AWD #035: Scar Tissue
Scar Tissue
Summary: In which Ygraine and Phin discuss recent maulings, whether she should get inked, and other stuff.
Date: 11/02/2013 (OOC Date)
Related Logs: Dessert to Go; Strikes
Phin Ygraine 
Laundry Room — Deck 2 — Battlestar Orion
Aboard a battlestar everyone except Command Staff does their own laundry, from ranking officers down to the lowest enlisted. This is one of many rooms just like this throughout the ship, and each one is nearly identical. There are baskets for holding clothes when they are pulled from the dryer and long tables for folding that run down the center of the room. Chairs sit along one wall and some magazines are stacked on a small book shelf near the door.
Mon Feb 11

Yggy is folding her laundry, her buds in her ears. She's singing softly under her breath as she flips over cloth and piles it into her basket.

Phin pokes his head through the hatch into the laundry room. He's not carting around any laundry of his own. Possibly he's looking for something. Or someone. Ygraine, specifically, since he nods in some satisfaction when he spots her. He offers a "Hey" that's not really loud enough to penetrate her buds. Instead of shouting he waits a second, trying to follow the song she's singing. If it's one he knows, he'll totally try and belt out the chorus along with her.

"What do I stand for? What do I stand for? Some nights I don't know anymore…oh oh!" she sings, and turns around, sensing a presence. She beams when she sees Phin and sings a few more lines with him before plucking her buds out. She's in her tank and tee, so the claw scars and bite scar on her arms and neck are bare to the world.

Phin is in a tank as well, though his visible scars are only of the self-inflicted kind. His tatts, that is. He laughs, finishing off the last stanza with her before she de-headphones. "Hey." There's a hint concern in his eyes, though the singing likely alleviates some of it. "So. I heard you totally kicked Storm's ass all over the ring." That is probably not exactly what he heard.

She laughs. "That's what you heard, huh?" Yggy counters with a roll of her eyes. Flashing him a grin she asks, "You come looking for me, or got laundry to do yourself?"

"Something like that," Phin replies with a somewhat abashed little shrug. He really can't claim to have any laundry to do, so he admits, "The former, maybe. You OK?"

Ygraine takes a breath, and admits faintly, "No." Her smile increases though, and she says with more certainty, "But I will be, Phinny. Promise."

"OK." If he's not totally satisfied with that answer, Phin doesn't press. "Just let me know if there's someone I need to beat up on your behalf. I'm from the street, y'know. I got mad skills, yo." It doesn't sound as ridiculous as one would imagine it sounding coming from him, but he at least says it somewhat ironically. And he adds, "At least, I know how to hit somebody below the belt so it'll hurt and run away."

Ygraine laughs a little. "You let me wory about me, Worry Wart." she teases him gently. "But look, if ya want to ask me…go ahead and ask me. It's okay. I'm just kinda…still a little shaky, but I'm a lot better than I was."

Phin sticks his tongue out at Ygraine when he's called a Worry Wart. "Normally I wouldn't pry, but you've taught me some super bad habits when it comes to boundaries and shit." More seriously. He does ask. "What happened?"

Ygraine moves to perch herself on the folding table, legs swinging to and fro. "Just as we were getting rescued, the wolves got tired of waiting and attacked us. I wasn't the only one, but I don't think I've ever felt more pain my life." She blanches a little in remembrance. "Took Storm telling me it was okay to not be all…you know, tough about it."

Phin goes to sit next to her. Hopping up on the table so he can fold himself cross-legged. "Dogs kind of freak me out," he admits. "I mean, not like little girlie ones that rich chicks keep in their purses and dress in stupid outfits. I'm not like a spazz about it. The big ones can be vicious, though. They used to keep these hounds at the Ares school. Since they're sacred to the Lord of War. Really sleek, big black hunting dogs. Gorgeous. If you didn't have to get close to them. The Headmaster was old-fashioned, like hard-core. So every holy day, we had to sacrifice one." He grimaces. "I tried to set one of them free once, night before they did it. Got the lock on the cage open easy. Ungrateful bitch almost bit my hand off." He flexes the fingers on his right hand. "It healed, though. Can't even tell anymore."

"Wolves." she says. "Like Artemis' wolves, but yeah, that's pretty bad enough. Here, you wanna see something?" She tilts her head back, exposing her throat. The bite scar on her neck is dangerously close to her artery.

"Wolves'd be way worse, on the freaky scale," Phin says. He leans over a little, to check it out. Letting out a low whistle. "That was close. Not quite, though. Thank gods." It's muttered under his breath. He clears his throat. "It still hurt?"

"Not as much as it did. I think it's kinda gonna have a weather ache, and hey, there's no weather up here, right?" she says. "But there's these, too." She holds out her arms so he can see the claw scars.

Phin reaches out a finger to touch one of the scars on her arm, without seeming to really realize what he's doing. When he does, he clears his throat and shrugs. "They'll fade. Maybe not totally, but more than you'd think. Give it some time, you won't notice them anymore. Besides, you're still totally hot." He arches his brows. "You get that, right?"

Yggy grins. "Phin McBride said I'm hot. A hand flutters to her forehead. "I may faint. No - swoon!"

Phin blushes, though he tries to roll his eyes to cling to some vague speck of cool. "C'mon, like you don't know you're gorgeous. You do not need me to tell you that." He shrugs. "Anyway. They aren't that bad. Was my point. Though if you wanted to dress them up some, you could finally get some ink done. You'd look bad-ass with some tatts."

She's only half-kidding when she replies, "Point of order, Phinny - ever woman needs to be told she's gorgeous. But that's neither here nor there." She considers her arms a moment. "It would…it would hurt, wouldn't it?"

"Well, yeah," Phin admits. "You're volunteering to let somebody carve something into your skin. It doesn't exactly tickle. But it's not the worst kind of pain in the world. It's not like getting stabbed, or bitten or anything. And if you've got a cool artist, they'll give you a few shots before they do it. There are some civs down on Piraeus who do it. My dolphin turned out OK." He flexes his shoulder with a grin. It kind of makes the thing jump, which is probably the idea. "Figure getting those stitches was worse, so you'd survive. And when it's done…you've taken something you maybe don't like about yourself and made it something beautiful. Or at least something you want to keep living with."

Ygraine looks down at her arms again. "Maybe." she says hesitantly. "You'd come with me if I did it, right? I don't think I could go by myself." She's oddly shy about it.

"I mean, you don't have to. You look fine without them," Phin says. "But, if you've got something that's important to you, it's one way to carry it. And of course I would." He grins. "If you want. It's more fun with people along, anyway. My brother and me got our script done on our birthday, year before I left Scorpia." He snorts. "We were kind of trashed. Which does make it less painful. Just make sure you write down what you want to get first, or you might ask for something you end up regretting."

Yggy laughs at that. "I suppose I'd have to figure that out. Maybe I'll ask Storm. He's got a hole frakload of tattoos, crazy Tauran."

"Tauran tatts are insane-detailed," Phin says. "Real ones, at least. Not the knock-offs douchebags who've listened to too much hip-hop get. But yeah. I bet he'd have some ideas." He chuckles. "Maybe you should get a cow or something."

Oh, that makes her ball up a fist and punch him in the arm. "A cow? Really? Don't put your cow phobia on me young man." She snickers, and then admits, "Seriously though, the idea of being in pain kinda freaks me out right now."

"Hey!" Phin barks at the punch, though he's laughing as he yelps. That trails off, though, and he nods. "Yeah. Makes sense. It's…a different kind of pain, though. Like, you're in control of it, if that makes any sense. It's not something that'd being done to you, it's a choice you made." Shrug. "Anyway, if you do go, totally let me know. I'd be honored if you wanted me along."

"Well, of course I'd want you along. You're my best friend, yeah?" she says. "Though I might ask Storm, too. He knows a lot about this sort of thing. I just gotta think about what I'd want to put on me, is all. How did you and Bear decide what you got?"

Phin should know that, really, but when she says it he looks a little surprised. And touched. "Really?" Though he adds, "I mean, you're mine, too. My best friend, I mean. Anyway. We didn't want to match, but we both wanted something that was kind of alike. And to remember what was getting us off Scorpia, even if I hadn't liked it all the time. He got more into the Cult of Ares than I did. Still practices. There were some parts of it I didn't mind, though. I kind of miss some of the rituals." He adds, "I mean, none of the ones that involved knifing dogs. But the discipline and stuff. The focus. So we each got a stanza from the scripture that we liked. His was more ra-ra war, since he was going into the Marines. I didn't really want to carry that around. The full of this one goes…" He pauses a beat, but when he recites it he does it perfectly. "Shed down a kindly ray from above upon my life, and strength of war, that I may be able to drive away bitter cowardice from my head and crush down the deceitful impulses of my soul."

"Strength of will and spirit, to do what's necessary, yeah?" she queries, to see if she's gotten an inkling of what it means.

"Yeah. Exactly," Phin says. "And not giving into things that make you weak, even if you think you want to." Shrug. "You think I'm repressed, you should've met some of the Brothers. But parts of it aren't a bad way to be."

Ygraine cocks her head. "I don't think you're repressed, exactly. But you worry about everythin', instead of letting go of what ya ain't got control over and focusin' on what you can change. Sometimes I worry that your head's gonna go splodey." She smiles faintly at him. "Phin? What does Ares say 'bout tears?"

"I like to think about things," Phin says. And then think about them again. And overthink them. As for the last question. "Not a lot. But the cult's kind of full of bullshit about some things. The passage I took my ink from is like the only one that mentions anything 'kindly.' A lot of the other parts are really…mean. And heartless. All about how awesome victory in war is. It doesn't really talk about the the pain or losing your friends or…anything like we've been through. That's why I don't practice anymore, I guess. One of the reasons. There's parts of it I wanted to keep but a lot I didn't." He pauses for a second. "I don't think they make you weak, if that's what you mean. It's a way of being honest with yourself, with cowards can't do."

Ygraine nods. "That's what Kurt said. There ain't a lot of people I worry much about respectin' me, not outside of career stuff, but you're one of 'em, and part of my problem last night was that I thought being strong meant ignorin' it, y'know what I mean?"

"Me? Seriously?" Phin blushes again. "I mean…thanks. And I totally do. I mean, you're really smart. I would have tanked that comp sci stuff you can just wiz through. And you can pull jocks out of space when we get our asses ejected which…makes me feel a little better out there. I just wish we'd have been able to do a better job of keeping those Raiders off you guys back in that asteroid field." There's a note of apology in his voice. "That shouldn't have gone like that, Yggs."

"You kiddin' me? The destruction of the colonies shouldn't have happened. Ain't your fault. I don't lose the forest for the trees, ya know? Ya ain't got anythin' to be sorry for." She pauses, adding, "Cept maybe turnin' my fine ass down, junior year." Oh, there's the old Ygraine back. "Seriously though, I'm startin' to worry about ya. You'd fret less if you got a little…ya know."

"It's really cute how you don't think that would've been a total disaster," Phin says wryly. "I'm flattered, Yggs. You're wrong, but I'm flattered." Her suggestion makes him snort. "Maybe." It's not like he's going to say he'd mind getting laid. "I guess there are girls who live on the housing complex down on the planet that I wouldn't have to run into that often. They must hang around Charlie's."

Ygraine snorts. "That's on you, buddy." she says. "I have no problem being friends with guys I frak, but you know what they say, if you can't get help here," she makes a vague gesture downwards, "Please get help somewhere." she grins at him.

"Could you not point!?" Phin's joking, but he's not. "Anyway, most girls aren't like you. How do you do that, anyway? Fool around with a guy for that long without getting attached. Or without them getting attached to you. I mean, when I was on Picon it was easy to just go out to a bar and…but they were just…they wanted to frak a cute Viper pilot. And that was all I had to be. And then we didn't have to deal with each other anymore, so nobody got more than they bargained for."

Yggy shrugs a little bit. "I guess it just depends on the guy." she says. "There's some men I only frak once and it's sort of like trying candies from a sampler box. I got my taste, I'm done. Some guys are worth coming back to, because they don't expect more than I give 'em, and they get the same courtesy from me. Like, if Holtz found some woman that made him happy, sure I'd be sad that I wouldn't get to frak him anymore, but I'd also be happy for him being happy. I kinda think you're more worried about you getting attached than me getting attached. I mean, I'd already pretty much follow you into Hell, Phinny. But that's because you're my friend and in a way we've already kinda been and back, ain't we?" She holds up her hands. "Which is not me seriously tryin' to talk you into a frak, I'm just…well, as long as we're bein' honest, y'know?"

"I got ninety-nine problems, darlin', why add one more?" It's a glib remark, though Phin seems to think over what she says seriously. "Anyway. I know what you mean. And I…I just think, it'd get weird. It'd be different. And…that's the thing. You are my best friend. I don't want to frak that up just to get off for a few hours." He adds quickly, "Several hours. I'm not saying it'd be, like, traumatic or anything." He laughs.

Yggy snickers. "No, I'm pretty sure it would be the direct opposite of traumatic." She muses again. "I never wanted to push, but I kinda always did wanna know why. Like, if it was me, ya know? But it's all about what's goin' on in your noggin, worry wart. I can live with that." She grins.

Phin grins back, just looking at her a beat. And when he speaks again, it's to change the subject entirely. Which probably isn't an accident. "Oh. By the way. Meant to ask you. Major Shepherd asked me to put together…a thing. I'm not sure if it'll come together or not. But we were talking and I had an idea and he wanted to see what I could do with it. I kind of wanted your opinion. Since, wherever it goes, it's probably going to need Raptor work more than anything else upfront."

Yggy's brows lift. "Is this about that thing you didn't want to mention in the bar?"

Phin nods. "Yeah. Seemed weird to talk about it there, over like beers and stuff. Anyway, I was talking to the drop team from Aerilon, kind of doing a post-mortem for Major Shepherd, like he asked me to. And we got to talking about where the Cylons might be supplying themselves from, building new Raiders and Centurions and stuff. And, I mean, they could be taking over Colonial industrial sites, but they had a huge army way before they took over the colonies. So they must have a bunch of facilities across the Armistice Line. So he and I were talking about this and he wants to me to like…do something with it." Which he's plainly daunted by. "Like reconnaissance. Or something. Not sure where to start with something like that, y'know? Far as I know, we have no idea what they've been doing over there for the last forty years."

Ygraine's brows stay up near her airline. "You wanna cross the armistace line." She sounds faintly disbelieving, and like she really wants to support him, but just isn't convinced yet. "How would we do that without getting caught? We don't have anything in the way of stealth ships."

"No idea," Phin says. Hence the daunted. "Part of me wonders if Major Shepherd's not just frakking with me. He seemed interested in it, though. What I'd do with it. If I could do anything. There's probably a low chance of getting anything out of something like it, or it'd have been passed off to a senior officer. Our Raptors managed to get data from the colonies, even with the Cylons swarming around them, and out before the toasters could frak them. They knew where to look when they were going back, though. Which I figure if the big problem."

"The Armistice Line is a whole different thing. Once you're past it, it's like…Cylon Central." Her eyes are wide. "If we had some kinda stealth ship, it might be feasible, but…" she trails off.

"It's creepy thinking about it." Though it plainly intrigues Phin as well. It's fertile territory for over-thinking. "But, yeah. You'd need more cover than you've got on a jaunt back to the colonies, at least. And some idea of where to start, and where to run straight back if things got hairy." He shakes his head a little. "Anyway, helping out the people who're left on Picon and Aerilon and Leonis and…everywhere else is where our priorities should be. I do kind of want to keep thinking about it, though. See where it goes. If it goes anywhere.

"You'll think of something. It's an idea, and ideas can always be thought about for as long as they need to be to make sense to work out." Ygraine says confidently. "I'm smart, but you're super duper smart."

Phin snorts. "You're mega smart. Which is better than super duper. Like, quantitatively. Or something. Frak if I know how much. Math was never my best area." He unfolds himself from his seating position on the table, hopping down. "Anyway. I should hit the Head. I want to shower before CAP. Take care of yourself, Yggs."

"Talk atcha later, Phinny." With that, she goes back to serenly folding her laundry.

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