Amadi strives to be a hero, not for justice, but for the fame and glory. Shes headstrong and determined to make her mark like the heros she sees in comics and movies.
To outsiders, Amadi may seem arrogant and stubborn, but once you get to know her, you'll see there's a method to her madness.
ahaha what if I was a necromancer/plant witch and you were a ghost girl who died in the 70s and we were both girls but we couldn't physically touch due to the nature of your spectral form? 😳
Chapter Thirty-five: Halek: 'Spreading Libelous Untruths About the Empire' Is Our Favourite Hobby
content notices: friendship, family relationships, discussion of eating, secrets, homelessness, suicide mention
Halek heard it on the radio over breakfast, not from Rovian, which scared him.
Soralij's restaurant had been raided and they'd found the print shop in the back. Soralij and a number of unnamed people had been taken into custody for 'spreading libelous untruths about the empire and undermining the war effort.' Rovian could be one of those unnamed people, because Halek had connected her to it.
Halek didn't bother to get dressed properly, just pulled on a coat and boots over his pyjamas before speed-walking out the door and across the Bridge to Kulainestainer.
This was why he had to keep those high walls between different parts of his life. This was why he hadn't wanted to let them mix, hadn't wanted Rebel Halek to overlap with Rovian's Best Friend Halek, because getting people involved meant getting people hurt and he'd gotten too many people hurt already. Rebels had to be pragmatic and get things done but friends didn't put friends in danger and he never should have tried to be both at once.
He thumped on Saafeera's door hard enough to bruise his wrist. If Rovian had been arrested he needed to know right now so he could formulate a plan right now and get her out right now-
"Paamiya, kiddo, what's wrong?" Saafeera was still affixing her revaap- a Gathiya Na Theenan headscarf- when she opened the door.
"Rovian," Halek said breathlessly.
"I'm pretty sure she's still asleep. That CanSkate show yesterday took a lot out of her."
"The print shop was raided and-"
"Oh." Saafeera took off her glasses and cleaned them on her shirt. "That's going to be a problem… Rovian wasn't there, though. You were worried she was?"
Halek nodded.
"You make sure she's ready if she ever does get caught in something like that," said Saafeera.
"I guess she still doesn't know about you," said Halek. Rovian was surrounded by liars.
Saafeera made an ambiguous gesture. "Now that she's involved, maybe she should, but it's against the rules and you know Juni wouldn't like it."
That was very true. Everyone knew about as few other people as possible, and Juni was very strict about operational security. Telling hir that Talí had found out about Halek had not been a pleasant conversation.
Rovian would, eventually, figure it out herself, and be upset with them all.
"Have you eaten?" Saafeera asked.
"Half my breakfast is now room-temperature and soggy on the meal blanket," Halek grumbled, coming to that unpleasant realization. Usually the household all ate together in the mornings, but Halek had woken up early and hungry and made himself something, and now probably everyone else had come to eat and found his abandoned breakfast. "Oh, man. I have to recalculate for my insulin now because I didn't eat as much as I planned and I won't be eating the rest of that."
"Are you still hungry?" asked Saafeera. "You can come into the common room and eat something else before you go back home."
"Yeah. Okay. Thanks."
"I'll make sure it all has the information for you," she said. "Take off your boots, it's wet out."
"What happens now?" Rovian asked.
"We'll have to find somewhere new," Halek Touch-Talked. "We need to keep spreading our information and ideas, now more than ever. I'll talk to some people… I'm delivering some vegetables from the garden later so I'll talk to some of the people I know then to see if they have space."
"I'll come," Rovian Touch-Talked.
Halek sighed. He was tired of keeping Rovian out of things and Rovian was tired of being kept out. "Yeah. Okay. What time are you done work today?"
"Midafternoon. I'll come over to your house when I finish up." Rovian pulled her coat on. "I'll walk you home now and get on the train near you."
"Okay." Halek almost protested- he didn't want to make her late- but with all this rebellion stuff… he really missed her. He missed just spending time together, casually, as Rovian-and-Halek, as friends, without the weight of grief and stress and war and secrets.
Halek's family had the fortune of a big back yard, which had been almost entirely converted into a vegetable garden for most of Halek's life. For a long time, when it produced enough, they'd been distributing some of the output throughout the neighbourhood as part of the Moghrlai Gurodstadit Neighbourhood Assistance program; this tenday it was Halek's turn.
Right now, with the time of year, there were a lot of tubers in about five different varieties in the boxes his uncle Chiishé-Faindh and Aedrii-Nú were helping him load into the wagon.
"Can I come?" Aedrii-Nú signed.
Halek wavered. "Rovian's coming with me today."
She made a pleading face.
Chiishé-Faindh tilted his head. It would probably be helpful for Halek to take her to get some energy out and give Chiishé-Faindh a bit of time to rest before he had to go to his job sorting recycling.
Halek sighed. "Okay."
Aedrii-Nú flapped her hands in delight. Her tracheostomy tube burbled with her squeal of happiness.
"Rovian and I are going to walk today- well, I'll probably take my wheelchair if Rovian doesn't mind pulling the wagon," said Halek. Usually he hooked the wagon up to his adult trike, which gave him the balance he lacked on a regular bike and had been modified to be gentler on his knee, but Rovian had never been much of a cyclist and had stopped biking entirely as her vision declined. "You can walk with us or get your bike, but there's no space in the wagon to pull you too."
Aedrii-Nú tugged at Chiishé-Faindh's sleeve. "Daddy, help me get my bike."
Chiishé-Faindh lifted the last box into the wagon and nodded, letting Aedrii-Nú lead him to their bicycle shed.
Rovian arrived shortly after.
"Aedrii-Nú's going to come too," Halek told her.
"Okay," Rovian Touch-Talked.
"Are you okay to pull the wagon part of the way?" Halek asked. "I know your arms hurt. Let me know if it's too much."
"I can pull," Rovian Touch-Talked. "We can trade on and off so I don't hurt my arms too much and you don't hurt your knee too much."
"Sounds good."
Aedrii-Nú greeted Rovian shyly as Chiishé-Faindh helped her buckle her helmet.
"Did you learn anything new about dinosaurs recently?" Rovian signed.
Aedrii-Nú flapped her hands again and began signing excitedly. Before long, she was showing off the little knitted triceratops Roo had made her that she always carried around and currently had in her bike basket.
Halek smiled. Aedrii-Nú didn't like to talk to people outside of the family all that much, but she would talk to anyone if it was about dinosaurs. It had been a little while since she'd seen Rovian last, and Rovian had said the exact right thing to put her at ease.
Side by side, Aedrii-Nú wobbling on her training wheels ahead of them, Halek and Rovian set off down the street.
"Our first stop is really close," Halek Touch-Talked, then called to Aedrii-Nú, "Stop when you see Amadi!"
Amadi lived in a park along the bank of the Ðíúntmoghr, just north of Halek's house and the Bridge.
"They only speak Beri," Halek Touch-Talked. "They won't understand your signs."
Rovian nodded.
Amadi waved upon spotting them.
"I brought some hot soup in the thermos," said Halek as Rovian helped him unload one of the boxes. "Everything else is cold, some cooked stuff and some fresh vegetables, like usual."
Amadi took the box and set it in their cart.
"How are the birds?" Halek asked, leaning forward in his wheelchair. Amadi always fed them seeds.
Amadi pressed a button on the cracked screen of their speech device. "Good. Many nests are made."
"That's good," said Halek.
"Birds are dinosaurs," said Aedrii-Nú.
"It's getting cold," Halek said. "Will you be coming to the shelter?"
Aedrii-Nú wandered over to watch a couple ducks as Halek waited for Amadi to finish typing.
"Amadi does not know," Amadi said. "Cold, but… Halek knows… Other people and Amadi do not mix well."
"Yeah," said Halek. The MGNA program did their best to make the shelter accessible, but there was only so much they could do with the little space and resources they had. "Well, you're always welcome there if you decide to go. Is there anything else I can help you with right now?"
"No," said Amadi. "Halek should come more often. It has been a long time since Amadi has seen Halek."
"Yeah," said Halek. Yet another friendship he'd let fall by the wayside. "I'm sorry. I've been unwell for a while."
That was his default excuse for not being around much, since he couldn't tell people he was in Wend-Ki. It was vague enough to cover a lot.
"No more jumping off the Bridge, Amadi hopes," Amadi said, and pointed a stern finger at Halek.
"No," said Halek. It was pretty common for people to assume he meant things were bad again with his bipolar and post-trauma stuff like in his mid-teens when he said he'd been unwell. "None of that. I have people looking out for me at home. Don't worry."
He wasn't even sure why he'd jumped off the Bridge in the first place, whether it had been a suicide attempt or if he'd been seeking a thrill and convinced of his own indestructibility or what; he didn't remember jumping, only waking up in the hospital. He didn't remember a lot of that year.
"Good," said Amadi.
"I have to go deliver the rest of this, but I'll see you on my way back," said Halek. "I'll try to come see you more. I'm doing a bit better right now."
Everyone was pretty tired by the time they reached Uoliveg's house, the last on the list. Halek was taking a turn pulling the wagon, his right wrist hooked awkwardly under the handle so his left hand was free to use his cane, and he had given in to Aedrii-Nú's pleas to pull her too now that there was space.
"Mostly tubers this time," Halek told Uoliveg.
"My kid loves mash," Uoliveg said. "This is great. It's been exactly the same kind of potatoes for far too long. Maybe I can get a bit of variety into his diet with these." Ze laughed. "I guess you know what that's like, with your family."
"Oh, for sure," said Halek. Everyone in his household was autistic except for himself and his grandmother and grandfather. "If you want to talk with my grandparents or parents about getting enough nutrients into the things he'll eat, just give them a call. They have lifetimes of experience."
"I might take you up on that," said Uoliveg.
"Speaking of my family…" Halek began. "My Isohi was wondering if, with your books, you know anyone who would be willing to lend or rent out an industrial printer." Juni was widely understood within the community to be involved with the resistance in some capacity, so it was less revealing to say Juni was looking for a printer than for Halek to be looking for one.
"Sudden need?" said Uoliveg, probably referring to today's news about the raid.
Halek nodded. "It would have to be confidential."
"I'll see what I can do," said Uoliveg. Ze shifted the box in hir arms. "Wait here and I'll get the book I fixed for your sibling. The spine is as good as new now. Let me know if there's any more problems with pages falling out or the cover peeling, but the glue and stitches should hold."
"Thanks," said Halek.
Uoliveg disappeared briefly, then came back with a newly-restored book. Halek was pretty sure Talí had gotten it from the library clearing-out sale, so it had been in rough shape.
Uoliveg handed the book to Aedrii-Nú in the wagon. "It's good to see you out of the house again, Halek. I'll ask around about the printer."
I used Michelle Rodriguez as a reference to portray my Curse of Strahd character, Amandi. She's a halfling monk, an angry woman and a good cook.
Check it out in my sketchbook at Ko-fi too: https://ko-fi.com/i/IE1E7I3ABP
Coffees are very appreciated<33
First day back at the Amadis and they got a little house makeover. The house is still incredibly cramped but until Dozie gets his café going, it’ll have to do.
