wegotarunner | Day One, Greenie.

[Open Spam]

[Thomas arrives on the deck of the ship with a look of weariness not only on his features, but one that's settled into his shoulders. Chuck's carving is still clutched tightly in his hand. There's still blood on his clothes. On his hands. His face is streaked with dirt and sweat and blood from a cut above his eye and another on his cheek.

So this is the Barge.

He looks up at the sky with wide eyes, momentarily distracted by the sight and forgetting the events of the last few hours. But only momentarily. He blinks himself out of his dazed stupor and rubs a hand over his face. It takes him a moment to get his bearings. The first thing he needs to do is find his room, and take a long, hot shower. Change his clothes. Get something to eat. It's been hours since he last ate anything and his stomach isn't happy about it.

And then he's going to explore the Barge, find out where everything is. Figure out what to do from there. He's sure there's a lot to learn about this place, about the people he's now sharing space with. He's not completely thrilled about having to meet a whole slew of new people. People who won't know him, who will probably treat him like an outsider. Like he's not to be trusted.

Truthfully, he's still not sure should be. He remembers Newt's words. That who he used to be doesn't matter, it's who he is now that counts. And he can't save them if he focuses on things he can't do anything about. He has to stay focused.

For Newt. For Minho. For Teresa. For Alby. Ben. Even for Gally.

But most of all, for Chuck.]

[Video]

[Thomas appears on screen looking better than he had only an hour ago for those who ran into him on the way from the deck to his room. He's cleaned up, all the blood and sweat and dirt gone from his skin. The cut above his eye and the one on his cheek are still there but they look a little less angry now. He also looks a little hesitant, like he's not sure about this.]

Someone said I should introduce myself.

I'm Thomas.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[It's a difficult thing to explain to someone when they don't even remember what their own society looks like, never mind what might lie beyond it.]

Have you ever heard of magic?

Of course, follow me. [She picks up Prada and starts toward the door. She's glad he accepted the offer this time because-- well, he looks like Stiles so she feels a little responsible for him. And he's just gonna have to learn to live with it.]

[He bites his lip, nodding.]

There was a maze. We had to find the way out. People had been trying for over two years. It changed every night.

Yeah. In stories.

[It's weird how he can remember the stories, but not who read them to him. He knows things, but he doesn't know where he learned them. Or when. Or who taught him.]

[Merlin nods his understanding; this isn't his first time hearing that. He reaches out, gently putting his fingertips to the cut above Thomas' eye.]

Ic haele.

[His eyes glow gold, for just a moment, and he watches the wound close and fade into nothing more than a smudge of blood on unbroken skin.]

[Thomas isn't sure what to expect, but Merlin giving him tangible evidence of magic? Definitely wasn't it. His eyes widen in surprise and he quickly lifts a hand to his forehead. He knows that the cut that was there is now gone, because it had been hurting before and now it isn't. Still. When he feels the smooth skin in its place, it startles him.]

Holy shit.

[Merlin smiles gently.]

That's magic.

...I don't think that I could help with your memories, but not everyone's abilities are like mine.

Private Eugene Sledge, United States Marine Corps. [He offers the rank and the organization half out of habit and half just as a way to explain why he's dressed the way that he is, although he's sort of not sure Thomas knows what that is.] You?

No?

You just got here. Maybe this really is all the kind of strange you've seen before.

[But she's kind of smirking behind the words now.]

[Well that... is not at all what Dean was expecting. He raises an eyebrow.]

Well, that's a new one on me. What if you didn't?

[United States Marine Corps. He knows what it is, but he's not sure if it even exists in his world anymore. He's not sure about a lot of things.]

Thomas.

[No last name. He probably has one, but he doesn't actually know it.]

[Well. He has seen some weird stuff. But he doubts his penchant for asking what the hell is going on will fade in the near future.]

Well, is there a giant maze with mechanical monsters here?

There were these things inside the maze. We called them Grievers. They were huge, half kind of machine, half...I don't know what exactly. Giant spiders, maybe? They used to stay inside the maze. But the doors stopped closing at night and they came out. They were attacking.

If we hadn't gotten out, they would've killed everyone.

[That was the trigger. The motivation to get out. He had it without that, but so many of the others had been okay with just staying in the Glade, like Gally.]

[His eyes are still wide and probably won't narrow anytime soon.]

What other kinds of stuff like magic is real? [He knows about telepathy, but he still doesn't understand how it works or why it only works with Teresa.]

[He considers this for a moment. He's been told some things, and he's noticed some things, but his default position is to protect others' privacy. It doesn't feel like it's his place to disclose specifics.]

I think if you want to know you ought to ask.

[It also seems like no great crime to give him an excuse to talk to people. He knows he needed some.]

[It's not the answer Thomas wants, but he accepts it. He doubts he'll be asking those kinds of questions anytime soon, but Lydia had mentioned that there were other people on the Barge who had abilities that might be able to help him, even though she too had failed to elaborate.]

Yeah. Thanks. I should probably...figure out where my cabin is.

[Merlin would offer to help but he has no idea what form that help would take. Someone who's been here longer and knows the lie of the land better might be more helpful.]

Alright. You can keep the clothes, if you want.

[He smiles faintly, nodding. Grateful for Merlin's patience and hospitality.]

Thank you.

[He hopes one day he can return the favor.]

[Gene doesn't push for anything else. If Thomas doesn't want to share, or doesn't have anything else to add, that's fine. It's his business.

But he does glance back over his shoulder at him again, and cautiously throw out the offer for more conversation as they head down the stairs.] Where were you, before the Admiral got you?

Uh.

No. Not that I've seen. I might've missed it tucked away in a corner, though.

[It's one Dean understands - obviously anyone would. Obviously no longer being relatively safe where one is would be motivation for even the most recalcitrant to begin climbing walls.

He tips his head back slightly, eyes narrowing.]

But you did get out.

[He follows Gene down the stairs, looking around at their surroundings warily.]

It was called the Glade. [He hesitates.] Have you heard of it?

[It had mostly been a joke. He hadn't really thought the Glade and the Maze were here. And he was hoping there weren't any Grievers. But his sense of humor is a bit dry, and tends to fall kind of flat.]

Then it's not the kind of strange I'm familiar with.

[Thomas nods at the question. Some of them had made it out. He had. Too many others hadn't.]

Yeah. But I don't know what's left outside of it.

[He's afraid that there probably isn't much, if the video left by Chancellor Paige was anything to go by.]

[The fault, in this case, lies less with his sense of humor and more with the fact that on the Barge, Letty does not know what the full extent of the strange should or could be.

She makes a face.] I hope you left that shit at home, then. There's enough bullshit around here without that.

Page 10 of 11

Day One, Greenie.

Spam

no subject

no subject

Spam

Spam

Spam

Re: Spam

spam

no subject

no subject

spam

no subject

no subject

Spam

Re: Spam

Spam

Re: Spam

Spam

spam

no subject

no subject

spam

no subject

no subject

no subject