City of Shadows Mux City of Shadows Mux

Pink and Petite Reunion
Players Cori, Rune	Washington Park September 9th, 2022 Old friends unexpectedly find each other again in an unexpected place and start catching up with each other.
The sun has only been up for a few hours, and within the Turning Leaf, most of the 'residents' (full time or for-a-night) have already shuffled out the front door to go about their lives. Very few hang out at the center, so it is pretty sparsely populated at this hour. The sound of the shower down the hall in the girl's residential floor can be clearly heard in the relative silence. Thus, in that quiet time, the hush of water might be heard through open doors, and the squeaking of the handle being turned off can /certainly/ be a loud noise. A few minutes later, a tired and wet girl exits that communal bathroom and pads her way down the deserted hallway wrapped in a white towel, with another turbaned around her head. Turning into the first doorway into the first six-bunk bedroom that the hostel offers, she doesn't expect to run into anyone else. One of the beds in the girls' residential floor is still occupied by a guest. Said guest is curled up in a ball beneath a blanket with her head stuffed between two pillows being held tight against the noises. Staff members are commenting about how she's been passively resisting being woken up but another attempt is being made. From beneath the pillows, as one of the workers is gently shaking her shoulder, the guest's muffled voice can be heard saying "Soft, warm, no... le'me alone." Rune's brow furrows, realizing that /someone/ is still in the six-bed room, for she is used to having the morning time completely alone. It's glorious to sleep in the mostly-silent hostel, it beats the early evening times when the place is alive with conversations, people moving around, and music being played on dumpster-rescued radios. Giving a snicker at the sleeping-in person buried under the blankets, she says, "I'm not bugging you, go back to sleep." The line, the voice, both sound very familiar, doesn't it? The complaints stop at the familiar voice and the guest moves to sit up saying, "Sounds like I can stay if I want," to the worker as she sets down the pillows and asks, "Did I hear something about breakfast earlier?" which the staff member seems to take as compliance and steps off to get back to her regular duties since Rune's present to tacitly take charge of the guest. Blinking sleep away from her eyes, the petite guest looks around to see the pink haired Rune. Seeing the source of the voice, a potentially familiar face takes on a slight frown in recognition of the other young woman. Working to dry her hair with the towel, presently Rune has her back mostly to anyone else, since she is facing the little locker on the wall. Her clothes are laying on her bed, recently taken out of the dryer in the communal laundry, folded. She picks them up and carefully tucks them into the locker before closing the door. Sitting down on the edge of the bunk, more of her is visible since she turned halfway. Not at all expecting to being anyone interesting, especially here, she just starts to brush her hair quietly. She looks tired. She looks thin. But she looks familiar. Tilting her head and squinting as she looks at Rune, Cori ponders for a moment before standing up from the bed and walks around Rune observing her. She mutters to herself, something about familiar. Wait, is she sniffing the air... yes, but then she shakes her head and seems to mutter some sort of chastisement at herself. "You seem familiar," Cori says before asking two rapid fire questions: "Have we met?" and "Blonde maybe?" "Yeahno," Rune immediately responds, so conditioned is her knee jerk response, being all self-defensive in the city. But of course, a moment later, she peeks in your direction, and her brushing stops. Her eyes go wide, "Deal?" It's a whispered hush of a question, like she was in a dream and questioning the mirage she was experiencing, unsure if she is awake or not. Leaning a bit to the side to get a better view of you, her face goes white, "DEAL!!!!!" she almost screams, LEAPING off of the bed (narrowly missing knocking herself out on the top bunk frame) and almost tackling you! At the first voicing of that unique nickname, which confirmed Rune's identity all on its own, Cori begins to laugh happily. She takes the pseudo-tackle and lets it knock her back a step as she embraces her friend. "I thought it was you, Ajay!" she exclaims as she leans back a bit to look slightly up at Rune before adding, "Didn't expect to see you here in Chicago," with laughter still in her voice and coloring her expression. It might seem entirely inappropriate that Rune ends up half-straddling Cori's waist in the tackle, but the excitement is just too great for the self-conscious part of her brain to kick in and recoil in horror at what she has done. SO FAR. She sits there, kind of pinning Cori on the bunk bed, wet hair a curtain around her grinning face, so bright and excited, as she almost squeals! "What are you doing here? I mean," she starts, sitting up and sliding off of her best friend of forever. "What are you doing here?" comes the question again, now with a dark frown on Alyssa's face, truly concerned. They're in a hostel, somewhere she /never/ expected to see the likes of Cordelia, and it rocks her world a bit. "Are you okay?" true concern just bubbles out in the form of a very whispered question. Inappropriate? Maybe. Commented on? Not at all. Pinned as she is, Cori is smiling up at her friend. Then there's the question and the unpinning. The smile fades as the question is repeated. The young woman closes her eyes and, for a moment, is overwhelmed by the urge to tell Rune the truth about her "recent" experiences. Crushing that urge she simply shakes her head to the negative and says, "Not really, no," so softly as to be barely audible - had any other noises been being made as she answered it likely would not have been. Opening her bright jade-green eyes, Cori looks up at Rune with a sense of pleading in her expression. For what? Nothing clarifies that in her expression or body language as she sits back up on the bed. Reaching, Alyssa takes Cori's hand and pulls it toward her, wrapping it in both of hers and listening, very concerned. In some ways, it is not at all unlike the sports camp that they attended together so long ago, but in other ways, there are the reminders of where they are now. In a hostel, a halfway house. A shelter. Her face continues that dark concerned look, "Tell me." Just a simple demand, gentle but firm, ready to take care of her best friend. There is a flash of fear at the touch of her hand which is gone in an instant. Then her eyes are locked on the hands holding hers as she first nods - (This is my friend) - then shakes her head - (How can I) - and then, after furtive glances around the room, she nods again. "I... I've been away for so long... but it's only been a bit more than a week..." Cori sounds very much like she hasn't put this information into words ever before as she speaks. "I..." she looks up at Rune in a brief pause, "... I'm not the person you knew. Not any more, Ajay." "Girl," Alyssa laughs sardonically, "look around you! Neither of.. none of us, here, are who we were a year ago. I'm certainly not. But give me /something/. Are you healthy? Are you safe? Is there someone you want me to cut for you?" she challenges with a narrowing of her eyes, since she is /absolutely/ the last girl you'd probably call to send after someone else. So, to make things easier, she starts off by just blurting her situation out to bring you up to speed. All while holding your hand, like an anchor to better times. "I ran away from home, from my asshole father, my stupid mother, and a life that was just nothing but empty lies," the girl starts off, like she were describing the synopsis for some drama movie. "I left LA, hitching rides and hopping buses, until I ended up in Vegas. Spent a year there, the bottom fell out of my world and I was sleeping in alleys and in abandoned buildings," Rune whispers, "I was eating out of dumpsters, Deal. It was fucking gross." A breath, then she shakes her head, skipping forward, "I decided to change everything, and I mean everything. I spent two weeks camped at Burning Man, open to anything that would turn my life around, and... it did. I changed everything about myself, becoming someone new. I'm not Alyssa anymore. My name is Rune, and I am not who you remember either." Cori slowly nods as Rune speaks. Her expression slides towards sympathy - not that fake sympathy that is so overdone by people who don't really feel anything for the person they are looking at but sincere understanding and concern. "I didn't know," she says breathily in response to her friend's story. Alyssa knows that Cordelia's homelife was picture perfect when compared to her ordeals. After a few more moments she says, "The world is stranger than you know, Ajay," sounding almost as if she has decades of experience backing the statement. "I was... taken. And... things have happened to me, I... I'm /literally/ not the same as I was before." She pauses again and says, "You can't see it but I am truly different. A week ago I..." no, she won't say yet that she was taller than she is, that's a truth she's not ready to say. "I don't know if I can go home yet either. But no, there's no one you can cut to try to make this right, Alyssa." Haunted. Withholding. Totally not the Cordelia that Alyssa remembers from camp or their correspondences since. When you speak of being taken, of course Alyssa pictures a panel van and hoods, ropes and a secluded tent under a bridge somewhere. She's been close to that a time or two, herself, so her hands tighten around yours as you say it. She doesn't interrupt, she wants you to be able to get this all out, to rip that bandaid off so that you can start healing. If that's possible. So far, however, no word on rape or beatings or any severe trauma. Right? Letting out a slow sigh, Alyssa just squeezes your hand, her mind racing. Now it's not just about her, anymore, it is about the person that she considers her best friend. Resolution and resolve reshape her expression and she nods, stating, "Then you just need a safe place to heal. You can stick with me. I'm," she looks around the bunkroom in the hostel, "not going to be here long. I have a job, and that job /might/ come with an apartment..." Cori returns the squeeze - are her fingernails sharpened? it's just a set of five soft pricks but it definitely feels odd, almost bird- or cat-like - and she continues by saying, "I don't know what you'd think if I told you the things I've done...." she pauses a breath, "... I'm not sure I remember it all." She then enigmatically says, "I hope you never feel the bite of the thorns, Ajay." Well, those are definitely not things that make a whole lot of sense to her, but Alyssa /thinks/ that she gets the gist of what Deal is saying. So she nods in agreement, sitting there holding Cordelia's hand. "We are together now, so..." she trails off, sighing as she looks around the bunkroom. "Listen, I just got off work, I work... oh. Yeah," her eyes go wide, "I work at a burlesque club." Drop /that/ like a bomb, watching your reaction, "But the people there are amazing, and you'd like them. They are super kind and helpful, and the owner, her name is Marigold, she owns an /apartment block/, Deal. That's where I'm getting the apartment, I hope." A pause, a breath, a forced smile, "If you're going to be in town long, we should totally room." There's a hint of Cori's normal smile at the offer and she nods. "I need a place. Been nesting in parks since I escaped but last night... I wanted to enjoy a human bed again," she explains in response before asking, "Burlesque. Not using that euphemistically are you, Ajay?" A shift in her head causes hair to fall partially into Cori's face. She brushes the rogue locks back with her free hand, oddly turning her hand so that her fingers are curled away from her face rather than running them though her hair like Alyssa would remember her friend normally doing in such a situation. Nesting? Odd word to use. But Rune's mind barely registers it for more than a moment. She just gives a grin as you pretty much accept the idea as an invitation, and she /squeezes/ your hand into hers. "No, the place is called Satin and Savage, the Satin club is a burlesque strip club. I'm helping out in the back, in the dressing room, you know, for the dancers. I might also get to be a bartender, if I'm good enough." So much has changed between them, about them, and Rune is not quite sure where they connect anymore. Of course she hesitates, hyper-aware of these new mannerisms. For her part, she is mostly the same girl, not nearly as 'changed' as Deal is. "You have to come meet some of these people. You'll love Bash, Sebastian, /GODS/ is he a hottie, and /so sweet/! And then there is this dancer, she is a /goddess/, her name is Fiametta?? Holy shit, she should be walking on runways, this one." Behind her Mask, Cori's tufted triangular ears perk up at the name of the club, particularly the latter part of the name; the Mask shows an expression that mirrors this... it would be described as her ear's perking by anyone not in the know of the truth of the Beast's reaction. She also chuckles softly at the girl talk. "It's been a long time since I've had a conversation about other people that wasn't in preparation for bloodshed of some sort," Cori says without consideration and then clams up and pulls her hand away, drawing her sharp-feeling claws across the palm of one of Rune's hands - lightly enough to do no true harm but they almost seem like claws scraping over the skin. At that scratching, Rune involuntarily and very instinctively pulls her hand out of that clasp, looking at the slowly forming red scratches. An alarmed look, albeit mixed with confusion, is given to her friend as she looks at her palm. Add into this mix the comment about bloodshed, and Rune suddenly realizes (seemingly) that she is sitting on your bed in a /towel/. It's a good excuse to smile and rise up out of that bed, to move back to her own bunk and get her brush in hand once more. It's a moment to collect herself, push all of the little red flags out of her mind and remind herself that this is Deal. Nothing is wrong. Turning back, she starts to brush her hair, "What time did you get in?" she asks, starting a few minutes of more mundane questioning. The upshot is that she needs to sleep but doesn't want Cori to leave, or go too far. The quick movement, so reminiscent of prey motions, stirs Cori's inner predator into a desire to pounce, to hunt. Suppressing this despite a rumble from her stomach, Cori barely moves as Rune steps away while keeping her eyes on Rune allowing her to watch her friend brush her hair. "It was before the moon reached its zenith last night," is Cori's initial answer. She then smirks at herself while shaking her head and says, "It was before midnight. Hard to hide when the moon is full so that helped with the decision of going inside for the first time in ages." Something resonates. Rune's brushing hand slows, her eyes widening just a bit for just a bit of a moment, like she heard a whisper. That, too, is shoved out of her mind, but it causes her to turn away and look for a minute in the locker next to her claimed bunk. She only has a few choices of clothing for the day, the important part is that she gets a minute to think. Pulling out a set of clothes for later, she ahems and goes on to ask, "So are you here with anyone? Friend or something? Or can you come with me to work tonight to meet people?" At this point, she is making conversation, but subtly trying to pry information. "No, I've been alone since my last breakfast with mom and dad," Cori says, again seeming like she's talking about something that was years in the past. "Meeting people... that... could work, yes," she doesn't quite sound like she's convincing herself, more like she's feeling out an idea that hasn't been part of her life for a long time. She then asks, "If you worked through the night, am I keeping you up?" Flashing Cori a bit of a frown, she says, "Don't you dare. I haven't seen a friendly face in a few years, Deal. I'm not about to let you outta my sight so that we get swept apart again." Picking up her clothes, she starts to head to the bathroom again, but pauses, "Wanna get some food?" Cori flashes a broad grin and nods. "I'm famished and could eat a riding beast... horse," she gets enough of 'riding beast' out for it to be clear before she corrects herself and then mutters, "It's horse," to herself as a follow up. Sniffing the air she says, "I think they made bacon." She closes her eyes and almost moans, "It's been so long since I've had bacon." [Editor’s Note: RL cropped up and the players decided on a wrap, the following was written by Cori’s player after a general discussion with Rune.] The two friends left the residential hall and had breakfast (yes, there was bacon!). Before Rune went to bed she asked Cori to promise that they’ll see each other again and Cori made that promise - without specifying when that would happen.