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Post by MP on Jul 20, 2023 21:11:20 GMT -6
The last thing she wanted was to interact with strangers in this gigantic town. To be the newcomer, the outsider, was to be vulnerable. An easy mark. But then, there was also the problem of becoming a burden. If she'd learned one thing in the woods, it was that one must pull their weight to earn any kind of place in a community. Things were too lean to allow anything less. The woman let the fears pass beneath her half-lidded expression and looked down at the boy. In his cast, he seemed especially small.
"Should I bring them here?"
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Post by Sharei on Jul 20, 2023 21:28:51 GMT -6
The spirit boy shook his head. The last thing he needed was for the ghost woman to go haunting other people, and least of all if she tried to bring anyone back at his behest. That would only end in disaster.
"They'll come here eventually," he said, dragging tired eyelids open after an overlong blink. He tipped his head to look up at her, his blue eyes dull. "This is the ballistics department. It's where we keep the weaponry and ammunition, so there are staff who work here who upkeep them. Sometimes they let me in, so we just have to wait."
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Post by MP on Jul 20, 2023 21:34:55 GMT -6
A long stare. Then, at last, a nod. The woman put her back to the wall, standing to get the better vantage point, and waited at the boy's side. If he said they had to wait, she would wait. Though it seemed an inefficient way to do things to her.
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Post by Sharei on Jul 20, 2023 21:45:42 GMT -6
They waited for over an hour before anyone appeared. The first one was a woman, tall and blonde, but she didn't even spare B3 a passing glance as she swiped her keycard over the door's reader. It beeped and opened with a whoosh, admitting the woman, but B3 made no attempts to enter himself. Not that he could have, anyway. As soon as she was over the threshold the door was closing again, blocking any view of the hallway beyond. In his plaster cast there was no way he'd make the door in time, and he'd quickly learned that trying to sneak in got you kicked out faster than waiting did.
The next person came ten minutes later. They, like the woman before, ignored B3's presence. It wasn't until the third man, an older gentleman with a touch of salt and pepper in his dark hair, that anyone actually deigned to glance at the boy.
"Another long one, B3?" he asked. His voice was soft, and although he didn't look at B3 with the fondness of affection, there seemed to be some level of emotion there. Pity, perhaps. When B3 nodded he cast a glance over his shoulder and sighed. "Alright. C'mon then."
B3 jumped to his feet as the man swiped his staff badge. The large door whooshed open, admitting them to a corridor that looked much the same as the ones they'd already been through. They didn't follow the man very far, but broke off to wander a seemingly random path through the network of hallways. B3 seemed to know where he was going, however, and they soon came out into a parking garage for the complex's military cargo trucks. Parked in perfect rows, they had soft canvas tops and massive tires. B3 scaled one of those ridged tires, using it as leverage to haul himself into the covered bed of a particularly beat up old junker tucked away in the far corner.
Inside it looked little different than the camp they'd only just escaped. Some bedding had been folded into a corner, neatly tucked away. Next to it was a flashlight and next to that a stack of text books for his classes. Notebooks for study, pens and pencils, extra clothing, and a small stack of what looked like foil-wrapped bricks.
And set up on the raised inner edge of the wheel well were a selection of small, pristine seashells in bright colors. They sat in a place of pride amongst the rest of the practical objects.
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Post by MP on Jul 21, 2023 2:07:52 GMT -6
More wagons. The woman's nose wrinkled with distaste - even more so when the boy climbed inside. This was home? This was how the spirits lived? It wasn't the civilized life she'd imagined. Not to mention the boy's leg injury made any climbing difficult.
Seeing what he was doing, she stepped gingerly into the vehicle and hauled him up the rest of the way. The rot crept up her wrist, but she didn't seem to notice.
"The ground would be better," she said, releasing his collar. "You'll take longer to heal climbing up and down."
And one bad fall could put him back where he started. Her eyes skimmed the books, the clothing, the seashells, all with the same flat dispassion. It wasn't anything like a home. But it also wasn't her lodging. She stepped back down from the vehicle and moved away, in case it growled or lurched to life.
"Where should I go?"
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Post by Sharei on Jul 24, 2023 14:42:37 GMT -6
B3 paused, caught off guard by the question. In all of the commotion of completing the mission and flying back, B3 hadn't stopped to consider what he'd tell her about lodging - or even where to put her. What did ghosts need? Did they sleep? B3 had never seen her do it, but that didn't mean she couldn't. The same went for meals. What about comfort? Did ghosts need comfort?
The spirit boy's head popped out of the side of the canvas covering. He was pale by nature, but his skin was almost white, just as it had been when he'd been sick.
"It's - not much," he said awkwardly. "But you can stay here tonight. I'm not well enough to walk to the Asset Management office right now, but we can find you new quarters in the morning. Is that okay?"
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Post by MP on Jul 25, 2023 20:13:42 GMT -6
Looking up at the boy, she noted again his pale features. The pained dilation of his pupils. It was clear from their casual dismissal of the child, and from the way that children like him walked around escorted, that an endorsement from from this spirit would mean precious little. To have the best possible chance, she would want to curry goodwill with one of the masters - Hawkins, or one of his fellows. That would be the best way to guarantee a permanent place in this community. The woman considered this. Considered the contemptuous ease with which these people cast their own into the forest.
They could choke on their goodwill.
The woman stepped up to the wagon, answering the boy with a nod. She seated herself to one side, legs folded, taking up as little space as possible. If she must depend on someone, she would require as little as possible. Hunger, exhaustion, discomfort - none of it showed in her harsh features.
It wasn't until that night, when the facility had fallen silent, that she made any noise at all. And the sobs were muffled things, hardly more than soft, halting breaths in the darkness outside the truck.
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Post by Sharei on Jul 25, 2023 21:23:19 GMT -6
As quiet as it was it still woke B3, who had been trained since his youngest memories to respond to the sound of distressed humans. He blinked groggily awake and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, then turned over to check on Asha. While the truck bed was large enough to fit two folded mats of blankets, B3 had given Asha all of his own to make the bedding more comfortable for her, so there was only one. And she wasn't in it.
B3 tipped his head to listen, one ear cocking back slightly as unease began to creep in. Had something happened while he'd been unconscious? His pondering was interrupted by the sound of a sob so faint he'd almost missed it. His brow pinched. Was that... Asha? He poked his head out of the truck to listen. When the sound came again the spirit boy climbed quietly out of the truck and paused again to listen. Direction confirmed, he wandered over to find the source.
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Post by MP on Jul 26, 2023 1:58:01 GMT -6
B3 moved quietly. It was a trait the woman had noticed during their time in the wetlands. But the injury had put a slight clumsiness in his step, enough to hear as he came up behind her. When she heard the soft shuffle, the woman choked off her tears with a tight intake of breath - the kind that shuddered in the chest and pushed at the back of her throat. But she stifled the sound.
An icy air had settled by the wall where the woman stood. It prickled with warning, and the dark pressed down heavy on the shoulders. Oppressive. Hostile. The woman hastily wiped her eyes and turned to face the eavesdropper, drawing herself up. She didn't know if he could see her, but she forced her expression straight all the same, raising her chin.
"I thought they told you to stay off your feet."
It wasn't perfect. The voice that issued from the dark was cool, almost harsh but for the faintest wobble in the tone.
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Post by Sharei on Jul 26, 2023 17:18:09 GMT -6
B3 peered into the shadows and tried to make out her expression. It was still strange to him that there was someone he could hear but could not feel. His water sense could pick up the presence of living things, but as a ghost, Asha possessed none at all to aid him. There had even been times in the wetlands that she'd disappeared entirely only to spook him out of nowhere when she spoke - sometimes right next to him. He hoped he got used to that.
But feel her or not, B3 heard the emotion in her voice clearly enough, and he took another halting step forward.
"I heard-..." he started, then changed what he'd been about to say at the last moment. "-Something."
He took another step forward. Close enough now to see her properly, B3 tipped his head to look up at her.
"Are..." No. Don't say that. "Is there something I can do?"
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Post by MP on Jul 26, 2023 18:45:32 GMT -6
The woman's lips thinned, discomfort raising her hackles. There was nothing wrong with the question. Nothing she could find fault with or throw back in his face. It wasn't an attack, after all. And yet she bristled. What was she supposed to say? What was there to answer or admit but the terrible truth? The forest had taken her name. Had eaten away at her, piece by piece, until even that most essential part of her was a fog. What else had she lost?
"It was nothing," she told him.
My name is...my name is...
She tried to complete the thought. Tried it over and over and always ran up against the same blank. She choked back panic. But the shine of it threatened at the corner of her eyes, held there by stubborn force of will.
Angry with herself, she stepped out from her corner, hand hovering at his shoulder to usher him along.
"Go back to your bed," she shot a glance down at the cast. "I told you you'll make that worse."
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Post by Sharei on Jul 26, 2023 18:54:23 GMT -6
"But-"
It clearly wasn't 'nothing'. B3 let himself be turned around by her careful guidance, and in any other situation, he would have left well enough alone, but this was Asha. She wasn't an asset like him with flat emotions and no entitlement to grief. She wasn't a handler either, wasn't someone he should never talk back to, even though sometimes he felt like she was his pseudo-handler.
"I don't - I don't think it's nothing," he said softly, tentatively, as if testing the ground for retaliation. When none came he touched her wrist with his fingertips, offering what little he could of his physical presence. "If you're suffering... you don't have to do it alone."
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Post by MP on Jul 26, 2023 19:20:10 GMT -6
The woman narrowed her eyes at the touch, fingers spasming as if to latch themselves around the problem and squeeze. But though the same dark veins crawled up her arm, the same rot withered the skin to parchment, she didn't lash out as she had before.
"I'm not suffering," she wanted to retort.
But she didn't trust her voice a second time. She tolerated the hand at her wrist. She led them back to the van without answer and, as she had before, stepped up first to haul the boy up after her. He was very light for a child his age. And he had survived the forest alone, as she had. The woman considered his pale features, then pointed him toward the mats. The sternness of the gesture brooked no room for argument. That was his place. And she wasn't tired anyway.
To make sure he wouldn't wander again, the woman seated herself nearby, just beside the bed - closer than she had ever allowed the boy to come in the wetlands camp. Whether it was gratitude or some new, unspoken claim to the youth, one couldn't say from the woman's face. She allowed herself a brief look at her companion, making sure he was settled, and then turned her face away, watching the dark for the both of them.
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Post by Sharei on Jul 27, 2023 20:10:14 GMT -6
B3 watched her profile from the safety of the nest of blankets. He wasn't confident that her distress was gone, but at the very least she was back in the truck, and sitting closer to him than she had ever done before. He honestly didn't know what to make of it, but he felt the change even if he couldn't identify what it was. When finally he sank back into sleep it was with a sense of security that he'd never had before, and would probably never have again.
The next morning B3 rolled out of bed early, but no matter when he rose it never seemed to be before Asha did. Not for the first time he wondered if she even slept.
"Good morning, Asha," he greeted, scooting across the bedding so that he could fold it up and pack it away. There was plenty of room to keep it out, but B3 liked it tucked away in case he had to move in a hurry.
"Were you comfortable enough last night?"
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Post by MP on Jul 27, 2023 22:14:59 GMT -6
She watched him roll up the bedding, tuck it away, understanding the routine for what it was. A precaution. A message. Not safe here. She had done this herself in the forest, many times. Whatever they were watching for, it was to be guarded against and avoided.
"Yes," she lied.
In truth, the night was a blank to her. She didn't remember falling asleep or waking up. It was if she had blinked and the night had passed her by. Perhaps she was simply overtired from the stress of the strange, magical transports.
"What will we do now?"
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