(no subject)

[epundemic]

WHO: Ellie
WHERE: Fountain, Storehouse, Inn, House 15
WHEN: Ellie's arrival (August 1) & the first few days after
OPEN TO: Jessica Jones + Open
WARNINGS:Nothing for now, will update as needed

---

Fountain (closed to Jessica Jones)
The last thing she remembers is water. There had been so much water, and not enough time to get Joel out of the bus he had been trapped in. The water overcame her and filled her nose and mouth, and eventually her lungs. When she blacked out, the last thing she could recall feeling was terror. As she wakes up surrounded by water, that terror turns to panic. Both combine to make her thrash away from the force she feels gently pushing her upward. It's enough to get her moving but not good enough to bring her anywhere near the surface.

Her first instinct screams to find Joel, but it doesn't take longer than a couple of seconds for her to realize that he's not here. She's not in the same place anymore, she must've been washed away somewhere else. She can tell that the water here isn't necessarily as deep as what she had been drowning in before, sunlight visible from where she is. She can't swim, so her struggle is mainly flailing limbs and an attempt to claw her way up while ignoring the burst of nausea she feels as her lungs burn in protest.

Storehouse
Okay, so she's not just going to let her clothes and shit be taken without at least trying to get them back. Ellie doesn't have much in the world and the fact that what little she does have was taken from her doesn't sit right with her. Not like the way she woke up here or the fact she has no idea where she actually is makes her feel warm and fuzzy, but it's not knowing where her things are that really get to her. She stubbornly refuses to believe they're just gone and takes to looking for them. Eventually, she ends up at the storehouse. It looks like where things are stored, so maybe this is where all the stolen stuff is kept?

She's not exactly quiet while she's digging around, ranting and raving about just what she's going to do to whoever touched her stuff when she finds them.

Inn
It doesn't take long for Ellie to find out where it is she's supposed to go in order to find work. She's so conditioned to having to earn her keep that she doesn't even stop long enough to consider she might deserve a break. The census is at the inn, and there she can find a way to register herself and make herself officially useful. She ends up exploring the first level of the inn after doing so, finding her way right to the kitchen. She's starving, and her stomach comically growls right in time with her eyes spotting some things just sitting around.

Not really sure if it's cool for her to do or not, she creeps her way in so she can grab an apple. But why stop with just one apple when you can have two, and maybe a potato or two to go along with them? She ends up juggling it all and winds up dropping an apple in the process. Her teeth firmly bite into the other apple to hold onto it, and the potatoes are set aside as she chases along after the runaway fruit. It rolls and leads the way right to a pair of shoes that get her to stop in her tracks and glance upward. Are they here to stop her?

House 15
Ellie's like an old lady, spending way too much time out on the porch of her house. The inside is huge, way bigger than anything that a girl her age needs. Maybe if Joel were here with her, it'd be different. But he isn't, so she accepts the house and thinks of it as her castle. Sure, she runs around the house a lot and feels weird having so many empty rooms. But it's space that's all hers, something she's never had before. Military school didn't exactly allow private rooms. As much as she loves spending time inside a huge house alone, it's the porch that she spends the most time on. In her first week there, she spends hours sitting on the railing and just observing life around the settlement. She even sleeps out there, meaning that it's easy for her to jump up to attention and throw rocks at anyone that's out late making too much noise.

Comments

House 15

[oorah]

Frank doesn't make any noise at all, passing by on his nightly route though there's no official patrol team here. He takes it unto himself to make sure the village is well-guarded. This is usually where he'd stop and head back, before he could convince himself to scope out the upper cluster of houses too. He figures those people want to be left alone, so they don't want or need his protection.

As ever, he has two faithful shadows, well. One faithful shadow in the shape of a brown-and-tan bloodhound and one psychotic black German shepherd who's sniffing all over the goddamned place. Whatever magic allowed him to communicate with Aurora, unbeknownst to him still, is absent now and the poor, sweet thing is back to her frazzled self. The dog bolts and Aretha starts braying to let Frank know something is awry. The hairs on the back of his neck rise in twofold warning and just as he screams for the other dog, voice hoarse from unuse, there's a sharp pain in his leg. His eyes widen in alarm, but as he squints through the darkness, he picks up a rock off the street. What the...?

Aretha starts growling, something he never hears from her much, and he pats at her head to get her to calm down, thinking as always of Max and hoping he's safe. What's more pressing is the figure of a person on a nearby porch who had cast the first stone, as it were. Frank marches right up the steps and stands over - a girl? it's just a girl, Frank - the new occupant of the house. There had been a man here before, one he'd never spoken to. There are lights on inside that illuminate her freckled face and the dawning realization almost has him spiraling out. She doesn't remember you.

Frank drops the stone at her feet with a loud crack of rock against wood. It may have even dented the board. Aretha is up against his hip, ears back and teeth bared. Aurora is probably taking a shit in the backyard, he'll track her down in a minute. First: he's in full-on dad lecture mode.

"What the goddamn hell were you thinkin'? Throwing rocks at people. And dogs. If you hit one of the dogs-" He swallows, rage spiking in his eyes, but then he deflates just as fast. He really doesn't have the energy for this. He's not everyone's parent here, he can't be. You don't have to be everything to everyone anymore. If only he could believe it. "You do that again and I'll hear about it. I'll invite everyone in town over so they can throw rocks at you, how's that sound?"

Yeah, the moment the sting had eased, so had his anger. He knows he's not being nearly as scary as he could be. Frank takes a deep breath and shakes his head. Why him? What did he ever do to deserve this shit, time and time again?

[epundemic]

Ellie's eyes narrow, and she watches both the man and his dogs with suspicion. They can growl at her all they want, but she's not going to be intimidated. She's actually curious about the dogs, but it's not like that matters now. She's never going to be able to get in close to them now, no matter how fascinated she is by the fact that these dogs are perfectly healthy. Well, one of them is anyway. She doesn't know where the other one is, but it didn't exactly seem like a threat when she saw a glance of it running.

"Hey, you know what? Fuck you! If I wanted to hit one of the dogs, I would've!"

Her anger runs hot and is over in a flash, sizzling out to become complete exasperation. Why would he assume she doesn't have any aim? Is it because she's a kid, or because she's a girl? Either way, she's offended.

"I don't just go around throwing rocks. You're out late at night and your dog howling woke me up!" This of course, implies that they had scared her. She doesn't want to outright admit that, but she might as well at least hint at the fact the sound of his dog braying scared the shit out of her. She figures he probably won't believe her, that he'll underestimate her and assume she's not capable of having a reaction time fast enough to hear his dog and then hop up to hurl a rock at his leg.

"Look," she keeps on talking, a little more resigned to the fact that maybe tossing a rock was a dick move even if she still feels it was necessary. "I'm a kid, sure. But I've still got to protect myself. That was a warning shot. If I wanted to actually hurt you or hit your dog, I would've. You guys weren't ever in any danger. Got it? "

She anxiously curls her fingers around the bottom of her dark green scrubs, tugging at it. It's hard to go from always having to fight anything that moves in the dark to being part of a quiet village like this one. Maybe she's not going to be able to fit in here, since she can already imagine this dad looking asshole bringing everyone in town to throw rocks at her. At least maybe if they did it right and stoned her to death, she'd have a chance of seeing Joel again.

[oorah]

It was a good hit for a literal shot in the dark, Frank had noticed. And he doesn't underestimate her at all, in fact being a girl only vastly improves her chances of him never doing that to her. He takes a breath and realizes he probably shouldn't be threatening newly arrived kids. He never would've flown off the handle like that in Reims. He rocks his hand for the dog who takes it as a 'stand down' gesture, sitting up and panting cheerily a second later. He can hear Aurora milling around now, but maybe it's best if she doesn't come back around right away. Frank still isn't sure what Ellie's demeanor is going to be. He'd seen her be everything from hostile to sweet, and after he'd just yelled at her the response is more-or-less expected.

"We didn't mean to scare you," he points out after a long pause, nodding resolutely to her pledge. "You're not in any danger from us either. OK?"

Aretha approaches slow, nudging at Ellie's hand, but Aurora is a force of nature, careening into Frank's side and barking a few times in greeting when she finally decides she's checked the place out to her satisfaction.

[epundemic]

She starts to give him a thumbs up but the dogs steal her attention. They're a lot to take in at once, and Ellie goes rigid as one of them nudges at her hand. She rises back up on the heels of her boots, staying perfectly still so she won't risk being bit or attacked. Aretha is calm enough that she presses her hand toward the dog's nose, but it's timed right as the other one comes charging toward them.

For as brave as Ellie is, and as strong as she can be, the sheer energy coming off the animal is enough to make her scoot back in apprehension. There's no attacking going on though, just...one hell of an energetic dog. And okay, maybe Aurora reminds her of herself sometimes. Barking and careening all over the place, doing whatever the hell she wants. The thought puts a smile on her face and she laughs as she crouches down to cautiously lean in to offer her hand for both dogs to sniff.

"So, do you guys have names?" She questions the dogs, but glances up toward their human. It's as good of an apology as he's going to get, and also her way of trying to keep the peace between them.

[oorah]

Frank is about to call Aretha back (and attempt to get Aurora to listen) but then Ellie is opening herself up for the dogs and they're all too happy to get right in there. Aretha nuzzles the offered hand sedately while Aurora skips it completely to lick a stripe right across Ellie's cheek.

"Aurora," he says pointing to the taller black dog. "Aretha." Pointing to the bloodhound. He shrugs. He's not their human, not exactly, but he's one of their caretakers all the same.

[epundemic]

"Hey, hey...calm down, girl." Ellie laughs as Aurora licks at her cheek. She doesn't really mind it, even if the energy radiating off the dog is overwhelming. "My name's Ellie." Once again, it's spoken to the dogs rather than him directly. But the introduction is meant for him too.

She lets the sniffing and inspection phase of the introduction get to petting, and she's fascinated by Aretha's big floppy ears. Aurora nudges her way right back in close, licking at her cheek again.

"What about you, brick house? You got a name?"

Inn

[morphogenia]

Kamala is here to make a surprise lunch before she tracks down Frank. A lot has happened recently. She's eager to do something to help the other man cheer up a little... as much as a man like Frank Castle cheers up at any rate. She's not expecting rolling fruit, but it doesn't even give Kamala pause. She picks it up and holds it out with a smile. As far as she knows they all share here so what could the problem be? Other than the girl might be clumsy.

"Here!" Whenever the other girl takes it, Kamala follows up with the obvious question. "Are you here to make lunch too?"

[epundemic]

She's pleasantly surprised to see a pretty face that looks close to being her age. It's something she's not particularly used to running into, which might explain how she winds up staring for a little longer than necessary. She still has one of the apples skewered against her teeth, and has to take a big bite out of it so she can pull it free. She's in the middle of chewing when she takes the offered apple from the girl.

"So I can just take anything here?"

If she sounds skeptical or filled with total disbelief, it's because she isn't used to food being so readily available or free for the taking. She eyes the apple she's currently enjoying with a healthy dose of apprehension.

"You're sure no one's gonna try punishing me?"

[morphogenia]

"Yep!" Kamala starts chipperly before the rest of what Ellie is saying sinks in. She looks rightfully horrified by the thought. "What? No! These people aren't like that at all. This nice, but kind of quiet guy, Owen, totally gave me the low down after I came out of the fountain. They're just... nice. Actual nice and not cult nice. That's an important difference when you wind up in these situations." She releases a heavy breath. She thinks of Reims. The natives there were only decent to them so they'd stick around, help them survive, and have new babies someday. It becomes more horrifying to Kamala as time goes on. She doesn't bother hiding how much the memory freaks her out to this day.

She forces herself to snap out of it. She's supposed to be making lunch. "So don't be afraid to feed yourself, okay? Just try to avoid eating everything because common courtesy and all that." She's going to see if they have more potatoes. Everyone loves those for lunch.

[epundemic]

Hearing all of that rambling makes her smile a little, a hint of laughter hidden as she takes another bite from the apple. It's a lot to take in all at once, and she gives a nod to try and show she's heard her. It gives her some time to think, to decide if she wants to just grab what she needs and run. As she swallows the bite that's in her mouth, she realizes that it's been so long since she's had a friend her age she can't just skip out on the potential to at least get to talk.

There's a crunch as she takes another big bite from the apple, but moves to set the other one aside for now. As Kamala heads off to check on something, Ellie curiously follows along. As she finishes up her mouthful, she wipes at her mouth with the back of her hand. Someone's not used to having to use things like manners.

"Don't worry, I don't think I could eat this much food if I tried. But uh -" She hesitates, trying to figure out what counts as friendly conversation and what's intrusive to ask a stranger. "What are you getting?"

[morphogenia]

Kamala doesn't hesitate to answer for a minute. She's one of a handful of teenagers. Like she's going to miss her chance to talk to one of them. Like the multi-tasker she is, Kamala gathers and talks at the same time. "Potatoes for sure! Along with everything I need to make them taste good like garlic, dill, and banana peppers since he really should get more heat in his life." She is just hunting these items down while she talks.

"Then there's the side dish...." Kamala snaps her fingers. "If you were a terrifying man on the outside, would you rather eat chickpeas or corn?"

[epundemic]

Wait, this girl can cook? It's sort of a lost art for people their age where she's from, if only because most people don't have the supplies or safety necessary to make actual meals. The concept of actually being able to choose whatever you want and then put it all together to make food for someone else is so far fetched she has to awkwardly laugh in near disbelief. Her hands go to her hips as she does, shrugging her shoulders.

"Well, bake where I'm from..." She pauses, letting that cooking related pun sink in for a second before she picks her thought back up. "Terrifying men eat anything they can get their hands on. Even other people. So maybe we should stick to the corn for now."

She isn't even sure what a chickpea is, but since she's here and someone clearly knows all about this stuff, she might as well find out.

House 15

[underpinnings]

Owen knows you can't prepare for everything, but--tossed in a hole with a Runner, rolled out of a fountain, struck by lightning and, days ago, tasked with killing some inhuman beast--he thought himself better equipped than most. More mistakes to learn from, at least.

Never really had to ask the question before: what's the gentlest way to wake a teenage girl and tell her too many things go bump in the night for porch sleepovers?

Gentle doesn't usually come off that way, from him. Gentle might not be in his wheelhouse, whether it's nature or nurture you subscribe to. Tonight, Owen's the one tossing rocks, once he's stepping on every stick he can find while he hunts one. Picking up what's more of a hard clod of dirt, he aims it at the adjacent window, keeping off the porch itself until she reacts.

"Hey," he stage whispers, not trying to hide what he's done. "You awake, kid?"

[epundemic]

Ellie's a light sleeper out of necessity. Being here doesn't change that. By the time he's in close enough to actually speak to her, she's been awake for a while, and is watching him closely. Not everyone here needs to be attacked or shouted at, and it's a lesson she's trying to remember. But instinct is hard to forget, as are the years of conditioning she's had that make her wary of people she doesn't know yet.

She shifts to stand up, eyes narrowing as she tries to assess the threat level this guy might provide. Keeping a cautious distance is her priority for now.

"I am now. What're you doing out so late?"

[underpinnings]

He woke her up; he can answer a question. New people tend to get lost in the shuffle of his drifting through, in and back out to the open plains. Things are simpler out there, but something always brings him back. This, he supposes. Kids sleeping on porches. "Heading home, lost daylight and didn't want to crash in the houses by the lake."

Not after what he saw by its edges. Owen doesn't know if that's how it usually works--when most things don't rattle you, the things that do rattle deep, and hard.

Or the wendigo was just terrifying, full stop. "You talk to many people here yet," he asks, hand on a beam and no intention of passing that last step. "Not a good idea to sleep outside if you don't have to. Had some predators through recently."

[epundemic]

"Yeah?" She's curious, unable to help herself. Whether she's looking for a good story or just information isn't exactly obvious, but she leans forward a little like she's expecting him to elaborate all the same. "I'm used to dealing with all kinds of weird shit, but...what kind of predator are we talking about here?"

In true stubborn kid fashion, she doesn't answer the question about whether or not she's talked to a lot of people, because she doesn't even know his name. He doesn't need to know who she knows, or who she might hang around. She also isn't about to explain why she's out on the porch by herself, at least not this late. That's something that dives into some of the issues she has, and she's not sure if his giving her information qualifies for unlocking her tragic backstory.

[underpinnings]

That she doesn't know the story already is answer enough, and Owen's grimace is for her luck in missing the bloody affair, might even miss the funeral to the south. He'd been about sixteen, seventeen when he'd had to fend entirely for himself; it isn't a habit he's shaken, even in company. He doesn't expect her to take anything but the information from him tonight.

"Big antlered thing, twice the size of a man. Headlight eyes, shedding this nasty black skin. Had some smaller ones come off the mountain with it after an earthquake." Crossing his arms, he relaxes into something a little more neutral, arm leaned against a beam of the porch. "Haven't seen one in a few days, but--worth having a locked door between you and whatever's out there." And, his presence might imply, strangers walking by in the dead of night, who either don't know to mind their business or don't want to.

[epundemic]

Ellie nods a little, eyebrows furrowing as she tries to envision what something like that must look like. "Where I come from, people are sick. It's in their brain, like a fungus? Anyway, it turns people into monsters. Nothing with antlers and headlight eyes, but still pretty messed up." She's not trying to say she can handle herself, because adults usually always fight her on that. She's just trying to say she can fight if she needs to.

"It's just weird being in a place this big all alone. I grew up in a military school. You know what that means, right?" The face she pulls is ridiculous, like thinking back on it is something terrible and repulsive. "Dorm rooms."

She's been away from that life for about a year now, spent four seasons with Joel as they travel. That was always just going to be a temporary thing, since she always thought the Fireflies would take her in and make her one of them. She had gotten used to sharing space with Joel, with living alongside him the best way either of them knew how. Here, she's all alone and has nothing but quiet and space. It's surreal, but this is just another detour on her path. She has to find her way back home.

Inn

[notan_animal]

Logan lives all the way over in the other village but he's there when food becomes a necessity that isn't the fish or rabbit that he's caught in and around his place. He also stocks up on the other stuff when he comes around to give back as is required. No one seems to need as much firewood these days, but there's other work to be done, repairs on a number of buildings after the earthquake and wendigo attack.

Spotting the girl, he watches without expression until the apple bouncing off the toe of his boot gets him to look down. An arched brow and inquisitive look will greet Ellie when she finally looks up.

[epundemic]

At first glance, she thinks she sees Joel. She's not stupid enough to think that it's actually him, of course, but the scruffiness and dark features are enough of a resemblance that she stares for a few seconds. Her hand reaches out to quickly grab the apple, and she snatches it back to hold against her chest. He doesn't look particularly likely to try and take it from her, but she's so used to having to fight for everything she has that it's instinctive to be ready for a fight.

"Is this your place or something?"

the jess one

[underachievement]

Her path across the village takes her past or through the fountain, though most people have to walk by it at least once during the day. Presumably for this exact reason. She's gotten used to the sound of the fountain running. Like the ceaseless din of the New York streets, she's come to tune it out, so the burbling of air breaking the surface gets her attention immediately. Violent splashing ought to follow and Jess is already beelining for the water as she registers what it means that none does and the bubbles have nearly stopped. She leans over the stone edge hoping to see nothing, sees a whole lotta drowning kid, curses and jumps in without taking her boots off or taking a breath in.

Two quick strokes and Jess hooks an arm around her chest and hopes to hell this is how you do this, struggling to drag them both up. No fucking superpowers, Jones, not true, don't panic, the surface breaks and Jess gasps for the air she should have grabbed before diving. She hooks herself to the fountain's edge and hefts the kid up against her, trying to keep her head above water.

[epundemic]

The first thing that registers with Ellie is that the body she's pressed up against isn't a familiar one. It's not Joel, that's for damn sure, and it can't be Tess because she's long since gone. She's disoriented but aware enough to know that she needs to stop struggling, flailing and kicking isn't going to help anyone out here. It takes a second to feel out how the woman helping her out is moving, but soon Ellie tries making her motions go in unison so they can work together.

Eventually, she feels her head press up above the water, and she takes in a gasping breath. That turns to coughing, which quickly turns to sputtering. When she ends up throwing up, there's no amount of gratitude that's enough to express how glad she is that it manages to land in the water instead of all over them. An awkward silence stretches out before she feels the need to say something. Anything, just so she won't be known as the kid that almost drowned and then puked on herself.

"Shit..." she hoarsely rumbles, feeling completely out of sorts. "Where the hell are we?"

[underachievement]

Dragging them all the way out is the hard part. The scrubs on new arrivals are fairly light but Jess never wears hers. Her boots and denim are weighed down more than she's used to compensating for, which is not at all, and even though she can breathe, she sputters roughly as much as her rescue victim from the effort of getting them on solid ground. Jess spits water as she rolls onto her back, comforted by the sound of vomiting splashing into the fountain. Means she doesn't need CPR and isn't so waterlogged she can't turn onto her side and stop herself from choking on her own puke. Day saved, they've both earned a breather.

Ellie's perfectly reasonable question moments later incurs a hundred insufficient answers. Jess knows because she's still asking herself that, though she's gotten the village name and read up on the history, such as it's been documented, which isn't much. The glib responses are even worse, not that she's gotten many of them, she's just thought of a lot. Nothing she comes up with is as bad as the last cosmic kidnap she was a part of, so they don't seem totally accurate. They're not appropriate either but the kid's vibe is as concerned of that as Jessica's typically is, going by the first words out of her mouth.

"It's a village called Sixth," she exposits as she lifts herself up enough to sit on her ass as she pulls off a boot and upends it, freeing a small puddle. "People show up like that," nodding to the fountain, "and then they just live here."

[epundemic]

Ellie remains flopped over the side of the fountain before pulling herself out, landing in a heap on the ground. Coughing up a little more, she rolls over onto her stomach, pushing herself up on her arms as she finally dislodges the last bit of water out of her chest. Her lungs are still burning, but she'll survive.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen. I can't stay here."

Slowly, she pushes herself up onto her feet, and reaches up to shove wet hair that's matted to her face up and out of the way. She finally can get a good look at her hero like this, and she instantly takes notice that there isn't a big rush to get out of the open area they're currently in. It puts her further on edge.

"No way!" She's working her way through her emotions, the exclamation coming out as she feels her body over for injury and takes notice of the scrubs she's in. "Someone took my clothes?" Her mind's a little puzzled as to when there was time for that, and as reality starts to settle in and weigh her down she looks close to either throwing up all over again.

[underachievement]

Jess empties out her other boot while the new arrival processes her situation. Her first rodeo, from the sounds of it. Weird to think that it gets easier. Weird and Stockholmy. But Jess only has hope of returning to New York because she did it once before. If that's something their overseers took into account, well, at least they weren't the clueless dipshits running the old place. She hates them equally, regardless. Anything less is drinking the punch.

Notable that Ellie's panic isn't shoving Jess away, so she has no bubble. Her scrubs are green, which makes sense, within the insane framework of this place. Kamala's wrist thingy is green. Maybe it's an age thing.

"I know you have no reason to trust me," Jess starts, pushing herself to her feet, she'll think of the rest of the sentence on her way up, ope, she didn't. Abandoning that lonely beat-up caboose of a thought, she switches gears to, "I'm Jess."