the fallen star will rise again

Tamyra answered that, as a third leapt out with some kind of bludgeon, screaming something like 'FOR EDEN!'. Emre dodged, swinging his cutlass down on the third's arm to disable them - but his original attacker caught up to Emre and jabbed the bat into his stomach.

Wind knocked right out of Emre but he still backed up, until he bumped against Tamyra. "You alright," he wheezed, back against hers. "We just got to get past them we can...oh bollocks." More raggedy people emerged from their camouflage. Emre counted ten, and they formed a circle around Emre and Tamyra.

One removed his face-mask and pulled back his hood. "Trespassers," he spat at Tamyra's feet. "Will be prosecuted. You do not belong here."

For Eden, the other had screamed. Emre knew he'd heard that before, not religiously yet...? "Wait! Wait wait wait. Erm...Eden...for Eden. Yeah. Erm, eyes - Eyes of Eden yeah?" It clicked in Emre's memory. "We know your Prophet. We know your Prophet!"

A gasped silence in the crowd, and the leader frowned. Then a flick of his gnarled hand as he turned his back on them. "Take them down. For Eden."

Except this was too many people, Tamyra quickly realized. "Could be better, You?" she muttered back to Emre at his question and then raised her hands in defense at the stranger spatting on her. It took everything in her to not do it right back, instead she said, "Look, we apologize, we didn't realize this place was claimed by others. We'll be out of your hair right away, we swear. No need for prosecution of any kind."

And then Emre pulled the lying card and the only reason Tamyra didn't break character was because she pulled the same card before. Not with a cult-like group, claiming to know their Prophet, but hey, it was a good idea from Emre.

Unfortunately it wasn't useful, though, because it just made them want to do their prosecution even more. Tamyra and Emre fought hard, they did, but they had no chance against so many people coming at them all at once, and soon enough they were both knocked out.

Tamyra slowly came back to unconsciousness with a raging headache, and something burning in her side. As she shifted to try to reach for it, she realized her hands were tied together, that woke her up properly. Another shift and a searing pain shot through her side. (A glass from one of the perfume bottles was stuck in there, though Tamyra didn't realize it yet.)

It was dark, wherever they stuck her, and she needed a few minutes for her eyes to get used to it enough so she could see some of the surroundings and--

Emre!

Emre was lying not too far from her, unconscious too (not dead, not dead, not dead, you are not fucking dead Emre, you cannot pull that shit on me, not right now) and Tamyra - groaning and silently cursing her way through - somehow pushed and crawled her way over to him, using her a leg to shake him. "Emre," she whisperred, "Emre, wake up. Come on, come on, get up, we gotta get the fuck out of here."

Tamyra dipped and dodged, her lithe arms so close to the radio, but Jupiter got to her first - not that it helped any. The two of them, now on a heap on the floor, surrounded by broken shelving, knick-knacks, and broken glass.

And the photograph.

Whitney blared, peppy and poppy. One of Jupiter's favourite songs, too. And at Tamyra's grim assessment, it was too much for Jupiter. She heaved a big sigh that turned into a loud sob. "Oh my goddddd, what is wrong with meeeee," she whined, nodding to reassure Tamyra. "Hold on -"

She got to her feet, and snatched the radio plug right out the socket. Silence as she carefully stooped then, to pick up the broken picture frame. "Goddammit, Tamyra. Goddamnit! Goddamn this stupid island, and the stupid apocalypse, and stupid Orion Carnell!"

And maybe about the person listening to it because really, Tamyra might have wanted to sob on the inside, but in a worked up state that she was in, she felt like she couldn't have (she could have, she just needed that one spark to break her composure), so it must have been a laughing fit that was coming over Jupiter, right? That was the only thing it could have been.

Thankfully she quickly realized it wasn't that, no, it was Jupiter crying and Tamyra's jumped up after Jupiter, feeling suddenly a bit sheepish and awkward.

"I mean, I can definitely get behind the stupid island and stupid apocalypse, but what does Orion have to do with this?" she asked, feeling stupid for not seeing the entire picture. For now seeing that something was wrong in the first place. Jupiter told her she used dancing to get things off of her chest and Jupiter was dancing and Tamyra somehow didn't put it together?

It probably wouldn't have been her first choice normally, but Jupiter loved hugging, so Tamyra carefully stepped over to her, "Come here," and pulled her into an embrace. "Jupe, what happened?"

Seeing the knives on her belt, he gave an appreciative nod - it was always better if the person he was out with was prepared to fight. It meant both of them could focus on what they were here to get and didn't have to take into consideration that they needed to protect the other. "Very good. Let's go then." And with that, the bright light of the teleport enveloped them both.

The light soon enough gave way to a street. Entirely deserted, gutted cars lining the road framed by abandoned buildings. A dark, cloudy sky hung above them, promising rain. Orion cast a glance around to get his bearings. He'd scoped out the location before, so he roughly knew the direction they needed to head in. "That way." He already made his way off north, casting a glance back at her to make sure she was following.

"I didn't think you'd be that prepared to fight. But you use the the teleports frequently, right?"

They hopped through the portal and as she took in the scenery, she sighed. "Why must it always have to be cloudy. You'd think even in an apocalypse, the sun would shine still, since it wasn't what blew up, but nope." The two of them then headed off, Tamyra following Orion's lead.

She let out a small chuckle, "Look, if you want to be the big hero who saves the day in case of a fight, I'm happy to let you do the honors. I'm not the kind of person who throws a fit if she can't do anything herself. But yeah, I learned quickly that I have to be able to protect myself if I use the teleports. I go on supply runs sometimes all alone, those are the ones that I am most vigilant in, but I always take these whenever I teleport. No offense but if you suddenly decide to drop dead, I'd still have to get back to Pan."

And it was enough to see the dark expression on his face - because of her, yes, but undoubtedly because he's just come from seeing Wren and Wren lying there unconscious, helpless, practically lifeless in the medical center must have been edged into his brain too, just like it was into her.

Because Wren's all alone in there.

"Fuck," Tamyra cursed because that felt like a punch right into her gut, made it absolutely impossible to keep pretending nothing was wrong. (Of course Kaz found the way to undo all of her pretending in about 0.3 seconds, of course he cut right through the bullshit, what was Tamyra even thinking?)

"Ooooh, you gonna talk about my momma next?" Jupiter taunted, stifling a semi-hysterical giggle at Tamyra's snappy wit. "I'll go first! Yo momma so clueless, she thought lipstick on all your daddy's collars was just a fashion statement!"

Tamyra made one last attempt at being the cool-headed one. But the moment she made a dive for the radio, Jupiter blocked her. Jupiter had no intention of 'fighting'. She couldn't even throw a punch, but her energy was up, blood pounding in her ears like a screech from a monster up above. A monster, swooping down to grab her husband. Her poor, sweet husband left hanging on the edge of a building, while Orion ran away -

"Grraaaahhh!" Jupiter squealed and grabbed for Tamyra, who was like a squirmy cat. Jupiter slipped on her rug, feet tripping as she accidentally threw her whole weight against Tamyra. She tried to use Tamyra then to catch her balance but it was too late. "Oh no oh no--!" she yeeped as they both went crashing against a shelf, then tumbled to the floor.

Items from the shelf rained down on them - including a framed photograph of Jupiter's family, other collected items that Jupiter had been saving for when she found her family again. Glass smashed, and Jupiter froze. "Don't move!" she said, holding Tamyra protectively now. "Oh my god..." Her eyes scanned the carnage that she'd created.

And it only made her wanna turn off the music even more.

Not that it worked. In Tamyra's mind she got through Jupiter perfectly, easily, and then rushed over and turned off the radio, maybe pulled out some cables, and then left and got some well-deserved sleep. Reality was anything but that, with Jupiter grabbing onto her, holding on (she struggled but she just could not get out of the hold in the few moments she would have had the chance) and then it all came crushing down.

They came crushing down.

And it was bad, really, a shelf full of breakables raining down on them, glasses all over them, and Tamyra froze for a moment and then...

Oh, I wanna dance with somebody, I wanna feel the heat with somebody, Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody, With somebody who loves me

The one real annoyance to put a damper on Nick’s cheerful afternoon of nothing, was obligatory work. Rapture was different. It was fun. It was fucking hard at times. But it did a fair job of recreating the glamour of what he’d once had. The Flower Tower however, the sheer fact it was mandatory. It was usually dull as dishwater. He hadn’t had any luck in seeing if familiar faces had survived the apocalypse and at this point he’d given up all hope. It was easier. Let them go preemptively that way, if they ever did reappear it was a pleasant surprise.

It certainly beat being made to do menial work, but Nick didn’t see it that way. This was an annoyance to his day. Begrudgingly he flung himself into a seat opposite one of the many monitors. The one nearest to him a crackling fizz of nervous static. Nick ignored it, and pulled out a slight silver box from his pocket to toy with instead. He was alone, for now, his companion for the next few hours would surely appear soon. The fate of whether this would be moderately enjoyable  or a dull drag hanging in the balance. Nick craned to see who waltzed in through the door he’d left open. “…Tam.” 

Things have been different since the end of the world, since the teleports have opened up - she usually used the time to scour for new places to visit, while also hoping she could find Nakeisha and maybe one day actually bring her here. Going to a shift felt less of a chore these days.

Walid didn't get why Tamyra always had to be so difficult, why she had to make an issue of these things when she could just help them and be done with it. "You're going to be recreating this issue constantly if you don't learn to untangle it and keep it from happening in the first place," they retorted, sounded very annoyed. "My job is systems and infrastructure, cable management does not mean untangled people's messes," they added, holding the tangled mess between them. "It's also going to be much faster if you help me, meaning I can get out of your hair and you can get out of my business."

"Maybe if you'd do your job better and I didn't have to actually deal with cables at all, I wouldn't have this problem at all, let alone something that keeps popping up over and over again," she shook her head. "And if you ask me, infrastructure absolutely includes cable management." As if she was the one who knew it all, but she was used to getting whatever she wanted.

"I know you like having somewhere to get away innit. We'll check it out on our next trip, yeah." He shook his head to her question. "America is bloody huge. Oi - "

Emre straightened up from his crouched walk, and pointed; but he didn't need to. The smell of old perfume and rust mingled in the air. The shop was mostly untouched though. "Seems perfume weren't much use in the apocalypse. Go on, find what you need, darling. I'll keep a lookout."

Emre said that, but then he remembered his love of Armani Acqua di Giò. He meandered to the men's side, poking through the colognes there. A couple he collected, before he turned to get Tamyra --

-- and was face to face with a bat, swinging right at his head. Emre ducked through sheer instinct alone, and the bottles behind him smashed, exploding cologne everywhere.

"Tam!" Emre yelled, slashing his cutlass as he tried to reach her. He could hear more crashes on her side, his attacker pursuing him.

Just like she thought, the perfumes were all untouched - it was possibly a stupid idea, possibly wouldn't work, but Tamyra just wanted to do something (without admitting she was trying something).

Maybe, maybe it would work.

Maybe she wasn't that good at keeping her hopes down, either, because she could feel her heart beating in her throat as she started makking her way through the isles and started sampling, looking for--

There it was! It didn't take her too long to find the right fragrant and then she figured she'd look around, see what else she could find, when suddenly she was shoved right into the shelf of perfume - it came so out of the blue, she didn't even have a chance to react, to even try to keep her balance, she fell and crushed all of the bottles as she fell on them or they fell - including the bottle she came here for, that was in her hand as well.

"What the FUCK?!" she groaned, too surprised to even move for a second, hearing Emre's voice coming from somewhere in the distance when she finally realized somebody was right next to her and was reaching for her now and so she moved - grabbed a piece of broken glass and shoved it right into the ankle before scrambling up and getting away, looking around both to locate Emre and count one person pursuing him, and then-- "Shit, EMRE, THERE'S ONE WHO IS HIDING AT THE INTERSECTION, LOOK OUT," she yelled as she saw him potentially running right into an attack, running towards him now. As long as they reached each other, they could deal with just a few assholes, right?

He slouched down into a seat opposite of Tamyra. Hands folded behind his head and legs splayed as he watched. "Didn't hear me? I called out a couple of times..." Wait, what the fuck. She was just going to ignore him, huh? Wish Kaz away? Maybe that was it. Frustration flitted around the outer corners of his gaze, but the expression lasted only a second. Likely not noticeable. "What're you working on. Something important?"

Not to judge. But, he would. There were more important things to focus on. "I saw Wren," he started. A visit put off for a few weeks, for various reasons. Mostly selfish ones. Didn't particularly want to see Wren slack-jawed and unresponsive, in some forced sterile isolation. The burden left up to Tamyra to check in, care for Wren, update everyone without a crack in the veneer.

"I went there first, thought I'd see you." And didn't. "Anyway. Think we need to get her out of there."

"Oh, yeah, it's this dress I promised to do for one of the newbies - she was really interested in having a Tamyra Williams original and I don't want to disappoint. You know how it is, gotta be the best to be percieved the best," chatting as if nothing was wrong, as if she ignored the elephant in the room long enough, nobody would ever point it out.

That wasn't Kaz, though. Not when he apparently just came from Wren. Tamyra been there once, as soon as she heard the news, and then haven't stepped foot into the infirmary ever since and tried not to even think about it. Still, Wren's face haunted her. And Kaz really wasn't helping with that.

She was poking fun at him more than anything, really, and then he decided to demonstrate, and those noises... She didn't mind those one bit. "Oh, shit, I think I didn't fully get it," she teased. "Can you show me again, just to make sure I get it? I think I was distracted for a second."

Jupiter laughed and made little 'blah blah' faces, at Tamyra's complaints. "Make me!" she heard herself saying, overly gleeful. Borderline hysterical. She removed her earrings, tossed them to the side.

"Go ahead! Try to get past me to reach the stereo, we'll see who takes down who. I'm just warning your scrawny little ass now, I was on the wrestling team back in high school." Not really; she did one week of it before quitting, but Tam didn't need to know that.

Which, in a way, Jupiter blaring the music came just at the right time, really, so she should be thanking Jupiter.

Maybe later, though.

Jupiter was currently mocking her and then figured she'd challenge her and that Tamyra wouldn't actually physically try to get past Jupiter. Which, really, just meant that Tamyra would absolutely need to. "And you did what? You were holding the towels for the wrestlers?" she snapped back - wasn't even sure if that was a position in wrestling, but oh well.

"That's odd. I haven't seen anyone," he rubbed at the back of his head, removing his baseball cap to come take a closer look at it. In doing so, he left behind his basket. The branches of the poor apple tree could have snapped from the weight of the fruits, and Hector felt like it would take at least a dozen of those trips to get a proper harvest. "It must belong to someone. Maybe they've written their name somewhere in it." Nevermind that only children had their names written in their bags these days. The hubris of adults.

Tamyra got quickly distracted, though, and she raised her eyebrows in half curiosity, half amusement. "Do you write your name in your bags, Hector? Is there a signature on each tag of your shirts, too?" she teased.

(Granted, all of her annoyanced was warped through the years and years of arguments and bickering between the two - to the point where even now they couldn't find a way to be on the same page even though technically they have been for a while.)

So she just stared at them, and if it was possible to kill with her eyes, Walid would have had a problem. "...I'll have to help you? You're literally here doing--" she gestured towards their notebook and the checking, "doing this, checking this, and I have to help you? And then get a lecture from you? Can't you just do the thing you're supposed to and undo it. It's your freaking job, Walid, so do. your. job!"

"On my talkshow back in Toronto," Jupiter began, which was how she tended to begin a lot of sentences when talking to Tamyra. It wasn't competitiveness, no of course not. What would a silly local Canadian daytime talkshow host compare, against a big Hollywood movie star? Jupiter was proud of herself, though! "I looooved doing segments about dancing it out. Making the audience get up and boogie with me! It's therapeutic, girl!"

She backed away, with a little jig, but her eyes remained on Tamyra's face. "It's more fun the more people dance. And god knows you need some therapy. Hmph! Dance, do it!!"

Tamyra let out a groan, "we're not in your talkshow and you're not hosting some sort of therapy session for me - I don't need therapy sessions at all, actually," she snapped even though it was complete and utter lie but Tamyra was good at acting like it wasn't, she was good at convincing herself (whether she managed to convince others was a whole different thing, though).

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I don't want fun, I just want to fucking sleep. I just want you to turn the music down enough so it isn't beating my head with a hammer with every chord while I'm lying in my own bed." She was being completely unreasonable, she'd realize that later, too snappish, but in the moment she was too annoyed to realize it.

Tamyra put on a good act, too. She had that air of utter determination, but for what. Emre believed he knew exactly what, he just refused to say to it.

"You been to Reno before?" Emre asked curiously, looking around. Despite the overgrowth and dust, the airport terminal itself was in-tact. He stepped closer to Tam. "Structure's sound. We might run into people, so be careful, yeah."

Passively, Emre followed Tamyra, even if she seemed a little uncomfortable herself. With her surroundings or with her act, Emre couldn't tell. He used his cutlass to chop at some of the vines, get them down a hall. "I'll keep an eye out for footprints, you look for... the fuck is you looking for, anyway, luv?"

Part of her wondered how the lake must have looked, but it was way too far away without a run that had all of the details plugged into it. And anyway, it was a completely different airport already, she was sure the lake didn't survive in all its glory either.

"I want to see what kind of state everything is, if the shops have been raided." Airport shopping. Sounded ridiculous but even without the added bonus of it - which she did not want to think about right now, did not want to get her hopes up, nope, not just yet, not until it all worked out -, it was something she'd do. And she hoped that Emre would only see the Tamyra-ness of the trip and not try to push deeper.