'No one could help you. It serves you right, you know, to scar that pretty little skin. It just reflects the monstrosity within you. Good thing, too. Do you need any more tools? This is good behavior, devil. Good.'
Why was the past so present? Why could she not escape her father, even long after he was dead? It only made her hold onto Tox tighter. His grip on her was a little strong, but she really didn't mind. She wanted it all to go away. She didn't want to deal with any of these issues anymore - the infirmary, or the stupidity of Trace and Howl (but mostly Trace), or the new arrivals, or her own stupidity... She didn't want any of it. She didn't want to be on this island anymore.
He pulled away, and she looked miserably into his eyes. When she saw tears glistening there, she gave a small start. She had never seen Tox cry before... Even when talking about his sister... Was he mad? Or was he just upset? The idea hadn't even occurred to her before now.
When Tox kissed her, she kissed back automatically. She was leaning heavily against him, so when his legs gave out and he brought her onto the bed, she didn't even have grounds to argue and get up if she wanted to - which she didn't.
After the kiss, she pulled away and looked at him, biting her lower lip. "I-I don't know wh-what that m-means..." she admitted, and then reached up and fervently wiped away his tears. In fact... Well, she leaned forward and kissed the tears, though she wasn't certain why. Only that it seemed right.
"D-Don't cry, my love..." she pleaded after she pulled away again and simply stared into those warm dark eyes.
Edited By Creativity on 2/12/2019 at 7:30 AM.
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
Joined: 8/25/2014
Threads: 167
Posts: 2,041
Posted: 2/12/2019 at 8:23 PM
Post #362
Everything had been forgotten. The compound, the doctors and scientists, Tox's leadership responsibilities, none of it existed in this moment. There was a level of peace which came with knowing just how all-consuming his love for Brain really was. Nothing else could matter to him, but as long as he had her nothing else needed to. She was his reason to live, to breathe, to wake up in the morning with love in his heart instead of anger and a deep hatred for the world.
They had both dropped onto the bed and ended up in somewhat of a heap. Tox had held onto Brain with blatant desperation, as though kissing her with such intensity could heal them both of their deep, emotional wounds. Crazily enough, it s.eemed to be working. The longer he sat there on the bed with Brain, holding her to him like she was a life preserver and he was lost at sea. He wanted to protest when she pulled back, but then she was wiping the tears which brimmed in his eyes and her kisses made him feel like he could never let her go again.
"I'm sorry," he said to her, his husky voice barely above a whisper, "It means words were never my strong suit, but let me try again. " He took a deep breath, and cleared his throat.
The words still didn't want to come easily. As Tox stared back into Brain's shining green eyes, he could feel himself crumpling inside again. He had to be strong, though, if only for her sake. Acting purely on a whim, he reached out and took her left arm every so gently in his hand. He stared at the skin there, his fingers absently tracing the marks there, committing each and every one of them to memory, for they were his to share. He was never going to let himself forget any of them.
"We both have scars, some visible and some not," he mused, his eyes still watching his fingers dance along her arm, his other arm still wrapped securely around her, "I...I don't think either of us were ever going to make it out of this without new ones." His fingers stopped at last, and his eyes flicked up to meet hers again in a deep, emotionally intense gaze. "I love you, Abigail, I know you know that, but I never want you to be afraid to tell me anything ever again. We're a team now, yeah?"
Not able to even wait for Brain to respond, Tox brought his face up to hers for another kiss. Not for the first time he thought to himself that he could spend all day doing this.
Edited By Britters on 2/12/2019 at 8:25 PM.
Creativity
Level 72
Cutely Creative
Joined: 3/4/2013
Threads: 255
Posts: 5,902
Posted: 2/12/2019 at 11:14 PM
Post #363
(Timeskip - 2 weeks)
There were days of the year that Spirit wasn't a fan of. She had discovered, when she moved to America three years ago, that Americans could be very...enthusiastic. New Years Eve and the Fourth of July were horrific triggers for her PTSD, and she often spent those nights curled under a small pile of blankets in her bed, wearing a pair of sound-blocking headphones blasting Icelandic folk music and covering her ears even further with her pillow.
But this day... This day was the worst, and it had nothing to do with her reaction to loud noises. Every year, she fought the same battle. And, well, ten years ago... Ten years ago, she had celebrated her eighteenth birthday with her brother. She had not celebrated another one since - only mourned. After all, she could have prevented it, in so many ways...
She didn't realize she was standing at the copying machine long after it was done copying the forms she needed, staring darkly at a spot on the wall. She gave a little jump when the door to the copy room burst open and Teddy stormed in.
"What is this?" she shouted, approaching the older woman and shoving a letter from the principal in front of her eye. "You talked to the principal about my grades? What do you think gives you that right!?"
She was positively fuming. Usually, Spirit could deal with Teddy when she had her little fits. Usually, Spirit could level with her and reason with her and use diplomacy like she does with Strength and the other council members. But not today. She did not regret meeting with Teddy's principal. "The study hall will do you good, young lady," Spirit told her sternly, raising her left eyebrow tensely.
"But my friends - what if my friends tease me because of it? Because of you? It's bad enough losing my parents - now I'm stuck with a selfish witch as an aunt!"
Spirit wasn't going to take it. Not today. "Selfish witch or not, Theodora, I am your legal guardian, and if I want the principal to put you in study hall because you can't seem to keep up your grades - I wasn't the smartest kid either, but hey, even I had that one figured out - you will be in study hall. End of discussion."
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
Joined: 8/25/2014
Threads: 167
Posts: 2,041
Posted: 2/12/2019 at 11:58 PM
Post #364
The glowing computer screen in front of Cyber was not as calming as it usually was. She'd been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately, and there was a tension in the room which was killing her vibe. It radiated off of Spirit in waves which washed over the entire space. No one else seemed particularly bothered by it, but she was having trouble focusing on updating the software security on the resistance's network. She frowned deeply and tried scratching at her forearm, only to be stopped by a vibrant orange tail being flicked in her face.
"Dang it, Reggie," she said angrily, swiping at the tail and glaring at the primate perched on her shoulder, "Quit that nonsense, I'm busy, and I can scritch it if I wanna." Her familiar, a golden lion tamarin, only peered back at her with blank innocence and she huffed irritably.
As soon as Teddy came stomping in, Cyber turned around in her chair to watch what was happening. She was a bit nosy by nature, especially when it came to things she could actually see in person. It didn't hurt that she felt invested in Spirit and her very strange family, especially since she was now essentially living with all of them. Besides, she felt for the teenager and for Spirit having to deal with her. She knew it couldn't be easy for the one woman to have to deal with all that angst and hatred.
Though...in Cyber's experience, Spirit was usually a lot more diplomatic than she was being right now.
"Ease up, beautiful," she said, spinning her chair fully around to face the pair of them, "Why not just let one 'o us tutor her here? Then she won't have to worry 'bout lookin' all lame in front'a her pals. I'm sure there's 'nough smarties here to get the job done." She smiled a bit, hoping she'd be able to help out at least a bit.
Creativity
Level 72
Cutely Creative
Joined: 3/4/2013
Threads: 255
Posts: 5,902
Posted: 2/13/2019 at 8:45 AM
Post #365
'Think about it, Thorbjorg. Think about the difference we could make. We get to travel; that's what the recruiter said. We'll get paid. Maybe we can go to university, do what we want to do. We just have to serve for a bit... This is a fantastic opportunity, Thorbjorg.'
'I don't know, Runar... Mamma and Pabbi wouldn't like it...'
'We're eighteen now. We don't need to listen to them anymore. Come on...'
'...Okay.'
Spirit didn't realize she had been clenching her teeth as she stared down Teddy. She could feel the rage radiating from the girl, but when Cyber spoke up, Teddy seemed to perk just a little. "Yeah! Why can't I just be tutored here after school?" she pushed after smiling at Cyber.
Turning a sharp eye on Cyber, Spirit gave her a look letting her know that she was not pleased with the suggestion or the intrusion. "Excuse me, but did I ask for your opinion? Is she your child? No, I didn't think so!" she snapped at the New Yorker, and then turned back to Teddy. "No. You're going to be in study hall, and that's final. Go to your room."
Teddy just about snarled. "I hate you!" she shouted. "Just because my brothers were too young to remember you being a pathetic alcoholic when we first came here doesn't mean I was!" And with that, she spun around and stomped out.
"Too bad you're stuck with me then, huh?" Spirit called after her, then, feeling the rush leave, sighed and rubbed her face with one hand. She was still frustrated. Feeling the sudden urge to tell Cyber off more for butting in, she turned towards the new recruit again. "You need to back off," she told her, her voice dangerously low as she poked the other girl hard in the chest and then stalked out of the room as well with her arms crossed over her chest in anger.
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
Joined: 8/25/2014
Threads: 167
Posts: 2,041
Posted: 2/13/2019 at 5:18 PM
Post #366
Almost as soon as Cyber had spoken up, she knew she'd made a mistake. When it came to computers and technology, she was an expert and always knew what she was doing. However, when it came to talking with people she sometimes had a tendency to put her foot in her mouth. It wasn't entirely her fault since her dad's family weren't the type of people that pulled punches when talking to each other. She had been raised that you always said what was on your mind, even if it might hurt.
Unfortunately, Cyber had a tendency to go overboard. Even so...Spirit's reaction seemed a bit extreme given what she knew of the blonde woman so far.
"What da heck was that about, huh?" she said to no one in particular, spinning around in her chair again to glance at the others in the room, her eyebrow arched high, "I ain't never seen her so coil-springed." It was Rashid who answered her, not that he was much help.
"I wouldn't take it personally," he said to Cyber, his expression somewhat grim as he gazed at the place where Spirit had exited the room, "She gets like this every year. She'll be back to normal in a day or two." Then, just like that, everyone went back to business as usual.
One thing was for sure, Cyber was definitely not going to be satisfied with that answer. Things had been quite busy the last few week, what with her official orientation, learning the ropes (not to mention the tattoo which itched horribly), but even though Spirit had her own heaping plate of things to do she had still made sure she checked in with her recruit daily. It made her feel like she owed Spirit the same courtesy. She drummed her fingers idly on the arm of her chair, and then spun around to face her computer.
"Alright, Reggie," she said to her familiar, cracking her knuckles and adjusting her thick framed glasses, "Let's get to work." It was too easy for her to multitask. On the surface it would look to everyone else like she was still just updating their network security (which she was), but behind the scenes it was time to do a little snooping...
Creativity
Level 72
Cutely Creative
Joined: 3/4/2013
Threads: 255
Posts: 5,902
Posted: 2/13/2019 at 6:14 PM
Post #367
She wanted to scream.
It wasn't often that Spirit broke down. It was even rarer that she'd cry. Both acts became even less common when she was in public. However, she was dangerously close to all three combined acts, and she knew she needed an escape.
Sure, she could save face in front of people. That's all she did, that's how she dealt with people - by not showing them who she really was, by controlling what they saw. If she wanted someone to be afraid of her, she could very well manipulate her demeanor and appearance to be more intimidating. If she wanted someone to feel calm around her, she could very well do the same process to the different outcome. If she wanted to be presented formally, or informally - normally, or non-normally... She could manipulate it. She could control it.
This... This, she could not control... It was with a brisk step and a raised face that Spirit took the stairs down to the lobby floor of the fake-hotel and left the Resistance Headquarters. She wanted to scream. She needed to scream.
She hadn't done anything. She hadn't stopped him. She hadn't tried to knock some sense into him. She hadn't warned him. She hadn't seen fast enough. She hadn't stopped him. She hadn't pushed him out of the way and jumped on the mine herself. She hadn't done anything, and that's exactly why she was at fault.
As she got into her old white pickup truck, it was with blood rushing in her ears and a desperate need for escape. Not even bothering with a seatbelt, she pushed the vehicle into drive and accelerated.
She went into the woods, right behind the headquarters. She didn't get far, though, before she lost all motivation to move forward. Shoving the gear shift back into park, she groaned and let her head bang against the steering wheel. You could learn to live without your eye just fine, but living without your other half... Spirit wasn't certain she'd ever know how to live with that.
Breathing hard, she got out of the car and slammed the door behind her, quickly migrating to the back of the truck, opening the bed door and sitting on the end of it before placing her head in her hands. She couldn't do this. Not anymore. Not without him. Not without Runar.
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
Joined: 8/25/2014
Threads: 167
Posts: 2,041
Posted: 2/13/2019 at 10:18 PM
Post #368
It had taken Cyber about twenty minutes to pull up Spirit's file and find the answers she needed, and when she found them everything had become painfully obvious. However, it had been several hours before she had finished the updates to the security systems. She wanted to make sure she did a thorough job, because it was vitally important to their operations, but so that she wouldn't be needed for the rest of the night. She finished her last sweep, declared their system fully updated and then bounced out of the room in a flash.
Her plan was to find Spirit, but Cyber wasn't entirely sure where to start. The hotel building where the resistance had built it's headquarters into wasn't huge, but she hadn't done much exploring. She checked Spirit's room, which was a negative, she checked the boys' room and got pulled into a brief argument with Jojo over whether pickles or bananas went better on a peanut butter sandwich but their aunt was nowhere to be seen. Patrick ended up being somewhat helpful and told her to check the garage.
"Thanks, buddy," she said to the eight year old, ruffling his soft brown hair with her hand, "You and Jojo be gettin' in bed now, a'ight?" The boys both nodded to her and climbed into their beds. She gave a brief nod to the resistance worker who was in charge of the boys for the night and left quickly again.
The garage had been a brilliant idea on Patrick's part. As soon as Cyber walked into that section where all the vehicles were kept, she could tell immediately that Spirit's white pickup truck was gone. She signed out one of the communal mopeds and left out onto the road. The tire marks from the truck were clear in the dirt, indicating the blonde woman had taken off into the woods. She followed them as far as she could before the scooter needed to be left locked to the trunk of a tree and she continued on foot.
"There she is, Reg," she said quietly, her simian companion still clutching resolutely to her shoulder, and she approached Spirit carefully, taking a very deep breath, "Hey there, beautiful. Good night for star watchin'?"
Creativity
Level 72
Cutely Creative
Joined: 3/4/2013
Threads: 255
Posts: 5,902
Posted: 2/13/2019 at 10:39 PM
Post #369
Spirit didn't know how long she was sitting on the edge of the bed of her truck. She thought, long and hard, trying to remember all she could about Runar, even though he died just under ten years ago. She caused his death; she at least owed it to him to remember him. She had cried once, she thought, which was a rare occurrence in and of itself, but her eye was dry now.
Being half-blind had its disadvantages. In fact, she didn't think it had any advantages. Half of her vision was, well, gone. She wasn't an overly anxious person, but she did get a little anxious when she knew someone was on her right side. That was part of the reason why she didn't like driving with someone in the passenger seat. But, she knew that it was necessary sometimes.
She just had to deal with it. Just like the loss of her brother. Runar wasn't the only brother she lost, she reminisced with a jolt of pain. However, he was her twin. Hilmar had not been her twin. There was... a special connection that twins shared. There was a difference. And she had let her twin die. What kind of sister did that make her?
When she suddenly heard Cyber's casual voice, coming from her right, Spirit flinched violently. The jolt caused her to phase involuntarily, a phasing session that actually lasted a few seconds. Once she was free from the sudden fear, she turned and shot a glare at the offending person.
"Don't sneak up on me like that," she warned, but her voice didn't quite have the bite that it did earlier. Once again losing the motivation to fight it, she faced forward again and rubbed her forehead with one hand, eye closed in stress. After a minute, though, she lifted her face again and looked up into the sky. "The stars? Oh. I didn't even notice them..."
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
Joined: 8/25/2014
Threads: 167
Posts: 2,041
Posted: 2/13/2019 at 11:11 PM
Post #370
During her childhood, Cyber had dealt with all kinds of teasing and torment. First it was because of her light brown skin which made her stand our from the rich, white kids she had gone to elementary school with. When she had forsaken that side of her family and went in search of her father's relatives, she had been given the "tough love" treatment as her Nana had put it, which ended up meaning her aunts and uncles and cousins continually ribbed at her about being raised by the "rich folks" and whether she was even actually black. They had just been testing her, toughening her up.
As a result, Cyber had very thick skin, so when Spirit snapped at her for startling her she didn't even flinch.
"Sorry, babe," she said, stepping boldly forward and hoisting herself up onto the tailgate next to Spirit, "You should try lookin'bad at 'em more often. They always make me feel better, and you can see 'em mo' clear out 'ere." She smiled faintly, lifting her head up to look at the sky.
When Cyber looked up at the stars at night, they made her feel small and insignificant. To most people that would perhaps make them feel even worse, but for her it was very calming. She was just one tint fragment if a vast universe. She had been given the privilege of life here on this planet and she could only try and enjoy it as well as she was able. It always helped put things into perspective when things began to feel overwhelm to her.
"So...," she began a bit awkwardly, swinging her sneaker clad feet back and forth in the air, "Guess I prob'ly owe you an apology. Shouldn'ta butted in on your bidness."
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