(no subject)

[cryptograms]

Who: Ford & Closed logs
What: July Catchall
When: July
Where: Throughout Trench

Comments

[stancake]

Stan is past the point of flinching and freezing like a deer in headlights when this happens suddenly, but getting used to the kids has still been easier than adjusting to Old Man Ford. And it doesn’t even really bother him anymore that he looks so much like Pa in really bad lighting. Totally nothing to do with that. It’s just weird.

It’s still weird. Also he doesn’t really know what day it is. Birthdays are something he hasn’t celebrated for awhile. In his brain it’s still winter in Fucksville, Oregon.

He smiles awkwardly. Standing in the hall.

“I’m uh. I’m cool. I’m good. How’s it hanging? Working on your…magicy-science stuff?”

[cryptograms]

Okay. Okay, the conversation is off to a good start! They're not immediately fighting (not that they have fought since Stan arrived) and neither of them has tried to bolt from the conversation. Stan even asks about Ford's work, which is enough to make Ford perk up in response. He's not sure what it means that Stan asks, but the fact that he does at all strikes him as a good thing.

"I have been, actually! I finished this just yesterday, in fact."

He dips a hand into his pocket and withdraws a little wooden box, then steps forward and offers it to Stan.

"Here."

If Stan opens it, he'll find what seems to be a gold compass inside, though there's no directions marked on the dial and the needle isn't pointing north. Ford doesn't bother to explain it yet - and he doesn't tell Stan why he made it.