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[center][i]One week ago, Rio de Jainero[/i][/center]

[color=A52A2A]"Ughhhh."[/color] Brown blinked. Once. Twice. Three times. For several moments she thought she was still asleep. Dreaming. All because of the roof above her head in place of the usual open sky she slept beneath. She shifted atop her bed and was greeted with the splinters of pain shooting through her muscles like bolts of electricity. 

Gritting her teeth she leaned up in bed, actually managing to do so successfully unlike the days prior. Shaking the sleep from her head Brown turned and threw her legs over the side of the bed. 

[color=FBDE41]"Morning," [/color]said Askin.  It was sunny again today, and the little room they shared drank deep from the yellow morning.  On the table between Askin and Brown's beds sat a tall black thermos, alongside an empty mug.  Askin held its twin, full to the brim and shedding thin coils of steam.  He sipped it politely while flipping the electronic pages of the little square Kindle resting in his lap.  [color=FBDE41]"Brenda was in earlier,"[/color] he said to Brown. [color=FBDE41]"Dropped off some tea from the café downstairs.  Help yourself."[/color]

[color=A52A2A]"Mmmm."[/color] Brown said nothing and reached out to the side table. Her hand wrapped firmly around the black thermos and pulled it to her. She made no move to the cup set out for her. Instead she unscrewed the top of the thermos, pressed it to her lips, and leaned backwards. 

Dark, rich, and particularly hot liquid flowed into her mouth and down her throat. Had it been just a little hotter it would have scalded her flesh, but even if it had she would have kept drinking. Tea wasn't normally something she drank. Same went for coffee and pretty much anything you had to sit down and heat up. But Brown knew that tea had caffeine, or at least thought it did. And she knew that she liked caffeine.

[color=FBDE41]"Well alright,"[/color] said Askin, impressed, as she drained the hissing-warm thermos in a single swig.  [color=FBDE41]"So the whole shoot-to-kill thing is just your default for everything, huh?  I can go get more, if you like."[/color]

[color=A52A2A]"No."[/color] The seal between her lips and the thermos was broken as she pulled it away. Wisps of visible heat still trailing from the top and the opening of her mouth as she set it back down. [color=A52A2A]"That's all I needed. I can't sleep very well so I never have to worry about being sneaked up on. But I never feel well when I wake up, so a pick-me-up like that helps a lot."[/color]

Wiping her arm across her lips Brown leaned back, legs over the side of the bed with her arms pressed back into the mattress to support her. She felt the warmth from her belly and the slow trickle of awareness brought about the caffeination of her blood. 

[color=FBDE41]"Sleep and I don't get along either,"[/color] he said, in a pleasantly guilty tone, as though sleep was a neighbor from whom Askin once borrowed a drill gun which he'd never remembered to return.  [color=FBDE41]"I used to be a real caffeine demon, actually.  But you can't live on pick-me-ups forever."[/color]  He observed the dark shadows that lined Brown's eyes, like flotsam staining a gray winter beach.  [color=FBDE41]"You can buy melatonin tablets at most pharmacies.  Luna is reliable, that's what I always take.  Settles down all the things you don't want to think about.  I think there's a pharmacy just a block down the street, if you want to do some shopping."[/color]

[color=A52A2A]"Pills don't work on me very well."[/color] Brown said, rubbing her eyes. [color=A52A2A]"But going shopping...that sounds nice."[/color]

[color=FBDE41]"Besides the pharmacy?"[/color]  Askin asked.  [color=FBDE41]"Ooh, you know, that does sound fun.  Jonas mentioned we might be going up north.  Maybe we could splurge on some nice winter gear?  I can ask Brenda about the best local shops."[/color]

Askin took a careful sip of his tea.  His book was apparently very engrossing; he never looked away from it when he spoke up next.  [color=FBDE41]"Do you ever have nightmares, Brown?"[/color]

Brown focused her dirty, dull brown eyes at Askin and stared into him. Though he didn't look up to meet her gaze she continued to stare as she sat in silence. 

[color=A52A2A]"I-"[/color] 

She paused, looking down at the floor and then back at Askin as if searching for something. A reason to mistrust him, a reason to lie, a reason to refuse to say anything. But Brown couldn't and part of her wanted to speak. Badly.

[color=A52A2A]"All I ever have is nightmares. I can't sleep without something bad happening inside my head. It's not that bad anymore, I guess. I've gotten used to it."[/color]

[color=FBDE41]"Yeah,"[/color] he said, nodding, as though agreeing with Brown on the weather.  He turned the page on his Kindle.  [color=FBDE41]"I never got used to it, so maybe you're handling things better than me.  Me, I dream about water.  Miles of it.  I'm at the bottom of a lake.  It's dark, and I'm surrounded by dead folks.  Not the kinda thing you want to dream about."[/color]

He turned the page again, then turned it back, and he wasn't really reading the book anymore, that much was clear, though he wouldn't meet Brown's eyes either.  And his voice never loses that pleasant murmur of impossible neutralness, the voice of how-are-yous and nice-weather-we're-havings and welcome-home-babes.  But no, no eye contact.

[color=FBDE41]"What do you dream about?"[/color]

[color=A52A2A]"..."[/color] Brown's lips tighten as she burrows holes into Askin's forehead with her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, only to close it, only to open and then close it again. Like a fish desperate for air but too scared to take a breath. Eventually she bites her lip, hard. Hard enough to taste something warm and red. 

[color=A52A2A]"My mama...my papa...and the fights."[/color] The words rolled from her lips like a deep exhale. Quiet, smooth, almost inaudible to anyone not specifically listening for it. 

"I'm sorry," said Askin.  "I don't want to press, I mean, if there're things you're not comfortable talking about—whatever you want, in your own time."

[color=A52A2A]"I'm never comfortable talking."[/color] Brown said flatly, grabbing handfuls of the bedsheets as she sat on the edge of the bed facing Askin. [color=A52A2A]"My moma and papa...they wanted me to be something. I was supposed to be the greatest fighter, the greatest nomad that had ever lived. And I wanted to be that but..."[/color]

A lump formed in Brown's throat as she reached around, pressing a hand into her back. The thick, sickening black veins radiating out from her spine though unseen never left Brown's thoughts.  Askin, on the other hand, seemed to have been caught up on something she said.  He sounded almost perky when a [color=FBDE41]"No shit!  Really?"[/color] escaped him.  There was a moment when it looked like Askin was fighting off a laugh, but he apologized quickly.  [color=FBDE41]"Sorry, sorry, I mean, sorry, it's not that that's funny, but, no, yes, absolutely.  I understand completely."[/color]

Brown's eyes grew cold and angry as for a moment she felt Askin was mocking her. She looked ready to lash out at him, eager to wrap her hands around his windpipe and squeeze till her palms touched each other. However his quick, albeit seemingly insincere, apology stayed her hand. 

[color=FBDE41]"It's not funny, no,"[/color] he said, and his little laughs were a bit sober now, like stones laughing.  [color=FBDE41]"I'm sorry for laughing, Brown, really.  But I guess it kind of is.  Funny, I mean, just a little bit.  Cause, you know, it's the same, really, that's my story too.  The parents, the greatness, the nightmares, the whole thing."[/color]

The girl paused unsure of what she was hearing was the truth or simply a jest. 

[color=A52A2A]"Really? What-what happened?"[/color] She asked. 

[color=FBDE41]"Nothing special,"[/color] he said, as though automatically, but then he hesitated, and added, [color=FBDE41]"Well, it was pretty special.  It was me.  I'm born like this, see, the ki of a monster, this one very special baby who was supposed to do all the special things no one else could do.  And that's what they told me, over and over.  They believed in me so much.  Can you believe it?  They believed in this."[/color]  He gestured at his diminutive, half-dressed body.  [color=FBDE41]"But that didn't work out too well for them.  I didn't do what I was supposed to do, and then bad things happened.  And now I'm here buying Luna for 21.95 at the pharmacy because it makes the nightmares not so bad.  So I guess in the end it didn't amount to anything special after all."[/color]

Brown didn't look at Askin. She turned her head away from him and simply looked at the floor. A mix of anger and bitterness on her face as the non-genie's words sank in.

[color=A52A2A]"I was supposed to be special, or at least normal. My parents wanted me to become someone great and I tried to do what they wanted..."[/color] Brown's hands curled into fists, her own nails cutting into her palms as they squeezed them together. [color=A52A2A]"I'm the opposite of you. I was born wrong. Wrong time, wrong day, wrong place. My body is diseased, cursed."[/color]

The anger and bitterness on Brown's face crept into her voice, as ever word brought more and more of a buried rage to the forefront of her speech.

[color=A52A2A]"I worked hard, I did what I was told. I wanted to be the greatest! I wanted to make them happy. All I ever did was work and try, and when they realized I couldn't be what they wanted they threw me away!"[/color] Brown stood to her feet, voice raising as she stepped away from the bed and towards Askin.

[color=A52A2A]"Do you have any idea what it feels like? To know that other people can effortlessly do something that takes you so. Much. Effort? A day didn't pass by that I wasn't reminded of that fact. It haunts me even now after everything I've done, with how far I've come. Everything I do feels [i]worthless[/i] because I'm still weak. I'm still less then others, still trying desperately to catch up when people bound ahead of me!"[/color]

Askin drew in his legs and slid them off the mattress.  He was sitting up now, but the low little motel bed put him at the disadvantage.  He had to look up even more than usual to meet Brown's eyes, whose cold spidebite anger made him feel small, somehow, in a way that actually being small never had.

[color=FBDE41]"You got dealt a shitty hand that would've killed most people.  And you did so much with it.  You saved hundreds of lives and single-handedly crippled a fifty foot death robot.  You're the person most other people wish they could be.  You're not weak.  And, and the thing is I know you know that too, somewhere, and I know that even if you do know that it doesn't make things better.  Because the voices in your head don't care that you're not weak, and they don't care that there isn't a single person in the world that you're less than.  They're so good at ignoring the facts, that you're strong and brave and the fact that everyone should admire you.  And that sucks.  That really sucks.  I'm sorry, Brown."[/color]

[color=A52A2A]"I am weak!"[/color] Brown bellowed, thrusting a finger at Askin as her eyes began to water. [color=A52A2A]"I beat that robot, but I nearly died. That's always the way it is. I either lose and end up half dead in a ditch, or a win and I end up mostly dead in a ditch. Nothing I do is ever easy. No matter what I do, who I beat, or what I accomplish I never feel strong! Strong people aren't like me. They win and they feel good, they don't win and end up breathing their own blood for a week." [/color]

[color=FBDE41]"I wouldn't know much about that,"[/color] Askin said politely.  [color=FBDE41]"I don't find many things easy, and I don't really win.  So I guess there's at least one person in the world you're stronger than."[/color]

He kept his eyes up against hers, and he didn't look away.

Brown fell silent. For a moment she simply stood there, staring into him before it became too much, so she stared down at the floor boards. Stepping backwards she dropped onto her bed with a look of anger on her face. She wanted to hate Askin. Wanted to resent him for his Ki, for the gifts he had that he did not. Yet sitting there he seemed so small and frail, and his words so familiar that it was a struggle to retain her anger. 

So Brown simply laid on the bed and stared up at the stranger, unfamiliar ceiling.   Across from her, Askin flopped back as well.  Their knees pointed at each other neutrally from across the little isthmus that separated their beds

[color=FBDE41]"Here's my theory,"[/color] said Askin.  [color=FBDE41]"And I think I can make an accurate guess here, because I went through quite a few drugs trying to find the right sleep aid.  The usual anti-histamines, see, they're good at knocking you out, assuming you don't have a tolerance.  But that's all they do, they kick you off to sleep, or they don't.  And that doesn't do anything about the nightmares.  Luna is nice, I think, because it's mostly a relaxing drug.  It doesn't kick you off to sleep, and it doesn't just wipe away the nightmares, but it makes things easier.  Sometimes by a lot, sometimes by a bit, but it makes things easier.  I don't think it's healthy, to try and turn your problems on and off like a switch, or hit your goals or miss them, one or the other.  You just gotta take every little easiness you can find."[/color]

Lifting his left leg in a slight little kick, Askin gave Brown's discolored knee a gentle nudge with his sole.  [color=FBDE41]"Let's go shopping later.  I bet we can find some killer new winter clothes.  And maybe the Luna will work for you after all."[/color]

[color=A52A2A]"I don't need winter clothes."[/color] Brown said, her voice low and disinterested as she continued to look at the ceiling. [color=A52A2A]"But that Luna sounds...nice. Some candy would be good too..."[/color]

[color=FBDE41]"Suit yourself,"[/color] said Askin.  [color=FBDE41]"Me, I've always liked playing dress-up.  Hope you don't mind indulging me on that."[/color]

Brown shrugged, though lying on her back it didn't seem like much. [color=A52A2A]"It's fine. I've had to stick with these clothes for a while and if I get new ones they're just going to get dirty, nasty, or trip me up. Besides with G-tummo I don't need to worry about the cold."[/color]

[color=FBDE41]"I've always kind of liked the cold,"[/color] said Askin.  [color=FBDE41]"It's a nice excuse to go and bury yourself under some blankets, some quilts, sit down with a nice cup of tea.  Doesn't get much better than that."[/color]