#interregnumasks

[once-and-future-secretary]

🛏 your choice in era!

I'll do post!Tales :>

Some general lore, I imagine the deck with her original room was destroyed by the impact of Helios on Pandora and it took her a while to secure and stabilise the area well enough to retrieve anything (and even then, there was only so much she could reach or they survived the crash). Instead, she moved to one of the decks that was more structurally sound and also high enough up and hidden so that scavengers wouldn't be able to find her.

Her new room is very small and full of computers and screens that she removed from other parts of the station and uses to access what remains of Helios systems and save data. She also has a small fridge and microwave next to her bed, which also serve as tables, because she doesn't always have the energy to procure food rations from the old cafeteria.

There is a small window and she (very poorly) made curtains from old fabrics bc on a 90h day, the sun can shine into your window for a long time and when you're on a 24h cycle, you want to sleep.

She keeps the items she cares about and her Echo very close to her bed, sometimes even in her bed. She's dealing with rather severe depression and trauma at that time and sometimes doesn't have the energy to leave bed for days, so she needs everything near her, including the shotgun she uses during that time.

She also managed to procure a washing machine unit that is under the desk with the computers (it's a small, futuristic one that works without water).

Depending on how she's doing, her clothes either go into the small sideboard that was part of the room or end up on the floor, in a heap.

By the time she resigns herself to being stuck on Pandora, she actually gets a little better and also eventually starts fixing up one of the suites of the higher-ups and moves in there, but that's years later.

[once-and-future-secretary]

👂📱🌀 -Kelley (hyperion days if thats ok but its up to u!)

@askthepandoranhero

🌀 for my muse’s reaction to getting stuck in a storm with yours. 

“That storm is sure taking a while - I mean, is this long for a storm? Or short? Is this? normal around here? Or is this the kind of thing that...kills people? Or...is it normal that it kills people, in which case, should we be worri- because that’s kind of what you hear about this place, isn’t it? - would you like a cup of coffee? I feel like I could make some coffee if the power stays on. ....or...tea? I can do both?”

(This actually got me thinking about storms in terms of setting because...tbh, Meg was never on Pandora before the crash of Helios in my storyline - maybe at some outpost for a really limited amount of time if Jack dragged her along and that would really be the height of excitement for her already. If a sandstorm or something hit, she’d be really stressed out. (which made me ponder whether sandstorms or tornado areas are a thing on Pandora and how that goes + how people deal with that but that’s a whole different matter). But...she’d probably try to hide how terrified she is and try to keep busy so that no one can tell - but still flinch and wince every time the sand hits the windows or something gets knocked over or hurled away. 

The other scenario might be some star trek-style magnet-storm/solar flare storm or something that hits Helios. I guess that would still be scary for her but less so than if it happened on Pandora, because she has more faith in Helios than anything that happens Down There.

And then I thought of the post from a while ago about Kelley getting...weird looks on Helios because of the way they dress and...that would definitely something that Meg would do to because she’s...a conformist to a fault and she tries to use clothes to blend in and seem like one of the group even if they don’t really pay attention to her. She would definitely do a double-take when interacting with Kelley and not be sure how to address them or what kind of power-dynamic applies here and how she is supposed to treat them and that would be really difficult for her. 

So she would probably kind of awkward around them during the Borderlands 2 timeline, especially if they started talking to her (because she’s already not used to that from most people). (King for example is an intern, that’s easy for her because she knows exactly where they stand in the Hyperion pecking order and she can estimate what they can or can’t do for/to/against her. She can estimate the rank and position of most people based on how they dress and how they act around others - with Kelley, that would be a lot more difficult for her and she’d be very fish out of water interacting with them.)

So I think overall she’d try to be very professional around them, even in a high-stress situation.

👂 to overhear my muse talking about yours.

“Ah, you - oh, yes, the tall one. Blond. with the uhm very -- extroverted fashion sense? Yeah, no I’m very sorry, they’re not around right now - I mean, they’re around sometimes but I don’t know when they’ll be back but, if you’d like I can take a message? or you could just call them yourself......oh, no, I wouldn’t know anything about that. I mean they seem very...ah, I’m sure they do a great job! Would you like me to give you their echo-conne- -------------- and he hung up. Char-ming.”

📱for a voicemail, my muse left yours.

(I did post-Tales for this one because I felt it fit better)

“So - .... it’s Kelley, right? I- I’m not sure if you’ll get this or still use this ECHO-handle...you probably don’t. And you... probably don’t remember me...or care. but I’ve heard that...that you set up some sort of place? that- where people can live and I’m kind of-  

....what am I even doing? This is all stupid. They’re not going to get this message anyway. God, this is stupid.”

[once-and-future-secretary]

when was the last time you cried? (borderlands 3)

I’m not sure, crying isn’t really- I don’t cry much. It’s important to control yourself.

I think the last was...hm. When I was still stuck on Pandora, right. I found this intergalactic calendar in the database. I...just wanted to see what the date was back home and I realised that I had missed one of my sisters’ birthday by ... three days? I hadn’t even thought of her in ages but somehow, that was the final straw. 

I knew I couldn’t have contacted her anyway and it just struck me how little it all mattered and that... everyone I ever knew likely thought I was dead and had probably moved on and that...maybe I was dead, in a way. Because I was so sure that I was going to die there, in that wreckage and I was just drawing it out, day after day, by finding water and food and crawling through those old vents and corridors of some old ruin. I was so convinced that I’d just die out here, sooner or later, without so much as anyone remembering I had ever existed. That I ever been a person. That I had been...someone. 

I’d just be another pile of bleached bones and no one would care.

And I don’t know. That was...pretty much the breaking point and...there might have been a lot of tears involved for the next few hours or days. Which is not good, in the desert. It dehydrates you and it gives you headaches. 

But...it was also when I realised that if no one cared about me, I had to be the one to take care of myself. And to put myself first.