AU Clarification: Wichita will be returning to the Tranquility with all the memories she had of the place before she left. There were all the scary-as-shit things that happened, sure, like the space plague and Strela and the nightmare fog and the manticores, but her time on the ship ended up being way more about survival. Which, for her, was ..really new. And kind of weird.
Basically, she's spent the last two years learning that a) she doesn't have to endure this place, or anything really, alone, and b) in fact, people tend to get pretty pissed when she insist that no, really, she doesn't need anybody at all. Because hey, people do actually end up caring about her, after a while. Weird, but somehow, it was true. It took her a long while to get over her habits of keeping people at a healthy fifty foot distance, but most of that came along with help from Neal Caffrey. Who was, for a long time, someone she looked up to and confided in, in a way she hadn't done with someone that wasn't her sister in years. He was her best friend.
She made other friends, too ( found something more than just a friend in a passenger named Brendan Frye, actually. They weren't dating because dating is a stupid word, but she might have loved him. He was gone before she could figure that out ), a group of teens she fondly referred to as Team Jailbait. They weren't really 'kids', but it was a group of people who were tired of being thought of that way, sort of banded together ( unofficially ) and got by that way. She looked out for all of them, whether she realized she was doing it or not. Gave way too many shits about those kids than she ever would have back home, to be frank. She was particularly close to a demigod named Percy Jackson ( then, by extension, his girlfriend Annabeth Chase, once she arrived ), who was one of those hero types. He's another person that challenged the way she always thought, made her, slowly, rethink the idea of not trusting others because of the chance that they might screw her over. She even joined the gunnery team, made an effort to actually help the rest of the ship by offering shooting lessons, that sort of thing. It was more than just protecting herself, she actually started to give a shit that other people survived the ship, too. She helped Brian Kinney and Justin Taylor run a bar that played really shitty 90s dance music all the time. She got comfortable, for a while. Happy.
But then Sherlock Holmes died. Out of nowhere, seemingly.
And Neal went out looking where people really aren't supposed to go looking.
Things changed, after that.
She started shutting people out, once they started to drift apart. It's not because of him, entirely, it's not that dramatic. But the way things were after he got back definitely stung, made it difficult to remember why she started reaching out and trusting people in the first place. It reminded her that there was a reason she always pushed people away.
When the ship gave its passengers masks to wear, that's when she started to backpedal into those old habits, hard. It made her paranoid, untrusting, mean. She went from pushing people away to actually cutting them out. And then Brendan left. And Percy. And Brian. And Simon. And Kurt. And too many others that she cared about too much.
So she went out, like Neal did.
It was stupid, she knew it was. But she wanted to find answers, wanted to play the game. Only she spent three weeks out and about, and came back with nothing but a freaking mental breakdown.
Luckily, somehow, she still had people that gave a shit about her ( even if she tried so damn hard to cut them all out while she wore her mask ). She found a roommate in Annabeth, a few drinking buddies in Jo Harvelle, Stiles Stilinski and Damon Salvatore. Just, y'know, people who were there for her to remind her that everything didn't actually suck as bad as she thought it did. She might not be as happy as she was during that first year when the ship felt like a vacation from Zombieland, but she had people. A solid ground to use to regroup and get her shit together.
So that's kind of where she's at now. Dealing with the whole 'the ship fucked with my brain and that sucks' thing, and the fact that a lot of the people she grew to love ( in a way, not that she'd ever admit to it ) were gone, but there were others here that had the potential to help her in the same way those other people did. Not that she thinks she needs any help, she doesn't.
She'll just let them all think that. Right. Sure. It's all for them, not her.
Not that she'd be able to say that out loud if she tried.
revisions!
Wichita will be returning to the Tranquility with all the memories she had of the place before she left. There were all the scary-as-shit things that happened, sure, like the space plague and Strela and the nightmare fog and the manticores, but her time on the ship ended up being way more about survival. Which, for her, was ..really new. And kind of weird.
Basically, she's spent the last two years learning that a) she doesn't have to endure this place, or anything really, alone, and b) in fact, people tend to get pretty pissed when she insist that no, really, she doesn't need anybody at all. Because hey, people do actually end up caring about her, after a while. Weird, but somehow, it was true. It took her a long while to get over her habits of keeping people at a healthy fifty foot distance, but most of that came along with help from Neal Caffrey. Who was, for a long time, someone she looked up to and confided in, in a way she hadn't done with someone that wasn't her sister in years. He was her best friend.
She made other friends, too ( found something more than just a friend in a passenger named Brendan Frye, actually. They weren't dating because dating is a stupid word, but she might have loved him. He was gone before she could figure that out ), a group of teens she fondly referred to as Team Jailbait. They weren't really 'kids', but it was a group of people who were tired of being thought of that way, sort of banded together ( unofficially ) and got by that way. She looked out for all of them, whether she realized she was doing it or not. Gave way too many shits about those kids than she ever would have back home, to be frank. She was particularly close to a demigod named Percy Jackson ( then, by extension, his girlfriend Annabeth Chase, once she arrived ), who was one of those hero types. He's another person that challenged the way she always thought, made her, slowly, rethink the idea of not trusting others because of the chance that they might screw her over. She even joined the gunnery team, made an effort to actually help the rest of the ship by offering shooting lessons, that sort of thing. It was more than just protecting herself, she actually started to give a shit that other people survived the ship, too. She helped Brian Kinney and Justin Taylor run a bar that played really shitty 90s dance music all the time. She got comfortable, for a while. Happy.
But then Sherlock Holmes died. Out of nowhere, seemingly.
And Neal went out looking where people really aren't supposed to go looking.
Things changed, after that.
She started shutting people out, once they started to drift apart. It's not because of him, entirely, it's not that dramatic. But the way things were after he got back definitely stung, made it difficult to remember why she started reaching out and trusting people in the first place. It reminded her that there was a reason she always pushed people away.
When the ship gave its passengers masks to wear, that's when she started to backpedal into those old habits, hard. It made her paranoid, untrusting, mean. She went from pushing people away to actually cutting them out. And then Brendan left. And Percy. And Brian. And Simon. And Kurt. And too many others that she cared about too much.
So she went out, like Neal did.
It was stupid, she knew it was. But she wanted to find answers, wanted to play the game. Only she spent three weeks out and about, and came back with nothing but a freaking mental breakdown.
Luckily, somehow, she still had people that gave a shit about her ( even if she tried so damn hard to cut them all out while she wore her mask ). She found a roommate in Annabeth, a few drinking buddies in Jo Harvelle, Stiles Stilinski and Damon Salvatore. Just, y'know, people who were there for her to remind her that everything didn't actually suck as bad as she thought it did. She might not be as happy as she was during that first year when the ship felt like a vacation from Zombieland, but she had people. A solid ground to use to regroup and get her shit together.
So that's kind of where she's at now. Dealing with the whole 'the ship fucked with my brain and that sucks' thing, and the fact that a lot of the people she grew to love ( in a way, not that she'd ever admit to it ) were gone, but there were others here that had the potential to help her in the same way those other people did. Not that she thinks she needs any help, she doesn't.
She'll just let them all think that. Right. Sure. It's all for them, not her.
Not that she'd be able to say that out loud if she tried.