trans_9 | Hang a Shining Star from the Highest Bough [Open]

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Hang a Shining Star from the Highest Bough [Open]

"Pues no pueda andar, ya mi esposa amada," Eva sings aloud inside an empty church, a strange conglomeration between the one she visited as a child and the one she dragged her son and husband to as an adult. She lifts up her hand and puts her middle finger and thumb together.

Snap, Macy's, 1990. Blank faces bustling around, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas blaring over speakers installed in the ceiling, tinsel and red plastic ornaments in the corners of the building. Some man dressed as Santa has a kid on his lap.

"From now on, our troubles will be miles away." Eva joins in with the radio. What with the holidays coming around for a lot of the Earth crew mates, caroling has given her compulsions an acceptable outlet. People are far less likely to comment on someone singing a Christmas carol than someone talking to themselves incessantly or humming snatches of classical music to themselves.

The Sensoriums truly are a wonderful thing, and she's been in them for well over an hour now, testing what they can do. She's gone back into memories and conjured ideal vacation spots and parades. She hasn't drawn up anyone she knew, but as she gets more confident she requests more crowds, and started up the habit of clicking her fingers for each transition.

"Here we are, in olden days, in golden days of yore…"

Snap, their empty living room, 1989. A stocking full of candy and action figures lies in front of her on the table. Eva looks around, at the parts she knows are hers and the parts she doesn't remember, the parts Stacy must have made up.

"Oh, God, this is exactly as depressing as I thought it'd be."

Snap, and the room is gone, and she's standing inside a stop-motion world of clay while Hermey and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer seek out fame and fortune.

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She nods. "Being repodded is certainly preferable to death. Less rotting and all."

"Yeah, and, th-the ch-chance of c-coming back an' all." He seemed a bit uncomfortable as he put his hands in his jeans pockets.

"Still. Difficult." She sighs. She hasn't had anyone close to her repodded, but she very much fears that Marco might be - and then she'll be relatively alone. The randomness of it is terrifying. "Are you alright?"

"Ah, y-yeah. Just, some memories's all." Both from before and after he ended up on the ship. He had 'lost' more people on the ship, but he still felt as if he had lost the few people he had been close with at home.

And then there was his mother, who had no chance of coming back. If the ship had managed to take her, perhaps from an earlier time, he wouldn't even know how to handle it, just knowing that he might lose her again to repodding, or to the war itself.

Her mouth sets in a sad grimace. "I understand. My husband always says it's better to talk about such things, rather than dwell on them, but I think he's full of crap."

"I c-can see, it helps some p-people more than others, an' s-sometimes, a sh-shadow jus' g-gets too strong, and it gets d-dangerous to the p-person if we were ta try ta e-eat it. It's like it just becomes a p-part of their mind. T-talking c-can just make things worse then." It's the actions of others that begin to loosen that strong of a shadow's grip on a person. Before he had come to the ship though, he hadn't believed that there was a way to heal a shadow when it had gotten that bad. None of them had. It was just something you did your best to not make worse.

"A shadow? You mean, the negative emotion that you see?" Even though she knows that it's totally not in her skill set, she does find her eyes tracing his outline as if seeking a shadow on him. She bites her lip out of habit. "Do I have a shadow? Do you?"

He glanced up at her, "y-yeah, you have j-just a l-little one. I-it's n-not too terrible, or t-ta worry about." He smiled reassuringly.

"I've had o-one since I c-can remember, but I c-can't see my own. It was a tier f-four, but I think that m-maybe it's g-gotten a bit better."

Her smile's a bit more hesitant, and just a bit lop-sided from a small scar near her mouth. She laughs anyway. "I'll take that as your way of telling me I'm not as damaged as circumstances say I should be."

Tier four? Eva doesn't know what that means, but she knows it wasn't good. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry you've had one for so long."

Alex shrugged, "I've r-really never b-been one ta judge. It's just n-not a tiered shadow, an' f-for anyone wh-who c-can say what you j-just did, I'd s-say you're pro'lly p-pretty g-good off. That I think it m-might be getting better, I c-count that as a blessing."

"What do you mean by tiers, really? Because they don't sound all that friendly to me." She plops down in the clay snow for a moment, rubbing an ankle.

Alex stops for a moment as well and sits. "I-it's the way we measure the s-strength of shadows. There's f-five tiers, an th-then the w-weakest shadows. They d-don't seem ta b-be aware, l-like a sorta egg f-form. The t-tiered shadows f-fight back, o-or even jus' attack. Th-they go from one ta f-four. Then, t-tier five." The shadow seemed almost visible on his face as he mentioned those, shaking his head.

She reaches out and touches his shoulder again. "What do you really mean that they attack? You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

And again he jumps a bit, though he laughs as he realizes it was nothing to jump over. "The sh-shadows c-can s-strike out and h-hit or s-slice you. It s-seems like a s-self-defence thing."

"If you'd like me to stop doing that, I will. It's just, I'm not very good with other ways of being comforting. You looked like you needed it then." She sighs. "And what happens to the person that shadow emanates from?"

"I-It's all right, I'm trying ta g-get used to it a-anyway. I d-don't mind, it's just an a-automatic response. Th-thank you though, I'm just s-still not that used t-to c-comfort like that. The p-person h-has no idea. N-nothing r-really changes for them."

She nods. "You've been hurt a lot," she states.

"Ah, y-yeah. I-it's pretty obvious, i-isn't it?" The scars did a good job at indicating that, if his attitude didn't make it clear enough.

She smiles. "A little. And by a little I mean nominee for poster child," she teases gently. She's covered in scars as well, though the ones on her face are mostly faint or covered by her hair. There are some nasty ones on her neck and arms from the restraints Edriss used when the Yeerk had to feed.

He smiles back a bit and laughs. His face didn't have many scars, since his father tended to avoid it. Usually the scars on his hands were more obvious, and more fresh. His fingers weren't all perfectly straight either, but he was glad they worked.

Alex hadn't noticed her scars though, with his habit of avoiding looking at people's faces, but he'd be able to sympathise if he did. Still looking away he said, "Y-yeah, I g-guess I am. I'm t-trying t-ta work past it though. The p-people on this ship are amazing. I've gotten so m-much support."

"Support is good. It's the best thing, probably. I trust you have a lot of friends here, then, Alice included."

"I-I c-can c-count them on m-my fingers, b-but I'm n-not a big people p-person. The f-friends I d-do have are amazing though, an' th-that's m-most important."

She nods. "Quality over quantity is something I'd always advocate. I can count my friends on one hand too, but I've never been let down by them."

"I've d-done s-some pretty bad things, an-and they've n-never once l-left my side d-despite that. I d-don't know if I c-could g-get better friends."

"What bad things, if you don't mind me asking?" She figures she should just get a talkbox and a pull-string that will say 'if you don't mind' when yanked.

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Sorry, surprise New Years Party

Totes understandable!

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