As a rule, and for obvious reasons, Howl was against animal cruelty in any form. When you understand the inner workings and motivations inside a creature's mind it was hard to feel right about causing them pain. It was also very tedious listening to abused animals talk, it was broken and garbled usually. There were certainly self-defense reasons to hurt animals, but that was different than abuse. Trace kicking Kutta right after he and the dog had finished their conversation...that was abuse. He was even about to say something when he was stopped.
Don't... Kutta's voice sounded in his head, She's not cruel just...complicated. I'll be fine.
Part of Howl wanted to argue with the bloodhound, but if anyone understood Trace it would be her familiar. He simply nodded, and led Trace and Kutta towards his room. As they walked, he couldn't help glancing behind him a few times to look at Trace. He was fascinated by her, had been for a long time, and even more so now after his conversations with Kutta. He wanted to know what had made her so tenacious, what she had been through to become this rough and tough woman. He wondered if he would ever find out.
"Here we are," he said out loud, stopping in front of his door and opening it, "I'll just be a minute while I find it. Would you like some tea?" He left the door open and walked quickly over to his table, where he had a hot pot plugged in with water already heated.
Even though Kutta had been vague, she had divulged that it was a heart issue, and that meant that it was something that was wrong with Trace. He didn't know the particulars, and even if he did he wasn't a doctor, but Trace had wanted him to fix her dog and to do that he was going to have to fix her, however temporarily. That was where the tea came in. He had found a stash of supplies a while ago that had probably been here when the first group came to the compound, things that had never gotten used and was forgotten about. Pretty much all of was nothing important, but he had his some things away in his room that he thought might prove useful.
"Ah!" he said, as though he had found something important and was now holding it in his fist, "Here it is." He made a big show of stuffing whatever it was into a piece of cheese that was on a plate from lunch and then holding it out for Kutta to consume. "This is a potent aspirin with
a little bit of something to help the cough. Should at least help for a bit as long as its nothing more serious. How about that tea?"
Howl turned and began putting tea bags into mugs and pouring a stream of steaming hot water over them.
Edited By Britters on 10/9/2018 at 12:11 AM.
Creativity
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Posted: 10/9/2018 at 2:54 PM
Post #192
Trace was not a particularly compassionate person to those she didn't know well, and that was something that she was aware of. She understood, too, that people often didn't show compassion to her as a result, but she had learned to deal with it. She could handle herself quite well, thank you very much. She was a little confused, then, by Howl's offer of tea.
At first, she ignored it, instead focusing on what he was doing with the piece of cheese and something in his hand. "What did the dog say to you?" she asked distractedly. She couldn't quite see exactly what Howl was doing, which was a degree worrying.
She watched as Kutta padded forward and accepted the food, the dumb thing probably not even knowing that there was medicine inside. "Ya know, I don't mind if ya wanna just... Keep the mutt," she suggested innocently, though she was smirking. "Dogs are pretty useless in my mind anyway. Especially bloodhounds."
It would make her life a whole lot easier if Howl could take the thing off her hands. Of course, she understood that that wasn't possible, even if he agreed, but she still kept a glimmer of hope regarding the subject. That maybe one day she'd be free of all bloodhounds, including the one symbolized by the dog collar around her right ankle, blocked from view by her leggings.
Absently, she scratched at her mangled left ear, finally nodding in response to the tea, if only because her heart rate wasn't slowing down and she needed something to ground her.
Britters
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Posted: 10/10/2018 at 10:26 PM
Post #193
Living on the streets, Howl had never had any proper schooling. He had been picked up by social services enough times that he knew how to read and write, do basic math, but beyond that his knowledge was sporadic at best. Of course, he learned many useful things on the streets, mostly survival skills, but now he was here at the compound and even though it was still a survival situation, he had found he had time to actually learn new things by reading. One of those things had been the benefits of strong, herbal tea.
"Oh, nothing much," he said to Trace pleasantly, busying himself with making sure the tea bags steeped long enough in the hot water, "Its not very straightforward with animals. I just sort of asked her where it hurt and she told me." He kept it vague, a feeling rather than words that he got from Kutta, and he glanced at Trace, trying to understand he could know what she was thinking.
Despite not understanding Trace's motivations, Howl knew that there had to be something very dark in her past to have caused her to make such an entreaty to him. His brows knitted together with concern, and his eyes darted to look at Kutta briefly, hoping for some sort of cue. As seemed to be the case with just about everything, the bloodhound's answer was less than helpful.
Quit looking at me! She'll think something is up!
But what am I supposed to tell her?
Not my problem.
"Well," he started to say, halting as he struggled to find the words, "I think even if that were possible with the familiars, which I don't think it is anyway, I'm afraid I'd have to pass. Chap gets awfully jealous and he and barely fit on the bed as it is." There, that seemed a decent enough answer. He turned back around and grabbed one of the cups which was now filled with a dark greenish brown liquid and handed it to Trace. "I'm sorry that I don't have any cream or sugar, but I prefer it without."
Taking sips from his own cup, Howl watched to see if Trace would drink any. The thing about this blend, he had found, is that it was very relaxing. He hoped that it would help whatever was going on with her heart long enough for her to try and figure out what else to do. If it was bad enough that Kutta felt the effects surely she had to be on medication, right? At the very least, the tea should help her familiar feel better.
-----
It was so very hard for Reach to maintain this distance between her and Wire. The feeling was like having a limb amputated, like a part of her was missing or just out of reach. She wanted to tell her friend exactly what had happened, what she had seen in her vision of the future, but that had potential consequences she wasn't sure she was willing to live with. If she was being perfectly honest with herself, deep down inside of her, she longed for that future to become reality.
Why then, was she being so neglectful of Wire?
Well, the answer to that question was rather complicated, and even Reach didn't fully understand it all. Through her own, and minimal, experience with seeing into the future coupled with various concepts she had read about in fiction novels, the future was a very delicate thing. Any small action now could have drastically different outcomes down the line. Saying or doing the exact wrong thing could make that rooftop vision never happen, and while that was on incident, she worried that it could also effect whether a relationship develops at all.
"We can only hope," she said in response to Wire's comment about the level of fighting that had developed around here, reverting her attention back to the notepad, "I swear I wish I knew what the bloody hell is happening around here. If I could just get Brain to talk to me it might shed some light on things, but she just keeps blowing me off." She sighed and shook her head slightly, scribbling furiously on her paper.
In truth, Reach had to admit she had not been trying very hard to get Brain to open up to her in the past for weeks, which made Wire not the only friend she was neglecting. She scolded herself for her behavior, resolving to try and make more time for others, starting with the walk she had promised Wire with their familiars. It would be nice, she thought, to get some fresh air. Of course, as luck would have it that was when Tox strode into the infirmary.
"Oh, dear," she said, feeling crestfallen by his arrival, but trying to keep her face professional, "What on earth happened?" His face was bruised and his left eye was swollen almost completely shut. His lip was also bleeding slightly and she went to go get a towel and some ice. She knew Wire would be disappointed, and Reach only hoped she would have a chance to make it up to her.
-----
The walk to the infirmary had been very therapeutic and grounding for Tox. People had stopped to stare at him and he could hear their whispers as he went by. He waited for his fiery temper to flare back to life, but it remained resolutely extinguished for the moment. It felt strange, but he realized that it also felt relieving. He had lived so much of his life so full of anger, to be suddenly without it felt rather uplifting, like he'd been carrying around this gigantic weight for the last decade of his life and it was now gone.
Now, this didn't mean that there wasn't still a large amount of turmoil going on inside of Tox's mind and body. The situation with Brain was still forefront in his mind and it felt as though his heart cracked a little more each time he thought about her...and he thought about her a lot. He realized that the difference now was his anger towards himself had lessened. He still hated himself for what he had said to her, but the whole thing had turned into a deep seated ache in his chest. It was as though now that he was free of his anger he could properly work through being upset about Brain.
Entering the infirmary, Tox's warm brown eyes flitted to Reach, then to Wire, and back to Reach. He didn't have the accuracy of a woman's intuition, but there was a tension in the room that he couldn't quite put his finger on, and it seemed to stem from the two women. He felt like he had interrupted something, but Reach jumped up as soon as he walked in and began gathering things from her meager supplies to treat his wounds. He suddenly felt a bit self-conscious about having come to bother her.
"I, uh, got into a fight," he explained lamely, reaching up a hand and touching the left side of his face, which was much more swollen than he realized, "I don't need anything for the pain, just something to take the swelling down." He did not want to use up more of the medical supplies than he absolutely needed, and besides that he was still finding the pain to be helpful in centering him in reality.
Edited By Britters on 10/10/2018 at 11:26 PM.
Creativity
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Posted: 10/11/2018 at 2:24 PM
Post #194
For a moment, Wire almost felt normal again. Reach and her had a semi-normal conversation and an agreement about wishing for the fights to lessen. But these past three weeks had been a whirlwind, and she felt more like a pouty child every day. She knew that she was just hurt and that Reach really was busy, but the condescending way that Reach sometimes spoke to her and the reoccurring feeling of 'It's not fair' only made Wire angrier at herself.
When Tox came in, she was about ready to throw something. That wasn't kind, though, she had to remind herself. At this point in her emotional frustration, she was even too tired to remind Tox to give a polite greeting.
Instead, she sulked in the back with her arms across her chest and glared at him. Why did he have to be getting in a fight? What was the point? If anything, she realized, he was the cause of so many people coming into the infirmary. If it weren't for his newly-slacking leadership, things could be controlled again, like they were that first week or so.
She lifted her hand and let Little Mbali flit to it. The moth landed and crawled across her, antennae lightly brushing dark skin in sympathy. The familiar had been about as restless as Wire had been these past weeks, which was likely another symbol of the connection between them.
-
It was a little odd to Trace that Howl kept glancing at her companion, but she told herself not to overstress herself about it. She accepted the tea and listened to him try to describe his Ability, but if anything, it just sparked that curiosity that once used to be very prominent within her. She cocked her head to the side a bit as she considered what he was saying.
If he didn't communicate with them straightforwardly, then how did he communicate with them? It occurred to her that she didn't really know much about his Ability at all, much less anything about him. Besides the fact that he liked food - she could at least pick up on that.
She was a little suspicious of what Kutta's answer might have been on where her illness was. Trace had often worried that the connection between her and her familiar was deeper than she was fooling herself to believe it. That was one of the minor reasons that she despised her familiar so much.
Slowly, she sipped the tea, if only to try to calm her own heart down. She didn't need anything escalating to something major. "I prefer bitterness, too," she agreed with him. The tea was actually rather good in spite of its off-putting coloration. In truth, she had only had tea on one other occasion. Tea was not overly prominent in Australia - beer was.
"How does your Ability work?" she found herself asking, partially out of curiosity, and partially for reassurance. Ever since she was sixteen, she had learned to always be watching her own back, and she still wasn't completely soothed about what the dog had told Howl.
Edited By Creativity on 10/11/2018 at 7:25 PM.
Britters
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Posted: 10/12/2018 at 12:57 AM
Post #195
Leaning casually against the table, Howl continued to sip his tea while he observed Trace. He had never been particularly shy about whether or not he found a woman attractive, which probably had a lot to do with not ever really being properly socialized, but he didn't want to make Trace feel uncomfortable. She was an astoundingly beautiful woman, with a distinctive hard edge to her which made her all the more appealing to him. He had a vast deal of respect for someone who could clearly take care of themselves.
The question about his ability caught Howl off guard, but he knew he could detect an ulterior motive in her inquiry. She was a guarded person, and his continued communications with her familiar seemed to be making her a little paranoid. He endeavored to not keep looking at Kutta, despite the urge to do so. There was no need for him to look at the animal he was talking to if they were intelligent enough, which mean that it was entirely unnecessary with the familiars. He just felt it a little rude not to make eye contact.
How are you feeling? Is the tea having any effect?
I shouldn't be telling you anything more...but yes, a little bit
I'm sorry I can't do more, but I don't want to upset her by giving her more of an impression that I know too much...
"It depends on the animal," he said to her, reaching a hand up and scratching under his chin, "Most species have their own way of talking...their own dialect I suppose. I guess my brain is just able to interpret all of it, make sense of it, but sometimes I need practice. Not all of them are intelligent enough to hold full conversations, but most are, it just takes patience to understand them." He found his ability quite extraordinary and took a great deal of pride in it, though he chose not to talk to many people about it.
"What about you? How does your ability work?" He hoped dearly that the question wouldn't strike a nerve. His motivation for asking was genuine curiosity as well as a desire to keep her here long enough for her to finish her cup of tea.
-----
When Reach had first arrived to this compound, she remembered cowering in Tox's presence. The muscular, Asian male still intimidated her, but in the last month she had grown more sure of herself in this new world she'd found herself in, and so as she gathered the things she needed to treat his wounds she felt only a minimal amount of anxiety. She was able to maintain a sense of professionalism as she told him to sit down on the bed so she could better see his face.
"Yes," she said drily, "I can see you got into a fight. Whoever it was hit you pretty hard. You're lucky they didn't fracture anything." Her delivery of this information sounded a little as though she didn't care, but that was just the way she dealt with seeing so much pain and treating so many patients.
Truthfully, Reach had less sympathy for Tox than she did for most of the other people who had been through the infirmary in the last few weeks. Whatever was going on around here to cause such chaos had began almost immediately after he and Brain had been rescued from that shipping container. Given the redhead's reclusive behavior of late it stood to reason that something had happened between them in the container, that Tox had probably done something quite upsetting and therefore that made him to blame for their current situation.
"You'll need to take some of these," she said, giving him a little ziplock bag with a handful of small pills inside, "They'll help the swelling come down. If you're sure about no pain meds then the only other thing I can do is give you an ice pack." She glanced over at Wire to see what she made of all of this, but the other woman was sitting in a chair looking upset, and it was clear why. It made her heart contract painfully that she was making her friend so unhappy. She just didn't know what else to do...
-----
The pain from the damage to his face was starting to make Tox grimace heavily. It was nowhere near as bad as the shoulder injury he had sustained in the shipping container, but it was quite uncomfortable. He knew it was less than he truly deserved. His behavior had been inexcusable as of late and he could only hope he still had time to set things right again. He sat down on the bed as Reach instructed him and remained as still as he could for her examination.
While Reach was talking, Tox pondered on how different the pale woman was now compared to when she had first arrived. It was hard to think this was the same person who had look so terrified after the trucks had dropped their group off in the courtyard. He found himself being glad that she had started to come out of her shell and that she had taken over things in the infirmary during his reign of terror. The only thing that bothered him, of course, was that the fact she had to work in here meant that Brain was still mostly refusing to venture out of her room.
"I'm quite sure about the pain meds," he said firmly, taking the bag of pills Reach handed him, "And thank you...for taking care of things in here. I'm sorry things have been so chaotic." He wasn't sure where that had come from, but he was sincere about it nonetheless.
Things had to change, Tox knew. There had to be a way of getting the system Kicker had put so much painstaking effort into back in order. He had made a right mess of things and now he had to fix it. The main problem with that was he had now reminded everyone what a complete jerk he was and most would not be inclined to listen to him even if his demeanor changed. He was going to need someone to assist him, someone that the others could respect and who could persuade people to get back to being organized.
"Wire," he said suddenly, looking over at the dark-skinned woman, "I know I really have no right to ask anything of anyone right now, but I was wondering if you would mind helping me get things back in order around here. I could use someone's assistance who everyone doesn't already hate." He hadn't realized how much it hurt to think of how much everyone at the compound probably despised him until that moment, and the realization surprised him.
Edited By Britters on 10/12/2018 at 5:57 PM.
Creativity
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Posted: 10/12/2018 at 10:44 AM
Post #196
Trace was relieved when the tea seemed to be working to slow her heartbeat a little bit. She sat down in a chair without waiting for an invitation to do so, feeling herself slowly calm down. Whatever was in the tea was definitely relaxing, and even her paranoia about what her galah of a familiar said to him was dying down, further helped by Howl's description of his Ability.
She actually found herself fascinated by how he explained it. She wondered how he could possibly understand all of those different dialects, which ones were harder than others, which animals were typically more intelligent. Although she had never been a person particularly shy about asking questions, she was caught off guard by what he shot back at her.
Surprised, she observed him for a minute, the way that his striking multi-colored eyes twinkled with a certain curiosity that only reminded her of the cat her family had taken in when she was five. The cat lived in their traveling caravan with them and was trained to do tricks during their shows. Whenever the feline would look at something she was unsure of, she had that sparkle in her eyes that was pure curiosity.
"It's... Exhilarating. I mean... I..." she stumbled, searching for words. It was difficult to explain her Ability; she had never really tried to put what she felt while she was tracking into words. But she was grinning, thinking about that rush that she felt every time. "It's like... I feel myself, in the center of the earth, ya know? I feel rather than know where somethin' is. I gotta search deeper to describe a location. I can find a person by a possession, sometimes a possession by the person, I can find a person if I know them. Sometimes, I can find someone by name and description. Bloody oath," she laughed and ran a hand through her hair. "There's nothin' like it."
Britters
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Posted: 10/13/2018 at 1:15 AM
Post #197
(Timeskip Ahead - 1 Week)
The sun was shining, the heavy rains which had plagued the compound a week ago were nothing but a distant memory now. In an attempt to enjoy the welcome warmth, Howl was stretched out on the grass with Chap at his side. There was no shade, just a wide open patch of green where he was laying with his eyes closed and his hands behind his head. It was nearly lunchtime, he could tell by the way his tummy was feeling slightly empty, but he could wait. He was in quite a good mood.
Last week, when Howl had invited Trace to his room to help her with her familiar's "mysterious" illness, he hadn't expected to be quite as pleasant as it had been. However, after she got over her paranoia about what he and Kutta had been talking about, they had had a nice conversation about their abilities while they drank their tea. The drink had done its job and she had begun to feel relaxed enough that whatever plagued her heart had stopped having a significant effect on her familiar and Kutta told him she would be fine until she was able to get more of her medication.
"What do you think will be for lunch, Chap?" he asked aloud, not even opening his eyes, but letting his hand run through the wolf's thick fur.
Smells like ham.
Oh, delightful. That meant sandwiches again. The only food that Howl had decided almost surpassed the sandwich's culinary superiority was potatoes. Most people regarded potatoes as a poor person's food, but they were one of the most versatile vegetables he could think of, and the variety of potato dishes was staggering. French fries, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, baked, twice baked, potatoes au gratin, potato pancakes, and many more. You could even make candy out of potatoes! Still, he was glad that they were having sandwiches today...
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Posted: 10/13/2018 at 9:44 AM
Post #198
It had taken Brain two days to successfully catch the attention of Holo. It really wasn't hard; he was the flirty type of guy who became obsessed with women. He asked her out, and she said yes, though her heart was in the pit of her stomach when she answered. Now, Holo barely let her get a moment alone. She told him that she wanted to take things slow, and although he seemed a bit frustrated, he respected that. Still, wherever she was, he was there, too, with his arm around her shoulder, claiming her.
Every morning, Brain had her hair and makeup done by Jelly, who seemingly perfected a simple, subtle, but beautiful look that she was sticking to. Brain was uncomfortable with how much attention she caught now, but she told herself that this was for the better. She needed to get over Tox, and if that meant coming out of her comfort zone, then so be it. She just had to ignore that little voice in her mind that constantly told her this is wrong.
It was nearing lunchtime now, and she was sitting at a table with Holo, Jelly, and Copy. Holo had his arm around her, as he always did, and she was trying her best not to squirm in discomfort, as she always did. However much she tried to force herself to like him over the past five days they've been together, it hasn't worked.
The four of them were in the middle of a game of Uno, but Brain wasn't truly invested in it. She felt as if she was going to crawl out of her skin, but she had always been good at faking things and lying, and she was able to smile in spite of how much she loathed her situation.
In truth, she just wanted Tox. She wanted his strong arms around her, like they were when she woke up that dreadful morning. But he had used her. He didn't care about her, and that hurt far more than her wrists and stomach.
-
In spite of how cautious of a person she had become, Trace was also extremely curious. It was something that was more prominent when she was a child, and as her childhood was taken away from her, it dimmed a little, but it was still there, the pressing curiosity. She found herself growing more and more inquisitive of Howl since that day. The tea had helped her, and she wondered if he had some animalistic intuition, and that was why he had made some for her.
She had spent some nights, too, thinking on how he described his Ability. He seemed to truly like it, and who wouldn't? To be able to actually communicate with those that no other human could... To know thought processes that only you could know. It sounded amazing.
As she was passing by one of the lab buildings, she overheard something from two scientists that were entering it.
"The tool arrived yesterday. I'm not sure how I feel about it."
"I know. It could definitely be very dangerous for us if one of them gets their hands on it."
And Trace was hooked. That was all she heard, but that was enough. The scientists had a tool that she was not allowed to have, but she was never very good at following orders. She turned and walked quickly in the other direction, trying to find someone she could drag along with her on this adventure. As luck would have it, she spotted Howl with his companion on the grass field and headed towards him excitedly.
She knelt down beside him with a grin. "G'day Howl. I overheard some scientists talking. They said there's a tool they got and it would be dangerous for them if any of us got our hands on it. It sounded deadset. Will ya help me get to it?"
Edited By Creativity on 10/13/2018 at 10:46 AM.
Britters
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Posted: 10/13/2018 at 8:09 PM
Post #199
The swelling had gone down, and the pain had faded. There was still a large bruise visible on Tox's face, but it had mostly faded to yellow, the purple hue nearly gone. He knew he should feel better, but in truth he only felt a terrible sadness. The injury had been a distraction, a way of forgetting his despair, if only for a short time. Now he was free to think of nothing but flaming red hair and green eyes which sparkled like gemstones. At first he had tried to resist, to force himself to not think about her, but he remembered where that path had led him the last time, and he knew he simply needed to let this new kind of pain wash over him.
It had been almost a week since Trace had hit Tox, almost a week since he had asked Wire to try and help him pull things back together around the compound. She had been doing an even better job than he had anticipated, which had given him the opportunity to stay in his room while he healed. He had actually not ventured out of his room very often, only to get meals, but he tried to stay out of sight. He didn't want his presence to undo everything that Wire was working so hard to mend from his tyrannical episode. Now that his face had healed, perhaps it was time he start trying to take up a few responsibilities.
Upon stepping out into the courtyard, Tox found his eyes going immediately to a particular table, which he found was empty. He frowned, knowing that he shouldn't care but not being able to help feel concerned about Brain's absence from her usual spot. Despite every attempt to stop himself, he cast his eyes around the area, telling himself he only wanted to know she was alright, for he had heard that she'd finally started coming out of her room again. When he finally saw her, he felt relieved but that relief was quickly replace by...another emotion.
First there was disbelief and confusion, then there was sorrow, and finally...that old, familiar flame of rage ignited in Tox's chest. Brain was wearing makeup, and her hair was done up in some sort of braided style. She was gorgeous, there was no denying that, but that wasn't where his attention was. His eyes zeroed in on the arm which was draped around her shoulders...and arm that was not his own. There was so much tension in his body that he felt nauseous, and when he balled his hands into fists he could feel burn that indicated his body was producing its acid. This was all so wrong, and he couldn't even think straight long enough to figure out what to do.
"I've gotta get out of here," he muttered to himself, just trying to force his body to obey his commands to move, "I can't be here right now." He couldn't stay there, couldn't keep looking at Brain sitting there with some guy's arm around her, but he couldn't get his feet to listen. He could only stand there.
-----
With the sun warming his face and Chap's comforting presence, Howl felt there was almost no way for this day to get any better. Well, besides perhaps if it was time for lunch. He was always happier when he had food in front of him. It had to be getting close noon, which was when lunch was served, and his stomach was already rumbling in anticipation. Of course, since he was so focused on thinking about food, it was exactly the right time for the universe to send him a distraction.
When Trace suddenly appeared beside him, Howl jumped a little bit, startled. His silvery eyes flashed open and he propped himself up on his elbows as she knelt down to speak to him. It honestly took him several moments to even process what she was saying to him. He was so mesmerized by her that he didn't say anything for what was probably long enough to start being considered rude. Finally, he gave his head a rough shake and blinked a few times, trying to bring himself back to reality.
"Why are we trying to get our hands on something that could be dangerous?" he asked, not in a way that implied he thought the idea ludicrous, but simply with a casual sort of curiosity, "Also how would we go about even getting to it? Security is pretty tight around here."
That was certainly true, though Howl already knew that if Trace continued to insist and finding whatever it was, that he would go with her...if only so she had someone to watch her back.
I resent that... came the irritable reply from Kutta.
Edited By Britters on 10/13/2018 at 10:22 PM.
Creativity
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Posted: 10/14/2018 at 12:06 AM
Post #200
Recently, it had felt for Brain as if she was on an emotional rollercoaster. Every time Holo laughed and squeezed her shoulder, she felt her stomach flipping, and not in a good way. Rather, she felt nauseous, and wished nothing more than to be out of this situation, out of Holo's grasp, out of this prison, out of her own skin. She just wanted out, because this was not right.
She looked around the compound as she waited for it to be her turn in the card game again. "Draw four, Brainy," Holo singsonged after a minute or so, but she barely heard it, not enough to even cringe at the nickname she hated, anyway. Her eyes had zeroed in on Tox, standing not ten feet away from her, looking at her with what she could only think was boredom.
He looked awful. There was an ugly yellow bruise all over one side of his face, and she wanted to put ice to it immediately. She had to hold back a grimace from just looking at it. It was obvious he had not been sleeping well, and her heart reached out to him. At least, until she remembered how he had hurt her. A small voice in her mind reminded her of how little she slept nowadays, how little she ate nowadays. How he had caused her relapse after she had been clean for eight years. That anger, that sickening spark was enough.
"Oh, Holo!" she exclaimed, but she found that it had never been harder to smile. She gave it her best attempt, though, eyes still on Tox. "Have you met my old friend? Holo, meet Toxin," she gestured to the green-haired fool that she found herself so deeply enamored with. "Toxin," she nodded to him, "meet my boyfriend, Holo."
With that, she widened her smile with effort, but her heart was beating a mile, and she felt like she might throw up simply out of anxiety.
-
In all honesty, Trace wasn't quite expecting Howl to be as calm about her proposition as he ended up being. She was expecting to have to fight him a little more than she had to. Instead, he was calm, and simply asked her questions about her plan and motivations without calling her crazy at all. His tone was more curious.
Her grin only widened, though, as she felt ever more mischievous. She reached out and grasped his shoulder, if only to force his attention onto her, even though it already was. "They didn't say it was dangerous for us. They said it was dangerous for them."
Then, out of some burst of energy, she gave his shoulder a little shake. "I ain't scared of danger. I've shot through much higher security places without a scratch. C'mon, don't let a bit of danger scare you off, mate," she offered him a wink.
"After all, if it's dangerous for them, it could be the key out of here. It could be our way out of Pes," she gave his shoulder another shake, her eyes alight with life and...hope.
Hope that she would be able to see her husband again. That she would have the time to raise the money for the surgery she so desperately needed. The only salvation she could possibly end up with could be so close to her grasp. All she needed to do was to take it.
Edited By Creativity on 10/14/2018 at 12:55 AM.
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