Outside of JGoB, Thursday

[godilovedthis]

Well, that had happened fast. Had it always been that fast, or was the process speeding up? Kathy couldn't remember. But this morning she'd gotten up and was greeted by the familiar fog and scent of mildew and rusting metal. Ahh, all the comforts of home. Cursing, she'd left her squat in Barry's old lab, hoping to find something to scrounge before

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[lostdistinction]

Eliot had had to be led back to the village yesterday by a newcomer with no sense of the terribleness that was Fandom now. Had he learned his lesson about wandering off? Of course not. It was really hard to learn things when you forgot 99% of everything that happened to you a good five minutes after it'd happened

[godilovedthis]

"Eliot," Kathy called, raising empty hands slowly in the air. He wouldn't attack, so long as he wasn't attacked first, but it never hurt to play it safe. "Eliot, it's Kathy. You know me. I feed you. Do you remember me?"

No matter what the answer was, it would likely change within another few minutes anyway.

[lostdistinction]

"Kathy." Names were easy to remember when the person it belonged to had just said it.

You know, sometimes.

"Don't get mad if I don't remember that later. My memory's pretty well fucked."

[godilovedthis]

Kathy closed her eyes and sighed. How many times had she heard that exact same speech, delivered that exact same way?

"I know," she said quietly. "I've known you for a long time." Had once looked to him as the kind of father she'd never had, in fact. But it was useless to bring that up now. "Wanna come in? I'm scrounging for something to eat."

[lostdistinction]

Eliot scanned up and down the street for threats, then nodded. The club disappeared back under his layers of clothing. He might've been hungry. It was hard to tell. He'd forgotten what hunger felt like. Since, you know, it was his default state, these days.

"Did you --" He started, then paused. "There was somethin' different about yesterday."

[godilovedthis]

"Yes," she agreed, surprised that he'd remembered. "There was sunshine. At least for a little while."

There'd been more to it than that, but she wasn't going to bother with the long explanation unless he kept asking. For the most part, it wasn't worth the effort, but sometimes he surprised her.

[lostdistinction]

"And -- people." He thought they might be new people, but he thought that about just about anyone he came across. "They weren't scared. Was like a dream."

[godilovedthis]

It was a surprising day, then. Maybe being on the new Fandom had jogged some things for him. "That's right," she said, voice a touch warmer than it had been before. "New people. They'll learn soon enough, though. So we'll need to be careful for a bit as they adjust."

Not careful on their behalf, of course. But careful in that easy prey brought the hollows out in numbers. Stupid meat.

[lostdistinction]

"Right," Eliot said. "They don't know anything." His tone actually managed to get far enough past bewildered to locate exasperation. Things did tend to be easier when everyone knew how things worked and he could just wander around in the fog.

Both inside and outside his head.

"I saw Hardison."

[godilovedthis]

She bit back the I'm sorry that wanted to escape. Ugh. She hadn't been sorry about anything in years. It was the fault of the other Eliot yesterday. Him and the rest of the conversations; they'd brought back ghosts of the girl she'd been.

"Did you kill him?" she asked instead. It was a better response anyway. If Hardison were dead, they'd likely have an even more feral Parker to deal with.

[lostdistinction]

Eliot shook his head. "He got away." There was something else weird about that, wasn't there? What was it? "I think he . . . talked? He said -- he said he loved me."

Yeah, that was definitely weird.

"I don't remember him talking before. Not since. Did I forget?"

[godilovedthis]

"No, you didn't forget," Kathy said. She hesitated before explaining further, weighing the good it might do with the damage it would. "It was a different Hardison. One that wasn't hollow. He was alive. The other one is still out there, though."

She didn't want him hesitating the next time he met up with a Hardison, either. But he needed to know there was a living one out there, too.

[lostdistinction]

Eliot was quiet long enough that it might be assumed he'd lost the thread of the conversation, were it not for the range of microexpressions flickering across his face.

"There's two of them," he said finally. His breath started to come quicker as emotion forced its way up out of the blankness in his head. "There's two of them?!"

[godilovedthis]

"There are two of a lot of people," Kathy said, watching him closely. "Two Hardisons. Two Parkers. Two Eliots." Her mouth twisted as she added, "One Kathy. Only one of me."

For who knew how much longer, but for now, still one.

[lostdistinction]

Eliot wasn't really listening to her anymore. "I hit him," he said. "I hit him in the head and he fell." He backed up and ran into a rusted out chair, knocking it over with a clatter that made him jump and yank out his club again.

Were they under attack? Shit. Where was he?

[godilovedthis]

"Eliot," Kathy said sharply, trying to catch his attention, her hands back up in the air. "I'm Kathy. You're helping me scavenge for food and knocked over a chair. Nothing is attacking you."