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 Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 12:22 pm
Emily Wren, or, rather, just Wren now, stalked through the trees to her family tent, checking that he wasn't followed frequently and nursing a black eye. Her efforts to gather people to rally amounted to all of one person slipping her a paper with the address of a therapist before asking if she was LARPing (and subsequently giving her the address to a LARP group when she lied about LARPing, much to her endless confusion), a few screaming-in-rage people, and one particularly large man who'd punched her. Over all, she remained an army of one, infuriatingly, and the woman was thoroughly unimpressed with the citizens of the City, grumbling. She was beginning to suspect this was what they wanted - to become helpless cattle in a world made from stupidity and assholes, and she was ready to let them have it.
Wren slid inside with all of the grace of a drunken cat, and moved to the area her uncle kept food on standby when someone dropped in, grabbing some cold pasta and a beignet and sitting to appreciate the small meal, sighing as she ate, thinking in silence. Every day was more infuriating than the last. Her father was barely around, the assholes running the City blew off her aunt's death, and the people trying to help were as organized and effective as a pile of trolls at sunrise. All in all, Wren was not in a good place, but she never was anymore, dosing her medication briefly before sipping water, rubbing her black eye gingerly and internally wanting to just smack everyone's head together and chew them out.
She was getting frustrated, and acting alone was beginning to look more and more tempting.
If she couldn't peacefully raise an army... Could she force one to her?
Hmm.
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 5:10 pm
Work as a Shadow was not something the Albert of five years past would have ever considered - he wouldn't have even comprehended it, being so newly-awakened and trying to adjust to being shoved into a war that was apparently lifetimes older than he was.
But the Albert of five years past hadn't lost his sister-in-law. Hadn't seen his daughter and brother spiral down and down following the loss, hadn't struggled against the tide in a war that refused to end. Hadn't yet sacrificed his morality and quite possibly some of his sanity in the effort to salvage a future for his children.
That Albert was not the same man as the one who entered the tent and powered down - no was he quite so gray-haired as this man, who had very little brown left in his hair at all. And, as he looked at his daughter and noticed the bruise on her face, he could have sworn he felt the color leeching from yet another strand.
"...Who hurt you," he said, not asking so much as demanding an answer. Moving to Emily Wren's side, he took her chin in his hands and inspected her face with a tense frown. "Who hurt you, and why? What happened, little bird?"
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 6:35 pm
Wren had ;learned long ago to trust her father. She hadn't lied telling him she wanted to try a means to throw the bastards behind the youma in a proverbial ditch and she didn't lie about her goal. He was simply not around much, and she hated it, nuzzling into his hands for the little affection time they could share, not vocalizing her eternal need - or desire - for his love and attention. No matter how old, she was always his little girl, even if she managed even one date in her lifetime, a lifetime wish she was rapidly losing hope of. "Tried to find people, talk to them, Daddy." Wren said quietly, and continued nuzzling fingers, eyes closing- the black one swollen and she hoped it reopened with it;'s twin. "Some people just take things badly. today a big guy punched me. I handled it." Mostly by warning him to step off, but what else could she do? She tugged her mask closer to her face, wincing as fabric touched irritated skin by being so close up. "I'll be fine. I'll recruit people eventually. Might make a point that I'm seriuous soon is all."
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 8:04 pm
"Little bird," Albert sighed, gently tracing her eyebrows and placing a kiss to her forehead. "Little bird, you have to be more careful. I know you want to fix things, but I refuse to stand by and let you get hurt in the attempt." Sitting next to her, he let go of her face to pull her into his arms in a hug, instead.
"...From the sound of things, I need to redirect my duties somewhat. Find a way to take more time off," he murmured, and rocked Wren carefully.
The meds switch she had undergone had not been good for his daughter's mental state, and Albert knew it. If there was a way to fix things, he would, but they had to remain alive before they could get her back on a mediation that would help her instead of hurt her.
Until then... he would just have to look after her himself. Tom, too - his brother frightened him, sometimes, with just how far he'd fallen. The other children; not children any more really, but they would always be children to Albert - were coping in various levels of success and failure, but Wren and Tom...
This wasn't coping. At all.
"You need me. As much as the war effort needs people, you need me. I'll find a way to give you that."
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 8:10 pm
Wren cuddled in, clutching him tightly. "I'm trying. I can't - get an army together. And... No one listens. I'm not crazy, Daddy... I'm not. I know what they did. I was there..." Wren's voice cracked. "I want them to get out. I can't even get an army to do that. I can't-- I can't even do that, I can't I can't." And Wren clung, hiding in Albert, trembling and crying softrly. It wasn't fair. She worked hard to raise an army, try taking a coup out on the Negaverse, and nobody helped. Nobodyu cared, not even about one little civilian trying to fight the only way she could think of, and she felt.... Useless, crying in Albert pitifully.
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Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 9:50 pm
"Shh, little bird," Albert crooned, humming softly to her as he rocked her back and forth. Their surroundings were pitiful - could hardly even be called comfortable - but he wanted to make his baby happy. He just... wasn't sure how to do that, any more.
Not in a world as broken as this one, and not with Emily gone. His sister-in-law had been the glue that held the whole family together, and without her, everything was splintering apart day by day.
"Maybe," he said softly, "You can help he resistance work out what they're doing wrong. Give them better ideas, better ways. You're brilliant, little bird. You're brilliant, and many of those here are worn down by too much combat too often. Their views are jaded, they're stuck in what they feel needs to be done. Maybe they need someone else's input on how to take care of things."
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 4:33 am
Wren burrowed, clinging and snuggling in, finally seeming to relax. She adored her father - any jokes about a Daddy's girl were responded to with a grin and she peered up. "I'm not special. They don't listen. They don't want to do what has to be done." Wren sighed, nuzzling. "They're socaught up in right and wrong they don't realize they need to strike for the throat." Wren frowned. "Seize a media outlet, expose information about the Negaverse's activities with solid evidence. Aim for the ones in power, eliminate them. Put someone in power. Win the people over - especially win the people. I had plans. Was going to seize a popular media outlet. Expose them. And then? Was aiming to remove them from positions of power by force. Expose what they do. Show my face as it really is if I have to."
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 1:47 pm
"You are special," Albert countered quietly, "But you're not in a position where your voice can be easily heard." The parent in him wanted to take the people who were ignoring his baby and shake them until they listened to her, but he knew very well that wouldn't work.
Being labeled a terrorist had forced him to learn a little more caution, even where his children were concerned. (But oh, did he want to hunt down the man who had punched his daughter in the face.) "Let me talk to some of the people here in the camp," he added, kissing her forehead and brushing a few stray curls out of her eyes.
"I'm sure I can find someone who will talk with you - who will listen to you." Who might even give her an outlet for some of her delusions, and see through them to the good ideas she had underneath.
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Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 4:01 pm
Wren clung, nuzzling in quietly. "They won't. Why should they listen to me if they won't listen to each other? We're just out here for survival." She pressed in, closing her eyes to seek her father's comfort. "You and Uncle Tom are the ones who listen." And she was slowly tired of the people moving around acting like she was a special child needing the aid of someone else to cope. Tired of being pat on the head and ushered away just because they thought she was insane. She hated most of the people here for their stupidity and short-sightedness. She wanted them to burn for stealing her Daddy away and exacerbating the grays in his hair and she wanted them all to pay. But she was an ant and worthless and - and Wren began to cry in frustration. "I'm no good at anything but computers Daddy. i'm useless and I hate it."
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Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 9:05 pm
"I can find some who will listen," Albert said quietly, attempting to help his baby feel better. To do what he could to comfort and encourage her - without giving in to her delusion. "Better yet, little bird, I know how and am willing to make them listen."
Raining kisses to the top of her head and forehead, Albert rocked his daughter back and forth, beginning to hum like he would do when she was a child or very ill. "You're not useless, Emily Wren," he said around his humming, cuddling his grown-up child. "You're trapped in a situation where you feel that way, but you're not truly useless. We just need to make others realize that."
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 2:41 am
Wren sighed, leaning as close as able, and shut her eyes, trying to sort through the cloud a bit before looking up. "Yes I am. I'm not strong or smart enough to do anything right but convince people I'm crazy and get punched in the face, and I don't have any other skills to prove people wrong. Tech doesn't help in this case, so I can't do anything of value. I'm not sneaky, I'm a terrible liar, and I'm more prone to punching the higher tier jerks than trying to hide." Wren sighed, tucking in. "Absolutely useless."
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