Understandably so, Wire wished that she had been able to get to know her parents more. Maybe her childhood would have been different. Maybe she would be more trusting of men. Maybe Dumi would have been a better person. Maybe she'd be more feminine. There was a lot of different ways things could have gone, but really, Wire knew that every way would have its ups and downs. She tried to enjoy the better parts of her childhood instead of focusing solely on her brother's manipulation.
Still, this necklace had gotten her through a lot of rough times. It was her most treasured possession, hands down, and to have lost it... The very idea of it made her tremble. Especially now, when she couldn't get a certain fair-haired, pale English girl with glasses and gloves off of her mind.
Logically, by now, Wire should have moved on, should have forgotten Reach. She had come to a realization, though, and well, love wasn't so quick to decay, no matter the conditions. She tried to avoid the other girl - once the pain was past, she could just move on. But the pain wasn't fading so easily. It was still better than the alternative, than letting herself feel the love and instead being met with the same neglect and revulsion to cause even more pain. So Wire would just... deal with it.
She longed for her necklace.
When the stranger approached, Wire was a little surprised. She had become fairly independent , enough so that she didn't often ask for help.
"Sawubona," she greeted the newcomer. From description and familiar (she knew it all for the chore list), Wire recognized her as Echo, although they had never officially met. "Ah, yes," she laughed a bit good-naturedly as she stood up straight, trying not to let her fear over being without her necklace go. "I seemed to have misplaced my necklace, somewhere around here. It is nothing special, just a little pendant of a silver dove on a chain. Perhaps your eyes might be better than mine."
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
Joined: 8/25/2014
Threads: 167
Posts: 2,034
Posted: 3/10/2019 at 10:35 PM
Post #422
If there was one thing Echo was more than familiar with it was independence. She had learned to take care of herself at a very young age, had learned that no one was going to help her through life. If she expected to do anything with her life she would have to do it herself...and she had. After busting her butt to be the recipient if a prestigious scholarship, she had gone on to be top of all her classes whole sge received her Masters degree in geological science.
The one thing that suffered from Echo's dedication and extreme work ethic, was her social life. When she was fourteen years old, she had shut herself away from her friends, stopped going to social events, and put her entire focus into her academics. Too busy studying to socialize at university had been her excuse, though really by then she had just grown used to her solitary life. As long as she could depend on herself then she needed no one else in her life.
However, that didn't make Echo heartless or indifferent to others. If she saw someone in need of help, she would help them if she could.
"Actually, my eyesight is naturally pretty terrible," she said with a slight smile a chuckle full of dry humor, "But, thankfully, even if I didn't have my contacts I don't need to be able to see to help you." She cleared her throat and squatted down so she could get closer to the ground.
Reaching up, Echo plucked Gypsum from her shoulder. She set the shrew down on the dirt and let the little rodents keen sense of smell narrow down the search area. Following her familiar in a crab walking fashion, she stopped when the shrew froze under a nearby table and turned around to chitter at her. She smiled faintly and then closed her eyes, holding her hand just an inch above the ground. With a cluck of her tongue she slammed her hand down, a dust cloud pluming around it as she did so.
"Ah, there it is," she said quietly, mostly to herself, and she reached out her left hand to dig down into a little burrow hole on the ground, "Must have gotten in here when it fell off the table." With a feeling of great satisfaction she stood up and presented the dove necklace, now slightly dusty, to the dark-skinned woman.
Creativity
Level 71
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Threads: 253
Posts: 5,852
Posted: 3/11/2019 at 12:03 AM
Post #423
Wire did understand that sometimes, people could come in handy. People could be helpful. She didn't like to consider herself as a person who was distrusting of people, even if she was slightly more distrusting of men than women. Okay, perhaps a lot more distrusting of men than women. She tried to keep the idea in mind that people were all different, and not all men were her brother, but there was that buried insecurity that she had been raised with, that need to prove herself.
Not all men were bad. In theory. Wire knew this. But in practice, she had found that most men that she had met and remembered were, indeed, more selfish than the women she had encountered. She felt no attraction or warmth to most men, though she knew, she just knew, that if she had been old enough to actually know her father, he'd have been different.
Most of what she remembered of his was passing glances of a face, a warm smile. And she could vaguely associate him with an image of an orange vest.
When Echo pulled her necklace, seemingly out of nowhere, in a process that Wire understood very, very little of, she felt a rush of relief flood through her. "Thank you," she enthused with a genuine smile, taking the necklace and slipping it over her head before grasping Echo's hand in gratitude. "I am Wire."
Ever since that first day, she had begun to live her new name. She could hardly even remember being called Lungile, and a part of her was very glad for that. Lungile had started to branch out, started to gain independence from Dumi, but Dumi didn't even know Wire.
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
Joined: 8/25/2014
Threads: 167
Posts: 2,034
Posted: 3/15/2019 at 11:31 PM
Post #424
Boredom was it's own kibd of curse, Diego had decided. The rain storms had lasted for nearly a week, and now that they had passed and the sun was shining literally almost everybody was outside. He knew that Ziva was shut up in the infirmary woth Reach, but she was in one of her foul moods again lately and he had made the choice not to try and coax her outside. He didn't particularly fancy getting into another glaring contest with his increasingly moody best friend.
Instead, Diego stood in the middle of the courtyard, scanning the crowds of people who scurried about, and shuffling a deck of playing cards idly in his hands.
"Everyone seems to be busy, Q," he said to his gator companion who rested amiably on the ground near his feet, "Maybe we should just go check in with Ziva anyway." He sighed.
The reptile made no move to reply, not that Diego expected Quixote to be at all talkative. Truthfully, it wasn't that he didn't know people who would play cards with him, but as soon as the sun came out everyone had gone nuts volunteering for various chores. They had all been cooped up inside for so many days, for rain storms were no joke out here, so the opportunity to get outside while it was nice was one wanted by all. He hadn't even been able to find something for himself to do that wasn't already being done.
Just about to give up, Diego spied two people plopping down tiredly at a table not too far off. When he saw the flaming red and the acid green hair he knew exactly who they were and hesitated, but in the end boredom won our over fear.
"Hey there," he said brightly, his signature wife smile plastered on his face as he jogged up to Tox and Brain and greeted them, "Would either of you be interested in playing cards? I know a really great memory game." He held out the deck of cards, hand painted personally by Necro, for them to see.
Edited By Britters on 3/15/2019 at 11:43 PM.
Creativity
Level 71
Cutely Creative
Joined: 3/4/2013
Threads: 253
Posts: 5,852
Posted: 3/16/2019 at 11:36 AM
Post #425
Last night had been... An experience, if Brain was being honest. It wasn't her first time, of course, though the only other time had been with Hesiod, and it had honestly felt more like a fever dream, an indestructible drive of hopelessness, than what last night had been. Last night was not the flight from death and depression that the night with Hesiod had been. Instead, last night had been a journey, slow and beautiful and centered around love.
She hadn't wanted to get out of bed that morning, but as she told Tox, the compound had to be run still, and it wouldn't be fair to leave Wire high and dry again like they had done before. Things felt a little different now, but it wasn't a bad change, not at all.
With a small sigh of contentment, Brain shifted closer to Tox. "We should probably get breakfast soon," she murmured to him, not really feeling any motivation to get up. She was fine sitting here with him, just watching the compound move like clockwork, rotational and clean and much different from the chaos that befell it weeks ago in Tox's absence.
She was a little surprised when Steel approached the two of them, and tilted her head to study him a little better. He looked a little bored, and a little lonely. She wondered where his friend, Physic had gone off to. She had seen less and less of the young girl, though she did know that Physic had become quite prominent in the infirmary, basically forcing Reach to be less busy.
When Steel offered they play a game with them, Brain was about to say no, opened her mouth to do so, until she heard the words 'memory game'. Hesitating, she turned to Tox, the corner of her mouth twisting up just a little bit. It wasn't often that her Ability could really be fun... She might as well try it.
Turning back towards Steel, she offered him her signature lopsided grin. "Sure. That s-sounds like f-fun. I'm in."
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
Joined: 8/25/2014
Threads: 167
Posts: 2,034
Posted: 3/17/2019 at 4:16 AM
Post #426
If Diego were more intellectual, he probably would have made a connection between his own restlessness and Ziva's mood swings. Instead of coming to this conclusion, however, he had simply gone looking for something to do with himself. He had found Necro, but if anything the other guy seemed more antsy even than he was, probably due to cabin fever. His sorta friend had shrugged him off, but not before handing him the playing cards he had painted during their time inside while it stormed.
"Great," he said cheerily, quickly taking a seat across from Brain, "What about you, big guy?" He glanced over at Tox.
-----
While the fact that it had finally stopped raining came as a welcome relief, Tox would have given anything to have simply stayed in bed that morning. He knew it was unfair to leave Wire to deal with the chaos that would ensue now that everyone was able to go outside, but the last thing he'd wanted to do that morning was remove his arms from around Brain. It was like a little slice of heaven and he had been loathe to disturb such a pristine moment for them.
They had crossed a previously unventured line, and even now just thinking about it as they both sat there at the table, Tox couldn't but smile softly at the memories and reached down to absently play with a fiery red lock of Brain's hair. He barely noticed the kid, Steel he remembered after a short moment, come up to them. He opened his mouth to respond, but then Brain did...and he honestly fell even more in love with her.
"I think I'll sit this one out," he said casually enough, giving his own discreetly mischievous glance to her in return, "I'll get us some breakfast, though. You two have fun." He gave Brain's shoulder a gentle squeeze and then walked off in the direction of the food tables.
-----
Watching Tox leave, Diego's expression was a mixture of his usual amicable disposition and a bit of perplexity. He felt like the couple had exchanged some significant glances but he shrugged it off as a relationship thing, so none of his concern. He flipped the cards back and forth expertly in his hands a few times and then laid them out on the table, all of them face down. He looked back up at Brain with a grin.
"So," he began eagerly, excited to be doing something, "This is basically a simple variation of your typical memory card game, called Zebra. You're just trying to match pairs of cards, and you want them to be the same rank but different colors. For example, the five of diamonds woukd match the five of clubs or the five of spades but not the five of hearts. Make sense?"
Creativity
Level 71
Cutely Creative
Joined: 3/4/2013
Threads: 253
Posts: 5,852
Posted: 3/17/2019 at 5:27 PM
Post #427
It was true that Brain hadn't really been well-versed in games, card or board or video or otherwise, throughout her life. Her father had kept a vice-like grip upon her life, confiscating most of her books, deeming her too unholy to even touch a deck of cards for fear she'd consecrate them. It was with her Uncle Lance that she actually got to learn a bit about playing games, and she had enjoyed them, but still didn't get a ton of exposure before being taken to the compound.
She had learned, actually, quite a few skills from her Uncle Lance, though most were not commonly taught skills. That was partially due to the fact that her uncle had never, in fact, been very common or normal at all. His knowledge was vast, but sparsely distributed, and he did his best to pass on what he knew to her.
Due to that, she hardly knew how to ride a bicycle, and she definitely didn't know how to swim, but she could sew, and fold towels into little animals, and restore a broken disc to near-perfect quality. She did pick up on most things quickly because of her memory.
The rules that Steel was explaining were pretty simple, in spite of her small amount of prior card experience. "Sounds easy en-nough," she shrugged, feeling just a little mischievous (a feeling she did not have often) as she leaned over the table to engage in the game.
She loved it out here today. The smell of the fresh rain in the air. The feeling of Tox beside her. Without a doubt, she could say that she was happy.
In the card game, she, of course, used her memory to her advantage, but didn't bother to warn Steel about it. Instead, she went forward and practically crushed the other boy, all with her sweet, signature lopsided grin on her face.
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
Joined: 8/25/2014
Threads: 167
Posts: 2,034
Posted: 3/18/2019 at 11:16 PM
Post #428
Knowing how to play soccer, or football as he knew it, well was definitely Diego's most developed set of skills. However, that didn't mean it was all he was good at. He happened to be a pretty good card player, and he could even run a convincing bluff considering he never stopped smiling. While they focused mostly on video games, he and Ziva had also spent many nights playing Go Fish or sometimes even Poker.
Which was why Diego had wanted to play cards with Z, but that fear that things had passed the point of no return with their friendship had kept him from the infirmary. He didn't want to make things worse...
"Wow," he said, his voice a mix of frustration and admiration as he watched Brain match yet another pair of cards, "You're...very good at this." In fact, Brain, who kept getting a match almost every time it was her turn, was leaving him solidly in the dust.
Diego reached down and flipped over his next pair...nothing.
-----
After retrieving three plates of food from the table, Tox made his way back to the table with his muscular arms laden with breakfast. He had arrives back just in time to see Brain finish their first round. He eyed the large stack of paired cards which sat next to the hand she had laying on the table, and then looked at the three pairs which Diego had. As he tried desperately to keep hinself from laughing, he set a plate down in front of each of them and sat down to watch.
"Not bad, babe," he said appreciatively, taking a bite out of his toast and looking at her with that twinkle in his brown eyes, "I think you should play another round...it was probably just beginners luck." For a moment, he thought he was going to lose it and let out a laugh, but he managed to keep himself under control.
As it turned out, Steel had no intentions of giving up after one game, and as Brain's number of wins steadily increased it was obvious the teenager had absolutely no idea what was going on. He seemed confused, but amused which was good. That most important thing was that Brain seemed to be having a good time, something which she deserved at this point in her life.
After his fiery beauty's twentieth victory...Tox just couldn't do it anymore. He began to laugh heartily as he leaned back in his chair and tilted his head skyward.
"Oh, man," he said breathlessly, rubbing at his eyes which had begun watering because of how hard he had laughed, "I can't take it anymore, babe...I gotta tell him." Pausing for a moment so he could get the last traces of the giggles out of his system, he finally glanced over at Steel. "She has an unlimited memory, dude. She can't lose. " And with that...he began laughing again.
Creativity
Level 71
Cutely Creative
Joined: 3/4/2013
Threads: 253
Posts: 5,852
Posted: 3/19/2019 at 12:28 AM
Post #429
Spirit had always kind of hated Wednesdays, and that's because her schedule was so screwed on Wednesdays that she had absolutely no time to spend with any of the kids, or anyone else for that matter unless they were up late. Wednesday mornings were comprised of meetings, and then organizing teams for recruitment, checking in on any deployed teams, and receiving her weekly updates about Mantis. She went into work at ten in the morning and worked until ten at night, breaking her back lifting crates filled with miscellaneous junk.
Today was particularly awful because her boss, Michael, wouldn't let her leave until past midnight. When she finally escaped with the wad of cash for the day tucked into her bra, she was about to make a beeline for her beautiful pickup truck so she could go back to the Resistance and crash into her bed on the dorm floor. A noise caught her ears, though, and it distinctly sounded like a faint sort of screaming. Immediately, she jumped, phased a little, and turned to face the direction it came from.
There had been heavy winds throughout the day, and she honestly wasn't surprised to see that one of the old, termite-ridden buildings behind the warehouse had fallen. But then there was another desperate scream, and she was drawn towards the ruined shed, her heart racing and hair on edge.
A kid. There was a kid, a baby goat, trapped under the rubble. Spirit swallowed hard and stared him down as he lifted his head weakly to look at her and gave another small bleat. He couldn't have been more than two weeks old, and a heavy metal beam from the top of the house was crushing one of his legs. "Shh, shh, it's okay..." she whispered to him, squatting down beside him without even thinking of it and wedging her hands under the beam. It was heavy, and she struggled in lifting it, her aching back protesting and popping.
"Rolegur, Ast... Thav er allt i lagi..." she murmured to him as he cried out in pain. Once he was free of the beam, she gathered him up in her arms, still shushing him and cooing soft words to him occasionally.
Once in her pickup truck, Kraftaverk, who had been sitting in the bed during her shift, perked up a little curiously. "I got a rescue," she told him, though her voice wavered a little. Krafty obediently sat in the back seat, and Spirit removed her shirt carefully, thankful that she was wearing a tank underneath (despite the fact that it was rather revealing), and wrapped the shirt around the injured kid's leg.
As she drove, more carefully than normal, towards the Resistance, Spirit's heart didn't stop racing. She knew that this could be such an awful decision, and normally, she wouldn't be so spontaneous... But her emotions were powerful, even if she fought not to succumb to them.
She'd have to give up her Fridays. They were normally her only day off, but if she was going to be feeding another very hungry mouth... She knew how much goats ate. But as she glanced at him, she knew that she couldn't leave him somewhere to die.
Upon reaching the Resistance, she parked her baby haphazardly and let Krafty out of the back seat before opening the passenger side door and once again scooping up the baby. "Rolegur... Rolegur, nu. Thav er allt i lagi," she murmured soothingly as he begun to panic again at the sudden movement. She let Krafty close the doors to the truck and then open the door to the Resistance (as he was intelligent enough to do so).
Savanna looked up from her book curiously, and then her eyes widened. "No. No, no, no. Put it back, Elsa. I will not let that up into the Resistance."
Feeling a little indignant, and a little challenged, and a little protective already of this wounded kid, Spirit raised her left eyebrow. "Savanna, let me up. You're not ranked any higher than I am. I don't have to appeal to you."
Britters
Level 72
The Eggstraordinaire
Joined: 8/25/2014
Threads: 167
Posts: 2,034
Posted: 3/20/2019 at 7:52 PM
Post #430
Not surprisingly, considering Cyber's gaming and hacker habits, she was often up very late at night. This night was no different. The glow of the computer screen was the only sign of life in the room because she was sitting still as a statue in front of her hand resting softly on the keyboard. Her grass green eyes were open, but they were glazed and unfocused. She was not really there, she was somewhere else...somewhere wonderful.
It was the digital world where Cyber felt free, felt relaxed and exhilarated all at the same time. This was her world, her special place that was all her own but yet she shared it with everyone. For now she was simply going through her nightly routine, her own version of "checking the perimeter" which consisted of checking all the local news for the day as well as all the local emergency scanner Facebook groups. She was just checking for anything that could qualify as suspicious in what they considered their "territory".
Images flashed by at a crazy rapid speed, words flew past in a steady stream. Nothing...nada...zip. Cyber found nothing that could be a potential problem. The biggest thing that had happened today was some decrepit building had collapsed during the high winds they'd had earlier. She checked the address on the building, her last task before logging out and grabbing a snack. There it was, not far outbox town, but nothing related to them. Except...
"Spirit," she said aloud, her voice little more than a croak because her mouth was dry as a bone, "The factory." She felt around for her water bottle, finally found, and took a large swig out of it.
The building which had been blown down didn't matter at all, but Cyber's last minute investigation into the address had made her realize the building had been almost right next door to where she knew Spirit worked. It most probably meant nothing, but if anything else it was far later than Spirit usually came home, and that warranted further investigating. She grabbed glasses and dashed out of her door and down the elevator, her plan being to take a drive out to just make sure Spirit was just working late.
"Sav, I'm goin' out ta see if Sp-...," she started to say as soon as the elevator doors dinged, her voice trailing off as soon as she saw the scene which awaited her, which forced this reaction out of her, "Wha' in da name of all things binary is going on here?"
As Cyber stood there waiting for a response, one though dominated everything else in her mind...Spirjt was standing in the middle of the lobby holding a baby goat.
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