'Til I'm just looking for an easy way out; open

[soundslikeafuckingkid]

who: CT and you!
what: CT's back in Sacrosanct and not super pleased.
where: All over the residential zones as she hunts for a new hideout.
when: The 1st! All day!
warnings: Possible language, mentions of self-hate, CT things.


[CT didn't know whether or not she should be grateful for the return to the space station or not. She knows she's dead, she can still smell her armor cooking and burning away, but yet here she is somehow alive, without functional armor but alive. Back in a small cage with a rampant, murdering AI that she doesn't trust to not just flip the life support off at any moment. What remains of her armor is tucked neatly away in a case where it can cool down while she tugs it around like a suitcase.

Never before has she felt so deeply inadequate. It rocks through her as she pulls up the hood of her sweatshirt and does her best to just keep her eyes off anything and anyone. Her old place has likely been torn to shreds and she can't approach the network without instantly giving herself away. She doesn't want to be seen, but fuck with her track record she'd likely be spotted right away.

She doesn't know if she should be grateful or pissed she's been scooped right out of the clutches of death once again and that confusion just stirs up more hate in her.]

Comments

[userless]

[Gibson, for his part, is out looking for Flynn. He hadn't been in the house this morning, and he hadn't been on the Grid 3.0 either. Though he was getting the sinking feeling that the User might have vanished just like Alan, he had to be sure.

So when he sees a distant figure, he waves and yells.]

Hey! Who's there?

[soundslikeafuckingkid]

[CT doesn't recognize the voice and pulls her little almost!suitcase closer to her as she tries to stop and turn casually. Breathe. Breathe, he's not familiar, she's never met him before, never seen him in her life. Except maybe at that dance.

Regardless, she focuses on keeping her expression as stoic and unmoving as she can. There's no reason to raise any alarms over her, right? Right. She needs to get to a safe place before she can really set up camp.

Totally normal person. Not carrying half-burned armor in her case.]

Lost?

[userless]

Yeah, that wasn't my question.

[Although once she starts talking, it's pretty obvious that's not Flynn. So Gibson hops down (because who walks on streets?) to look at her directly.]

You haven't seen an old guy in all white around, have you? Beard, very chill, great at computer programming?

[soundslikeafuckingkid]

No. [CT's reply is sharp, almost out before he even finishes asking the question. She doesn't know the guy but she was going to say no to anything he said in the first place.]

[userless]

Whoa, whoa, chill out! Just asking a question here.

[Users could be so touchy shut up Gibson, you don't have any room to talk. Still, he backs up a little.]

Well, if you see him, tell him to come home!

[soundslikeafuckingkid]

I'm not a messenger. [Another thing on the bottom of her list of priorities is delivering any kind of 'hey go home' to anyone. The less she talks and sees of people here before she gets set up, the better. Still, as soon as the words are out of her mouth, she wonders if this guy's thinking she's incapable of doing something so simple as just telling someone something as basic as 'hey go home.'

Or maybe he's trying to give her orders. Dammit.]

Fine. I'll tell him if I see him.

[userless]

[Touchy, touchy. Well, at least she'd agreed.]

Appreciate it.

[...Which does bring up the question of why there's a strange girl out in the middle of an empty residential zone with a heavy suitcase, but he supposes anyone can go anywhere they want.]

You know, you can get one of the drones to carry that for you.

[soundslikeafuckingkid]

I don't want them to. [CT figures that's a clear enough answer and she tightens her grip on the handle of the case a little less than discretely.]

[userless]

Have it your way.

[...Well, guess he'd better keep looking. She's not going to help.]

[nippledetective]

[ Harry's just taking a quick stroll out from his apartment -- his actual apartment, and even though it's been a while since he moved in he's still all over the fact that he doesn't live in one of those fucking hostels anymore -- and it's a nice day, or at least nice enough for him to throw on a light jacket and take a walk. The streets of the Sacrosanct cities are usually eerily empty, so it's easy enough to spot someone else taking a walk -- especially if they're walking with their head down, hood pulled up, carrying what looks like suspicious luggage.

Harry's no stranger to shady figures -- he lives in LA, for fuck's sake -- but he's never quite learned discretion, despite Perry's best attempts. He has his moments, and this is not one of them. ]

Hey --

[ Except, even as he calls out -- to stop her, to see what it is that's putting her in such a hurry -- he realizes he knows her, knows that gait, that telltale hunch of her shoulders and the stiffness of her hips as she marches on, and his face contorts in surprise and confusion even as he starts to approach her. ]

Hey -- CT? Holy shit, is that you?

[soundslikeafuckingkid]

[CT almost turns, almost stops and fucking turns. Her gait hitches slightly, an awkward attempt to keep moving even as her mind is telling her, ally, Harry is an ally. Shit, shit, shit. She can't let him stop her, not now, not while she's exposed and not on her terms. Every meeting has to be in her control, every detail set so things will go just the way she wants it to.

Now is completely the opposite of how she would want any return to go. So, she doesn't turn, and instead speeds up her gait (because that totally makes her less obvious), keeping her face turned away. There has to be a teleporter around here, right?

She just has to get to it before him.]

[nippledetective]

[ Okay, he's not sure why CT would run -- then again, she's always been the jumpy sort, always on edge, and maybe she thinks he's after her or something? Whatever, he doesn't fuckin' know -- he just speeds up into a jog, hustling after her, and at least he's got long legs, because it's not too long before he's close enough to put a hand on her shoulder, to get her to slow down or something. ]

Whoa -- hey, easy there, sister, it's just me, y'know, Harry Lockhart? Oh -- fuck, are you like, a different CT or something? Shit, do you not know me? C'mon, I'm, uh, I'm not gonna hurt you or anything --

[soundslikeafuckingkid]

[As soon as she feels contact on her shoulder CT tries to shrug it forcefully off, but, not thinking, the action turns her to face him fully. Not that he needed proof that it is indeed her. She knows he won't hurt her but at the moment that's not the point. Recognition flashes quickly across her face as she desperately tries to work a lie out through her teeth.]

Hey. [Her mouth tries to make words before she just comes out with a,] What the fuck is wrong with you?

[Here she is, walking along trying to not attract anyone's attention, carrying her armor and trying to get somewhere she feels safe and he interrupts her.

Clearly he's the bad guy here.]

[nippledetective]

Whoa -- whoa, hey, what the fuck is wrong with me? You're the one walking around like you're going to, I dunno, some kinda covert shady meeting -- I was just saying hi.

[ HE IS OBVIOUSLY AFFRONTED come on CT what gives you guys are supposed to be tight :( ....in Harry's dreams anyway. He rubs his hand over his mouth, looking a little agitated. ARE YOU READY FOR RAMBLY HARRY, CT, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU GET ]

I mean, what, we do the deal, and that's it, I don't hear from you for weeks? I mean, I figured you were doing your own thing and that's cool, 'cause you know, space and all, yadda yadda, but I figured, I dunno, maybe you'd send me a ping sometime, let me know how things are going? And now I see you on the street, and I wanna say hi, and you fuckin' bite my head off for daring to? Come on, what is that?

[soundslikeafuckingkid]

[CT stares back at him with a combination of confusion, being genuinely overwhelmed, and a healthy helping of anger. What, are they supposed to be friends or something? yes]

What is that? That's--- [Wait, he doesn't know Sacrosanct sent her back for all of half a second to be within a literal inch of her death. Oh shit, she might have some kind of advantage here. Use it. Use it.]

I don't owe you anything. The job's done, I paid you, that's it.

[She doesn't need to piss off a still budding ally anymore than she has to, but when safety is somewhere far beyond her reach, it's more than a little difficult to think of the big picture here.] Did you think it's a good idea to come talk to me in a place I didn't plan for?

[Spin it, c'mon CT. Unfortunately, she's distracted by a little bit of smoke snaking out of the case she's holding onto.

This is the best day ever. of all time.]

[nippledetective]

Whoa, hey, I'm not -- you don't owe me anything, no, I just figured, I dunno, we might keep in touch? Or something? Fuck, I'm a fucking idiot, 'cause of course you never wanted to see my face again, 'cause they never do -- uh -- what the fuck is that?

[ He stops the self-deprecation parade just long enough to stare at the case with some degree of alarm, eyes going wide. ]

Jesus fucking -- is that a bomb?

aslkjdfsd i can't.

[soundslikeafuckingkid]

[His own self-deprecating speech sounds so familiar, almost painfully so, that it almost catches her off-guard. Oh. Yeah. Her armor is still smoking.]

No, it's not a bomb, Harry.

[She's still in no rush to open it and show how not-a-bomb it is. So, instead, she wheels it behind her, putting herself between him and the luggage. Moving it causes more smoke to dance up around behind her.]

Look. I just got back from---

[...fuck. She is so bad at this.]

[neverknocks]

[ Moving in itself is enough of a pain, with all of Wash's paranoia, but with how sulky he's been lately after the brainwashing event, York's kind of been pulling his weight with all the stuff at the new apartment -- including, of course, the grocery shopping, but honestly, she's not sure she can trust him to stock a kitchen on his own. He'd still be living off takeout and TV dinners if she hadn't insisted on cooking a real meal once in a while, she's sure. So she's walking back to the new place with two armfuls of grocery bags, wondering how much convincing it'd take for Wash to come to the store with her and help carry all this crap. Would a little venturing outside his apartment really kill him?

She's preoccupied enough with keeping the bags in her arms balanced that she almost doesn't notice the person heading straight toward her, head down and walking quickly, until it's too late -- and she moves out of the way just enough to avoid a head-on collision, but the woman walking past still bumps into her arm, jostling her. ]

Whoa -- hey, there, where's the fire? You might wanna keep an eye out, watch where you're goin'.

[soundslikeafuckingkid]

[CT doesn't recognize York for who she is and really doesn't see much outside of the bubble she's forced herself into. The contact pushes CT to at least glance up. Someone actually goes to the grocery store in this place. TV dinners and takeout are obviously the healthiest and quickest options available. Sure, CT hadn't meant to run straight into the other woman, but for once she wants to just get something done without interruptions or Reds or Blues or anyone stopping her.

Turning back, CT attempts to continue her beeline course to somewhere not here.]

[neverknocks]

[ York automatically adjusts her grip on the grocery bags, kind of annoyed that this lady is just carrying on without so much as a muttered apology -- c'mon, are manners dead or something? -- but then she gets a glimpse of her face, and the words slip out before she even realizes it. ]

Hey -- CT?

[ Of course, she realizes a split second too late that this CT probably isn't going to recognize her -- or if she manages to, she's just liable to lose her shit like Wash did. But no one told her CT was here -- and the cat's kind of out of the bag now. ]

[soundslikeafuckingkid]

[No. Nonononono. CT turns back, her eyebrows furrowed tightly in confusion. Wait, who the hell is this? Why do they recognize her in the first place. With all her efforts to remain a relative unknown the last time, this meeting absolutely sends her head over heels.]

Who are you? What are you doing here? [Her mind is quickly deciding that this woman must be an agent out to get her from some other group. Not Freelancer, she would know them, but maybe the Director came back, maybe he has new allies.]

[neverknocks]

[ Well, shit. It's too late for York to bite her tongue now, and she winces a little, shifting the groceries in her arms. This CT's a little jumpier, a little more paranoid than the one York knows -- then again, everyone seems to be from later in their timelines than she is, so that's no big surprise. She keeps her tone easy and glib, like she always is -- the last thing she wants to do is send CT rabbiting off before she even knows what's going on. York had always gotten along with CT just fine, even when she was closed off and tight-lipped -- maybe she can strike a chord with this one, somehow. ]

Aw, hell. Everyone's from a different goddamn universe around here.

[ The words are kind of muttered, mostly to herself, and she sighs a little, shaking her head. ]

Look -- don't freak out, okay? You probably just knew me as a guy like everybody else.

[soundslikeafuckingkid]

[The mention of different universes isn't the weird part of the explanation, it's the York being a woman and fuck it's York. That means. Okay, the last time she saw York was during that weird sickness thing. He came over to get Wash while he was ranting and crazy and this one seems different in some way.

Minus the obvious differences staring her right in the face.]

You're not York.

[Because that's the easiest thing for her to say right now.]

[neverknocks]

[ Oh, for fuck's sake. All that gets is an exasperated sigh and a roll of her one good eye. Not this again. ]

Man, do I really have to do this again? All the wacky cross-dimensional bullshit this place pulls and the constant crap coming on from the Rift, and the hardest thing you find to believe is that there might be some alternate universe where I'm a woman? C'mon, CT. I know you're smarter than that.

[soundslikeafuckingkid]

[The flattery, whether idle or not, goes a hell of a long way and keeps CT from rabbiting at that moment. The other woman's probably already talked to Wash, both Washes, figured out a few things on her own.]

What cross-dimensional bullshit. [Her lips narrow to a thin line, her jaw clenched tight. She's going to go ahead and try to lie here.]