Валерий is creeping on your memories (tipofthetongue) wrote in invol_rpg, @ 2013-07-13 19:06:00 |
|
|||
Valya balanced his shot glass carefully as he crossed the floor, heading towards where Valeska stood on the other side of the room. It was a strange night, the sweetness of their release from IVI’s authority stifled by the memories of students who would not be leaving with them. He saw them even though he wasn’t making a deliberate effort to see anything. The memories were thick and bittersweet. “Prost.” He kept his greeting low and close to Val’s ear as he sneaked up on her, clinking his shot glass against the drink in her hands. Months ago, she’d comforted him in his grief, and although he couldn’t return the favor in exactly the same way, he wanted to do something. At the very least, he wanted to make sure she was all right. “What do you think? Are we all going to be traveling home with hangovers?” Valeska was very sad to be going home under these circumstances, two weeks ago she would have been thrilled but now after so much death and destruction, it was harder to deal with. They were going home and would all never be together again. It was bittersweet and now they all had alcohol enough to get them properly drunk and spend their last hours at IVI the way they should. “I think so,” Val told him, giving him a sad smile. “Some with worse hangovers than others.” “I would rather not be part of that group,” Valya admitted. In spite of that, he downed the vodka in one go, the traditional way. It warmed his throat going down and he smiled thinly, thinking he’d have to eat something salty before the end of the night. “So are you going back to Germany then?” he asked, lifting his brows with curiosity. “I am not in the mood to get drunk,” Val said, taking another sip of her beer. Too much had happened, she didn’t want to spend her last few hours at IVI completely unable to stand and make a fool of herself. Besides she still had to pack some. “I am, Hamburg, I might got to Belgium soon too,” Val said. “Where are you going?” “I have no idea,” Valya answered. “I should go home, eventually, but I don’t plan on staying there. It’s--” He hesitated, then gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head. “It’s not the same without Alyosha.” He rotated the shot glass in his fingers. “I may go with Kelly. If she doesn’t mind.” He met Val’s eyes, looking guilty for no good reason other than he was admitting to a level of commitment he hadn’t had to acknowledge previously. “For a little while, until what happens to Kim is clear. I’ll find some place to stay. I know very little about Iowa, but surely there is something to do besides admire corn, no?” Val put her arm on Valya’s shoulder, as a comforting measure. She knew that it would be hard, leaving this place. Even those vols who had tried not to make any real connections would have a hard time leaving this place without one another. They had become something more in their time here, more than just Vols. She had witnessed this before, at the school in Germany. They had made connections and had become a group, a group that could not be replaced or forgotten with time or distance. They had laughed, mourned, and cried together. They had saved one another from all kinds of things, including death itself. “You always have a place in Germany,” Val said softly and there was a moment of sadness before she smiled at him again. “I told you that you were IVI married. But I would not count on much to do, it is America.” She didn’t comment about Kim, Kim got what she deserved, she was a terrorist and yes it was too bad for Kelly, but she did not feel pity for either of them. “You will be bored soon and you will call me and say ‘Valeska, Kelly and I are bored, may we please come visit you in Hamburg, we miss beer that doesn’t taste like piss’ and then I will sigh and say ja, ja of course, of course.” He met Val’s eyes and gave her a fond look. She had been a very good friend to him -- more than a friend at certain times, but they had always been able to make that shift seamlessly. “I never did make it to Germany,” he mused. Being bored in Iowa was a possibility, he supposed, but he wanted to be with Kelly. He was glad she was not present at the moment, however, because he didn’t imagine she’d take kindly to being called married. It made him prickle uncomfortably, though he let it slide, wondering if that only proved Val’s point. “And how can I say no to good beer?” His eyes brightened. “Some day, you’ll give up playing host and let me return the favor. We’ll figure out when and where later.” And he would check up on her, make sure she wasn’t making terrible choices for lack of something (or someone) better to do. Valeska was intelligent and kind, but sometimes her decisions baffled him, and he thought they’d all had enough hard lessons at IVI. “I do not know and we have the very best.” Val put her arm around his shoulders. “Ja, of course, we will make plans to visit one another.” She didn’t know where time and distance would take them but Valya had been a constant in her life since their arrival at IVI. Similar powers had made them curious about one another and then their friendship had flourished, no she would always think of him fondly. Two and a half years at a Vol school in Germany and a year here, she was ready to leave and leave most of it behind, but never the people. “Your life is going to be almost boring without seeing me every day.” “It will be an adjustment,” he replied with a smile. “But I guess I should be lucky, no? At least being able to remember you?” He nudged her playfully, though he couldn’t help but wonder if she was going to leave at IVI with no memory of her at all. If she were smart, she’d have already wiped Ted’s memory. Valya could never confess to understanding Ted very much -- his vocabulary was far beyond what Valya could piece together -- but he’d boggled when Val confessed that they’d had sex. And now that he’d heard the Irishman had bitten off one of the younger student’s hands, he hoped whatever curiosity Val had had at the time was thoroughly squelched. “Ah yes, I suppose I will let you keep your memories of me,” she smiled at him and squeezed his shoulders. Their relationship with comfortable and familiar and he was her sounding board, he would be deeply missed out of her life. “Did you know before I came here, I was so terrified that I would accidentally erase my family’s memories of me? Completely.” She shook her head, it was less scary now. She wasn’t worried about it. “Thank you,” he replied, smiling crookedly. “I’d be sad to lose them. Especially your face when you’re trying hard to understand something. You get a little line, right here.” He mimicked her expression and then gestured to a spot between his brows. It was well-familiar to him after their independent studies together. He considered his own advancements with his power for a moment, then nodded along with her in agreement. “I was afraid to erase memories at all,” he confided. “But that’s because the first time did not turn out well. Anyway.” He shrugged. “I’m not putting effort into making one giant memory palace of this place. I figure if I ever need to know something, I will ask Conner.” The corner of his mouth twitched. “Maybe six months from now I’ll contact him and ask if he knows anything about a blond German girl at IVI. To see what he says.” Val gave him a look and laughed when he pointed to his own forehead. “You should tell him... I cannot quite place her...” she trailed, before laughing. “Making a memory of this place would also not be worth it I do not think. You will remember the important things from here without bothering, I think. Unless you get brain damage it would be impossible to forget some of the things.” She looked out among the crowd, hopefully this is how she would remember this place, that at the end it at least seemed hopeful for something better. “It might actually concern him,” Valya said, amused. “Then he can take it up with you.” He followed her gaze and then gave a lofty sigh. “Somehow we’ve made it out of here without brain damage. That’s something. If we make it out without institutional syndrome, then we’ll be doing really good for ourselves. What do you think? Will you be waking up every day missing going to classes and training?” “Three and a half years is a very long time to go being told what to do and when to be there,” Val admitted to her friend with a small frown. She was certain that the schools in Germany would be closed now, given what had been uncovered in the one for dangerous Vols - from what she had gathered from the internet there had been quite a bit of protesting. “So we shall see, but I am very adaptable, so I have faith in my abilities to walk away unscathed, with perhaps the help of therapy.” “What about you? Will you cry when there is no more powers training? Miss the fights in the cafeteria?” Therapy. Valya tried to school his features before it became apparent how useless he thought that would be. Even without IVF involved, it was just another way for someone on the outside to gather private information that might make them vulnerable. He was not keen on speaking to anyone about his feelings, let alone voluntarily clue them into the fact that he was a Vol. “No tears,” he told her, well aware that she was one of the few people at the school who had seen him cry. “Though I don’t plan to stop using my power once I’m out. What people can’t remember won’t hurt them.” He shrugged. “And maybe I’ll punch someone for the thrill of it sometime.” His eyes slid to hers; he was joking. “Or maybe not.” Valeska laughed. “Only if they deserve it,” she said, kissing his cheek one last time. “I will give you my information tomorrow, ja? I suppose we should talk to other people even if we just prefer the company of one another.” Walking away, Valya would be one of the best things to take from this place. “You’d better.” Valya winked and gave her a brief, tight hug before watching her go. A smile lingered on his face and before she was too far away, he called out on impulse, “Behave yourself!” He’d seen her memories; he felt the warning was appropriate. Besides, he’d check in with her the next time they met. There were few secrets between them. |