2.27 Think Fast

Finally home, Finley settles in to write about Bridgeport's recovery efforts.

Reisa frowns at the pictures Finley brought back. "Wow, that is a lot of hot dogs."

The return home reminds Junpei his mother is dead and her gravestone sits near the mausoleum, visible just over the hill there.

Little Reve needs some reassurance that he's not going to up and disintegrate into a gray ghost form for no apparent reason.

"You will someday," Junpei tells him. Then he frowns. "Oh, um, not soon."

 "What if I get turned into a vampire? How much time do I have then?"

"You aren't being turned into a vampire, Reve."

"I can if I want to!"

"No. Bad. Bad child."

"You're not my father," Reve says casually, "you can't tell me what to do."

"How long have you been waiting to use that line?"

"A while," Reve sighs. "We don't argue much, so a good opportunity never comes up."

Reve's uncle has been more of a father to him than his biological one, and Reve knows that... "Umm. Sorry."

"Yep."

"Are you mad?"

"Nah."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"You got really good at closing off any thoughts you don't want me to see. So I can't tell... at all... and it weirds me out." And it makes it impossible to troll for reactions.

Junpei thinks about this, then opens his thoughts for the kid a bit, allowing Reve to see at least that he is not upset. "Sorry, Revvy, I've just had a lot to think about lately."

"Grieving Gramma. I know. Me too."

Hidden Springs is as the Archers left it. The snow shows no sign of stopping. White is the new green. The entire sector is locked in an eternal battle to keep its roads passable.

"Think fast!" Timmothy lobs a football at his brother.

Leslie turns around and holds his hands up defensively. "Wha'!?" The ball manages to land in the vicinity of his hands. He holds onto it tightly. "Tim? Is that you? The f***. You scared me."

Timmothy stares blankly as the snow falls around them.

Leslie shakes his head, drops the ball in the snow and walks into the store. On his way in he sees Paulette Lho rolling a giant snowball, just to get some of the snow out of the way.

Timmothy considers picking up the football. He watches it for a while. It's discarded there in the snow, just like him. Disappointingly, it just lays there. It doesn't sprout legs and run away, or start talking, or explode. Soon it's covered in snow. Out of sight, out of mind, or so they say, damn them, so Timmothy turns around, only to almost walk right into-

"Are you a hallucination?"

Finley's face flushes red. "Don't think so. Just here for..." Bubble bath soap. Don't say that. "...Groceries." She ought to turn around and run, escape, but she hasn't seen Timmothy in so long, she finds herself staring at his face and searching for... she doesn't know what.

He frowns solemnly. "I'm sorry about your mother."

He reaches out to stroke her arm, catches himself, stops. Her face is unreadable. She looks into his own face and he'd swear to you she can see into whatever's in his soul and level judgement. Her palm is unconsciously turned up, receptive to a gesture that's never completed. Neither of them notice it.

Timmothy is surprised, though not more than Finley is, when she grabs onto him tight and starts to cry.

Accalia photo-bombs wonders what Finley thinks she's doing.

A phonecall from the office interrupts whatever was going on here.

She's going to tell me to get away from her and then she's going to walk away, Timmothy thinks. And it's too cold to just stand here and die, so before Finley notices, he decides he will walk away himself.

"Making things up again," he says to himself, when he's out of earshot of anyone. His ex-girlfriend couldn't have possibly hugged him. Not after what he's done. Not after all the lies they said he said, not after all the medications and the unreality and the world trapped in ice.

He is gone by the time she's off the phone and turned around.

She knew he would be. She could have stopped him.

It's for the best she didn't.




________________________________________________________
Etc.: Sorry, short chapter, I've been trying to fix my legacy save and make it more playable. It's been freezing (no pun intended) and glitching. I've been considering moving all residents to a fresh copy of Hidden Springs, but that might be more trouble than it's worth. To fix an interface glitch, I had to switch households for a sec. Junpei immediately sought "employment" and turned to a life of crime..

2.26 Nightingale

This won't work, he warns her telepathically, not trusting himself to speak.

"I know that," she says. "But it's okay to pretend for a little while."

Meela leans in closer to him and abandons her voice as well. You'll help me out of this stuffy cheongsam, won't you?

Not here...

The gutted house with the dungeon below holds too many nasty memories for both of them, that's true, so Meela creates a portal to somewhere else entirely.

Junpei looks nervous about it, but that's his default expression. 

He tried to learn a portal spell like that one and it went poorly.

That awkward moment when you realize you're in China.

Junpei thinks these windows have to be magic. Light is getting through, but it's not bothering Meela.

Junpei is so bad at being romantic, let's take a break to admire this picture of robins. I found the nest outside just a day before these little ones fledged.

It was less awkward than it should have been, Junpei reflects. Telepaths have no need to guess what the other person wants. They'd left their minds terrifyingly open and vulnerable.

He let Meela have what she wanted. That's all. The circumstances might not have lived up to her fantasy, but the realness of it makes up for that, sating her curiosity.

Meela has been with humans this way before, but never as an adult vampire. She is disturbed by the thrill of feeling blood rush under thin and breakable skin. The impulse to harm Junpei is almost too much to overcome. Her thumb digs under his chin painfully. "I'm... s-sorry..." She's distressed and sincere in her apology, apologizing for her violent thoughts, but still, Junpei is amused about how the 's' sound falters and lisps over her fangs.

He says nothing, trusting she won't follow through with what instinct wants her to do.

They smell like hygiene spells.

"You should put more thought into a longer lifespan," Meela suggests quietly.

"I'm not that kind of mage," Junpei answers.

"But there are ways..."

"No matter what method..." and there are many, "...the price is too high."

Just out for a little walk while Meela snoozes. The outskirts of Shang Simla are worth seeing.

Water falls from the sky.

Life as Junpei knows it can't exist without water, but it's still scary.

"You'd like to go home," she guesses, before he's said anything.

"I don't belong here."

"You could if you wanted to."

"I'm only human, Meela," he tries to steer her away from her train of thought. "I've seen the dangers of trying to be something more."

"You are already something more," she protests. Deep down she knows, even if she turned him, there's only a slim chance it wouldn't completely destroy the life she has here. The life she wants to keep, despite its limitations. 

The clans would scorn a turned human.

And he wouldn't be the same.

They're never the same, after they're turned.

Meela gives up and throws her arms around the mage one more time. I will miss you. Talking! It's so inefficient. So comparatively lacking of depth and sincerity. Also difficult mid-kiss.

So she made another portal. And they never saw each other again.

"Oh... you're not dead," Finley half sits up to greet her brother when he locates the place they're staying for the night. Reve is already asleep, and she should be too, but a nagging sense of something being wrong kept her from it.

"You were concerned?"

"I had no idea where you ran off to." But it felt like somewhere far away. "Wipe that stupid look off your face."

"Not to sound like a child, but are we going home soon?"

"I have a few more interviews scheduled for tomorrow. Then we can go."

"Copy that."

"Speaking of child, though," Finley adds, "I want you to take Reve tomorrow, and get as far away from the more populated parts of the city as you can. He's struggling to handle so many people's thoughts at once."




_____________________________________________
Etc.: I installed University Life very recently and am still discovering its features. I don't know why the UL "heat of the moment" kiss included the broken heart speech bubble from Meela, but it was too amusing not to use.