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redstringtheories2022-08-01 11:47 am
TDM #13
(cw: potential for severe disorientation/vertigo, claustrophobia, arachnophobia, body horror)
It happens in the blink of an eye. You may have been asleep. You may not have. You may have stepped through a door or turned a corner. You may have seen a flicker of something at the corner of your vision and turned to look. Or maybe you didn't.
It doesn't matter. What matters is that you find yourself somewhere entirely new and entirely unfamiliar. The arrival point is not always the same. (If you're lucky, it might be a canteen or an open office. If you're not, well... you aren't claustrophobic, are you? Or arachnophobic. These ducts do seem to be a bit cobwebby.) You might even arrive in a section of building that has been demolished, leaving a pit of rubble open to the sky–hope you're up on your tetanus shots! There is no one waiting for you but you don’t seem to be alone, either. Even in a janitor’s closet or the bathroom, you’ll find at least one person who seems to be just as out of place as you are. The one exception is the demolition zone off what used to be one corner of the building: it seems the security teams are keeping a particularly close eye on that area to document new arrivals and bring them in quickly.
If characters have arrived in a location devoid of NPCs, they may want to work together to figure out what is going on... or to avoid their 'kidnappers.' If you’ve arrived in the middle of the entry foyer or the gym, there may well be a few people who startle a bit at your arrival and try to approach (or discreetly leave the room... where are they going?). Will you cooperate or fight? Do you even understand what they're saying? You might need to find a translator, if you’re not immediately willing to follow a stranger.
After characters follow their new hosts (or are forcibly taken in) there will be a limited tour and the chance to settle in at the ADI-provided housing. (Do you enjoy living with strangers? Well. It's a new situation to navigate, anyway.)
(cw: trypophobia, phonophobia, air raid siren in link)
Weird things happen in Dogtown, everyone knows it. And the weird things have been getting worse. Much worse. The rise in dangerous rather than merely uncomfortable or startling phenomena has put an end to ADI's use of Dogtown as a testing ground for new recruits. Under ADI's advisement, the City of Gloucester has officially and indefinitely closed Dogtown to the public, and work is ongoing to construct barriers around the entire park to prevent trespassing. Dogtown's borders are now patrolled by Gloucester law enforcement as well as ADI employees from the Investigations and Security divisions, who document phenomena visible from outside its borders and actively keep people out. New arrivals who volunteer for the work may still find themselves dropped off outside the borders of Dogtown in order to beef up patrols and help document paranormal activity while receiving an introduction to the kind of work ADI does. An employee will give you a GPS device where you need only press a button to alert ADI there is severe danger and someone needs to come help you right away, explicitly instruct you not to actually enter Dogtown, and leave you with another person at the edge of the park. Maybe they're a new arrival, as well, or a more seasoned 'veteran.' Either way, you're together for the next while and you've been asked to record any paranormal activity visible from outside the park. Those who succeed in documenting anything peculiar will receive a $100 reward to be used as they see fit, but those who are caught entering Dogtown in pursuit of such proof will be reprimanded and receive no reward.
This month, everything is quiet. Peaceful, even! With Dogtown closed up and the hand creatures ostensibly dealt with, it seems the breeches caused by low manpower are finally dealt with.
And then the phones start acting up.
For some, it starts low and builds, a wailing warning issued from every cell phone on the block for stretches of seconds that feel like hours. Nothing makes it stop, the phones won’t turn off, and there’s no actual banner or text warning offering explanation.
For others, it happens in the middle of calls or while they’re browsing the web: static, sharp and sudden and loud blares from the phones in a small area all at once, seemingly at random. Annoying enough on its own, but those affected begin to notice something…off. Is that mailbox following you? Did that signpost turn to look as you passed by? Inanimate objects seem to come to life around you; those that can stalk you will, and those that can’t 'move' do all they can: watch. At least you don’t seem to be the only one noticing, right?
For those who look long and hard enough or for the truly perceptive, a commonality will eventually be spotted. It’s a cell tower within Dogtown. Tall, innocuous, with its rusted metal frame and pillar structures attached near the top; it seems perfectly normal, if weather-worn…at least until your eyes travel the form more closely. The crossing of beams doesn’t make a thin pyramid shape as it should, instead they twist over themselves into impossibly long limbs. Legs lead into a hollow torso and spindly arms, the metal so twisted and rusted that it begins to look like leathery, flaking skin the longer you stare.
The amplifiers at the top nestle in a tangle of wires and twisted metal with empty sockets at random intervals, as though the eyeless structure didn’t always used to be that way. Now it sways ever so slightly in with a gentle rocking.
(cw: dismembered bodies, flayed bodies, body horror, zombies, hand-based trauma, human-caused environmental damage)
Last month it was horrific little dolls, this month what's washing up on the shores of Gloucester is far, far worse. ADI has people continuing to patrol the beaches, particularly those where the dolls had been found. On the night of August 13th, it's not dolls, but pieces of some sort of sea creature that wash ashore. A sea creature touched by something terrible. It's almost like an eel… if eels had irregularly-spaced and sized hands. And the face of a human woman. The pieces of its body are wrapped in fishing line, netting, and other bits of garbage that are regularly thrown into the ocean. The head, for whoever might find it, still seems to have at least a little life left in it because if it is approached, it sobs, a broken sound that shouldn't be possible when it has no lungs. It can't form words, just cries and cries. Characters who ask native ADI personnel who have heard the sobbing or heard recordings of it will let them know it sounds distinctly like the wailing heard beneath one of the local bridges last month. And the wailing beneath the bridge? That's stopped.
If it were only the strange eel creature, that would be disturbing, but manageable. It is not only the eel creature. On August 14th, the tide pulls in something else. Perhaps you're actively patrolling, perhaps you're just strolling places you might want to rethink. Whichever it is, your eye is drawn to a figure lying prone in the surf, the waves buffeting them, shifting them up and down. It's hard to make out who the body might be, and as you come closer, it doesn't help in the slightest.
The body has been flayed. All visible skin stripped away, leaving exposed muscle and fat. The salty ocean seems to have cured it to some extent, but not nearly enough. Whoever this was, they are no more. There is all manner of refuse wrapped around their feet and ankles, old fishing hooks dug into their skin. Glance into the waves beyond, and you'll see something watching you. It has reflective, animal eyes, and disappears almost as soon as you've noticed it. The analysis of the bodies by ADI personnel (native or off-worlder) will show that these are people who have been reported missing or kidnapped from Cape Ann to Essex Bay.
The next night, August 15th, there are more bodies. So many more bodies. They wash ashore in groups of five or six, always when you're not watching. These are different. Still flayed, still wrapped with refuse, but when you reach toward them this time, they reach back. The bodies grasp for you, rise and try to wrestle you into the surf. It's clear they mean to bring you their fate, whatever it was, if they can. There's no signs of life in these bodies when they come for you. The keen-eyed may note that they have large fish hooks run through or near their hands, though. Removing those seems to be an effective means to make the bodies stop. Or removing the hands/arms from the rest of the body. A headshot or two might work, as well.
(cw: gaslighting, altered mental states, supernaturally induced paranoia; please place additional cw's in subject lines)
The random, blaring sirens aren't the only problem with the phones, though one might be forgiven for missing a second issue that begins more subtly a few days later. Voice and video continue to work as expected within ADI's network when the sirens aren't going off, but text... text is another matter.
Sometimes the messages are dropped into the middle of a conversation. Sometimes they come out of the blue, perhaps even from someone the recipient has never met. Always, though, the messages appear to come from a legitimate network user, and always they are somehow sinister in nature. Some are uncomfortable truths about the sender or the recipient, some outright lies, others accusations or horrifying anecdotes. From the sender's perspective, nothing is amiss: all outgoing text messages will appear exactly as typed when viewed on one's own phone, no more and no less than one had chosen to send. From the recipient's perspective, additional messages appear seemingly at random. Compare phones side by side and it's clear that the people around the characters are receiving texts they did not send.
But maybe that's what they want you to think. With the phones already on the fritz this is a nasty time to play a prank on the network, but it's not as though it would be all that hard to pull off, right? There's a whole department full of hackers right there within ADI headquarters, after all, and who knows what technical skills the other off-worlders could be hiding? You can't trust what you read on your phone, obviously, but more importantly, you can't trust the people around you. They're lying to you; they wanted to scare you. If you've gotten creepy messages from multiple people, that's just evidence that they're plotting against you together.
Don't believe their lies.
- ARRIVAL (August 1 - 31): Two people will always arrive in the same general location together. Arrivals occur throughout the early month, not all on the same day or in the same place. Arrivals are not naturally fluent in English/other languages immediately upon arrival. Characters may attempt to evade capture, but they will eventually be snagged before they can leave the building (or the rubble that used to be part of the building). PC's already in-game are more than welcome to interact with and try to guide new PC's to get them oriented. Please refer to the Arrival page for details regarding the arrival and onboarding process, as well as information about the state of ADI Headquarters.
- A FACE FOR RADIO (August 1-12): The signal creatures will be hard to spot. While tall, they are shorter than average cell towers. They can be neutralized through various creative means as well as through traditional violence. While there are only a few, they move about and make the number seem more than it is. While not inherently violent, if provoked the creatures will defend themselves. Please remember that death is permanent in the setting!
- WHAT BELONGS TO THE SEA (August 13-15): The 'zombies' can be killed in the standard zombie trope manner by destroying the head or enough of the body, but for characters who might be more inclined toward a less direct solution, removing the fish hooks from the hands will also cause the body to stop moving. For the bodies that are found, ADI will be directing the police to collect them after the first few. Players are welcome to make up who the victims are, if they'd like to focus more on that aspect of the prompt, and have their characters analyze the bodies or research who they might be. The only commonality between the victims is that they are from the same general region and those listed as missing seem to have last been seen near the beach. For any characters who might be inclined toward PR, ADI will also be spinning this up as a serial killer being on the loose to try to encourage people to stay indoors/move around in groups.
- TELEPHONE (August 4-15): Characters will be unable to find evidence of any outgoing messages from their own accounts on their own devices. Tech-savvy characters will be able to discover that the messages are being inserted by a nameless account spoofing the ID of whomever appeared to send them, but will not be able to pin down a location for the mystery user. Exposure to the messages will inevitably induce some level of paranoia, but players are free to decide how quickly and how severely those feelings develop. Players may choose any variety of disturbing subject matter for their characters' unintended messages; please place appropriate cw's in subject lines.
no subject
She notices it on a few of them first, then quickly picks each out of the crowd to confirm that yes, it's all of them. Fishing hooks. Something unusual, something noteworthy, a tidbit of information safely filed and stored. What it means, she has no idea. But she's found a pattern, a thread perhaps worth following.
She also notices the roll in Vi's shoulder, as she feels Vi's movements pull on her hand. And then Vi's hand is gone and then Vi is gone and Caitlyn's focus is torn away from the creatures.]
What are you--
[Ah.
Tending to her wound. As though Vi herself isn't suffering from worse injuries. And yet those bloody, bruised hands, covered in the innards of all the creatures Vi's ripped apart, wrap her leg with care. It's not a surprise that those hands, capable of such violence, are also capable of such gentleness, but Caitlyn does feel a familiar flutter in her chest as Vi snugly tucks in the makeshift vandage around her calf.
Vi's right, of course. There's not much the two of them can do here. They need to get to safety.]
We can't just leave. Someone might stumble onto the beach, or they might wander off.
[She pulls out her phone.] I'll contact ADI, alert them to the danger.
no subject
Of course, they could take advantage of the chaos. Maybe if these ADI people get distracted enough handling whatever this is, Vi can get to snooping where she normally wouldn't be allowed. There's no way they're as innocent as they seem. She's hesitant to suggest it, suddenly aware that Caitlyn may have been influenced by liars. Again. She couldn't have been too brainwashed, though... There has to be some suspicion now that Caitlyn has a better idea of how common corruption is, but her concern for innocents might interfere with a desire to investigate.
Vi sighs. Disconcerted by Caitlyn's familiarity with the phone (she couldn't have been here much longer than Vi, could she?), she'll straighten up and survey the encroaching threat. ]
...Stay here.
[ Another roll of her shoulder, and Vi's already beginning to hop and zig-zag down some rocks. Someone needs to control the perimeter. She can't manage the entire beach, but she can try to control this pocket, and definitely keep them from climbing up to Caitlyn. Up there, Caitlyn's better off. She can snipe, or tell Vi if someone far away needs help. Down below, Vi can do what she's good at.
It's a terrible fighting arena for her style. Sand is difficult to balance on; there's barely anything around for her to use against her enemy, and even less for her to use as launching points. There's too much open space; it's too easy to get overwhelmed, but there's no way for her to funnel them into a bottle neck. She can at least use the height from her descent to get a head start on momentum.
Vi almost forgot about her knife in her earlier frenzy, but now in a much more defensive, even protective mindset, she pulls it free to help her take down her attackers more quickly. Caitlyn's headshots seemed to take them out, so if her fists do well enough to subdue any, Vi's burying the blade through their eyes.
She hasn't yet noticed that they stop once a hand or arm is torn off (the hook is such an easy focal point, just grab and rip). She's too deep in the action; always moving on to the next. ]
no subject
She makes the phone call as quickly as she can, explaining the situation to ADI and that more personnel are needed at the beach in a single breathless sentence before tucking the phone away and raising the pistol again.
The creatures appear to have a desperate strength in their dessicated bodies, but Vi's fists are stronger. She's tearing through them, stabbing some in the head, ripping others apart. Any that she seems too preoccupied to handle get a bullet in the head. But the sheer numbers are overwhelming. Six times one comes up behind Vi when she's not looking, or seems to be overpowering Vi. Six shots ring out. And then the pistol clicks uselessly.]
Shit.
[Caitlyn knows she won't be much use down there in the midst of the fight, but she only just found Vi. She's not going to lose her again. She makes her way to edge of the rock, searching for an easy path down, when she spots Vi grabbing a hook and yanking it free. The creature's hand is nearly torn off. And it tumbles to ground like a ragdoll. Lifeless.
She pauses. Every creature has hooks in its hands or forearms. Are the hooks controlling them somehow? Giving them life?
Never mind, theorizing can wait.]
The hooks! Pulling out the hooks stops them!
no subject
Even with the sounds of horror all blending together, she keeps a sharp ear for Caitlyn's voice should she become overwhelmed. She doesn't expect advice, but she heeds it without question. With all of her attention on the hooks, they're less likely to slice at her, at least. If Caitlyn's out of bullets, then Vi needs to put even more into her punches. She's no stranger to fighting off large groups, but she can't do it if she's worrying about someone unprepared joining the fray. Her voice is sharp; almost angry. ]
Stay back, I got this!
[ It smells like rot and salt. The taste of rust is back, tickling at her throat.
It takes time for her to tire; her ferocity is almost inhuman. She still has years of pent-up energy to unleash. Unfortunately, Vi is human; she hasn't been sleeping well, and she's running on a mostly empty stomach and slowly losing blood. Something sharp hooks her shoulder too deep and sends her reeling. Her legs buckle. Vi catches herself on her knees, arms dangling at her sides. In a momentary rejection of her mortal limitations, she fights with all her will to keep from collapsing onto her face. For just a second, silver turns to glass while she gazes over the carnage to the sky.
She needs a moment. They're not going to let her have a moment. ]
no subject
There's a hunk of driftwood nearby. It's heavy, but she can just about lift it, and with all her strength she swings it at the creature posing the most immediate threat. The momentum of the swing pulls her off balance, and she staggers as she reaches for Vi, trying to pull her away.]
Vi! Come along. Backup will be here soon.
[A plea to let it go, to let someone else put themselves in danger for once. A reassurance, if Vi needs it. A warning, if she would rather not be here when ADI personnel arrive.]
no subject
Vi knows that her reliability is waning. If she passes out, Caitlyn's a sitting duck to the zombies, and even if either of them survived that, Vi would be vulnerable to the ADI people yet again. No way. That's enough to get her moving, although her step isn't nearly as light as it should be. If they can get far away enough from the beach, they just need to get somewhere high. Higher than a hill. Higher than a mountain. ]
They're probably the ones that caused this.
[ Even barely hanging on to a narrowing vision, there are certain sentiments that Vi will never shake. It's more of a mutter to herself as she runs; staggers; runs. ]
no subject
[Caitlyn still hasn't made up her mind about ADI. It's frustratingly difficult to find concrete information on them, and there are too many questions to allow to leave unanswered. But for now, let them handle it. Vi has done enough. More than enough. More than anyone could have asked of her.
As Vi takes off running, Caitlyn gives chase, catching her when she stumbles and keeping her on course. But as they cross the line from sand to grass, she turns back to look at the creatures pursuing them. There's almost nothing distinct about them, hardly anything recognizably human. But once again the details leap out at her, the little bits and pieces of humanity still visible that say they were people, innocent people. And she can't imagine they're not in agony.
If ADI somehow caused this, or if they could have prevented it and chose not to...
She's distracted, breathing hard from extertion, heart pounding from stress and adrenaline and the relief of finding Vi only to nearly watch her ripped apart by zombies. She doesn't see the thing coming at her through the grass.
Her back hits the sand before she quite knows what's happening, a surprised cry cut short as the heavy weight of something rotten lands on top of her and something sharp rakes across her shoulder. Suddenly, she's in a desperate scramble for her life, trying to latch her hands around the hooks in its arms as it starts to drag her back towards the water.]
no subject
Her pulse skips when she hears Caitlyn's scream, and Vi's attention is back in focus. ]
Caitlyn!
[ Panic. Vi's scrambling, losing her footing and eating sand. She spits it out and lurches forward just in time to clap her hand over Caitlyn's wrist. She's putting all of her will into a vice grip, but her balance is off center and they're both dragged. It wants them. Stay.
Vi doesn't like being told what to do. Her knees dig uselessly into the sand as she tries and fails to anchor the both of them. She can't remember the last time she's ever felt this weak. Probably when she was dying from a gut wound in a home she'll probably never get to see again. Cait had saved her then.
The memory draws just a moment of strength, long enough to yank her slimy knife back out of its sheathe and throw it quick. Knife throwing isn't even remotely a specialty of hers, but she knows how to make sure the blade hits first, and it catches the monster in the chest. Not a headshot, but hopefully long enough for Caitlyn to seize the opportunity. ]
no subject
It's as though the sea is calling her. She can hear it, in a odd sort of way, through the pounding of her heart and the ragged breaths escaping her throat. Her mind tries to quantify what she's sensing, to understand, to catalogue, but whatever it is, it's beyond the kind of understanding she's capable of. It's not something that can be diagrammed or drawn on a map, not something that can be made sense of with logic or reason or deduction.
For a moment, time seems to hang still, the pain in her shoulder fades, the fear of being dragged into the water and drowned fades.
She catches a glimpse of something in the water, two round eyes reflecting the moonlight, set in a face whose features she can't make out. And then it's gone.
She comes back to the present with the growl of the creature above her as it tears at her, pulling her further down the beach. And then the knife whizzes past her ear, embedding itself in the creature's chest. It doesn't kill it, but it distracts it just long enough for her to grab one of the hooks, the metal point digging into her own palm. The creature's arm is jerked backwards and she's able to raise a leg to kick it in the chest, driving the knife in deeper. Vi is pulling her back, and she kicks again, in the head this time, kicking until the creature's grasp on her is finally released and she falls back into Vi's arms.
For a moment, it's like she's gone blind and deaf; the only sensations she can parse are the sound of blood rushing in her ears and the feel of Vi's fingers wrapped in a death grip around her wrist.]
We have to go.
[She slips as she turns, sand stinging her injured palm as she uses it to push herself to her feet again.
She's still disoriented, but she can see the grass, and she knows there's a road beyond it, and ADI will be showing up soon. They have to go.]
no subject
It nearly drops her; drops them both, and for a moment she thinks she made a mistake. She's still recovering from the battles prior to her arrival, and then she went and weakened herself better because of her suspicion. She's cursing it now, not knowing what the right decision should have been beforehand, but at least the decisions she faces now are easy. Grab Caitlyn. Flee. Go high. Stay away from the water. ]
Where?!
[ Any complaints will be ignored, but she'll accept direction. She doesn't care if Caitlyn wants to run on her own; even as banged up as she is, with terror urging her on, Vi's positive she can run faster without having to worry about Caitlyn getting body slammed by another zombie. There are times she stumbles, but she doesn't slow, not until they reach concrete. Once the ground beneath her is solid, Vi's grip on Caitlyn's waist relaxes, but she's reluctant to let her go or stop.
The problem is, she can't climb one handed (can she climb at all like this?). They could just run into the front door of a building, but that doesn't even occur to Vi when everything is the enemy's territory. Roofs just seem safer. Normally she might also seek the sewers, but those things could be down there just as well. ]
no subject
Vi, I can walk.
[The creatures don't appear to be leaving the beach, or at least they're moving slowly enough that they haven't left it yet. She should have more feelings about that, she should be more afraid or... or anything, really. It's almost as though Caitlyn's conscious mind has switched off, either from emotional overload or stress or shock, leaving her subconscious to quietly and dispassionately chug along, making mental notes, connecting dots, looking for patterns. The thing in the canal, the creature in the water just now, the hooks in the zombies' hands, the debris they were tangled in, the debris in the canal... She's not sure what it all means, yet. If she'll ever be.]
Put me down. I can show you where to go.
[She sighs, shoulders slumping, exhausted. Between the two of them, Vi is by far the more grievously injured. She shouldn't have to carry Caitlyn's weight as well as her own.]
no subject
Ffffffuck.
She's feeling it now. It's pride that keeps her from crying out. One hand still hangs onto Caitlyn's waist once she's standing, Vi's fingers tucked through the other woman's belt and using her for balance as much as anything. She sucks in her breath and hauls herself back up, releasing Caitlyn's belt. She's good. ]
What, you got another mansion nearby?
[ The joke is half-hearted; strained. The breathy way she usually speaks is now ragged. They're far enough away now that things are less...muted. Even so, any time she looks over her shoulder in the direction of the beach, it's harder than ought to be to tear her eyes away. ]
no subject
A mere three bedroom affair, I'm afraid.
[The apartment is anything but a mansion. It's frustratingly cramped, even with one of her roommates barely there; her bedroom's the size of a bathroom and her bathroom's the size of a closet, and the living room and kitchen combined could fit into her bedroom back home. There'd be no evading her roommates' curiosity if she brought Vi there. And more crucially, the whole place is crawling with security.
In truth, she's not sure where to take Vi. It's not quite past curfew yet, but if Vi's not with ADI, they can't go to the apartment. And she's assuming, based on Vi's lack of trust and general preference for unilateral action, that she's not with ADI.]
It's ADI's housing. If you want nothing to do with them, we'll have to find somewhere else. Backup will be coming from that direction-- [She nods up the road.] and if we'd like to avoid them, we'd best head the opposite way.
no subject
Caitlyn's more important than Vi's comfort in this case. There's a drawn out, sulky silence, before Vi mutters, ]
It's fine... We can go there.
[ She had agreed to help with security, so she isn't a complete pariah, but she's incredibly reluctant to admit this to Caitlyn after all her big 'fuck the man' talk. She knows she'll probably get in trouble with ADI (probably already is) for avoiding her assigned quarters and otherwise being a pain in the ass. Knowing that, she's still willing to go. Vi's confident in her ability to get out again if they try to keep her longer than she wants, and getting behind some sturdy walls doesn't sound too terrible, given the urgency. She knows, logically, that hiding in a dumpster isn't going to improve their chances of survival. It still hurts to cave.
She's already moving, though not without Caitlyn at her side. She's not letting something sneak up on them again. ]
no subject
The walk isn't short. After a couple of blocks, she slips her arm around Vi's waist, encourging her to put an arm around Caitlyn's shoulders so she can take some of Vi's weight. A painful tightness is starting to settle into her injured calf and her hand is throbbing, but it's nothing compared to what Vi must be feeling.
She'll need to return to the beach tomorrow, to look for clues, anything that could give her an idea why those creatures washed ashore. She'll need to examine the bodies. If there are any distinguishing marks left, perhaps they can be identified. Perhaps there's some sort of pattern that can tell her why those people in particular met that fate. Their loved ones will need to be informed. She needs to return the pistol, as well; she's only meant to have it while on duty and she doesn't want to run afoul of ADI.
But for now, step one: simply putting one foot in front of the other until they make it back to the apartment.
Despite Vi's implication that she's been staying at the apartment complex, Caitlyn is still surprised when security recognizes them and lets them both through.]
Almost there.
[She nods to the building that houses her apartment. Top floor, but they've made it this far, they can handle a few flights of stairs.]
no subject
She glares at anyone from ADI that they pass, as if daring them to approach her, but everyone's too busy with the chaos coming on all sides. At least they're reacting appropriately. Vi didn't even expect that much from them. Later, probably, someone's going to bother her again and pretend to care about how she's fitting in. She's not in the mood to worry about that right now. They just don't want her breaking their sandbox.
When they reach the stairs, Vi pulls away from Caitlyn, just enough to lean against the railing, trying to step back to let her go first. They'll both be better off using the banister, but even now, Vi can't keep in her little sigh of impatience. When was the last time she even used stairs? Stairs are so slow, especially when she can't just vault from railing to railing (because she can't just ditch Caitlyn). ]
I could carry us both up ten times faster.
[ It's only a half-joke; an attempt to break the tension while she constantly eyes their backs. ]
no subject
Caitlyn obdurately bears as much of Vi's weight as Vi will allow, though by the time they reach the stairs she's gritting her teeth together. Less so from the pain than from exertion. She's never considered herself weak by any means, but Vi is a compact package of muscle that is not easy to carry over long distances.]
Do you get some sort of pleasure from treating me like a bag of flour?
[The small, tired smile on her face makes it clear she's teasing, albeit sincere in her desire for Vi to refrain from straining herself further. And even the thought of being hauled up the stairs over Vi's shoulder is rather a blow to her dignity.]
It's only four floors up. We'll clean ourselves up and discuss our next steps, and then in the morning we'll...
[What? Find a new place to stay? She doesn't want Vi to be anywhere that makes her uncomfortable, and it doesn't even occur to her that she wouldn't follow Vi wherever she goes, but she's fairly certain she hasn't got enough money to afford anywhere else. Money... an exhausting thing to have to think about. Do the washing up, take out the bins, keep the apartment clean, cook, do the laundry, shop for food and supplies, keep track of how much money there is, because if the money runs out then so do the food and supplies... Back home, if Vi wanted a place to live, Caitlyn could just give her one. She could give her a whole building.]
We'll figure something out.
[Her leg, acting with a mind of its own, twinges in protest at the thought of walking up that many stairs, but she forces her knee to bend and her calf to take her weight anyway, as she begins to trudge upwards.]