halfnhalf | 002 - [Action/Voice]

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002 - [Action/Voice]

[Late in the morning, only just after he had his morning coffee and just fixed toast for breakfast, Teddy had been surprised to find himself being shoved out of the apartment by his own boyfriend. Soon, he found himself blinking at the front door, a piece of cinnamoned toast still in his hand as the post-it note with his name beside Billy's door sign fluttered mournfully to the ground.

He got out a pitiful whine and forlornly posted the note back up before he ushered himself outside, finishing his toast in the meantime.

During the day, Teddy can be found at multiple places. The first is the Battledome, where he fiddles with the settings, some as harmless as a movie theater and some as dangerous as a warzone, but he doesn't fully go through with them. He's merely going through the options for later use. He may mutter to himself about how this must be what the Danger Room is like, and he may even be up for a light spar or something different if someone found him.

The second is Seventh Heaven, where he eats a light lunch of a small burger with fries, and he's a little proud of how he didn't compare it to New York's food outloud. It doen't mean he doesn't think it, though, and he spends more time subtly people watching and listening to conversations than really focusing on food and what the homelife was like. When he's done, he doodles a few musical notes on a napkin, again to possibly be used at a later date, before he stuffs that in his pocket.

The final place is on the roof of the school. He's not doing much of anything up there, just sitting with his legs pulled up and looking out over the village.

Teddy still can't help marveling over how different this place is from what he's used to. There aren't any sounds of car alarms or horns, no distant conversations or laughter, no police sirens or a far off explosion from an invading force (though, Teddy thinks to himself, he ought to be more thankful for the lack of the latter). Occasionally at night, he still wakes up and thinks that it's too quiet, too dark. And he really hopes he's not the only one who thinks that way.

With that thought in mind, Teddy reaches behind him to take the journal, left open in case Billy decides to let him back into the apartment, and decides to address the masses.]

Does anyone else feel seriously out of place here, or am I just being weird? And I don't mean the whole, "being held captive and having to suffer through lame shifts", but just the setting in general. Anyone else out there come from a home that's completely different from a village straight out of Golden Sun?

[He decides then that he'll chat with people for a while, then venture off the roof and see if Billy will allow him back inside. Not that Teddy knows what he did to deserve being kicked outside, but maybe he can beg for forgiveness enough to be let back in.]

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[Teddy notices that movement, and he can tell something bad happened to her. And while he wants to know, preferably so he can figure out who he needs to watch out for, he doesn't ask. It's obviously painful for her.

Instead, he leans forward a little to smile at her.]

Well, I think you look amazing. You look good with short hair.

[Perhaps if they were somewhere with less of a chance of being over heard she might tell him...as it is she's too being blushing from his compliment, even a little flustered. She had seen how sweet Teddy and Billy were together on the beach but she hadn't expected him to kind and accepting.]

I...um, thank you. I-it's not the first time my hair has been short but...it's been a while.

[His smile widens at that, and he takes out another fry from his meal and gestures to her hair with it.]

You look beautiful both ways, but the short hair really does look good. [And a grin - ] You even match Billy now.

[Sabriel chuckles and shakes her head.]

Ah, I see. So that's why you like it.

Hey now, I never said anything like that. I just like short hair. [And now to eat that french fry. He gestures, waits to chew and swallow, then completes that gesture with words.] It was merely an observation.

It's okay, I can read between the fries.

[It's fair game Teddy, if you tease her then she'll tease you back.]

Although I admit I forgot how much more convenient it is to have it short.

[Teddy raises an eyebrow; oh, are they teasing each other now?]

All right, all right. [He moves his foot to give her ankle a light tap, like a gentle kick, then grins.] It's one of the reasons. But it just sounds convenient, no matter how you look with it. Showers are lot easier now, aren't they?

Don't worry Teddy, I think it's sweet of you all the same.

[The 'kick' earns a soft chuckle from her. Really, it was like she was sitting across from Ellimere during study period.]

It's true, they are a lot shorter at the very least, although Adele has got me to start using conditioner now.

Conditioner is like God's gift to man. Some guys don't really care about it, but I know better. They just don't know how amazing it can really be.

[He says it with a few jabs of the fry before thanking it for proving its point by eating it. Truth be told, the only reason Teddy knows and loves conditioner is because his mother used it and made him use it too, possibly because she just figured everyone does it.]

Oh, boys can use it to?

Yeah. Not many of them do, though, since they think only girls use it. [He waves his hand vaguely.] It's a guy thing that my mom never ingrained in me.

The boys from home usually keep their hair so short I don't think any of them have ever thought to use it.

[Family matters always had the potential to be sensitive but Sabriel has never really known what having a mother was like until she met Adele so...please don't mind her curiosity, Teddy.]

Are you close with your mother?

[And, indeed, it does turn out to be sensitive. His smile fades, briefly, as he lets that question hit him.

Are you close with your mother?

Are, huh...

Then the smile faintly comes up again, though it looks much more like a fond sadness, and he lets his gaze drift to the table.]

Yeah... I was.

[Oh...oh dear. As soon as his smile falters she feels a cold stone drop to the bottom of her stomach.

That's a look she knows well, only because she's felt much the same since she arrived in Luceti. She lowers her gaze for a moment, scarred fingers fidgeting with her sleeve before she looks up with a bittersweet smile.]

I...was close with my father too. I never knew my mother.

[His own smile mirrors hers, so bittersweet. Teddy hasn't really... talked to many people about this. Mostly because it gets him to feel like he's baring his soul and it always makes him feel vulnerable when that happens.

... But somehow, hearing that, flipped yet the same, it... makes him want to talk.]

It's... pretty much the opposite with me. I was close with my mother... and I never knew my father. He died before I was born.

[That was part of the reason Sabriel chose to tell him. She had touched upon something personal but she could relate...and she liked Teddy, just as much as she liked Billy; it wouldn't feel right not to share something of herself, to show that it was okay to miss the people you love.

It's a strange coincidence that their experiences, though reversed, would be so similar.]

Mother died when I was born. Father and I lived together with a group of travelers before I was sent to Wyverly College when I was five. He visited every month though.

[Through spiritual projection yes, but it's better than nothing.]

... Whoa, you went to college when you were five?

[Good lord, is she some kind of crouching scholar, hidden genius or something?]

It was a private boarding school for girls, but it offered us the educational equivalent of any public elementary and secondary school. With a couple of interesting additions such as the Fighting Arts, Charter magic and Aviation.

[She's just a 'privileged young lady' Teddy, that's all.]

Wow...

[Not exactly college, but still awesome. If only he got to learn Fighting Arts, Charter magic and Aviation as a kid, oh my god.]

You girls sure get to learn all the fun stuff. [He gives a brief grin; he knows, it's probably just something from her world.

And then it fades again, as he gets back to the original topic.]

My mom...

[And there's a pause. Should he really say it? "My mom isn't really my real mom - my real mom is the empress of an alien race and I was probably sentenced to death right when I was born and she charged her nanny to take care of me and sent me to Earth to protect me, so nanny-mom didn't really know anything about Earth"?

He isn't really sure how that would go, so he tries something else.]

My mom wasn't really... native. So she didn't know much about what the cultures of our country did, but she still did the best she could for me. You don't really think about that kind of thing, you know? She's just "mom", no matter how much she might not know.

[He lowers his head, gaze focused on the edge of the table closest to him.]

She died not long before I got here. She was killed.

Edited 2012-10-20 22:38 (UTC)

The College was close to the Wall...it was as much for our own interest to learn as it was for our protection.

[Ah, Billy had mentioned to her before that Teddy had been...well, not from Earth, but as far as Sabriel is concerned he was like Luke. No real difference that mattered in her mind, they were still human. Sabriel listens quietly as he speaks, her eyes soft and more than a little sad as he describes his mother. She sounded like a good woman, caring, like all parents should be.]

I'm so sorry Teddy.

[Lowering her gaze to the table she fights to push her words past a knot in her throat, taking a deep breath to try and keep her voice even. She hadn't intended to bring up such grim conversation but there was so much she could relate to and there had only ever been one or two people she has been able to mention this too...and not even Adele knew the details behind her Father's death.]

Father was...he died the day I came here. Within the hour, in fact. It was only a matter of time before death caught up to him but he sacrificed himself so that my companion and I could escape.

[Once Sabriel starts talking about her father, Teddy reaches out to take her hand. It's a means of support, perhaps a means of trust or connection. Though Teddy's mother didn't die so soon before he got here, it was still close for him. Close enough that he still has nightmares about it, and sometimes even expects her to walk in and kiss the top of his head while he's sitting on the couch and not thinking of much.

No kid this young should lose a parent, especially the only one family they have left in the world.]

Mom was trying to protect me. Someone was after me, someone powerful. We tried to hide in Billy's apartment, but he found us anyway, and he was holding my best friend hostage. And mom...

[Mom was revealed to be a Skrull. She said - "The empress ordered me to protect him, even from the likes of you!"

And then

"Consider your orders terminated."

"MOM!"

...]

I was taken anyway.

[As Teddy takes her hand she tenses, blinking down at the connection. It had been months now since that day, since she heard Astarael weep in the deeps of the Reservoir and it had very nearly taken her and Touchstone into Death along with her Father and the rest of the Dead that had surrounded them. She had fought it, and through the bond she shared with Touchstone she had saved him from the bell's call. This gesture though small held the same sort of strength to it, a life line of sorts between two hurting people. Burns or no, she didn't have the heart to pull her hand away.]

I know what it's like to be hunted, to have no safe place and...a responsibility you cannot run from.

[Her hand tightens around his.]

He was Abhorsen. I didn't know until he had gone missing that it was his title and not his name. Now I am Abhorsen, and the last of my family.

[A responsibility you cannot run from... The last of the family. Both are things Teddy can relate too well to, even if he's doing his best to escape from the first one.

His own hand tightens as well - though he's careful, seeing how he has his strength and her burns to worry about.]

So am I.

[I've lost everything in the world except my team and the love of my life.]

[At least Teddy had been given something of a way out, Sabriel has no such choice when she returns home. So much pain, so much heaviness on people far too young. With a quiet sigh she looks up with a mild smile.

For every shadow that falls upon someone's life there is also a light.]

We may be the last but we are not alone. You have Billy...and I'm glad he's here for you.

[Both in Luceti and in general. She's glad, honestly happy that Teddy can have that happiness at least, even if she can't.]

[There's a small pause from him at that. Yes... he knows. He's utterly grateful for Billy, for he knows that it could be so much worse. Despite being handed some pretty bad things in such a short span of time, he also has so much to be thankful for. And some people don't have that.

So when he looks up, there's a mild smile on his face, too.]

Thanks. You're not alone either. You know that, right? You have a lot of friends with you... and me, too.

[After all, he can't help feeling a close sort of connection now that they had this conversation.]

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thebellthatbinds - 2012-11-22 05:14 (UTC) - Expand

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