(Untitled)

[practiced]

DATE: December 6th.
CHARACTER(S): Everyone!
SUMMARY: Shoot, scavenge, survive. It's going to be a long week.
LOCATION: The Fort of Dead Shambly Merchants.
WARNINGS: Zombies and appropriate zombie-type violence likely.
FORMAT: Action, prose: commenter's choice. Go crazy!

Comments

[twowheeldevice]

That roaring sound in this corner of the fort? Would be Kanaya's chainsaw as it rips through what feels like the umpteenth zombie but Kanaya knows is her ninth. She's ventured out under the pretenses of "supplies scavenging", but her own little corner of the world back home had been plagued by an undead infestation of its own. So really, this should be all in a day's work.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem that way. Though she's trying to keep up her impassive facade, her arms have started to weaken and her head has started to swim. Unsure of whether she can dine on human blood instead of troll, Kanaya hasn't fed since arriving on the trail. It's starting to take its toll.

But until she drops or backup arrives, she'll just wipe her forehead, fix her bangs, and keep on sawing.

[sarcasticseer]

It was the chainsaw that really got Rose's attention. As weapons of the pioneer trail went, it wasn't exactly standard issue. Plus it was just so loud in what was becoming an almost peaceful sort of pre-technology silence, that it felt...grating, somehow.

So of course, she had to investigate.

When she reached the scene of slaughter, she paused, standing on the edge of the violence to watch Kanaya dispatching one of the creatures with what seemed a very atypical weapon for someone as reserved as the troll girl. Although perhaps it made sense in a troll way she didn't understand.

"Having fun?" She asked, leaning her shoulder lightly against a nearby wagon to fend off the dizziness that seemed to come up from her illness every time she stopped moving.

[twowheeldevice]

Kanaya looked over, a bit light-headed herself, and did her best not to react at the sight of Rose out of bed. A cool, stoic disapproval would suffice, she supposed. It beat the alternative, "Freaking Out Making A Fuss And Generally Abandoning Decorum".

"I'm not doing this for amusement," she replied, turning on a nearby zombie to attack it before it had a chance to do the same. "Nor did I speak in jest when I advised you to stay abed."

[sarcasticseer]

Rose seemed completely immune to Kanaya's disapproval, though she did smirk at the description. "There are worse things to do, I suppose."

She held up her wand and energy arced from one tip to the other, lancing out to burst away the top half of a zombie a few feet to the left of Kanaya. Several others nearby turned towards her, and Rose sighed, pushing off the wagon.

"I am not going to hide in a wagon while this is going on, Kanaya." Rose's voice was firm, insistent, and for the moment even hiding the fact that she felt ill. "And you are hardly in better shape than I am."

[twowheeldevice]

"My species is raised to engage in combat," Kanaya shot back over the roar of her chainsaw, hurrying over to the zombies approaching Rose. Not on her watch they wouldn't! "Despite our mutual indisposition, I am still the hardier here.

"Defend the wagon, if you must," she continued, forcing back a wince as her target splattered across the front of her clothes. (At least she'd changed into period clothing first! No lady'd let a dress like her red one be ruined.) "But it's unwise to venture farther if you could drop at any time."

[sarcasticseer]

Rose huffed as Kanaya came rushing over to her rescue, raising her wand and vaporizing another of the shamblers as it entreated her with offers of boxes of bullets. "I think you'd almost rather I'd drop. Then you could keep fussing over me."

Rose didn't mean to sound bitter, but she hated being sick. She hated every aspect of being sick but being dependent on other people because of it was the worst. John and Kanaya had been taking care of her because she couldn't. Bluh.

"I don't need help with these."

[twowheeldevice]

"This isn't an indication that you do." Kanaya didn't budge, save to aggrieve the nearest zombie. "Nor do I understand how a young lady so intent on drawing the worst possible conclusions could be so reckless as to venture afield when recovering from illness. We had a whole discussion about this, if you'll recall."

She has to pause her rambling to fend off an attack. "If anything happens to you after we discussed that pamphlet, our credibility will suffer."

[sarcasticseer]

Rose bristled faintly as Kanaya promptly ignored the fact that she didn't need help, even if she did. And the next bolt of magic from her wands was perhaps a bit too powerful, burning a zombie to ash...and the two behind it as well. She had to pause and catch a breath after, and the glow around her flickered.

"I'm already sick, Kanaya, it's not as though I can get sick twice at the same time." Rose knew that wasn't strictly true, but Kanaya's information about human biology was lacking enough that she might get away with it. "And I promsie not to hurt your publishing chances by collapsing."

She did lean against the wagon again, though.

[twowheeldevice]

"I may be operating under a misconception regarding human physiology," Kanaya admitted, stepping back to collect herself as the nearby zombies regrouped. Switching her makeupkind strife syllabus back to a tube of lipstick for a brief moment, she reapplied the black gloss any true lady would never leave home without and tried to gather both her thoughts and the proper phrasing. "But I was unaware humans could choose the time and places in which exhaustion overcame them.

"I'm not trying to be difficult," she insisted, twisting her lipstick back into the chainsaw. "It's just - goodness, Miss Lalonde, what does it take for a lady to convey worry around here?"

I'm sorry this is so late.

[sarcasticseer]

Rose just sighed. "I am not going to collapse, Kanaya." She steadied herself, pushing off the wagon, and honestly looked almost healthy for a moment. Well, as healthy as someone with a vague black glow and sickly sheen can look, anyway. "I have been feeling better for days, I am mostly fine."

And then she smirked. "I think if you haven't suitably conveyed your worry by now, you may have more of it than necessary. You've been non-verbally screaming it for days. The sentimentality is nice enough, I suppose, but the mothering gets a bit tired."