#ofvalor

Nat tenses up when she hears somebody come in and turns to find out it's exactly who she doesn't want to see.

It's quiet back here, and she's frozen with indecision about how to react to that. Shipman scares the shit out of her anymore. They've all changed - they've all changed, but Shipman isn't just someone else - she's something else now. Lottie had meant well but she'd really cut something lose in her after the baby.

It's goddamned cold and the cabin is gone. They're all so fucking close up to eachother in this old fucking plane. She comes back here to get away from it, from their huddled, unwashed stink. She wasn't expecting to be cornered. She wonders if Shipman's here to show her up. Do to her what she did to Lottie after she'd vouched for her, like Matthews had put a target on her back for the big bad Butcher. She feels like she deserves it. Shauna's words, her eyes? They're all ragged and hungry, as hungry as the rest of them. Maybe she's here to finish what they started the day Javi died. She still hasn't taken Jackie's fucking necklace off since the chase. "What the fuck, Shauna." Nat whispers, furrowing her brows over glassy eyes in a quivering hush. She doesn't want to wake the others - they need rest, they all do. "Go to bed." She says, like an animal trying to puff itself off to scare off something bigger and meaner.

It was like falling asleep, a peaceful moment as she was held by her aunt and ushered into the next chapter of her life. The minutes she spends in limbo pass by in fraught minutes for everyone else, but for the first time in Hope's life, she experiences true peace. There's a brief urge to linger, to move on to peace instead of turning back but as exhausted as she is, she can't leave her promises unfulfilled. When she becomes aware of her body once more, she feels... faint. It's unsettling, reminding her of an awful time when she was suppressed within her own mind by a malevolent ancestor. It's like she has a fraction of her normal capabilities and Hope doesn't like how vulnerable everything suddenly feels.

"No," Lottie replies softly from her spot by the trees, standing a few feet back from her teammate. Her eye is nearly swollen shut and she can still taste the blood in the back of her throat from how her nose had gushed under the force of Shauna's fist. She didn't blame her teammate for it though. Didn't let Misty do anything other than clear away enough blood that she didn't look like a murder victim. Lottie has been waiting since Shauna disappeared into the woods. Tai wanted to go after her but Lottie made her stay at the cabin, while she ventured out. They needed to talk and Lottie wasn't going to let Shauna keep it all inside her again. They couldn't afford another fracture like this.

"I came to see if you're..." Okay doesn't seem like the right word. How the fuck could Shauna be okay? Lottie herself is more devastated than she has any right to be, so Shauna must be beside herself with grief. Lottie understands what it's like to be at the mercy of your own emotions, uncontrollable rage and anxiety twisting together like a molten ball of steel that sits in her chest, burning through her esophagus until it comes out in a spew of irritated words and blood. "I know you're hurting, Shauna. We all understand that. But you're not going to hurt the others just because you are." Her voice grows hard with those words, and she steps into the clearing as she says them.

It wasn't often they had time to waste, so figuring they'd make the most of it, Wylan and Nina decided to check out some of the stalls that had opened up as part of the annual World Cuisine Event. He wasn't too sure what to expect, but he was excited all the same.

"Do you know what this is?" Wylan peered into a large bubbling vat of something at one of the stalls. Without being able to read the sign, he had no idea what. Soup of some kind? A stew? It smelled fishy and there seemed to be something dark and slimy sticking out on the other side.

"It isn't... tentacles, is it?"

He'd heard of octopus and squid being eaten often in other parts of the world, but he'd never tried it himself. If given the chance, he wasn't sure if he would try it, but that didn't mean he wasn't intrigued by the creative dishes enjoyed in various cultures. Gaze drifting to the other delicacies offered by the stall, he tilted his head upon seeing a box full of... cooked crickets?

"What do you think?" For an inexpensive price, they could probably give it a go... "I'll try one if you do."

@ofvalor said: “ ❛ i’ve seen who you are under the mask. ❜ - from genya! " {♠️ x Random Stuff in my Inbox ||  always accepting x}

It was one of those very rare days off for Kaz, and with the weather being as beautiful as it was — blue skies, no clouds, and sunny; very unlike the weather back in Ketterdam — he decided not to spend it in the library studying, or in his room practising. Instead, he'd found a little isolated spot around the lake, and was sitting there with his back resting against the trunk of a tree, and his eyes closed. An utterly vulnerable state of being he would've never allowed himself back in the Barrel. But the longer he was at the Little Palace, the more he came to terms with the fact he didn't have to fight for survival every single second of the day. 

Kaz could sense her heartbeat before he heard her voice. Genya was someone he'd grown rather familiar with over the past few months. Not... close, but they'd talked on several occasions, at least. It was more than Kaz could say about most of the others around.