You'll miss the birds completely. You're traveling so fleetly.

[hark_and_hush]

Who: Ruby and OPEN
Where: Various locations around the edge of town
When: The late evening of day 19
What: Ruby woke up and went exploring instead of playing with the communicator.
Notes: Feel free to intercept her at any point on her journey.


Ruby listened to the voice coming from the little device on her wrist. She listened, but she didn't really accept. She pulled her cloak tightly around herself as she stood, looking around at the sleepy-looking town and the strange little fountain.

She huffed a heavy breath in the cool night air, picked a direction and started to walk. She stopped to eye the pile of rubble that used to be the diner before following the road further towards the forest.

She spied an empty house and pushed the door open gently. "Hello?" It was seeming more and more like this was another curse and she wasn't so sure that she wanted to go in.

Comments

[hark_and_hush]

Even if Kenzi had actually been good at this, Ruby could smell her. The scent of sandalwood had started following her at the exact same time that she'd heard the girl approach.

She was on edge until she managed to catch a glimpse of the girl rolling into a bush out of the corner of her eye.

She turned around, a bemused smile on her face. "You're not very good at this, are you?"

[onteamdyson]

There's an offended gasp of disbelief before Kenzi pops straight up from behind the bush like a way-cute whack-a-mole or something. "Excuse you, lady, I'm amazing at this. You're just paranoid."

Kenzi logic. Truly a thing of beauty.

"Just keep walking. Pretend I'm not even expertly tailing you. It's okay. I'll give you a five second head start."

[hark_and_hush]

"I do have pretty good ears." Ruby laughed. "You never stood a chance with me, but I'm sure you sneak up on everyone else with ease."

She wasn't going to deny that she was paranoid, though. She'd just been kidnapped. How was she supposed to feel?

"Do you stalk everyone or am I special?"

[onteamdyson]

FINE! Fine. She's out of the bush and approaching Ruby like a normal person. "Special like the pancake breakfast on a Wednesday. Stalking is a privilege, not a right. Sup? I'm Kenzi. When did you get here?

Because she probably would have remembered someone this sassy. Sassy people are her favourite. This one has massive potential.

[hark_and_hush]

"At my diner, we have pancakes every day." Well, it was Granny's, but it's felt more and more hers, too.

Her face falls a little after that. "I just woke up here. What is this place? Some kind of trap?"

[onteamdyson]

"Wow. Must be nice. I gotta beg Trick for pancakes. Apparently they aren't bar food." Whatever, Trick. PANCAKES! "Okay, so special like something else that is special."

Ack. Kenzi hasn't had much luck giving the rundown to newbies without having them go totally internal breakdown on her or worse. She tries her best to smile reassuringly, holding her hands up in a non-threatening way.

"It's a lot of speculation and not many facts. Might actually be better if someone else runs through the basics."

[hark_and_hush]

Ruby made a mental note to make pancakes for the girl, assuming she didn't turn out to be her captor.

"Well I wouldn't mind hearing your guess, too." She gave a warm smile. "My name's Ruby, by the way."

[onteamdyson]

Ruby. Cute name. Kenzi smiles a bit warmer and rests her hands on her hips. "Nice to meet you. Sorry you're stuck in crazy town with us."

Right. Her guess. Well, it seemed to go okay with Galen. Sort of. "Uuuuuuh... I'm leaning towards morally fucked up science experiment? First I thought zombie apocalypse, but I'm pretty sure zombies don't have this kind of technology."

[hark_and_hush]

Ruby's face falls immediately. If it is some weird experiment, they might know about her curse. They know that she can hurt people. What if someone takes her hood again?

She pulls it tighter around herself. "Have they been... doing things to people?"

[onteamdyson]

Ooooh, not a good expression. Now Kenzi's starting to feel guilty.

"Probably? Not directly. Oh, except for that Sam guy. Dudes in white snatched him up while he was sleeping. He appeared randomly a few days later talkin' crazy-talk and being all dangerous. I had to knock him out." Not... helping. She shrugs, "He seems fine now, though!"

Still not helping. Who the hell knows what those guys did to him! Maybe they took the others. Maybe they were killing them.

"A lot of other weird stuff happens, too."

[hark_and_hush]

"And we can't leave..." There has to be something, maybe some sort of magic. Whether this is a curse or something else, there has to be a way out.

Her head shoots up at the distant sound of a wolf. She's not even sure if the other girl can hear it. She's still figuring out what senses are her own and what are due to the wolf.

[onteamdyson]

"Not unless you like fighting robot bears in the woods. I don't think anyone's tried the water yet, but that's probs a death sentence, too."

Yeah. No leaving. Not in one piece.

Kenzi watches Ruby curiously when she snaps to attention like that. She didn't hear a thing. "You okay?"

[hark_and_hush]

"I'm not much of a fighter." It's not strictly true, but it's a safe lie. She doesn't look like she can fight, so why admit that she can if push comes to shove?

"They're robot bears? That's..." A hard pill to swallow, but then so is everything about her life, isn't it?

[onteamdyson]

"Yeah, well... they haven't bothered anyone in town yet. You're probably safe from the bears specifically, but no guarantee on anything else." Especially if she's not a fighter. Damn all you newbies, bringing out Kenzi's protective side. She shrugs, placing her hands on her hips.

"I'll watch your back, Rubalicious. Don't worry about it. So I'm a little rusty on the subtlety and stealth thing, I make up for it by packing a punch. Promise."

[hark_and_hush]

Ruby can't help the wide smile on her face. Maybe not in the way she speaks, but the meaning reminds her an awful lot of Snow.

"If you need stealth, you can always ask me. I'm told I'm a pretty good sneak." If Kenzi is going to have her back, she'll have Kenzi's too, obviously.