All was quiet within the secure walls of the Hide and Seek on that particularly crisp afternoon, though with the sign hanging in the window, that was hardly surprising; the words 'Closed for business' had been hastily scrawled across the parchment in an attempt to steer away any additional distractions while, inside, Riley continued her work uninterrupted. Relatively uninterrupted, anyhow.
The arrival of a sealed envelope slipped silently through the door's mail slot was soon followed by a short-lived cry of frustration from the woman herself, after which the parchment was violently crumpled and launched clear across the room.
"You know that's not going to hel-"
"Don't." The sharpness of Riley's tone was only amplified by that of her gaze - the corners of which had begun to well up with tears as she glared daggers at her present company. "I'm not looking for a lecture - least of all from you," she all but spat, though the vitriol seemed to have little to do with the individual towards whom it was directed.
"Well, that's a bit uncalled for..."
"They've been through too much!" Riley's arm shot straight out, her index finger pointed towards the door. "They've lost too fucking much - and now they're staring down the fucking barrell again?" Fingers combed roughly back through raven tresses, the heels of her palms pressing briefly against her temples. "And I still can't make myself walk out that fucking door." Her tone shifted some, foregoing its harsher edges in favor of something a little more defeated.
"I can't make myself take that first step," she shook her head, sending a tear streaking hotly down her cheek, "not if that step's gonna lead me back there. To him."
"Your brother may be a little... detached, but he's not a fool. And he would have to be incredibly foolish to try anything like that again."
"Exactly. He'll come up with something else." Riley sat down with a huff and brought an elbow up onto the workbench, arm bent, forehead resting against the backs of her knuckles while she pinched and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "Something worse." A pained wince overtook her features, forcing her eyes tightly closed and letting herself fall silent for a moment.
"They're getting pretty bad, aren't they? The headaches."
"Putting it mildly," Riley muttered under her breath, not bothering to look up. "I don't know. Maybe he knocked something loose while gallivanting around inside my head, but ever since I got back, I-..." Her ebony brows furrowed; she felt as though she was on the cusp of a realization which was teetering just out of reach. "Where did you-"
"Ey, Blue-Eyes, you 'ome?" Jasper's voice cut through the slowly building thrum inside Riley's skull, yanking her back to the present with jarring swiftness. "I've been thinkin'! Think I got a purdy good lil gig we can hoist up, an' make sure we're not knee deep in shit." As he often did, Jasper announced his arrival by barging into the shop voice-first, his large frame following along soon after.
"Shadows be damned," the curse slipped past her lips in a hushed whisper. She swiped at any errant tears with the back of her wrist and took a slow, steadying breath before swiveling around in her seat to face him. She looked tired, but that was hardly out of the ordinary for Riley. "You and your fucking entrances, Red." Despite the tension in the air, she still managed a convincing smile for the ruffian standing in the middle of the shop's otherwise empty main room.
“Ya know ya love my entrances, Blue-Eyes, don’t lie. If it weren’t fer my big ass mouth, you wouldn’t even know I was comin’ or not.” Jasper snickered, the door closing behind him as he adjusted the wool cap on his head.
"How're things looking out there?" Without being prompted, Riley reached under the workbench to produce two glasses and a half-empty bottle of whiskey - each of which was placed upright and just off to the side. "Have we reached Operation Behemoth levels of fucked yet? Or are we already at Red Avalanche?" The question was posed as she set to the task of pouring a heavy-handed glass for them both.
“We ain’t at Avalanche levels of fucked, but we’re gettin’ close to Behemoth. Shit’s tits up over in Darkshire, Redridge is seein' some action, but Elwynn looks to be holdin' okay fer the time bein' - far as my informants go, at least." Joining Riley at the table, he swiped up the glass she'd poured for him and helped himself to a hearty pull; the shiver that ran down his spine made him sneer, but the whiskey was a good chaser for the topic at hand.
His mention of Darkshire made Riley visibly tense, though she did what she could to hide the creak in her jaw with a swift pull from her own glass.
"This is bad, Red." She shook her head, meeting his gaze with a sense of trepidation. "It's one thing when this shit happens out in the middle of nowhere, but this close to the city? A dense population in panic is never a good thing, and I'm not just referring to how fucking crowded this place is." A look of mild derision flashed across her features as she glanced towards the window.
"No shit it's bad, Riles," Jasper said with a chuckle, body moving to lean his back against the table while he crossed his arms, and contemplated his drink. “Doubtin’ it’ll go completely to shit fer a few more days. Maybe a week. But, it ain't like we've never been here before, you an' I. We've been doin' this kinda shit a long time - I might 'ave gotten too fat fer my leathers, but we both know what we're doin." He shrugged gently and took a smaller sip of his whiskey.
“I’m thinkin’ we’ll set up at a choke point, like we used ta, remember?” He took a drink. “An’ as they come swarmin’ in, I’ll keep ‘em at bay, while ya pick off tha stragglers. Or, we can rig up onna them traps we used ta.”
"That could work," another sip from her glass allowed for a moment to further consider Jasper's plan. "I'd like to keep the passage concealed, but if we need to fall back at any point, we'll have a way out there." She paused, head canting slightly to the side. "Or a place to lay low for a while, at the very least. Space will be extremely limited, though, so we'll have to keep that option between us, yeah?"
Jasper hummed, contemplating her proposition. "Ain't ever a day we've 'ad to use that, and you know it." He sighed, knowing that even just bringing up their potential escape route meant she was more than a little worried about their current situation. "You take the boys down there, if it comes to that. Me an' Foxy'll head out to her dad's old farm in Westfall, an' we'll all lay low fer a while, like ya said." Gulping down the rest of his drink, he set the glass back down and nudged it wordlessly towards the bottle. "Whatcha think, Riles? I'll get you the location on a map an' you three can join us there if the city gets compromised."
"If it comes to that." Riley nodded, parroting her friend's words as though reciting some kind of mantra. She refilled their glasses.
"Think you’ll ‘ave my leathers done in time?” The refill was acknowledged with an appreciative nod as Jasper once more took up his whiskey.
"I'll have them finished tonight - just need you to endure one last fitting so I can make a couple final adjustments." She nodded over towards the end of her workbench where several articles of leather armor had been neatly stacked. "Finish your drink - we've got a lot of shit to do, and less time to do it."
(( Many thanks to @jasper-quinn for their contribution, as always <3 ))
