The village in the park, Friday morning

[intotheout]

Tip had headed for the park by the time the sun was setting yesterday. The dorms did not look secure, so she was relieved when Peridot's tip had turned out to pan out. Sure, the place was ramshackle as all get out, and kind of stank, besides, but Tip had spent a summer living in a car with an alien while driving across the southern US. She could deal with ramshackle and stinky.

She took pictures of everything. She wasn't sure why, it just felt worthwhile to document it all.

Plus, you know, it distracted her a bit from thinking about the giant, creepy, busted up Tip statue out by the Post Office. She was pretty sure she could just see the top of her own head out over the remains of trees and buildings.

Yeee.

[Villagers and refugees ahoy!]

Comments

[gettingoldernow]

Peter had slept very briefly, but was mostly running on magic now anyway; he caught sight of the strange girl and came closer, outwardly open and friendly, though he ran through several spells in his head.

"You're one of the new folk. You made it here okay? Have you had any food or water?"

Be thankful he'd met you before Hannibal, Tip.

[intotheout]

"Um. Yeah, I guess. I'm one of the people from the . . . other Fandom, I guess." This was so weird. "I have some granola bars, do you want one?" She had more than that. You didn't live on vending machine leftovers for months without learning to hoard food at least a little.

[gettingoldernow]

Peter smiled. "Keep it; I'm good." He held out his hand. "Peter."

[intotheout]

"Gratuity." Tip shook his hand a little gingerly. He didn't look like he'd bathed in awhile. "What happened here?"

[gettingoldernow]

Peter blinked at her name, then connected the dots. "Oh. Sorry; I didn't recognize you." She was younger and a lot cleaner than any Tip he'd known. He gave her the best smile he could.

Then he spread his hands. "This happened. Not sure what it was, really. You start losing your memories, your self, everything. Eventually, you're hollow. Then you become...something else. There's not a lot of us left these days."

[intotheout]

"You know me?" That was disconcerting. "You mean -- you knew the woman who turned into a statue, right?"

The creepy statue Hanna said tried to kill her. Awesome.

[gettingoldernow]

"Yeah. Not very well." Peter shrugged. "I don't think. You should stay away from her, and all the others. They're dangerous."

[intotheout]

"Yeah, I got that part. She tried to smoosh my roommate." Rude. "So that's what you guys do? Just . . . hide here and avoid the nasty things and wait to turn into one?"

That seemed like a terrible plan.

[gettingoldernow]

Peter scowled at her. "We try to keep each other safe and alive one more day. Maybe it's not glamorous, but we're all we've got."

[intotheout]

"But fighting bad stuff is what Fandom does," Tip pointed out.

Sorry, Peter, she was 14. She might have a little more experience with not being generally immortal than some of her peers, but she'd also managed to almost single-handedly defeat an alien invasion, so.

[gettingoldernow]

"Yeah," Peter agreed. "And these days, so is dying. We've managed what we can. Killed as many of our friends and family as we could before they outnumbered us," he said bluntly. "You know how much time and work it takes just to manage enough food and shelter to keep us alive?"

[intotheout]

"Are you sure?" Tip grumbled. "You can't even remember what actually happened."

[gettingoldernow]

"I remember enough." Peter crossed his arms. "I remember what happened after. I remember friends losing their memories. Losing pieces of themselves, one at a time or all at once. Their bodies and minds twisting. That version of you out there, you think she's imaginary? You think you want to try talking her back to herself?"

He gestured around the village. "Or maybe you want to try finding a way to grow more food that's not toxic, filter more water without the beasts on the coastline killing you, build better homes and stitch together clothing, all of it using just what we can scavenge?"

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna had been scavenging, and trying to follow the trail of someone she'd seen. But she'd lost that person along the edge of the Preserve, not being willing to enter into the forest with things as they were now.

She came closer at a jog, a backpack on her back with canned goods she'd managed to find. "Tip! Did you have lunch yet? I found some soup."

[intotheout]

"Ooo, nice! I just have my usual granola bars and trail mix and dried fruit and some water bottles and juice."

Tip had a go-bag, yes. Well stocked with protein-and-energy foods and hydration equipment, as well as some first aid supplies and a large stock of dental hygiene supplies. (Not only did it keep her breath fresh, after all, it doubled as rations for Boov.) It weighed kind of a lot, especially back home when she'd had school books in it, too, but she was used to that by now.

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna was looking around at the village, watching the people with a slight frown of concentration, then turning back to Tip and nodding. "Do you think the others here would accept food? Some of them look like it's been a while." She put her bow down on a nearby rock, and let out a breath. "Juice would be good, I think."

She really, really hoped this wasn't going to go on for too long, though.

"Has anyone said what caused all of this?"

[intotheout]

"Doesn't seem like anyone remembers," Tip said. She swung her bag off her back and dug through it. "You want apple or cranberry?" Orange tended not to be too shelf-stable. "You could try offering it around. Just be ready for a lecture on how terrible everything is so they can't fight anything."

That wasn't exactly what Peter had said.

"Or they might try to rope you into only looking for supplies and not trying to actually solve anything."

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"Cranberry, please." Hanna sighed at Tip's information, then said, "We can do both, after we eat? Go looking for food. But look for a way to end things, too. I still have my weapons." She considered Tip, who was much sneakier than people gave her credit for. "I have guns, too, if you want one. I don't know how well they would work on some of the stranger things-- people-- but they would at least slow down the ones that aren't huge yet." She held up a few cans. "Chicken noodle? Beef and rice?"

[intotheout]

"I have a gun," Tip said quietly. It was a Boov gun, which she found so personally horrifying she was loathe to use it -- but it worked now, thanks to Peridot, and if she never turned it higher than "comasleep" she could pretend she was being nice, right?

She pulled out a little bottle of cranberry juice and passed it over.

"I actually have an idea about one of the huge ones. The one that looks like me. If it's -- if I'm right about why she's a statue. Kind of depends if Fandom has as literary a sense of humor as it seems to."

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"You do?" Hanna brightened, taking the bottle of juice and handing over a can of soup, then frowned as she opened up the bottle. "She's so big. And it seemed like she was made of rock, or metal." She bit her lip, then asked, "Are you certain you can do this? It is... very odd." To meet another person who was you, and yet not.

[intotheout]

"Take myself down?" Tip shrugged. "As far as I can tell, she's everything I already hate about myself. So why not? She's missing an arm, so I figure she can break. And it was hard to tell through the fog, but I think she's -- cracked. All over. With a big one through here." She tapped her chest with the palm of her hand like she was getting ready to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna nodded, considering that, then bit her lip. "You said-- literary? Are you thinking of a story, about giants?" Or something else?

Quickly sipping her juice, Hanna looked around for a campfire and a pot to hold the soup. "Is there someone in charge I should give the extra soups to?"

[intotheout]

"Someone in charge? Probably. Look for the oldest white guy. Dunno about whether you should give any soup to him, though." Sorry, Hanna, Tip was getting her salt aaaaaaalllll over you. "And I meant more like -- metaphorically. Like, the other me closed herself off when things went bad and now she's literally a statue, you know?"

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

"Ohhh." Hanna winced, because that sounded -- far too sad. "So. You have an idea, of how to -- make her shatter?" She quirked an eyebrow at Tip's comment about the soup, and said, "Well, maybe trade, rather than give. If you think it would be wasted..."

[intotheout]

"Wasted, hoarded." She had such confidence in leaders. "I think I do. We need to hit the crack. Probably with a hammer?"