ice has covered up my parents' hands

[hejhej]

Date & Time: October 17th - 19th
Location: Stockholm, Sweden via the VR!
Characters: Lisbeth Salander and YOU
Summary: Lisbeth recreates Stockholm in the VR, a place she didn't think she'd miss.
Warnings: Cursing, spoilers for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and I'll add others as the threads go on.

[When Lisbeth overheard others on the base talking about the VR and how they would re-create their homes, she almost scoffed. She wouldn't even dream of making Stockholm again. Sure, it was a city that she knew intimately like none other, but it was an open, festering wound on her psyche. She wouldn't wish what she experienced in Stockholm on any other girl or woman. However, the thought made itself at home in her head. With nothing to really do on the base other than despise the five minute ice showers and spar, Lisbeth had plenty of time to think about it.

She missed somewhere familiar. Even though she knew the scabbing underbelly of the city, Lisbeth missed the lights, the horizon at dusk, and the biting cold on her nose during winter. It takes days before Lisbeth breaks down; she recreates Stockholm just as she remembered it - sometimes it's Christmastime, sometimes it's the beginning of December, and sometimes it's the New Year.

Lisbeth could feel goosebumps breaking over her skin as the temperature begins to drop in the VR.]

Comments

[hejhej]

[She leans into him slightly before she's suddenly pulling him down the street. Where could she take him? Lisbeth usually rotated between at least four places in the city - work (when Armansky asked her to be present), her apartment, a club in Sodermalm, and then Palmgren's apartment. Well, there was the number of McDonald's littering the city, but there was nothing special about that.

She recognizes the area as Gamla Stan.]

Well, this is the historical district. There's nothing really.. I don't hang out here that much. The Royal Palace is here, if you're into that.

[hostage]

[He goes where she leads, laughing.]

I mean it! Show me everything! I'll see the Royal Palace! Whatever there is to see around here.

[It's all magical to him, really. He's seen snow, but not like it is here. And he's traveled around the Southwest, but he's never been to Europe or any city that looks like this. It's kind of a fairytale place, isn't it?]

[hejhej]

[The Stockholm that Lisbeth knows is no fairytale, but Jesse doesn't need to know about any of that. Besides, when he comes along it'll be better. There might be some unfinished business she'll need to take care of, but that would be a mere speed bump.

They keep walking until they're passing the royal palace, brightly lit and reflecting off the water running underneath Norrbro, the main thoroughfare to the Palace.]

It's not that exciting, so we're just going to walk by. I live in an area called Södermalm - that's where I do most of the things I like to do.

[And soon they're going down into the Tunnelbana to take the train.]

[hostage]

[Jesse takes it all in with starry eyes, with the same expression he often wears when he looks at Lisbeth - as if this is all a part of her he's finally getting to know.]

It's so clean here. Is it really always clean like this? Like... It's real old, but it looks real new. Like both at the same time.

[hejhej]

[Lisbeth's punching in numbers and getting tickets for them to their destination.]

The city tries its best to keep clean, yeah. Sweden takes pride in its history so a lot of the new city is built around the old.

[The machine spits out two tickets. She hands on to Jesse.]

You ever been on a subway before?