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~ Chapter 2: Latent - The Charming Hamlet from Hell ~


The vehicles had stopped at the refugee camp on their way back to collect the wounded and injured that remained here, as well as the healthy ones that had stayed behind to attend to them while the larger group had already begun the trek to the nearby village of Latent. They should have been arriving about that time; in fact, they could be seen from the edge of the village by the time that the trucks had left, and most definately would have been in town by the time they got back.

With the new passengers, both injured and not, room had to be made, and adjustments to the seating arrangements were done quickly in the interests of getting everyone out of the sun and into a clinic as soon as possible. Upon this particular truck, the two young men who had been sitting near the back moved along to sit against the back of the cab, and two new passengers climbed into the bed of the truck with them.

"Hey, ladies..." one of the young men said, before recieving a slap on the face from the other.

"Timing is everything! scream " Tiem shouted at the other boy, his arms folded across his chest after the smack, and accompanying his sage-like advice with a sage-like nod.

"...timing...? But I-" And he was slapped on the other side of the face..

"Timing is EVERYTHING! scream stressed "

"What the hell are you-?" And he promptly recieved another one.

"Timing. Remember timing? Our friend timing?"

"..." The young man seemed apprehensive to try again, unsure of whether or not he'd recieve another smack of vengeance for saying something at apparently the wrong time... Or perhaps just something wrong in general...

"Hey, ladies..." Tiem leaned back a bit against the cab of the truck; reaching up with his left hand to brush a mussed clump of hair straight again, and then reaching up to readjust the positioning of that... cat... on his head.

" eek scream What the hell!? Why are you allowed to say-"

Slapped.

Tiem simply smiled like an idiot, folded his arms, and crossed his legs; looking the epitome of slackerdom as he reclined at the front of the truck bed.

"Because I'm not trying to get some..."

Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! ...no, it's most certainly not Tiem Jay... though he IS most certainly faster than a clumsy girl.

The boy dove forwards, pushing off from the back of the truck cab and reaching out towards the girl who was about to fall backwards over the tailgate. His hand caught the collar of her jacket long before she was in any sort of truly dangeorus situation... not really the most dramatic 'nick of time' saves, but it wasn't supposed to be heroics, just a helping hand to keep someone in the frying pan and out of the fire.

"Oi..." Tiem muttered, looking up at her from where he was half-laying on the edge of the truck bed; trying not to crush or bump any of the injured that filled the rest of the bed that he had just flattened himself across, "...remain seated until the vehicle comes to a complete stop."

"Do not..." Tiem said monotonely in reply, releasing his grip upon the girl and pushing himself back to recline against the cab again; resuming his position from earlier in painstaking detail (which looked just odd, to see a person try and recreate a pose that they had just left, down to the point of grasping his foot with both hands in order to position it correctly upon the opposite thigh).

"What do you mean 'not'?" the other youth piped in; glaring over at Tiem in disbelief, "You just adjusted it a minute a-"

"Timing is-!"

And the young man promptly shut his trap.

"...no cat."

And the rest of the trip was spent in silence, as everyone simply stared at him in disbelief...


Enter the Dragon... or... Exit the Dumbass... stage left, that is.

When the truck stopped, Tiem jumped out over the side, and ran around back to open the tailgate and let everyone who could walk out. Then, without further delay, the stretchers were taken out again and the wounded men and women were loaded onto them to be taken inside. There was really nothing else that someone without real medical training could do to help other than whateve was asked of them... this is what he had been asked to do, and this is what he would do, until it was done, and then... um... Well, he hadn't thought that far ahead yet.

"You're one weird guy, kid..." the young villager said as the two carried the last of the men into the medical center on a stretcher.

"...yup."

((have to tell matt I'm dragging him around NPC-ly whee got to change this if he has other plans though...eh whatever))

Lucind squeezed Rebeccas shoulder encouragingly before she left.
It didn't took her long to find Enki - he wasn't hurt and therefore already bustling around, checking the situation.
When Lucind stepped out onto the yard behind the medical center, he was molested by a couple of journalists from broadcast and newspapers: Someone must had recognized him as the owner of the no longer existing stadium.

Lucind leaned against a wall, crossing her arms in front of her chest and watched the scene, her mouth slightly curving with a grin. When Enki saw her Lucind thought to see sighing him in relief for he then mutterted an excuse to get away from those guys.



About half an hour later Lucind returned to where she'd left Rebecca behind.

And she was right there waiting... a little worse for wear, but there, nonetheless.

***

Let's go over the events of the past half hour, shall we?

30:00 - Lucind leaves to find Enki, leaving Rebecca alone.

29:55 - As Lucind walks away, Rebecca thinks back to the encouraging squeeze that she had just receieved, and then further back to the hug that Twitch had given her. And she smiled, thinking that perhaps she wasn't quite as alone as she thought that she was...

28:14 - Lewd commentary from local teamsters.

28:13 - Breaks into random bout of euroslang.

24:21 - She'd gotten about a block so far, not really recognizing anything, not because she hadn't been here before, but because this was an unfamiliar medium between the big chain-stores she had seen in the city and the complete lack of anything but the tavern and general store that were about a twenty minute walk through town in the village that she had been raised in. She wasn't used to commerce, or to lively villagers...

23:54 - She picks a shop and goes in.

17:32 - She runs out of the shop, after realizing just what type of place it is.

17:27 - Three men run out after her, and give chase through the street.

11:56 - The first of the men catches up with her after she trips over a stack of chickenwire fence rolls that were leaning up against the side of a building.

11:51 - The first of the men recieves a bloody nose.

11:37 - The other two men catch up...

11:20 - Hark! From the rooftops! A cape-wearing superhero- oh, wait, no...

09:38 - After a long, drawn out speech, the cape-wearing dunce with a cat on his head proceeds to whup some serious a**.

08:45 - The three men go running.

07:58 - Rebecca questions where the cape came from.

07:48 - Cat-head explains.

07:38 - Rebecca wishes that she could take back ever asking.

07:12 - Rebecca heads back towards the medical center of Latent.

01:23 - Lewd commentary from local teamsters.

01:03 - Slap. Hard. Stupid teamsters.

00:02 - Rebecca smiles.

00:00 - "Mi-... Lucind...?" Rebecca looked at her, hoping that wherever she had gone to she had accomplished what she had hoped to.

Looking past Madison, who seemed enthralled with the ultra fine wine, Silver saw the one person who was liable to kill him most. Though he couldn't help to see her hungry, he pushed his plate with enough force that it slid all the way down to her. Looking as though nothing had happened, Silver brought out the last of his hard coin.

"Another Crabmen steak please..."

The barkeep, throughly annoyed at the sudden outburst of specialty orders, but entrhalled by the extra coin, went into the kitchens to get him his special order.

Silver didn't even make an attempt to dodge her, even though he could have easily. He didn't expect it, though he wasn't entirely surprized either. He just sat there for a moment in silence, a single thought in his head.

I kinda deserved that...

For the time being, he was silent. He drank deeply of his Faye wine, polishing off the 1000 gp drink. He was silent for a moment, the unnaturally fine wine running its course. It would be a long moment before Silver would speak.