Under the grim, night sky, gathered around a dimming campfire, the wicked souls sat in unison, enjoying their last supper.
Potatoes.
Baked, fried, boiled, hell, even raw for some. Filling the stomach quick, leaving a quite pleasant aftertaste and most important - being incredibly cheap. This recent rediscovery kept Andy perplexed and full of contradictory statements. W might've been a total psychopath, sure, but she damn well knew how to cook a mean potato soup. Or baked potatoes. Or potato puree. Or potato salad, fries, golden brown slices, hash browns…
“I can't even talk shit about her cooking. This is genuinely good.”
Ines gave a shrug and dug her fork into the golden mass of warm, homey flavors.
“It's alright. Had better, though.”
Away from the war's gripping claws, lost in this little moment of peace and serenity, she'd oftentimes drop her constant guard and make herself just a tiny bit more approachable than usual. A few nameless mercs stood from the bonfire and disappeared into the darkness without a word. Antisocial lot.
Andy swallowed a lump of fried goodness and turned to his side, gripping his broken ribs.
“Oh, yeah? Like what?”
“... I dunno. Something less greasy than this.”
Her fork nudged those golden, mushy hills.
“You're just being picky.”
“Hm. Or maybe I'm not in the mood for sending compliments to the chef.”
“That should be me out of the two of us, y'know? I'm the one with a cracked rib and broken nose.”
“Mmm. She tried that bullshit on me too, don't think you're the only victim.”
“And?”
“And nothing. I know how to swing a blade, unlike you.”
He couldn't argue with that. Instead, he shoveled some more crisp potatoes down his throat. A few more mercs left the ever so dimming fire, their conversations growing nigh silent.
“So we're just gonna let her tyrannize us like that?”
“There's nothing else left to do. Hoederer sees something in her, something I don't. You're blind to most her flaws, anyway.”
“I'm… not?”
“You are. You might think you despise her, but deep down there's something more growing within. I can tell.”
“That’s what your mind reading’s telling you? That, what, I'm secretly in love with her but I don't know it?”
“No, moron. It's more of a… A desperate need. To feel accepted. To be completely certain you're not on bad terms with anyone.”
“... What?”
“You're like an ant, sankta. You cling to your colony, whatever it might be, always working alongside someone else, feeling so lost when you're alone. You dread isolation, you're scared of what lurks behind the backs of those you think you know, cowering in fear at night, clinging onto… I'm not sure what or who, I can't look into dreams.”
YOU ARE READING
"Goodbye Curly Head"
FanfictionThrough thick and thin the Law shall prevail. A new sense of purpose awaits us, children of light, in the land where it all began. The darkness in which we once cowered in fear, now curbed by the might of our endless light. Come, brothers, come, sis...
