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Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 12/28/2014 12:41 AM

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(continued from here)


As bad as things got after the fight with Johnny's gang, life went on for Charlie. When her ribs mended enough, she went back to school and to work. There were more movie nights with her friends. Sometimes Rupert showed up. Upon telling Cammie about Elliot's project, she showed up to the store one day with a whole box full of seeds and other gardening materials. Charlie was usually horrible about accepting gifts, but the look on Elliot's face when he saw it made everything worth it. That was what Cammie said too, when Charlie asked about it.

Her parents were still the way they were, and there were still assholes at school, but there were assholes everywhere. There were times when Charlie was happy and content with her life, and that was all that mattered, in the end.
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Re: Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 12/28/2014 12:48 AM

Of course, even 'back to normal' life had plenty of things to keep her occupied. Everything was compounded by her slow recovery from her injuries too. Just because she was well enough to resume doing what she used to do didn't mean she was magically all better. Her ribs were the slowest to heal by a long shot, and Dave had donated an entire bottle of painkillers to the cause.

Between the bustle of school, work and her private life, Charlie had forgotten the busker she'd seen--- about Faber. In fact, she'd nearly forgotten about her own powers, since there hadn't been a need to use them for so long. As a piece of her life that had never quite fit with the rest, it lent itself to that sort of thing.
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Re: Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 12/31/2014 8:15 PM

She should have known better, in retrospect, than to think that it would be over with just that.

To be fair, Faber had kept his word for a while. He hadn't bothered her again, and after her injuries healed, she stopped thinking of him. So when he turned up on the doorstep of the shop one day, right out of the blue, there was nothing she could do beyond stare incredulously at him while Dave went to the door and asked if he wanted to come in.

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“You've been standing there for five whole minutes. Come on, we don't bite,” he said, opening the door and extending a hand. Faber looked at it, then at him, then past him at Charlie. He smiled his goofy dreamer's smile when he saw her, and she frowned a little more.
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Re: Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 12/31/2014 8:15 PM

“Thanks,” he said. “I just wasn't expecting to find... I wasn't expecting a place like this, was all.” Now Dave was frowning too, confused at his words. Of course he would be, Charlie thought; it would take a special brand of strange to arrive at the conclusion she did without knowing what she knew.

Still, they got plenty of weirdos during the evenings, and even some during the daylight hours. While Faber was odd, he wasn't exceptionally so—- or at least, not as far as Dave could tell. “I don't know what kinda ad Rupert put up, but feel free to look around. If you're looking for something specific, we can check the back for you too.”
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Re: Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 12/31/2014 8:16 PM

From her place at the counter, Charlie looked Faber over. She thought he had looked more or less the same, but upon closer examination, he was even skinnier than before. She hadn't thought it was possible. Back when she had first run into him, he merely looked gangly and in want of a meal. Now he was positively emaciated; she didn't know if that was why his eyes looked so sunken, but it could have been. There were great dark circles beneath them, almost like bruises spreading down his face. He didn't move as if he were wounded, and she recalled that he hadn't actually suffered much damage in that brawl. She wished she could have said the same.

“Why are you here?” she asked.
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Re: Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 12/31/2014 8:16 PM

Dave looked between the two of them. “Do you guys know each other?” he asked. She felt bad for him, and mouthed that she would explain later. “Should I... leave you two be?”

“No!” she blurted. “It's not, uh... it's not like that. Don't get weird, Dave.” She gave him an exasperated look, which got a chuckle out of him, at least.

Faber, who had remained silent this whole time, finally spoke up. “No, I think he should leave,” Faber said. Charlie looked at him, and he added, “Unless you want him to know about...?” He held his glass fragment aloft, and Charlie panicked.
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Re: Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 12/31/2014 8:17 PM

“Right, uh. Yeah, you know what, maybe it'd be best if...” Not even bothering to finish that sentence, she rushed out from behind the counter and grabbed Faber by the wrist. “Cover for me, will ya?” she hollered to Dave, dragging Faber away. In the alley between the shop and an adjacent antiques shop, she wheeled to face him. “Alright, and I'm only going to say this once... What the hell?”

“I need your help,” Faber said. His smile had disappeared as soon as they had gotten out of Dave's line of sight. Without it, he no longer looked like the sleepy, strange boy he had been. His eyes were sharp, almost feverishly bright, and there was something urgent in the taut lines of his stance. “I... Remember what I told you before? About Akala?”
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Re: Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 12/31/2014 8:18 PM

“I remember you telling me you'd leave me alone,” she retorted. She felt a little guilty for it since she knew that he had in fact said nothing of the sort. She had spat the demand at him, then left before he had gotten a word in edgewise. Still, he had abided by it up until now. “Why did you show up again?”

For the first time, she saw something like anger cross his features. “I told you! It's because I need your help!” he said. Normally he was soft-spoken, his voice sometimes too quiet to hear.
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Re: Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 12/31/2014 8:18 PM

Charlie was taken aback, and from the look on his face, so was he. “It has to be you. I don't know anyone else. Akala's missing.” He spoke the name as if it ought to mean something to her, at which point Charlie started getting cross again herself.

“Look, just because we all ended up with some weird-ass power ticket doesn't mean I'm obligated to help you, or to care. If your friend got into some mess, that's between you, him, and whoever he pissed off, alright?” She had enough to deal with without him turning up in her life and asking for help out of the blue.

His face contorted in displeasure again and he said, “Is this how people are now? Whatever happened to helping your neighbor? I saved you from those goons back then, and---”
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Re: Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 12/31/2014 8:19 PM

“And I never asked you to! You don't live next to me, and neighbors don't mean shit! Our neighbors watched my parents treat me and my brother like shit for years, and you know what they did? Fucking nothing! We're not friends, we're not companions or whatever it is you think we should be. You're just some busybody butting into my life, and I'd like you to get the hell out.” She had been shouting, and the exertion had left her panting, her side still tightening with the ghost of a pain that wasn't there anymore. With it, she felt another stab of guilt. Her injuries would have been far worse if Faber hadn't shown up when he did. Johnny's people wouldn't have killed her, for fear of real retribution from the law, but they would have taken her as close to death's pearly gates as they could.
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Re: Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 01/01/2015 4:06 AM

She thought Faber would back off in the face of her anger, but his face only hardened. “You're going to follow their example then?” he said. The words struck a nerve, and for the first time since they had met, Charlie genuinely hated him.

“Yeah,” she said, throwing the word in his face like an insult. “Yeah, I am. You know why? 'Cuz being a goddamn bleeding heart never got me anywhere in life. I'm not some billionaire who can afford to play a saint and give their crap away.”

“So what, you're just going to run away?” He still sounded pissed, but his gaze had gone intent with something else. It should have been a rhetorical question, but somehow, it wasn't.
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Re: Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 01/04/2015 10:28 PM

Charlie blinked at him, at a loss momentarily for an answer. He searched her face intently for something, and for a moment she couldn't tell if he was angry or... afraid. "No," Charlie said. "Running away would imply that I have something to be afraid of. I'm not afraid of you." With that, she turned and made her way back to the shop. He had distracted her from her job long enough.

Dave was waiting for her at the counter. "So," he said, "you want to tell me who that was?" She gave him a withering look, and he put up his hands in a defensive gesture. "Alright, alright, I get it. Your business, not mine. But hey, if you need someone thrown out..."

"Thanks. I don't think I do, but I'll let you know," she replied.
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Re: Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 01/09/2015 1:27 AM

The rest of the day was uneventful. Work happened: people came in, bought things, sometimes asked for help. Dave clocked out mid-afternoon and Charlie stayed to close. Rupert was out of town visiting a friend, but two employees had been almost too much for this place as it was. Charlie was glad to be able to feel useful for once.

And hey, wasn't that the good thing about picking up stray dogs like them? It wasn't as if she or Dave would bite the hand that fed them, no matter what anyone else said--- which, over the years, was an awful lot. Nevertheless, Rupert hadn't abandoned them yet, so Charlie trusted that he knew better.
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Re: Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 01/09/2015 1:28 AM

Closing up by herself felt a bit lonely, but Charlie didn't mind. She reminded herself that it was better this than being harried by people she didn't give two shits about. Work was still preferable to school for all kinds of reasons, which wasn't the way it should have been, but so many things in her life were like that.

... So, so many things.

“Hey Charlie!” said Elliot from his seat on the sofa. He was grinning, holding a glass of hot cocoa in both hands. That in itself would have been incongruous enough, if it weren't for the person sitting opposite him. Sprawled out over two seats, gangly legs crossed, was Faber, strumming away at his guitar. “Your friend came over. He sings really well!”
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Re: Fellowship of the Travelling Shards [Self; L]

Postby crow » 01/09/2015 1:28 AM

Fortunately for Charlie, Faber looked up at her and smiled. That effectively snapped Charlie out of her shock, and she strode over to grab Faber by the arm mid-strum. “What the hell are you doing in my house?” she growled.

This time, Faber didn't back down, not even a little. He just smiled grimly back at her. “I thought you weren't afraid of me,” he said.

“I'm not. I'm asking you what the hell you're doing in my house. You know that breaking and entering is against the law, right?” Her grip on his arm tightened.
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