Link is the stong, silent type (heroingreen) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2012-11-06 08:32:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, cameron phillips, link |
Not in Kansas Anymore
Who: Link and Cameron
What: Meeting on a bus back from Kansas
Where: Somewhere in the Southwest
When: Following Halloween... XD
Rating: PG, Warnings: Mention of parent death
Status: Complete!
Kansas to California by bus was not a short trip, and for next year’s convention Link had already decided he would be taking a plane. Yes, there were conventions concerned with the plight of the small-scale American farmer closer to home, but this was the one his parents had gone to, so...
He’d spent most of his time thanking old acquaintances for their condolences. It would be good to get back home. He was old news there.
It wasn’t like him to be in a funk like this.
There was a girl, no more than nineteen on the bus, and clearly dressed for Halloween. Just like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Book version, as Cameron and John had grown up on that story. Her slippers were silver.
She was herself again, and staring out the window a little morosly. Sure, tapping her slippers together had sent her to Kansas, but it hadn't worked sending her back. Perhaps the magic had ended with Halloween.
Whatever it was, she was stuck on a bus with farmers and transients. She wasn't sure if it giving her time to think was a bad thing, or a good thing.
Link looked sideways at the girl in the stylized dress and shoes sitting beside him. They’d been sitting together for an hour already, and not a word between them as for yet. None from him, certainly. He clammed up beside pretty girls, anyway.
She glanced over at the man beside her, eying him a little bit, wondering if he meant trouble or not. Safety had been drilled into her relentlessly. Between that and the dreams, she could probably kneecap a man and not feel bad about it.
Still, her tone was more curious than anything else, "You're looking at me."
“I was looking out the window,” Link replied, simply, not defensively, though his cheeks turned pink from being caught.
"It was halloween," She explained, thinking that maybe that's what he was looking at. She didn't think she could explain the rest of it, so left it at that.
Well, not entirely, "I'm Cameron."
He nodded. “Link.” An awkward pause. “You’re... Dorothy, right?”
She smiled shyly, "Yes. My mother read it to us a lot when we were children." The costume had been a no brainer, really, "That's a good guess. Most people would be thrown off by the slippers."
Link glanced downward. “Me too, actually. Why not red?”
Cameron grinned, her face actually animated, "Red was for the movies. They were silver in the book. They changed it to red in order to take advantage of the new color process!"
Link nodded, the lights in his eyes flickering on. He liked gaining knowledge, whatever the subject. "Oh. That actually makes a lot of sense." A less awkward pause. "Were you at the convention?"
"Convention?" Cam shook her head. She wasn't sure what convention he was referring to and even less sure how to explain how she got there. Really 'I tapped my slippers together and ended up on a farm in Kansas' would make him think she was crazy.
"No, I wasn't."
He asked because the bus was filled with farmers traveling back west. Not all of them were headed to California, but they were all making their way home. “Ah,” he said, nodding. “Just... traveling then? For pleasure?” In costume?
"...Yes," Cameron lied. She was good at lying, especially in the dream world, where many things that came out of her mouth were lies. All for a good reason. A protective reason, but lies, none-the-less.
"I got a little into costume," She confessed.
Link could not remember the last time he had even considered putting on a costume for Halloween or anything else. Even as a kid, there hadn’t been many places to trick-or-treat. “Looks like you had fun.”
She tried to remember what had happened in 'Oz' but what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Instead she just shrugged her shoulder, "I suppose I did. Did you have fun at your convention?"
Link hesitated for an obvious moment. “Hm... yes.” But his mind was sifting through the question after question about his parents’ death. It had been years. He assumed those questions were over. It was nice to feel cared for, but his heart was still heavy from the experience.
Cameron tilted her head, watching him in silent for a moment as he seemed to mull over something. While she couldn't read biometric data like she could in the dream, she did have programming memories of ways to read people. "You lie. Or at least you're only telling a half truth."
She paused, then added, "Lets play a game. A truth for a truth."
Link lowered his fair brows, a little uncomfortable at the thought. Not that he was a guarded person, but words didn't always come easily. But it was hard to say no to a pretty girl. Impossible, really. "..Sure. Does that mean I have to tell you I actually had a rough time while I was there."
"Yes," she replied, nodding her head and giving him an encouraging smile. She thought that was a truth that required more elaboration, and that asking a question would invite him to ask her questions, as well. "Why was it so rough?"
She would probably be frequently asking him to elaborate during the game. Link sighed. "My parents died a few years ago. I kept running into old friends of theirs. They all wanted to talk about it, or at least just to wish me well -- which is fine. I just didn't enjoy the constant reminders." He sighed again, lower and slower. "They were killed when a structure on their farm collapsed."
"I'm sorry." It's what normal people asked in such situations, and Cameron often struggled to be a normal person. It was made worse by the dreams, and so she was valueing this social interaction. She put a hand on his arm.
"Mine died too, when I was very young. They were murdered. I wouldn't want constant reminders either." He'd known his parents, which she envied. Even though Sarah had raised her and was like a mother to her, she didn't always consider her a mother.
Link looked at her, really looked at her, and he had quite a stare. His eyes were wide. "That's... terrible." There was nothing he could have said that he didn't think would sound petty. "I'm not sure I want to follow that truth. I..." He looked down at his lap and frowned. "How old are you now?"
"It's in the past," she replied, shrugging a shoulder. "I barely remember either of them." Cameron squeezed his arm, "Nineteen. I graduated from highschool earlier this year."
"Same," he said. "Only I didn't finish school. I left to work on the farm full-time." He wasn't envious of her for getting to finish. He liked work more than sitting in a classroom. Sometimes he wish he was better at spelling and science related to things other than fertilizer.
"Are you happy?" She asked, her eyes moving across his face, studying his features and his facial expressions. Cameron decided he was cute.
Link nodded, looking thoughtful but not hesitating. "Yeah, I'd say so. It was difficult for a while." Sometimes he wondered if his spirit was too simple to stay unhappy for very long, regardless of what happened. He considered it a blessing. "Are you?"
"Yes, and no. I guess that's one of those complicated answers. I'm happy when I'm playing cello. I'm not happy because we move around so much. My feelings for my...adoptive brother make me unhappy. My dreams make me very unhappy."
She then added. "My parrot makes me happy."
Link gulped and tried to hide it. He was naive, he knew that. But still, that was one he'd never heard before. Not to his face. Feelings for a sibling.
"Cello is cool." As for the parrot, he wasn't much for pets. He accidentally ignored it. "I play guitar. Poorly."
Cameron opened her mouth to explain the complicated relationship she had with John ('he's not related by blood' was one she told herself repeatedly) then closed it. There was no use to it and it would make her think more about John and Glimmer and her conflicted feelings about that.
She just didn't trust Riley blonde girls. Maybe she'd understand if she dreamed more.
"Practice," She assured him. "Practice." Maybe if they'd talk more she'd play for him.
“I should,” Link replied, smiling a little again. “I just sleep through all my free time.” He could fall asleep anywhere, under any circumstances. He’d once fallen asleep on a running tractor. The hole in the fence was still there...
A laugh escaped Cameron's mouth before she could stop it. She really didn't need to stop it, but there was that impulse to control her emotions. In the dreams she wasn't expected to laugh, and it sounded awkward.
Here, it sounded normal, and she went with it, "I attend a music school. I could get you some pamphlets? Or play for you."
Link felt a tingle rise up his spine. An invitation to get to know her better was something he truly hadn't expected. He flushed a little. It looked so innocent on him. Boyish. "Sure. I'd like to hear you play."
Leave it to the socially stunted robot girl to get a farmboy blushing. Her smile brightened as they discussed one of the few things she was truely passionate about.
"I can bring my cello to you!"
Link was grinning like an idiot now. He forced his head to move and nodded. "Okay, yeah. ...I should get your number, then." Despite what she'd said about her brother, he felt a little daring.
She nodded, pulling out a pen, and writing her number on the top of his hand. Palms tended to sweat, and it would be harder to accidentally wash it out if it was on top of his hand.
She felt optimistic for the first time in weeks.
Link, meanwhile, decided the trip to Kansas had been worth it after all.