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TEST DRIVE #6
TEST DRIVE MEME
Considering apping to EACHDRAIDH? Why not give the setting a test run here! OPTIONAL SCENARIOS 01. ARRIVING IN THE DRABWURLD. The Seelie and Unseelie courts welcome you with mirthful revelry and hearty food. After you have been briefed on your purpose here, you will find an endless feast and a night filled with entertainment to placate your concerns. Mingle with new arrivals, sneak down the castle halls and make sure your eyes are always on your glass; fairies and imps have no bias when it comes to tricks! 02. THE STATION. Looking for a little slice of home? The Station gives you all that and more. Take advantage of the wifi, have a cup of fairy-brewed coffee (the one they didn't spit in) or sit back and relax on the patio. You can even move your things into one of the available rooms! 03. WILDCARD. Your own scenario! Explore the Drabwurld or simply take advantage of your Locket! |
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She seems to know just what to say.
Charm gets you nowhere when civilization breaks down, so for many, it had been a lost skill. It's also not something she has been up against recently, which means quite something if one's idea of recently can be summarized in "about twenty years". It makes her uneasy, not because she takes it as a reason to distrust Irene, but because she suddenly realized that the other woman may very well be a normal person. A person untouched by the Breakdown, the monsters that once were family members or friends. Someone whose problems were entirely man-made, and not coming at you in a death sprint to eat you alive or growing inside someone's brain until that person is gone and only the beast remains.
Of course, she reckons, man-made problems have their own severity, and normal is relative. For one, Irene's attire does not suggest a low-to-average wage.
"Caroline." She lifts up her own glass, having received an identical drink to Irene's for simplicity's sake. It's not like she would have had any clue what to order.
"I will gladly wait for the shock to wear off, but I can do without waking up. I will take a war I can still win over one I have already lost."
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And hell, she has a good feeling about her, even if it's only because she's willing to talk to a stranger. She clinks their glasses and wets her lips with her tongue, lizard quick. Then she inquires, "You lost a war?" with eyes wide and head cocked to listen. Cattishly curious, pin-sharp, small frame all at attention.
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"Humanity itself lost a war, to be precise." Someone has a bit of a touchy ego when it comes to her failures, and she does see it as a failure. Not something she could have prevented, that horse, apparently, ran off twenty years ago. She realizes she is talking too much, way too much for her liking, but at the same time, she can't seem to stop herself. The rational assessment is easy: she tries to normalize the situation. She wouldn't be here talking if there was anything more important to do. And since she has no control over where she is right now, thus no way of being where she could do something important, her brain goes with that.
She is tempted to drink, but hesitates. Heaven knows she can't handle a lot of alcohol, and the longer she draws it out, the longer she is in a state where she can at least pretend to be in charge.
"Where are you from?"
It feels relevant to ask. What she actually wants to know is when Irene is from, but this is not the time for her time-travel idea, nor is it quite the time to ignore the possibility of parallel universes. If all of this is a hallucination, her brain is certainly offering her quite the wonderful mystery to solve.
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She shifts her weight, lets Caroline's personal space be, takes another drink. Clearly not unused to alcohol. "I'm from London," she adds, voice snapping back from low, gently purring and probing to bright and social. "But I roam."
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"One way or another." It's a short answer. It used to be her favorite topic, just back this morning when she was convinced that, though she might die, she was at least going to save humanity. How quickly things change.
Same thing can be said about London.
"Same on all accounts. Though everybody left London as long as they were still able to, so I don't suppose it counts for nearly as much."
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Yes, she should have been more curious about that notion of humanity itself losing a war, shouldn't she? It's not the strangest thing she's heard all day, is all—unfortunately. Brows hitching up, she says, "I can't not ask what happened."
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Of course, that's hindsight speaking. Had anyone told her that five days ago, she would have laughed in their face and pointed at her facility full of test subjects, all equally likely to hold the secret to a full cure - or at least immunity.
"Never mind, you will end up seeing for yourself if you should find yourself returned to where you came from." She smiles. "Assuming, of course, that our idea of London is the same, and I haven't completely misjudged what time you are from."
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For the first time, her expression slips, and all the solid ground she's been urgently building shudders beneath her. Why it is that that frightens her when she can swallow the panic of being here at all, she has no idea—perhaps it's the way Caroline smiles as she says it, the simple finality of her statement, perhaps it's just the idea of talking to someone from a possible future which is closer to home than being suddenly in this new, impossible world—
She breathes deep, laughs, dips her head. "Ah, sorry. Do you mind if I don't tell you? When I'm from, I mean. Not just now. See, ah, I...have a rule." As her smile flickers and then re-illuminates like a temperamental neon sign, she sloshes the drink in her glass and shifts her weight, cocking her chin as if about to tell Caroline a deep secret. "The first time I meet someone, particularly someone I'd like to speak to more than once, they can't tell me how long we've all got until civilisation breaks down." Her smile turns rueful. "My own fault for pressing you on such a morbid topic."
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Her mind is running in an entirely different direction now. She has, after all, solved the mystery, plus all the experience necessary to perhaps prevent - or further postpone - Armageddon itself. So long as this war here is waging on, there is no use for that knowledge, and once it ends... Well, once it's over, she doubts she will remain alive. But if Irene - or anyone else from Earth-prior-doomsday - should return, they could easily carry a message or two, no?
She will have to think about this once the shock wears off, she decides, then shakes herself out of her reverie. Takes another, sip - larger this time. Ponders Irene's reaction. None of the questions that raises are appropriate, though. Burning, nonetheless, though she puts an effort into remaining, at large, expressionless.