IC Inbox for Pumpkin Hollow

[hate_gettin_older]

[Ping me to discuss starting a thread!]

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[hate_gettin_older]

"Because it is."

Except for the ways in which it isn't. But he's not going to talk about that.

"But we're not."

[cyansoldier]

"As if any of us ever were to begin with," she says, inspired to pick herself up from her bale and lift it onto her shoulder. This one she tosses straight up to the loft. It fwomps against the wooden floor.

A little less icy; "Yeah, you're pretty low on my list of normal people I've met around here. Could be worse, though."

[hate_gettin_older]

"Low on the list," he says, a bit flatly, "is that more normal, or less?"

[cyansoldier]

"Less." She scans him up and down as he half-crouches in the loft, like checking over the answers to a test. "Definitely less."

[hate_gettin_older]

"And you'd be an expert on normal then," he says, the sarcasm giving him more animation than he's shown yet.

[cyansoldier]

It's satisfying, watching Edgar come to life a little. Better than the stupor she'd found him in.

"Yep. Got certified a week ago. In my certification class, we had a lesson about guys with big ears and abrasive personalities who work on farms. Deceptively normal, on paper. In practice..." She pretend winces.

Lookin up into the loft, "Are you done yet, or are you barricading yourself in up there?"

[hate_gettin_older]

He considers, for a moment, throwing the last bale at her. Not in anger, even; in something like appreciation.

(It's almost the kind of joke Curtis might have made.)

"Yeah, yeah," he says instead, "have some fuckin patience," and starts down the ladder.

[cyansoldier]

Carolina takes a step or two back, watching him come down.

"You wanna, like, get lunch? Do something that isn't be miserable or work? It doesn't have to be for long. We don't have to small talk. Just to— do something. Pretend things actually are normal for once. I'll buy."

[hate_gettin_older]

It takes him a moment to answer, not because he's deciding what to say but because the offer is unexpectedly painful. Do something that isn't be miserable or work -- how did he get such a long way from that?

"Yeah," he manages, "yeah, thanks."