Colin's posts

"N-no, that's not..." Ash stammered, before sighing heavily.

"I just don't want people to hassle you." he said.

"If you can blend in, that's great." he told her. "But I'm just thinking for your own safety and wellbeing." he assured her.

"Regardless, we'll he headed out tomorrow, meeting the landlady at a cafe." he went on.

"Her name's Harmony."

Ash nodded in response.

"All right." he said.

"As you said... only one way to find out." he mumbled, before pausing slightly and thinking about it.

"Hmmm..." he mumbled, looking at her. Specifically, her black side, and her eyes. Or he would be looking at them, were she actually looking BACK at him.

"We can explain away your skin with an accident." he said. "But we'll needed tinted lens to cover your eyes." he told her.

"Or we can use a glamour. I know of some people that can do that at the guild."

He made his way over towards her and opened the door slightly, poking his head out.

"Hey." he said to her.

"Going to see someone about a bigger place." he said. "Tomorrow at noon, in London, Ontario. So that time zone. Yeah, Canada." he revealed.

"You want to come with?" he asked.

"Or would you prefer to not travel too much, or whatever?" he asked further.

"Bottom line, you wanna stay here or go with me?"

"I don't?" Ash asked. "All right then." he said.

"I shall see you at noon tomorrow, then." he told her.

With that, they ended their conversation and he hung up the phone, before sighing and looking around.

"Hazel? Hey, Hazel!" he called out.

"Where are you?" he asked, wondering if she was on the balcony again or not.

"Noon tomorrow, London Ontario, cafe in the plaza." Ash parroted back.

"Cool." he said.

"I'll be there." he told her, before pausing and thinking about it. He wondered if he should bring Hazel with him... perhaps not. Not the first time, anyway. Would she want to travel like this? What if she did?

"I'll call you back when I know if it'll just be me, or if the both of us will be coming." he continued.

"Want to see if she even WANTS to travel more than she needs to."

"Oh! Canada, huh?" Ash asked.

"All right, sure." he said. "I have no issues living in Canada." he told her.

'...and maybe a new continent is just what Hazel needs...' he then thought.

"Sure, gimme the coordinates." he went on.

"Also, got a time that's better for you?" he asked.

"What time should I show up... your time zone?" he asked further.

"Ah, really?" Ash asked.

"A basement apartment, huh? Sounds all right." he said.

"...how big, though?" he then asked. "I have a... roommate." he said, tripping on how to describe Hazel.

"Is there room for two people?" he asked her.

"And where are you located?"

"Yeah..." Ash replied.

It then came to his attention that she had not looked at him once during the conversation. At all. And when he asked about it, she didn't answer. So, again, he just dropped it, figuring it was something to do with Vanessa's influence.

He wondered what it specifically was, though...

---

Ash was silent on the other end for a moment, wondering who this was.

"I... yeah." he said.

"Yeah, this is AJ." he confirmed.

"Who's THIS?" he asked.

Ash shook his head.

"It wasn't so much not knowing our names." he said.

"It's just that... well... those labels remind me of bad times, obviously." he told her. "Hearing them just briefly brought me back to some horrid places in my mind." he lamented.

"But it wasn't your fault. You had no other thing to call us." he shrugged.

"And now you know our names. So it's not a problem at all." he assured her with a small smile.

Ash immediately felt a rush of anger through him, and he wanted to lash out at her for calling him that, as horrific ideas of why he'd be called that raced through his mind... but again, he forced himself to calm down.

This wasn't Hazel's fault. This was all she knew.

She outright said it.

So he took a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then exhaled.

"Lindsay." he responded. "His name is Lindsay."

As soon as Ash had heard that name... he froze up. And his mind took him to his past. Where he'd gone through horrific DNA recombining... his cries of pain, so high-pitched. He'd been called 'Squeaker' by those that had worked there.

It was their cruel way of dehumanising him... making him feel worthless... having a joke at his pain. He almost found himself crying again, much like he'd done so many times in the past, before he shook himself back to reality.

"Ah, um, y-yes." he said, his voice cracking a little.

"You're... you're welcome." he told her.

"Although, it occurs to me that I have never told you my name, nor would you have ever heard it." he went on. "Or, you heard it so little it just never stuck." he reasoned.

"My name is Ash." he said. "You can call me that."

Ash shook his head.

"Nope." he said.

"Hazel, I know this is going to be a tough adjustment for you... but I care about your wellbeing. Your safety. Your comfort." he told her. "I refuse to act like Vanessa, or treat you in any way that SHE did." he went on.

"I know that you might feel guilty about that, but... I mean... I hope you'll get used to this treatment." he then said.

"I'll make a temporary set-up so that you're sheltered out there, and you won't feel like you're in the lab." he promised.

Ash had to admit, he hadn't considered that. He silently followed her to the balcony, and stepped out onto it with her.

"Hazel..." he said.

"The last thing I want to do is make you uncomfortable." he told her.

"I will immediately find us a better place. A bigger place. One that isn't as cramped as that cursed lab." he went on.

"...do you WANT to sleep out on this balcony?" he then asked. "It's not the biggest in the world, but one could comfortably lay down out here, fit a cot onto it, throw a tent on it or something." he continued.

"Would sleeping out here give you a better rest than inside?"

Ash was absolutely shocked to hear that... but looking around, he had to admit that it didn't look good for him.

"N-no, I swear. I get paid well, and I do really good work. I'm one of the top hunters at my guild!" he exclaimed.

"I just... well... okay, I live so far beneath my means, it's embarrassing." he sighed. "Others have been saying I need to get a bigger place, but... in reality, all I ever really do here is sleep and eat. And sometimes I don't even eat here." he went on.

"I guess I just figured that there was no point in putting out more money for a place that I wouldn't be spending a lot of time in, anyway." he then said, before pausing again.

"...and also, admittedly, this was the best place I could afford when I was starting out. Never occurred to me to upgrade. Just got used to this place." he admitted further.

"Plus, this place seemed like a palace when compared to the cell that she had me and my brother crammed in." he then added.