( AAAHHHHHH I'D BEEN ANTICIPATING THAT MOMENT SO LONG AHHAHA :')))) )
Roger closed his eyes, knowing his options, but wanting to allow Eddie to continue speaking.
"Coming back here, it unlocked something more. I used to come here almost every day before they took me. I'd talk to him about my problems, my everyday life, my thoughts. As if he'd even hear me."
Roger opened his eyes and placed a comforting hand on Eddie's shoulder.
"I used to go to my dad's grave, too. While I could still remember my parents, of course. The memories with him are still fuzzy as well, but I know he was a good father. My mother and him were a perfect pair. They were unstoppable together, but their moral strength was their inevitable downfall."
Eddie looked up at Roger with a pained expression, gesturing to the gravestone with a shaky hand as he spoke through sniffles.
"I told him about Jesse. I told him about General John. Why do I feel like something's missing?"
Roger looks down, allowing a sad smile to escape his expression.
"If it makes you feel any better, Astrid told me that we have a pet dog, but I don't remember any dog in the slightest. I'm pretty sure she came up with that part herself."
Eddie's lips twitch upward for a moment, but the less than half a chuckle didn't last.
"C'mon Eddie, we should get back to the group anyway. We need to protect Astrid and her friends. I at least know that's what Jesse would want."
Eddie sighed heavily, running a hand through his sweaty hair as he nods.
"Plus, on the way there, you can tell me how you know Jesse."
Eddie's eyes widen in potential fear as he follows Roger.
Astrid shook her head as she placed a gentle hand on Juniper.
"There's no way you could have known. They could have been on the other path for all we know. There's officials everywhere in the streets, and you didn't know Jesse would have pickpocketed. I'm glad that we at least found Roger."
(AHHHH I WANNA HUG HIM SO BAD)
Juniper didn’t seem like she believed the words but she nodded along to them. She felt guilty, responsible. Death followed her like storm clouds ready to burst.
It didn’t matter which group she was in, where she was, what she was doing; they all ended the same way, someone near her died.
At first the groups she was in brushed it off as coincidence, as just the tragedy of living in a ruined world, but soon they grew suspicious.
Many claimed she was a murderer, causing the death of their friends.
It couldn’t be farther from the truth.
She didn’t murder anyone, she never planned for them to die. No, the truth was that she was weak and people died trying to keep her alive.
It’s survival of the fittest out in this world and the only reason Juniper hadn’t died yet was because she took advantage of the strong. They didn’t deserve it. Not one bit. She should have been the one to die because she was the one who made mistakes.
But then again, the Jesse case was different. This whole group was different. Everything about it was different. Jesse died to the hands of authority over pickpocketing. This wasn’t a survival of the fittest setting. This was a murder given a pass because it was an ‘authority versus criminal’ situation.
It was an abuse of power.
“I’m going to make sure I personally have a hand in the downfall of this government.” She snarled suddenly, fists clenching. “I’ll do it for Jesse, for Roger and Eddie. I’ll kill every last one of those government officials if I have to.”
( HAHAHA AAWWW I WANNA HUG JUNIPPEERRR )
Astrid nodded, a determined grin escaping her expression as Juniper spoke.
"I've been wanting to take them down for killing my parents all these years, I can't wait until they pay." She snickers, turning to see Roger and Eddie walking back. Roger's face seemed to possess nothing but awkward embarassment as Eddie chuckles, finishing his stories about Jesse.
"Alright, alright, I'm very happy that…uh, Jesse was that close to you." Roger muttered, earning another giggle from Eddie.
"Okay, head count, everyone's still here, right?" Roger announced, trying to distract himself as he looked around. "I think we're set for the night. Eddie, can you help us start a campfire?"
(We love torturing characters 😂)
“Then let’s do it, Astrid. For the people we’ve lost.” Juniper looked over when Astrid did, tilting her head at the two returning.
When Roger asked for a head count, Juniper immediately looked for Atlas and Stephan, finding them building a makeshift fire pit for the night.
Juniper eyed them for a little bit, catching Stephan’s happy expression when Atlas nudged him.
Those two were always idiots.
Atlas was a drunkard mess who liked to tease her with obvious flirting attempts that weren’t serious. She knew he liked Stephan.
“Well, they have the pit ready. So let’s start it there.”
Astrid's eyes trailed upward toward the night sky, twinkling as the faded memory of stars wished to shine. Not only were the floating cities such a huge block in the sky to see anything interesting, but the air was already so thick and polluted as it was from the surface that Astrid could barely see as far as her own personal vision allowed. Regardless, she felt safe with Roger and Juniper, and she heaved a much needed sigh of relief for the time being.
Comfortable, and slowly getting more warm as the fire grew, Astrid already started to feel sleepy, and absentmindedly leaned over, resting her head on Juniper's shoulder as she watched the boys discuss what's the most efficient way to keep the fire ablaze.
"Trust me, if we blow on it, it'll actually feed the flames. I know this, I was in Boy Scouts." Eddie reassured everyone.
"You don't even remember half of your childhood, Eddie." Roger chimed, squinting a pair of suspicious, but friendly eyes at Eddie, who failed to defend himself.
Juniper tensed up at the unfamiliar weight on her shoulder. She glanced at Astrid, smiling softly before she let herself relax against the other girl.
For once she felt like she belonged. Like this wasn’t going to end bad.
She rested her head against Astrid’s, laughing softly at the boys.
“They’re a handful. It’ll be up to us to make sure they don’t do anything stupid.” She murmured, shaking her head.
“If we blow on it we might put it out! I think it needs more uh… what’s that called? Kindling?” Stephan argued, though he seemed just as clueless as the rest.
(queue me stumbling in and tripping on my own feet and crashing: hey,,,,,)
Astrid smiled warmly, nodding gently on Juniper's shoulder.
"We really are the only thing keeping these boys alive, aren't we?" She hums, as much as the subtext stung her chest, she refused to acknowledge it for the time being; he would want her to be happy. She closed her eyes, allowing the darkness of the night to persuade her into sleep.
(Queue me, half dead in my dorm room cuz midterms: Hiiiiiii and: XD you’re okay, I’ve been dead myself XD XD. How’s life??! You doing good?)
“Call it ‘the feminine touch’.” She joked, cracking a smile and laughing softly. “We’ll look out for each other. It’s rough out there but we have each other… it’s our best bet.” Juniper watched as the flames finally flickered into life, her smile fading as she watched the flames lick and eat at the wood provided.
She didn’t close her eyes. She knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep. She’d let Astrid rest and watch over the small camp they created.
(I then proceed to disappear under mysterious circumstances for another month,,,,,,,, anyway i been good!! we've been completely renovating my house so i have been busy for the past few weekss,,,, that's my excuse lol. we moved my room so i was able to throw away a lot of junk i never needed. i managed to get rid of about half of my clothes which is a Good Thing bc i had too many clothes……and we painted the room so now it's a color i love and vibe with ! we're still in the process of working things out so my windowsills need to be painted, i need to get my outlets and lights replaced, and that's just MY bedroom, we're doing the rest of the house too. it's been QUITE the past two weeks lmfaaooo. how about you! how are midterms:') )
Though Astrid finally reached the closest sense of peace that she could ever obtain in the past few days, Roger still watched closely. He and Eddie both knew what the organization that held them were capable of, and the idea that they finally escaped, not only their physical hold on them but also the manipulation on them, was something to comprehend. Roger gazed at Eddie as the boys watched the fire, wondering what could possibly be going through Eddie's mind at the moment. Especially considering what Roger saw in Eddie's memory earlier.
Sure enough, Eddie had a lot on his mind. He wanted to get back at the organization for all of the lies and manipulation they got away with, but also for somehow managing to maneuver their way around being responsible for several people's deaths. He wanted to know if he's even worth saving, after all the people he himself killed under their control, but most of all, he wanted his memories back. He didn't have too many, everything was fuzzy, but he knew he had a life before this, and he wants to know what it was.
(Eeeyyy!!! That’s exciting!! I love it when you can redo stuff and get rid of things you don’t need. And y’all are goood. I’ve been living the college student during a pandemic vibe. Tired and dead and overwhelmed. So that’s my excuse if I get slow 😂 and as for midterms? I’m dead. They killed me. Finished the last like two days ago and I’m still burnt out)
Juniper herself turned her eyes on the two boys they’d ‘rescued’ - if it could be called that. She didn’t know what was happening with them. She trusted them both - having seen what the government did first hand - but she didn’t trust the government machinery the two boys sported.
Stephan was the same, she had seen the look in his eyes after he had removed that chip from Roger. They’d both thought it. What if that wasn’t the only part of Roger that was traceable? What if Eddie had the same? His chip was removed too. But was it enough?
She tried to shake the thoughts out of her head, but it wasn’t until an unearthly cry filled the air did she finally break free of the torment of ‘what if’s.’
Her eyes turned to the land beyond Sire, beyond the Wall. Those creatures were out. They were lucky those things were nocturnal. It was easy to wait out the night and avoid the beasts completely.
That didn’t make them any less terrifying. Juniper hated the creatures with everything she had in her body. They gave her the wound she sported, the one Jesse had bandaged for her. They killed her past groups, her past friends, and everything else she had ever had out there.
And yet they weren’t entirely wrong in their anger. Those creatures lived because of what the fallout did to the earth. They lived because humans thought they could win over one another using nuclear weapons and still live on a planet that was beautiful and safe. Their existence was cursed and not because of anything they had did.
It reminded Juniper a little too much of herself.
(Oh man oh boi I hear college during pandemic is an absolute tragedy :') hope things get better soon though!)
Though Roger smiled and enjoyed his time with the other boys, the lingering reminder still scratched at the back of his head. At some point, the organization is going to come looking for Eddie. He was their most valuable asset, after all. But what he saw in Eddie's memories threatened to throw his suspicions out the window. They weren't Eddie's memories, so how did Eddie get them? And who was the person that looked like Eddie?
Roger sighed, gazing at Eddie a bit longer, trying to study his face. Unfortunately, he knew Eddie was trained in holding a straight face during times of stress or crisis; he knew because he was trained the same way.
Though Astrid managed to doze off for a little while, the cry in the distance gently awoke her. Since she hasn't ever slept outside of her room until now, and she's been through quite a lot in the past few hours, she's become a light sleeper. She lifted her head, eyes a little fuzzy, as she looks around at the silence that grew around the group. They all heard it, too.
The first cry ended before another, deeper, one followed. A call and an answer. Probably for food, some poor soul who didn’t make it past the broken buildings beyond the wall.
It was Atlas who finally broke the silence around them. “Kinda a lonely sound isn’t it?” He murmured, glancing at Eddie and Roger with a small smile. Stephan elbowed him.
“Its not a good one.” He huffed.
Juniper looked over Astrid, laughing softly.
“You look a little tired.” She hummed, trying to lighten the fear that settled in her own stomach. “We’ll be alright, though… they won’t be able to smell us with the fire and the… bodies. And they can’t see. They don’t have eyes.”
(It’s a bit hard, 😂. I moved out of the dorms and off campus tho. Too many Covid cases and it’s all online now)
( Hoboi! It's a painful mixture of staying safe but making things more difficult, good luck :') )
Astrid subtly nodded in response to Juniper, resting her head back down as she closed her eyes. She almost didn't want to wake up completely in order to avoid becoming more aware of the potential danger; she just wanted to sleep. She could feel Roger's eyes on her as consciousness slipped away once more.
As she grew peacefully still, Roger stood up and stretched.
"Alright, it's time the rest of you sleep, too. I'll keep watch." He announced, heaving a sigh as the stretch finishes.
(Thank youuuu! It went well, we good we good.)
Juniper watched Astrid for a moment before her eyes settled in Roger. She nearly jumped out of her skin when he spoke suddenly, her eyes going wide and her hand immediately to the jagged knife hidden at her hip.
“Are you sure? Do you need rest too?” Stephan asked, though he himself was almost asleep, clutching his medical bag close to his chest. He sat next to the fire, staring into it with tired and closing eyes.
Atlas was already lying in the dirt with his arms thrown over his eyes.
(That's good! I'm glad haha)
"Don't worry about me," Roger began, grabbing a large stick and poking at the fire to encourage it, "I'll be fine. You all need to rest. It's been a long day."
Roger drops the stick and takes a few steps away from the camp area to get a further look at the city before them. The sun had disappeared, but there was still the last sliver of daylight slipping away, right after sunset. Nevertheless, the creatures were already active. Roger scanned the area to ensure there weren't any nearby before turning back to the fire, taking a heavy seat, and watching the flames.
Everything replayed in his head as he breathed shakily. Though a lot has happened between now and then, Roger can still hear the echoing gunshot in his head from just the other day. He could hear Astrid's heartbreaking cry; he could still hear the sound of his brother's weight hitting the dirt.
"Roger?"
Eddie's voice grounded Roger back to reality as he blinked, looking over at Eddie. He was laying down on the ground, but leaning on his elbows and facing Roger.
"What?" Roger responded.
"What's going to happen to us?"
Eddie has never seemed to care about his future before today. He was always focused on the here and now- and trying to get Roger in trouble. Nevertheless, the vague question confused Roger.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean," Eddie adjusts his position, clearly uncomfortable with his thoughts, "we're technically on the run now. What's going to happen when Dr. Rose wants us to come back? And what if we don't want to?"
Roger realized the actual question that Eddie was tiptoeing around, and looked him directly in the eyes.
"Eddie, I know what you want to hear right now is reassurance, but that's not going to help. You are the most reliable and most powerful soldier in that entire organization. I am an almost failed experiment. They're going to try to kill me, and brainwash you."
Juniper laid back and stared at the massive underside of the floating cities above them. The blueish glow of the Sinatanium core’s blocked out what stars they could have been able to see just beyond the edge of the massive cities.
She hoped it was a gorgeous city. She hoped there was grass. She hoped there was trees. She had only ever seen trees and grass from afar or in books or old films. She wanted to see and touch real plants.
Though her thoughts didn’t remain on the subject for too long, as she soon listened to the conversation between the two part metal beings of their small gang.
The labs were relentless.
She knew that all too well.
(Would it be too iffy to add in a new aspect I have for Juniper that just recently came about? She’s always had a past in the labs which I might have left out of the character profile to keep it interesting XD but like, would it be alright for me to throw in the fact she has a form of an artificial heart? A partial one to be exact. And reconstructed right fingers made of metal and robotics and grafted skin?? From an incident in the outside of the cities that nearly killed her?)
( Yooooooo that'd be super cool !!!!!! Go for it, I think that'd make it lots more interesting haha )
Eddie scrunched up his nose in response to Roger's question, as if the idea of working under those people again disgusted Eddie more than the stench of the bodies they surrounded themselves with.
"I'd rather die than let them control me again."
Roger wanted to feel comforted by Eddie's newfound mindset, but something irked him about the implications.
"Alright, get some sleep, Eddie. You deserve it."
With that, Eddie turned around on the ground and a bit of silence followed. Roger stared at the ground as if it could provide any answers.
"Roger?"
"What?"
"I'm sorry for how I treated you."
Roger closed his eyes, trying to hide a smile in case Eddie was looking, as he nodded. "I forgive you, man."
(Thaaannkkss. I’m going to go ahead and do what I think might be interesting in this reply. If it doesn’t work then go ahead and tell me alright, I can change it. I’m just always nervous about introducing new things for some reason. Idk what it is. Probs anxiety. But! If you have anything you’d like to throw in go ahead! I love your ideas a lot!!)
Juniper waited for a moment before she quietly moved from her place. She made sure Astrid wouldn’t wake before she made her way to Roger, sitting down next to him.
She didn’t speak for a long time, just stared at her fingers for a second before she looked back up at him.
“Can I talk with you for a second? Eddie too if he’d like to and if he’s still awake.” She murmured softly. Her voice was hushed, almost as if she was worried the others would hear.
“A-are you mostly machine…?” Juniper’s hand moved to her chest, fingers rubbing against the fabric of her jacket. “Or just partially replaced? Does that make you… not human anymore? I don’t mean to be rude, I… I have my reasons for asking.”
(Babe omg don't even worry i love that you've got new ideas! I think this one will also help our characters connect! )
Roger watched Juniper closely as she approached him, taking a quiet seat and not speaking for a moment. As she spoke, Roger glanced at Eddie, who lay still, his chest rising and falling slowly.
"I think he's out, but we can talk."
Roger couldn't have guessed what Juniper's question would be, but he had no idea what he was expecting in the first place. He blinked for a few moments as he thought about the answer.
"I don't see it as that black and white." He looked at his hands. The way his machinery worked made it so that half of his face appeared human, the other exposed with machinery and metal. One hand was heavy with iron and steel, the other human flesh, soft and tender.
"I see it as a spectrum, and everyone's on this spectrum, not just Eddie and me. Not just the men still under their control. Before I was free from their control, I think I was less human than I am now. Now, I feel more emotions than just anger. Nevertheless, anger has been drilled into my brain. I'm trained to react with anger first, that's how they train all of us. They remove all of our emotions, all of our memories, but they keep anger and violence."
Roger sighed heavily, clutching his human fist as he continued. "I'm still re-learning to control my anger." He closed his eyes for a moment, then looked at Juniper.
"However, the leader of the organization, Dr. Rose, though he has no machinery in him, he is much less human than anyone I've met."
(Ahahaha thanksss. Hopefully this’ll all make sense. Still developing Juniper and the world a bit.)
Juniper listened in silence, taking in Roger’s features. For a moment she wondered if any other part of her had been replaced. She had suffered a lot of damage, though they had done a pretty good job rebuilding her. Most of her anyways. She still sported awful burns across her chest and shoulders. That was why she preferred to keep her hoodie on. It hid the scarred skin and brought her more comfort.
“That does make sense…” she replied quietly, clutching at her chest. “I’m not completely flesh either.” Juniper glanced around at the group, making sure no one was awake. She wasn’t ready to tell the others but she felt Roger - and even Eddie - would understand. Hopefully.
“I used to be a part of another group. They kept me around because I was small enough to climb into rubble and old buildings and small spaces where supplies are hardest to get. That was my only use and I think they understood that.” A shudder wracked through her small body.
“Maybe they had planned it or maybe it was all purely an accident and they deemed me replaceable but either way I was left alone. We were looking around an old city, the type thats too far gone for anyone to live in. There was this older house that was still mostly standing, just blocked by the half of it that did fall in. They sent me in through a window on the second floor to look for anything useful. I don’t know if my added weight put too much stress on the house or if it was bound to fall in anyways…” her hands idly ran across her shoulders, as if remembering a phantom weight that wasn’t there anymore. “I took something off a shelf, I don’t even remember what it was, and then suddenly I was on the ground floor. I just remember grabbing for something to stop the fall and feeling a lot of pain in my palms; a heat. I think I pulled a wire or some sort of metal pipe that sparked the fire but I don’t know exactly what happened. It’s foggy. There was a lot of heat, a lot of pain,” she gestured to her front, pointing out the main parts that burned. “I couldn’t get out but not because the fire blocked me. I was stuck on something - it had gone into my leg, a rebar or something like that. I watched the building come down on me. I remember the pressure of it on my chest. The next thing I know I’m waking up in a lab with no fingers on my right hand and a bunch of tubes and wires keeping me alive. The doctors there told me I suffered too much to live on my own but they had just the thing to save me. I didn’t have a say in it really. I was half alive, I couldn’t answer. They told me they had already repaired my heart, something about it had stopped or one side was too damaged from whatever landed on top of me but they had fixed it. I think they just wanted an excuse to try out new technology for an artificial heart. So now half of my heart is machine. My right fingers are all robotic - I lost them to the fire. My lungs are synthetic as my old ones were too damaged by smoke and internal hemorrhages to fix. They did something to fix the burns on my face, a skin graft or something, but it didn’t fix it all. I still have a lot of scarring.”
Juniper exhaled as she finished, running her fingers through what hair she had left.
( That's okay! I know I've been pretty confusing at times as well but hey that's why I practice with RP's !! )
Roger listened intently to Juniper, looking closer at her skin and fingers. She did a good job at hiding them, at least according to Roger, because this is the first time he's noticed it. As he listened to Juniper's story, he could almost feel the pain she described.
"Juniper, you are an incredible person. It's those scars that make you human. It's your flaws that make you human. Just a few months ago, Eddie put all of his effort into maintaining perfection. That wasn't human. But, to be fair, that wasn't Eddie either." Roger chuckled softly, hoping to lighten the mood. "He actually used to get so mad when I called him Eddie, he used to prefer Edward. He hasn't corrected me since we reunited, so I can tell he's changed a lot. Or maybe he's returned back to the person he was before the organization took him."
Roger looked back over at Juniper.
"I've seen the way you interact with my sister. Not many people can get along with her as easily as you do."
Roger shifted in his seat.
"I still don't have all my memories, but I do know that Astrid was never comfortable with anyone. It only got worse when our parents were killed. She completely isolated herself. She didn't speak or even look at anyone for three months. She was just starting to recover when I left her and Jesse."
At the sound of his name, Roger went silent. Though it was indeed the end of his story, the silence that followed was deafening.
(You’ve been really good so far!! But amen to that! Practice makes for good habits and betterment)
“Thank you…” she murmured with a small smile, laughing softly at the mention of Eddie.
“Edward, really?” She mused, looking over at Eddie’s sleeping form. She didn’t know what it was like to be them, she had never been stripped of everything in order to be a biological weapon, but she did understand their pain. She could recognize it easily.
Juniper’s eyes drifted over to Astrid, relaxing even further as Roger spoke.
“It’s funny, she approached me first when we met. I’m surprised she stayed around me. I was - and still am - a cold person at times.” She too fell silent at the mentioning of Jesse, her eyes growing sad.
Juniper looked back up at Roger, patting his arm in a comforting gesture.
“We all miss him.” She paused for a moment, biting her lip. “I know he’s gone and that’s never going to get better. But we still have each other. You have Astrid back… it’s good to look at the positives in times like these…” Juniper tilted her head as she thought back on the last few days.
“You’ve got a good sister. She never gave up on you or Jesse, you know. She never believed you were gone and she never believed Jesse was bad. And she’s hopeful, bright, got a lot going for her. She’s voiced that she doesn’t want to live in the Upper Cities but I hope you and her can one day live up there where it’s safe. You both deserve it.”
( Hell yeah baby !! Plus it helps me develop my characters more! Astrid was a lot less of a character before this RP haha )
Roger smiled warmly at Juniper as he listened in comfortable silence. He felt much better knowing Astrid has managed to make a friend; it provided a new sense of hope that he didn't know he lacked. As Juniper finishes, Roger nods.
"I understand what Astrid means, but I do think that she deserves to live in a safe environment."
Roger gazes softly at Juniper, blinking his eyes slowly.
"You should go to sleep, though. You deserve it."
Roger knew it was a long shot, but he had a lot of heavy thinking to do tonight, and he wasn't sure if he'd be able to run an internal simulation like he used to. Back when he had most of the computer-like functions in his brain, it was still only half as well as Eddie could do at average running speed. Running a bunch of numbers, problems, and equations in his head was a bit of a shot in the dark, but Roger needed answers, and he was positive they were hidden deep in his cognitive memories.
(It helped me develop mine too!! Like Junipers relationship to Stephan and Atlas and a lot of that stuffs. There’s a bit of a lot of characters but it’ll smooth out eventually riiight? XD)
She smiled softly, stretching out her fingers and nodding. Astrid did deserve it. They all did.
Well.
Juniper wasn’t fully convinced she did but she wouldn’t fight it. There were certain things gaslighted into her head she couldn’t deny were false. And yet she believed them. It was a complicated thing.
“Sleep…? I’ll try. Thank you for the talk.” Sleep was starting to sound very attractive at the moment. Her eyes and body felt heavy with stress and exhaustion. Her mind felt like it had gone through seven traumas five times over again. A good rest would do her some good.
So Juniper slid back over to Astrid, curling up in the dirt and gravel with a soft yawn. “Wake me up if you need to rest, Roger. I’ll gladly be lookout.”
( Exactly ! :'))) )
The man led me into a small room, set up like a waiting room, with a desk and a few chairs, and one sickly green light. A hallway stretched out the opposite end, with maybe four doors taking up as much wall as possible.
"Take a seat, Dr. Rose will be with you shortly." He declared before entering one of the doors.
I scan the room, noticing a somewhat lanky boy sitting in one of the chairs. He had curly brown hair and what appeared to be a nervous expression on his face. I take a seat next to him and rest my elbows on my knees.
"You're here for the survey too, I'm guessing?" He breaks the silence as I look over at him. His blue eyes held such friendliness to them, I couldn't help but feel comfortable.
"Y-yeah. In all honesty, I'm just doing it for the few bucks they're giving me. It's not much, but desperate times call for desperate measures, you know?"
The boy chuckles, nodding his head as he runs a hand through his hair.
"Yeah, my uncle thinks I got a job last week, but I've actually just been scourging this place for these kinds of things. This is my fifth one. They're all pretty shady, but don't worry, I mean I'm still here, right?"
Weirdly enough, his words did comfort me. I got a weird feeling from this place until he talked to me. I let out a grin and offer him my hand.
"I'm Roger."
He looks at me for a moment, returns the smile, and shakes my hand.
"My name's-"
"Edward Kalor?"
He whips around to face a sturdy elderly man with a dark gray beard and brimless glasses. Giving who appeared to be Dr. Rose an affirmative gesture, the boy turns back to me and shrugs.
"Just Eddie is fine. I'll see ya around, Roger."
Roger opened his eyes, still sitting upward as he exhaled slowly. He knew the old Eddie is still a different person to the new Eddie, but he's still trying to escape the Edward he was conditioned to become. A few hours had passed, it was still super early morning, but Roger could feel eyes on him, so he looked around the camp.
By the time Roger came back to the present, Juniper had slept until the dull pain of old scar tissue and her arm wound woke her. She was sitting next to a disgruntled and sleepy Stephan, who was currently examining both of her arms. Her left arm was the injured one, though the injury looked to be starting the healing process.
It was her right arm that was a sight. Even with only the sleeve of her hoodie pulled up just above her elbow it was apparent there was heavy scarring. Not all of it looked to be from the fire. Some of it was from failed skin grafts and the wear and tear of living in a post-apocalyptic world.
Juniper looked around the camp sight with a paranoid air, only catching Roger’s return to the present after she caught him looking around.
Atlas was leaning against Stephan, his eyebrows furrowed in concern as his eyes traveled up and down Juniper’s scarred skin. The only reason he was up was because Stephan was up. He had always been super sensitive to his surroundings and it only increased when he moved in with Stephan. The danger went up so his instincts trusted Stephan’s natural ability to sense danger. So his body reacted easily to small signals the shorter male gave off. (If that makes any sense)
“Fuck did you do?!” Atlas grumbled, reaching out to run his fingers along the shape of a particularly bad scar. Juniper yelped as if she had been scaled by his touch and yanked her arm back into her chest. Stephan glared at Atlas.
None of them said anything until Juniper calmed herself enough to change the subject.
“Roger! Are you alright? I woke up and you seemed zoned out so I didn’t disturb you…” she offered a small, completely false smile to him, tugging down the sleeve of her right arm to hide the mess.
Roger blinked silently, somehow barely reacting to Juniper as his distant expression hardens.
"Don't worry about me, I was just thinking."
Eddie may have short hair, but as he lifted his head groggily, it managed to develop into a total mess. Even his eyes showed evident sleepiness.
"Good morning, princess," Roger chuckled at Eddie, earning a tired glare and a friendly kick from the messy-haired boy, "Hope you slept well, we're not done moving."
Even still, Roger looked quietly over at Astrid, who appeared to still be asleep. He didn't want to wake her just yet, he knew she deserved to sleep the most. Nevertheless, he stood up slowly after a few moments and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, stirring her as she sits up.
Juniper nodded gently, glancing at her cousin once. He didn't meet her gaze, working his hands smoothly across her injury to bandage it carefully.
It was almost worse when Stephan was silent. He wasn’t a quiet man unless he was bothered by his thoughts. Or perhaps bothered by an injury that could very well kill the only family he really had left.
“I’m alright.” Juniper muttered, looking away to watch Roger. Stephan bit his lip, though the action was lost to his patient.
“You won’t be if you get an infection. I don’t even think this will heal without proper treatment…” he huffed, looking up to watch Astrid wake. He offered her a quick smile before looking back at Juniper and flicking her forehead.
Roger raised an eyebrow at Juniper's wounds, studying them closely. As he listens to Stephan, Roger got an idea that he didn't like. After exchanging a quick glance with Eddie, he knew he was thinking the same thing when Eddie shook his head.
"Proper treatment?" Roger began, leaning in the direction of the two, earning a sigh from Eddie. "What would that look like?"
Astrid sat slumped over slightly with her eyes in a daze as she gradually gains consciousness, still trying to separate whatever she dreamt about from the current reality.
