Terminal Gardener

[Grim Wolf]

(Dhairyalakshmi Bhatia continued from All Eyes On We)

She returned to the house where'd spent the night, drank a little of the rainwater she'd collected in an empty bottle, ignored the grumbling in her stomach and the grim weight of her thoughts.

Tried to play brave with Blaise, but walked away. Hadn't learned anything. Still a coward.

Not a coward. Told her.

She's gonna keep killing. She offered to kill me.

She was killing before she met you. She'll keep killing after. Just like Quinn.

Then what the fuck am I doing?

You're both gonna die. You gotta die the way you want to.

Did Carrie die the way she wanted to? Did Quinn?

Heavy questions to keep Daria company. Heavy thoughts to occupy her, with her little lifetime left.

So of course, Daria fell asleep almost as soon as she'd sat down in a chair.

[decoy73]

((Stephanie McDonald continued from Mad As Hell and Not Going to Take It Anymore))

So it had been Jeff Greene that had owned her bat. Stephanie's eyes rose a little at that part of the announcement. It was weird that she didn't feel anything about it as she walked back to where her ... issues started. So she picked a house. She thought it was the same one she had been in when Jessica ... left. Oh well. She opened the door, and she lightly tapped on the frame with her bat as she stepped in.

[Namira]

((Garnet continued from WWSD))

Garnet? Garnet did not lightly tap on an entryway.

"Hey!" she barked, a few metres behind the girl she'd seen slipping into the house. "You come the fuck in peace or what?"

She was flying, or perhaps falling, careening a hundred miles an hour in a carriage soon enough to go soaring right the hell off the rails.

Always did like fire type.

[Grim Wolf]

"Hey!"

Daria blinked up at the whale in the depths of the ocean, its gentle crooning turning to harsh yelling. Why was the whale yelling at her?

"You come the fuck in peace or what?"

Daria blinked again, and in that blink became aware of where she was; not swimming mermaid-like beneath the ocean, but drowsing in a chair, a nasty kink in her neck from the way she'd fallen asleep. She shook her head slightly, and found a woman standing in the doorway to the house, a baseball hat in hand.

"Uh," Daria managed, clumsy with sleep.

[decoy73]

"You come the fuck in peace or what?"

Stephanie looked behind her to take note of the person behind her that was yelling something irrelevant to the situation. She just rolled her eyes at that.

"Yes, I do. Do I look like Erika?" She turned to the other mass of person that was stirring. "Sorry about that," she said in a quieter tone of voice with a (she hoped) shy smile. She didn't know if she actually was, though.

[Namira]

Someone was sitting in there sleeping, or well, not sleeping any more. That was... Daria, right. Daria. Garnet didn't really know her, only a step better than knowing of her. They'd said hi a couple of times. The girl with the bat was Stephanie, and the situation was kind of similar; GSA was something Garnet had always been vaguely interested in but never quite enough to actually go.

Whatever, getting distracted. Coming the fucking in peace. Neither of them had killed anyone. That was important.

Stephanie responded and Garnet's smile froze over for a second. Great! She was not Erika! Garnet was delighted to hear this!

Her grip on her gun tightened.

"Alright!" she declared, bright and a little manic. "That's good, or we'd have problems!" she paused, the wheels turning. Nothing here, nothing here. "Okay bye!"

She stepped back out of the door and left.

((Garnet continued in No Exit))

[Grim Wolf]

"Uh," Daria manged again, at the explosion of noise by the doorway. Asleep in the open. Could have died. Blaise could have walked right in. Or Erika. Or

too many too many haven't changed a thing

"Okay bye!"

"What?" Daria said, and then squinted at the other girl in the doorway. The one with the bat.

"Sorry about that," the girl (Stephanie?) said quietly.

"No...problem?" Daria offered. She looked around at the wan afternoon light peeking through the windows. "Fuck," she grunted. "How long was I..."

She trailed off. Not coming off as much of a force of nature. Not coming off as much of someone to be respected, or afraid of. And her stomach felt hollow, and her throat felt dry.

"No problem," she said, more firmly. "You okay? Need anything?"

[decoy73]

The someone behind her decided to just leave. Stephanie just shrugged and turned towards the other person who was rising up from the chair. Daria ... something or other.

"No...problem? Fuck. How long was I..."

Stephanie would have scoffed at that had she not been barely able to string together two actions other than crying and curling in a ball not a week ago. As it was she just chuckled a little and kept a small smile on her face.

"No problem. You okay? Need anything?"

Stephanie just looked around at the house.

"I'm just looking for a way to get out of the heat, and hopefully see a friendly face. You've been the first one I've seen since ..." Her face fell at the implication.

[Grim Wolf]

Daria tried to smile at the other girl, but wasn't sure she managed it. She still felt awfully hungry, and the cold against her bones was getting worse. Thinking of Blaise, and her promises of peaceful death. Thinking how lucky she'd been. Thinking how many had been less lucky than her.

And when's my luck gonna run out?

Even harder to smile than before. She stopped trying.

"Yeah, you too," Daria said. "Blaise almost shot me this morning. Decided not to because she's..." Daria sighed. "I don't know." She gestured to of the chairs in the dusty living room, and blinked out the nearby window. "I was...gonna do some work. Might wait a bit."

She looked back at Stephanie. "You wanna talk about it?"

[decoy73]

"You wanna talk about it?"

"N-not really." That, for one, was the truth. The fact that Jessica was dead was something she was able to mentally reconcile without a problem now. Actually talking about it, though, was still a bit of an issue. Probably saving that for when she got home. She looked around as she stepped in, looking a little nervous, although she didn't know how much of that was due to legitimate effort and how much of it was due to actually being nervous.

[Grim Wolf]

"N-not really," Stephanie stammered.

"Mm." Daria looked out the window again. The sober light of the afternoon left her feeling cold and hollow: she no longer had the mania, the certainty, the determination that had driven her in frantic sleepless hours to try and do...something. Hunger, exhaustion, and the strange encounter with Blaise had left everything muddled again. It was so hard to stay sure: in the face of Tony's sleeping corpse, in Caroline's name announced as killer and self-inflicted victim, in the thunder of guns so close to her face she felt her bones shake with them, in the bodies ringing this little neighborhood.

She wondered what this place had been, before it had been abandoned. She wondered what the plans of the people who'd lived her had been. She wondered what the plans of the people who'd died here had been.

Hadn't saved anyone. Hadn't made a difference.

Never had the power to do either.

Not comforting. Daria hated being powerless.

"What did you want to do?" Daria asked, still looking out the window. "Back home. What was the plan?"

[decoy73]

"What did you want to do? Back home. What was the plan?"

Stephanie chuckled as she thought back to what had been happening on the trip.

"Modeling. I had a portfolio ready for Sports Illustrated. I was hoping to make it past the second round this time. Don't know if it's going to happen now. I don't really think this qualifies as a big break, even if I do survive. You?" She leaned against the wall.

[Grim Wolf]

Daria pulled her face into a mocking pout. "You mean you didn't follow my channel?" She shook her head sadly. "That should be at the top of your list of regrets. I
don't want to see anything else on it." She smiled a little. "Actress. Was figuring out if I could swing New York in the Fall." She pulled another face, then looked around for a nearby camera, found one watching her from the corner of the room, off the kitchen. She waved slightly. "Sorry to drop that one on you, mom, but if you're watching this, I'm guessing it's not exactly your biggest concern."

Cavalier, confident, airy. Flirting with death. Pretending that the words didn't shoot a bolt of cold grief to her heart. She closed her eyes and inhaled through her nose.

"Don't sell yourself short," she said. "Lotta cameras all around." She gestured vaguely to the camera she'd been talking to. "You keep showing them your best angle. Parley that shit into a modeling contract if you make it out of here. If I get out of here, you can bet I'm gonna do it."

A moment's silence. She opened her eyes. "Do you?" she asked. "Think you're getting out of here?"

[decoy73]

She wanted to be an actress. Similar. Admirable. Still unlikely. Not because of the nature of the industry, no. It was because of the nature of the game - neither of them were likely to make it out alive, and even if they did, "spree killer" was hardly what one wanted to see on a book. Even the right body and a sexy accent wouldn't do much.

"Don't sell yourself short. Lotta cameras all around. You keep showing them your best angle. Parley that shit into a modeling contract if you make it out of here. If I get out of here, you can bet I'm gonna do it."

Stephanie giggled at that, blowing a kiss to the camera. Daria was actually keeping good humor, or, at least trying to.

"Do you? Think you're getting out of here?"

And things got serious again.

Can you promise me everything's going to turn out alright?

"Honestly? Maybe? I've been on my own, and this," she gestured to the bat and shield, "is the best armed I've been the whole time. They didn't even give me a weapon to begin with."

[Grim Wolf]

Stephanie blew a kiss at the camera. Daria grinned at her, but the grin was already fading as she asked her question, and was gone entirely by the time Stephanie answered her. Her eyes traced over the bat and the shield. Unbidden, she imagined that bat hammered into her skull, flecks of bone scattered across the floor, her brains spilled like sphattetios. Another corpse in this little garden of death.

All over, and nothing to show for it. Powerless, from the very beginning to the very final end.

"Me neither," Daria answered, though she couldn't hide the tension in her voice. With effort, she pulled her eyes back to Stephanie's face. "Just my stuff. I got some water back with the rain, but I'm...almost out of food." She tried to keep it conversational, and couldn't quite manage it: the hollowness in her stomach couldn't be denied. Feelings bubbling up, almost out of control. Shouldn't have slept. Weaker since she slept.

She looked out the window again, fumbled for the half-empty water bottle at her side. She didn't quite drink from it. "I've been thinking about the rules a lot." She jerked her head back at the camera. "Their rules, I mean." She took a swig of warm water and closed her eyes, fighting the urge to finish the bottle.

"One of the rules is that you...can't leave. The game, I mean. Not unless you've played. At least once."

You speaking around the problem, Daria? Come on, you're braver than that.

She looked back at Stephanie. "Not unless you've killed. At least once." Her eyes flickered to the bat, then back to Stephanie's face. "You got that in you?"