itinere | {open} → nous protégeons ceux qui ne peuvent pas se protéger eux-même

{open} → nous protégeons ceux qui ne peuvent pas se protéger eux-même

Allison has been here for a few days, and she still isn't sure how she wound up here when the last thing she was doing at home was walking through a gate after declaring she was going to save her best friend. Walking through that and into here had, quite literally, saved her life -- but it's not like she knows that. Not yet, anyway. She'd tried to get back, but the door on this side wouldn't budge no matter what she tried ... awesome. Yeah, she's kinda mad about that one.

Today, however, finds Allison starting off for breakfast at a coffee shop because she feels like treating herself to an oversized chocolate chip muffin and iced green tea; she's sitting at a table outdoors, because why not? And yes, yes that is a quiver full of arrows and a bow propped up against the chair she's sitting on. She's planning on getting in some practice after breakfast.

When she finishes her breakfast, she gathers up her bow and quiver, throws away the paper wrapper from her muffin and plastic cup that her tea had been in, and goes to the park. Sticking a paper target (she'd had it tucked into her quiver too) to a tree in a place where there aren't too many people around -- because, while she knows what she's doing and is good at it, accidents can happen, so she's just trying to minimize that risk as much as possible -- she stands a distance away and starts shooting. If anyone finds her here, they might want to wait until she's not about to shoot an arrow before making their presence known, waiting until after she's shot it - though, if they're not approaching her from behind so she can see them coming, she'll lower her weapon.

After the paper target is all done for, she's going to pack up and move on to something lighter, like exploring more of the city. There's a good chance that she'll pop in at least quickly if whatever buildings she passes are clearly not private. Basically, run into her anywhere -- on her way in and out of places, even.

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[OOC: Also ... stay tuned for an open comment to this entry from Chris Argent, who everyone can also hit up if interested. Come meet both of them in here.]

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Exiting the door of his apartment into what should have been a hallway but turned out to be some sort of shop had him turning back to look for Isaac before he tried the door. Which was locked apparently.

Because he hadn't lost enough in his life already? He waved off any questions before he left the shop and found himself in the park.

..Where an all too familiar figure was standing with a bow and something inside him clenched hard enough that he had to remind himself to breathe. He was hallucinating, had to be.

And yet, he walked towards the girl, who was probably just someone who looked like Allison. Because that was the only logical answer, right?

--

Later he can be found in different places, with or without Allison.

Allison stops what she's doing as soon as she sees her dad. She's been here a few days and hasn't seen a familiar face from Beacon Hills in that time, not until just now. She starts walking towards him as well, meeting him halfway. "Dad?" She says, almost surprised. Even though ... well no shit it's him. The unspoken second question there is 'you found a door too?'. She then starts to explain her presence here like she'd somehow be in trouble for it, because she wasn't back home to be for her friends, for Lydia. Like he'd be mad that she was here the whole time instead of following that new code she'd given them. Because she sure is mad at herself for it. "The door was stuck, I couldn't get back to do anything, or tell anyone I'd ended up here, I--"

He stopped when she started toward him, his gaze riveted on her, and he wasn't even listening to her talk, not beyond the initial 'Dad'. He was just staring for a long moment until she was within reach and then he pulled her forward.

Wrapped his arms around her and the fact she was warm and alive?

"...You're really here, aren't you?" It's a little strained, Chris at least keeping some small vestige of composure.

Beacon Hills is who knows how far away from here. Distance measured in feet and miles from this place to home is impossible to tell.

"Yeah?" She can tell it's a bit strained when he speaks. Then she repeats it, with less question -- no question -- in her voice, it's fact, not question. "Yeah. I'm here." She pauses for a moment. "...What door do you last remember opening or closing from home?"

He at least takes the time to bring himself back under control before he answers. "...It was the door to our apartment." Which was true enough, although he wasn't going to elaborate on when.

Yet.

"You?"

She nods slightly. That door does get obvious frequent use, so it's not too surprising that it was that one. "I was about to go in to save Lydia." And Stiles. And basically everyone. Again. "At Oak Creek. But instead of walking into that..." She motions with one hand to what's around them. "I was here."

So it was before, not long before, but before he'd had to watch her fall in battle. That was something of a relief, although his hold on her tightened, Chris drawing in a slow breath.

"...I'm from after that fight, Allison. We won, though, because of what you did." And then he'd left town.

Or being planning to, with Isaac because he had nothing else holding him there.

"So, everyone is safe." She breathes a sigh of relief, thinking about her friends back home. She's not even wondering much about herself -- her focus had been her friends. "Good." Understatement of the year, she thinks. "I guess I can stop worrying so much about that now, while I'm here - which seems like is going to be a while because the doors don't want to cooperate and let me back to Beacon Hills. I thought I'd really screwed up and failed everyone once I found myself here."

"They're all fine, yes." He's a little slow to respond to that one, but it's true enough, and he's quiet for a moment.

"So what else can you tell me about this place?"

"You probably have another phone on you now that sent you a text message welcoming you and telling you to go to the apartment buildings because there's a room for you there." Because that's not weird at all. Nope... heh. "Don't try calling home or trying to use the internet we're familiar with -- neither work. You can use it to communicate with everyone here, though, sending out mass texts and the like, and there's a local version of the internet available." Which is, at least, something.

"There are a lot of places to go here; it doesn't feel like the middle of nowhere." Plenty to do to be productive or relax, basically. "I haven't been here long enough to see what kinds of weird things happen." Which is probably the information he was actually looking for. But, any place you get to by stepping through a door at home and into a whole different place, there are probably weird things that happen in said place. She's just waiting to see what exactly those weird things are.

There's something safe in walking around with her bow and quiver whenever she decides to explore Itinere. Or even when she's just walking around to go about what now passes for her daily life. She's still reluctant to trust anyone around here, let alone the city itself. With the exception of the white roses that had appeared for a few weeks, life has been relatively dull. It's only a matter of time before that changes, isn't it?

She's surprised to see someone else in the park with a target set up, even more surprised to see how well she shoots. It unnerves her a little. Someone else here as good as she is. Quietly, Katniss stands off to the side and watches until there's a break in the shooting. She's tempted to join in but more so, she's determined to figure out how dangerous the other girl might be.

As someone who is mindful of her surroundings, Allison has noticed the other girl standing to the side. It's not until that break when she returns her bow to her side and pulls her arrow puller out of her pocket to go remove the arrows from the tree, that she offers her a small wave. "Hey," Her tone is friendly -- not overly/creepy friendly, though. "Are you here to practice too?" She indicates the bow and quiver that the other girl is carrying with her. Seems they have that in common.

The tone is friendly enough and although Katniss does not return the wave, she doesn’t scowl at Allison. It’s about as friendly as she’s willing to get on first impression. She walks closer to the target and the arrows. She hadn’t intended to practice. Mostly, her bow and quiver act as something of a safety blanket with Katniss. If things do turn bad in Itinere, become more like the games that Katniss is accustomed to, she wants to be ready. She feels better whenever she’s equipped with something she can use to protect herself – and Prim.

“I didn’t know there were other archers here,” she admits. “Or practice outside of the gym.”

"That makes two of of us here." In other words, she hasn't come across any other archers yet either, at least. "Yeah -- I decided to make my own venue for practice today. Fresh air, at least." That, and she prefers doing this outside anyway. Using her skills as part of her role as a hunter (of the supernatural, though especially trained for wolves), outside is where she's used to.

"I'm Allison." She introduces herself.

The mention of fresh air doesn't exactly make Katniss smile but the expression on her face is close. She understands that preference. Being in the gym isn't anything like being outdoors. It's nothing like hunting within the woods she loves so very much. But at least the gym offered a chance to fire her bow when she had been sick. It had been better than nothing.

"I'm Katniss."

That, she gives a small nod to. "Nice to meet you." She replies.
"Do you have people from your home here?" She asks more out of curiosity. Allison has yet to discover that she only has one person from her home here, her father (who is her last living close family member ... her grandfather is still living, but considering he had her mind warped for a while, trying to get her to become someone she wasn't, he's not on the 'close' list), so for now she thinks she's come into this place alone. She wonders how often that happens.

The question is innocent but for a second, Katniss can't help but regard the girl with suspicion again. Maybe she's been overprotective of her sister since finding her in Itinere. She can't help it. Watching Prim die had been the worst day of her life.

She has to remind herself that it's a normal question. That she can't continue to be suspicious of everyone that she meets here. Itinere isn't a game like the Hunger Games. So far, they've been safe here.

"My sister," she finally answers. Besides, there's a good chance that Allison might have met Prim already. The younger Everdeen is by far the more social one.

She hasn't met anyone here who mentioned a sister named Katniss, so she can't say for certain if she's met this sister or not. "Family's nice." She replies, another smile appearing on her lips. Well, in general family is nice. Hers had a lot of issues, then a lot of them died. But she does love what she has left of it, even if she only counts her dad in that. "I was an only child, and it's just me and my dad now anyway." Not that Katniss had asked, or not that she maybe even cares, but trying to make friends means sharing some info. Even if Katniss herself isn't very open -- which, she can already see that Katniss is more on the quieter side, which is fine -- Allison can do most of it for now so that Katniss can at least get to know her to start with. "And he's not here. Or, I haven't see him yet if he is." Which probably means he isn't here. "This definitely isn't anywhere in California."

Family is nice. Family also doesn't last. She had lost her father in a mining accident when she had been eleven. If it weren't for finding her way to Itinere, she wouldn't have ever seen her sister again. Prim had died in front of Katniss' eyes. But the dead make it here. She doesn't understand how or why but some things aren't worth arguing over.

There's a look of envy that flashes through her eyes when Allison mentions that it's just her and her dad. Katniss misses her own so, so much. Family, she quickly decides, isn't something that she wants to discus. "Where's California?"

Geography ought to be safe enough.

Going any deeper into the topic family is probably a bad choice of topic for both of them, honestly. At least at this point. So the topic of geography is nice and safe compared to that.

"On the west coast of the United States of America." That ... may or may not be of any significance to Katniss either. But it's what she starts with. "The town I was last in there was called Beacon Hills -- I've moved around a lot. Enough to have to repeat a year of school." Which is annoying to her.

Though Katniss never feels all that comfortable with social interaction, she's trying. Conversations like this don't come easy. In general, she tries to avoid them all together. But as much as she'd rather be a loner, she's not as good at it as she tries to be. She does her best to continue to focus on the conversation but it winds up being easier than expected when something Allison says does have significance.

"North America?" Katniss' eyes narrow slightly. "Is that what you mean by the United States of America?"

She gives another small nod to confirm that before she answers verbally. "Yep, that's the one specific part of the continent I'm referring to." Considering there's more to it than just the USA. "Which part have you been to?" Or heard about, she supposes could apply to the situation as well.

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