The last two weeks had certainly been... trying. In order to feed yet another hungry kid, Spirit had given up her only day off of everything - her Fridays. Her bosses had decided to schedule her an 8-hour, which wasn't a lot, in terms of money, but it was something. It was actually on the shorter side as far as her work shifts went. She normally stayed at the warehouse for 10 to 12 hours at a time, sometimes more if her bosses didn't let her go.
Digit was a spunky little boy, though. They had gotten his crushed leg bound, and he had been doing much better since. He ran and pranced around, even if it was with a limp. It didn't seem to deter the happy goat even a little bit. He liked to run over tile, where his hooves would make a little clicking noise with every step. Something about it seemed to just charm him so.
On top of being sore from more hours, Spirit found her sleep being cut by the little goat. He liked to lay on her bed with her, but never for more than a few hours at a time. He also moved quite a bit throughout the night, and was in no way graceful when he would jump on her bed and climb all over her.
She didn't regret it. She wouldn't complain. Digit was incredibly adorable, and incredibly sweet. He seemed to have almost imprinted upon Spirit; he followed her around everywhere when she was at the Resistance and he wasn't in an overly excited mood. The elevator still shook him a little, but when he was determined to follow her, nothing would stop him.
It was about three in the morning when Spirit knocked on Cyber's doorframe, as the door was open. "Hey," she spoke up so Cyber wouldn't get freaked, and entered the room, sitting down on Cyber's bed. "You look like crap," she commented with a small grin as she observed the empty cans of energy drinks. Leaning back on her hands, Spirit gestured vaguely towards the computer. "What are you doing?"
-
For the first time, Identify actually took a moment to read Echo's Ability. That was odd, he thought, that he hadn't done so before. Normally, it was a common pastime to just observe Abilities. For one, he hadn't actually known he had an Ability until Mantis had approached him. Having grown up under his Master's roof, only ever able to maintain contact, however limited, with his Master, Identify hadn't actually met anyone with an Ability until he was approached by Mantis.
Echo's Ability wasn't particularly surprising. Echolocation. He didn't even take a moment to think about how non-subtle the name Mantis gave her was. She did seem to know a lot about rocks, too. Some sort of geologist would make sense. Unless the geological knowledge was only a side hobby, or a side study, then it was likely that she was somewhere in the field, off the island, that is. From what Identify knew of peoples' Abilities, and overhearing conversations and explanations, he had been able to calculate that approximately 78.924% of people with Abilities chose a profession where their Ability would come in handy.
Statistically, there, then, a 78.924% chance that Echo had chosen a profession where she could echolocate. Such a thing wouldn't be completely absurd. Perhaps something involving a place where she is unable to see as well as she would be able to otherwise. Like a forest, or a cave.
Being brought to the island was the most exposure Identify had had to sunlight. He had been free for approximately two months in between escaping his Master and being approached by Mantis. He had mostly hid in old warehouses, afraid to approach people and unused to sunlight, which burned his eyes and skin. Having been on the island for five years, doing the same cleaning chore every week, he had grown more used to the sun, and so he didn't react to it. He sweat, but didn't make any otherwise indication of the heat.
Identify glanced over at his pig, who had, of course, rolled on his trash bag, spewing some of its contents everywhere. Without showing any visual reaction, Identify approached, bent down, and began gathering the trash back in the bag, as well as whatever else was around.
When he heard what Echo said, he paused. A place to cool off. Well... He exhaled deeply. He could show her the spring. It wasn't exactly off-limits. Just, no one knew it was there, because it was behind one of the labs that no one ever liked to approach - if you were brought to that building, there was a good chance you weren't coming out without scars, if at all.
Straightening up and placing his bag in the trash can, he looked at Echo and cocked his head, gesturing for her to follow him. He then turned and began walking in the direction of the 'G' lab.
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
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Posted: 4/26/2019 at 10:57 PM
Post #462
At some point during the night, Cyber was starting to be plagued by a slight headache at the base of her skull. She knew she was overdoing it, not like it was the first time, but she knew she was getting so close to finishing this project. It was just going to be part of a test run. As long as there were no major issues between the time to let it go live and the next twenty-four hours after that, she would consider it ready for full implementation.
Of course, that meant that Cyber had to really focus, which means it was time for another energy drink and to pump up the volume on her tunes.
'Cause baby there ain't no mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough
Ain't no river wide enough
To keep me from getting to you babe
The soothing sounds of motown filled Cyber's ears and swept through her body like a river of energy (pushed along by the energy drinks, of course), making her feel invigorated. She surged back into her cyber world with renewed spirit and to her dismay she found a slight error in her program that was going to need to be fixed. It wouldn't be a problem for her, but it would slow her down and she was already longing for her bed. This was important though.
When the knock sounded at the door, Cyber barely had time to register the noise through her earbuds before Spirit opened the door. She looked over to see the blonde woman walking into her bedroom and sitting down on the bed. Her friend looked tired, haggard even, and it made her insides squirm uncomfortably. There was nothing she wanted more than to take more of the burden off of Spirit's shoulders, but she was already helping out as much as the other woman would let her, so...
"Hey," she greeted Spirit back, turning her computer chair around for a minute, since the project could wait a few minutes, "And your lookin' like...somethin' worse'n crap." She grinned impishly at the other woman, and when she heard the question she was still smiling as she leaned back in her chair. "Oh, jus' a liddle somethin' to make your recruitin' loads easier."
-----
With a long, languid stretch of her arms above her head, Echo slipped both of her gloves off of her hands and stuffed them in the back pocket of her genes. She was a curvier woman, and the jeans were a little tight around her hips, but they were the best thing wear while working. Learning about practical outdoor wear was essential for her job. She could be trekking through a jungle one day, or exploring a cave the next and she had to know how to dress in the smartest, most comfortable way possible.
As Echo walked over to deposit her waste bag into the proper disposal unit, she continued to glance casually at Identify with a new interest. She had simply never noticed him before, and having had such a short, not to mention somewhat strange, conversation shouldn't have left such an impression...but yet it had. For the first time she was really seeing him and she found herself curious. She wasn't entirely sure why, especially since she hadn't had any type of interest in a guy since she was a teenager.
Oh, you just had to think of that, didn't you? Echo scolded herself as she reached up and fiddled with the little glass bottle which hung on a chain around her neck. Yes, not since she was a teenager, not since her daughter had passed into the next life before she'd even had a chance to lay eyes on her. She was sure a shadow passed over her face, but it thankfully didn't prevent her some seeing Identify gesture at her with his head as though indicating she was to follow him.
There was a moment of hesitation on Echo's part when she saw where Identify was wanting to take her. She had been here quite a while, four years to be exact, and she was very familiar with why no one ever went near that laboratory building. Many people had gone in and never returned, one of those things that no one ever really talked about if they wanted to stay sane, but...well, she found that she trusted Identify, at least a little. Enough that she nodded to him and fell in line right behind him.
Edited By Britters on 4/27/2019 at 3:25 AM.
Creativity
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Posted: 4/27/2019 at 3:46 AM
Post #463
Today was a Friday, which meant, after wrestling the kids (minus Jojo) to school that morning, she had only had a little bit of time before reporting into work. She tried to use that little bit of time to nap, but of course, Jojo was hungry, and Digit was needy, and Jojo had somehow gotten ahold of her emergency-use pocketknife, and Digit had started eating a curtain. All of the time was spent trying to get the darn toddlers to settle down. This was not the ideal situation.
She had always wanted a lot of kids. She had had a lot of siblings, and she had always wanted a lot of children. At least eight. And quite frankly, up until the war, up until she no longer had complete control of everything, she was willing to bear them. In that ideal scenario, she'd be married, and she wouldn't have to work. She could stay at home and take care of the kids while her husband went off to work. Being a mother was difficult. She knew that all too well. At least, though, in that scenario, it wouldn't be coupled with her long hours working, trying so desperately to do it all, carrying more battles than she was able to sustain.
At Cyber's comment, she scoffed a little, turning her head so Cy would only really see her good side and then winking (blinking? I still don't know). "Please. I never let myself look anything less than my absolute best, give or take an eye of course. Perhaps I was too pretty, so God had to smite me with a two-inch shard of glass," her tone was casual despite the darker nature of which she spoke, and her grin remained easy and relaxed.
She leaned forward again when Cy gave a very vague answer to her question. "Helping with recruiting or finding? The latter is Huntress' department. Egotistical woman. Condescending. A bit of a [w]itch. I hope you never get the pleasure of meeting her face-to-face," she listed off flippantly. She didn't often hide her dislike for Huntress in private. In public, of course she did, but behind walls and doors...
"Either way, helping is helping. I'm glad you're fitting in so well. I had had concerns." A teasing smile. "What exactly is it that you're doing, Oh Mysterious Helper? Explain it to me. You can ask any of my brothers; I've an insatiable curiosity regarding others."
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
Joined: 8/25/2014
Threads: 167
Posts: 2,041
Posted: 4/27/2019 at 5:45 AM
Post #464
The last few weeks had been quite exhausting, but Cyber was used to long hours and little sleep so it didn't really bother her. Of course, she knew that Spirit had much more on her plate than she did, even though she tried hard to help the other woman shoulder the burden. She would watch the kids whenever it fit into her schedule, a few times she'd even taken over from Spirit when she really looked like she needed a nap. The kids had all begun to warm to her, even Teddy, at least a much a teenager can warm up to anyone.
There was just one thing that was continuing to nag at Cyber and that was what exactly her motivation was for being so determined to help Spirit out. At first she had reasoned that it was simply her way to repay the blonde woman for everything she had done for her as well as everything Spirit was planning on doing for her family. However, it had gone beyond that in the last several weeks as she had begun devoting more time and energy than she could really afford into making sure she was there for the other woman.
"Nana alwas be sayin' that the man upstairs has a wicked sense a humor," she said with a broad grin, reaching behind her for the bag of chips she'd opened hours ago and forgotten about, realizing she was quite famished, "But even lookin' like crapola you makin' the rest of us look like dull rocks." She winked back at Spirit, and then tossed her the open bag of chips, since she was sure the blonde woman was hungry, too.
Rocking lightly back and forth in her chair, Cyber barely noticed when Reggie crawled up on her shoulder because she tried hard to focus on what Spirit was saying. Part of what she felt her job was in Spirit's life was to be there for her to vent at so she could continue dealing with all the other alpha personalities around here. She reached up to stroke the little primate's soft orange fur as Spirit finished her tirade. She had to laugh at the other woman's colorful tirade.
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," she told her, still chuckling softly as she turned herself halfway back to her computer before starting her explanation, "So its basically a program that will eliminate the need to search for what I've estimated to be thirty percent of the projected population of people with abilities in the world because they'll be sending their basic information to a secure email address thanks to a pop-up ad I've created which will take them to a website of my own design." She beamed somewhat proudly, and with good reason if she didn't say so herself.
Creativity
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Posts: 5,902
Posted: 4/27/2019 at 5:21 PM
Post #465
Beside her, Krafty jumped up onto the bed, an awkward mess of long legs and tail. Spirit scoffed and lightly nudged him so he'd get down. He knew he was allowed up onto her bed, but she wasn't going to be the disrespectful type of person to let him jump up onto someone else's bed. Cyber may not particularly like Kraftaverk, or canines in general, for all she knew, and it was just a better idea to keep him off. Spirit gave him a look, reminding him that he knew better, before returning her attention to Cyber.
Over the weeks Cyber had been at the Resistance, it was true that she had really begun to fit in. Spirit hadn't actually heard any complaints about her, except for the off one when her music was too loud in her earbuds and someone around her was irritable that day. But besides that, everyone seemed to like the spunky New Yorker with her dreadlocks and funny way of speaking. Rashid really liked her, because she was mostly down for anything, and he got to goad her into playing some of his really obscure Indian board and card games.
Spirit enjoyed playing those with him, too, but nowadays, she simply didn't have a ton of time. He was her second-in-command, though, so she still did put away some time every now and then to maintain a working relationship with him, and he really liked Digit, in fact, he had stolen the goat to bed with him tonight, which is why Spirit was here and free of the kid.
She couldn't help a small smile at Cyber's comment, even if it didn't necessarily reach her eye. It was when she grabbed the bag of chips that she realized she hadn't eaten since before her work shift, and gratefully accepted the offered food.
Through Cyber's explanation, Spirit wished she could have said it all made sense. But she was tired, and the week was beginning to weigh on her, and she had never been very tech-savvy to begin with, so she was pretty much lost at 'program'. She still tried to seem attentive, even as she felt the exhaustion settle deeper. "That's really awesome," she encouraged, having processed enough of it to know generally what Cy was doing. "Really, that'll help a ton," she smiled.
After inhaling a few chips, she spoke up again, her curiosity being piqued once again by this sweet, funny girl. "How does your Ability work? I mean, I know the basics, but how do you explain it?"
-
The island wasn't necessarily a bad place, Identify thought. At least, not in comparison to some of the other places. He had a general understanding of all of the branches of Mantis, being so interwoven with the wretched organization. Alone, the island really wasn't the ideal place to be, not with the checkups and lack of luxuries and such, but in comparison? He'd take the island over Manibus, or Capsule. He'd take anything over Capsule.
Really, the ideal place would have been Pede, but he had turned that down in an impressive display of ignorance, when he was sixteen. If he could turn back the clocks, he would. If he could go back to when he'd never been dissected at Capsule, never been tested and prodded at and kept awake for a week at a time to study what effect all of these conditions would have on his Ability, which always remained intact.
The one Ability that his Ability didn't allow him to know everything about was his own. That's why he hadn't even known that he had had one. If he had known the details of his own, then he would have told the quacks at Capsule in a heartbeat, saved himself the trial and error. But he supposed the trial and error might've been better than whatever wicked thing they'd come up with if they knew every bit of his Ability.
"Come to the A Lab. We have files for you to review," came the shadow of a voice over his ear implants. Identify slowed down a bit, feeling some of his good mood leave. He knew his Friend had been listening. But he was enjoying spending time with Echo... Steeling himself with a breath, Identify chose to briefly ignore the command, just long enough to show Echo the hidden treasure on the island.
Nestled behind the forsaken "G" Lab, a place that he himself had no fond memories of, a place where his hands would tremble and be tainted red with unwilling blood, there was a small spring, something that seemed so out of place in the compound. The rest of the compound wasn't necessarily ugly - besides the building - but it was far from pretty. This, though... This here spring, within the hundred feet between the most dreaded place on the island and the outer wall, was nearly scenic in its beauty.
Edited By Creativity on 4/27/2019 at 6:10 PM.
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
Joined: 8/25/2014
Threads: 167
Posts: 2,041
Posted: 4/28/2019 at 12:52 AM
Post #466
It wasn't that Cyber didn't enjoy socializing, it's just she found that she was usually a bit too quirky for most crowds. She had some underground cyber cafes that she hung out at when she was feeling the need to loosen up, but that wasn't often. Funnily enough, she was finding herself really belonging here at headquarters. In fact, you could say she was even blossoming here, probably thanks in no small part to the fact that she finally felt like her life had a purpose.
And maybe...just maybe, Cyber sometimes let herself think, her life might have more than one purpose here.
"You're a crappy liar," she told Spirit with another crow of melodic laughter, "Don' you be worryin' you don' hafta understand, you jus' hafta 'preciate my genius." She wiggled her eyebrows humorously at Spirit while peering over the top of her thick rimmed glasses.
If the last few weeks of working together HAF taught Cyber anything, it was that she was clearly falling pretty hard for Spirit. It was something she'd acknowledged but hadn't figured out how to deal with yet. There were two major problems, the first of which was she had no indication that...well, that she was Spirit's type. The second major problem was that the blonde woman had enough on her plate, she wasn't sure a serious relationship was what the doctor ordered.
"Hm?" she said suddenly to Spirit, realizing she'd
been asked a question, which she had thankfully just managed to catch, "Oh, uh..." She had never really needed to try and explain her ability before, and she wasn't convinced Spirit was actually paying attention, but she could take a stab at it. "Pretty straigh'forward, really. I just sorta lay my hand on a computer terminal or any sorta electronic device and I can control and manipulate it. 'Course, da biggest thing I use it for is to hack inta systems since I'm basically data manipulatin' data, so I don' leave even the teeniest trace of a cyber trail." For some reason she was finding herself growing warm with embarrassment, as though Spirit's reaction to her explanation. She quickly cleared her throat.
"What about yours?"
Edited By Britters on 4/28/2019 at 1:01 AM.
Creativity
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Posts: 5,902
Posted: 4/28/2019 at 1:37 AM
Post #467
Over the past three years at the Resistance, Spirit had personally recruited two dozen or so people. For a couple weeks afterwards, she would check in with the recruit, see how well she or he was fitting in, making sure the department he or she went into fit. After a month or so, it wasn't often that Spirit would interact with the recruit much more than a greeting every now and then when they'd pass each other.
It was odd, and a little out of the ordinary, that she was leaning back on Cyber's bed, talking to her casually. She had told herself, originally, that she was drawn to the girl because Cyber was always so willing to help out with the kids, and the Digit - in fact, Cyber actually liked the kids. Spirit was simply trying to pay her back for helping so much, so unconditionally. Spirit had once tried to pay her for babysitting, but she had been denied. That money had actually later been used to put dinner on the table.
She listened intently to Cyber, yet the girl didn't really seem to have much to say. Still, Spirit listened, smiling a little bit in encouragement. Oddly enough, the New Yorker seemed almost embarrassed afterwards. Spirit opened her mouth to say something, but then she heard the other girl's question and she stopped.
Giving a shaky laugh, Spirit leaned further back and turned so she was on her left side, but her head was still propped up by her elbow. "The depends. The big picture or the small picture?" she asked, but her heart had sped up, and she ended up answering the question in her head before Cyber could. "The big picture is that I kind of, well, move through two different planes at an equal speed when I phase."
She lifted her right hand before her face and let it phase for almost a full minute, so distracted by the logistics of it and the darker truth to it all that she hadn't even noticed the intense pain of it. "The smaller picture..." she murmured as she watched her Ability, her voice growing a little quieter. "Every cell, every molecule in my body. Every single one is torn apart and stitched back together again, over and over. A million times in a second."
Feeling as if she was returning to reality, Spirit stopped her phasing with a sharp inhale, sitting up again and cradling her hand against her chest in the most discreet way she could. "That's how it moves between the two different planes - being and not-being. At least, the best my brothers and I were able to describe it. My younger brother, Sindri, is quite intelligent, you know."
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
Joined: 8/25/2014
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Posts: 2,041
Posted: 4/28/2019 at 10:01 PM
Post #468
Weariness was beginning to creep up on Cyber, a minor miracle considering how many energy drinks she had consumed so far. Perhaps it was just seeing Spirit lounged so comfortably on her bed that was making sleep seem so inviting...but, she quickly scolded herself. This was really not the time for that sort of thinking. What she really needed to do was get back to work, get her head out of the clouds.
In short, Cyber needed to get her mind off of her bed entirely and back to this crucial project.
"Mmhmm...," she said, struggling between her desire to listen to Spirit's explanation and her need to finish this program, "Keep talkin', I've jus' gotta..." She pushed her computer chair back a little so that she could rest her hand on her computer and still face the other woman.
This was not ideal in any way, shape, or form, because Cyber now had to literally divide herself between Spirit and cyperspace. It was tricky, but it was yet another trick she'd learned through much patience and effort. She couldn't exactly say nothing if someone actually did walk up to her in a cafe to ask her something or talk to her while she was working, so she'd learned how to do both. It was incredibly draining, especially considering how exhausted she already was, but she wanted to keep Spirit talking. In fact...she wanted to keep Spirit in her room for as long as possible.
Oh, do you have it bad, girl... her little inner voice told her as one side of her brain worked on finishing the pop-up program and the other half was paying attention to Spirit, choosing to ignore the little voice.
"Why would ya keep doin' it if it be hurtin' ya so much?" she said to Spirit, her brows knitting together as she frowned, "That seems pretty daft-like." Nothing like putting the ol' foot in the ol' mouth, but she was honestly a little horrified that every time Spirit casually phased her hand in demonstration (which she'd done several times in front of Cyber now) her friend was in a not insignificant amount of pain. At least, if the way the other woman was trying to discreetly hold her hand against her now was any indication.
Creativity
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Posted: 4/29/2019 at 12:08 AM
Post #469
Spirit knew full well that there were risks and dangers involved with her Ability. When they were trying to figure it out, Sindri had once theorized that her Ability towed the line of balance between the two planes. Because of that, and what it could mean (as he had explained to her), Spirit had been careful about phasing. When she phased, she preferred to do it with only a hand, or only one part of her body, to avoid an entire imbalance. However, certain things she couldn't control now, after the war, and phasing was sometimes part of it.
She didn't know why, but she was almost hurt by Cyber's words. She drew back a fraction of an inch, avoiding looking at the other girl for a little bit and purposefully taking her hand from her chest and laying it on the bed beside her, as if to indicate that it was fine, when in reality, the movement just made it ache more.
"Well, people don't often believe me at first when I say I can move through solid matter. And besides that, a few minutes' worth of... pain... is better than sustaining an injury that could take months to recover." She didn't know why she was talking so much, but her heart was still running fast, and at the same time, exhaustion was weighing down on her in a contradictory manner. "You threatened me with a knife at first, but I could easily have phased through it if you attacked me, which, although painful, would have been better than having a knife wound. If I only phase for a few seconds, it doesn't really last long anyway."
After letting all of that out in a rush, Spirit took a deep breath, closing her eye to steady herself. "But enough about that silly thing." She opened her eye again and leaned back in Cyber's bed, laying on her left side so she could face the girl. She felt a brief moment of panic at her severely limited vision, but this wasn't the day in the diner, and Cyber certainly wouldn't pull a knife on her now, she hoped. She desperately wanted to change the subject, to get Cyber talking, so she asked the first question to come to mind.
"What was it like to grow up in such a busy place as New York?"
Even as Cyber began to reply, Spirit felt her eyelid grow heavy, and her heart slow down into a comfortable lull. She trusted Cyber.
-
"Umi, umi!"
She spared a glance at her five year old daughter before returning to where she was changing Abia. "What is it, Adala?" She was short, curt, even, with her daughter. Adala wouldn't take offense. If anything, she was the most steel-hearted out of all of them.
Somedays, it felt like Rahma was living noting more than a routine. The same routine, over and over again. Days would blend together and all she could feel was fear. Fear that her husband would never return to her. Fear that the Taliban would come and kidnap her in the night. Fear that she didn't teach her children how to protect themselves well enough. Fear of leaving. Fear of staying. Fear of her secrets being stolen. Fear of her secrets.
It was neverending. Ever since Azhar had disappeared, it felt like she was so alone in the world, despite living with her four children, taking care of them day after day, going to extremes sometimes to make sure they grew up healthy and knew how to take care of and protect themselves. After all, they were all that really mattered to her now. Ever since Azhar had disappeared, she had never really felt understood by anyone anymore, even her children. She was just a machine. She was a mother, and that was it.
She didn't resent her children. She loved them very much, in fact. She just hated the feeling of being so misunderstood by everyone.
"Um, Asahd is on the roof again!" Adala cried. "I told him to get down, but he wouldn't. He said he wanted to go up like you. He's got his rifle up there, too."
Rahma frowned a little bit at her eldest daughter as she slipped a new diaper underneath Abia's rear. "Well, if he's going to fall off and break his arm, then he'll learn his lesson. Put a blanket out by the slippery patch, though. So he can have some chance. And tell him that I've got dinner on the furnace. It will be done soon."
Adala nodded dutifully and turned to run off again, mouthing the words that she was to say to her brother, but another thought came to mind, and Rahma called out to her again. "Oh, Adala. Don't tattle, Sokar; that's how you get taken by the Taliban. Don't forget about Rule 14."
The five year-old turned around and recited the rule without hesitation. "You're always being watched. Sorry, umi."
Edited By Creativity on 4/29/2019 at 12:38 AM.
Britters
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Joined: 8/25/2014
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Posted: 4/29/2019 at 8:49 PM
Post #470
One thing was for sure...Jasper was going to murder Spirit when he got back to headquarters. He had been desperate to get out into the field on his own recruiting mission, but this wasn't a mission...this was a punishment. There was a layer of dust covering every inch of his skin and clothing, and the sand was beginning to scratch his glasses. The climate here was tragic and he longed to be back at his desk where there was air conditioning and iced tea...
Oh, man...just thinking about iced tea made Jasper furious.
"She planned this, I know she did," he said out loud, his right hand resting lazily atop the steering wheel of the truck he was borrowing while his other arm dangled out of the driver's side door, "Why would she do this to me? I thought Spirit liked me." He glanced beside him at what appeared to be a small bundle of clothes along with an old blanket.
From beneath the heap came a small, guttural kind of honking sound and a bright pink head poked out and looked at Jasper disdainfully. He switched hands on the steering wheel so he could reach over and pat his incredibly patient flamingo familiar on the head. All of the joked about such a manly man having a pink bird follow him around had been made, and honestly he'd paid them no mind. He remembered one very classic moment where he'd come to work proudly wearing a "Only REAL men wear PINK" shirt. The laughter had gone on for days...
Now, however, there was no one around for Jasper to crack jokes at besides Butch, and the flamingo didn't exactly talk back in the normal way. Of course, he was here on a job, and thats what he knew he should be focusing on. Despite how badly he wanted revenge on the blonde woman, his boss Spirit, he knew that if he wanted to be allowed back into the field after today, he needed to deliver results. It was with that ultra happy thought that the GPS on his phone piped up to tell him that he had reached his destination.
"What a pleasant neighborhood," he muttered under his breath as he parked the rusty, dirty truck on the other side of the dusty road that separated him from the house that was his target, "I'm sure nothing at all could possibly go wrong with this...wait here, Butch." He shut the truck door with a creaking bang and walked up the front door...at least, he assumed it was the front door, even though there was no door knob on this side of it.
With one final look around, Jasper reached out and knocked firmly on the wood, surprised that it seemed considerably more solid than the rest of the house looked.
"Hello? Anyone home?"
-----
Grateful for any excuse to be able to look away from Spirit, Cyber turned around to face her computer screen as though something really needed her attention, but in reality she was just trying to regain her composure. Another classic "open mouth, insert foot" moment as one of her cousins liked to call them. Her cheeks felt like they were on fire and she found herself thankful for even the small amount of dark coloration she inherited from her father.
Why she always had to be such a ditz when it came to people she actually liked, Cyber wasn't sure, but it was probably the reason she wasn't much of a party goer. She could flirt and be charming all day long with people she wasn't really interested in, but if she put herself in front of something she was actually attracted to...things had a tendency to go a bit wonky.
"I'd actually forgot 'bout that," she said over her shoulder to Spirit, keeping her green eyes trained on her screen for the moment, "Just one uv dose things you pick up in da city, I guess..." She really was focusing a little more on what she was working on, but she still felt a level of relief when Spirit seemed to shake off their awkward moment.
The question the blonde woman asked her managed to reach Cyber's ears, and she had a smile a little bit, though she didn't look away from her screen. She was already starting to feel better, more at ease again with Spirit in her bedroom and they were just talking about whatever.
"Tough question," she said, her warm voice running almost on automatic as she divided her attention, unaware of just how tired Spirit actually was, "Guess the things to start wit is dat you had to learn how to stick up for yourself. Even my mama always sayin' dat there were no sissies in NYC, cuz jus' when you be thinkin' you got the upper hand people be bringing out their spunk." Of course, her mama didn't actually say it that way, but even mentioning her mother made her start to feel a little squirmy again and so she quickly continued on about what it was like growing up in the city...on and on...and on.
After just a little while, Cyber realized she was actually done. Her pop-up ads were ready for their test run, and the mistake she thought would take more time to fix was actually fine now, so she made it active and spun around in her chair to tell Spirit...only to find that Spirit had completely passed out on her bed. Her mouth suddenly felt very dry and there was something rather alarming happening in her chest and stomach, but she tried to stay level-headed enough to think about what she should do.
The obvious choice seemed to be to wake Spirit up and help her to her own room, but Cyber found she didn't like that idea, so she fiddled with a few of her dreads as she considered other options. There was the floor, but she had a good feeling that Spirit would absolutely murder her if she slept on the floor. Which only left...well, getting into bed next to her. She tried not to think about how fast that thought made her heart race, and simply focused on breathing as she stood up.
Still with thoughts of going with Plan A, Cyber slid into bed next to Spirit, grabbing a spare blanket from the basket at the side of her bed and spreading it over the both of them. At first, she tried very hard to not touch or jostle Spirit at all, but the woman seemed to be a pretty heavy sleeper...or she was just really tired. She knew she was being silly, that she knew Spirit well enough to know that she had no real reason to feel embarrassed or worried. She took her glasses off with a final sigh and set them on the nightstand before flicking the last light off...
...but not before taking one last look at Spirit's face, so soft and angelic in sleep. There were no pretenses, no manufactured expressions and personas meant to keep things within her control...she was just Spirit. It made Cyber's heart clench, and then it was like all of the tension flooded from her body. When she turned the light off she rolled over and ever so lightly...laid her arm across the top of the blanket and over Spirit's side. It was like this that she finally let herself sleep.
Edited By Britters on 4/30/2019 at 6:17 AM.
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