sixthiterationlogs | I'll go where answers can be found/Kick the door and smash it down [OPEN]

WHO: Samantha Moon
WHERE: The Tubes
WHEN: Spread out across early November
OPEN TO: YOU, YES, YOU (OTA)
WARNINGS: Standard warning for Sam's mouth, will update if needed

Sam liked to spend the occasional evening down in the tubes. She'd volunteered to watch for new arrivals, as was her 'civic duty,' or whatever. But it was more the peace she enjoyed. Living in the Inn came with a lot of dorm-y frustrations, between the single bathroom, the occasional neighbors punching her damn walls, and what she assumed were sex noises echoing through the halls.

But she had a new reason to go down there now: Stealing shit.

That was the idea, anyway. Although, so far, she hadn't found much worth taking. But all scientific endeavors, she knew, came with their fair share of setbacks. True, she and Bruce didn't have to worry about IRB approval or grand funding. No, they just had to deal with a serious lack of any equipment worth having. Not to mention anything that actually had the power to give her any kind of insight into the proteins swirling around the inmates' DNA. But Sam was nothing if not stubborn. So for a few nights, she crept down to the tubes, carrying a kitchen knife, a metal rod, and a canvas bag. Just in case she found something.

The biggest problem was the lists of names. No matter what Sam did, no matter what she told herself, she always and inevitably found herself reading them, again and again. The pain of seeing Avery on the list had dulled from a knife in her heart to an annoying ache. But the trouble with annoying aches was that they were fucking annoying.

Kind of like Avery, she supposed.

And if she wasn't scavenging through the equipment or reading the lists, she would sometimes take a small break, crouching down in a corner and sketching. At least now she wasn't obsessively drawing the sky. She had plans. Maybe unrealistic, irrational plans. But forward momentum wasn't something to sneer at. So she sketched all the equipment she wanted to build or have or make. Everything she and Bruce would need to conduct their work.

You know, in a perfect world.

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"Hilarious." Bela deadpanned with a roll of her eyes. "I'll go right to the good Doctor as soon as I leave here." She does appreciate the fact that Samantha has a sense of humour - much like her own - so Bela is keen to see where this conversation would lead.

She leaned against the wall, folding her arms.

"So, why are you here then? If not to satisfy your wanton need for destruction."

"Oh, I'm just looking for useful shit to steal," Sam replied. She saw no point in having any kind of shame. The village was too small for that kind of thing. And it wasn't like there was any kind of black market for the panels that could make her rich at the expense of anyone else.

She turned the blunt end of the crowbar to Sexy British Lady and pointed at her. "And you?" she asked.

Somehow, she had a feeling it was going to be an interesting answer. Whatever it was.

"Ah. Who knows? Maybe you will strike it lucky down here." Having something of value to trade with someone may go a long way.

Provided there was something valuable around.

"Can't sleep. Thought I would wear myself out by checking out a place I've never really looked at before. See what I could find, if anything." Bela smiled. "Looks like I found you."

"So you found shit," Sam replied, smoothly and easily. If she didn't have black humor and self-effacing humor, she wouldn't have any at all. And she probably would have taken the short walk into the sunrise that she'd once considered, in the darkest and earliest days of her unfortunate...situation.

Fuck. She hated the way vampires used euphemisms and now she was into them. She decided to blame it on the Overlords. She blamed everything on them. It was very, very convenient.

Laying the crowbar out across her shoulder, she dipped her head to Sexy British Lady. "What's your name?"

Damn. Bela wasn't expecting that kind of response, but she kept smiling and didn't say anything. Not until the other woman asked for her name.

"My name is Bela." She held out a hand to her. "Who might you be?"

She couldn't even hazard a guess as to what it was, even though Bela has been in the village for almost a year now. Perhaps she needed to do better and get to know more people.

Sam, on the other hand, was pretty sure she'd heard the name 'Bela' before, although she couldn't exactly place it. A pity Avery wasn't around. He'd probably have started taking detailed notes on every single prisoner the second his feet touched the ground.

She'd have to rely on her ability to fucking talk to people.

Avery had never been as good at that.

"I'm Sam," she replied, offering the tiniest of mock bows. "The village vampire. The one who makes the vodka in the Inn." She reached out and shook Bela's hand. A firm handshake, even though she'd been forever told not to give anyone the opportunity to sense she didn't have a pulse.

Screw that.

A girl needed a firm handshake, or no one would respect her. And it wasn't like she was hiding anything any more.

For the first couple of weeks in the village, Bela had kept mostly to herself. She didn't feel like she could trust anyone, not until she had gotten her bearings.

"A pleasure to meet you, Sam." The handshake that Bela gave back was just as firm and assured, confident. "I wasn't aware that we had a village vampire - that's pretty interesting." She's being honest with that comment, given the world that she was used to back home.

"...I was wondering where the vodka came from. Nice."

It really wasn't a pleasure to meet Sam. Not at all. As any of the mean girls from her high school could attest. But Sam would let Bela decide that for herself. She found that pointing out the fact that it was, indeed, not a pleasure to meet her yielded some interesting social consequences that she didn't care to analyze.

She smiled instead.

"Honestly, the vodka is probably more interesting in context than the vampire thing," she said. "But just so we're clear, I'm not going to try to eat you."

It was important to establish boundaries early on.

Bela wasn't going to win any most pleasant person of the year awards either. She was sweet towards others when it suited her best...mostly when she wanted something from them.

She's complicated.

"Thanks for the clarification. This place is bad enough without the risk of having my blood drained from my body." A pause. "How do you survive then? If you don't drink from humans?"

"Bambi and Thumper," Sam said, making a vague gesture to the above-ground world, filled with its trees and it's weird-ass wildlife. And the even weirder-ass zombie friend who managed to catch the critters for her.

She didn't fucking know what she'd do without Liv.

And she didn't like to think of the possibility.

"It's a scientific fact that blood is blood is blood. At least from mammals." Supernaturally, the facts were a bit more complicated, but she wasn't going to bore Bela with that shit.

I'll go where answers can be found/Kick the door and smash it down [OPEN]

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