sixthiterationlogs | (no subject)

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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.

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.

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.

Like a fungus? All six of his good fingers tighten on his arms, feeling in his throat like there isn't any oxygen left in the breath it's suddenly holding. He sucks a fresh one through his teeth, and weird a feeling as it is, after months--

Alone. The word is alone. He blows the breath back out in a huff; if she means what it's weird enough to hope she does--yeah, he knows about military school. "Yeah," he sighs, rolling his shoulder on the post as he makes the final, careful step onto the porch. "Spent, five, seven years in one? It's been awhile."

One more breath, he takes the dive. People's pasts are their own business, but he has to know. "You--you mean the cordyceps, right?"

That makes her take pause, and definitely not in the good kind of way. Jess had told her that this place was far away from home and she couldn't get back. Meeting other people here had her thinking the same thing. But this guy has her wondering if maybe it isn't some big act. If she's being held here against her will by some group that wants her because of her immunity. It makes her instantly become defensive, posture taking on a rigid fighting stance as she backs up and away.

"What do you want with me?" The words are spit out, and she glances past him to look over the railing of her porch. If she needs to, she's going to take a running leap and get the hell out of here.

Well, that's its own kind of affirmative. Strong reaction, but he's not sure if it's odd. This whole place defies reason--most of the world dead defies reason--and he's his only other example of what it's like to come from that, to this.

Clear air. No infection. Strangers with new instincts and intentions.

All he knows about her is that she's here. That goes both ways. "Nothing," he says, backing up a step to lean into the opposite post. There girl, have your exit. "It's just--been fucking weird, no one here acts like it happened to them. Like it happened at all.

"I really just came over to warn you about the animals, that's all."

Her heart's racing, and she wants to shove him over and kick him a few times. He hasn't done anything, but her paranoia is starting to smother her and make her come close to having a panic attack. She realizes it as her breathing starts to quicken, and she feels warm as she becomes light headed. Another few stumbles and her back is pressed against the front door of her house. The house she lives in alone, the house that this guy knows she lives in now.

"Are you with the Fireflies?" He says he doesn't mean her any harm, but maybe he knows Marlene. Is this all a test?

He seems willing to let the conversation go quickly, but she's not able to the same way.

That gets his eyebrows up, keeps him from backing up any further--though one hand unfolds from an elbow and goes palm-out, fingers up to placate as she moves, signal that he won't come any closer. Loaded question; loaded answer, especially if the possibility is a source of her panic. His presence obviously is, but he can't back the fuck off and satisfy what she needs to hear at the same time.

Silence, left too long, is no better answer. Truth is quick, best option when it's just a kid and there's no one but the pair of them to even know what the Fireflies were. They must have held on, in her area. That or FEDRA didn't realize they were gone, was still wasting time teaching kids to fight other people, instead of the infected.

"Used to be, years back." The fingers of his raised hand spread a bit, but he keeps it up. "You got business with or against them, kid, I am not one to care. Just wanted to know everybody was safe in their houses tonight.