First Shot

[dog_eat_dog]

[Everything changes with the bat of an eye.

While she registers the change immediately, it takes a moment to truly sink in. Tess finds herself in what could only be a dream –– she hasn't seen a bedroom so immaculate and new and utterly inviting outside of old magazines in decades, and she's certainly never slept in one. She's never even stayed in a hotel this nice, never had her own place with such crisp, perfect white linens. The very act of being in a well-kept bedroom is jarring and discomforting and panic-inducing.

The only thing that keeps her from outright panicking is the fact that she still has her handgun in her hands, her arms outstretched to point it at some invisible intruders, her finger laid against the side of the gun, ready to move to the trigger at a heartbeat's notice––

Seconds ago, there had been bullets, and Joel and Ellie's retreating footsteps––

There's an assortment of things on the dresser, a hairbrush that had likely never even approached anyone's scalp, a comb with all its teeth, a jewelry box that looks freshly polished––

There had been a throbbing in her chest and collarbone and neck, and––

No, no, the throbbing is still there, the collar of her shirt half-stuck to the mess that is her throat, and Tess could (and can) feel it almost thrumming under her skin, almost moving––

Tess backs up into a wall, her support hand leaving the base of the gun in favour of splaying against the immaculate paint. Purple. The walls are rich, warm purple, without so much as a hairline crack, and Tess is pressing the grime of her skin and clothes against it. She feels like she needs to apologize, even when there is no one around to apologize to.

She's alone here, almost. Alone as any host is.

She's not sure if she can "feel" the infection crawling under her skin because she knows it's working its way towards her brain so that it might kill her, or if there really are cordyceps tendrils spawning in her veins, winding through her muscle tissue and up her neck to her skull. Have they reached her brain yet? Will it hurt when they do?

Of course it's going to hurt, she tells herself, almost angrily. But Joel and Ellie are gone, and oh thank god, Joel is gone, Joel doesn't have to see this, and there are no soldiers to shoot her like a fucking rabid dog, and it's just her and the gun and this immaculate not-quite-afterlife hotel room.

It was easy to maintain her composure when she had work to do and Joel to protect –– she couldn't let him see her die or turn or suffer, she had her pride and her obligations to her goddamn partner –– but now she's alone and she is going to become a monster if she doesn't put herself out of her own misery.

Tess fits the barrel of the gun to her chin.

Don't be such a fucking coward, Tess.

She pulls it away, takes a hard breath, and closes her eyes for a beat.

It's only been a few hours. You've got hours. Maybe twelve hours, or twenty-four, or maybe even forty-eight––

When she opens her eyes, they settle immediately on the window across from "her" bedroom wall. More importantly, they settle on what appears to be a distant city basking under a summer sun, and for an instant she thinks of being a teenager again, when she dreamed of backpacking across Europe. There were lots of pictures of little French cities all over the Internet, back then, cities that could still feel like quaint little towns despite their sprawl.

For a moment, she just stares in silence, and then she says:]


Couldn't pick a nicer fucking place to die, huh...

Comments

Dictated.

[whistles_the_blues]

[Well, this certainly brings back memories of when he first arrived here.]

...You may have to put those plans on hold for awhile.

Dictated.

[dog_eat_dog]

[A voice.

Tess's face freezes while her body springs back into a defensive posture, hands refitting themselves around the gun to aim... at no one. She tracks around the room with the gun's muzzle, trying to find the source. Fuck, fuck, fuck –– she snarls:]

Show yourself, don't give me that "plans" shit.

Dictated.

[whistles_the_blues]

[He grunts.]

You'd have to tell me where you are to do that.

[There's a pause, He has to tone down his assholeish behaviour for awhile.]

There should be a book nearby, my voice is coming from that.

Dictated

[dog_eat_dog]

[A book? Hell no. Tess is off the wall entirely, looking over the entire room before moving onto the bathroom.]

Don't you dare fuck with me. Where are you?!

[whistles_the_blues]

Another room, somewhere else in the castle.

...I'll have to prove it to you.

[Give him a moment as he finds something big and heavy to knock over in his room. She'll hear a loud crash coming from his end of the journal, but nothings tipped over on her side.]

[dog_eat_dog]

[Now that, that just makes her jump. Tess is moving instantly, down in a crouch that puts her side up against a dresser, even if she can't see anything having fallen. What the fuck is this?]

What kind of proof is that supposed to be? I swear to god...

[whistles_the_blues]

If you'd take a second to look around you might notice nothings fallen down in there.

...Or you can continue to do what ever it is you're doing, the choice is yours.

[action]

[threeweeksago]

[There are footsteps in the hallway. Footsteps that certainly don't belong to someone too big. Footsteps that stop as soon as Tess speaks.

Even after two weeks in the castle, Ellie still gets lost pretty easily, especially when she's simply wandering around, trying to get a feel for the place. And wandering is exactly what she's doing, right up until she hears that voice and both her steps and her thoughts come to a screeching halt. Slowly she turns, peering into the room through the open doorway, and holy fuck is that--]

... Tess?

[It can't be. There's no way it can be Tess. Tess was gone, long gone, dead to buy her and Joel some time. So this person can't be Tess...!

But... it's the same voice. She sure as hell looks like Tess. She's even dressed the same as when Ellie last saw her. Could it really be...?]

[action]

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess turns, alarmed, and god if she doesn't feel the urge to reach out and strike, to shoot whoever dares scare the shit out of her just when she thought she was alone, but oh god, it's Ellie. Her heart freezes in her chest, if not from fear then from alarm, and she takes a few steps away from the wall just to get a better look.

And then her expression turns sour. She brandishes with the gun, controlled but still vexed.]

What the hell do you think you're doing? I told you to go with Joel, I don't––

[But they're not even in Boston, they're twenty years in the past or something, none of this can be real...]

Just go!

[action]

[threeweeksago]

Whoa, hey!

[Ellie holds her hands up, trying to push past the shock and confusion clouding her brain so she can think for a second; Tess is somehow alive, she thinks they're still on the run from the soldiers, so-- okay. Okay. One step at a time.]

They're gone! The soldiers aren't here!

[action]

[dog_eat_dog]

[She lowers the gun just enough to be safe, but it's hard not to keep bristling, not when everything around them is so inexplicable as it is. Tess has never liked being kept out of the loop, not when she makes it her business to stay on top of everything.]

Yeah? You better explain yourself, Ellie, because I don't exactly have a lot of time here.

Re: [action]

[threeweeksago]

Yeah, well. I still know jack shit about this place so I'm not going to be much help. [Oddly, she doesn't sound hostile when she says that. Just... frustrated. Frustrated with herself because here's someone that was lost because of her alive again, and she can't do anything to help her.] And anything I say is going to sound completely fucking crazy and I'm aware of that, but I swear that it's all true.

[Ugh it was easier with Joel, who calmed down enough as soon as they were reunited, but with Tess so worked up - for good reason - and fuck she's still injured this is going to be hard.]

We - you, me, Joel, everyone living in this tower - we were all kidnapped. Somehow, I don't know, I don't think anyone knows. And we're all stuck here now. I don't know who did it but as far as I've been able to tell, they're not hostile.

[Yeah she's heard the the castle does it explanation but she's still not ready to believe that just yet.]

[action]

[dog_eat_dog]

[Tess sighs and holsters her handgun. Even if she'd rather keep it out, she's got to get a goddamn grip on herself, and she's a little horrified with herself. If she'd ended it a few moments ago, Ellie would have seen something very, very different, and now...

Well, not much has changed, now. She's kidnapped and in a tower, but she could be on the fucking moon and it wouldn't change anything. She's still going to have to check out in thirty-six or so hours or else things are just going to get worse, and she isn't about to make Ellie or Joel see that, much less do it themselves.

And Joel is here too.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.]

Ellie. [She feels helpless. She could tear her hair out at the roots.] Ellie, you ever heard that saying about things too good to be true? Kidnappers don't play like that, especially.

But nothing's gonna change. Like I said before... last stop.

Dictated forever

[indirectcause]

[Boy, does he ever recognise THAT statement]

From what I've been told, dying isn't a thing that's really on the cards for us here. Not permanently, anyway. [Though that last part still freaks him out. How can people die and come back absolutely normal? That's fucked up]

Dictated

[dog_eat_dog]

[She moves across the room with purpose, sweeping it with her gun, but there's nothing to aim at. Nothing sentient, anyway.]

You don't know a damn thing about me. Where are you hiding, asshole?

[indirectcause]

[Ben's tone remains level, once you get screamed at by Kenny enough times you can handle most things thrown at you]

I'm not hiding anywhere. You've got a book with you, it's what I'v speaking to you with. It's magic or some shit.

[dog_eat_dog]

[She looks around for said book, somewhat skeptically, but there it is, lain out on the bed-side table. She casts a wary look around her before approaching it, and then she picks it up with her left hand.]

Nothing magic about radio, kid. Concealing one in a book is a new one, though.

[indirectcause]

It's not a radio, not unless radios have words that appear on pages where you're from.

[dog_eat_dog]

Stop pulling my leg.

dictated;

[rightchoices]

That's gloomy.

[ His tone is careful, level, and not at all mocking. Her remark is just pretty goddamn familiar -- that's all. ]

Something going on?

Re: dictated;

[dog_eat_dog]

[By now she has the journal figured out, though she still casts it a suspicious eye when she hears it.

She sounds tired, worn, but she can't let it show. She takes on that hard tone she needs to deal with strangers.]

Is there ever a death that isn't gloomy?

dictated;

[rightchoices]

Probably not. But, uh, no offense - you didn't just get here, did you?

[ He'd been convinced he was dying upon arrival, too. Wasn't a good feeling -- and the only alternative to her being new was that something was threatening the people in the castle, aaand that wasn't really a thought that gave him much comfort. ]

Re: dictated;

[dog_eat_dog]

New? Yeah, I'm "new", I guess. Not that it matters.

dictated;

[rightchoices]

Yeah, it does, actually. People don't die here. -- and if they do, they don't stay that way for long. You hurt?

Re: dictated;

[dog_eat_dog]

Not with anything that can be helped. Any idea where a girl can get a last drink around here?