kamala khan | ms. marvel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
morphogenia) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sixthiterationlogs2018-06-22 03:19 pm
morphogenia) wrote in sixthiterationlogs2018-06-22 03:19 pm
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
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!
Inn
"If you mean this place, it's real, though strange." His English is now fairly good, but it's still heavily accented with something that sounds a little like an Italian accent. "It can be difficult to tell whether or not to believe what your eyes are telling you." He's had visions before, in his dreams and in the street here, and he'd wondered the last time how to know what to believe and what had happened.
"Do you need help?" he adds, after a moment.
no subject
Kamala isn't the type to be bitter though so she doesn't bring it up. She quietly absorbs the advice and lets out a soft chuckle at his question. She probably does. For what exactly she can't be sure of. "Uh... no? I think? The truth is I don't really know what I've gotten myself into. Is there something I should know? Like absolutely everyone here does except the new person?"
no subject
So he smiles. She's young, barely a woman in Roman terms, probably still a girl by the standards of most of the people here, and she's here, in a place that is frightening and disorienting even to people far older than she is.
"I think what most people know here is that there are many things we do not know. All of the people here have come here from somewhere else, and none of us know how or why. There are no laws or rules here, just some people doing what they can to survive."
He pauses again, aware that the unstructured and unknown community here could seem daunting to someone young and obviously worried.
"You can always get lunch at the Inn, often another meal too. There is a sort of community here, and people do not like to see anyone go without." It's equally true of Gaius as the manager of the stores as it is of Kate Kelly the innkeeper.
no subject
Kamala exhales loudly in relief. "Okay good. You were scaring me for a second there! I thought I was going to have to avoid literally everyone because we were stuck in another Purge scenario." Yeah there's no way this guy will get the reference. "It's a story where all crime is legal for a day. People use it to terrorize each other and destroy everything."
Now back on topic: "So if I want to be a part of the community, I should go to the Inn for lunch?" As if the hunter green scrubs aren't enough of a hint she wants to be with people.