sixthiterationlogs

Entry tags:

[CLOSED]

WHO: Bela Talbot
WHERE: At the Fountain
WHEN: 17th December
OPEN TO: Locked to Kira Akiyama
WARNINGS: None expected but will update if necessary

This was a terrible idea.

Kira had suggested them taking a shift at the fountain last month (when they were drinking mind you) and Bela had been all for it at the time, figuring that it was an easy way for her to help out. Which it would be if it wasn't so bloody cold.

Between the two of them they had managed to build a fire - a tiny one at that - and Bela found that she was fairly adept at gathering wood to keep it going. Kira was the one who had actually built the fire and got it lit because he had more experience than she did. Bela thought that she should probably ask him to show her how in case she found herself in a situation where she needed to build one.

Right now they're huddled in front of the fire and Bela is wearing several layers of clothing, rubbing her hands together to generate some additional heat. She was trying her best not to shiver but to no avail. There was a definite chill in the air tonight and all Bela felt like doing was complain about it; she doesn’t though, choosing to pick humour over whining instead.

"This is not how I envisioned spending my Sunday night, you know."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Hey, I said I'd tag along--you're the one who volunteered." It was a little odd to hear any day referred to by a day of the week, but that measure of time had broken down for him well before he crawled out of the fountain.

Like Bela, he was layered up against the cold--somehow he'd gotten his new slim-fit jeans to go inside one of the slightly over-sized pairs his last incarnation had ferreted away. It left him a bit stiff, his legs set out to one side instead of bent under his seat, but he was warmer for it, and he had a few sweaters piled on under Ty's coat. He'd brought gloves for them both, and his ability to start a fire was, as always, related to the hoarding of material goods. He'd found a flint and steel in the piles of stuff he'd moved into the brick house.

"How did you expect it to go: a quiet night with a cup of tea by the fire, read the same water-damaged book for the sixth time?" That was more or less what he'd been pulled away from, and he wasn't sorry for it. "I'm just glad nobody seems to come through in the other village, I don't want to hike out there again in this weather."

She wrinkled her face at that, knowing he was right but not wanting to admit it out loud. Bela did actually volunteer to help out at the fountain and this was probably her first of many practice runs until she felt comfortable enough to perhaps do a shift by herself.

"Better than being outside in the freezing cold. And if it was a book I enjoyed then it wouldn't be so bad." She's half-serious. "Other village? I don't know much about it. But if it involves a hike then I don't believe I want to make a trip there."

Bela slipped her hands into her gloves, grateful for him bringing them along. "However, I am glad for the company though. So thanks for that."

"Glad for my fire starting skills," he quipped, nudging a stray log back into the pit with his boot. Company's all we've really got here, aside from stunning natural vistas--" He pitched his voice like some kind of host, sweeping his arm out at the stars above the thick trees like she'd just won a brand new car. Just as quickly, he stuffed his hands back into the pockets of his parka.

Ty's parka, impossible but there, his cards and the picture of Chiyo in his pocket. All for the willingness to steal some paper and drag it across the gap. "I might like to see the other side in daylight, when it's not so cold. I hear there's a sea or something; never been to a decent beach before."

Now he has a dog to take, left at home for her propensity for jumping on strangers for affection. "I wasn't a dog person before this place, I wonder if you'll turn into a hiking person after enough time."

She rolled her eyes at him, despite finding it somewhat amusing. Bela couldn't deny the beauty of the sky above them nor the forest, but she did not want to remain here. This village wasn't her home and there wasn’t a lot that she could occupy herself to pass the time.

"A beach?" It's more of a statement than a question. She wondered if it was the kind of beach with golden sand, like the ones found in more tropical areas of the world- that would make the journey much more bearable. Provided Bela would actually decide to make the trek there.

There's a snort of laughter. "If I become a hiking person it will be nothing short of a miracle." She's speaking as someone who has used methods of transport other than walking. Cars. Planes. Even the occasional boat.

"Although now I fear that you may try to run me into such a person because of my objection to it."

"I think necessity will do the job for me," he said, but the observation was astute enough to make him smile, looking down at his lap. "I wasn't parkour-ing around my hometown before things went to shit, but when it's safer than walking down the street, you learn." It's a bit of a stretch--it's not like he was jumping between buildings like Batman. Just making good use of fire escapes and nailing boards between close enough windows.

A bit like learning to use a flint and steel, or getting used to your basic food groups shrinking to what keeps in winter.

The fire would only do so much good. Forcing himself up from his seat, he stamped his feet, wandered a ways around the fountain's edge, and peered in. "You know, they say no one's ever actually seen someone pop up in here? Just coming out of the water. Like a watched kettle or something."

"They say that?" Bela asked, now getting up to join him because walking about would generate some heat. "Maybe it's how the fountain works. No one is allowed to see who comes through for some reason or another." She doesn't stand so close to the fountai'’s edge but she is close enough to Kira so that they would be able to hear each other. Not that there was anyone else to interrupt them.

She drew her coat tighter around herself to keep out the cold, staring at the clear water for a few moments before looking at Kira with a smile. "So. You think if we turn our backs for a couple of minutes someone will come bursting forth from the fountain, completely drenched and confused?"

The smile widened. She's trying for humour.

"Then we can be the great heroes. Rescuing them from their peril."

"Or the first people they accuse of kidnapping," he rejoined, staring into the water despite warnings that nothing much would change. It's water or snow, to stare at out here. Or Bela--the rather obvious choice. Without turning his head, his gaze tracked her as she moved, caught the smile, returned it.

Trying to reach back for what he could, of the arrival he did remember--he'd held a lot against Mark for the first month or so, just for being the one to welcome him. Hard not to shoot a messenger when the message is so bleak, so incomplete.

"All the more reason to do this in pairs. Someone's got to come out of this thing swinging, once in awhile. Or just run out into the trees. If I hadn't been half froze, I don't know that I would have chosen to go with Mark, day one. What about you--what was yours like?"

"What was mine like?" For her, it really wasn't that long ago. Her arrival was still quite fresh in her mind, and it didn't piss Bela off any less.

"I was cold. Wet. Coughing and spluttering as I pulled myself out of the fountain." She wrinkled her nose, shuddering at the memory (and well, the chill in the air). "Margaery came to my rescue though. She was able to convince me to come to the village with her. Even after I refused. Several times."

After a few moments she went to join Kira by the fountain. Sighed. "I want to go home. And I know that I can't."

"That sounds about right," he said, keeping his head turned, giving her that much privacy to voice the feeling. Soon enough, he could see her in the reflection of the water, another dark silhouette against the snowy backdrop. White snow, heavy trees, dark sky. It was familiar and not--there were places to see something like that in Manhattan, but he hadn't visited them recently.

Too many graves. Too many things trying to put him in one for his coat or his shoes.

He crooks an arm out at the elbow, barely touching her own as she drew even. Without his gifts, he wouldn't know the right time to offer outright--an arm, a hand, anything more than standing there an inch away from her. Judging for himself, he assumed most people didn't want to be touched. "The knowing's the hard part. It's a little like--being cornered. Sometimes I just want to lash out every which way, see if it changes anything. But I can't imagine how it would."

Under any other circumstances Bela would have taken the time to appreciate the view around her. She may even go as far to say that it was beautiful; the snow, the forest and the stars above them. But the feeling of being trapped seemed to sour the environment for her. Bela didn't want to appreciate a place which had become a prison.

The company was welcome, but she's glad that Kira isn't one to coddle her or think that she needed a comforting hand or touch. Bela would let him know if she did.

"I actually understand that. My instincts tell me to get angry and I don't know, yell at something. Vent out my frustration somehow. I hate not being in control of where I can and can't go."

She sighed again, glancing over at him. Bela knew that she was exposing a more vulnerable side of herself to Kira, and she wished that she hadn't.

"But if lashing out doesn't seem to work, what does? Aside from getting blinding drunk - I tried that one and it's only a temporary solution."

As she spoke, he leaned his head a bit to one shoulder, lending an ear. Now it carried over to the other, fixing her sidelong down the planes of his face. If he looked at her from angles, if he didn't do anything head-no, maybe they could tread water over those depths.

"Well, we at least chose to be out here. Fuck if I remember why." Limited choice was something he was used to--it was the way nothing he did seemed to matter that got him feeling closed in. Like he could lash out, could have an entire grown-man tantrum, and that wouldn't matter either. At most, he'd inconvenience someone else. He hadn't survived as much as he had to settle for being an inconvenience.

"Oh, right, we were drunk." Elbow winging out from the axis of his pocketed hand, he nudged her side, trying to smooth it all with a smile. If he didn't feel it, what did it really matter?

Is this what making a friend was like? Having them listening to you while you blathered on about what was getting you down? Bela knew that there wasn't a manual on how to build up a friendship, but she didn’t actively seek out things like that back home because there didn’t seem to be a point. People could betray you. She was also living on borrowed time so setting down roots for herself did not seem necessary.

And yet, here she was. Funny how it seemed to be turning out for her in this goddamn place.

"Yes. We were." The corner of her mouth crooked up in a small smile, accepting the nudge from him. A strange form of comfort, but at least he was doing his best to acknowledge how she was feeling right now. Bela bumped her shoulder against his in a playful manner, surprising herself. "That was fun. Not the hangover the next morning, but the drinking vodka was fine."

The smile widened by just a fraction.

"I'd be up for doing it again sometime."

"I'm hurt that you don't have the same enthusiasm for standing out in the cold with me, wondering where we went wrong with our lives." But the corner of his mouth twitched, and he wasn't hurt at all. Complaining about hangovers and shit weather felt as close to normal as it would all get, even if they did it standing here, waiting for someone to fall into their dubious care.

Turning slightly, not quite enough to put the weight of attention on her, or leave the fountain unattended, he said, "Let's make a pact: when we find alcohol, we share. And try to drink water in between."

In the meantime, maybe the watched kettle would't boil. Maybe if they kept their eyes on the water, no one else would have to wake up in it.

"Hmph." Bela replied, sounding amused. At least they could get some kind of enjoyment of being out in the freezing cold with only a few layers of clothes and a fire to keep them warm. It probably was the most normal thing to talk about how much they hated hangovers and bad weather. Somehow, it made things a little more tolerable.

She nodded at his proposal, allowing her smile to stretch out across her face. "I think that's an excellent idea. Shall we shake on it?" A beat, then: "Or nudge on it? I'm afraid to take my hands out of my coat."

Hopefully no one would come out of the water to disturb the peace.

"A nudge should suffice," he agreed, holding out an elbow from the wing of his hand buried deep in his own pocket. "Adds some plausible deniability in case one of us gets snowed in with the stuff and can't resist."

He was smiling back, arms sliding as they pressed elbows to sides. The water hardly rippled under the wind; if it was to be a long night, he couldn't yet imagine spending it with anyone else.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[CLOSED]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject