Simple Converstations

[Thalia Tait]

Thalia supposed the nice thing about having a couple in the group was that she didn't feel so awkward rubbing her horse-riding sore rump once they stopped for the evening. And now, with a fire built and everything, Bryan speaking to Jay, and Miller off doing who knew what, it was up to her to get everyone fed. Easy enough. She enjoyed cooking. Dry meat and rations just were not acceptable for the strenuous journey they were taking on. Plus it would help her stay busy and stay out of her worried thoughts.

Sifting about the camp they had set up, she had already found several good sized root vegetables and leafy greens, along with some green onions shoots. It would have to do on short notice. She had a bit of salt in her pack, which was mostly due to very skilled trading in Polis. Salt was expensive. Heck, she could have had a pair of genuine sunglasses, unbroken and undamaged and it still wouldn't have met the price of salt. 

Thalia tied her dark wild hair behind her with her usual leather strap and sighed. Steamed would have to do for now. She knew she should have traded for some animal fat or a nice pan. But nooo, they were in such a hurry they couldn't even think of stopping for very long before meeting up wth the groups. So improperly prepared, to not take nutrition into account, even after they had all grouped up. Her dark eyes went over to Bryan and narrowed slightly, creasing with worry. 

It wasn't that she was suspicious of him... It was just that she didn't trust him. Or his judgement. He had been a Pike Follower after all... Looking down as she was peeling and cutting up veggies, she frowned in her worry. Could he be trusted to truly look out for every single one of them and their best interests? Chewing the inside of her lip, she sighed softly. 

Rubbing the peeled and cut veggies with a damp piece of cloth the best she could, Thalia added a pinch of salt and the green onions for flavor. Then she put them all on the other side of the cloth and tied it closed. Taking up the small and very very old eight inch dutch oven, she set the veggie pack in it, then set it close to the fire carefully. Grabbing a stick she pushed half burned pieces of wood over it, even a few embers. There. That should do it.

The little oven could put a bit of weight to her pack, but it was one of the things she insisted on taking with her on any venture. Food was very important, though everyone tried to ignore it. Sitting by the fire, she grunted, disliking how tender her backside still was. With a grumbled she shifted to spread out her legs, much like a child might and let her head drop back. Opening her tired eyes some, the upside down image of someone walking towards her made her hold back a groan. Someone with a limp.

It was @bryanbryanbryan walking towards. Yay....

[Deleted]

Bryan left his conversation with Macallan feeling good about the other guy. Macallan didn't seem to dislike Bryan. He seemed like the sort of guy to just go with the flow. Bryan new Macallan would be a team player. Now he needed to find out the same of Thalia, which he'd put off until after he's talked to Macallan. Bryan got the feeling Thalia was uncomfortable, and whether that was with the entire situation they were in or because she was on a team with Bryan as the leader, he needed to know. And maybe if it was a problem she had with him, they could at least smooth it out enough to make this work until they no longer had to work together. Bryan didn't need to make friends. He just had to know he could count on his team to follow him.

After resting his leg a bit as he talked with Macallan, it felt more stiff as he got up and walked over to Thalia. He mostly got away with not limping. Mostly. He couldn't help the small tug of a smile at the way she was sitting, looking up at him upside down as he came over to her, then grunted a little at the twinge in his leg as he sat near to her, stretching out his bad leg again. "Hey," he said, looking over at her. "How're you holding up?" It was the same question he asked Macallan, and it had worked well enough for him. Maybe it would be a good icebreaker with Thalia too.

Tag: Thalia Tait

[Thalia Tait]

Thalia closed her eyes slowly, feeling even more tired than before. Nothing like a little pike to swim her way and ruin her already aching spoiled mood. Though that could just be the aching from horse riding, stress from being nervous and strain from having to watch a peaceful couple look at one another as though they didn't need anything else... She was rambling in even her thoughts. With one more sigh, she tipped her head up.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Maybe he'd just sit by the fire silently, eat quietly and go cuddle with Nate. Argh, but she wasn't so lucky. Instead, he was emulating Bellamy by trying to take the responsibilities of a leader and lord over her. In her own odd way, even skittish Thalia had a problem with authority, though many had told her that her crime, the crime that had gotten her dropped on Earth, had been just and honorable. Still didn't make her want to be all happy and cheerful that they had done it. 

But it was indeed the past, and what was done was done. With an irritated huff, she looked into the fire, her brows curving slowly into a troubled frown. She didn't like being rude and jerky to someone she barely knew, but Thalia wondered just what kind of person could follow Pike. Bellamy she understood. He obviously had father-figure problems. But she hardly knew anything about @bryanbryanbryan. Did he have father figure problems too? That was the only thing she could think of that would have anyone following the steps of someone like Pike.

Thalia didn't often say she hated someone, but with Pike... Well, she understood that he had of course had good intentions. Most corrupt, deaf and blind leaders do. ALIE, Jaha, and even Pike. They had all thought they were doing what was best. The problem was they hadn't listen to those they had sought to help. Hadn't heard the cries of agony or felt the sorrow or trembled with the horror of those hundreds of people they had hurt and even killed. They hadn't listened to their friends or sought council from anyone to try and broaden their point of view...

And they had left scars of trauma over so many people who had been lucky enough to survive their twisted abusive love.

So when she looked at him, this group leader, she saw them. Those leaders who hadn't the courage to see through the eyes of the people they had tried to work with. Well, she could. Once she knew people a certain amount, she could imagine and almost feel exactly how they felt. She could catch a glimpse of those lives through those different sets of eyes. Or at least she tried to. People these days... They didn't seem to try, they were so caught up in themselves and their own desires and needs. Like fumbling children... Ah, but that made her one of them , now didn't it? Since she felt this kind of bitterness and caution... Closing her eyes, only to open them once more to look at the fire and the cooking meal, she sat up.

"Doesn't matter," she replied softly, in that gentle and warm voice of hers that never changed, not even through all the horrible times, "But I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk like them..." That probably made no sense. Looking over at him, she had only a tired expression on her face. "Just talk like you, okay?" she finally tried to smile, but it fell a bit short and just looked like she was extremely sad, "Your leg hurt? Want me to make something to numb the pain a bit?"

[Deleted]

Well, this wasn't a good start. Thalia huffed, sounding annoyed, and her brows drew together. When she finally spoke, she dismissed his question and... seemed to be accusing him of representing himself as someone he wasn't. He huffed almost a laugh, and smiled faintly, shaking his head, almost bitterly amused at her assumption of what kind of person he must be if she thought words of kindness and consideration were not part of his normal vocabulary.

It was true, when he'd asked the same question of Macallan that he'd asked Thalia, how he was holding up, he had thought it sounded like something Pike would say. Bryan had never been a leader, and Pike was one of the best he'd ever known. But he would not have used those words at all if they weren't also sincere. God, she was one of the minority among camp that despised Pike and everyone who supported him without bothering to ever try to understand. That was exactly what Bryan had been worried about. Given support had been widespread among camp--Pike had been the duly elected Chancellor, and by a landslide!--Bryan wasn't sure how people like Thalia had managed to avoid or ignore such a huge segment of their own people's opinions.

"No," he said automatically when she offered to make him something for his pain. He didn't want her help if she was making assumptions about him right off the bat, if she already disliked him having never really talked to him before. He didn't want someone to help him resentfully. He'd come to her if it was life and death, but he could handle the pain. "I am curious to know who you think I'm trying to talk like, though," he said, his gaze on hers questioning, not letting the sour feeling in his stomach at her words show on his face.

Tag: Thalia Tait

[Thalia Tait]

Thalia looked at him with her deep dark eyes, brows knitted up in anxiety. He didn't seem to like her answer or her offer. So...he was really just going to suffer through that limp? What if it got infected? Or if it was a sprain that turned into a broken bone. Whatever was hurting him must be bad to make  him limp, right? So why suffer through it? What a puzzling person. But then again maybe he refused her help because she was so distant to him. He must not like that she was unsure and untrusting of him.

"I merely meant...that you sounded forced," she said softly, "We have to work together, so...I was hoping to keep everything civil among us." Even if she didn't like his political choice. They could still always agree to disagree and respect one another's choices. Looking at the fire, she pulled her knees up to her chest, laying her arm across them like a table. Her posture... She drew into herself. It appeared that they were going to have a difficult time...getting along. But that was usually the way it was when you were on the other side of the political fence. Resting her cheek on her arm, she wondered if she should just make the salve for his leg anyway. 

"It'll hurt more if you don't treat it," she stated quietly, looking into the fire, "...I'll make the salve anyway then... We can't have a weak leader." Her eyes slid over to him slowly, watching, examining, wondering. He was curious, she was curious. They disliked one another's choices. They didn't understand the way one another thought. Thalia wondered if talking about it would help. But... Did Pike followers listen? Did they even talk about problems civilly? Or did they just try to shoot the problem, then ask questions later? Ah... That was cruel of her. Surely some of them must listen, even just a little. 

"I suppose you already know..." she looked back at the fire, "I didn't quite like Pike... Or his way of doing things." She looked back over at him, this time moving her head. "And I don't understand anyone who ever did and still does,"  Thalia's soft and gently warm voice held such blunt and honest words, but her eyes were unwavering. If anything she wasn't afraid anymore. Her life wouldn't end because of some opinions she held in the past. Not with Pike was gone. So she left her eyes meet his, clear and glazed by firelight. 

"When it comes down to it... I am against the 'shoot now and ask questions later' policy," the dark haired girl said without a trace of nervousness to her, "I don't think you can just kill off all your problems...or arguments...or people who disagree with you. So, I suppose... The question now is..." Her eyes gleamed like embers. "Will we be able to work together, despite our differences in political policies, Leader @bryanbryanbryan ?"

[Deleted]

Bryan forced himself not to huff another bitter laugh as she answered him. He'd sounded forced? She had been hoping to keep things civil? Bryan had been nothing but casual in his question, so if he sounded forced to her, it was her own internal biases twisting what she heard. And she'd responded to him by practically accusing him of pretending to be someone he wasn't. How was that for civil? Though should he expect more from someone who obviously sympathized with Grounders? Octavia Blake was practically a Grounder herself, and she had savagely beaten her own brother, then appointed herself judge, jury, and executioner when it came to Pike. That was not how civil people behaved.

But he bit his tongue and let her speak, ignoring the comments about his leg and focusing on everything else she said. She didn't like Pike. That much was obvious. She didn't understand anyone who did or still does. Fair enough. Bryan didn't understand people like Talia who were so blind to the opinions of the majority of their people and to the way the Grounders attacked first on almost every occasion. He let her continue, holding another bitter laugh as she said she didn't believe in shooting first and asking questions later, or that they could kill off their problems or people who disagreed with them. That was never what they were trying to do. He paused for a long moment before answering, trying to figure out the best way to respond without creating a problem, while still defending himself and Pike.

"When Farm Station landed," he said, his tone bordering on wistfulness, "the kids were so happy. They ran out into the snow and started to play." If Bryan didn't already know where this story was going, he might've smiled at the memory. "It was beautiful... And Azgeda attacked unprovoked. They killed fifteen children, along with adults that tried to save them, simply because they had the audacity to play. They never stopped attacking us, and when we finally were brought to Arkadia, they blew up Mount Weather, killing almost fifty of our people, including one of my closest friends. Again, completely unprovoked." His tone was even, steady, but firm. "So don't talk to me about our people shooting first and asking questions later." He paused for a moment, then added, "And don't talk to me about Pike. That was a different war." Words Pike had said to him when Bryan had tried to apologize for abandoning him. Words that applied now more than ever if they were going to work together. They'd never agree when it came to Pike, and Bryan had not even had the chance to grieve for the man whose body wasn't even cold yet.

He looked over at her, his expression as even as his tone had been. "As for your question, that was the reason I came over here in the first place. I can work with you just fine as long as you're willing to follow my lead. Nothing that happened before now needs to be an issue, if you don't make it one."

Tag: Thalia Tait

[Thalia Tait]

The dark haired girl stared at him with fire-lit eyes. No, this wasn't going well. Granted she was baised when it came to 'how-high' enforcers like this one, but she should at least try to get along with him. He was Nate's boyfriend after all. She rolled her eyes. She thought it was completely ridiculous to just do whatever someone in a uniform toting a gun said. People like that had always been breathing down the necks of those like her and her father and every other good worker of the Ark. Watching her with suspicion in their eyes, always ready to pounce and get her floated for anything. Anything at all.

Sure, they were doing their jobs, but it didn't mean that their job descriptions were for the working, lower ranked people. The protectors were always the predators, and they never protected the prey unless they had something to gain from it. You had to keep you eyes on them. But this... This guy was just some dude with bad judgement and a gun. And he was Nate's great love. Thalia felt disappointed. Shouldn't he be a little more...fantastic? Like having a brilliant smile or sparkling eyes or something? But then again, she had hardly put him in the mood to be fantastic. Her strong opinions weren't welcome. 'Just keep your mouth shut and do as I say', right? Fine. 

Thalia stood and brushed her hands on her pants. Going to the little oven covered in cooling embers, she took up her trowel and stick and began to remove all the ash and ember. She had meant it though. He sounded oddly like Bellamy or someone else with an uppity Alpha status. Why couldn't he have just asked her if there was going to be a problem between them? Not this fake niceness stuff. Fake was the worst. And maybe she was prejudice against his status and gun and previous position as a guard. But they didn't know each other. Why should she trust him? Why should she follow him? Jay and Nate, those people she'd die for. Friends. Not just another Arker who crashed down after most of the horror has past and thought they knew all about the Earth. Thought they knew what the Delinquents had been through.

She had seen a boy get an axe to the head. She had felt rockets flare as the screams of burning people ripped through the air. She had been dropped onto the Earth like a pound of space trash, with no concern to whether she lived or died. And what had they done up there in the Ark? Let her father die for nothing. Sure it was terrible what had happened at Farm Station, and to people she had grown up around. But they had only tasted a fraction of what the 100 had done, alone and without defense. Perhaps the situations were similar, but they were not nearly the same. The 100 had been expendable. And she was never going to forgive the Arkers for that.

Holding her head, she squeezed her eyes shut. No. Not tears. Not ever any tears. It wasn't that she liked the Grounders. It was that she hated those unfeeling violent people who could so easily throw her into danger as if it meant nothing at all. Perhaps her father could do it. Be expendable. But she couldn't. Such negative thoughts always brought the worst out in her. Why did he have to talk to her now of all times? Had he waited till morning, after some sleep and some food, she would have been in a much gentler mood. Instead she saw his gun and heard him toting his status and her anger had sparked. All she could see was a stand-in jailor ready to throw her life away if it meant he'd have it just a bit easier.

At least dinner was ready now. 

He spoke of the children and she wanted to argue about that. Everyone was someone's child. But he was already distempered. He wouldn't see it her way. And she wouldn't see it his. This was what made them different. But he was Nate's love. And so she must try. Try her best to forgive. Try her best to forget. Because all this sour talk had rotted out the mood and where were they? Still standing in the same places that had before. Maybe ever farther away. Shaking her head, she sighed. 'All war is still war in the end, whether it was decades ago or if it was just a few months ago... War is war... And it shouldn't have to happen every day or ever again.'

Words she wished she could say. But could he ever understand her point of view? No, perhaps not. But that made them a well rounded group. They could see all their problems from every angle. She didn't like Pike. She didn't like war. She didn't like statuses. And it seemed they both had two view points on both topics. Very well. Let him have such things. The winter of the heart was set till spring came again. And no winter was like the other. So too was grief.

"Ah, so that was it," she knitted her fingers behind her head and gently fell back to look up at the stars, "And here I thought you just wanted to drum up a terrible argument." She put one leg over the other and her eyes drooped. "What a vast misunderstanding..." Thalia yawned and rubbed a hand over her eyes. Follow his lead. Aka do what he said, when he said it. Like they were back on the Ark. She gave a snort. 

"Haven't you noticed that the past is always an issue with people like us?" she asked, but threw up a hand, sitting up and running her finger through her hair. She dropped her arm and stared at him. Looked at him as if she were trying to dissect him and figure him out. She searched and searched, those eyes bear down into him. And she shook her head. 

"This should have waited till morning when everything would be better," she sighed, then looked up at him, hand in her hair once more, her elbow resting on her knee, "You want to eat, or are you too upset? Being upset and eating always gives me indigestion."

[Deleted]

And now she was rolling her eyes at him. Great. He watched as she flopped back to her back, looking at the stars, accusing him of wanting to 'drum up a terrible argument', and then dismissing it as a misunderstanding. He pressed his lips together and looked away across their small camp. It felt like she was trying to bait him now, to get him to show his temper, and it was tempting. Especially when he was injured, unable to mourn, and just doing his damn best. But there was no way in hell he was going to give her ammunition to further paint him as whatever kind of monster she thought he must be by showing his temper.

He did frown slightly and look back at her when she said 'people like us', though. What the hell did that mean? They didn't know each other, and what did she know of his past to assume that 'people like them' always had issues because of it? He didn't ask when she held up her hand, but waited for her to finish speaking. "I can eat," he said, ignoring her implication that he was upset. He wasn't. He could be, if he allowed himself, because she seemed to be trying to upset him. But he wasn't. Saying that would probably just get her to roll her eyes again, though.

"You think tomorrow morning everything will be better? What if it's not? What if it's worse? If I waited for everything to be perfect before I talked to someone, I'd never talk to anyone." He looked over at whatever she was cooking, knowing she'd probably think badly of him for not serving himself, but he wasn't sure what to make of her setup, and didn't want to risk scalding himself.

After a moment, he sighed, looking up at the sky. Things had been so much simpler on the Ark. For most of his life, anyway. Not that he agreed with what the Ark's leadership did, but this life on Earth was so far from where he'd thought he'd be at this age. "I'm not sure what you mean by 'people like us'," he said after a moment.

Tag: Thalia Tait

[Thalia Tait]

Thalia held her head with that hand in her hair and looked at Miller's great love. She just couldn't understand him, but that should be alright as long as the group could work as one. Perhaps she was taking things out on him a bit, throwing knives of words that were built up from stress and grief and anxiety... Perhaps it was unfair, but she still couldn't understand him. Maybe she should just let it go. It she tried not talking to him, maybe that could work too. She looked to the fire.

"Good," she nodded once when he said he could eat, getting up and brushing her hands on her pants, "We all will have to keep up our strength." Thalia went back over to the cooling little oven she had removed from the embers that had covered it. Putting up a hand to test the heat of it, she nodded once more, satisfied at its heat. Pulling off her jacket, she used it to pull the oven a bit farther away from the fire. Kneeling, still handling the small dutch oven with the protective cloth of her jacket, she separated the lid from the body. The gentle earth aroma of cooked veggies wafted through the air and her stomach tightened. 

"Things are always better when you get to see another sunrise," she shrugged, then glancing up at him, "People are a little less tired, a little less stressed, a little further from the past, and a little closer to a promising future." She looked back down at the oven and smiled, standing going to her sack, pulling out her dagger and trowel. Leaves would have to do for plates. Going further out into the dark, she examined a few large leaves, clinging to their parent foliage as her handmade dagger gleamed in the firelight. Gently she cut off a several leaves, layering them on one another and returning to the little oven, still warming their meal. 

Thalia knelt by the meal, taking up her jacket and using it to scrub her trowel. Dirt wouldn't kill them, but it certainly didn't taste good, and they didn't have the luxury of using several utensils for meals. So the same trowel that had helped supply for the meal, would have to serve well for dishing out the finished product. Finally, she placed a good sized portion on the a few layered leaves, standing to go and place it in his hands. 

"'People like us'..." she smiled looking down at the meal she had made, "I suppose I mean 'people who'd die to find a better way to live'." With a small shrug and a smile, she went back to serve the others meals, finally settling for whatever was left in the oven for her own meal. It wasn't much, but she didn't eat much anyway. She could never really bring herself to eat a lot. Not when she was upset. And she had been upset for quite a long time...

[Deleted]

Bryan watched as Thalia pulled the oven out of the fire, handling it with her jacket as she opened the lid. It did smell good, and Bryan stomach informed him then that he was hungrier than he'd let himself notice until now. There was a part of him that wished he had the skills to cook, but he'd never had the time to learn, between farming on the Ark and fighting on the ground. He had never been assigned to do anything with food, other than grow it. He listened as she explained why she thought morning would have been a better time to talk, though her reasonings couldn't be any farther from how he felt on the subject. He found it easier to relax in the evenings, after the hard work of the day was done. It was always good to see a new day, but that day would be filled with hard work and travel and stress. Evenings were time for him to wind down. "I guess you're more of a morning person than I am, then," he said. At lest she didn't seem to be trying to upset him anymore. Maybe his effort not to react too negatively to her words had paid off and she was relaxing around him. Time would tell.

He watched as she walked away to collect leaves, taking the time to stretch and check his leg. He didn't move the bandage, but he placed his hand over it, checking for any sign of heat that might indicate the infection was coming back. It felt normal though, and when she returned, he took the food she offered him, looking up at her as she spoke. That wasn't really the answer he was expecting, but he had a moment to consider it while she went and served the others dinner. He carefully blew over the hot veggies until he could pick them up with his fingers without burning himself, and ate slowly. "This is good. Thank you," he said as she sat back down near him. It was much better than the dried meats they had in their packs, anyway. He took another bite and chewed, then cleared his throat. "History doesn't have to be an issue for 'people like us'," he said. "I don't know what you're life was like before all this happened, but I know you got dropped down here like you were expendable, just like Nate did. I just... want life to be better for all of us."

Tag: Thalia Tait