WHO: Karen Page
WHERE: Various
WHEN: 8 January 2018, throughout the day
OPEN TO: All, with 2 locked starters
WARNINGS: Standard blanket warning for Netflix MCU spoilers

In the Forest

OTA - 3 max threads

It was probably only a matter of time, Karen thinks. This morning she woke up to find three big boxes sitting in the middle of her chilly bedroom floor like they'd been dropped off overnight by the FedEx Fairy. She's three days out from her one-month anniversary stuck in this place, and she has officially been anointed by the gods.

As much as her instinct is still to be wary, curiosity takes only a beat to win out. Sitting cross-legged in her absconded "I'm not Daredevil" shirt and chili pepper socks, she pulls each box open and lines the contents neatly beside her on the floor. Shampoo, journals, underwear, earmuffs. When she's done, she can't shake the feeling that this is less divine intervention and more care package.

And weird as that concept may be under the circumstances, she's not looking the gift horse in the mouth.

She feeds the furnace and indulges in a longer shower than normal, then starts the process of organizing her notes in her new journals while her hair dries. Then it's out into the snow, bundled like the true Vermonter she is, pack of supplies on her back as she looks toward the horizon. There's a voice tutting in the back of her head that sounds mostly like Frank, sometimes Matt, and funnily, occasionally like Claire, but she's never really been very good at listening to people who tell her to sit still. Boots crunching with each step, she pushes into the forest's edge.

[Feel free to find her in the forest, on the way there, at the canyon wall, or on her way back.]

Canyon's Edge

for Peggy

Here's the truth: It still freaks Karen out a little bit that Peggy (and others, but mostly Peggy) are from points in time so far-flung from her own. The people who say they're from alternate realities, other planets, that doesn't get her as much — She stood in the aftermath of the alien assault on Manhattan. But the time thing she's still getting her head around.

But in the moment, it's usually an easy enough detail to forget, and Peggy makes it easier by being the sort of woman who, when Karen asks if she'd like to come with her to try and scale the canyon wall, agrees without hesitation. It's possible Peggy is mostly looking out for Karen's well-being— Because yeah, OK, it really isn't smart to go mountain climbing solo — but the fact that Peggy seems interested at all, especially when she's been here so long, is encouraging. In Karen's opinion, it's way too easy to be complacent in this place.

Home Again

for Claire

The stomp of snow-clotted boots on the porch announces Karen's return home that evening before she pushes open the door with a sigh of relief. It's warm inside, which means Claire must have been home long enough to feed the furnace. As Karen unwinds herself from her scarves, she can hear the distant sounds of another person in the house, and she smiles, grateful, almost bursting to tell what she's discovered today.

"You won't believe what happened today," she calls out, shrugging from her coat and then plopping onto the sofa to begin working off her boots. Pulling at a heel, she winces; she had a misstep earlier while climbing, and her wrist is killing her.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Leaving her boots in the living room, Karen pads into the kitchen in her multi-layered socks and stops just behind the chair adjacent to Claire. "I got to the top of the cliff wall."

There's probably a lecture forthcoming about risking her neck, and Claire wouldn't be wrong, but the fact remains that the achievement is significant. "I wasn't able to actually see over the top, but I touched it. I literally had my fingers over the edge," Karen continues as she slides into the chair. "I don't think anybody's gotten that far up before. Not even Frank when he was here." And god knew Frank wasn't concerned about seeing after his own safety, so it wouldn't have been for a lack of trying.

As soon as Karen says it there is a deadpan look that suggests a lecture is forthcoming, but it quickly shifts into one of curiosity. And shock. Mostly because Frank Castle was military and those kinds of "missions" were priority. Then again, a lot had been discovered since the first people arrived.

"... And that's it? You had your fingers on the edge but couldn't see over the top? Why?" Claire asked, wondering if there was a reason Karen couldn't hoist herself just a little bit higher to see what was over the top.

Was something stopping her?

Karen falters, her head tilting as her mouth opens, pauses and then shuts. "I slipped," she finally admits, because she's going to get the lecture regardless, she the Band-Aid might as well be ripped off now. She lifts a hand in what's probably a futile attempt to postpone Claire's reaction. "I had a climbing hook and rope, I was securely tied." Not that she wouldn't have still severely hurt herself if she had actually fallen.

"And I caught myself before before I fell," she's quick to add. "In fact, I was hoping you could take a look at my wrist, I think I sprained it." She lays the arm in question across the table. This is good, right? Distraction.

"The thing is, now that I really think about it, I don't know how I slipped. I was reaching up, yeah, but I had a steady footing."

Unfortunately, Claire sees what Karen is doing and it's in her expression when she reaches to take her hand in what, at first, may seem like a handshake. While she continues to listen, she visually examines it looking for redness and swelling before gently putting her other hand on it to feel for warmth.

"You know, now that you mention it, same thing happened to me when I took my fall in the woods." A pause. "Tell me if this hurts."

She had to feel around and though did it as gently as she could, wasn't able to promise there'd be no pain. Claire looked up.

"Maybe some kind of interference?" It honestly sounded so far-fetched but where they were it wasn't as far off as one might think.

Karen winces with a wrinkle of her nose. "A little," she replies with a slight nod. "Not enough to keep me up at night or anything, but I definitely wish I had some Advil."

With her free hand, she swipes the tendrils of escaped hair from her forehead. "There have been stories about that. About people trying to get out and something always stopping them. I mean, you know Frank— Well, you know of him, I mean. The idea that he wouldn't be able to get up and over that cliff? It's crazy."

"I also know Matt, so I doubt it's from any lack of trying." Claire added, releasing Karen's hand and getting up. She disappeared briefly and returned with a little white packet. Thankfully, the EMS backpacks that were left behind by villagers who went home made mild to moderate pain something that could be managed.

Claire passed her the pills and sat down again.

"But Frank Castle is a military man, so it makes you wonder, doesn't it? Maybe whoever is bringing us here sent him home because eventually he would figure it out."

Then again, there were plenty of really smart people there in the village.

"And this is why you're the best," Karen says when she flips the packet over and sees what it says. There's a split second's worth of hesitation before she tears it open — Does she really need something so precious? — but the throb in her wrist wins out.

Cradling the pills in her hand, she blinks. "God, all this time and I never thought about it like that," she admits. "And it's not just the military aspect, although that's definitely part of it. I think we both know what he can be like when he's got a bone to pick. He wouldn't have just given up. Maybe that's the difference. I've talked to so many people who finally just stopped trying."

"Judging from the body count he left behind everywhere he went? I don't need to have met him to know that all that was a product of sheer determination."

It was good Karen had been there to fill her in about Frank because she was forced to see him only as the crazy, psycho ex-military man who was on a PTSD fueled rampage that the media made him out to be.

"Maybe they figured he was too dangerous. This place and everything that's been going on feel like a full-scale psych eval. How much can people take mentally? What's their breaking point?"

Karen nods, no hesitation, and pushes herself to her feet. "That's what I keep thinking, especially since that weird dinner with everything tailored to what each person likes," she says, and pulls a glass from the cupboard so she can fill it a quarter of the way with water from the sink and knock the pills quickly back.

"And like... Dangerous in more than one way. Dangerous physical skills, yeah, but also just in constant pushing for answers." She sets the glass carefully on the counter and then turns back to Claire. "Did you know that Matt was only here a few months? It was barely a blip for this place. Maybe that's why."

As much as he'd tried the straight and narrow, Matt had been really bad at giving in, too. To the point that it had killed him.

[OTA] Midas is king and he holds me so tight;

In the Forest

Canyon's Edge

Home Again

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