deface | (no subject)

Usually Aryn ignored her when she asked questions about the black stepping, but sometimes Ramir was able to wiggle an answer out of her. One time, Ramir caught Aryn popping back into existence behind the couch in the middle of a movie, with a snack from the kitchen in hand. It was a long walk from the movie room to the kitchen, but it wasn't that long. Ramir pointed out as much, and Aryn just shrugged.

"How the hell do you even do it?" Ramir demanded, not for the first time, and this time Aryn did more than shrug or glare.

"I hold my breath," she said.

Ramir was startled, but not startled enough not to press for more. She didn't get it. Aryn just settled back into her seat with her eyes on the screen and refused to share any snacks.

The next time Ramir got anything out of her, Aryn was stepping back into the dust of a back alley, having been previously existing in a bank vault. She shivered, though Ramir was sweating under the noon sun. Aryn saw Ramir's look, and offered a shrug.

"It's cold in there," she said.

"In the vault?" Ramir asked.

"No, underneath."

So then she had a name for it, and a temperature to put to it, but not much else. Pressing was futile, as usual.

One evening saw them at the top of a high tower, cold in the dark and biting wind, facing a 40 foot drop. Ramir eyed it, knowing she could make it but not thrilled about the idea of it. Aryn took a deep breath and leaned forward, the way she always did to disappear.

"Hang on — can't you take me with you?" Ramir asked, and Aryn glanced at her sidelong.

"Trust me, you'd rather jump," she said through the air she'd just gathered.

"But you could?"

Aryn nodded. Ramir took a breath to ask more, but Aryn took a breath faster. She leaned in like a swimmer about to dive, and disappeared into a jagged slice between worlds. Seconds later she reappeared again on the ground, and pocketed her hands to stroll off.

The next time it came up they weren't really doing much of anything at all. Between jobs, Ramir was sprawled on the couch and Aryn on a cushion below. Ramir's attention was temporarily and barely retained by a game, while Aryn flicked idly through news that didn't really need flicking through. Late afternoon sunshine flickered through the bank of tall windows, painting the white decor golden. The sight, and the leaves turned golden outside the windows of the manor, went fully ignored as per usual.

"Have you ever taken anyone with you before?" Ramir asked, the question breaking the comfortable silence of an hour or so. Aryn looked up just long enough to deliver a questioningly quirked brow. "Through your step thing, I mean. Underneath. You must have, or you wouldn't know if you could."

"No," Aryn said, and Ramir frowned to have her theory so quickly burst. "But I went with my mom once."

She'd struck gold. Aryn never talked about parents of any kind, like she hadn't existed before she'd come to the Estate. Ramir didn't know what magical combination today had hit, but as she sat up in excited anticipation.

"Just once?" she asked.

"Just once. It sucked." Aryn didn't look away from her tablet, but she'd stopped flicking. Ramir estimated 50/50 odds between her clamming up and being willing to talk a little more. That was odds she was willing to take.

"What happened?"

Aryn didn't say anything for a while. She flipped through a few more stations. Ramir thought maybe she'd pressed too far, and this was a quieter shutdown than usual — but eventually she spoke.

"It was cold and dark. When you're not the one stepping, it feels like you're suffocating."

Now pressing definitely felt like infirm footing, so Ramir tread carefully.

"I didn't know your mom could do it too," she said. Aryn just shrugged. "What about your dad?" She nodded this time. "So it's learned?"

Aryn glanced up from her tablet again, her eyes flat. Ramir knew she'd tried her luck a little too far just from the look.

"You couldn't learn it, if that's what you're asking," she said, and already she was pulling herself up to her feet, taking a breath. "Gotta run some errands," she said, and the rest of the breath fell down into the underneath with her as she disappeared.