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Snippet #2824247

located in Wasteland, a part of Impending Pursuit, one of the many universes on RPG.

Wasteland

Where the nights are hot and the days even hotter.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Ljilja Character Portrait: Scout
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Footnotes

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Earlier That Day...

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Lingering all around the trio was the smell of the Wastes, a dry scent of sand with the sting of an open oven. That sand permeated every crevice that touched air, and some that didn't; the longer one remained out in the open, the more prickly every movement became. Mounted on their hoverbikes, they were spared the discomfort of having to walk, but not the relentless scorching heat.

But above the scent of sand rose an acrid odor, a stench just over the next dune. Scout, upon detecting it, perked her ears upright, her tail flagging with excitement.

"Ljilja," she called, "let me take point."

Curious but compliant, Ljilja dipped behind Boqin to make room for her at the front.

"What is happening?" she asked.

"Smell a rat," she proclaimed, practically salivating at the opportunity to seize upon one of the rodent mutants to loot from their stash.

Boqin, unlike Scout, was far from itching for a fight. Yet even he could not deny that the potential to bolster their medical supplies would be worth the effort. He kept silent, not holding much faith that he could dissuade her from a pursuit even if he tried.

Ljilja was less easily persuaded. "Why is...? We are headed to next camp, yes?" she inquired.

"Yeah, but I caught those rat mutants stealing supplies. They're an easy target, plenty of stuff to take," she reasoned. In her mind, it was simple.

"We...won't have to kill anybody, yes?" Ljilja meekly asked.

"No, probably not," Scout answered. She sniffed the air to pinpoint the precise direction of the smell, then sped along toward it, beginning to put distance between herself and the rest of the group.

"Probably...?" Ljilja murmured, but the wolf was already too far to hear.

Scout rushed to the top of the dune's crest, peeking up over the edge to get a better view, wagging her tail like an eager puppy. She trained her eyes on the source of the odor, sniffing again with the wind working in her favor.

Almost immediately her joy curdled.

She saw her target, indeed, but not as she expected to find it. It was, near as she could tell, one of the rats, as expected. However, it was not alone. Nor was it...whole.

Two girls stood off to the side, one turned away and the other covering her mouth to keep from vomiting. The third girl, a cyan-haired aquatic with a skeletal tiara, was cleaving bone from flesh with razor-sharp teeth. But she paused, noticing that she was being watched.

She turned toward Scout's figure on the top of the dune, raising her head and scowling in her direction. Viscera dripped from her lips as her pupils dilated, and she bared her teeth. A warning from predator to predator: Leave, or you're next.

Scout's tail stood upright, and she abruptly turned the bike around to stop the path of her companions.

"Go back. We're going around," Scout ominously declared.

Behind her, Ljilja slowed in her steps just a few feet from cresting the peak, and she blinked in confusion. She could tell Scout did not like what she saw, but she had no clue what it was. "What? What happened?" she asked, curious about Scout's sudden disinterest.

Scout sat upright to block Ljilja from somehow seeing over the edge. She remained in the way, unmoving. "Someone else got to them first."

Instantly, Ljilja stopped trying to get a peek. She backed away from the dune, simply muttering a small "Oh."

Boqin turned his bike off to the side and changed subjects. "We are close to second camp. We should move."

Scout nodded and, once assured Ljilja was not going anywhere near the top of the dune, took the lead once more on her hoverbike.



Losing Touch

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"Your turn!" declared Ljilja, clutching a green bottle of liquid to her chest and stepping toward Scout, whose thoughts had wandered elsewhere.

After a moment, Scout nodded her assent, letting Ljilja approach. Her ears drooped to the sides when Ljilja poured cold shampoo over the top of her head, but they perked back up when the aquatic mutant began to scrub it into her hair and use her dainty fingers to work out the knots. She reached back to grab her tail and restrain it with her hands.

Satisfied with her work, Ljilja moved on to the conditioner, none the wiser of Scout's roaming mind. It was probably for the best that she did not know what went through the mind of her wolfish companion. For if she did...

"Can I do your tail and back, too?"

"I guess; why do you want to, though?"

"Because it makes you feel good."

...would she still see her the same way?



Concluding with a shoulder massage and a long hug, Ljilja stepped away. Scout felt suddenly chilled by her lack of presence, as if she had briefly grown accustomed to it.

"Hard to imagine the third camp will have even better showers, huh?" Scout remarked, trying to mask her reaction with small talk.

Idly combing Scout's tail with her fingers, Ljilja replied, "I hope there will be doctors there, for Boqin."

One of Scout's ears flopped over to the side. "Maybe," she answered. With the same sort of dispassionate tone, she admitted, "He told me that he loved me."

At this, Ljilja wriggled with excitement. It clearly meant much more to her. "That's great!" she exclaimed. But, releasing her tail and leaning in closer, she inquired more quietly, "...do you like him back?"

Scout let her tail drop to the floor with a resounding slap. "No," she answered quickly. "And how is that great?"

Ljilja squeaked, hit with the splash from Scout's tail. "Moj tata says it is harder for boys to say they like someone. That it means more when they do." Quickly, she wrangled Scout's tail back into her grip and did her best to pet it into submission. "...why don't you like him?"

The wolf could only shrug. "I dunno," she softly admitted.

Ljilja hummed in thought as she finally rinsed Scout clean. Then, she hugged her. "It is okay," she concluded, "it is better not to force it."

Once it seemed that the little blue mutant was finished with her work, Scout stood and gently patted Ljilja's head in thanks. She received a warm grin in response, and the two dried off and redonned their freshly-laundered uniforms at the changing area.

"We should check on Boqin," Scout suggested. "Ready to go?"

Ljilja eagerly nodded and left the showers with Scout, re-entering the camp side-by-side.