riverviewlogs | [OPEN] shitty situations for all, and for all a good nighttime stab

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[OPEN] shitty situations for all, and for all a good nighttime stab

who: Laura and you.
what: ... Trouble, mostly...
when: Now-ish.
where: Multiple Places! Mainly roof, outside of wall, and on the skytram.
warnings: Blood, violence, gore. Stabby things. EDIT: Also, talk of self harm in Ivar thread.

Laura fights near the wall, Laura takes a tram, Laura has a bad dream while looking for santa at night.

... Also, bloody situations and digging out of a giant animal corpse. It's gross, I know.

Bracket and prose both A-OK, and time and space can be bent, I'm chill. The last prompt is for medium injuries if you wanna hurt your character, because everyone loves getting stabbed by children. Or if your character is a magic healer, feel free to get stabbed real gud and heal up or what have you. (Basically I'm just avoiding severe injury or death before Christmas okay).

Shitty Situation A

[Red splatters on the snow when her claws spear through the first creature's head -- some sort of hybrid beast, one that hunts for food, whose pack has strayed far from the darker areas of the abandoned area and closer to the wall. They surround her because she looks like easy food in the colder, needier climate, and the fight is on. The child growls when they growl back, and she leaps on one of their backs, hacking and slashing with reckless abandon.

They get in their own claw marks, too. Laura's shirt and jeans get torn into, skin as well. It hurts awfully, but Laura's more offended that they're ruining her cool cat shirt.

Her cool neon hat goes flying off in the breeze, carried over sloping snowy hills.

When she kills the last beast, which is considerably large -- the size of an elephant, the alpha, maybe -- it falls right on top of her. Luckily, her claws were out, and... uh... if you're unlucky enough to have found her after the fight instead of during, you will be unfortunate enough to watch a small clawed girl burst through the top of the beast's ribs, covered in blood from her... tunneling...

Just. Um. Yeah. Victory, I guess.]

Shitty Situation B.

[Laura stands in a skytram car, one hand curled on a metal bar. She's covered in dry blood, head to toe. All of the other passengers keep a very far distance around her.

... She's trying to head to the clothing store.]

The One Chill Situation.

[She sits on the roof, binoculars in her hands, watching the sky skeptically as the daylight fades. It's pretty cold up here, but she doesn't seem very bothered, wearing a few jackets and a good pair of boots. Got a red nose, too, but otherwise undaunted by the weather.

She falls asleep up there by accident, curled in a sleeping bag she apparently bought just to do this very thing. Trying to catch any signs of a 'santa' figure in the night, it seems.]

Shitty Situation C. (alternatively: like father like daughter)

[Nighttime.

She rolls a little in her sleeping bag, plagued by bad dreams. Little unintelligble mumbles escape her, sweat on her brow and hands in tight fists in the slippery fabric. She jostles enough that the action figures tucked away with her topple out.

No... stop it...

[The rest is Spanish -- "don't touch me, leave them alone, dad, help me"--

If one attempts to reach out and wake her -- they better have good reflexes. Because she will jackknife immediately up with a hoarse scream, claws out and lunging to stab at her fantasy captors.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Everything about this scenario is horrifying on multiple levels. Cisco wants to scold Laura that she could have been seriously hurt out there, and no one would've been there to help. But clearly she is well aware of that fact, and unapologetic. Also, frighteningly calm and unafraid, considering she'd clearly had a near-death experience just a few minutes ago. Just what is up with this kid, anyway. ]

There's lots of quiet places in the city. Quiet places without monsters that'll try to eat you.

[ He shrugs off his windbreaker, pulling his keys from the pocket and then holding it out for her, so she can at least cover up a little more. It's way too big, compared to her, but all the better. ]

Here, take this.

[A slight hesitation before she takes the jacket, scanning it before tugging it on over stained clothing. Once it's on, she takes note of his gnawing concern and simmering panic — it's certainly not the first time she's encountered it, and she sighs quietly.]

... I can show you. We can stop at the next place.

[Show what, she's not clear. But she figures she could ease his concerns.

(Or make them worse. Probably make them worse.)]

[ Okay that's... ominous. Really ominous. But Cisco is curious enough, and worried enough about what is going on with Laura, that he doesn't object. When the tram slows and the doors slide open at the next stop, Cisco follows Laura out. He waits until the other passengers - who are giving Laura a wide berth, even with Cisco's jacket covering most of the gore - move past them, and the tram has pulled away, before he asks: ]

Alright, what is it you wanted to show me?

[She waits until they're of even further distance, ignoring the question — until there's a decent spot where she can do this without making everyone think she's about to go on a killing spree or something (little girl, covered in blood, with claws... she's not stupid, okay). But finally, a little space beside an overgrown wall that starts leading into quiet homes, most people gone off to work... Good enough.

She turns, frowning a little, before she holds a fist out straight.

And then she lets her two sharp claws spear out from her knuckles, tearing between them and shining untarnished and bright in the sunlight. She of course says nothing in the meanwhile, gauging his reaction, blood welling at the torn spaces of skin between her fingers. A familiar pain, but necessary for the example of what she is and what she can do.

Maybe it'll explain a few things.]

[ Cisco follows Laura as far as she wants to go, his uneasiness mounting all the while, but it's clear that, whatever she wants to say or show him, it's a secret. He has secrets of his own, can appreciate the need to keep some things hidden. So he doesn't protest, just trails along after her. When she raises her fists, he is just about to ask again what is going on.

Then there are knives sticking out of her hand. Or, at least, they look like knives. Cisco jumps, hand coming up to cover his mouth, lest he make a startled noise too loud and attract any unwanted attention. He looks up at her face, sees her looking at him. She doesn't seem hurt, or confused, or distressed. She knew that would happen - controlled it, probably. That was the only explanation for the timing, for how deliberately she raised her hand.

The fact that she knew what was going on quieted the worst of his panic before it could really sink in, but then he notices the blood on her hands. Not the blood that was already there, from the monster in the forest. Her blood. ]

What- how- you're hurt...

[ He's not stupid - this must have been how she fought the monster. Cisco can see, despite the blood, how sharp those claws are. He remembers, too, the way she'd moved when they were playing laser tag together. But instead of answering his questions, she's posed so many more. ]

[She shakes her head after a moment's silence - letting everything settle in.]

... I don't stay hurt.

[The rips and tears in her shirt and pants are only that. She holds up her fist and studies the blades herself, recollecting with sharp clarity that terrible day after the surgery, when everything felt wrong and she had drifted into a strange, detached stupor. It had been the days that followed that Gabriela had caught her using them on herself.

She doesn't do that as much anymore. But it's not like it leaves any trace anyway.]

I'm a mutant. I was born in a lab in Mexico City.

[ Cisco doesn't question her, when Laura says she doesn't stay hurt. He's no stranger to advanced healing capabilities. He'd seen Barry break bones and be fine again in an hour. It's not the mechanics that he doubts, so much as... ]

But it's still painful?

[ He doesn't know which alternative is worse - if it is painful for her to use her claws, every time, or if her sense of pain were compromised, which would make it harder for her to spot any injuries that might be serious enough that she couldn't heal from them... not to mention what it would do to someone's head, being numb like that.

When she says she was born in a lab, Cisco bites the inside of his cheek; he doesn't like where this is going, but he doesn't want to overreact, to say or do something that will make her feel unsafe to continue. From the sound of it, she's from the same world as Billy, or at least, a similar one. ]

I've met mutants before.

[ Billy had told Cisco that mutants weren't always treated very humanely, but a kid? Being experimented on? ]

Are these... part of your powers, or something else?

[Without much concern, she slices a cut across her palm, unflinching.]

I can handle pain.

[Which is to say, the unspoken answer is yes — yes, it hurts, but that has become a very normal thing in her life. Sucking bullets out of wounds and watching the skin mend is nothing to be that alarmed about. It'll heal. That's the thought process, and what they'd told her, over and over again. It's going to heal. That was the problem, putting the adamantium onto her claws.

She stops those ugly thoughts, cocking her head slightly. Part of her powers...?

Ah, she sees.]

... They helped me mutate faster, but they are from my father. The powers.

[The cut on her hand begins to sew seamlessly back together.]

Except for the metal. [Quieter, now.] It was — grafted.

[ Cisco is anything but unflinching and calm, when she deliberately slices herself open like that. He makes an aborted movement to stop her, saying: ]

What are you- wait, don't-!

[ But he holds back from actually grabbing her to stop her, watches with eyes as round as coins as the wound seals itself up. He swallows, feeling bile in the back of his throat. It's not the injury itself - the blood, the cut - but rather Laura's detached nonchalance as she does it. Barry heals, too, but he would never cut himself like that, just to demonstrate it, and certainly not with such utter indifference. ]

'Helped'.

[ Cisco's got a gnawing, sick feeling that whatever they did, it was as far from help as you could get. That suspicion is only confirmed when Laura says that the metal coming from her hands was grafted in. Someone had experimented on her, done surgeries on a kid, to give her claws that cut her open every time she used them. And they must have been the ones she'd talking about, who trained her. Who made her someone who stood on trams covered head to toe in blood thinking nothing of it.

He feels a little like he's going to throw up, but he manages not to, letting out a shaky breath and saying weakly: ]

That's- that's so messed up. They shouldn't have done that to you.

[She's not surprised by his panic, but it's unneeded as always. She's hard to kill, hard to keep hurt. What's there to concern yourself with, when someone is injury-proof? The child drenched in dried, tacky blood, the one with sharp, studious eyes, she considers the situation — and his familiar response. The scarily sharp blades drag backward into her flesh, like knives driven down into skin. The very opposite of what anyone would want, of course, but this is normal.]

I know. I've learned. But... it was where I was born. Where we lived.

It was normal, until we decided it couldn't have been.

[ Cisco gives another little wince, when she retracts her claws, watches as the wounds on her tiny hands close up. People - who had probably had the temerity to call themselves scientists - had done this to a helpless child. They had made her into this calm, deadly creature. Because they could, because she was a mutant, and a kid, and they could get away with it. Right at that moment, Cisco hates humanity pretty badly.

But there will be time to stew, and feel disgusted, later. Laura had shared this secret, had trusted him, and he has to make sure he doesn't make her regret it. ]

That must've taken a lot of bravery.

[ At least, from the sound of it, she hadn't come directly here from the facility or lab or whatever it was - she'd had some realization that the way she was being treated was wrong. Cisco gathers up the scattered threads of his composure, saying: ]

Look, how about we get you cleaned up and get you some new clothes, and then maybe you can tell me about it? I mean. If you want to. But you don't gotta explain anymore. I get it. You've dealt with monsters, before.

[ Which didn't mean she couldn't get herself killed being reckless like that, but Cisco's taking things one step at a time. Right now, all he wants to do is treat Laura better than she's been treated in the past. ]

When was the last time you ate? I can get us some hamburgers once you look a little less like you stepped out of a horror movie. Or milkshakes. Or whatever you like.

... I don't mind. Talking.

[Also — it's a little weird in contrast with how bloody she is, but she seems to brighten at the mention of hamburgers and milkshakes. Clearly, this is the most important thing that Cisco has voiced. Clearly. All that fighting had made her really hungry... if an adult is totally offering to get her some food, she's not going to turn that kind of thing down.]

And I would like that. Getting - 'burgers'. I like those.

[But then, there's very little she doesn't like.]

[ Once she agrees to the plan, perks up quite a bit at the offer of food, Cisco nods and sets his shoulders. There's a lot he can't fix in the world, but this he can handle. He takes a moment to think - there's a community rec center nearby, where Laura could wash up. A little thrift shop next to it, that's bound to have at least something suitable and clean in her size. And after that, he knows just the right place to eat - a diner a few blocks further, between where they are and the communal housing.

So he explains to her the plan: buy an outfit and some soap, let her go in and use the showers, then the two of them can pig out. As the two of them set off in the direction of the thrift shop, Cisco sticks his hands into his pockets, doing his best not to think too hard about the implications of a lot of what Laura had said.

But it's hard to direct his mind towards anything else. He chews at his lower lip as they make their way into the thrift shop, saying to Laura: ]

Just pick whatever you want, and I can pay for it.

[ The kid probably doesn't have any money on her, after all. He wonders if there's someone who is supposed to be looking after her in this place. He's going to have to ask - but maybe that should wait until they've got their burgers. He doesn't want to spook her and make her run away. While she is finding clothes, Cisco picks up a bar of soap, a small cluster of hairties, and a brush. ]

Edited 2018-01-27 21:50 (UTC)

[It's not the easiest walk in the whole world, because the kid still looks like something out of a horror flick; that's why, while they're wandering into the thrift shop, the other shoppers have their eyes on the kid pretty much the whole time she's traveling through the aisles. You know, she actually has a little money in her pocket — but if someone offers to buy her something, she's certainly not gonna turn it out... So with that, she studies the racks until she finds the most enjoyable shirt.

She moves to hold up the bounty, so he can see it's a perfectly acceptable and excellent shirt you'd see on a completely normal little girl:]

[It's a Pandicorn, bro.

In spanish, she asks:]

Is this one cheap enough?

... I like it.

[ While the people in the shop are staring at Laura, Cisco is staring at them, watching out for anyone who looks like they're going to approach her or make a fuss. He is ready to rush over with some bullshit excuse, if he needs to, but fortunately, people mind their own business. When Laura comes up to him and asks about the shirt, he beams: ]

I like it, too. It's perfect. [ He doesn't even stop to look at the price, just gestures to the basket with the soap and other stuff. ] Toss it in the basket and go get yourself some pants. And a jacket, it's cold out today.

[ Do her powers make her immune to the cold? He's got no way of knowing. Either way, she might as well have one. He waits for Laura to choose the other items before he checks out. The man at the cash register shoots several looks at Laura and, as if it completely explains everything, Cisco merely says: ]

Kids, am I right?

[ Once they've bought the clothes, they make their way out, and Cisco steers them in the direction of the rec center. He hands over the stuff to Laura and shoos her inside, telling her he'll wait at the front for her, and to take as long as she needs to get cleaned up. ]

[She is more than happy to oblige. She isn't really sure how clothing sizes work, but she makes due with eyeing things and trying to look at the tags on her own bloody pants. When all's said and done — she's quite pleased, and gives no struggle in going in to wash the death and doom off her.

When she emerges, her hair is a wild wet mess on her head, but she's clean, and the clothing fits; sweet shirt, cool skirt, rockin' some shades. That's pretty much the biggest victory you could hope for, with this one.

The skirt is kind of weird. But it's a nice color. She likes it.]

[LET'S HIT THE DINER.]

[ It's a relief, when Laura comes back looking, well... normal. Not like the bloody survivor at the end of some kind of horror movie. Cisco thinks the graphic tee and skirt combo is very fashionable, indeed - it certainly makes a difference as they are walking down the street, in terms of people not staring at them like they're debating whether they should call the cops.

The diner is a short jaunt away, and once they are there and ushered in to a shiny booth, Cisco gestures at the menu, says: ]

Get whatever you want. I'm sure, uh. Monster hunting works up quite the appetite.

[ And then, they would talk. Or not talk, if Laura had changed her mind. But at the very least, Cisco thinks, he's helped a little. It was only a very little, and not enough to really fix anything, but at least he'd made some difference. He's not feeling very hungry, himself - not after what she'd told him about where she came from, and all the nauseating implications that came with it. But he looks at his own menu, figuring he'll order something at least to make her feel less awkward (though he is probably overestimating Laura's ability to notice social awkwardness...) ]

Edited 2018-02-06 21:12 (UTC)

[Oh, well, in that case — she orders a burger, a large fry, a large onion ring, and a large soda. Apparently being a small kid has no bearing on how much food someone can cram into their face. She seems pretty content with everything, slurping on her soda like she hasn't drank anything in a year straight (untrue, this glutton).]

... I wasn't hunting. They were.

[Just, you know. The mildest correction.]

[ Cisco's eyebrows raise a fraction at the order. The cost doesn't matter, but is she going to make herself sick? Then again, she's a kid - their stomaches can handle anything. He doesn't comment, just gets himself a burger as well, waiting for the waitress to leave before he answers her. ]

Okay, okay, my bad. You're right. Monster fighting.

[ She didn't go out there looking to be attacked, or to get into trouble. Sounds like trouble just found her. And it was dangerous for her to be out there, but... from the sound of it, dangerous is just what she's used to. Cisco twists his hands together in his lap, wondering where to even begin. ]

Nobody's tried to do anything like that to you here, though, right? I mean, nothing like the people at the lab? Nobody's... tried to lock you up or hurt you or anything?

[ Despite the fact that she'd demonstrated she's more than capable of defending herself, making sure she's not in any current danger is Cisco's priority right now. ]

[... She considers it carefully, finally giving pause to her soda-drinking.]

No, not yet.

[A simple answer, but perhaps telling of her state of mind; she doesn't trust this place to remain a safe and comfortable living environment. Not when she's seen the things she has, or lived where she's lived. In her eyes, it's really just a matter of time before she's either running or standing her ground again.]

[ It breaks Cisco's heart, that that is her answer. Better than a yes, sure. But that not yet. It hurts, mostly because he knows how it feels, waiting for things to fall apart. For things to go wrong, because things always go wrong eventually. The difference is, of course, that he hadn't thought that way when he was her age. He'd still believed the world was a grand adventure, that he was invulnerable, that the future was bright and he would be a part of it no matter what, and any obstacles that got in his way would be simple, and solvable.

The corner of his mouth dips into a frown, but he doesn't argue with her. He merely nods, silent as he tries to find the right words. ]

If someone does... you don't have to deal with it alone. I'll help. As much as I can.

[ It's not a promise she'll be safe in the future, or that there's nothing to worry about. Both of those statements would be lies. It's merely an offer, to be an ally when she needs one, if she needs one. ]

Did you have any friends you could count on, back home? Who helped you escape?

... The people who helped me escape are dead now.

[She tries not to think about it. A dark expression flutters across her face, but she focuses on the first half of that question now — thinks about Rictor and Gideon and Delilah, and it helps give her something so much better to look back at.]

I do have friends. Other mutants who escaped with me... The other kids.

[Carefully, chewing her thumbnail, she thinks of how to explain.]

We had to run; they wanted to put us to sleep, and we — wanted to live.

[ Cisco swallows hard, giving a small nod and not asking how, or who it was. Whoever helped, though, he is grateful. Maybe... one of them would show up here one day. It wasn't impossible. Time and death weren't really obstacles, when it came to the portal. And if they ever did... Cisco would thank them, for doing the right thing, and helping this kid, and others. ]

I'm really sorry to hear that.

[ They're just words; they can't fix anything and he knows it, but Cisco wants to say something, so she knows that he heard her and that their deaths matter to him. ]

None of them are here, though, are they?

[ It's just a guess, but a shrewd one. If there were kids who had survived an experimental facility like that, who had plotted to break out like that, who ended up together in another unpredictable and potentially unsafe scenario (though Cisco believes this moon is a hell of a lot safer than Earth ever was), they would stick together, right? They would be inseparable, out of survival instinct if nothing else.

His stomach turns when she says put us to sleep; he lowers his hands and grips his knees so hard his knuckles go white. Like they were animals. ]

Of course you did. They- they had no right. Not to do any of it.

[ Right at that moment, their food comes, and Cisco can't even manage a tense smile for the waitress as she sets the plates down. He just waits until she is gone before he says: ]

Some people are just... evil. They don't think of other people like they're real. All they see is- is tools, or obstacles. But people like that are wrong. And they deserve to be stopped.

There is a girl with Delilah's face... She's not Delilah, though.

[She's a little disappointed about it, admittedly. It's not that she doesn't like Lucy — she just deeply misses her friends. It's hard to just suddenly be apart from them after living so closely with them all her life. They led a foxhole sort of existence together, after all.]

Do you have people like that, in your world? Evil people who pretend to be the good guys.

[ Cisco's eyebrows raise at that. He hasn't encountered this sort of situation before, in this place, though he knows it is possibility. In a way, it's fortunate. He can't imagine how he would respond if a doppelganger of Barry showed up here, who had never met him. Or worse, one of Eobard. How horrible would that be! ]

Did anybody explain to you how that's possible? About the multiverse, and doppelgangers, and everything?

[ She seems like the sort of kid how would be happier having more information to explain something strange and unexpected. That sort of thing could happen, when you'd been controlled, abused, mistreated. She is probably a lot less comfortable with not understanding than a kid her age who hadn't been through the same things would be. ]

Yes.

[ He says it simply, but without hesitation. It's difficult to know how much he should tell her, how much he should keep private. Not for his own sake - that doesn't even register as a concern, at the moment. But there is a line he doesn't want to cross: he wants to offer solidarity, or understanding of a kind, but not make her feel like she has to comfort him. She's only a kid, after all, despite what she's been through. ]

I've gotten fooled by them before. And hurt by them before. Not like what happened to you. Different. But I know... [ He chews at his lip a long moment before he finishes: ] ... I know how scary it is when you don't know who might turn on you and try to hurt you next.

[ He pokes at his burger, appetite entirely gone, but shredding a bit of the lettuce just to give his hands something to do. ]

I think all worlds have people like that. Which totally sucks. But... all worlds have got good people, too. People who are trying to make stuff better. And- and there's more good people than bad people, I think.

[OPEN] shitty situations for all, and for all a good nighttime stab

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cw a little introspection of self-harm

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that drawing!!!

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