Aww, s'okay, I understand Kira!
Organizing my guro folder as I type this, which is probably a mistake that I will never repeat again, y/y?
The Host
Chapter 6: Followed
in which Ahknee takes forever on a chapter due to distractions
We left off with Wanderer in a meeting with her Comforter, Kathy, and having what I like to call one helluva pathetic breakdown about how she cannot control her body thanks to Melanie sticking around for the show.
Tuning in, the sun is starting to set (someone want to go back and count the bad transitions of time in here?) and Wanderer mentions that it's rather hot for being March. Wanderer turns to Kathy and tells her that she must have other shit to attend to (aka Curt; also, why do these two have to have that hard K sound to their names?). Kathy cuts her off and says that all can wait. Since Wanderer refused a new host, Kathy says that it will take a while to come up with another solution, and that help from others may be a key in this.
Wanderer freaks out because this means telling other people about her problem, but Kathy says that she means if she was to be around friends more often - to which Wanderer cracks one of those shit Meyer jokes that no one laughs at because only "cheeseburger of pain" will ever be humorous to me.
... hehe, cheeseburger of pain. I can still laugh at that even now, oh me.
Anyway, the point of this is that Kathy figures that since Melanie tends to become dormant when Wanderer is at work, she figures the same might also apply when Wanderer is out with friends. Kathy also figures that this might help Wanderer deal with the physical drives of these bodies - specifically, the mating instinct.
Just as a note, I believe we have an instinct for sex, not "mating," which is almost always used in terms of sex for producing offspring. I doubt our earlier caveselves really had an idea that bumping uglies = IS BABBY FORMED /overused meme; it was more oh this feels pretty damn good let's keep doing it and we ca--OHMYGOD I'M GETTING FAT AND WHAT IS THIS COMING OUT FROM BETWEEN MY LEGS JESUS CHRIST.
/personal view rant
Continuing onward, when Kathy asks whether Wanderer has ever experienced this sort of feeling for another, she says that it only happens in her dreams of course. Kathy says that she should open her eyes when she's out and see if she ever gets that sort of response from another. Both Wanderer and Melanie recoil in disgust (I don't even know how a conscious within your head can recoil). Kathy advises Wanderer not to let Melanie's thoughts and feeling interfere with her own. Wanderer, of course, retorts that she isn't weak, to which Kathy points out maybe Melanie will eventually fade away with time, or maybe the Seekers will catch Jared and they can see if that works (aka a soul gets flung into his body and they can be WHOOHOO). That warrants a horrified response from both the occupants of Melanie's body.
Wanderer runs out of the room in a fit of rage. Or something. And the whole way Wanderer can't distinguish whether these thoughts
That’s killing him! That’s making him cease to be! I don’t want someone else. I wantJared,not a
stranger in his body! The body means nothing without him.
are hers or Melanie's.
Wanderer doesn't live too far from where Kathy operates (notably, she refers to her as "the Comforter" here), and it is dark now as she dashes outside. She makes it two blocks before she realizes she's heading the wrong way entirely. Mmkay, so I know that you've been in this body for what, a few months now? I'unno how big of an area you live in, but ... nt back in my hometown, I could always navigate home even when I was spacing out and not focusing on getting there, no matter the state of my mood. It was just ... instinct, I guess. Home = safehaven. Autopilot, hello.
Just sayin'.
She passes a lot of people on her run, and they all look at her but avert their eyes because they figure she's new to this host and getting used to it. She turns a corner that will give her a wide loop to her home, avoiding Kathy's office. She slows to a walk that is apparently "only slightly slower than a run." Either you walk really fast or run really slow. She figures her footsteps sound like a slap fight (actually, she phrases it as "someone hitting someone else" but considering her feet are slapping on the pavement it's a slap fight) and it's a horrible image or something.
Wanderer makes it home pretty quickly and ends up stumbling over to a lamppost where the throws the fuck up just as someone recognizes her and wonders wtf is up. It turns out it's that Seeker from Chicago that questioned her when she woke up. Wanderer bends over and heaves uselessly until she realizes the Seeker must be here for a reason and promptly begins to violently shake her like
bad parents do to their babies kids do to their Baby Borns when they cry too much crazy before realizing wait oh shit and stops.
The Seeker questions wtf is wrong with Wanderer and insists she get checked by her Healer especially since "health care is so easy and effective." Healthcare is better as one word, Meyer. Just sayin', oh, and thanks for the jab at the medical system, eh?
Wanderer gets the wild hair up her ass to shake the Seeker violently once more but realizes that would be a bad idea and decides to just walk away for the sake of everyone involved. The Seeker calls after her but she ignores her, instead heading inside. She leaves the door open, figuring that she'll be followed in - which she is. She makes herself a glass of water to kill the vomit taste in her mouth. Soon after, lots of shit is spoken of that I don't give a fuck about because it doesn't matter to me at all.
TL;DR of it: this particular Seeker is the most confrontational person Wanderer has ever met. Turns out the Seeker is around to check in on her since it's been a while but then Wanderer tells her she sent that email blah blah blah fuck and she starts spewing Melanie's words instead of her own in an excuse for that email and she and Melanie both agree the hate this Seeker but then Wanderer's all ohgod hate is such a badbadbad emotion and unforgivable.
Meyer, lemme tell you something: I
hate you. That didn't feel so bad. Actually, it felt really awesome.
There's some dialogue (wtf Chrome that is not a misspelling) in which Wanderer feels insecure and decides to stargaze which leads to something about them being supremely important to Melanie - apparently they are her own starmaps that lead her back to both Jared and Jamie.
erm hi, amateur dabbler in astronomy here and I'd like to point out a few key points on using stars as a map: 1) they change on a rather monthly basis (hence, star signs); 2) due to the rotating schedule, making a starmap requires intense research and a keen eye for finding constellations and star patterns in which to navigate by; 3) sailors back in the day usually only relied on the north star and had to use that little tchotchke to read the stars with any accuracy; 4) astronomers today still need to constantly refer to star maps to keep this shit straight.
Anyway, the Seeker expresses disappointment in how Wanderer has failed to subdue her host still which leads to her thinking back to her time as a See Weed and how thousands had turned away from the sun and died instead of letting themselves be taken over. You wanna know why they did that? Because you bitches fucking suck. It's called a symbiotic relationship and I'm sure y'all could find a way to work that out.
Expect to see the Seeker a lot more. Apparently, Wanderer is her only assignment at this time.
That seriously did not take me a full five hours to type, but a lot of distractions came up (including, but not limited to, one deranged sister, one puppy suffering from severe vertigo and making me worry like fuck, one venture to the store, one venture to the gas station, and a period of preparing Kool-Aid ... oh, and the guro folder).
FML. However, in great news,
I have one folder completely sorted out! Yay me!
