I can wait. Thanks. I'd take them, but I didn't want to be the first to demonstrate thieves lose a hand for a first offense or something.
[Regular cigarettes aren't her vice of choice, either, but she'd tried to follow the highway out of town today and she's smoked her last joint. She needs to cling to the illusion something will take the edge off her headache or her nerves, one or the other.]
Old enough to do what I want. [But because she's the one asking a stranger to do something for her when he could just as easily tell her to get fucked:] 16.
Still attached, blessedly. I've been keeping him at the lake for now and staying in a house that overlooks it. Corr feeds himself with what he finds.
[ fortunately mostly small wildlife, squirrels and rabbits. not usually people's pets, as sean still suspects the cat had been. ]
Laws are often written by men sheltered from the realities of the world. [ wisdom from someone who lives pretty frickin close to depression-era ireland. ] But if it keeps you from crossing someone you shouldn't I'll buy your cigarettes.
Is that going to be okay if we're stuck here a while? You, a cannibal horse, alone in a house? I don't know if they do welfare checks here.
[For all that the red water horse flies in the face of nature (not unlike her and her teleporting, if she's being brutally self-analyzing), she has to admit she'd like to see him again. But that feels like too big a favor to ask.]
That's profound of you. I hope you quoted that from something. [Otherwise you just promoted yourself to Depression-era Irish nerd, my friend.] Careful now, you're coming awfully close to sounding gentlemanly. Just this once would be great until I figure something else out.
He hasn't eaten me yet. As long as he can swim and catch his own food I think I'll be safe.
[ he hopes lmao. ]
My da said it once and it stuck. [ and now he kind of uses it to comfort himself about the great unfairnesses of life. also, nobody ever has accused sean of being a gentleman so he's a little o__o re: that text ] Well, until then.
[Or at least it's not far from the latest house she's squatting in. She's switched a few times already--one had had such an ominous growling coming out of the attic that not even Henrietta "I eat stupid decisions for breakfast" Coles had wanted to go looking for the source.]
I'll be there in a few minutes.
[It's cooler in the evenings, but still on the wrong side of unpleasantly muggy for her tastes. Luckily for Sean's nose, though, she'd gotten tired of the smell of sweat from being out in the sun all day and taken a shower earlier, and she shows up at their meeting place in a shirt still slightly damp from her forgotten to throw it in the dryer after a washing.
There's no mom or Thomas here to remind her to do these things--it's been a transition.]
[ his nose is thankful. sean himself had finally gone out to buy one (1) pair of pants and one (1) shirt, figuring he needed to be able to change his clothes at least once; figuring out the washer and dryer had been a whole other task, and he had probably nearly electrocuted himself at least once, but at least he's more or less got it down.
so, jeans and a henley and without the dark blue jacket he tends to wear everywhere. the muggy late-summer heat of this town is different than thisby, and doesn't lend itself as well to layers. ]
Henry Coles. [ that's his greeting. calling people by first and family name is a habit, sue him; he comes from an island where sometimes you have to differentiate between which kate or peg or thomas you're talking about. ] Is your shirt wet?
[The sound of her full name draws her out of her thoughts. She registers it with a blink, a nose crinkle, and a slightly bemused smile. That's... weirdly formal, but all right.]
... Sean.
[She's just going to go with that if it's all the same.
Her smile changes as she walks up, becomes an implied hey of its own, before it changes yet again to one of faint understanding when she glances down to see what he's looking at.
Ah, right.]
Oh. Um, yeah, it is. [She plucks at the light grey material now gone a darker, opaquer shade with the residual dampness. On the plus side, no danger of her flashing the entire neighborhood in a Girls Gone Wild session. She'd almost forgotten it. Wet clothes are nice and cool on a hot day--reasons why she'd usually been first out of the changing rooms after swimming lessons.] Friendly advice: be careful trying to go past the town limits. It took an hour for the nosebleed to stop. But the bloodstains came out of the collar, so.
[Hurray for that much. She doesn't have an endless supply of t-shirts, either.]
[ it's all the same, he doesn't mind what she calls him as long as it's not late to dinner something rude. (ha ha sorry that was a dad joke.)
he nods, no judgment. he was just curious. ] All right.
[ the explanation, though, has his eyebrows climbing up his forehead. nosebleeds just for walking past the town limits? that's ominous, even among the many things sean is coming to find are ominous about this place. he's used to being hemmed in, he lives on an island for god's sake, but this is different.
what he says, though, is ] If you get to it with vinegar before it sets, or salt water, the stain will come out easier. [ the voice of experience. ] And cold water only.
And if he thinks that's spooky, he doesn't want to know about the cascade of other unsettling things she'd experienced: the hush that had fallen over the world, the flux of confusion and flutter of apprehension that had turned her legs to jelly and eventually deposited her into a shaking heap on the ground. The pounding headache she suspected had something to do with why she'd coughed blood into the sink once or twice while stuffing her nose with tissue.
Or the stretch of time after that where she'd laid on the floor in her bra, hands over face, listening to the whirr of the washing machine. Wishing she would either disappear into the floor, or be anywhere else but here. They'd become synonymous after a while.
She'd been lucky she tried walking out on foot, all things considered.]
Yeah, it was... weird. [Understatement. She frowns at the bit of shirt caught between her fingers in recollection.] The weirdest part is, I think a... deer helped me back. [And, as if just then hearing herself, she shakes her head.] That sounds crazy. It is fucking crazy.
[Anyway. Seemingly remembering her company, she puts back on a wry smile to match the levity of her earlier protip.]
I'd ask why you know that, but I have a feeling that'd be a stupid question, given what you do for a living.
[ oddly, or perhaps not oddly, sean isn't surprised by the mention of deer. maybe mildly surprised by the timing of it, considering that it was just yesterday adam explained to him about the power of the deer and sodder, but a deer helping her home doesn't shock him.
he shakes his head a little. ] Not the craziest. I talked with someone about the deer, yesterday. [ he finally stands up, stretching out a little, and produces her cigarettes from his pocket.
no moral high ground here, he doesn't care about a 16 year old smoking. the comment, though, does make him smile. ] Right in one. I've taken blood out of many a shirt in my life.
[A pause--and then her smile blooms into a smirk.]
For a second there I was afraid you were going to say you talked to the deer yesterday. You really get around the animal kingdom. [Pinching the bridge of her nose, she lets her eyes close. God, she must be tired.] Did this person have a run-in with them, too?
[But oh thank god, smokes. Her hero. She steps forward to accept them with gratitude evident in her voice.]
Thanks.
[Reaching for her dwindling supply of cash, she makes the trade with enough to cover the cost--and he can keep the change for doing her the solid. Furtively, she glances around before sliding the pack in her pocket. She doesn't see anyone watching, but she doesn't want to take the risk of lighting up in the middle of the street.
Moving to lean against the side of the bus shelter built to offer the bench a little respite from the wind and the rain, she regards Sean.]
Aren't you a guy just full of surprises. I suppose everyone has their hidden talents. Yours or food?
[She means if it was his blood he was washing out of his clothes, or a consequence of hanging around a killer horse that runs on fresh meat.]
No, there's just the one animal I can commune with. [ OK THAT'S A JOKE. ] A run-in, I suppose you could say that. He knows a fair bit about dreams.
[ it is so far outside the scope of sean's expertise to even try to explain what adam does. truthfully, if he hadn't been there himself he probably wouldn't have believed it, and for that reason he knows for sure henry won't believe it. maybe the two of them will meet someday and then henry will be convinced too.
whatever. he takes the money and folds it into his pocket. ] Both, at one time or another. [ it's not terribly uncommon for a fresh-caught capall to try to make a meal of him, and sean has the scars and poorly-healed bones to prove it. ]
Since we still have to buy cigarettes from someone with pink hair, I take it a "fair bit" doesn't mean enough to bust us out of this dream?
[She briefly considers teasingly congratulating him for making friends with others in possession of an eccentric knowledge base, but her heart's not in it. Still, for all that she doesn't veer too far into either surprised or disappointed territory. Being taken aback that people know about, or can do, amazing things would be massively hypocritical of her at this stage, and expecting anyone to know what the fuck is going on seems like a bit of a pipe dream.
No pun intended.
That Sean is as calm and unflinching as can be recounting his (probably highly) dangerous encounters with creatures straight out of fairy tales is almost as impressive as the acts themselves. Her eyebrows flick upward in a kind of respectful acknowledgement of the steel cajones he must be sporting.]
I'll keep that in mind the next time I need to remove a suspicious stain.
Not all the way out, no. But he can control it, at least a little. [ he'd seen adam do it, when he'd brought the ferris wheel down, when he'd pulled them straight out of the horrorscape of the amusement park and into the daylight.
he'd also come close to cussing adam out for doing it without warning him, but sean conveniently leaves that part out of his narrative, ha ha. ]
Oh, I know all the poor orphan tricks. [ he says this with a grin, lifting his eyebrows back at her. ] And happy to help with what I can. Cigarette buying and removal of suspicious stains included.
[Control it? The gears begin to turn behind Henry's eyes, with more attention given to this acquaintance of Sean's. Someone with a speck of control might be worth knowing... might even be someone who may know a thing or two about why her teleporting has been so out of control since she got here.]
Does he have a name?
[She can't bank on that kind of wishful thinking, she knows that, but her curiosity still comes with an air of forced casualness all the same, concealing the personal urgency that sparks her interest.
But Adam's abilities are a small revelation compared to the next one Sean pulls the curtain off of. He says it like it's a small one--orphan--but she tilts her head, both at what it implies and the way his grin unexpectedly causes that seemingly in-built English stoicism to evaporate.]
Poor orphan tricks, huh? There you go again, being all handy and shit. You know, some reprobates might take advantage of that.
Adam Parrish. [ he doesn't offer an introduction, because he's at least 99% sure that henry would look him up and ask whatever she wants to ask long before sean masters the art of finding contacts on his little phone thing and passing them along.
he doesn't ask what it is that has her so urgent suddenly; if she wanted him to know, he would. ]
That's right. We've all got a few. [ he shrugs nonchalantly and says, in his best total bullshitter voice, ] Lucky me I've not yet met any of these reprobates, then.
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[ not that he smokes heavily or even often, but he does occasionally and something about this place makes him feel like needs to.
pure curiosity prompts him to ask: ]
How old are you?
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[Regular cigarettes aren't her vice of choice, either, but she'd tried to follow the highway out of town today and she's smoked her last joint. She needs to cling to the illusion something will take the edge off her headache or her nerves, one or the other.]
Old enough to do what I want. [But because she's the one asking a stranger to do something for her when he could just as easily tell her to get fucked:] 16.
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[ he hopes his dry #britishhumor conveys over text... ]
16 is plenty old enough to do what you want. I'd be the last to say different.
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[That could be #Americanhumor, but no, she's partway serious...]
The law seems to have a different opinion.
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[ fortunately mostly small wildlife, squirrels and rabbits. not usually people's pets, as sean still suspects the cat had been. ]
Laws are often written by men sheltered from the realities of the world. [ wisdom from someone who lives pretty frickin close to depression-era ireland. ] But if it keeps you from crossing someone you shouldn't I'll buy your cigarettes.
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Is that going to be okay if we're stuck here a while? You, a cannibal horse, alone in a house? I don't know if they do welfare checks here.
[For all that the red water horse flies in the face of nature (not unlike her and her teleporting, if she's being brutally self-analyzing), she has to admit she'd like to see him again. But that feels like too big a favor to ask.]
That's profound of you. I hope you quoted that from something. [Otherwise you just promoted yourself to Depression-era Irish nerd, my friend.] Careful now, you're coming awfully close to sounding gentlemanly. Just this once would be great until I figure something else out.
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[ he hopes lmao. ]
My da said it once and it stuck. [ and now he kind of uses it to comfort himself about the great unfairnesses of life. also, nobody ever has accused sean of being a gentleman so he's a little o__o re: that text ] Well, until then.
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[Gosh, who knew Mr. Darcy was so easy to tease.]
Thanks. Text me when you're ready and I can come to you.
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[Thanks for not being Townes and shitting bricks at her questionable coping mechanisms.]
*spongebob title card* several hours later
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[She doesn't mind if it's out of her way--she could use the chance to stretch her legs and not wear grooves into the floor from pacing.]
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[ he's been exploring a little anyway and it seems central enough, hard to miss. ]
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[Or at least it's not far from the latest house she's squatting in. She's switched a few times already--one had had such an ominous growling coming out of the attic that not even Henrietta "I eat stupid decisions for breakfast" Coles had wanted to go looking for the source.]
I'll be there in a few minutes.
[It's cooler in the evenings, but still on the wrong side of unpleasantly muggy for her tastes. Luckily for Sean's nose, though, she'd gotten tired of the smell of sweat from being out in the sun all day and taken a shower earlier, and she shows up at their meeting place in a shirt still slightly damp from her forgotten to throw it in the dryer after a washing.
There's no mom or Thomas here to remind her to do these things--it's been a transition.]
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so, jeans and a henley and without the dark blue jacket he tends to wear everywhere. the muggy late-summer heat of this town is different than thisby, and doesn't lend itself as well to layers. ]
Henry Coles. [ that's his greeting. calling people by first and family name is a habit, sue him; he comes from an island where sometimes you have to differentiate between which kate or peg or thomas you're talking about. ] Is your shirt wet?
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... Sean.
[She's just going to go with that if it's all the same.
Her smile changes as she walks up, becomes an implied hey of its own, before it changes yet again to one of faint understanding when she glances down to see what he's looking at.
Ah, right.]
Oh. Um, yeah, it is. [She plucks at the light grey material now gone a darker, opaquer shade with the residual dampness. On the plus side, no danger of her flashing the entire neighborhood in a Girls Gone Wild session. She'd almost forgotten it. Wet clothes are nice and cool on a hot day--reasons why she'd usually been first out of the changing rooms after swimming lessons.] Friendly advice: be careful trying to go past the town limits. It took an hour for the nosebleed to stop. But the bloodstains came out of the collar, so.
[Hurray for that much. She doesn't have an endless supply of t-shirts, either.]
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late to dinnersomething rude. (ha ha sorry that was a dad joke.)he nods, no judgment. he was just curious. ] All right.
[ the explanation, though, has his eyebrows climbing up his forehead. nosebleeds just for walking past the town limits? that's ominous, even among the many things sean is coming to find are ominous about this place. he's used to being hemmed in, he lives on an island for god's sake, but this is different.
what he says, though, is ] If you get to it with vinegar before it sets, or salt water, the stain will come out easier. [ the voice of experience. ] And cold water only.
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And if he thinks that's spooky, he doesn't want to know about the cascade of other unsettling things she'd experienced: the hush that had fallen over the world, the flux of confusion and flutter of apprehension that had turned her legs to jelly and eventually deposited her into a shaking heap on the ground. The pounding headache she suspected had something to do with why she'd coughed blood into the sink once or twice while stuffing her nose with tissue.
Or the stretch of time after that where she'd laid on the floor in her bra, hands over face, listening to the whirr of the washing machine. Wishing she would either disappear into the floor, or be anywhere else but here. They'd become synonymous after a while.
She'd been lucky she tried walking out on foot, all things considered.]
Yeah, it was... weird. [Understatement. She frowns at the bit of shirt caught between her fingers in recollection.] The weirdest part is, I think a... deer helped me back. [And, as if just then hearing herself, she shakes her head.] That sounds crazy. It is fucking crazy.
[Anyway. Seemingly remembering her company, she puts back on a wry smile to match the levity of her earlier protip.]
I'd ask why you know that, but I have a feeling that'd be a stupid question, given what you do for a living.
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he shakes his head a little. ] Not the craziest. I talked with someone about the deer, yesterday. [ he finally stands up, stretching out a little, and produces her cigarettes from his pocket.
no moral high ground here, he doesn't care about a 16 year old smoking. the comment, though, does make him smile. ] Right in one. I've taken blood out of many a shirt in my life.
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For a second there I was afraid you were going to say you talked to the deer yesterday. You really get around the animal kingdom. [Pinching the bridge of her nose, she lets her eyes close. God, she must be tired.] Did this person have a run-in with them, too?
[But oh thank god, smokes. Her hero. She steps forward to accept them with gratitude evident in her voice.]
Thanks.
[Reaching for her dwindling supply of cash, she makes the trade with enough to cover the cost--and he can keep the change for doing her the solid. Furtively, she glances around before sliding the pack in her pocket. She doesn't see anyone watching, but she doesn't want to take the risk of lighting up in the middle of the street.
Moving to lean against the side of the bus shelter built to offer the bench a little respite from the wind and the rain, she regards Sean.]
Aren't you a guy just full of surprises. I suppose everyone has their hidden talents. Yours or food?
[She means if it was his blood he was washing out of his clothes, or a consequence of hanging around a killer horse that runs on fresh meat.]
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[ it is so far outside the scope of sean's expertise to even try to explain what adam does. truthfully, if he hadn't been there himself he probably wouldn't have believed it, and for that reason he knows for sure henry won't believe it. maybe the two of them will meet someday and then henry will be convinced too.
whatever. he takes the money and folds it into his pocket. ] Both, at one time or another. [ it's not terribly uncommon for a fresh-caught capall to try to make a meal of him, and sean has the scars and poorly-healed bones to prove it. ]
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Since we still have to buy cigarettes from someone with pink hair, I take it a "fair bit" doesn't mean enough to bust us out of this dream?
[She briefly considers teasingly congratulating him for making friends with others in possession of an eccentric knowledge base, but her heart's not in it. Still, for all that she doesn't veer too far into either surprised or disappointed territory. Being taken aback that people know about, or can do, amazing things would be massively hypocritical of her at this stage, and expecting anyone to know what the fuck is going on seems like a bit of a pipe dream.
No pun intended.
That Sean is as calm and unflinching as can be recounting his (probably highly) dangerous encounters with creatures straight out of fairy tales is almost as impressive as the acts themselves. Her eyebrows flick upward in a kind of respectful acknowledgement of the steel cajones he must be sporting.]
I'll keep that in mind the next time I need to remove a suspicious stain.
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he'd also come close to cussing adam out for doing it without warning him, but sean conveniently leaves that part out of his narrative, ha ha. ]
Oh, I know all the poor orphan tricks. [ he says this with a grin, lifting his eyebrows back at her. ] And happy to help with what I can. Cigarette buying and removal of suspicious stains included.
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Does he have a name?
[She can't bank on that kind of wishful thinking, she knows that, but her curiosity still comes with an air of forced casualness all the same, concealing the personal urgency that sparks her interest.
But Adam's abilities are a small revelation compared to the next one Sean pulls the curtain off of. He says it like it's a small one--orphan--but she tilts her head, both at what it implies and the way his grin unexpectedly causes that seemingly in-built English stoicism to evaporate.]
Poor orphan tricks, huh? There you go again, being all handy and shit. You know, some reprobates might take advantage of that.
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he doesn't ask what it is that has her so urgent suddenly; if she wanted him to know, he would. ]
That's right. We've all got a few. [ he shrugs nonchalantly and says, in his best total bullshitter voice, ] Lucky me I've not yet met any of these reprobates, then.
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