TERRACE Draft - Day 1

[lucetimods]

Who: All Draftees
What: Arrival at TERRACE
When: The first day, from 8AM to the wee hours of the night
Where: TERRACE!
Summary: Information post here
Rating: Varies on thread, please mark explicit material.

This post covers the first day, before the attack. Remember, characters here are not expecting an attack and are under the impression they will be going to Region 1 to fight. During this day, draftees will be restricted to T6 and T7 and not permitted access to other areas.

Be sure to tag this post appropriately: [canon] character name

Comments

[herotypical]

Tell me about it. The undead often don't know when to quit, it would seem. Whether it's vamps or zombies.

[wise_maiden]

They're restless types. If you think of it that way, it's understandable. Though no less frustrating when you have to deal with them.

[herotypical]

I'm crossing my fingers that we'll see no such restlessness once we hit the forest down below. I'm not looking to recreate the Evil Dead.

[wise_maiden]

I have a feeling we're just going to be facing our usual fun opponents. Nothing as dead, but just as irritating.

[herotypical]

[ but then she wonders whether the dead aren't just somehow easier to kill... ]

Here, here. I'm not keen on battle surprises. Then again, who is?

[wise_maiden]

Indeed. For our part, it's back to the usual - hope for the best, prepare for the worst, deal with whatever happens. Are you ready?

[herotypical]

I'd better be. [ ready. truthfully, she always feels ready for combat. but escorting and protecting a small child? that does have her flipping a few wigs. ]

Or -- I will be, with help from you and your survival packing.

[wise_maiden]

You'll both be all right. I hope you won't have to use it, but if you do, you'll have it. [It's one of the few ways she can look out for people without being right there with them. Especially if they're more resistant toward said help.]

[herotypical]

At the very least, they're something I can ask the girl to carry. She's way keen on being helpful. Which is -- I suppose -- admirable in a young post-apocalyptic gal?

[wise_maiden]

As skittish as she may be, keeping busy or being helpful is probably one her ways of dealing with that sort of everyday reality. Adjusting to the relative quiet of the enclosure might be more of a battle... of course, I haven't yet met her to really know.

[herotypical]

Get this. I tried making her a smoothie, right? Back at the bar? [ she gestures sharply with one hand. nothing negative. just...hand-talking. ] I know it's not the quietest appliance around but -- the sound of it, Raine. It gave her a little tyke-sized wiggins.

I dunno. I hardly know the girl, and I'm worried. I somehow doubt the gal's gonna get what she needs from Jack Horner. Y'know, in the way of well-rounded support.

[wise_maiden]

Jack... Horner is her guardian? [Some children in Luceti over the past few years had been resistant to allowing any adult to watch over them, but somehow this didn't sound right either. Not that she really knew the man - just what she did know didn't seem very ... proper guardian.] Well, it seems like he did something right in enlisting your help, in any case.

[herotypical]

Mmhm. [ a shrug. ] He's not...so terrible a parental figure as he seems. At first glance. I know that...

[ why is she defending him? he doesn't need her to defend him. and touching too deeply upon horner's ability to be a guardian brought her too close to other topics. so she merely shrugs. ] For better or worse, the girl likes him.

[wise_maiden]

[She shrugs a little herself.] It just not an association I expected to hear. And for now, seeing her through the draft does take priority.

[herotypical]

And his name wasn't on the list of the quasi-damned. So he came to me. Should I be flattered? I'm trying to be flattered. It's not an easy thing to be, right about now.

[wise_maiden]

That could be one way to look at it. But... does it bother you, that he didn't ask any of the other names on that list?

[herotypical]

[ quickly: ] N-no. [ aaand then a little more honestly: ] Well. Sure. Maybe. A bit. But it's not like he was playing a merry little tune on my heart-strings, y'know? There aren't many people left in town who he was close to.

[wise_maiden]

There are many who'd look after a child in a pinch, regardless of what they might have thought of him personally.

[herotypical]

Considering everything that's happened? I'm not sure I want to read more into it. Horner's a sleaze with a capital-s. In some weird way, that exonerates him -- y'know? Because there is no way in this hell or any other that he's trying to, I dunno, ingratiate himself with me. I don't think he's the type to chase reluctant women. Too much effort; not enough payout.

[wise_maiden]

In any case, it isn't as if you're running from the responsibility now, whatever his reasons were.

[herotypical]

...Maybe that's just it. He lived it with me, y'know? Just how much I didn't run from responsibility, in that whacked out excuse for a faux-reality. Only...

[ she trails off. that whole shift is not one she wants to talk about, least of all with raine. raine who had coalesced into everything that buffy had envied and coveted. ]

[wise_maiden]

[That shift.]

There's also the fact that you're very strong. If he's familiar with that he might have thought you'd be a good protector. Although you could just ask him, when we're all through.

[herotypical]

...That would require actually talking to him and being an adult and not just ignoring him like we're five years old and on the playground and he just confusingly refrained from pulling the head off my Barbie?

[wise_maiden]

... I'm sure you'll find a way to navigate the conversation. If only for your peace of mind.

[herotypical]

I dunno, Raine. I can still get a lot of mileage from an unpeaceful mind.