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How many days has it been, now? Calamity's not keeping track - it's not like they can, with both of their phones gone to who-knows-where (hard to keep track of the shit that falls out of your pockets when you're being kidnapped). They sleep when they're tired, eat when they're fed, and spend the rest of the time fucking around with the battered lighter that never seems to leave their hands. Though they don't actually light it. They have given up wearing their sweatshirt constantly, and have been using it as a pillow instead, and the tank top they have on is loose fitting and has definitely seen better days.
"They don't tell you how fuckin' boring it is, bein' kidnapped..." they mutter darkly, not at anyone in particular. Though they have been spending more of their time closer to Dandy's cell, so maybe it's their way of starting a conversation.
Dandelion has been spending her time meditating and sleeping almost constantly when not talking to Calamity, but the heat's wearing on her almost as much as the Willpower drain that like. Going and doing Astral Shit is. She's grown quieter over time. No less confident in the hope of rescue, but she's not eating as much as she was in the beginning, and tends to drink more water than she used to.
"Most of them don't know, to be fair."
"Yeah well. It fuckin' sucks." Calamity swipes a hand across their forehead, leaving a streak of dirt as they do. "And he's not helping." They gesture to a man who's developed a cough in the past day or so, hacking at all hours and making it pretty hard to do things like sleep. "Livin' with the guys's bad enough, when one of em's sick, but at least there's an upstairs..."
"It's the air in here, it's bad on the lungs." Dandelion slumps herself against the side of her cage closest to Calamity. "The air vents aren't enough to let us actually breathe. Should make sure you get to a doctor--or one of my friends who heals--when you get out of here."
Calamity crosses their arms as they let out a small cough themself, muffled by the bandana they keep over their face constantly now. "I don't fuck with doctors. I'll be fine. You kinda look like shit though."
"If I say I won't see someone afterwards unless you do, would that guilt you into it? Doesn't have to be a doctor, not a real doctor. Just...someone. One of my friends, most likely." She offers a crooked smirk.
"...That's not fair." Calamity frowns. "What can your friends do?"
"What's not fair about it, Calamity?" Her voice is low. "They can do a lot of things, my friends can. Probably kill these rats for good. Heal you and me and everyone else here. Make time go faster or slower. They're amazing people."
"'Cause I'll be fine, I always am. An' you really don't look it." Another small cough, and a slightly wheezing breath. "If your friends're so good, why aren't they here already?" the comment is calculated to sting.
"Because they're being strategic about the matter. The big ugly rat-things? If you kill them, they burst into a swarm of rats. If even one of them makes it out alive, it'll reproduce and there'll be another big ugly to deal with later. So they need to figure out how to contain the problem."
She sounds like she still has faith in her people, but she doesn't look at Calamity.
"Catch 'em and set the fuckers on fire, it'll catch the rats, too..." They draw their knees up and wrap their arms around them, their eyebrows drawn together. Presumably they're frowning under the mask. "They don't show up soon, I'm gonna start looking for my own way out..."
"They will show up. They always show up." Dandelion closes her eyes. "They won't leave us here. I know that much. They're doing everything they can for us."
"Sure okay." Calamity clearly doesn't share Dandelion's confidence. "They gonna show up before whatever fuckin' sacrifice bullshit goes down?"
"Yes. They'll show up before you get sacrificed. They will." A slow nod. She pushes herself off the wall of her cage, moving to her bucket of water to drink some quietly. "You're going to make it out of here and be fine."
"...I know I'll be fine, what about you?"
There's the tiniest hesitation. "Well, they're certainly going to come for me, Calamity."
"There's shit you're not sayin', I'm not stupid." They turn to look her full-on, their pale green eyes searching her face.
She shakes her head. "It doesn't matter, really. Nothing you or I or anything can do about it."
There's a few moments of silence, until the pieces fall into place and Calamity shifts backward. "You don't think you're gonna get outta here. Why?"
"I don't know if I will or not. I've been almost a week without my medicines, I'm in my sixties, and I'm feeling pretty weak at this point. I can tell it's taking a toll on me." She shakes her head. "But that's really not what matters. I need to keep trying to reach my friends in the astral, in order to help them understand what they'll be facing when they get here."
There's a stubborn look on her face. "So you can get back to 'the guys' safely. And so you can be fine."
"Wait you...haven't talked to 'em yet, you're just...you just keep tryin'?"
“If they’re not asleep when I try, getting into their Oneiros is going to be impossible. You’re not dreaming when you’re not asleep, right?”
"Guess not, no. 'S it hard to do? Know my shit takes it outta me after a while."
"It's...not simple. Dealing with the contents of my mind, when I try to reach out is tricky sometimes. Old thought patterns that have lingered, some of them have grown dangerous over time. I'd offer to show you, but it's very rare for people to be able to enter the astral outside of a place of power."
"That sounds like a lotta work..." Their nose wrinkles. "You been able to talk to anybody?"
"Not yet. Poor timing--I'm not lucky like that. I will get there, though. I'll tell them about you, to make sure you make it out safely. No matter what."
"Not worried about me, I'll figure my shit out if I gotta. Always have." Calamity shrugs. "You're gonna wear yourself out tryin' to reach 'em though, 'n that can't be good..."
She smiles slightly, shaking her head. "You're young. You have a life to live. I need to be sure you make it out." And the look she gives him is pained, before she reaches out through the bars of her cage as much as she can. "If you were my kid, Calamity, I'd be so proud of you. You're strong, and smart, resilient. You have to make it out."
Calamity jerks away from her. "Yo, what the fuck, you're talkin' like you're in some movie and you're gonna sacrifice yourself to save the main character 'cause you just like, reconnected with 'em or some shit. Miss me with that. I'll drag you outta here myself if I gotta."
"It's not a sacrifice. It's just an acknowledgement that my body is worn down before all of this." She shakes her head. "But. I believe you, that you would drag me out of here by yourself. If it were in your power."
"...You stop talking like you're gonna die in here, and you go to your friends after to patch you up, an' I will, too. Deal?"
"Deal. But I'm not going to stop trying to connect with them in the Astral. Some of what we've learned, what we can see from where we are, might end up being vital to their rescue. For example, the cages--knowing what how sturdy they are might help them to prepare. Or the layout of this area. Or how often we're being visited with food and water."
"'S fine, whatever. 'F you think it'll help it prob'ly will." Calamity coughs again. "How often do they come by with that shit? I dunno what time it is at all..."
"I think the meals are coming twice a day, water buckets are more often than that. Which is good, they're still keeping us alive, and they know they need water to do that, given the heat." She glances around. "The quality of the equipment's notable. Think for a second, how much do you think it cost, to set up these cages?"
There's a few moments of silence, while Calamity looks around. "Who the fuck'd fund something like this?" They hold a hand up and shake their head. "'S a stupid question, 's at least three people I can think of off the top of my head who'd do shit if they got what they wanted out of it. But none of 'em could front the money."
"That's a very good question. You've noticed there are people around, helping with feeding us and dealing with new intake, right? There are humans either choosing or forced to be involved in this."
"Gotta few words for 'em if they weren't forced..." Calamity mutters murderously. "More'n words, even. Wanna go track the fuckers down who're footing the bill for all this..."
"I'll join you. With my sword." She nods. "Might need to sharpen it, so I can cut heads off with it."
"You know how to swordfight?" Calamity's eyes widen in surprise and excitement. "Cool."
"My preferred weapon is an Egyptian style of sword known as a 'khopesh'. Curved blade, works a little like a cleaver." She gestures the rough shape. "I even know how to use it for fighting ghosts and spirits."
They sit back a little, clearly impressed. "Shit, that's cool at hell. I know a little about how to fight with a knife, but...I'm better at runnin' away. Or setting shit on fire."
"Would you want to learn how to use a sword?" She raises both eyebrows, looking at Calamity. "I taught my daughter to, when she was a teenager."
"...I dunno. I mean I - yeah I kinda wanna, but...I dunno 'f it'll be useful at all. Not like I'm gonna carry a sword around anywhere, you know?"
"Learning for learning's sake is useful. Maybe you won't have a sword on hand, but if you find a metal bar, many of the techniques still apply. You might be bruising organs instead of slashing them--it's still good to know the basics. Adaptability is Strength."
There's been a few of these little witticisms she's dropped into discussion before.
"Never been that good at learning shit, but could be cool I guess?" The corners of their eyes crinkle slightly. "Somethin' to look forward to after all this."
"And how much of that was the fact that the people trying to teach you were the sort to look down their noses at you, hm?" She smiles faintly.
Calamity's nose wrinkles. "Had some shit teachers in school, yeah."
"I hated school. Hated almost all of my teachers. Hated having to sit still and study. I was terrible at writing papers and long-term projects..." She shakes her head. "And then I grew up and became a law clerk. Which was alright, because I had an outlet for all the rest. I'd spend my days at work, and my nights hunting down ghosts and spirits causing trouble."
"Yeah I dropped out soon's I could, shit sucked." Calamity shakes their head. But they pause in the middle of the sentence, like they're coming up with something on the fly.
There's a pause, and a quiet knowing look, but she doesn't call them on it aloud.
"...What?" Their eyebrows come together again, and they hug themselves.
"How old were you when you dropped out?"
"Don't bullshit a bullshitter, Calamity." She shakes her head slightly.
Calamity huffs. "Thirteen. Never made it to high school. An' I got no use for it now, so..." They shrug, still holding themself like they'll fall apart if they let go.
She weighs them with her eyes. "That's up to you, I suppose. No use...sounds so final, as if you never will have a use for it."
"I mean..." Calamity shifts, and keeps their eyes on the dirty ground. "I could figure out how'ta get my GED if I wanted. I guess?" It's not something they sound particularly interested in.
"But you don't want to, so you're not going to. That's fair." She nods a bit.
"Yeah, 's about right. Not useful now, so why bother? Costs a fuckton, too, it's bullshit." They shake their head with a huff. "Not fuckin' worth it."
"Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?"
"You're the one who asked about it..." But did she really, though?
She nods. "But the depth of your explanation shows how hard you've thought about it. Looked up the price for the GED test, even."
"It was uh...I was in a program. Thing. For a while, they had all the info and shit." Their shrug is calculated to be casual, but their eyes are a little sad.
"I see." She nods thoughtfully. "...well. If I paid for the test, would you study hard enough to pass it the first time?"
Their eyes narrow. "Why?"
"That's not an offer yet. Just a question. Would you?"
"I...I mean I'd try, I guess? Don't wanna waste your money like that..."
"Something to consider." She nods slightly. "When we both make it out of here."
"Sure, yeah." They nod, too.
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