Flames and Thoughts

It didn't take very long for the group to make their way back into their little camp area. Their little earthen homes still stood and while this would only be the second night spent in them, (it had been a very long second day,) they still looked very much like 'home' to the five of them.

"We should try to rest up as much as we can," Wesley spoke as he glanced to the others. "I imagine we've only got a few hours until daybreak."

At that, Sasha let out a low grunt. "Yeah I'm going to bed. The rest of you do what you want," the girl spoke as she began to make her way back toward her little hovel, not bothering to even say goodnight to the others more than that.

Theodore and Jay were the next to head out, neither of them lingering for very long with the exhaustion starting to really set in, and it wasn't oo much longer until it was just Wesley and Evie still remaining outside.

"Aren'cha gonna sleep?" Evie asked, the girl chipper and cheerful as always, even in the current exhausted state that she was in. "You look tired," the girl added, as if that wasn't obvious enough already.

Wes smirked slightly as he moved back out to the little bonfire area that they had out front and with a gesture, used the Fireshaping Skill he had from his Death Framework to catch the sticks and log in there on fire. "Probably not. Too much going on up here," he commented, tapping the side of his head.

The girl gave a giggle at that, before she extended her hands, summoning one of her puppets in the form of a little seat, much like she had with the clock, but this was much simpler as she sat down near the fire. "You're gonna need your rest, you know."

Wes nodded, even as he stared into the flames. "I know. But there's one thing that's really been bugging me. Probably more than it should," he admitted.

"About your Framework and Skills?" Evie asked, leading to a nod from Wes. "Well yeah, duh. Of course it would! This is like the first time that this has ever happened, right?" she asked, leaning in a little.

Wes had taken up residence on a stump that he was using as his own seat, and he sighed at her words. "That's actually part of the problem," he murmured, earning a confused sound from Evie in response. "Okay, there's really only one big issue."

"Like you said, no one's ever seen this before, right? So why did the computer recognize it?"

Evie blinked at that, leaning back a little, very nearly falling off the back of the seat (and she would have, if not for her puppet adjusting itself to stabilize her). "It just measures the Framework, right? That's not so weird for it to pick you up at all zeroes."

"Right. But if it was just that I wouldn't be all that concerned. But it knew what Skills I had. It just seems really weird to me that whoever designed the system did so with the Void Skills like mine already known."

At that, Evie frowned, the girl thinking, before she blinked. "Well that's not really that crazy to think about, right?" she asked, which now led to some confusion from Wesley. "Okay, okay. Check it out."

She made a gesture toward the fire. "Let's pretend a minute. Let's pretend that... I dunno. That Derek guy, the engineer that was working the computers when we got our Frameworks tested. Let's pretend that he's got a Void Framework like you. How would we know?"

Wes opened his mouth to counteract her argument, but he paused. How would they know? "Yeah. Because I'm written down as being a Twenty-Fiver. As far as anyone is concerned, that's where my Framework is at. The only people that actually know are the upper command. And John, now."

"Duhhh. And us. What if there have been others before you and we just never heard about them?" she asked, bouncing a little in her excitement. "It's like a conspiracy! I love conspiracies, by the way."

Wesley cracked a smile at her. "Yeah- that makes sense for you," he admitted, and the girl's own grin grew wider. "That's... a pretty real possibility. You're pretty smart. Everyone gives Ted credit but you're pretty sharp too."

Evie's grin broke down into a laugh as the girl shook her head. "Why do you think we're friends? No one else can keep up with him. Well, you know what I mean. "I don't always have the best ideas but I have a lot of them. He just thinks everything through too much."

"That's why he pauses all the time when he's talking," Evie continued, Wesley quietly thankful that he didn't need to ask about that. "Teddy's trying to make sure whatever he's about to say next makes sense to everyone else. He thinks way differently than anyone else I've met!"

Wesley nodded, having been picking u on that a little bit with the way that Theodore tended to speak. It always seemed like he was searching for the perfect word to say, rather than just saying whatever was directly in his mind. "You're both lucky to have friends like one another, I think," Wes said, a small smile on his face.

"Aw thanks!" Evie cheered. "We've been friends for a few years now. When we were both old enough it was time to do this whole Soldier thing. I'm just glad we found some really cool teammates to partner up with!"

At that compliment, Wesley smiled but didn't respond as he stared further into the fire. If there had been other Void users before him, that meant that something had likely happened to them. Or maybe they were quietly taken out by jealous Soldiers? That didn't feel right, and Wes didn't want to believe that anyone would actually do that, but he supposed it was entirely possible.

He wasn't actually even looking at the fire anymore- he was just kind of staring into it as his thoughts ran. Vice had seemed annoyed with what he could do, but Doctor Tenor had seemed mostly fine with it. Wes couldn't be sure if the man had seen this before, or if he was just so laid-back it didn't matter.

"Hey," Evie spoke, and Wes blinked, looking over at her. "You're doing that thing that Teddy does where he just thinks really hard and doesn't let anyone else in to know what he's thinking."

Wes smirked a little at that, shaking his head. "Sorry. I don't mean to. To be honest, I'm used to only having Jay around and he doesn't like to think too deeply about things so I'm used to mulling things over in my own head for most of the day," Wes responded. "I guess with you and Ted I should be a bit better about explaining what's going on in my brain."

"I'm still thinking about what we were talking about before, with the other people that might have the Void Framework," Wesley continued, his eyes moving back to stare into the fire. "If they have power like mine, then where are they? Are they even still alive?"

Evie frowned, shaking her head slightly, the grin finally falling away from her features. "Now that I've got no idea about. Maybe they're still out there or maybe the whole reason they want you to stay quiet about it is because the other ones aren't alive anymore?"

"Ooh!" she continued, smacking her own leg in excitement. "Maybe the other ones got noticed or got too headstrong and were killed by Beasts or something before they had a chance to do their best. Or maybe... by other Soldiers," she admitted after a moment.

Wesley nodded slowly. "I'm thinking it's the latter part. I don't think there'd be any reason for the Government to need to keep quiet about me unless there was a danger from other people, you know? Because otherwise they could just have the other Soldiers just... I don't know. Keep us safe."

The frown on Evie's face lasted another moment longer before it went away, the girl pushing a wide grin onto her features. "Well then you don't have anything to worry about! Me and Mr. Woodhead will keep you safe!" the girl cheered, standing back up as she lifted both hands up over her head. "So don't worry!"

Wesley smiled at that, laughing softly as he nodded, before he looked back over at her. "All right. I'll hold you to that," he spoke, before Evie let out a very long, (and uncharacteristic,) yawn, the girl lifting a hand to rub at her eyes. "Look, I appreciate you keeping me company, but you should go and get some rest. I"ll be fine."

The girl scoffed slightly, before she had to stifle another yawn, rubbing at her face. "Okay, okay. Well try to get some rest, if you can," Evie spoke, before hopping over and patting Wesley on the head. "People don't think very well without it!" she called, before she dismissed her puppets and skipped over to her own little dirt house, disappearing inside.

Wesley watched her go before returning his gaze back to the fire. Thoughts came and went as he stared, not really aware of the passage of time until a new voice caught his ears.

"Having trouble sleeping, are we?"