date & time : november 21st 2178, 11:06 am
location : purgatory; medical
closed : @theonwyndham
Like a river wearing a stone down to a pebble, grief and loneliness wore on her, each day within Purgatory passing more like an eternity. Alyx’s assigned work chafed at her, the banality of cleaning day after day almost offensive in its lack of required intellect. She tried, tried to keep her head down, to interact minimally, if at all, and to simply survive, in an atmosphere quite hostile to her continued existence. Not her first time in such a situation, however wild jungles filled with dangerous alien beasts would be far preferable to the cage she now found herself in. Her time with Septima was the sole escape from the drudgery that served as her main function, but even that only assuaged her boredom, doing nothing to aid the pangs in her heart that surfaced whenever she contemplated her fellow crewmates aboard the Concord.
She thought she saw them among the inmates occasionally, heart leaping at the sight of a woman with long, black hair like Kallia’s, at a young person with DATA’s slim frame, and once, at the sight of a person so similar to Orion in Alyx’s hopeful vision that she almost smiled with joy. But they blinked, and the illusion, born of desperation, was shattered -- nothing but a lookalike. It was crushing, but as time wore on Alyx learned to simply ignore them. Do not acknowledge the man who could pass for Pyre’s twin, or the woman who was simply a taller Cosima, that made it easier. Alyx could not even muster up the thought of escape, resigned to try a life from where she was, anguished heart slowly accepting the knowledge that her friends were gone.
Assignments to various locations at the very least served as some change in her daily routine, and so when she was informed that the day’s assignment was the medical lab, there was little argument from the woman as she retrieved her equipment -- slightly different than usual given the bio-hazardous nature of the detritus she’d be cleansing. Alyx was absorbed into her routine, hair tied back into a crisp bun so as to stay out of her way, and once-beautiful face a little worn from time and violence. Purgatory changed a person. With a turn, she retrieved several used pipettes, placing them in the disposal compartment with little regard for the man she saw out of the corner of her eye. He would harass her, or he would not, there would be little difference in the outcome whether or not she spoke to him. Though the way he moved felt familiar to her, with their mutual existence within such a sterile environment putting her at ease, she still did not acknowledge him.
It was only when she turned fully, seeing his face in full, the familiar eyes so gray-green-blue and his slim form instantly recognizable. Her tools slipped from her hands as brown eyes widened, heart pounding wildly in her chest and emotions like a whirlwind in her mind. She could barely believe her eyes; having been cheated by them so many times before, and yet here he was, Theon, in front of Alyx, hale and as healthy as could be expected and alive. Words slipped out, almost whispered for fear that she’d gone mad with grief, that she was hallucinating or that this was simply some cruel form of torture or the result of a blow to the head she’d never felt coming. “Theon?”
