One x One Strong [Private]

[FragmentedPhosphor]

Oh, that would be an interesting sight to come out to. Paul's pretty chill, though (unless something like what just happened at the diner happened, obviously) and would probably just raise an eyebrow and ask something along the lines of 'you all right?' Before heading back to to motel with her to count out the cash.


While we're on the subject of scenelets, by the way, I have another little semi-bonding moment; it would be a little farther down the road, but if Paul discovers she doesn't really know how to drive (I'm assuming, since as far as I know she's not exactly had the opportunity to actually drive before) and he trusts her enough, he could teach her the basics.


And don't worry about that at all. ^•^ With how long I took, I won't be concerned at all with your timing~

 

[Soleil Overland]

Okay, so response may not get up tonight after all, but I'll get it up ASAP!


"Yeah, I'm fine. Apparently the phrase 'I want literally nothing to do with you' didn't get through to him."


Ah, I like, I like! Of course, it has to be an incredibly secluded, straight, flat road, considering her mistakes tend to involve her pressing the gas pedal too hard and sending them speeding off at eighty miles an hour.


Also, two small notes about Cress: a, she fiddles around with the radio while waiting in the car during one of Paul's "deals" and ends up becoming obsessed with the Broadway station and makes it a goal to find one for every region they pass through, and b, while staying in the motel with Paul, she flicks through the channels on the tiny fuzzy TV and ends up watching a ballet documentary - she absolutely falls in love with it, which Paul likely finds ironic, since Cress seems like the last person on earth to enjoy ballet of all things.

 

[FragmentedPhosphor]

I loved your response! Sorry that I'm being slow myself-- I have been sleeping in way too much lately. Reply should be up shortly; I have a couple other people who I need to reply to first, but that should be easy enough to do.


And that would scare Paul so much, lol. He's got no problem with high speeds- as should be evident by his background- but losing his car terrifies him. He wouldn't stop the lessons, though- he'd just be about ten shades paler than normal when she screws up, and comments such as "Christ, kid, easy on the gas!" would be frequent (and most likely followed by "Oof- Easy on the brakes, too!")


Yeah, Paul would get a good chuckle out of that. It could lead to a cutesy moment, though, later on-- Paul's own birthday comes and goes while they're on the road, he makes a dry comment about it in passing, which probably catches Cress's attention. I assume in the facility she was kept in, they didn't celebrate such things, so he explains the celebration part of the birthday to her and one way or another gets her day of birth from her. (If she doesn't know it, then he could suggest she pick a day, because "If I ever need to get you fake papers for whatever reason, you'll need a birthday anyways.") Then on said day he gets her a cheap portable dvd player, some headphones, and a couple dvds of ballets because why not.

 

[Soleil Overland]

Thank you! And it's no problem, take your time!


Meanwhile, Cress is full of seven kinds of anxiety because she is vaguely aware of how easily this could go wrong, but at the same time she's kind of excited because she secretly likes going fast? She probably jokes the whole time because she's nervous, tbh. "Sorry, guess I don't, heh, know my own strength. Get it? Because I'm super st - WOAH, that pole came out of nowhere, huh? And I still dodged it! I'm pretty great at this whole driving - SHIT!"


"What's a birthday?" As per usual, Paul is surprised by her limited knowledge of the mundane, but as usual, he takes it in stride. "The day you were born." "...Born?" "Yeah. You know, how humans are made." "Humans aren't made. They just exist." "Well, your birthday is the day you start to exist, then." She ends up choosing December thirteenth, because the word December is pretty and December thirteenth just sounds nice to her. And I'd imagine that when Paul gets her gift, he's internally arguing with himself about how he shouldn't be doing this because he shouldn't care about her, but then he gives it to her and she literally squeals, and it's hard to scold himself about getting her a gift when she has that big giddy grin because if it makes her so happy, then how can it be that bad? AH, THESE TWO (MORALLY NOT GREAT) CHARACTERS ARE SO CUTE!

 

[FragmentedPhosphor]

Okay, I'm still giggling over that driving scene, but to extend it further just a little bit... Say they get pulled over for speeding ("... Fuck... Kid, pull over- use the turn signal, dammit!- and try not to... Wait, no, go ahead and show you're nervous, that might help...") and Paul tries to talk the cops out of actually running his license, but they end up taking it anyways. While the cop heads back to the car Paul changes from smooth and jovial to nervous and worried in .2 seconds, and turns to Cress, saying "Alright, this is your one and only chance to go as fast as you want. Don't fuck up, turn when I say turn, and hit the gas when I say go." 


//AND OH MY GOD THAT'S ADORABLE//  He would totally go from 'I cannot believe I'm doing this, we're nearly to Arizona anyways and I just wasted nearly seventy bucks on a kid who I'm just dropping off and never seeing again' to 'Well, seventy bucks wasn't that much anyways.' when he saw her reaction.

 

[Soleil Overland]

The policeman is nice enough about it - when the window rolls down to reveal an incredibly anxious teenage girl, he quickly puts together what happened and his expression softens - but he still takes the license. ("It's basically just protocol," he assures Cress as he plucks it from Paul's hand, "Nothing real bad is going to happen, don't worry.") He walks off and Cress turns to Paul, frantic. However, her anxious expression morphs into one of determination at the orders, and she nods, gripping the wheel tighter and slamming down on the gas the minute he tells her to.


He tries to rationalize it by telling himself he knew it would keep her quiet for a while (which it did) but he knows deep down that he did it because he knew it would delight her. I love the image of her bouncing up onto her tip toes with ease because the super strength allows her to maintain that position without hurting her toes without the need of pointe shoes, and then being absolutely ecstatic that she can do it.


Also, my heart hurts imagining them get closer and closer to Tonopah, and Paul telling himself that he'll be getting rid of her soon and being distressed by how unappealing the prospect has become to him. It doesn't help that, the closer they get, the more scared Cress seems to become, nightmares becoming more frequent and a habit of anxiously picking at the skin on her hands developing. 


AND IMAGINE CRESS TELLING PAUL ABOUT PRISKA, OH, MY HEART -

 

[FragmentedPhosphor]

Oh gosh, now I'm just imagining them idling in an empty parking lot after they've successfully escaped the cops. Everything's tense for a moment- then they both dissolve into near-hysterical giggling because of a thing or two that happened along the way ("And did you see his expression when we roared off like that?! I think he didn't realize a little car like this could go that fast!"). It's good to relax the tension that had built up during the chase, and when it winds down Paul glances over to Cress and says, uncharacteristically warm and with a tinge of pride in his voice; "You did well, kid. Certainly better than I had when I had my first chase." The moment lasts for a little while before he adds "Now get outta the driver's seat. I think it's time I drove for a while- plus, we need to switch license plates again."


And oh god, Paul would not like that at all. Once they get there he would pull over to a parking lot near a fast food restaurant and idle there for a few moments, neither parking the car or unlocking the door. I'm going to assume by that time he knows what's going on and what Cress is going to do, and for a moment he drums his fingers on the steering wheel, staring down seemingly at the gas gauge, trying to find the right way to say goodbye. Then, out of nowhere, he asks "Do you know anything about this damn facility? Anything at all? Because I will not be happy about wasting so much damn gas to get you here only to have you dive in unprepared and get caught again, or killed."


Also, that would be adorable. Paul would probably get really pissed off at the people who did that to Cress and Priska from a purely moral standpoint- and because he cares about Cress by that point- but at the same time he would totally get caught up in the 'aww' moment.

 

[Soleil Overland]

Woah, sorry, I let my friend use my computer and it looks like it was still signed into her account - totally didn't notice. Lemme fix that...


Cress doesn't respond to the praise, simply beams, but it says plenty about how delighted she was by the warmth in his voice and the genuine compliment. She obediently climbs out of the driver'a side and darts over to take his place in the passenger, deciding she likes being driven places more that she likes driving.


"I know enough," she says quietly, "If it's anything like the one I came from, they've got security cameras up because they're cautious, but don't pay them much mind because they're so confident that they've scared everyone too much for them to try and run. Priska likes to sit at the edges, near the fence. If I hand my knife through the wire, she can cut out her chip, and then I can tear the fence open, get her out, and press it closed again before they see a thing. Maybe I'll throw a rock, too, so all the others will go to the sound and won't see me...and then we'll go to the police, and I'll give them my map with the facilities on it, and we can tell them what's going on, and that will help the other kids. Then, me and her, we'll run." "Kid -" Paul starts, because while he certainly has his issues with the police, he knows staying with them would be in Cress's best interest - they'd find her a family, one that could provide for her - but she shoots him a cold look that silences him. "Any family I may have had is dead," she says harshly, "Priska too. We're all each other's got -" Secretly, both her and Paul know that is no longer really true in her case, but neither wants to be the one to admit it. "- and they'd split us up. I can't let that happen, Paul. I can't." She takes a deep shaky breath and turns her gaze back out the windshield. "We're running."


"So why Tonopah?" Paul asks one afternoon, when the quiet starts getting obnoxious, "I know there's a facility there, but why the hell would you escape from one just to go running to another?" "Priska is there." The answer is simple and definitive, like Cress thinks that's all that needs to be said, but Paul's brow furrows. "Who's Priska?" "My best friend. Those are the words she liked to use, because that's what they said on the Outside, but I don't know if they're still true," she says slowly, cheeks turning pink, and she looks at Paul the same way she always does when she isn't sure about something about the outside world and wants him to explain, "Do best friends kiss sometimes?"

 

[FragmentedPhosphor]

lol, I figured something like that had happened... Or, well, I had hoped, since the way it was written was familiar.


Paul would sigh and shake his head, still tapping the steering wheel with one hand, clearly unhappy about pretty much everything. Still, he sees no other option, and goes to unlock the doors when his eyes light up with an idea. "... You two don't have to stay on the run." He'd say, his voice carefully modulated so that his emotions weren't as evident. "I know someone..." He had always been careful not to say he had friends; as it was he probably only called a couple people friends, and it was clear the word had meaning to him. "They can get you out of the country. Both of you. You could both vanish, start up a normal life somewhere else..." Much as he wants to take care of her, he knows her staying with her isn't safe for either of them; he was a wanted criminal, a cop-killing, drug-dealing, violent criminal, and she had psychopathic doctors after her. But he could at least do that for her- that and one other thing. "And I can cause a distraction to make sure you get away with Priska." He gives a small grin. "I can make sure all their attention is elsewhere for as long as you want."


Paul would raise an eyebrow at her question, but say nothing more about it. He's seen much stranger in his day than two girls kissing. "No, usually that's not something best friends do. That's for girlfriends." Knowing she's immediately going to ask what that is, Paul explains anyways. "A girlfriend is..." He hesitates, not sure just how much he should tell the kid. She's clearly not had the sex talk, and he wasn't sure he was the person to give it to her. "Girlfriends are much more intimate with one another than best friends. They... Well the only real difference is that they kiss and go out to dates with one another, I guess..."

 

[Soleil Overland]

So sorry for the lack of responses, I have been incredibly busy as of late, but I'll get one up as soon as possible!


Cress agrees to this without hesitation and mentions Scotland--she's pretty sure it's a place since Priska used to talk about wanting to go there, and Paul says he'll get them there. Imagine Paul gets injured while doing his distraction, and once they're finally somewhere that they can park (Cress was driving, since Paul's wound prevented him from doing so), Priska, who hasn't said a word to Paul and instead just cried tears of relief and fretted over Cress, turns to him. "Show me the injury," she orders, wiping tears from her eyes, and when he obliges, she presses a palm to it, ignoring his defensive hiss and focusing on the wound. Her palm begins to glow, and gentle warmth floods his body with the injury as the epicenter. When she takes her hand away, it's completely healed.


And then imagine Paul is driving along in the dead of night with the two curled up together in the back. Priska's fast asleep and Paul had assumed Cress was too until she began to speak. "You could come with us," she whispers, her tone a strange and sad blend of hopefulness and hopelessness, as if she desperately wants to believe he'll give an answer different from the one she's expecting, "We could all start over. No one would raise an eyebrow at David and Jean Wicasset." (I like to think that the alias they commonly used when staying at motels and such was of David and Jean Wicasset, father and daughter.)


"...That doesn't sound so bad," Cress murmurs as she turns to look out the window, as if she had expected the difference to be something awful, "I wouldn't mind being girlfriends."

 

[Soleil Overland]

Sorry it's so short, I felt like it communicated enough--

 

[FragmentedPhosphor]

No worries, the reply was perfect~ Sorry I've been so laggardly of late, I'll try to get a response up by Saturday. 


And that would still weird Paul out- but maybe less than it should, because he just *insert whatever the distraction ends up being because I haven't decided yet* an evil lab that experiments on kids an have them superpowers after being forced to drive a superhumanly strong teenager across the country, so at this point his mind is more at the 'okay, sure, why not' point. So he'd just stare at the lack of injury for a moment before going "Uh... Thanks..."


Paul wouldn't say anything for a while, but just before Cress goes to ask if he heard her or something of the sort he sighs and shakes his head. "I can't, kid." His own voice is low and quiet, to mask his own emotion under the pretense of not wanting to wake up Priska. "I have business here I can't just ditch- leaving the country with you would put the both of you at risk, and you two already have enough to deal with." Then he smiles a bit and adds, only somewhat playfully, because let's say once Cress learned how old he was she teased him a bit about how spry he is for his age; "Plus, you know how old I am- why would you want to haul an old geezer like myself along?"

 

[Soleil Overland]

Merry belated Christmas! Or happy Hanukkah, if that's what you celebrate! Or just happy late December, if you don't celebrate anything!


Priska just hums to acknowledge his thanks before turning back to Cress, asking her if she's sure she's not hurt anywhere--are you sure--and brushing her hair back out of her face and wiping grime off her freckled cheeks. There's just so much genuine love between these two girls, even with how young there are, and it WARMS MY HEART.


But this time, Cress doesn't laugh. "I knew you were going to say that," she mumbles, burying her face in Priska's hair. As if able to sense Cress's distress even while dead asleep, Priska's arms tighten around Cress's torso and she holds her tighter, mumbling incoherently with her face pressed in the crook of the auburnette's neck.

 

[FragmentedPhosphor]

Hey, just as an update, I am still alive and wanting to continue the story. Life's been rough, but I finally have a house(!) of my own and a steady source of income. (I am looking for a second job so I can pay my part in the electricity/water/etc. bills, but that'll have to come later). I might be able to reply soon, but with things being as chaotic as they are my times on the website where I can actually write a response are somewhat limited. I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting!

 

[Soleil Overland]

Congratulations!


Again, take all the time you need--your life far supersedes the story.

 

[Soleil Overland]

Imagine Cress coming back as an adult to find Paul.

 

[FragmentedPhosphor]

Alright, so first thing first, I'm still sorry I'm taking so long. I got fired, I got hired, and my cat's gone insane-- so life's just about normal for me. I'll try to get something up soon. 


And that's way better than what I had planned! (which was either something goes wrong just before takeoff and Paul has to fly them there/get them away from the plane, or either party finds out the other is in danger and goes of to save them) Man, it would take a lot of searching on their part, but I figure not much will have changed with Paul over the years. He's certainly older, and somewhat slower, but he's still not settled down and is still keeping himself afloat by doing things not quite legal. He'd be thrilled to see Cress again, obviously.

 

[Soleil Overland]

Oh, wow, so sorry for the wait--I didn't even see that you'd responded!

It's a difficult process to find him, and it's made even harder by the fact that Paul is always on the move, so every time Cress gets close to finding him, he's moved again. But she finds the car eventually, and stops her motorcycle (an old, run down thing that she brought back with her from Scotland) some space behind it, heart pounding in her chest. She pulls off her helmet, hooks it over the handlebar, and takes a moment to gather her thoughts before drawing a breath and walking up to the car. She knocks briskly on the dark window, and it rolls down just enough for a pair of familiar, wary eyes to peek over the top. And Cress grins, emerald eyes lined with tears she refuses to shed and arms crossed over her chest, and Paul's heart heaves in his chest. She looks much the same as she did when she left, despite almost a decade having passed since. Her auburn hair is shorter now, hacked off at her chin instead of her shoulders, but the color hasn't dulled, and her face is still round and youthful, if more freckled than he remembers. She hasn't grown much taller, but her shoulders have broadened and so have her hips. She's got thick arms and strong legs--she's sturdy, in a word, and it suits her more than her previous boniness did. Her smile, however, hasn't changed in the slightest, and it grows wider as Paul gazes at her with giant eyes. "Hey, old man."

Do you think she'd be able to convince Paul to return to Scotland with her when she returned as an adult, or would he still object? I have a different story for her return that fits each option.

 

[Soleil Overland]

I like to think the moment Paul comes to realize that he genuinely loves Cress comes a few weeks, maybe a month, after the incident in the diner. By that point, he's recognized that he cares about her, but he's kind of in denial about the extent of it until a month later, when she witnesses her first thunderstorm.

They're pulled over on the side of the road late one night, and Paul is enjoying some rest at last. Then Cress prods him in the side of the head. "Paul! Paul!" "Mmwha? What is it?" "There's water coming from the sky!" Paul cracks one eye open and glances out the window. "Yeah. It's rain." There's a boom of thunder, and Cress squeals in the backseat. "What was that?!" "That was thunder. It happens sometimes during storms." Paul closes his eyes again, only for them to snap open again when he hears the car door open. He half expects to turn and find her being ripped out of the car by some gun wielding stranger, but no, she's climbed out of the car of her own volition and is standing in the middle of the road, staring up at the sky. The scene is almost similar to a painting, with Cress standing with her back to him, getting soaked by the rain and whipped by the wind, gazing up at the sky with pure wonder as lighting splits the dark clouds. It's in that moment, watching her look at a thunderstorm like it's the greatest miracle she's ever seen, that he has to accept that he can't go back to the way it was before. Cress weaseled her way into his affections and there's no turning back.