(open mingle) it's not the mall without a spencer's!

[metafictions]

WHO: Kamui (metafictions), Wrench (wrenchedup), and you!
WHAT: A very silly mingle for hunkering down in the Spencer's.
WHERE: the city mall
WHEN: sometime during the August event
WARNINGS: Suggestively shaped bachelorette party items, will update for anything else.




After some hours of confusion in the dark, it becomes clear that they're all going to be stuck in the mall for a while. Naturally, the need for a safe home base arises next.

Enter: the Spencer's Gifts on the mall's second floor. It's near enough to emergency lighting to almost be visible, but more importantly, it's full of enough food and supplies to… sort of make it work, when it comes to hunkering down for a bit. Far preferable to sleeping on one of the mall benches, anyway.

The shop is stocked like pretty much any other Spencer's in the mall in 00's North America:

Cases and rows of alternative fashion, from spiked wristbands and chokers to body jewelry and gauges, line the shop. If you're especially enterprising they could be repurposed as a makeshift weapon. Orrrr you can just keep your cash in that chain wallet

Pop culture merch is also highly represented at the Spencer's. There's stacks and stacks of anime t-shirts, funny graphic tees, and novelty bobbleheads and other figures.

Careful going to the back of the shop, though: that's where all the adult items are kept though a whole lot of it might be already raided by Wrench, ask about that later.

Most importantly is the construction of what has been lovingly (oocly) dubbed as… ~ The Naruto Fort ~ or The Nort for short:

Welcome to The Nort.
Whether you’re helping construct it, stock it full of goodies, protect it from things that aren’t actually there, or just paying a visit or coming to sleep for the night The Nort can be found occupying one of the aisles close to the entrance.

The tent walls are crafted by strung together nondescript anime t-shirts and weird goth costumes and probably at least one tie dye pot leaf flag. There are tons of novelty pillows in all sorts of odd shapes (yes, there’s probably one that looks like a butt) for you to rest your weary head. There might even be a few throw blankets of everyone’s fav emo band, My Chemical Bromance.

Comments

[keepgodwaiting]

Ah. Right.

[ Well, shit, asking "is it connected to someone you're haunted by guilt over" and continuing to theorize about what the City wants from them seems a bit tasteless now. ]

'm sorry to hear it.

[matermali]

[ The shake of her head is gentle in its understanding. These are natural connections to make.

Vanessa doubts she will ever again enter a newly discovered building until it has been properly vetted. The question is who could take on the risk for her? Currency here was reduced to favors, as far as Vanessa has discovered. Coin would be so much simpler. ]

And yourself? Did you discover anything?

[keepgodwaiting]

[ She shakes her head no. ]

At the time I thought -- fuck, I don't know. I figured it was 'cause I didn't leave much behind. Now I don't know.

[ She closes her eyes for a moment, rubbing her forehead, and looks back out to the mall. Theorizing. She just keeps trying to fit it into a theory, because if there's a theory there's a solution, and ...

Did something move, across the atrium? ]

[matermali]

[ 'Leave much behind'? It's such a particular phrase, and something Vanessa would think to ponder more on if she didn't first catch the shadow that moved between the others.

She doesn't speak to it, instead continuing to scan beyond the doors and shifting onto her knees with fingertips against the ground. Ready to bolt. At it or away, there's no telling, but she's already lost sight of it so there's no rush to decide.

Vanessa can't sense these things directly, but that can be what gives them away, that empty omen which walks through the oppressive air that fills the entirety of the building. Figments of nothingness. They bring no threat beside one's own fear. She knows it, and she is still afraid, though that fear has been stifled by a predatory resentment.

These things waste her time. ]

[keepgodwaiting]

"Jo?"

[ A plaintive, childish call. Johanna tenses visibly, her eyes widening. ]

"You said you'd help, Jo."

[ The figure comes into view: a girl, maybe twelve, maybe younger. The few lights paint her skin shades of red and gray, and make deep holes of her eyes. Her arms are stretched out in front of her, as if to help guide her through the dimness.

Arms? Her left arm at first looks oddly foreshortened. When she stretches it out, the reason becomes clear. It's sliced off below the elbow. Dim embers burn along the edges of the stump, and around the marrow bones at its center. ]

Fuck fuck fuck fuck. [ Johanna ducks down, almost flattening herself to the floor. Her gaze flicks to Vanessa, but she doesn't really see the other woman, if her expression of panic is anything to go by. ] Shit.

"Jo, please--!"

[ Johanna flinches and focuses on Vanessa. Hissed: ] Get to the back.

"You let go, Johanna." [ The thin voice seems to get thicker with pain, and building anger. ] "Do you know what they've done to me?"

[matermali]

[ Now, that is quite a sight, but Vanessa doesn't look away, nor get to the back. She stays crouched, still as a statue, she could be a mannequin herself if not for how her gaze is darting across the gruesome details of this girl's sorry existence. Even Vanessa has never witnessed something quite like this, and for a moment she thinks her heart may break. For the girl or for Constantine, perhaps both, remains to be seen. The cries are damning, but who is she to say?

Remaining still, finding no need to look down, she whispers. ]

If it finds you here, the others will suffer what you do.

[ Even the back of the room may not be far enough to escape the vision, but it isn't as if she's tested those limitations. ]

I will go. You must run while I have its attention, and you may stand a chance. It cannot hurt me.

[keepgodwaiting]

[ Johanna stares at Vanessa, incredulous. ]

What?

[ The girl-thing in the atrium jerks her head towards them and starts moving faster. ]

"Constantine!"

[ Practically on instinct, Constantine spits out: ] Exorcizámus te, Astra Logue, in nómini Jesu--

[ Astra's remaining hand slaps against the window glass as she reaches the shop. Constantine lets out a startled scream and tries to scramble to her feet. ]

[matermali]

[ Vanessa's attention snaps to Constantine at the exorcism attempt, eyes wide, but before she can think any further, the girl has reaches the shop. The sound of her hand slapping again, then again as if threatening to crack the glass, gets little reaction out of Vanessa beyond the tightening of her jaw.

Sparing no further moment for anything else, she pushes against the ground to sprint out, well used to running in skirts by now. Instead of simply running off, however, she's going to pivot and attempt to grab for the tragedy of a girl, hoping to drag her away by the waist for just long enough to give the other woman an opening. ]

cw for the linked post: violence by a child, death of a child, strangling

[keepgodwaiting]

[ Vanessa gets hold of Astra, and Astra screams, that shrill, piercing screech that only a scared kid can manage. ]

"Let me go! Let me GO!"

[ Constantine yells, too, no less scared. ] What are you d-- fuck, fuck!

[ Fuck. As Astra struggles with Vanessa, Johanna lets her base instincts take over. Nobility is for other people, like this woman and her scorpion earrings, apparently. Escape, now, that's for people like Constantine.

She manages to get to her feet and barrels out the door past them. Astra's gaze, such as it is, follows her. ]

"Constantine!"

[ Redoubling her struggles, and with a strength that a girl that size really shouldn't have, Astra shoves Vanessa away. Her interest is entirely in Johanna -- who waited a little too long to follow her fear, and hasn't got the head start Vanessa tried to give her.

What happens next, happens fast.

And then there's Johanna lying on the floor, gasping for breath, with a child-sized mannequin draped awkwardly on top of her. ]

[matermali]

[ The throw hadn’t been enough to injure her, but it had knocked the wind out of Vanessa enough for her to be too slow to get up and reach them in time. In time for what, God only knows, but the girl’s hands close around Constantine’s neck before she can attempt another intervention, and the vision is enough to drop her limp to the ground without a sound.

Only for a moment, and then she’s blinking through tears at the blurred reflection of a store’s display case in the distance. One hand goes to her throat, as if needing to be sure there’s nothing there, before straining to look over at the woman sprawled beside her. No hands on her, either. Only a mannequin.

Silently, she pushes up onto her knees to move and yank the offending thing away from Constantine. Whatever she’s just heard or seen, her expression bears mostly weariness and then a little sadness. Judgment is absent as it ever is. ]

[keepgodwaiting]

[ Johanna stares up at her, eyes wide and wet. ]

I didn't kill her.

[ The words come out in a shaky rush. She reaches out to grab Vanessa's wrist without thinking, as if to keep her from repeating Astra's vengeance, or keep her from disappearing. ]

I swear to god I didn't mean to -- to--

[matermali]

[ The mannequin clatters to the side against the tile, and Vanessa now turns her gaze on the other woman. It's something to wonder if the girl's fate was the reason for Constantine's interest in the occult, or if her dabbling was the reason for the girl's end. Or...perhaps unending torment.

Settling back onto her heels, Vanessa keeps her voice quiet, but not particularly soft. Nor is it disparaging. ]

Miss Constantine. None of us are innocent.

[ Slowly, she'll reach with her free hand to touch behind Constantine's arm, hoping to help her back up. ]

[keepgodwaiting]

Are you fucking -- she wasn't my fault!

[ Johanna lets go of Vanessa and pulls back, shakily pushing herself up to a sitting position. Defensiveness and anger feel safer than the terror currently coursing through her. If she's angry, she's in control.

(To be terrified of Astra. Can you imagine? That smart, brave kid? What coward would be so scared to face her?) ]

"None of us are innocent," my ass, what the hell is that supposed to mean?

[matermali]

[ A natural enough reaction, and far from the worst that Vanessa’s attempts at ‘comfort’ have incited. ]

It means that what I think is of no importance. In that respect, all that matters is what you know, and if that is worthy of judgment then it isn’t mine to make.

[ Everyone who has ever had a soul has also had sin. Now Vanessa only possesses one.

So released, she slowly stands. ]

Do you believe yourself to still carry a soul?

[keepgodwaiting]

[ That question is both strange enough and specific enough to make Constantine pause. In the echoing darkness of the mall, it makes her wonder, wildly, if this woman knows something she doesn't. ]

Why do you ask?

[ She hauls herself to her feet, as well, rubbing a hand harshly over her eyes. Her gaze keeps flicking over to the mannequin, as if she can't quite believe it won't come back to life. ]

[matermali]

[ Her gaze follows the other's to the mannequin. Vanessa has yet to see them act up twice in a row, but one can’t call oneself an expert in so short a time. It would be terrible to experience such a thing again, but she would be reluctant to allow Constantine to go through it alone.

Then, her gaze travels back, and though there’s something soft in her rasp of a voice, there’s nothing gentle in her words. ]

Are you a murderess?

[ Despite its framing, she doesn’t want or need a response. It’s a question and answer for the other woman alone. ]

Have you been able to carry on as nothing but yourself, to persist without the sanctity of a soul? Would you be able to? If you know the answer, then no matter which truth you live, you have nothing to fear from the judgment of others.

[keepgodwaiting]

[ Vanessa may not need a response, but she's getting one. ]

What a fucking question. Jesus. You got one thing right, mate, it's what I know that matters. And I didn't--

[ Johanna stops, swallowing a lump in her throat. What does she know? ]

That isn't how it happened.

[ Cool, very definitive, not at all self-damning. ]

"Do I have a soul." Fuck, do you?

[matermali]

[ It's inspiring to see such vitality in someone who just experienced an iteration of their own death. Vanessa doesn't speak of the girl any longer, though she knows that's where the focus will remain for one so recently strangled by their past. No, not how it happened, of course not, just as Mina hadn't actually drained Vanessa of life.

But there was enough truth to the threat that it could so easily could have been a memory, had things only gone a little differently. And would Vanessa have fought her?

The returning question garners only silence with her stare. Cool, very definitive, and openly self-damning. Only, one could almost see grief furrow her brow if they look for long enough, but she gives no time before moving toward the mannequin to pull it upright. ]