make it up to you?

You didn't do anything wrong, Root.

[But Shaw still hasn't touched her; is still looking at her like she half-expects her to blink out of existence. She lifts a hand, hovers it in the air for a second, and then drops it back down onto her own leg.]

[ Can Shaw be sure of that? Root had been planning on stalking Avalon before she went under. Maybe the Admiral put her in a long time-out to get her to behave herself. ]

I still feel bad about not being here for you for so long.

[ Still not smiling, she reaches out to cup a hand on Shaw's cheek. And stroke her thumb along Shaw's cheekbone. ]

Do you want pancakes?

[Shaw is still and unresponsive for long enough to be noticeable, but after that brief moment she fully leans into Root's touch, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and trying to pull her up for a kiss. This first. An answer to that question can come in a second.]

[ That sounds good to Root. She doesn't rush or push, letting Shaw set the pace, since she's the one who spent six weeks without her wife. Less than a second in, she's smiling into it. ]

[She feels real. As real as genuine Root; as real as simulation Root. ]

You wanna see my emotion ball?

[... Pause. ]

That's not a euphemism.

[ Root's smile brightens. ]

I'm not sure if I should be disappointed by that. [ A very little chuckle. ] I'd love to.

[Worming her hand down between their bodies in an effort to reach her hoodie's front pocket without displacing Root, Shaw fishes out the baseball-sized glassy orb. It is, as it usually is, primarily a swirling cloud of gray, but quick little lightning strikes of aqua surge through it. Faintly visible underneath the gray, a reddish pink gradient can be seen, intermingling with burnt orange hues.

Shaw holds the orb out for both of them to see, studying it. There. Emotion ball.]

[ Oh! Okay! Root gets it now! She thinks. What's in the ball must react to Shaw's emotions. Root watches the cloud with its lightning and what looks like a sunset hidden inside, her smile softening with curiosity and wonder.

Then, arching her eyebrows, she holds out a hand. Can she hold it? She wants to look at it up close. ]

[She likes the way Root looks at it, and the reddish-pink mixture blooms: not getting any brighter, but taking up more surface area.]

If you touch it, it'll change to show what you're feeling.

[Which is not a no; she just wants to make sure Root knows what to expect if she hands it over.]

[ Oh, it shows the emotions of anyone as long as they're holding it. Fascinating.

The spreading sunset hues are mesmerizing. ]

Okay. [ She meets Shaw's gaze. ] Yours are beautiful.

Yeah?

[She asks - studying Root's face, not handing it over juuuuust yet.]

Yours will look pretty different; other people don't have all the cloudy stuff.

I figured.

[ Where Shaw's emotions are less obvious, Root's are loud. She's very curious to see how they look in the emotion ball. But first-- ]

Have you ever lived somewhere with a climate like Texas? Sometimes you go so long without rain. Then, when you finally get rain, that cloudy sky is the most beautiful thing. [ She nods at the ball in Shaw's hand. ] Gray is beautiful to me.

[Oh, Root.

Shaw just looks at her a while longer, with an expression that would be unreadable if it weren't for all that red under the gray. Then she scoots back to lie on the couch, trying to tug Root right along with her.]

C'mere.

[ Dark clouds against a sunset sky? Downright breathtaking. Root lies down with her, hooking a leg over Shaw's calf. ]

I can ask to take off from my shift if you want me to stay with you all day.

You don't have to baby me; I'm fine.

[Still holding the orb in one hand, she settles the other arm around Root, pressing her leg against that hooked thigh.]

I didn't cheat on you.

[Look, she'd previously admitted to having invented and competed in the Sex Olympics to stave off boredom before Root arrived onboard. She has no idea if Root is wondering about her activities during her coma, and she wouldn't blame her if she were.]

It wouldn't be babying. It'd be catching up and making up for lost time.

[ A month and a half is a long time on just about every level, and it's not as if they're not aware of how thirsty (winkwonk) they can be. ]

I know. I trust you. [ And honestly, Root wouldn't blame her if she had. She knows who Shaw comes home to, where her emotions are. ] That some of the catching up we have to do. Six weeks is a really long time.

As much as I like the idea of making up for lost time... I have work, too.

[Which means that she can't stay in all day, but it certainly doesn't mean that she can't enjoy some quality time - and she'll start it off by finally handing over the orb, pressing it into the hollow of Root's palm.

The surface explodes with color, not even a hint of gray to be seen. There's red and pink and yellow and light blue and lavender, all swirling around each other and blending into each other to create new shades. It's chaotic, but in a way that feels beautiful and natural and so, so Root.

Shaw finds that she can't tear her eyes away.]

[ Oh. So this is Root's emotional skyscape. Shaw's is sunset on a cloudy day, and Root's is sunshine bouncing off every available particle and reflecting back an ever-shifting, kaleidoscopic display. It's pretty, but it doesn't draw Root in the way Shaw's did, so it's not long before she's studying Shaw's face, memorizing every detail like they aren't already hard coded into her neurons. ]

What do the colors mean?

[Shaw doesn't even notice that she's being looked at: with brow furrowed and her lips slightly pursed, she's too busy watching the orb.]

I, uh-- I got a cheat sheet if you wanna see it, but gray is the only one I looked up; I wanted to try to figure out the rest myself. Red and pink are good. That shade of blue is interest, I think, but darker shades of blue are bad. Dark purple's not great, either, but I don't know about light purple.

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