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31_days2010-04-14 09:42 pm
lone-wulffe.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2010-04-14 09:42 pm
[14 APR] [BIOSHOCK 2] [THAT OTHER SHADOW]
Title: That Other Shadow
Day/Theme: 14th April 2010; who is the third who walks always beside you?
Series: BioShock 2
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Sly Travers (Original Character), Eleanor Lamb, Jack Ryan, Subject Delta
Rating: G
Notes: Spoilers for the good endings of BioShock 1 and 2.
Eleanor Lamb, Sly decided, was a very odd girl indeed.
When Mr. Ryan - who always insisted he just be called Jack - had first brought her to his store and asked him if he would let her work for him, he had been surprised. She was roughly the same age as the five Ryan girls, but he had neither seen nor heard of any relatives of that quaint little family before this. He'd been inquisitive at first, but the man had gruffly introduced her as "the daughter of an old friend from back home" and quietly requested that he not pursue the matter. The girl in question had broken her silence then, thanking him somewhat shyly with an embarassed smile for his kindness. Sly had held out for almost five seconds before finally caving and accepting her. Mr. Ryan was a loyal customer and a trustworthy man, and if he vouched for the girl then she could be trusted as well. Besides, a helping hand in the business would not hurt after all.
With that, the dark-haired teenager began working under his roof. And that was also when he started to notice several things that didn't quite make sense.
Perhaps the most glaring thing about young Eleanor was that she knew a lot. Far more than a seventeen-year-old girl should. She excelled in mathematics, being able to help him keep his books in order, but that could be attributed to natural genius. No, it was the sheer amount of knowledge she seemed to possess at her fingertips, ranging from fixing machines to understanding the world of business. When he had tried to subtly pry into it, she had expertly deflected the issue, only admitting that she had been "taught by quite a few people on this and that". Sly could find no lie in her statement, yet he could tell she wasn't being entirely truthful either. The entire incident left him as frustrated as ever. It seemed that the aura of secrecy that hung around the Ryans extended to its associates as well.
Additionally, Mr. Ryan allowed her to travel to and fro from the shop by herself. He'd objected at first, stating that the streets weren't safe for a girl like her to be wandering around by herself, but Mr. Ryan had only smirked and told him bluntly that any fool who thought they could mess with her thoroughly deserved the beating they'd get. The business man had no choice but to give up; it was almost impossible to win any argument with the patriarch of the Ryan family, it seemed.
But the most mystifying thing about the girl named Eleanor Lamb was not her vast knowledge, but the presence of... something around her.
Sly Travers was not a superstitious man. He didn't believe in supernatural forces like ghosts and whatnots. Yet this incident gave him pause. The aura that... thing gave off, whatever it was, did not feel malicious, but it was palpable all the same. He had kept quiet about it, however, choosing to believe that he was just imagining things and seeing no point in causing Eleanor to think her boss was a potential loon. She was a hard worker, and he owed Mr. Ryan for all those times the man had selflessly helped him out when he'd had it rough.
Time passed, and Sly soon forgot the matter as he was swept up by the everyday business of life. However, the issue made itself present once more when he'd accidentally caught Eleanor talking to thin air during one of her breaks. She had stopped abruptly when she noticed his presence, cheeks flushed from being caught red-handed - or so it appeared to him. Emboldened by the circumstances, he'd asked her flat out who she had been talking to, and after a moment of fidgeting she finally confessed.
"I was just... talking to Father," Eleanor spoke nervously, refusing to meet his eyes.
Sly blinked. "You mean, as in religion?"
At that word, the girl snaped her gaze up to meet his, and the man saw a flash of annoyance in her blue orbs he didn't understand. But then again, Mr. Ryan didn't like that topic either, so maybe it had to do with where they'd come from. "Not that," she muttered as she broke eye contact, her irritance adding a bitter edge to her words, "I meant my father."
"Oh." Suddenly Sly wished he hadn't asked at all. "Is he...?"
Eleanor dropped her gaze to the floor as her small frame lost the tension his poor choice of words had caused. "He... died." There was a profound amount of sadness in her voice - too much for such a young child - and Sly cursed his inquisitiveness. "But..." she went on, although now her voice sounded happier, "he taught me a lot of things. Lessons I'll cherish for the rest of my life." The girl looked up at him again, but she was smiling this time. "He still watches over me even now." There was a steel-like sureness in her voice when she spoke. The man could only nod in response, having no words for the situation. Her statement confirmed nothing - she either knew of the presence around her and was hiding it or had no knowledge of it at all and was merely speaking from self-belief - but at least now he knew he hadn't been imagining it.
Sly still didn't believe in ghosts... or guardian angels, for that matter. But, he decided humorously, Eleanor was enough of an anomaly herself to allow that sort of thinking just this once.
Day/Theme: 14th April 2010; who is the third who walks always beside you?
Series: BioShock 2
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Sly Travers (Original Character), Eleanor Lamb, Jack Ryan, Subject Delta
Rating: G
Notes: Spoilers for the good endings of BioShock 1 and 2.
Eleanor Lamb, Sly decided, was a very odd girl indeed.
When Mr. Ryan - who always insisted he just be called Jack - had first brought her to his store and asked him if he would let her work for him, he had been surprised. She was roughly the same age as the five Ryan girls, but he had neither seen nor heard of any relatives of that quaint little family before this. He'd been inquisitive at first, but the man had gruffly introduced her as "the daughter of an old friend from back home" and quietly requested that he not pursue the matter. The girl in question had broken her silence then, thanking him somewhat shyly with an embarassed smile for his kindness. Sly had held out for almost five seconds before finally caving and accepting her. Mr. Ryan was a loyal customer and a trustworthy man, and if he vouched for the girl then she could be trusted as well. Besides, a helping hand in the business would not hurt after all.
With that, the dark-haired teenager began working under his roof. And that was also when he started to notice several things that didn't quite make sense.
Perhaps the most glaring thing about young Eleanor was that she knew a lot. Far more than a seventeen-year-old girl should. She excelled in mathematics, being able to help him keep his books in order, but that could be attributed to natural genius. No, it was the sheer amount of knowledge she seemed to possess at her fingertips, ranging from fixing machines to understanding the world of business. When he had tried to subtly pry into it, she had expertly deflected the issue, only admitting that she had been "taught by quite a few people on this and that". Sly could find no lie in her statement, yet he could tell she wasn't being entirely truthful either. The entire incident left him as frustrated as ever. It seemed that the aura of secrecy that hung around the Ryans extended to its associates as well.
Additionally, Mr. Ryan allowed her to travel to and fro from the shop by herself. He'd objected at first, stating that the streets weren't safe for a girl like her to be wandering around by herself, but Mr. Ryan had only smirked and told him bluntly that any fool who thought they could mess with her thoroughly deserved the beating they'd get. The business man had no choice but to give up; it was almost impossible to win any argument with the patriarch of the Ryan family, it seemed.
But the most mystifying thing about the girl named Eleanor Lamb was not her vast knowledge, but the presence of... something around her.
Sly Travers was not a superstitious man. He didn't believe in supernatural forces like ghosts and whatnots. Yet this incident gave him pause. The aura that... thing gave off, whatever it was, did not feel malicious, but it was palpable all the same. He had kept quiet about it, however, choosing to believe that he was just imagining things and seeing no point in causing Eleanor to think her boss was a potential loon. She was a hard worker, and he owed Mr. Ryan for all those times the man had selflessly helped him out when he'd had it rough.
Time passed, and Sly soon forgot the matter as he was swept up by the everyday business of life. However, the issue made itself present once more when he'd accidentally caught Eleanor talking to thin air during one of her breaks. She had stopped abruptly when she noticed his presence, cheeks flushed from being caught red-handed - or so it appeared to him. Emboldened by the circumstances, he'd asked her flat out who she had been talking to, and after a moment of fidgeting she finally confessed.
"I was just... talking to Father," Eleanor spoke nervously, refusing to meet his eyes.
Sly blinked. "You mean, as in religion?"
At that word, the girl snaped her gaze up to meet his, and the man saw a flash of annoyance in her blue orbs he didn't understand. But then again, Mr. Ryan didn't like that topic either, so maybe it had to do with where they'd come from. "Not that," she muttered as she broke eye contact, her irritance adding a bitter edge to her words, "I meant my father."
"Oh." Suddenly Sly wished he hadn't asked at all. "Is he...?"
Eleanor dropped her gaze to the floor as her small frame lost the tension his poor choice of words had caused. "He... died." There was a profound amount of sadness in her voice - too much for such a young child - and Sly cursed his inquisitiveness. "But..." she went on, although now her voice sounded happier, "he taught me a lot of things. Lessons I'll cherish for the rest of my life." The girl looked up at him again, but she was smiling this time. "He still watches over me even now." There was a steel-like sureness in her voice when she spoke. The man could only nod in response, having no words for the situation. Her statement confirmed nothing - she either knew of the presence around her and was hiding it or had no knowledge of it at all and was merely speaking from self-belief - but at least now he knew he hadn't been imagining it.
Sly still didn't believe in ghosts... or guardian angels, for that matter. But, he decided humorously, Eleanor was enough of an anomaly herself to allow that sort of thinking just this once.