Я вернулся в деревню

[balancedlight]

Who: Svetlana and Open + a prompt for Fraser
What: Venturing forth and also dealing with April shenanigans!
When: April catch-all!
Where: Milton, then the path up to and including Lakeside. See prompts in post!

Content Warnings: Nothing as of yet; will update!

Comments

[desperate_times_right]

"It really was ridiculous," Chloe agrees easily. "That guy used to be a doctor and he couldn't even buy his own bomb. There have to be easier ways to fundraise as a warlord than sending your whole bloody army into the jungle looking for an artifact you're not even sure is real."

[balancedlight]

She frowns, but it's hiding most of a smile. "How much of this is fantasy?" she giggles.

[desperate_times_right]

"I'm telling the truth!" But Chloe's laughing. It probably is a lot for people who haven't spent half their lives living like this. "If this is too much for you, you definitely don't want to hear about the yetis in Tibet."

[balancedlight]

"No, I definitely want to hear about the yetis in Tibet," she exclaims. "Are you finished with the bowl? I can get more. There is plenty."

[desperate_times_right]

"I'd love another bowl, if that's all right. That cold fog really saps my strength." Chloe's endurance had been pretty high even before getting her aurora power, so she's really not used to this.

"The yetis were just guys in suits, but they were functionally immortal so I think it balances out."

[balancedlight]

"What makes them immortal?" She takes the bowl and fills it up again, setting it down, warm and inviting, in front of her.

It occurs to her that she probably should react more to the concept of immortals, but it's already done.

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe figures that at this point Sveta's just playing along. Besides, the wonderful smell of the soup is distracting.

"There was a tree up there in the city that had this weird sap. Bright blue. Absurdly flammable." The city had collapsed when the sap at the base of the tree had caught. "They'd eat it, these yeti guys. Gave them black teeth and ultra high aggression, but they were super strong and they didn't die of illness or old age. You could kill them with guns, but you'd have to unload entire clips into them."

[balancedlight]

"Wow," she breathes, settling across from her again. "Does that tree grow anywhere else?"

[desperate_times_right]

“I don't think so.” She certainly hopes not! “There was a guy there, in the village, who had been forced to help the Germans try to find it during the war. I don't think they'd have gone all the way out there if there'd been an easier way to get it.”

[balancedlight]

Sveta rests her chin in her hands, practically awestruck at the whole story. "That's - fascinating," she mutters. "This goes very deep. Very - long. Complicated."

[desperate_times_right]

"Yeah," Chloe sighs, a little wistful. The hunt for the tusk had been pretty long and complicated, too. "I think it's always like that. If this stuff were easy to find, people would have already found it."

[balancedlight]

"What made you want to - do that? Did you already answer that? I don't remember!" She's heard so many other details.

[desperate_times_right]

"My dad was an archaeologist. It's in the blood, I guess." The rest of it isn't really that fun of a story. "What made you want to be a doctor?"

[balancedlight]

That is an easy question. "I - always wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to help people and make them feel better so they could live their lives. My mother was ill for a long time and I wanted to help her. To do whatever I could."

[desperate_times_right]

Ah. Maybe they're more similar in some ways than Chloe had thought. Unfortunate ones, but isn't that always the way?

"You really are sweet. I'm sorry about your mother."

[balancedlight]

She looks down, tracing her fingers in a shape along the table.

"Is sweet a compliment?" she asks, because she hasn't heard 'sweet' without it being attached to 'naive.' At least when it comes to her.

[desperate_times_right]

"Sometimes." It's something that Chloe had never really had the the chance to see if she'd wanted to be. "It is this time. You remind me of a friend of mine."

[balancedlight]

"Tell me about your friend?"

Sveta doesn't want to keep her any longer than she really has to, but this seems important. This is interesting and Chloe is a friend.

[desperate_times_right]

“Her name’s Elena. She's a journalist.” Chloe makes a face, but it’s lighthearted. “So noble, you know? Always trying to make a difference. When I first met her, she was tracking an infamous war criminal through the middle of a warzone with just a cameraman with her. She's crazy. But she… she believed in me, you know? Gave me chances I probably didn't deserve.”

[balancedlight]

Sveta doesn't know how brave that she is, but she likes being compared to the rest.

"She sounds like a very good friend."

[desperate_times_right]

“One of the best friends I've ever had.” Sure, they'd had a rocky start, but that's not really uncommon with Chloe. “She does one of those history channel shows now, with her husband.”

[balancedlight]

"Had?" she wonders. "Is - she still?"

[desperate_times_right]

“Yeah. I don't see them so much now that they’ve got their boring adult lives, but some bonds can't be broken.” After carrying a woman’s bleeding body through a collapsing city there's always something between you, she thinks.

[balancedlight]

"Boring adult lives." She sighs, watching the table for a long moment. "I wish I could have that now."

[desperate_times_right]

"I dunno. I think being married might kill me." Other people seem to like it, though. Maybe it's Svetlana's kind of thing.