Emerson entered, his arms crossed, one brow raised as if he were already annoyed with him. "Jaz? A word?"
He considered him with a small frown. "You have been moved to a different position," he replied. "You're now a scout with Ellis and Aisling. You know them, yes?"
He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "There have been... requests on your behalf by certain people, as well as situations that have lent themselves to this transfer. From now on, your sole job will be scouting. You'll be trained by my top team, and your hunting and butchering duties will be taken over."
He pursed his lips before nodding, heading towards the door. "You're dismissed for today," he said over his shoulder. "Meet with Aisling and Ellis tomorrow morning at 8."
That night, Aisling and Ellis were scouting through the dark woods together. Aisling's fingers brushed across her gun protectively as they walked. "So," Ellis said, pushing aside some foliage. "You and Dion, huh?" She froze for a minute, glancing at Ellis in preparation. "What about us?" Ellis shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets. "You two have something going on. You're dating." She frowned, shaking her head. "It's not like that," she said, her low voice quiet in the darkness. "It's really not like that. We..." She sighed, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation. "We've just acknowledged that we are fond of each other. That's all. It doesn't mean anything other than we enjoy the other person's company." Ellis smirked. "If you say so. I just know that I've never seen you rest your head on anybody's shoulder; especially the one of someone you barely know." "Well, what about you and Blaise making out every chance you get?" she countered, sounding more than a little irritated. "That's not very in character of you either." Despite the harshness of her words, Ellis smiled. "I know," he agreed. "But something about her is just... it's special, you know? She's special." Aisling paused, thinking of golden straw in the sunlight and a sweet, shy smile. "Yeah," she said quietly. "I think I do know."
Jaz and Rory were in the wreck yard, looking around for salvageable materials that could be used to build. They were planning on making an expansion to the garden, adding a sort of second level. They were chatting idly. "How was the road trip?" Rory asked curiously, looking over at him as she picked out a scrap of metal. "It was fun," he replied easily, wiping his brow as he climbed up the pile, digging through further. "I got to know some of the other clan members." "What did you guys do?" "We visited a place that was called a Fair, and then we went to the beach and saw starfish. I mostly hung out with Lucy, though," he replied, his expression thoughtful. "I really like Lucy, I think." Rory raised an eyebrow with a grin. "Does she know? Or like.. Do you know if she likes you back?" Her expression brightened. "You should tell her! She seems really sweet." Jaz looked uncomfortable, shaking his head. He pulled a golden clock from the rubble, and put it in his bag with a thoughtful frown. "No.. I don't know. That makes me nervous. What if she doesn't feel the same way and then rejects me and things are weird between us?" "I think you should," Rory said warmly, before looking up at him. "If I'm being honest.. I did it lately, too. The day you guys got back, if I remember correctly. It was about Emerson-" "Wait, wait, wait.. Emerson? As in the leader? You like him? And you told him you liked him?" He seemed very surprised, his eyes wide as he watched her. "But he's so.. scary. And stern. And serious. And you're so happy and sweet and gentle." Rory rolled her eyes, folding her arms at him. "I couldn't tell him in person. It made me really nervous and, well.. You know how hard it is for me to talk when I'm nervous. I wrote him a letter instead! He's really kind to me, and honestly I've never really seen him as scary.." she trailed off before looking back up at him. "You should tell Lucy. I think it'll be good. You guys work well together." "You never told me if Emerson reciprocated. How do I know this won't end bad?" She huffed. "That is personal, but yes. He did reciprocate and now we both like each other mutually. Look, Jaz, if I did it then so can you." A low grumble sounded in his throat as he frowned before relenting with a sigh. "Fine. I'll figure out a way to tell her."
Lucy was in a building a little way down the road the next day. The top floor had been established as her workshop and she set down all of the gears with a grateful sigh. She put her hands on her hips, surveying the empty floor plan with an excited grin before setting to work. First, she opened all the windows, of which there were quite a lot of them. Clean air blew in and she leaned against the window sill for a moment, taking a deep breath before beginning. She had already swept and emptied the floor of any extra desks or chair parts. Now, she had picked up a solid oak desk and brought it up. That process had taken a while - she had to develop a pulley system that was secure, but she figured it was worth it. It had a large surface area, and although Lucy considered herself a fairly neat person, parts and notes did tend to spread everywhere while she was working. She pushed the desk to the corner, gasping for breath from the effort, and then began to work on setting up the hammock for the late nights.
She looked around excitedly, beginning to organize her spare scraps. “Emerson gave me clearance to go explore and claim a workspace! Isn’t that great?”
He nodded, a small grin on his face as he stepped in, looking around. "Do you need help getting anything set up?"
“Maybe...” she said slowly, looking around thoughtfully. “Could you help me adjust this desk? It’s pretty heavy.”
