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Post by e on Jul 16, 2021 13:34:34 GMT -6
Another grand, another thread.
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Post by The Traveler on Jul 16, 2021 14:05:36 GMT -6
Miranda halted and pulled her outstretched hand to her chest, fingers curling slightly. Her other hand came up to hold it, as if to check and see for herself if it was too hot to touch.
But they were cold, as they always were.
Miranda tried not to take it personally as she responded.
"We might've gotten the result we wanted, but we were forced to take the methods that we did," she replied quietly. She started walking again, going past Ben up to the front door as she continued. "Methods that we both know affected you in more ways than it affected me. But, sure. You're okay."
Miranda dropped the subject as she fumbled for the key, searching her damp pockets before finding it, unlocking to door, and stepping inside.
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Post by e on Jul 16, 2021 14:18:33 GMT -6
Ben had been biting his tongue for days.
Why stop now?
He let her go inside, following shortly after, going straight for the shower nearest his room after grabbing a change of clothes.
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Post by The Traveler on Jul 16, 2021 15:08:45 GMT -6
Miranda watched Ben disappear behind the bathroom door, and turned to go into her room.
She sat down at her desk, and pulled out two journals from the drawer. After carefully setting aside the watch and her tools, and putting her glasses on, she opened the first journal, flipping pages until she got to the angel section. Miranda jotted down the new information, or what she surmised to be new information: that after a certain power absorption threshold, an angel developed a halo.
Alex probably knew about the halos. So, it was new information for Miranda.
She flipped the page over to her case study of Ben and wrote down more specific information about his halo, to the best of her recollection: it matched his wings and sword, and was geometric in nature, beginning as a triangle and gradually gaining more sides until they became imperceptible and basically a circle, before looping back to a triangle.
It occured to Miranda that she had neglected to write down what touching Ben's wings felt like when she was about to describe the additional effects of passing that power absorption threshold. And she had to stop, put her mechanical pencil down, and think for a moment.
That moment turned into many minutes as she stared at the wall.
"That's when it started," she murmured. "No, maybe not when it started. That occured later. But it was the genesis."
Her fingers found her pencil again, but still Miranda thought, tapping the edge of the eraser end of the mechanical pencil against the composition notebook.
Ultimately, Miranda decided to add the effects and feelings to the Ben case study versus the generic angel section, as she couldn't figure out how to separate the objective from the subjective. She did the same for the effects and feelings that were induced after the power absorption threshold, adding a rhetorical question on if they were related since they were so similar.
"Thought I'd be going faster than this," Miranda murmured with a groan. She rubbed her eyes beneath her glasses and flipped the notebook closed, standing and stretching stiff and sore muscles.
She went over to her door and opened it, checking to see if Ben was done in the shower yet.
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Post by e on Jul 16, 2021 16:01:25 GMT -6
The bathroom door left opened signaled to Miranda that he was done.
Ben had, in fact, gone straight from the shower to bed. If Miranda had gone to check on him, she would have found him sound asleep after an exhausting day.
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Post by The Traveler on Jul 16, 2021 16:23:31 GMT -6
Miranda gathered her pajamas in her arms and went to go take her shower next. She did check in on Ben, but only after she emerged from the bathroom, now warm and clean, and saw that his door was still closed.
She hoped sleep would come easy to her as much as it had come to Ben.
In truth, Miranda did all she could to stave off sleep. Between writing in her more personal journal about the day's events (feeling her grandmother die before seeing it actually happen, like Nisha; fear at Trisha arriving; fear of losing Ben to Kat; instead feeling Kat's death and then hearing the subsequent wet explosion; and Ben after) to finishing up the watch to even browsing TV channels and whatever streaming services the owner of this AirBnB paid for for something to watch while she ate a meager dinner of granola bars, snap peas and hummus, and deli meat.
It was the full stomach that eventually did her in, and after tossing and turning for a minute or so, Miranda fell asleep.
-
Miranda jolted awake in a cold sweat, panting heavily. She flung her blankets off and buried her face in her hands.
The nightmare again. It was the same, but details had changed - the setting now took place at the manor, and instead of Agatha with the flute, it was Kat holding chains made of fire wrapped around the necks of her family and friends. She slew Elinora. Then Ben, watching Miranda intently as his blood somehow only covered both her and Miranda. And then it was Kat that ordered the lizard man to finish her, and she woke up as the monster's jaws closed around her head.
Politeness be damned.
Miranda crawled out of bed, crossed the hallway, and peeked into Ben's room.
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Post by e on Jul 16, 2021 16:34:25 GMT -6
Surprisingly, Ben Wake was still asleep. Or, at the very least, had woken up but had fallen asleep again when Miranda came to check on him. Perhaps even a sleep averse brain such as his finally needed to catch up after several days filled with travel and mayhem.
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Post by The Traveler on Jul 16, 2021 16:49:34 GMT -6
Miranda stepped inside and quietly shut the door behind her. After waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dark, she tiptoed over to the vacant side of the bed, but stopped just short of climbing into the mattress.
She looked down at her hand. The same one she had reached out to him earlier.
Miranda scanned the room for a less intimate but still comfortable way to physically support her body - a desk chair, perhaps, like her room had.
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Post by e on Jul 16, 2021 17:41:32 GMT -6
As the darkness around her gave way, the room looked practically untouched saved for the boy currently in bed and tossed sheets as a result of him. If the bed were made, the next guest would likely have no complaints about the state of the room.
The chair in the room sat neatly pushed under the desk.
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Post by The Traveler on Jul 16, 2021 18:02:23 GMT -6
Miranda went over and grabbed the back of the chair, pulling it over to the side of Ben's bed. She adjusted it so that she would be sitting next to versus facing the bed.
She sat down in the chair, sliding down slightly to make sure she wouldn't fall forward. Miranda frowned, shifting her weight; the chair wasn't...comfortable, sitting like this. But it probably wouldn't matter as soon as she was in Ben's dream space.
Miranda looked over at Ben as she rehearsed in her head what she would say to Ben and Emma if they saw her, checking to see what was available for her to touch: ideally a hand or an arm, but if worse comes to worse, she'd opt to lay her hand on his forehead.
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Post by e on Jul 16, 2021 20:21:02 GMT -6
“A sleeping bear” is the common image evoked when attempting to describe a large, temporarily inactivated threat that could be alerted. Ben had called himself a landmine or a gun constantly pointed at your head.
Neither of those were particularly apt right now.
Ben Wake right now looked like an exhausted snake. Potentially deadly if need be, recent events made it abundantly clear that many people were afraid of what he was.
Was it deserved?
That depends on the snake, probably.
He was relatively sprawled out over the comforter, but the way he was positioned seemed like it was chosen so that he could get up quickly.
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Post by The Traveler on Jul 16, 2021 20:33:20 GMT -6
An arm seemed the closest, so that's what Miranda opted for.
She reached out with her good arm, and laid her hand across his forearm, closing her eyes.
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Post by e on Jul 17, 2021 12:44:53 GMT -6
((Random question: Sid, what are your thoughts on Harry Potter? I’ve never read the books, but my girlfriend and I just finished rewatching all the movies in order and I’m curious as to what you think.))
The warping effect was something Miranda was likely used to by now, being suddenly pulled into some sort of mental landscape.
The somewhat uncomfortable chair had turned into the edge of Emma’s dangerously fluffy bedsheets as Miranda found herself in the girl’s upstairs room.
As would be expected, the sound of a conversation could family be heard from somewhere downstairs.
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Post by The Traveler on Jul 17, 2021 13:37:21 GMT -6
((Man it's been a while since I've read the books. Or watched the movies, actually. I watched movies 1 and 2 first when I was a kid, and then I started reading the books because there was more story that was finished and I couldn't wait for movie 3 to come out.
I enjoyed them. Younger me would probably say that the books were better than the movies, and I'm inclined to agree, mostly because there's a lot more detail that can be put into the books. I'm sure you've heard of Peeves the Poltergeist, who's a prankster ghost at Hogwarts that's not mentioned anywhere in the movies, but happens to be in each of the books; or the fact that Dumbledore asks Harry calmly if he put his name into the Goblet of Fire in the book, but practically yells at him in the movie version. But to the best of my recollection, the movies are pretty faithful to the story in the books, just more streamlined.
Also, I kind of like them as a pair, because the movies helped me visualize some of the creatures that have obscure names in the books that I had a really hard time picturing, like the thestrals, and even some of the events and locations, like the grotto Dumbledore and Harry go to in movie 6.
Also I just realized your actual question was about Harry Potter in general, whoops.
I mean...younger me was probably more into Harry Potter than I am now. I'd probably say I'm a more casual fan now. It follows the tried and true Hero's Journey story template. I tend to like movies 1 and 2 a little more than the rest of them, I felt like the tone of the movies shifted a lot when they made movies 3-8, which is to be expected, the story-line does get darker as Harry gets older and becomes more aware of the world around him and of Voldemort himself. Kid-Sid didn't like that at all, but begrudgingly accepted the change.
I guess I don't really have any criticisms for Harry Potter, but I'm certain it has its own faults that I'm a little blind to thanks to growing up with the books and the movies, and the fact that its been some time since I've both watched and read them. I can go into a lot more detail than I'm doing now, but I don't know how far you want to go into this rabbit hole.))
Miranda pulled herself out of the bed, as usual, and made her way out of Emma's bedroom and into the upstairs hallway.
She looked left and right, considering her options. Downstairs was, obviously, where Ben and Emma were. Like she had told herself earlier, she wasn't going to go barging into their conversation or activities uninvited or unexpected; instead, Miranda planned on locating a pleasant, but out of the way upstairs room to occupy for the remainder of the night.
Still. She could sort of hear their conversation.
And after yesterday's events and Ben's behavior, her curiosity drove Miranda to creep over to the top of the stairway to listen, just long enough to get a sense of the conversation.
Just be prepared to hear something you might not like, she told herself as she listened.
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Post by e on Jul 17, 2021 17:22:01 GMT -6
“He’ll be fine. I don’t think it will be too hard to get his name cleared. I’ve pulled much heavier strings before.” Ben was easy to hear, his voice echoing up the stairwell.
“And the other three?” Emma’s always a little breathy voice carried less, but Miranda could still make out what she was saying.
“They’ll be fine. I’ll give them a years rent somewhere. That seems fair enough, they seem like they can take care of themselves. They’ve managed to survive in a warehouse, so anything is better than that.”
“And Miranda?”
There was a pause before Ben spoke.
“I dunno.”
“You mean you do know, you just don’t know how to go about it.” Emma insisted.
“I’m still figuring it out. I-“
His voice abruptly disappeared.
Emma sighed before she continued.
“What a shame. I’m not sure whether that’s good or bad timing.” She suddenly got louder as she said, “You can come down now. It’s much more comfortable than the stairs.”
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