[open] the roses have faded, there's frost at my door

[endureandsurvive]

CHARACTERS: Ellie + YOU
LOCATION: Various
WARNINGS: Foul mouthed children, knives (will update as necessary)
SUMMARY: Catch-all for August shenanigans, notably includes knife fighting lessons and axeing trees very important questions.
NOTES: Some closed starts, some open prompts. If you want something specific and it's not here, toss it up or pm me and I'll see what I can do!


[This jump makes ten. And while she's always been careful, ten months (or years or decades, who the fuck knows, right?) is kind of a long time to keep her head down. One way or another, something was going to happen to get her socialized and between the influx of under-18's on the passenger manifest, certain vampires at large and being dragged kicking and screaming convinced to move her shit down a few levels from the safety of isolation up on Deck 024-- well, her head is still down, but she's definitely more visible.

Feeling lucky? Most days she can be found rapidly skirting through Deck 007 to or from some other destination, heading to or from medical, making (bomb ass) spaghetti, or tucked up in the upper levels of the gardens reading sci-fi comics of arguable quality. Just don't approach from behind or make any sudden movements and everything should be fine, no really.]

Comments

closed to johanna

[endureandsurvive]

[Strictly speaking she doesn't actually have an axe in her hand when she climbs to the Oxygen Gardens upper levels, but she does have them wrapped in a shirt and tucked carefully under her arm. It's not exactly subtle, but it's less likely to get her stopped in the halls by Security so-- whatever, right?

She treks for the nearest thing to a clearing in the overgrown upper tier, a visible line of tension bristling across her shoulders and the back of her neck. This is a stupid idea, she's pretty sure. She's going to end up with her arms chopped off.]

Fuck it. [Grumbled under her breath as she steps across a tangled root system.] I'll just get robot arms.

[axeyou]

[The sole similarity between District 7 and the Tranquility's gardens is the presence of trees--and they aren't even the right kind of trees. The smell of pine is lacking, the soft brush of the long nettles and the sharp scent of sap when the bark is split. But they're still trees, and Johanna can still climb them.

That's where she is, when Ellie comes into the clearing. She's not too far up--her back against the trunk, with the blade of one axe bit in to the side of a large limb, the same one she's straddling. The girl picking her way into sight has to be her mysterious anonymous friend. She's carrying something, anyways, something potentially axe-sized. Johanna doesn't bat an eye at Ellie's age. It's a little surprising, but not because she's young.]

Overrated.

[Robot arms, that is. Johanna picks off a bit of bark from her tree limb and jabs at the cuticles of her left hand with it, like she's giving herself a primitive manicure.]

I know a guy who's got a robot leg. He's totally insane, that leg never did him any good.

[And she looks down at Ellie, with a grin, and flings that bit of bark over her shoulder.]

Are you my axe-date?

[endureandsurvive]

[She's super over people climbing around in trees. Something goes all tough and hard in her face, jaw setting briefly. Ellie lets the bundle she has under her arm drop to the ground at her feet with a metallic clatter; she stoops, unfolding the fabric away from the contents.]

I guess so, yeah.

[--and straightens, a smaller hand axe in each hand. They're clearly hand made - solid craftsmanship, heavy, meant as weapons rather than tools. She weighs them in her hands, fingers tight and a little awkward.]

I know a couple of someones with robot legs. They seem to do okay.

[axeyou]

[She makes a non-committal noise in answer, as she strips another bit of bark off of the tree, pinched between her thumb and the knuckle of her forefinger.]

Then maybe the guy I know is just insane.

[Flippant, and she flicks away that piece of bark, too, and then yanks her axe from where its stuck in the tree limb, and swings down to the ground, one-handed.]

Cute axes. Did you make them, or did someone give them to you? [She approaches as she asks, and holds out her free hand for one.] Let me see.

[endureandsurvive]

[Wary as fuuuuuuck, but there's probably no changing that right off the bat - Ellie turns one of the axes over to her, her hand awkwardly shuffling as she flips it around to present it handle end first.]

Some guy gave them to me. [Weird dude, kind of creepy. But you shouldn't look a gift horse in the something-something.] I haven't really used them or anything.

[axeyou]

[Johanna takes the axe and studies it, flips it over in her hand and catches it, peering along the handle at the rough-made head. She flips it over again, testing the balance of it.]

Not bad. A little amateur, but he wasn't totally terrible, whoever he was.

[Abruptly, she flips the axe around again so the head of it points toward her, catches it right in the middle of the handle--and offers it back to Ellie, with a little smile.]

Are you any good with any other weapons?

[endureandsurvive]

[There's the edge of a flinch as the girl flips the axe - not enough to send her twitching back, but definitely there and instinctual more than it is anything else. Ellie promptly takes the axe back. Shrugs.]

A little. [Usually she wouldn't bother playing dumb - better to talk herself up than down - but in this case?] I've shot a bow and a rifle before. Oh, and I have a pocket knife.

[Well-- she keeps it in her pocket anyway. Same thing.]