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were the closets playing pranks on anyone else yesterday?

[ faith's morning had started with a rather ... rural wake up call. she'd really hoped the little bastard would just disappear overnight. instead, he woke her up at the crack of dawn to a room full of feathers and pecked drywall.

eventually she'll have to just ... accept her new fowl-ler. into the diner for breakfast, where he's actually quite patient (and fond of toast). on to the gym for her morning workout, where apparently he needs a nap after all that strenuous crowing.

his cocky attitude returns in the library, where faith had planned hanging out for about an hour, learning about the supernatural elements of other worlds. she would've been better served looking up ways to keep him quiet, once it's clear he's going to continue hollering. amid glares and shushing, she scoops him up and tries apologizing over the noise before giving one particular patron the bird.

she practically books it out, rooster tucked under her arm. and as she makes her way, she doesn't notice the mess he leaves behind along the hallways. a trail of feathers and excrement leading to angel investigations, where the closet still refuses to cooperate and give her a cage. at least the cock is having fun with the pile of bic ballpoints beside her. ]

do leashes work on chickens?

[ by the end of the night, she's given up. the stupid thing even follows her to the bar where at least the corn nuts seem to satisfy him. she can nap at one of the tables, right...? ]

( ooc | feel free to catch her anywhere / make up somewhere else to find faith wrangling a mother clucking rooster as she goes about her day :3 )

Comments

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Yeah, actually.

[ well, kinda. ]

We're tight. He goes evil sometimes but I've handled it before. Not a big deal, really. Plus he really hates that holy water. [ oh, huh. ] You OK over there, buddy?

[rosswood]

Sure, sure. You got everything under control. [He glares at the contents of his bottle before draining it, then immediately leans back to reach over toward the bar for another.]

Almost got mauled by a wendigo like a week ago, so pardon me if I'm not really hyped to be sharing a building with another freak of nature.

[There, that's a pretty solid excuse, even if it's not the reason. He shoots a dark look at the chicken. What're you looking at, featherhead? Drinking is a valid lifestyle choice.]

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[ that gets a solid laugh out of faith. it's about the first sensible thing she's heard from any resident of this place since arriving months ago. ]

How new are you? Right after I popped in, this place turned into zombie central.

[ is this helping? this is definitely helpful, right? ]

[rosswood]

Nice. [Alex Kralie is fluent in three dialects: English, profanity, and sarcasm. He takes a deep swig of his fresh bottle. Sharp, bitter, alcoholic. It makes him feel clean. Better. That's the stuff.]

Pretty new, I guess, in the grand scheme of things. Showed up here a couple weeks ago, I think.

[He checks his hand, the dark scratches of pen denoting the date. Obsessive time-keeping? Him? Pshh, no, never. ] Yeah, coming up on a month. You?

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Couple months. [ that doesn't seem right. faith scowls for just a moment. ] Shit I think it's been like half a year, actually.

[rosswood]

Jesus. Time flies.

[He rubs at the label of his bottle with one thumb glumly. Doesn't he know it. His life rushed on by quick enough, what with the blackouts and the sleepwalking and the hours of missing time gone snatched from his head.

Wouldn't it be his luck if Wonderland went and exacerbated all that.

He doesn't raise his eyes, but he lifts his shoulders in an incremental shrug as he realizes belatedly that he skipped the whole introduction thing.]

'M Alex.

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Faith.

[ she watches him; not a blatant stare-down but curious nonetheless. ]

So, how'd you ditch it? The indigo, I mean.

[rosswood]

Got lucky. Ran into a friend. [He makes a face, one corner of his mouth twisting down in mild distaste.] Well. I say "friend." He had a flare gun on him, kept it busy until we got outta the woods.

[He blows out his cheeks in a sigh. He's starting to feel the alcoholic buzz.] I guess it's gone now. Just one of those Wonderland holiday specials, you know.

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Yeah, one-time-only get your face ripped off. Still, prefer that to the mind games.

[ though, faith prefers bruises and blood to almost everything, if she's honest. ]

Forgot who I was for like, a week? Really not fun.

[rosswood]

Goddamn. [A shiver runs through him, and he tightens his grip on his bottle like it's a lifeline. Yeah, he'll buy into Faith's ideology for now. He'd prefer that immediate kind of danger to mind games, too.]

Not sure I like the sound of that. I mean, how d'you know everything came back the way you found it? [He gestures vaguely at his own head.]

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Got some corroboration from a friend, but I'm way ahead of him so the rest is just gut.

[ which she sounds generally ok with, despite not liking stuff in her head. she hadn't hurt anyone else, so the rest was mostly moot. ]

Don't love it, but you get used to the mind games, I guess.

[rosswood]

Sure you do. [He says it darkly, scowling at the empty air. He never got used to them back at home, nor did he ever really want to.

He needs a drink. Luckily he's already halfway here. He drains bottle #2 and - yep, he's done for the night. He doesn't plan on waking up with a headache and a stomach that's real eager to see yesterday's lunch.]

Well, uh. Hopefully your chicken pal doesn't do anything shady. I dunno. You never know with this place.

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[ her eyebrows lift in response, the accompanying smile empty of real hope. she can talk a good game, sure, but when it comes down to it she'll axe the little sucker if he goes hulk on her. ]

So, you from a pretty normal homeworld? Seems like you're taking the adjustment kinda hard.

[rosswood]

Pretty normal, yeah. [The lie comes easy. He's back to scraping the label off his bottle with a thumbnail, studiously avoiding her gaze. He likes to think he's pretty okay at telling a good lie. He's also thinking too hard about how to lift the subject away from himself to put much effort into making it believable.]

It's just hard to know where to draw the line sometimes. Do we just assume everything's possible? Cause, uh. [He tries to laugh, and it comes out too shaky to be convincing.] I dunno if I like the sound of that.

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Well, it's magic, mostly.

[ given her past, faith can respect the lack of desire to talk about the past. ]

Still got rules, far as I remember. Doesn't mean we can't fight back, but uh. We're pretty much Wonderland's bitches.

[rosswood]

Figures. [Oh but is he used to taking a punch. Taking a big, horrible, psychical punch to the brainpan.] No getting out. No leaving. No breaking anything permanently.

[He snorts, shaking his head.] Booo-ring.

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[ faith shrugs. ]

Could be worse. Could be Quor'toth or some other crazy hell dimension.

[rosswood]

Quor-whatnow?

[Sorry, run that by him again? He regards her for a long minute. When he speaks again, his voice is deliberately light.]

You, uh, you been to other places like this, I'm guessing?

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Just Quor'toth.

[ which, the more she thinks about the more she'd kind of prefer it there. ]

But I know a couple people. They hop around like it's no big deal.

[rosswood]

Really?

[That's either useful or terrifying. Or both, probably.]

Those people wouldn't happen to be hanging around here, would they?

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Nah. At least not that I know of.

[ she's not exactly the slayer everyone comes running to, anyway. ]

Maybe they're too strong to get nabbed. Or this place just doesn't wanna deal with them. I mean, I dunno if I buy that no one can get out, you know?

[rosswood]

You and me both. That sounds, like - really fishy. Like there's something big brother doesn't want us to know, yeah?

[Frankly, if there's ever a mass effort to break loose, Alex doubts he'll have much to contribute, or even that he'd want to. It's not like this place is home, really. It's just that home is, in essence, potentially so much worse.]

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[ she nods, but her head bobbles a little as she considers it. she kind of agrees... ]

Can't help but figure lot of people here are champion types. Big on the protection.

[ is that her? who knows. probably no one ever. ]

Don't know if it's on purpose, but they don't like it when they come up against stuff you can't win against. Actually like to run their mouths more, when that happens.

[rosswood]

["Champion types." He can see it, sure. Alex operates under a lot of illusions, but he sure as hell knows that he doesn't fall in that category, not by a long shot. He's just a normal, artistically talented college kid who got too deep into things he doesn't want to think about.

He can't imagine why someone like him would end up here, except that he can't help but be grateful that he's not where he was.

But anything would be better than that.

He nods in slow agreement.]

Fighting a losing battle. And then you start rackin' up a death count...

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Yeah, they forget that winning just means you keep fighting. You don't cut corners.

[ somber is a tone faith rarely takes, especially with people who are outside her very small circle of trusted friends. it rears its head now, as she speaks and then drains her glass to cork the words.

the short time she'd tauted herself as 'above' and used her calling as justification has defined her life to its end, now. it's not easy to watch other people do the same, no matter what theme disguises the goal. ]

Shit, I'm gonna need another bottle...