He gave him a rather curious look at the word ‘tangible’. Such an odd word he’s chosen. Tangible meant able to be touched, felt, the like. Why, he was tangible, he was living, wasn’t he? Although the last Dominik knew of him his health was failing, Respawn had...
Honestly, what had happened? He didn’t really remember why or how Hectate left him in the first place. His mind was a blank. Amnesia? The same sort of thing happened when the entire ordeal with his wife went down. He blocked his memories and the events from his mind, walling them up behind a post traumatic stress barrier. It only worsened him in the end, and the times the wall cracked or broke, he was witness to all those painful memories flooding back to him.
The Sniper sat there for a moment, feeling an odd sense of dread. He heard Elizabeth giggling somewhere around his tool table still. Probably playing with one of her toys, stuff that Dominik unearthed from his stashed case of old heirlooms, trinkets and memories. She was always trying to make stuff, like her father did, and often used stuffed animals to ‘hold the tools’ and pretend to ‘go to work’.
He looked at Hectate, or rather stared at him, and his mouth went dry.
Damn it all. With all the death in his life, all the unnatural and shocking death he had witnessed and experienced, he could sense and see. Often he dismissed it as paranoid hallucinations, but he was finally coming around and admitting to the truth. He saw Elizabeth as if she were flesh and blood, still alive, however frozen at the tender age of eight. What was Hectate, then? ‘Tangible’? He looked so real, but so did Elizabeth. Maybe he used that term in the way that he was able to come around and be felt that way. Or maybe because the other birthdays he celebrated Hectate was either dead, or missing.
“Not a ghost, I promise,” Hectate’s words floated back to him.
Then what are you, he wondered to himself. Am I going mad? Are you really alive? Or are you something else? I can’t trust myself anymore. I can’t trust my mind. You’ve died and remained dead too many times only to have your cold, dead heart jumpstarted by Respawn, or medical hands, that I don’t know if you’re even here.
Was he sitting across from a ghost? Was he in relations to someone who was dead? Were things nullified still?
Shaking his head, he tried to push the thought to the back of his mind. “Uhh--yeah, well, I figured it’d be the best choice of action,” he said, sipping from his own wine. “You know, they gotta eat too. They’re animals, part of the livin’, breathin’ cycle of life. I’d be an arse to let it starve. And I really didn’t want to relive the past and hafta go to a Medic to get stitched up.” He winced at this. That memory wasn’t a good one. “Yeah, Respawn. It’s been tricky. A lot of the base is empty now.”
He let those words linger in the air for a moment, allowing Hectate to come to a conclusion. A lot of people left on their own accord. Some, well...
“It glitched on the BLU Medic recently. Well, you know, the one decent Haswell fella. He was gone for almost a whole day. Screwed with him badly, from what I hear.” He shrugged, then began to cut into his food. “Rosencoff? He’s--”
“He’s a big mista’,” chirped Elizabeth, her voice melodic and happy. “Real big. Grows pret’y flowers, papaw! Biiiig flowers!” She made a ‘huge’ gesture with her small hands, before lapsing into a fit of giggles.
Dominik furrowed his brow, pretending not to hear his daughter. “He’s this RED Heavy on our base. Real damn good man. Gardener. He’s got a greenhouse out back. I supply the meats, he supplies the veggies and fruits. With our combined efforts, we keep this base goin’ durin’ heavy snowfalls.” He grinned. “You can tell who he is ‘cos of his metal arm. Lost it due to frostbite. I was part of the search party for him. We found him jus’ in time or else his legs would have had to go.”
Grisly events from the past. Hectate had a lot to learn.
He seemed all too interested in hearing about his cases, and the fact that he had settled into town, getting his business up and running. He smiled at this, looking pretty damn proud. “Well, look at you. I knew you’d someday start a business and have it bloomin’ up into a fantastic career. MannCo was never really good for ya, no offense. You seem better doin’ what you’re doin’ now. I can see a change in you, that’s for sure. A real good one.”
The lamb? Hectate, he’s already devoured most of the lamb that’s on his plate. Clear indication he loved it. He says it, too, mentioning how amazing it was, adding on, “I rarely have lamb. Mostly venison. I really ought’a have more of this stuff, it’s great!”
titsay
vaporwave
dededos
gummygunk
germansingergirl
izzy806
andulkaphoto
