snowblindrpg | [network] @ADMIN; Arrival

[She hums along as best she can, though it's a little difficult since it's unfamiliar to her. She can carry a tune pretty well, though; if she spoke more, she might not be a bad singer.]

[ Will tilted his head, though she couldn't see the motion and after a moment's consideration, he flipped the tablet to video so that she could see him and he could see her. Or at least see whatever her side of the video displayed.

For a moment he considered his next play, weighing his options against what he'd seen so far in the conversations she'd had. After a great deal of consideration, he went with his gut instinct; even if it was the height of ridiculous.

He issued a small yip. A noise he'd learned from Buster, it was recognizable as a mimicry of a dog's bark, but not particularly deep or braying. ]

[Her side shows just her ear at first, but then she pulls back, letting him see most of her face. She wrinkles her nose at the little bark, because what the fuck, dude; what are you doing. But... this has the elements of a game, and it's a lot better than the find-Lilly game that Peter had been suggesting, so she rolls with it and imitates a whip-poor-will.]

[ Well.

She didn't openly laugh at him or hang up, so he'd take it as a step in the right direction. Her whip-poor-will call is well done and he lets his expression say so, through the lift of his eyebrows and a smile that is careful not to show his teeth.

Lifting a finger to his lips, he taps them in a pensive gesture for a moment, before lowering the digit and giving a passable imitation of an owl's call. Not as good as his Buster, but he'd spent enough nights listening to them in Wolf Trap to be credible. ]

[Lilly lights up at that, and does it back to him. She'd recognized the dog's bark, sure, but she doesn't have any particular attachment to dogs - she's only met one, and had been largely apathetic towards him. But owls are familiar. Owls are from the woods.]

[ Alright, owl it was then! At least for the time being.

Will made his expression visibly brighten, eyebrows arching and eyes attentive to her face on the screen, again he smiled but carefully without showing his teeth. And he returned the eerie owl call. ]

[She tilts back her head and howls like a wolf, loud and uninhibited.]

[ Oh now there is a girl after his own heart!

Will doesn't make a noise, but he silently claps his hands together in approval and responds with a rather convincing howl of his own. Not quite as loud as her's. When he finishes, he puts his finger back up to his lips and glances around.

He had people around him you see. Have to howl softly! ]

[Lilly dissolves into giggles, making shushing noises. Okay, okay - quiet.]

[ Okay, the giggles were ridiculously sweet.

Will gave an eager nod when she made the shushing noises, then he made a show of looking around, before scooting as if to get some place where people couldn't hear him.

Once he was settled, he issued a soft howl and then a soft owl call. After the owl call he looked at her and arched his eyebrows. Which animal did she like better? Wolf or owl? ]

[The howling makes her giggle, but it's the owl imitation that she really responds to, wriggling closer and closer to the tablet. In real life, wolves were scary - something that Mama had protected her from. But owls had followed her out of the woods - she'd seen one cutting across the sky in the backyard once. Owls meant night, and night was when Mama came.]

[ Okay, owl it was then. Though of course he had no idea what exactly this meant, other than the child appeared to like birds and had enough knowledge of nature to produce a very good whip-poor-will call.

She definitely was a guarded little thing, he could see that from her interaction with Hannibal. Guarded, lured closer by the sounds of wild animals, wood dwellers ... he could relate to that at least. He'd been a bit of a wild child himself; though his playmates has been stray dogs and bog frogs.

The protector in him wanted to ask if she was safe, though the child hadn't seemed to take well to those questions, or any inquisitive noises towards her location. It was difficult to ignore, as an adult, but he also had to give her full marks for being resolute in her refusal to cooperate.

Sitting up on his knees, he held his tablet up to a window, showing the darkness beyond. Then he hunkered back down and put camera back on his face. He made a mournful little owl sound, and looked sad.

There were no owls here. He perked up and pointed towards her. Any owls her way? ]

[Thinking he's asking for her location, or wanting to show him the outside of the house she's in, she says:]

No.

[But she sounds less irritable about it than she had with most other people, at least. Any guy who can make a good owl call is cool in her book. She'll even amend the statement, changing the meaning a little:]

No-- no an'mal.

[Not even bugs - which is really inconvenient, because those things are tasty.]

[ It would be a lie to say he wasn't a little disappointed when she didn't show him the outside of the house she was in. But as he'd already determined, she was a clever girl.

He accepted the "no" with good grace, looked up when she changed the meaning a bit to "no animal" and then nodded. Still Will didn't speak. Adults were always speaking at children, even with the best intentions and honestly, he didn't trust himself not to fall into the same trap if he opened his mouth.

Instead, he set the tablet in his lap and went rummaging into his pack. He surfaced with something fuzzy, a pick bunny slipper. It looked a little matted down (he'd been using it for a pillow) but there was enough of the slipper left to get the idea.

He held it up, pointed and shrugged. This was about as close to an animal that he'd found in this place. ]

[She makes a face. Definitely not good to eat. But...]

Wawm.

[ And isn't that sure fire guaranteed to break your heart. He can't imagine she's very warm, if she's alone and only just arrived. The coat should help, but still ...

He pulled out the puppy blanket next, then made a show of trying to stuff them through the tablet towards her, to share but of course that wasn't possible. Setting them down, he looked apologetic and sad. ]

[She's really digging his commitment to not talking - to talking even less than she is, which is an accomplishment. She opens her coat just a little, showing him the nice warm lining. See? She has things, too. She's okay.]

[ Will cocked his head, a little dog like, but he studied the exposed lining of the coat. Of course it wasn't the security of having her with someone, but it did look warm and he nodded agreeably.

Next he dug into his pack and pulled out a packet of peanut butter crackers he'd picked up from one of the vending machines he and House had passed. He mimed taking a bite just to make his question clear.

Food? ]

[She nods eagerly, yanking her backpack over by the strap and pulling it open. She's already forced the zipper off track - she's not familiar with them, and while she's smart enough to figure out how to work one properly, she's not patient enough for it.

Out comes the food, almost a full seven days' worth of rations. It might seem strange that a kid as distrusting as her is so readily showing off her loot, but it all comes down to what she knows. She has experience with people finding her and taking her away. She has no experience with people stealing from or willfully depriving her of things she wants or needs, and so it doesn't even occur to her to keep her stuff hidden and protected.]

[ If he thought about it, he might wince over the fact that -once again- he's forgotten to make the video private. But truthfully, for all that they were on board with murdering one another, he hadn't come across a lot of stealing in Norfinbury.

Still, he gives an approving nod and motions for her to pack her loot back up, keep it together, keep it safe.

Alright, she had warmth and she had food. Would she know she'd eventually have to leave her current location? That she'd have to move? What about anomalies and lock down? Will probably looked comically pensive as he tried to sort out how exactly to approach these subjects. ]

[Lilly shoves the food back into her bag, then peers curiously at him through the screen. She's quiet for a few long moments before saying cautiously:]

Weaw?

[Real? Is he real, or is he just a new kind of TV that can talk to her?]

[ The question earned her a blink as it took him a moment to work out what she was asking. Then another moment to come up with a way to prove he was real.

Again, he made a show of tapping his lip in thought, before he lifted his index finger in the universal sign of "got it!" Reaching into the pocket of his coat, he withdrew a small switchblade knife. Snapping it up, he lifted his arm towards the tablet and drew a very shallow slice across the back of his forearm.

It wasn't deep, just enough to well up with a small line of blood. Maybe not a traditional way to prove your realness to a young child, but instinct told Will she'd understand. ]

[Unfortunately, it doesn't. Some not-real things can bleed (like people on TV), and some real things can't (like Mama). She just shrugs, unimpressed.

She'll probably have to see someone in person to completely believe it, honestly.]

[ Wise child. Will smiled in approval, despite the fact that she didn't accept his attempt to prove he was real.

Cleaning off the knife, he lowered his sleeves back over his arm and replaced the weapon in his pocket. He turned back to the tablet then and after a moment gave her a small, half smile and a shrug.

He really didn't have any other way to answer her skepticism. ]

Edited (no duplicate werds!) 2018-02-17 18:18 (UTC)

[It's okay, she'll interact with fake people. She's still kind of surprised and dazzled that they're interacting back. She pats the back of her own forearm, giving him a worried look.]

Bannaid.

[You need one, buddy.]

[network] @ADMIN; Arrival

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