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[gidge]

PICK YOUR POISON
PIC PROMPTS / TFLN / RANDOM SCENARIO
HAN SOLO velocities	BETTY MCRAE bombsheller	RIVER TAM subsulcus	RIVER TAM (AU) comprehender
SIMON TAM vest	BRIA THAREN exulted	NADINE CROSS bridaled	GU JUN-PYO toddler
available on special request: veronica sawyer, benjamin linus, imani, maria deluca, mushu, poseidon, niccolò machiavelli, malik al-sayf, chloe

Comments

[throudon]

There's a moment just after Bellamy puts his hand on hers where she tenses. Every wall, every layer of apathy and self-hate she'd constructed the last few months to isolate herself from him shoots up on reflex. Then, as soon as they came up, they crumble.

"Thanks," is her initial tepid response, said as she glances over her shoulder at the guards and Indra. None are paying close attention to them, apparently thoroughly chastised about keeping him out as long as they had.

When Octavia looks back at him, she's the girl from under the floor all over again, tenacious but more than a little bit terrified.

"Because I have no idea what I'm doing."

He needs to come back. Not because of her, or at least not just because of her. But because there's no way she'll know how to lead all these people on her own. Leading is what Bellamy does, what he lives and breathes, and there's a subtle thrum of panic in the back of her mind at the prospect of facing this without him in her corner.

[unburdening]

There's a part of him that expects her to pull away. To draw back, to reject the contact just like she's rejected every other form of contact for the last few months. Maybe this still isn't okay, even after he got the doors open, after they hugged, after she swore the others to keep a seat for him in the bunker. Octavia isn't the only one who tenses, and he almost draws his hand back.

But the moment passes.

"Yes, you do." He speaks firmly, eyebrows lifting emphatically. "You've been leading them since the conclave, O. Not because of what you did, but because of who you are. That's what they responded to, and that's what they're still responding to."

[throudon]

"I gave a speech," she replies, hushed and just on the edge of keening. "That's not gonna last down here. You know that."

What they need down here, for five years, is a leader that knows what they're doing. Knows what people need, negotiates and coaxes and knows how to keep everyone fed and working. She doesn't know how to do any of that. Throwing her weight around can work for now, for a week, a month--but after that? For years?

She looks over at the guards again, straightens her spine and tries to compose herself.

"Just make it fast."