saveourearth | Thanks, Sadie [Mingle]

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Thanks, Sadie [Mingle]

Date: 24th of February
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After the earthquake on the 19th of January, the ground had been quiet. Or that was at least what everyone assumed; those who went to the meeting and listened to Walter speak might know that that was not exactly the case. Starting on the 9th of February, the earth had started to be shaken by the tiniest of tremors again, too small to be noticed by the everyday citizen, but not too small to escape seismic readers. Not that the public was told about this; why cause a panic? Things were strange enough these days in Mossgate Council.

Then, around 5am on the 24th, there is the most gentle shaking of the earth, only just strong enough to shake the leaves of some room plants, but noticeable. No damage is caused this time. At least not by the earthquake.

Because shortly after, a wave rolls towards the coastline of Mossgate. And not just any wave. It's a small tsunami wave, measuring about 1 metre at the top when it hits the shore and pressing up into the mouth of the river to reach a maximum height of 1.3m before it ebbs away.

The damage this time is substantial. Cars have been flushed into others, storefronts are shattered, the ground floors or many houses flooded and gardens torn apart. Some of the boats from the harbour sit somewhere inside the town now, and a ferry has crashed into the harbour office. By virtue of the very early hour and massive luck, there are barely any casualties - no more than one would expect from a major storm or flooding.

But Mossgate and Tarwich are in shock, and the descending media certainly don't help.

And every single Numbered in the echo boundary has received a plot echo, granted about a few minutes before the wave hit the shore.

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Stunned. Shocked. And so, so, so grateful. Ben was going to support her, not in the way she had figured by being there for moral support, but by breaking his silence and telling her parents too. Because he trusted them. And what she'd seen and heard about his parents-

Sadie stares at Ben a moment longer before blinking, then blinking again, and again as her eyes start to tear up. Sadie almost throws herself forward as she wraps her arms around him and buries her face against his neck to help muffle the sobs and sniffles.

"I love you. I love you. I love you." Words whispered between the tears are full of relief despite her crying.

Edited 2019-03-07 19:57 (UTC)

The sight of the tears welling up into her eyes dampens his smile briefly as Benjiro does not know the cause of them until she has dived down to embrace him. The motion unseats him from his usual kneeling position, enough to slide to one side of his feet, but he stabilizes them both before they topple to the floor or she comes off the chair entirely. Hand brought down to her side, he looks towards her buried face and listens to the whispers between her tears, and he understands. Benjiro smiles warmly as he releases his worry with a heavier exhale, and reciprocates in a whisper, “I love you too, Sadie… So much.”

Not wanting to leave her in such a precarious position or crying without comfort, he pushes up through his legs to tall kneel and scoop both his arms under her legs and hips, and lifts her from the chair to lower down to his lap as he sits back with legs crossed instead. At least in the motion his lap has been cleared, so she is given a warm seat without any sharp objects. Now holding Sadie far closer, he wraps both his arms around her and smooths a hand up and down her back as he lays his cheek to her hair. There are no attempts made to hush her, simply to be there and let her cry it out.

If anything Ben's whisper makes Sadie cling to him all the more tightly, everything feels so overwhelming in the moment, so much is riding on how her parents handle the news but not Ben. Ben would be there for her even if it went poorly, even if the worst happened and she had to leave Mossgate they had planned and prepared and she wouldn't forget what he meant to her.

Slowly but surely her crying dies down and Sadie sags in Ben's hold, taking a moment to just stay and feel, "Even if I had to leave... I'd still remember and I'd still love you." She whispers, relieved, "We made sure of it."

Her exerted strength is matched with an increment of his in turn, giving her a firm squeeze to help ground her for a few seconds in the shared touch. Only as she starts to sink more fully against his front do his arms begin to loosen further and alter his hold of her, coming down around her waist. Slowly, he rocks her side to side over a small arc, and places a kiss to her head.

“We did,” he confirms with confidence. “And I’d follow you at the end of the school year, one way or another.” To London, to anywhere. It had been strange, and yet, each date outside the bubble had allowed him to fall in love for a second time with the same strong woman he keeps in his arms.

Benjiro waits until she looks to him to ask, “Do you want to move under the kotatsu?”

Being able to game the Mossgate situation was in and of itself immensely satisfying and life-afferming, it made Sadie comfortable in the fact that the affection and love they held for each other was completely true and not just because they were both involved in the Numbers and could no longer be fully honest with those who weren't part of Mossgate's strangeness. At least on her behalf, that small invidious thought of 'But what if...?'. Ben had said that he had liked her before the Numbers came around but Sadie's somewhat purposeful blindness to Ben as a potential partner had had her question why she had felt that way until the trip to London had made it clear as crystal.

"Or I'd come back to you," She gives his arms a squeeze where they loop protectively around her, "Let's finish my ears and then do that. We've still got an hour or two before Mum and Dad will be awake."

Reminded that she could return alone should her family decide to relocate as a result of the Numbered situation, Benjiro nods his head as his smile breaks wide enough to show hints of his pointed teeth and gives a little squeeze back at her waist. That she would even consider not only leaving her family to be with him but to come back to the chaos of a Numbered life speaks volumes.

While he could move over and probably work at the kotatsu, it is easier here. Rather than trying to shift her back to the chair to continue however, he simply scoots her to the left side in his lap to free up his right arm, and moves the items to his right side one at a time. Left arm looped around her, he works on cutting the foam carefully held in that same hand. He takes his time at the task, whittling it down with small cuts. Occasionally he has to peer back into an ear to check on his progress for comparison, but within fifteen to twenty minutes he has both cut to mirror.

Satisfied with one last look over the foam for any possible irritating edges, he then hands them to her, “Right one, this side up. Left one, this side up. We can mark them if you want, but go ahead and give them a try. You’ll have to squish them long ways to get in deep enough, but they should rise to fill.”

Sadie feels her cheeks warm as Ben's smile reveals some of his teeth, her own lips mirroring his expression almost without her realising it, a smile that remains as Ben finishes constructing the earplugs. Sadie mainly focuses on listening to Ben breathe and the sound of his heartbeat as he works, the regularity of the noise pulls her attention to the bedroom and away from most of the noises of the rest of the house. Leaning back, Sadie gropes blindly at her desktop before grabbing a sharpie, writing a quick L and R on the earbuds.

"This is going to feel so damn weird..." Squishing the left bud Sadie carefully starts to put it into her ear, her nose wrinkling and ears flicking at the sensation, "Yep, I was right. Weird."

Once they're in Sadie sags against Ben in relief, things are still louder than before her ears changed but the noises of the house have been massively dampened.

"Thank you, Ben." Sadie is content to relax, however... "Do we know what caused the mass Echo?"

Easing his arm out to allow Sadie to lean further as she retrieves a sharpie from her desk, he keeps the foam plugs in proper orientation for her to mark. He hands each over to her in turn, and watches as she starts with inserting the left side. Subtle as it is, he sympathetically grimaces faintly at the reaction the odd sensation causes as she gets them in place. Regardless, she manages, and the effect is immediate as she slumps against him. The substantial proof comes when she speaks at a level closer to normal voice. Smile returning at her thanks, he nods once while keeping his voice hushed but above a whisper, “I’m happy I could help.”

He secures his tools and tosses them to land next to his backpack, then looks back to Sadie as she mentions the mass Echo. A thoughtful expression sets in as he considers it, “…no. I didn’t see a second aurora while I was driving over. Or anything else odd for that matter. We can check the news and Network and see if anything unusual has been reported.”

With the promise of a warm kotatsu, he shifts to pick Sadie up towards her feet and stands himself to move over to his bag. Benjiro crouches by his backpack to tuck his tools away and retrieve his phone, then walks back to the kotatsu next to her bed. Easing back down, he slides his legs beneath and scoots over before he leans flat to the side of her bed, leaving space for her to sit and then lean against him in turn with his arm around her.

It doesn’t take long looking through his usual haunts to pick up on the disturbance at the waterfront, voice dropping in astonishment, “…this is unreal.” A tsunami, even a small one, is unheard of here.

Whatever it was that caused the Echo was big enough to catch the Numbered but not visible from where they were... It was as concerning as it was confusing but at least now that her hearing was sorted out she could help figure out the cause with the added benefit of taking her mind off of the impending encounter with her parents.

Giving Ben a peck on the cheek as he helps her stand up, she waits for Ben to get underneath the kotatsu before joining him, tucking herself against Ben and resting her head against his chest. Sadie glances up, her ears twitching at Ben's astonishment.

"What happened?" Sadie takes Ben's hand and gets him to tilt the phone towards her and pales as she sees the news, her ears folding all the way back against her skull, "Oh no!" A tsunami. A tsunami that came up the river. There had been no earthquake..."Oh god"

Dumbly staring at the basic report, he looks down to Sadie as she touches his hand and guides it lower where she can see the screen for herself. They may not have felt it, but an earthquake must have stirred the wave from offshore. That or something else in the bay.

The way her ears flatten to her head and the loss of color brings his focus back to her as his thoughts on the disaster are placed on pause, “Sadie...I know it sounds bad, but it didn’t reach too many streets in. It must not have been too high.” Then a thought strikes. It hit High Street. Immediately he closes out the browser and opens the note application on his phone to open his Network connection to check on Walter and Russell.

Sadie watches as Ben switches to the Network to contact Walter and Russell, skin still pale, as she wrings the bottom of her top between her hands. The only time before this when there had been unusual wave activity had been when she had messed around with the barrier.

"...Are Walter and Russell okay?" Sadie questions Ben quietly.

As he searches the Network, he answers her, “I spoke with Russell before I left Moss Manor, so they were awake when it hit.” Careful to avoid triggering the parts with Chad, he looks for activity from either of the men. It doesn’t take long before he spots Walter interacting with someone more recently. Still, just to be certain, he closes the Network and texts both their friend and his cousin directly on their phones to check their status.

Setting the phone to the table top of the kotatsu to wait for a reply, he brings his hand down to lay over her hands tight on her top. Not hiding the worry in his voice, he pleads softly to her as he curls closer, “...Sadie. Please talk to me.” Worrying about their friends should not be making her so distressed, so pale...

Sadie ducks her head as Ben moves closer, "...What if this is my fault...? The only other time that we had an unusual wave was when I messed with the river?"

His arm around her tightens slightly as he understands her distress far better. He tries to assuage her guilt with his voice lowered and a soft squeeze to her hands, “That was fifteen days ago, and the river mouth cannot be the epicenter of the shockwave that brought the wave to shore. It has to be from out in the bay...” Then knowing logic may not be sufficient, he places a kiss to the top of her head and accepts his share, “And even if it is related through an underground connection kilometers long, I get some of the credit...”

Sadie shrinks into Ben's hold and makes a low whining noise, "But what if messing around there made it worse? Maybe I shouldn't have disturbed that spot..."

The way she tucks closer to him urges his hand from her own to bring her into a full embrace with both arms. Cheek against her hair, he replies, “...we were looking for answers. No one has come forward to tell us about the Numbers, and I doubt they will at this point. And the wave is not the first extreme natural phenomenon to hit Mossgate. Remember the sudden cold snap with power outages over holiday? Or the spider swarm at Halloween? Whatever is happening locally has been dangerous before we ever took notice of the river.”

Sadie, Walter, and he never meant harm to anyone.

Sadie listens to Ben from within the shelter made by his embrace, "I know that you're right, but it doesn't feel that way."

She sighs, "...Today's going to be shit..."

Relenting on attempting to sway her guilt with logic, Benjiro sighs faintly. There are spells when emotions overrule any and all logic, and he will have to instead persist over time in giving her the support she needs to recover.

Her comment on the day is met with a ginger squeeze of his arms, “…probably. But, we’ll get through it together and keep going.” His arms loosen some as he starts to smooth a hand up and down along her back, “Let’s try to rest while we can... Once your parents wake up, we’ll talk to them about everything, and then we can lend a hand at the water front once the emergency crews are done.”

One thing at a time.

"Love you, Ben..." Cuddled up against him, with the soothing movement of Ben's had against her back, Sadie lets her eyes drift closed. Ben continuing comfort and the regular thud of his heart sends Sadie drifting off fairly quickly.

A couple of hours or so of dreamless dozing must have passed before the clanking and thudding in the kitchen causes Sadie to stir, 'mrrp'-ing sleepily as she wakes in Ben's hold. Rubbing her eyes she gently nudges Ben, "They're starting breakfast, Ben."

“Love you too, Sadie...” he murmurs in turn, hand continuing to move against her back in a regular pattern. That pattern slows as he feels her muscles fully relaxing as she drifts off into a light sleep. His hand moves around her to hold in a loose hug, and he leans his head back against the edge of her bed to look off at her desk and think through the obstacles ahead. After a while, he closes his eyes to rest them...

And the next thing he knows, Sadie is stirring as he hears that familiar sleepy chirp. Head lifting at her nudge, he looks down as he draws away his top arm from around her. Somewhere he thought he heard footsteps in passing awareness. Keeping his voice hushed, though not at a whisper, he replies with one nod, “Okay... You get dressed, and I’ll text James to give him a heads up.”

Hand offered to help Sadie up to her feet, he waits for her to stand before he stretches and shifts to sit on the edge of her bed. Phone taken back up, he immediately sets to warning James of the new developments and their plan to reveal the secret Numbers to their parents.

Sadie takes a few deep breaths, slowly running through her morning routine to try and psyche herself up for the imminent conversation. After dallying for a bit, Sadie sighs and tears herself away from the mirror on her vanity, grabbing a beanie hat and pulling it over her ears before reaching out for Ben's hand.

"Okay, I'm ready."

Heading downstairs, Sadie's parents and James are in the kitchen; her father over by the cooker with all the ingredients for an extensive cooked breakfast crowding the kitchen worktop, James sat on one of the breakfast bar stools tapping away at his phone and his leg bouncing slightly like Sadie knows it does when he's nervous, and her mother also perched on a stool, frowning at the television as she sips her morning coffee.

Raquel spots them both first, and greets them both with a smile, "Good morning sweetie. Good morning Ben, I thought I saw your shoes by the front door. How are you both this morning?"

Christopher turns away from the stove to wish them a good morning as well, "Do either of you want black pudding with your fry-up this morning?"

Sadie shakes her head and squeezes Ben's hand, "Morning Mum, no thanks, Dad. Ummm...Mum, Dad...Ben and I have something important to tell you..." Sadie trails off nervously, watching as her parents frown at each other and Raquel places her mug down.

"Sadie...I thought your father and I taught you to be far more careful than this." She begins, slipping into what Sadie was familiar with as her Disappointed Healthcare Tone, We had no issue with the two of you sharing a room because we thought we could trust the two of you to be safe and sensible with your private activities. You might be eighteen young lady, but that is far too young an age to be getting pregnant!"

Edited 2019-04-08 14:16 (UTC)

As Sadie readies herself, Benjiro keeps an eye on her, but stays quiet to let her work through her preparation. The extra time taken gives him a chance to stretch more against the lingering soreness and subtly double check that his baggy clothes fit as expected for his own peace of mind. Sending a few more texts and looking for updates on the situation at the waterfront, Benjiro keeps occupied until Sadie walks over and holds a hand out towards him. Phone exchanged in his pocket for his facemask, he stands and takes her hand. He extends a warm smile from behind the cover, one far more confident than he feels, and threads his fingers with her own to secure their contact as they turn to make their way down.

Entering the kitchen, Benjiro straightens his posture when Raquel takes notice of them, and he lifts his free hand in a small wave to reply to her greeting directed at him. His intrusion into their morning is taken in stride, as always. He stays quiet to allow Sadie to broach the difficult conversation ahead of them and gives her hand a little squeeze back. He is with her.

Then after Sadie stalls, her parents exchange a look. Benjiro glances sideways to Sadie as he initially questions how they might have known about what has been going on, only for confusion to grow in the build until Raquel bluntly states their expectation. At the word ‘pregnant’, Benjiro inhales instead of swallows, and turns his head away to cough a few times as his whole face and neck flush with a bright redness. Even before his throat is entirely clear, he tries to correct them, “No, no, no, it’s not-” a couple coughs, “Not that. We haven’t-! ” One more deep cough gets his voice cleared up even as the blushing persists, and he states firmly and slowly with a calmer tone, “…Sadie is not pregnant.”

Steadying breath taken, he transitions to the broader aspect of the Numbers in Mossgate, “What we need to discuss has to do with the strange things that have been happening. The aurora borealis last summer, rampant poppy flowers, the lost birds, spiders covering everything, coal-filled stockings… Those were widespread and affecting everyone, but some local individuals have been targeted more directly.... Including us.” Benjiro turns to look to Sadie with his blush fading and his brow pinched. He gives a small nod to encourage her to take over then releases her hand to put his arm around her shoulders and move closer to her.

Ben isn't the only one taken completely by surprise by Raquel's remark; Sadie's reaction nearly mirrors Ben, just with a very loud, indignant "MUM!" to go alongside her flaming-red face. There is the sound of clattering and then a loud crack followed by a "Shit!" as James fumbles and drops his phone in surprise, ultimately sacrificing his phone screen to the miscommunication.

"Oh my god Mum, we haven't even done that yet. I'm not pregnant!" Sadie whines, face still doing its best impression of being on fire as her gaze moves between her mother and father. Ben and she certainly have their attention now, and then attention only becomes more pronounced as Ben speaks from the way her father's brow creased, and the way her mother watches them both like a hawk. Ben's arm, almost like a shield, encourages her to continue on where he left off.

"There...are some people who react differently to these weird things," Sadie picks up, voice still somewhat unsteady with nerves, "In lots of different ways but the biggest way is physical."

"React physically?" Raquel's voice is hard, no-nonsense as she stands up and walks around the breakfast bar to stand in front of Ben and Sadie, "Sadie, what do you mean by 'react physically'?"

"...It started with the Aurora," With shaking hands, Sadie reaches up to her eye and starts to remove her contact lenses as carefully as possible, "Everything felt empty and then my eyes went weird," The second contact lens comes off and Sadie finally looks at her parents with Q'uila's eyes, her nerves are making the slitted pupils wider but the effect is still clearly not human. And now that she's started, Sadie finds the words tumbling out of her mouth one after the other, in quick succession, because if she stops now she isn't sure that she'll actually be able to start speaking again.

"And then after Halloween, I grew claws, and then I knew I had to tell you today because this happened this morning" Claws extended for her parents to see, she pulls the beanie from her head to fully display her new ears which are plastered tightly back against her skull. Sadie winces as three separate gasps can be heard in the kitchen and the shaking of her hands gets even worse, "I didn't know how to tell you Mum, and then I-I just couldn't. I'm sorry."

A sound denial from the two teenagers yields greater focus from her parents, which is precisely what is required to ease them into divulging all the secrets kept regarding the Numbers over the months. That attention nudges his heartrate faster, but he remains calm overall with nothing more than faint lines of worry around his eyes. He keeps close to Sadie, his hand at her shoulder faintly squeezing as her mother comes closer in front of them.

All he can do is watch as she reveals her physical changes, one by one, with anxiety hastening her words and taking the steadiness of her hands. The wince he feels from her seems to travel right through him as he hears the audible gasps from her family. Arm curling at her shoulders in a small hug, he speaks again to explain further as looks from Sadie back to her family with a delay, “…A-all of us were scared when this started. We literally could not show anyone that was not targeted what was happening to us, and trying to tell anyone we trusted would have been more damaging than anything. There’s still so much we don’t understand, but as things continued to progress, we realized how dangerous it could be for everyone involved to ask for assistance. If all of this came out…” He trails off with a flicker of real fear passing in his eyes.

Then taking in a deeper breath, he reaches up to slip the loops of his facemask from over his ears, and lowers the cover down. As he speaks again, his pointed teeth show as he looks to her parents, gaze nervously switching between them and away, “Everyone is affected differently, and we each have a unique Number. The Number links to someone else, and when we change, it relates to that individual somehow.”

“…we don’t know why this is happening to us,” he adds more quietly with a partial bow of his head as he restrains himself from overwhelming them with too much information at once.

Raquel takes a step forward and reaches out, gently untangling the beanie from within Sadie's clawed gasp and placing it onto the counter. Sadie freezes stone-still as her mum pulls her forward from Ben into a crushing hug.

"Oh my little one, you must have been so scared," Sadie nods into her mum's shoulder as she starts to shake and sniffle, "It's alright, Mamá has you now. Ssshhh, we've got you, sweetie."

Sadie starts to cry in earnest as Christopher comes forward to wrap his arms around both of them and gently sway the group in a gentle rocking motion, the gentle whispers of Spanish alongside Sadie's muffled crying now the only noises in the very quiet kitchen. After a minute or two, Raquel pulls herself away from Sadie and Christopher, Sadie turning to bury her face into her Dad's shirt, claws gripping it tightly as Raquel moves over to Ben and places a hand on each of his shoulders.

"Young man," She stares up at him with red-rimmed eyes, "You must have been terrified as well. We've got you too now, alright?" Standing slightly shorter than her daughter, Raquel has to stand on tip-toes to hug Ben.

"We will care for you both."

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Been workblocked all day trying to write this

/shakes fist at work and fatigue

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Wrote this last night and forgot to hit post

It happens

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It begins \o/

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