[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] !!nightmares!!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 5, 10 (Failure at target 6)
[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] She was much more herself today. During the time they had been packed together, it had become abundantly clear that Chloe did not sleep well. She didn’t toss or turn, but she woke up with a thousand yard stare. Occasionally, there was the muttered comment about the Dissolver or what-have-you, but usually she didn’t want to talk about it.
Today, however, was different in that she was much more functional than she usually was. The look in her eyes wasn’t near as bad as the time Elliot challenged her, but there was a tinge of something off. This was just Chloe on a bad day; the Forgotten knew how bad a Bad Day could get.
Instead of seemng haunted, today she was tense and bound up in knots; you could only fit so many people in a refridgerator box.
“You guys? We need a bigger box.”
[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] ooc: close that tag, you weren’t raised in a barn!
[Rory O’Bryne] Chloe wasn’t herself today – but it’s not quite as bad as it has been. When she woke, Rory was there, with a touch and a nudge of the shoulder and a bent up foot resting probably somewhere uncomfortable due to the fact that they do, indeed, need a bigger box. Rory would never complain, though. She never does.
So far, the Chicago winter has been kind to her, though it’s still far colder and wetter than she is used too. She’s bundled up in everything she owns – save one pair of jeans in her pack – and she still shivers until up and moving. Even so, she wakes up with the same shy, content smile she’s had since she met Chloe, warmer still since Elliot joined.
She rubs the side of her nose with a fingertip, and goes about corralling her curls under her knit cap. “And a marp, taybe. Before it snows.”
There’s a childish glee there in her eyes – as cold as she is, she’s looking forward to seeing her first snowfall.
[Elliot] To the tallest of the three, this is not cold. The weather is mild compared to what Elliot has been through, compared to what she’s survived. She’s not inside the refridgerator box when the others wake, but rather sitting outside of it, like a sentry. She’s sitting with her legs folded in front of her, hands limp in her lap, chin dipped low nearly to her thin chest.
Until she hears the stirring inside the box. The girls are waking. Elliot allows them a few more minutes of privacy, to wake up and get their wits about them, before she opens the flap closest to her just in time to hear: “You guys? We need a bigger box.
Elliot remains seated beside the box she usually leaves to her packmates, except on days or nights when they’re more insistent than she’s prepared to fend off.
“We should find a place with solid walls.” Her pale eyes move to Rory. Squinting against the glare of the day, Elliot brings her sunglasses down from her head to protect her sensitive eyes.
[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] “There has to be somewhere that’s abandoned around here…. who knows, if we luck out, we might be able to find a place we can juryrig with running water.”
She crawls out and begins the daily ritual of swapping out layers. One tee shirt is replaced with another and very little skin is exposed during the endeavor. Chloe rubs her left eye with the heel of her handand stretches. Mismatched socks are exchanged for another pair of mismatched socks and hiking boots are relaced.
Chloe looks from Rory to Elliot, “what do we do? Where do we go to make this happen?”
[Rory O’Bryne] She meets Elliot’s gaze, but briefly. She’s still learning – though she tries. The only time she loses all hesitation is in battle – as they both have seen.
The thought of walls though, and maybe even warmth? That lights in her eyes as an idea she can fully get behind. She looks past them to the street, thinking, going over the paths she’s walked a thousand times already in her minds eye, before she nods. “home souses that’re empty down that way, an a couple buildings over that way too. Lots of meople poving out round here..”
[Elliot] Elliot shifts, moves, and pulls herself to her feet. She stretches her arms high over her head, then brings them back impossibly far behind her head. Joints pop as she moves, snapping in her elbows and knees, even her hips, ankles, and wrists. Chole changes out her layers, but Elliot wears the same clothes she always wears. Layers of shirts covered with an outer coat, jeans with shredded knees, shoes that are completely falling apart. She wonders, briefly, if they have any kinfolk within this city, someone who could offer them a place to sleep for the night or replacements for their clothes that are clearly well past done.
She doesn’t know that there’s a man in the area, a Lord taken in by their tribe. She doesn’t know that the girl she met in her first weeks in the city has died. In a few days at the moot the girl’s death will be discussed at length, and Elliot will feel nothing. Because she never even leared the kinfolk’s name.
Rory offers advice on places they can inhabit. Elliot looks around, as if she’ll see these supposed empty houses, the abandoned buildings. The idea of living in a house is completely foreign to her.
Her hair is red and a tangled mess again. There are smudges of dirt obscuring her pale skin.
“We will look around today. Find a place that will suit us. We will find breakfast on the way.”
[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] “We have a plan!”
Chloe is joyous. She inhales the city air and tastes the lingering days. There is barbecue sauce, exhaust fumes, and a lingering taste of growth and change. She will remember Maija, she will be very upset. She will kick herself and remember the decent leftovers she had from a barbecue joint. She wonders about her kin, and Chloe is unaware of their presence.
[Rory O’Bryne] Her belly rumbles at the thought of food, and she ducks her head to hide the little sheepish smile it brings, even as she stands and stretches, shaking out her legs a bit. She stomps once or twice – her foot is just waking up with tingles and twinges.
She doesn’t say she is starved, she doesn’t suggest she needs anything at all over the next few days, weeks, months ever. Chloe says the City will provide – and she believes her.
“We can maybe shake a tower at Gabe’s, too. If he’s home.”
Oh and the flush that rises across her cheeks at that, staining her face with a flush that tells more than her words ever could.
[Elliot] Elliot turns her head sharply at Rory. The glasses hide the intensity of her stare, but it’s evident in the way the taller Metis holds herself suddenly tense.
“Who is Gabe?”
She notes the blush, her face hard as though it were carved from marble.
[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] “Gabe’s a grad student, photographer guy. He’s Fury kin, and he picked up a kitten. He’s pretty nice; Rory’s been pretty good about finding homes for our little buddies.”
[Rory O’Bryne] The flush deepens, and she scratches at her scalp under her hat, briefly, before she glances at Chloe and back to Elliot.
“He’s… mice to ne.”
A girl never forgets her first kiss. She smiles that same shy lil grin as she looks over at Chloe for her praise in caring for their kittens.
[Elliot] Elliot’s head remains turned toward Rory, even when Chloe explains who Gabe is. It’s not until Rory says that he’s nice to her that Elliot eases.
“If he is our ally, I should meet him.” Her face is turned away, and though they can see that her face is as expressionless they can hear a note of protectiveness in her voice. She’s been packed with them a short while, is still getting to know the girls that follow her now instead of Chloe. Expression is there, just buried deep within Elliot somewhere.
“Come. Today we will not eat rotten fruit or molding bread.”
Someone has gotten their hands on money. Enough for food for the three of them, real food, not what has been salvaged from dumpsters. Not food that requires certain gifts to be used in order stave off illness.
[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] “I think you’d like him… though, he smells like dark room chemicals sometimes, so… yeah.”
She knew Elliot’s senses were sharp to the point of pain. She knew a little bit about Elliot, but what she did know was that she cared about her. It came through in little totem messages and the occasional moments where she tries to shove her into the box and take over her shift as sentry. Elliot was her sister.
Elliot mentions food. She grins ear-to-ear.
“You know, I have no clue what your favorite food is.”
[Rory O’Bryne] “He’s nells smice!” Whoops. There goes the blush again.
Her eyes light up at the thought of real food, and when the flush in her cheeks finally dies away, she grins up at Elliot. Elliot who’s protective over her, just like Chloe. It’s odd, and still startles her, yet they make her want to try so much harder than anyone at home ever did.
She falls into step with Elliot, and hooks her arm through Chloe’s to pull her into step too.
[Elliot] Elliot walks beside Rory’s other side. If they look at her, they can see the ghost of a smile twitch the corner of her side mouth.
“My favorite food is the kind that does not make me ill.”
They are dirty, these three girls. They have the look of street urchins about them, with their layers and their smell. Elliot is waifish thin, Chloe and Rory less so. They look like the type found sitting on the ground near train stations, peddling for coins. And sometimes, that’s exactly where they’re found.
But that doesn’t stop Elliot from going inside a nearby seven-eleven. The looks the cashier gives her don’t stop her from buying hot dogs from the rotisserie and packages of donuts. It won’t be the healthiest meal they’ve ever had, but hell. What they ate yesterday and what they will eat tomorrow are worse.
She shares with the girls equally. And she lapses into silence, as she sometimes does.
[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] She grinned wider and headed through the seven eleven.
“You know what we should get as a pack? A Sam’s Club Card. Because when we find a place? We can get a fridge, I cans ee what I can do to rig us up some power, we can freeze stuff, and when we have money we can buy a shitton of food, freeze it, and haw it out for special occasions.”
She took the hotdog and nodded contently.
“Thanks, Elliot, for breakfast.”
[Rory O’Bryne] Elliot buys them hot dogs and doughnuts and while it may not be the most nutritious meals of all time – it tastes divine, and Rory is certainly not complaining. She takes her share, and happily chomps into the hot dog. It’s what she was going to get when she was interrupted by that stupid Fang.
“I rike onion lings.”
She grins at Chloe’s suggestion – though she has to ask. “What’s clams sub?”
[Elliot] Elliot mows through her hot dog the same way she always eats: as though she hasn’t eaten a proper meal in days, weeks, years. Chloe puts forth her suggestion, and Elliot slows down her chewing, thinking.
Rory doesn’t know what a Sam’s club card is, and neither does Elliot. There are parts of the frozen north where life clings to the ice and fights to stay alive. They do not have Sam’s clubs in most of these places.
“First we find a place with solid walls. Insulation. Perhaps this Fury kin will help us legalize our claim in the human world. Then we can look into obtaining a…Sam’s…Club card.”
[Rory O’Bryne] ‘This Fury Kin’ gets another grin, which she hides by taking a bite of her hot dog, and using the back of her hand to catch the ketchup at the corner of her mouth. Which she then licks off – despite the dirt on her hands.
She points in the first direction she had chosen before. “Gabe lives down that way – s’where I haw the souses. Tiny, and droken bown, but with work..”
And she is certainly not afraid of work.
[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] “Well, let’s see what we can get done.”
She shoves the rest of a hotdog into her mouth; all allusions to Chloe’s lack of affinity for sausages were unknown and unmentioned to her packmates. She chews.
“I’m excited.”
Clearly.
[Elliot] Elliot turns her head in the direction Rory indicates, and guides them in that direction. She’s looking for something that would work as their new home. A house for their pack.
She doesn’t know Gabe, but the girls obviously trust him. One more than the other, if Rory’s blushes are to be believed. He has been helpful to the pack in the past, perhaps he will be again. Elliot is not against using the aid of kinfolk.
“We will not need a place that is perfect. It will snow soon.” She glances up at the sky, can almost taste it on the wind. “We need to be protected, and we need a base of operations.” After a moment’s pause, she says, “and perhaps a room for the cats.”
Not just cats. The cats. It is their duty to feed and care for strays. That will be easier if they have a home of their own.
[Rory O’Bryne] She keeps her eyes open, looking for the houses she’d seen before, while she eats her doughnut, pausing between bites to lick her fingers clean of the sugary treat.
A room for the cats makes her smile, brightly. She adores taking care of The Cats, truth be told. She’s never had any animal not be terrified of her, until now. She spends all her change getting milk and food for them first, and they know when to find her in which alleyway for their share.
She looks up at the sky, and back to Elliot. “I’ve sever neen snow.”
[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] “… maybe we should expand. Right now, we’re only takin’ up a couple alleyways, which we can hold, but what if we pushed to four?”
The gingertheurge is thinking. She taps her teeth idly with her index finger. Chloe beats a bosa nova rhythm.
“What do we need in the way of a base of operations? Good camoflage, a place for the cats, somewhere that the windows aren’t busted out…”
[Elliot] Elliot looks at the houses they pass. Most are inhabited by the poorer families of the neighborhood. But there are others, vacant and void of life, closed when the economy and the lack of employment opportunities forced their residents into leaving. The streets are quiet, the lawns overgrown here and there, or brown or mostly dirt patches. They’re guarding the alleys of an area with a high crime rate, and a high rate of apathy.
An apathy that is often times echoed in the alpha of The Forgotten. Rory, excited, says she’s never seen snow. A muscles in Elliot’s jaw tenses, eases. “Lucky.”
Chloe mentions expansion. She asks about expanding their network of alleyways. Elliot looks around them, eyes taking in a tinted view of the destitution of this particular street.
“No. Blocks. There are three of us. Surely we can guard a few blocks. We will expand when more join us.” Not it. When. “And at the very least, we simply need a place with roof and four walls. Preferably a place central to the area we wish to claim.”
[Rory O’Bryne] Elliot says she’s lucky for not having seen snow, an Rory glances her way – but then they’re talking of expansion and what they can hold and guard. She straightens her shoulders – of course they can hold more.
Then she’s pointing to a little house ahead. There’s an empty lot next to it, and the house has a small fence, most of which has been torn down. Wood siding, that’s washed with the weather, and a roof that sags, and what looks like might be a loft of some sort, a small porch, sagging steps. There’s also a shed in the back that’s completely fallen in.
It’s small though – which is just big enough.
“Look there… how about that one?”
(http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/house.jpg)
[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] Chloe cocks her head to the side and approaches the little house cautiously. She is looking over it with the intentions of an artist. She is looking at cracks and faultlines and things that would drive away others who were less imaginative.
“No one will miss it.”
[Elliot] Rory points out a small house. The yellow paint is grimy, chipping. The front door is filthy. There’s a spot to the side meant to be a driveway, which is little more than an overgrown patch of dying green grass. Elliot surveys it critically.
“Let us look at the inside before we make a decision.” We, always we. She is the alpha, but they are equals. Though Elliot may be the final voice on a matter, each opinion is considered carefully before decisions are made.
But no one will miss this house.
She warily moves up the steps to the door, glances around to see if any eyes are on the red-haired trio. If this house is indeed abandoned, neighbors might notice. No one is looking their way. Elliot tries the door. Unsurprisingly, at least to her, it is unlocked.
The inside is as filthy and rundown as the outside would have them believe. That doesn’t matter to Elliot, who looks only for places in the floor where boards might break, or leaks in the ceiling. She looks at the work they’ll need to put into this place to turn it into a home.
Inspecting things closely, she waits to hear what the others say before offering her own opinion.
[Rory O’Bryne] No one will miss this house, it’s true. She follows Elliot, even as they’re cautious. The three Forgotten redheads are bound to get people’s attention, except when they’re doing their best not to attract it. The door’s unlocked, and they start poking around inside. Elliot looks for things they’ll need to work on, while Rory prowls the small rooms, and even braves the rickety stairs to the loft, eying the floor boards dubiously.
“Doable, but a wot of lork.” Not that she’d shy away from it, of course.
[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] “Nothing good comes easy.”
She sounds distracted. Rory and Elliot are looking at one side of things while the theurge is clearly investing herself ina different portion of the equasion. She ran a hand through her hair and was miles and miles away for now.
Peeking took some effort, you know.
[gnosis! let’s look!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 5, 8 (Failure at target 8) [WP]
[Elliot] [let me try!]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 4, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 8)
[Elliot] [O_O]
[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] ooc: this, ladies and gentlemen, is why Elliot is Alpha
[Elliot] Elliot and Chloe get the same idea. While Rory is looking around the loft, Elliot pushes back her sunglasses. Her pale green-grey eyes unfocus, and she peeks into the Umbral reflection of the little house. There is nothing there out of the ordinary on the other side.
When her gaze is her own again, Rory is coming back into the main room. She declares the house as ‘doable,’ and Elliot nods her head. It’s a lot of work, but it’s nothing they won’t be able to handle. Especially if they can enlist the help of kinfolk.
“Chloe?”
[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] [gnosis: demmit, you are going to see to the other side!]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 8, 10 (Failure at target 9) [WP]
[Chloe Rowan Abernathy] “I am perfectly fine with this location.”
She puts her hands on her hips and finds herself, instead, still looking at the physical reflection. Suffice to say, she radiates a spacey but quiet displeasure at this. It pings through her form and on the totem link.
“I like it. It’s a good base of operations.”
[Rory O’Bryne] She glances at Chloe, she can feel her displeasure as she can’t quite… do something. She rubs her nose with the back of her hand, and then just shoulder bumps Chloe as she walks by, gently.
“Has a dat coor in the back, even!”
[Rory O’Bryne] [Just so you know, The SO is getting restless – I’m going to have to go soon!]
to Chloe Rowan Abernathy, Elliot
[Elliot] Elliot looks around the small house, her hands shoved into the pockets of her coat. With her sunglasses pushed up, they can see the thoughtfulness in her pale green eyes. Their alpha is thinking, imagining, planning.
At last, she nods, once and with finality.
“It’s settled.”
She looks at Chloe, her gaze piercing. “Gather the contents of the box. Bring them here.”
That fierce stare turns to Rory. “When you are able, find Gabe. Bring him here to meet with me. Let him know we may require his help, or at the very least connections.
“Today we will prepare this place to keep us in slumber. Tomorrow the real work begins.”
[Rory O’Bryne] She nods, slightly, the blush reappearing. She gets to find Gabe. What an awful chore… not! She dusts her hands together with that same shy grin she always shows. She doesn’t waste time, she digs in and starts to clean up the inside of their new place.
[And that’s a wrap for me! Thanks for playing!]
[Elliot] [The Wrapness]