ic Roughin' It (IC)

[TheAbsurdist]

And then he paused, arching a brow as he stared ahead. "Poetical? Never imagined that."

He let it sit like that for a moment before he spoke, his normal tone, it was hard to really get through to him, after all he tended to speak in a way that seemed so measured, so reserved. So much so that Subito's Scion of Sobek comment made a lot more sense. "They are mercenaries or were mercenaries, and assassins during and prior to my life. My father believes Psion's teachings, somewhat. My mother is a killer, and she has done a great many things to keep me away from New Freedom and my father. My father believes I inherited his abilities, I did not. Still he wants me to fulfill some sort of legacy, it's pride and desire to possess. He and some of his goons came to where we were living. My mother had a contingency. Going to Freedom City and getting Claremont. The hope is I would be protected. I am glossing over details. New Freedom has something like public transportation, but it isn't a subway system. It is in Antartica even if the stretch of land is terraformed. I left there when I was about five, but I still remember the place..."

He drifts off for a moment, and then turning then to him. "So is it control? Yes. My concerns for my maintaining of control are numerous, but not for the same reason. I am aware of how much we are truly interconnected. I don't have an easy explanation to you. I just don't. Just like I don't have an interest in finding someone to spend my time with. I have to maintain my sense of self." Shaking his head slowly and when they came back to camp, he carried his arms load along. "Besides, my tragedies are everyone else's tragedies. I don't see them as worse, just a piece of what I am now."

Setting his load down carefully, and Elias's voice lowered carefully, showing he was aware of some measure of the feelings of others, or better put, he could act on it. "Don't question why she likes you. She does. I am aware you are nervous, that's why I bring it up. Like I said, all connected. So I get... impatient when a person's hangups get in the way of things. People complicate things needlessly." His head tilted a little as he glanced over his shoulder at Subito, and then to Cerys. "You people do not know how loud someone's dream can be, I do not look forward to being near two couples tonight."

"Cerys, would you mind getting some band-aids for Subito please." Looking back to to Subito then, "You can learn how to do it. It isn't that hard. In this I can actually teach you. Using the knife that is."

[Tiffany Korta]

Blodeuwedd didn’t think of herself as Cerys, so was and had always been Blodeuwedd, Cerys was just a name for the awkward unsure version of herself that went to Claremont’s. So it took a few second before she realized that they were talking about her. She wasn’t ease dropping Subito was by nature a loud speaker. She made sure to give an appropriate delay before answering his question.

“Tona is among one of the best trackers and hunters I know, if there is anything to find she’ll catch something. As long as Sam doesn’t distract her to much…â€

Her tent finished she slipped into the forest and made her way quietly towards the two of them, mostly for the challenge. She wasn’t able to block Elias’s powers but she blanked her mind to try and reduce detection. She wasn’t sure if it worked but neither reacted as she drew up beside them.

“Here you go. What you been talking about?â€

[Ari]

“Here you go. What you been talking about?â€

"Oh thanks Blod-uh, we, er..." began Subito as he switched from a thankful grin to a much more uneasy look, glancing at Elias for a moment in indecision before thinking '...You know what? Let's go with that.' he leaned his head back to smile at Cerys

"We were talkin' 'bout you, m'lady! And about El here, who thinks it might be a bit uncomfortable to be around two, um..couples." he managed with only a slight blush and lowering of his voice. "I don't think it will be as bad as y'might think El," he added with a careless shake of his head to the teen telekinetic "we're not going to be sharing each others' tents or anything." He was glad to hear such an endorsement of Tona's skill, looking out into the forest where he could dimly make out their footsteps and brief snatches of their voices. 'I wonder how they met, come to think of it...' saying aloud "Here's hopin' they find something good! Mushrooms are great, but I've never had rabbit before." he commented, tossing himself back onto the grass, his head under his folded hands.

"So, El, how do you use knives right?" he looked up at Cerys, adding cheerily "Lemme know if he's teaching me wrong, princess! It'd be pretty bad for both of us if I lost my hands!"

[Blue Rose]

Sam follows along, dropping her veil after a while, not that it affected anything smarter than a dog. No need to use more magic than she has to.

Water, she has some idea how to find. Keep going downhill and you'll probably find where the water went, though she wasn't quite sure where she picked that up. A vision of a big, beautiful pond springs to mind, and she regrets that this trip's not in summer when they could have some fun in the water, alone, and...

It's Tona's enthusiasm at seeing Vegas snaps Sam out of her daydream. And probably a good thing, too, though she wasn't expecting her bluff to be called. "That was a joke," she admits. "I don't even know what we'd-" she stops talking a second to make a tricky step in the waning light. "-do there. I mean, we're not old enough for drinking and gambling. But I could totally show you Chicago!" she follows up; she'd called that home for almost a decade, after all. "Have you ever heard a real orchestra perform?" she asks, already making the plans.

[Raveled]

"Non. There wasn't a lot of time to play music back home. We always had to be on watch for Omegadrones or steam soldiers, so music would just give our camp away." The pair stepped around a large tree and were suddenly standing at the edge of a river. The water level was low and consequently rushing quite dramatically over the riverbed. Tona stooped and picked up a handful of rocks, sorting through them carefully to find good, flat ones. "I've heard a lot of music on the radio since I came here. Are orchestras usually on the radio?"

Very quickly she had a handful of stones and handed most of them to Sam. "Mon pere taught me this," she said, curling one finger along the long edge of the rock and whipping it downstream. It managed two, three skips before falling underwater. She tried it again and got four skips, hitting the other side of the river channel before it disappeared. Tona smiled broadly and then stepped back, giving Sam plenty of room to swing. "Go on, it's easy."

[Blue Rose]

Sam hefts the rock, a bit disturbed. She probably shouldn't think like this, but a lot of things Tona says about her home rank among the saddest things she's ever heard. Reminds her of when she came to Earth, but she was a little kid at the time; Tona's still going through that. She hefts a rock and slings it; a clumsy, forceful throw that just splashes straight in.

But being gloomy won't help! "Oh, no! Well, they are, but that's nothing like the real thing! It's like..." she tries gesticulating as she talks. An armful of rocks makes that hard. "If you had a picture of, of this river," she takes the first example at hand. "Sure, you've seen the river from the picture, but it's not like the real thing, like being there. It's just..." she reaches for the words, but by her own definition words will never do. "It's not the same," she finishes simply with a shrug.

[Raveled]

Tona smiled. "So it's like a sort of thing I can't imagine unless I see it, hm? Sounds a lot like the Silver Tree, actually. Until you see it, words don't do it justice." She coached Sam through a few more throws, until she could at least get a couple skips. She came up behind the other girl and draped her arms over Sam's shoulders and hugging her close. "I used to do this a lot with my father," she said quietly, resting her head against Sam's. "If it's one thing I really miss about being away from home, it's being away from him."

[Tiffany Korta]

Blodeuwedd raised an eyebrow at Subito subtle suggestion that they were a couple. She was going to wait for better time, but now would be as good as any.

“I’m just going to borrow him for a moment Elias, this shouldn’t take too long.†Without waiting for an answer she began guiding Subito of away into forest “And don’t even think of trying to easy drop in any way or well you know what I’ll do.â€

She didn’t have any particular malice planned for Elias but sometimes you just need to be blunt with him to get the point across. After a reasonable distance she stopped in a small clearing, she turned around and put a finger on Subito lips.

“Just don’t speak for a moment, there’s something I need to say. What everyone calls Cerys is only part of who I am, there’s more to me than that. You’ve seen some of it but there’s still something you still don’t know about me, that I can’t tell you right now. The only way that I could tell you most of it is if you become an Associate from the order, then you could learn the more important truths.†Her face took on a more serious look “But you couldn’t tell anyone what you learned, literally, the ritual would set a Tynged on you stopping you telling anyone. There a ceremony we hold back home around the New Year I’d like you to come be there and become an associate.â€

She managed a small smile. “After that we can try to be a couple, I can’t promise anything but it’ll be fun trying.â€

[TheAbsurdist]

Elias took the armload from Subito, and nodded at what Cerys said. "Of course. Masks and all." Though he had no urge to eavesdrop, and started to rinse off the mushrooms they had gathered with some water from out of the big water contain they brought. After a few moments Mr. Landis walked up and looked at what the boy was washing.

"Sure that they are edible, Elias?" Though youngish, for a teacher, he was still over a decade older than the kids, he had tried his hand at Heroing years ago, but he just lacked the right attitude for it, which was fine. So he became a teacher, and when asked to join Claremont, he never really looked back. While his curriculum had little to do with Heroes, he definitely tried to aim what he taught to the children as more practical application of knowledge, the stuff that would come up if they were to college.

Lifting his head Elias looked at Mr. Landis for a moment, and nodded. "Mmm, yes." Elias then picked one up, trimmed the stem a bit more, and popped it into his mouth and chewed on it as he looked at Mr. Landis, whose mouth was agape as he watched what the boy did.

"Um, next time Elias, you could just say yes. Well, I was thinking, I brought my camping wok, I was thinking we could do some stir fry. Think everyone will like that?"

"I don't know. I think so, may want to see what Tona catches. Either way, we can't report this to the park rangers." Shrugging a little bit, before looking around, and then back to Mr. Landis. Elias had gotten a small reputation as being difficult, but then if anyone in Claremont could draw parallels between their discipline measures and fascism, it was him. "Need anymore help?" However, out here, he was in his element, even if he lacked Tona's enthusiasm.

[Ari]

Subito was entirely unprepared for Cerys' out-of-the-blue request, and before he knew it he was jerked to his feet and following along ungainly behind her with a bark of "Whoa! 'Little warning next time?". He quickly settled into an even pace for all that, and struggled not to grin at her muted threat to Elias. Enjoying the quiet buzz of the few insects that were still around that late in the year, he sauntered after her into the clearing and began "So-mm!"

After a reasonable distance she stopped in a small clearing, she turned around and put a finger on Subito lips.

“Just don’t speak for a moment, there’s something I need to say. What everyone calls Cerys is only part of who I am, there’s more to me than that. You’ve seen some of it but there’s still something you still don’t know about me, that I can’t tell you right now. The only way that I could tell you most of it is if you become an Associate from the order, then you could learn the more important truths.†Her face took on a more serious look “But you couldn’t tell anyone what you learned, literally, the ritual would set a Tynged on you stopping you telling anyone. There a ceremony we hold back home around the New Year I’d like you to come be there and become an associate.â€

She managed a small smile. “After that we can try to be a couple, I can’t promise anything but it’ll be fun trying.â€

He looked at her quietly for almost a full minute, blinking several times before smiling gently at the taller girl. Normally he would have been at least a little too self-conscious to try something like it, and knowing that Elias sometimes had problems keep people's thoughts out would have made it awkward, if he had remembered that little detail. With a smooth movement he took her hand in his own and kissed it before answering her "Princess, don't feel like you have to do this for me. We still don't know each other really well. And I don't mean like about our pasts," he added quickly, lowering her hand to his chest as he spoke "I mean our personalities. We've gotten to know each other a bit over the year, but it's not like we've forged a bond between us in fire and steel that has granted us insight into the deepest waters of our souls. For all I know you're just after my body." He looked stern for a second before laughing aloud for several seconds, recovering his composure hurriedly "Okay, okay, seriously though, I'm honored that you think that I'm worthy of joining your family in fighting Evil. If you're that confident in me I gladly accept the offer, and promise I will never let a single one of the secret truths past my lips without your say-so." he shook her hand powerfully before letting go. Barely hesitating he gave her a quick, warm hug "And I agree about the couple thing, with you it cannot be borin'!" he added with a even bigger smile than before.

He glanced at the camp "Oh hey, Mr. Landis brought his wok!" he looked hopefully at Cerys "D'you like mushrooms, Blodeu? Ooh! When I'm your boyfriend after becoming an Associate of your family, can I cook for you too?" he asked with an eager look in his shining hazel eyes, offering her his hand as he began walking back towards the camp.

[Blue Rose]

As she had so many times before, Sam tries to picture Tona's world. All she has to compare it to is Dis, the planet she came from so long ago, though from the sounds of things, Terminus puts less into a veneer of reason and civility than the demon lords and the wannabes. And every time, after doing so much to make it sound like an utter hellhole, she says things to make it sound wondrous, beautiful. Not like the red, dusty, burnt-out rathole she came from.

But missing her father? That, she knows. That, she gets from the ones she's lost. "I know," she whispers and simply holds Tona close for a while, letting silence prevail.

[Raveled]

Tona and Sam stood in silence for a few minutes, just the babbling stream and the sounds of the forest in winter surrounding them. Then she pressed her lips against Sam's neck and stepped away. "C'mon. We should wait awhile before we check the snares." She unshipped her quiver and the attached bow, and put them on the ground as she dropped to the bank of the small river. She laid back and put her gaze to the sky, waiting and watching for the stars to come out. "So. What was your home like, Sam? Lots of orchestras?"

[Blue Rose]

And with a little peck, the forest seems just that much warmer.

Sam lets the melancholy pass; she's not alone anymore, after all. Life returns to her without delay as she follows, bringing her weak veil back up, concealing her from lesser creatures.

The talk of home begs the question of whether to bring up Dis or Chicago, but Sam was never fond of opening the former can of worms, and she'd lived in Chicago longer anyways. "I don't think most cities have more than one orchestra," she answers, far from certain. "But the Chicago orchestra's one of the best in the world. Um..." She tries to form an answer, realizing just how little she really knows about her home town. "Lessee... Well, it's big. Like, a lot bigger than Freedom City. And they built it with really tall buildings packed together with narrow streets, making it super windy. It's really not much colder than it is here, but the wind cuts to the bone. It's a really old city. Lot of history, museums, that sort of thing. And a lot of money, too." She pauses. "It's really hard to sum up a whole city. You've seen what Freedom City's like, and Chicago's even bigger!"

After a moment, a creeping suspicion rises that she's forgetting something. And then, she remembers, "Oh! Also, world's best pizza."

[TheAbsurdist]

Landis smiled a little and shrugged. "I don't a reason to tell you no. So how are you adapting?"

Elias, to his credit, didn't roll his eyes. It was the question he got asked the most, the one he starting to actually hate. "Well," the telepathic boy responded curtly, as he started to cut up the mushrooms and put them in a bowl that the teacher provided. And then he started to cut an onion as well, as the teacher watched him. But the boy said nothing, almost in defiance of the expectations of Mr. Landis, who put the wok atop of the firepit he had brought. Pouring oil into it. Elias picked up onions and mushrooms and threw them into the pot and glancing up to him.

"I'll go get the rest of the stuff." Mr. Landis walked to the van, where the coolers were, to get more food.

[Raveled]

Tona craned her neck back to watch Sam as she talked, then went back to her cloud-gazing. After a minute she pursed her lips and began to speak. "The Freedom City... My Freedom City, in the Terminus, isn't much to look at. All the old people tell me it used to be huge, a home for a couple million people, the biggest city on the planet. But that's nothing like the Freedom City here." She rolled to her feet and faced Sam. "I don't think I can imagine a city so big that it changes how the wind blows. And I don't think I've ever had this... pizza?" Tona stepped over to the other girl and looped her arms around Sam's hips, holding her loosely. "So you're going to have to show me the whole thing some day. Tout?"

[Blue Rose]

Never... had... pizza...? The words echo through Sam's head, failing to compute and she thinks back, trying to remember. She could have sworn they'd gone out for pizza at some point, but apparently not. She'll have to fix that some time. In fact, she has half a mind to do so right now, but... promises.

Oh, that's right, they did go to that Italian place, but ended up getting pasta, not pizza.

"That sounds... nice," she says eventually, "but showing you a whole city'll take a long time." She leans on Tona as they walk along, and joins her in her cloudgazing.

[Raveled]

Tona walked along with Sam, holding her close, their hips brushing as they moved. "We'll have to take a long time to see it all, then," she said. She looked up and tried to focus on the clouds, so she wouldn't be too distracted by hips and hands and hands on hips. "Papa taught me to read the clouds to tell what kind of weather is coming," she said. "Do you see the long, streaky ones, way up high? The ones that look like they're pointing at the sea? Those mean the weather's going to be good for at least the rest of the day. Of course, around here you don't have to worry that there's Omegadrones hiding behind the clouds..."

[Blue Rose]

The pair continues on, slick bulky coats sliding against each other, a slick and frustrating thing while she grows less comfortable as she tries not to think about just how much time is being bandied about at the moment. She didn't really know what she wanted here, but she certainly wasn't thinking about adopting cats with Tona or anything. After all, Soot wouldn't get along with any of them, and they're still way too young to be thinking as far as...

...As far as they're not really thinking, because Tona's thinking a vacation, Sam tells herself, trying to stay lost in the clouds. "Yeah. We just get dragons behind ours, sometimes."

[Raveled]

Tona's mind flashed to stories she'd heard of Shadian Steelgrave and his legion of cursed dragons, but she quickly put it out of her mind. She was here to have fun, dammit! Her first time back to nature since sue came to this world, and she was spending the time with Sam! And she kept bringing things back to the Terminus. It frustrated the young woman, to think that it cast such a shadow over her life even here. Why did she have to let it touch every part of her life?

Tona grew silent as her thoughts grew darker, and before long the sun was sitting on the horizon and the sky was losing the light. She led Sam back into the forest, back past their snare. Four squirrels, looking lean and fresh, hung from the wire nooses by their necks, trapped and suffocated by the trapper's artifice. She still made sure to snap their necks quickly before retrieving the wire and tying the, together in a bundle. It wasn't much later that they were walking into the camp again and Tona held the catch high. "Now you'll all see how we really eat in the forest," she said, grinning from ear to ear over her accomplishment.

[Blue Rose]

Sam, for her part, keeps her distance and averts her eyes, trying not to shudder. She knows they're just rodents, but as long as she's been on Earth, squirrels have just been a cute little bit of inconsequential scenery, not food for the slaughter. And the last creature she'd actually seen slaughtered was human, nearly a decade ago. Death and blood still didn't sit right with her, even of squirrels.

But some images stick, even after so much time and training, and she's hiding her trembling under cold all the way back to camp. She's good at hiding such things. "I can honestly say I've never had squirrel before," she says, trying to funnel in some better cheer. There's been entirely too much gloom for alone time with Tona.

[Tiffany Korta]

She didn’t expect him to fully understand, after all he didn’t know everything about how the Order operated. Hopefully he’d still want to be with her when he knew the whole truth, well all except why she was sent here.

She spent a few minutes collecting some fire wood why the boys sorted out there dinner, or at least as much as they could before Tona returned. She dumped the wood beside the small camp fire.

She gave Subito a little friendly hug “I’m not sure my family could deal with such spicy food, we don’t use nearly as much spice in Welsh cooking. It would hide the delicate taste of Leeks.â€

There was nothing to do now but wait for the hunting party to return so she sat beside the fire and got out her battered copy of the Mabinogion.

[Ari]

Noticing Cerys' quiet effort in getting stuff for the camp, Subito gathered a similar pile of firewood on the way back, keeping up a happy chat along the short trek. He affected horror at the mention of spicy food "Oh come on Cerys, you know me. When have you seen me eat anythin' hotter than tabasco-flavored ice-cream?" he asked with a laugh, gently lengthening the hug by just a second with his free arm, enjoying the quiet hum of insects, the creaking of trees and the rustle of wind in the branches as he brushed against her.

He was thrilled at what Blodeuwedd had just offered him, the chance to join up and help her family's business, both giving him an excuse to be around her even more and learn about her country and what she liked? It would have been impossible for him to even consider turning her down. 'New Year's with Blodeu...' he glanced up at her as they reached the campsite, then thought better of the kiss and called out "Hey guys! We got some firewood, should keep the bears off at least."

He knew there weren't likely to be any bears in New Jersey, but you never knew with Wharton forest. Catching sight of the animals Tona and Sam had collected, he tossed the wood next to the small stone circle and clapping respectfully. "Great work, huntress!" he said to the young archer, face beaming "With you around, starving's not on the menu!"

Wandering over to Mr. Landis and his wok he gestured to it "What're we having, sir?"

[TheAbsurdist]

Mr. Landis was frowning a little, distracted a bit, and looking at Elias, before he grabbed the packs of chicken out of the cooler. "Mm?" Blinking a bit, the teacher looked at Subito. "Oh, well I was gonna do stirfry." He seemed amused by all the hunting and gathering, after all, he wasn't so stupid as to bring a bunch of teens into the woods without making sure they had stuff to eat.

Elias kept doing prep. It was a rhythm. Something to do. Something no one could bother him while he did them. After all he wasn't the one who had issues understanding others. The same could not be said for the people he was around. Not that he disliked them or what they were doing, they only hurt themselves, but at least Subito and Cerys were moving, rather than spinning their wheels. He doubted he had any impact, after all he didn't make them act. Finished chopping the vegetables, he turned and walked to Mr. Landis, grabbing the packs of chicken out from his hand and then moved back to to the prep area, opening them up as well.

Mr. Landis stopped, and looked back at the boy, frowning.

[Raveled]

Tona laid the squirrels near the fire, then stopped to look at the tents. The constructions of brightly colored nylon were about as far as Tona could imagine from the tents she had grown up with, but at least they didn't look like they'd blow away. She privately wondered how waterproof they'd be, though. Aloud, she said, "That's a pretty impressive job with the tents, Cerys." She ducked into them one by one until she found her pack, and emerged from her tent with a long, sharp knife. "That's what we need," she said, testing the edge of the blade. "I'll have the squirrels skinned in a quick minute."

The young hunter sat by the fire and started to work on the animals, her hands moving quickly and dispassionately. She glanced up at Elias as he started to prepare the trimmings for the... stew, perhaps? That was about all Tona knew how to make, along with sandwiches. Whatever, maybe someone of them would eat squirrel and some of them would eat something else. She looked up at Sam as she skinned the animals. At the least she could make a squirrel-fur vest or a pair of moccasins.

[Ari]

"Stir-fry? Awesome! Hope it goes well with rabbit..." the bulky teen pondered with a far-away look in his eyes. Coming back to the present he looked over at Elias, hesitating for only a moment before shrugging and walking over to help, neatly beginning to prepare the chicken alongside him. "Hey. Thanks for the, uh..words." he said, looking awkwardly sideways at the other boy "Dunno how much longer Blodeu and I would have gone on like we were, just smiling when we passed in the halls and being shy and saying little stuff to each other." he blushed suddenly and coughed, looking away.

His ears caught Tona's comment to Cerys about the tent, and he raised an eyebrow with a barely-restrained smirk.

"Heh, with those two and you, there's a lot of people around who are good in the outdoors." He said cheerfully "Speakin' of which, what do you think lives around here? Ghost deer? A giant, talkin' tree?"