that's the price we pay when we living on the otherside

[phosphor]

After months in Darrow with no sign at all of a way back - no sudden revelations of insight, no Mephisto appearing, no Yukio - nobody to whisk Rin out of a problem he has no hope of solving himself ... he feels like he's going stir crazy. Like he just wants to scratch until his skin comes off and he can crawl out of it. That jittery feeling of edging hopelessness is enough to take him out on the streets without eating supper. The frown on his face is enough to send him away from the crowds.

e finds himself where he's only been before briefly, the abandoned boardwalk. Normally it might be a sign of a boom economy slowly deflating like a flan in a cupboard, but in Darrow ... he doesn't know. It just makes him wonder.

It makes him jumpy, too. Which is why he turns, hand still outreached for the door to a large building that looks like it might have been an arcade, to scan the street behind him. Despite himself and mental assurances that it's probably his imagination, he cn't shake the feeling someone else is out there. And it has him wound tiht as a startled cat.

"Hello?" he calls, the word in English smoother than it might have been on first arrival. He's made good use of it in Darrow.

Comments

[ghost_holder]

Of all things, it's the fact that he works for the church that sets fear in her. Rin only receives a brief glimpse of her face before she startles.

"You work for the church...but you don't want to hang me?"

[phosphor]

"No," Rin vows quickly, putting both hands out in defense and stumbling over his words. He's nervous, but convicted.

"No, no, I don't want to hang you. I don't want to hang anybody. I'm an exorcist. I exorcise demons, the kind that hurt people. And mislead them into doing awful shit, like hang little girls. Besides which." He hangs his head, covering his eyes with black bangs. "I have no room to judge a person, even if they're a witch or otherwise."

[ghost_holder]

Aggie's eyes rove over him as if she can prise out the truth from him if she stares hard enough.When she decides to trust him, Aggie pushes her hair back again.

"Those people thought they were doing the right thing by God."

[phosphor]

He lifts his head again, offering her another smile, very small but relieved.

"They thought wrong. That was their first mistake. I never try to do anything right by God. I just try to do right by me, and by my old man, and hope that's enough. That's all I can do." His smile gets wobbly. "I'm sorry that happened. Somebody who thought he was doing God's work hurt me once, too. He would have killed me I think, but someone stopped him."

[ghost_holder]

"I'm glad they did." Aggie scrunches up her nose. "It hurts. And all you can feel is hurt and angry and you just..." Her skin sparks up a little at the angry memories. There's a hard core of anger in her heart that she tries to temper with good-hearted behavior now but it's never going to fully go away.

[phosphor]

"Hey," he says, reaching out for her again and placing a hand gently around her shoulder. The tail trailing behind him gives a cat-like flick, as if to encourage her.

"I know all about being angry, believe me. And I'm sorry, I really am, that you got hurt like that. But now you've got to have people here to help you, right? So it can't happen again. You're too young not to. And I guess I'm sort of your friend now too, since we've talked two times. If you want me."

[ghost_holder]

"I don't want it to happen again," Aggie agrees. The tail is a distraction and she follows it with her eyes for a moments, letting it be a calming metronome.

"And I don't want to be angry like that again either. Especially not with friends."

[phosphor]

"I don't want it to happen either," Rin promises, earnest, before folding his narms over his chest and peering out down the abandoned wooden walk.

"It's probably getting time for dinner anyhow. I was just out here trying to figure this place out. You want me to walk you home?"

[ghost_holder]

"Yeah, it's close to my curfew." She's never had to force Barbara to enforce it thus far. Why ruin a perfect record?

"Do you know where Dimera Apartments are?"

[phosphor]

"I do," Rin says, taking her small hand in his own and giving it a friendly tug. He's pleased as punch with himself at what seems to be the making of a friend, the first real friend outside of his schoolmates that he's made ... well, ever. It's enough to set his tail wagging lazily like a happy cat's, even if he knows he should be stuffig it away from view. Most people don't see it, but 'just in case' hangs on his mind sometimes.

"I walk around a lot. I used to live in a city like this one. I'd walk to the park when I was bored. Sit on the kids' swings and just think."

[ghost_holder]

Aggie smiles, letting him guide her along. Looking over her shoulder, she watches the tail for a second, fascinated by its lazy swing.

"Do you control it?"

[phosphor]

It takes a few seconds of staring blankly back over his shoulder to figure out what it Aggie means, as accustomed as Rin has become over the last year to just having that fifth limb sticking out from his body. It rarely registers.

"Not really," he admits, turning a little pink. "It just sort of does what it does, depending on what I'm doing ... or how I'm feeling. Like when you're bored and you jiggle your feet without even realizing you're fidgeting."

[ghost_holder]

"It's..." She doesn't quite understand the modern word, though it seems to be the most applicable one for the situation. "It's cool."

She shrugs, clearly not worried about the boy with the tail. "It reminds me of a cat."

[phosphor]

"You really think so?" he asks, scrubbing at the nape of his neck with a small, gentle smile that's nearly timid.

"I like cats a lot. At home, I have a familiar who's a cat. His name's Blackie. But ... he didn't come here with me. Still, I bet he's doing okay for himself. Cats are like that."

[ghost_holder]

Aggie nods very immediately. "You're not the same as others. And they can't ignore it." Well, maybe they can, but they're fools.

"I've never had a cat. I think I'd like one someday."

[phosphor]

He's definitely not the same, although he isn't about to tell Aggie exactly why, not yet -- if anyone in Darrow would even believe him. If they did, they probably would never speak to him again.

"Who are you living with?" Rin asks. "Maybe they'll let you have a cat. I'm sure you'll pick out a good one."

[ghost_holder]

"Her name's Barbara and she's a librarian." Aggie's never thought to ask. Certainly her allowance from the city would allow it, but she tries not to spend too much. She's seen Barbara worrying about money.

"Do you live with someone?"

[phosphor]

"A librarian," he declares, "that's super-cool. I bet she loves cats, if she works in a library"

His brow knits a little as he considers how to answer Aggie. Rin scratches at the tip of his nose. "I don't live with anyone here. But it doesn't matter. The guy who raised me died a little over a year ago. It's just me and my little brother since then, and we do okay. I miss my brother sometimes, but it's better that he's not here."

[ghost_holder]

"Is it lonely?" Aggie asks. She's never been alone since she got here, not really. She's had friends to watch over her and Barbara to share supper with.

[phosphor]

"Well ... yeah," he admits. "A little. But it doesn't bother me all the time. I can always leave and go looking for a friend. I found you, didn't I? Although I guess you really found me, more like it."

He hopes that Barbara won't mind that, whoever she is. He knows the impression that he can give people.

[ghost_holder]

If asked, Aggie would point out to Rin that Barbara has guardianship over an undead girl with terrifying powers of her own. She rarely worries about impression.

"Sometimes I think this city helps me find people like me."

[phosphor]

"That's ... " Rin hesitate, turning her words over in his head. There ren't many of them, but somehow they make him more optimistic than anything he's heard yet in Darrow. And maybe Aggie is exactly what he needs in his life.

"That's a really nice way of looking at things, Aggie. I like it."

[ghost_holder]

Aggie nods, just as pleased as he is. "Before I came here. I was all alone."

And now...It's so, so different and she never wants to go back to a time without all of her companions.