audio;

[anunluckypenny]

[Penny has been MIA since October thirteenth. Close friends and workers at the Centers knew about the first disappearance, when she stayed in the hospital until the twenty-third.

Fewer people know about her second disappearance. Suffice it to say, she never returned to work after the first visit.]

Last month was awful. I'm sure plenty of people're still recovering from it... and maybe there're a few who won't ever get over it completely. If you're one of those people, don't hate yourself for not being able to put everything behind you. What's important is that you're still here.

What I mean is... you know, life's hard. There're plenty of good and beautiful things in the world--in all worlds, I mean--but there's also pain and suffering. People get hurt for no reason, people die senselessly or way too young, children starve to death, zombies attack. It sucks. It really does. Almost everyone here has seen awful things... had awful things done to them. But we're all still doing what we can to live.

I'm not going to say that everything happens for a reason or that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger or anything like that. Everything just happens, and some of those things are terrible. Sometimes we can bounce back from terrible things. Sometimes they hurt us so much that we'll never be the same again. Either way, we keep on living. We keep appreciating beautiful things like love and sunrises. No matter how much we hurt or suffer, we hang on because we're strong enough to get through the bad to get to the good. The strength to do that comes from us, not from what happens to us.

It takes courage to live. I think that's what I'm trying to say. A lot of courage.

I hope everyone's doing okay.

Comments

Audio

[trenchknives]

Hey. You... you, uh, hangin' in there?

Audio

[anunluckypenny]

Yeah, I'm... yeah.

How about you?

Re: Audio

[trenchknives]

Y'know, as well as can be, considerin' the circumstances. Keepin' busy, mostly.

audio;

[chakotay]

[ this sounds oddly familiar. ]

That's the end-game assessment of what I was trying to say not long ago. Well said.

audio;

[anunluckypenny]

I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to take away from what anyone else's said already.

audio;

[chakotay]

No, no. You said it better than I could have. I meant it more to say that it seems you and I have a lot in common.

video;

[mortemscintilla]

[ Your touching post has moved his cold black kokoro, Penny. ]

[ Well, not really. But he is curious. ]

I think I'm obligated to ask how you're doing, Miss Penny.

video;

[anunluckypenny]

You're not obligated to do anything, Li, and I'm okay.

[You know, for a meaning of okay that includes "kind of traumatized" and "afraid to leave the hospital."]

How about you? Did you manage to get out of the worst of last month's curses?

video;

[mortemscintilla]

[ He can read between the lines. ]

For the most part. No, um, maulings or beheadings or traumatic baggage. [ Kind of. Maybe. (...Yeah. No.) ] Maybe I could drop by? And bring you some pot-pie if you like?

video:

[grigio]

I absolutely love the way you think. This is the same shit I tell people back home. Not many get it.

video:

[anunluckypenny]

Oh--thank you! I hope that you don't have to deal with stuff like this at home, though. I mean, the worse a place is, the harder it is to get anyone to believe that there's anything good left.

video:

[grigio]

[...well...]

The Skeletons were from home. But yeah. I know what you mean there.

[She sees people give up on a daily basis.]

video.

[directives]

[ this is reminiscent of speeches she's given to her crew, of lectures she's received from her first officer when she's too bullheaded to listen to her own words. ]

If only everyone were capable of such optimism.

video.

[anunluckypenny]

[It's a point of view that has developed very slowly over a lifetime of living through terrible, tragic things. For Penny, it's not optimism--it's a coping method.]

I think optimism really only works if you have realism and pessimism, too. You know, so there's a balance and not everyone sees things the same way.

video;

[luxuryflower]

Mademoiselle. All things unpleasant can be... momentarily forgotten with the right distractions.

video;

[anunluckypenny]

Yeah, but distractions don't fix anything. They're like covering a hole in the roof with cardboard. It might work for a little while, but then you've got rain coming in again.

Not that distractions are bad! I'm all for distractions as long as they're part of making a person more resistant to bad things.

video; 1/2

[luxuryflower]

[Marguerite remains silent for a few seconds. Obviously moved.]

video; 2/2

[luxuryflower]

Escapism can certainly create a stronghold, yes? Against that which tries to weaken us. Upholding the distance necessary...

audio;

[67chevyimpala]

Hey, Rebecca.

[He knows her name. She just reminds him of a fictional girl with a super-sunshine outlook on life.]

audio;

[anunluckypenny]

Is that some kind of cultural allusion or do you have amnesia?

audio;

[67chevyimpala]

The former.

'Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm'. Never read it myself, but I gather she was an optimist.

[intheblanks]

[He tends to visit outside standard hours. When he's off shift and can come by without a clipboard, and when she's less likely to have company, even among the few who know she might need it.

They can stretch out, the hours between. So he comes by late, and carrying a small pot in which a single, long-stemmed daisy grows. It shouldn't have survived this late in the year, but it has. And that's what matters.]

[anunluckypenny]

[Visits from Chase are always welcome, especially when everything gets quiet and it's easy to think too much. It's good to see him outside of doctor mode, too.

Penny smiles at him as he enters her room and sets aside her network device.]

Hey, you.

audio;

[anatural]

[Korra's been checking the network a little more since she and Chekov fought. She's still not really talking to anyone, but when she sees Penny's post, there's a pang of guilt.]

Hey. Glad you're doing okay.

audio;

[anunluckypenny]

Thanks, Korra. Are you okay? Joan said you haven't been around.

[Not accusatory, just worried.]