unlikely friends
Isaias was on my mind the next morning. I don't know why he was, but he was. I mean, a lot was on my mind, like the fact that Scriff was doing that little scratchy thing again, and it was distracting me an awful lot. That was, like, 90 percent of what was on my mind at the time, but Isaias... I don't know, it was getting harder to think by the second... "Um..." I whispered.
"Oh, are you getting up?" Scriff asked.
"Yeah, um..."
"Goin' somewhere today?" she said.
Her scratchy scratch was so gentle now, I started slipping back under. "Oh, I guess not," she replied as she adjusted herself to hold me tight.
"No, I was... just... just it's..."
"Feels good?" she asked.
"Mhm..."
"I thought it would, Shim said this had melted pretty much any human she had met, and it's definitely worked!"
"Mmm..."
"But you said you were going on a little bit of an adventure? How about I come along? There will be more of this!"
I found it really hard to say no to that. Was I getting addicted to cuddles? Is that a thing that can happen? Scriff helped me up, got me a spare set of clothing (she went out and bought me some comfy jeans and a green hoodie that was just a little too big while I was at the library), and once I got dressed and she made a quick breakfast out of some snacks , we were out the door.
"So where are ya headed?" she asked.
"Hmm, just trying to figure things out, honestly, a lot's been on my mind, and both Bit and Memmi don't really have answers for me at the moment."
"So you're just wandering?"
"Yeah, kind of. Do you know where I could learn more, of anything?"
"I know a place!"
"You do?"
"Yeah! The librar--"
"I was already there, though."
"...O—oh! Well, there's lots to learn at the library, though!"
"Yeah, I guess."
We headed back over there, straight for the Afterward Wing, and once we got there I found a chair, and grabbed a stack of books about the place's history. Scriff also took a couple other books and pulled up a chair next to me. I found a book about the rough past of the Afterward... but it was hard to focus to the words when Scriff was giving me the gentle scratches again. I tried to lean back in the chair to put it to a stop, but I couldn't really move, for whatever reason. Just it was too nice, I guess... and it was so soothing, so relaxing, it made me feel a little squishy...
"So cute..." she whispered.
"who, me?" I replied, something felt a little weird.
"Yeah, you! Humans, just... you all want to be so serious and work-minded but a little bit of affection and you'e just so ready to melt... don't take it the wrong way, but it's so easy to manipulate you. No effort and I can make you so sleepy... I love it."
"oh, mmm..."
"What were you even readin'?"
"nothin', isaias."
she stopped.
"Wait, I'm sorry... who? You've gone all rambly on me!"
"...Huh? Oh, um... don't worry about that, part of a bad dream I had the other night, about these guys, The Watchers. Uh, this is about the past of the Afterward. Maybe this would have..." she started doing her scratchy thing again, "...have what we're looking for."
"Oh, interesting."
It was so hard to pay attention to anything but the gentle tingly feeling her scratching was flooding me with. I felt overwhelmed by it all, it was almost a little too much. I couldn't think, I couldn't read, I couldn't move, I could just kind of sit there and let the scratchy scratch drizzle over my mind like brain honey.
I don't know how long it had been, but the gentle affection was starting to make me a little giggly. I don't know why, it's weird like that. "Scriff, please..." I said, trying to settle myself down.
"Aw, but you seemed to be having a lot of fun! You were laughing and talking about that Isaias thing again."
"I... I was?"
"Yeah! Were you not there for that?"
"I... I guess not. Look, I don't mean this to sound rude, but you're distracting me a little bit."
"Oh! Um... oh, sorry, it's--"
"I mean, it's fine. I love it when you do that, it makes me feel good, just... um, not right now."
"Um, got it," she replied, as she sat there flipping through a book about Dosh.
On the front of the book was an image of Memmi from the money, so I take it the money's called Dosh. I'd heard the term before, not sure where, there was a really popular song from long ago about it.
I still came up short but learned a lot about the place, one of the big things being that there was a pretty terrible leader for what seemed like forever, but when Memmi took over things got better within like two years and it's been almost 20 since. I was kinda glad that people thought so highly of her, I felt like things were in safe hands. I wrapped up, put the books back on the shelves, and packed up.
As I opened the door, a piece of paper fell from the ceiling. I fumbled for it three different times before it hit the ground, and fished it up in an act of shame for my poor dexterity. "WE KNOW YOU'RE LOOKING FOR INFORMATION ON THE WATCHERS. WE HAVE THE INFORMATION YOU SEEK. MEET US AT THE FIFTH STOP ON THE YELLOW TRAIN, ASK FOR RED."
"Huh... do you think this is legit?" I asked Scriff."
"I dunno," she replied.
"I mean, this is better than nothing."
"What if it's a trap?"
"...I guess that's true. Still--"
"--Wait, hold up Emmi, I have a great idea! I know someone we can trust!"
"Who?"
"Follow me!" she replied, grabbing my arm and running for the Ration Kitchen.
There was nobody inside the building once again, and Scriff ran right for a window. "Ｈｏｗ ｃａｎ Ｉ ｈｅｌｐ ｙｏｕ?"
"Craggy! We need you to be our bodyguard! Can you close up shop for a couple hours?"
"...Ａｎｙｔｈｉｎｇ ｆｏｒ ｙｏｕ, Ｓｃｒｉｆｆ."
The window shutter slammed shut, denting the counter, and the doorknob on the right began to shake. Suddenly, the entire door lifted off of its hinges and a Lizi that looked a little bit like Scriff opened the door, though easily seven feet tall and built like a wall. She was wearing a leather jacket and black jeans, and had a pair of old studio headphones around her neck, the thick coil of wire running into an unseen device in her pocket, getting lost in her long black hair. "Emmi, this is Craggy! She's one of my only friends!"
"Um... hi."
"Ｈｏｗ'ｄ Ｉ ｋｎｏｗ ｙｏｕ'ｄ ｂｅｆｒｉｅｎｄ ａ ｈｕｍａｎ?"
"I mean... look at her!"
Craggy reached down and put a hand on my shoulder. I've been looking over people since I showed up, so suddenly feeling so small was a bit scary. "Ｙｏｕ ｐｉｃｋｅｄ ａ ｇｏｏｄ ｏｎｅ. Ｗｈｅｒｅ ａｒｅ ｗｅ ｈｅａｄｉｎｇ?"
"To the Yellow Train! You can cover our ride, right?"
"Ｙｏｕ ｏｗｅ ｍｅ, Ｓｃｒｉｆｆ. "
She set the door back by the empty frame, and we headed out the door towards the train station again. Craggy paid for three tokens, and we sat waiting for the train, the larger Lizi nearly tipping the bench we were sitting on. "How'd she get so big?" I whispered to Scriff.
"I dunno, she eats her vegetables? But she's more than enough protection! No tricks are going to get past her!"
"You sure?"
Craggy, who was desperately trying to unstick two magazine pages, slammed the whole thing at the ground, leaving a crack in the tile. "Ｗｈｙ ｄｏ ｔｈｅｙ ｓｔｉｃｋ ｔｈｅ ｐａｇｅｓ ｔｏｇｅｔｈｅｒ?! Ｗｈｙ ａｒｅ ｔｈｅｙ ｓｏ ｓｍａｌｌ?!"
"...Positive."
"And why does she... why does she talk like that?"
"Oh, um... I dunno, but it's how we used to talk. Again, Shim's book revolutionized the world for us, we all used to just be tough and aloof, but now we're known for being super cuddly, and I'm glad I get to express myself that way in the world today! Oh, here comes our train! Craggy, put the magazine back in the stack, let's roll!"
She sorrowfully picked up the book, apologized to it quietly, and carefully dropped it back on the table with the other magazines, and handed us each a yellow coin to put into the train. The two Lizi sandwiched me as we rode off towards the fifth stop, wherever that should be.
ns 15.158.61.46da2
