snowblindrpg | [log] Kicking and Screaming [closed]

Characters: Kesara and Lilly
Location: Outside building 37
Date: Day 342
Summary: Under event-induced paranoia, two little girls are absolute shits to each other.
Warnings: Children involved in violence, eventual needles and blood.

Kesara has been through all sorts of travel difficulties in her short but exciting life. Hellish terrain obstinate camels, short supplies. She is braced for all of those. She finds it confusing and profoundly frustrating that none of them were ever as bad as trying to drag along a reluctant six years old girl.

Not just a girl, mind. Not just any girl. She had never believed, before, in the idea that some adults seemed to have that the Devil could come upon children; she still does not believe it, not really, even though Lilly is a wild animal worse than any camel. But the child is clearly marked, and Kesara knows what that means. She knows.

She is responsible for her, though. She'd promised Steph. She'd taken it upon herself to stick it to Vanitas. There are reasons in place to keep treating Lilly as a ward, not a danger. And so Kesara keeps cajoling the child along, pulling her arm when needed. She will get them t o safety. She will do what she must.]

Come on!

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"When needed" is, unfortunately for Kesara, all the time. When Kesara prepares to leave the house in the morning, Lilly shows no signs of being ready to pack up and go along with her, a fact that makes itself even more clear when it's finally time to head out the door. She needs to be dragged or carried out, and she kicks up a fuss the whole way. She doesn't grab her backpack either, so if Kesara doesn't pick it up for her it gets left behind. But while she's a tough, hardy kid, she's no match for a girl twice her age, and so try as she might she isn't able to escape.

By the time they're well into their walk, she's mostly tired herself out, and her struggles are more perfunctory than anything else - a kick here, a lash-out with her fingernails there, an attempt at a bite if one of Kesara's hands gets too close to her mouth. She'll still need to be restrained and dragged along, or else she'll try to duck away and take off on her own, but it should at least be a little bit easier now. Still, that doesn't stop her from looking up at Kesara with clear hate and malice in her eyes. She doesn't want to go with this girl. She doesn't want these strange, grabby people; she'd been doing fine on her own, with the shadows and the dark that remind her so much of Mama. If she knew any swear words, she'd be spitting them out right now.

"No!"

It's been a popular word today.

The unfortunate reality is that, even as Lilly tires out, so does Kesara. She's in no great condition to begin with - her mind might have been in Serindia, but her body is malnourished from months of Norfinbury - and fit as she is for a child her age, strength is not her main gift. They make the most agonizingly minor of progress, as Kesara struggles between carrying her bags, Lilly's bag, and sometimes Lilly herself, and it is a miracle that this late into the morning, she's not yet bitten Lilly back.

"If you say no one more time - "

She whirls around on Lilly as she hisses it, her free hand bunched in a fist. She's not used to being so angry. Not angry in this way, angry at someone who is weaker than her. Anger she can act on. If she wasn't worried about Lilly, in her red-eyed, affected state, going off to do who-knows-what to God-knows-whom...

"You're not going anywhere! You're not going anywhere until this passes and we know what's the matter with you!"

"No!" Of course she had to say it again, after that threat. She's a stubborn thing. "No, no, no, no--" But it's all words and no action, now. She lashes out at Kesara with one red-striped hand, but only manages to ineffectually bat at her arm.

Luckily for both of them, they appear to be coming up on a house.

It would take more strength than Lilly has to get through Kesara's good coat, made for the Serindian desert, but Kesara jerks in alarm nonetheless. Who knows what the girl will be able to do once whatever is certainly going to happen, happens? Maybe being locked in with her for the night is not such a good idea...

Even as the thought comes it frightens her, clears her head for a moment. That is really not a thing that any civilized creature would do. It scares her enough to soften her tone in guilt.

"Look, there is a house. You don't want to stay out, do you? Come on, you can scream all you like in the house."

Lilly growls, but Kesara's words do accomplish one thing - her eyes are fixed on the house now. She even lightens up with the struggling a little, getting her legs underneath herself to walk properly. She'll still try to yank away from Kesara's grip, but it seems like they have a shared destination now.

It's much easier that way, and Kesara counts her blessings, and eases her pulling, and they manage to walk up to the doorway in a kind of agreeable order. She doesn't fool herself into thinking it's being softer that's convinced Lilly to behave better, but - maybe she's tired enough that she does, a little bit.

She pauses at the door to address the younger child. "You can do whatever you please inside, but you mustn't - please will you not hide from me? Something dangerous is about to happen in the town. I can just feel it."

Better not mention to the girl that she is the something dangerous, however.

Fuck that idea - hiding sounds great right now. She gives Kesara only the barest of glances as they stand there, preferring instead to manhandle the doorknob (she still has trouble with doorknobs sometimes) until it opens. Then she zips inside, and as soon as she locates the couch, she disappears behind it.

Luckily for Kesara, there's not many places to hide here, and Lilly is aiming more for feeling secure in a den-like space than actually keeping her location secret. So when Kesara steps into the room after her, Lilly pokes her head out, peering at her intently.

"Dang'rous?"

Explain.

Kesara is about to yell when Lilly zips past her, but the girl reappears before she can work up to a proper howl of outrage, so what comes out is more an indignant squeak. All right, all right. A secure space, she can handle. She drops to her knees on the side of the couch, where she can easily move to block off at least end.

"Yes. Dangerous. Because you went in the hole." Clearly she disapproves of that. "So now any moment you might go mad and try to torture or kill me."

Them's just the facts, kiddo.

Sounds like a whole lot of bullshit, Kesara. But hey, maybe if Kesara is scared of her, she won't grab her again. She bears her teeth and snarls, trying to look as fearsome as possible.

The effect is probably at least somewhat ruined when she immediately follows it up by asking, "Food?"

[log] Kicking and Screaming [closed]

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