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catherine-bisset · 8 months ago

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Walk & Talk

ft. @aresmelaina | In which Cat and Ares meet (February 2043)

CAT

He went for short walks outside the clinic. Cat observed Ares on two such walks, caught at random during her loops of the territory. Had to ask Isaac who he was by description. The final Raider. Nicki's chosen partner, Cat remembered.

And so she waited for another walk, casually falling into step beside him. Without fanfare, Cat offered what she'd found at his home. "You've been needing this," Cat punctuated her greeting with a wave of Ares' hairbrush.

ARES

"Oh, hey?" Needless to say Ares was surprised when a woman he hadn't really seen before suddenly appeared right beside him and handed him a hairbrush that looked exactly like his. Or rather, it was his. "Thanks?" Most people in Redwood didn't lock their doors, and he and Lucien weren't an exception, so there was no question as to how she'd gotten it. Also, he did need a hairbrush (and a haircut, honestly), so the why seemed an open enough answer. Still, he was thinking about why as he realized he'd been standing there holding the hairbrush, just looking at her. He shook his head.

"Uh, hi. I don't think we know each other. I'm Ares, but something makes me think you know me. Hope you only heard good things."

CAT

He stopped, she stopped. "I know who you are." Had to in order to locate the correct brush."Isaac named you a raider. Nicki's chosen partner. Wounded presently." Facts rattled off in neutral observation.

"Isaac has chosen me, as well." This. This was not neutral. This was pride, dangerously close to bragging. "I wanted to meet the team." A pause and she added, "I chose Catherine but people keep saying Cat, instead. So, choose as you please, as well, Ares."

ARES

He blinked, a bit surprised but quickly adjusting to the way she responded. Short, quick and to the point, like she was cutting anything unneccessary away from what she was saying. "Gonna go with Cat, since that's shorter. Nice to meet you, Cat."

So far, this whole thing felt mildly overwhelming, but Ares adjusted quickly, giving her a friendly smile. "So... you know Ike? Or do you just get along that well that he asked you to join the raiders?" His voice was playful, and he thought about nudging her with his elbow, but he wasn't sure if she wanted him to touch her, so he resisted. "How long have you been in town, anyway? I wasn't here for a couple of weeks, so I think I might've missed some stuff."

CAT

The nod was perfunctory. "Yes," she answered the question about Isaac simply. "We spent time together. Before Redwood."

She considered. It had been so long since tracking time's passage with accuracy had been possible. In the end she chose the time marker everyone else used. "I arrived after the Ranch confrontation."

With no information that Ares would have missed otherwise, Cat left it there. "Is the medical staff here competent?"

ARES

Time together before Redwood? And they were close, too; even if she'd only been here shortly. His brain worked with the information, like it did when he was out on raids.

"What?" Her question pulled him out of his train of thoughts, a sudden change in topic that he didn't really expect but followed. "Uh, yeah, I'd say so. I mean, they fixed me back up." He gestured at himself with the hairbrush like a piece of evidence and a smile. "Renee's a pretty good doctor, Val's good too. I don't know about Frank, he's new, but I think he probably is too." He regarded her for a moment, then looked around and lowered his voice a little.

"You don't gotta answer if you don't want to. But - were you one of the Reavers?"

CAT

Renee. Cat's eyes narrowed, hands fisting at her sides. The cause of Isaac's pain. The terrible scar. Not to be trusted. Buzzing drowned out Ares' other answers.

The alternating of volume was all that pulled Cat back. Pointedly relaxing her hands again, she shrugged. "Yes." It was news spreading as it would, no point in lying. "Does this bother you?" He'd worked it out quickly enough, there were more gears turning than his aw shucks facade implied.

ARES

Her answer was open, not really casual but also not ashamed. Matter of fact, really, the same way Isaac talked about his time. Ares still blinked, a bit surprised, though he should've been used by that. And then the question if it bothered him.

"No. No, that's not what I meant. I mean, even if it did, not much I could do. You're already here, aren't you?" Ares smiled, careful but hopefully encouraging. "I mean, you're not part of them now, so it's all good. Ike probably wouldn't have made you a raider if you were." They were slowly making a round on the clinic perimeter. Ares blew out a breath. "So... how do you like this place?"

CAT

He spoke so much; filler words. Uncertain scrambles to be understood. To be pleasing. Isaac would use that. On raids, Cat reasoned, Ares would be quiet.

"You understand more quickly than others." An offer, an assurance, experiment in praise. Ares had, after all, tried very hard to explain.

Somewhere there was a braying, then a child's laugh. "I haven't decided." Isaac said there could be a place for her here; yet he'd gone beyond the wall. The residents were of passing interest. Few offered novelty. "Do you?"

ARES

"Oh, uh, thanks!" Ares lightened up a little a the unexpected praise. He felt like he was starting to understand her slowly. Bringing him his hairbrush was her way of being social, trying to get to know people. She seemed closed-off, but she was new here, she didn't know anybody, aside from Ike.

"I like it here. The people are nice, I got a place to sleep. I got family here too. Lucien, the librarian, if you've met him. He's my brother." He looked at her for a moment. "It's was kind of hard to settle in at first, when I came from out there. I guess it's been like that for you too?"

CAT

She grunted faintly at his gratitude. The majority of her attention was ahead of Ares' steps; scanning for what could impede his progress. Permitting him to trip and fall wouldn't be acceptable.

He just handed information over in a manner a stranger might mistake for gormless. No, Cat could see the shape of him; imagine the violence applied by those hands. It was good Isaac was aiming such a force.

She would have to visit the library.

"Yes." Sidelong, Cat observed him in return. Difficulty settling was a way to say it. "I feel safer outside the wall... Understand it more." Cat watched the ground ahead of Ares again for several yards before asking, "How did you adjust?"

ARES

He hadn't expected that. Most people didn't want to stay outside of the walls, let alone feel safe out there. But then again, the raiders probably weren't most people. "Yeah, I get that. Kind of. Because of the fighting and the surviving, right? You're more used to that?" Maybe she was so used to being with the Reavers that she couldn't imagine much else.

"Badly. Kind of." He thought about it, staring up in the air above them, watching his own huffed breath dissipate. "I mean, I wanted to be in Redwood because hey, it's a safe place in the middle of the apocalypse. I was alone for a while before Redwood, and I didn't like that." He paused, considered, biting down on his bottom lip and letting it slip out between his teeth before he continued. "Before that I was in prison. And after that with a scavenger group. They were nothing like Redwood. It was hard settling. I don't know, it felt like I was treading water the whole time. It didn't feel like I really... fit in. I think I do now, though. Feels like it, at least." He turned his attention back onto her. "Why are you staying here when you want to be out there?"

CAT

Raider, Cat reminds herself. Of everyone here, Cat expected they were the group Isaac most wanted her to bond with. "Yes. Instinct. Survival without politics." No demand to tolerate the weak and the threats. "No walls."

He stopped watching where he was going, prickling Cat's spine. "Why do you believe it's safe here?" Because it felt like a place to belong? Isaac had told her she could have something similar. Cat wondered if he hadn't told each Raider that story.

The prison admission gave her pause. Opportunity for exchange. "I was also imprisoned. Years ago." She didn't avoid his eye as she shared. Cat felt no shame over this fact.

She shrugged at Ares' final question, as though it were obvious. "Isaac is here."

ARES

"You're a con too?" Was that why she didn't like the walls? Because it made her feel like being back in prison? He couldn't blame her for that, really. Prison wasn't an easy place to be. Though, she still wanted to stay, for Ike.

"You and Ike are really close, huh? If you're staying for him. Ike... yeah, he kind of has that effect, right?" Ares couldn't say he was staying for Ike, or that their relationship had always been great, but right now, it was good. Comfortable. He was the head raider, and Ares was one of his. Maybe it was the same for Cat.

"I mean, nothing is really safe, but it's safer, right? The walls keep walkers and people out, and we've got medicine and weapons, and everybody looks out for each other. I was... I traveled alone for some time, before I came here. I didn't like it, and the town seems so much better. I got people here I love, and we look out for each other. So it's safer here. Or at least better."

CAT

"Yes." Decades of instinct demanded she not share more, but the idea had been to bond. "I killed monsters, Ares. They put me in a cage, because I was dangerous."

Close. "Yes. We share an agony." As did Orion, it seemed. One soul across several physical forms would explain the vacant expanse inside. Pour into it as she did, nothing would ever suffice short of reunion. "I would burn the stars to keep him warm."

Love was an alien concept, not meant for her. Still, Cat understood it was a desirable connection for most people. "I've never enjoyed the price of community."

ARES

Ares hadn't expected that. "So you killed somebody and they locked you up for it?" It reminded Ares of the story Mike had told him, though for Mike, it'd been an accident. "Did they hurt you? The person you killed?"

Talking to her left Ares with Ares with some questions. It was as if Cat wanted to answer questions, but not give too much away at the same time. So she just told the bare gist of what'd happened, the things that were important. Maybe she wasn't comfortable with sharing more. "The price of community? You mean the walls?" Ares turned to look. He could see the watchtowers dotting the walls, always manned. He thought about it.

"Do you regret it? Killing them?"

CAT

Nodding, Cat's hands curled inside the hoodie pocket. "Children. They hurt children, Ares. I did what nobody else would." And half the world had called her monster.

Cat stared at the walls when Ares mentioned them. "Walls, rules, catering to the whims of those who misuse the power they hold." Alone it was Cat's choices and consequences alone.

The final question. The constant question. Even for court, even for money, Harmony hadn't and Cat wouldn't lie. "No. Never."

ARES

"Shit. That's bad." And she'd ha to deal with that on her own? Ares wondered whether he should ask more. Cat was being vague, always just telling the gist of what happened. She probably wasn't comfortable with more.

"Well, it's not really like that here. Especially as a raider. The rules are pretty easy, and you only really have to listen to Ike. He kind of deals with everything." And she probably didn't mind that part. "Maybe you'll even like it here."

His grin faded when Cat turned his own question back to him. "Oh. Yeah. Some of it." Being kicked out. Going to prison. What he'd done before Redwood. "Can't really change it, though. It happened. I don't think about it a lot anymore." He breathed out slowly, watching white whisps dissipate. "Must be nice to not regret anything."

CAT

Bad wasn't a big enough word. There was no word large enough to hold The Family inside of it. Even reduced to ash all people summoned for an urn was tragedy. Interviews and books and articles and the movie and still language was found wanting. "Yes."

Unsettling that Ares said they had to listen to Isaac. Compulsory obedience, not loyalty. More troubling was Isaac being framed as sole authority in Ares' eyes. Brother Sparrow knows your path. Listen. Trust. Love. Obey. Isaac must have known this was how Ares saw things. Why permit it?

That he thought Cat could ever be happy under another thumb was a cold reminder of the gulf between her and other people. When she spoke, Cat was careful not to sound as withdrawn as she felt. "Regret is a performance, Ares. It doesn't change the past, and God isn't here to impress with self-flagellation anymore."

#thread #re: ares #thank youuuuu

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