hadriel | first; voice (when useless dreaming comes to an end, who will carry all your fears?)

Right. I could've ended up back in Kansas - and no, thanks.

[It's OK; she's not really in a place to talk about all that yet. Maybe some stories are better off dying with her, when that time eventually comes.]

Barista and bartender, for the last seven years, and let me tell you - the only thing worse than pretentious undercaffeinated assholes is pretentious drunk assholes.

[Coffee would be nice right about now. A warm drink of any kind would be nice right about now.]

Wait, did your friends all get sucked into whatever hell dimension this is too?

Is Kansas as boring as all the movies make it out to be?

[He can't think of a single good thing any movie has ever said about Kansas, except that maybe if you're bored enough you'll get hit by a tornado. That's not even really a good thing.

And oh man, both of those occupations sound terrible.]

Yeah that sounds super not fun. Do you ever get people who are a combo of the two?

[Pretentious drunk and undercaffeinated assholes. Seems like a combo that wouldn't be that rare, actually; Chris doesn't really drink much anymore after last year, but he does remember that coffee was a serious necessity in dealing with a hangover.]

Not all of us, but yeah. There's five out of eight including me.

Edited 2015-12-17 04:32 (UTC)

It is if it's Winchester. Worse, even. It's about five square blocks of nothing surrounded by cornfields. I couldn't wait to leave.

[Most people there don't. They're content to live and die in the same houses with the same neighbors who know all their secrets. Nick doesn't count herself lucky that she escaped; she knows it was only through her own will and the determination that she never wanted to end up like her mother that she was able to escape.]

All the time. But most people are assholes in some way or another. Only the flavor varies.

[For a girl her age with limited schooling, motivation, and experience, there are only so many ways to pay the bills. Coffee and alcohol were the best two options.]

Damn, that sucks. Or I dunno, maybe it's better, since you know people here already. At least you won't die alone.

[Which is almost too depressing to think about, actually.]

That sounds pretty terrible.

[He's a total city kid so the whole idea of a tiny town in the midwest is not his thing. On top of how boring it must be in general it probably doesn't even have good internet, which is clearly the most important thing to consider.

He's quiet for second at that last comment, then offer a weak attempt at a laugh.]

Yeah that's... A way to look at it.

[Not a way he really wants to, though. They'd gotten out of the nightmare that had happened at home only to end up here, but they'd survived... Or at least the first four of them to be here had. Josh, who had just shown up--

Don't think too much about it.]

I'm guessing there's no one here from your uh... World or whatever you call it?

[There's a quiet pause from Nick's end, uncomfortable silence. She's been scared for her life before, bone-deep terror - it's what set off her Becoming, just a couple months ago - but that was short-lived, not a lingering, slow procession toward certain death like this looks to be.]

Nah, not that I'm aware of. So far, you're the only person who's even from the same country. Hell, you're the only person who's even heard of the same country.

I'm Nick, by the way.

Really? I haven't asked many people where they're from but that's sort of a surprise.

[Now he's kind of curious about what kind of places other people here come from, but that's a question for later.]

Chris. You just get here a few days ago or did you show up last month or whatever?

Yeah, me either. Just this thing, right now - well, and there was a guy I ran into when I first got here. Said he was in DC right before. And another guy, in the shops, right when the snow started. New York.

[She's trying to figure out if there's a common thread running between the others here, if anything matches up with her experiences, if any other Nightbane are around, or if she's the only one. So far, it's looking like the latter.]

I've been here a few weeks. I guess a month. Time flies, y'know?

[It's much more difficult for her to keep track of days without her usual routine of work and training exercises.]

I used to know a guy named Chris. He was a big idiot. You don't sound anything like him.

Edited 2015-12-18 20:53 (UTC)

A lot of big cities.

[Chris is thinking similarly; is there a pattern to who is here? He's not sure, but it's worth trying to figure out.]

Yeah, same. We probably got here around the same time.

[It both seems like it's been forever and no time at all, somehow. That last comment gets a small laugh again, though it's a little stronger and more genuine this time.]

Thanks, I'll take that compliment.

You should. I'm serious, he was a good kisser but dumb as a sack of hammers. I kinda always wondered how he made it to being an adult without getting run over in traffic or something.

[He definitely needed this cheering up, Nick.]

There are a few people I've wondered that about.

[Mostly some of his classmates in college. He generally gets along with most people and tries not to be judgmental without it being super warranted, but wow there are some idiots in college.]

I've met some people named Nick but didn't know them well enough to say anything about them. I don't think I've heard of a girl called Nick, though; is it short for something or's there another story there?

[Idiots are everywhere - including, Nick has found, here. Present company is, of course, excluded.]

Nah, it's just short for Nichole. My ma's the only one who ever called me that, though, and she's a bitch and a half, so.

[So that's why she insists on being called Nick instead.]

No special story to it, really. My dad used to call me Nick when I was little, and it just kinda stuck.

[And it was something of her father she could hold onto after he died.]

What about you? Chris short for the usual?

[Oh, right, Nichole would make sense. He thinks he knew a Nichole in grade school, but she went by her full name and it always seemed like a name that's short enough not to bother with nicknames.

There's a great pun there somewhere, he can feel it, but he's just not up to working out how to correctly deliver it. Maybe in the future.]

My friend Sam's kinda' the same way; she goes by that instead of Samantha, though I think it's just because her name's pretty long.

[He's actually never asked her why she prefers Sam, and now he wonders. He'll pester her later about it.]

Yeah, but like you my mom's the only one that calls me Christopher. And usually it's only when she's pissed off.

[Not that his mom is mad at him a lot; he doesn't live with his parents anymore, but even when he did they tended toward spoiling him and he was generally well-behaved. The last person to call him Christopher was actually his friend Josh, and not in a situation he cares to dwell on much.]

[Nick makes a sound almost like a laugh - or it would be, except there's no mirth in it at all.]

Yup, that sounds about right. And watch out if she starts adding in the middle name, too. Then you're in big trouble.

[For Nick, that usually signified a hard slap was what was coming her way next, especially if her mother was drunk, as she usually was.]

I usually didn't get the middle name thing; I think my first was long enough and I was one of those goodie-two-shoes kids.

[The super lame kind that was always like 'but should we do the thing' yet could easily be dragged into misbehaving anyway by friends as long as they didn't get caught. Speaking of being kids, he's kind of wondering...]

Is it uh... Is it cool to ask how old you are?

[He knows that can be a touchy thing with girls.]

I'm 19, so I've only been on my own like a year and a half.

Oh, one of those, huh?

[But there's a grin behind how she says that, teasing.]

My best friend in high school was like that - straight As, squeaky clean. Nobody could ever figure out what he was doing hanging out with little ol' trash-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks me. His parents hated me - probably still do, actually.

[And, really, she's fine with that. Fuck them for thinking she wasn't good enough to be friends with their precious son.]

Yeah, that's fine, you can ask. [She actually laughs a little at how carefully he asks.] I'm not one of those fussy girls who can't stand the idea of someone knowing their real age or whatever. And I'm twenty-five. Almost twenty-six. Shit, I dunno, with how long I've been here, maybe I missed my birthday. Not that I'd be doing anything special for it anyway, but - you know. Not freezing to death would be nice.

[Never a scenario she's considered, since her birthday is during the summer.]

Damn. You're not even old enough to legally drink. That sucks.

Yeah, yeah, one of those.

[His tone is similarly amused; this is easily one of the most normal conversations he's had in awhile, and it's kind of nice to pretend everything isn't horrible for a bit.]

I think it'd be pretty boring if your friends were like, exactly like yourself, you know? My best friend and I were totally different.

[Are totally different? Which tense is right, here? He doesn't know and doesn't want to dwell on it.

And okay, good, he had thought she'd probably be okay with it, but he knows better than to assume that sort of thing.]

Ah, cool. I figured if you've been working for awhile you were older than me but who knows in this place.

[And some people do start working really young, so. Her comment about possibly missing her birthday makes him kind of curious, though--]

Do you think time here like... Counts? For birthdays and all that?

Yeah, but thankfully Canada's drinking age is eighteen.

[Not that he drinks much after last year, but still. It's the principle of it.]

So if you're the good twin, does that make your best friend a troublemaker?

[The cheer drops noticeably from her tone by the time she gets to talking about her friend, though.]

Yeah ... but you gotta have something in common, I guess. Something that sticks. Me and Andy ... I dunno, I guess we were both misfits back in Winchester, but once we got to Chicago, that wasn't enough.

[And it stings more than she'd like to admit. Andy was her best friend for more than a decade; she couldn't imagine her life without him, until a few months ago, when they had their final fight and she left town.]

Anyway ... I've been working since I was sixteen, just not at a bar, obviously. People always had trouble guessing my age, though. They either thought I was older when I was a kid, or they think I'm younger now. Here, hang on a sec ...

[She fiddles with the device for a moment, then switches it over to video, with the camera turned on her. She gives him a half-sarcastic wave.]

Hey. So this is me.

[She shrugs by way of reply to the question about birthdays.]

I dunno, I mean - it's time, right? You get older every day. But it's not like we've got calendars and shit here. So who knows. It was almost May back in Vancouver. Now it's fucking snowing, so it must be winter?

[He doesn't miss the change in her tone, partially because his does the same won the same subject.]

I guess you could say that.

[Josh is--was?--definitely more of a troublemaker, especially after everything that happened before they came here, but... It's not quite that simple, at the same time. More things he doesn't want to think much about, so he focuses on what Nick said instead.]

It uh... It sounds like something happened?

[With her and her friend. His comment is an invitation to say more if she wants, but easy to dismiss if not.

When she switches over to video he does the same, offering a small smile of greeting. He definitely would've guessed her to be closer to his age than mid-twenties, though he's never been all that great at judging ages.]

Everyone usually thinks I'm older than I am, probably because I'm tall.

[Hurray for early growth spurts. Being nearly six feet tall in high school definitely helped ward off any potential bullying for being a huge nerd.]

I guess you're right, though you'd have to count just the time since yeah, I think the seasons are all off. I mean, not that it's all that clear since it really shouldn't be snowing underground no matter what season it is, but yeah.

[Nick looks down from the camera as she thinks about Andy, jaw taut.]

Not much to say, really. I guess we just grew apart. We're from different worlds, y'know? He's really smart, gonna be an architect once he's finally done with school. I'm just a girl who mixes drinks for a living. Shit, I almost didn't even finish high school.

[Not because she isn't smart too, but because she lacked encouragement, until she befriended Andy. She was angry at the world and didn't care about conforming to societal expectations of what she should be doing with her life. She brushes a bit of hair off her face, looking up at the camera again.]

Sorry ... I don't usually talk about myself this much. No one cares, y'know? It's usually the other way around anyway, people telling me their sob stories over a beer or whatever.

[The way she says no one cares is factual, not self-pitying. She honestly believes this, that she just isn't that important; there's a callousness cultivated by long years of choosing to believe this rather than allow herself to be hurt over and over by believing otherwise.]

[He's quiet while she talks, watching her expression, his own sympathetic even though he doesn't understand what that's like; not exactly anyway. He's never just grown apart from someone he was really close to; some friends, sure, but not the people that meant the most to him. Those bonds were only ever broken suddenly, through death or betrayal or both.

Chris shakes his head a little at the apology, offering another small smile.]

Hey, well, at the risk of sounding like we're in a shitty Lifetime special, that's not true here okay? Good thing you get along with rule-following nerds, because now you're stuck with me.

[You've been officially friended, Nick, because feeling alone is probably the worst thing that can happen when everything is going wrong around you, and being in this place is definitely wrong. He can't imagine being here without friends, let alone no one he even knows.]

[Nick laughs, a touch hysterical - not an unkind laugh, because she's not laughing at him, just laughing as an overwhelmed response to the absurdity of everything, this whole stupid situation. This place is wrong, all of it, but - there's something so normalizing about everything Chris is saying and has said. And as much as she's hesitant to admit it, even to herself, she's grateful for it.]

You know, I think most of the people here don't even know what TV is. How fucking weird is that? I mean, obviously there's like, Third World countries with starving children and shit, but - it's different, actually talking to people who don't have any idea what you're talking about, y'know? Shit.

[She chews at the nail on her index finger for a moment. She really could use a cigarette.]

I'm stuck with you, huh. Well, Chris, I feel better about dying a horrible death in this shithole, anyway.

[She sounds flippant about it, but there's a thanks somewhere in there, too.]

[Chris grins a little at the laughter; it doesn't seem exactly like happy laughter, but it's still something. In this place and situation, laughing for any reason is probably a good thing.

When she explains it makes sense; though he hasn't run into that problem much so far, he understands the feeling in a different way. Being here was--and still is--utterly surreal, especially after everything that went down right before he and his friends arrived here.

Her last comment earns a small laugh of his own, subdued but with an edge of that same underlying sense of it's crazy this is the situation they're in, and that he can say what he's about to say.]

Well, if it makes you feel any more better I'm actually one for one on surviving shitholes full of monsters. Not counting this particular shithole, I mean.

Edited 2016-01-01 06:28 (UTC)

[And that's ... well, it doesn't sound like a joke. So is he actually serious about that, surviving monsters? It sounds crazy, but considering where they are ... maybe it's not. Nick only ever know of monsters in a metaphorical sense before Vancouver, before that thing attacked her and she too became an actual monster.

Because that's what she must be, she thinks. Some of the other Nightbane she met looked unusual - Graham, for example, took on the form of a giant golden retriever - but more often, they looked like how Nick looked when she transformed, frightening and as far from human as could be.

She's instantly sober.]

You're serious about that? The surviving monsters thing, I mean.

Yeah.

[He's a little quieter than before, but there's no uncertainty in his words.]

We were uh... I told you that my friends and I were all at the lodge on the mountain in Canada for our vacation thing, and that the tradition's probably kind of over now? It's because we got attacked by monsters.

[And other reasons, but even if the others hadn't happened the monsters would be enough.]

We'd just made it out of that whole thing like, an hour before I woke up here.

Well ... shit.

[Nick nervously chews on her fingernail again. It's clear that people come here from different places; as weird as that still is for Nick to think about, she's accepted it as truth anyway. But ... Canada. Monsters. Maybe not the same part of Canada, but it's still one hell of a coincidence.]

What kind of monsters? Was it like ... you were being stalked? Someone leaving you roses, or some other kind of fucked-up little presents?

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