Tell me how hungry are you? How weak you must feel...

[sarkraticmethod]

The secondary quarantine zone is not exactly buzzing with excitement... More like nervous apprehension. That’s sort of the point, given the current state of affairs (the local news isn’t exactly a nice thing to be watching right now) and a sad lack of recent updates via the journals. A few (well one) know better and are quietly placating the masses

Comments

[definitivestep]

Sam's not enjoying being useless. It's just a very good thing he hasn't come down with anything, because the only think that would make him more miserable right now is being useless and sick.

He's been mostly staying in his own room, but he can't help but notice the footsteps in the hall, and sticks his head out with a frown. "Is there something wrong?" Besides the general plague and possibility of the world ending at some point in the near future, but that's almost normal for this universe, so...

[ashatteredangel]

Natasha freezes briefly the same way a rabbit might freeze just before it springs off towards its hole, her muscles completely tense if only for just a second, but it goes away when she turns to see who just spoke.

"Nah, nothin's wrong," she shrugs. "Just nervous is all. Everything goin' on and there ain't nothin' anyone can do about it. Gets me a little tense."

That's mostly the truth, honestly, which is more than she can say for most of the things that come out of her mouth when it comes to her personally.

[definitivestep]

He can see that tension. The way she looks like she's about to make a run for it or something. He frowns a little more, but it eases quickly as she answers him, offering a bit of a smile instead. "I can't blame you for that. The atmosphere up here isn't exactly calming..."

He steps forward, just out of the doorway, because it seems odd to be having this conversation with him halfway in his room and her in the hall. It also seems odd to be having this conversation when he doesn't know her name... "I'm Sam Tyler."

[ashatteredangel]

"I'm Natasha. No last name. I had one at one point, but it stopped mattering," she says with a small shrug. Yes, that sounds like a perfectly sane thing to say. She is reasonably sane most of the time, but sometimes, especially when she's nervous, the breaks in her mind start showing.

"Yeah, I can see that," she shakes her head, referring to the previous comment, and somehow regaining control of her words. "Just got here a few weeks ago and then this has to go and happen. Heck of a greetin', really."

[definitivestep]

Sam blinks a little. No, that's... not exactly something a sane person's likely to say. Then again, there are plenty of people from the basement who don't even begin to qualify as sane, and he's not exactly one to judge sometimes...

"I wouldn't take it personally. I got here and an earthquake happened. And a friend of mine was attacked by a... monster not long after he got here. It's some sort of initiation, I think." We'll not mention that Jack was killed by that monster. He got better!

[ashatteredangel]

"Gosh, that's a funny way of welcomin' someone with open arms," she says, frowning. It's meant to be sarcastic, but it's kind of hard to tell with Natasha sometimes. Sarcasm doesn't really come naturally to her, so it would really just sound like she was stating the obvious if it weren't for the look on her face.

"You're not from around here," she accesses, after a second, tilting her head to the side. Obviously. "Sounds like you're from somewhere overseas. Then again, there's an awful lot of people from that part of the world here, I've noticed, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

Why that's true, the world may never know.

[definitivestep]

"This universe has a very odd concept of welcome in general, as far as I can tell," Sam says with a vague smile. The smile grows a little at her next comment. Yes, it's a bit obvious that he's not from around here, but he won't hold it against her. "No. I'm from Manchester. You don't sound like you're from Chicago either..."

It's not quite a question, just something to keep her talking. Keep her distracted from worrying and pacing, because that's not good for anyone. The amount of tension up here in the quarantine area could definitely stand to be taken down a few notches.

[ashatteredangel]

"Louisiana," she says, by way of explanation. Which isn't a lie, because that really is where she's from even if she has been back there in decades... Beofre the Fall. "Not exactly as far away as Manchester though. What brings you here to this place? Just drawn to danger?" And there's a little teasing smirk on her face. It's not meant to be serious, although if it were true, it wouldn't surprise her. A lot of people she's known are... But then again, a lot of the people she's known were the wards of other angels and that goes without saying.

She doesn't mind talking for much the same reason. Talking prevents thinking and preventing thinking prevents her from going slowly mad. Not that she's already been there a few times over, but she's trying to pretend she has some semblance of sanity to her. It works, most of the time.

[definitivestep]

Sam would say that he's not drawn to danger. And, strictly speaking, this is true. It's more like danger is drawn to him, and unlike a sane and reasonable person with a well-developed sense of self-preservation, he can't just run away from it. This is why he requires a guardian angel. Well, that and he's with Torchwood now, which is as much a guarantee of constant danger as it's possible to get.

"It wasn't intentional." The jumping off a roof part was. The ending up in Chicago was not. "I used to be a police officer, so danger's not exactly new for me..." Just not this kind of danger.

[ashatteredangel]

"That's the thing with this city, I guess," she shrugs absently. "People end up here without meanin' to. You can call it fate or you can call it somethin' else, but people who are meant to be here are gonna wind up here. There's just somethin' special about this place."

That... Shouldn't have sounded nearly as cryptic as it did, because it was meant to be some nugget of wisdom or something like that, but it fell flat with her tone.

She wouldn't want to include herself in that lot, honestly, but she's firmly convinced that she's here for a reason other than Luther's whims, and she has a good feeling about what that reason is, even if it's not a reason anyone other than her would find pleasant.

[definitivestep]

Yes, Sam is mentally filing her into the group of basement people who are "not all there but perfectly nice". There's an ever-growing group of them, considering... well. Basement. Rift. It doesn't lead to sanity and stability.

He gives her a slight, albeit confused smile.

"What brought you here?" She doesn't seem like she came through the Rift, somehow. The way she talks, she's too... comfortable in this universe, somehow.

[ashatteredangel]

"Someone thought it would be a good idea," she says absently. It's probably really good for Sam that she didn't think to lie. "I didn't think so at first, but I like it here now that I've gotten used to it. I don't... Want to leave, actually. Or I didn't until this happened and now I'm not sure what I want anymore."

It's very confusing for her... Disorienting almost and it's quite obvious given her rather lost expression... Not that her expression isn't generally lost, but... Still.