Any Ordinary Afternoon

Paging Espi and Kermit!

One of several malls located around the city, Harrison Central is a popular destination for those looking to shop or to just hang out. Its convenient proximity to several downtown tourist attractions and wide offering of stores both thrifty and high-end all but guarantees that it will often be crowded, full of bustle and energy.
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Aura
Posts: 547
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 4:01 pm

Any Ordinary Afternoon

#1

Post by Aura »

(Aleksandra Prudius continued from Dreaming of Futures Ahead)

Aleksandra stood inside the mall, right by the entrance. Her wallet was a little lighter, and in exchange, she had a pair of shopping bags suspended from her arm. In one was a new set of pencils and a sketchpad, while the other held a pair of graphic novels that she had been keeping her eye on for a while. She crumpled a wrapper that previously contained a toasty roast beef sandwich and dropped it neatly in the trash can.

Mall trips were not a regular part of Aleks' schedule, and she would only go every once in a while after saving up her allowance for a good amount of time. But it wasn't so much the shopping that she enjoyed as much as hanging out with her friends. She could make a whole day out of a trip to the mall. They had shops to explore, sitting areas to relax, and a food court that they could go to when they got hungry. It had a lot of the things that would make for a great day out, and all she needed was her friends. Thankfully, she was happy to provide them.

She had really needed this trip. With all of the things that had been getting to her and stressing her out lately, she needed some time to really let loose and have fun. Sure, she could do that with her art, but she really wanted to do something with her friends. And even though she definitely loved her art, it was more of a solo activity. She could show it off to people, but it wasn't quite the same as doing the activity together. So to scratch that itch, she had arranged this little trip with whoever happened to be available that day. And so far, she felt that it had gone really well.

With all of the stores that they had poked around in, Aleks felt pretty satisfied with her take for the day. She held up her bags and smiled. "So what do you think? Good day today?" She asked her friends cheerily.
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Espi
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Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 7:23 pm
Location: New York but not the city

#2

Post by Espi »

((Rhonda Lawson continued from Dreaming of Futures Ahead))

Like her friend, Rhonda wasn't much of a shopper. Aleks inviting her along had been a surprise, and she'd been a little hesitant, but as it turned out, this had been a lot of fun! She hadn't bought anything for herself-Rhonda was pretty good on her cosmetics and wasn't big on just buying stuff-but she'd paid for lunch, so it was a fair deal, she thought.

Rhonda didn't tend to talk a whole lot during these sorts of things either, but she'd enjoyed her friends' company without needing to control the topic of conversation. She felt bad not contributing much, but they were generally okay with her adding her two cents every so often without being as talkative as maybe she could be.

At Aleks's question, Rhonda just smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I had fun." She nervously adjusted her purse on her shoulder, making sure her wallet and phone were still safely inside. "Where to now?"
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Kermit
Posts: 1647
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 9:06 pm
Location: Don't worry about it :)

#3

Post by Kermit »

Valerija Bogdanovic: Pregame Start!!!!!!!!!!

Macaroons. Macarons. Why did they have to have such confusing names? One was a coconutty thing; one was like a tiny crunchy sugarburger made from tasty things.

Val wasn't sure which was which, but whichever the hamburger-looking ones were, she'd picked up a box of them at a little hipster gourmet bakery near the food court. Her secondary objective had been completed! Her primary objective was still underway - sort of. It was more of of an abstract goal, one that was hard to ever really define as 'complete' - spending time with friends!

Aleks and Rhonda weren't too talkative - much less talkative than what Val was used to for these kinds of outings, but she tried to respect their conversational boundaries and let them be quiet when they wanted to be quiet. The kinda-zen vibes were nice, but still Val sometimes found herself chewing on the inside of her mouth out of the need to do... something.

The mall portion of the trip was done, and the question of what exactly to do next still hung over everyone's heads. Rhonda was the one to air the question.

Val shrugged. "I'm alright with whatever you guys want to do. Anyone want some macarons?" She asked, purposely slurring the last syllable.
[+] v7
[+] Michael Froese
Michael Froese - The story of an identity; the story of a matador; the story of a liar; the story of a junkie; the story of a very special frog; the story of a jackal; the story of an oscillator; the story of a ghost; the story of the death of an author; the story of a bunch of other stuff.

THREADS!

PREGAME: Mad world - This...this felt nice. - Michael was incredibly disappointed in himself for actually agreeing to go do something with Beryl. - He wasn't actually all that sorry. - Part of him was worried his real motivation wasn't self-torturing altruism but instead the fact that it was one of the few things that still made him feel.

ISLAND:
Michael and all of his friends were going to be footnotes in a history textbook. - he was folding in on himself like a four-dimensional object in three-dimensional space - Everything was about pain, fear, and love. - "Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours; For graphs of passion, and charts of stars." - He had a duty to look into someone's eyes as he killed them. - Closure really did sound like nothing at all. - "I wish we were lovers, but it's for the best." - Michael Froese the award-winning murderer. That was who he was now. - "I wanted to lose myself." - "Good and bad, all roads lead to Rome and I just, it hurts too much to be a good person." - "Somewhere out there in the deep blue sea, there's this whale." - "...It's harder to be yourself than it is to be anybody else." - "The neighbors, they adored him for his humor and his conversation. Look underneath the house there, find the few living things, rotting fast in their sleep; oh, the dead," - He gave her a big hug. He buried his head in her shoulder, feeling her cold, spongy, rubbery skin against his forehead. She had no eyes. She had no face. Something had eaten her face. - Michael Froese was a crazy person with a gun. - Validation. - "You don't live in a goddamned movie." - "I miss what it's like to be, like, actually alone." - "Market data inconsistent. Cantor API problem. Trading system offline," - Michael didn't want this. It wasn't like that'd stop him. - "I'm wide awake, it's morning." - He was a spree killer now, he supposed. - When he gave his word, he was giving nothing. - The fact they even existed was being politicized. - "BERYL FUCKING MAHELONA. TELL ME WHAT YOU DID TO BERYL MAHELONA," - 'Am I gray?' - A beach covered in unidentified decedents. - He'd never felt anything unconditionally. - "Look around you, you're surrounded.
It won't get any better. And so, goodnight."
[+] Valerija Bogdanovic
The story of a (failed) revolutionary.

THREADS!

PREGAME: August 12th, 2017 - The explosive sound of metal hitting metal

ISLAND:
She turned away. Everything from here on out was for the terrorists to see. - "All of us, we have the chance to actually do something with our lives." - The students were the shark in the box. - Complacency was festering like a tumour. - "She's right. It won't - it won't change anything," - Scraped into the wall, in neatly-styled lettering, the words "If they won't live in peace, then they'll die for peace." - Val needed a gun, - "I do not care for violence without a point," she stated. "My gun is not loaded." - "Juliette, I'm sure you already know this, but you really should take pains to be careful around people who speak only in enthymemes." - "Someone once said, 'Change must come with the barrel of a gun', and they were not wrong." - Two explosions.
destroy the UN08/03/2019
Micheal experienced super position wherein he was both Beryl and he was Beryl's RP site quote. He was sure he could be happy about this but he no longer knew what happiness meant.
Aura
Posts: 547
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 4:01 pm

#4

Post by Aura »

"Huh..."

Aleksandra didn't have any specific ideas in mind when she asked the question, but now that it was out there, she had to think about it. They couldn't go out to eat again, at least not yet. If they were out for another hour or two though, then she could definitely consider it. As far as shopping was concerned, she was pretty satisfied with what she had. A volume of Lumberjanes and one of Svetlana Chmakova's graphic novels, at least one of which would be getting read that night. Which reminded her, she couldn't stay out too late for that exact reason.

So with her eliminating a few ideas, that left her with the second part of the process, which was actually proposing an idea that she thought her friends might like. She knew that there were a few fun things to do in town. Granted, she usually didn't go to any of them unless she was with her friends, which made them an even more enticing idea. She deliberated over a few things that they had in town. There were theaters, but there weren't any movies that she wanted to see at the moment. What else were there... the arcade? Maybe, but she wasn't feeling like video games at the moment. Or perhaps...

"Mini golf?" Aleks suggested. She liked the sound of the idea, and it had been months since the last time she played. She thought that it was a worthy proposal. "You know, the course a few blocks over?"
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Espi
Posts: 872
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 7:23 pm
Location: New York but not the city

#5

Post by Espi »

This was nice. Val was carrying a lot of the discussion and Rhonda hoped she wasn't frustrated by her not keeping up as much. Aleks was probably still worried about the college thing from a while back, and Rhonda really hoped she hadn't made that situation worse but hadn't actually asked because she didn't want to bring it up again and make it even more worse. But they were having fun.

Rhonda wasn't actually sure which pastry Val was talking about, but she looked over at the box in her friend's hands and confirmed they were macarons. Her stepdad had a sweet tooth so they always had some kind of candy or something in the house, which was annoying when she didn't usually want to be eating junk. But at least it was useful here, though she couldn't judge given how weird and obscure the name difference was. "Can I have one?" Okay, she'd just said she didn't like junk but she'd already had some at the food court and she'd just make it up at the gym or something. Just one wouldn't hurt.


"Uh, mini-golf?" Rhonda repeated, then quickly added, "Maybe. I've never done it before, I don't think." Ugh, she hoped Aleks didn't think she thought it was a terrible idea, because she didn't. It was just kind of surprising, a little unexpected, was all. "If you want, I'm down." She smiled, hoping she sounded more enthusiastic than she felt she sounded.
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Kermit
Posts: 1647
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 9:06 pm
Location: Don't worry about it :)

#6

Post by Kermit »

Rhonda wanted a macaroni! Val looked in the box and picked out the coolest-looking one she could see. It was purple-ish with some crinkled gold-looking stuff on it. She caught a whiff of something lavender-ish as she handed it to Rhonda.

Aleks suggested they go play mini-golf. Val was intrigued.

"Mini-golf? That's the thing with the, uh - what's the word?" She made a spinning gesture with her free hand. "- Windmills! Like, the themed golf courses or whatever? Sounds fun!"
[+] v7
[+] Michael Froese
Michael Froese - The story of an identity; the story of a matador; the story of a liar; the story of a junkie; the story of a very special frog; the story of a jackal; the story of an oscillator; the story of a ghost; the story of the death of an author; the story of a bunch of other stuff.

THREADS!

PREGAME: Mad world - This...this felt nice. - Michael was incredibly disappointed in himself for actually agreeing to go do something with Beryl. - He wasn't actually all that sorry. - Part of him was worried his real motivation wasn't self-torturing altruism but instead the fact that it was one of the few things that still made him feel.

ISLAND:
Michael and all of his friends were going to be footnotes in a history textbook. - he was folding in on himself like a four-dimensional object in three-dimensional space - Everything was about pain, fear, and love. - "Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours; For graphs of passion, and charts of stars." - He had a duty to look into someone's eyes as he killed them. - Closure really did sound like nothing at all. - "I wish we were lovers, but it's for the best." - Michael Froese the award-winning murderer. That was who he was now. - "I wanted to lose myself." - "Good and bad, all roads lead to Rome and I just, it hurts too much to be a good person." - "Somewhere out there in the deep blue sea, there's this whale." - "...It's harder to be yourself than it is to be anybody else." - "The neighbors, they adored him for his humor and his conversation. Look underneath the house there, find the few living things, rotting fast in their sleep; oh, the dead," - He gave her a big hug. He buried his head in her shoulder, feeling her cold, spongy, rubbery skin against his forehead. She had no eyes. She had no face. Something had eaten her face. - Michael Froese was a crazy person with a gun. - Validation. - "You don't live in a goddamned movie." - "I miss what it's like to be, like, actually alone." - "Market data inconsistent. Cantor API problem. Trading system offline," - Michael didn't want this. It wasn't like that'd stop him. - "I'm wide awake, it's morning." - He was a spree killer now, he supposed. - When he gave his word, he was giving nothing. - The fact they even existed was being politicized. - "BERYL FUCKING MAHELONA. TELL ME WHAT YOU DID TO BERYL MAHELONA," - 'Am I gray?' - A beach covered in unidentified decedents. - He'd never felt anything unconditionally. - "Look around you, you're surrounded.
It won't get any better. And so, goodnight."
[+] Valerija Bogdanovic
The story of a (failed) revolutionary.

THREADS!

PREGAME: August 12th, 2017 - The explosive sound of metal hitting metal

ISLAND:
She turned away. Everything from here on out was for the terrorists to see. - "All of us, we have the chance to actually do something with our lives." - The students were the shark in the box. - Complacency was festering like a tumour. - "She's right. It won't - it won't change anything," - Scraped into the wall, in neatly-styled lettering, the words "If they won't live in peace, then they'll die for peace." - Val needed a gun, - "I do not care for violence without a point," she stated. "My gun is not loaded." - "Juliette, I'm sure you already know this, but you really should take pains to be careful around people who speak only in enthymemes." - "Someone once said, 'Change must come with the barrel of a gun', and they were not wrong." - Two explosions.
destroy the UN08/03/2019
Micheal experienced super position wherein he was both Beryl and he was Beryl's RP site quote. He was sure he could be happy about this but he no longer knew what happiness meant.
Aura
Posts: 547
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 4:01 pm

#7

Post by Aura »

"It's really fun, Rhonda, I promise. I've been there with my parents a few times." Aleksandra assured her friend. "And I don't think they had a windmill last time I was there, but I guess that they might have remodeled a bit since the last time I was there."

Aleks was getting pretty excited. She didn't usually try to take charge when she got together with her friends, but she felt like she had a really good idea on her hands. Mini golf was fun, and the local course wasn't too expensive, so she felt like it would be a solid idea. From the sounds of things, she was the only one of the three with any real experience with it, but that only made it seem like a better idea, helping her friends find a new fun thing to do around town.

"It's just down the street, so we can probably get there in about five minutes, maybe less." She said, her voice starting to get a little more enthusiastic. "Plus, some of the holes have prizes for a hole-in-one, like coupons for restaurants and stuff. I actually got one once." She put a hand on the mall door, ready to open it once her friends were ready. "Want to go?"
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Espi
Posts: 872
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 7:23 pm
Location: New York but not the city

#8

Post by Espi »

"Yeah, sounds good!"

Rhonda needed to lighten up a little. She knew this. They were just going to go out and do a silly fun thing with other people doing silly fun things. Aleks and Val were cool, they wouldn't judge her for her probably-awful golf skills. She had no idea how much basketball translated to it, but it seemed like a lot of wrist stuff, so maybe? She didn't know. There'd be other people, it was in public obviously, and they probably wouldn't make fun of her. Even if she was a grown woman playing on a tiny golf course. Was that weird? Would she look out of play among parents with toddlers? Who even-

Okay that wasn't lightening up. Rhonda exhaled and bit into the delicate crispy confection. It was good, sweet and kind of perfume-y but not cloyingly floral. She took care not to spill crumbly bits everywhere because they were bright purple and would stand out on her cream-colored shirt. And it was a waste of a tasty biscuit sweet.

"What kind of restaurants? If we win something we can eat out together maybe." Ooh, Rhonda didn't want that to put pressure on herself or her friends. Especially since this might turn out horribly. "Well, we can do that anyway, but definitely if we get a thing and it's somewhere we like."
Aura
Posts: 547
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 4:01 pm

#9

Post by Aura »

(Order skip and timeskip approved by Espi and Kermit.)

"Mostly local fast food places, so usually things like burgers and chicken and stuff." Aleksandra explains the potential deals that they could get. "A few smaller sit-down places too, but nothing really fancy. Usually they'll have a few coupons up for some really good places. Assuming any of us can win any, I mean." She smiled at the thought of possibly getting a free meal, or at least one at a really good discount. But even if she didn't get one, it would still be a pretty fun time with her friends, and that was good enough for her.

With the group agreeing to the mini-golf idea, they left the mall and walked through the parking lot to their respective cars. Aleksandra wondered about how much easier it would be if they had all piled into one car rather than driving separately, but it was too late to do that now without leaving two of their cars behind, and that would just be irresponsible. Probably something for them to discuss the next time they got together. But for now, they drove separately. At least they had parked pretty close together, so they didn't have to scour the parking lot in search of each other.

Being the one with the most knowledge about the mini-golf course and where it was, Aleks led the way. Even though it was nearby, it was decided that she should be the one in front just to make sure that they got there without a problem. She went through her usual short pre-driving ritual, gripping the steering wheel, closing her eyes, and taking a deep breath before turning the key in the ignition as she reopened her eyes.

She drove to the parking lot's exit with the other two following from a safe distance. She pulled up her car enough to get a good view of both sides of the street. The traffic was pretty light for this point in the day, so she didn't think that she would have to wait too long before she was able to turn.

She looked to one side and saw nothing but a couple of cars driving as usual in the light traffic. She looked to the other and saw a few cars in the distance, and one that was much closer. This car was moving fast, and it was drastically drifting out of lane, as though the driver had no control over it. It was closing in all too quickly, and in a state of unsure panic, Aleks tried to hastily reverse when she realized where it was going.

There was a crash.
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Espi
Posts: 872
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 7:23 pm
Location: New York but not the city

#10

Post by Espi »

As she had absolutely no idea where she was going, Rhonda was happy to have Aleks take the lead. Admittedly she wasn't a great driver: Sam once asked her "So we planning on getting there sometime this year?" and that apparently summed up her usual car handling. Not having to navigate was much appreciated, then.

Admittedly, Rhonda was pretty distracted when she started the car. She'd never done mini-golf, and while it couldn't realistically be that hard, or if it was then it didn't matter, she was still thinking about it. Aleks' car had stopped in front of her at the light, so Rhonda did too, with more than enough space between them. Resting her elbows on her wheel, Rhonda's attention drifted didn't notice the car in front of her moving back until the sound.

It was loud. She didn't even really process what it sounded like, just the general presence of sudden, explosive noise. Her head bolted up reflexively in response, but it took another moment to comprehend what was going on.

A car had come down the road from the left and smashed into the side of Aleks' car. There was smoke and broken bits and

Rhonda froze.
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Kermit
Posts: 1647
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2018 9:06 pm
Location: Don't worry about it :)

#11

Post by Kermit »

Minigolf! MINIGOLF! M - I - N - I - G - O - L - F!

Val was pretty excited for mini golf. She'd seen courses on TV but up until now she hadn't been sure that they were things that actually existed. They just seemed so weird, with their windmills and pirate ships and whatever.

She was driving behind Rhonda's car, last in line. There was always an anxiety to driving convoy-style, and Val was thankful for being last; it meant she didn't have to keep checking the rear-view mirror to make sure she hadn't lost any followers. There was an intersection ahead and Val came to a stop behind the other two cars.

All of a sudden, Aleks started reversing, and Val reflexively reversed too. Whatever was going on, she didn't want Rhonda to get sandwiched between the other cars. She didn't realize why Aleks had been reversing until a shape flew out of the corner of her vision and straight into Aleks's car. The explosive sound of metal hitting metal ripped through the parking lot. It was a noise Val had heard before, and a noise that she wished she would never hear again.

She stared ahead, her mind still reeling. At first glance, Rhonda's car looked relatively undamaged, but Val couldn't immediately get a good look at either Aleks's car or the car that hit her.

This was bad.

Val reversed a bit more and maneuvered her car to the side of the road, out of the way of any emergency vehicles that would arrive during the next few minutes. She blinked twice, still at a loss, undid her seatbelt, opened the car door, stepped outside, and grabbed her phone out of her pocket. She dialed 911.
[+] v7
[+] Michael Froese
Michael Froese - The story of an identity; the story of a matador; the story of a liar; the story of a junkie; the story of a very special frog; the story of a jackal; the story of an oscillator; the story of a ghost; the story of the death of an author; the story of a bunch of other stuff.

THREADS!

PREGAME: Mad world - This...this felt nice. - Michael was incredibly disappointed in himself for actually agreeing to go do something with Beryl. - He wasn't actually all that sorry. - Part of him was worried his real motivation wasn't self-torturing altruism but instead the fact that it was one of the few things that still made him feel.

ISLAND:
Michael and all of his friends were going to be footnotes in a history textbook. - he was folding in on himself like a four-dimensional object in three-dimensional space - Everything was about pain, fear, and love. - "Gave them our reactions, our explosions, all that was ours; For graphs of passion, and charts of stars." - He had a duty to look into someone's eyes as he killed them. - Closure really did sound like nothing at all. - "I wish we were lovers, but it's for the best." - Michael Froese the award-winning murderer. That was who he was now. - "I wanted to lose myself." - "Good and bad, all roads lead to Rome and I just, it hurts too much to be a good person." - "Somewhere out there in the deep blue sea, there's this whale." - "...It's harder to be yourself than it is to be anybody else." - "The neighbors, they adored him for his humor and his conversation. Look underneath the house there, find the few living things, rotting fast in their sleep; oh, the dead," - He gave her a big hug. He buried his head in her shoulder, feeling her cold, spongy, rubbery skin against his forehead. She had no eyes. She had no face. Something had eaten her face. - Michael Froese was a crazy person with a gun. - Validation. - "You don't live in a goddamned movie." - "I miss what it's like to be, like, actually alone." - "Market data inconsistent. Cantor API problem. Trading system offline," - Michael didn't want this. It wasn't like that'd stop him. - "I'm wide awake, it's morning." - He was a spree killer now, he supposed. - When he gave his word, he was giving nothing. - The fact they even existed was being politicized. - "BERYL FUCKING MAHELONA. TELL ME WHAT YOU DID TO BERYL MAHELONA," - 'Am I gray?' - A beach covered in unidentified decedents. - He'd never felt anything unconditionally. - "Look around you, you're surrounded.
It won't get any better. And so, goodnight."
[+] Valerija Bogdanovic
The story of a (failed) revolutionary.

THREADS!

PREGAME: August 12th, 2017 - The explosive sound of metal hitting metal

ISLAND:
She turned away. Everything from here on out was for the terrorists to see. - "All of us, we have the chance to actually do something with our lives." - The students were the shark in the box. - Complacency was festering like a tumour. - "She's right. It won't - it won't change anything," - Scraped into the wall, in neatly-styled lettering, the words "If they won't live in peace, then they'll die for peace." - Val needed a gun, - "I do not care for violence without a point," she stated. "My gun is not loaded." - "Juliette, I'm sure you already know this, but you really should take pains to be careful around people who speak only in enthymemes." - "Someone once said, 'Change must come with the barrel of a gun', and they were not wrong." - Two explosions.
destroy the UN08/03/2019
Micheal experienced super position wherein he was both Beryl and he was Beryl's RP site quote. He was sure he could be happy about this but he no longer knew what happiness meant.
Aura
Posts: 547
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 4:01 pm

#12

Post by Aura »

Aleksandra had always thought that being in a car accident was one of those incidents that you wouldn't remember while it was happening. She figured that the combination of trauma and injury would either knock her out, or force her to block out what was happening as a defense mechanism.

She was wrong.

Aleksandra was fully conscious for the entire crash. The other car smashed into the front of her car from the side, hitting the wheel well and forcing her car to the side, spinning about 90 degrees. The hard jolt of the impact forced her against the door, her raised arm preventing her head from hitting the window and cushioning the blow to her skull, but she immediately felt a major pain as soon as her arm was pressed between her head and the window. The seatbelt stuck fast and held her in place, but the straps digging into her chest and stomach seriously hurt. In her panic, her foot had wound up between pedals at the moment of the crash, and it wound up getting caught under one of them. She felt it get trapped for just a moment before another searing pain traveled all the way up her leg.

She wanted to scream, or cry, or do anything, but she felt paralyzed. Even though she didn't take a serious blow to the head, her neck still hurt from getting whipped around, and she did get a headache from ramming into her arm. The only limb that she felt fully confident in moving was her right arm, since it didn't hit or get pulled by anything too hard. Even so, she left it idle. She was too shocked to move, and stared at the divider between the windshield and her window, her mind and body both trying to catch up to what had just happened.
Aura
Posts: 547
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 4:01 pm

#13

Post by Aura »

(GMing of Rhonda and Val permitted by Espi and Kermit.)

Aleksandra didn't want to move. She wasn't really sure if she could move. She felt serious aches and pains scattered all over her body. When she started to feel the initial shock wearing off, she shifted a couple of times, but each time she felt a sharp jolt and winced, forcing herself to be still once more.

She leaned her head back against the seat and tilted to the side, and was greeted by the sight of a curious and horrified Rhonda looking in through the driver's side window. Seeing her friend looking at her that way made the whole situation worse. She wanted to do something to show that it wasn't as bad as it looked. Maybe even just say that she was going to be all right. She couldn't summon the strength to even do that much, though. She just looked at Rhonda from her seat, and Rhonda looked back. Aleksandra wasn't sure if Rhonda was about to cry, or she herself was. She just knew that she definitely felt some strong emotions coming on.

The scene held for what felt like minutes before a faint siren in the distance grew increasingly loud, almost too loud before it abruptly stopped. The end of the siren was followed by Rhonda stepping away from the door, and a group of paramedics replacing her. They opened the car door and unlatched Aleksandra's seat belt before reaching over and gently starting to pull her from the car. She tried not to move too much, only shifting her weight to try to help pull herself out of the seat.

The process was going along well to start with, but it was not without difficulty. Her foot was still slipped under one of the pedals, and the process of moving caused it to press against the underside of the pedal in an extremely tender spot, causing her to cry out in pain. The medic managed to catch on the the problem and get her foot free without aggravating it any further, but the damage was already there. Aleksandra was trying to hold back whimpers as she was taken out of her car and placed on a stretcher, Rhonda and Val close by her side.

Aleksandra sadly looked over at her friends as she was wheeled towards the ambulance. This wasn't how today was supposed to go. It was supposed to be a fun day to relax before they had to worry about finals and graduation. She didn't think for even a moment that it would turn out like this.

"Don't worry, Aleks." Rhonda assured her, keeping pace with the paramedics. "We're coming with you. I promise."

Aleksandra looked up at them and managed to smile. Even though the situation itself sucked, it reminded her of something hopeful. She had good friends, friends that wouldn't abandon her. She kept that thought as she was loaded into the ambulance while Rhonda and Val tried to argue to be allowed to ride with her, but only Rhonda was allowed. Rhonda immediately headed for the front seat while Val stepped away and pulled out her phone to make some calls. All Aleks managed to hear was "Mrs. Prudius..." before the back doors closed, and Aleks had nothing to focus on but the questions of the medics during the ride to the hospital.

(Aleksandra Prudius continued in v7 Meanwhile)
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