Participants:
| Scene Title | What You Helped Make |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Ygraine seeks out Devon to give him thanks before the team splits off for their separate missions. |
| Date | October 21, 2011 |
Skinny Brickfront : Endgame Safehouse
Devon's room.
It’s a day that he never would have guessed would come, but it’s a day that’s fast approaching and leaving Devon with a vaguely overwhelmed feeling. He’s moved before, left one house for another, across town or over two blocks. But he’s never left home before. Normally, when one is faced with leaving home it’s with the prospect of adventure and new enterprise, not to ensure safety and survival of one’s future.
But that’s where the teenaged boy stands: preparing to leave in hopes of a future. Not only his, but others like him.
Which explains why the door to his room in the skinny brickfront safehouse stands open, and why Devon is sitting on his bed. He’s surrounded by a few things he’s planning to bring: notebook and pens, a throw-away cell phone. An old paper map of the eastern states is spread out before him, fingers tracing various lines. A crease marks his brow.
Quiet footsteps move along the corridor outside, before coming to a halt by the door. A polite thump-a-thump upon the frame requests the attention of the room’s occupant.
Framed by the open portal, Ygraine offers Devon a gentle, lop-sided smile. Recently red-dyed hair (in contrast the dramatic glossy black and warm blue she sported for most of her time in hiding) tumbles down the back of a comfortable-looking woollen sweater. She lifts her right hand in greeting. “Hi. Feel free to tell me to bugger off I’m in the way,” she amiably instructs.
Finger pausing in its track along one of the countless lines spider-webbing over the map, Devon lifts his head at the tapping against the door frame. “Hey,” he replies, a brow ticking up slightly upon finding Ygraine calling. “Nah, it’s cool. Just…” He drops a look to the map and shrugs as if to explain the nuances of geography.
“What’s up?” The question, and implied invitation to come in, is posed while the boy partially folds the map to set aside, to become one with the other oddities beside him.
Ygraine moves inside… but props her rump on the door-jamb, rather than intruding too far. “I… well.” She chuckles ruefully, spreading her hands. “I should probably warn you that the odds of incoherent babbling are rather high. I….”
She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment, before attempting to find a rather steadier and more informative flow of words. “We’re all about to head off on our various missions. Even if everything works out as well as we hope, there’s a good chance that we won’t all be together again for some time. So… I’m attempting to make sure I see everyone beforehand Especially those I want to thank.”
A sheepish little shrug precedes a quick grin. “And… you’re one of those. You’ve been part of making this place feel like a family home. Which… well. I hope you never know quite how badly I needed that. Just… know that it was immensely appreciated. That you were - are - yourself.”
Whatever it is, it must be important if it has Ygraine babbling, and Devon’s brows climb upward while waiting for the woman to find her words. He’s never known her to be shy of talking.
When she finally does say what’s on her mind, the boy’s face registers confusion. He shakes his head and finds a grin after a few seconds. “I don’t know that I really did anything aside from eat food and give everyone something else to worry about. But you’re welcome.”
Laughing, Ygraine shakes her head - seemingly quite sincerely amused rather than at all offended. “You… did that, yes. And a lot more. We….” Her hands spread and she shrugs slightly. “We wound up butting heads in the Dome. It would have been easy to hold grudges, or carry out suspicion from there. But.. you never seemed to.
Instead… you were relaxed here. Around me. You helped to make this feel like a home, rather than just… a ruin we were forced to sleep in for a while. This… this is more of a family than I’ve known for some time. And you very much played a role in making it feel that way.”
He’s quiet for a beat, watching Ygraine, still with a touch of confusion and still with a small grin. “I get what you were trying to do,” Devon says finally. “With the Dome. Some of us are reactive and some are proactive.” His shoulders roll through a shrug again. “In the end, we’re on the same team, fighting the same fight. I maybe won’t see things how you do, and vise versa, but that doesn’t mean we always need to butt heads.”
Dev drapes his arms over his knees, face schooling to something more sober. “It’s safe here. It’s been safe here. We’re kinda like a family of sorts. At least, we’ve learned to live with each other without pissing one another off all the time. And…” He pauses, hands turning over to show empty palms. “We’ll all regroup when… everything’s done.”
“I hope so,” Ygraine agrees, voice low but warm - a gentle smile lifting the corners of her mouth. “This… is going to be dangerous. And it looks as if we’ll be splitting up a bit more than I’d ideally like, to get each of us to where we hope we can be most use. Including you, of course. But there’s more here than just us, ahh, happening to be pushed together and having managed not to have it all fall apart. We wound up making something here. And while I admit that I don’t want to live in a ruin long-term, I do hope that we manage to keep most of the rest of it in place.
Including being able to trust each other. And… as someone who was probably a certifiable paranoic at times, after the Dome, trust’s not something I can offer up easily. You guys have it, more than just about anyone else in the world. It means a lot to me that I feel able to say that.”
Raising a hand, she cracks a sheepish little smile, accompanying it with a half-shrug. “Which, I suspect might be far more than enough of the crazy lady being embarrassing at you. I just… wanted you to know that it matters, this strange family of ours. And you’re very much a part of it.”