first one who touches the ground loses

Octavia woke up with someone's arm resting over her side. Nothing unusual about that, really, or even about just any sign that she was sharing her bed with someone. So when she blinked her blurry eyes open and didn't see the bedroom wall on the Rouge but rather the drab beige of the interior of the Samsara, well, that was a sign that something was off.

It took her a moment to find her bearings, put everything together in her head, to remember yesterday and how it wasn't all just a dream. She managed to restrain herself into rolling around carefully to see that the arm belonged to Ilian. That Ilian was still here, peaceful and still and also faintly snoring.

Of course, she hadn't meant to sleep here. That much was evident even from how they were both almost fully dressed in their stret clothes as if they'd expected to go out at any moment, and then just... hadn't. Which was more or less what had happened. The boat was littered with takeout containers from most of the restaurants all across the island. What did you do when someone showed up from a post-apocalyptic world? You did your best to show them some of the good in this time, which in Octavia's case apparently meant focusing on the abundance of food, and the variety of it.

And as they'd eaten, they'd talked.

They'd talked a lot.

About everything.

About how things had gone after the conclave. About everything she could remember of what had become of members of Wonkru who'd been Trishanakru in the past (although she'd cut out some of the gore, when it was there). About her life on Fandom, complete with show-and-tell with all the little sentimental bits she kept on her boat (butterfly statues and pictures of various futures and ridiculous giant tulle boas). About his life on his farm, with his family, before ALIE and Skaikru and everything going to shit. All the things she hadn't had the energy or interest in asking about last time.

Making up for what they hadn't had on the Ground. Making up for what they were about to lose again all too soon, although of course Ilian was taking more of a 'grateful that it happened at all' approach against the way Octavia's pre-emptive grief tried to bubble up.

And somewhere in the middle of all the endless talking, laughing, crying, then talking some more, they'd both fallen asleep. Curled up a little. Not like on the farm, but close enough. Octavia knew this probably meant she had some explaining to do to Duke and Lucifer, but couldn't really feel too bad about it in the moment.

Watching Ilian's face in this moment was already crushing her heart over the thought of losing him again.

[ooc: Open, if you have some business on the lil' boat, or want to text or something.]

Octavia was trying.

They'd been at Ilian's farm for about a week, and she was trying. Trying to learn, trying to help. Trying not to think about how her natural urge to address the sheep as strikon kept making her think of her Fandom habit of always speaking Trig to animals. Trying to not be the person she'd been just a week ago.

Trying to fit in.

Even if it was just with one person, this time.

Ilian was good to her. Kind, patient. During the daytime, they worked on the land and cared for the animals, and he taught her about both, and she did her best to listen attentively, to do things as he said, as he did. To be the kind of person he needed to have around on his farm. And when they slept, he wrapped her up in his arms, her back pressed snugly against his chest. She tried to tell herself it was for his own benefit, that he needed the comfort because he'd just lost his family. But she knew that wasn't it.

Things on the farm were peaceful.

But Octavia wasn't. She was trying, but all she was getting was frustrated.

"Are you tilling the soil or stabbing it?" Ilian asked from where he was sowing seeds into the rows that were ready. It was getting to be late in the day, and they'd been working on this patch of land for what felt like most of it.

Octavia stuck the hoe back in the dirt - with a little more force than was necessary, yes. "You know this is dumb, right?" she asked, with enough of a complaint in her tone to elicit a quiet huff from him. "We'll all be dead before anything grows."

"The earth survived Praimfaya once," Ilian replied. "It will again." He sounded so sure of it. "We do this for those who come after us." Another huff. Was he trying not to laugh at her technique? Probably, since he was coming over now. "Let me show you."

( But right then, someone called out his name. They hadn't had any visitors in the time Octavia had been here. )

[ooc: NFB, NFI. Taken from The 100 S4 episode 9. Content warning for graphic violence.]