savetheearth | Text

Ethan internally winces at the immediately opened door; Holly was going to get herself in trouble one of these days. All the same, he's glad she's okay, though he wasn't expecting her to be quite so relaxed. Although... it's not that different from her track stuff, now that he thought about it.

"I did say I knew where I was going," he answers easily, stepping forward and into the house, waiting clear of the door for Holly to give him direction. His gaze wanders to what he can see from the entry, but he's not studying anything terribly closely.

She at least locks the door once he's inside, so there is some perseverance in her. The room to their right is obviously the living room, and while it has some nice things, like a pretty good sized t.v. that's turned on to a news station- even with that there isn't an excess of expense spent in the room. There's a lived in couch, clean but obviously something the family has used for years. In front of it is a coffee table that's seen it's far share of nicks.

Holly gestures them into that room, walking around Ethan to lead the way. She goes for the couch first, to clean off a space for him. On the couch is a set of pillows and a blanket, school book are stacked next to the table with some paper and her phone on the coffee table. "Sorry it's a bit of a mess. I promised my parents I'd get my class assignments done before they got home since they let me stay home today." She manages to clean off half the couch by shoving the blankets on the floor right next to the wall. "Are you hungry? We have cookies."

He smiles faintly as she leads him in; it's a reasonable enough space, and he's not going to worry too much about things. He just hoped nothing untoward would happen if Holly's parents found him hanging around, no matter how much she'd assured him it would be okay.

"Are you sure it's okay to have me here if you're supposed to be doing homework? I don't know how much help I'll be with that," he warned. All the same, he takes the offered seat... she's probably responsible enough. "I'm okay for now, but thank you."

"Oh yeah they won't mind, with the earthquake and all me doing homework is the last thing on their minds right now." She explains, waving off the concern and coming to sit next to him on the couch. She immediately begins tugging on a piece of hair, a nervous habit she's had since she was very little.

"How is your house? Nothing broke right?" Holly asks after a moment of silence, turning away from the news on the t.v. to face him, one leg pulled up onto the couch which she hugs to her chest.

She looks honestly worried, she doesn't know where he lives and if he lived near the center of the city it could be very bad.

"If you're sure," Ethan concedes. If she wants to take the day off, that's her right. And it's apparently his to help, especially since she seems a little... off. Probably just nervous - he's honestly surprised he isn't - but that's to be expected, after yesterday. "Everything's fine - there wasn't much damage. My dad and I live on the outer edge of the city, so we didn't get hit too badly."

All her body language seems to hint that she's worried, and he understands completely. "I'm worried about the rest of the city, but there isn't much we can do about it... For now, I'm just glad things are okay at home, and everything looks okay here."

He crosses his arms in front of his chest, pondering, and resolutely ignoring the news himself; he had no need for sensationalism, nor did he particularly care where the shelters were, except to not be near them.

A smile slips onto her lips for a moment, the worry slipping away to be replaced with a hint of relief. "Oh I'm glad! So far everyone I know seems okay, well the ones I could get a hold of." But she's not going to worry about that, they had to be in school, it happened in the middle of the afternoon so there was that.

But there is something bothering her and she starts tugging at her hair again, staring a little past Ethan as she thinks. "It's.. really strange to have an earthquake here, isn't it?" She finally poses her question, her green eyes flip back to him. Holly's worry sounds too conspiracy theorist even to herself but really- an earthquake here?

Well, that was better. Holly being worried - especially after him - just didn't sit right. "It sounds like there weren't too many problems... there are lot of casualties, and plenty of damage, but it's mostly right around the Tuning Towers."

Which came back to Holly's thought, and he sighed heavily. "In fact, the heaviest damage is in a ring around the Towers, and the earthquake was weaker as you got further away. So, that means... what? It was under the Towers, maybe?"

He shakes his head. "It is strange. We're on the wrong side of the country for that." He glances back at her, and as their eyes meet, he grimaces. "Something is wrong."

Which seems to the be the question of the day. "What is going on here?" She mutters it to herself, not expecting an answer because from what she knows, Ethan is as new to this as she is.

"Have you had any new.. echos?" It still sounds weird to call them that, but it makes the most sense and it sounds less crazy than saying 'Have you had any weird visions of a possible past life?' Even if her family was in a religion that believed in that, it would still sound crazy.

Hugging her leg tighter to herself, she sighs.

Ethan sure wished he had an answer, but... they didn't have enough information. And he wasn't the right kid to sort everything out. That was better left to someone more intelligent.

"No, I haven't." Which was also unusual - just the one, and then nothing? What, was he not getting out enough? It was coming up on the end of the semester. What was he supposed to do, ignore everything else? He didn't have that luxury, and apparently it showed. "What about you, Holly?"

It's a little bit of a relief to hear that she's not the only one just sitting with one not so helpful memory.

Shaking her head, she finally lets go of her leg, letting it rest on the couch as she shifts more. "No, just the one. It feels weird to not have more? I mean- I get a memory of a floating stuffed animal and then have weeks of just worrying about grades and track meets." Her hands go up in frustration. She's never been the patient type as it is!

"It's frustrating, and now this earthquake..." She doesn't even know where she's going with that line of thought and just sort of trails off because of it. "I just want to help but I'm not sure how." She finally finishes, her whole body showing her disappointment, shoulders drooping and her eyes firmly on the couch.

"Hey. It'll be okay." Ethan's not used to this - wasn't she supposed to be the talkative, upbeat one? - but he's going to try. A depressed Holly isn't something he really wants. He understands the frustration, too; he just hides it better. If it were a guy, he'd put a hand on their shoulder, or something; Holly isn't, and he's not entirely sure what he can do aside from try to encourage her. "It's been busy, right? We don't all have a lot of free time to just roam the city looking for trouble. Our time will come. I promise."

Thinking for a moment, he stands up, moving in front of her and holding out his hand so she can see if even if she doesn't look up at him. "Do you want to go see if there's something we can do to help? Moving things, volunteering somewhere...?"

She usually isn't the type to get so down, but maybe it's just a mix of all these new worries she's never had to deal with before. Add that on top to the usual worry before winter holiday break and it just is too much.

When he gets up though, she follows his movement. Looking up at him, she slowly smiles nodding. "Yes. I'd like that." Whether he meant for her to take his hand or not, she does, squeezing once to show her thanks.

"I'll just need to text my mother, if I'm with someone she should be okay with it."

He'd intended it but not really expected it; there's a moment of surprise at the contact, but it's reassuring all the same. Nothing worth doing was going to happen while they were sitting here worried about the city (and, in Ethan's case, her), and he'd kind of said the first thing on his mind. So the fact that it'd worked was kind of nice.

"Okay. Go ahead and do that. Um... what do we want to do, though? Is there somewhere you want to start from, or anything you want to try first?"

"I'm sure downtown will be packed with emergency services, we could see if City Hall has any plans so far and ask if they need any help?" She's talking as she stands, grabbing her phone in the same motion.

It doesn't take her but a few seconds to send a text to her mother, the reply equally as quick. "Okay, I'm allowed we just have to be back before dark." Which was more than enough time, even if they walked the whole way though they might be tired by the end of it.

Ethan nods; it sounds like a reasonable plan. "That sounds fair. We'll start with City Hall, then. It's not like the city's that big, so we shouldn't have too bad of a time."

'Back by dark' wasn't going to be terribly restrictive, but he kept the timetable in mind, just in case. Who knew what they could get up to by then?

Who knew indeed, she's already popping over to the closet on the side of the room to pull out a jacket to wear. "Was it cold outside?" She's glancing down to her shorts with a little frown. Should she change or would they be okay? Holly obviously hasn't checked the weather at all today.

"A little bit... but it is December," which seemed like explanation enough as he pulled his own jacket back on. He wasn't one to let his clothes get in his way, but today he was wearing somewhat heavy jeans. "If you're going to change, don't forget we're going to work, so we'll probably get dirty - don't wear something you'll miss too much."

Nodding, she glances down at herself before laughing. Yeah she'll need to change, there is no way she'd be able to do any amount of work in these clothes even if it was the summer. "I'll be right back!"

Holly disappears into the back of the house, down one hall and past two other closed doors before entering hers, from the living room there's a glimpse of her room, bright colors and posters on one wall before the door is shut just a bit so she can change clothes.

She's back in record time, opening the door as she's tapping on her shoes, bending to tie them just after. She obviously took him seriously because she's wearing two shirts, one that looks a little too large for her, some blue paint the same color as her walls, on her right shoulder in the shape of a hand print much too large to be her own. Jeans accompany this with sneakers finishing the work outfit. "Okay much better. Do you think we should bring anything?"

If the answer is no, she's ready to leave, her bag by the front door with keys hanging up next to it.

Ethan notes where her room is and definitely catches the splash of color; when the door closes, he turns back to the television for a moment to wait for her. But they're just talking to an expert about the epicenter again, and how unlikely an earthquake like this in this part of the country is, and he shakes his head. "Damned media... can't they report on something useful? Anyone that's finished middle school knows something is wrong here."

That means he doesn't notice she's done until that same color from her room catches his eye, and he turns to see she's already back, taking a moment to appraise her new outfit and nodding in satisfaction. "That was fast. Uh... maybe a bottle of water or something? And gloves. It's going to get cold once the sun starts going down." He pushes himself to his feet again, moving toward the door... before catching himself and turning the TV off, then going back to the door.

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