did you say your prayers?

[attitude]

You can live through anything, now. You'll survive if the world is turned inside out. And it will be. Sooner than you think.

There are days when sleep seems to be a shroud that slips over Faye in waves, occasionally clinging to her shoulders, eyelids heavy as lashes touch her cheeks. It's easy to sleep here. It grow still more so by the day, only the occasional interruption keeping her up at night, but her life has been a transient one ever since she woke up in that chamber, and so she's learned to cope with that long ago. People might disappear. People will, if patterns persist. But she'll survive through anything.

She always has.

A touch, cold like ice, brushes against her arm. Another, against her calf. A hand brushes away the sensation with an irritated flick, only to feel something hard knocking against her knuckles. Brow furrowing, Faye's hand turns, pressing harder still against a smooth, rounded surface, until glass jars against glass and her eyes fly open. Revealing butterflies in the sky.

The most beautiful butterflies in the world.

Her breath starts to shake as she glances down, gold darting between pearls of cerulean blue, marble after marble closing around her from all sides, scattered across the sandy beach, a sharp pain under her hand as she shoves herself to her knees.

"No. I need a knife, I need—"

Hands desperately grabbing through air, she tries to push them away, every one of the butterflies, until a face suddenly appears only yards away.

"Get back."


[ There are a thousand blue marbles scattered across the beach, most of them pooled by Faye's side, her 2012 NDPD. The butterflies mentioned in the narrative are not real; they're the result of nanomachines in her bloodstream. Faye thinks that the marbles are biological weapons as she once encountered in her world, but they're actually harmless, although she's very obviously panicked as a result. ]

Comments

[keepurshirtonlt]

"Hey, Porthos, come back here!"

It had only been a few day since the beagle had arrived and he was taking to the beach quite well. He'd been good so far for Trip...but he should have known that wouldn't last. The dog had run off down the beach and Trip had to run to catch up.

And what a sight he found when he caught up. Porthos was nosing a few of the blue marbles around in the sand, whinging softly, but staying out of the way. Which was a good thing since Trip only had eyes for Faye, who didn't quite seem all with it at the moment. "Faye? You 'lright?" He inched closer, not wanting to startle her.

[attitude]

Shit. She knew that voice. She knew it all too well. And hell if anyone deserved the kind of death that Vincent had dreamed up for mankind, but someone like Trip, who'd only ever been kind to Faye, no. She couldn't even fathom it, being responsible for someone getting hurt who'd been nothing but kind, tolerating every last of her whims.

"No," she gritted, waving her arm in his direction, trying to get him to turn the other way. Her gaze stuttered, unable to see properly through the flash of light and beat of wings.

"Trip, turn around, go the other way!"

[keepurshirtonlt]

Cocking his head, Trip kept walking forward, hands out as if to placate her. It was like she was seeing something he wasn't. "Now why would I wanna do that Faye? Looks like you need me a bit more then I need to get outta here..."

[attitude]

"Because I'm immune and my body can take it," she insisted with a hiss, and when Trip refused to stop heading in her direction, Faye took the initiative to step out in his— risking that amount of exposure by proximity to her seemed, to her, like the far superior option to letting him walk into a veritable sea of marbles, each with the potential to be deadly. The brilliant yellow of the butterflies continued to swim in her vision, but she pushed through, hands trying their best to find his shoulders. "Around, turn around."

Panic drained her arms of strength, and she took deep breaths to try and calm impossibly frayed nerves, but to no avail.

[keepurshirtonlt]

"Take what?" Trip asked as he his hands found her arms, steadying her as much as stopping her from pushing him away. "Ya tell me an' I'll turn around, 'lright?" He tried to keep his voice even, but he had never been very good in stressful situations that didn't involve an engine. But something was wrong and he wasn't leaving until he found out what. Or got Faye help.

[attitude]

"Virus," her voice cut sharply through the air. "There's an airborne virus, they would transport it through those marbles, and god only knows why they're here other than to raze everything to the ground— so for the love of— would you just go?" Her voice raised in desperation, even as she found herself losing hope with every passing second. The virus had always proved itself to be fast to act, and she had no reason to think that this time would be any exception. Seconds, it took. Seconds, before everyone was in front of her, bleeding out.

The fact that Trip hadn't felt any effects should have said something to her, but it didn't. Panic distorted her sense of time.

[keepurshirtonlt]

"If it's a virus, we need ta get you outta here too!" As he took a step back, leaving just as he'd promised, Trip gently tugged her to follow. "We can get ya to the clinic an' maybe one of the docs can do something." He wanted to get to the doctors as soon as possible as well, since a delayed virus transported in marbles wasn't the strangest thing he'd ever heard, but she'd been more exposed. There was no way he was leaving without her.

[attitude]

"No, I'm already immune," Faye bit out, continuing to press at his shoulders whenever she can with the palm of her hand, even as she persisted in trying to blink the bright butterflies out of her vision where they obscured, darting about and making it impossible to focus on Trip. There wasn't the time to explain how she'd managed to be injected with the cure, wasn't the time to do anything but hope that Trip had escaped the quick onslaught of the virus, even though a part of Faye's heart continued beating harshly against her chest.

No way.

There was no way that he'd managed to escape, having lingered for as long as he did.