Don't You Worry, Child

[PoeticJustice]

"What do you make of all of this? The Rising Darkness, what happened with Gus, what is being done here? You are local, or near enough. You are... much more normal than many others here. Great spirits rise, Megacorporations war, what do you make of it, as a human stuck in the middle?"

It was hard to say whether or not Alice considered herself a 'human' by this logic, and in truth she herself probably did not know.

[ronfiction]

Lou just kinda shrugs some at the question.

"All of that doesn't really matter to me, what does is much more simple than that; Just helping the town."

Lou says and leans against a near by tree.

"See, I plan on living here in town. Anything that going to mess the town up, I'm going to deal with it. A lot of the new folks are just visiting. I bet most of them will just pull up their stakes and move on if something happened to Whisper hill. I don't have any other place to go. So, it doesn't matter if it's devils, wizards, G-men, gun totting hippies, or crazy darkness monsters from beyond, Anything that comes to town and causes problems, is gonna have a problem with me."

Lou says and crosses his arms and gives Alice a smile.

"Maybe, in time, the southerns will learn just what it means to live in a small town and work together. Either that, or maybe we'll all just die to a tentacle monster."

[PoeticJustice]

She considered, the silence drawing between them as her brow furrowed.

"That makes sense," she said finally. "I admit I cannot... understand fully. I've never... had a home to defend.' Well, not since the last one burned to the ground but did that even count, the bitter thought drifted through her mind and she banished it. "But I can understand wanting to defend the things that are important to you. I... have become uniquely attached to the people here, and feel driven to protect them."

"It is a unique circumstance for me. I have always been sent from place to place to do a job. Once I finish that job, I was sent to the next place. Whisper Hill is the first time I have truly... settled anywhere in a long time."

She pulled one knee up to her chest and studied him. A year ago she had run out of the cafeteria at a quarantine zone, barely able to breathe due to the feeling of claustrophobia in her chest. Too many people. Too many voices. All of it pushing in on her. This young man had given her juice, and some eggs, and she had responded with a feral wariness. She'd been wearing a bloody tank top, tattered bloody jeans, and her torn trench coat.

The coat remained, but underneath she wore a clean shirt, smooth jeans, the yellow and black scarf around her neck. Her feral demeanor -- always an inch from fight or flight -- was replaced with an easy calm that was almost natural.

Settled? An apt word. And, maybe more than anyone else, Lou had seen the worst of her.

"I am sorry," she said, her mind drifting back. "I interrupted you before. You were going to say something?"

[ronfiction]

Lou shifted some where he leaned, warming up some on the cold winter night.

"Well, you had mentioned 'strange work' that needed to be done and then you asked me about being stuck in the middle of it all. I feel it's all the same. Weird stuff's going on, and it just as important to me as the 'normal stuff'. Did doesn't matter if you get hit by a car or eaten by a zombie. If you die, ya die. If the towns under attack by a para military unit or magical wood land creatures, I still need to show up and fight. Closing my eyes and pretending everything's normal doesn't make it so. Sure it's unnerving and I have to say I know hardly anything that isn't sweeping or fixing something, but I'm here and I've got to deal with it."

Lou explains and looks up to the clear New Hampshire sky line.

"I know the rest of the townsfolk thing I'm simple, and in all seriousness, they're right. All these fancy folks with their PHD's, going to their fancy schools and what not. Or, all these sagely folks, with their magic or weird lore. They look at me and see a dude with a broom or a pole saw who's clearly got no interest in dealing with Yakauza or computer systems or fairy folk, but it's not true. I still need to worry about that stuff because some times, that stuff comes and tries to kill me."

He says and gives a chuckle.

"Maybe, at the very least they'll keep me in the loop. It would certainly beat having no idea what's going on."

[PoeticJustice]

"Would you like me to tell you what I know of the various... situations I have seen prevalently effecting Whisper Hill? I admit that I am far more informed on the various supernatural occurances than I am with, say, technological. While I frequently get brought into situations to hit things with a baseball bat, it is very infrequent that someone explains what we are doing or why we are doing it. Also I really hate robots."

Almost as much as demons. And the fae. She scowled just thinking about them. Then she remembered she was talking to someone and shook her head before refocusing on Lou.

"Sorry. I wish I knew more sometimes, but I can tell you what I do know? It isn't very much when I think about it compared to what I don't know."

[ronfiction]

Lou laughed at her mention of how much she knew compared to how much she didn't.

"Hey, that's my line."

He said and moved back to the lakes edge and looked out across it's surface.

"What we know about this town is like this here lake. We're only ever looking at the surface if you're standing on shore. The only way to see it all is to dive on in."

He said then tapped the ice.

"However, sometimes that isn't the easiest thing to do huh?"

He said and turned back to Alice.

"You don't need to tell me it all now, and I don't expect to hear it all. Girl's gotta have some secrets right?"

Lou said with a smirk.

"Just the next time you and yours find yourselves in a rough spot, don't hesitate to ask little old Lou for help just because it might be over my head. I still wanna help, in whatever way I can."