saveourearth | Water, Water Everywhere

Entry tags:

Water, Water Everywhere

Date: March 1st ; ETA: March 2nd
Characters: Walter Weekes, Sadie Moore ; ETA: Walter Weekes and Benjiro Thorne

It hasn't even been a full week, and though Walter's learned much he is still struggling without sight apart from the not-quite-darkness of webspace.

More mundanely, the house is still barely livable after the disastrous flooding; Ben's assistance, among other things, has been vital towards getting the place drained and dry.

Other visits - like Sadie's - are much appreciated, and Walter is well aware of what chaos Echoes have been wreaking in her life lately.

His mind keeps coming back to that water, though, and he can never quite settle, never quite relax-

The next day comes the first chance to test a possible workaround - finally, finally, by Walter's account, though he still feels guilty for having the notion.

After all, he's not in charge of the passage of time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Shit. Still, doesn't make it any easier especially with the Echoes' always excellent timing."

Sadie eyes the door behind her, "Shall we go into the lounge, we can sit and chat and I can take my hat off out of view of the broken door?"

"Ben did help with the door," Walter points out.

"But, yes, that would probably be best."

Sadie follows Walter into the lounge, keeping an eye on his progress through the house and sighing in relief when Walter proves his ability to navigate through the flat. Sitting down Sadie sighs in relief as she removes her woollen hat, ears twitching and swivelling now that it is safe to have them out.

"At least there were people out and about," Sadie continues from Walter's point about those who were far less fortunate during the wave, "Ben and I went to help after speaking to my parents but I wasn't much help, especially once I encountered Chad. I, er, didn't react well to being bowled over by a naked man behaving like a dog, to say the least." She grimaces at the memory, that was probably one of the most embarrassing things that had ever happened to her.

While Sadie is grimacing at that... well, embarrassing is probably putting it lightly, she'll get that feeling she'd had when consoling Ben about the gauntlets and his continued growth.

And then - brightness, desaturating quickly into a forest scene that is almost picturesque. Faintly, Sadie can hear singing - many voices in harmony, ethereal, charmed, like something in a dream.

The forest is too thick to see where those voices are coming from. The only person she'll be able to make out is a mere five feet away from her, halfway between curling up and kneeling on the bank of a stream. She looks shabbily-dressed and thin, and can't be more than thirteen years old.

She also looks like she's listening for something.

There is that small but immediate moment of alarm that Sadie is familiar with from both her eyes as she appears in an unfamiliar place but, combining the headache prior and the fact that she cannot feel any breeze or temperature, she is quick to realise that this is like what happened with Ben. Which means that this is a memory of Walter's...

Sadie spots the young girl but glances about, seeing if she can spot Walter and frowning when the girl remains the only person in sight. This was very strange but she continues to watch the girl, maybe she would glean some answers from her.

"Downstream. Of course - we weren't to go down there! We were told!"

The exclaim is deliberately hushed, making her voice lower than its usual register - and then the girl is up and off to the right, away from the singing's apparent source, dashing along the stream.

The streambed deepens, becoming more of a river, with harsher currents. After three minutes of running (presuming Sadie) tries to follow, they come upon children.

Some are on the riverbed; those are the ones making noise, mostly screaming. The rest are in the river, painfully silent.

Some of the latter aren't even moving. And some are underwater.

"We are to be quiet," the girl warns, grabbing a nearby sturdy-looking stick - and she darts in to the river. The stick is a prop; most of the rescue work has to be done by hand, especially for those who aren't even struggling...

Edited 2019-03-24 17:28 (UTC)

Sadie follows the girl briskly along the river bank, her ears pinning back as concern starts to mount. Concern that is replaced completely by horror as she takes in the scene in the river before her. The children on the river bank screaming whilst the singing from up the river continues on without pause.

Sadie can only watch on, hands shakily coming up to cover her mouth, knowing that in this world of memories she is a ghost who can change nothing about the scene in front of her.

The preteen - Mildred, as Sadie might overhear one of the children that stayed on the bank shout in thanks - is the only one not making any noise.

There are six children stuck in the river; each one she fishes out carefully, laying them in the recovery position away from the river one-by-one, applying what can be recognized as rudimentary CPR when they're all out, getting more soaked and bedraggled all the while.

The work is not done, even as the children regain consciousness; one of the younger children (whom Sadie can note has the same hair color as Mildred) points out someone's gotten stuck in the current.

Again there is no hesitance; she dives back into the river and starts swimming.

"Yay Millie! My big sister is the best," the child who'd pointed out the straggle cheers, consciously trying to not shout.

"Not yours, Haley, ours," a sandy-haired boy corrects. He looks to be about the young girl's age.

Sadie might recognize that name, as well; it's not as if Walter's hidden his sister's identity during his time in Mossgate.

Edited 2019-03-25 19:14 (UTC)

Sadie hunkers down on the river bank next to where the children from the river are being placed, jaw clenched tight in frustration at not being able to do anything. Just like with Ben, she has no choice but to watch the past play out.

The names of Millie and Haley catch her attention, Walter had mentioned his little sister Haley but never any other sibling, and he never spoke of anyone called Millie. Sadie grimaced, a picture was starting to form in her head, and if it was true then this was a massive invasion of privacy.

It is some minutes before Mildred returns, further mussed and soaked, carrying the child that is clearly the smallest of the lot in her arms.

It's not easy to tell if he's breathing (making the other kids quiet down as they try to discern such for themselves), but subsequent application of CPR brings the boy back to wakefulness.

The rest of the kids - including those previously rescued - huddle close and hold hands. Their voices raise in wordless harmony, an echo of the melody still ringing from upstream...

As the memory Echo ends, the girl in the center of it all still does not sing.

Walter winces. Knowing now what had happened to Chad put all imagining he could do of that encounter in a rather negative light.

"Not something anyone should have to go through, I think."

Sadie groans as the feeling of disorientation and a stabbing migraine sets in though in what appeared to be mere seconds she's shaking her head and blinking to reorientate herself to the room.

"Walter, do you have any paracetamol?" This was the second time that this had happened, she should probably start carrying around her own painkillers at this rate.

Edited 2019-03-31 15:31 (UTC)

Walter's "Yes?" comes after the most infinitesimal of pauses.

"I can go get it now, if you'd like? I'll keep the lights here off."

Fortunately, that much he could accomplish on muscle memory.

"Yes please, Walter," Sadie massages her temples, "...So...It turns out that a memory and motion sickness wasn't the only thing I received from my trip to the bottom of the river."

Since Walter doesn't run to the kitchen, he's gone-and-back in a somewhat more perceivable timeframe - a full minute, not a matter of seconds.

It helps that this is a familiar task and path for him, and that he remembers where everything is, even after the flood's... unsettled things.

He hands her the paracetamol as he asks, "How so, Sadie? What happened?"

Sadie gratefully accepts the paracetamol from Walter upon his return and swallows the two pills, "Ben had a panic attack the other week," She admits quietly, looking up at Walter, "Don't let him know I told you but... You know those giant, metal gauntlets that he got when we all Echoed at the river? I crouched down to examine them in his garage and, well, the way he described it afterwards was that he finally figured out exactly how large he's going to get and the proportions of the person he's Echoing. He was scared of himself"

Sadie sniffs as she trails off, the incidence was still upsetting to think about. She hated that Ben had been so clearly terrified, "When I was trying to help calm him down, there was this sudden splitting pain in my head and then I wasn't in the garage anymore, I was in a bedroom. Ben's bedroom. But he was tiny, and his sister was just a baby. I was stuck watching things happen and I couldn't do anything, little Ben walked through me like I was a ghost. And then just like that, I was back in the garage and no time had passed...We figured out later that I saw one of his childhood memories."

Sadie's ears fold back, "'M sorry Walter, I think I saw one of your memories..."

Walter's expressions as Sadie explains are a continuous chain of stricken-yet-not-surprised, worried, and not the least amount of guilt.

"He's- indicated something similar before, to me." And as much as Walter detests keeping this kind of secret from Ben, they both know how he feels about people worrying about him.

The second half of Sadie's explanation instills a bit more horror.

"So, you can receive Echoes of someone else's memories?"

He cuts himself off, not wanting to scare Sadie.

"But you can't control it?"

Perhaps like how Jimmy couldn't (yet) control noticing every small imperfection, or Sam Stone his sense of smell...

"I worry," Sadie admits, "That he's going to shrink into himself again. And when his changes become more extreme...I know it's going to hurt him, to hide away...Im worried about everyone else too." Sadie now knows just how lucky she is going to be with what remains of her physical changes, and that just makes her worries about the others worse.

Sadie shakes her head, "If I could I would never let it happen. I don't like it, it feels like an invasion of privacy."

She's silent for a moment, her gaze fixed on Walter's face when she continues, "There was a river, in a forest, and adults chanting..."

"I feel the same way," Walter says.

"How we're going to hold ourselves together, or adapt, when things just keep happening."

He sighs.

"We can only keep being there for him."

The topic shifts back to the memory, though, and for a moment he's just plain puzzled.

"I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific. Those were- fairly common backdrops, if it's the timeframe I think you're thinking of."

"There were children in and by the river...You saved them from drowning didn't you?"

At that, Walter momentarily stops breathing.

But he resumes, just as quickly, shoulders slumping.

"That happened more than once, as well. But I do know what you're talking about."

Two dueling impulses - both the want for a hug right now, and to absolutely not have one.

"Three times, all in one year. Just when I thought they were doing it on purpose, they stopped."

Sadie's ears lie flat against her head, her gaze shifting to and from Walter's face. So she was correct... Sadie would rather that she wasn't.

"I'm sorry, Walter. It should have been your choice, 'm sorry that that was taken from you."

Walter could have denied it outright, said it was fine - but it wasn't, and Sadie was right. Even though he'd rather bite back his anger (and no small amount of his horror), he had a right to it in the first place.

But Sadie wasn't going to push for more context. Somehow, that itself made a difference.

Instead of going for a hug, Walter moves over to sink into the sofa, hugging knees-to-chest like he hadn't done regularly in... years, really.

(Regularly, that is; the last time he's done this is more on the timeline of months than years.)

"I'm sorry, too. But it's not the first thing being Numbered has taken from any of us, let alone me.

"And..." he continues, pausing deliberately, seeking eye contact with Sadie for this next part, "It bothers you more how you learned it, than what you learned about me?"

Insecurity comes through most clearly now.

This is all wrong. The way Walter was huddled on the sofa. That's not how he should ever be feeling!

"That just makes it even worse that this was taken from you!" Sadie blurts out, claws pricking at her jeans, "This sort of thing is so, so personal. I shouldn't have had this information unless you wanted me to have it. It feels...dirty to have been informed without your permission, like taking something that wasn't mine to take."

She sniffs and mirrors Walter's pose, "I wasn't joking, when I called you big brother. You are a big brother to me."

His mouth quirks, thinking on Webmind's own exploits in that area.

But you are not him, comes the rebuttal.

"It might not have come up at all," he ends up saying.

"It's just- not relevant, day-to-day. But though it's not precisely hiding, it's still a large portion of my life to just not share." And how far could a friendship - or any kind of bond - progress, if there was that much being held back?

And contrariwise, what did it say about those friends he had anyway, those who simply "never needed to know"?

His position slackens slightly, wishing he could at least see Sadie's face, do more than just read her tone and hear where she is.

"I'm glad. I'm glad that I've gained that much. That I can give you that." He deliberately refrains from saying we again; it feels more like a reminder of the Bad Old Days, in this context.

no subject

Gonna do The Thing next tag, I think.

no subject

The Thing

no subject

CW: Drowning (Not Heavily Detailed)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Back in the Present

no subject

no subject

no subject

Because keeping pain meds in the kitchen AND closet is a thing in my house.

We keep them in the kitchen

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject