Hmm, she didn't want to talk. And neither did anyone else, from the looks of it. Nubes sighed and focused on the bag that he was carrying. He'd liked the distraction - the cold had started to eat its way through his fur, faintly numbing his nose and ears. The wind that had started to pick up a minute ago didn't reassure him.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Ryder, sensing the awkwardness that followed the end of the conversation, decided it was time to change the topic. He could feel the shift in the wind, but he hoped it wasn't anything other than a slight change in the weather. He did keep his eye out for a shelter in case the wind turned into something else, but they had to hope for the best.
"What do you like doing in your free time?" Ryder finally asked. That was a good one; it wouldn't make anyone uncomfortable, and it would give them a chance to talk about similarities. "I like to...to...."
Briar would have been content to walk in silence, but the change of topic wasn't unwelcome.
She waited a beat for Ryder to find an answer to his own question. He didn't. He just kept walking, his eyebrows drawn together as though he were searching his own head. She would have let him, it wasn't her business after all, but he had stepped into the role of leader in their group and she couldn't have him lost in his own head.
"I draw," she said flatly. It wasn't really a lie. She did draw, just not necessarily in her free time. But then, she didn't really have free time ordinarily, unless the time she spent in the med bay counted, and she didn't think it did.
"Whatever entertains me, generally," Nubes said. "I don't exactly live in a place where there is much to do, but sometimes I help plow the fields, carry crops to market, or plant flowers. I was thinking about picking up pottery; there is certainly no lack of clay or mud, but I am a tad vain about my fur."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
"Love reading!" Gluttony announced. "Go on adventures, even when home."
Lust smiled at her brother's comment, giving him a pat on the head after he finished speaking. "I know it sounds a little silly," she admitted, "but I like to sing. Sometimes I compose my own songs, and other times I sing other people's."
"Sister has pretty voice," Gluttony added.
For someone who seemed so confident, Lust seemed surprisingly shy after hearing her brother's remark.
Ryder, meanwhile, was still trying to figure out what exactly he did in his free time. He didn't really have it these days, and the days before it all were nothing like his life now. Ryder Salvai wasn't the type to have free time. His answer should have been something like Nubes's answer.
But instead he found himself answering like himself, instead of the person he was supposed to be.
"In my free time," he said, "I experiment. I'm not someone who studies science, but I like coming up with..." He faltered, knowing that he couldn't ever truly explain what he liked experimenting with. "...shortcuts for daily tasks, and ways to entertain the people around me. I'm not sure it's always successful, but that's what I do."
"Those all sound like wonderful hobbies," Nubes said. He focused on Ryder. "I knew someone who experimented in a similar manner. He was more liable to accidentally terrify than entertain people, but he tried his best."
Before Nubes could say anything else, the howling of the wind cut him off. He glared in the direction the wind had come from, watching as the clouds began to clump together into a darker and darker mass. So much for good weather.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
She could relate with the experimentation, but she opted to keep that to herself. These people asked a lot of questions, and, if made to explain, Briar would have to tell them that she dabbled in chemistry and engineering, creating poisons, weapons, and tools to make her and her sister's job easier. She had a feeling that, given the groups' reaction to her admission to being a killer, they wouldn't react well to that.
Nubes nodded. "It doesn't look like it's going to get any better from here," the leopard said, looking over at Ryder. "But, as our de facto leader, I would like to hear your thoughts."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
"I think it's safest for us to find a shelter," Ryder agreed. "We shouldn't risk getting caught in a storm, especially when we don't know how long we'll be walking around."
Staring out into the snowy landscape, Nubes blinked. The wind had started to pick up the snow and ash, while the sky had gotten considerably grayer, but Nubes should've been able to see some kind of hatch.
"If we could find such a shelter, that'd be nice," Nubes said. There was always the chance that some of the hatches had been buried in the snow - they had been walking for a while, but the snow and ash had gotten a little thicker. And, if not, they could always go back. Hopefully; Nubes could already see their assorted footprints disappearing.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
The weather really wasn't looking good. Briar had a feeling it was a more urgent matter than she had previously estimated, but she shoved that aside. She was missing something.
Something about the way Ryder acted, the way he had to pause every time he said anything about himself, how he always seemed to be calculating, something about that triggered something in Briar's head. A memory, maybe? An instinct?
Whether those were warning bells she was hearing in her head or just notifications of familiarity (practically the same thing), she wanted to know what she was seeing. Or, rather, what she was missing.
She almost asked him what he was hiding right then and there, but that didn't seem like it would work. The only times that method was ever effective was when she had a gun to the head of the person she was interrogating. She could take her gun out now, but the chaos that would cause wouldn't be worth it.
No, she had to figure it out first. Find out what he was hiding, then confront him with it. Or, she had to make it sound like she knew. No one liked to be caught in a lie, after all.
As Lasan grunted and lifted his bag over his head, setting it on the ground, Nubes let go and fell on his knees. "What are you waiting for?" he growled, shoving his paws into the snow. "We need to find a bunker, if there is one here."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
Briar was still for a second, scanning the snow. They were in a nearly-perfectly flat area. The bunkers would create divots in the snow. She found one such area and felt around, finding a hatch nearly immediately.
She dug the snow clear of the area and gestured for the others to help her, ignoring the fact that the snow was biting into her hands.
Ryder immediately got to work, Lust and Gluttony joining him and Briar a second later. The two moved the snow aside with ease and efficiency; he was forced to limit his body to appear as human as he said he was. With their help, it didn't seem like he would have to tap into the well of strength within him.
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