Barry's Old Warehouse, Warehouse District, Sunday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

So. The island could turn her back into an ex at literally any moment. That was not a thought that was good for Kathy's peace of mind. Being an ex again, for however short a time, had not been good for Kathy's peace of mind. She hadn't been a mindless husk that had seen everything that moved as 'prey,' no, but that was cold comfort when she had spent the day eating brains.

Sharing brains with other people.

Hunting small creatures to get--

Her stomach lurched again, just thinking about it. She hadn't eat much this past week just for that reason. It felt like February all over again, when eating had been a struggle, the very act bringing up memories she didn't want to relive.

Distantly, Kathy knew she should go home, deal with the mess left in her room, deal with the mess that was her life. And she would! She just--couldn't yet. Not while she still felt like this, ten pounds of crazy in a four pound bag. She just needed to get a handle on it--was trying to get a handle on it--and when she did, she'd go home. She'd apologize for worrying everyone, she'd clean up, she'd be okay.

Soon. Just not now.

[Open]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

Fuck it. Enough waiting, hoping Kathy'd come back on her own. Maybe she needed help, or something.

Dante had a short list of places to look, listed in his head. Top of the list was Barry's warehouse - though he kinda figured she hadn't gone there if she really wanted to hide away.

Still, might as well cross off the obvious places first. And that's why he showed up at the warehouse door early into the afternoon, cold pizza in hand. Reached out, knocked. "Kathy?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Her original plan of 'hide in the preserve and never come out' was thwarted by fall. Yellow ducky pj pants and a matching tank top were great to wander around the house in, not so great at fighting off hypothermia. It was probably for the best that she'd spent Wednesday night wandering around zombie-like in a daze instead of curling up somewhere to fall asleep. It meant she'd still been conscious on Thursday morning by the time her survival instinct kicked back in and she'd fled the preserve for somewhere with blankets and heat.

Besides, she was less 'hiding' and more 'avoiding.' Which didn't really explain why she was dashing up to her loft to pull blankets over her head at the sound of a knock at the door.

Which probably would have worked better if she hadn't blundered into the table, bouncing off of it and into one of the metal sides with a loud clatter, before doing so. Good job on that stealth check, Kathy.

[rebelseekspizza]

... Yeah. There was definitely something in there.

Cautiously, Dante tried the door. It opened, and he let himself in. "Kathy?"

[spin_kick_snap]

It was probably too much to hope that he didn't hear her clambering up to the loft. So after a good thirty seconds of hiding pulling herself together, Kathy peeked over the edge and replied, "Dante?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Pizza delivery?" Dante called.

[spin_kick_snap]

Her stomach growled, then lurched, then growled again. That meant she was probably more hungry than nauseous, though it was hard to tell these days.

"I--" she started and then realized that she was on the verge of tears.

Ugh.

"Y-you should--" she sniffled, taking deep breaths and trying to swallow the tears back. "I'm sorry!"

[rebelseekspizza]

"...Yeah, it was real terrible of you to make me get a veggie to come see you," Dante said slowly.

(Okay, he had an inkling of what she may be sorry for, but whatever. That was in the past.)

[spin_kick_snap]

She had a slew of things she was apologizing for, from offering him brains to arguing over personhood to up and vanishing for almost a week to crying about it now. Hell, she wasn't even entirely sure what she was apologizing for, other than a nebulous 'everything' reaching all the way to becoming a zombie in the first place.

"I--I'm all right," she said, despite evidence to the contrary. "I just--"

She had no idea what she was trying to say.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante sighed.

He walked up closer and thrust the pizza box up towards her. "Eat."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy flinched away, from his food and tone both, but a moment later her arm, skinnier than normal, reached out to grab the box. Her hand trembled from exhaustion and it took her a few attempts to get a decent grip on the box.

"Thanks," she said, soft voice floating down to him as the box raised up.

[rebelseekspizza]

"You're welcome," Dante said. He looked at her. "Okay if I come up there, or...?"

[spin_kick_snap]

There was a long silence before Kathy's dubious "...Yeeeees?" came down.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Okay," Dante said.

And began the slow ascent up to her loft.

[tigerundercover]

Raven hadn't gotten her usual poking from Kathy to go out into the world, and by Sunday Raven decided it was time to go track her down and make sure she was okay.

Yeah, okay, she maybe should have done this sooner. She was totally just trying to give her friend space (and maybe get some herself at the same time, seeing Kathy all ex-ed out hadn't been a picnic either).

"You know, if you want to avoid people, the preserve really does work way better."

[spin_kick_snap]

And, you know, having said friend offering you brains probably hadn't been great, either.

Kathy startled like a hair, bouncing so high she nearly cracked her head on the ceiling, whirling around with her hands raised--to to attack, but to ward off a blow.

"Raven," she said, a little weakly when she realized who had spoken. "I...yeah, it does, but I don't come with subzero insulation. And its getting chilly."

And she had run out of the house with nothing more substantial than thin cotton pjs and a tank top. Not exactly the best clothing to camping in with 40 degree weather.

[tigerundercover]

Raven checked the weather app on her phone. "Yeah, it's, like, 60 degrees out." She was reasonably certain that was normal people weather, but who knew? She tucked her phone away again. "So you have been avoiding people."

It was hard to tell for sure when you, too, were avoiding the world.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Not at night," Kathy pointed out. She hadn't been doing a whole lot of wandering back and forth. That was more activity--and more potential to run into people--than she was really looking for.

"I've been...thinking," she said. That was better than avoiding, right? Or freaking out? Having a breakdown?

[tigerundercover]

Hey, Raven was the last person to blame anyone for avoiding. "Thinking's good. About anything in particular?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"There's a lot of 'Oh god, I was a fucking ex again' on repeat," Kathy said with something approaching her old spirit.

It flickered and the collapsed again, leaving Kathy looking for tired and mousey than ever.

"I just..." How was she supposed to find words about what it was like waking up and remembering all that again?

[tigerundercover]

"That was pretty fucked up," Raven agreed. "Though -- you weren't quite the same again. Way less teeth gnashing."

Wasn't Kathy so glad this was her best friend?

[spin_kick_snap]

"Yeah," Kathy said, "I was actually a person." She grimaced, thinking about her argument that night with Dante. "Which means that everything I did was my actual choice."

Like hunting creatures and messily devouring them, for example. And offering their brains to her friends. "It was everything I hated about being an ex, but worse because I was actively participating in it. If I'd found someone who was still a human on the island that day..."

Of such things were nightmares made of. Literally.

[tigerundercover]

"I mean, brains were what you lived on," Raven pointed out. "Plus, you know, it was a Fandom thing. If we went around blaming ourselves for all the shit the island cooks up for us, we'd never do anything else." She flashed Kathy a toothy smile. "Besides, if it makes you feel better, I was contemplating eating irritating customers."

Really, it would probably have been harder to find someone who wouldn't eat people, last Tuesday.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was pretty sure that Raven contemplated at least biting irritating customers on a fairly regular basis.

"Yeah, but--" Kathy groped for words. "If even just for a day, you woke up back there, in my world, with no knowledge you'd ever gotten out, wouldn't it fuck with you? And then knowing that it could drop you there whenever it wanted, without warning?"

[tigerundercover]

Fair.

Raven gave that the solemn moment it was due, then shrugged. “It probably could,” she said. “That might be part of why I spend so much time in the woods.” She worried, sometimes, that she was starting to depend on other people too much again. “I’m honestly not always sure all this isn’t a dream, anyway.”

[spin_kick_snap]

"If it were a dream, wouldn't everything be easier?" Kathy asked, sinking down to the couch, her head in her hands.