Charlie froze, caught completely off guard. At first, he was confused, simply staring as fat tears began streaming down the poor girl's face. What had he done wrong? He tried to think back over the whole ordeal and realized his mistake. He was an adult, expecting Penny, a child, to respond to situations as an adult. His view of the situation was too narrow. He tried to view the different perspectives. What would happen if he, a starving adult man with life experience, received his first real meal in a while from a stranger? He would be grateful and go on his merry way. But what would happen if he, a starving child who had never had a real meal in his life, was given his first real meal by a basically stranger and was suddenly informed that his entire life had flipped on a dime for the better? He would probably either not believe the stranger or, upon being proven they were telling the truth, get overwhelmed and flip the fuck out. Oops. He tried to salvage the situation.
"Hey, uh, Penny? It'll all be ok, alright? You don't have to cry."
Penny looked at him and slowed her sobbing a little, rubbing at her eyes. There were clean streaks down her muddied face now, Charlie noted. She looked like she was about to say something. She opened her mouth to speak, looking down at her plate as she did. She promptly started bawling harder.
Charlie cursed under his breath. He really had no idea how to help her, and people were starting to stare. He racked his head for an idea, literally anything. And he came up with one. It was something that used to help him when he was a boy when he was overwhelmed.
Slowly, Charlie rose up out of his chair and made his way around the table, being careful not to bump any of the patrons at the tables neighboring theirs. He took his chair with him and placed it next to Penny's seat. Gently, he sat beside her and pulled out his money pouch, grabbing one coin from it. He pushed her plate out of the way. He brought the coin down to the tabletop and spun it. It flickered, light bouncing off of it as it spun. And as it did, he leaned down to Penny's ear and whispered a question.
"What side do you think it's gonna land on?"
Penny looked at him between her shudders, confusion written across her face.
"Huh?"
"Look!" Charlie pointed. "What side do you think it's gonna land on?"
Penny looked at the coin, sobs receding slowly.
"W-why?" She sniffed.
"Because," Charlie responded, "You're not crying anymore."
Penny stared at the coin as its spinning came to an end.
"What?"
"You're not crying anymore because you're focused on something else now. The coin."
Penny seemed perplexed now, looking back and forth between the coin and a very smug looking Charlie.
"I don't really understand what you're talkin' about, but I'm not crying, I guess. What now?"
Charlie looked up and saw the waitress walking towards them.
"Now," he said, "We bathe."
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Charlie laid back in his bed, staring at the ceiling. The waitress had shown them to their room, a single bedroom with two beds on the second floor, and then to where they drew the baths. Along the way, she informed Charlie that he had bought them 1 month's stay, with breakfast and dinner included, and one bath a week. He thought that seemed like a bit much for one coin, but he also supposed he didn't know the value of money here just yet. He had been a bit disgruntled when he saw the bathing room. It was in an attached shed with a dirt floor and a single large tub in the middle of the room. Unscented soap and a rag were included. The water was at room temperature. He bargained with the waitress for one less day on their stay in order to procure her help making sure Penny got clean. He was pretty sure the girl had never bathed in her life. Seeing as he was the less dirty of the two, he had taken the first bath and headed back up to the room, wearing the same dirty clothes he had started in. He supposed they were better than nothing.
As he stared at the ceiling, Charlie considered his day for the first time. He had died today. He really let that sink in. He would never see anybody from his previous life again. He supposed he was fine with that. He hadn't really had much going on after all. He supposed he would miss his brother, but they didn't talk much anyway. As his mind churned over the events of the day, he considered Penny. Had he made a good decision? He'd basically forcefully adopted the poor girl after only knowing her for an hour. He considered how they met and what all had happened. Nah. He'd made the right decision. He would have to have a long talk with her about it, however. He wanted to make sure he wasn't forcing anything onto her.
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Slowly, his mind began turning towards his purpose in this world. Not the saving it part, the more important part. Robots. Tomorrow, among other things, he would have to get to work sourcing all of the materials he would need. First, he would find out what the deal was with all the piles of junk just outside the city. Second, he would walk around the city and find anybody he could selling the more specialized materials he would need, such as some kind of fiberglass substitute. Finally, he would collect it all and find some quiet place to do his work. Idly, he began working on his blueprints.
Sometime later, he heard a knock at the door. As he got up to answer it, he was a little shocked to see it open on its own. Not because of the door opening but because of the girl that walked in. She was a pretty little thing, thin as a pole, with surprisingly blonde hair, strawberry blonde even. She was still short and still emaciated, but she already looked leagues healthier.
"Holy shit Penny. You have blonde hair?"
"Apparently."
"You didn't know?"
"Nope."
Slowly, Penny walked over to her bed, looking shell-shocked. Charlie supposed this was probably the first time she had been fully clean and fed in her life. She sat down and stared at him from her bed. Even her overalls had been cleaned, not something he had asked for, but something he was definitely grateful for.
Charlie and Penny sat in total silence for a few before Penny spoke on her own.
"Why are you helping me?" She asked quietly.
"Well," Charlie said, "First of all, I don't like seeing starving children much. Kinda puts a damper on my everything. Second, I'm not sure."
"You're not sure?"
"Not exactly. I'm kind of lost here, to be honest. Figured I'd get two birds with one stone. Feed the kid that makes me sad to look at, and get someone capable of helping me out."
Penny considered this for a moment, looking down at her bare feet dangling from the bed. Charlie put shoes on his 'high priority' list.
"Why," Penny questioned, "Do you want to adopt me?"
"I thought we'd already agreed that I had?"
Penny stared at Charlie, and he saw straight through her to what she really was. He didn't see her chaotic nature or her weird slapping or dancing habits; he saw the scared little survivor she was—a child against the world, one who'd seen hope and wanted desperately to believe that she could hold onto it. Charlie sighed.
"I don't know. You look like you need help more than me, and I don't want to leave you alone. No one deserves that."
Penny looked like she was mulling something over; like she was risking everything by asking.
"D-did you really mean it? When you said I'd be your daughter? And that we'd help each other?"
"I did."
Penny looked like she would cry again; like she didn't want to believe her life was changing, for fear that she would wake up on the side of the road again tomorrow. She choked out one more question.
"Do you swear you won't leave me?"
"I swear it."
And the floodgates opened. She didn't just cry, she absolutely lost it. Charlie couldn't do anything as the girl just sobbed, streams of tears wetting her overalls. She cried, and she cried, and she cried. She cried more than Charlie had ever witnessed anybody cry before. He swore she cried more weight in water than she had to begin with. At some point, she had transferred to his bed, bawling everything she had into his shirt until she couldn't anymore. At which point, she promptly passed out. Charlie simply set her in her own bed and laid down in his. He had work to do tomorrow. He fell asleep easier than ever before.
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Elsewhere, in a large hall decorated in deep blues and bright reds, Meuralith fumed. She had never been so angry in her life. Just when she had finally managed to assemble the council of Fallen Daromir, her brother had failed to show up to the meeting. She had been so close, so close, to enlisting him officially as her replacement as head of the third branch. She would have taken her place among the council, a head disciple. Her dreams had been within reach, and they were dashed. It would be years before she could land another meeting with those old fools. She pulled at her long red hair as she stomped down the halls. She would find who was responsible, and she would crucify them. She swore it on her mother's grave.
Meuralith turned down another hall, towards her chambers. There, outside her door, she spotted Jardan, her second in command. He was looking down into his notebook, scribbling something. She decided he would be the one to give her some answers.
"Jardan," she hissed, "Where is Malique?"
Jardan, to his credit, only slightly paled at her tone.
"Wh-What do you mean? Was he not in the meeting chamber?"
"NO HE WAS NOT!" Meuralith roared, the temperature in the room turning up a few degrees.
Jardan flinched, paling further. Reflexively, his hands went down to where he had previously been burned.
"I-I will find him, ma'am. He will not g-go unpun-unished, ma'am."
Meuralith continued past her room towards the training yard. She needed to release some heat. She yelled back to Jardan.
"No, he will not be punished; he will be found and brought to me. Am I understood?"
"Yes, ma'am."
No response came. Jardan scowled and scampered off, searching for the object of the hour. He swore he'd do something one of these days, but for now, he made for the best errand boy he could be.