PSL for Renart

[advanced]

Comments

[aigue]

Alright.

[She notices his shifting as she starts up the trail.]

Are you going to be fine? I can help carry something.

[advanced]

[If he didn't know her better, the idea that this tiny fox woman was offering to take his burdens would be funny. As it is, he still smiles down at her.]

Pretty sure my Ma would whup me if she thought I was making the lady carry everything. I should be offering to take your bag.

[aigue]

That would be a bit awkward, don't you think? Not that I think you couldn't do it if you wanted to.

[But one arm, two bags, going up a mountain? A regular person certainly couldn't manage.

She gives him a small smile back.]

Feminist movements and all that, I'm perfectly capable of carrying my own bag.

[advanced]

You know, I really I wish I'd seen all of that.

[He doesn't talk much about the things he's missed, it strays too close to what he might have been doing during those years. But Renart is safe, has always been one of the safe ones to talk to.]

I read a few books about it, people burning lingerie in the sixties and this push on women not staying home with the kids. That wasn't done back in my day, a gal got married and looked after the home. I wish I could've seen it change, I sometimes wonder if my sisters got involved in it all.

[aigue]

I tried giving John a pile of books on the history of it. Maybe he still has them.

[She doubts he actually bothered to read any......]

I bet we could wish for a bunch of documentaries to watch, too. They like using old footage, we could even try looking for your sisters in them.

[advanced]

I wouldn't recognise them.

[It's a hard admission to make, which is why he falls back on the rather expressionless tone he uses when things are too difficult, walling himself away from it personally.]

I think I had three sisters, but that's about all I remember. I know the oldest one was called Rebecca, but only because someone told me. I don't know what any of them looked like.

[aigue]

[Her ears droop, and she's silent for a few moments. At least she'd recognize her kits if she ever saw them.]

... Would you want to? Recognize them, I mean.

[advanced]

Yeah, of course.

[But he's learnt to live with the gaps in his memory, and knowing he might never truly get everything back.]

They were my family.

[aigue]

Then what if we tried jogging your memory?

[She isn't sure how ridiculous of an idea this is, but maybe it's worth suggesting.]

We could ask Zephyr for family photos, that sort of thing. Home movies if they ever ended up making any....

[advanced]

[He's sometimes thought about things like that himself, so it's not so insane a suggestion, but something about it feels uncomfortable. Like he'd be spying on someone's life that he doesn't even know, without their consent.]

Photographs, maybe. From when I was still at home, but nothing from after. I was never a part of their lives then, it seems wrong to spy on it after the fact.

[aigue]

[They probably wouldn't mind, is what she wants to say, but she only nods.]

Let's do that when we get back, then.

[It'll be a good distraction from Monty.]

[advanced]

Sure.

[He agrees easily enough because she might have forgotten by then, if he doesn't bring it up again.]

How far into the mountains are we going?

[aigue]

All the way to the top.

[She gestures towards the peak.]

The cabin is up there. And snow, if you don't mind that.

[advanced]

[He gives a half shrug.]

I brought a warm coat.

[It's not really a proper answer, but it's good enough.]

Who built the cabin up there, or was it there already?

[aigue]

[Glancing over she raises an eyebrow, but okay. If the snow isn't going to freak him out like it does other people from Norfinbury, that's fine.]

I'm not sure. It might be something someone requested from Zephyr, it seems too nice to be something anyone around here could build on their own.

[advanced]

If it was a wish then you'd think they'd stay up there more often, whoever it was. Seems like a big thing for an incidental kind of wish.

[Not that he agrees with wishing generally anyway, only in very specific important circumstances.]

[aigue]

Maybe they really liked winter cabins, and didn't realize how much of a trek it would be to reach it until they wished for it. Humans can be very shortsighted, sometimes.

[She can picture that, and it's kind of funny.]

[advanced]

[He snorts, but it's not out of the realms of possibility and continuing to speculate is relatively pointless. They've left the main village behind them now, and he's already feeling a bit freer. He hopes she does too, and this works in helping her process her grief with Monty.]

You do a lot of mountaineering back home?

[aigue]

[It's a little nostalgic. She and Monty never really did camping trips, but she has plenty of memories of them before she met him with Beowulf. This reminds her of those times, rather than anything in the Meadous or Between.]

Beowulf and I traveled a lot back home. I've been to every continent. What about you?

[advanced]

I think so.

[Some memories are less clear than others, more snapshots of the victims rather than the surroundings, but he’s fairly sure he’s been most places.]

HYDRA were pretty international.

[aigue]

[She doubts asking about his travels when he was under HYDRA's control is a good idea....]

Do you remember traveling before HYDRA?

[advanced]

Only with the army when I was shipped to the Italian front. Before that, I’d never even left New York, let alone America.

[He was such a homebody before that, just a kid from the small world of Brooklyn, no idea of the rest of the world.]

[aigue]

[She frowns.]

If we were on Earth I'd take you traveling, so you could see the entire world.

[advanced]

I’ve seen it since.

[Maybe not in the best circumstances, but he’s seen it.]

And I’ve been a bunch of places since- since I ran. I had to keep ahead of the people looking for me.

[aigue]

Yeah?

[That's better than nothing, right?]

Where have you been?