Rocky Bits, Friday Morning

[moodyvagrant.livejournal.com]

It was a cold morning, and Anders shivered inside his ragged jacket as he picked through the rubble on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. It wasn't a bad place to scavenge: Sometimes there was wire there, or glass, and once a plastic bag holding a precious half-full box of bandages.

The bit of him that had once been Justice was contented by the act of humble service, though Anders knew from experience that he wouldn't have peace for long. He glanced warily into the fog from time to time, wondering whether the monsters or his own demon would be the first to break his concentration.

[OOC: Open!]

Comments

[godilovedthis.livejournal.com]

If anybody asked, Kathy would swear to her dying breath that she'd always intended to come up here. Sure, climbing was hell on her legs and the rocks were an omnipresent danger, but whatever--good scavenging, wire, glass, et cetera. The fact that Anders was up here was purely coincidence.

Cresting the rise, she paused for a moment--to catch her breath, the do a quick scan for hollows...but mostly, just to watch him. How close was Justice to the surface right now? How careworn did Anders look today?

Foolishness. She blamed it on all the new people, constantly trying to make her feel things. So when she did speak, it was to drawl, "Fancy meeting you here," like she didn't care one way or another.

And maybe, if she concentrated, she could believe it, too.

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

Dante... well, Dante had spent his fair share of time moving around the island these past few days. Keeping an eye on everyone was harder when there was a flock of new people wandering around, getting into trouble.

And so it was inevitable that he'd eventually trip all over one of his own rules again.

One was bad enough. Two was worse.

He slipped silently between the rockier parts, staying out of sight.

He was already here. He might as well watch over them for now.

[moodyvagrant.livejournal.com]

Anders sensed someone was watching, but that wasn't unusual. Not unusual enough to worry about until whoever-it-was attacked, anyhow.

"It's not a bad place to be," he said, solely addressing Kathy (and ignoring his complicated feelings about her). "Seems like people have picked it through pretty well right now, though. I haven't found anything but a hairtie."

To be fair, he always needed hairties.

[godilovedthis.livejournal.com]

"Well, that one will be a decent replacement for when you inevitably lose the current one." There was enough humor lurking around the edges of that statement to turn it from a chastise to a joke, shared between the two of them.

Which meant, of course, that as soon as she realized that was what it was, she'd stiffened a bit and turned her back on him to go poking through a pile of rocks by her feet.

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

As silently as he could, Dante pushed himself up onto a particularly high rock.

Look, he wasn't trying to be a creeper. He was just... unconcerned about appearances right now.

(It was still nice seeing them together again.)

[moodyvagrant.livejournal.com]

"I don't know where they all go," Anders said, with the same undercurrent of old humor. "Maybe they turn hollow. Who can say?"

As he spoke, Dante's shock of bright hair caught his eye, and he tilted his head in that direction. "-- someone is here."

He knew who it was. He just wasn't sure he wanted to say.

[godilovedthis.livejournal.com]

Kathy glanced over and smothered a sigh as she caught a glimpse of Dante's mask and her stomach lurched uncomfortably. The three of them hadn't been together in one place since...when had it been?

"Oh, look, a reunion," she said, pouring on the sarcasm. "How nice. Shall we invite him over or leave him to skulk?"

Part of her wanted to call him over. Part of her wanted to do anything but, so as to avoid watching him refuse.

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

And they'd spotted him.

Oh well.

Dante wasn't going to run away; that had never been his style.

He held up a hand and gave them both a sardonic little wave.

[moodyvagrant.livejournal.com]

"Come over, Dante," Anders called, raising his voice. "No point hiding. Not form us."

He sounded, and felt, suspicious. Why were they all three here, after so long? Was he being set up?

[godilovedthis.livejournal.com]

"If I'd known this was going to be a party, I would have worn my pretty dress," Kathy snarked. Not that she had anything that could be called pretty anymore. Or that she'd wear a dress, not with her legs looking the way they did, lumpy and mottled and scarred.

Dammit, she should have stayed in town, rather than trailing after Anders like a forlorn puppy. Actually, considering the two people with her, perhaps she should have gone with bedraggled kitten? Better odds they'd care.

[rebelscreams.livejournal.com]

Because things were changing. Of that much, Dante was aware.

He just wasn't sure if Anders - or rather, the thing in Anders' head - was still paying attention.

He showed absolutely none of this, of course. He hopped off one rock onto another, fluidly and casually, and paced easily towards them. "So what brought on this party?"

[moodyvagrant.livejournal.com]

"I came up to look for metal," Anders said, annoyed. He hated Dante's mask and Kathy's sarcasm -- though he supposed he'd changed just as much. "Kathy followed me, and you followed her. Can't you people just leave me alone?"

[godilovedthis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, Kathy hated the way that sometimes the person looking out of Anders' eyes wasn't Anders. So there.

"Don't flatter yourself," Kathy snorted. "One time I came up here, there were nests with eggs in them and I ate like a queen for a week."

Sure, it had been spring and probably not this most recent spring, but whatever. It was a good enough explanation.

"So I come back and check from time to time." Like...in December.

[alreadyhollow]

Monster was really rather a relative term, wasn't it? There was one who lived out on the rocks who looked much like one, who even thought of himself as one, but the word didn't fit him quite the same way as it fit the rest.

He knew there were people here. He had a sense for that sort of thing, after all. And as those people moved through the fog, he watched, a massive, creature-shaped glow in the haze.

He considered, briefly, pointing Anders toward something that he might find useful, some flotsam that he'd noticed had washed up earlier in the week. But he remained silent. Yesterday had been... long. And there wasn't much left in him for any encounter that might be coloured more strongly by forgetfulness than old friendships. These days, he tended to let those who might yet forget approach him or avoid him at their own leisure.

[moodyvagrant.livejournal.com]

Anders noticed the glow -- it was hard to miss, and anyhow, Starsmore's fondness for this place was hardly a secret.

He took a moment to make his decision, but finally lumbered over toward that hole in the haze.

"Are you doing all right?"

Not that he remembered why he cared, exactly.

[alreadyhollow]

//I can say I've been worse,// Jono replied, moving his head slowly to look Anders' way as he approached. It was good to see he still cared, still had enough of him left for that. //Been better, too.//

There was a mess of cracks and fractures spread out over his face, all spiderwebbing away from a central point that looked vaguely like a bullet hole.

//Met Alluka yesterday. Met her twice.//

Both times had been interesting in very different ways.

[moodyvagrant.livejournal.com]

Anders didn't mind the way Jono looked. It was close to the way Justice looked, for one thing -- light breaking through flesh. Pure spirit scouring away humanity. His eyes flashed blue for an instant before he answered.

"I know her," he said, surprised by the sudden memory of a small girl with a stuffed animal in her hands. "I don't remember the last time I saw her. I keep to myself lately."

No one was pure enough for Justice.

[alreadyhollow]

//She's different,// Jono said softly. //If you hear childish giggling in the streets, that's her, and encounters with her are... not always pleasant.//

Hence the damage to his face. And much of the rest of his body, really, though it was difficult to tell. There was a lot going on, there, between molten stone and flame.

//But there was another. Younger. Whole.//

[moodyvagrant.livejournal.com]

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming?" Anders asked, a modicum of humor in his voice. "Nobody's whole. Not anymore."

[alreadyhollow]

//I mean, I could be dreaming right now. Wish somebody would wake me up if I am,// Jono said, only half joking himself. He shook his head a little. //But no... no dream. The island is... it's more full. People we know, people we knew. Nobody's gotten better, but there are more minds about. More than I've felt in ages.//

It was intriguing. And worrisome. And Jonothon didn't think for a moment that they were going to last long out there.

After all, they hadn't, and it hadn't always been this bad.

[moodyvagrant.livejournal.com]

Anders was cautious.

"I noticed more people last time I left the settlement," he admitted. "Some of them looked -- all right. I just wasn't sure what to believe."

[alreadyhollow]

//I've only met two of them so far myself,// Jono noted. //They're Fandom residents, alright. Alluka and Allie. But no sign of going hollow, no idea what's going on here. Just... them, clean and new. Allie seemed to be able to handle herself more or less as well as our own, so I left her go on her way. Alluka, I took back to the house. I would've taken her to the village, but... ah...//

Jono tended to avoid the village.

//There are bound to be more. I haven't counted or anything, but from the feel of it, we're going to have our hands full around here, saving people from... themselves, I suppose.//

[moodyvagrant.livejournal.com]

Anders let out a high-picthed giggle.

"That's fantastic, seeing as how we're barely holding it together ourselves," he said, then frowned and stopped short. (Justice thought he was being selfish.)

[alreadyhollow]

It's okay, Anders. Jono sympathized. And rather would have thought Justice was blind, in this case.

//It's a new generation of island residents to watch die,// he said, grimly. //Hard to think of them as anything else, after all this time.//

Jono sure was an uplifting dude. Truly.

//Some part of me wants to think they're a second chance. But they're us. They don't even know what this is. What chance have they got that we don't?//

[moodyvagrant.livejournal.com]

"None," Anders agreed, equally uplifting. "They're cannon fodder. Fish chow. May as well go around with targets on their foreheads. I'd say I would help them, but my help never seems to do much good these days."