A Good Night's Rest

[gale_force]

Sleep doesn't come easy, even though this is the first time he's had the chance to completely let go and sink into it. When it does finally take him, his dreams are vivid. Hundreds upon hundreds of flashing neurons make the connections to these moments that his eyes

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[h_hollister]

Clearly. In fact, as he's just starting to tidy up, there comes a tentative knocking at the door. It's soft, as if the knocker doesn't really want to disturb the knockee, but has to.

[gale_force]

Gale jumps a little at the noise, however soft. On his way to the door, he scoops up and tugs on a plain, grey t-shirt from the pile of (now rumpled) clothes he's since tossed back into his trunk.

He's already feeling the cringe of embarrassment at Vayu's redecorating. He's like a coked-up rock star in a hotel room, that demon. No respect.

He remembers the door's locked from the outside, so he beckons the knocker with a, "Come in."

[h_hollister]

There's the click-slide-clonk of the deadbolt being thrown and the bar in front of the door being shoved aside and dropped, and then Hips walks in.

She's got a sympathetic look on her face, a cup of strong tea in one hand...and several large plastic trash bags in the other.

"Want some help?"

[gale_force]

"Yes, please." He sighs and takes one of the bags. "I suppose I need not explain."

He bends and scoops up the pile of linens to toss them back on the bed. They're undamaged for the most part.

[h_hollister]

"No way. My children will not be named after Greeks. And if Ramon didn't insist, I'd probably sneak Immanuel into a middle name and make the first name Robert. You can't get more normal than Robert."

Somebody has a complex.

"But..." She starts, and then stops again in relation to his name. "But don't you remember how you got it? There must be some sort of...starting point."

She suddenly realizes that she could very well be pouring salt on a wound. He's dealing with the consequences of who, and what, he is, to the point where remembering a beginning could be incredibly painful. Or, worse, not remembering.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't pester you."

[gale_force]

He smiles at her indignation, but that look takes a turn for the thoughtful. Not hurt or troubled, just contemplative. "No, no. Not to worry."

He rolls his mug between the flats of his palms. "People say they cannot remember anything before three or four years of age. I think that is similar to what I experienced: I did not start to commit anything to memory until I was assigned as the strategist. Remembering is very important in that position, you can imagine.

"My memory could not be that long, anyway, considering my chronological age." Forget the extra ones he's carrying around; they aren't his, after all, and he won't confuse her with that existential conundrum.

[h_hollister]

She looks utterly blank.

"Chronological...? Gale. You're not telling me you're a legal infant, are you? And to think I've served you booze. So, what, you're a particularly mature fifteen?"

This is to cover her confusion at that little bombshell. Seems like nobody ever really told her exactly what the Junkyard entailed, and how little time has passed since this body in front of her emerged from it. (Either that, or somebody did and she totally forgot. Either way, same difference.)

[gale_force]

Gale takes a few beats to do the math in his head. "Fifteen? No, not even that much. Under ten years, certainly. Including the years I spent here."

He shrugs. "Not that it really matters." His (fake) papers have him hovering around thirty.

[teradyne]

She didn't quite expect this when she punched in the PINpoint coordinates. Maybe something with stone walls, and a moat, but this...Monstrosity of a building is making Argilla rethink her approach to finding Gale, especially when she's deposited in front of a front door.

...Not the front door, she notes as she looks around. There's too many entrances to really figure out which one really is the proper one, and she's not about to waste any more time looking for it.

Instead, she walks up to the door in front of her, and knocks as loudly as she can on it. She'll try the diplomatic approach first, before sneaking in; he's supposed to be with people he trusts, she reminds herself.

[gale_force]

Good thing big, stone monstrosities of buildings lend a generous echo. The heavy iron fittings on the door rattle a little, too, and the sharper metallic sound carries better than the thudding itself.

Passing through one of the halls, Gale pauses. "Hippolyta, I think you have a visitor . . ."

Or maybe a very determined solicitor.

[h_hollister]

"So I do. Weird. Hold that thought."

She strolls out of the room and toward the 'front door', which is actually the door that leads to the side garden, by the dungeon. (Yes, the Salazars had strange senses of humor. Hush.)

Hips pulls the door open a crack...and then pulls it open wider, recognizing in a vague way that shock of pink hair.

"Yes? Oh! You're Argilla, right?"

[teradyne]

She'd been trying to figure out where to go from here, frantically trying to fill in the blanks between where she is and finding Gale. But once the door opens, she's suddenly able to match the name to the face, and memories start clicking together.

"I...Yes, I am. I think we've already met, before." She's not sure how long ago, but it feels like years.

"I heard that Gale is staying here, and...I'd like to see him." Better to keep it as a request, first. Even if she intends to find him, regardless.