#kindlywould

blowing  into  the  palm  of  his  hands,  rubbing  them  together :   anything  to  keep  the  warmth  from  escaping,  even  if  it  meant  not  reaching  his  pistol  in  time.  his  primary  objective  was  to  keep  the  elements  from  killing  him,   then  came  self - protection  from  other  humanoids.  so  when  Atlas  heard  footsteps,  part  of  him  accepted  his  untimely  death.   ❝  if  you’re  goin’  t’kill  me,  at  least  make  it  quick.  ❞

Even in his patchwork suit, the man before him was an imposing figure. Andrew Ryan and Atlas had their fun, but neither really ruled over Rapture. Not in the way that he did. The splicers only listened to one man and that man was now smiling tightly at Jack. "So you have found me, now, what have you come to ask?"

✖ @kindlywould​ / @miscelliany​ inquired: cloud

rest prompts | accepting       ↳ cloud. waking up and being soothed back to sleep.

      The floor shook. Rivets creaked. A little girl laughed. A little sister.

      What’s that, Mister Bubbles, she asked her monstrous protector. Fox could just barely see them coming closer, skipping and lumbering toward her. Her eyes wouldn’t open or couldn’t stay open. Either way, their journey came in fuzzy bursts, each separating span of darkness bringing them nearer.

      Is it another sister? The girl’s hands were cold when they touched Fox’s skin. Walking her fingers across her arm as if they were walking. Is she dead? Fox could not move, could not scream. She couldn’t continue to keep her lids open, trying to hold to the scraps of dirty fabric within her vision or the little scrapes over exposed knees. She knew without seeing that the Big Daddy was looming closer. The floor shook. His answering grown to his charge terrified her down to her core. Enough so that she bolted upright. Awake. Wide awake. With the ability to see and move and even scream if she wanted.

      “I’m sorry,” Fox apologized in a quick whisper. Sensing Jack stir near to her. She pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them tightly. Listening for any sounds that might yet linger from her dream. There was only the drip of a leaky panel and the normal creaks and pops that Rapture was known for. The city was forever groaning beneath the weight of the waves.

      “Bad dream, is all.“ Fox paused, chewing her lip. “Will you tell me a story? Something happy, maybe? My head is too full of leaks and rust.”

      Fox awoke with the words in her head, as stale and foggy as any dry-mouthed hangover. Though, she did not remember drinking nor falling asleep nor finding herself dressed in white. The hem of her dress was soaked through. She was standing in water that reached just above her ankles in a place she did not know. This isn’t Rapture, she realized with dread. I need to find Jack, I need to get home.

      Following the obvious path leading toward some strange sort of ritual, Fox did her best to ignore all the strangeness around her. These people...they didn’t look like splicers. They were dressed finely and were clean. She let them push her through the water until she came out, sputtering in the sunshine after whatever strange baptism they had preformed. Not that it mattered to her. There were no gods or kings, only man. It was then she saw him, looking as waterlogged as she felt.

      “Jack! Jack!” Fox scrambled to get to him, her arms reaching toward him. It was then that their surroundings came into focus. The fence-line, the fresh air, the clouds. Indeed, they were no in Rapture. They were in the sky, somewhere high above and far from the safety of the sea. “What--What happened? Where are we?”

@kindlywould​ inquired: “You might catch a cold, you know?“

soft fluff | accepting

     Jack was, quite unfortunately, correct, though Fox brushed him off with a shrug. She took another moment to push up the dirty sleeves of her top, cringing as the water soaked into the fabric. “I might, but if this leak isn’t fixed, we might have bigger problems.” Grabbing hold of the wrench once more, she pulled the bolt toward her. The rusted mechanism twisted only slightly, squealing throughout the corridor. The freezing water spurting from it ceased slightly. Fox tried again, throwing the brunt of her weight against the wrench, which in truth, was not a great deal. Surviving in Rapture had taken its toll, just as time was taking its toll on the city.

      “We just have a few more spots to check and then we should be done.” Her teeth gritted with the final pull. The water ceased completely, finally. “Usually they’re not this bad.” She offered him a small smile, still seated by the bolt catching her breath. It warmed her heart that he was concerned, but it worried her too. Feelings could be as dangerous as the water bursting from the pipe. “A few more and we can go warm up somewhere safe.”

@kindlywould​ inquired: ❝ That’s when everything went wrong. ❞

league of legends arcane soundtrack | accepting

      A subtle nod dipped the chin held within her fingers. Deep in thought, retracing the path of words Jack had led her down. “That’s when everything went wrong,” Fox repeated, again nodding. “And you never had any inclination any hint that something was...off? I mean, it would seem to me that a plane crashing in the middle of the ocean, suspiciously close to a lighthouse, again, in the middle of the ocean, might’ve been the start of where everything went wrong.” If not sooner, if not in childhood, though she did not have the heart to say something so bold.

      “Things are going to start looking up now,” she assured him with a small smile. “You’re in good hands now, it’ll be safe here for a while.” Leaky and damp, but safe from splicers. For now.

@kindlywould​ inquired: ❝ I couldn’t care what invention you made me, 'cause I was meant to be yours. ❞

league of legends arcane soundtrack | accepting

      Her heart pounded, so powerfully she was sure the thick glass paneling one wall would shatter with the pulse. Suddenly her mouth felt full of cotton, thick and swollen, unable to form an answer to what Jack had stated. She swallowed, once, twice, in a bid to free her jaw and the lump in her throat. A lesser part of her whispered that he was wrong, that she was meant for nothing and no one. Destined to remain alone, trapped within a gilded tank, destined for a watery grave. She was learning she deserved more than that. The little sisters taught her that she deserved more as they deserved more. Rapture, despite it’s corruption, deserved more too. And Jack? He deserved the world.

      “Meant to be, sounds sort of like destiny.” The words were finally able to find their way through, though they were quiet, softened by the pounding within her chest. “I never thought--I didn’t think--”, she was unsure of what to say to convey how she felt. When her words failed to express themselves once more, Fox reached for Jack’s hand. Conscious of how cold her own was. “Maybe I was meant to be yours too.” She squeezed her digits around his and offered up a tentative, encouraging smile. “It’s a good thing we found each other.”