Closed RP Inside of the House

[Crow]

There was no denying it. Not anymore. Sam was tired. She was tired and she was tired of being tired. After her hunt with Adelyn, she’d been so thoroughly done that she’d slept a full eight hours. Knowing where Todd was was a help. Adelyn had been incredible, and she would owe so much to the girl forever. But that was the second thing on her mind that day. She had gotten a texted invite to her normal phone from Mary. Mary, who’s family she had killed.

She sighed as she walked from where she had parked the Bug, a few blocks away in a nice neighborhood, and scratched the back of her messy curls. She’d taken a long shower and spent a few extra minutes working on recovering her hair after the last few weeks. The curls weren’t perfect ringlets, but they were closer to that than the frizzy, stringy mess they had been. She was at least presentable, even with the dark circles that hadn’t faded from her frenzied time looking for her soulmate. Between that and the nice sweater and skirt she wore, she was hoping that she could pass off for being put together that day.

She slowed down as she looked ahead. She could feel a lot of vibrations coming from the building she was approaching, but what was more concerning was the two armed guards outside. One of them was watching her, but the other wasn’t. And the one watching her was watching like he knew who she was.

Her secret identity had never really been secret in the areas she worked in. A good vigilante was unidentifiable. Sam was not that. With her wild orange curls, her face full of freckles, and eyes that matched her gold lenses on her mask- it was hard to hide who she was. If he knew her, though, it was as Phoenix. Not as Crow, her new costume and identity, thanks to the folks at Dual Flame. She could say without lying she wasn’t Phoenix. Because she wasn’t, anymore.

Surprisingly, the guard didn’t say a word or try to stop her as she started into the building and up the stairs, following the signs. The building was fully gutted, with exposed support beams to widen rooms. She swallowed, trying to pinpoint Mary’s vibrations in all the sensory noise. After a moment, she didn’t need to. She could hear her voice, echoing through the building. She followed it.​

 

[Ira]

There were no anti-meta militiamen past the fourth floor. It wasn't that there wasn't a sense of danger or a need to protect their leader. Mary even had many arguments with her most trusted subordinates, Bill and Avery being the most vocal, as to why she could not allow them onto the fifth floor without her explicit permission. It always boiled down to, in the end, 'If you trust me, you'll do as I ask.' And they did.

Today, things would change. As Sam began climbing the stairs, she'd hear Mary clearly having an intense shouting match.

"NO! NO NO F*CKING NO! DO YOU'S HEAR ME?! I'M FED UP WITH THIS!"

...

"Our DEAL?! I DON'T NEED YOU! I NEVER NEEDED YOU!"

...

"DON'T CALL ME THAT! LISTEN TO ME YOU WORTHLESS MONSTER-!"

...

"THEN LEAVE! GO AWAY! GO AWAY AND NEVER COME BACK!"

...

"I DON'T NEED YOU! I NEVER NEEDED YOU!"

...

As if to punctuate her statement, Mary shot putted a four-foot piece of rebar through the nearest wall. The metal rod drove through a stud and snapped it in half, reducing some of the support to the wall above. Not enough to be a problem, but enough to look awful. The walls around Mary's 'office' floor were still partially drywalled, so no one walking in the hallway could see directly inside. Unfortunately, even the insulation wasn't enough to dampen Mary's screaming and throwing.

Then, if Sam hadn't yet knocked on the steel door to Mary's office, Sam would certainly hear the other woman begin sobbing. It was loud, ugly crying. But, perhaps if Sam was attuned enough to these sorts of things, she'd know it wasn't from grief. Mary was breaking down, surely, but in relief.

 

[Crow]

Stopping outside the door, Sam paused and felt the vibrations from within the room. Things crashing, the deep, chest wrenching sobs, both echoed through the floor to her. She waited until the crashing was over before she took a deep breath. She could do this. She could see Mary. This could happen without her breaking down and admitting everything. That was, if this wasn’t an execution. It was entirely likely that Mary knew and had brought her here for that reason.

Maybe it didn’t matter. Maybe the world would be better off without her, after all. The world would keep revolving without Sam Walsh, without Crow. Maybe… Maybe it would be for the best if she died here, at the hands of Mary, who was volatile and angry and looking for a reason to lose control. She sighed. Then, her hand found the door handle and she gently opened it, peering inside the room. The walls had all been knocked down, much like the rest of the building. Taped up all over the room were what looked like x-rays- but they were all bad, from Sam’s limited medical knowledge.

The bones in the x-rays were busted and broken, twisted in ways they shouldn’t have been. They made her skin crawl. Who were these of? Were these Mary? Last time she had seen Mary, her legs had been twisted and scarred up. But those ones, weren’t they arms? Those weren’t the leg bones. Too thin to be the fibula or tibia or the femur. Was that her radius and ulna? Sam pushed the door further open and stepped slowly into the room.

“Mary?”

The young woman was on the floor, still sobbing. But looking at her, at the mess she was, at the state of the room-- she seemed relieved. This didn’t look like grief. Sam knew what grief looked like, had seen it enough in herself. But that look, the way her mouth curled even as she cried--

“Mary. What happened?” She walked into the room, approaching the other woman. When she was close enough, she knelt next to her, not making an attempt at touching her quite yet. Maybe, if she didn’t seem to realize that Sam was there, she would try. But if she responded, Sam would let Mary move at her pace, and do what she wanted. It was the least Sam owed her, after all.​

 

[Ira]

Mary froze at the sound of Sam's voice, her entire body siezing like a frightened animal. Until the moment that she turned her head and saw Sam for her own eyes. All at once, everything about Mary seemed to melt away and change. The fear, the tension, the rage, all of it fell away to a set of relaxed shoulders and a soft smile. Even with her face still wet and blotchy from the tears, Mary was able to alter her appearance in an instant.

"Samanatha~ Oh you's here! Wonderful! Oh lemme, lemme-" Mary trailed off as she stood and brushed herself off. Looking around the room, torn apart and wrecked as it was, Mary giggled and shook her head.

"Oh this, this mess, I'm so sorry! Should'a tried a lil' harder to clean I's guess, but I 'forgor' teehee! Well!" Crooking her head to the side, Mary beckoned back toward the door to outside, "I wanted you's help shoppin'! Need to change up my style, ya know? Gotta shake things up from, well, this."

At 'this' Mary gestured to her ripped jeans, torn crop top, and brown-from-dirt converse shoes. Perhaps this outfit would've fit better during the summer, but as it stood, they were in the middle of a rough Pennsylvania winter. Completely unacceptable attire.

 

[Crow]

Sam nodded slowly. Mary’s ability to completely mask her emotions would have been envious if it were under any other circumstance. As it were, it left Sam worried. She stood up next to Mary, one of the few people she didn’t have to crane her neck to look up at, and looked at her. She wanted to go shopping? That seemed so mundane. It sent a spike of guilt through her as she realized that it meant Mary saw her as a potential friend, if not a friend already.

“Sure. We can go shopping. I know some places that have smaller sizes for women built like us. It can be hard to find clothes small enough sometimes, you know?” Sam gestured to her own clothes. While the long plaid skirt fit her well, the sweater she wore over it could have been described as oversized. Truth was, the smallest she’d been able to find it in was a small, and Sam was definitively an extra small at best. It gave a look of purposeful oversizing, which Sam didn’t mind.

Nevermind shoes. Her feet were practically child sized, so finding cute shoes in her size was nearly impossible. She looked down at her boots, an old pair she’d had for several years and had nearly run into the ground on the interior, despite how nice the exterior still looked. She bit her bottom lip, which was dry and peeling slightly from her lapse in self care. She could use some new shoes.

“Yeah, I could use new shoes, anyway. And this forces me to do that. Did you want to go anywhere in particular, or do you just need winter clothes?”​