Rossi,
You've been stuck in this fucking submarine for three days now. Your gang drug you and Invert and most of the armament out of that minisub, came back to the sub to re-group, get you washed off and stuff.
That's when the explosion happened and the cave entrance collapsed. Merrell must have had more than he kept in that one spot, and he moved hard.
Now, you'd sent most everyone out because of Invert's warning, right? So I'm wondering how many are stuck down here with you, and how many are out of the caves... somewhere.
Roll+Hard. On a 7-9, choose two people below who's fate is undetermined, but they're not here with you. On a 10+, choose one.
- Arbor
- Jester
- Invert
- Inessa
- Wandering
- Em Sixteen
- Bloody Dracula
What have you been doing down here? How much food's left? What's your plan?
Comments
(Rolled: 2d6+3. Rolls: 6, 2. Total: 11)
... Nobody but Jester, and now I have no fucking idea where he is. None of us do. Did I mention I'm a wreck?
I've been working non-stop to dig a fucking hole out of here... I don't know how much of the tunnels have collapsed, but I'm hoping that since they withstood the first blast that most of them could take a second. I guess that remains to be seen...
Food, and air, are both a precious commodity down here. The sub has a decent airway system, but I don't know if Lemma got around to installing it. I'm feeling claustrophobic. I told people to take what they needed to live while we deal with this Merrell threat, so we don't have a boatload of food... We may be in trouble.
The plan is exactly what I'm doing now... Radios don't work down here, and another explosion would probably only make things worse. So I'm going to dig until my body can't dig anymore — and then I'm going to hope Jester's alive, and that he's coming for me.
"Rossi... I needa. I need a break." He calls up. Distance is so hard to judge here, and angle. You have to keep digging up, but then... which way is up? "Let's head back down a bit. Rest."
Poptart is in the little cave, waiting. She's been feeding you all, keeping close watch over what food is left, doling it out. Nobody challenges her, or at least nobody has yet. How much of the gang is still back at the sub?
"Rossi," Arbor says as he wipes the last bits of vomit off his beard. He came down here to throw up, again. He's dry heaving now. No more food left. Just bile. His hands tremble and shake, he's stopped trying to calm them. "We've got explosives. We could..."
"No, we can't." Poptart says sharply. "You said yourself it would prolly cause a collapse out here." She scoots over to you, Rossi, pushing half a granola bar into your hand. "Lemma's coming, Rossi. We gotta sit tight, alright? You're killing yourself, and for what? That boy? You aint said shit about Silica."
I turn back to Arbor, and watch him heave over a puddle of bile... This is fucking pathetic. Maybe he'll shake the addiction if we're stuck down here long enough. "There isn't another fucking way out of here? Nothing at all?"
Arbor coughs a little, turns his head and spits. "We can keep mining, Rossi. Just another couple days."
"You said that two days ago!" Poptart growls.
"We got turned, damnit!" Arbor barks back. "And Invert is still effed up." Those lesions she got from the tear gas didn't heal up like they did on you. She was exposed for much longer, really messed up her throat and eyes. Did you send her back to the sub with the gang, or by herself?
I need something good to happen today...
But you make it back, head into the room where Invert is. She's awake. Her mouth is looking better, but she looks tired, laying there on a bunk with no mattress, covered by a few blankets. She offers you a wave, her throat still too jacked up for speaking without some discomfort. She whispers, "Hey."
Invert reaches a hand over towards you, aiming for your hand.
OOC: Going for Healing Touch.
(Rolled: 2d6+1. Rolls: 4, 4. Total: 9)
(Rolled: 2d6+1. Rolls: 6, 5. Total: 12)
Her face shifts, twitches to another version of her, much younger, even smaller and thinner than now. Her eyes are afraid, powerless. Her father, she's afraid of her father, he's touching her, Rossi. She wants him to stop, she's frozen with fear and she's swearing, screaming in her mind, wanting to be strong, to fight him, hurt him, be brave. But she isn't. Not that day.
Warmth suffuses you and the glimmer of young Invert fades and she's moving, sitting up, reaching a hand to your shoulder, and rising towards you. She's hugging you, Rossi, roughly treated fingers with bitten-down nails sliding across your shoulders, down your back, and her head is against your neck and she's so warm. Your body was so cold until now. She's so warm.
"Holy... shit, Rossi." she murmurs into your shoulder. "That was fucking amazing. What did...?" She doesn't finish the question, but instead pulls back, looking up at you. Her body is still pressed against you, her mouth inches from yours as she looks up at you, asking "what did you do to me?"
I pull her into another hug when she pulls back to ask what I did, and whisper into her ear, "I dunno... But you should be better now." I can't bring myself to say "fixed up" ... I don't think there's anything I could do to fix something like that. "How do you feel now?"
For a moment, she just hovers there, hands on your neck, face near yours inside that normal comfort zone. "As good as when I shivved Toe-Hold. Better even."
She swallows, looks at you, sees the dark circles around your eyes, the sweat on your scalp. "Rossi? How do you feel?" Her tone is concerned, still quiet.
How do I feel? "tired... A little pissed they brought us here, of all places – but conflicted, cause Merrell and his gang of dumbasses botched the fucking job..." I take a deep breath and bite the inside of my cheek, "Jester wasn't here when the dust cleared... I'm hoping he was good and clear... But I just don't know..."
I'm trying to hide the fear in my voice that we won't make it out of here before we suffocate, or starve. I've got to be strong, right?
"Does Jester even know how good he's got it?" she asks you with a little raised eyebrow. But she doesn't expect an answer. She laughs a little laugh, then starts pulling at your neck insistently while she lays back down. "C'mon, Rossi. Just lay down, rest a bit, okay? I'll watch over you. Be yer fucken pillow or whatever."
She's still pulling you down, down into her embrace, whispering, "S'okay, Rossi. I won't tell anybody. You're still a badass, but even badasses gotta sleep."
What do you do?
He said we were exclusive... That fucking means something to me. It has to mean something, or all the shit we've been through doesn't mean anything. I have to stop fucking holding his past against him. It's not like mine's any better than that, anyway. I'm lying on Invert's shoulder by the time she's promising to look after me and shit, so I can sleep... I am fucking tired.
"Yeah," I whisper, feeling my eyelids get heavier, "maybe just for a bit."
----------------------
Your body slowly wakes up. Your eyes aren't burning, your fingers feel warmer, and they don't feel numb. They don't feel great, since you've been working your body to exhaustion lately, but they don't ache so bad it hurts, either.
Still lying on Invert. She's very softly tracing faint symbols on your shoulder and back. Just the tips of her fingers, playing so delicately against your shirt. She senses the shift, or she must have, as she asks the top of your head, "Feel any better, Rossi?"
The door is closed, the place is quiet. Just you and her.
I crane my neck up and spot Invert, and relax a little. Do I feel better? "A little, yeah." This place is so quiet... It's almost smarter to sleep, if we're going to wait for rescue. Not that waiting around to be saved is exactly my style. "How long was I out?"
OOC: Reading Invert. Roll+Sharp.
(Rolled: 2d6+1. Rolls: 4, 3. Total: 8)
OOC: Spending hold: How can I get Invert to think of me more as a sister than a lover?
Her emotions are twisted up right now, so this offer she's making, it's important to her, even though she doesn't say it's complicated. It is. But you already knew that.
Telling her a straight up "no" will definitely back her off, she won't offer again. She won't be spiteful or anything, just closed off. And offering to fuck her with Jester won't work, she'd think it was pity, and that will piss her off.
This rejection, it will do more than end this moment between you. She'll shut herself off from everyone, for a while. Maybe for a long while. Sure, she'll still go to Roxy's to "get her rocks off", but that's her M.O., pay for meaningless sex.
She's not even sure if she is into women, either, but she's reaching out to you right now. She feels safe with you, this moment is intimate.
So there's that. Good luck.
After a beat, she looks back, more to show she gets it, "Sure. We'll rule fucking Chi-Town." She licks her lips, chuckles, then, "We're alright, Rossi. I'm not the rabbit-boiling kind." But she doesn't move away, either, doesn't extricate herself or clear her throat. If you want to stop it, which you just said you did, then you'll need to break the contact.
I let my hand slide off her cheek, and offer her one last smirk before I scoop my tits up into my arm, and push myself off the bed to look for my bra. I do look back at her as I start gathering up my stuff though... "I'm gunna get back to digging... Can you and your squad keep a tight grip on food rations?"
She waits for you to get up, then works on getting dressed herself, "We gotta get out of here, Rossi. I'm obviously hard up, sofa king horny I can't think, heh, can't think straight." She snickers once, then says, "Wow, that was bad."
Invert waits for the moment when you're about to leave, she's right behind you. She reaches over to pull you into a hug. Not a sexy one, just a hug, "Thanks Rossi. For whatever you just did. I was in a fuckton of pain... means alot"
"Don't worry about what I did," I whisper, "there aren't many good folks left in the world... It'd be a shame if I let one die when I can do something about it."
Heading back up to the dig site, or taking care of anything else in the sub? Who's down here, Rossi. What do you have them doing?
You're ahead of Invert, of course. What do you do?
I ready my shotgun and bolt for the shots. What the fuck else could go wrong?
Male voice (Long John): "...gonna take that little pistol of yours and shove it up your ass, old lady..."
Another male voice, older gruff member of your gang named Tapoff: "And then we'll take the fucken food anyways."
Then you hear Poptart, all calm and cruel, "Oh... please come and try, you limpdick fucknut."</b
Behind you, you hear Invert curse. She heard it, too.
When you reach the pocket where you left Poptart, you see one of your new guys, Steak Tar Tar, lying on his side, bleeding. Long John's pulled him away from Poptart, who has her little Ruger out, pointed at Long John and Tapoff. Tapoff has a gun out, a big fat revolver, and he's pointing right at Poptart's head. They're both just a few feet away from each other.
Arbor's passed out in the corner. Inessa's made her way back down, to see what the what.
What do you do?
(Rolled: 2d6+3. Rolls: 5, 4. Total: 12)
As soon as things chill for a second, Long John screams, "We asked for our share, and she fucken shot Steak!" He's pointing at Poptart.
"Damn right." Poptart mutters spitefully.
I'm not touching his fucking dick though...
Poptart glares at you, waiting to see what you say to her.
I look to Invert, a little annoyed, "put someone here to keep the peace. I don't want anyone throwing down over rations. Nobody gets special treatment."
Later, when you crawl up to where Em Sixteen is digging away with a makeshift spade, Inessa slides down where she can light the way for her partner and still talk to you, "Rossi. Need to tell you." Inessa says, talking low. "I didn't hear all of what Steak and LJ were saying, but it didn't go down how Poppie said. They asked for more food, she gave them lip. Steak didn't say much else, then she shot him." She holds up a hand, "I didn't see it, okay? Just heard it."
I nod patiently to Inessa, and pat her on the shoulder... "Well, he isn't dead yet... I'll talk to him." I guess I should head down to the sub and fix up Steak first.
I assume you still head down to check on Steak, right? He's in one of the bunks, laying there, bleeding and pale, pouring sweat. Tapoff stuck around, Long John isn't here.
What do you do?
I'm not surprised that Long John fucked off... He's probably out sewing malcontent, and plotting to kill Poptart. I'm not really looking forward to the day I have to put a bullet in his head because he can't let shit like this go... I told him I'd take care of it. I look over to Tapoff as I make my way to the side of Steak's cot. "He couldn't stay put for five fucking minutes?"
I start inspecting the damage to Steak's ... well, wherever the hell he was shot.
Takes a minute to pry the man up from being folded over with pain. Tapoff comes over to help hold him down. Steak's been shot twice, at close range. One hit him in the lower abdomen, bleeding bad, no exit wound. The other is a through and through on the inside of his left thigh. The guy's fading fast, Rossi. He'll probably bleed out.
What do you do?
"I don't give a shit what that asshole wants," I mutter back as I carefully put my hands over the more serious wound, and to conjure up that healing energy I've been getting so comfortable with... Here's hoping it's not a limited reserve.
(Rolled: 2d6+1. Rolls: 6, 3. Total: 10)
Tapoff gets up, ambles over, suddenly much more interested, "The fuck just happened?"
I look over at Tapoff when he jumps up, but I keep working to get Steak clean. "I fixed him, like I fucking said I would — and now that he's safe, I need a clearer picture of what happened back there." I look to Steak, "so start talking."
"Bitch didn't need to shoot him, though." Tapoff cuts in. "That's fucked."
"We didn't do shit." Tapoff interrupts. "Bitch just gunned Steak down. He'd be fucking dead if it wasn't for you, Rossi."
(Rolled: 2d6+1. Rolls: 4, 5. Total: 10)
I hold up a finger to Tapoff, and shoot him an impatient look for good measure, before turning back to Steak. "But did you draw on her? Steak, this shit is important. Poptart's in charge of our food — but I can't have her shooting our fucking people on a whim. I know how she is around men — she can be tough to deal with even if you're a girl — so quit beating around the bush and tell it straight. Did you really cross a line?"
Tapoff looks like he's about to jump in, but then you gave him that look, so he shuts up. But he agrees with Steak.
OOC: What does Steak wish I'd do?
"As long as man-hater backs the fuck off..." Tapoff mutters.
OOC: Hold 2, How do I get these guys to keep John from causing trouble (i.e. going for retribution, or otherwise being a prick)?
Tapoff adds in, "LJ says what he thinks. And sometimes, he says what most of us're thinkin. He's just crazy enough to say it out loud. He don't mind being a target."
"I'll talk to im. Maybe he'll stow it." Steak says, like maybe that's what you want? "It'll prolly only work for a bit, though. It's in his nature." Tapoff chuckles at that.
Tapoff asks, "Arbor's a miner, right? He got any idea how much longer till we reach the surface?"
"Arbor's passed out with the shakes trying to kick his Ice addiction," I mutter back, "but when he was conscious, he said this should only take a few more days... If we're lucky, Lemma or Jester are working together from the other side to get us out."
Invert comes back down from above, looking for you. She pulls you aside, then says, "Rossi. Got Poptart to tell me what food's left. We've done. The granola bar she gave you was the last of it." She looks worried. "If the guys fish mining don't pull out enough, we're in for some trouble."
Go here.