All 32.2 - Friends

Cress lay back, sitting on the roof of the inn they had been taken to by Gemini. The flaming pillar burned on the horizon, and he looked at it passively. Every minute or two, he moved about, doing sit-ups or push-ups, performing a few reps of a random exercise before sitting back once again.
Lucca flew lightly up to the roof, joining his friend. They exchanged a brief greeting before Cress asked, "What's up?"
"Nothing much. I was actually just gonna ask you that exact thing." He replied, stretching and sprawling himself comfortaby. "How're you doing?"
"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" He looked over to the fire again, "I'm just thinkin' about tomorrow, I guess."
"Mmmh, yeah...that's gonna be some shit, eh? I never thought we'd have to go round two with that goddamn Firehawk thing. Sucks. We definitely didn't need that on top of amount of All that show up with the rifts..." Lucca said with a nod. He sat quitely for a beat before saying, "No, but actually dude, what's buggin' you? Your mouth is saying 'I'm fine' but the rest of you's telling me the opposite."
Cress looked thoughtful for a moment before offering, "I...I dunno, right? It's like...I unno. S'weird, Clover leavin' like that. Like, it makes sense. Someone had to stay, and it really wasn't gonna be anyone else other than her. Maybe 'cause, like, we decided it at the last minute? But, yeah...just...seems weird," he seemed to be having problems finding the words for what he was thinking.
Lucca sat quietly for a moment, trying to make sense of what Cress was getting at. "Weird how? I mean, yeah, it was pretty abrupt and all, and it sucks that she's not gonna be around anymore...she's pretty cool, and I know you guys were kinda close...but like, what was weird about it?"
"...Nothing, I guess." He rolled onto his back and looked up at the sky, the clouds ominously reminiscent of smoke. After a few minutes of silence, he added, "Maybe it's 'cause we might never see her again." He paused, "...If it was another one of us, we'd have gone back, or they'd have come back. Cloves won't, so...yeah."
The druid frowned slightly at this, "I guess so....but what's stopping any of us from going back to see her? It's not like you can't go back, is it? And I don't imagine there's anything preventing her from dropping by once this shit is done, right?"
"Yeah..." he said, his voice less than enthusiastic. "Mr. W can go back. Maybe you could. I unno. I can't teleport. Maybe I could walk. It's not like I'm in a rush to get anywhere." He stood up, fished a rock out of his pocket and began to bounce it up and down with his legs, feet and knees. "She can't teleport either. It's not like it's close or anything. She'll probably have stuff to do. Get another team, keep fighting for her country. Not the kind of thing you can waste months walkin' around on a vacation on."
Lucca's frown deepened, and he raised an eyebrow, "...What, like we wouldn't take you back if you asked? Come on, man. You know any of us totally would, so far as we are able to. I mean hell, Pierce has been making Transit circles all over the place. He'd probably gladly make one for you there. Then you could just bop back and forth whenever it suits you, if you mentioned it to him."
"Eh, whatever. Seems...I unno. Weird. Just showing up. Whatever. It's not...doesn't seem cool. And I doubt it. Mr. W is worried about those circles. He didn't wanna make one in Chuama, or Duvallon, and he mumbled about how he should maybe take 'em down. Worried about...politics, or something. Breaking laws, or invading armies, or too much immigration, or somethin'. I don't know. He might just shut 'em all down when we're done."
"Why on earth would it be weird? That's just silly. You guys are friends, you've pretty much lived together for months, dropping in to visit wouldn't be any more weird than not." Lucca argued, shaking his head slightly. "What's the actual deal here, dude? Like, you wanna see her again, but at the same time you don't. Why? What's got you thinking you shouldn't, or not wanting to, or whatever it is?"
"...Yeah, no, you're right. What's weird is like, building a Lightning Transit just to do that, right? Seems...I unno, desperate? Build a whole huge cross-continient ritual to sometimes visit a friend you only knew a few months." He spun around and kicked the rock, sending it flying away. "And it's like, I still gotta get someone else to do it for me, and like..." he trailed off, not finishing his sentence. "It's...it's not even really Cloves, right? It's...I unno. It's ending. She stayed, not because it's like the other stuff, part of this quest thing. She stayed 'cause her mission was done. She saved her country, an' her partner, an' now she's just gotta clean up and go home. Soon, we're gonna do that too. If like, we don't die or something. An' like...I unno. She's got stuff. You've got stuff. I don't, so like, what, I wander around buggin' people 'cause I've got nothin' better to do?" 
"You'll find your 'stuff', dude, trust. Just 'cause you don't think you have 'stuff' yet doesn't mean you won't. When this shit is done, there'll literally be the entireworld just sitting there, full of 'stuff' just waiting for you to find and make your own. And you'll have all the time you need to do it." Wrapping his arms around his knees, he leaned back and stared off thoughtfully toward the fire on the horizon, "Heck, maybe you're lucky that you don't have stuff waiting, right now...things are gonna be hella different when this is over. I mean, fuck, we're all hella different, so much has happened, so much has changed...I mean, lookit you, dude. You can fuckin' vapourize fucking All with your goddamn fists, now! That's fucking nuts!" He paused momentarily, continuing with a soft sigh,"But when this is done, assuming we all get through it, we're gonna go back to our lives and nobody else will have a clue what happened. For them it'll be like nothing happened, and then there we'll be with all our crazy ascendant powers and memories of the shit we're seen and done and whatnot...You want weird, man? That shit's gonna be weird..."
"Yeah..." Cress didn't seem heartened. "...Mr. Webber is going to be messed up. Cheko is gonna be messed up. I'm gonna be messed up. You 'n Mr E, Ryu and Caitlyn, Cloves and Tarragon, at least you guys, like, have your families, right? Most of the people you guys care about know exactly what happened, and you have all of your stuff together. I'm goin' back to my mom, 'cept now I turn into a dog and have pretty pointless overkill fistfight skills." He flopped back over and heaved a sigh. "Whatever man. Whatever. I'm just bitching. Guess I'm lonely. I should just go running or something, sleep 'till tomorrow. Won't have much to bitch about when everything is on fire."
Lucca nodded slightly, still looking rather deeply thoughtful. After a moment he gave a half-hearted smile and muttered, "I dunno, I feel like there'll be more to bitch about when everything's on fire..."
"Well, yeah, we can bitch about the fire," he replied with a grin. "I just won't have time to bitch about stupid stuff." Cress sat thoughtfully for a moment then added, "Part of me is like 'fuck it, turn into a dog and run around like a twit', 'cause I know that stupid depressing shit doesn't matter to a dog. But like, is that like going and getting plastered 'cause you don't wanna think about depressing shit? I hate seeing people getting messed up 'cause of shit like that, and I sure don't want to be a guy with a drug habit. Dog habit? Whatever."
"I dunno, dude. I feel like...it's the same but not? You know? Like...getting drunk or being a dog, it's still messing with your conciousness so you don't have to deal with shit, right? But then it's like, not, 'cause turning into a dog is something that comes naturally to you too, now? You know what I mean?" Lucca shrugged.
Cress squinted, "But if I'm choosin' to do it, doesn't that make it the same as choosin' to get wasted?" He gave it another minute of thought before throwing a shrug. "Fuck it. 'M not gonna make a habit of it. And at least it ain't going to fuck up my body or anything." He took off the colourful fabric bracelet tied around his wrist and jammed it deep into his pocket before he closed his eyes and concentrated. Within a second, he was a large white wolf, head fur dyed bright red, still sitting on the roof. He looked about a bit, sniffing at the air tentatively, before getting up and moving over towards Lucca. He lay down heavily beside him, head between his front paws, and he gave a short sigh of dejection. 
Sighing, Lucca scratched Cress's head. "Well dude, that didn't seem to help much at all." The wolf still lay there, but leaned his ears and head into the touch. After a few moments like that, Lucca stood up. "Mkay, come on," he said, and Cress hopped up with him, looking up at his friend expectantly. "Let's go play fetch or some shit." With that, Lucca flew lightly down from the roof followed by the werewolf, climbing cannily down the inn's side like a mountain goat. Any excitement shown by the druid was reciprocated happily, and, with only a slight amount of eyerolling at first, Lucca began to chase Cress about, and the two fooled about for the afternoon.
Category:Advent of the All