The Marina, Cat Island, Friday Afternoon

[okteiviakom]

As most days this week (and the one before that, and the one before that...) Octavia had spent most of the early parts of her day working around the marina. There was always maintenance work to be done, things to fix, areas to tidy. She knew how to do most of the usual things by now, too, and had less of a need for the local workers to show her the ropes, whether literal or figurative. She could just be helpful. Just that, and not a burden or a hindrance.

It settled something in her. At least a little.

But by now, her tasks for the day were done. She'd cleaned all of the maintenance grime off of herself, and was now sitting near where the Fin & Tonic was docked. Watching the water, listening to whatever noise was coming from elsewhere in the marina.

Thinking about home.

[ooc: NFB, open for all the usual with likely SP.]

Comments

[okteiviakom]

It was easier now than it had been a year ago. Octavia would take it.

She shrugged one shoulder. "Nothing's perfect. I like it fine enough." Just not enough to stay indefinitely.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded “We’ll head home soon, I think. You need your trees. Even if you have to be really careful about it these days.”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia gave the tiniest nod. "Yeah, Lucifer and I just talked about it, too. I'm not in a rush, but..."

[betterthanaplan]

“But you’ve gotten everything you’re going to get out of this.” Duke nodded. “Maybe we can schedule a portal in a bit. Sail through it together on the OceaNyx.”

[okteiviakom]

"Right," Octavia said, a little slower, with the faintest little frown. "I... forgot she needed to get back, too."

[betterthanaplan]

“Yeah,” Duke said, brows furrowing a little at her frown. “I don’t mean we need to take days sailing her or anything. Just. Books portal on the water big enough for her to fit.”

[okteiviakom]

"Right, sorry," Octavia murmured. Guess it still remained a slightly sore subject. Not enough to have been on her mind, just enough to... bleed out. "That's fine."

[betterthanaplan]

“Good,” Duke said. He bumped her shoulder again. “So. What else are you looking forward to at home?”

[okteiviakom]

"Just... home?" Octavia replied, shrugging a little. "Being there. Maybe getting back to the drums again. And the club."

Sure, she'd been, this past week. But dropping in via portals wasn't the same thing.

[betterthanaplan]

“And maybe knowing every inch of the place?” Duke asked. “So it . . . feels a little more secure?”

[okteiviakom]

"I mean, I guess?" Octavia said. She didn't sound sold on it. "I mean, don't you like familiar places?"

[betterthanaplan]

“Sure,” Duke agreed. “But I also like to change it up. I used to basically be a nomad, before Fandom. So it’s maybe less of a thing for me.”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia looked over the water, and kept herself from shrugging again.

Barely.

"And it's different when you get a choice."

[betterthanaplan]

“. . . It is,” Duke agreed. Was she hinting that she hadn’t gotten one this time? “Choice makes all the difference.”

[okteiviakom]

"Easier to like changing it up."

[betterthanaplan]

“. . . Yes,” Duke said, nodding slowly.

That was what he’d been agreeing about, wasn’t it?

“If you’re trying to clarify or empathize something, I’m not getting it.”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia looked back over at him, with another light frown. More faint this time, though. More confused than anything.

"I'm... talking?" she said. There was no way for her to know he'd thought she might've been hinting anything, after all. "What?"

[betterthanaplan]

“I said I like to change it up, you said that it’s easier when you have a choice and I agreed that choice makes things easier. And you repeated that it’s easier to change things up,” Duke said, counting on his fingers. “Like . . . I wasn’t being specific enough.”

Yeah, her tendency to be very specific was backfiring on them a bit here.

[okteiviakom]

What, like the way Octavia was pretty sure on her end she'd said two separate things that he, on his end, was interpreting as her repeating something?

"Right," she said, slowly. "Well, I wasn't implying that. Sorry."

[betterthanaplan]

“Okay.” Duke decided against belaboring the point. One of them would just end up tripping over the other’s trigger, otherwise. “You know, I’ve been thinking I should do more day trips on the OceaNyx. Kinda . . . balance out my inner homebody and my wanderlust. I’d love to bring you along sometimes.”

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had been considering explaining certain parts of what she'd said - where her lack of choice had been, tossed around into prison, onto the ground - but guess they were already moving on.

Maybe it was for the better.

"I'd like that," she murmured, and meant it. "I don't take the Samsara out enough, either."

[betterthanaplan]

“Well. You can take me out on her sometimes,” Duke said with a smile.

[okteiviakom]

"Where do you wanna go? Baltimore?"

It wasn't a very serious question, but... Well, Octavia was trying for something a little lighter, here. Something comfortable.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke would go anywhere with her.

“I’d love that,” he said. “Or if there’s anywhere else you like to take her.”

[okteiviakom]

"It's usually just Baltimore," Octavia admitted. "Sometimes around the island. I haven't been very... adventurous."