does it cause me scarring if the words stay true

[23rd]

Who: Laura Kinney & OPEN
What: Laura leads a busy life. Also, fuck the police.
Where: Specifically mentioned are Aspic, the Arena in Griss Twist, and the Spatters, but she can be anywhere.
When: Ruudary 19th-22nd
Notes: Laura is a highly unsocial character -- I WANT YOUR CR /GRABS HEADS but like, she won't strike up conversations with strangers and she won't say very much at a time if she does speak, so uh. There's that. Doing Stuff she can respond to is probs better.
Warnings: Violence is very possible! Otherwise, to be added as needed.

Laura is not bored. Her days are too full for that, although if asked, she'd have very little to show for it -- because most of it she can't tell anyone about. She leads people to think that she doesn't do much except wander and acquire money from some mysterious sources -- people probably think she's hooking again, but she isn't.

She prefers to get food from the various street vendors, especially down in the city's center; to be polite, they're more colourful than restaurants that tend to play down unique flavours to attract human Earth-native customers. Of course Baedal has very little in the way of food regulations so God only knows what all they're actually serving, but she is neither squeamish nor easily scared, so she tries everything. Every time, she asks for peppers or hot sauce; they sometimes try to talk her out of it, it... is never very successful. Sometimes she stays and chats with them (or rather, lets them chat at her), and she hears a lot of interesting things this way. Small things, like the right way to season wyrmbeast meat, and bigger ones -- missing people. Who's been arrested for what. ... dognappings.

She stops a purse-snatcher in Aspic -- by running after him, breaking his arm, and driving her clawed fist into the wall by his head. He drops the purse and wets himself before the Sheriff gets there and reads her the riot act over it (apparently authority figures dislike it when people take the law into their own hands; who knew?) but she more or less just shrugs and walks off.

She has started visiting the Arena. She doesn't participate and she doesn't bet, but she watches and thinks about it. That kind of organized bloodsport makes her sick -- it's hard for her to extricate her memories of what was done to her -- but she tells herself these people chose this... until she sees the brands on some of them. Hands. Chests. Faces, sometimes. She leaves angry and sometimes she picks fights that she never loses, and after which she never has any bruises. The memory of scars is not enough; there is enough rage and pain in her to flood the city streets, but she does nothing about it.

She has a friend in the Spatters -- a teenage xenian girl who was born a Stranger, her family having refused to integrate into normal Baedal life. Laura visits her a lot, listens to the way she talks about how things are there -- and more importantly, she gets a couple of interesting names. Corruption on this scale can never be stopped by picking off a couple bad apples (they are all bad apples, nobody has ever been able to convince her otherwise) but it's still a good idea to have specific names and faces in mind. It's still imperative to be aware.

The more she sees of Baedal, the less she likes it.

Comments

[controlledvariable]

"You're welcome," the obvious awkwardness kind of makes her want to hug Laura, but she has a feeling that might end with Steph bleeding, so she doesn't try.

"Wanna get outta here?" She always feels a little too exposed when she's on street level, like the costume means she has to be lurking in the shadows somewhere even though she never felt like that as the Spoiler.

[23rd]

Laura glances back at the Arena, then out at the street. This would be easier if she could neatly articulate how she feels right now, like most people are, generally speaking, capable of -- 'I'm sad,' 'I'm angry.' With her, she feels things she still doesn't know how to name, and it's frustrating to have to dwell on it for very long.

So, yes, she does want to get out of here.

"Yes," she says, and starts walking. They may very well wind up on rooftops again, because Laura is... like that, yes.

[controlledvariable]

Steph walks with Laura, letting her lead the way and keeping silent for a little while. She didn't miss that look, but she's weighing up whether or not to comment on it. Eventually she decides to, because she's... Steph.

"It's awful, isn't it?" said quietly, with a sideways glance at Laura, Steph's mask making her expression unreadable.

[23rd]

Laura's expression being nearly always unreadable, they're evenly matched there. She's silent for a while while she tries, in vain, to sort out how she feels about that. When she can't, she decides punching things would be easier, but she can't do that, either. Words are inadequate but they're the only tool she has right now.

Feels bad, man.

She does end up climbing a fire escape to get out of the street, because it's not safe to talk about these things on street level. Even then, she keeps her voice down.

"The branded ones are criminals." Steph is new; she may not have heard about that aspect of Baedal's justice system. The deeply fucked up part of it, like that's not every part, but that -- especially that.

[controlledvariable]

Steph would probably offer to spar if she thought it'd help Laura feel better, even though it'd most likely end badly for Steph.

She follows Laura up the fire escape, letting her take her time to get her thoughts together to answer the question. Her own opinions of it are pretty simple: it's awful and if she could do something about it, she would.

"Oh," her eyes widen and then narrow in anger, hands clenched into fists at her sides, from the reaction it's clear she wasn't aware of that little tidbit, "They-- but-- They can't do that."

Obviously they can, but Steph is shocked enough to have a bit of a childish reaction. That's not a justice system.

[23rd]

"They choose it," she says, mildly, and what's in between the lines there says more: while they aren't strictly forced to go there, the ones there often feel like they have no other choice, or that it's the best of their other, more terrible options. That's a bit more nuance than she's capable of expressing through words, even if she understands it on an intellectual level. She empathises with that so much, it makes her skin crawl.

The branding itself is barbaric enough. It's not just magic they use; it's often an iron or a knife.

[controlledvariable]

"They shouldn't have to." Fighting in an arena shouldn't even be an option, it makes Steph feel sick and angry and now she wants to punch something. "Normal people don't brand criminals, they put them in prison and try to help them reform. They definitely don't let them fight."

And that's not even considering the fact that some of these criminals may only be so because they questioned the militia. If Steph thought too hard about that she might do something stupid like rushing into the Arena to try to free everyone.

[23rd]

"This is what the city is like."

She is very aware there are worse places to be -- but them being any worse doesn't make Baedal any better, and she just can't find it in her to ever settle down while she's here. It is not, necessarily, the entrapment that has her looking for a way out, although that too -- she doesn't do well in prisons -- but the city itself. Everything about it. Violence, corruption on a massive scale, the danger so often swept under a sickly smiling veneer.

Laura does not do well with injustice.

She touches her hands to the railing and leans over it precariously, breathes in. There's a light wind and she can pick up a lot of scents from this high; it's calming to be so aware of what's going on around her. In control.

[controlledvariable]

"Fuck this city." She hasn't felt this angry for a long time; not this hopeless, overwhelming kind of anger that makes her want to lash out at everything. So she doesn't move aside from the clench and unclench of her fists.

It's no better than Gotham and it's even worse in other ways. At least Gotham had something resembling a decent justice system, there were some good cops and good people, and they tried not to drown under the gangs and supervillains.

"How can people see this and do nothing?" It's not an accusation at Laura, but at everyone else in the city who's gotten complacent.

[23rd]

"There is little they can do." Some try -- she read the responses to that broadcast, she knows there are people in their cohort who care -- but the vast majority of Baedal citizens are doing what anyone would do under a police state: keeping their heads down. Protecting their families. It is no coincidence that Baedal pushes its new arrivals to anchor themselves to the city so quickly, get a job, meet people, start families; once people have ties to the city, they're easier to control.

This, she understands. She wishes she didn't, but she does.

"Maybe that is why we are here." She highly doubts it because it seems unlikely the gods would haul in a bunch of people specifically to fight this corruption when they could do so themselves, and when they are the ones who brought the people who now run the city in to begin with -- but she can't shake the feeling that there has to be some kind of reason why they, specifically, are here now. It is certainly much more sinister than fixing these injustices.

Still, it's a nice thought to hear.

[controlledvariable]

She wants to say it's not good enough, that it's not an excuse, but she knows that's not fair. She's seen the same thing back home, the kids who walk away when their friends getting beaten because they don't want to draw attention to themselves. Steph's never been that sort of person.

"Maybe," some of then tension leaves her body, like she's going to hold on to that and use it against all the awful things she sees, "It'd make me feel better about being trapped."

[23rd]

"There is a way out." She says that with utmost certainty: it is absolutely true that there is, people have left before and come back, and some of them have remembered all of it. The problem is just that they haven't figured out how to choose it.

Laura's getting very good at making choices, though.

"Have you seen the moonpools?" Those thoughts are unrelated; she just doesn't want to be in Griss Twist anymore.

[controlledvariable]

"Not one I can control," she's paid enough attention to the network and to idle gossip at the library to pick that up. But she's also found out that no one seems to be able to do it on purpose.

The change of topic surprises her, and she blinks a bit before answering, "No, I haven't."

[23rd]

"Yet." She sounds confident, which -- it's hard to tell if it's an affectation, Laura could very well be the type to bluster because she's a bit Alpha Female, but there's a stark honesty to her that belies that.

She climbs up on the railing and balances precariously on her feet, crouched, like she's ready to launch herself off. It used to drive people crazy at the school when she'd do that, but her balance is good and she suspects Steph isn't like that.

"Do you want to?"

[controlledvariable]

Affection or not, it makes Steph smile, "I hope you're right."

"Sure. I'll race you there?" She barely even registers the fact Laura is perched precariously on something, Steph hangs out with Robins. She also isn't bothered by the fact she only vaguely knows where the pools are, she's confident she can keep up in a race anyway.

[23rd]

The look on Laura's face cannot accurately be described as a smile, but her severity softens enough to imply that -- that's as far as she gets, most of the time, the last time she tried to smile it was actually kind of terrifying.

"Yes." Without any further ado, she leaps off and makes a run for it, heading southwest, towards Sobek Croix. It's hard to keep track of her for long, she blends in so seamlessly in crowds when she wants to, and she's quick, quicker than even someone of her size has any right to be.

[controlledvariable]

Steph's only moments beyond; she'd expected Laura to take off as soon as she'd replied. There's no point trying to keep track of Laura, so she just heads in the same general direct, figuring she can find Laura again once they get closer to the pools and in a less populated area.

She'll goes up instead of down, she doesn't want to draw too much attention to herself and anyway, rooftops are what she's used to. It's easier for her to travel quicker this way.

[23rd]

No one pays much attention to one running girl -- although a few passersby who manage to catch a glimpse of her probably vaguely think that she's running from the law, which is kind of funny -- and Laura is surprisingly well-versed in the smaller side streets and back ways even though she doesn't come here often. Her memory is more or less perfect; if she's been there once, she remembers it.

Anyway, she has a good sense of direction.

The moonpools deep within the forested areas of Sobek Croix are much harder to spot at this time of day than they would be at night when they glow, but there's a slight difference between them and ordinary ponds to anyone who is observant enough -- like both of them are. Laura has the advantage of having been here before, though not often. Sobek Croix is Hellsing territory and she's not sure how she feels about them.

She's not anywhere to be found by the nearest set of them. At least, not if anyone's looking ground-level; she's treed herself.

[controlledvariable]

Once she's nearer the forest, Steph has to get down to street level too - it's harder to run across the rooftops of single houses - and she gets a lot more looks than Laura does. It's easier again once she's in the forest, now she just has to make sure not to trip over tree roots or anything.

Searching for the moonpools requires her to slow down a little, but she makes her way to the first set. For a brief moment as she catches her breath, she hopes she's beaten her, but quickly dismisses that as highly unlikely, considering how fast Laura is compared to her.

"Laura?" She wonders if she's jumped into the pools, and steps closer to peer over the edge of the nearest one.

[23rd]

Suddenly: "Hi."

Death from above, mutant edition.

(She does like areas like this -- the wooded parts of Baedal. They're pretty and they make her feel safer than the more densely populated urban and suburban areas -- the Northern Woods are better because there's barely ever anyone out there, but generally speaking the forested areas in the city limits proper are also safer. Less chance of encountering stray fog monsters.)

[controlledvariable]

Steph is used to be snuck up on, so a brief moment of tensing is the only reaction she shows before looking up at Laura, "You won."

Steph hasn't had much of a chance to explore the forest areas; the urban areas are her main focus for now because it's where she'll be spending most of her time. That, and she has a bit of an instictual Gothamite reaction to densely forested areas -- they contain nasty things like Poison Ivy.

[23rd]

She climbs down to the lower branches, although she stays in the tree, her combat-boot-clad legs dangling over a couple feet over the ground. It's quiet out here, although even from this distance she can pick up normal city sounds from nearby buildings in this canton, and a little chilly. "They glow at night," she says, presumably of the pools -- they're pretty even by day, they have a sort of milkiness as luminescent things tend to in the light. In the dark, it's better.

Harder to find, though.

[controlledvariable]

Steph walks over to lean back against the trunk of the tree Laura is in, so she can talk to Laura and look at the pools.

"I've heard you can go swimming in them, but it looks kind of daunting."

[23rd]

"They are deeper than they look."

Laura is not a huge swimmer -- she sinks in water, you only have to drown once before you decide you hate it -- but she likes to look at them. Sometimes she even puts her feet in, she is super adventurous.

[controlledvariable]

"I can handle deep. I'd be more worried about monsters."

Because they're in Baedal :|

Steph can swim, and she kind of enjoys it, but it's not really a popular pasttime for Gothamites so she hasn't had a huge amount of experience.