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 Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 2:34 pm
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Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 12:07 am
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 10:00 pm
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 10:21 pm
On the walk back Lucas really had no idea what to talk about or what to say. Unlocking his door, Lucas left it wide open for both Emelyn and Reuben. Moving over to his closet, he reached in and removed a t-shirt for himself. After he had slipped it on, he reached up into his closet again to retrieve something.
The room is relatively clean, a few pieces of clothes were draped over his desk chair and . The bed is unmade, obvious he had gotten up in a hurry. On the floor near the desk there happen to be two dog bowls, one empty, the other full. Also, near where the mirror once was there was a stain in the carpet that Lucas had tried to clean.
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 10:25 pm
"Aww... dog bowls?" Emelyn smiled. "Where did you get those from, the cafeteria?" Somehow, it struck her as especially sweet- perhaps because the dog had never had feed bowls of his own before. (She did not account for his time in the labs- Em considered his life to have started when they were introduced at the gates that day so many months ago.) Emelyn dropped a knee to the floor to ruffle Reuben's coat, then, as if her remark was to praise him, rather than remark on Lucas' thoughtfulness.
Then she noticed the lack of a mirror and the stain on the carpet, and fell silent. Even her excited ruff scratching was calmed to a slower stroke. She didn't know what to say- so, in the end, Em resolved to simply look away.
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 10:33 pm
He laughed a little at the bowls. "Yeah. Reuben was getting food all over my floor. He'd just knock the food off the plate. And, actually, I asked the Requisition office for the bowls. I'm not sure if you already had something like that for him, but you are more than welcome to take them with you."
Carefully removing a sealed bag from the top shelf of the closet, out of reach of curious dogs, Lucas stepped over to Emelyn. Breaking the tape, he handed it to her.
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 10:38 pm
She stood to take the bag, remembering with a fresh flush of guilt all the trouble she'd put him through in obtaining it.
"Thank you. I mean, I know it seems that this is all I've been saying," she lowered the bag gently to rest along her shins as she spoke, a journal's edge poking through one side, "but ... it really needs to be said. I don't know what I would have done without these." Mizzie's picture was in there- sweet, silent, and forever waiting, sitting on the dock with her hands in her lap and her blue eyes off to sea. She longed to look at it again, to hold it and remember everything that was already etched onto her memory.
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 10:46 pm
"It's really okay. You can just owe me." He laughed a little, then turned to the small fridge. Pulling out a plate of chicken he had collected last night, he placed Reuben's breakfast into the empty bowl. He figured he might as well. He would not allowed himself to eat the meat and it would just go to waste if he didn't give it to Reuben now.
"I know I'd be pretty upset if something happened to the photo of my dad or any of the other things of mine that could never be replaced."
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 10:47 pm
As she made to take the bowls, Em smiled- a sweet, nostalgic thing ill-fitting a hedgehog face. "You have a picture of your father?" It was less of a question than a happy statement in muted tones, tilted upwards with optomism. "...May I see it?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 10:55 pm
"Sure, I guess." He wasn't really sure why she would want to see it, but he had no problem showing it to her. The framed photo laid face down on his desk. Why it was face down was anyone's guess.
Picking it up, he held it out for Emelyn to either just look or take. The smiling man in the photo had dark brown hair and brown eyes. He was large man, almost like a bear, and seemed to tower over the wirey, glasses-wearing youth that stood beside him in the photo.
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 11:04 pm
Emelyn did not take the picture from Lucas's outstretched, fur-covered hands- but rather, leaned over it and took in the sight of the large man with dark features. It struck her how important photographs- any memories, really, were on Hell Island- and she marvelled at how such a thin thread of connection that tied them to their previous lives... could be so strong.
"You don't... well..." she paused as she leaned back, not wanting to finish her statement. She almost said that he and his father didn't look alike- but of course, he wouldn't take after him now. She'd meant back before, when she'd known him unchanged- but she still held her tongue, not knowing how touchy a subject it was with him.
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 11:11 pm
"Don't look like him?" He finished for her. "Yeah." He placed the photo face down again on the desk. A moment later he reconsidered and set it upright.
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 11:13 pm
She smiled. "Take after your mother?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 11:17 pm
His face showed, nothing, but he was still glad his back was to Em while he was setting up the photo. His ear did flicker at the word "mother". A moment later his spoke. "Er, yeah... a little, I guess."
Searching his mind, he tried to come up with something. "You and your sister look similar. Your eyes are certainly very close."
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 11:24 pm
The mention of her sister tugged at Emelyn's emotions, even though she'd already been thinking about Mizzie. Luckily, though, the prevailing emotion was love, only slightly undertoned- and not tained- by the ache she always had that she would not only ever see her sister again, but that she was gone from this world entirely.
"We have the same eyes as my mother, apparently. That's what Grandpa John always said." She said it fondly, missing her sister- but flinching not a speck at the mention of a mother she'd never known, and never had the chance to miss. "Grandpa John had darker eyes. My father's father." She realized, then, that she was rambling, and stopped with a smile.
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