apocalypsehowcomm

It starts as Katrina is on her way out of ADI HQ after a shift. She stops into the kitchenette on that floor, looking to grab the tin of sardines she brought precisely for after her shift, and as soon as she's inside, the air itself seems to change. The sensation of being in an underground lab is clear, pressing in on her from all sides. This is a cage. This has become a cage.

Whirling toward the door, she leans forward, ready to attack anyone who might come in. But she finds the door is closed, and that's even worse. They're watching her, surely. They want to observe her like she's an animal, play with her like she's prey. This is how humans will kill her entire species, she's sure of it. Yes, they want to learn about sirens-- in order to exterminate them. This is how it started. This is what brought Ryn and the others to land. Humans captured Donna, and the others went to save her and get revenge.

Only this time, it's Katrina they've captured. She hisses, keeping her teeth bared as she looks around the room for anyone at all, or any weak spot she can use to get out. It soon becomes clear this is a very strong cage, and that's when survival cedes to betrayal in Katrina's mind.

"You lie." Sharp, angry, followed by a hiss. "You lie! You say you help me. Now you trap me! I get out, I find you, and I kill you!"

Edited 2022-03-06 19:08 (UTC)

Mercy's walking by the kitchenette when she hears someone yelling. 'I kill you' comes through loud and clear, and her eyes widen in concern. Is there some sort of fight going on. She'd been on her way out, but this warrants some sort of intervention.

"Ain't no killing being done here now!" She throws open the door to confront-

It's just one woman. One angry, frightened-looking woman. Mercy's brows furrow as she looks for whomever the other combatant might be. Or... maybe a phone in the woman's hand?

A human comes into the room. Katrina whirls to face her. Not a stranger, but not someone Katrina truly knows. She's seen her around ADI HQ, but all that means is she could be working with them.

"You. With them." She hisses and keeps her teeth bared, gaze locked on Mercy. "You, human. You want kill my people! Take our food, use our blood."

She looks around for a weapon— in the illusion, they have taken her spear. All she finds is a metal napkin holder, which she can certainly use to do damage.

"Free me or I kill her!" This she says to whoever sent her, because if this woman were here to torture or kill Katrina, she would've done so by now.

And if Katrina weren't sincerely starting to come around on humans, she would've already attacked. Good circumsrances, all in all.

Mercy is far better equipped than a napkin holder. She puts her hand on the hilt of her dirk, ready to draw it if need be. "Ain't no need to go spilling blood today, Sister. I ain't here to hurt you. Or... use you for anything. Don't know rightly what you are." She looks human, as far as Mercy can tell, but looks can be very deceiving in this place.

"Just calm down. No one's trapping you. You're in the break room. You need help finding the way out?"

A weapon. Katrina zeros in on that and thinks— maybe this is a trap. Maybe they're provoking her to kill, so they can feel justified in hurting her and her kind. It would be just like them, to play on their fellows' emotions.

The words "break room" slip in through the cracks in the illusion, which still feels so real to Katrina. Of course, no prison worth keeping someone like her in would give her a weapon, even if it were just a shiny rock. Or, upon closer inspection, the flimsy metal of a napkin holder. Her reflection on it is clear, and somehow, that too helps tear away at whatever is happening.

"Break room," she repeats, quieter than before and much less hostile. She looks at the woman. "You call me 'sister'. I not know you."

But ADI's other-worlders are her tribe. She hisses, frustrated.

"Sister. We need go outside."

Out of this place, whatever it is or isn't. Katrina just wants out of this human building.

That's far more encouraging. Whatever visions have hold of the other woman, Mercy doesn't entirely trust that they're gone, but she takes her hand away from the hilt of her blade for now. "Okay. I'll check there ain't no one coming. You follow on. Entrance ain't far off."

Maybe the chill air would do good to snap her new friend out of whatever this is. She gives Katrina one last look before turning her back on the other woman to peek out the door. She knows this is probably stupid, but it's showing trust, isn't it?

This sister gives Katrina her back. She is not going to attack Katrina. Nor was there anyone else here who would take the opening should Katrina follow, and this room... it's just the break room. The worst thing that ADI could have put here is a camera.

Putting down the napkin holder, Katrina walks backwards to make sure there's no one behind her. She stops a few inches away from Mercy.

"No others in room. I follow you. I watch for any follow us."

Sister. She likes the sound of that. Did she have sisters in her birth tribe? If she did, they wouldn't see her as such now, would they? But it doesn't matter. This human is her tribemate now. Her sister. Katrina will protect her.

Mercy can feel the presence at her back, and for a moment, her throat closes and she has to blink hard against tears. When was the last time she stood like this with another? The fight with Brother Sindri? Ciaran at her back as the Abbey had burned around them. Choking smoke and heat bearing down.

She takes a gulp of air and nods to herself, keeping her voice low. "Aye. Low and steady ahead." Mercy starts off. There's no real danger here, she doesn't think, but she acts as though there is, staying alert and checking the corner before she makes for the door outside. There's only the receptionist in the lobby who gives Mercy an odd look. She motions for the person to look away, and they do, thankfully, eyes down, pretending they haven't noticed anything.

As soon as they're out the door, Mercy turns toward Katrina, still speaking low. "We need to get further off? Ain't sure what the danger is, but you got more an eye for it than me right now. I follow your lead now, Sister."

The farther they get from the break room, the more relief Katrina feels. With this sister at her back, it's easy work getting outside.

Katrina straightens and breathes in deep. On the exhale, her mind clears, despite the lingering effects of the adrenaline rush from back in the break room.

Frowning as she looks at the sky, she says, "Danger not real." She looks at Mercy now. "Was in mind. Is... is safe. You help me... You see break room when I see prison?"

"Aye. It- well, it happened to me, too, not long ago. I'm sorry this place got to you. There's something right sinister filling the air in this place. Has been since we got snowed in." Mercy shakes her head slightly. "Don't know what we can do to clear it, but you ain't the first, and I don't think you'll be the last affected by that.

"My name's Mercy, by the by."

That's comforting. Not the first, not the last, not any weaker of mind than anyone else.

She nods. "I am Katrina."

There's a pause, where she visibly hesitates on what she means to say next. What they went through was brief and ultimately nothing at all, but it also wasn't nothing. Mercy could have left her there, assured that Katrina would eventually snap out of it, knowing she would be safe because it was just a break room. And yet, she chose to come and help her, even though Katrina was ready and willing to kill her while under the effects of... of whatever or whoever is doing this.

Nodding again, she decides to say it. "Mercy is sister. Mercy is strong, not fear what not see. You--" she points, and keeps voicing as she makes the signs for it "--are my sister."

Oh... Something tightens in Mercy's throat. She's only just met this woman, but this is- Sisters. She'd only used the term out of habit. She doesn't entirely understand the hand signs, but Mercy mimics them back at Katrina. "Sister. You're strong, too, Katrina, and seem like you got sharp eyes. Wouldn't mind having my back to you when there's real trouble around."

Her eyes turn toward the darkening sky. "You hungry? I was planning to fetch food from the market for making dinner. Wouldn't mind having you at the table, if you're keen on it."

Yes. Katrina is strong. And now that she knows she can trust Mercy to know what to do in a dangerous situation, Katrina can give a firm, confident nod. "Sister."

It's as good as an oath now.

And considering this weird hallucination interrupted Katrina's post shift snacking, the invitation is perfectly timed.

"Yes. We eat together."

She can't help but feel warmth in her chest. Even among her siren tribe, she sometimes felt like an outsider. No one ever did anything to cause it, but it was there, in her eyes, a different color from the others. This sister is a human, and never once showed distrust of her. Acceptance, without biases... it's very good.

"Come, Mercy. We go buy, and then we eat."

"Aye!" It's an easy agreement as she sets off, her new friend in tow. "Seeing as we didn't get much introduction... you want to tell me about yourself? Seems you got a fighting spirit to you. I got learning that way, but the healing arts is where I spend most of my time these days."

The way Mercy immediately follows, the way she knew how to tread amid danger... it reminds Katrina of when she led her tribe. Their strongesr fighter, their sharpest mind for leadership. She kept them safe for years, until they became entangled with humans.

This is her tribe now, she reminds herself. This is her tribe for now. She may not be the alpha here or back home, but she can still be a leader, a protector.

"Mercy is healer. I am warrior. For my people, strength of body mean we live. But without healer, many die. We also have healer."

Eliza, who is also fierce if the need arises. Katrina feels a pang of homesickness, but it passes quickly.

"She heal with plant and song. She know all our song. ADI humans not have song for healing."

But, her gaze asks, does Mercy?

"Songs? Yeah! Yes! You got- your people know the songs of the Spring Tide? That's my god." Now, anyway. Mercy puts a hand to her chest, looking to the other woman with a sense of hope she hasn't felt for months now. "I ain't got real cleric training, yet, but that's where I was headed afore I got brought here. I was going to learn the ways of the herbalists. They sing and whisper magic into their tinctures. It's- I been trying to do that here, but I didn't learn enough before coming. And they said trying to use magic takes hurting people."

Seeing Mercy excited, showing her willingness to become proficient, her attempts at honing her craft... she is more effusive than sirens are, but she cares, she wants to be her best for the whole. Katrina finds comfort in that. It's as familiar as things will be here, she thinks.

Thoughtfully, she frowns. "I do not know a god. Ocean is our Mother. But we know tide, season, many song. I not sing here, for why you say. Hurt for no reason is wrong."

If it comes to life or death, though-- that's a reason. Then it's okay to sing the song that ensnares.

"Eliza teach you, if she come here."

"Eliza? Hope I get to meet her someday." A pause. "If you think she'd like being here? I know it ain't the best place for some folk. How about you? It's... strange being here for me, mostly. Like I said, I was going off to start my training as a healer with the Spring Tide. But they got training here. Think the thing I miss most is my family.

"And magic that don't got a price to pay in blood and fear."

Katrina thinks most of the sirens in her tribe would feel the way she herself does: tense, suspicious, and continually aware of how much danger they're in back home, as a species.

"I miss my family also." For all that she feels sometimes like she's still an outsider, they're her family. They welcomed her when she had no one else.

"I miss ocean. Swim in siren body. But... not want to feed Entities. If ADI find way for change, not feed Entities, I do it."

So, really, she and Mercy agree on this.

"I want hunt Entities. Kill them. Go back to my ocean." But then... then she'll miss the tribe she's found here. No winning, it seems like.

"I hope they can find a way. Or we can, seeing as they don't seem terrible interested in trying to find something." Very little compromise, that's what she's taken away from various meetings in her time here. "What's the ocean like when it's good? I been living in my mountains my whole life afore coming here. Wouldn't've made a pilgrimage to the Western Shores for another year or more into my training back home.

"Ended up getting caught by some kelpie things near as soon as I arrived. Horse monsters that drag you into the water for a drowning. They caught a bunch of us and wrapped us up in magic skins that turned us into seals. Can't say it's the way I would've wanted to see the water here."

l o g

prisoners of consciousness - for Mercy @graveyounglady

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