Freedom is a fleeting dream, an ephemeral hope, a transient wish in the wind.

[TheLordOfAwesome]

Sierra hardly paid much mind as Catherine just up and left the lighthouse without a word, walking off into the rain. If she had places she'd rather be, who was she to stop her? It was like she was hurting for company at this present juncture.Willow had announced she was going back upstairs and Sierra gave a grunt of acknowledgement. Fine by her, Sierra wasn't particularly eager to go walking through the rain and the mud just yet. Now left alone with Katrina, she hid her hands within the pockets of her jacket as she watched the rain poured down from the sky.

Katrina started talking to her and Sierra spared her a cursory glance to acknowledge her. She listened as Katrina talked about going back to the village to make sure Yuko got a proper burial, getting choked up as she spoke. Sierra was quiet for a moment as she thought, turning her attention to the rainstorm just outside the ruined structure.

"it is your choice," Sierra said, no real inflection in her voice. "I might come and help since Yuko and I... well... we weren't exactly friends — I was more a friend of her sister — but we were on good enough terms to respect what you're going out of your way to do. It all depends if Willow is okay with the detour, otherwise this'll probably where we'll go our separate ways. Unless you want to stick around with us for a while. Your choice."

Choice... How many people on this island thought about their choices? Did Kelly think of her options before she decided to kill Mercy, after she and Willow went and helped return her things? Thinking of her friend and teammate resorting to killing was... disappointing to say the least. Sierra thought she was better than that. Maybe she was just a bad judge of people's characters but she couldn't shake the profound disappoint she had for some of the people whose names appeared on the announcements.

[Laurels]

Sierra told Katrina that it was her choice. Katrina knew she should go and pay her respects to Yuko. It was obviously the right thing to do, so her choice was to do it. Sierra offering to go with her surprised her. Katrina just assumed she would stick with Willow no matter what, but it sounded like Sierra did have some personal stake in this as well.

If anything, it sounded like Katrina had her choices before her. She closed her eyes and sighed a bit.

"Well, I definitely will go find her," Katrina said. "I don't know what else I should do with my time now, and I know that I might look back on this choice and regret it, but I don't want to die knowing I couldn't try to to atone for my crime. I don't want my family to think I wouldn't try to do right by Yuko."

Katrina wiped the corners of her eyes.

"But maybe we should check with Willow first. Find out what she thinks."

[TheLordOfAwesome]

Sierra nodded thoughtfully to Katrina. It made sense to her that Katrina wanted to do some right with whatever time she had left, which she supposed made her a better person than either her or Willow. It gave Sierra pause as she was made to contemplate just what she should do with her time. Perhaps something good if she could. She had managed to rein in Willow whenever she proposed killing or hurting someone, but she had no idea how much longer she could

"I can't say how up for helping Willow would be," she shrugged. "She strikes me as... well... I suppose it doesn't matter what I think. We can ask her but what I've seen from her I kinda doubt she'd be up for it."

She looked over to the stairway and yelled, "Hey Willow! Come back down, will ya?"

[Melusine]

Willow's outfit could be described as a randomized sim. She was wearing pink crocs, a gray bloodied sweater and a pair of black leggings that were too loose for comfort. If anything, it made Willow's feelings go numb. She still felt them, but they were more a residual smell of a cigarette than a chronic stench of the dysphoria haunting her. Sierra called out for her.

"Yeah, I'm coming." She answered out.

However, Willow took her time. Not out of pettiness, but because Catherine wasn't around. She must have slept somewhere in the building, but between the limited space upstairs and tight quarters downstairs, there wasn't any place where she could still hide. Willow smiled. Catherine was out. That was good.

She stepped down the stairs. The bullet holes reminded her that four people had died here. It made her feel strange, but not in a bad way. It was a reminder that she was alive and they weren't. She finished the few final steps to meet with Sierra and Katrina. They had talked, and Willow wondered if it was about her. Maybe it was about Catherine, or the announcements, but everything felt about her lately.

"Hey, um," Willow looked around the room, "Catherine's not with you?"

She already knew the answer, but it was basic decency to give the information to her allies.

[Laurels]

Katrina listened as Sierra gave her input on Willow before calling her down. From what Katrina saw yesterday with Willow playing with the bodies, she did come off as a bit odd, although fairly reasonable considering she let Katrina give her take on Yuko's death. She wasn't sure if Willow would be as open to going back to Yuko's body as she was, but she at least knew the chances of it happening were about even.

Willow reappeared in a new outfit and curious about Catherine. Katrina shook her head at Willow's inquiry.

"No, she left. Sorry."

Katrina cleared her throat.

"I'm thinking of leaving too," she told Willow. "I want to go back to Yuko and Felix and pay proper respects to them. We haven't settled if anyone's coming with me or not, or if we'll meet up somewhere else. But I'm open to anything."

"So, um... wanna come along?"

[Melusine]

Willow did the thing again where she spoke in monosyllables. Whether it was because she was caught by surprise by Katrina's request or the fact she already knew about Catherine's departure was unknown, but she still sounded like a CD-ROM put through a dishwasher.

"I, uh, no, uh, mhm," she could have ended it here but she continued, "yeah, no."

She was uninterested going out in this weather. Even if the rain and the wind still managed to enter the crummy building, Willow still prefered to have some shelter than none. It sounded like a hurricane was on the way, and she didn't want to be swept away like a ragdoll to the sea.

"Yeah, no," she repeated, words came back to her so they stopped sounding janky, "the weather's scary and like..."

"It's just scary? Being outside with a storm and there's like people trying to kill you? I'm not... sorry. I'm not doing this, but yeah, we can make a meet up spot."

She looked at the camera then back to the girls.

"Especially if they want to make this place a..." she paused, cocking her head to the side, "...danger zone? Is that right? I don't know."

[TheLordOfAwesome]

So Willow didn't want to go because of a little bad weather? Sierra suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and tried to maintain a neutral expression. She could understand not wanting to go out with a storm going, most people would rather not go through the wash and storms can be rather scary. But Willow would prefer to stay in a building that looked like it was on its last legs than get a little wet? That was just stupid, but Sierra wasn't about to voice that opinion. Last thing she needed to do was belittle and piss off her one ally.

Sierra moved over to her bag which was placed over in a dry spot of the room and crouched next to it, opening and rummaging through it.

"Yeah, danger zone was what they called it," she said as she pulled out her map and closed the bag. "But don't worry too much. The danger zone of the day was the menagerie, so this place is safe... at least for today."

She walked over to Willow and held up the map, motioning Katrina over to them to join in on the discussion. She pointed at where the menagerie was on the map, circling it with her finger."

"The danger zone."

She pointed at the lighthouse, then trailed it back to the village.

"Where we currently are. I'll go with Kat to make sure she is safe while she does what she needs to do, but once we are done we'll be back here."

She pointed to the capsized yacht next.

"If you don't feel safe here in the lighthouse, go here and wait for us. It will be our second destination after the lighthouse if we don't find you. It is a bit of a walk to get there from the lighthouse, so expect to wait quite a bit." She explained, looking back and forth from Willow and Kat. "These two places will be our default meeting places as well should the next day roll around and the area hasn't been declared a danger zone."

She returned her focus back to the map and pointed at the Commisary.

"If it is, then this is where we will meet."

Sierra lowered the map, and her free hand moved over to take one of Willow's, squeezing it reassuringly.

"I don't want to just leave you here by yourself, but Kat and I got to do this." she said. "Are you absolutely sure you don't want to come? I know it seems scary out there right now, and I don't blame you for not wanting to go out in this weather, but we'll keep you safe."

[Melusine]

Willow was best described as a stubborn but quiet bitch. Perhaps, if she was given proper care, she might have been able to use that. However, it just made her insufferable and, sometime, a highly chaotic individual.

So when Sierra started speak with this tiny amount of attitude in her tone, Willow was about go down. She didn’t understand the purpose of wandering around aimlessly. It was careless, and there was nothing to gain out of it unless you were planning to kill people. Sierra wasn’t going to do that, so why did she have to play a game of hide and seek when they could play a game of tower defence. Stupid plan would get them kill but willow didn’t comment on that. If they wanted to die like that, that was their choice, but she wouldn’t let herself be dragged with them.

So she was going to say no and go back upstairs. Spend the day recovering from her injuries, lick her injuries until she was fine to hunt again, and then maybe hunt down someone else for clothes. It was her plan. She had everything meticulously planned out from her meals to her book reading.

However, there was something she couldn’t predict and that was Sierra grabbing her hand, and her words.

It’s been a while someone had touched her and it felt good. Skin-to-skin contact, especially with someone alive, gave Willow this tiny fuzzy feeling inside of her. She squeezed Sierra’s hand back and smiled. Realizing she looked like an idiot, she meant to take away her hand but it only made her grip tighter.

Sierra would protect Willow. Katrina would be around, but she’d be ditched soon for someone else. Or maybe she would stay, or maybe she would die, or maybe she’d do like Kelly; but Willow and Sierra would be together.

Her neck retreated into her body just like a turtle and she purred just like a cat. She was beaming again. It was scary to be close to someone here, but it really made her feel good. The touch starved girl replied to her Sierra with no emotions in her voice. Her eyes were smiling, though.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll follow.” She didn’t let go. “Where are we going?”

[Laurels]

Katrina listened quietly as Sierra laid out what sounded like a really good plan. They'd go to the village, then back to the lighthouse. If Willow wasn't there, they'd go to a yacht that was apparently capsized. In fact, it even sounded like Willow was convinced to come along after all. Katrina had to smile at that.

"Well, the village," Katrina said. "I think I can lead us back to the house Felix and Yuko died in. So I guess I'll take the lead."

Katrina gathered her supplies and the nodachi. She made her way to the door of the lighthouse.

"Alright. Let's go."

Katrina pushed the door open and made her way out into the rain. She began to walk quickly, hoping to get through the bad weather and to the village as soon as possible. She was glad Sierra and Willow were there to help her. She wasn't entirely sure if they were allies yet or if they'd come to trust her, but she hoped so. She had to become her best self if she was going to have a chance of surviving this horrible place, and that meant showing Sierra and Willow that she was someone to keep around.

Katrina kept her pace up, assured that she was finally making the right choices here.

((Katrina Lavell continued in One Taught Me Love, One Taught Me Patience...))

[TheLordOfAwesome]

Sierra gave Willow a soft smile.Since she wanted to go that would mean they didn't have to waste time doubling back to the lighthouse once they had attended to Yuko and Felix. She had no idea how long Katrina was going to stick with them but traveling as a group was probably much safer than just the two of them.

"Thanks, Willow." she said, giving her companion's hand another squeeze.

As Katrina got ready to leave Sierra went to gather her things and Willow's. Once everything was gathered, she followed Katrina out of the lighthouse and into the rain, leading Willow by the hand.

((Sierra Cook continued The Girls Made of Soot, Blood and Plastic))

[Melusine]

"Let's go," she smiled, her hand wrapped around her own neck.

((Willow exited the thread.))