030 - Spiced Quinoa Apple Pie Parfait

[deadly_ned]

[Video/Spam]

[Something is very...different, this morning.

The Piemaker isn't baking, for one. Ordinarily this would be a sign of marked distress, but he's not even found in the kitchen today.

He's in the maintenance office. Acting like he's always belonged there.]

I want to do a wide sweep of floors two and three today. We should start from the top and work our way down. It's. Efficient.

[Markedly noticeable are his lack of pauses and hesitation. And his pointy ears. Elf ears.]

Dean, if you want to come down and review this list...

[All of a sudden, something catches the Piemaker's eye. He looks up and sees his own dog, Digby, sitting patiently across the room.

The Piemaker looks at his hands. And looks to Digby.

He feels remarkably different today]

...Hold that thought.


[Crossing the office, the Piemaker walks over to the dog he rose from the dead: the dog he hasn't been able to touch since he was nine years old.

He reaches out, terrified and entranced, as his fingers ghost along Digby's fur coat, not quite touching. Does he dare? Is this real?

Digby, tired of waiting and knowing that there is something equally amiss this morning, loses his patience and bounds on top of the Piemaker, falling into his arms and licking him furiously]

Comments

[bothfoulandfair]

They do.

Digby looks thrilled.

[deadly_ned]

Digby is thrilled. I'm thrilled and he's thrilled.

We're touching and he's not dead.

I haven't been able to hold him since I was nine.

[bothfoulandfair]

Why?

[deadly_ned]

I...


This all dates back to...twenty years, but when I was nine I found out I had this...ability to touch dead things and bring them back to life.

As long as I only touch them once. One touch life, second touch dead again. Forever.

And when I was nine, Digby was hit by a truck. I brought him back but ever since then we can't...touch.

Except during floods. This flood. We're touching.

I forgot how soft his fur is.

[bothfoulandfair]

[That makes something stir inside her. Something angry and upset, because it isn't fair that he has to live like that, that she's the way she is. It's not fair.

The thought eventually gets brushed aside, but it's slower going than it usually is. She's not generally angry about what's happened to her.]

It's nice to see something good happening because of this place.

[deadly_ned]

Good things happen because of this place all the time. You just have to be. Patient.

[Digby licks the Piemaker's chin]

My, um. My first deal here...I had an inmate before Alpha. Thomas. And when Thomas went home I was able to touch my dead girlfriend and it was the best feeling in the world.

[bothfoulandfair]

What's your deal this time?

[deadly_ned]

I don't have one.

[bothfoulandfair]

Why not?

[deadly_ned]

I already have everything I could ever want.

[bothfoulandfair]

But you can't touch your dog.

[deadly_ned]

I don't need to touch him to be happy. Having this gift - with all its good and bad - makes me..who I am.

[bothfoulandfair]

It doesn't sound like much of a gift.

[deadly_ned]

For most of my life, I didn't think it was.

But the gift itself isn't good or evil. It's all in how you use it.

[bothfoulandfair]

I never said I thought it was evil.

[deadly_ned]

I did. Or I thought...I was evil. It sort of led directly to me killing my mother and my best friend's father.

[bothfoulandfair]

And you couldn't fix it?

[deadly_ned]

Not in the way it needed to be fixed.

[bothfoulandfair]

I don't think it makes you evil, [And she doesn't.] But I don't understand how you can accept what you can do.

[deadly_ned]

Because what I do works to help people now.

There's a friend I have back home. He's a private investigator. And he thought to use what I can do in order to solve homicides.

So we have a partnership and we solve crimes together. That's helping.

[bothfoulandfair]

That does sound constructive.

[deadly_ned]

And it comes in handy other times. Like saving on food. I can bring rotten food back.

[bothfoulandfair]

[That's actually pretty cool, and it tickles her enthusiasm for science and math and all that fun stuff.]

Do you know how it works?

[deadly_ned]

I know how it works. The rules involved.

I don't know why it works or why I was given it. Or even anyone else who has it. Magic..tends to be like that sometimes. There's no logical explanation. I shouldn't...be able to do it by...nature's laws, or something.

[bothfoulandfair]

That's what I meant.

Is it common, in your world?