deercountry | September/October Catch-All

[Oh, wow, ye of little faith, Daniel. Billie has absolutely GOT THIS.

He doesn't mention the knife right away. When Murderbot found out he was armed way back when he first arrived in Trench, Billie had to convince it to give him back his weapons, so maybe it's best to keep that one in his back pocket. At least for now.]

I can fight! I've fought all kinds of things at home. Plus, I started learning karate here.

[ Ah. ]

Learning.. karate, huh.

[ He won't say Billie is a little too young for that. After all, Daniel did start teaching karate to Sam when she was still pretty young too - not even really that much older than Billie, judging by the way the other looks.

No, his slight hesitance in the middle of that sentence has to do with something else entirely. Because of who's been teaching him.

Does he trust kids with karate? Sure. Does he trust Johnny with karate with kids Billie's age? Less so. ]

And how has that been going so far?

[ Clearly just a totally innocent question. ]

It's a lot of work, but it's fun too.

[Billie's quite fond of Johnny, even if for the first several months, it took some wrangling to get him focused on the task at hand. His attention span still isn't great, and discipline has never been a strong suit for him, but he tries.]

Some day I'm going to learn to break blocks of ice with my head. And I'm really good at killing the training dummies.

[With a knife. He's good at killing them with a knife.]

[ Okay, at least Daniel doubts the casual talk of 'killing' is something Johnny taught this kid. It's more likely an effect of this place, and how cruel it can be.. Because no matter how Daniel thinks about Johnny, at least he doesn't try to put some sort of murderous urge into kids. That's so much more Kreese's thing.

But the breaking ice with his head thing..

.. now that has Johnny's name all over it. It takes so much for the way Daniel is internally wincing to not show up on his face as he speaks. ]

Have you considered starting with trying to break them with your hand instead? [ Please. Trying it with one's head just sounds like a quick way to get yourself into the hospital.

Especially for such a young kid! ]

Why would I want to break ice with my hand? It's cold and stuff - it might hurt.

[Please, Daniel, he uses his hands all the time. It's a way better idea to try to break it with his head instead.

Something shiny on the ground catches Billie's eye and he scampers away from Daniel's side to check it out. Carefully, he picks up the metal scrap of broken compass and checks it over.]

Huh. Just looks like an old piece of garbage. Weird.

.. wait.

[ That's 'wait' in regards to that thing Billie just picked up, mind you.

It could also be a 'wait' in regards to what the other is saying before that, but lecturing Billie about using his head to break ice is an even worse idea has to wait for a moment, apparently. Because something looks just a little bit familiar about that 'old piece of garbage', and one of Daniel's hands disappears into the pocket of his pants, only to emerge from it holding something that looks pretty much identical to what Billie is holding. ]

Can I see it? I think I have one just like it.

[ And finding two weird broken pieces of.. something in the middle of the forest?

That can't be a coincidence. Not in a place like Trench. ]

[This is all a perfectly normal conversation as far as Billie's concerned. He seems utterly clueless about the stress headache he's probably inflicting on Daniel over his whole everything.

It's fine.

His forehead wrinkles with confusion as Daniel pulls the broken bit of compass out of his pocket.]

Hey, how come you're carrying garbage around?

[Whatever, it's probably not important. Maybe Daniel just likes carrying broken things around in his pocket. Lots of people in Trench that he's met do some pretty weird things sometimes, and that's pretty low on the list.

Billie returns to him and holds out the scrap of metal.]

Huh. They do look alike. That's weird, isn't it?

[ Thankfully Daniel is not going to judge a kid as seemingly young as Billie for being a little slow on the uptake - he's not that cruel. He knows grown adults who might have told him the same thing here, and he'd be judging them way more. (Looking at you, Johnny Lawrence.)

So instead of replying to what Billie is saying, Daniel just hums, carefully taking Billie's piece out of his hand to put the pieces closer together, trying to see what's up with them--

Until the pieces suddenly click together, drawn to each other like pieces of a magnet, until they're suddenly connected. Connected in a way that makes Daniel actually recognize what he's holding, moving his hand a little lower so Billie can see what's in his hand too now. ]

It's a compass. [ He figures he might say that first, since he's not sure Billie.. knows.. what a compass is.. ] You know those?

[ Either he won't, and Daniel can explain, or he will and might have an idea why having a compass in this situation could be a good thing.

(Emphasis on could. It's still Trench, after all.) ]

I know what a compass is.

[Come on, Daniel, give him a little credit. He's not a total idiot.

He peers at the compass in the man's hand. Weird that it works in spite of being broken, and it looks like it might still be missing at least a piece or two. It's probably magic. Most things in Trench seem to be some kind of magic or another.]

It's broke, though. Most broken compasses don't work. Or, they do, but they don't work right. Are you sure that thing's going to get us out of here?

[ Says the kid who thinks it's a good thing to break ice with his head!! Look, it lowers the bar a whole lot here, alright. ]

It's what we got. [ Daniel says - though he tries very hard to use his tone here to not make it sound like something pessimistic, but rather like a reassurance.

He's the adult here, after all. He's got to be the reassuring party, the person to look after Billie while they're all the way out here. ]

Maybe we can see if we can find some more parts of it along the way. You're probably good at finding things, right?

[ Lessons In Parenting 31b: give kids a task to occupy their mind so they don't think too hard about a stressful situation they're in.

.. even though Billie doesn't fully seem to realise just how stressful this situation is in the first place. ]

Uhh, yeah, I'm pretty good at finding stuff, I guess.

[He finds things all the time. Just sometimes it's things that already belong to other people. No big deal, but Billie figures it's probably best not to talk too much about it.

Instead, he scuffs his way through the leaves, keeping his eyes open for any more compass parts as they crunch loudly under his feet. He glances back to Daniel.]

What're you good at doing?

[ Okay, so far so good. There's no danger threatening them, even if Daniel still feels like there's something lurking around here somewhere.. but if lurking is all it does, then it ought to be fine. Whatever, weirdo monster, you lurk away. Just don't bother them.

And Billie seems okay so far too. Maybe a little too okay, but.. well, it's preferable to him being totally terrified, Daniel supposes.

So he's more than happy to keep up this talk, even if it's relatively too close to small talk for the current situation. If it keeps the kid happy.. ]

Karate, I guess? [ He wouldn't claim to be the Best Ever at it or anything. But it's the first thing that comes to mind.. It's what happens when you make karate your identity, huh. ] I mean, I did win a tournament. Twice.

[It really doesn't take much to keep Billie happy. He still doesn't see any problem with any of this - sure, there's this odd feeling that he's being watched that he's not super thrilled over, but he's not scared. He'll run whatever it is off if he has to.

The mention of the tournament win - the two tournament wins - catches his attention, and he's momentarily distracted from scuffling loudly through the leaves on the search for more compass pieces.]

You won twice? I was in the one we had awhile ago. I... didn't win, though. I did okay, I guess, but other guy was way bigger than me.

[Billie, everyone is way bigger than you.]

Hey, it's not about winning.

[ .. despite what Daniel just said.

But look, that was him just illustrating why he's good at it! It's a different matter altogether. Only a win mattering is never the sort of lesson he'd ever want to pass on to anyone, let alone such a young and potentially impressionable kid like Billie.. ]

It's about having fun. [ Even while fighting against way bigger guys.

Which is kind of inevitable for Billie, yeah, huh. ]

Did you have fun with the tournament?

[Billie shrugs. Look, winning is a lot of fun too. Still, the tournament was exciting, and fun to watch. The food was good, and both Tuck and Vyng were there to cheer him on.]

Yeah, it was still fun. Next time I want to win, though.

[He's assuming there's going to be another one at some point, even if this one essentially boiled down to Johnny picking fights with other teachers trying to help others around Trench learn to defend themselves.]

I would've won anyway if they let me have my knife. This unarmed stuff is way harder.

[Said oh so casually like there's nothing at all to be concerned about. As Billie scuffs through the leaves, he uncovers another scrap of the compass. He scoops it up and immediately scampers to turn it over to Daniel.]

Hey! Look! Another one!

[ Ah.

Hm.

Yes.

Daniel inhales, exhales, and then manages to smile encouragingly at that last part. ]

Oh, look at that! [ Daniel will put it together with the other pieces, putting them all on his hand to show it off to Billie as well, so he's also got a clear picture of the situation. ] Looks like we're doing great. I think it'll be complete if we can just find one more piece.

[ See? Encouraging Billie to use these new finding talents is clearly so much better than encouraging knife use in toddlers. Johnny Lawrence, what are you out there doing to children.. ]

That one's got to be nearby too, right?

Yeah!

[It's easy enough to distract Billie from the conversation about his knife fighting skills with the more urgent matter at hand - finding the compass and getting out of these woods.]

It's still kind of a weird looking compass. Cool, but weird. I think it's going to be weird looking when it's whole too. Compared to, you know, like regular compasses.

Well, everything in this place is kind of weird.

[ .. maybe a little less so to a feral little kid who thinks knife fighting is totally okay and cool, but.. you know, if even Billie thinks this compass looks kind of weird, then he's probably at least somewhat capable of telling weird things apart from normal things.

Just enough for Daniel to be able to comment what he just said. ]

The important part is that it'll hopefully start properly working when it's all put together. [ At least the man is also keeping an eye out as he walks. Mostly to try and make sure he spots danger before it comes right at him, but if he spots a fragment in the process, he sure won't complain. ] Even if it's an odd compass, it'll still surely point us towards something.

[ Daniel is definitely more than willing to be that optimistic in the light of having to protect this child out here.. You can't just shove gloomy or cynical view at kids. ]

Yeah, that's true. Things are always weird here. Hopefully it points us to something cool! Like... I dunno. A dragon or something.

[The compass looks a little like a dragon, maybe it will lead them to one. He supposes he would accept the possibility that it might lead them home too.]

Or maybe it'll just point north, like a normal compass.

[Billie scuffs through another pile of leaves.]

How long have you been here anyway?

[ Daniel is hoping with all his might in this very moment that the compass absolutely does not lead them to a dragon. That's just about the last thing he could use while trying to navigate a very likely dangerous forest while keeping a kid safe, thanks.

Maybe that's why he just ignores the talk of it, like he doesn't want to jinx it by mentioning the very word out loud. No, let's focus on the safer question here instead. ]

A few months now. [ That feels weird to think about too, but at least it's not dangerous like the dragon thoughts.. ] I showed up back here in summer. When everyone was talking about the Reckoning.

[ He figures that might be more memorable to a kid than a month name.. ]

How about you? [ How long has such a small child been stuck in this messed up place? ]

Yeah. I remember the Reckoning. It really sucked. This guy caused a whole lot of problems too because he tried to punch the ocean, because he's... I don't know. Angry, or stupid or something. Mariana got really mad at everyone over it.

[Billie scuffs through another pile of leaves, making as much noise as possible. Look, if the compass is going to lead them to a dragon, he's going to help make it easier for the dragon to find them too. Dragons are cool.]

I got here, like, a year ago, when those zealot guys were kidnapping people and trying to sacrifice them to their weirdo god. We had to fight a bunch of them to get Tuck back.

.. it sounds like you've been in a lot of dangerous situations.

[ Which may be a given, since.. well, this is Trench. As much as Daniel would like to believe that the world should make sure to not get kids caught up in dangerous situations, Trench doesn't really seem to care about that.

But that doesn't mean he can't worry, even if he might not know this particular kid well. ]

Have you really been alright so far? [ He sure.. seems cheerful, at least..

And Daniel thinks Billie seems a little too young to be faking that cheer.

He's still trying to keep out an eye for that last piece of the compass, but he can't help but sneak in some glances in Billie's direction too, just to see the kid's reaction to that question. ]

Edited 2023-01-28 16:47 (UTC)

Yeah, I've been okay.

[Billie gives a little shrug. He doesn't worry so much for himself as his family and the other people in Trench he has come to love.]

I'm really good at fighting, anyway. It's no big deal. Home was dangerous too sometimes.

September/October Catch-All

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