multimuse for any Roll from the Hip character

plagueround, Lock stock AND MORE

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

HI. NO LONGER ARCHIVED. IVE FIGURED OUT WHAT TO DO WITH THIS

Alright, so any and all Roll from the hip rpers

Or just someone who wants to make story

I will literally write for:

Plagueround:

Edgar Allan

Roland Thudberry

Kevin Creely

Monty Finch

Mathew Hinks

Frank Hebden

Sargent Kerry Lewis

Hexmaster Ranjit Singh

Lock stock and two smoking fireballs:

Maureen quickfoot

Porceline pete

Cheeky Dustbins

Carlos Huispas

Rover

Wild magic Warriors:

Lemon

Bitter sweethearts:

Ashen

Lukas

Occasional Angst and dark topics will be tagged properly

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Continued from here

Pete starts heading for the door, he hadn't really realized how much shorter he was until he looked up to find the Door handle quite above his head. He reaches for it anyway, unsuccessfully attempting a grab before politely turning back.

"I... require assistance. I can't... open the door."

He then cocks his head to the side in contemplation, suddenly realizing he has access to a mysterious thing called internet. He looks back at Cindy and asks,

"What is the internet? And why do I have access to it?"

@blogging-cindy

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy moves to place a basket of bread and pastries, and a bottle of juice next to the water on the table beside the sofa. After a moment's thought, she tears a page from a notepad and leaves a short note explaining where they have gone in case Maureen wakes up while they're away.

When she notices Pete struggling with the door handle, she steps over and opens it for him.

"There you you go."

She walks out the door, waiting for him to follow.

"Oh, the internet is sort of like a library full of information, entertainment, and all kinds of other things that people all over the world can access through devices like this." As she speaks, she pulls her phone from her pocket and holds it up briefly. "I think your body is telling you that you have to access it because it needed the internet to function while we were using it at the shop."

"I think I'm still connected, so I should be able to connect you as well."

She looks down at the phone and taps through a few menus, pausing occasionally to make sure she's selecting the right options. After a moment, she lowers the phone and looks back at Pete.

"That should do it. Can you tell if it worked?" She asks. "Do you..feel any different?

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Pete suddenly stilled for a moment as he was given full access to the internet and paused. His circuts were very overwhelmed at the sudden influx of information. He finally found his way back and looked at Cindy.

"Wh-woah. I... I wasn't expecting complete access to an abundance of knowledge. I... I certainly feel a bit odd, but I assume it's probably because I'm not use to this machine nor this *internet*."

He shakes it off and tries to reassure her,

"But otherwise, I'm functional. Let's go see this basement!"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy closes the door behind them and starts walking with Pete beside her, moving down the apartment hallway toward the basement access.

She doesn’t make it far before two kids come running up from further down the corridor, calling out as they reach her.

"Cindy!" one of them says, slightly out of breath, "HI, Cindy!" "Hi!" the other adds as they match her pace, "Where are you going?"

"Hello, Mae, hello Marie," Cindy replies, pausing slightly before adding, "I’m just going to take care of something downstairs. How are you two?"

"I lost my tooth and my tooth fairy gave me stickers!" one of them says excitedly, grinning wide and showing the gap.

Cindy starts to respond when the other girl suddenly looks past her and stops mid-step.

"woah, is that a robot!"

Cindy shifts slightly in front of Pete, a brief flicker of panic crossing her face before she steadies into a polite smile, "Yes. But he's for the shop downstairs so he’s not for playing with," she says and then adds, "I'm sorry I cant let you play with the robot. But tomorrow I’ll come over your place to give you those donuts you like."

The two girls’ attention slips away from the robot, their expressions brightening, "Okay!" they say before running off, "See you later, Cindy!"

"See you later!" the other girl calls back as they disappear down the corridor.

"See you." Cindy waves as she watches them go for a second before turning to Pete

"I’m sorry, but I think I might need to carry you to avoid being conspicuous," she says, "Sentient robots and people traveling from other dimensions isn’t exactly the norm here," she pauses briefly, then shifts her stance and carefully lifts him up, "I’m sorry, please bear with me."

Cindy continues walking with Pete in her arms, thankful that they only pass a few residents along the way, normal apartment movement carrying on around them as they move quietly down the corridor toward the basement access.

She leads them to the basement door, pulls out a small key, and unlocks it, the lock turning cleanly before the door swings open. Cindy steps inside and pulls it shut behind them, the hallway noise cutting off all at once.

She carefully sets Pete down before looking around the space.

The basement is larger than it looks from outside, concrete floor stretching across a wide open area, exposed beams overhead, shelving lined along the walls, and a few boxes stacked neatly in one corner with cleaning supplies off to the side.

"Here it is. It’s going to take some work but it won’t take that long if we start early." she says "And I’ll help get you the furniture you need once it’s all sorted."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Thank you, Cindy. I'm very sorry that we ruined your day of baking."

Pete hadn't experienced being picked up before so as he was sat down he ultimately found himself immediately sitting on the floor, looking around the room.

"Do other residents have access to the basement as well?"

He looks up to Cindy with big robotic eyes as he asked, grabbing the nearest item to look at it as he waits for an answer.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy glances around the room before looking back at Pete.

"Some of them do," she replies. "But most people don't have much reason to come down here though. It's mostly used for storage."

She walks over to one of the shelves and runs a finger through the thin layer of dust gathered on the surface.

"But it should give you and Maureen some privacy."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"We will take it then. Shall we try to clean up a bit?"

He doesn't wait for a response as Pete begins cleaning up the area, and a Montage begins!

Weeks pass and Cindy and Pete have managed to successfully deep clean the basement! Soon a mostly healed Maureen manages to wander down into the basement and finds Pete propping up some boxes to try to make it look a little more homey in the basement.

"Pete, what...? Is this what you and Cindy have been doin'?"

Pete gets startled, and his small robotic frame jumps a surprising amount of height in the air.

"Maureen! I wasn't expecting you yet! Cindy was getting some furniture before we invited you down!"

Maureen takes in the basement scene, a cozy little nook made out of boxes, with a blanket draped in the corner has a little cardboard sign that says Pete's room, and nearby a bigger box fort with a mattress and a curtain sits. The bigger box fort clearly made for her so they can at least have a little privacy whilst sleeping.

"Oh. Pete it's... it's lovely. Thank you." She looks at the other bare area of the room. "What do you have Cindy getting?"

"Well, whenever I haven't been working on the room, I've been surfing the interwebs, trying to see if any strange occurrences like our transpired before or anywhere else. Currently, I have no word, but I figure we could have a whiteboard so I can write anything down if something does come up!"

"That's very smart, Pete." Maureen has no idea what the interwebs are, but she assumes it's some way of being able to know what's going on in the world and doesn't mind it. "Do you know how long Cindy'll be out?"

"She should be home not long now."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy makes her way down the hallway toward the basement door, pushing the cart in front of her, staying close to the wall as she goes. The building is quiet this time of day, everyone seemingly caught up in their own routines, and she’s thankful no one is out in the corridors as she passes.

She stops at the door, unlocks it, and steps inside before carefully guiding the cart down the stairs, one step at a time, until it reaches the bottom. Once inside, she closes the door behind her and follows after it, making her way down the stairs. "Excuse me for intruding," she greets as she comes into view. "I bought more furniture."

Cindy moves to set the table up first, unfolding it and locking it into place before arranging the chairs around it. The groceries come out next, placed on top of the table to keep them out of the way as she works. "I thought I’d cook dinner once we’ve set everything up," she says, placing a box of bread and pastries on the table.

She then plugs in the fan and turns it on, the faint sound filling the room but not to loud that it’s a distraction, before to take more stuff from the cart.

"I got the whiteboard you wanted, Pete." She takes it out and she leans it against the wall, then opens a small box and lays out the markers, eraser, papers, and pens beside it.

They then set up a kitchen area, next to the working sink, with Cindy placing the mini fridge near an outlet so she can plug it in before setting the crockpot, portable stove, and a storage basket filled with cooking and eating supplies nearby. 

Cindy moves on to the rest of the furniture she brought, placing a couple of softer lounge chairs into the space and arranging cushions with them so there’s somewhere to sit.

After that, she sets down a basin and a small basket of toiletries by the washing area near the working faucet and the utility stall. They were fortunate the basement still has old service plumbing from when the building had shared staff facilities and maintenance access.

"You can both come over to my flat for more food and a proper shower, or for anything really," Cindy says, glancing between them. "But I figured you’d probably want something here on your own so you don’t have to keep going up and down the steps."

They work together to set everything up, Cindy carefully unfolding a folding camp bed frame and placing it where it won’t disturb anything Pete has already arranged, then laying out storage boxes nearby, setting aside extra clothes for Maureen along with the medical supplies for her wound and other things the two may need. Once everything is in place, Cindy gets working on dinner. The rest of the evening passes in conversation mostly focused on practical things, what Pete and Maureen’s next steps might be, what still needs to be arranged, and what Cindy can still help with. Eventually she notices how late it’s getting and realizes the two of them would probably want to rest.

"It was good talking with you both, but I think I've taken up too much of your evening," Cindy says as she gets to her feet and starts toward the door. "If either of you need anything, just have Pete call me as always. My phone is still connected to his body"

Cindy lets herself out and closes the basement door behind her.

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen spent the rest of the evening getting used to their new situation. It finally dawned on her that they probably would not be getting home. Whatever friends they had left would think they were dead. And there was a possibility that she'd have to be in hiding for the rest of her life.

As Maureen had her existential crisis, Pete began search the Web, just attempting to see if anything of note potentially appeared... mostly he wanted to know Carlos and Cheeky, and even Magpie were okay. Just anything.

Soon they'll have to get used to their new normal.

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Continued from here

Pete starts heading for the door, he hadn't really realized how much shorter he was until he looked up to find the Door handle quite above his head. He reaches for it anyway, unsuccessfully attempting a grab before politely turning back.

"I... require assistance. I can't... open the door."

He then cocks his head to the side in contemplation, suddenly realizing he has access to a mysterious thing called internet. He looks back at Cindy and asks,

"What is the internet? And why do I have access to it?"

@blogging-cindy

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy moves to place a basket of bread and pastries, and a bottle of juice next to the water on the table beside the sofa. After a moment's thought, she tears a page from a notepad and leaves a short note explaining where they have gone in case Maureen wakes up while they're away.

When she notices Pete struggling with the door handle, she steps over and opens it for him.

"There you you go."

She walks out the door, waiting for him to follow.

"Oh, the internet is sort of like a library full of information, entertainment, and all kinds of other things that people all over the world can access through devices like this." As she speaks, she pulls her phone from her pocket and holds it up briefly. "I think your body is telling you that you have to access it because it needed the internet to function while we were using it at the shop."

"I think I'm still connected, so I should be able to connect you as well."

She looks down at the phone and taps through a few menus, pausing occasionally to make sure she's selecting the right options. After a moment, she lowers the phone and looks back at Pete.

"That should do it. Can you tell if it worked?" She asks. "Do you..feel any different?

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Pete suddenly stilled for a moment as he was given full access to the internet and paused. His circuts were very overwhelmed at the sudden influx of information. He finally found his way back and looked at Cindy.

"Wh-woah. I... I wasn't expecting complete access to an abundance of knowledge. I... I certainly feel a bit odd, but I assume it's probably because I'm not use to this machine nor this *internet*."

He shakes it off and tries to reassure her,

"But otherwise, I'm functional. Let's go see this basement!"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy closes the door behind them and starts walking with Pete beside her, moving down the apartment hallway toward the basement access.

She doesn’t make it far before two kids come running up from further down the corridor, calling out as they reach her.

"Cindy!" one of them says, slightly out of breath, "HI, Cindy!" "Hi!" the other adds as they match her pace, "Where are you going?"

"Hello, Mae, hello Marie," Cindy replies, pausing slightly before adding, "I’m just going to take care of something downstairs. How are you two?"

"I lost my tooth and my tooth fairy gave me stickers!" one of them says excitedly, grinning wide and showing the gap.

Cindy starts to respond when the other girl suddenly looks past her and stops mid-step.

"woah, is that a robot!"

Cindy shifts slightly in front of Pete, a brief flicker of panic crossing her face before she steadies into a polite smile, "Yes. But he's for the shop downstairs so he’s not for playing with," she says and then adds, "I'm sorry I cant let you play with the robot. But tomorrow I’ll come over your place to give you those donuts you like."

The two girls’ attention slips away from the robot, their expressions brightening, "Okay!" they say before running off, "See you later, Cindy!"

"See you later!" the other girl calls back as they disappear down the corridor.

"See you." Cindy waves as she watches them go for a second before turning to Pete

"I’m sorry, but I think I might need to carry you to avoid being conspicuous," she says, "Sentient robots and people traveling from other dimensions isn’t exactly the norm here," she pauses briefly, then shifts her stance and carefully lifts him up, "I’m sorry, please bear with me."

Cindy continues walking with Pete in her arms, thankful that they only pass a few residents along the way, normal apartment movement carrying on around them as they move quietly down the corridor toward the basement access.

She leads them to the basement door, pulls out a small key, and unlocks it, the lock turning cleanly before the door swings open. Cindy steps inside and pulls it shut behind them, the hallway noise cutting off all at once.

She carefully sets Pete down before looking around the space.

The basement is larger than it looks from outside, concrete floor stretching across a wide open area, exposed beams overhead, shelving lined along the walls, and a few boxes stacked neatly in one corner with cleaning supplies off to the side.

"Here it is. It’s going to take some work but it won’t take that long if we start early." she says "And I’ll help get you the furniture you need once it’s all sorted."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Thank you, Cindy. I'm very sorry that we ruined your day of baking."

Pete hadn't experienced being picked up before so as he was sat down he ultimately found himself immediately sitting on the floor, looking around the room.

"Do other residents have access to the basement as well?"

He looks up to Cindy with big robotic eyes as he asked, grabbing the nearest item to look at it as he waits for an answer.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy glances around the room before looking back at Pete.

"Some of them do," she replies. "But most people don't have much reason to come down here though. It's mostly used for storage."

She walks over to one of the shelves and runs a finger through the thin layer of dust gathered on the surface.

"But it should give you and Maureen some privacy."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"We will take it then. Shall we try to clean up a bit?"

He doesn't wait for a response as Pete begins cleaning up the area, and a Montage begins!

Weeks pass and Cindy and Pete have managed to successfully deep clean the basement! Soon a mostly healed Maureen manages to wander down into the basement and finds Pete propping up some boxes to try to make it look a little more homey in the basement.

"Pete, what...? Is this what you and Cindy have been doin'?"

Pete gets startled, and his small robotic frame jumps a surprising amount of height in the air.

"Maureen! I wasn't expecting you yet! Cindy was getting some furniture before we invited you down!"

Maureen takes in the basement scene, a cozy little nook made out of boxes, with a blanket draped in the corner has a little cardboard sign that says Pete's room, and nearby a bigger box fort with a mattress and a curtain sits. The bigger box fort clearly made for her so they can at least have a little privacy whilst sleeping.

"Oh. Pete it's... it's lovely. Thank you." She looks at the other bare area of the room. "What do you have Cindy getting?"

"Well, whenever I haven't been working on the room, I've been surfing the interwebs, trying to see if any strange occurrences like our transpired before or anywhere else. Currently, I have no word, but I figure we could have a whiteboard so I can write anything down if something does come up!"

"That's very smart, Pete." Maureen has no idea what the interwebs are, but she assumes it's some way of being able to know what's going on in the world and doesn't mind it. "Do you know how long Cindy'll be out?"

"She should be home not long now."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Continued from here

Pete starts heading for the door, he hadn't really realized how much shorter he was until he looked up to find the Door handle quite above his head. He reaches for it anyway, unsuccessfully attempting a grab before politely turning back.

"I... require assistance. I can't... open the door."

He then cocks his head to the side in contemplation, suddenly realizing he has access to a mysterious thing called internet. He looks back at Cindy and asks,

"What is the internet? And why do I have access to it?"

@blogging-cindy

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy moves to place a basket of bread and pastries, and a bottle of juice next to the water on the table beside the sofa. After a moment's thought, she tears a page from a notepad and leaves a short note explaining where they have gone in case Maureen wakes up while they're away.

When she notices Pete struggling with the door handle, she steps over and opens it for him.

"There you you go."

She walks out the door, waiting for him to follow.

"Oh, the internet is sort of like a library full of information, entertainment, and all kinds of other things that people all over the world can access through devices like this." As she speaks, she pulls her phone from her pocket and holds it up briefly. "I think your body is telling you that you have to access it because it needed the internet to function while we were using it at the shop."

"I think I'm still connected, so I should be able to connect you as well."

She looks down at the phone and taps through a few menus, pausing occasionally to make sure she's selecting the right options. After a moment, she lowers the phone and looks back at Pete.

"That should do it. Can you tell if it worked?" She asks. "Do you..feel any different?

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Pete suddenly stilled for a moment as he was given full access to the internet and paused. His circuts were very overwhelmed at the sudden influx of information. He finally found his way back and looked at Cindy.

"Wh-woah. I... I wasn't expecting complete access to an abundance of knowledge. I... I certainly feel a bit odd, but I assume it's probably because I'm not use to this machine nor this *internet*."

He shakes it off and tries to reassure her,

"But otherwise, I'm functional. Let's go see this basement!"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy closes the door behind them and starts walking with Pete beside her, moving down the apartment hallway toward the basement access.

She doesn’t make it far before two kids come running up from further down the corridor, calling out as they reach her.

"Cindy!" one of them says, slightly out of breath, "HI, Cindy!" "Hi!" the other adds as they match her pace, "Where are you going?"

"Hello, Mae, hello Marie," Cindy replies, pausing slightly before adding, "I’m just going to take care of something downstairs. How are you two?"

"I lost my tooth and my tooth fairy gave me stickers!" one of them says excitedly, grinning wide and showing the gap.

Cindy starts to respond when the other girl suddenly looks past her and stops mid-step.

"woah, is that a robot!"

Cindy shifts slightly in front of Pete, a brief flicker of panic crossing her face before she steadies into a polite smile, "Yes. But he's for the shop downstairs so he’s not for playing with," she says and then adds, "I'm sorry I cant let you play with the robot. But tomorrow I’ll come over your place to give you those donuts you like."

The two girls’ attention slips away from the robot, their expressions brightening, "Okay!" they say before running off, "See you later, Cindy!"

"See you later!" the other girl calls back as they disappear down the corridor.

"See you." Cindy waves as she watches them go for a second before turning to Pete

"I’m sorry, but I think I might need to carry you to avoid being conspicuous," she says, "Sentient robots and people traveling from other dimensions isn’t exactly the norm here," she pauses briefly, then shifts her stance and carefully lifts him up, "I’m sorry, please bear with me."

Cindy continues walking with Pete in her arms, thankful that they only pass a few residents along the way, normal apartment movement carrying on around them as they move quietly down the corridor toward the basement access.

She leads them to the basement door, pulls out a small key, and unlocks it, the lock turning cleanly before the door swings open. Cindy steps inside and pulls it shut behind them, the hallway noise cutting off all at once.

She carefully sets Pete down before looking around the space.

The basement is larger than it looks from outside, concrete floor stretching across a wide open area, exposed beams overhead, shelving lined along the walls, and a few boxes stacked neatly in one corner with cleaning supplies off to the side.

"Here it is. It’s going to take some work but it won’t take that long if we start early." she says "And I’ll help get you the furniture you need once it’s all sorted."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Thank you, Cindy. I'm very sorry that we ruined your day of baking."

Pete hadn't experienced being picked up before so as he was sat down he ultimately found himself immediately sitting on the floor, looking around the room.

"Do other residents have access to the basement as well?"

He looks up to Cindy with big robotic eyes as he asked, grabbing the nearest item to look at it as he waits for an answer.

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Continued from here

Pete starts heading for the door, he hadn't really realized how much shorter he was until he looked up to find the Door handle quite above his head. He reaches for it anyway, unsuccessfully attempting a grab before politely turning back.

"I... require assistance. I can't... open the door."

He then cocks his head to the side in contemplation, suddenly realizing he has access to a mysterious thing called internet. He looks back at Cindy and asks,

"What is the internet? And why do I have access to it?"

@blogging-cindy

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy moves to place a basket of bread and pastries, and a bottle of juice next to the water on the table beside the sofa. After a moment's thought, she tears a page from a notepad and leaves a short note explaining where they have gone in case Maureen wakes up while they're away.

When she notices Pete struggling with the door handle, she steps over and opens it for him.

"There you you go."

She walks out the door, waiting for him to follow.

"Oh, the internet is sort of like a library full of information, entertainment, and all kinds of other things that people all over the world can access through devices like this." As she speaks, she pulls her phone from her pocket and holds it up briefly. "I think your body is telling you that you have to access it because it needed the internet to function while we were using it at the shop."

"I think I'm still connected, so I should be able to connect you as well."

She looks down at the phone and taps through a few menus, pausing occasionally to make sure she's selecting the right options. After a moment, she lowers the phone and looks back at Pete.

"That should do it. Can you tell if it worked?" She asks. "Do you..feel any different?

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Pete suddenly stilled for a moment as he was given full access to the internet and paused. His circuts were very overwhelmed at the sudden influx of information. He finally found his way back and looked at Cindy.

"Wh-woah. I... I wasn't expecting complete access to an abundance of knowledge. I... I certainly feel a bit odd, but I assume it's probably because I'm not use to this machine nor this *internet*."

He shakes it off and tries to reassure her,

"But otherwise, I'm functional. Let's go see this basement!"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Continued from here

Pete starts heading for the door, he hadn't really realized how much shorter he was until he looked up to find the Door handle quite above his head. He reaches for it anyway, unsuccessfully attempting a grab before politely turning back.

"I... require assistance. I can't... open the door."

He then cocks his head to the side in contemplation, suddenly realizing he has access to a mysterious thing called internet. He looks back at Cindy and asks,

"What is the internet? And why do I have access to it?"

@blogging-cindy

[blogging-cindy]

Spoilers for Lockstock Ep 4

Maureen thought it was over. Pete had taken the tea. Everyone was going. She got her ending. But as she flew through the void, she heard a loud crash and felt pain. If she was dead, she wouldn't have felt... pain... would she? It takes a moment, but she pries open her tired eyes blinking as she looks around the room she finds herself lying in. The first thing she notices is the crumpled and mostly destroyed mass of Pete only a few feet in front of her.

"Pete...?"

It was obvious he wouldn't be in functioning order, but she still desperately wished her friend was with her. That's when she noticed how... odd, everything else looked around her. The counters looked sleek, well, especially compared to counters in Donlon. Tools and other baking supplies were neatly organized in the room, and she felt exceptionally out of place.

"I... I don' think we're in Donlon anymore Pete..."

@roll-from-the-roleplay

Cindy is in the middle of working on a batch of danishes, her counter lightly dusted with flour and a few test pastries laid out in front of her. She's comparing notes from the last batch when something strange catches her attention.

It feels, for just a second, like something has hooked itself somewhere beneath her ribs and given a sharp tug. The sensation's gone almost as quickly as it comes, leaving her frowning down at the page.

Then something crashes hard onto the kitchen floor.

Cindy jumps back so quickly her hip hits the counter behind her, her hands gripping the edge before she can think to do anything else. There's a woman on her floor, and beside her is something crumpled and broken that Cindy can't make sense of at all. Neither of them look like they belong there.

Neither of them look quite human.

Then the woman speaks, and Cindy's attention snaps back to her.

"Who--" Her voice catches, and she has to swallow before trying again. "Who are you?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hadn't quite noticed the human standing in the kitchen either... it was probably the blood loss, that and the fact she had landed in the middle of the room... She couldn't help her instinct to grab at a knife by her waist as she turned to the human. But, fortunately for Cindy, she hadn't apparently kept that with her during the transportation to... wherever this is.

So, instead, Maureen scrambled closer to Pete. She could at least try to protect him, if nothing else. Her pointy ears twitch as she responds, "Maureen. Who are you...? Where am I?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy keeps staring at her, too thrown to answer the woman's questions. Her eyes move from Maureen’s face to her ears, then lower, catching on the blood.

"You’re..." Her voice catches. "You’re bleeding."

For a second, she only stares at it. There is blood on her kitchen floor, blood that definitely wasn't there a minute ago when she was standing over her baking. But she sees more blood drip on the floor and it hits her again.

"Oh my god! You’re bleeding!"

"I don’t have any---" Cindy looks around the kitchen wildly, her gaze jumping from the counter to the sink to the drawers as if something useful might suddenly appear there. Her heart is hammering so hard she can feel it in her throat. "I don’t have anything for that. I mean, not here. I have towels. I think I have a first aid kit somewhere. Wait."

She turns immediately and starts yanking open drawers, one after another. Measuring spoons, folded tea towels, baking paper, spare piping tips, none of it is what she needs, and the more she looks, the less certain she is of where anything actually is.

"Where is it?" she mutters to herself before looking back at Maureen, visibly panicked. "Just-- just don't move. Or do move. I don't know. Just--hold on."

She quickly grabs a clean tea towel from beside the counter, then another from the hook near the oven, hands shaking as she holds them out but doesn’t quite step close enough to touch her.

She takes a step forward, lifting the folded cloth toward Maureen before stopping herself halfway. The panic is still there, but now uncertainty catches up with it, her hands hovering in the space between them like she has only just remembered Maureen never said she could touch her.

"I um..." She swallows. "May I...?"

Her eyes flick to the blood and then back to Maureen.

"I can help. If that's alright."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen looked at this young woman's face warily. But, she had no choice. Her only other friend she could see was a heap of metal and porcelain on the floor, and anyone else she knew were missing entirely. Carlos, Cheeky, and Magpie, all consumed by the void, and yet, somehow she's here, and they're not.

Maureen nods, deciding to let herself relax. Despite being on the brink of death before, she feels... fine, actually. Well, less fine and more alive. The pain was proof of it.

"You hadn't answered my question, dove. Where are we, and who are ya? "

Her frightened, adrenaline filled questions were exchanged for quiet, tired ones.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy kneels beside Maureen and presses the folded towel against the worst of the bleeding before she can lose her nerve.

"I'm sorry," she says, the words coming out shaky as she keeps both hands over the cloth. "I should have answered you."

The towel warms beneath her palms almost at once, and Cindy has to swallow hard to keep herself from pulling away. She presses down as firmly as she dares, though her hands are still trembling.

"My name is Cindy," she says. "Cindy Campbell. And this is my flat, right above the shop where I work."

Her eyes flick down to the blood spreading into the fabric, then quickly back to Maureen’s face.

"You’re in New York," Cindy adds, quieter. "I don’t know how you got here. I’m sorry. You just… appeared. Both of you."

She glances once toward Pete, but only for a second. The sight of him makes her stomach twist in a way she cannot make sense of right now, so she forces her attention back to the living person in front of her.

"I’m sorry if this hurts," she says, pressing the towel more securely against the wound. "I’m trying not to--I mean, I know it has to be firm, but I don’t want to make it worse."

Cindy shifts one hand just enough to grab the second towel and layer it over the first when the blood starts coming through.

"There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom," she says, her voice still thin with panic. "I need to get it, but I don’t want to let go yet."

She looks at Maureen, worry plain across her face.

"Can you hold this here? Just for a moment. Press it like this, alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Cindy... New York..." Maureen tries to tuck that information away in her brain, but her thoughts seem to be as fickle as the flow. She's lost so so much. It would be easy to give in.

But as she views Cindy's worry, she can feel something within her fight. Something deep that she hadn't felt for a while.

"Thank you, Cindy. For... helpin'..."

She moves her hand on top of the girls holding the towel to her wound. "I'll hold onto it as long as you need."

Sweat laced Maureen's brow, but there was clearly a fight in her that she wasn't gonna let go quite yet.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy stills for a moment when Maureen’s hand settles over hers.

It is warm, and real, and for some reason that makes the whole impossible thing feel worse. This is not a strange dream or something her frightened mind had made up. Maureen is here, bleeding on her kitchen floor, and trusting Cindy enough to let her help.

"You don’t have to thank me," Cindy says, her voice still thin but softer now. "Just keep pressing there, alright? As hard as you can."

She carefully eases one hand away first, then the other, making sure Maureen has the towel held in place before she moves.

"I’ll be quick."

Cindy gets to her feet too fast and nearly slips on the flour dusting the floor, catching herself on the counter with a sharp breath. She does not give herself time to be embarrassed. Instead, she turns and hurries out of the kitchen, calling back as she goes.

"I’m only going to the bathroom. I’m not leaving you." It takes a few frantic seconds of searching before she finds the kit under the sink. Cindy grabs it and returns with it clutched against her chest, dropping back down beside Maureen.

"I found it," she says, kneeling beside Maureen again.

Cindy opens the kit and takes out what she needs, setting each thing down within reach before she lifts the towel. The slash is along Maureen’s side, wet and raw beneath the cloth, and Cindy’s face goes pale at the sight of it.

Still, her hands know where to go.

"I’m sorry," she says, quieter now. "I have to clean it first."

She folds the towel back only as far as she needs to, keeping pressure with one hand while the other tears open a wipe. She starts around the wound, careful and slow, clearing away enough blood to see what she is doing without dragging too hard against torn skin.

"I’m sorry," she says again when she has to press closer. "Just a moment. I know it hurts."

The towel is too soaked to keep using, so Cindy reaches for the gauze and swaps it in quickly, one hand lifting while the other replaces it before the bleeding can start freely again. She presses down, waits, then adds another layer when red begins to spread through the first.

For a while, that is all there is. Gauze, pressure, the sound of Cindy trying to keep her breathing even.

Once the bleeding slows enough, she reaches for the bandage roll. She slips it carefully around Maureen’s waist, leaning close enough to pass it behind her without pulling at the wound, then brings it back around over the dressing. The first wrap holds it in place. The second is firmer. The third makes Cindy pause to check beneath the edge with two fingers, making sure it is snug without cutting in.

"There," she says at last, tucking the end securely. "There, that should--"

She stops herself before saying it should be alright, because she doesn’t know that it will be. Instead, she lifts her eyes to Maureen’s face.

"That should hold for now," Cindy says, finally lifting her eyes from the bandage to look at Maureen’s companion.

"I don't know how to help them," she admits, feeling helpless . "I... are they alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen winces as her wound is cleaned, her ears angling downward in pain, but she's alive. She's alive, and I guess she has three new goals.

Stay Alive

Fix Pete

And find Cheeky and Carlos.

She's focusing on those goals with Cindy asks about Pete and she... she has to look over to his crumpled mess of a body.

"I... I don' know. I wish I knew, Dove, but... I... he ran on Tea, and the Flow. But.... based on how you're healing me I.... there isn't... there's no... magic... is there?"

Maureen's Emerald eyes search Cindy's face for a response. It's clear this young girl wasn't exactly expecting this...

"I... I don' know how to fix him. Especially without the flow water..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks from Maureen to Pete, and the helpless feeling settles heavier in her chest.

"I don’t know," she says softly. "I’m not sure if this city has magic or not, but--"

She stops herself and for a second, her eyes flick toward the bedroom before she looks back at Maureen. There is something in there, hidden away where she had promised herself it would stay, but thinking of it only makes her feel worse. Having something dangerous nearby is not the same as knowing how to help.

"I’m sorry," Cindy says. "I don’t know what the Flow is. I don’t know how to fix him."

Her gaze drifts back to Pete, to the shattered porcelain and the empty spaces where pieces should’ve been, and the frustration turns inward before she can stop it.

With Maureen, she’d at least known where to begin but her companion was different.

She wants to do something. She wants, desperately, to be useful.

But she can't do anything.

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴ ̴c̴a̴n̴'̴t̴ ̴d̴o̴ ̴a̴n̴y̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴.̴

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴'̴r̴e̴ ̴u̴s̴e̴l̴e̴s̴s̴ ̴t̴h̴e̴ ̴m̴o̴m̴e̴n̴t̴ ̴s̴o̴m̴e̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴ ̴m̴a̴t̴t̴e̴r̴s̴.̴

Cindy swallows hard and makes herself look back at Maureen.

"Is he alive?" she asks quietly. "I mean… is he still in there? Can he hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"I-I don' know. He was still there when his memories got all fucked with and everythin' but... it's okay, alright? It'll be fine. Somethin' managed to pull us here, so Cheeky and Carlos are probably around here somewhere, and we'll just find them and fix Pete, and we'll be fine."

As Maureen is saying this, it's somewhat clear that she's saying a lot of this for herself. Desperate to give herself a bit of comfort. Although, if she and Pete were dragged through... that Means PG Tips could've made it through too... or even the Krag twins...

"Oh fuck. If we made it through, that.... that could me the Krag twins. PG Tips... they could've... fuck...."

Maureen sits up a bit in a panic and then winces and leans back.

"Fuck. Those are some bad people that might be roamin out and about now. They killed my love. They could still be alive..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy’s eyes widen when Maureen tries to sit up.

"Please don’t move too much. Please, you’ll hurt yourself."

She reaches out on instinct, then stops before touching her, hands hovering uselessly for a moment before she pulls them back.

"I’m sorry, I don’t-- I don’t know who any of those people are."

The words tumble together faster than Cindy can make sense of them, one fear folding into another until she can barely tell what danger is nearest.

"I don't know if they're here," she says, and her voice comes out smaller than she means it to. "I don't know how you two got here in the first place."

Her stomach turns at the thought. Maureen and Pete had appeared in her kitchen without warning, and Cindy still doesn't understand how. If others had come through too, then they could be anywhere, and she wouldn't have the first idea where to look for those they want to find, and no idea how to deal with those that they don't want to find them.

"I’m sorry," she says again, because it is the only thing she can think to say. "I don’t understand what’s happened. I don’t understand the Flow, or what you went through, or how to find the others."

Her gaze moves to Pete, broken and half-formed on the floor, and the frustration twists inward again.

"But if you have enemies after you..." Cindy starts, then falters as her eyes drift back to the broken porcelain scattered across the floor. "How can--how would your friend run?" she asks quietly. "How would they even move?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen realizes that her words are just panicking the girl and she falters for a moment. It doesn't help the situation if she keeps on spooking the only other being in the room.

"It's alright, Dove. I-I'll stop movin'."

Her eyes follow Cindy's, and she sighs gesturing for her to slide Pete over.

"Well, usually he uh... he has legs. But the Black tea really... really did a number on him."

She pauses, letting the two of them breathe dor a moment and take in everything.

" If... if the others made it through, it would be nice, but if... if the Krag Twins or PG Tips made it through... it's going to be a problem. But we'll handle it." She attempts to give a reassuring smile, but it's certainly a struggle. She then sighs and muses outloud.

"Surely, there's some sort of magic within your world that we can figure out and use to our advantage..."

[blogging-cindy]

The question lands on Cindy, and once again her eyes drift to her bedroom before she can stop them. She doesn’t want to think about what’s hidden there, because thinking about it already feels like stepping too close to a promise she made to herself.

The book is dangerous. She knows that much. She knows it in the same way she knows not to touch a hot tray with her bare hands, only worse, because at least a burn is honest about what it is.

But these people need help, and Cindy has been fortunate enough to have help when she needed it. She can’t take that kindness from others and then turn away the moment it is her turn to offer it. She can’t simply do nothing when there might still be a way to help.

Maybe the book is evil. Maybe nothing good can come from it. But maybe things would be different if she used it for good.

"There’s something," she says, finally. "I have something."

Saying it out loud makes the thought feel heavier, more real, and Cindy almost wants to take the words back before Maureen can ask what she means. Instead, she makes herself stand.

"I’ll be right back," she says, though her voice is still quiet. "It’s in my room."

She leaves the kitchen quickly, but her pace slows as she reaches the bedroom.

Once inside, Cindy immediately crouches beside the old storage chest at the foot of her bed and lifts the lid. Inside are spare blankets, old clothes, and the sort of things that never seem to have a proper place, all piled on top of a large tin box hidden beneath them. She carefully moves everything aside until she can reach it, then pulls a small key from her pocket and unlocks the box.

The book is inside as if it was waiting for her.

She lifts it out and rises with it tucked against her chest. It is heavier than it should be, the same as it has always been, and she carries it back through the flat with both arms wrapped around it, as though keeping it closed might somehow make this less terrible.

When she returns to the kitchen, her eyes go first to Maureen, then to Pete.

"Here it is." She keeps one hand on the cover before finally opening it.  "This book might have a spell that can help your friend," she says, sounding more hopeful than certain. The pages rustle beneath her fingers as she flips through them, her eyes skimming diagrams, notes, and passages . "There has to be something..."

She stops, her gaze fixing on one page as she leans closer.

"I think this could be something," she says, though her voice has gone thin. "It’s a soul transfer spell."

The words sound impossible even as she says them, and worse than impossible because the page is right there in front of her, written plainly enough that she can understand more than she wants to.

"I--I don’t think we can save your friend’s body," she says carefully. "But we can still save him."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

As she waited for Cindy, she scooted herself over to Pete and, with a shaky hand, picked up what was left of his face. The porcelain cracked in more places than she could afford to fix. As Cindy returned, though, and told her about the spell, she didn't hesitate.

"Do it." Maureen didn't know how the spell would transfer, what would happen, anything, but what she did know is Pete deserved to be free. He deserved to settle down and live in that house. He deserved much more than this.

"Where could we temporarily store an automaton's soul?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy reads the ritual carefully, her eyes moving over each line as if reading it slowly enough might make it easier to understand.

"That's a good question," she says, still looking down at the page. "We'll need a body that works for him."

Only after she says it does she look around the kitchen, searching the room as if something useful might appear simply because she needs it badly enough.

"But where can we possibly…"

Her eyes catch on the small crocheted elephant sitting near one of her storage boxes, and for half a second she considers it before dismissing the thought almost as quickly. It’s too small, too soft, not enough to hold someone. The polar bear figurine on the table isn’t right either. It’s pretty, and solid enough at first glance, but still something that could crack if it fell the wrong way. Another fragile thing wouldn’t be any better than what Pete already has.

Cindy keeps looking, her gaze moving over the counter, the shelves, the half-finished pastries, until something near the wall catches her eye.

"That’s it."

She leaves the book open and hurries across the room. Near the wall sits a small robot, about three feet tall, with a smooth white body and pale blue accents. Its shape is rounded and compact, with a broad oval torso, a simple head, and short arms. A dark screen serves as its face, and beneath it are small hands for holding light objects, a built-in speaker for speech and audio, and a sturdy wheeled base. It had once stood in used to be part of a promotional display for the shop until it stopped moving properly and had to be replaced. Even so, it could still power on and connect to the internet, and when Miss Jade and Miss Lisa decided to get rid of it, Cindy had asked if she could keep it. She'd always thought it was too sweet to throw away.

She carries it back carefully and sets it near Pete.

"I think this would do," Cindy says, "It’s made of plastic and metal, I think. It’s not indestructible, but it won’t break as easily as porcelain. And if it gets damaged, we’d have a better chance of fixing it."

She keeps her hand on the robot a little longer, then turns back to the book. Her eyes settle on the next part of the ritual, and her expression changes.

"And one more thing," Cindy says, her voice quieter now. "For the ritual to work, we have to destroy his current body completely."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hesitates for a moment. The strange robot looked so foreign compared to the pieces that were left of Pete. But... she wanted someone she trusted...

"I... I'm sorry, Pete. It's the only way..." She mutters quietly to his crumpled form before nodding. "Do it. His body wouldn't even work without the flow... i'll... I'll miss it. But I miss him more."

She looks to Cindy with tears in her eyes. "He deserves to finally be, truly, free. Not just free in death, but free in life. If that... if that means having him change, so he's free of tea too, then let's do it."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy doesn’t answer right away. Maureen’s words settle over the kitchen, and for a moment all Cindy can do is look at her and at the way she’s still choosing Pete even when the choice is awful.

It makes the book feel heavier under Cindy’s arm.

Keeping it tucked there, Cindy crouches beside the robot. She slides it carefully across the floor until it sits beside Pete’s broken body, close enough that the white casing nearly brushes against the shattered porcelain. Once she's satisfied with its position, she rises back to her feet and turns to Maureen.

"We’d have to keep our distance," Cindy says quietly. "Both of us. The ritual needs the robot to be the closest vessel, otherwise there’s no telling where it might send him."

After a moment, Cindy grabs a towel from the counter and crouches beside Pete. She takes her time gathering the broken pieces, folding the towel around them carefully so nothing slips loose. It feels awful, treating him like something that needs to be packed away, but she has to make sure they all stay in the same place.

Once everything is contained, she places the wrapped remains on the floor beside the robot and sets a heavy cutting board over the cloth. Then she steps back with the book open in one hand and the broom in the other, lowering the end of the handle against the board without putting her weight on it yet.

"To perform the ritual," Cindy says quietly, looking down at the open page, "I have to call on the Lords in Black."

The fear that follows is overwhelming, almost numbing. She knows who… what they are. She knows what they’re capable of. The Lords in Black are not gods, not spirits, not anything that should be spoken to by ordinary people.

They're something older and darker than anything Cindy knows how to name, things that exist beyond the edges of reality and reach through whenever they are given the chance, and every story she knows about them from the book ends the same way, no one touches the Lords in Black without being changed by it, and nothing they give ever comes without a cost.

Every instinct she has is screaming at her to stop, to close the book, to put it back in the box and forget she ever found this ritual.

But then her gaze shifts to Maureen, and she can still see the tears in the woman’s eyes, still hear the conviction in her voice when she forced herself to say yes to destroying her friend’s old body.

She pushes aside her own selfishness and begins to invoke the names.

"Pokotho. Bliklotep. T’noy Karaxis. Nibblenephim."

The names leave her mouth, each one feeling like something she should’ve kept behind her teeth.

Her hands tighten until the broom handle bites into her palms and Cindy’s eyes settle on the last name on the page.

It waits there at the end of the ritual, and she knows that once she says it, there'll be no turning back.

"Wiggog Y’wrath."

As the final name leaves Cindy’s mouth, and she pushes down with everything she has.

The board gives beneath the pressure, and the sound under the towel is immediate and awful, porcelain and metal breaking all at once.

The silence stretches across the room, heavy and suffocating. Every muscle in Cindy's body is locked tight as she stares at the robot, waiting for something.

Then the robot powers on and starts to move.

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen moves from Pete's body as instructed. Making sure her back was against the wall before Cindy got started. But as Cindy started placing pieces of Pete into a towel, she couldn't help but look away and sob just a bit. It felt a bit like betraying Pete, forcing him into a body he's not. But she genuinely had no choice...

As the robot powers on, starting to move, the glowing blue eyes blink to life. The first noise that is heard is, "Cheeky? Maureen? Carlos?" It wasn't until the Robot span fully around that it looked somewhat relieved. "Oh! Hello! My name is-"

Maureen adjusts herself in the corner, "Pete?"

"Oh my word, Maureen! We escaped?? I thought we were dead! Also, why are you so much taller than me now?"

Maureen glanced over at Cindy and shook her head, "Not important, for now this," she gestures to Cindy, "Is Cindy. She's the one who saved us."

The small robot turned and blinked its eyes at Cindy. "Thank you, Cindy. That's very kind of you."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks at Pete for a moment and lets out a small, shaky breath as the realization finally settles in that it worked.

The thought is so simple that it almost doesn’t feel real. Pete is moving, speaking, answering Maureen when she talks to him, and the relief that comes over Cindy is sudden enough to make her eyes sting.

"You’re welcome," she says softly.

She gives Pete a closer look to see if everything's okay.

"Can you see alright?" she asks. "Can you hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Pete looks around, curious about the world, but nods wholeheartedly.

"I can. It- I feel like I can see better than I did before. How did I sir-sir-survive?"

Maureen gives Cindy another look before slowly approaching. "Pete, your body wasn't.... it wasn't usable anymore. I asked Cindy to help you get into a... a new body."

"Oh. What was this body used for.... previously?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks at Pete for a moment. "It used to be for the shop downstairs," she says carefully. "It sat moved around and showed little pictures and messages on the screen."

Her gaze moves over the white-and-blue casing as she speaks, still half-expecting something to flicker out or go wrong. "It stopped working properly, so they didn’t need it anymore and let me keep it."

She keeps her attention on him, afraid that looking away too soon might somehow make the moment less real.

"It was the only body that would work," Cindy says softly. "I’m sorry I didn’t have anything better."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Don't apologize," Maureen reassured, her green eyes sparkling as she comforted the young woman.

"Maureen's right. You did what was necessary to save me, and I appreciate it. How... how does the body run normally? I can feel that it has something different running it, but I'm not sure what it is."

Pete cocked his head to the side curiously, examining his little hands as he waited for a response. Maureen, meanwhile, forced herself to sit up and then soon stand up with all her might, Woozily grasping at the counter as she does so.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy moves the moment Maureen starts to sway, her hand coming up near Maureen’s arm without quite grabbing her. She stays close until Maureen has the counter beneath her hand, close enough to catch her if her balance gives out.

She hears Pete's question and turns to him.

"It runs on a power cell," Cindy says carefully. "Something inside it that holds a charge, so it can stay on without being plugged into the wall."

It is not much of an answer, but it is the part she understands.

Her gaze moves from Pete’s small robot body back to Maureen, and the strangeness of the room settles over her all at once: a beautiful woman barely staying upright against her counter, a person newly awake inside a machine.

The Black Book still too close for comfort.

Cindy swallows, then reaches for the one ordinary thing she can land on.

"I'm forgetting my manners, I haven't even offered you anything." She says, slowly moving away from Maureen. "Would you like something to eat? To drink?"

Then she looks at Pete, uncertainty crossing her face. "I don't know if you can eat anything, though."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen huffs and shakes her head. "I just. Don' wanna be on the floor anymore. If we can get me to a chair, or a bed..." She starts to slip a little and the smaller Robot Pete, catches Maureen's arm.

"I'm glad I don't need to consume tea anymore. But, Maureen needs rest, and potentially something to calm her. Like a type of Tea. If you have any."

Maureen's eyes widened, before she realized, right, the flow isn't here, Pete's offering Tea because of the lack of flow water.

"I'll be fine with just water. Don' need anythin' special."

"Cindy, can you get Maureen's feet, we are going to c-carry her to a place of rest. And then you and I can talk about what we think is going on."

[blogging-cindy]

When Pete asks for help, Cindy moves immediately.

She crouches beside Maureen, careful to avoid jostling her more than necessary as she takes hold of her legs. "Please excuse me." She adjusts her grip once before they're ready to move, more concerned with not hurting her than anything else.

They only have to take a few careful steps before they reach the sofa, but Cindy still finds herself glancing up at Maureen more than once along the way, watching her expression for any sign that they're making things worse.

Once they reach the sofa, she helps ease her down onto the cushions before finally letting go.

"I hope that's a bit more comfortable."

She stays close for another moment, her eyes moving automatically to the bandages as if checking that they're still where they ought to be. Satisfied that nothing seems to have changed, she finally lifts her gaze from Maureen and looks back at Pete.

"I'm not sure how much help I'll be," she admits. "I still don't understand how either of you ended up here."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen nods, almost immediately drifting off to sleep. Pete looks to Cindy and gives a little nod.

"Quite frankly, I don't know if either of us would know either. But it's nice to know that we're safe. At least for now. We wouldn't want to be a bother, but when Maureen gets healed up, is there a place we could live? We would not have money for this world, it seems like... at least, that's what I seem to have memory of in this tiny robot."

Pete does his best to try to give a little bit of a happier look to himself, sitting down and relaxing next to Maureen on the floor.

"I... I do hope Cheeky and Carlos are okay..."

[blogging-cindy]

Pete had a good question. Where would they stay?

Cindy's first instinct was to offer her home until she realized that her flat would be too small. She could have all three of them share her room? But what about when they reunited with their other friends? The place would be far too crowded for all of them, and Cindy would inconvenience them more than be helping them.

She racks her brain for alternatives, her eyes glancing to the floor.

"There’s the basement," Cindy says after a moment. "It’s not much, but I feel like it’s the best option for now?" She looks toward Maureen, asleep on the sofa, then back to Pete. "I’ll clean it up for you," she adds. "Make sure it’s good to live in. Or as good as I can make it."

It is the least she can do.

As Pete keeps talking, Cindy listens quietly, her expression softening when he mentions the friends he'd been separated from.

"I hope they’re alright," she says quietly. "I don’t know how much of help I would be with looking for them." she admits. "But I'll try to help in anyway I can."

A short silence follows. Cindy doesn't know what else to say, and before she realizes it, her gaze drifts back to Maureen.

Now that everything has calmed down, Cindy finds herself taking a good look at her for the first time. She's beautiful. Strikingly beautiful. The kind of beautiful that was described in books that never seemed as though it could belong to someone sitting in front of her.

Cindy realizes she has been staring and quickly looks away.

"I’ll need to look at the wound later," she says, trying to sound practical again. "To see if it’s closing."

She worries at the frayed cuff of her sleeve, glancing back at Maureen before looking to Pete.

"I don’t think you can go to a hospital," Cindy adds. "So if it needs it, I can stitch the wound myself."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Oh! The basement sounds perfect! I do hope i can make it down the stairs..."

Pete attempts to give a comforting pat, but it doesn't work out too well as he is so small comparatively.

"While I do worry about Carlos and Cheeky, they are rather smart. I think they'll manage to get out of whatever situation they manage to find themselves in. At the very least, they'll probably not get around far without us hearing word. Based in your reaction, we are quite an... interesting bunch compared to your world."

Pete let's the silence sit for the bit that Cindy has it his little robot hand patting Maureen's, just trying to comfort her the best he could.

"Thank you. Cindy. I... I don't know what we would have done if you weren't so nice to us."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy is quiet for a moment after Pete thanks her. She had been so focused on what needed doing that she had not really thought about what any of it meant once it was done. Maureen was bandaged, Pete was awake, and Cindy was glad they were somehow okay.

"You don’t have to thank me," she says quietly. "I couldn’t just not help you."

She glances toward the window, surprised to find the light outside brighter than she expects. Somehow, between everything that had happened, most of the morning had already slipped by.

"If you want, I can take you to see the basement in a little while," Cindy says, turning back to Pete. "So you can see how it is."

She pauses, considering how much walking that would be involved and quickly glances at Maureen.

"Though I don’t think she should be moving around for a while,” she adds. "Not until the wound's completely healed , at least. So she might have to stay up here when we go."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Technically, you could have."

He let the young woman in front of him take everything in before she spoke up again and he immediately agreed.

"I would love to see the basement. Perhaps I can try to clean it up..."

His eyes follow Cindy's and he nods some more,

"Maureen definitely does need to rest. She's been through enough already. Plus, I can get most of the cleaning done while she's asleep anyway."

[blogging-cindy]

Spoilers for Lockstock Ep 4

Maureen thought it was over. Pete had taken the tea. Everyone was going. She got her ending. But as she flew through the void, she heard a loud crash and felt pain. If she was dead, she wouldn't have felt... pain... would she? It takes a moment, but she pries open her tired eyes blinking as she looks around the room she finds herself lying in. The first thing she notices is the crumpled and mostly destroyed mass of Pete only a few feet in front of her.

"Pete...?"

It was obvious he wouldn't be in functioning order, but she still desperately wished her friend was with her. That's when she noticed how... odd, everything else looked around her. The counters looked sleek, well, especially compared to counters in Donlon. Tools and other baking supplies were neatly organized in the room, and she felt exceptionally out of place.

"I... I don' think we're in Donlon anymore Pete..."

@roll-from-the-roleplay

Cindy is in the middle of working on a batch of danishes, her counter lightly dusted with flour and a few test pastries laid out in front of her. She's comparing notes from the last batch when something strange catches her attention.

It feels, for just a second, like something has hooked itself somewhere beneath her ribs and given a sharp tug. The sensation's gone almost as quickly as it comes, leaving her frowning down at the page.

Then something crashes hard onto the kitchen floor.

Cindy jumps back so quickly her hip hits the counter behind her, her hands gripping the edge before she can think to do anything else. There's a woman on her floor, and beside her is something crumpled and broken that Cindy can't make sense of at all. Neither of them look like they belong there.

Neither of them look quite human.

Then the woman speaks, and Cindy's attention snaps back to her.

"Who--" Her voice catches, and she has to swallow before trying again. "Who are you?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hadn't quite noticed the human standing in the kitchen either... it was probably the blood loss, that and the fact she had landed in the middle of the room... She couldn't help her instinct to grab at a knife by her waist as she turned to the human. But, fortunately for Cindy, she hadn't apparently kept that with her during the transportation to... wherever this is.

So, instead, Maureen scrambled closer to Pete. She could at least try to protect him, if nothing else. Her pointy ears twitch as she responds, "Maureen. Who are you...? Where am I?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy keeps staring at her, too thrown to answer the woman's questions. Her eyes move from Maureen’s face to her ears, then lower, catching on the blood.

"You’re..." Her voice catches. "You’re bleeding."

For a second, she only stares at it. There is blood on her kitchen floor, blood that definitely wasn't there a minute ago when she was standing over her baking. But she sees more blood drip on the floor and it hits her again.

"Oh my god! You’re bleeding!"

"I don’t have any---" Cindy looks around the kitchen wildly, her gaze jumping from the counter to the sink to the drawers as if something useful might suddenly appear there. Her heart is hammering so hard she can feel it in her throat. "I don’t have anything for that. I mean, not here. I have towels. I think I have a first aid kit somewhere. Wait."

She turns immediately and starts yanking open drawers, one after another. Measuring spoons, folded tea towels, baking paper, spare piping tips, none of it is what she needs, and the more she looks, the less certain she is of where anything actually is.

"Where is it?" she mutters to herself before looking back at Maureen, visibly panicked. "Just-- just don't move. Or do move. I don't know. Just--hold on."

She quickly grabs a clean tea towel from beside the counter, then another from the hook near the oven, hands shaking as she holds them out but doesn’t quite step close enough to touch her.

She takes a step forward, lifting the folded cloth toward Maureen before stopping herself halfway. The panic is still there, but now uncertainty catches up with it, her hands hovering in the space between them like she has only just remembered Maureen never said she could touch her.

"I um..." She swallows. "May I...?"

Her eyes flick to the blood and then back to Maureen.

"I can help. If that's alright."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen looked at this young woman's face warily. But, she had no choice. Her only other friend she could see was a heap of metal and porcelain on the floor, and anyone else she knew were missing entirely. Carlos, Cheeky, and Magpie, all consumed by the void, and yet, somehow she's here, and they're not.

Maureen nods, deciding to let herself relax. Despite being on the brink of death before, she feels... fine, actually. Well, less fine and more alive. The pain was proof of it.

"You hadn't answered my question, dove. Where are we, and who are ya? "

Her frightened, adrenaline filled questions were exchanged for quiet, tired ones.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy kneels beside Maureen and presses the folded towel against the worst of the bleeding before she can lose her nerve.

"I'm sorry," she says, the words coming out shaky as she keeps both hands over the cloth. "I should have answered you."

The towel warms beneath her palms almost at once, and Cindy has to swallow hard to keep herself from pulling away. She presses down as firmly as she dares, though her hands are still trembling.

"My name is Cindy," she says. "Cindy Campbell. And this is my flat, right above the shop where I work."

Her eyes flick down to the blood spreading into the fabric, then quickly back to Maureen’s face.

"You’re in New York," Cindy adds, quieter. "I don’t know how you got here. I’m sorry. You just… appeared. Both of you."

She glances once toward Pete, but only for a second. The sight of him makes her stomach twist in a way she cannot make sense of right now, so she forces her attention back to the living person in front of her.

"I’m sorry if this hurts," she says, pressing the towel more securely against the wound. "I’m trying not to--I mean, I know it has to be firm, but I don’t want to make it worse."

Cindy shifts one hand just enough to grab the second towel and layer it over the first when the blood starts coming through.

"There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom," she says, her voice still thin with panic. "I need to get it, but I don’t want to let go yet."

She looks at Maureen, worry plain across her face.

"Can you hold this here? Just for a moment. Press it like this, alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Cindy... New York..." Maureen tries to tuck that information away in her brain, but her thoughts seem to be as fickle as the flow. She's lost so so much. It would be easy to give in.

But as she views Cindy's worry, she can feel something within her fight. Something deep that she hadn't felt for a while.

"Thank you, Cindy. For... helpin'..."

She moves her hand on top of the girls holding the towel to her wound. "I'll hold onto it as long as you need."

Sweat laced Maureen's brow, but there was clearly a fight in her that she wasn't gonna let go quite yet.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy stills for a moment when Maureen’s hand settles over hers.

It is warm, and real, and for some reason that makes the whole impossible thing feel worse. This is not a strange dream or something her frightened mind had made up. Maureen is here, bleeding on her kitchen floor, and trusting Cindy enough to let her help.

"You don’t have to thank me," Cindy says, her voice still thin but softer now. "Just keep pressing there, alright? As hard as you can."

She carefully eases one hand away first, then the other, making sure Maureen has the towel held in place before she moves.

"I’ll be quick."

Cindy gets to her feet too fast and nearly slips on the flour dusting the floor, catching herself on the counter with a sharp breath. She does not give herself time to be embarrassed. Instead, she turns and hurries out of the kitchen, calling back as she goes.

"I’m only going to the bathroom. I’m not leaving you." It takes a few frantic seconds of searching before she finds the kit under the sink. Cindy grabs it and returns with it clutched against her chest, dropping back down beside Maureen.

"I found it," she says, kneeling beside Maureen again.

Cindy opens the kit and takes out what she needs, setting each thing down within reach before she lifts the towel. The slash is along Maureen’s side, wet and raw beneath the cloth, and Cindy’s face goes pale at the sight of it.

Still, her hands know where to go.

"I’m sorry," she says, quieter now. "I have to clean it first."

She folds the towel back only as far as she needs to, keeping pressure with one hand while the other tears open a wipe. She starts around the wound, careful and slow, clearing away enough blood to see what she is doing without dragging too hard against torn skin.

"I’m sorry," she says again when she has to press closer. "Just a moment. I know it hurts."

The towel is too soaked to keep using, so Cindy reaches for the gauze and swaps it in quickly, one hand lifting while the other replaces it before the bleeding can start freely again. She presses down, waits, then adds another layer when red begins to spread through the first.

For a while, that is all there is. Gauze, pressure, the sound of Cindy trying to keep her breathing even.

Once the bleeding slows enough, she reaches for the bandage roll. She slips it carefully around Maureen’s waist, leaning close enough to pass it behind her without pulling at the wound, then brings it back around over the dressing. The first wrap holds it in place. The second is firmer. The third makes Cindy pause to check beneath the edge with two fingers, making sure it is snug without cutting in.

"There," she says at last, tucking the end securely. "There, that should--"

She stops herself before saying it should be alright, because she doesn’t know that it will be. Instead, she lifts her eyes to Maureen’s face.

"That should hold for now," Cindy says, finally lifting her eyes from the bandage to look at Maureen’s companion.

"I don't know how to help them," she admits, feeling helpless . "I... are they alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen winces as her wound is cleaned, her ears angling downward in pain, but she's alive. She's alive, and I guess she has three new goals.

Stay Alive

Fix Pete

And find Cheeky and Carlos.

She's focusing on those goals with Cindy asks about Pete and she... she has to look over to his crumpled mess of a body.

"I... I don' know. I wish I knew, Dove, but... I... he ran on Tea, and the Flow. But.... based on how you're healing me I.... there isn't... there's no... magic... is there?"

Maureen's Emerald eyes search Cindy's face for a response. It's clear this young girl wasn't exactly expecting this...

"I... I don' know how to fix him. Especially without the flow water..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks from Maureen to Pete, and the helpless feeling settles heavier in her chest.

"I don’t know," she says softly. "I’m not sure if this city has magic or not, but--"

She stops herself and for a second, her eyes flick toward the bedroom before she looks back at Maureen. There is something in there, hidden away where she had promised herself it would stay, but thinking of it only makes her feel worse. Having something dangerous nearby is not the same as knowing how to help.

"I’m sorry," Cindy says. "I don’t know what the Flow is. I don’t know how to fix him."

Her gaze drifts back to Pete, to the shattered porcelain and the empty spaces where pieces should’ve been, and the frustration turns inward before she can stop it.

With Maureen, she’d at least known where to begin but her companion was different.

She wants to do something. She wants, desperately, to be useful.

But she can't do anything.

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴ ̴c̴a̴n̴'̴t̴ ̴d̴o̴ ̴a̴n̴y̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴.̴

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴'̴r̴e̴ ̴u̴s̴e̴l̴e̴s̴s̴ ̴t̴h̴e̴ ̴m̴o̴m̴e̴n̴t̴ ̴s̴o̴m̴e̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴ ̴m̴a̴t̴t̴e̴r̴s̴.̴

Cindy swallows hard and makes herself look back at Maureen.

"Is he alive?" she asks quietly. "I mean… is he still in there? Can he hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"I-I don' know. He was still there when his memories got all fucked with and everythin' but... it's okay, alright? It'll be fine. Somethin' managed to pull us here, so Cheeky and Carlos are probably around here somewhere, and we'll just find them and fix Pete, and we'll be fine."

As Maureen is saying this, it's somewhat clear that she's saying a lot of this for herself. Desperate to give herself a bit of comfort. Although, if she and Pete were dragged through... that Means PG Tips could've made it through too... or even the Krag twins...

"Oh fuck. If we made it through, that.... that could me the Krag twins. PG Tips... they could've... fuck...."

Maureen sits up a bit in a panic and then winces and leans back.

"Fuck. Those are some bad people that might be roamin out and about now. They killed my love. They could still be alive..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy’s eyes widen when Maureen tries to sit up.

"Please don’t move too much. Please, you’ll hurt yourself."

She reaches out on instinct, then stops before touching her, hands hovering uselessly for a moment before she pulls them back.

"I’m sorry, I don’t-- I don’t know who any of those people are."

The words tumble together faster than Cindy can make sense of them, one fear folding into another until she can barely tell what danger is nearest.

"I don't know if they're here," she says, and her voice comes out smaller than she means it to. "I don't know how you two got here in the first place."

Her stomach turns at the thought. Maureen and Pete had appeared in her kitchen without warning, and Cindy still doesn't understand how. If others had come through too, then they could be anywhere, and she wouldn't have the first idea where to look for those they want to find, and no idea how to deal with those that they don't want to find them.

"I’m sorry," she says again, because it is the only thing she can think to say. "I don’t understand what’s happened. I don’t understand the Flow, or what you went through, or how to find the others."

Her gaze moves to Pete, broken and half-formed on the floor, and the frustration twists inward again.

"But if you have enemies after you..." Cindy starts, then falters as her eyes drift back to the broken porcelain scattered across the floor. "How can--how would your friend run?" she asks quietly. "How would they even move?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen realizes that her words are just panicking the girl and she falters for a moment. It doesn't help the situation if she keeps on spooking the only other being in the room.

"It's alright, Dove. I-I'll stop movin'."

Her eyes follow Cindy's, and she sighs gesturing for her to slide Pete over.

"Well, usually he uh... he has legs. But the Black tea really... really did a number on him."

She pauses, letting the two of them breathe dor a moment and take in everything.

" If... if the others made it through, it would be nice, but if... if the Krag Twins or PG Tips made it through... it's going to be a problem. But we'll handle it." She attempts to give a reassuring smile, but it's certainly a struggle. She then sighs and muses outloud.

"Surely, there's some sort of magic within your world that we can figure out and use to our advantage..."

[blogging-cindy]

The question lands on Cindy, and once again her eyes drift to her bedroom before she can stop them. She doesn’t want to think about what’s hidden there, because thinking about it already feels like stepping too close to a promise she made to herself.

The book is dangerous. She knows that much. She knows it in the same way she knows not to touch a hot tray with her bare hands, only worse, because at least a burn is honest about what it is.

But these people need help, and Cindy has been fortunate enough to have help when she needed it. She can’t take that kindness from others and then turn away the moment it is her turn to offer it. She can’t simply do nothing when there might still be a way to help.

Maybe the book is evil. Maybe nothing good can come from it. But maybe things would be different if she used it for good.

"There’s something," she says, finally. "I have something."

Saying it out loud makes the thought feel heavier, more real, and Cindy almost wants to take the words back before Maureen can ask what she means. Instead, she makes herself stand.

"I’ll be right back," she says, though her voice is still quiet. "It’s in my room."

She leaves the kitchen quickly, but her pace slows as she reaches the bedroom.

Once inside, Cindy immediately crouches beside the old storage chest at the foot of her bed and lifts the lid. Inside are spare blankets, old clothes, and the sort of things that never seem to have a proper place, all piled on top of a large tin box hidden beneath them. She carefully moves everything aside until she can reach it, then pulls a small key from her pocket and unlocks the box.

The book is inside as if it was waiting for her.

She lifts it out and rises with it tucked against her chest. It is heavier than it should be, the same as it has always been, and she carries it back through the flat with both arms wrapped around it, as though keeping it closed might somehow make this less terrible.

When she returns to the kitchen, her eyes go first to Maureen, then to Pete.

"Here it is." She keeps one hand on the cover before finally opening it.  "This book might have a spell that can help your friend," she says, sounding more hopeful than certain. The pages rustle beneath her fingers as she flips through them, her eyes skimming diagrams, notes, and passages . "There has to be something..."

She stops, her gaze fixing on one page as she leans closer.

"I think this could be something," she says, though her voice has gone thin. "It’s a soul transfer spell."

The words sound impossible even as she says them, and worse than impossible because the page is right there in front of her, written plainly enough that she can understand more than she wants to.

"I--I don’t think we can save your friend’s body," she says carefully. "But we can still save him."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

As she waited for Cindy, she scooted herself over to Pete and, with a shaky hand, picked up what was left of his face. The porcelain cracked in more places than she could afford to fix. As Cindy returned, though, and told her about the spell, she didn't hesitate.

"Do it." Maureen didn't know how the spell would transfer, what would happen, anything, but what she did know is Pete deserved to be free. He deserved to settle down and live in that house. He deserved much more than this.

"Where could we temporarily store an automaton's soul?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy reads the ritual carefully, her eyes moving over each line as if reading it slowly enough might make it easier to understand.

"That's a good question," she says, still looking down at the page. "We'll need a body that works for him."

Only after she says it does she look around the kitchen, searching the room as if something useful might appear simply because she needs it badly enough.

"But where can we possibly…"

Her eyes catch on the small crocheted elephant sitting near one of her storage boxes, and for half a second she considers it before dismissing the thought almost as quickly. It’s too small, too soft, not enough to hold someone. The polar bear figurine on the table isn’t right either. It’s pretty, and solid enough at first glance, but still something that could crack if it fell the wrong way. Another fragile thing wouldn’t be any better than what Pete already has.

Cindy keeps looking, her gaze moving over the counter, the shelves, the half-finished pastries, until something near the wall catches her eye.

"That’s it."

She leaves the book open and hurries across the room. Near the wall sits a small robot, about three feet tall, with a smooth white body and pale blue accents. Its shape is rounded and compact, with a broad oval torso, a simple head, and short arms. A dark screen serves as its face, and beneath it are small hands for holding light objects, a built-in speaker for speech and audio, and a sturdy wheeled base. It had once stood in used to be part of a promotional display for the shop until it stopped moving properly and had to be replaced. Even so, it could still power on and connect to the internet, and when Miss Jade and Miss Lisa decided to get rid of it, Cindy had asked if she could keep it. She'd always thought it was too sweet to throw away.

She carries it back carefully and sets it near Pete.

"I think this would do," Cindy says, "It’s made of plastic and metal, I think. It’s not indestructible, but it won’t break as easily as porcelain. And if it gets damaged, we’d have a better chance of fixing it."

She keeps her hand on the robot a little longer, then turns back to the book. Her eyes settle on the next part of the ritual, and her expression changes.

"And one more thing," Cindy says, her voice quieter now. "For the ritual to work, we have to destroy his current body completely."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hesitates for a moment. The strange robot looked so foreign compared to the pieces that were left of Pete. But... she wanted someone she trusted...

"I... I'm sorry, Pete. It's the only way..." She mutters quietly to his crumpled form before nodding. "Do it. His body wouldn't even work without the flow... i'll... I'll miss it. But I miss him more."

She looks to Cindy with tears in her eyes. "He deserves to finally be, truly, free. Not just free in death, but free in life. If that... if that means having him change, so he's free of tea too, then let's do it."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy doesn’t answer right away. Maureen’s words settle over the kitchen, and for a moment all Cindy can do is look at her and at the way she’s still choosing Pete even when the choice is awful.

It makes the book feel heavier under Cindy’s arm.

Keeping it tucked there, Cindy crouches beside the robot. She slides it carefully across the floor until it sits beside Pete’s broken body, close enough that the white casing nearly brushes against the shattered porcelain. Once she's satisfied with its position, she rises back to her feet and turns to Maureen.

"We’d have to keep our distance," Cindy says quietly. "Both of us. The ritual needs the robot to be the closest vessel, otherwise there’s no telling where it might send him."

After a moment, Cindy grabs a towel from the counter and crouches beside Pete. She takes her time gathering the broken pieces, folding the towel around them carefully so nothing slips loose. It feels awful, treating him like something that needs to be packed away, but she has to make sure they all stay in the same place.

Once everything is contained, she places the wrapped remains on the floor beside the robot and sets a heavy cutting board over the cloth. Then she steps back with the book open in one hand and the broom in the other, lowering the end of the handle against the board without putting her weight on it yet.

"To perform the ritual," Cindy says quietly, looking down at the open page, "I have to call on the Lords in Black."

The fear that follows is overwhelming, almost numbing. She knows who… what they are. She knows what they’re capable of. The Lords in Black are not gods, not spirits, not anything that should be spoken to by ordinary people.

They're something older and darker than anything Cindy knows how to name, things that exist beyond the edges of reality and reach through whenever they are given the chance, and every story she knows about them from the book ends the same way, no one touches the Lords in Black without being changed by it, and nothing they give ever comes without a cost.

Every instinct she has is screaming at her to stop, to close the book, to put it back in the box and forget she ever found this ritual.

But then her gaze shifts to Maureen, and she can still see the tears in the woman’s eyes, still hear the conviction in her voice when she forced herself to say yes to destroying her friend’s old body.

She pushes aside her own selfishness and begins to invoke the names.

"Pokotho. Bliklotep. T’noy Karaxis. Nibblenephim."

The names leave her mouth, each one feeling like something she should’ve kept behind her teeth.

Her hands tighten until the broom handle bites into her palms and Cindy’s eyes settle on the last name on the page.

It waits there at the end of the ritual, and she knows that once she says it, there'll be no turning back.

"Wiggog Y’wrath."

As the final name leaves Cindy’s mouth, and she pushes down with everything she has.

The board gives beneath the pressure, and the sound under the towel is immediate and awful, porcelain and metal breaking all at once.

The silence stretches across the room, heavy and suffocating. Every muscle in Cindy's body is locked tight as she stares at the robot, waiting for something.

Then the robot powers on and starts to move.

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen moves from Pete's body as instructed. Making sure her back was against the wall before Cindy got started. But as Cindy started placing pieces of Pete into a towel, she couldn't help but look away and sob just a bit. It felt a bit like betraying Pete, forcing him into a body he's not. But she genuinely had no choice...

As the robot powers on, starting to move, the glowing blue eyes blink to life. The first noise that is heard is, "Cheeky? Maureen? Carlos?" It wasn't until the Robot span fully around that it looked somewhat relieved. "Oh! Hello! My name is-"

Maureen adjusts herself in the corner, "Pete?"

"Oh my word, Maureen! We escaped?? I thought we were dead! Also, why are you so much taller than me now?"

Maureen glanced over at Cindy and shook her head, "Not important, for now this," she gestures to Cindy, "Is Cindy. She's the one who saved us."

The small robot turned and blinked its eyes at Cindy. "Thank you, Cindy. That's very kind of you."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks at Pete for a moment and lets out a small, shaky breath as the realization finally settles in that it worked.

The thought is so simple that it almost doesn’t feel real. Pete is moving, speaking, answering Maureen when she talks to him, and the relief that comes over Cindy is sudden enough to make her eyes sting.

"You’re welcome," she says softly.

She gives Pete a closer look to see if everything's okay.

"Can you see alright?" she asks. "Can you hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Pete looks around, curious about the world, but nods wholeheartedly.

"I can. It- I feel like I can see better than I did before. How did I sir-sir-survive?"

Maureen gives Cindy another look before slowly approaching. "Pete, your body wasn't.... it wasn't usable anymore. I asked Cindy to help you get into a... a new body."

"Oh. What was this body used for.... previously?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks at Pete for a moment. "It used to be for the shop downstairs," she says carefully. "It sat moved around and showed little pictures and messages on the screen."

Her gaze moves over the white-and-blue casing as she speaks, still half-expecting something to flicker out or go wrong. "It stopped working properly, so they didn’t need it anymore and let me keep it."

She keeps her attention on him, afraid that looking away too soon might somehow make the moment less real.

"It was the only body that would work," Cindy says softly. "I’m sorry I didn’t have anything better."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Don't apologize," Maureen reassured, her green eyes sparkling as she comforted the young woman.

"Maureen's right. You did what was necessary to save me, and I appreciate it. How... how does the body run normally? I can feel that it has something different running it, but I'm not sure what it is."

Pete cocked his head to the side curiously, examining his little hands as he waited for a response. Maureen, meanwhile, forced herself to sit up and then soon stand up with all her might, Woozily grasping at the counter as she does so.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy moves the moment Maureen starts to sway, her hand coming up near Maureen’s arm without quite grabbing her. She stays close until Maureen has the counter beneath her hand, close enough to catch her if her balance gives out.

She hears Pete's question and turns to him.

"It runs on a power cell," Cindy says carefully. "Something inside it that holds a charge, so it can stay on without being plugged into the wall."

It is not much of an answer, but it is the part she understands.

Her gaze moves from Pete’s small robot body back to Maureen, and the strangeness of the room settles over her all at once: a beautiful woman barely staying upright against her counter, a person newly awake inside a machine.

The Black Book still too close for comfort.

Cindy swallows, then reaches for the one ordinary thing she can land on.

"I'm forgetting my manners, I haven't even offered you anything." She says, slowly moving away from Maureen. "Would you like something to eat? To drink?"

Then she looks at Pete, uncertainty crossing her face. "I don't know if you can eat anything, though."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen huffs and shakes her head. "I just. Don' wanna be on the floor anymore. If we can get me to a chair, or a bed..." She starts to slip a little and the smaller Robot Pete, catches Maureen's arm.

"I'm glad I don't need to consume tea anymore. But, Maureen needs rest, and potentially something to calm her. Like a type of Tea. If you have any."

Maureen's eyes widened, before she realized, right, the flow isn't here, Pete's offering Tea because of the lack of flow water.

"I'll be fine with just water. Don' need anythin' special."

"Cindy, can you get Maureen's feet, we are going to c-carry her to a place of rest. And then you and I can talk about what we think is going on."

[blogging-cindy]

When Pete asks for help, Cindy moves immediately.

She crouches beside Maureen, careful to avoid jostling her more than necessary as she takes hold of her legs. "Please excuse me." She adjusts her grip once before they're ready to move, more concerned with not hurting her than anything else.

They only have to take a few careful steps before they reach the sofa, but Cindy still finds herself glancing up at Maureen more than once along the way, watching her expression for any sign that they're making things worse.

Once they reach the sofa, she helps ease her down onto the cushions before finally letting go.

"I hope that's a bit more comfortable."

She stays close for another moment, her eyes moving automatically to the bandages as if checking that they're still where they ought to be. Satisfied that nothing seems to have changed, she finally lifts her gaze from Maureen and looks back at Pete.

"I'm not sure how much help I'll be," she admits. "I still don't understand how either of you ended up here."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen nods, almost immediately drifting off to sleep. Pete looks to Cindy and gives a little nod.

"Quite frankly, I don't know if either of us would know either. But it's nice to know that we're safe. At least for now. We wouldn't want to be a bother, but when Maureen gets healed up, is there a place we could live? We would not have money for this world, it seems like... at least, that's what I seem to have memory of in this tiny robot."

Pete does his best to try to give a little bit of a happier look to himself, sitting down and relaxing next to Maureen on the floor.

"I... I do hope Cheeky and Carlos are okay..."

[blogging-cindy]

Pete had a good question. Where would they stay?

Cindy's first instinct was to offer her home until she realized that her flat would be too small. She could have all three of them share her room? But what about when they reunited with their other friends? The place would be far too crowded for all of them, and Cindy would inconvenience them more than be helping them.

She racks her brain for alternatives, her eyes glancing to the floor.

"There’s the basement," Cindy says after a moment. "It’s not much, but I feel like it’s the best option for now?" She looks toward Maureen, asleep on the sofa, then back to Pete. "I’ll clean it up for you," she adds. "Make sure it’s good to live in. Or as good as I can make it."

It is the least she can do.

As Pete keeps talking, Cindy listens quietly, her expression softening when he mentions the friends he'd been separated from.

"I hope they’re alright," she says quietly. "I don’t know how much of help I would be with looking for them." she admits. "But I'll try to help in anyway I can."

A short silence follows. Cindy doesn't know what else to say, and before she realizes it, her gaze drifts back to Maureen.

Now that everything has calmed down, Cindy finds herself taking a good look at her for the first time. She's beautiful. Strikingly beautiful. The kind of beautiful that was described in books that never seemed as though it could belong to someone sitting in front of her.

Cindy realizes she has been staring and quickly looks away.

"I’ll need to look at the wound later," she says, trying to sound practical again. "To see if it’s closing."

She worries at the frayed cuff of her sleeve, glancing back at Maureen before looking to Pete.

"I don’t think you can go to a hospital," Cindy adds. "So if it needs it, I can stitch the wound myself."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Oh! The basement sounds perfect! I do hope i can make it down the stairs..."

Pete attempts to give a comforting pat, but it doesn't work out too well as he is so small comparatively.

"While I do worry about Carlos and Cheeky, they are rather smart. I think they'll manage to get out of whatever situation they manage to find themselves in. At the very least, they'll probably not get around far without us hearing word. Based in your reaction, we are quite an... interesting bunch compared to your world."

Pete let's the silence sit for the bit that Cindy has it his little robot hand patting Maureen's, just trying to comfort her the best he could.

"Thank you. Cindy. I... I don't know what we would have done if you weren't so nice to us."

[blogging-cindy]

Spoilers for Lockstock Ep 4

Maureen thought it was over. Pete had taken the tea. Everyone was going. She got her ending. But as she flew through the void, she heard a loud crash and felt pain. If she was dead, she wouldn't have felt... pain... would she? It takes a moment, but she pries open her tired eyes blinking as she looks around the room she finds herself lying in. The first thing she notices is the crumpled and mostly destroyed mass of Pete only a few feet in front of her.

"Pete...?"

It was obvious he wouldn't be in functioning order, but she still desperately wished her friend was with her. That's when she noticed how... odd, everything else looked around her. The counters looked sleek, well, especially compared to counters in Donlon. Tools and other baking supplies were neatly organized in the room, and she felt exceptionally out of place.

"I... I don' think we're in Donlon anymore Pete..."

@roll-from-the-roleplay

Cindy is in the middle of working on a batch of danishes, her counter lightly dusted with flour and a few test pastries laid out in front of her. She's comparing notes from the last batch when something strange catches her attention.

It feels, for just a second, like something has hooked itself somewhere beneath her ribs and given a sharp tug. The sensation's gone almost as quickly as it comes, leaving her frowning down at the page.

Then something crashes hard onto the kitchen floor.

Cindy jumps back so quickly her hip hits the counter behind her, her hands gripping the edge before she can think to do anything else. There's a woman on her floor, and beside her is something crumpled and broken that Cindy can't make sense of at all. Neither of them look like they belong there.

Neither of them look quite human.

Then the woman speaks, and Cindy's attention snaps back to her.

"Who--" Her voice catches, and she has to swallow before trying again. "Who are you?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hadn't quite noticed the human standing in the kitchen either... it was probably the blood loss, that and the fact she had landed in the middle of the room... She couldn't help her instinct to grab at a knife by her waist as she turned to the human. But, fortunately for Cindy, she hadn't apparently kept that with her during the transportation to... wherever this is.

So, instead, Maureen scrambled closer to Pete. She could at least try to protect him, if nothing else. Her pointy ears twitch as she responds, "Maureen. Who are you...? Where am I?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy keeps staring at her, too thrown to answer the woman's questions. Her eyes move from Maureen’s face to her ears, then lower, catching on the blood.

"You’re..." Her voice catches. "You’re bleeding."

For a second, she only stares at it. There is blood on her kitchen floor, blood that definitely wasn't there a minute ago when she was standing over her baking. But she sees more blood drip on the floor and it hits her again.

"Oh my god! You’re bleeding!"

"I don’t have any---" Cindy looks around the kitchen wildly, her gaze jumping from the counter to the sink to the drawers as if something useful might suddenly appear there. Her heart is hammering so hard she can feel it in her throat. "I don’t have anything for that. I mean, not here. I have towels. I think I have a first aid kit somewhere. Wait."

She turns immediately and starts yanking open drawers, one after another. Measuring spoons, folded tea towels, baking paper, spare piping tips, none of it is what she needs, and the more she looks, the less certain she is of where anything actually is.

"Where is it?" she mutters to herself before looking back at Maureen, visibly panicked. "Just-- just don't move. Or do move. I don't know. Just--hold on."

She quickly grabs a clean tea towel from beside the counter, then another from the hook near the oven, hands shaking as she holds them out but doesn’t quite step close enough to touch her.

She takes a step forward, lifting the folded cloth toward Maureen before stopping herself halfway. The panic is still there, but now uncertainty catches up with it, her hands hovering in the space between them like she has only just remembered Maureen never said she could touch her.

"I um..." She swallows. "May I...?"

Her eyes flick to the blood and then back to Maureen.

"I can help. If that's alright."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen looked at this young woman's face warily. But, she had no choice. Her only other friend she could see was a heap of metal and porcelain on the floor, and anyone else she knew were missing entirely. Carlos, Cheeky, and Magpie, all consumed by the void, and yet, somehow she's here, and they're not.

Maureen nods, deciding to let herself relax. Despite being on the brink of death before, she feels... fine, actually. Well, less fine and more alive. The pain was proof of it.

"You hadn't answered my question, dove. Where are we, and who are ya? "

Her frightened, adrenaline filled questions were exchanged for quiet, tired ones.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy kneels beside Maureen and presses the folded towel against the worst of the bleeding before she can lose her nerve.

"I'm sorry," she says, the words coming out shaky as she keeps both hands over the cloth. "I should have answered you."

The towel warms beneath her palms almost at once, and Cindy has to swallow hard to keep herself from pulling away. She presses down as firmly as she dares, though her hands are still trembling.

"My name is Cindy," she says. "Cindy Campbell. And this is my flat, right above the shop where I work."

Her eyes flick down to the blood spreading into the fabric, then quickly back to Maureen’s face.

"You’re in New York," Cindy adds, quieter. "I don’t know how you got here. I’m sorry. You just… appeared. Both of you."

She glances once toward Pete, but only for a second. The sight of him makes her stomach twist in a way she cannot make sense of right now, so she forces her attention back to the living person in front of her.

"I’m sorry if this hurts," she says, pressing the towel more securely against the wound. "I’m trying not to--I mean, I know it has to be firm, but I don’t want to make it worse."

Cindy shifts one hand just enough to grab the second towel and layer it over the first when the blood starts coming through.

"There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom," she says, her voice still thin with panic. "I need to get it, but I don’t want to let go yet."

She looks at Maureen, worry plain across her face.

"Can you hold this here? Just for a moment. Press it like this, alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Cindy... New York..." Maureen tries to tuck that information away in her brain, but her thoughts seem to be as fickle as the flow. She's lost so so much. It would be easy to give in.

But as she views Cindy's worry, she can feel something within her fight. Something deep that she hadn't felt for a while.

"Thank you, Cindy. For... helpin'..."

She moves her hand on top of the girls holding the towel to her wound. "I'll hold onto it as long as you need."

Sweat laced Maureen's brow, but there was clearly a fight in her that she wasn't gonna let go quite yet.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy stills for a moment when Maureen’s hand settles over hers.

It is warm, and real, and for some reason that makes the whole impossible thing feel worse. This is not a strange dream or something her frightened mind had made up. Maureen is here, bleeding on her kitchen floor, and trusting Cindy enough to let her help.

"You don’t have to thank me," Cindy says, her voice still thin but softer now. "Just keep pressing there, alright? As hard as you can."

She carefully eases one hand away first, then the other, making sure Maureen has the towel held in place before she moves.

"I’ll be quick."

Cindy gets to her feet too fast and nearly slips on the flour dusting the floor, catching herself on the counter with a sharp breath. She does not give herself time to be embarrassed. Instead, she turns and hurries out of the kitchen, calling back as she goes.

"I’m only going to the bathroom. I’m not leaving you." It takes a few frantic seconds of searching before she finds the kit under the sink. Cindy grabs it and returns with it clutched against her chest, dropping back down beside Maureen.

"I found it," she says, kneeling beside Maureen again.

Cindy opens the kit and takes out what she needs, setting each thing down within reach before she lifts the towel. The slash is along Maureen’s side, wet and raw beneath the cloth, and Cindy’s face goes pale at the sight of it.

Still, her hands know where to go.

"I’m sorry," she says, quieter now. "I have to clean it first."

She folds the towel back only as far as she needs to, keeping pressure with one hand while the other tears open a wipe. She starts around the wound, careful and slow, clearing away enough blood to see what she is doing without dragging too hard against torn skin.

"I’m sorry," she says again when she has to press closer. "Just a moment. I know it hurts."

The towel is too soaked to keep using, so Cindy reaches for the gauze and swaps it in quickly, one hand lifting while the other replaces it before the bleeding can start freely again. She presses down, waits, then adds another layer when red begins to spread through the first.

For a while, that is all there is. Gauze, pressure, the sound of Cindy trying to keep her breathing even.

Once the bleeding slows enough, she reaches for the bandage roll. She slips it carefully around Maureen’s waist, leaning close enough to pass it behind her without pulling at the wound, then brings it back around over the dressing. The first wrap holds it in place. The second is firmer. The third makes Cindy pause to check beneath the edge with two fingers, making sure it is snug without cutting in.

"There," she says at last, tucking the end securely. "There, that should--"

She stops herself before saying it should be alright, because she doesn’t know that it will be. Instead, she lifts her eyes to Maureen’s face.

"That should hold for now," Cindy says, finally lifting her eyes from the bandage to look at Maureen’s companion.

"I don't know how to help them," she admits, feeling helpless . "I... are they alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen winces as her wound is cleaned, her ears angling downward in pain, but she's alive. She's alive, and I guess she has three new goals.

Stay Alive

Fix Pete

And find Cheeky and Carlos.

She's focusing on those goals with Cindy asks about Pete and she... she has to look over to his crumpled mess of a body.

"I... I don' know. I wish I knew, Dove, but... I... he ran on Tea, and the Flow. But.... based on how you're healing me I.... there isn't... there's no... magic... is there?"

Maureen's Emerald eyes search Cindy's face for a response. It's clear this young girl wasn't exactly expecting this...

"I... I don' know how to fix him. Especially without the flow water..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks from Maureen to Pete, and the helpless feeling settles heavier in her chest.

"I don’t know," she says softly. "I’m not sure if this city has magic or not, but--"

She stops herself and for a second, her eyes flick toward the bedroom before she looks back at Maureen. There is something in there, hidden away where she had promised herself it would stay, but thinking of it only makes her feel worse. Having something dangerous nearby is not the same as knowing how to help.

"I’m sorry," Cindy says. "I don’t know what the Flow is. I don’t know how to fix him."

Her gaze drifts back to Pete, to the shattered porcelain and the empty spaces where pieces should’ve been, and the frustration turns inward before she can stop it.

With Maureen, she’d at least known where to begin but her companion was different.

She wants to do something. She wants, desperately, to be useful.

But she can't do anything.

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴ ̴c̴a̴n̴'̴t̴ ̴d̴o̴ ̴a̴n̴y̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴.̴

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴'̴r̴e̴ ̴u̴s̴e̴l̴e̴s̴s̴ ̴t̴h̴e̴ ̴m̴o̴m̴e̴n̴t̴ ̴s̴o̴m̴e̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴ ̴m̴a̴t̴t̴e̴r̴s̴.̴

Cindy swallows hard and makes herself look back at Maureen.

"Is he alive?" she asks quietly. "I mean… is he still in there? Can he hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"I-I don' know. He was still there when his memories got all fucked with and everythin' but... it's okay, alright? It'll be fine. Somethin' managed to pull us here, so Cheeky and Carlos are probably around here somewhere, and we'll just find them and fix Pete, and we'll be fine."

As Maureen is saying this, it's somewhat clear that she's saying a lot of this for herself. Desperate to give herself a bit of comfort. Although, if she and Pete were dragged through... that Means PG Tips could've made it through too... or even the Krag twins...

"Oh fuck. If we made it through, that.... that could me the Krag twins. PG Tips... they could've... fuck...."

Maureen sits up a bit in a panic and then winces and leans back.

"Fuck. Those are some bad people that might be roamin out and about now. They killed my love. They could still be alive..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy’s eyes widen when Maureen tries to sit up.

"Please don’t move too much. Please, you’ll hurt yourself."

She reaches out on instinct, then stops before touching her, hands hovering uselessly for a moment before she pulls them back.

"I’m sorry, I don’t-- I don’t know who any of those people are."

The words tumble together faster than Cindy can make sense of them, one fear folding into another until she can barely tell what danger is nearest.

"I don't know if they're here," she says, and her voice comes out smaller than she means it to. "I don't know how you two got here in the first place."

Her stomach turns at the thought. Maureen and Pete had appeared in her kitchen without warning, and Cindy still doesn't understand how. If others had come through too, then they could be anywhere, and she wouldn't have the first idea where to look for those they want to find, and no idea how to deal with those that they don't want to find them.

"I’m sorry," she says again, because it is the only thing she can think to say. "I don’t understand what’s happened. I don’t understand the Flow, or what you went through, or how to find the others."

Her gaze moves to Pete, broken and half-formed on the floor, and the frustration twists inward again.

"But if you have enemies after you..." Cindy starts, then falters as her eyes drift back to the broken porcelain scattered across the floor. "How can--how would your friend run?" she asks quietly. "How would they even move?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen realizes that her words are just panicking the girl and she falters for a moment. It doesn't help the situation if she keeps on spooking the only other being in the room.

"It's alright, Dove. I-I'll stop movin'."

Her eyes follow Cindy's, and she sighs gesturing for her to slide Pete over.

"Well, usually he uh... he has legs. But the Black tea really... really did a number on him."

She pauses, letting the two of them breathe dor a moment and take in everything.

" If... if the others made it through, it would be nice, but if... if the Krag Twins or PG Tips made it through... it's going to be a problem. But we'll handle it." She attempts to give a reassuring smile, but it's certainly a struggle. She then sighs and muses outloud.

"Surely, there's some sort of magic within your world that we can figure out and use to our advantage..."

[blogging-cindy]

The question lands on Cindy, and once again her eyes drift to her bedroom before she can stop them. She doesn’t want to think about what’s hidden there, because thinking about it already feels like stepping too close to a promise she made to herself.

The book is dangerous. She knows that much. She knows it in the same way she knows not to touch a hot tray with her bare hands, only worse, because at least a burn is honest about what it is.

But these people need help, and Cindy has been fortunate enough to have help when she needed it. She can’t take that kindness from others and then turn away the moment it is her turn to offer it. She can’t simply do nothing when there might still be a way to help.

Maybe the book is evil. Maybe nothing good can come from it. But maybe things would be different if she used it for good.

"There’s something," she says, finally. "I have something."

Saying it out loud makes the thought feel heavier, more real, and Cindy almost wants to take the words back before Maureen can ask what she means. Instead, she makes herself stand.

"I’ll be right back," she says, though her voice is still quiet. "It’s in my room."

She leaves the kitchen quickly, but her pace slows as she reaches the bedroom.

Once inside, Cindy immediately crouches beside the old storage chest at the foot of her bed and lifts the lid. Inside are spare blankets, old clothes, and the sort of things that never seem to have a proper place, all piled on top of a large tin box hidden beneath them. She carefully moves everything aside until she can reach it, then pulls a small key from her pocket and unlocks the box.

The book is inside as if it was waiting for her.

She lifts it out and rises with it tucked against her chest. It is heavier than it should be, the same as it has always been, and she carries it back through the flat with both arms wrapped around it, as though keeping it closed might somehow make this less terrible.

When she returns to the kitchen, her eyes go first to Maureen, then to Pete.

"Here it is." She keeps one hand on the cover before finally opening it.  "This book might have a spell that can help your friend," she says, sounding more hopeful than certain. The pages rustle beneath her fingers as she flips through them, her eyes skimming diagrams, notes, and passages . "There has to be something..."

She stops, her gaze fixing on one page as she leans closer.

"I think this could be something," she says, though her voice has gone thin. "It’s a soul transfer spell."

The words sound impossible even as she says them, and worse than impossible because the page is right there in front of her, written plainly enough that she can understand more than she wants to.

"I--I don’t think we can save your friend’s body," she says carefully. "But we can still save him."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

As she waited for Cindy, she scooted herself over to Pete and, with a shaky hand, picked up what was left of his face. The porcelain cracked in more places than she could afford to fix. As Cindy returned, though, and told her about the spell, she didn't hesitate.

"Do it." Maureen didn't know how the spell would transfer, what would happen, anything, but what she did know is Pete deserved to be free. He deserved to settle down and live in that house. He deserved much more than this.

"Where could we temporarily store an automaton's soul?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy reads the ritual carefully, her eyes moving over each line as if reading it slowly enough might make it easier to understand.

"That's a good question," she says, still looking down at the page. "We'll need a body that works for him."

Only after she says it does she look around the kitchen, searching the room as if something useful might appear simply because she needs it badly enough.

"But where can we possibly…"

Her eyes catch on the small crocheted elephant sitting near one of her storage boxes, and for half a second she considers it before dismissing the thought almost as quickly. It’s too small, too soft, not enough to hold someone. The polar bear figurine on the table isn’t right either. It’s pretty, and solid enough at first glance, but still something that could crack if it fell the wrong way. Another fragile thing wouldn’t be any better than what Pete already has.

Cindy keeps looking, her gaze moving over the counter, the shelves, the half-finished pastries, until something near the wall catches her eye.

"That’s it."

She leaves the book open and hurries across the room. Near the wall sits a small robot, about three feet tall, with a smooth white body and pale blue accents. Its shape is rounded and compact, with a broad oval torso, a simple head, and short arms. A dark screen serves as its face, and beneath it are small hands for holding light objects, a built-in speaker for speech and audio, and a sturdy wheeled base. It had once stood in used to be part of a promotional display for the shop until it stopped moving properly and had to be replaced. Even so, it could still power on and connect to the internet, and when Miss Jade and Miss Lisa decided to get rid of it, Cindy had asked if she could keep it. She'd always thought it was too sweet to throw away.

She carries it back carefully and sets it near Pete.

"I think this would do," Cindy says, "It’s made of plastic and metal, I think. It’s not indestructible, but it won’t break as easily as porcelain. And if it gets damaged, we’d have a better chance of fixing it."

She keeps her hand on the robot a little longer, then turns back to the book. Her eyes settle on the next part of the ritual, and her expression changes.

"And one more thing," Cindy says, her voice quieter now. "For the ritual to work, we have to destroy his current body completely."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hesitates for a moment. The strange robot looked so foreign compared to the pieces that were left of Pete. But... she wanted someone she trusted...

"I... I'm sorry, Pete. It's the only way..." She mutters quietly to his crumpled form before nodding. "Do it. His body wouldn't even work without the flow... i'll... I'll miss it. But I miss him more."

She looks to Cindy with tears in her eyes. "He deserves to finally be, truly, free. Not just free in death, but free in life. If that... if that means having him change, so he's free of tea too, then let's do it."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy doesn’t answer right away. Maureen’s words settle over the kitchen, and for a moment all Cindy can do is look at her and at the way she’s still choosing Pete even when the choice is awful.

It makes the book feel heavier under Cindy’s arm.

Keeping it tucked there, Cindy crouches beside the robot. She slides it carefully across the floor until it sits beside Pete’s broken body, close enough that the white casing nearly brushes against the shattered porcelain. Once she's satisfied with its position, she rises back to her feet and turns to Maureen.

"We’d have to keep our distance," Cindy says quietly. "Both of us. The ritual needs the robot to be the closest vessel, otherwise there’s no telling where it might send him."

After a moment, Cindy grabs a towel from the counter and crouches beside Pete. She takes her time gathering the broken pieces, folding the towel around them carefully so nothing slips loose. It feels awful, treating him like something that needs to be packed away, but she has to make sure they all stay in the same place.

Once everything is contained, she places the wrapped remains on the floor beside the robot and sets a heavy cutting board over the cloth. Then she steps back with the book open in one hand and the broom in the other, lowering the end of the handle against the board without putting her weight on it yet.

"To perform the ritual," Cindy says quietly, looking down at the open page, "I have to call on the Lords in Black."

The fear that follows is overwhelming, almost numbing. She knows who… what they are. She knows what they’re capable of. The Lords in Black are not gods, not spirits, not anything that should be spoken to by ordinary people.

They're something older and darker than anything Cindy knows how to name, things that exist beyond the edges of reality and reach through whenever they are given the chance, and every story she knows about them from the book ends the same way, no one touches the Lords in Black without being changed by it, and nothing they give ever comes without a cost.

Every instinct she has is screaming at her to stop, to close the book, to put it back in the box and forget she ever found this ritual.

But then her gaze shifts to Maureen, and she can still see the tears in the woman’s eyes, still hear the conviction in her voice when she forced herself to say yes to destroying her friend’s old body.

She pushes aside her own selfishness and begins to invoke the names.

"Pokotho. Bliklotep. T’noy Karaxis. Nibblenephim."

The names leave her mouth, each one feeling like something she should’ve kept behind her teeth.

Her hands tighten until the broom handle bites into her palms and Cindy’s eyes settle on the last name on the page.

It waits there at the end of the ritual, and she knows that once she says it, there'll be no turning back.

"Wiggog Y’wrath."

As the final name leaves Cindy’s mouth, and she pushes down with everything she has.

The board gives beneath the pressure, and the sound under the towel is immediate and awful, porcelain and metal breaking all at once.

The silence stretches across the room, heavy and suffocating. Every muscle in Cindy's body is locked tight as she stares at the robot, waiting for something.

Then the robot powers on and starts to move.

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen moves from Pete's body as instructed. Making sure her back was against the wall before Cindy got started. But as Cindy started placing pieces of Pete into a towel, she couldn't help but look away and sob just a bit. It felt a bit like betraying Pete, forcing him into a body he's not. But she genuinely had no choice...

As the robot powers on, starting to move, the glowing blue eyes blink to life. The first noise that is heard is, "Cheeky? Maureen? Carlos?" It wasn't until the Robot span fully around that it looked somewhat relieved. "Oh! Hello! My name is-"

Maureen adjusts herself in the corner, "Pete?"

"Oh my word, Maureen! We escaped?? I thought we were dead! Also, why are you so much taller than me now?"

Maureen glanced over at Cindy and shook her head, "Not important, for now this," she gestures to Cindy, "Is Cindy. She's the one who saved us."

The small robot turned and blinked its eyes at Cindy. "Thank you, Cindy. That's very kind of you."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks at Pete for a moment and lets out a small, shaky breath as the realization finally settles in that it worked.

The thought is so simple that it almost doesn’t feel real. Pete is moving, speaking, answering Maureen when she talks to him, and the relief that comes over Cindy is sudden enough to make her eyes sting.

"You’re welcome," she says softly.

She gives Pete a closer look to see if everything's okay.

"Can you see alright?" she asks. "Can you hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Pete looks around, curious about the world, but nods wholeheartedly.

"I can. It- I feel like I can see better than I did before. How did I sir-sir-survive?"

Maureen gives Cindy another look before slowly approaching. "Pete, your body wasn't.... it wasn't usable anymore. I asked Cindy to help you get into a... a new body."

"Oh. What was this body used for.... previously?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks at Pete for a moment. "It used to be for the shop downstairs," she says carefully. "It sat moved around and showed little pictures and messages on the screen."

Her gaze moves over the white-and-blue casing as she speaks, still half-expecting something to flicker out or go wrong. "It stopped working properly, so they didn’t need it anymore and let me keep it."

She keeps her attention on him, afraid that looking away too soon might somehow make the moment less real.

"It was the only body that would work," Cindy says softly. "I’m sorry I didn’t have anything better."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Don't apologize," Maureen reassured, her green eyes sparkling as she comforted the young woman.

"Maureen's right. You did what was necessary to save me, and I appreciate it. How... how does the body run normally? I can feel that it has something different running it, but I'm not sure what it is."

Pete cocked his head to the side curiously, examining his little hands as he waited for a response. Maureen, meanwhile, forced herself to sit up and then soon stand up with all her might, Woozily grasping at the counter as she does so.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy moves the moment Maureen starts to sway, her hand coming up near Maureen’s arm without quite grabbing her. She stays close until Maureen has the counter beneath her hand, close enough to catch her if her balance gives out.

She hears Pete's question and turns to him.

"It runs on a power cell," Cindy says carefully. "Something inside it that holds a charge, so it can stay on without being plugged into the wall."

It is not much of an answer, but it is the part she understands.

Her gaze moves from Pete’s small robot body back to Maureen, and the strangeness of the room settles over her all at once: a beautiful woman barely staying upright against her counter, a person newly awake inside a machine.

The Black Book still too close for comfort.

Cindy swallows, then reaches for the one ordinary thing she can land on.

"I'm forgetting my manners, I haven't even offered you anything." She says, slowly moving away from Maureen. "Would you like something to eat? To drink?"

Then she looks at Pete, uncertainty crossing her face. "I don't know if you can eat anything, though."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen huffs and shakes her head. "I just. Don' wanna be on the floor anymore. If we can get me to a chair, or a bed..." She starts to slip a little and the smaller Robot Pete, catches Maureen's arm.

"I'm glad I don't need to consume tea anymore. But, Maureen needs rest, and potentially something to calm her. Like a type of Tea. If you have any."

Maureen's eyes widened, before she realized, right, the flow isn't here, Pete's offering Tea because of the lack of flow water.

"I'll be fine with just water. Don' need anythin' special."

"Cindy, can you get Maureen's feet, we are going to c-carry her to a place of rest. And then you and I can talk about what we think is going on."

[blogging-cindy]

When Pete asks for help, Cindy moves immediately.

She crouches beside Maureen, careful to avoid jostling her more than necessary as she takes hold of her legs. "Please excuse me." She adjusts her grip once before they're ready to move, more concerned with not hurting her than anything else.

They only have to take a few careful steps before they reach the sofa, but Cindy still finds herself glancing up at Maureen more than once along the way, watching her expression for any sign that they're making things worse.

Once they reach the sofa, she helps ease her down onto the cushions before finally letting go.

"I hope that's a bit more comfortable."

She stays close for another moment, her eyes moving automatically to the bandages as if checking that they're still where they ought to be. Satisfied that nothing seems to have changed, she finally lifts her gaze from Maureen and looks back at Pete.

"I'm not sure how much help I'll be," she admits. "I still don't understand how either of you ended up here."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen nods, almost immediately drifting off to sleep. Pete looks to Cindy and gives a little nod.

"Quite frankly, I don't know if either of us would know either. But it's nice to know that we're safe. At least for now. We wouldn't want to be a bother, but when Maureen gets healed up, is there a place we could live? We would not have money for this world, it seems like... at least, that's what I seem to have memory of in this tiny robot."

Pete does his best to try to give a little bit of a happier look to himself, sitting down and relaxing next to Maureen on the floor.

"I... I do hope Cheeky and Carlos are okay..."

[blogging-cindy]

Spoilers for Lockstock Ep 4

Maureen thought it was over. Pete had taken the tea. Everyone was going. She got her ending. But as she flew through the void, she heard a loud crash and felt pain. If she was dead, she wouldn't have felt... pain... would she? It takes a moment, but she pries open her tired eyes blinking as she looks around the room she finds herself lying in. The first thing she notices is the crumpled and mostly destroyed mass of Pete only a few feet in front of her.

"Pete...?"

It was obvious he wouldn't be in functioning order, but she still desperately wished her friend was with her. That's when she noticed how... odd, everything else looked around her. The counters looked sleek, well, especially compared to counters in Donlon. Tools and other baking supplies were neatly organized in the room, and she felt exceptionally out of place.

"I... I don' think we're in Donlon anymore Pete..."

@roll-from-the-roleplay

Cindy is in the middle of working on a batch of danishes, her counter lightly dusted with flour and a few test pastries laid out in front of her. She's comparing notes from the last batch when something strange catches her attention.

It feels, for just a second, like something has hooked itself somewhere beneath her ribs and given a sharp tug. The sensation's gone almost as quickly as it comes, leaving her frowning down at the page.

Then something crashes hard onto the kitchen floor.

Cindy jumps back so quickly her hip hits the counter behind her, her hands gripping the edge before she can think to do anything else. There's a woman on her floor, and beside her is something crumpled and broken that Cindy can't make sense of at all. Neither of them look like they belong there.

Neither of them look quite human.

Then the woman speaks, and Cindy's attention snaps back to her.

"Who--" Her voice catches, and she has to swallow before trying again. "Who are you?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hadn't quite noticed the human standing in the kitchen either... it was probably the blood loss, that and the fact she had landed in the middle of the room... She couldn't help her instinct to grab at a knife by her waist as she turned to the human. But, fortunately for Cindy, she hadn't apparently kept that with her during the transportation to... wherever this is.

So, instead, Maureen scrambled closer to Pete. She could at least try to protect him, if nothing else. Her pointy ears twitch as she responds, "Maureen. Who are you...? Where am I?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy keeps staring at her, too thrown to answer the woman's questions. Her eyes move from Maureen’s face to her ears, then lower, catching on the blood.

"You’re..." Her voice catches. "You’re bleeding."

For a second, she only stares at it. There is blood on her kitchen floor, blood that definitely wasn't there a minute ago when she was standing over her baking. But she sees more blood drip on the floor and it hits her again.

"Oh my god! You’re bleeding!"

"I don’t have any---" Cindy looks around the kitchen wildly, her gaze jumping from the counter to the sink to the drawers as if something useful might suddenly appear there. Her heart is hammering so hard she can feel it in her throat. "I don’t have anything for that. I mean, not here. I have towels. I think I have a first aid kit somewhere. Wait."

She turns immediately and starts yanking open drawers, one after another. Measuring spoons, folded tea towels, baking paper, spare piping tips, none of it is what she needs, and the more she looks, the less certain she is of where anything actually is.

"Where is it?" she mutters to herself before looking back at Maureen, visibly panicked. "Just-- just don't move. Or do move. I don't know. Just--hold on."

She quickly grabs a clean tea towel from beside the counter, then another from the hook near the oven, hands shaking as she holds them out but doesn’t quite step close enough to touch her.

She takes a step forward, lifting the folded cloth toward Maureen before stopping herself halfway. The panic is still there, but now uncertainty catches up with it, her hands hovering in the space between them like she has only just remembered Maureen never said she could touch her.

"I um..." She swallows. "May I...?"

Her eyes flick to the blood and then back to Maureen.

"I can help. If that's alright."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen looked at this young woman's face warily. But, she had no choice. Her only other friend she could see was a heap of metal and porcelain on the floor, and anyone else she knew were missing entirely. Carlos, Cheeky, and Magpie, all consumed by the void, and yet, somehow she's here, and they're not.

Maureen nods, deciding to let herself relax. Despite being on the brink of death before, she feels... fine, actually. Well, less fine and more alive. The pain was proof of it.

"You hadn't answered my question, dove. Where are we, and who are ya? "

Her frightened, adrenaline filled questions were exchanged for quiet, tired ones.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy kneels beside Maureen and presses the folded towel against the worst of the bleeding before she can lose her nerve.

"I'm sorry," she says, the words coming out shaky as she keeps both hands over the cloth. "I should have answered you."

The towel warms beneath her palms almost at once, and Cindy has to swallow hard to keep herself from pulling away. She presses down as firmly as she dares, though her hands are still trembling.

"My name is Cindy," she says. "Cindy Campbell. And this is my flat, right above the shop where I work."

Her eyes flick down to the blood spreading into the fabric, then quickly back to Maureen’s face.

"You’re in New York," Cindy adds, quieter. "I don’t know how you got here. I’m sorry. You just… appeared. Both of you."

She glances once toward Pete, but only for a second. The sight of him makes her stomach twist in a way she cannot make sense of right now, so she forces her attention back to the living person in front of her.

"I’m sorry if this hurts," she says, pressing the towel more securely against the wound. "I’m trying not to--I mean, I know it has to be firm, but I don’t want to make it worse."

Cindy shifts one hand just enough to grab the second towel and layer it over the first when the blood starts coming through.

"There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom," she says, her voice still thin with panic. "I need to get it, but I don’t want to let go yet."

She looks at Maureen, worry plain across her face.

"Can you hold this here? Just for a moment. Press it like this, alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Cindy... New York..." Maureen tries to tuck that information away in her brain, but her thoughts seem to be as fickle as the flow. She's lost so so much. It would be easy to give in.

But as she views Cindy's worry, she can feel something within her fight. Something deep that she hadn't felt for a while.

"Thank you, Cindy. For... helpin'..."

She moves her hand on top of the girls holding the towel to her wound. "I'll hold onto it as long as you need."

Sweat laced Maureen's brow, but there was clearly a fight in her that she wasn't gonna let go quite yet.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy stills for a moment when Maureen’s hand settles over hers.

It is warm, and real, and for some reason that makes the whole impossible thing feel worse. This is not a strange dream or something her frightened mind had made up. Maureen is here, bleeding on her kitchen floor, and trusting Cindy enough to let her help.

"You don’t have to thank me," Cindy says, her voice still thin but softer now. "Just keep pressing there, alright? As hard as you can."

She carefully eases one hand away first, then the other, making sure Maureen has the towel held in place before she moves.

"I’ll be quick."

Cindy gets to her feet too fast and nearly slips on the flour dusting the floor, catching herself on the counter with a sharp breath. She does not give herself time to be embarrassed. Instead, she turns and hurries out of the kitchen, calling back as she goes.

"I’m only going to the bathroom. I’m not leaving you." It takes a few frantic seconds of searching before she finds the kit under the sink. Cindy grabs it and returns with it clutched against her chest, dropping back down beside Maureen.

"I found it," she says, kneeling beside Maureen again.

Cindy opens the kit and takes out what she needs, setting each thing down within reach before she lifts the towel. The slash is along Maureen’s side, wet and raw beneath the cloth, and Cindy’s face goes pale at the sight of it.

Still, her hands know where to go.

"I’m sorry," she says, quieter now. "I have to clean it first."

She folds the towel back only as far as she needs to, keeping pressure with one hand while the other tears open a wipe. She starts around the wound, careful and slow, clearing away enough blood to see what she is doing without dragging too hard against torn skin.

"I’m sorry," she says again when she has to press closer. "Just a moment. I know it hurts."

The towel is too soaked to keep using, so Cindy reaches for the gauze and swaps it in quickly, one hand lifting while the other replaces it before the bleeding can start freely again. She presses down, waits, then adds another layer when red begins to spread through the first.

For a while, that is all there is. Gauze, pressure, the sound of Cindy trying to keep her breathing even.

Once the bleeding slows enough, she reaches for the bandage roll. She slips it carefully around Maureen’s waist, leaning close enough to pass it behind her without pulling at the wound, then brings it back around over the dressing. The first wrap holds it in place. The second is firmer. The third makes Cindy pause to check beneath the edge with two fingers, making sure it is snug without cutting in.

"There," she says at last, tucking the end securely. "There, that should--"

She stops herself before saying it should be alright, because she doesn’t know that it will be. Instead, she lifts her eyes to Maureen’s face.

"That should hold for now," Cindy says, finally lifting her eyes from the bandage to look at Maureen’s companion.

"I don't know how to help them," she admits, feeling helpless . "I... are they alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen winces as her wound is cleaned, her ears angling downward in pain, but she's alive. She's alive, and I guess she has three new goals.

Stay Alive

Fix Pete

And find Cheeky and Carlos.

She's focusing on those goals with Cindy asks about Pete and she... she has to look over to his crumpled mess of a body.

"I... I don' know. I wish I knew, Dove, but... I... he ran on Tea, and the Flow. But.... based on how you're healing me I.... there isn't... there's no... magic... is there?"

Maureen's Emerald eyes search Cindy's face for a response. It's clear this young girl wasn't exactly expecting this...

"I... I don' know how to fix him. Especially without the flow water..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks from Maureen to Pete, and the helpless feeling settles heavier in her chest.

"I don’t know," she says softly. "I’m not sure if this city has magic or not, but--"

She stops herself and for a second, her eyes flick toward the bedroom before she looks back at Maureen. There is something in there, hidden away where she had promised herself it would stay, but thinking of it only makes her feel worse. Having something dangerous nearby is not the same as knowing how to help.

"I’m sorry," Cindy says. "I don’t know what the Flow is. I don’t know how to fix him."

Her gaze drifts back to Pete, to the shattered porcelain and the empty spaces where pieces should’ve been, and the frustration turns inward before she can stop it.

With Maureen, she’d at least known where to begin but her companion was different.

She wants to do something. She wants, desperately, to be useful.

But she can't do anything.

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴ ̴c̴a̴n̴'̴t̴ ̴d̴o̴ ̴a̴n̴y̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴.̴

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴'̴r̴e̴ ̴u̴s̴e̴l̴e̴s̴s̴ ̴t̴h̴e̴ ̴m̴o̴m̴e̴n̴t̴ ̴s̴o̴m̴e̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴ ̴m̴a̴t̴t̴e̴r̴s̴.̴

Cindy swallows hard and makes herself look back at Maureen.

"Is he alive?" she asks quietly. "I mean… is he still in there? Can he hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"I-I don' know. He was still there when his memories got all fucked with and everythin' but... it's okay, alright? It'll be fine. Somethin' managed to pull us here, so Cheeky and Carlos are probably around here somewhere, and we'll just find them and fix Pete, and we'll be fine."

As Maureen is saying this, it's somewhat clear that she's saying a lot of this for herself. Desperate to give herself a bit of comfort. Although, if she and Pete were dragged through... that Means PG Tips could've made it through too... or even the Krag twins...

"Oh fuck. If we made it through, that.... that could me the Krag twins. PG Tips... they could've... fuck...."

Maureen sits up a bit in a panic and then winces and leans back.

"Fuck. Those are some bad people that might be roamin out and about now. They killed my love. They could still be alive..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy’s eyes widen when Maureen tries to sit up.

"Please don’t move too much. Please, you’ll hurt yourself."

She reaches out on instinct, then stops before touching her, hands hovering uselessly for a moment before she pulls them back.

"I’m sorry, I don’t-- I don’t know who any of those people are."

The words tumble together faster than Cindy can make sense of them, one fear folding into another until she can barely tell what danger is nearest.

"I don't know if they're here," she says, and her voice comes out smaller than she means it to. "I don't know how you two got here in the first place."

Her stomach turns at the thought. Maureen and Pete had appeared in her kitchen without warning, and Cindy still doesn't understand how. If others had come through too, then they could be anywhere, and she wouldn't have the first idea where to look for those they want to find, and no idea how to deal with those that they don't want to find them.

"I’m sorry," she says again, because it is the only thing she can think to say. "I don’t understand what’s happened. I don’t understand the Flow, or what you went through, or how to find the others."

Her gaze moves to Pete, broken and half-formed on the floor, and the frustration twists inward again.

"But if you have enemies after you..." Cindy starts, then falters as her eyes drift back to the broken porcelain scattered across the floor. "How can--how would your friend run?" she asks quietly. "How would they even move?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen realizes that her words are just panicking the girl and she falters for a moment. It doesn't help the situation if she keeps on spooking the only other being in the room.

"It's alright, Dove. I-I'll stop movin'."

Her eyes follow Cindy's, and she sighs gesturing for her to slide Pete over.

"Well, usually he uh... he has legs. But the Black tea really... really did a number on him."

She pauses, letting the two of them breathe dor a moment and take in everything.

" If... if the others made it through, it would be nice, but if... if the Krag Twins or PG Tips made it through... it's going to be a problem. But we'll handle it." She attempts to give a reassuring smile, but it's certainly a struggle. She then sighs and muses outloud.

"Surely, there's some sort of magic within your world that we can figure out and use to our advantage..."

[blogging-cindy]

The question lands on Cindy, and once again her eyes drift to her bedroom before she can stop them. She doesn’t want to think about what’s hidden there, because thinking about it already feels like stepping too close to a promise she made to herself.

The book is dangerous. She knows that much. She knows it in the same way she knows not to touch a hot tray with her bare hands, only worse, because at least a burn is honest about what it is.

But these people need help, and Cindy has been fortunate enough to have help when she needed it. She can’t take that kindness from others and then turn away the moment it is her turn to offer it. She can’t simply do nothing when there might still be a way to help.

Maybe the book is evil. Maybe nothing good can come from it. But maybe things would be different if she used it for good.

"There’s something," she says, finally. "I have something."

Saying it out loud makes the thought feel heavier, more real, and Cindy almost wants to take the words back before Maureen can ask what she means. Instead, she makes herself stand.

"I’ll be right back," she says, though her voice is still quiet. "It’s in my room."

She leaves the kitchen quickly, but her pace slows as she reaches the bedroom.

Once inside, Cindy immediately crouches beside the old storage chest at the foot of her bed and lifts the lid. Inside are spare blankets, old clothes, and the sort of things that never seem to have a proper place, all piled on top of a large tin box hidden beneath them. She carefully moves everything aside until she can reach it, then pulls a small key from her pocket and unlocks the box.

The book is inside as if it was waiting for her.

She lifts it out and rises with it tucked against her chest. It is heavier than it should be, the same as it has always been, and she carries it back through the flat with both arms wrapped around it, as though keeping it closed might somehow make this less terrible.

When she returns to the kitchen, her eyes go first to Maureen, then to Pete.

"Here it is." She keeps one hand on the cover before finally opening it.  "This book might have a spell that can help your friend," she says, sounding more hopeful than certain. The pages rustle beneath her fingers as she flips through them, her eyes skimming diagrams, notes, and passages . "There has to be something..."

She stops, her gaze fixing on one page as she leans closer.

"I think this could be something," she says, though her voice has gone thin. "It’s a soul transfer spell."

The words sound impossible even as she says them, and worse than impossible because the page is right there in front of her, written plainly enough that she can understand more than she wants to.

"I--I don’t think we can save your friend’s body," she says carefully. "But we can still save him."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

As she waited for Cindy, she scooted herself over to Pete and, with a shaky hand, picked up what was left of his face. The porcelain cracked in more places than she could afford to fix. As Cindy returned, though, and told her about the spell, she didn't hesitate.

"Do it." Maureen didn't know how the spell would transfer, what would happen, anything, but what she did know is Pete deserved to be free. He deserved to settle down and live in that house. He deserved much more than this.

"Where could we temporarily store an automaton's soul?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy reads the ritual carefully, her eyes moving over each line as if reading it slowly enough might make it easier to understand.

"That's a good question," she says, still looking down at the page. "We'll need a body that works for him."

Only after she says it does she look around the kitchen, searching the room as if something useful might appear simply because she needs it badly enough.

"But where can we possibly…"

Her eyes catch on the small crocheted elephant sitting near one of her storage boxes, and for half a second she considers it before dismissing the thought almost as quickly. It’s too small, too soft, not enough to hold someone. The polar bear figurine on the table isn’t right either. It’s pretty, and solid enough at first glance, but still something that could crack if it fell the wrong way. Another fragile thing wouldn’t be any better than what Pete already has.

Cindy keeps looking, her gaze moving over the counter, the shelves, the half-finished pastries, until something near the wall catches her eye.

"That’s it."

She leaves the book open and hurries across the room. Near the wall sits a small robot, about three feet tall, with a smooth white body and pale blue accents. Its shape is rounded and compact, with a broad oval torso, a simple head, and short arms. A dark screen serves as its face, and beneath it are small hands for holding light objects, a built-in speaker for speech and audio, and a sturdy wheeled base. It had once stood in used to be part of a promotional display for the shop until it stopped moving properly and had to be replaced. Even so, it could still power on and connect to the internet, and when Miss Jade and Miss Lisa decided to get rid of it, Cindy had asked if she could keep it. She'd always thought it was too sweet to throw away.

She carries it back carefully and sets it near Pete.

"I think this would do," Cindy says, "It’s made of plastic and metal, I think. It’s not indestructible, but it won’t break as easily as porcelain. And if it gets damaged, we’d have a better chance of fixing it."

She keeps her hand on the robot a little longer, then turns back to the book. Her eyes settle on the next part of the ritual, and her expression changes.

"And one more thing," Cindy says, her voice quieter now. "For the ritual to work, we have to destroy his current body completely."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hesitates for a moment. The strange robot looked so foreign compared to the pieces that were left of Pete. But... she wanted someone she trusted...

"I... I'm sorry, Pete. It's the only way..." She mutters quietly to his crumpled form before nodding. "Do it. His body wouldn't even work without the flow... i'll... I'll miss it. But I miss him more."

She looks to Cindy with tears in her eyes. "He deserves to finally be, truly, free. Not just free in death, but free in life. If that... if that means having him change, so he's free of tea too, then let's do it."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy doesn’t answer right away. Maureen’s words settle over the kitchen, and for a moment all Cindy can do is look at her and at the way she’s still choosing Pete even when the choice is awful.

It makes the book feel heavier under Cindy’s arm.

Keeping it tucked there, Cindy crouches beside the robot. She slides it carefully across the floor until it sits beside Pete’s broken body, close enough that the white casing nearly brushes against the shattered porcelain. Once she's satisfied with its position, she rises back to her feet and turns to Maureen.

"We’d have to keep our distance," Cindy says quietly. "Both of us. The ritual needs the robot to be the closest vessel, otherwise there’s no telling where it might send him."

After a moment, Cindy grabs a towel from the counter and crouches beside Pete. She takes her time gathering the broken pieces, folding the towel around them carefully so nothing slips loose. It feels awful, treating him like something that needs to be packed away, but she has to make sure they all stay in the same place.

Once everything is contained, she places the wrapped remains on the floor beside the robot and sets a heavy cutting board over the cloth. Then she steps back with the book open in one hand and the broom in the other, lowering the end of the handle against the board without putting her weight on it yet.

"To perform the ritual," Cindy says quietly, looking down at the open page, "I have to call on the Lords in Black."

The fear that follows is overwhelming, almost numbing. She knows who… what they are. She knows what they’re capable of. The Lords in Black are not gods, not spirits, not anything that should be spoken to by ordinary people.

They're something older and darker than anything Cindy knows how to name, things that exist beyond the edges of reality and reach through whenever they are given the chance, and every story she knows about them from the book ends the same way, no one touches the Lords in Black without being changed by it, and nothing they give ever comes without a cost.

Every instinct she has is screaming at her to stop, to close the book, to put it back in the box and forget she ever found this ritual.

But then her gaze shifts to Maureen, and she can still see the tears in the woman’s eyes, still hear the conviction in her voice when she forced herself to say yes to destroying her friend’s old body.

She pushes aside her own selfishness and begins to invoke the names.

"Pokotho. Bliklotep. T’noy Karaxis. Nibblenephim."

The names leave her mouth, each one feeling like something she should’ve kept behind her teeth.

Her hands tighten until the broom handle bites into her palms and Cindy’s eyes settle on the last name on the page.

It waits there at the end of the ritual, and she knows that once she says it, there'll be no turning back.

"Wiggog Y’wrath."

As the final name leaves Cindy’s mouth, and she pushes down with everything she has.

The board gives beneath the pressure, and the sound under the towel is immediate and awful, porcelain and metal breaking all at once.

The silence stretches across the room, heavy and suffocating. Every muscle in Cindy's body is locked tight as she stares at the robot, waiting for something.

Then the robot powers on and starts to move.

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen moves from Pete's body as instructed. Making sure her back was against the wall before Cindy got started. But as Cindy started placing pieces of Pete into a towel, she couldn't help but look away and sob just a bit. It felt a bit like betraying Pete, forcing him into a body he's not. But she genuinely had no choice...

As the robot powers on, starting to move, the glowing blue eyes blink to life. The first noise that is heard is, "Cheeky? Maureen? Carlos?" It wasn't until the Robot span fully around that it looked somewhat relieved. "Oh! Hello! My name is-"

Maureen adjusts herself in the corner, "Pete?"

"Oh my word, Maureen! We escaped?? I thought we were dead! Also, why are you so much taller than me now?"

Maureen glanced over at Cindy and shook her head, "Not important, for now this," she gestures to Cindy, "Is Cindy. She's the one who saved us."

The small robot turned and blinked its eyes at Cindy. "Thank you, Cindy. That's very kind of you."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks at Pete for a moment and lets out a small, shaky breath as the realization finally settles in that it worked.

The thought is so simple that it almost doesn’t feel real. Pete is moving, speaking, answering Maureen when she talks to him, and the relief that comes over Cindy is sudden enough to make her eyes sting.

"You’re welcome," she says softly.

She gives Pete a closer look to see if everything's okay.

"Can you see alright?" she asks. "Can you hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Pete looks around, curious about the world, but nods wholeheartedly.

"I can. It- I feel like I can see better than I did before. How did I sir-sir-survive?"

Maureen gives Cindy another look before slowly approaching. "Pete, your body wasn't.... it wasn't usable anymore. I asked Cindy to help you get into a... a new body."

"Oh. What was this body used for.... previously?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks at Pete for a moment. "It used to be for the shop downstairs," she says carefully. "It sat moved around and showed little pictures and messages on the screen."

Her gaze moves over the white-and-blue casing as she speaks, still half-expecting something to flicker out or go wrong. "It stopped working properly, so they didn’t need it anymore and let me keep it."

She keeps her attention on him, afraid that looking away too soon might somehow make the moment less real.

"It was the only body that would work," Cindy says softly. "I’m sorry I didn’t have anything better."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Don't apologize," Maureen reassured, her green eyes sparkling as she comforted the young woman.

"Maureen's right. You did what was necessary to save me, and I appreciate it. How... how does the body run normally? I can feel that it has something different running it, but I'm not sure what it is."

Pete cocked his head to the side curiously, examining his little hands as he waited for a response. Maureen, meanwhile, forced herself to sit up and then soon stand up with all her might, Woozily grasping at the counter as she does so.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy moves the moment Maureen starts to sway, her hand coming up near Maureen’s arm without quite grabbing her. She stays close until Maureen has the counter beneath her hand, close enough to catch her if her balance gives out.

She hears Pete's question and turns to him.

"It runs on a power cell," Cindy says carefully. "Something inside it that holds a charge, so it can stay on without being plugged into the wall."

It is not much of an answer, but it is the part she understands.

Her gaze moves from Pete’s small robot body back to Maureen, and the strangeness of the room settles over her all at once: a beautiful woman barely staying upright against her counter, a person newly awake inside a machine.

The Black Book still too close for comfort.

Cindy swallows, then reaches for the one ordinary thing she can land on.

"I'm forgetting my manners, I haven't even offered you anything." She says, slowly moving away from Maureen. "Would you like something to eat? To drink?"

Then she looks at Pete, uncertainty crossing her face. "I don't know if you can eat anything, though."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen huffs and shakes her head. "I just. Don' wanna be on the floor anymore. If we can get me to a chair, or a bed..." She starts to slip a little and the smaller Robot Pete, catches Maureen's arm.

"I'm glad I don't need to consume tea anymore. But, Maureen needs rest, and potentially something to calm her. Like a type of Tea. If you have any."

Maureen's eyes widened, before she realized, right, the flow isn't here, Pete's offering Tea because of the lack of flow water.

"I'll be fine with just water. Don' need anythin' special."

"Cindy, can you get Maureen's feet, we are going to c-carry her to a place of rest. And then you and I can talk about what we think is going on."

[blogging-cindy]

Spoilers for Lockstock Ep 4

Maureen thought it was over. Pete had taken the tea. Everyone was going. She got her ending. But as she flew through the void, she heard a loud crash and felt pain. If she was dead, she wouldn't have felt... pain... would she? It takes a moment, but she pries open her tired eyes blinking as she looks around the room she finds herself lying in. The first thing she notices is the crumpled and mostly destroyed mass of Pete only a few feet in front of her.

"Pete...?"

It was obvious he wouldn't be in functioning order, but she still desperately wished her friend was with her. That's when she noticed how... odd, everything else looked around her. The counters looked sleek, well, especially compared to counters in Donlon. Tools and other baking supplies were neatly organized in the room, and she felt exceptionally out of place.

"I... I don' think we're in Donlon anymore Pete..."

@roll-from-the-roleplay

Cindy is in the middle of working on a batch of danishes, her counter lightly dusted with flour and a few test pastries laid out in front of her. She's comparing notes from the last batch when something strange catches her attention.

It feels, for just a second, like something has hooked itself somewhere beneath her ribs and given a sharp tug. The sensation's gone almost as quickly as it comes, leaving her frowning down at the page.

Then something crashes hard onto the kitchen floor.

Cindy jumps back so quickly her hip hits the counter behind her, her hands gripping the edge before she can think to do anything else. There's a woman on her floor, and beside her is something crumpled and broken that Cindy can't make sense of at all. Neither of them look like they belong there.

Neither of them look quite human.

Then the woman speaks, and Cindy's attention snaps back to her.

"Who--" Her voice catches, and she has to swallow before trying again. "Who are you?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hadn't quite noticed the human standing in the kitchen either... it was probably the blood loss, that and the fact she had landed in the middle of the room... She couldn't help her instinct to grab at a knife by her waist as she turned to the human. But, fortunately for Cindy, she hadn't apparently kept that with her during the transportation to... wherever this is.

So, instead, Maureen scrambled closer to Pete. She could at least try to protect him, if nothing else. Her pointy ears twitch as she responds, "Maureen. Who are you...? Where am I?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy keeps staring at her, too thrown to answer the woman's questions. Her eyes move from Maureen’s face to her ears, then lower, catching on the blood.

"You’re..." Her voice catches. "You’re bleeding."

For a second, she only stares at it. There is blood on her kitchen floor, blood that definitely wasn't there a minute ago when she was standing over her baking. But she sees more blood drip on the floor and it hits her again.

"Oh my god! You’re bleeding!"

"I don’t have any---" Cindy looks around the kitchen wildly, her gaze jumping from the counter to the sink to the drawers as if something useful might suddenly appear there. Her heart is hammering so hard she can feel it in her throat. "I don’t have anything for that. I mean, not here. I have towels. I think I have a first aid kit somewhere. Wait."

She turns immediately and starts yanking open drawers, one after another. Measuring spoons, folded tea towels, baking paper, spare piping tips, none of it is what she needs, and the more she looks, the less certain she is of where anything actually is.

"Where is it?" she mutters to herself before looking back at Maureen, visibly panicked. "Just-- just don't move. Or do move. I don't know. Just--hold on."

She quickly grabs a clean tea towel from beside the counter, then another from the hook near the oven, hands shaking as she holds them out but doesn’t quite step close enough to touch her.

She takes a step forward, lifting the folded cloth toward Maureen before stopping herself halfway. The panic is still there, but now uncertainty catches up with it, her hands hovering in the space between them like she has only just remembered Maureen never said she could touch her.

"I um..." She swallows. "May I...?"

Her eyes flick to the blood and then back to Maureen.

"I can help. If that's alright."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen looked at this young woman's face warily. But, she had no choice. Her only other friend she could see was a heap of metal and porcelain on the floor, and anyone else she knew were missing entirely. Carlos, Cheeky, and Magpie, all consumed by the void, and yet, somehow she's here, and they're not.

Maureen nods, deciding to let herself relax. Despite being on the brink of death before, she feels... fine, actually. Well, less fine and more alive. The pain was proof of it.

"You hadn't answered my question, dove. Where are we, and who are ya? "

Her frightened, adrenaline filled questions were exchanged for quiet, tired ones.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy kneels beside Maureen and presses the folded towel against the worst of the bleeding before she can lose her nerve.

"I'm sorry," she says, the words coming out shaky as she keeps both hands over the cloth. "I should have answered you."

The towel warms beneath her palms almost at once, and Cindy has to swallow hard to keep herself from pulling away. She presses down as firmly as she dares, though her hands are still trembling.

"My name is Cindy," she says. "Cindy Campbell. And this is my flat, right above the shop where I work."

Her eyes flick down to the blood spreading into the fabric, then quickly back to Maureen’s face.

"You’re in New York," Cindy adds, quieter. "I don’t know how you got here. I’m sorry. You just… appeared. Both of you."

She glances once toward Pete, but only for a second. The sight of him makes her stomach twist in a way she cannot make sense of right now, so she forces her attention back to the living person in front of her.

"I’m sorry if this hurts," she says, pressing the towel more securely against the wound. "I’m trying not to--I mean, I know it has to be firm, but I don’t want to make it worse."

Cindy shifts one hand just enough to grab the second towel and layer it over the first when the blood starts coming through.

"There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom," she says, her voice still thin with panic. "I need to get it, but I don’t want to let go yet."

She looks at Maureen, worry plain across her face.

"Can you hold this here? Just for a moment. Press it like this, alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Cindy... New York..." Maureen tries to tuck that information away in her brain, but her thoughts seem to be as fickle as the flow. She's lost so so much. It would be easy to give in.

But as she views Cindy's worry, she can feel something within her fight. Something deep that she hadn't felt for a while.

"Thank you, Cindy. For... helpin'..."

She moves her hand on top of the girls holding the towel to her wound. "I'll hold onto it as long as you need."

Sweat laced Maureen's brow, but there was clearly a fight in her that she wasn't gonna let go quite yet.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy stills for a moment when Maureen’s hand settles over hers.

It is warm, and real, and for some reason that makes the whole impossible thing feel worse. This is not a strange dream or something her frightened mind had made up. Maureen is here, bleeding on her kitchen floor, and trusting Cindy enough to let her help.

"You don’t have to thank me," Cindy says, her voice still thin but softer now. "Just keep pressing there, alright? As hard as you can."

She carefully eases one hand away first, then the other, making sure Maureen has the towel held in place before she moves.

"I’ll be quick."

Cindy gets to her feet too fast and nearly slips on the flour dusting the floor, catching herself on the counter with a sharp breath. She does not give herself time to be embarrassed. Instead, she turns and hurries out of the kitchen, calling back as she goes.

"I’m only going to the bathroom. I’m not leaving you." It takes a few frantic seconds of searching before she finds the kit under the sink. Cindy grabs it and returns with it clutched against her chest, dropping back down beside Maureen.

"I found it," she says, kneeling beside Maureen again.

Cindy opens the kit and takes out what she needs, setting each thing down within reach before she lifts the towel. The slash is along Maureen’s side, wet and raw beneath the cloth, and Cindy’s face goes pale at the sight of it.

Still, her hands know where to go.

"I’m sorry," she says, quieter now. "I have to clean it first."

She folds the towel back only as far as she needs to, keeping pressure with one hand while the other tears open a wipe. She starts around the wound, careful and slow, clearing away enough blood to see what she is doing without dragging too hard against torn skin.

"I’m sorry," she says again when she has to press closer. "Just a moment. I know it hurts."

The towel is too soaked to keep using, so Cindy reaches for the gauze and swaps it in quickly, one hand lifting while the other replaces it before the bleeding can start freely again. She presses down, waits, then adds another layer when red begins to spread through the first.

For a while, that is all there is. Gauze, pressure, the sound of Cindy trying to keep her breathing even.

Once the bleeding slows enough, she reaches for the bandage roll. She slips it carefully around Maureen’s waist, leaning close enough to pass it behind her without pulling at the wound, then brings it back around over the dressing. The first wrap holds it in place. The second is firmer. The third makes Cindy pause to check beneath the edge with two fingers, making sure it is snug without cutting in.

"There," she says at last, tucking the end securely. "There, that should--"

She stops herself before saying it should be alright, because she doesn’t know that it will be. Instead, she lifts her eyes to Maureen’s face.

"That should hold for now," Cindy says, finally lifting her eyes from the bandage to look at Maureen’s companion.

"I don't know how to help them," she admits, feeling helpless . "I... are they alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen winces as her wound is cleaned, her ears angling downward in pain, but she's alive. She's alive, and I guess she has three new goals.

Stay Alive

Fix Pete

And find Cheeky and Carlos.

She's focusing on those goals with Cindy asks about Pete and she... she has to look over to his crumpled mess of a body.

"I... I don' know. I wish I knew, Dove, but... I... he ran on Tea, and the Flow. But.... based on how you're healing me I.... there isn't... there's no... magic... is there?"

Maureen's Emerald eyes search Cindy's face for a response. It's clear this young girl wasn't exactly expecting this...

"I... I don' know how to fix him. Especially without the flow water..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks from Maureen to Pete, and the helpless feeling settles heavier in her chest.

"I don’t know," she says softly. "I’m not sure if this city has magic or not, but--"

She stops herself and for a second, her eyes flick toward the bedroom before she looks back at Maureen. There is something in there, hidden away where she had promised herself it would stay, but thinking of it only makes her feel worse. Having something dangerous nearby is not the same as knowing how to help.

"I’m sorry," Cindy says. "I don’t know what the Flow is. I don’t know how to fix him."

Her gaze drifts back to Pete, to the shattered porcelain and the empty spaces where pieces should’ve been, and the frustration turns inward before she can stop it.

With Maureen, she’d at least known where to begin but her companion was different.

She wants to do something. She wants, desperately, to be useful.

But she can't do anything.

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴ ̴c̴a̴n̴'̴t̴ ̴d̴o̴ ̴a̴n̴y̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴.̴

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴'̴r̴e̴ ̴u̴s̴e̴l̴e̴s̴s̴ ̴t̴h̴e̴ ̴m̴o̴m̴e̴n̴t̴ ̴s̴o̴m̴e̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴ ̴m̴a̴t̴t̴e̴r̴s̴.̴

Cindy swallows hard and makes herself look back at Maureen.

"Is he alive?" she asks quietly. "I mean… is he still in there? Can he hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"I-I don' know. He was still there when his memories got all fucked with and everythin' but... it's okay, alright? It'll be fine. Somethin' managed to pull us here, so Cheeky and Carlos are probably around here somewhere, and we'll just find them and fix Pete, and we'll be fine."

As Maureen is saying this, it's somewhat clear that she's saying a lot of this for herself. Desperate to give herself a bit of comfort. Although, if she and Pete were dragged through... that Means PG Tips could've made it through too... or even the Krag twins...

"Oh fuck. If we made it through, that.... that could me the Krag twins. PG Tips... they could've... fuck...."

Maureen sits up a bit in a panic and then winces and leans back.

"Fuck. Those are some bad people that might be roamin out and about now. They killed my love. They could still be alive..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy’s eyes widen when Maureen tries to sit up.

"Please don’t move too much. Please, you’ll hurt yourself."

She reaches out on instinct, then stops before touching her, hands hovering uselessly for a moment before she pulls them back.

"I’m sorry, I don’t-- I don’t know who any of those people are."

The words tumble together faster than Cindy can make sense of them, one fear folding into another until she can barely tell what danger is nearest.

"I don't know if they're here," she says, and her voice comes out smaller than she means it to. "I don't know how you two got here in the first place."

Her stomach turns at the thought. Maureen and Pete had appeared in her kitchen without warning, and Cindy still doesn't understand how. If others had come through too, then they could be anywhere, and she wouldn't have the first idea where to look for those they want to find, and no idea how to deal with those that they don't want to find them.

"I’m sorry," she says again, because it is the only thing she can think to say. "I don’t understand what’s happened. I don’t understand the Flow, or what you went through, or how to find the others."

Her gaze moves to Pete, broken and half-formed on the floor, and the frustration twists inward again.

"But if you have enemies after you..." Cindy starts, then falters as her eyes drift back to the broken porcelain scattered across the floor. "How can--how would your friend run?" she asks quietly. "How would they even move?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen realizes that her words are just panicking the girl and she falters for a moment. It doesn't help the situation if she keeps on spooking the only other being in the room.

"It's alright, Dove. I-I'll stop movin'."

Her eyes follow Cindy's, and she sighs gesturing for her to slide Pete over.

"Well, usually he uh... he has legs. But the Black tea really... really did a number on him."

She pauses, letting the two of them breathe dor a moment and take in everything.

" If... if the others made it through, it would be nice, but if... if the Krag Twins or PG Tips made it through... it's going to be a problem. But we'll handle it." She attempts to give a reassuring smile, but it's certainly a struggle. She then sighs and muses outloud.

"Surely, there's some sort of magic within your world that we can figure out and use to our advantage..."

[blogging-cindy]

The question lands on Cindy, and once again her eyes drift to her bedroom before she can stop them. She doesn’t want to think about what’s hidden there, because thinking about it already feels like stepping too close to a promise she made to herself.

The book is dangerous. She knows that much. She knows it in the same way she knows not to touch a hot tray with her bare hands, only worse, because at least a burn is honest about what it is.

But these people need help, and Cindy has been fortunate enough to have help when she needed it. She can’t take that kindness from others and then turn away the moment it is her turn to offer it. She can’t simply do nothing when there might still be a way to help.

Maybe the book is evil. Maybe nothing good can come from it. But maybe things would be different if she used it for good.

"There’s something," she says, finally. "I have something."

Saying it out loud makes the thought feel heavier, more real, and Cindy almost wants to take the words back before Maureen can ask what she means. Instead, she makes herself stand.

"I’ll be right back," she says, though her voice is still quiet. "It’s in my room."

She leaves the kitchen quickly, but her pace slows as she reaches the bedroom.

Once inside, Cindy immediately crouches beside the old storage chest at the foot of her bed and lifts the lid. Inside are spare blankets, old clothes, and the sort of things that never seem to have a proper place, all piled on top of a large tin box hidden beneath them. She carefully moves everything aside until she can reach it, then pulls a small key from her pocket and unlocks the box.

The book is inside as if it was waiting for her.

She lifts it out and rises with it tucked against her chest. It is heavier than it should be, the same as it has always been, and she carries it back through the flat with both arms wrapped around it, as though keeping it closed might somehow make this less terrible.

When she returns to the kitchen, her eyes go first to Maureen, then to Pete.

"Here it is." She keeps one hand on the cover before finally opening it.  "This book might have a spell that can help your friend," she says, sounding more hopeful than certain. The pages rustle beneath her fingers as she flips through them, her eyes skimming diagrams, notes, and passages . "There has to be something..."

She stops, her gaze fixing on one page as she leans closer.

"I think this could be something," she says, though her voice has gone thin. "It’s a soul transfer spell."

The words sound impossible even as she says them, and worse than impossible because the page is right there in front of her, written plainly enough that she can understand more than she wants to.

"I--I don’t think we can save your friend’s body," she says carefully. "But we can still save him."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

As she waited for Cindy, she scooted herself over to Pete and, with a shaky hand, picked up what was left of his face. The porcelain cracked in more places than she could afford to fix. As Cindy returned, though, and told her about the spell, she didn't hesitate.

"Do it." Maureen didn't know how the spell would transfer, what would happen, anything, but what she did know is Pete deserved to be free. He deserved to settle down and live in that house. He deserved much more than this.

"Where could we temporarily store an automaton's soul?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy reads the ritual carefully, her eyes moving over each line as if reading it slowly enough might make it easier to understand.

"That's a good question," she says, still looking down at the page. "We'll need a body that works for him."

Only after she says it does she look around the kitchen, searching the room as if something useful might appear simply because she needs it badly enough.

"But where can we possibly…"

Her eyes catch on the small crocheted elephant sitting near one of her storage boxes, and for half a second she considers it before dismissing the thought almost as quickly. It’s too small, too soft, not enough to hold someone. The polar bear figurine on the table isn’t right either. It’s pretty, and solid enough at first glance, but still something that could crack if it fell the wrong way. Another fragile thing wouldn’t be any better than what Pete already has.

Cindy keeps looking, her gaze moving over the counter, the shelves, the half-finished pastries, until something near the wall catches her eye.

"That’s it."

She leaves the book open and hurries across the room. Near the wall sits a small robot, about three feet tall, with a smooth white body and pale blue accents. Its shape is rounded and compact, with a broad oval torso, a simple head, and short arms. A dark screen serves as its face, and beneath it are small hands for holding light objects, a built-in speaker for speech and audio, and a sturdy wheeled base. It had once stood in used to be part of a promotional display for the shop until it stopped moving properly and had to be replaced. Even so, it could still power on and connect to the internet, and when Miss Jade and Miss Lisa decided to get rid of it, Cindy had asked if she could keep it. She'd always thought it was too sweet to throw away.

She carries it back carefully and sets it near Pete.

"I think this would do," Cindy says, "It’s made of plastic and metal, I think. It’s not indestructible, but it won’t break as easily as porcelain. And if it gets damaged, we’d have a better chance of fixing it."

She keeps her hand on the robot a little longer, then turns back to the book. Her eyes settle on the next part of the ritual, and her expression changes.

"And one more thing," Cindy says, her voice quieter now. "For the ritual to work, we have to destroy his current body completely."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hesitates for a moment. The strange robot looked so foreign compared to the pieces that were left of Pete. But... she wanted someone she trusted...

"I... I'm sorry, Pete. It's the only way..." She mutters quietly to his crumpled form before nodding. "Do it. His body wouldn't even work without the flow... i'll... I'll miss it. But I miss him more."

She looks to Cindy with tears in her eyes. "He deserves to finally be, truly, free. Not just free in death, but free in life. If that... if that means having him change, so he's free of tea too, then let's do it."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy doesn’t answer right away. Maureen’s words settle over the kitchen, and for a moment all Cindy can do is look at her and at the way she’s still choosing Pete even when the choice is awful.

It makes the book feel heavier under Cindy’s arm.

Keeping it tucked there, Cindy crouches beside the robot. She slides it carefully across the floor until it sits beside Pete’s broken body, close enough that the white casing nearly brushes against the shattered porcelain. Once she's satisfied with its position, she rises back to her feet and turns to Maureen.

"We’d have to keep our distance," Cindy says quietly. "Both of us. The ritual needs the robot to be the closest vessel, otherwise there’s no telling where it might send him."

After a moment, Cindy grabs a towel from the counter and crouches beside Pete. She takes her time gathering the broken pieces, folding the towel around them carefully so nothing slips loose. It feels awful, treating him like something that needs to be packed away, but she has to make sure they all stay in the same place.

Once everything is contained, she places the wrapped remains on the floor beside the robot and sets a heavy cutting board over the cloth. Then she steps back with the book open in one hand and the broom in the other, lowering the end of the handle against the board without putting her weight on it yet.

"To perform the ritual," Cindy says quietly, looking down at the open page, "I have to call on the Lords in Black."

The fear that follows is overwhelming, almost numbing. She knows who… what they are. She knows what they’re capable of. The Lords in Black are not gods, not spirits, not anything that should be spoken to by ordinary people.

They're something older and darker than anything Cindy knows how to name, things that exist beyond the edges of reality and reach through whenever they are given the chance, and every story she knows about them from the book ends the same way, no one touches the Lords in Black without being changed by it, and nothing they give ever comes without a cost.

Every instinct she has is screaming at her to stop, to close the book, to put it back in the box and forget she ever found this ritual.

But then her gaze shifts to Maureen, and she can still see the tears in the woman’s eyes, still hear the conviction in her voice when she forced herself to say yes to destroying her friend’s old body.

She pushes aside her own selfishness and begins to invoke the names.

"Pokotho. Bliklotep. T’noy Karaxis. Nibblenephim."

The names leave her mouth, each one feeling like something she should’ve kept behind her teeth.

Her hands tighten until the broom handle bites into her palms and Cindy’s eyes settle on the last name on the page.

It waits there at the end of the ritual, and she knows that once she says it, there'll be no turning back.

"Wiggog Y’wrath."

As the final name leaves Cindy’s mouth, and she pushes down with everything she has.

The board gives beneath the pressure, and the sound under the towel is immediate and awful, porcelain and metal breaking all at once.

The silence stretches across the room, heavy and suffocating. Every muscle in Cindy's body is locked tight as she stares at the robot, waiting for something.

Then the robot powers on and starts to move.

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen moves from Pete's body as instructed. Making sure her back was against the wall before Cindy got started. But as Cindy started placing pieces of Pete into a towel, she couldn't help but look away and sob just a bit. It felt a bit like betraying Pete, forcing him into a body he's not. But she genuinely had no choice...

As the robot powers on, starting to move, the glowing blue eyes blink to life. The first noise that is heard is, "Cheeky? Maureen? Carlos?" It wasn't until the Robot span fully around that it looked somewhat relieved. "Oh! Hello! My name is-"

Maureen adjusts herself in the corner, "Pete?"

"Oh my word, Maureen! We escaped?? I thought we were dead! Also, why are you so much taller than me now?"

Maureen glanced over at Cindy and shook her head, "Not important, for now this," she gestures to Cindy, "Is Cindy. She's the one who saved us."

The small robot turned and blinked its eyes at Cindy. "Thank you, Cindy. That's very kind of you."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks at Pete for a moment and lets out a small, shaky breath as the realization finally settles in that it worked.

The thought is so simple that it almost doesn’t feel real. Pete is moving, speaking, answering Maureen when she talks to him, and the relief that comes over Cindy is sudden enough to make her eyes sting.

"You’re welcome," she says softly.

She gives Pete a closer look to see if everything's okay.

"Can you see alright?" she asks. "Can you hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Pete looks around, curious about the world, but nods wholeheartedly.

"I can. It- I feel like I can see better than I did before. How did I sir-sir-survive?"

Maureen gives Cindy another look before slowly approaching. "Pete, your body wasn't.... it wasn't usable anymore. I asked Cindy to help you get into a... a new body."

"Oh. What was this body used for.... previously?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks at Pete for a moment. "It used to be for the shop downstairs," she says carefully. "It sat moved around and showed little pictures and messages on the screen."

Her gaze moves over the white-and-blue casing as she speaks, still half-expecting something to flicker out or go wrong. "It stopped working properly, so they didn’t need it anymore and let me keep it."

She keeps her attention on him, afraid that looking away too soon might somehow make the moment less real.

"It was the only body that would work," Cindy says softly. "I’m sorry I didn’t have anything better."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Don't apologize," Maureen reassured, her green eyes sparkling as she comforted the young woman.

"Maureen's right. You did what was necessary to save me, and I appreciate it. How... how does the body run normally? I can feel that it has something different running it, but I'm not sure what it is."

Pete cocked his head to the side curiously, examining his little hands as he waited for a response. Maureen, meanwhile, forced herself to sit up and then soon stand up with all her might, Woozily grasping at the counter as she does so.

[blogging-cindy]

Spoilers for Lockstock Ep 4

Maureen thought it was over. Pete had taken the tea. Everyone was going. She got her ending. But as she flew through the void, she heard a loud crash and felt pain. If she was dead, she wouldn't have felt... pain... would she? It takes a moment, but she pries open her tired eyes blinking as she looks around the room she finds herself lying in. The first thing she notices is the crumpled and mostly destroyed mass of Pete only a few feet in front of her.

"Pete...?"

It was obvious he wouldn't be in functioning order, but she still desperately wished her friend was with her. That's when she noticed how... odd, everything else looked around her. The counters looked sleek, well, especially compared to counters in Donlon. Tools and other baking supplies were neatly organized in the room, and she felt exceptionally out of place.

"I... I don' think we're in Donlon anymore Pete..."

@roll-from-the-roleplay

Cindy is in the middle of working on a batch of danishes, her counter lightly dusted with flour and a few test pastries laid out in front of her. She's comparing notes from the last batch when something strange catches her attention.

It feels, for just a second, like something has hooked itself somewhere beneath her ribs and given a sharp tug. The sensation's gone almost as quickly as it comes, leaving her frowning down at the page.

Then something crashes hard onto the kitchen floor.

Cindy jumps back so quickly her hip hits the counter behind her, her hands gripping the edge before she can think to do anything else. There's a woman on her floor, and beside her is something crumpled and broken that Cindy can't make sense of at all. Neither of them look like they belong there.

Neither of them look quite human.

Then the woman speaks, and Cindy's attention snaps back to her.

"Who--" Her voice catches, and she has to swallow before trying again. "Who are you?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hadn't quite noticed the human standing in the kitchen either... it was probably the blood loss, that and the fact she had landed in the middle of the room... She couldn't help her instinct to grab at a knife by her waist as she turned to the human. But, fortunately for Cindy, she hadn't apparently kept that with her during the transportation to... wherever this is.

So, instead, Maureen scrambled closer to Pete. She could at least try to protect him, if nothing else. Her pointy ears twitch as she responds, "Maureen. Who are you...? Where am I?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy keeps staring at her, too thrown to answer the woman's questions. Her eyes move from Maureen’s face to her ears, then lower, catching on the blood.

"You’re..." Her voice catches. "You’re bleeding."

For a second, she only stares at it. There is blood on her kitchen floor, blood that definitely wasn't there a minute ago when she was standing over her baking. But she sees more blood drip on the floor and it hits her again.

"Oh my god! You’re bleeding!"

"I don’t have any---" Cindy looks around the kitchen wildly, her gaze jumping from the counter to the sink to the drawers as if something useful might suddenly appear there. Her heart is hammering so hard she can feel it in her throat. "I don’t have anything for that. I mean, not here. I have towels. I think I have a first aid kit somewhere. Wait."

She turns immediately and starts yanking open drawers, one after another. Measuring spoons, folded tea towels, baking paper, spare piping tips, none of it is what she needs, and the more she looks, the less certain she is of where anything actually is.

"Where is it?" she mutters to herself before looking back at Maureen, visibly panicked. "Just-- just don't move. Or do move. I don't know. Just--hold on."

She quickly grabs a clean tea towel from beside the counter, then another from the hook near the oven, hands shaking as she holds them out but doesn’t quite step close enough to touch her.

She takes a step forward, lifting the folded cloth toward Maureen before stopping herself halfway. The panic is still there, but now uncertainty catches up with it, her hands hovering in the space between them like she has only just remembered Maureen never said she could touch her.

"I um..." She swallows. "May I...?"

Her eyes flick to the blood and then back to Maureen.

"I can help. If that's alright."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen looked at this young woman's face warily. But, she had no choice. Her only other friend she could see was a heap of metal and porcelain on the floor, and anyone else she knew were missing entirely. Carlos, Cheeky, and Magpie, all consumed by the void, and yet, somehow she's here, and they're not.

Maureen nods, deciding to let herself relax. Despite being on the brink of death before, she feels... fine, actually. Well, less fine and more alive. The pain was proof of it.

"You hadn't answered my question, dove. Where are we, and who are ya? "

Her frightened, adrenaline filled questions were exchanged for quiet, tired ones.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy kneels beside Maureen and presses the folded towel against the worst of the bleeding before she can lose her nerve.

"I'm sorry," she says, the words coming out shaky as she keeps both hands over the cloth. "I should have answered you."

The towel warms beneath her palms almost at once, and Cindy has to swallow hard to keep herself from pulling away. She presses down as firmly as she dares, though her hands are still trembling.

"My name is Cindy," she says. "Cindy Campbell. And this is my flat, right above the shop where I work."

Her eyes flick down to the blood spreading into the fabric, then quickly back to Maureen’s face.

"You’re in New York," Cindy adds, quieter. "I don’t know how you got here. I’m sorry. You just… appeared. Both of you."

She glances once toward Pete, but only for a second. The sight of him makes her stomach twist in a way she cannot make sense of right now, so she forces her attention back to the living person in front of her.

"I’m sorry if this hurts," she says, pressing the towel more securely against the wound. "I’m trying not to--I mean, I know it has to be firm, but I don’t want to make it worse."

Cindy shifts one hand just enough to grab the second towel and layer it over the first when the blood starts coming through.

"There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom," she says, her voice still thin with panic. "I need to get it, but I don’t want to let go yet."

She looks at Maureen, worry plain across her face.

"Can you hold this here? Just for a moment. Press it like this, alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Cindy... New York..." Maureen tries to tuck that information away in her brain, but her thoughts seem to be as fickle as the flow. She's lost so so much. It would be easy to give in.

But as she views Cindy's worry, she can feel something within her fight. Something deep that she hadn't felt for a while.

"Thank you, Cindy. For... helpin'..."

She moves her hand on top of the girls holding the towel to her wound. "I'll hold onto it as long as you need."

Sweat laced Maureen's brow, but there was clearly a fight in her that she wasn't gonna let go quite yet.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy stills for a moment when Maureen’s hand settles over hers.

It is warm, and real, and for some reason that makes the whole impossible thing feel worse. This is not a strange dream or something her frightened mind had made up. Maureen is here, bleeding on her kitchen floor, and trusting Cindy enough to let her help.

"You don’t have to thank me," Cindy says, her voice still thin but softer now. "Just keep pressing there, alright? As hard as you can."

She carefully eases one hand away first, then the other, making sure Maureen has the towel held in place before she moves.

"I’ll be quick."

Cindy gets to her feet too fast and nearly slips on the flour dusting the floor, catching herself on the counter with a sharp breath. She does not give herself time to be embarrassed. Instead, she turns and hurries out of the kitchen, calling back as she goes.

"I’m only going to the bathroom. I’m not leaving you." It takes a few frantic seconds of searching before she finds the kit under the sink. Cindy grabs it and returns with it clutched against her chest, dropping back down beside Maureen.

"I found it," she says, kneeling beside Maureen again.

Cindy opens the kit and takes out what she needs, setting each thing down within reach before she lifts the towel. The slash is along Maureen’s side, wet and raw beneath the cloth, and Cindy’s face goes pale at the sight of it.

Still, her hands know where to go.

"I’m sorry," she says, quieter now. "I have to clean it first."

She folds the towel back only as far as she needs to, keeping pressure with one hand while the other tears open a wipe. She starts around the wound, careful and slow, clearing away enough blood to see what she is doing without dragging too hard against torn skin.

"I’m sorry," she says again when she has to press closer. "Just a moment. I know it hurts."

The towel is too soaked to keep using, so Cindy reaches for the gauze and swaps it in quickly, one hand lifting while the other replaces it before the bleeding can start freely again. She presses down, waits, then adds another layer when red begins to spread through the first.

For a while, that is all there is. Gauze, pressure, the sound of Cindy trying to keep her breathing even.

Once the bleeding slows enough, she reaches for the bandage roll. She slips it carefully around Maureen’s waist, leaning close enough to pass it behind her without pulling at the wound, then brings it back around over the dressing. The first wrap holds it in place. The second is firmer. The third makes Cindy pause to check beneath the edge with two fingers, making sure it is snug without cutting in.

"There," she says at last, tucking the end securely. "There, that should--"

She stops herself before saying it should be alright, because she doesn’t know that it will be. Instead, she lifts her eyes to Maureen’s face.

"That should hold for now," Cindy says, finally lifting her eyes from the bandage to look at Maureen’s companion.

"I don't know how to help them," she admits, feeling helpless . "I... are they alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen winces as her wound is cleaned, her ears angling downward in pain, but she's alive. She's alive, and I guess she has three new goals.

Stay Alive

Fix Pete

And find Cheeky and Carlos.

She's focusing on those goals with Cindy asks about Pete and she... she has to look over to his crumpled mess of a body.

"I... I don' know. I wish I knew, Dove, but... I... he ran on Tea, and the Flow. But.... based on how you're healing me I.... there isn't... there's no... magic... is there?"

Maureen's Emerald eyes search Cindy's face for a response. It's clear this young girl wasn't exactly expecting this...

"I... I don' know how to fix him. Especially without the flow water..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks from Maureen to Pete, and the helpless feeling settles heavier in her chest.

"I don’t know," she says softly. "I’m not sure if this city has magic or not, but--"

She stops herself and for a second, her eyes flick toward the bedroom before she looks back at Maureen. There is something in there, hidden away where she had promised herself it would stay, but thinking of it only makes her feel worse. Having something dangerous nearby is not the same as knowing how to help.

"I’m sorry," Cindy says. "I don’t know what the Flow is. I don’t know how to fix him."

Her gaze drifts back to Pete, to the shattered porcelain and the empty spaces where pieces should’ve been, and the frustration turns inward before she can stop it.

With Maureen, she’d at least known where to begin but her companion was different.

She wants to do something. She wants, desperately, to be useful.

But she can't do anything.

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴ ̴c̴a̴n̴'̴t̴ ̴d̴o̴ ̴a̴n̴y̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴.̴

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴'̴r̴e̴ ̴u̴s̴e̴l̴e̴s̴s̴ ̴t̴h̴e̴ ̴m̴o̴m̴e̴n̴t̴ ̴s̴o̴m̴e̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴ ̴m̴a̴t̴t̴e̴r̴s̴.̴

Cindy swallows hard and makes herself look back at Maureen.

"Is he alive?" she asks quietly. "I mean… is he still in there? Can he hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"I-I don' know. He was still there when his memories got all fucked with and everythin' but... it's okay, alright? It'll be fine. Somethin' managed to pull us here, so Cheeky and Carlos are probably around here somewhere, and we'll just find them and fix Pete, and we'll be fine."

As Maureen is saying this, it's somewhat clear that she's saying a lot of this for herself. Desperate to give herself a bit of comfort. Although, if she and Pete were dragged through... that Means PG Tips could've made it through too... or even the Krag twins...

"Oh fuck. If we made it through, that.... that could me the Krag twins. PG Tips... they could've... fuck...."

Maureen sits up a bit in a panic and then winces and leans back.

"Fuck. Those are some bad people that might be roamin out and about now. They killed my love. They could still be alive..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy’s eyes widen when Maureen tries to sit up.

"Please don’t move too much. Please, you’ll hurt yourself."

She reaches out on instinct, then stops before touching her, hands hovering uselessly for a moment before she pulls them back.

"I’m sorry, I don’t-- I don’t know who any of those people are."

The words tumble together faster than Cindy can make sense of them, one fear folding into another until she can barely tell what danger is nearest.

"I don't know if they're here," she says, and her voice comes out smaller than she means it to. "I don't know how you two got here in the first place."

Her stomach turns at the thought. Maureen and Pete had appeared in her kitchen without warning, and Cindy still doesn't understand how. If others had come through too, then they could be anywhere, and she wouldn't have the first idea where to look for those they want to find, and no idea how to deal with those that they don't want to find them.

"I’m sorry," she says again, because it is the only thing she can think to say. "I don’t understand what’s happened. I don’t understand the Flow, or what you went through, or how to find the others."

Her gaze moves to Pete, broken and half-formed on the floor, and the frustration twists inward again.

"But if you have enemies after you..." Cindy starts, then falters as her eyes drift back to the broken porcelain scattered across the floor. "How can--how would your friend run?" she asks quietly. "How would they even move?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen realizes that her words are just panicking the girl and she falters for a moment. It doesn't help the situation if she keeps on spooking the only other being in the room.

"It's alright, Dove. I-I'll stop movin'."

Her eyes follow Cindy's, and she sighs gesturing for her to slide Pete over.

"Well, usually he uh... he has legs. But the Black tea really... really did a number on him."

She pauses, letting the two of them breathe dor a moment and take in everything.

" If... if the others made it through, it would be nice, but if... if the Krag Twins or PG Tips made it through... it's going to be a problem. But we'll handle it." She attempts to give a reassuring smile, but it's certainly a struggle. She then sighs and muses outloud.

"Surely, there's some sort of magic within your world that we can figure out and use to our advantage..."

[blogging-cindy]

The question lands on Cindy, and once again her eyes drift to her bedroom before she can stop them. She doesn’t want to think about what’s hidden there, because thinking about it already feels like stepping too close to a promise she made to herself.

The book is dangerous. She knows that much. She knows it in the same way she knows not to touch a hot tray with her bare hands, only worse, because at least a burn is honest about what it is.

But these people need help, and Cindy has been fortunate enough to have help when she needed it. She can’t take that kindness from others and then turn away the moment it is her turn to offer it. She can’t simply do nothing when there might still be a way to help.

Maybe the book is evil. Maybe nothing good can come from it. But maybe things would be different if she used it for good.

"There’s something," she says, finally. "I have something."

Saying it out loud makes the thought feel heavier, more real, and Cindy almost wants to take the words back before Maureen can ask what she means. Instead, she makes herself stand.

"I’ll be right back," she says, though her voice is still quiet. "It’s in my room."

She leaves the kitchen quickly, but her pace slows as she reaches the bedroom.

Once inside, Cindy immediately crouches beside the old storage chest at the foot of her bed and lifts the lid. Inside are spare blankets, old clothes, and the sort of things that never seem to have a proper place, all piled on top of a large tin box hidden beneath them. She carefully moves everything aside until she can reach it, then pulls a small key from her pocket and unlocks the box.

The book is inside as if it was waiting for her.

She lifts it out and rises with it tucked against her chest. It is heavier than it should be, the same as it has always been, and she carries it back through the flat with both arms wrapped around it, as though keeping it closed might somehow make this less terrible.

When she returns to the kitchen, her eyes go first to Maureen, then to Pete.

"Here it is." She keeps one hand on the cover before finally opening it.  "This book might have a spell that can help your friend," she says, sounding more hopeful than certain. The pages rustle beneath her fingers as she flips through them, her eyes skimming diagrams, notes, and passages . "There has to be something..."

She stops, her gaze fixing on one page as she leans closer.

"I think this could be something," she says, though her voice has gone thin. "It’s a soul transfer spell."

The words sound impossible even as she says them, and worse than impossible because the page is right there in front of her, written plainly enough that she can understand more than she wants to.

"I--I don’t think we can save your friend’s body," she says carefully. "But we can still save him."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

As she waited for Cindy, she scooted herself over to Pete and, with a shaky hand, picked up what was left of his face. The porcelain cracked in more places than she could afford to fix. As Cindy returned, though, and told her about the spell, she didn't hesitate.

"Do it." Maureen didn't know how the spell would transfer, what would happen, anything, but what she did know is Pete deserved to be free. He deserved to settle down and live in that house. He deserved much more than this.

"Where could we temporarily store an automaton's soul?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy reads the ritual carefully, her eyes moving over each line as if reading it slowly enough might make it easier to understand.

"That's a good question," she says, still looking down at the page. "We'll need a body that works for him."

Only after she says it does she look around the kitchen, searching the room as if something useful might appear simply because she needs it badly enough.

"But where can we possibly…"

Her eyes catch on the small crocheted elephant sitting near one of her storage boxes, and for half a second she considers it before dismissing the thought almost as quickly. It’s too small, too soft, not enough to hold someone. The polar bear figurine on the table isn’t right either. It’s pretty, and solid enough at first glance, but still something that could crack if it fell the wrong way. Another fragile thing wouldn’t be any better than what Pete already has.

Cindy keeps looking, her gaze moving over the counter, the shelves, the half-finished pastries, until something near the wall catches her eye.

"That’s it."

She leaves the book open and hurries across the room. Near the wall sits a small robot, about three feet tall, with a smooth white body and pale blue accents. Its shape is rounded and compact, with a broad oval torso, a simple head, and short arms. A dark screen serves as its face, and beneath it are small hands for holding light objects, a built-in speaker for speech and audio, and a sturdy wheeled base. It had once stood in used to be part of a promotional display for the shop until it stopped moving properly and had to be replaced. Even so, it could still power on and connect to the internet, and when Miss Jade and Miss Lisa decided to get rid of it, Cindy had asked if she could keep it. She'd always thought it was too sweet to throw away.

She carries it back carefully and sets it near Pete.

"I think this would do," Cindy says, "It’s made of plastic and metal, I think. It’s not indestructible, but it won’t break as easily as porcelain. And if it gets damaged, we’d have a better chance of fixing it."

She keeps her hand on the robot a little longer, then turns back to the book. Her eyes settle on the next part of the ritual, and her expression changes.

"And one more thing," Cindy says, her voice quieter now. "For the ritual to work, we have to destroy his current body completely."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hesitates for a moment. The strange robot looked so foreign compared to the pieces that were left of Pete. But... she wanted someone she trusted...

"I... I'm sorry, Pete. It's the only way..." She mutters quietly to his crumpled form before nodding. "Do it. His body wouldn't even work without the flow... i'll... I'll miss it. But I miss him more."

She looks to Cindy with tears in her eyes. "He deserves to finally be, truly, free. Not just free in death, but free in life. If that... if that means having him change, so he's free of tea too, then let's do it."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy doesn’t answer right away. Maureen’s words settle over the kitchen, and for a moment all Cindy can do is look at her and at the way she’s still choosing Pete even when the choice is awful.

It makes the book feel heavier under Cindy’s arm.

Keeping it tucked there, Cindy crouches beside the robot. She slides it carefully across the floor until it sits beside Pete’s broken body, close enough that the white casing nearly brushes against the shattered porcelain. Once she's satisfied with its position, she rises back to her feet and turns to Maureen.

"We’d have to keep our distance," Cindy says quietly. "Both of us. The ritual needs the robot to be the closest vessel, otherwise there’s no telling where it might send him."

After a moment, Cindy grabs a towel from the counter and crouches beside Pete. She takes her time gathering the broken pieces, folding the towel around them carefully so nothing slips loose. It feels awful, treating him like something that needs to be packed away, but she has to make sure they all stay in the same place.

Once everything is contained, she places the wrapped remains on the floor beside the robot and sets a heavy cutting board over the cloth. Then she steps back with the book open in one hand and the broom in the other, lowering the end of the handle against the board without putting her weight on it yet.

"To perform the ritual," Cindy says quietly, looking down at the open page, "I have to call on the Lords in Black."

The fear that follows is overwhelming, almost numbing. She knows who… what they are. She knows what they’re capable of. The Lords in Black are not gods, not spirits, not anything that should be spoken to by ordinary people.

They're something older and darker than anything Cindy knows how to name, things that exist beyond the edges of reality and reach through whenever they are given the chance, and every story she knows about them from the book ends the same way, no one touches the Lords in Black without being changed by it, and nothing they give ever comes without a cost.

Every instinct she has is screaming at her to stop, to close the book, to put it back in the box and forget she ever found this ritual.

But then her gaze shifts to Maureen, and she can still see the tears in the woman’s eyes, still hear the conviction in her voice when she forced herself to say yes to destroying her friend’s old body.

She pushes aside her own selfishness and begins to invoke the names.

"Pokotho. Bliklotep. T’noy Karaxis. Nibblenephim."

The names leave her mouth, each one feeling like something she should’ve kept behind her teeth.

Her hands tighten until the broom handle bites into her palms and Cindy’s eyes settle on the last name on the page.

It waits there at the end of the ritual, and she knows that once she says it, there'll be no turning back.

"Wiggog Y’wrath."

As the final name leaves Cindy’s mouth, and she pushes down with everything she has.

The board gives beneath the pressure, and the sound under the towel is immediate and awful, porcelain and metal breaking all at once.

The silence stretches across the room, heavy and suffocating. Every muscle in Cindy's body is locked tight as she stares at the robot, waiting for something.

Then the robot powers on and starts to move.

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen moves from Pete's body as instructed. Making sure her back was against the wall before Cindy got started. But as Cindy started placing pieces of Pete into a towel, she couldn't help but look away and sob just a bit. It felt a bit like betraying Pete, forcing him into a body he's not. But she genuinely had no choice...

As the robot powers on, starting to move, the glowing blue eyes blink to life. The first noise that is heard is, "Cheeky? Maureen? Carlos?" It wasn't until the Robot span fully around that it looked somewhat relieved. "Oh! Hello! My name is-"

Maureen adjusts herself in the corner, "Pete?"

"Oh my word, Maureen! We escaped?? I thought we were dead! Also, why are you so much taller than me now?"

Maureen glanced over at Cindy and shook her head, "Not important, for now this," she gestures to Cindy, "Is Cindy. She's the one who saved us."

The small robot turned and blinked its eyes at Cindy. "Thank you, Cindy. That's very kind of you."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks at Pete for a moment and lets out a small, shaky breath as the realization finally settles in that it worked.

The thought is so simple that it almost doesn’t feel real. Pete is moving, speaking, answering Maureen when she talks to him, and the relief that comes over Cindy is sudden enough to make her eyes sting.

"You’re welcome," she says softly.

She gives Pete a closer look to see if everything's okay.

"Can you see alright?" she asks. "Can you hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Pete looks around, curious about the world, but nods wholeheartedly.

"I can. It- I feel like I can see better than I did before. How did I sir-sir-survive?"

Maureen gives Cindy another look before slowly approaching. "Pete, your body wasn't.... it wasn't usable anymore. I asked Cindy to help you get into a... a new body."

"Oh. What was this body used for.... previously?"

[blogging-cindy]

Spoilers for Lockstock Ep 4

Maureen thought it was over. Pete had taken the tea. Everyone was going. She got her ending. But as she flew through the void, she heard a loud crash and felt pain. If she was dead, she wouldn't have felt... pain... would she? It takes a moment, but she pries open her tired eyes blinking as she looks around the room she finds herself lying in. The first thing she notices is the crumpled and mostly destroyed mass of Pete only a few feet in front of her.

"Pete...?"

It was obvious he wouldn't be in functioning order, but she still desperately wished her friend was with her. That's when she noticed how... odd, everything else looked around her. The counters looked sleek, well, especially compared to counters in Donlon. Tools and other baking supplies were neatly organized in the room, and she felt exceptionally out of place.

"I... I don' think we're in Donlon anymore Pete..."

@roll-from-the-roleplay

Cindy is in the middle of working on a batch of danishes, her counter lightly dusted with flour and a few test pastries laid out in front of her. She's comparing notes from the last batch when something strange catches her attention.

It feels, for just a second, like something has hooked itself somewhere beneath her ribs and given a sharp tug. The sensation's gone almost as quickly as it comes, leaving her frowning down at the page.

Then something crashes hard onto the kitchen floor.

Cindy jumps back so quickly her hip hits the counter behind her, her hands gripping the edge before she can think to do anything else. There's a woman on her floor, and beside her is something crumpled and broken that Cindy can't make sense of at all. Neither of them look like they belong there.

Neither of them look quite human.

Then the woman speaks, and Cindy's attention snaps back to her.

"Who--" Her voice catches, and she has to swallow before trying again. "Who are you?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hadn't quite noticed the human standing in the kitchen either... it was probably the blood loss, that and the fact she had landed in the middle of the room... She couldn't help her instinct to grab at a knife by her waist as she turned to the human. But, fortunately for Cindy, she hadn't apparently kept that with her during the transportation to... wherever this is.

So, instead, Maureen scrambled closer to Pete. She could at least try to protect him, if nothing else. Her pointy ears twitch as she responds, "Maureen. Who are you...? Where am I?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy keeps staring at her, too thrown to answer the woman's questions. Her eyes move from Maureen’s face to her ears, then lower, catching on the blood.

"You’re..." Her voice catches. "You’re bleeding."

For a second, she only stares at it. There is blood on her kitchen floor, blood that definitely wasn't there a minute ago when she was standing over her baking. But she sees more blood drip on the floor and it hits her again.

"Oh my god! You’re bleeding!"

"I don’t have any---" Cindy looks around the kitchen wildly, her gaze jumping from the counter to the sink to the drawers as if something useful might suddenly appear there. Her heart is hammering so hard she can feel it in her throat. "I don’t have anything for that. I mean, not here. I have towels. I think I have a first aid kit somewhere. Wait."

She turns immediately and starts yanking open drawers, one after another. Measuring spoons, folded tea towels, baking paper, spare piping tips, none of it is what she needs, and the more she looks, the less certain she is of where anything actually is.

"Where is it?" she mutters to herself before looking back at Maureen, visibly panicked. "Just-- just don't move. Or do move. I don't know. Just--hold on."

She quickly grabs a clean tea towel from beside the counter, then another from the hook near the oven, hands shaking as she holds them out but doesn’t quite step close enough to touch her.

She takes a step forward, lifting the folded cloth toward Maureen before stopping herself halfway. The panic is still there, but now uncertainty catches up with it, her hands hovering in the space between them like she has only just remembered Maureen never said she could touch her.

"I um..." She swallows. "May I...?"

Her eyes flick to the blood and then back to Maureen.

"I can help. If that's alright."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen looked at this young woman's face warily. But, she had no choice. Her only other friend she could see was a heap of metal and porcelain on the floor, and anyone else she knew were missing entirely. Carlos, Cheeky, and Magpie, all consumed by the void, and yet, somehow she's here, and they're not.

Maureen nods, deciding to let herself relax. Despite being on the brink of death before, she feels... fine, actually. Well, less fine and more alive. The pain was proof of it.

"You hadn't answered my question, dove. Where are we, and who are ya? "

Her frightened, adrenaline filled questions were exchanged for quiet, tired ones.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy kneels beside Maureen and presses the folded towel against the worst of the bleeding before she can lose her nerve.

"I'm sorry," she says, the words coming out shaky as she keeps both hands over the cloth. "I should have answered you."

The towel warms beneath her palms almost at once, and Cindy has to swallow hard to keep herself from pulling away. She presses down as firmly as she dares, though her hands are still trembling.

"My name is Cindy," she says. "Cindy Campbell. And this is my flat, right above the shop where I work."

Her eyes flick down to the blood spreading into the fabric, then quickly back to Maureen’s face.

"You’re in New York," Cindy adds, quieter. "I don’t know how you got here. I’m sorry. You just… appeared. Both of you."

She glances once toward Pete, but only for a second. The sight of him makes her stomach twist in a way she cannot make sense of right now, so she forces her attention back to the living person in front of her.

"I’m sorry if this hurts," she says, pressing the towel more securely against the wound. "I’m trying not to--I mean, I know it has to be firm, but I don’t want to make it worse."

Cindy shifts one hand just enough to grab the second towel and layer it over the first when the blood starts coming through.

"There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom," she says, her voice still thin with panic. "I need to get it, but I don’t want to let go yet."

She looks at Maureen, worry plain across her face.

"Can you hold this here? Just for a moment. Press it like this, alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Cindy... New York..." Maureen tries to tuck that information away in her brain, but her thoughts seem to be as fickle as the flow. She's lost so so much. It would be easy to give in.

But as she views Cindy's worry, she can feel something within her fight. Something deep that she hadn't felt for a while.

"Thank you, Cindy. For... helpin'..."

She moves her hand on top of the girls holding the towel to her wound. "I'll hold onto it as long as you need."

Sweat laced Maureen's brow, but there was clearly a fight in her that she wasn't gonna let go quite yet.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy stills for a moment when Maureen’s hand settles over hers.

It is warm, and real, and for some reason that makes the whole impossible thing feel worse. This is not a strange dream or something her frightened mind had made up. Maureen is here, bleeding on her kitchen floor, and trusting Cindy enough to let her help.

"You don’t have to thank me," Cindy says, her voice still thin but softer now. "Just keep pressing there, alright? As hard as you can."

She carefully eases one hand away first, then the other, making sure Maureen has the towel held in place before she moves.

"I’ll be quick."

Cindy gets to her feet too fast and nearly slips on the flour dusting the floor, catching herself on the counter with a sharp breath. She does not give herself time to be embarrassed. Instead, she turns and hurries out of the kitchen, calling back as she goes.

"I’m only going to the bathroom. I’m not leaving you." It takes a few frantic seconds of searching before she finds the kit under the sink. Cindy grabs it and returns with it clutched against her chest, dropping back down beside Maureen.

"I found it," she says, kneeling beside Maureen again.

Cindy opens the kit and takes out what she needs, setting each thing down within reach before she lifts the towel. The slash is along Maureen’s side, wet and raw beneath the cloth, and Cindy’s face goes pale at the sight of it.

Still, her hands know where to go.

"I’m sorry," she says, quieter now. "I have to clean it first."

She folds the towel back only as far as she needs to, keeping pressure with one hand while the other tears open a wipe. She starts around the wound, careful and slow, clearing away enough blood to see what she is doing without dragging too hard against torn skin.

"I’m sorry," she says again when she has to press closer. "Just a moment. I know it hurts."

The towel is too soaked to keep using, so Cindy reaches for the gauze and swaps it in quickly, one hand lifting while the other replaces it before the bleeding can start freely again. She presses down, waits, then adds another layer when red begins to spread through the first.

For a while, that is all there is. Gauze, pressure, the sound of Cindy trying to keep her breathing even.

Once the bleeding slows enough, she reaches for the bandage roll. She slips it carefully around Maureen’s waist, leaning close enough to pass it behind her without pulling at the wound, then brings it back around over the dressing. The first wrap holds it in place. The second is firmer. The third makes Cindy pause to check beneath the edge with two fingers, making sure it is snug without cutting in.

"There," she says at last, tucking the end securely. "There, that should--"

She stops herself before saying it should be alright, because she doesn’t know that it will be. Instead, she lifts her eyes to Maureen’s face.

"That should hold for now," Cindy says, finally lifting her eyes from the bandage to look at Maureen’s companion.

"I don't know how to help them," she admits, feeling helpless . "I... are they alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen winces as her wound is cleaned, her ears angling downward in pain, but she's alive. She's alive, and I guess she has three new goals.

Stay Alive

Fix Pete

And find Cheeky and Carlos.

She's focusing on those goals with Cindy asks about Pete and she... she has to look over to his crumpled mess of a body.

"I... I don' know. I wish I knew, Dove, but... I... he ran on Tea, and the Flow. But.... based on how you're healing me I.... there isn't... there's no... magic... is there?"

Maureen's Emerald eyes search Cindy's face for a response. It's clear this young girl wasn't exactly expecting this...

"I... I don' know how to fix him. Especially without the flow water..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks from Maureen to Pete, and the helpless feeling settles heavier in her chest.

"I don’t know," she says softly. "I’m not sure if this city has magic or not, but--"

She stops herself and for a second, her eyes flick toward the bedroom before she looks back at Maureen. There is something in there, hidden away where she had promised herself it would stay, but thinking of it only makes her feel worse. Having something dangerous nearby is not the same as knowing how to help.

"I’m sorry," Cindy says. "I don’t know what the Flow is. I don’t know how to fix him."

Her gaze drifts back to Pete, to the shattered porcelain and the empty spaces where pieces should’ve been, and the frustration turns inward before she can stop it.

With Maureen, she’d at least known where to begin but her companion was different.

She wants to do something. She wants, desperately, to be useful.

But she can't do anything.

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴ ̴c̴a̴n̴'̴t̴ ̴d̴o̴ ̴a̴n̴y̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴.̴

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴'̴r̴e̴ ̴u̴s̴e̴l̴e̴s̴s̴ ̴t̴h̴e̴ ̴m̴o̴m̴e̴n̴t̴ ̴s̴o̴m̴e̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴ ̴m̴a̴t̴t̴e̴r̴s̴.̴

Cindy swallows hard and makes herself look back at Maureen.

"Is he alive?" she asks quietly. "I mean… is he still in there? Can he hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"I-I don' know. He was still there when his memories got all fucked with and everythin' but... it's okay, alright? It'll be fine. Somethin' managed to pull us here, so Cheeky and Carlos are probably around here somewhere, and we'll just find them and fix Pete, and we'll be fine."

As Maureen is saying this, it's somewhat clear that she's saying a lot of this for herself. Desperate to give herself a bit of comfort. Although, if she and Pete were dragged through... that Means PG Tips could've made it through too... or even the Krag twins...

"Oh fuck. If we made it through, that.... that could me the Krag twins. PG Tips... they could've... fuck...."

Maureen sits up a bit in a panic and then winces and leans back.

"Fuck. Those are some bad people that might be roamin out and about now. They killed my love. They could still be alive..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy’s eyes widen when Maureen tries to sit up.

"Please don’t move too much. Please, you’ll hurt yourself."

She reaches out on instinct, then stops before touching her, hands hovering uselessly for a moment before she pulls them back.

"I’m sorry, I don’t-- I don’t know who any of those people are."

The words tumble together faster than Cindy can make sense of them, one fear folding into another until she can barely tell what danger is nearest.

"I don't know if they're here," she says, and her voice comes out smaller than she means it to. "I don't know how you two got here in the first place."

Her stomach turns at the thought. Maureen and Pete had appeared in her kitchen without warning, and Cindy still doesn't understand how. If others had come through too, then they could be anywhere, and she wouldn't have the first idea where to look for those they want to find, and no idea how to deal with those that they don't want to find them.

"I’m sorry," she says again, because it is the only thing she can think to say. "I don’t understand what’s happened. I don’t understand the Flow, or what you went through, or how to find the others."

Her gaze moves to Pete, broken and half-formed on the floor, and the frustration twists inward again.

"But if you have enemies after you..." Cindy starts, then falters as her eyes drift back to the broken porcelain scattered across the floor. "How can--how would your friend run?" she asks quietly. "How would they even move?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen realizes that her words are just panicking the girl and she falters for a moment. It doesn't help the situation if she keeps on spooking the only other being in the room.

"It's alright, Dove. I-I'll stop movin'."

Her eyes follow Cindy's, and she sighs gesturing for her to slide Pete over.

"Well, usually he uh... he has legs. But the Black tea really... really did a number on him."

She pauses, letting the two of them breathe dor a moment and take in everything.

" If... if the others made it through, it would be nice, but if... if the Krag Twins or PG Tips made it through... it's going to be a problem. But we'll handle it." She attempts to give a reassuring smile, but it's certainly a struggle. She then sighs and muses outloud.

"Surely, there's some sort of magic within your world that we can figure out and use to our advantage..."

[blogging-cindy]

The question lands on Cindy, and once again her eyes drift to her bedroom before she can stop them. She doesn’t want to think about what’s hidden there, because thinking about it already feels like stepping too close to a promise she made to herself.

The book is dangerous. She knows that much. She knows it in the same way she knows not to touch a hot tray with her bare hands, only worse, because at least a burn is honest about what it is.

But these people need help, and Cindy has been fortunate enough to have help when she needed it. She can’t take that kindness from others and then turn away the moment it is her turn to offer it. She can’t simply do nothing when there might still be a way to help.

Maybe the book is evil. Maybe nothing good can come from it. But maybe things would be different if she used it for good.

"There’s something," she says, finally. "I have something."

Saying it out loud makes the thought feel heavier, more real, and Cindy almost wants to take the words back before Maureen can ask what she means. Instead, she makes herself stand.

"I’ll be right back," she says, though her voice is still quiet. "It’s in my room."

She leaves the kitchen quickly, but her pace slows as she reaches the bedroom.

Once inside, Cindy immediately crouches beside the old storage chest at the foot of her bed and lifts the lid. Inside are spare blankets, old clothes, and the sort of things that never seem to have a proper place, all piled on top of a large tin box hidden beneath them. She carefully moves everything aside until she can reach it, then pulls a small key from her pocket and unlocks the box.

The book is inside as if it was waiting for her.

She lifts it out and rises with it tucked against her chest. It is heavier than it should be, the same as it has always been, and she carries it back through the flat with both arms wrapped around it, as though keeping it closed might somehow make this less terrible.

When she returns to the kitchen, her eyes go first to Maureen, then to Pete.

"Here it is." She keeps one hand on the cover before finally opening it.  "This book might have a spell that can help your friend," she says, sounding more hopeful than certain. The pages rustle beneath her fingers as she flips through them, her eyes skimming diagrams, notes, and passages . "There has to be something..."

She stops, her gaze fixing on one page as she leans closer.

"I think this could be something," she says, though her voice has gone thin. "It’s a soul transfer spell."

The words sound impossible even as she says them, and worse than impossible because the page is right there in front of her, written plainly enough that she can understand more than she wants to.

"I--I don’t think we can save your friend’s body," she says carefully. "But we can still save him."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

As she waited for Cindy, she scooted herself over to Pete and, with a shaky hand, picked up what was left of his face. The porcelain cracked in more places than she could afford to fix. As Cindy returned, though, and told her about the spell, she didn't hesitate.

"Do it." Maureen didn't know how the spell would transfer, what would happen, anything, but what she did know is Pete deserved to be free. He deserved to settle down and live in that house. He deserved much more than this.

"Where could we temporarily store an automaton's soul?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy reads the ritual carefully, her eyes moving over each line as if reading it slowly enough might make it easier to understand.

"That's a good question," she says, still looking down at the page. "We'll need a body that works for him."

Only after she says it does she look around the kitchen, searching the room as if something useful might appear simply because she needs it badly enough.

"But where can we possibly…"

Her eyes catch on the small crocheted elephant sitting near one of her storage boxes, and for half a second she considers it before dismissing the thought almost as quickly. It’s too small, too soft, not enough to hold someone. The polar bear figurine on the table isn’t right either. It’s pretty, and solid enough at first glance, but still something that could crack if it fell the wrong way. Another fragile thing wouldn’t be any better than what Pete already has.

Cindy keeps looking, her gaze moving over the counter, the shelves, the half-finished pastries, until something near the wall catches her eye.

"That’s it."

She leaves the book open and hurries across the room. Near the wall sits a small robot, about three feet tall, with a smooth white body and pale blue accents. Its shape is rounded and compact, with a broad oval torso, a simple head, and short arms. A dark screen serves as its face, and beneath it are small hands for holding light objects, a built-in speaker for speech and audio, and a sturdy wheeled base. It had once stood in used to be part of a promotional display for the shop until it stopped moving properly and had to be replaced. Even so, it could still power on and connect to the internet, and when Miss Jade and Miss Lisa decided to get rid of it, Cindy had asked if she could keep it. She'd always thought it was too sweet to throw away.

She carries it back carefully and sets it near Pete.

"I think this would do," Cindy says, "It’s made of plastic and metal, I think. It’s not indestructible, but it won’t break as easily as porcelain. And if it gets damaged, we’d have a better chance of fixing it."

She keeps her hand on the robot a little longer, then turns back to the book. Her eyes settle on the next part of the ritual, and her expression changes.

"And one more thing," Cindy says, her voice quieter now. "For the ritual to work, we have to destroy his current body completely."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hesitates for a moment. The strange robot looked so foreign compared to the pieces that were left of Pete. But... she wanted someone she trusted...

"I... I'm sorry, Pete. It's the only way..." She mutters quietly to his crumpled form before nodding. "Do it. His body wouldn't even work without the flow... i'll... I'll miss it. But I miss him more."

She looks to Cindy with tears in her eyes. "He deserves to finally be, truly, free. Not just free in death, but free in life. If that... if that means having him change, so he's free of tea too, then let's do it."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy doesn’t answer right away. Maureen’s words settle over the kitchen, and for a moment all Cindy can do is look at her and at the way she’s still choosing Pete even when the choice is awful.

It makes the book feel heavier under Cindy’s arm.

Keeping it tucked there, Cindy crouches beside the robot. She slides it carefully across the floor until it sits beside Pete’s broken body, close enough that the white casing nearly brushes against the shattered porcelain. Once she's satisfied with its position, she rises back to her feet and turns to Maureen.

"We’d have to keep our distance," Cindy says quietly. "Both of us. The ritual needs the robot to be the closest vessel, otherwise there’s no telling where it might send him."

After a moment, Cindy grabs a towel from the counter and crouches beside Pete. She takes her time gathering the broken pieces, folding the towel around them carefully so nothing slips loose. It feels awful, treating him like something that needs to be packed away, but she has to make sure they all stay in the same place.

Once everything is contained, she places the wrapped remains on the floor beside the robot and sets a heavy cutting board over the cloth. Then she steps back with the book open in one hand and the broom in the other, lowering the end of the handle against the board without putting her weight on it yet.

"To perform the ritual," Cindy says quietly, looking down at the open page, "I have to call on the Lords in Black."

The fear that follows is overwhelming, almost numbing. She knows who… what they are. She knows what they’re capable of. The Lords in Black are not gods, not spirits, not anything that should be spoken to by ordinary people.

They're something older and darker than anything Cindy knows how to name, things that exist beyond the edges of reality and reach through whenever they are given the chance, and every story she knows about them from the book ends the same way, no one touches the Lords in Black without being changed by it, and nothing they give ever comes without a cost.

Every instinct she has is screaming at her to stop, to close the book, to put it back in the box and forget she ever found this ritual.

But then her gaze shifts to Maureen, and she can still see the tears in the woman’s eyes, still hear the conviction in her voice when she forced herself to say yes to destroying her friend’s old body.

She pushes aside her own selfishness and begins to invoke the names.

"Pokotho. Bliklotep. T’noy Karaxis. Nibblenephim."

The names leave her mouth, each one feeling like something she should’ve kept behind her teeth.

Her hands tighten until the broom handle bites into her palms and Cindy’s eyes settle on the last name on the page.

It waits there at the end of the ritual, and she knows that once she says it, there'll be no turning back.

"Wiggog Y’wrath."

As the final name leaves Cindy’s mouth, and she pushes down with everything she has.

The board gives beneath the pressure, and the sound under the towel is immediate and awful, porcelain and metal breaking all at once.

The silence stretches across the room, heavy and suffocating. Every muscle in Cindy's body is locked tight as she stares at the robot, waiting for something.

Then the robot powers on and starts to move.

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen moves from Pete's body as instructed. Making sure her back was against the wall before Cindy got started. But as Cindy started placing pieces of Pete into a towel, she couldn't help but look away and sob just a bit. It felt a bit like betraying Pete, forcing him into a body he's not. But she genuinely had no choice...

As the robot powers on, starting to move, the glowing blue eyes blink to life. The first noise that is heard is, "Cheeky? Maureen? Carlos?" It wasn't until the Robot span fully around that it looked somewhat relieved. "Oh! Hello! My name is-"

Maureen adjusts herself in the corner, "Pete?"

"Oh my word, Maureen! We escaped?? I thought we were dead! Also, why are you so much taller than me now?"

Maureen glanced over at Cindy and shook her head, "Not important, for now this," she gestures to Cindy, "Is Cindy. She's the one who saved us."

The small robot turned and blinked its eyes at Cindy. "Thank you, Cindy. That's very kind of you."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

How does this work? Do we send in requests for you to start or is this more of a call for blogs to interact?

Good question! It honestly depends on how you'd like to set something up! If you got a request or you'd like to interact, like how Cindy is interacting, anything works!

And you don't have to have a roleplay blog to do the interaction! I'm down to interact however feels the best for you!

Plus, if you're really unsure, you can always shoot me a DM here with your idea, and we can workshop it!

And since this one is specifically a multimuse, if you want to interact as a certain character (for example Roland)

You just gotta clarify that within the Ask!

[blogging-cindy]

Spoilers for Lockstock Ep 4

Maureen thought it was over. Pete had taken the tea. Everyone was going. She got her ending. But as she flew through the void, she heard a loud crash and felt pain. If she was dead, she wouldn't have felt... pain... would she? It takes a moment, but she pries open her tired eyes blinking as she looks around the room she finds herself lying in. The first thing she notices is the crumpled and mostly destroyed mass of Pete only a few feet in front of her.

"Pete...?"

It was obvious he wouldn't be in functioning order, but she still desperately wished her friend was with her. That's when she noticed how... odd, everything else looked around her. The counters looked sleek, well, especially compared to counters in Donlon. Tools and other baking supplies were neatly organized in the room, and she felt exceptionally out of place.

"I... I don' think we're in Donlon anymore Pete..."

@roll-from-the-roleplay

Cindy is in the middle of working on a batch of danishes, her counter lightly dusted with flour and a few test pastries laid out in front of her. She's comparing notes from the last batch when something strange catches her attention.

It feels, for just a second, like something has hooked itself somewhere beneath her ribs and given a sharp tug. The sensation's gone almost as quickly as it comes, leaving her frowning down at the page.

Then something crashes hard onto the kitchen floor.

Cindy jumps back so quickly her hip hits the counter behind her, her hands gripping the edge before she can think to do anything else. There's a woman on her floor, and beside her is something crumpled and broken that Cindy can't make sense of at all. Neither of them look like they belong there.

Neither of them look quite human.

Then the woman speaks, and Cindy's attention snaps back to her.

"Who--" Her voice catches, and she has to swallow before trying again. "Who are you?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hadn't quite noticed the human standing in the kitchen either... it was probably the blood loss, that and the fact she had landed in the middle of the room... She couldn't help her instinct to grab at a knife by her waist as she turned to the human. But, fortunately for Cindy, she hadn't apparently kept that with her during the transportation to... wherever this is.

So, instead, Maureen scrambled closer to Pete. She could at least try to protect him, if nothing else. Her pointy ears twitch as she responds, "Maureen. Who are you...? Where am I?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy keeps staring at her, too thrown to answer the woman's questions. Her eyes move from Maureen’s face to her ears, then lower, catching on the blood.

"You’re..." Her voice catches. "You’re bleeding."

For a second, she only stares at it. There is blood on her kitchen floor, blood that definitely wasn't there a minute ago when she was standing over her baking. But she sees more blood drip on the floor and it hits her again.

"Oh my god! You’re bleeding!"

"I don’t have any---" Cindy looks around the kitchen wildly, her gaze jumping from the counter to the sink to the drawers as if something useful might suddenly appear there. Her heart is hammering so hard she can feel it in her throat. "I don’t have anything for that. I mean, not here. I have towels. I think I have a first aid kit somewhere. Wait."

She turns immediately and starts yanking open drawers, one after another. Measuring spoons, folded tea towels, baking paper, spare piping tips, none of it is what she needs, and the more she looks, the less certain she is of where anything actually is.

"Where is it?" she mutters to herself before looking back at Maureen, visibly panicked. "Just-- just don't move. Or do move. I don't know. Just--hold on."

She quickly grabs a clean tea towel from beside the counter, then another from the hook near the oven, hands shaking as she holds them out but doesn’t quite step close enough to touch her.

She takes a step forward, lifting the folded cloth toward Maureen before stopping herself halfway. The panic is still there, but now uncertainty catches up with it, her hands hovering in the space between them like she has only just remembered Maureen never said she could touch her.

"I um..." She swallows. "May I...?"

Her eyes flick to the blood and then back to Maureen.

"I can help. If that's alright."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen looked at this young woman's face warily. But, she had no choice. Her only other friend she could see was a heap of metal and porcelain on the floor, and anyone else she knew were missing entirely. Carlos, Cheeky, and Magpie, all consumed by the void, and yet, somehow she's here, and they're not.

Maureen nods, deciding to let herself relax. Despite being on the brink of death before, she feels... fine, actually. Well, less fine and more alive. The pain was proof of it.

"You hadn't answered my question, dove. Where are we, and who are ya? "

Her frightened, adrenaline filled questions were exchanged for quiet, tired ones.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy kneels beside Maureen and presses the folded towel against the worst of the bleeding before she can lose her nerve.

"I'm sorry," she says, the words coming out shaky as she keeps both hands over the cloth. "I should have answered you."

The towel warms beneath her palms almost at once, and Cindy has to swallow hard to keep herself from pulling away. She presses down as firmly as she dares, though her hands are still trembling.

"My name is Cindy," she says. "Cindy Campbell. And this is my flat, right above the shop where I work."

Her eyes flick down to the blood spreading into the fabric, then quickly back to Maureen’s face.

"You’re in New York," Cindy adds, quieter. "I don’t know how you got here. I’m sorry. You just… appeared. Both of you."

She glances once toward Pete, but only for a second. The sight of him makes her stomach twist in a way she cannot make sense of right now, so she forces her attention back to the living person in front of her.

"I’m sorry if this hurts," she says, pressing the towel more securely against the wound. "I’m trying not to--I mean, I know it has to be firm, but I don’t want to make it worse."

Cindy shifts one hand just enough to grab the second towel and layer it over the first when the blood starts coming through.

"There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom," she says, her voice still thin with panic. "I need to get it, but I don’t want to let go yet."

She looks at Maureen, worry plain across her face.

"Can you hold this here? Just for a moment. Press it like this, alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Cindy... New York..." Maureen tries to tuck that information away in her brain, but her thoughts seem to be as fickle as the flow. She's lost so so much. It would be easy to give in.

But as she views Cindy's worry, she can feel something within her fight. Something deep that she hadn't felt for a while.

"Thank you, Cindy. For... helpin'..."

She moves her hand on top of the girls holding the towel to her wound. "I'll hold onto it as long as you need."

Sweat laced Maureen's brow, but there was clearly a fight in her that she wasn't gonna let go quite yet.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy stills for a moment when Maureen’s hand settles over hers.

It is warm, and real, and for some reason that makes the whole impossible thing feel worse. This is not a strange dream or something her frightened mind had made up. Maureen is here, bleeding on her kitchen floor, and trusting Cindy enough to let her help.

"You don’t have to thank me," Cindy says, her voice still thin but softer now. "Just keep pressing there, alright? As hard as you can."

She carefully eases one hand away first, then the other, making sure Maureen has the towel held in place before she moves.

"I’ll be quick."

Cindy gets to her feet too fast and nearly slips on the flour dusting the floor, catching herself on the counter with a sharp breath. She does not give herself time to be embarrassed. Instead, she turns and hurries out of the kitchen, calling back as she goes.

"I’m only going to the bathroom. I’m not leaving you." It takes a few frantic seconds of searching before she finds the kit under the sink. Cindy grabs it and returns with it clutched against her chest, dropping back down beside Maureen.

"I found it," she says, kneeling beside Maureen again.

Cindy opens the kit and takes out what she needs, setting each thing down within reach before she lifts the towel. The slash is along Maureen’s side, wet and raw beneath the cloth, and Cindy’s face goes pale at the sight of it.

Still, her hands know where to go.

"I’m sorry," she says, quieter now. "I have to clean it first."

She folds the towel back only as far as she needs to, keeping pressure with one hand while the other tears open a wipe. She starts around the wound, careful and slow, clearing away enough blood to see what she is doing without dragging too hard against torn skin.

"I’m sorry," she says again when she has to press closer. "Just a moment. I know it hurts."

The towel is too soaked to keep using, so Cindy reaches for the gauze and swaps it in quickly, one hand lifting while the other replaces it before the bleeding can start freely again. She presses down, waits, then adds another layer when red begins to spread through the first.

For a while, that is all there is. Gauze, pressure, the sound of Cindy trying to keep her breathing even.

Once the bleeding slows enough, she reaches for the bandage roll. She slips it carefully around Maureen’s waist, leaning close enough to pass it behind her without pulling at the wound, then brings it back around over the dressing. The first wrap holds it in place. The second is firmer. The third makes Cindy pause to check beneath the edge with two fingers, making sure it is snug without cutting in.

"There," she says at last, tucking the end securely. "There, that should--"

She stops herself before saying it should be alright, because she doesn’t know that it will be. Instead, she lifts her eyes to Maureen’s face.

"That should hold for now," Cindy says, finally lifting her eyes from the bandage to look at Maureen’s companion.

"I don't know how to help them," she admits, feeling helpless . "I... are they alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen winces as her wound is cleaned, her ears angling downward in pain, but she's alive. She's alive, and I guess she has three new goals.

Stay Alive

Fix Pete

And find Cheeky and Carlos.

She's focusing on those goals with Cindy asks about Pete and she... she has to look over to his crumpled mess of a body.

"I... I don' know. I wish I knew, Dove, but... I... he ran on Tea, and the Flow. But.... based on how you're healing me I.... there isn't... there's no... magic... is there?"

Maureen's Emerald eyes search Cindy's face for a response. It's clear this young girl wasn't exactly expecting this...

"I... I don' know how to fix him. Especially without the flow water..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks from Maureen to Pete, and the helpless feeling settles heavier in her chest.

"I don’t know," she says softly. "I’m not sure if this city has magic or not, but--"

She stops herself and for a second, her eyes flick toward the bedroom before she looks back at Maureen. There is something in there, hidden away where she had promised herself it would stay, but thinking of it only makes her feel worse. Having something dangerous nearby is not the same as knowing how to help.

"I’m sorry," Cindy says. "I don’t know what the Flow is. I don’t know how to fix him."

Her gaze drifts back to Pete, to the shattered porcelain and the empty spaces where pieces should’ve been, and the frustration turns inward before she can stop it.

With Maureen, she’d at least known where to begin but her companion was different.

She wants to do something. She wants, desperately, to be useful.

But she can't do anything.

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴ ̴c̴a̴n̴'̴t̴ ̴d̴o̴ ̴a̴n̴y̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴.̴

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴'̴r̴e̴ ̴u̴s̴e̴l̴e̴s̴s̴ ̴t̴h̴e̴ ̴m̴o̴m̴e̴n̴t̴ ̴s̴o̴m̴e̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴ ̴m̴a̴t̴t̴e̴r̴s̴.̴

Cindy swallows hard and makes herself look back at Maureen.

"Is he alive?" she asks quietly. "I mean… is he still in there? Can he hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"I-I don' know. He was still there when his memories got all fucked with and everythin' but... it's okay, alright? It'll be fine. Somethin' managed to pull us here, so Cheeky and Carlos are probably around here somewhere, and we'll just find them and fix Pete, and we'll be fine."

As Maureen is saying this, it's somewhat clear that she's saying a lot of this for herself. Desperate to give herself a bit of comfort. Although, if she and Pete were dragged through... that Means PG Tips could've made it through too... or even the Krag twins...

"Oh fuck. If we made it through, that.... that could me the Krag twins. PG Tips... they could've... fuck...."

Maureen sits up a bit in a panic and then winces and leans back.

"Fuck. Those are some bad people that might be roamin out and about now. They killed my love. They could still be alive..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy’s eyes widen when Maureen tries to sit up.

"Please don’t move too much. Please, you’ll hurt yourself."

She reaches out on instinct, then stops before touching her, hands hovering uselessly for a moment before she pulls them back.

"I’m sorry, I don’t-- I don’t know who any of those people are."

The words tumble together faster than Cindy can make sense of them, one fear folding into another until she can barely tell what danger is nearest.

"I don't know if they're here," she says, and her voice comes out smaller than she means it to. "I don't know how you two got here in the first place."

Her stomach turns at the thought. Maureen and Pete had appeared in her kitchen without warning, and Cindy still doesn't understand how. If others had come through too, then they could be anywhere, and she wouldn't have the first idea where to look for those they want to find, and no idea how to deal with those that they don't want to find them.

"I’m sorry," she says again, because it is the only thing she can think to say. "I don’t understand what’s happened. I don’t understand the Flow, or what you went through, or how to find the others."

Her gaze moves to Pete, broken and half-formed on the floor, and the frustration twists inward again.

"But if you have enemies after you..." Cindy starts, then falters as her eyes drift back to the broken porcelain scattered across the floor. "How can--how would your friend run?" she asks quietly. "How would they even move?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen realizes that her words are just panicking the girl and she falters for a moment. It doesn't help the situation if she keeps on spooking the only other being in the room.

"It's alright, Dove. I-I'll stop movin'."

Her eyes follow Cindy's, and she sighs gesturing for her to slide Pete over.

"Well, usually he uh... he has legs. But the Black tea really... really did a number on him."

She pauses, letting the two of them breathe dor a moment and take in everything.

" If... if the others made it through, it would be nice, but if... if the Krag Twins or PG Tips made it through... it's going to be a problem. But we'll handle it." She attempts to give a reassuring smile, but it's certainly a struggle. She then sighs and muses outloud.

"Surely, there's some sort of magic within your world that we can figure out and use to our advantage..."

[blogging-cindy]

The question lands on Cindy, and once again her eyes drift to her bedroom before she can stop them. She doesn’t want to think about what’s hidden there, because thinking about it already feels like stepping too close to a promise she made to herself.

The book is dangerous. She knows that much. She knows it in the same way she knows not to touch a hot tray with her bare hands, only worse, because at least a burn is honest about what it is.

But these people need help, and Cindy has been fortunate enough to have help when she needed it. She can’t take that kindness from others and then turn away the moment it is her turn to offer it. She can’t simply do nothing when there might still be a way to help.

Maybe the book is evil. Maybe nothing good can come from it. But maybe things would be different if she used it for good.

"There’s something," she says, finally. "I have something."

Saying it out loud makes the thought feel heavier, more real, and Cindy almost wants to take the words back before Maureen can ask what she means. Instead, she makes herself stand.

"I’ll be right back," she says, though her voice is still quiet. "It’s in my room."

She leaves the kitchen quickly, but her pace slows as she reaches the bedroom.

Once inside, Cindy immediately crouches beside the old storage chest at the foot of her bed and lifts the lid. Inside are spare blankets, old clothes, and the sort of things that never seem to have a proper place, all piled on top of a large tin box hidden beneath them. She carefully moves everything aside until she can reach it, then pulls a small key from her pocket and unlocks the box.

The book is inside as if it was waiting for her.

She lifts it out and rises with it tucked against her chest. It is heavier than it should be, the same as it has always been, and she carries it back through the flat with both arms wrapped around it, as though keeping it closed might somehow make this less terrible.

When she returns to the kitchen, her eyes go first to Maureen, then to Pete.

"Here it is." She keeps one hand on the cover before finally opening it.  "This book might have a spell that can help your friend," she says, sounding more hopeful than certain. The pages rustle beneath her fingers as she flips through them, her eyes skimming diagrams, notes, and passages . "There has to be something..."

She stops, her gaze fixing on one page as she leans closer.

"I think this could be something," she says, though her voice has gone thin. "It’s a soul transfer spell."

The words sound impossible even as she says them, and worse than impossible because the page is right there in front of her, written plainly enough that she can understand more than she wants to.

"I--I don’t think we can save your friend’s body," she says carefully. "But we can still save him."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

As she waited for Cindy, she scooted herself over to Pete and, with a shaky hand, picked up what was left of his face. The porcelain cracked in more places than she could afford to fix. As Cindy returned, though, and told her about the spell, she didn't hesitate.

"Do it." Maureen didn't know how the spell would transfer, what would happen, anything, but what she did know is Pete deserved to be free. He deserved to settle down and live in that house. He deserved much more than this.

"Where could we temporarily store an automaton's soul?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy reads the ritual carefully, her eyes moving over each line as if reading it slowly enough might make it easier to understand.

"That's a good question," she says, still looking down at the page. "We'll need a body that works for him."

Only after she says it does she look around the kitchen, searching the room as if something useful might appear simply because she needs it badly enough.

"But where can we possibly…"

Her eyes catch on the small crocheted elephant sitting near one of her storage boxes, and for half a second she considers it before dismissing the thought almost as quickly. It’s too small, too soft, not enough to hold someone. The polar bear figurine on the table isn’t right either. It’s pretty, and solid enough at first glance, but still something that could crack if it fell the wrong way. Another fragile thing wouldn’t be any better than what Pete already has.

Cindy keeps looking, her gaze moving over the counter, the shelves, the half-finished pastries, until something near the wall catches her eye.

"That’s it."

She leaves the book open and hurries across the room. Near the wall sits a small robot, about three feet tall, with a smooth white body and pale blue accents. Its shape is rounded and compact, with a broad oval torso, a simple head, and short arms. A dark screen serves as its face, and beneath it are small hands for holding light objects, a built-in speaker for speech and audio, and a sturdy wheeled base. It had once stood in used to be part of a promotional display for the shop until it stopped moving properly and had to be replaced. Even so, it could still power on and connect to the internet, and when Miss Jade and Miss Lisa decided to get rid of it, Cindy had asked if she could keep it. She'd always thought it was too sweet to throw away.

She carries it back carefully and sets it near Pete.

"I think this would do," Cindy says, "It’s made of plastic and metal, I think. It’s not indestructible, but it won’t break as easily as porcelain. And if it gets damaged, we’d have a better chance of fixing it."

She keeps her hand on the robot a little longer, then turns back to the book. Her eyes settle on the next part of the ritual, and her expression changes.

"And one more thing," Cindy says, her voice quieter now. "For the ritual to work, we have to destroy his current body completely."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hesitates for a moment. The strange robot looked so foreign compared to the pieces that were left of Pete. But... she wanted someone she trusted...

"I... I'm sorry, Pete. It's the only way..." She mutters quietly to his crumpled form before nodding. "Do it. His body wouldn't even work without the flow... i'll... I'll miss it. But I miss him more."

She looks to Cindy with tears in her eyes. "He deserves to finally be, truly, free. Not just free in death, but free in life. If that... if that means having him change, so he's free of tea too, then let's do it."

[blogging-cindy]

Spoilers for Lockstock Ep 4

Maureen thought it was over. Pete had taken the tea. Everyone was going. She got her ending. But as she flew through the void, she heard a loud crash and felt pain. If she was dead, she wouldn't have felt... pain... would she? It takes a moment, but she pries open her tired eyes blinking as she looks around the room she finds herself lying in. The first thing she notices is the crumpled and mostly destroyed mass of Pete only a few feet in front of her.

"Pete...?"

It was obvious he wouldn't be in functioning order, but she still desperately wished her friend was with her. That's when she noticed how... odd, everything else looked around her. The counters looked sleek, well, especially compared to counters in Donlon. Tools and other baking supplies were neatly organized in the room, and she felt exceptionally out of place.

"I... I don' think we're in Donlon anymore Pete..."

@roll-from-the-roleplay

Cindy is in the middle of working on a batch of danishes, her counter lightly dusted with flour and a few test pastries laid out in front of her. She's comparing notes from the last batch when something strange catches her attention.

It feels, for just a second, like something has hooked itself somewhere beneath her ribs and given a sharp tug. The sensation's gone almost as quickly as it comes, leaving her frowning down at the page.

Then something crashes hard onto the kitchen floor.

Cindy jumps back so quickly her hip hits the counter behind her, her hands gripping the edge before she can think to do anything else. There's a woman on her floor, and beside her is something crumpled and broken that Cindy can't make sense of at all. Neither of them look like they belong there.

Neither of them look quite human.

Then the woman speaks, and Cindy's attention snaps back to her.

"Who--" Her voice catches, and she has to swallow before trying again. "Who are you?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hadn't quite noticed the human standing in the kitchen either... it was probably the blood loss, that and the fact she had landed in the middle of the room... She couldn't help her instinct to grab at a knife by her waist as she turned to the human. But, fortunately for Cindy, she hadn't apparently kept that with her during the transportation to... wherever this is.

So, instead, Maureen scrambled closer to Pete. She could at least try to protect him, if nothing else. Her pointy ears twitch as she responds, "Maureen. Who are you...? Where am I?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy keeps staring at her, too thrown to answer the woman's questions. Her eyes move from Maureen’s face to her ears, then lower, catching on the blood.

"You’re..." Her voice catches. "You’re bleeding."

For a second, she only stares at it. There is blood on her kitchen floor, blood that definitely wasn't there a minute ago when she was standing over her baking. But she sees more blood drip on the floor and it hits her again.

"Oh my god! You’re bleeding!"

"I don’t have any---" Cindy looks around the kitchen wildly, her gaze jumping from the counter to the sink to the drawers as if something useful might suddenly appear there. Her heart is hammering so hard she can feel it in her throat. "I don’t have anything for that. I mean, not here. I have towels. I think I have a first aid kit somewhere. Wait."

She turns immediately and starts yanking open drawers, one after another. Measuring spoons, folded tea towels, baking paper, spare piping tips, none of it is what she needs, and the more she looks, the less certain she is of where anything actually is.

"Where is it?" she mutters to herself before looking back at Maureen, visibly panicked. "Just-- just don't move. Or do move. I don't know. Just--hold on."

She quickly grabs a clean tea towel from beside the counter, then another from the hook near the oven, hands shaking as she holds them out but doesn’t quite step close enough to touch her.

She takes a step forward, lifting the folded cloth toward Maureen before stopping herself halfway. The panic is still there, but now uncertainty catches up with it, her hands hovering in the space between them like she has only just remembered Maureen never said she could touch her.

"I um..." She swallows. "May I...?"

Her eyes flick to the blood and then back to Maureen.

"I can help. If that's alright."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen looked at this young woman's face warily. But, she had no choice. Her only other friend she could see was a heap of metal and porcelain on the floor, and anyone else she knew were missing entirely. Carlos, Cheeky, and Magpie, all consumed by the void, and yet, somehow she's here, and they're not.

Maureen nods, deciding to let herself relax. Despite being on the brink of death before, she feels... fine, actually. Well, less fine and more alive. The pain was proof of it.

"You hadn't answered my question, dove. Where are we, and who are ya? "

Her frightened, adrenaline filled questions were exchanged for quiet, tired ones.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy kneels beside Maureen and presses the folded towel against the worst of the bleeding before she can lose her nerve.

"I'm sorry," she says, the words coming out shaky as she keeps both hands over the cloth. "I should have answered you."

The towel warms beneath her palms almost at once, and Cindy has to swallow hard to keep herself from pulling away. She presses down as firmly as she dares, though her hands are still trembling.

"My name is Cindy," she says. "Cindy Campbell. And this is my flat, right above the shop where I work."

Her eyes flick down to the blood spreading into the fabric, then quickly back to Maureen’s face.

"You’re in New York," Cindy adds, quieter. "I don’t know how you got here. I’m sorry. You just… appeared. Both of you."

She glances once toward Pete, but only for a second. The sight of him makes her stomach twist in a way she cannot make sense of right now, so she forces her attention back to the living person in front of her.

"I’m sorry if this hurts," she says, pressing the towel more securely against the wound. "I’m trying not to--I mean, I know it has to be firm, but I don’t want to make it worse."

Cindy shifts one hand just enough to grab the second towel and layer it over the first when the blood starts coming through.

"There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom," she says, her voice still thin with panic. "I need to get it, but I don’t want to let go yet."

She looks at Maureen, worry plain across her face.

"Can you hold this here? Just for a moment. Press it like this, alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Cindy... New York..." Maureen tries to tuck that information away in her brain, but her thoughts seem to be as fickle as the flow. She's lost so so much. It would be easy to give in.

But as she views Cindy's worry, she can feel something within her fight. Something deep that she hadn't felt for a while.

"Thank you, Cindy. For... helpin'..."

She moves her hand on top of the girls holding the towel to her wound. "I'll hold onto it as long as you need."

Sweat laced Maureen's brow, but there was clearly a fight in her that she wasn't gonna let go quite yet.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy stills for a moment when Maureen’s hand settles over hers.

It is warm, and real, and for some reason that makes the whole impossible thing feel worse. This is not a strange dream or something her frightened mind had made up. Maureen is here, bleeding on her kitchen floor, and trusting Cindy enough to let her help.

"You don’t have to thank me," Cindy says, her voice still thin but softer now. "Just keep pressing there, alright? As hard as you can."

She carefully eases one hand away first, then the other, making sure Maureen has the towel held in place before she moves.

"I’ll be quick."

Cindy gets to her feet too fast and nearly slips on the flour dusting the floor, catching herself on the counter with a sharp breath. She does not give herself time to be embarrassed. Instead, she turns and hurries out of the kitchen, calling back as she goes.

"I’m only going to the bathroom. I’m not leaving you." It takes a few frantic seconds of searching before she finds the kit under the sink. Cindy grabs it and returns with it clutched against her chest, dropping back down beside Maureen.

"I found it," she says, kneeling beside Maureen again.

Cindy opens the kit and takes out what she needs, setting each thing down within reach before she lifts the towel. The slash is along Maureen’s side, wet and raw beneath the cloth, and Cindy’s face goes pale at the sight of it.

Still, her hands know where to go.

"I’m sorry," she says, quieter now. "I have to clean it first."

She folds the towel back only as far as she needs to, keeping pressure with one hand while the other tears open a wipe. She starts around the wound, careful and slow, clearing away enough blood to see what she is doing without dragging too hard against torn skin.

"I’m sorry," she says again when she has to press closer. "Just a moment. I know it hurts."

The towel is too soaked to keep using, so Cindy reaches for the gauze and swaps it in quickly, one hand lifting while the other replaces it before the bleeding can start freely again. She presses down, waits, then adds another layer when red begins to spread through the first.

For a while, that is all there is. Gauze, pressure, the sound of Cindy trying to keep her breathing even.

Once the bleeding slows enough, she reaches for the bandage roll. She slips it carefully around Maureen’s waist, leaning close enough to pass it behind her without pulling at the wound, then brings it back around over the dressing. The first wrap holds it in place. The second is firmer. The third makes Cindy pause to check beneath the edge with two fingers, making sure it is snug without cutting in.

"There," she says at last, tucking the end securely. "There, that should--"

She stops herself before saying it should be alright, because she doesn’t know that it will be. Instead, she lifts her eyes to Maureen’s face.

"That should hold for now," Cindy says, finally lifting her eyes from the bandage to look at Maureen’s companion.

"I don't know how to help them," she admits, feeling helpless . "I... are they alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen winces as her wound is cleaned, her ears angling downward in pain, but she's alive. She's alive, and I guess she has three new goals.

Stay Alive

Fix Pete

And find Cheeky and Carlos.

She's focusing on those goals with Cindy asks about Pete and she... she has to look over to his crumpled mess of a body.

"I... I don' know. I wish I knew, Dove, but... I... he ran on Tea, and the Flow. But.... based on how you're healing me I.... there isn't... there's no... magic... is there?"

Maureen's Emerald eyes search Cindy's face for a response. It's clear this young girl wasn't exactly expecting this...

"I... I don' know how to fix him. Especially without the flow water..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks from Maureen to Pete, and the helpless feeling settles heavier in her chest.

"I don’t know," she says softly. "I’m not sure if this city has magic or not, but--"

She stops herself and for a second, her eyes flick toward the bedroom before she looks back at Maureen. There is something in there, hidden away where she had promised herself it would stay, but thinking of it only makes her feel worse. Having something dangerous nearby is not the same as knowing how to help.

"I’m sorry," Cindy says. "I don’t know what the Flow is. I don’t know how to fix him."

Her gaze drifts back to Pete, to the shattered porcelain and the empty spaces where pieces should’ve been, and the frustration turns inward before she can stop it.

With Maureen, she’d at least known where to begin but her companion was different.

She wants to do something. She wants, desperately, to be useful.

But she can't do anything.

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴ ̴c̴a̴n̴'̴t̴ ̴d̴o̴ ̴a̴n̴y̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴.̴

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴'̴r̴e̴ ̴u̴s̴e̴l̴e̴s̴s̴ ̴t̴h̴e̴ ̴m̴o̴m̴e̴n̴t̴ ̴s̴o̴m̴e̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴ ̴m̴a̴t̴t̴e̴r̴s̴.̴

Cindy swallows hard and makes herself look back at Maureen.

"Is he alive?" she asks quietly. "I mean… is he still in there? Can he hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"I-I don' know. He was still there when his memories got all fucked with and everythin' but... it's okay, alright? It'll be fine. Somethin' managed to pull us here, so Cheeky and Carlos are probably around here somewhere, and we'll just find them and fix Pete, and we'll be fine."

As Maureen is saying this, it's somewhat clear that she's saying a lot of this for herself. Desperate to give herself a bit of comfort. Although, if she and Pete were dragged through... that Means PG Tips could've made it through too... or even the Krag twins...

"Oh fuck. If we made it through, that.... that could me the Krag twins. PG Tips... they could've... fuck...."

Maureen sits up a bit in a panic and then winces and leans back.

"Fuck. Those are some bad people that might be roamin out and about now. They killed my love. They could still be alive..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy’s eyes widen when Maureen tries to sit up.

"Please don’t move too much. Please, you’ll hurt yourself."

She reaches out on instinct, then stops before touching her, hands hovering uselessly for a moment before she pulls them back.

"I’m sorry, I don’t-- I don’t know who any of those people are."

The words tumble together faster than Cindy can make sense of them, one fear folding into another until she can barely tell what danger is nearest.

"I don't know if they're here," she says, and her voice comes out smaller than she means it to. "I don't know how you two got here in the first place."

Her stomach turns at the thought. Maureen and Pete had appeared in her kitchen without warning, and Cindy still doesn't understand how. If others had come through too, then they could be anywhere, and she wouldn't have the first idea where to look for those they want to find, and no idea how to deal with those that they don't want to find them.

"I’m sorry," she says again, because it is the only thing she can think to say. "I don’t understand what’s happened. I don’t understand the Flow, or what you went through, or how to find the others."

Her gaze moves to Pete, broken and half-formed on the floor, and the frustration twists inward again.

"But if you have enemies after you..." Cindy starts, then falters as her eyes drift back to the broken porcelain scattered across the floor. "How can--how would your friend run?" she asks quietly. "How would they even move?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen realizes that her words are just panicking the girl and she falters for a moment. It doesn't help the situation if she keeps on spooking the only other being in the room.

"It's alright, Dove. I-I'll stop movin'."

Her eyes follow Cindy's, and she sighs gesturing for her to slide Pete over.

"Well, usually he uh... he has legs. But the Black tea really... really did a number on him."

She pauses, letting the two of them breathe dor a moment and take in everything.

" If... if the others made it through, it would be nice, but if... if the Krag Twins or PG Tips made it through... it's going to be a problem. But we'll handle it." She attempts to give a reassuring smile, but it's certainly a struggle. She then sighs and muses outloud.

"Surely, there's some sort of magic within your world that we can figure out and use to our advantage..."

[blogging-cindy]

The question lands on Cindy, and once again her eyes drift to her bedroom before she can stop them. She doesn’t want to think about what’s hidden there, because thinking about it already feels like stepping too close to a promise she made to herself.

The book is dangerous. She knows that much. She knows it in the same way she knows not to touch a hot tray with her bare hands, only worse, because at least a burn is honest about what it is.

But these people need help, and Cindy has been fortunate enough to have help when she needed it. She can’t take that kindness from others and then turn away the moment it is her turn to offer it. She can’t simply do nothing when there might still be a way to help.

Maybe the book is evil. Maybe nothing good can come from it. But maybe things would be different if she used it for good.

"There’s something," she says, finally. "I have something."

Saying it out loud makes the thought feel heavier, more real, and Cindy almost wants to take the words back before Maureen can ask what she means. Instead, she makes herself stand.

"I’ll be right back," she says, though her voice is still quiet. "It’s in my room."

She leaves the kitchen quickly, but her pace slows as she reaches the bedroom.

Once inside, Cindy immediately crouches beside the old storage chest at the foot of her bed and lifts the lid. Inside are spare blankets, old clothes, and the sort of things that never seem to have a proper place, all piled on top of a large tin box hidden beneath them. She carefully moves everything aside until she can reach it, then pulls a small key from her pocket and unlocks the box.

The book is inside as if it was waiting for her.

She lifts it out and rises with it tucked against her chest. It is heavier than it should be, the same as it has always been, and she carries it back through the flat with both arms wrapped around it, as though keeping it closed might somehow make this less terrible.

When she returns to the kitchen, her eyes go first to Maureen, then to Pete.

"Here it is." She keeps one hand on the cover before finally opening it.  "This book might have a spell that can help your friend," she says, sounding more hopeful than certain. The pages rustle beneath her fingers as she flips through them, her eyes skimming diagrams, notes, and passages . "There has to be something..."

She stops, her gaze fixing on one page as she leans closer.

"I think this could be something," she says, though her voice has gone thin. "It’s a soul transfer spell."

The words sound impossible even as she says them, and worse than impossible because the page is right there in front of her, written plainly enough that she can understand more than she wants to.

"I--I don’t think we can save your friend’s body," she says carefully. "But we can still save him."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

As she waited for Cindy, she scooted herself over to Pete and, with a shaky hand, picked up what was left of his face. The porcelain cracked in more places than she could afford to fix. As Cindy returned, though, and told her about the spell, she didn't hesitate.

"Do it." Maureen didn't know how the spell would transfer, what would happen, anything, but what she did know is Pete deserved to be free. He deserved to settle down and live in that house. He deserved much more than this.

"Where could we temporarily store an automaton's soul?"

[blogging-cindy]

Spoilers for Lockstock Ep 4

Maureen thought it was over. Pete had taken the tea. Everyone was going. She got her ending. But as she flew through the void, she heard a loud crash and felt pain. If she was dead, she wouldn't have felt... pain... would she? It takes a moment, but she pries open her tired eyes blinking as she looks around the room she finds herself lying in. The first thing she notices is the crumpled and mostly destroyed mass of Pete only a few feet in front of her.

"Pete...?"

It was obvious he wouldn't be in functioning order, but she still desperately wished her friend was with her. That's when she noticed how... odd, everything else looked around her. The counters looked sleek, well, especially compared to counters in Donlon. Tools and other baking supplies were neatly organized in the room, and she felt exceptionally out of place.

"I... I don' think we're in Donlon anymore Pete..."

@roll-from-the-roleplay

Cindy is in the middle of working on a batch of danishes, her counter lightly dusted with flour and a few test pastries laid out in front of her. She's comparing notes from the last batch when something strange catches her attention.

It feels, for just a second, like something has hooked itself somewhere beneath her ribs and given a sharp tug. The sensation's gone almost as quickly as it comes, leaving her frowning down at the page.

Then something crashes hard onto the kitchen floor.

Cindy jumps back so quickly her hip hits the counter behind her, her hands gripping the edge before she can think to do anything else. There's a woman on her floor, and beside her is something crumpled and broken that Cindy can't make sense of at all. Neither of them look like they belong there.

Neither of them look quite human.

Then the woman speaks, and Cindy's attention snaps back to her.

"Who--" Her voice catches, and she has to swallow before trying again. "Who are you?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen hadn't quite noticed the human standing in the kitchen either... it was probably the blood loss, that and the fact she had landed in the middle of the room... She couldn't help her instinct to grab at a knife by her waist as she turned to the human. But, fortunately for Cindy, she hadn't apparently kept that with her during the transportation to... wherever this is.

So, instead, Maureen scrambled closer to Pete. She could at least try to protect him, if nothing else. Her pointy ears twitch as she responds, "Maureen. Who are you...? Where am I?"

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy keeps staring at her, too thrown to answer the woman's questions. Her eyes move from Maureen’s face to her ears, then lower, catching on the blood.

"You’re..." Her voice catches. "You’re bleeding."

For a second, she only stares at it. There is blood on her kitchen floor, blood that definitely wasn't there a minute ago when she was standing over her baking. But she sees more blood drip on the floor and it hits her again.

"Oh my god! You’re bleeding!"

"I don’t have any---" Cindy looks around the kitchen wildly, her gaze jumping from the counter to the sink to the drawers as if something useful might suddenly appear there. Her heart is hammering so hard she can feel it in her throat. "I don’t have anything for that. I mean, not here. I have towels. I think I have a first aid kit somewhere. Wait."

She turns immediately and starts yanking open drawers, one after another. Measuring spoons, folded tea towels, baking paper, spare piping tips, none of it is what she needs, and the more she looks, the less certain she is of where anything actually is.

"Where is it?" she mutters to herself before looking back at Maureen, visibly panicked. "Just-- just don't move. Or do move. I don't know. Just--hold on."

She quickly grabs a clean tea towel from beside the counter, then another from the hook near the oven, hands shaking as she holds them out but doesn’t quite step close enough to touch her.

She takes a step forward, lifting the folded cloth toward Maureen before stopping herself halfway. The panic is still there, but now uncertainty catches up with it, her hands hovering in the space between them like she has only just remembered Maureen never said she could touch her.

"I um..." She swallows. "May I...?"

Her eyes flick to the blood and then back to Maureen.

"I can help. If that's alright."

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen looked at this young woman's face warily. But, she had no choice. Her only other friend she could see was a heap of metal and porcelain on the floor, and anyone else she knew were missing entirely. Carlos, Cheeky, and Magpie, all consumed by the void, and yet, somehow she's here, and they're not.

Maureen nods, deciding to let herself relax. Despite being on the brink of death before, she feels... fine, actually. Well, less fine and more alive. The pain was proof of it.

"You hadn't answered my question, dove. Where are we, and who are ya? "

Her frightened, adrenaline filled questions were exchanged for quiet, tired ones.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy kneels beside Maureen and presses the folded towel against the worst of the bleeding before she can lose her nerve.

"I'm sorry," she says, the words coming out shaky as she keeps both hands over the cloth. "I should have answered you."

The towel warms beneath her palms almost at once, and Cindy has to swallow hard to keep herself from pulling away. She presses down as firmly as she dares, though her hands are still trembling.

"My name is Cindy," she says. "Cindy Campbell. And this is my flat, right above the shop where I work."

Her eyes flick down to the blood spreading into the fabric, then quickly back to Maureen’s face.

"You’re in New York," Cindy adds, quieter. "I don’t know how you got here. I’m sorry. You just… appeared. Both of you."

She glances once toward Pete, but only for a second. The sight of him makes her stomach twist in a way she cannot make sense of right now, so she forces her attention back to the living person in front of her.

"I’m sorry if this hurts," she says, pressing the towel more securely against the wound. "I’m trying not to--I mean, I know it has to be firm, but I don’t want to make it worse."

Cindy shifts one hand just enough to grab the second towel and layer it over the first when the blood starts coming through.

"There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom," she says, her voice still thin with panic. "I need to get it, but I don’t want to let go yet."

She looks at Maureen, worry plain across her face.

"Can you hold this here? Just for a moment. Press it like this, alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"Cindy... New York..." Maureen tries to tuck that information away in her brain, but her thoughts seem to be as fickle as the flow. She's lost so so much. It would be easy to give in.

But as she views Cindy's worry, she can feel something within her fight. Something deep that she hadn't felt for a while.

"Thank you, Cindy. For... helpin'..."

She moves her hand on top of the girls holding the towel to her wound. "I'll hold onto it as long as you need."

Sweat laced Maureen's brow, but there was clearly a fight in her that she wasn't gonna let go quite yet.

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy stills for a moment when Maureen’s hand settles over hers.

It is warm, and real, and for some reason that makes the whole impossible thing feel worse. This is not a strange dream or something her frightened mind had made up. Maureen is here, bleeding on her kitchen floor, and trusting Cindy enough to let her help.

"You don’t have to thank me," Cindy says, her voice still thin but softer now. "Just keep pressing there, alright? As hard as you can."

She carefully eases one hand away first, then the other, making sure Maureen has the towel held in place before she moves.

"I’ll be quick."

Cindy gets to her feet too fast and nearly slips on the flour dusting the floor, catching herself on the counter with a sharp breath. She does not give herself time to be embarrassed. Instead, she turns and hurries out of the kitchen, calling back as she goes.

"I’m only going to the bathroom. I’m not leaving you." It takes a few frantic seconds of searching before she finds the kit under the sink. Cindy grabs it and returns with it clutched against her chest, dropping back down beside Maureen.

"I found it," she says, kneeling beside Maureen again.

Cindy opens the kit and takes out what she needs, setting each thing down within reach before she lifts the towel. The slash is along Maureen’s side, wet and raw beneath the cloth, and Cindy’s face goes pale at the sight of it.

Still, her hands know where to go.

"I’m sorry," she says, quieter now. "I have to clean it first."

She folds the towel back only as far as she needs to, keeping pressure with one hand while the other tears open a wipe. She starts around the wound, careful and slow, clearing away enough blood to see what she is doing without dragging too hard against torn skin.

"I’m sorry," she says again when she has to press closer. "Just a moment. I know it hurts."

The towel is too soaked to keep using, so Cindy reaches for the gauze and swaps it in quickly, one hand lifting while the other replaces it before the bleeding can start freely again. She presses down, waits, then adds another layer when red begins to spread through the first.

For a while, that is all there is. Gauze, pressure, the sound of Cindy trying to keep her breathing even.

Once the bleeding slows enough, she reaches for the bandage roll. She slips it carefully around Maureen’s waist, leaning close enough to pass it behind her without pulling at the wound, then brings it back around over the dressing. The first wrap holds it in place. The second is firmer. The third makes Cindy pause to check beneath the edge with two fingers, making sure it is snug without cutting in.

"There," she says at last, tucking the end securely. "There, that should--"

She stops herself before saying it should be alright, because she doesn’t know that it will be. Instead, she lifts her eyes to Maureen’s face.

"That should hold for now," Cindy says, finally lifting her eyes from the bandage to look at Maureen’s companion.

"I don't know how to help them," she admits, feeling helpless . "I... are they alright?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen winces as her wound is cleaned, her ears angling downward in pain, but she's alive. She's alive, and I guess she has three new goals.

Stay Alive

Fix Pete

And find Cheeky and Carlos.

She's focusing on those goals with Cindy asks about Pete and she... she has to look over to his crumpled mess of a body.

"I... I don' know. I wish I knew, Dove, but... I... he ran on Tea, and the Flow. But.... based on how you're healing me I.... there isn't... there's no... magic... is there?"

Maureen's Emerald eyes search Cindy's face for a response. It's clear this young girl wasn't exactly expecting this...

"I... I don' know how to fix him. Especially without the flow water..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy looks from Maureen to Pete, and the helpless feeling settles heavier in her chest.

"I don’t know," she says softly. "I’m not sure if this city has magic or not, but--"

She stops herself and for a second, her eyes flick toward the bedroom before she looks back at Maureen. There is something in there, hidden away where she had promised herself it would stay, but thinking of it only makes her feel worse. Having something dangerous nearby is not the same as knowing how to help.

"I’m sorry," Cindy says. "I don’t know what the Flow is. I don’t know how to fix him."

Her gaze drifts back to Pete, to the shattered porcelain and the empty spaces where pieces should’ve been, and the frustration turns inward before she can stop it.

With Maureen, she’d at least known where to begin but her companion was different.

She wants to do something. She wants, desperately, to be useful.

But she can't do anything.

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴ ̴c̴a̴n̴'̴t̴ ̴d̴o̴ ̴a̴n̴y̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴.̴

O̴f̴ ̴c̴o̴u̴r̴s̴e̴ ̴y̴o̴u̴'̴r̴e̴ ̴u̴s̴e̴l̴e̴s̴s̴ ̴t̴h̴e̴ ̴m̴o̴m̴e̴n̴t̴ ̴s̴o̴m̴e̴t̴h̴i̴n̴g̴ ̴m̴a̴t̴t̴e̴r̴s̴.̴

Cindy swallows hard and makes herself look back at Maureen.

"Is he alive?" she asks quietly. "I mean… is he still in there? Can he hear us?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

"I-I don' know. He was still there when his memories got all fucked with and everythin' but... it's okay, alright? It'll be fine. Somethin' managed to pull us here, so Cheeky and Carlos are probably around here somewhere, and we'll just find them and fix Pete, and we'll be fine."

As Maureen is saying this, it's somewhat clear that she's saying a lot of this for herself. Desperate to give herself a bit of comfort. Although, if she and Pete were dragged through... that Means PG Tips could've made it through too... or even the Krag twins...

"Oh fuck. If we made it through, that.... that could me the Krag twins. PG Tips... they could've... fuck...."

Maureen sits up a bit in a panic and then winces and leans back.

"Fuck. Those are some bad people that might be roamin out and about now. They killed my love. They could still be alive..."

[blogging-cindy]

Cindy’s eyes widen when Maureen tries to sit up.

"Please don’t move too much. Please, you’ll hurt yourself."

She reaches out on instinct, then stops before touching her, hands hovering uselessly for a moment before she pulls them back.

"I’m sorry, I don’t-- I don’t know who any of those people are."

The words tumble together faster than Cindy can make sense of them, one fear folding into another until she can barely tell what danger is nearest.

"I don't know if they're here," she says, and her voice comes out smaller than she means it to. "I don't know how you two got here in the first place."

Her stomach turns at the thought. Maureen and Pete had appeared in her kitchen without warning, and Cindy still doesn't understand how. If others had come through too, then they could be anywhere, and she wouldn't have the first idea where to look for those they want to find, and no idea how to deal with those that they don't want to find them.

"I’m sorry," she says again, because it is the only thing she can think to say. "I don’t understand what’s happened. I don’t understand the Flow, or what you went through, or how to find the others."

Her gaze moves to Pete, broken and half-formed on the floor, and the frustration twists inward again.

"But if you have enemies after you..." Cindy starts, then falters as her eyes drift back to the broken porcelain scattered across the floor. "How can--how would your friend run?" she asks quietly. "How would they even move?"

[roll-from-the-roleplay]

Maureen realizes that her words are just panicking the girl and she falters for a moment. It doesn't help the situation if she keeps on spooking the only other being in the room.

"It's alright, Dove. I-I'll stop movin'."

Her eyes follow Cindy's, and she sighs gesturing for her to slide Pete over.

"Well, usually he uh... he has legs. But the Black tea really... really did a number on him."

She pauses, letting the two of them breathe dor a moment and take in everything.

" If... if the others made it through, it would be nice, but if... if the Krag Twins or PG Tips made it through... it's going to be a problem. But we'll handle it." She attempts to give a reassuring smile, but it's certainly a struggle. She then sighs and muses outloud.

"Surely, there's some sort of magic within your world that we can figure out and use to our advantage..."