#dspndncy

[ncvarr0]

@dspndncy hearted for a starter ( for ashley )

luis stumbles alongside ashley , clutching at his stabbing wound - barely managing to keep it together ... make shift bandages had to do until ( if he could ) get to some kind of infirmary. " senorita ... " luis begins to say then coughs , or wheezes , his chest rattling. " ashey "

with one hand still gripping at the tight bandages , his other pushes into his pocket fishing out the laboratory key and holding it out. " incase im not there with you " incase he doesn't make it - his unsaid words.

[tv1rus]

[ WAKE ]: sender gently wakes receiver from a nap or otherwise. / leon & grace! @dspndncy

"kidnap you? i liberated you."

hot breath against her neck, thick fingers around her throat. tighter and tighter and she can't breathe, she can't breathe, oh god she can't fucking BREATHE. gideon's face melting, morphing and changing and suddenly he's rising higher and higher and higher and there the girl is, looking down at her with that large eye. but it didn't matter, the corners of her vision getting fuzzy as the grip tightens. and tightens. she's trying to cough, to punch out any kind of protest. no, please, stop. something. SOMETHING. and then she's the cop, the poor guy at the wrenwood hotel who looked at her with that hazy stare before taking a chunk out of her fucking shoulder.

"grace..." he moaned her name, but she barely heard. ears were ringing. vision reducing to a pin hole. "grace..." heart fluttering in her chest. eyes roll to the back of her head.

"grace."

it was his voice that woke her up. she didn't realize that she was SCREAMING. sitting up straight, so quickly that if he were close enough she might bash her head against his own in the flurry of movement. hand reaching up to her neck as if to pull away some invisible force, the same one she remembered and remembered and could never forget. not even for a second. a ragged breath on the inhale, a broken sob on the exhale as her eyes flickered quickly over every surface.

five things she could see... the wall. the window. leon. oh, fuck. LEON.

"i-i-i-i'm sorry." and for some reason, she was actually shocked that her words were steady rather than the rattle of someone who had just been strangled. nightmares blended with reality. was this a nightmare too? would leon melt into some monster? she watched him WARILY, as though that option was the highest possibility.

"a-are you real?" barely above a whisper, desperate and afraid and vulnerable. she didn't care if she looked crazy -- she COULDN'T. she just needed to know.

[tv1rus]

[ BLANKET ]: sender drapes a blanket over receiver's shoulders. / maven & eris! @dspndncy

she wasn't used to this -- not yet. and she wondered if maven felt the same way, if she too felt almost alien or like an imposter. sometimes eris felt as though she was a wrong piece in a puzzle that someone just kept trying to shove into place. she shouldn't BE here. in a room that wasn't sterile and white with a person who wasn't there only to read off questions from a sheet of paper and mark each answer accordingly with a little hum of acknowledgment.

it just felt fucking WEIRD.

the blanket felt nice in a weird way. the fabric was a little scratchy, she could feel the wool brush against the curve of her exposed neck. and in her hands, she clung to a glass like a lifeline -- half full with a rich, brown liquid that she was TOLD would make her feel a little bit better.

no more ARK. no more gideon. no more... everything. just this blanket, this whiskey, and this person. maven. one of the only people in the world who might be able to understand her. maybe THE only person.

"how long are we staying here?" she finally found herself asking, though her eyes never left the liquid in her glass. "although -- i guess i don't really have anywhere to go."

[tv1rus]

BRUSH ]: sender brushes a strand of hair out of receiver's face. / leon & eris! @dspndncy

she didn't remember falling asleep. barely remembered how they got here (heavy footed, bones lead with exhaustion and fatigue). the sheets had a stale smell that eris had never experienced before, something that caused her nose to wrinkle as she slowly began to rouse. they were on the west side of the building -- light filtered through the windows as best it could given that the curtains had been fastened shut, but they were thin enough that the room wasn't completely enclosed in darkness. maybe she wished that it was.

his smell was becoming familiar to her -- something warm, a hint of coffee or something similar, a tinge of leather and musk. more comforting than she thought it would be, and stronger when she realized that he was a bit closer now. had they fallen asleep like this? facing each other, not even under the blankets? maybe. with everything they just experienced, she was surprised that they even made it to the motel.

fingers against her skin, her hair -- her own fingers twitched where they rested on the bed in between them and eyes slowly opened just a bit. just enough. vision focusing as she watched him in the dim morning light.

"i'm sure all the blood in my hair is a real good look," came her gentle mumble. god, she didn't even SHOWER before passing out. still caked in dirt and sweat and blood and -- she didn't even wanna think about what else. these poor sheets. the corner of her mouth twitched slightly as she simply... looked at him. took him in. they were ALIVE. wasn't that insane?

"penny for your thoughts?"

[tv1rus]

[ FLOWER ]: sender offers a flower to receiver. / maven & grace! @dspndncy

the only plants that grace has ever received from eris were the life saving ones -- the ones that could help temporarily seal wounds and keep her going and going and going and-

eyes narrowed at it, not with suspicion or anything like that but with curiosity. a tinge confusion. brow furrowed as she studied it. a blink. a moment. fingers twitched at her side before hand rose to slowly accept it and for just a second, grace genuinely thought... maybe she was supposed to eat it? was this supposed to help her? but luckily, common sense stopped her at the last second so that she didn't do something so embarrassing that it might actually KILL her.

"d-does this one give me... super powers?" a weak joke, the corner of her mouth lifting up if only for a beat before shoulders began to release the tension that they've been holding for hours. "i --" the admission would be a little... sad. something that if she were to tell anyone else, they might look at her with pity or as though she were a stray dog in the rain. but maven wouldn't. of that, grace was certain.

"y-y'know... the last time i got flowers, uhm -- it was when my mom died. a whole bunch of r-roses. white ones, i remember. i-i still can't stand the smell."

[tv1rus]

[ GET DOWN ]: sender tackles receiver out of the way of danger. / leon & claire! @dspndncy

going through the motions. yeah, that's what this was.

infected at her 2 o'clock -- two shots in the left knee, one in the head once it dropped. another at her 4, already crawling on the ground. two shots to the skull, her boot meeting what was left of its head with a sickening 'crunch!'. just another tuesday. or was it thursday? she'd lost track of time. breathing in time with her firing, inhale on the aim and exhale on the execution. she THOUGHT that she was in the zone. she THOUGHT that she had this all under control.

and then she was on the ground, an EXPLOSION occurring roughly ten feet to the right of where she landed. bullet to a gasline -- she should've been more careful. but as it was, the back of her head knocked back against the tiled floor and she GROANED as though she was auditioning for 'role of background zombie' in this fucking horror movie. it took a second and a half for the stars to leave her vision, for the ringing of the explosion to quiet in her ears. eyes opened, blinked a few times as she looked up at the person who had saved her stupid, sorry life. and honestly? she LAUGHED.

"we have to stop meeting like this."

[eseries00]

❛ Funny how you only get serious when I get close. ❜ from leon!! @dspndncy

tongue firmly lodged between her teeth, poking at the inside of her cheek in an effort to bite back any sort of comment. mostly because... she didn't HAVE one -- a rarity, to be honest. it wasn't very often that eris found herself on the side of speechless.

not that she was speechless. absolutely not.

a glare sent in his direction as she made a point to fiddle with her gloves, tightening the straps slightly and flexing her fingers. a distraction. trying not to think too hard about the weakness he pointed out. but that NEED to talk back, to answer a verbal jab with one of her own was just... too strong. and she was too WEAK.

"only because you KEEP getting close. you don't like ranged fighting, do you?" a smirk, just a small one thrown in his direction. "or is it just somethin' about me?"

[eseries00]

❛ That swing would’ve taken my head off if you weren’t distracted staring at me. ❜ from maven! @dspndncy

she might have been angry at herself for how OUT OF BREATH she was, how she's made such simple and easy mistakes. as it was, eris was feeling nothing but... surprise. because she was having FUN. training wasn't supposed to be fun. it was supposed to be work. and yet, here she was -- hands resting on her knees as she bent over and sucked in a deep breath through her nose, a toothy grin on her face.

"only because you were making a stupid face," she countered with a huff, rising to stand straight and wipe her forehead with the back of a hand to rid herself of the sweat accumulating at her hairline.

"it was all scrunched up and weird -- i was scared it would stick that way."