[open | barracks & woods ]

[knowmycall]

Perched up on the roof of one of the barracks is Fletcher, who has decided that brooding is a much better use of his time than, you know, any number of other useful activities.

He's been here for nearly three full weeks and all he's been able to think about is Hannah and whether or not she's dead. This has caused considerable depression and anxiety

Comments

[beyondimagining]

Will looks up at the roof in confusion, his attention attracted by all the shouting. That... Why was that man on the roof?

[knowmycall]

Because he is Fletcher.

Simple as that, really.

Between a few choice words for the Universe at large, Fletcher happens to notice the young boy staring at him and abruptly stops. In the back of his mind, Hannah is yelling at him for using inappropriate language around a child.

Oops.

"What?" he yells down to Will, irritated. "Didn't your mother ever teach y'not t'stare?"

[beyondimagining]

Will keeps observing the situation calmly. He wonders briefly why he had understood every word of that strange language as if it had been English, but it doesn't seem important.

"Mum always insisted that standing on roofs was dangerous. Did you lose your ladder?"

[knowmycall]

"Oh, aye. That's exactly what happened. Would y'mind lookin' for it? I think it's somewhere out in the scary forest. Under some trees, maybe."

The narration is so, so sorry, Will.

[beyondimagining]

Will simply gives him an unchild-like reproving look.

[knowmycall]

WHY DOES THIS KID SUDDENLY LOOK LIKE HANNAH?

Fletcher blinks.

"Okay, really. What d'you want, young'un?"

[beyondimagining]

"You are on the roof," Will repeats. "I just want to be sure that you have a way down. Only think how terrible it would be if you were stuck there all night."

[knowmycall]

"I climbed up; I can climb down."

As far as being stuck up there all night goes, Fletcher's not sure he'd even care.

Will doesn't need to know that.

[beyondimagining]

Will is not convinced. That argument sounded rather similar to what James had said that time he had nearly broken his arm falling out of a tree.

"Why did you go up there in the first place?"

[knowmycall]

LOOK OUT, WILL. Fletcher's about to pitch some existentialism your way.

He looks up at the sky, then back down at Will.

"Why does anybody do anything?"

[beyondimagining]

Will takes that existentialism and replies with his customary pragmatism.

"Usually there is a reason, poor as it may be. Humans are like that."

[knowmycall]

"Well, I'm not a human."

Fletcher will now take a moment to elaborate on that point by hopping down from the roof and landing perfectly on his feet.

"To answer your question, I went up there because I felt like it. 's got a nice view. Also, it seemed a better alternative than hangin' out in the woods, so."

Yep.

[beyondimagining]

Will's first instinct is not to jump back or cry out, but to reach with his mind. But almost as soon as he begins the boy pulls back, confused at what he had just tried to do.

[knowmycall]

That's... new. Whatever that was.

Fletch blinks at Will, then leans back against the cabin whose roof he was just on and folds his arms across his chest. "Y'alright, kid?"

[beyondimagining]

"I think so?" Will rubs at his forehead with confusion. "For a moment I thought I should... That there was something I could do. That I was supposed to do. But its gone now."

[knowmycall]

"Oooookay."

Things just keep getting weirder, don't they?

"And d'you have a name, forgetful one?"