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Date & Time: Early Dec. 6th through the 8th
Location: Earth!!
Characters: Carol and open for the first option, Carol and Christopher for the second
Summary: Carol arrives on Earth! ...And then bad decisions follow.
Warnings: Some violence later on

[A. The Arrival]

[Admittedly she was scared at first, wondering if she should wait before making that trip down to Earth once she discovered it was all right to do so. She was eager to get off the moon, sure, but would she like it once she got back down?

Well, she supposes that she can't stay up here forever anyway. Not that she'd want to. Even in just a few months, she was already tired of space. She thinks that this might actually be the opportunity to give the potion she recieved from Doctor Facilier a try. It was supposed to make her brave, right? If she were brave, then she wouldn't have any hesistations about returning to Earth.

And after one sip, it turns out she's right.

Upon her arrival, she's amazed just how pristine and gorgeous everything looks - like stepping into some winter fairytale.]

Oh wow, everything's so beautiful! I never would've guessed it looked like this... [and then she has a realization.] ...and cold! Cold! Cold!

[Well, she can admire its beauty later once she isn't freezing. Though she dressed as warmly as she could, she's definitely not prepared for this kind of cold weather. As soon as she reaches civilization, she'll approach anyone and everyone with one important question on her mind:]

E-e-excuse m-me, w-w-where d-do I buy a c-coat?

[B. The forest - locked to Christopher.]

[After having just enough time to settle in and gather things she'll need to stay warm, Carol's eager to explore a nearby forest. Not just to find more supplies, which is part of it, but that potion she took a sip of has given her the strangest urge to go exploring out in the wilderness. So as soon as she's able, she bundles herself up warmly and takes a pack of supplies that might come in handy if she strays too far into the forest (which much to her surprise, sounds kind of exciting!).

Right as she's leaving to head out, she'll run into Christopher. Normally, she'd stay and talk - he must have some interesting stories of course, but she can't seem to fight off that nagging feeling that's telling her to go out into the woods. To go as far as her legs would allow her to, and see what this new Exsilium has to offer. Not wanting to stop to talk, but not wanting to brush him off, she tells him that she'll be spending time in the woods. Oddly enough, there's no shyly asking for help, or any kind of uncertainity about how dangerous this trip could actually be. She tells him he is welcome to come along, but for the first time she didn't feel like she actually needed his help at all.

She doesn't wait long before giving into that nagging voice, and starts venturing towards the woods.]

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[The move is so effective that Christopher decides to try a variation. He hopes he has the second bear's anger, so that gives him the chance to run towards the first. He slides past it, then makes a throw—this time, to get the knife in right above its spinal cord. He takes one leaping forward to bring the kick through and push the knife deeper in, all in the hope of severing that spinal cord and ending this bear's fight fast.]

[The knife successfully lodges itself was into bear's spine, and right before he can sever its spinal cord, it makes one last attempt to either bite or claw into him.]

[To escape, Christopher bends himself backwards at an inhuman angle. He catches the extended arm in his legs and twists to slam it to the ground, but he has no time to crow over this. Christopher is already running at the second bear, risking more of an attack as he comes in with a leg aimed at the neck, hoping to tear more at the wound he already made and bring the enemy to a quick end.]

[The second bear attempts to lash out with its teeth, but the kick successfully finishes it off. With the kick opening the wound on its neck further, it nearly decapitates it.

The bear collapses, unmoving. The pristine, white snow has a fair amount of red now - both from human and animal.]

[Christopher's feet hit snow and he immediately runs over to Carol.] Now, now, let's see, let's see! [His tone is light, bright, cheerful, as if there is no real risk of pain here. But he knows just how fragile human bodies are.] Don't tell me you did that just to get an impressive scar to show off to all your friends? Well, I'm sure Rail will be impressed, but just because he has all those scars, it doesn't mean you need to emulate him. Differences are what make friendships so strong.

[He crouches down beside her, ready to take stock of the damage and patch up as much as he can before getting her to proper help.]

[The pain is blinding, and during the fight she's been laying in the snow in a daze. While her wound isn't fatal, the bear tore up her arm pretty well.

Her breathing is rough, and while the fear isn't there, it hurts and even in this state she can't really fight back some tears.

Hearing what Christopher says next feels a little like a knife being twisted deeper. The potion did it's job, but...she still failed, didn't she? Was she really that pitiful?]

R-Rail...

[It's said very softly, her voice shaking.

...It almost sounds like an "I'm sorry" should follow after.]

Edited 2013-12-09 04:31 (UTC)

[It doesn't make sense to him.] Hm? If that's really the reason you did this, I should warn you, you'll be really surprised in the future if you think Rail is good dating material. Mm, this may hurt a little bit, but we'll just get it clean now.

[Christopher takes her arm, very gently, and uses his handkerchief and the snow to, very carefully, try to clean away the blood so that he can see the scope of the injury. It doesn't take him long to realize that this is going to need to be properly wrapped up.]

[In the future...

If this were a normal conversation, she'd be so flustered at the idea of dating. But right now, she just feels kind of sick to her stomach. She just looks sadder.]

That's not it...

[Her voice is quiet, strained. She's not sure if she should say why, because Christopher is Rail's friend, isn't he? What would he even say, if she told him what Rail's "future" was? Or worse, tell him that it her fault because she wasn't brave enough to save him in time.

She wonders if they would stop being friends, after that.

Her thoughts are cut off by the shock of something cold and wet, and she almost pulls back her arm before realizing that he's cleaning up her arm. Instead there's just a muffled whimper of pain.

She tries focusing on talking, as not only a distraction from pain, but to also drown at that nagging voice telling her to get back up and go right back into those woods. It keeps her distracted from that intense urge to push herself up, despite the pain, and continue her dangerous journey.

And, well, after getting into so much trouble so quickly, this might be something she'd need Christopher's help with, since the urge to get into further trouble hasn't gone away at all.]

No, it's... [she makes a noise of pain before trying to find her voice again.] I met a man who said he could make me braver. And he did, but...I don't think it worked like it was suppose to.

Ah, did you? How did he try to do that?

[Gentle and serene, but Christopher has a sense of what he is hearing and he doesn't like it. Keeping it away now, don't let her see. Not until he knows, and decides.] Mm, I'll have to wrap this up a little. There will be a little pain from the pressure, but then we can have it healed.

[He pulls off his coat and jacket so that he can start getting at the ruffles of his shirt. Already stained red, they don't show the blood, and all that excess material is good for something. He ignores the biting of the cold; he'll warm up again in a moment. Survival is more important than comfort.]

Uh-huh, it was something he gave me to drink. A-and it really did work! I wasn't scared at all - wait, Mr. Christopher, I have bandages in my bag.

[The urge for her to get up and walk off gets harder to resist, so in a shaky voice, she tries focusing on talking.]

He's a card reader too. There um, was a lot of things he knew about me and the things that happened to me despite only just arriving. They were all things he would've never been able to know either.

[The train robbery, the hostage situation she was in. It was a little frightening how much he did know.]

Haha, are you sure he didn't just give you Irish whiskey? [He puts a gentle hand on her shoulder, then goes for the bag to get the bandages there. A lot easier to work with. He is deft and careful when he wraps them up, the pressure just enough to stem the bleeding. He doesn't bother slipping his coat back on, not with every lost drop of blood posing a great risk to the little girl in front of him.]

That's a really impressive kind of magic. And how generous of him, to offer all of that to you as a greeting present to a new friend!

[Christopher will get a name, soon. And then he'll have to seek out this person and find out a little more about them.]

[Christopher comes back quick enough that Carol doesn't have enough time to try and push herself up. Not that she'd have much luck with an injured arm. And the blood she's lost so far is making her a little groggy anyway. She quickly shakes her head.]

O-oh no, I'd never drink something like that!

[It seems like a little bit of the old Carol is returning, now that she's starting to understand something's gone wrong. She winces when he finishes tying the bandages, though it's a huge improvement of having her arm bloody and exposed. She thinks that if he hadn't interrupted the bear that attacked her when it did, she might not have an arm at all.

She continues talking about Doctor Facilier.]

He was very grateful that I helped him with his tablet, since he didn't know what it was. So he did a card reading for me in returning.

[She doesn't mention that she now owes him a favor. But chances are she doesn't really remember she's going to owe him something later.]

And it was really impressive too! Even his cards had little pictures on them that looked a lot like Mr. Vice-President and myself - but maybe I imagined that...

[Christopher is grinning now.] Are you entirely certain there wasn't any whiskey involved? Or perhaps opium? The trade may be a little off, but with the Prohibition fading out, there is no doubt that everyone will be turning even more to drugs soon. [He is teasing her of course, to try to distract her. But he is taking everything she says very seriously.

Christopher yanks on his suit jacket, but not his coat. This he pulls over Carol's shoulders.] Up we go! [And, very carefully, he lifts her up into his arms.]

Absolutely not! And I'm entirely sure it wasn't any of those things!

[She may have made a Faustian deal but come on now she's not crazy or anything.

The distraction works though, and when he picks her up, it'll keep her from trying to run away. She carefully pulls herself up a little so that she's more comfortable.

Yet again it seems that Christopher has saved her. Was this the third time? She can't help but be disappointed in herself that she still needed again despite taking a sip of that potion. Maybe bravery wasn't enough...

She's glad he's here.]

...I'm sorry, Mr. Christopher. I've caused trouble again, haven't I?

[He peers at her, red eyes wide.] Don't tell me that your potion also gave you polarbear-summoning powers? An impressive feat! Who would have thought that such a simple thing could give a person command over nature itself! I would bow to you, but that would require setting you down!

[He is carrying her back off to civilization, of course. No need to stay out here with the corpses of polar bears. If no one else has grabbed them before he gets back, he can use the remains for profit later.]

[She gives a quiet laugh, assuming he's teasing her again. It cheers her up a little at least.]

If I could summon polar bears I wouldn't want them to eat us.

[There's a very faint smile. She decides to leave out Facilier's reading of her future and Rail's, unless Christopher wants to know those details. She doesn't want Christopher to be sad and as far as she's concerned it's her problem that she needs to fix.

She just had to be brave, right? Maybe she doesn't need a dangerous potion for that.

Speaking of dangerous though...]

But Mr. Christopher, even right now I still feel like I do all those dangerous things all over again, so I don't think whatever it was that made me brave has gone away yet.

[He hums a soft, pleasant note in response, then bursts into a grin.] That's no trouble! When your'e in need, friends can always lend a hand. And isn't a hand just another way that we lift it up to say, 'Stop!' [He gestures accordingly.] All we have to do is set you around people who will stop you.

[She's not 100% sure that'll work or if it'll even be that easy, but she smiles and goes along with it.]

I suppose that would work, wouldn't it?

[And hopefully the potion would wear off soon. She feels an urge to try to push herself out of Chris' grip and wander off. It's not a very strong urge, but it's there and she knows it'll get worse.

For now, she pulls the coat around herself a little tighter with her uninjured arm, and lets her head rest against his shoulder.]

And I guess I should talk to Doctor Facilier when this is all over too.

[There's your name, Chris.]

[Christopher's expression does not become malicious with the promise of violence. There is none of the anger of vengeance or its cruel satisfaction. Christopher smiles, serene, and does his best to make sure that this girl is comfortable as he brings her through these frozen woods.]

Oh? Are you worried it won't work out of your system?

Um, maybe...I really hope so. I thought I'd be really happy not being afraid of anything, but instead it just seems really stressful.

[She rubs at her eyes, the pain in her arm turning into a dull throb. If she doesn't move it, she'll be able to handle it. The cold isn't really helping out though.

And for a few seconds, she really wants to push herself out of his arms. If she doesn't do something to distract herself, that's exactly what she's going to start doing. It's hard to focus on something though. So she keeps talking instead.]

W-well other then the bears, this place is a little nicer than the moon, isn't it?

Fear is a gift from Nature. She isn't kind to us when we throw her gifts away.

[He chuckles, holding her closer to him. She's the only real source of warmth as he treks back, so really, he needs her to stick around for his sake, too.]

Certainly! Isn't it charming how it's the same colour but a lot more exciting? Well, I suppose the moon was more like grey, but personally, I like having an open space full of plants and wildlife where I can communicate with Nature and listen to her talk back to me. Ah, but how sad that there are few flowers here.

[He is a good source of warmth too, so she forces down the urge to run in favor of pressing into him a little more. The more she talks to Chris, the more she realizes how much of a nature person he is. She'll keep that in mind for later.]

Well grey is a color that isn't very fun to look at for months, but snow is always pretty. I wonder if it'll warm up later on in the spring. I bet this place is even more gorgeous when all of snow's melted!

Besides, it always felt really gloomy while living in the moon. I don't think I'd like doing it again.

Hahah, it isn't surprising to see everyone rush down despite the difficulty of the living situation. Who could deny themselves the chance to listen to more birdsong?

[Finally, breaking out of the doors. Christopher is grateful for that; he trusts his sense of direction, but if it had gone wrong, Carol would have been in trouble. In the cleared area, it's much easier to find the quickest path back to other people.]

[She feels an odd sense of disappointment, but she ignores it. They'll be back to civilization soon and then she can rest.]

I know I couldn't wait! That moon base was far too cramped, and it's really nice to have fresh air again. Besides I think if we stayed any longer we would've had a few more incidents of people trying to take over.

[He grins.] Don't tell me that in your new recklessness you were planing your own mutiny.