sixthiterationlogs | open | she'll always be seventeen; that girl has love

WHO: Kamala Khan
WHERE: Fountain, Inn, around the village(s)
WHEN: June 21-23
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: Near-drowning, mentions of potential death scenarios and horror game elements

Fountain-

It feels like a dream at first. Who wakes up underwater without a clue as to how they got there? Anime heroines. Maybe she fell asleep while streaming something, she thinks. Ammi will be mad at her for being wasteful again. It is a short-lived reflection. Kamala quickly focuses on holding her breath once the common-sense kicks in. Now isn’t the time for daydreaming. The unpleasant burn from water filling her nose and ears makes this real enough to take seriously. She pinches her nose with her thumb and index finger to be safe. Precious seconds tick by as she thinks about what she should do. The obvious answer is kick her way to the surface. She might have done it any other time. She knows her own strength. She can take whatever is waiting for her at the surface except for one thing. That is what holds her back. The last time she woke up in a strange place, seemingly unbeatable monsters ripped you bit by bit for making a sound. It is possible they took her back somehow and she ended up in the wrong spot like the others did in that dust storm.

Her heart fills with dread. She needs to shrink. It will minimize the sound; give herself a shot at survival. She closes her eyes and wills it to happen. There is no soft glow or weird sensation that comes with her cells rapidly responding to her will. Okay now she’s panicking. Her heart beats rapidly in her chest as she prays for her body to respond. Go small. It is our best chance. The only response is her lungs burning for air. She must ask herself some very hard questions quickly. Is it selfish to go up there knowing she is going to make noise and get whoever is nearby killed? Is it better to drown than be ripped limb from limb? She must decide which is the least selfish way to die.

In the end, her Ammi decides for her. She can hear her scream for her beta. Maybe this is all a bad dream. She is scaring Ammi with this behavior again. Kamala kicks hard until she reaches the surface and hangs onto the side of the fountain like a lifeline. Water pours from her nose, mouth, and ears as she struggles to breathe. She doesn’t know what will happen next. Will her mother pull her into her arms? Will a monster kill her? The only thing she can control is the need to get air into her lungs. She vomits water along the side to accommodate that need.

Eventually her body starts to settle. The spots behind her eyes fade as oxygen reaches her brain. She looks around, visibly disoriented. Neither outcome has happened. No monsters or mother to greet her. This place isn’t Reims. Is it one of the cities mentioned by the others? Somehow the bugs are still alive there in that case. Kamala has no way of knowing why or how of any of this. She can only proceed cautiously.

Every move is painful to her. She flinches at every slosh of water, at her feet when the touch the ground, and the weight on her back that doesn’t belong there. The clothes, hunter green scrubs of all things, that do not belong to her make noise as she moves. The water dripping from her hair and body does too. She wants to cry. Why not when everything is working against her? At least it will make her feel better. She quickly shoves the thought away. She needs to be brave like that boy who had the creatures running past him and never made a sound. She needs to try even if it feels like she is doomed to fail because of things outside her control.

She moves her soaked hair close to her chest to minimize the dripping noise and very slowly starts to walk. The terror and determination are plain to see on her face as she advances with her arms wrapped tightly around herself. Any direction is better than no direction. Proceed with caution when approaching the soaking wet teenager since she is visibly spooked by whatever noise you will make.

Inn –

There is a party outside. People are making noise like it is a given. Kamala is so exhausted by her fear and near-death experience at this point that she doesn’t even try to stop them. She thinks back to her conversation with Frank suddenly. It is difficult to figure out what is real and not. Her answer was so simple yet sincere. It doesn’t matter if you are with the people you love. Her family isn’t here. Nakia and Bruno are not here. It is so exhausting to be strong without them again, she thinks. The fire ahead of her looks comforting even if it is noisy like the people outside. She takes off her backpack and curls in front of it like a child. She just wants to sleep for a while. Why not when everything is already so dangerous? She pulls the backpack into her arms and pretends it’s her sloth as she drifts to sleep.

Whenever someone tries to wake her or comes to close, Kamala quietly asks the same thing without fail. “How can you tell when something is real or not?” Maybe she’s getting a fever. This was not one of her better plans.

Wildcard -

Kamala will be wandering around until she starts to get an idea of what is happening here. Feel free to encounter her around the village or villages as she figures out what exactly is happening here. This can be anywhere from her first through third day. Obviously after the first day she will be in a less depressing state so I would recommend then!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This girl is definitely new. Peter doesn't keep up with who shows up when, really, but this girl is definitely new simply because she's a girl. There's only one other around his age in this place, so she kind of sticks out even without deciding to take a nap on the lawn.

He gently shakes her shoulder, wonders if anybody's told her where she can find an actual bed to sleep in, then falters at her question.

"Um," he begins, and then gives up with a shrug. "Sometimes you can't. I just try to look at things logically even if they seem crazy— Are you okay?"

She lets out a soft sigh... or yawn. Who can say with this one? He looks perfectly nice for someone who crashed her sad and really overwhelmed naptime so she doesn't immediately bite his head off. She knows when someone means well. It's pretty much her every other day but, this one. "That's such a Bruno answer." Which means it is a good one for the record. She pauses for a second as she wonders if it is really okay to unload on this unsuspecting person. She should probably save that for Frank except she told him he didn't have to be everything anymore. This guy is asking the question. Peter is getting the honest answer whether he wants to or not.

"Not really. I got kidnapped and separated from my family again. I almost drowned earlier because I thought horrible monsters might rip me apart if I make any noise. Spoilers: those monsters aren't here because we'd all be pretty dead by now." Kamala rubs her eyes with one hand, reluctantly starting to sit up. "It's been a rough day. I thought I was done getting into these messes, you know? It really sucks."

It's funny: Most of what comes out of her mouth, Peter doesn't have any context for. He doesn't know who Bruno is or why he sounds like him, he knows nothing about the monsters she's talking about. The rest, though, and the sentiment beneath all of what she's said, is the most real thing he's heard since he's been here.

"Yeah," he says, because boy does he know. She's come right out and unloaded on him, so he figures it's okay to sit down next to her, cross-legged on the grass.

"I'm Peter. Sorry about your family."

She does welcome the company. It makes her think of Bruno and Will suddenly. She hopes they're okay wherever they are. "Kamala and thanks. Sorry for dumping all my problems on you. I kind of have a problem with that when it's safe to talk." She thinks back to that poor hotdog vendor she basically held hostage one day while eating half his inventory. She really does need to work on this in the future. "I swear I'm not usually such a mess." A beat. Yeah that's a lie. "Okay I am, but I'm not a sad mess. Important distinction."

Peter smiles with a duck of his head — Being a mess is something he understands, too, on both a large and small scale. Heck, tonight's a perfect example of how he somehow manages to do things the wrong way even when he's doing them for the right reasons — Why did he think standing up on a chair and telling everybody about Thanos was a good idea? They just wanted to eat their crabs and forget about the sucky stuff for awhile.

"It's okay," he promises, looking back to Kamala. "Everybody is a mess when they first get here, even if they don't admit it. At least you're honest about it. I tried to act like I actually knew what was going on." Still is, if he's honest about it, even if he's been knocked back a few pegs.

"Where are you from?"

Kamala smiles at him sympathetically. She gets that need to control the insanity. Whether she's Ms. Marvel or the patrol lady in Reims, she's always trying to get a bead on what's going on so she can do the right thing in response. If you can't, the temptation to convince yourself you know it anyways. She thinks back to what Wolverine said to her; his warning to be careful what she told herself while wearing a mask. She wonders if it'd make more sense to Peter. He's asking a pretty relevant question so she gets back to the point.

"Jersey City. Normally this is the part I explain that it's in America. On Earth. No, the one with superheroes and all that stuff. I think you at least know the America part, right? You sound like one of us." She never appreciated it fully until she heard whispers of accents she can't even begin to describe.

"Yeah, I know where Jersey City is," Peter replies, his eyes lighting up; it's just nice to have people around who actually understand what the heck you're talking about sometimes. "I'm from Queens."

He motions Kamala's way. "I know it still sucks, but at least you know the whole deal with being in a place like this. When I first got here, I just kind of wandered around for like three days not knowing what to do. You can skip at least some of that, right?"

Kamala mirrors his expression because she's so excited. Finally someone will kind of get her weirdly specific jokes! She nods seriously at the rest initially. "Yeah the guy who found me was really awesome about explaining stuff. Then of course...." She pauses here as something occurs to her. She totally forgot about Frank in her pity party. The guy is easily the most unlucky person she's ever known. Is he even still alive at this point?!

Kamala jumps to her feet. It's only putting on the backpack that reminds her that Peter is still here. She's totally panicking. "I just remembered the only person I know here for real has like the worst luck ever! Especially at parties like these! Oh God I have to check on him!" She starts to move away before abruptly pointing at Peter. "Hey! If a giant, scary man covered in bruises 90% of the time is doing something dumb tonight or like ever, please contact me right away because he's with me! I better go find him! Nice to meet you! Bye!" Now she's running for real. Welcome to knowing Kamala Khan. It's always like this.

open | she'll always be seventeen; that girl has love

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