A Tree Near the Campground - Tuesday Afternoon

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

Kyle and George were sitting in a tree. No, there was nothing like the song going on, but they'd climbed a tree and were proceeding to hang out. You know, as boys do. They could see most of the campground from here and anyone walking by could see them if they looked up.

[OOC: Open! I fell out of a tree onto concrete once. True story. True broken wrist.]

Comments

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

"That ye ended up in th'wrong Fandom, y'mean?" he asked, trying to clarify.

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

Kyle nodded. "One Fandom is enough. Can you imagine ending up in other Fandoms where things were different?"

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

"Bet there are though," George said thoughtfully. "Like last summer when half of th'students ended up on another version of th'island? Wonder if there are a lot of 'em." He shuddered playfully. "A Fandom without Luke's!"

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"A Fandom where burgers were never created," Kyle said, horrified. "I still haven't had one. I've been wanting one for seven months, but when I thought about going, I decided it wasn't the same without you guys there. So I ate a bag of marshmallows instead. Bad idea."

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

He looked up and then threw a small twig at Kyle. "Yer insane, lad," he said, shaking his head. "We should go. Or d'ye want t'wait fer Bobby t'be back? I dunno where he's gone."

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"Let's give him a couple of days. He probably went home again. But if he's not back by the weekend, I want a burger. Hold the insects."

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

"Weekend's fine fer me," George decided. "What about th'berries?"

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"Berries are good as long as you don't eat the ones that make you foam at the mouth. It's probably different for birds. Are you back to human now? It's not some new thing where you can change back and forth is it?"

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

"...there be berries that make ye foam at th'mouth?" he asked curiously. Total city boy, but there was an interest in poisons there. "What kind are those? An' I s'pose 'm human again. Never did become a bird before. Don' really want t'be one again."

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Kyle nodded. "There are plenty of berries you can't eat. Some only make you sick, but some can kill you. I can show you. What did you do while you were a bird?"

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

"Would be glad t'know that," he agreed. "Guess I stole stuff most th'time." Which made it the same as other days... "Found a big collection o' shiny things when I turned back t'a person."

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"Anything good?" Kyle grinned.

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

"Not really," George said, making a face. He was totally disappointed about that, yes. "Jus' tin foil an' bottle caps an' stupid stuff like that."

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"Bird you didn't have very good taste. Human you does better. How's Karla?"

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

"I'm thinkin' she's good. Hadn't seen her since I stopped bein' a bird," he admitted. He glanced over at Kyle. "D'ye want me t'ask about what went on them seven months?"

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"You can ask," Kyle shrugged. "You know I'll tell you anything. A lot happened though. Everything's changing and it's changing fast."

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

"Didn' want t'be askin' if it was somethin' ye didn' want t'talk about," George pointed out. "What's happenin' then? What's changin'?"

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"More advanced machines. More advanced weapons. Skynet's finally bouncing back after we took out their main complex two years ago. Change in orders. Before it was easy. You'd go out, destroy some terminators, blow up some supplies, regain some territory for the Resistance. Now it's more complicated. The enemy's changed."

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

He frowned a little, trying to put that together. "Th'enemy changing makes it more complicated or th' new orders? Why'd th'orders change?"

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"All of it does. Instead of just destroying them and getting out of there, we have to retrieve some of their chips - it's the machine's brain. There are more machines that look human now. There are humans that work with the machines and," he stopped and stared at the leaves for a few moments, "and suddenly torture's okay to get answers out of them."

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

George glanced over, letting that process. He didn't have Kyle's instinctive aversion to torture, but it didn't seem the best thing either. "Tisn' terribly reliable, th' information ye get from it," he commented.

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

Kyle shook his head in agreement. "There's nothing they could get out of the prisoner that couldn't be found out through normal interrogation or recon. And it's wrong." He frowned. "We're supposed to be the good guys."

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

"Y'are the good guys," George replied instantly. "Yer not th'ones tryin' t'kill everything." He frowned, the absolute abhorrence for double crossers and traitors making him think they deserved whatever they got. "Yer not th'ones workin' wit' them that's killin' ye."

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"How far do you let it go?" he asked, not really expecting an answer. "There are humans that do bad things to each other, and they're wrong to do it, but how far do you go to win the war? How close do you let yourself get to being like the machines?" Kyle realized he was frowning so hard he was getting a headache. He relaxed and shrugged. "It's not my decision, but it's hard to watch."

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

No, it was John Connor's decision, and George's memories of the short time he'd been that cove made him wonder if even with all his training and preparation, if that decision was still too hard.

He nodded, tilting his head back against the trunk of the tree and looking up through the branches. "Would ye do it differently? If twas yer decision?"

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

Kyle gave an uncertain nod. "I don't know how, but I would." He latched onto the one thing that had been good about being home. "They transferred me to my brother's unit."

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

"Yer brother has a unit?" was the first question. "That's bloody brilliant. Ye both can fight t'gether again."

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

Kyle nodded, seeming pretty happy about that. "They gave him his own command and he got to pick his own people. We're pretty good." Modesty? What was that? "Derek doesn't really put up with anyone not pulling their weight. We managed to hit some pretty big targets. It was good watching his back again."

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

George looked over at him. "Wit' all that, I dunno why y'd want t'come back," he commented.

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"I didn't." Kyle glanced at him, then shrugged. "I mean I did, because, you know why. But I got used to the idea of being home, and fighting beside Derek and we were getting things done."

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

"Hard t'leave a job when ye know it's goin' well," he agreed. "Twere I you, I'd've wanted t'stay too fer that. An' fer watchin' yer brother. Did ye leave someone t'take over it?"

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"He has a couple of people who'll watch his back. Derek's good at that, getting people who watch out for him. He's strong, up here," he tapped his head. "You need someone like that when you're out on missions, someone you know will tell you what to do if the mission starts falling apart."

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

It was a good way of putting it, and George considered that for a while, letting the leaves rustling fill the silence. "Th'men have t'know they've a leader," he said finally.

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

Kyle nodded. That was it exactly. "They protect their leader. If the leader goes, the strongest part of the unit goes and your chances of ending up dead get higher. Derek will be fine."

[noearsyet.livejournal.com]

"Wouldn' want ye back if he weren't goin' t'be," George said, glancing over at Kyle with a crooked grin.