Why'd You Kill the Merchant?!

[sansseraph]

Who: ALL O' Y'ALL
Broadcast: If you want
Action: FRICK YEAH PARTY AT THE JUNKYARD...I mean, Waystation. Junkstation.
When: 10/07 - Event End

It looks more like a junk heap than a waystation, but luckily there aren't any math fetishists to add you to the pile (hopefully). Talk to the scavengers and heed their warnings...if you want. Or perhaps you'll approach a shady individual for purchasing or selling stuff.

"Welcome, stranger!"

Comments

[pain_train]

[She was definitely dwelling. She actually starts slightly when Erik speaks, not expecting it. But the topic makes her relax, and even smile a little. She likes hearing about other people's regular lives.] Why did you keep it, when you had so much terrible with it?

[exothermia]

[He shrugs, keeping his eyes on the wire he's reconnecting.]

I couldn't afford to get another one. Factory workers don't make a lot of money. [Especially not in communist Poland.] I became very adept at fixing things the old fashioned way.

[pain_train]

Oh. That makes sense. Money's... hard. [Before now, everything she needed had always been provided by the military. Money's still an arcane and intimidating thing to her. Thank goodness Vision is willing to manage her account.] I guess that was a good experience to have, though, even if it must have sucked at the time.

[exothermia]

It was just something I had to do. I did have to get to work, after all. Not something I could manage without the car.

[pain_train]

Did you live far away from where you worked? [This is all such a weird thing for her to try to get her head around. She lived on base for years. And even if she hadn't, there's very good public transit in the city... and there's only the city.]

[exothermia]

[He nods, picking up a pair of pliers to use on a circuit.]

A few kilometres. Our house was out near the forest, beyond the edges of town. We had bicycles as well, which Magda used... [There's a clicking sound as he reconnects a part, and he drops the pliers back into the toolbox.] It wasn't close to much.

[pain_train]

It's hard to imagine what that's like. I mean, it is for me. Did you like it?

[This entire subject is so disconnected from everything here, it's getting her to relax. Getting her out of her own head as she tries to envision this life Erik had before.]

[exothermia]

[His reply is a shade more quiet, though he remains focused on his work.]

Yes. I did. Even though it was unexpected for me.

[pain_train]

I guess you can find good in really different things sometimes. I'm... Glad that's something you had.

[She knows from previous conversations that it's not something he has any more. That this is a hard thing for him to talk about.

And somehow that makes it easier to quietly admit:]

Someone I picked up... Found a drug my liver couldn't metabolize immediately... I guess. When I woke up he was trying to remove my arm.

[A shudder runs through her and she clenches her right hand into a fist, takes a deep breath, relaxes.]

[exothermia]

[His expression becomes fixed and tense, anger simmering below the surface. These waystations were full of criminals, and the fact that one had gotten the better of Wrath was unacceptable. He knows how it feels to wake up to someone (or something) tearing you apart.

After a moment he lets out a breath, forcing himself to relax somewhat.]

I assume he would think twice before trying that again. [If Wrath is here, she either escaped or fought her way out. He thinks it's likely the latter.]

[pain_train]

[She's quiet for a little while.] Don't think he's going to be doing much of anything, thinking or otherwise. Maybe. I don't remember it too well. Everything is fuzzy.

[She's not proud of this. And the fuzziness of her memory around the time, until she can recall being around Makie, is extremely disturbing.]

[exothermia]

[It doesn't concern him if the man is dead or not. Good riddance if he is. While he would balk at killing himself these days for the recent hurts in his past, he wouldn't begrudge Wrath defending herself in such a situation.]

Well, you were drugged. That isn't unusual.

[pain_train]

Okay. I... It's been a long time since I got hit with something like that. [By drugs or alcohol. She's never had someone try to steal some of her parts.] Freaked me out a little.

[exothermia]

And you shouldn't have been. [His tone is a bit firmer, highlighting the injustice of it.] Situations you aren't used to are always going to be harder to shake off.

[pain_train]

[That weirdly makes her feel better. A little better.] I should have known better, maybe.

[She shakes her head.] I hate feeling like... I'm going to forget things. It scares the shit out of me. [But there's also part of her that would really like to forget this.]

[exothermia]

[He closes the final panel on her arm, setting his tools aside.] If there's one thing I've learned, it's that we can't control everything. Sometimes we can barely control anything at all.

I understand. [He has no words of comfort for forgetting. His own memories are patchwork in places, in the darker times of his life. Charles had managed to resurrect the good ones once, from his childhood. But he's lost chunks of time since then. In the Pentagon, in the thrall of En Sabah Nur... even going back to his house a couple of months ago. He knows he did it, and he remembers some things. Seeing the charred-out husk left by the rage of the townspeople he'd bereaved had shorted out something in him, going dark, and the next thing he clearly remembers is opening the barn.

He shakes his head.]

The mind is a terrible thing like that.

[pain_train]

I don't know if it's worse, that other people can do that to you, or that your own brain can do it on its own.

[She slowly wiggles the fingers on her left hand, moving them one at a time, then in sequence, then closing then into a fist from loose to tight. That feels satisfying, even if everything else is full of dread.]

Thank you, Erik. For fixing my arm. And understanding.

[She will never breathe a word of this to Vision, or Charles, or Winter, assuming he's still taking to her once he wakes up. But she hadn't expected Erik to listen and not be disappointed in her for fucking up so badly, and that helps just as much as the repair work.]

[exothermia]

You're welcome. [If he has talents in this area, he ought to use them where he can. Wrath is a friend - this is the least he can do, even if his advice is lacking, and his history littered with failures.]

[pain_train]

Were you busy, when I called you?

[exothermia]

No. I'm usually not. [He does very little, these days. Erik starts packing his toolset up.]

[pain_train]

[Is that a good thing or bad thing? She hates not being busy, but some people seem to like it.]

Do you mind if I stick with you for a while? I'll be quiet.

[She trusts Erik and feels safe around him. And in this case, she knows he's not going to make a big deal about things, which is what she really wants as well.]

[exothermia]

[It's a terrible thing, but he's not capable of the alternative. Learning to exist in a state where he has no purpose is exhausting.

The question makes him pause as he snaps the toolbox shut. He nods, with a faint trace of bewilderment in his expression.]

You can. Is there anything you want to do? [He'd only intended on going back to the Heron. That likely wouldn't work now, so there must be something on the Iskaulit instead they can do... or a room they can exist in.]

[pain_train]

I just don't want to be by myself. It gets too noisy when your the only person in a room sometimes, you know?

[She thinks about it.]

I don't know. Like normally, I'd watch stupid vids with Winter or knit or something. I work on the mural a lot when I don't know what to do with myself.

[exothermia]

[He does know, though he won't say so. He both clings to his solitude and hates it, at times.

After a moment's thought, he picks up his toolbox and indicates she should follow him.]

We'll find something.

Wrap?

[pain_train]

[Wrath follows, giving a firm nod that indicates she trusts whatever Erik comes up with absolutely. She may not be good at very many things, but unshakable faith is one of them.]

Okay.