A World Without Sun discussion

A one floor house with two bedrooms.

Nate opened the door of his house with the shining new key. The lock of his house was probably the only new thing there. He didn't want unexpected intruders. He'd hoped the house was clean but when he opened it, there were clothes everywhere. There was an unwashed plate on the table and it looked like a complete wreck. He felt very concious. "Uh.....this is it." he said.

Lyra was more awed by the size of the place to be much bothered by the mess. SHe didn't mind it anyways- she was used to it. "Wow." She said lamely.

"If you think this is wow you must have seen some really bad days." Nate said picking up all the clothes. "Come in."

She cautiously stepped over the threshold and nodded. She helped him with the clothes and said, "yes. Yes I have." A small smile crawled onto her face.

"No that's ok." he said taking the clothes from her."I'll just kerp all this in my cupboard, should probably iron them." he muttered. He never had any visitors so he had never noticed the mess. "Just sit down." he said his face flushed. "I'll sort out this mess." he waved over to a rickety chair.

"Alright then," she said. "You know I can help you if you'd like." She said as she sat down, watching him.

Nate stuffed all the clothes into a cupboard and came outside. "Well, this is it kid." he said "It's not muchbut U hope you find it better than the streets."

"It's much better, much better than anywhere I've lived before," she said, her face lit up with a rare happiness.

Nate smiled at her. He'd never smiled much before but now he found himself smiling more often. "Thanks." he said. "That actually means a lot though there's one more thing you should know." his face turned serious. "I'm running out of money. And there's no food so I don't know how I can feed both of us."

She looked at him for a while and then pondered the situation for a moment before saying, "No worries. I'll take care of that. I have... experience." She smiled at him.

He gave her a strange look. "You mean stealing, don't you? I should have known. You've been living on the streets." he sat down on a chair. "I've thought of that but I don't want to do it. It seems wrong"

She bit back a small laugh and shook her head. "No," she smiled, "I didn't steal to survive."

"Then what do you mean?" he asked "I thought that's how most peopel get by in the end."

"If you're viewed as a child in the society it's not too hard to survive." Was all she replied.

Nate caught on slightly and smiled "I think I see what you mean." he said. "You're really small...you can act really sweet if you want to..."

She looked down and nodded. "Yes... wrapped up loosely it's that. Then again, being viewed as a child makes me vulnerable to all sorts of things, many of which I have experienced and wish not to expand on..."

"No. You don't have to." he said hastily "But can you really do that? Does it work?"

She replied, "Well of course it does work!"

Nate grinned in spite of himself "Any other secrets you have hidden that could be useful?"

((Gotta go soon. Violin practice :|. It's the first day of my holidays. My mom is terlling me to practice everyday))

((haha alright))

"Apart from the fact that I'm not part of the breeding facility and I can communicate telepathically with Pan over miles, no." She said and smiled.

"I guessed you're not part of THAT thing." Nate said his face darkening "But your mouse, I didn't know."

"Well I narrowly escaped it." She said and watched him. "This government is corrupted. I wonder what life was like 300 years ago." She sighed and said, "well... he can go, but he's got a restriction of distance."

Nate nodded. "Never seen anything like it, that connection between you and your mouse. Sounds interesting." he never stayed around people for long so he didn't have to always read their thoughts but now his head was starting to hurt from trying to block out all the thoughts.

"It is odd," she replied truthfully. "I don't know how it happened exactly- all that it can mean is that he's not a -real- mouse, if that makes any sense." She scrutinized his face for a moment then said, "are you feeling alright?"

"I'm fine.". he said waving the question away. It was worse at close quarters so he got up. "Why don't you do your food-getting thing now." he said as an excuse for getting out of the house. "You must be starving."

((Where to??))

She nodded. "I suppose I am," she admitted. "Alright then, let's go."

((back to the park?))

((ok))

Nate opened the door of the house and waited for Lyra to go out before he locked it behind him.

Lyra and Nate neared the house, carrying their limited supply of food.

Nate opened the door of the house with his key and dumped the bags he was carrying on the foor near the door.

She put her bags beside his and said, eyeing them, "are you actually hungry?"

"Not realky." he said "I don't eat regular meals. I eat just when I'm hungry. So, not now. You can eat. you like." he went into his room to search for the antiseptic he usualky kept there in case he was in the middle of a street fight.

"Same here," she replied and watched him go and return with the antiseptic. "What's that?"

"Antiseptic." he said noting with some dismay that the bottle was almost empty. "If your cuts get infectee that could be an even bigger problem. Give me your hand." he was also holding some of his limited cotton stock.

She showed him her hand. It was a small cut, and wasn't bleeding underneath. As she did os, she felt a jarring pain on her forearm from her other cut and forced herself not to wince.

"Less stock." Nate said "So we have to be sparing." he detected the pain she felt as her thoughts went into his mind. "You have another cut." he said "Come on. Don't try to hide it."

She gingerly unraveled her sleeve and looked at the wound. The skin in the inside was charcoal black and oozing out blood. SHe looked up at Nate, biting her lip.

"That's bad." he said "Worse than I thought it would be. Might be infected." he took a large wad of cotton and dumped the rest of the antiseptic bottle on it, gingerly pressing the cotton towards the wound.

Lyra tried to squirm away, here eyes wide in pain as he pressed the cotton down. She bit down hard on her lip, stifling a cry.

"It's okay. It's okay." Nate whispered trying to soothe her. "It's alright. Don't worry." he had heard the trick was to keep on talking and he was trying to do just that as he carefully brushed the cotton over the wound. It didn't look as if it was getting any cleaner. "Just breathe." Nate said.

Lyra took a few shuddering and long breaths, her eyes stinging. She took in more shallow breaths, and cringed at the pain, but she stopped squirming. The wound burned horribly.

The cotton was really dirty and Nate stopped to throw it in the dustbin. There was no antiseptic left and very less cotton. He looked again at the ugly wound. "It's okay." he murmered, more to reassure himself. He didn't know what to do.

((Should she develop a fever? Maybe the wound turns septic?))

((Yes! Amazing idea!!))

Lyra just looked back at the wound and rolled her sleeve back over it. "Thanks, Nate," she mumbled. "I'll be fine, I'm sure." She looked at him and said in a slightly wavering voice, "I'm totally knackered."

((Thanks! I love the drama))

"Hey! Don't do that." Nate exclaimed. "You have to keep it open. It'll grow worse if you keep it covered like that." he sighed "And actually I don't think it's okay. That looks really bad. It needs some medecine which I don't have." he sat down on a chair rubbing his temples. Taking her in had been more trouble than he imagined.

((welcome! Me too))

"It's fine, I promise," she replied, but rolled up the sleeve again anyways. She looked at him and said, "perhaps sleep will help?" She asked. "Or I can go."

"No, you're not going anywhere." Nate said firmly. "But if you want to sleep, I can get the bed ready. I'll see what I can do about that cut tomorrow." he gave her a wan smile. "Guess I need some sleep too."

"I'll help you make the bed, I can't just do nothing," she replied, and smiled a bit. "Thank you, Nate. I really appreciate it."

Nate walked to the room that wasn't his and opened the door. Ok. It wasn't too bad. The bed was already half-made and it was pretty clean. "Here." he said.