sixthiterationlogs | won't let the waves wash me away

Entry tags:

won't let the waves wash me away

WHO: Chloe Decker
WHERE: South Villiage Fountain | Town Hall | Hot Springs
WHEN: Beginning February 10th, from the day she arrives to a couple days later
OPEN TO: OTA
WARNINGS: Nothing, will update if needed

I. THE FOUNTAIN

It's a blessing she long ago learned how to swim in the unpredictable waves of the ocean, because Chloe isn't convinced she wouldn't have drowned just on account of the shock it was to wake up submerged in water. Most of it is a blur now, with clarity arriving only when she is finally pulling herself out, her fingers desperately clinging to the lip of the fountain even as she alternates between gasping for breath and gagging as she forces water out of her lungs. Eventually, she's prone on the ground, eyes staring up into the sky as she tries to force herself to breathe normally, but by then, the fountain-created trauma is now being quickly obscured by general panic, because she has no idea where the hell she is.

Finally finding the strength to push herself onto her knees, she palms wet hair from her face and takes in the uniqueness of her surrounding. This definitely isn't Los Angeles. With her adrenaline waning, she's starting to feel the cold, and the common sense part of her brain is telling her that she needs to get up and get inside, but that small voice is overshadowed by her shock and confusion. Finally, she forces herself to stand up, a bit more wobbly on her feet than she'd like but it's a step in the right direction.

It's then that she feels the weight on her back and she stares down at her shoulder, her forehead wrinkling in confusion as she slips it off of her. "Wha... Why am I wearing a fricking backpack?"

Because that is, of course, the most important question at the moment.

II. TOWN HALL

She's (sort of) clean and dry, and she swapped out her wet creepy scrubs for the equally offensive overalls and undershirt, with the provided coat as an additional layer. Chloe hasn't stayed down for the count long, though; she's already poking around, trying to orient herself to her new surroundings.

Eventually, she finds her way into the town hall, her still somewhat waterlogged hiking boots sucking pathetically against the floor as she rounds into the main room. She's moving slowly, slow enough that her demeanor could be considered timid, but her sharp and narrowed eyes speak to a more confident wariness as she examines the room around her.

"Hello?" Oh, yeah, she's also holding a giant stick she found in the woods, you know, just in case.

III. HOT SPRINGS

Just because she has no idea what's going on doesn't mean she can't take a break. After she's had a little time to settle in and get some more information about the settlement and the surrounding area, Chloe decides to pay a visit to the hot springs. She's been constantly cold, and she feels gross, and a dip in some warm water seems like the least she could do for herself while she tries to grasp what she's going to do next.

Blissfully, it looks like there isn't anyone there when she arrives, especially since she realizes she didn't entirely think through what she was going to wear when she got in the water. Her internal monologue starts a fight between paranoid modesty and practicality and the latter finally wins over, resulting in Chloe depositing everything but her cotton bra and underwear on the rocks before she wades into the water.

She's already starting to feel better once she settles in, letting out a breath as she rests her head against a rock and closes her eyes. This is precisely the kind of respite she needed, although her peace probably is not destined to last for long.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The woman seems to be settling in nicely as Chloe quietly seethes. Once she realizes her own discomfort isn't going to scare the stranger away, she does her best to try to relax again, leaning back and doing her best to close her eyes and arrive back into the zen place she had nearly reached before the interruption.

It lasts for a whole thirty seconds or so before curiosity gets the best of her and Chloe cracks open one eye, doing her best to covertly spy on her new company. The other woman seems perfectly content to keep to herself, at least, but it's her confidence that is what is of most interest to Chloe at the moment. She huffs and opens her eyes, sitting forward and appraising the other woman for a moment before she speaks again.

"So, um. Have you been here for a while?"

Rosa hears the movement of the water first, and she knows that there's going to be a voice that follows. She clenches her jaw and stiffens her shoulders in anticipation, and sure enough, it comes warbling out a few seconds later.

It's not that Rosa's .. unfriendly, so much as ... no, okay, Rosa's unfriendly. But it's more that she's still having a difficult time adjusting to what it means to be a fucking prisoner in this god-forsaken village in god knows where for god knows why and god knows how long. It's a lot of giant question marks, and all of it adds up to Rosa being more tense than she'd normally be. It's like she's living in an unsolvable case: no evidence, no leads, no reliable witnesses, nothing. Completely cold.

The hot springs are one of the only things to help to ease some of that tension, and normally, she takes the opportunity to do some meditation. Otherwise, she figures, she might go on a stabbing spree and just .. murder the entire village. Or as many as she could before someone takes her down.

Still, people have been helpful to her, regardless of how she might present herself, so the fact that this woman is curious and asking questions is annoying, but it's also not surprising. Maybe she's arrived recently and is trying to piece together the puzzle the same way Rosa is. That's the only thing that keeps Rosa from lunging and holding this woman's head underwater for a minute or two.

She cracks open one eye, takes in the woman for half a second, then holds up her wrist to look at the device's date. Her hand plops back under the water.

"I didn't pay attention to the date when I got here, but it's been a couple weeks. You new?"

Chloe is having the same problems, even if her methods of dealing with it involve... significantly less violent imagery. Everyone in this place seems to be as equally at a loss as to a lot of what is going on as Chloe is, regardless of how long they've been there. It's in her own nature to dig into everything she can and try to find the answers, but at least she isn't completely alone in doing it. Even if her partner is generally as useful as a child, he's here, and he has his moments of helpfulness.

"Yeah. Only about a day or so." She doesn't need to evaluate her own watch, but the woman's movement makes her acutely aware of it on her wrist again. Chloe has already made her vain attempts to remove it and now has simply moved onto fussing with it when she is once again made aware of its existence. She does so now, her palm twisting over it nervously.

"This place is a trip, huh?" To put it ever so mildly.

And there's the confirmation of what Rosa already suspected: the woman's new. Like, fresh-out-of-the-proverbial-womb new, only the womb is the fountain. Or the bunker, from the stories she's heard from some of the others. She's yet to make her way there, but she knows its general location; she'll get there eventually.

She does her best to appear something resembling sympathetic, though it kind of makes her look more like she's annoyed. And — well, she kind of is annoyed, but it isn't at the stranger anymore. It's at the fact that this fucking place is still pulling people in, and no one's closer to understanding any of it.

"Yeah, these things suck," she says, gesturing with a flick of her gaze towards the woman's wristband. "Like a fucked up perma-FitBit, only shittier." At least the FitBit tracks heart rate and steps.

Her question makes Rosa immediately think of Gina, and that, in turn, makes her sad as fuck. Rosa's gotten closer with just about everyone on the squad over the years, but she and Gina have always had a solid relationship. She'd go fucking apeshit in a place like this, though, so it's probably better that she's not here.

"I don't know shit, to be honest, but — I'll, uh, I can try to answer what I can, if you've got questions."

The awkwardness between them is starting to fade a little, at least from Chloe's point of view, and it's putting her more at ease. She glances down at the wristband and manages a half-hearted smile.

"The least they could have done was let us choose the color."

Not that Chloe probably would have gone for anything much different. Gray was sadly appropriate for her. It was boring and forgettable.

"I've been filled in a little. The Observers and the colors, mostly. I'm still having a hard time making any sense of it." She leans forward slightly, a little more invested in giving the other woman her attention now. "Is there anyone here working to figure out how to get us home? A group of scientists or cops or something?" If there are, she needs to get herself involved right away.

Rosa's mouth only twitches in response to the woman's attempt at humor. She can't help but think that it sounds exactly like something Amy would say while trying to be funny (and failing), and Rosa's torn between feeling incredibly sad at Amy's absence (which, of course, gets funneled straight into rage because who has time for feeling sad right now?) and trying to make herself seem more amused at the comment. She ends up somewhere in between, hands balls into fists again, mouth twitching a little more sporadically into something only vaguely resembling a good-humored smile.

She can't help but shift back ever so slightly when the woman leans in, keeping an eye on her for any sudden movements or weird behaviors. She seems harmless enough, but Rosa can't know that for sure — and, given the fact that she's still butt-ass naked, she's a little more on-guard than she would be otherwise.

There's a flash of something in her eyes at the mention of 'cops,' but she doesn't say anything right away. She considers the woman for a few silent moments.

"Heard there were folks trying to figure shit out. Science-types." A pause, then a very deliberate choice to reveal some choice information. "Don't know if there are any other cops in the village."

Other cops. Well, isn't that some interesting information that makes a whole lot of sense. Chloe sizes the woman up a little differently, now, but she can see it. Her aloofness and suspicion weren't indications enough, though, and she doesn't reek of cop like how Dan does. If anything, she seems a far throw from what anyone would expect, which probably does her a lot of favors.

There's also the fact that she looks like she could kick Chloe's ass, but that's more of a reason to be on her good side.

Still, Chloe can also respect the metered information. Admitting to being a cop in a lot of places can turn bad fast, and Chloe still hasn't felt out the village well enough to know what kind of reactions she can look forward to. Here, though, in the safety of just the two of them and the hot springs, she can let out a little relieved breath.

"Well, there are now," she offers, with a slight nod of her head. "Chloe Decker, LAPD."

Rosa bites back her disappointment at hearing LAPD at the last possible second, and instead, it comes out as an entirely neutral, vacant-eyed nod. It's not that she's got anything against the LAPD specifically, but .. it's the West Coast. West Coast sucks, as far as she's concerned. It's like a Tupac vs. Biggie thing, only with less gang violence, hopefully.

And less murder.

"Detective or beat cop?" she asks, quirking a brow. She hesitates a second before adding, "Rosa Diaz, NYPD." And then, "Detective."

"Detective," Chloe confirms. "Homicide."

Not that solving murders will do her a lot of good, but with at least one other detective around, they might be able to put those detective skills to work.

She doesn't have quite the attitude about the East Coast that Rosa has about the West Coast, mostly because she's never been there. But she is an L.A. girl through and through.

"Maybe it will give us a leg-up in figuring out what's happening here."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

won't let the waves wash me away

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject