THE SMELL OF SMOKE IS UNMISTAKABLE. Even from around the bend, Maya could pick up on it wafting over the trees. When she’d gone on her jog this morning, it felt like any other day on the islands. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing special... But now, as she picks up her pace and crests the hill to look over the city, she realizes how wrong she was.
There’s a pang in the pit of her chest as her brain pieces things together. It felt like all of Beaulieu had started to crumble in the short few hours she’d been gone, and that included her own living space. Her mind races, asking questions like ‘are my friends okay?’, ‘are my things okay?’, ‘what is going on?’. She has no answers. Arm drawn up over her mouth, she pushes through the treeline, and beholds her worst fear; Her own home falling under the weight of the fire.
The Siren hits a standstill, hands falling to her sides. Witnessing the flames pushes several memories to the front of her mind. Memories of Hero’s Pass, and the choking smoke of the lava. Of Sanctuary getting assaulted and blown to smithereens after Angel’s betrayal. Of... a voice. A voice she’d forgotten, somehow, up until now. Her hands clench into tight fists as the same sentence plays in her head over and over.
❝ Child, you have so much left to learn! ❞
The bang that follows that sentence makes her wobble in pain. Her head aches, and her vision skews as she props herself up against one of the trees to stop herself from falling over. That bang, a resolution to twenty seven years of abuse, torment, controlling and anguish. She digs her nails into the bark, not caring that the smoke was starting to hurt her lungs. That bang, a single bullet cracking through the air and ending her handler’s life. Tears well in the corners of her eyes, be it from the fire or out of emotion. That... bang.
During her entire stay here, Maya had been suffering in silence. She had, until now, not been able to recall several things about the night she escaped. Before those memories were so vivid that they’d keep her up at night, but here, she couldn’t even remember if she had the strength in her to actually pull the trigger. Had she been too scared? Was she really free, or did she have to constantly look over her shoulder? Was everything she’d done to cement herself as her own person for nothing? She’d been so... confused, and the constant reminders of her captivity during her time in Theorillia only exacerbated those feelings.
But now, as she lets herself slide down the trunk of the tree, she remembers. Her head thrums with pain as it all rushes back, but she remembers. She did pull the trigger, and she’d watched as his limp body dropped to the courtyard tiling. She’d escaped him. Maya exhales in relief, and then takes another deep breath. She fights to keep her composure, but she fails as her next inhale falls into a sob.
Face hidden against her knees, the Siren lets herself cry for the first time in years.
All that stress she’s accumulated comes to a rolling boil. Her frustration with being used again, her anger at willingly coming into this situation, her despair over nearly being drowned and now, her confusion as her house burns down in front of her. Not even she can keep it all from falling off the sides, so.. she cries, and she cries hard.
Time passes. Her quarters split and crumble into ashes. Her tears had long run dry, and she was left to sit in aching silence by herself. She’d been repeating that bang in her head, staring at the fading embers the whole while. Her eyes and lungs hurt, but still, she rises to her feet as the last wooden beam falls. Once again, she is left to pick up the pieces, alone.
Not much seemed to survive the fire. Even less would’ve if it wasn’t for the fact that so many of her personal belongings were fire proofed. She frowns as she looks at all the burned books, ruined furniture, and a... cracked vase. Using her phaselock, she picks up chunks of wood and tosses them to the side, trying to find what little was left. As expected, this didn’t bear much fruit, but she takes solace in knowing that her guns, as well as whatever was left in her bags, was safe.
Over time, her lawn becomes littered with what she can find, and eventually she comes to stand among all her sad little prizes. Her makeup is smeared, smoke clings to her hair, and she could really use a bath with how much char is on her hands, but she can’t find the energy to care. A ways away, she hears more distress. People calling for one another, and trying to save their things before everything comes crashing down. She rivets her eyes shut, before heaving a labored sigh and plucking her still much too hot guns out of the grass.
These things that were happening were bigger than her. She didn’t have the time to sit here and cry like a child. Her friends could be hurt, and there were people that needed help, and right now...
The Universe doesn’t have many consistencies. This is a fact that irritates and befuddles many on a daily basis, with it’s remarkable knack for fucking everyone over at just the right moment. So many Vault Hunters have perished to the Universe’s cruel nature, and yet, as it were...
Sirens were exceedingly hard to get rid of.
When Maya’s hand broke the surface of the water, it was followed by the loud hiss of the phase shifting. She sank her glowing fingers into the sand, and her other arm soon joined it in hauling her heavy body out of the water. Salt stung the corners of her eyes, but it helped in drawing attention away from the beating pain in other parts of her body. As she flops over onto her back, she can still hear the ring of the Leviathan’s roar in the back of her head rattling her brain.
She did it. Despite everything this wretched island threw at her down there, she did it. She was exhausted in every sense of the word, but she was alive, and she had a bag full of books and documents to justify all that suffering. Inhale, exhale, appreciate the fact that you’re breathing real air right now. Briefly, she struggles to catch the air in her lungs, sputtering and coughing up saltwater.
As she stares up at the sky, she holds her bag close to her chest. Distant stars twinkle above her, and she can’t help but wonder which of those faint lights is Pandora. Another cough, and she closes her eyes. She doesn’t have the energy to be angry anymore, all she wants is to do is lay here and fall asleep. But before she does, she heaves a sigh and says...
The previous night’s... disturbance, unsurprisingly, didn’t get much of a jolt out of Maya. Living in a barely functioning giant flying city for three years, you learn how to cope with strange loud noises in the middle of the night. At most, it took her away from her writing just long enough to register that it’d happened, before she immediately tucked back into what she was doing. That’d be a well rested Maya’s problem, not this Maya.
Unfortunately, when the next day swung around, it was certainly her problem now.
It wasn’t the sudden appearance of televisions, nor the strange appearance of the board of people that was now addressing her over her morning granola bar; No, it was the usage of phrases like ‘manipulation’, ‘lies’, and ‘guinea pigs’ that made her furrow her brow and tense her shoulders. She’d agreed to come here on the premise of it being a project, not a science experiment. Was she to be used again? Her face twisted up into a disgusted grimace, while she stared at the floor.
At the very least, one of the figures that was addressing the populous promised information, and a location, things she could work with. It was her luck that this would all turn out to be more sinister than she imagined. Of course it would, why wouldn’t it? Briefly, she mentally berated herself for not considering that, all while she stuffed some things in a bag and headed for the door.
She’d been presented with a lot of questions this morning, it was time to find some answers.
★ This is my drabble for the Rabid Rabbit quest, relating to Isola Radiale’s ongoing Fantasia War event!
It was as big as a house, so she said. Maya’s new found heightened senses made it easy for her to eavesdrop, picking up on all the little conversations people were having as they passed the fountain she’d been resting in. This conversation in particular piqued her interest, causing her to rise her head out of the water a bit. A monster that was as big as a house, tearing apart the forest outside Airaisal and terrorizing the country-folk. The woman spinning this tale to a few mercenaries seemed to be in hysterics, rightfully so if the story was true. It appeared she had been trying to find someone to kill it for awhile now, but no one, including the men she was speaking with at the moment, was willing to risk their life for this endeavor.
Maya had dragged herself out of the pool by the time the mercenaries left the woman to cry in the middle of the street. Killing big dangerous monsters was her job, a job she was very good at and missed doing, so this whole ordeal sounded like it was just up her alley! And she was always happy to help a woman in need.
The woman, who introduced herself as Zennah, seemed apprehensive to speak with her at first. Not surprising, Maya knew she looked scary with those huge teeth and big claws. But she eventually opened up, and gave her the full details. The beast was a… rabbit of sorts, a rabbit that was intent on demolishing the forest in its search to satiate its hunger. This beast had already claimed a handful of lives, and simply must be put down. There were evidently more of it’s kind, but this one was the biggest and therefore the most dangerous. If successfully killed, and the corpse brought back, Zennah assured her that she would be rewarded.
Needless to say, Maya happily accepted the quest and headed out of town without skipping a beat. She’d been itching to do something like this for awhile, something that’d give her just a taste of what she’d been so used to back on Pandora. She couldn’t deny that she was a teensy bit of a thrill seeker. So, not only would this hunt give her an adrenaline rush she was desperately craving, she’d also have a chance to learn something new! Which, for Maya, was just as exciting of an idea to her as the hunt itself was.
The walk through open fields gave her a lot of time to reminisce on things she was missing, though she fought back the nostalgia once she was stood outside the forest. There were noises deeper in the trees, noises that made her fins stand on end as her nerves flared. She was rusty, she knew that, but it was a rabbit, not The Warrior.
❝ I can handle this. ❞ She told herself while pushing through the treeline, gun drawn from her hip.
❝ I hope I can handle this. ❞
The forest was expansive, but even so, the damage these creatures had done was apparent. She passed entire trees that had been ripped from the ground, stripped of all greenery, and massive trenches that’d been dug into the earth. The sounds she’d been hearing, now identifiable as a deep thumping, were getting louder as well. Maya wasn’t worried about this at first, but the further in she went, the more concerned she was that she couldn’t actually see where the noise was coming from.
It was when she passed a patch of rocks that she discovered the corpses of a few farmers that’d made attempts on the beast’s life. The scene wasn’t pretty to say the least, but she still made a note to return for them once she was finished. It was the least she could do for them at this point… But, the sight served as a warning as well, because that would be her if she messed this up. Sobering to say the least.
By the time she’d reached a large clearing with sod torn up and tossed about, the thumping was seemingly right on top of her. Once again, her nerves flared and every fin on her body stood on end as she was stuck looking every which way. It grew deafening, filling the clearing to the brim and causing her to wince in pain as her senses were overwhelmed.
And just when she felt like her head would explode, it stopped.
Total silence. No birds, no insects, no swaying of branches. The forest had fallen deathly silent, leaving her ears ringing in the wake of all that noise. She stood, if you could call it that, disoriented and wobbling back to the edge of the treeline. Maya still couldn’t see the beast, though something in her knew it was nearby, and she knew she needed a moment to reorient herself before being able to take it on properly.
But fate was not that kind to the Siren. Before she could clamor up a tree, the ground beneath her shifted, and then rose with an immense force. It sent her and a few tons of dirt flying as the beast dragged itself out of the tunnel it’d been digging. Meanwhile, Maya was flung into a tree broadside, dropping her gun as she hit the trunk with a painful smack. That was definitely going to bruise.
The rabbit turned it’s massive head to look at her, it’s red eye giving an almost accusatory glare. It’s white fur was matted and caked in mud, and as it shifted to face her head on, Maya’s eyes focused enough to stare right back at it.
❝ You’re not as big as a house, but still pretty damn big. ❞
As the beast geared itself to charge her, Maya’s training finally decided to kick in. Reflexes steeled, she rolled out of the way as it came barreling for her, scrabbling to her feet in the middle of the clearing. The tree she’d been thrown against was now splinters, and the rabbit’s feet once again thumped against the earth as it circled back to face her from just inside the treeline. It seemed very intent on running her down, but she was focused now, and she wouldn’t be bested that easily.
It made a few more runs at her, Maya dodging the same way each time before she glanced down at her arm, and then at the rabbit. She hadn’t phaselocked anything in months, and her Siren powers still felt… restrained in some way. If she pushed herself too hard, she could fatigue herself or worse, but she didn’t have many options at that moment. She took a deep breath as it once again faced her, shifting herself into a more steady foot stance. Her markings came to life with a crackle as she inhaled, then exhaled, drawing all of the energy in her core to her palm. The beast, realizing she was making a move, started towards her.
It didn’t end up getting too far. Maya let out a grunt of effort as she lifted it off the ground with her phase ability, struggling to heft all of it’s weight. In her desperation, she’d almost forgotten that some things were too heavy for her to keep locked for long. Still, with what little time she had, she managed to throw the beast to the side. It screamed as it hit a rocky outcropping, tearing up more dirt as it skidded. That certainly wasn’t a pleasant sound. The moment it was out of her grasp, Maya’s phase abilities dissipated with a hiss, leaving her out of breath for a moment.
❝ That… That felt wrong. ❞ She looked at her arm, which was shimmering with the heat her powers always kicked up. Maybe it was just how rusty she was, but that phase made something in her core light up with pain. It was agonizing actually using her powers. That was definitely not normal for her. But she didn’t have much time to dwell on it, because the beast was slowly coming back to it’s feet.
Of course it wasn’t dead. Nothing could be easy for her, could it. Figures.
While she still could, Maya ran into the brush, pushing the bushes and debris aside to find her Plasma Caster again. If she was going to kill this thing, she’d need her gun, and she’d need it fast. Despite having it’s side torn apart by the rocks, and it’s fur singed from the phaselock, the rabbit was coming for her once again; Albeit at a much more labored pace.
Gun in hand, she took aim at the creature as it let out a half scream, half roar, shaking the forest around her. Three shots fired, only two hit. The smell of the corrosive agents in the bullets was noxious as it melted through dirt, fur and flesh, causing the beast to scream once again and charge. This time, Maya only barely made it out of the way as it barreled past her. Normally, an enemy could be dispatched in just one or two shots from that SMG, but that clearly wasn’t the case for this creature. It took damage, for sure, but it wasn’t enough to kill it in a timely manner. Perhaps it was because of how dense it’s fur was, but regardless, it didn’t bode well for her.
Maya’s only option at that point was to look around. Using the environment to her advantage was her last chance to kill this thing, but there wasn’t anything in this clearing she could put to use. If she could use her phase again without doubling over, she’d throw it against the rocks a few more times, but other than that…
She decided to ultimately think and move at the same time. There was no way she could out run the thing, but she was confident she could out maneuver it if she played her cards right.
Maya took off in one direction as the rabbit circled back for her. She put all she could into running, occasionally diving to the sides to keep from being trampled to death. With the forest so torn up, there were points where she had to detour or risk getting stuck in loose soil. Occasionally, she’d fire pot shots back at it in hopes of slowing it down, and it worked to a degree. That’s probably what saved her life, really. Her lungs had never hurt as much as they hurt in those moments, but as she heard the rush of a waterfall in the distance over the sound of the rabbit’s feet beating behind her, she got an idea.
This area, she’d been to before. About a hundred yards away was a waterfall, that cliffed off and dropped into a considerably large lake. She’d rested in it a few times while passing through, and she mentally kicked herself for not thinking of this sooner. Though, this would be one of the more stupid things she’s pulled off if it worked. A good thing for the record books.
Maya threw her gun to the side as she took a hard left, shifting her course (and the beast’s) towards the cliff. She could hear it stumble, and then regain itself behind her as she did. Glancing over her shoulder, she could still see it’s red eyes trained on her, with nothing but hate swirling in them. The river was running alongside her now, but that didn’t seem to deter the beast at all; All it wanted was to see her dead. A good sign for her plan, but it didn’t unnerve her any less.
The cliff was partially hidden from view by the thick underbrush, but Maya knew exactly where it was. At the last moment possible, she turned around to face the beast entirely, narrowing her eyes at it in a last act of ‘I win’. The ground fell out from underneath her as she ran right off the edge, and she watched as the rabbit, in it’s blind rage, followed her.
Maya didn’t let herself hit the water back first. Twisting mid-air, she let herself break the surface in something that at least half resembled a proper dive. The water was cold, and murky, rushing around her as she reoriented herself in the wake of the beast crashing in behind her. It obviously struggled as it’s soaked fur was almost too heavy for it to bear in it’s weakened state. The beast couldn’t barely even bring it’s self to the surface, staring at her as it desperately fought to head up for air. She wouldn’t give it that chance, however, as she moved to give it one swift kick to the head. Through the water, Maya could hear it’s neck snap, and with that, the hunt was over.
She watched as it drifted down to the lake bottom, much to the confusion of the fish that lived there. The smell of it’s blood flooded her senses, so she decided to crawl out of the water before it woke a feeding frenzy in her brain. An interesting side effect of being a siren of mythos, it seemed. Once out, she let herself lie flat on the sand so she could catch her breath properly. Her lungs still hurt, and so did her arm, but at least this was done and out of the way. Part of her couldn’t wait to tell her friends about this whole ordeal, and another was incredibly self conscious of how much dirt was in her hair from all the combat rolls she’d been doing.
However, as she sat up, she was hit with a crushing realization. Part of the terms of her contract was being able to present the body…
❝ God damn it. ❞ She cursed to herself, ❝ How the hell am I going to get that out of there. ❞
Her Jonquils had bloomed into pretty peach centers surrounded by delicate white petals. The rainy weather had finally cleared to give her sunny skies. She’d finally gotten her finicky locks to sit just the way she wanted them to. If this wasn’t the will of some higher power cheering on her first taste of love, she didn’t know what was!
“You’re taking this crush awfully seriously, my darling.” Her mother’s bemused tutting.
“Isn’t she? When did twelve year olds get so bold?” Her father’s teasing chuckle, accompanied by large palms squishing her freckled face into the best impromptu impression of a fish she could manage.
“…I hope…it goes well…” Her brother’s whispered encouragements.
Today is the day.
The walk to the Hastings house wasn’t so long that she would break a sweat, especially not with her long stride – it was honestly one of the few times she was happy to have shot up the height chart like a weed. A familiar path; she had walked it often enough with her brother and their classmates, among them the Hastings boys. That was something people always praised as village charm: everyone knew everyone from the time they were kids to their days as old gray biddies.
Effie didn’t know when she first took notice of Arthur Hastings. After she’d noticed Percival, of course. No one could ignore Percival. He was even taller than the pair of ginger twins and he never gave flack to Hugh for his quiet shyness. That made him alright in Effie’s book; and earned him a few sweets when she and her mother got to baking. ‘It’s always nice to be a kind neighbor, my love. Kind but not nosy.’ She didn’t know if he and his family ever ate them, but she hoped the thought might brighten things in their house. …Her parents never let her go over there. Hugh wasn’t allowed either. She never questioned why. Kind but not nosy.
Unlike the quiet Percival or the shy Hugh or the obedient Effie, Arthur Hastings was a firecracker. Sharp-tongued and quick-witted…and he was choice in those frames of his. Hugh chalked it up to her being fascinated by a ‘bad boy’ type – anyone that got into mischief with Sally Boyle had to be nothing good, he’d said. Effie disagreed; she saw in Arthur things that she didn’t possess, things to be admired. Maybe that was what had sparked her crush. She didn’t know. It didn’t matter.
Her musing had been so all encompassing that she hadn’t even noticed that she’d reached the Hastings house. Her grip on the bouquet of flowers tightened as did the nervous chill in her chest. Arthur and Percival puttered about in the yard, a few other children loitered too – maybe they’d been playing a game? Oh…she felt queasy. Maybe she--
A hand came to rest on her shoulder. Hugh. That twin sense of theirs was really something; either that or he knew she’d chicken out and came to cheer her on. Whatever the reason, she appreciated it; the nervous twitch to her lips eased into a sheepish smile.
Today is the day…
“A…Arthur? Do you…would you maybe want to catch a picture…w-with me sometime?” Bouquet was offered, the whiteness of the blooms almost glowing against the crimson that filled her freckled cheeks. It probably looked absolutely ridiculous. A girl a head taller, offering a boy a bouquet of flowers like he was the skirt in all this. There were some muffled chuckles, a snort or two suddenly cut short as Hugh leveled a glare towards the spectators. Not that Effie could see. Her eyes were squeezed so tightly shut that she could see stars, a soft crinkling of the bouquet’s wrapping as it buckled under her trembling grip. His answer…
“…Get real, Carrots.” Gray eyes blinked open, wide with confusion as she glanced to his face. Scarlet as roses to the tips of his ears, brows knit with…frustration? Humiliation? She didn’t know, but it was nothing good. And it was all directed at her. At Carrots. Tall and lanky and ginger-haired. Her. His arms crossed after a hurried push of the flowers into her chest, scowling through his embarrassment. “What do I look like? A rabbit or something!” A quick quip but the laughter of their peers that followed was thunderous – deafening. Flowers dropped to the floor like her jaw. She’d never known that a sound could weigh so heavily, be so crushing. Heat stung at the back of her eyes as tears brimmed and threatened to overflow.
“…….You could’ve fooled me with those buck teeth of yours.” Hugh. Shy Hugh. He must’ve mustered every ounce of courage in his anxious frame to speak up for her; the hand that took hers and pulled her away from the group of snickering boys was shaking. His back between her and the leers of the laughing boys who tossed jeers of their own after them, the chant of ‘Carrots’ following their steps. Her first taste of love tasted of bitterness and the salt of tears.
Rose-tinted streets. The pleasant coolness of a spring shower. Puddles splashing under the her boots. A game of tag. It was all the rush of childhood nostalgia.
“Caught you~!”
It wasn’t a hand that crashed against her playmate’s back, but the blunt end of a baton. A shrill cry briefly reached her ears – a blip of failure in the warm fog of Joy enshrouding her brain – but was quickly replaced by pleased, if not slightly unnatural, giggles. Like a sound dubbed over a scene in a film, not quite matching up but not so far off that it’d take one out of the experience. There wasn’t much time for her to think on this strange inconsistency; a pile of her fellow Bobbies were on the scene, a frenzied mess of swings, stomps, and…a sickening crack or two.
The last snapped her from her daze as something warm and viscous spattered across the front of her uniform. Some of it had even gotten onto her nice white gloves! It was the viscous feel as she rolled digits together that got her to drop her gaze. A pretty green hue, like the color of---.
Another blip.
--Red. It was such a stark, dark red against the white of her gloves. Not the comforting pink of Strawberry Joy or the candied tint of sweets. No…this was…blood? Blood? Like…L-like when that Downer dragged the jagged edge of a broken scotch bottle down the side of her brother’s face. There’d been so much of it—even the white of his eye had been dyed that dark, violent shade of crimson.
Chortles were replaced by wet gurgles, a sound that made gray eyes snap upwards towards the scene before her. Broken. Mangled. Sobbing. A man begging for his life beneath the weight of the officers that were meant to protect it. A dozen other faces and figures overlaid the vision – memories. The clatter of her baton hitting the ground was deafening, ringing in her ears as she frantically fished at her pockets. Joy. Where was her Joy?! Bile rose in the back of her throat, the sour sting of it filling her mouth.
Palms braced against cool porcelain seconds before Effie emptied the few contents of her stomach into the bowl. Even minutes after, as she slumped onto the bathroom’s tiles, she still felt the wretched spasms in her stomach and the shivers that accompanied a cold sweat. She’d thought that the agony of withdrawal would have been the worst of it. But she was wrong.
She’s… decidedly uncomfortable and very much on edge, especially so when a blue-eyed man comes sauntering over to her with an expression that she can’t decipher.
All sharp angles and smoldering gaze, there’s something about him, Carrie decides, that feels quite out of place here, although truthfully, it isn’t all that difficult to appear ‘out of place’ in this big city, obscured by its beauty and eclectic architecture. She had never been to Chicago before and so she felt like a small-town girl visiting the “big city” for the first time. She paused frequently along the sidewalk to stare upward at the tall buildngs, unashamed of her obvious status as “tourist”.
“Looking for fun, goldilocks?” The nickname rolls of his tongue like silk, gilded with honey. An amusement glint had reached her blue eyes as she heard the words from the stranger. Carrie pauses, tongue slipping out to wet her lips as she considers. “Only if you tell me your name first.”
Had her parents only been there. They would have gasped in shock, her most closed friends would have died of laughter. Caroline on the other hand couldn’t believe how her cheeks hadn’t turned red already.
The blonde as always, was already intended to put her priorities straight, –her mind always full of business. –Friendships, relationships, if there’s an advantage she can have from forming a connection, especially in this unknown world to her, she would take the chance, and the risk.
The man — well, he seems more like a boy now with his wide eyes staring at her in stunned silence— stiffens, jaw tensing before he purses his lips, “I tend not to get all up close and personal on the first date… but I’m wiling to make the sacrifice.”
He takes a step forward, and then another, a smirk of careless bravado. “Spencer. I’m Spencer.”
Dallas’s words wasn’t really unexpected, but Caroline surely isn’t quite happy with it, her parted lips was ready to utter a word or two as a response, her hands still holding both of the dress. One is colorful and bright, the other was more simple, but Dallas suggested the colorful one.
Asking for her daughter’s suggestion might be not really necessary but it has become her habit when they’re gone shopping for clothes. Her gaze inspecting the dress, her other hand placing down the simpler dress to the nearest rack.
“Really? This one? –I’m not sure.. Isn’t this too.. revealing?”
The small party Dallas had planned for their anniversary was the reason why she’s gone shopping for a dress, and let’s not forget how she encouraged her mother to get a new one instead of wearing the dresses she had worn before.
Dallas suppressed a laugh. “Not at all. I bet dad will love it!”
Contemplating over the choice for a few moments, she let out a defeated sigh and decided to choose the same dress Dallas had picked for her.
It’s not wrong to wear something different for once in awhile.
"Fine, fine. I trust your choice, as usual, so.. I’ll buy this. –Happy?“
