Re: Dream: Janus/Atticus
The words "got them from families" made Janus' expression sour even further. The act of passing on private correspondence to strangers was an unpleasant one, and he remembered how cut up some of the guys had been writing that stuff. The idea of reading any of their letters, to or from, was a bitch thing to do. He chewed on his lower lip to keep from saying anything over-critical about it. That wasn't what he was here for.
Janus lifted the farmer's green hat off his head, rocked it forward until it sat over his brows, back on the crown of his head, and then off again. There were gold curls now, pulled back casually. The lips were now chewed a soft pink, and where there had been the start of a beard there was now invisible peach fuzz and smooth cheekbones. She said, "No offense, but you don't know what's real, or what I was born with. Just because you can see something different on the outside." She didn't know what to say about this 'acting too male,' and again, kept herself from saying anything. She had green eyes, bigger than the farmer's, or the soldier's, or the demon's. They were more frank as they looked across the intervening distance, and she thought to herself that he shrugged when he was trying to say things and make them matter less to her. Sort of lazy. Like then she would feel lazy, too.
The girl appeared suddenly enough that Janis took a quick step backwards. She was in sweats and fuzzy white socks, the stuff she wore to bed, and moved softly over the surface of the dream. "I didn't know you could call them like that," she said, impressed. She knew the difference between a dream ghost and a real soul.
Grateful, she put pink-painted fingertips out for a cigarette. "Thanks." She didn't need the lighter, and lit the cigarette with the touch of a pink nail and a spark of phosphorous flame. After inhaling, she said, "Not long. I got out, and then they... freed the camp. Couple days later. Why you got to make it count, that's what I tell them."