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| Somehow updated more than once a week. |
Chapter 4: Reason
Morgan took the money she got and quickly pocketed it. Maria insulted her on her way out but honestly she was thick skinned enough to know that wasn't even close to the worst thing she's ever heard. She had the rest of her day free to do whatever she pleased, so first she headed back to her dorm to put up her huge sword somewhere safe. She crossed Maria who was busy leaning up against a wall and staring at the sky, so she didn't even bother to talk to her on the way in.
She opened the door to the closet in her side of the dorm, slipping the blade into a big carrying case and zipping it up before leaning it against a wall. When she opened the door, there stood the somewhat shorter angry teenage redhead everybody 'loved' Maria. “What is it?” Morgan asked her, leaning against the door frame. “Nothing... Just.. Nothing.” She said, turning her shoulder and grazing past her quickly.
Morgan shook her head and slowly went over to grab one of her own bags she used to unpack a couple of days ago. Maria climbed onto the upper part of her bunk bed, the carrying case for her weapon in hand, Morgan said nothing to her and gently closed the door behind her. 'She's really inconsistent...' She thought to herself. Maria always seems to flip back and fourth between quiet, sarcastic, loud and sad at pretty much random times. She's never really gotten to talk to her before, but she's not even sure it would be anything pleasant, it's probably more likely to be an argument.
It's not like she hated Maria or anything, Maria had a lot of bad shit happen to her. You can't really get out of that and end up as the same person you were before. But even then, if she's going to have the same room as Maria does, she'd rather have Maria actually be pleasant to be around and not just... whatever the hell she currently is.
Morgan headed out the front door of the dorm, walking along the courtyard and into the parking lot placed just to the side of the front gate. She pulled a key from her pocket to pop the seat open to her dark red colored motor scooter, pulling out a helmet and pulling her black hair out of the way of her eyes while she put it on her head. She replaced the seat, and turned on the ignition, getting on it and twisting the gas handle a couple of times to warm it up. She slipped the bag onto her shoulder and slowly pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road.
The shadow hours began while she was driving. The sun would drift behind the rift around noon and last a couple of hours, making it look like a mixture of a sunset and an eclipse, luckily it wasn't really too dark and she could drive without turning on the lights. She finally got to her first destination, a small corner market she could get supplies from. She turned off the engine and climbed off, with the bag over her shoulder and resting under one arm, the pushed the door open with one hand, hearing a little bell ringing that was attached to the door swinging.
“Welcome!” An elderly man said at the front desk, Morgan walked up and nodded her head. “Do you mind if I use this big bag for what I'm going to buy?” The old man nodded, adjusting the cap on his balding white haired head. “Oh it's fine, Missy. Just remember to pay for it.” She turned away and began walking the small aisles. “Of course I will.”
She walked into the canned goods section, looking over the price tags and grabbing what she could, stuffing them into her big shoulder bag.
She wouldn't stop filling it until it was much heavier than before, stacked to the brim with cans of soup, pasta, fruit, vegetables and sauce. She carried the entire thing to the front, placing it in front of the elderly man with a soft thump from the weight of it. “Do you have something I could take on the go?” The old man nodded. “You could probably get one of those milkshakes from the refrigerated section. “Go ring that up, then. I'll get one of those milkshakes for myself.” He nodded, pulling out cans and slowly scanning each one.
“What do ya need all these cans for? You doin' a picnic or something?” Morgan shook her head, grabbing a milkshake and placing it beside him for him to scan after he was finished. “I had some left over money, so I wanted to give it to some people who need it more than I do.” He nodded, scanning the last and charging her the money. She slipped him the 100 Geld note and he gave her back a couple of coins in change, she pulled them over her shoulder and waved to the old man as she left. “Have a good day, lil' lady.” He shouted to her as she closed the door.
The scooter started back up, chugging a bit from the extra weight, but once it got going, everything was mostly back to normal. Getting to her next destination was quite the long drive, and those bags would probably start hurting her shoulder after a while but honestly she didn't mind it much.
The city was quite a nice place to live in, it was one of the bigger cities in all of Rosewall. It received a lot of attention recently for being one of the biggest economical powerhouses after Ash was introduced along with Spectrum being built. But that brought good attention along with the bad. People began to sell Ash weapons in unofficial channels, knowing that most people had no right to use it unless they had an academy license to do so.
Citizens didn't like how they were so restricted on using these weapons to protect themselves. They had people to protect them, but they always had to rely on someone else they didn't even know for their safety. So people actually protested it at first, saying that they wanted to be able to protect their own homes and families without having the Academy have to travel there and possibly fail.
People have come to accept it more recently, but some people use the ash weapons to hurt more than protect. This caused a massive rift in the community and a lot of violence broke out over it. Even a war between Rosewall and Astra, a country to the north over how important the weapons were going to be. Morgan knew Lily's father was pretty much the main driving force behind that choice, refusing to license anything that wasn't directly sponsored by him pretty much caused a monopoly on the whole market.
Her thoughts continued to wander, looking at the construction workers slowly repairing a building with their huge construction tools, the monster attacks have been causing less collateral damage in Riverside, but she wished that was the news in the rest of Rosewall as well. The damage and death has been nice and steady on the outside, these academies were still being built and they've only been starting to get marginal success recently.
She pulled around a corner and parked her scooter once again, hiding her helmet and tucking the keys back into her pocket when she turned it off. She kicked the stand and walked along the sidewalk, before coming before a rather large building amid the suburban homes. It looked like a re purposed church, the walls were slate and made of stones, held together by mortar. The windows formerly used to be stained glass, but were replaced with oddly arched windows instead.
She walked up the staircase, it was stone and lined with more stone on each side to lean onto, she got up to the wooden door, hefted the bag back up to her shoulder and gave it a couple of heavy knocks. There was a silence, but the door slowly creaked open with a sound that only a couple hundred year old church could only make.
A woman stood in front of Morgan, she was in her 40's, her hair was a silver shade of gray and pulled into a low ponytail. Her skin was tanned, and besides a wrinkle or two on her lips and forehead she still seemed healthy for her age, She smiled at Morgan, stepping aside. “Welcome back, Morgan.” She nodded her head, stepping inside and looking around.
“Wow, this place never seems to change.” She commented softly. The older woman nodded, giving a slight chuckle. “Yep, Greyhill Orphanage has been pretty much the same for decades now. Same old stone and mortal walls, same hard wood floor as it's always been.” The older woman said, looking at the bag over Morgan's shoulder as she hefted it onto the table. “What did you bring?” Morgan opened the back, grabbing some of the cans and pulling them out, holding them in her hands. “This place is still non-profit, right?” The woman nodded. “Well, since I came across a bit of money recently, I wanted to make a donation of food to you guys.”
The woman smiled and ran over, gently patting on Morgan's shoulder, Morgan kind of had a couple of inches up on her since she was pretty tall compared to the older woman. “Oh thank you, sweety. I know most people who live here usually want to get out when they become an adult, but I'm really happy you seem to enjoy actually coming back.”
Morgan nodded, taking the bag again and shrugging her shoulders. “I've lived here most of my life along with my brother Nick. I felt like I should thank you guys for taking care of us when no one else would and donating seems like the best way I could” The woman nodded some, leaning onto a table. “Well there is another way you could help, Why don't you just volunteer here?” Morgan shook her head with a sigh, grabbing some of the cans and taking them to a nearby food cabinet. “I'm sorry, Annette. I'm with Spectrum now, They don't let people work on the side or anything. All I can do is these short visits and not much more.”
She nodded some and grabbed some cans as well, putting them up along with her, but letting Morgan get the higher shelves thanks to being a good 5-6 inches taller. “Yeah... But that academy is dangerous. You're risking your life to help people when you could just help here instead.” Morgan shook her head, finishing the cans Annette couldn't reach, walking over and leaning against a nearby wall. “Nowhere is safe, Annette. One of the people on my team had nearly her entire family killed off while they were at home. I'd rather just... face the problem people are suffering from head on instead of just repairing and providing relief in their wake.” Morgan explained, her voice much calmer than whenever she spent time with her team.
Annette closed the cabinets, turning to face Morgan as she walked toward her, placing her hand onto Morgan's shoulder. “I know, Morgan. You always wanted to look your problems in the eye. But still... I helped raise you with my grandmother, before she died. I just don't want to see people I took care of getting hurt.. That goes for you, your brother and anyone else who ever walks through these doors when they need help.”
Morgan smiled with a sigh. “Honestly, I'm still glad this place is still up and running.” Morgan said with a smile. Annette nodded, releasing her shoulder and crossing her arms as she kept talking to Morgan. “We barely scrape by usually, it's pretty consistent even if we can only just barely make the expenses every month.” Morgan frowned at that.
“Only barely? Was it like that when I was here, too?” She said, concerned a little bit, but Annette gave a soft nod to that. “Same as it ever was.” Annette replied, grabbing an apple from a fruit basket sitting on a nearby table, taking a bite into it. Morgan sighed and sunk her head. “Look, I want to help. I'll give you half of my paychecks from Spectrum to help you pay the bills” Annette looked a little apprehensive and walked up to her, raising her hand slightly.
“I couldn't do that to you, Morgan. I don't want to take money from you to help this place running, that's your livelihood I'm cutting into.” Annette said with concern, Morgan shook her head and replied. “There was something I learned from living here for 12 years of my life. We take what we get for granted. What people usually need is not what they want, because the truth is, all they need is food, water, a place to rest and stay warm, and clean clothes on their backs. Spectrum has all of that, free of charge. Anything else I get isn't really a requirement. I'm offering this to you out of kindness, not out of spite.”
Annette nodded again. “If you want to do that, then I can't stop you.” Morgan smiled again, and Annette Turned away to check behind a door. She saw some toddlers play with their toy blocks before closing the door quietly and looking back at the young raven haired adult. “Have you seen Nick recently?” She wondered, Morgan shrugged her shoulders at the question. “He apparently met some friends who got him a job, but he hasn't been answering my phone calls. It's been nearly 4 months now, and I still heard nothing.” Annette sighed and shook her head. “Well try and find him, tell him I sent my greetings.”
Morgan lifted her head to nod, before noticing a door pop open, and a child's head poke out. The look on his face suddenly got excited, the dark brown haired kid running up and hugging around Morgan's waist tight, his cheek pressing against her stomach. “Morg!” He shouted, She chuckled and rubbed his head a couple of times to mess up his hair. “Hey Johnny.” She said with a smile. “You got taller in the past couple of months, didn't you?” He nodded a couple of times. “I'm 9 now!” He said with excitement, he let go of the hug and looked up at her, she bent down and grinned. “Well a happy birthday to you, then. I got you guys a bunch of food, but I'm sorry I couldn't get you a gift or anything.” He nods a bit. “It's okay!” He said with enthusiasm.
Morgan stood back up. “Well don't you worry, I'll get you something when I come back next week, alright?” He nodded again when she said that, and she grinned a bit. “You know, I'm sorry to cut this short, Annette.” She started. “But I can't be away for too long before people start wondering where I left, so I'm going to head on back.” She smiled and walked up to give Morgan her own hug. “Take care of yourself, sweetie.” Annete said, Morgan quietly hugged back. “Of course I will.” She said, pulling out of the hug and turning back around to head outside the door.
She went down the stairs as the door closed behind her, she got back onto her scooter and rode quietly all the way back to the academy. She headed back inside the main dorm and headed up the stairs to their room once again. Robin was standing in front of it and gave a soft bow of her head. “Just a heads up, Morgan.” She said calmly. “Maria seems to be falling in and out of consciousness from her head injury. I suggest you stay quiet and try not to wake her up.” Morgan shrugged at that and gave a friendly chuckle. “She's a big girl, she can handle being woken up from nap time.”
Morgan blinked some, before adding to that previous statement. “Well big in the age sense, she's pretty short.” Robin stepped out of the way of the door to let Morgan in, but she stayed still and looked up at her.
“I have a question for you, Robin.” Morgan stated, folding her arms and leaning against the door frame. “Yes, Morgan?” She replied, reaching up to adjust the bun in her hair to be a little cleaner looking. “Don't take this the wrong way, but why did you join?” Morgan asked her, a look of curiosity on her face. Robins lips pursed and moved more to one side, tilting her head and pondering some. “You might need to rephrase that, what do you mean?”
“Well... you're 22. I'm not calling you old or anything, but wouldn't you have figured out what you wanted to do with your life a couple of years before that? You're a freshman but you have nearly 4 years on me and 2 years on our instructor.” Morgan observed casually, Robin's face plastered with a somewhat unsure look on her face, placing one of her hands onto her hip and looking up at her. “To be honest, originally this wasn't what I wanted to do. But... My brother wanted to do this. I joined so I could keep a close eye on him.” Robin revealed, blinking a couple of times as they stood only a couple of feet apart, looking up at the much taller black haired girl.
Morgan frowned a bit, she didn't expect that kind of answer from Robin. “Florence is pretty young, but didn't you trust his decisions at all? I'm pretty sure if he really wanted to do this then he would have been prepared for it.” Robin sighed, walking over to a nearby water fountain across the hall and taking a sip from it before turning back around to reply. “He's still not an adult, it's my responsibility to make sure nothing happens to him, since I'm really the only one here he knows.”
Morgan shook her head, pinching between her brow with a look of irritation. “I think you're only just coddling him, how is he supposed to learn anything if you can't even let him do anything on his own?” Robin scoffed some at that, lifting her chin and lidding her eyes some. “I'll teach him anything this academy doesn't, I don't see what the problem is.” Morgan tilted an eyebrow at that.
“That isn't what I mean, haven't you heard the proverb? 'Learning is hearing, knowing is watching, understanding is doing'? He's not going to understand any of this unless he does it himself.” Robin placed her hand onto Morgan's shoulder, her face cracking the veneer of calmness and looking just a bit upset. “I just want my only brother to not get killed, please don't tell me how to raise my own family. They aren't your problem.” Robin protested, her voice raised slightly from getting called out by Morgan.
Morgan lifted her hand, pushing Robin's off of her shoulder and furrowing her brow a little bit. “Suit yourself if you want to think that way. But for you, Robin? You need to come here for your own reason, not someone else's. If you don't come up with your own, you're just going to end up regretting everything you've done.” Morgan turned away, slowly walking down the hall as she spoke. “Spectrum is no place for regret, I hope you keep that in mind next time.”
Robin sighed, opening the door and heading back to her dorm room to check on Maria. She was out of her school uniform and in a pair of night clothes, a simple black pair of pajama pants and a tank top. She was on her back, breathing deeply while she was out cold. Robin walked in and held the back of her hand to Maria's forehead. It was clammy and hot, as if she almost had a fever. Robin sighed some. “I should probably get her some food.” She exited out the door and began to walk back down the hall.
“My own reason...” She muttered to herself. 'What's the problem with not having a specific motivation for joining into a good cause?' She thought to herself, heading down the staircase slowly. 'Isn't me being on the front lines enough of a reason for me to be here? People are scared and they need every person they can to fight back against those monsters...”
Morgan took the money she got and quickly pocketed it. Maria insulted her on her way out but honestly she was thick skinned enough to know that wasn't even close to the worst thing she's ever heard. She had the rest of her day free to do whatever she pleased, so first she headed back to her dorm to put up her huge sword somewhere safe. She crossed Maria who was busy leaning up against a wall and staring at the sky, so she didn't even bother to talk to her on the way in.
She opened the door to the closet in her side of the dorm, slipping the blade into a big carrying case and zipping it up before leaning it against a wall. When she opened the door, there stood the somewhat shorter angry teenage redhead everybody 'loved' Maria. “What is it?” Morgan asked her, leaning against the door frame. “Nothing... Just.. Nothing.” She said, turning her shoulder and grazing past her quickly.
Morgan shook her head and slowly went over to grab one of her own bags she used to unpack a couple of days ago. Maria climbed onto the upper part of her bunk bed, the carrying case for her weapon in hand, Morgan said nothing to her and gently closed the door behind her. 'She's really inconsistent...' She thought to herself. Maria always seems to flip back and fourth between quiet, sarcastic, loud and sad at pretty much random times. She's never really gotten to talk to her before, but she's not even sure it would be anything pleasant, it's probably more likely to be an argument.
It's not like she hated Maria or anything, Maria had a lot of bad shit happen to her. You can't really get out of that and end up as the same person you were before. But even then, if she's going to have the same room as Maria does, she'd rather have Maria actually be pleasant to be around and not just... whatever the hell she currently is.
Morgan headed out the front door of the dorm, walking along the courtyard and into the parking lot placed just to the side of the front gate. She pulled a key from her pocket to pop the seat open to her dark red colored motor scooter, pulling out a helmet and pulling her black hair out of the way of her eyes while she put it on her head. She replaced the seat, and turned on the ignition, getting on it and twisting the gas handle a couple of times to warm it up. She slipped the bag onto her shoulder and slowly pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road.
The shadow hours began while she was driving. The sun would drift behind the rift around noon and last a couple of hours, making it look like a mixture of a sunset and an eclipse, luckily it wasn't really too dark and she could drive without turning on the lights. She finally got to her first destination, a small corner market she could get supplies from. She turned off the engine and climbed off, with the bag over her shoulder and resting under one arm, the pushed the door open with one hand, hearing a little bell ringing that was attached to the door swinging.
“Welcome!” An elderly man said at the front desk, Morgan walked up and nodded her head. “Do you mind if I use this big bag for what I'm going to buy?” The old man nodded, adjusting the cap on his balding white haired head. “Oh it's fine, Missy. Just remember to pay for it.” She turned away and began walking the small aisles. “Of course I will.”
She walked into the canned goods section, looking over the price tags and grabbing what she could, stuffing them into her big shoulder bag.
She wouldn't stop filling it until it was much heavier than before, stacked to the brim with cans of soup, pasta, fruit, vegetables and sauce. She carried the entire thing to the front, placing it in front of the elderly man with a soft thump from the weight of it. “Do you have something I could take on the go?” The old man nodded. “You could probably get one of those milkshakes from the refrigerated section. “Go ring that up, then. I'll get one of those milkshakes for myself.” He nodded, pulling out cans and slowly scanning each one.
“What do ya need all these cans for? You doin' a picnic or something?” Morgan shook her head, grabbing a milkshake and placing it beside him for him to scan after he was finished. “I had some left over money, so I wanted to give it to some people who need it more than I do.” He nodded, scanning the last and charging her the money. She slipped him the 100 Geld note and he gave her back a couple of coins in change, she pulled them over her shoulder and waved to the old man as she left. “Have a good day, lil' lady.” He shouted to her as she closed the door.
The scooter started back up, chugging a bit from the extra weight, but once it got going, everything was mostly back to normal. Getting to her next destination was quite the long drive, and those bags would probably start hurting her shoulder after a while but honestly she didn't mind it much.
The city was quite a nice place to live in, it was one of the bigger cities in all of Rosewall. It received a lot of attention recently for being one of the biggest economical powerhouses after Ash was introduced along with Spectrum being built. But that brought good attention along with the bad. People began to sell Ash weapons in unofficial channels, knowing that most people had no right to use it unless they had an academy license to do so.
Citizens didn't like how they were so restricted on using these weapons to protect themselves. They had people to protect them, but they always had to rely on someone else they didn't even know for their safety. So people actually protested it at first, saying that they wanted to be able to protect their own homes and families without having the Academy have to travel there and possibly fail.
People have come to accept it more recently, but some people use the ash weapons to hurt more than protect. This caused a massive rift in the community and a lot of violence broke out over it. Even a war between Rosewall and Astra, a country to the north over how important the weapons were going to be. Morgan knew Lily's father was pretty much the main driving force behind that choice, refusing to license anything that wasn't directly sponsored by him pretty much caused a monopoly on the whole market.
Her thoughts continued to wander, looking at the construction workers slowly repairing a building with their huge construction tools, the monster attacks have been causing less collateral damage in Riverside, but she wished that was the news in the rest of Rosewall as well. The damage and death has been nice and steady on the outside, these academies were still being built and they've only been starting to get marginal success recently.
She pulled around a corner and parked her scooter once again, hiding her helmet and tucking the keys back into her pocket when she turned it off. She kicked the stand and walked along the sidewalk, before coming before a rather large building amid the suburban homes. It looked like a re purposed church, the walls were slate and made of stones, held together by mortar. The windows formerly used to be stained glass, but were replaced with oddly arched windows instead.
She walked up the staircase, it was stone and lined with more stone on each side to lean onto, she got up to the wooden door, hefted the bag back up to her shoulder and gave it a couple of heavy knocks. There was a silence, but the door slowly creaked open with a sound that only a couple hundred year old church could only make.
A woman stood in front of Morgan, she was in her 40's, her hair was a silver shade of gray and pulled into a low ponytail. Her skin was tanned, and besides a wrinkle or two on her lips and forehead she still seemed healthy for her age, She smiled at Morgan, stepping aside. “Welcome back, Morgan.” She nodded her head, stepping inside and looking around.
“Wow, this place never seems to change.” She commented softly. The older woman nodded, giving a slight chuckle. “Yep, Greyhill Orphanage has been pretty much the same for decades now. Same old stone and mortal walls, same hard wood floor as it's always been.” The older woman said, looking at the bag over Morgan's shoulder as she hefted it onto the table. “What did you bring?” Morgan opened the back, grabbing some of the cans and pulling them out, holding them in her hands. “This place is still non-profit, right?” The woman nodded. “Well, since I came across a bit of money recently, I wanted to make a donation of food to you guys.”
The woman smiled and ran over, gently patting on Morgan's shoulder, Morgan kind of had a couple of inches up on her since she was pretty tall compared to the older woman. “Oh thank you, sweety. I know most people who live here usually want to get out when they become an adult, but I'm really happy you seem to enjoy actually coming back.”
Morgan nodded, taking the bag again and shrugging her shoulders. “I've lived here most of my life along with my brother Nick. I felt like I should thank you guys for taking care of us when no one else would and donating seems like the best way I could” The woman nodded some, leaning onto a table. “Well there is another way you could help, Why don't you just volunteer here?” Morgan shook her head with a sigh, grabbing some of the cans and taking them to a nearby food cabinet. “I'm sorry, Annette. I'm with Spectrum now, They don't let people work on the side or anything. All I can do is these short visits and not much more.”
She nodded some and grabbed some cans as well, putting them up along with her, but letting Morgan get the higher shelves thanks to being a good 5-6 inches taller. “Yeah... But that academy is dangerous. You're risking your life to help people when you could just help here instead.” Morgan shook her head, finishing the cans Annette couldn't reach, walking over and leaning against a nearby wall. “Nowhere is safe, Annette. One of the people on my team had nearly her entire family killed off while they were at home. I'd rather just... face the problem people are suffering from head on instead of just repairing and providing relief in their wake.” Morgan explained, her voice much calmer than whenever she spent time with her team.
Annette closed the cabinets, turning to face Morgan as she walked toward her, placing her hand onto Morgan's shoulder. “I know, Morgan. You always wanted to look your problems in the eye. But still... I helped raise you with my grandmother, before she died. I just don't want to see people I took care of getting hurt.. That goes for you, your brother and anyone else who ever walks through these doors when they need help.”
Morgan smiled with a sigh. “Honestly, I'm still glad this place is still up and running.” Morgan said with a smile. Annette nodded, releasing her shoulder and crossing her arms as she kept talking to Morgan. “We barely scrape by usually, it's pretty consistent even if we can only just barely make the expenses every month.” Morgan frowned at that.
“Only barely? Was it like that when I was here, too?” She said, concerned a little bit, but Annette gave a soft nod to that. “Same as it ever was.” Annette replied, grabbing an apple from a fruit basket sitting on a nearby table, taking a bite into it. Morgan sighed and sunk her head. “Look, I want to help. I'll give you half of my paychecks from Spectrum to help you pay the bills” Annette looked a little apprehensive and walked up to her, raising her hand slightly.
“I couldn't do that to you, Morgan. I don't want to take money from you to help this place running, that's your livelihood I'm cutting into.” Annette said with concern, Morgan shook her head and replied. “There was something I learned from living here for 12 years of my life. We take what we get for granted. What people usually need is not what they want, because the truth is, all they need is food, water, a place to rest and stay warm, and clean clothes on their backs. Spectrum has all of that, free of charge. Anything else I get isn't really a requirement. I'm offering this to you out of kindness, not out of spite.”
Annette nodded again. “If you want to do that, then I can't stop you.” Morgan smiled again, and Annette Turned away to check behind a door. She saw some toddlers play with their toy blocks before closing the door quietly and looking back at the young raven haired adult. “Have you seen Nick recently?” She wondered, Morgan shrugged her shoulders at the question. “He apparently met some friends who got him a job, but he hasn't been answering my phone calls. It's been nearly 4 months now, and I still heard nothing.” Annette sighed and shook her head. “Well try and find him, tell him I sent my greetings.”
Morgan lifted her head to nod, before noticing a door pop open, and a child's head poke out. The look on his face suddenly got excited, the dark brown haired kid running up and hugging around Morgan's waist tight, his cheek pressing against her stomach. “Morg!” He shouted, She chuckled and rubbed his head a couple of times to mess up his hair. “Hey Johnny.” She said with a smile. “You got taller in the past couple of months, didn't you?” He nodded a couple of times. “I'm 9 now!” He said with excitement, he let go of the hug and looked up at her, she bent down and grinned. “Well a happy birthday to you, then. I got you guys a bunch of food, but I'm sorry I couldn't get you a gift or anything.” He nods a bit. “It's okay!” He said with enthusiasm.
Morgan stood back up. “Well don't you worry, I'll get you something when I come back next week, alright?” He nodded again when she said that, and she grinned a bit. “You know, I'm sorry to cut this short, Annette.” She started. “But I can't be away for too long before people start wondering where I left, so I'm going to head on back.” She smiled and walked up to give Morgan her own hug. “Take care of yourself, sweetie.” Annete said, Morgan quietly hugged back. “Of course I will.” She said, pulling out of the hug and turning back around to head outside the door.
She went down the stairs as the door closed behind her, she got back onto her scooter and rode quietly all the way back to the academy. She headed back inside the main dorm and headed up the stairs to their room once again. Robin was standing in front of it and gave a soft bow of her head. “Just a heads up, Morgan.” She said calmly. “Maria seems to be falling in and out of consciousness from her head injury. I suggest you stay quiet and try not to wake her up.” Morgan shrugged at that and gave a friendly chuckle. “She's a big girl, she can handle being woken up from nap time.”
Morgan blinked some, before adding to that previous statement. “Well big in the age sense, she's pretty short.” Robin stepped out of the way of the door to let Morgan in, but she stayed still and looked up at her.
“I have a question for you, Robin.” Morgan stated, folding her arms and leaning against the door frame. “Yes, Morgan?” She replied, reaching up to adjust the bun in her hair to be a little cleaner looking. “Don't take this the wrong way, but why did you join?” Morgan asked her, a look of curiosity on her face. Robins lips pursed and moved more to one side, tilting her head and pondering some. “You might need to rephrase that, what do you mean?”
“Well... you're 22. I'm not calling you old or anything, but wouldn't you have figured out what you wanted to do with your life a couple of years before that? You're a freshman but you have nearly 4 years on me and 2 years on our instructor.” Morgan observed casually, Robin's face plastered with a somewhat unsure look on her face, placing one of her hands onto her hip and looking up at her. “To be honest, originally this wasn't what I wanted to do. But... My brother wanted to do this. I joined so I could keep a close eye on him.” Robin revealed, blinking a couple of times as they stood only a couple of feet apart, looking up at the much taller black haired girl.
Morgan frowned a bit, she didn't expect that kind of answer from Robin. “Florence is pretty young, but didn't you trust his decisions at all? I'm pretty sure if he really wanted to do this then he would have been prepared for it.” Robin sighed, walking over to a nearby water fountain across the hall and taking a sip from it before turning back around to reply. “He's still not an adult, it's my responsibility to make sure nothing happens to him, since I'm really the only one here he knows.”
Morgan shook her head, pinching between her brow with a look of irritation. “I think you're only just coddling him, how is he supposed to learn anything if you can't even let him do anything on his own?” Robin scoffed some at that, lifting her chin and lidding her eyes some. “I'll teach him anything this academy doesn't, I don't see what the problem is.” Morgan tilted an eyebrow at that.
“That isn't what I mean, haven't you heard the proverb? 'Learning is hearing, knowing is watching, understanding is doing'? He's not going to understand any of this unless he does it himself.” Robin placed her hand onto Morgan's shoulder, her face cracking the veneer of calmness and looking just a bit upset. “I just want my only brother to not get killed, please don't tell me how to raise my own family. They aren't your problem.” Robin protested, her voice raised slightly from getting called out by Morgan.
Morgan lifted her hand, pushing Robin's off of her shoulder and furrowing her brow a little bit. “Suit yourself if you want to think that way. But for you, Robin? You need to come here for your own reason, not someone else's. If you don't come up with your own, you're just going to end up regretting everything you've done.” Morgan turned away, slowly walking down the hall as she spoke. “Spectrum is no place for regret, I hope you keep that in mind next time.”
Robin sighed, opening the door and heading back to her dorm room to check on Maria. She was out of her school uniform and in a pair of night clothes, a simple black pair of pajama pants and a tank top. She was on her back, breathing deeply while she was out cold. Robin walked in and held the back of her hand to Maria's forehead. It was clammy and hot, as if she almost had a fever. Robin sighed some. “I should probably get her some food.” She exited out the door and began to walk back down the hall.
“My own reason...” She muttered to herself. 'What's the problem with not having a specific motivation for joining into a good cause?' She thought to herself, heading down the staircase slowly. 'Isn't me being on the front lines enough of a reason for me to be here? People are scared and they need every person they can to fight back against those monsters...”
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