open :: mingle :: waiting out the storm

[sempreadagio]

Jill was at work when the first monsters started flooding the town yesterday. Lucy is with her, of course. They're never too far away from one another at any given time. The monsters seem to be entering Itinere in a never-ending trickle of terrible, with nothing on their minds but destruction and blood shed. In the basement, she found some ply wood boards Marley has had on hand for bad storms that might sweep through at home. With some of the patrons' help, she's boarded up the windows of The Houndstooth and locked the doors.

Safely inside, Jill offers up drinks and food to those who are holing up inside with her. She's not a fighter. She wouldn't know the first thing about working a gun or wielding a sword... which is probably something that she should eventually change. For now though, she can help keep people cared for in this way, she can offer up a safe harbor during the deluge of... whatever this is.

* * *

[ She flips on the communication of the device and her face appears on everyone's screens. ]

Hey. Some of you may know me. Some may not. I'm Jill. I own The Houndstooth in the center of town on main street. The windows are boarded up and the doors locked. But if anyone needs a safe space to stay while things are crazy out there, or just wants to wait out whatever this is with other people, the doors are open for you. We'll let you in.

[ There's a pounding at the door and Jill momentarily looks away as someone says it's a citizen and Jill tells them to let them in. She looks back at the screen. ] Otherwise, stay safe out there, okay? Okay.


ooc: Use this as a mingle for all things The Houndstooth through the entire month until things clear up. Whether it's a stop off or the need for medical treatment or just waiting things out until all is calm again. Open or closed threads welcome for anything and everything.

Comments

hawke }{ OPEN

[considerdying]

[ hawke is, for the most part, keeping an eye on the streets more than anything else, but even she needs a good stiff drink every so often. especially when shit is happening. and this constitutes as thedas-class shit.

maker's breath, she wishes varric were here.

eventually, she knocks firmly on the door. ]

There's another poor soul out here in need of a hard drink. Think you might be able to help? I'm a paying customer.

[ she knows coin loosens people up, even in a situation like this.

or she could just be her usual sarcastic self.


later she can be found sitting at a table, drinking something before heading out again. if you're unlucky, she might even approach. she also helps people inside at various points. no use in anyone not making it to the safehouse. ]

[sempreadagio]

[ At the sound of a booming knock on the door, Jill sets her hammer down and goes to peek through the slats at the face outside. She recognizes her from the video the other day, Alaina's friend. To Jill, unless proven otherwise, that means she's trustworthy. Hopefully that doesn't come back to bite her.

She unlocks the double doors and swings one open. ] Hey, we have just what you're looking for in here. Come on in. You're Marian, right?

[considerdying]

[ it won't bite jill unless she hates puns and sarcasm. alaina might have made jokes in her spare time, but for hawke they're a coping mechanism.

a very poor one, but everyone has their faults.

she slips in through the opening, careful to ensure that her armor and staff don't get caught on anything. ]

Call me Hawke. Everyone else does.

[ she's not really sure who's responsible for that one, but over the years her surname just stuck as the name everyone called her. funny, since she's not the only hawke left. there's her brother, too, for all that he doesn't spend much time around her anymore. ]

How are things holding up in here?

[sempreadagio]

[ Luckily Jill is a fan of puns and sarcasm. Especially of the dry variety. People don't always get her sense of humor either for its dryness.

Once Hawke is in, Jill slams the door shut and locks it again. Better safe than sorry with the people holed up in here. ] Hawke then. [ She offers a hand to shake. ] I'm Jill.

[ Jill leads Hawke through the bar where one half of it has been littered with makeshift beds with blankets and pillows. There are some wounded, but not many yet. Mostly, there's just people seeking refuge. ] So far so good. We had some... things... try to get in at first but someone fought them off. We have people up on the second floor balcony playing lookout. They're in shifts so whoever's up there is always sharp. I think that's the best we can do for now.

[ She walks around behind the bar. ] We have food and drink here, so that's good. What'll you have?

[considerdying]

[ hawke shakes jill's offered hand, her grip firm but not too tight. jill seems to have things in hand. that's always good to see. the wounded get a glance over, but as they don't seem to be too badly hurt, she doesn't stop. ]

If you find yourself in need of-- [ she almost says 'a healer' but that was the term anders used. wanting to distance herself as far as possible from him, she switches tactics at lightning speed. ] --someone who can heal, let me know. I'm not exactly trained, but I have had practice. Some bloodier than others.

[ not naming names of those responsible for the bloody wounds and deaths. anders. meredith. orsino. ]

Good idea. I'll take one of the shifts today. I've got distance on my side. If anything comes at us, it'll be frozen in fear before it knows what hit it.

[ mostly because it'll literally be frozen. ice magic is part of hawke's thing. ]

[sempreadagio]

[ Really, the way Hawke talks, she almost reminds Jill of Alaina. That both makes Jill miss Alaina more and glad that Hawke is here not if Alaina had to leave. Alaina always seemed so confident, like she knew what she was talking about, and was friendly at the same time. Hawke is those things with even more of an emphasis on the confident, Jill thinks. Jill is usually good at reading people. She thinks Hawke is trustworthy. ]

If there's anything Prim can't handle, I'll be sure to call on you. Luckily our phones haven't quit working... yet. I might've just jinxed us.

[ It's nice of Hawke to offer to take one of the shifts upstairs today. Jill isn't good with weapons so she's been keeping busy down here making sure everyone has what they need. Really, Jill is kind of useless in a situation like this beyond crisis control, exactly what she's doing right now. ]

What do you mean, frozen?

[considerdying]

[ jill is reading hawke fairly accurately with one minor, but important flaw: hawke's confidence is mostly out of necessity, a face she puts on because if she doesn't crack jokes, she'll break. and in her experience, she's the only one who will, the only one who ever cares enough to try saving shit. well, except for the hero of ferelden, who is still missing, and the inquisitor, but they weren't in kirkwall to lead for her.

her coping mechanisms really need work. ]

If they do stop working, we all know who to blame, [ she responds dryly, her lips curled upwards with amusement.

as for jill's question, she barely pauses. lifting a hand, she pulls her magic into a ball of blue light in her hand. nothing seems to be quite the same here, so she's less afraid to show herself. ]

I'm a mage. Don't tell me I'm the first you've ever met. I might die of shock, even though I don't have lightning spells.

[mightbeconcussed]

[ Jill takes care of the drinks, but Lucy takes care of the socializing. She smiles when she sees Hawke sitting at the table. Without asking, she goes to sit across from her. ]

Hey. How you holding up out there?

[considerdying]

[ hawke likes jill already and any friend of jill's is a friend of hawke's. as long as lucy can deal with with bad puns and dry humor. ]

On a scale of one to ten with the Blight being a solid twenty? About a five.

[ she's not kidding okay. the blight is pretty huge. also her life is ridiculous and her scale is skewed. badly. ]

Things look to be doing well in here. You're doing a good job.

[mightbeconcussed]

[ she'll deal well enough, but the fact that jill considers her a friend speaks well enough for hawke.]

Is that anything like a the Plague with a capital B?

[ she has no idea what the blight is. she smiles at the compliment. ]

Thanks. it's the alcohol. People are generally calmer when they're buzzed.

[considerdying]

[ you know... that's one way to put it. ]

Close. Very close. The Blight is... [ maker's breath, she's going to have to figure her way around explaining that more times that she'd like here, isn't she? ] Darkspawn are like... demon spawn. They carry what we call the Taint, which is something of a bloodborne disease. If a living thing contracts the Taint, it's a nasty way to die. It's like an infection that eats away at you from the inside out and there's no real cure. Most people prefer to be killed rather than die from it.

[ there is a cure of sorts. it just comes at a high price. and is less a cure and more of a postponing the inevitable. ]

Normally, the darkspawn don't like the sun and stay very deep underground. If they happen to find an Old God? They corrupt the Old God, turn it into an archdemon, the only thing capable of commanding the hordes of darkspawn. They all go topside and it's a Blight buffet.

[ which begs the question of how the blights are stopped, but she'll answer that if asked. for now, she turns to the rest of what lucy says with her usual sarcastic humor. ]

Oh is that why there were only brawls in Kirkwall outside the Hanged Man or with people inside who hadn't had anything to drink? I guess the templars weren't the only buzzkills in the city.

[mightbeconcussed]

[ Lucy's brows go up at that. ] And we've got that here? Right now? I'm definitely staying inside.

[ Lucy actually assumes that Hake knows how to stop it and since she's not a fighter and is staying inside, she doesn't need to know how to stop it.

she laughs a bit at that.]

Well, I guess it does make some people violent, but thankfully that's not the case so far. Knock on wood, it'll stay that way.

Katniss | open

[stillplaying]

She's been there almost since the beginning. Ever since she had returned home from a disastrous hunt and Prim had asked to brought to the Houndstooth so she could help treat the wounded. Katniss wasn't going to argue. The idea of waiting things out in an unfamiliar restaurant with people she didn't necessarily know so well was far from something comfortable to her but that didn't matter. She's learned enough to know that the allies she's found here aren't like the Careers. They're more like the allies she had had in the Quarter Quell, determined to get as many of them out alive as possible.

That's something she can live with. It calms her concerns (a little) and makes it easier to sleep every night without worrying that someone might try to harm her or Prim. She'll be in the Houndstooth for the long run, until it's safe for her and Prim to return to their house.

For the most part, when she's in the restaurant, she tends to keep to herself. Even in this kind of situation, she's not very good at socializing. Katniss feels awkward around others, never knowing if she's going to say the right thing. Despite slowly making friends in Itinere, she still doesn't consider herself all that likable. But sometimes, when morale seems low, she finds a flashlight and uses it to taunt Buttercup into a game of crazy cat. At the very least, it entertains her.

She also does her best to help in chores - in cooking especially. When she's not out hunting, she butchers whatever game she brings in and tries to turn it into a serviceable meal - usually a sew or roast of some sort. The meals that she makes are more appetizing than she gives herself credit for.

[mightbeconcussed]

Lucy finds Katniss while she's playing crazy cat with Buttercup. She sits down, a drink in her hand, grinning at the idiot cat.

"You think he'd figure out eventually that he's never going to catch it," she says. "I used to have a cat, a long time ago named Misha." She'd been forced to leave Misha and all her other pets behind in the City when it had evacuated all the residents. She takes a sip of her drink and looks over to Katniss. "Thanks for helping out here. Jill and I appreciate it."

[stillplaying]

The cat is an idiot, isn't he? If he had half a brain, maybe Buttercup would realize that he's never going to win this game.

Katniss looks up from watching the ugly cat to glance at the girl who just sat down beside her. She can't recall ever talking to her before but she knows from watching that she's close to the owner. A name eludes her but that doesn't seem to be necessary right now. Not for simple conversation.

She offers a slight grin in acknowledgement. "You gave us a place to stay. I should help out somehow."

[mightbeconcussed]

Lucy thinks most cats are idiots? Misha wasn't but Lucy found out later Harry literally brainwashed the cat so...(yeah her dating decisions having always been great).

Jill is Lucy's life long best friend and kind of her girlfriend that she shares with Noah that Noah shares with her as he gets shared. It's complicated would be her relationship status on facebook.

"Fair enough. At least you know it's appreciated. I'm Lucy, by the way. I don't think we've really formally met."

[stillplaying]

Then that's something they definitely have in common. Cats are idiots. And lack any actual usefulness. Be honest, Misha was an idiot. If he wasn't, would Harry have been able to brainwash him?

That... is not something Katniss is capable of understanding. Girlfriend, yes (albeit brief, she did have some exposure to life in the Capitol). Sharing? Threesome? Complicated? Facebook?

"Katniss," she answers. "How do you know Jill?"

[mightbeconcussed]

There are days that Lucy still isn't certain Harry hadn't brain washed her, but Misha probably was an idiot, or at least as dumb as the average cat.

At least three of the four are explainable.

"Oh! I've know Jilly Bean forever. She's my best friend and my girlfriend," she steals a glance at Jill then looks back to Katniss. "Whom I share with Noah, but she was mine first." She says it without any jealousy or spite. "To be fair, she shares Noah with me too."

Confused yet, Katniss? Or just scandalized?

[mightbeconcussed]

Opening the Houndstooth to people needing safety was a no-brainer as far as Lucy was concerned. They had the supplies, the room and they could seal the building off. It was also a way of keeping their friends and loved ones close. Really, after everything she's seen and heard here as well as in the City, Lucy looks at this like a slumber party.

She keeps music on the jukebox or football on the TV (it's a quirk of the Houndstooth. There are always sports on the TVs). She cooks a lot and helps Jill in serving people, in making drinks (though drinks are Jill's speciality; Lucy tends to be the cook). She believes happily buzzed is the best way to wait this thing out, because eventually it will be over, right? That's how things work. At least she hopes that's how things work.

Catch her while she's in the kitchen or wandering about with a drink in her hand. She'll be happy to Irish up your coffee in the mornings or make sure you get the perfect beer to go with your fried chicken.

prim | OTA + mobile apothecary

[bloomingprimrose]

As soon as she heard that Jill was setting up in the Houndstooth, Prim knew she would be setting up in there as well. She's brought with her as much as she and Katniss could carry from her shop, wanting to make something of a healing camp where most people would be.

So here she is in the Houndstooth. If anyone needs healing, she's got her herbs, salves, poltices, and other natural remedies. All anyone needs to do is walk in the door and ask for a healer.

For those who don't need a healer, she can be found wandering around the place to see to everyone anyway. She likes to talk to people, make sure they're all doing okay, and if there's anything anyone needs, she will do her best to make it happen. Eventually, when she can't handle the past and present mingling, she curls up in a corner with her cat just to rest a little bit, even if she can't sleep. Buttercup is the best medicine for her. Always has been.

There's also a goat in the corner. She's a clean and quiet goat. Prim promises.

[stillplaying]

There had been no arguing with Prim when her sister suggested they take up residence at the Houndstooth during the duration of the siege. The world isn't ending this time but when it had, there had been safety in numbers. In all likelihood, the same rule applies now. Besides, even if it makes her uncomfortable, Katniss doesn't have the heart to say no to Prim. Nor can she stand to leave her sister's side for long in this strangeness.

It's evening now. The day has been as uneventful as October days can get. She's checked in with Matt while making dinner and brought the finished meal out to place on one of the tables along with some empty bowls. The rabbit stew is simple in her eyes, and very reminiscent of home. Quietly, she carries two bowls over to the corner where Prim rests alongside Buttercup.

"Hey," she greets as she sits down beside Prim and offers her one of the bowls. "I brought you dinner."

[bloomingprimrose]

Prim's goal had been two-fold in suggesting that they come to the Houndstooth: she wanted a place where she might be able to do some good and she wanted a place with people. It would be better here than home alone, even with her sister. She knows Katniss won't like the crowd, but maybe one of her friends might turn up to help her feel more at ease. Or they might both make a couple of friends. Stranger things have happened already.

Besides, it's better for Prim to be surrounded by work and people when she's having one of her low points. Like right now. She manages a smile when her sister appears with food, shifting to keep Buttercup out of it. Lady is curled up far enough away not to bother anything, so it's mostly the cat. Taking one bowl and a spoon, she stirs the soup as a way to focus on reality and not the past.

"Thanks, Katniss," she murmurs. "Stay with me a while?"

She doesn't want to be alone right now. Buttercup will just have to deal with it.

[stillplaying]

Strange probably defines life in Itinere. Strange is being reunited with a sister she saw die. Strange is having that sister disappear and come back from a Panem Katniss could never imagine existing. Strange is meeting a man here with strange abilities and somehow start falling for him. Strange is the attacks currently occurring. Strange is their day-to-day life so long as they stay in Itinere.

Oddly, Katniss has gotten used to the strange life that they're living. Yet she has a hard time imagining any other kind of life anymore.

"You never have to ask, little duck," Katniss murmurs as she pulls Prim closer to her. There's comfort in the body contact for both of them. Buttercup eyes Katniss' stew with interest and she scowls at him. If he tries anything, she won't hesitate to shove the cat away. In some strange ways, it's like they're little again - eating their dinner quietly together in their small house. Relying on each other to make their world right again. "I'm always here for you."

And besides, it helps Katniss to have Prim nearby too. Though she's trying not to, she worries about Matt and the fights he might be facing outside.

[bloomingprimrose]

Prim easily and gladly relaxes against her sister, letting their shoulders and arms touch, hips too. She likes having her sister close, like they once did so long ago. The physical contact is a reminder for Prim that this is real. It's really real. And it's also good for both of them. Prim will probably soak up as much time with her sister as she can for a while yet. She's got years to catch up on and make up for.

"Thanks, Katniss," she murmurs gratefully, taking a bite of her stew. Buttercup seems content to just sit by their feet for now, his beady eyes on Katniss more than her stew. They all know why. "And you know I'm always here for you, too, right? If you need anything..."

Healing or someone to talk to. Anything that Prim can provide, she will. They once talked about everything. Prim sees no reason they can't do that now.

[stillplaying]

Prim might be older than she remembers but she's here. She's here and she's real and although the memories might be different from her own, that matter is minute in the grand scheme of things. It's her sister leaning against her right now, a sister that by all rights, she never should have gotten to see again. Katniss too will take all the time she can get. All the contact she can get.

As Katniss watches Prim eat, she stirs her spoon through her own stew. Though she's not paying close attention to Buttercup, she's more than aware that his eyes are on Katniss and her meal. That's the way it's always been between them. It's how they always will be.

"I know," she answers, bumping her elbow gently against Prim's arm. Katniss stares out towards the door as she finally makes herself eat a spoonful of soup. "And I know Matt can take care of himself, too."

But she worries. She can't help it.