Scribbles and Drabbles

Notebook Drabble 44 - The Council's Bane 2

Tad goes to dinner at the canteen. He sees an old comrade - Hiroshi - who he doesn't normally see. Hiroshi is worried as older brother still isn't out of the institute. Tad gives Sasaki's warning, Hiroshi nods and promises to pass it forward. Oliver is seen for a moment but is busy with something and can't stop to talk. Tad and Hiroshi are worried about this. 

After dinner, Tad goes to the public baths to clean up. 

Stepping back outside, he let the air run fresher as the cool freed him from the high humidity of the canteen. The smokers hanging outside outside grunted greetings as he passed. He patted his neighbour's back and left him to it. The weight on his shoulders remained. He prayed the rumour wasn't true. The fates were rarely kind. He already knew about Springer. Tokuda's mod was also wired into his brain. Hiroshi and Daisuke had reason to worry about their brother. 

The end of the war had trapped them in a net, and they'd all suffer for it. Maybe Sasaki's hint that it would have been better for them to surrender to their rivals was true. They couldn't have known what the council planned for them as punishment for losing. 

He hummed the tune of the song he'd started to write. No lyrics; it was way too early for that, but he pushed lightness into his steps. The song turned darker as hope failed to appear, as a bright light failed to lead the way forward. Once upon a time, Olli might have been, but with his voice all locked away, who would hear it?

The tune stopped. Tad didn't want the light to stop. They shouldn't have stopped fighting, accords be damned. They didn't fight to live like this, did they?

Rose and his flyboy's drinking returned to mind. The winners didn't look too happy with the situation. How had things got messed up to the point that peace reigned and no one had hope anymore? They fought for a better world and returned to where they'd started—chains around their feet and freedom a lie fed to keep them in place.

[Someone's watching.]

He continued to hum, repeating the shift from light to dark, trying to get the shift right. This was harder without his guitar or drums. Maybe he could set up some fake drums? Assuming whoever it was wasn't about to jump him. 

Nothing. 

He turned a different street to his own. Going home with someone following him would be stupid. He had some cleaning tokens on him. The canteen shared food among the masses, and they also shared a public bath. It was also somewhere with cameras that his AI could use to find their lurker. Was it someone who wanted an easy target, someone hunting, or an active mod? Or maybe someone was following his song. Some drunks followed him in the past, enjoying the tune of something new and not an old war song. 

He washed and relaxed as long as he dared to, but nothing obvious happened. No one looked at him without pause; no one tried to get in his locker. The room was empty apart from him.

That was eerie in its way. No eyes rested on his back as he cleaned up and took advantage of the facilities. Knowing that didn't stop the shiver of eyes on his skin. His A.I. grumbled, but whoever watched him wasn't doing it via technological means. Eject couldn't find them. 

Clean, he drifted home. The cool of the night turned harsher and he pulled his coat closer. The song was silent as he tapped up the stairs. 

The eyes hovered, but nothing in the nearby cameras suggested danger. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He turned, fists clenched with his fingers covered in rings ready in makeshift knuckledusters. No one was near. His heart hammered. He was paranoid after the day. That was all. No one was here, hiding in the shadows. Nothing moved; the wind blew, and some metal scrapped together, but no person waited to jump him.