(open) — have you seen a little girl?

[rosae]

<sup>Who: Rose Da Silva / horrormom + you!
What: Catchall — includes general & event prompts.
When: Throughout the month of November.
Where: Various places around Trench, The Tower, etc.

Content Warnings: distressed mothers / themes of missing children / religious themes & imagery / fanatical cultists (from Rose's canon as well as Trench) / event-related warnings in later prompts (sleeper farm, imprisonment, bodies, etc.) / blood</sup>

---

MOM ON A MISSION

( Rose Da Silva is somewhere strange and frightening — alien in ways, like some place frozen in a time that's not hers — and her little girl isn't beside her anymore.

Rose has lived this before. And like last time, there's only one single purpose driving her: to find her daughter. The difference is that this time, there are seemingly no clues to follow, no little puzzle pieces left behind. Something within Silent Hill had called to her, guided her through its monsters and nightmares, showed her where to go. Here (wherever here even is; she's heard the name Trench but Rose thinks it must be some extension of that otherworldly place, of Silent Hill) she's all on her own. And so she keeps looking.

Through November, it's what she does: wandering the streets and shops of this place, seeking out information, searching. Like last time, she won't stop. )

^{ooc ➤ Throughout the month, Rose can be stumbled upon just about anywhere throughout Trench. Feel free to wildcard your character encountering her roaming around your district, near your home or business, etc. I've listed some specific scenarios below, but I'm 100% flexible. The titles of each section below link back to the game info about them, for easy reference!}

i. WILLFUL MACHINE
( Rose soon enough finds her way to a hub of activity, stunned by how lively it is in comparison to Silent Hill. No townspeople scrounging through the dust of abandoned buildings for scraps of food, no deadly-quiet spaces in which time seems to hang heavy and tense, before those sirens wail to unleash a nightmare.

It almost seems... like a normal place, here in Willful Machine. The smell of fresh things cooking, the bustle of civilians buying and selling from various stalls and shops. And yet, with that comes a new type of dread in Rose: this place is huge and there are many more people here. It would be much easier for a tiny little girl to stay lost.

Well, she certainly isn't shy about asking questions. You might see her — a well-kept woman in a long tan overcoat and knee-high boots, approaching various stall owners, asking to speak to whomever's in charge. No one really seems able to give her a straight answer on that, but she's not giving up; of course she isn't. Rose keeps looking around, keeps asking. Maybe she winds up at your business, or approaches you on the street as you're browsing. Her questions generally cycle between:

'Excuse me, can you tell me who's in charge around here?'
'Sorry to bother you, but have you seen a little girl? Long, black hair? She's only nine.'
'Hey, do you know where I can get a charger for this? Like an electronics place, or a pharmacy or something?', in which case she'll be holding up the cell phone that's hanging from her neck by a strap. ...This was a Prime Mom Cell Phone in 2006, okay. )

ii. DARCMOUTH
( This place feels more familiar. With its dreary haze, the fog that seems to be a permanent fixture. Like a dream — just on the cusp of becoming a nightmare. Rose makes her way through Trench's fishing district wide-eyed and alert, a perpetual chill down her spine as though in anticipation of some monstrous thing to come crawling out of the fog her way. No monsters come and no siren sounds, but she can't relax, hands shoved into the pockets of her coat, shoulders hunched upwards against the November chill, even more nippy out here by the sea. It bites her cheeks and nose, leaving them flushed red.

She wanders the docks, listening to the deep creak and groan of boats slowly moving up and down in the water, trying to ignore the heavy stench of fish and brine. On occasion she has to tuck her nose into the crook of her elbow, swallowing down a gag. If, for some reason, you are also at the gloomy district, you might see the woman who looks severely out of place yet purposeful — searching nooks and crannies, stepping lightly over a mound of fish entrails to peer into the frosted-over windows of a rundown old warehouse, its entrance locked. She's dragging her nails against a window, and then crouching to find a dusty brick, which she starts hitting the window with — though its glass is extremely thick and doesn't immediately bust. Rose doesn't stop, however, because she is absolutely determined to break in and doesn't seem to have any real concern for who might hear her doing so.

Or maybe you hear her doing something else — shouting, running — after someone, the glint of something large and shiny held in their hand (a locket with the Virgin Mary on the front). Maybe you can help stop the thief from taking off with what is clearly very precious to the woman. Rose is pretty fast, but the person who stole her locket knows the ins and outs of this place, taking turns through alleys, around trade stalls, and she has no way of stopping them. No weapon, no powers; all she can do is run.

Eventually, Rose also finds her way to the shoreline, the place she remembers coming up from. Something here... feels different, somehow; it's some awareness she can't quite explain. As though within her spirit something is stroked so gently that it's barely a touch at all, and something inside of her shudders gently in response. She won't turn away from it, no. Rose slowly makes her way down that soft black sand, eyes narrowed and teary against the sharp sea breeze. By now, she's... tired, and she aches in a way she's beginning to grow used to aching.

She doesn't know how long she walks, but at some point she comes across something lying there where ocean meets shore, waves lapping up against where it's wedged into the sand. The woman slows almost to a halt, feeling as though the breath has been knocked out of her. Then she's approaching the item she already knows she recognises, crouching to gently lift it up out of the sand.

Rose gasps, falling down onto the sand, legs tangled beneath her as something racks through her very frame; it's a reaction that physically hurts. She presses the item to her chest (it's soaked through, cold and limp against her), and wails loudly out to the ocean — a name, Sharon.

If you get close enough to see, you'll realise that what she's holding is a brown teddy bear. )

iii. CRENSHAW
( When she hears about an orphanage in this city, Rose immediately finds her way to it through word of mouth, some desperate hope still remaining in her. It's all she has, that desperation, that hope: the two mingled together into an almost tangible presence up under her sternum.

Her daughter isn't there. She looks for her amongst every single lost child currently inhabiting the orphanage — calling for Sharon and then Alessa — but her little girl isn't there.

She might show up there, though. God, she might. Maybe if someone finds her and brings her somewhere safe... And though Rose can't possibly keep watch every day, she does end up visiting the orphanage very often, perched on the cold stone steps outside of it, the bag that washed ashore with her tucked close to her feet. On her lap, she holds a couple of drawings, and she keeps looking over them — one a cheerful, child's depiction of sunflowers, the other a... much more horrific sight. The woman's frowning deeply as she examines them, brushing the pad of her thumb gently over the crayon art, seeming to be searching for something within. Some hidden clue that maybe she missed.

Beside her, a white dove sits, docile and calm, occasionally fluttering her wings and giving soft sounds as she keeps a look out. )

THE SLEEPER FARM ➤CW: EVENT WARNINGS APPLY; SPECIFICS WILL BE IN SUBJECT HEADERS

( She sees what they do — how they take people, and though Rose doesn't know where that may be or why, she knows she has to follow.

She's trembling to her core as she quickly trails the horrible thing that was maybe once a person into the black hole it creates, but she's faced horrible things before, and she will never back down from facing them again. Not if there's a possibility that her daughter is threatened.

She never sees the attack coming, but it must have caught her in the act. She wouldn't have tried to evade it anyway, wouldn't have tried to escape. She has to end up wherever this thing is taking people; there is no other option for her. And so Rose is knocked out in an instant, a willing captive. )

i. THE STALLS

( When Rose comes to again, it takes her a few long moments to try and pull herself from her thick, stunned haze. She keeps her eyes closed, though her other senses begin to pick up on the things around her, and she knows that she's been taken to a nightmare.

The sounds of machinery whir and thud and grind somewhere not far away; the potent (familiar) smells of oil and must and what she recognises as blood greet her as though she'd never left. Rose slowly peels her eyes open and stares at the room she's currently in — not so much a room at all, but a sort of stall, like what an animal would be contained in. Her heart skips a beat so hard that she gives a shaky, pained sound.

The Darkness, she immediately thinks. What those in Silent Hill had run from, hidden from in their Church, tried to keep at bay with their beliefs. Their faith..... their ugly, twisted, monstrous faith. Their fear, their cruelty. She'd helped destroy them and their Church, watched Alessa rip them apart as they screamed.

But it isn't over, she thinks. Those deformed creatures that take people here... they could be connected to The Brethren, maybe working for them. Some of those cultist people could have survived the massacre back in Silent Hill. They could have taken her Sharon again.

It's then that Rose realises she's not alone in the stall. There's someone else — and she calls out to you, her wrists bound together behind her back, shackled. Fuck, if that's not familiar, too. )

Hey! Hey, you awake?

ii. STORAGE

( Or maybe you encounter her after you've escaped from your holding pen and are making your way through the industrial, bleeding labyrinth. By then, Rose has gotten out of her own shackles and grabbed a large wrench she found lying around, holding it to her chest. There's some blood smeared across her jumpsuit and staining the soft blonde of her hair, smudged against a cheek; it's not her own blood, but she's been exploring and brushed across a hanging body or two (or three or four, it's endless, the mutilated bodies in this horrible place are endless.)

If you've had the misfortune of being hung up and are clearly alive, Rose will rush over to you; she'll help you, won't leave you behind. Or maybe you're safely on the ground and happen across the woman exploring one of the countless rooms. Quiet and barefoot, tracking blood-stained footprints across the cold ground, Rose doesn't seem to be searching for a way out. No, she's not trying to escape. Not just yet. First, she has to see if Sharon is here and she's not fucking leaving until she searches every single room.

So she explores dark storage spaces filled with tools or piles of bodies in bags, the wrench held tightly in her hands. She's afraid, of course she's afraid, but something other than fear is what drives her. She's done this before, not so long ago at all; she'd gotten her daughter back no matter what it took. At the time, it felt like it took everything, every single thing, but oh— there's more left in her; she feels it now, a certain anger she's grown to rely on rising up from the well deep within her. And she'll use it to protect anyone who needs protecting, and to kill whatever stands in her way now. )

---

WILDCARD / ETC

^{ooc ➤ Hit me up on plurk (skeletals) / discord (large bat#2354) / pm / Rose's plot post
Respond in prose if that's your preference, and I'll gladly follow suit!}

Comments

( i. willful machine )

[danserai]

[ a little girl . . . lost here? never mind that ahiru also qualifies as a little girl. this mom sounds so heartsore and lost that ahiru felt bad for her. she peeks at the phone, making herself unobtrusive so she could scour the area later as tutu.

also what kind of device was that? she had never seen anything like it. ]

[rosae]

( No one seems able to help her, not so far. Rose tries to swallow down that sensation of hopelessness that keeps trying to overwhelm her. There's no time to wallow, to cry; she has to keep searching.

She's sighing as the man she was just asking shrugs away from her, looking slowly around the busy marketplace. The woman starts walking near where the girl is keeping unobtrusively to herself, and manages to spot her. Maybe it's Mom Instinct.

Rose wasn't expecting to find another little girl in pursuit of her own. Immediately, her eyes widen and her heart sinks — worry and fear so intense that it feels they're a physical presence within her. Her voice softens and she tries to control her anxiety, tries to smile a little. )

Hey there. Are you all right?

i. willful machine

[eudaimonikos]

I'm in charge.

[He is, in fact, the only person in here at the moment! Welcome to the Garb Place!

It's pretty normal that it's mostly empty right now. Michael's still setting things up in here. Right now, he's just chilling at the counter in the front, apparently drawing something in a notepad. Nothing that can't be interrupted; he sets the pencil down and laces his fingers together.]

Can I help you with something?

[rosae]

( After a whole lot of cryptic answers like "the ones who bless us", Rose finds herself stunned by the direct response the man gives. She blinks, taking him in for a moment.

He looks.... like a pretty normal, competent guy, and he definitely has some managerial vibes going on. Relief dares to pool into her, and she's releasing a sigh that sounds like it's been pent-up for a long while. Has she finally found the manager she can complain to...? )

Oh, thank god. ( Rose steps closer to his countertop, brows lifted. )

Can you tell me what state we're in? Nobody seems to want to tell me, or give me any clear kind of directions at all. ( Apparently, street signs are not a thing in this place and nobody she's asked seems to even understand what she means by them. None of the houses she's seen even have addresses. It's completely inefficient. )

darcmouth!

[grice]

[ exploring had been one of the first things to come to mind for falco; not out of being adventurous, but curious and cautious of where he was now, hoping that some form of getting to know the trench better would be a safe point.

that isn’t to say he doesn’t see what happens to this woman and her charm— his heart wants to help but the distance between them isn’t quite fair, but that desire is what brings out perle, his pygmy falcon omen, to chase after the thief from above. it gave plenty of time for falco to follow and pinpoint, until through the stalls and hidden corners, it was his turn to play thief.

possible, given his stature and quick thinking if he had to make up a lie (he did, and it didn’t work)— but at least, with some struggle, he’d call it a semi victorious result.

he would have to rely on perle again to find the woman, and find her she does, circling above her head effortlessly and silently until the boy found her. ]

Excuse me— Miss?

[ the young boy is a little out of breath, the fabrics of his cloaks riding and falling much quicker than someone in rest, the puffs of white the november chill made his exhale also a sign that he’d been exerting himself. he’s also sported a purple-red scrape just under his chin from the edge of the thief’s boot as a last ditch effort to take the prize. it wasn’t more than what he was used to, at least, so that wasn’t much of the problem. his lips were beginning to press together with worry though, he reaches for the item within his jacket’s inner pocket.

his eyebrows crease up with apology; in the palm of his hand is the metallic chain link necklace of her locket, snapped between the weakest link— but at least the rest intact. ]

I’m sorry . . . It broke.

[rosae]

( "Giving up" is not something she can do. It simply isn't; she's been trying and trying and trying ever since she made the decision to take Sharon to Silent Hill in the first place, rebelling against every single thing that would stand in her way — including her own husband.

But she's only human (....well, technically not really human anymore, not here), and despite some of the new advantages that seem to be built into her in this place, Rose isn't made of steel. She's already tired, weak, hasn't been eating or sleeping much. She's just been running.

Eventually, she won't be able to run anymore.

The thief is gone, and she can't keep going. She's panting hard, leaning against the crumbling old brick of a warehouse building, lungs sharply aching from the demand she's placed on them in the crisp chill. Losing the locket is... unthinkable. Her daughter's photo is inside of it, and Rose wants to scream.

Eventually, she notices the bird circling overhead and maybe that's strange, but she's too overwhelmed to question it. That's when someone calls out to her, and the woman turns to him, having finally caught her breath. He seems winded though, and she's staring at him, stunned by his youthful features, his clear boyishness. He's.... oh, he's so young, just a boy: she's taking him in with an immediate concern, one that blossoms further as she sees that scrape at his chin.

Then she's blinking down as he holds out a hand — the woman's eyebrows slowly lifting at what he holds, lips parting with a soft gasp. He'd... )

You.... got this back for me? ( Her heart skips an odd beat, a hand slowly lifting towards it, but then hovering in the air instead as she looks back down to his face. Something hitches in her and she asks in a soft hush. )

Did you get hurt?

Sleeper Farm - Storage

[subject_013]

[She might come upon a violently shaking pile of body bags, the worst shuddering coming from a bag near the bottom of the stack. The shaking stops and a muffled voice mutters inside the bag that started the commotion.]

High marks for creativity...

[A corner of the bag bulges as if the contained Sleeper has shifted their head into it. A face presses against the treated canvas of the bag, then the mouth closes on the fabric as the resident subject chews on it...]

[rosae]

( Nothing in Rose wants to approach those bags, and yet she is anyway. Slowly, bare feet making no sound as she steps closer, body tense, wrench held firmly in her grasp. There's definitely someone in there — too big to be Sharon, thank god, but then she hears the voice, and the fact it's clearly a person and they're clearly alive is a sharp horror that makes her gasp out loud. She has to help them.

The woman crouches down closer, just in time to witness the face moving, pressed up inside the bag like something trying to escape flesh, a grotesque sight. And he's.... chewing, trying to chew his way out. Rose gives a startled yelp, then— )

Hold on! I'll get you out! ( She's dropping her wrench with a loud clatter to the ground before shoving bags aside with a strained groan; it takes her a few minutes, the body bags almost impossibly heavy in their dead weight.

Eventually she gets them tugged off of the squirming one and her hands fumble quickly, finding the zipper down at the bottom and ripping it open to free the person trapped inside. )

Fuck—!

Storage

[imaglyphwitch]

[It caught up to me at last].

Luz couldn't help but think that, here in the dark, too weak to even cast a light spell. They'd gotten to her, and had indeed strung her and were taking blood, but she wasn't missing innards yet. They hadn't gotten that far. Just like with Margot, Luz felt that helplessness preying at the corners of her mind, that people could just GET to her before she'd even had a chance to fight. She couldn't even use her glyphs, she felt so weak. The hum of the machinery and the sounds from the machines hooked up to less fortunate Sleepers filled the air, permeated Luz's whole consciousness. She wanted sleep, some kind of reprieve, but her body refused, drinking in every single moment.

I can almost hear the laugh of those cannibal guys. Guess they get the last laugh after all.

She was so lost in her self pity she didn't hear the woman approaching. She blinked, seeing a figure approaching, and weakly writhed against the chains.

"N-no," she moaned. "G-get away! Not again!"

[rosae]

Rose makes her way through more hanging bodies, trying to swallow down her kneejerk reaction of revulsion. No matter how much she smells it — that sharp copper of spilled blood, and the putrid warmth of freshly exposed organs — it makes her tissues curl.

But her determination persists, and she's searching no matter how abhorrent this is. Her bare feet are stained red with blood by now, and as she moves across the floor of this room, she's stepping into fresh blood with a slick sound. Rose swallows hard, grips her wrench in her hand as she pokes through the bodies strung up like animals in a slaughterhouse.

Then she sees Luz.

A new wave of horror racks through her frame, and Rose runs up to the girl, drops the wrench on a nearby table. Her hands come up, gently but desperately moving up to her as the girl tries so weakly to squirm away from her with those piteous moans.

"Luz! Oh god.... oh god, it's me— Rose!" She's trying to see just how the girl is hung up, shackled by her wrists or with an actual hook.

"Oh god, honey, it's going to be okay. I'm going to help you!"

darcmouth

[aurheatum]

( She is always called back to the shore. It is not that it is more comfortable here - far from it, with the sleepers and other shambling things it is a pertinent reminder these waters are not her own. But it is quiet, especially on the Farther Shores and she has found no better place to be alone after hours of bloodletting.

Today her peace is shattered by shouts and the sounds of running feet. Rhea watches as a woman desperately chases after some derelict pickpocket who, unheeding of Rhea's presence, ducks behind a stack of crates as the woman searches further in the surf. )

...such a display, even here.

( It takes little effort to slam the man's head against the crates he thinks he has so cleverly hidden behind and Rhea pays more attention to the charm now in her hands than the state of her victim. She follows the sound of the woman's cries, different this time. )

I apologize. I came here because you seemed in pain, and I have some ability to heal even in this place ( she considers the child's toy in the woman's hands and shakes her head sadly ) but this is a pain blood healing cannot help.

( She bends down so that they are on the same level and holds out the idol on the chain she has recovered. )

Perhaps She might help in my stead.

[rosae]

( It feels like losing her daughter again, and again, and again. A wound that keeps being peeled back open, an ache that is constant. She hasn't let it debilitate her this whole time, but losing her locket and finding the bear....

Something seems to break in her.

Rose sits in the black sand, body crumpled and weak as she cries, the sea-soaked toy held cold against her chest. She knows eventually she'll have to keep going, keep searching, keep running — but in the moment, even the thought of standing again feels impossible. She wants to give up.

Suddenly, there's a voice.

Rose looks up, vision slightly hazy through her tears, at the sight of a woman leaning down close to her. She's— beautiful, in a way that hardly seems human, her eyes the same shade as her hair, an almost ethereal green. Rose just stares for a long moment, feeling like a child, confused and lost and strange, and then slowly looks down to what the other woman is holding out for her.

Her locket. Rose gasps softly, her eyes widening. A hand reaches upwards, fingertips brushing the familiar surface of the Virgin, the figure who'd brought her comfort through various hells. The woman crumpled in the sand seems to be in disbelief. )

How did you.....?

i. the stalls

[wannasmash]

"Ehghh...?" comes a sleepy groan from the other side of the stall. The short young man with curly hair is vaguely aware of his arms being restrained. "Did I lose the match...?"

His sense of smell tells him that he's nowhere he should be, his ears confirm it, and his eyes snap open. His eyes dart around the stall, taking it and his cellmate in. They're in strange jumpsuits. He struggles against the shackles binding his hands to the wall behind him, but nothing happens. His power's been erased, just like when he fell down that well, but this is no chance encounter with a monster. This is premeditated. His heart beats wildly.

Is this what Kacchan felt like? Immediately Midoriya feels calmer. The thought of his rival--friend, though Bakugou would not admit it--fighting to free himself from his kidnappers despite everything gives Midoriya the clarity he needs. It's not that he's sure he'll escape successfully; it's just that whether he's afraid or not doesn't change what he has to do.

He turns his head to Rose, and the first thing out of his mouth is not What happened? or Where am I? but instead,

"Are you OK?"

[rosae]

She comes to a few minutes before he does, and when she realises who she's trapped in here with, Rose lets out a quiet sound, like a dry sob.

He's just a kid. A teenager, sweet-faced and youthful, and as he begins to stir, Rose feels her heart hitch in her chest. She doesn't want him to have to wake up to this. She watches him slowly come to awareness, watches the panic start to take hold — he's thrashing around, and she's trying to say it's okay, but she can't even manage that. It's not okay, and she's absolutely horrified by the fact there's a child here. She... she wasn't expecting that, when she allowed herself to be taken to this place.

Are there more kids? Fuck. Maybe Sharon's not the only one they're after.

But then the boy seems to calm down a little, and Rose is staring over at him wide-eyed, mouth open to reassure him — when he's doing it to her, instead. The woman swallows, struggling slightly against the shackles around her own wrists, but she knows it's no use.

"I'm all right. Are you? Are you hurt anywhere?" She can't hide the worry that's dripping from her voice, brow furrowed, blue eyes soft with concern. God, he shouldn't be here.

[sparkknight]

[Klee was still learning the layout of the Trench, but she enjoyed wandering around when she saw a lady chasing a man. Oh he had something in his hand and the lady was shouting as she ran after him.

Klee recognised this pattern well from what Treasure Hoarders did sometimes to travelers on the road. This was no good. Even though this wasn't Mondstat, she was still a Knight. The Knights of Favonius helped people so she'd get back the thing and give it to the lady. Summoning Dodoco, she ran after the thief. Thankfully, Dodoco had four legs and a good nose. After a few minutes of looking, she found the their , but had Dodoco sit on him.

The man complained as Klee looked around his stuff and found the shiny thing that he had. The man kept complaining before Klee tossed one of her small bombs at his which made the man screech in fear. Klee gave him a lecture about stealing was not good and only bad person did it. Plus, Klee was allowed to throw her bombs at bad people. After a few minutes of the lecture, she let the man go because she didn't know who to bring him to.

Once the man ran off, she look at the pendant. It was pretty and shiny which why the man wanted it.]

We got it back Dodoco. Let go give it to the lady! Um, can you find her?

[It tools awhile for both of them to find Rosa, but they found the poor woman crying. This must be very important to the lady like her hanging Dodoco and her Vision. She felt really sad for Rosa as she see the teddy bear. The tiny girl slowly approached Rosa as her Omen waddle behind her. ]

Um. Miss Lady? Klee saw you running before umm.

[She holds out the locket that she retrieved from the thief. It has some dirt and soot on it but aside from that. It's in good shape. Klee holds it in her palms]

Klee got it back for you from bad man.

[rosae]

( Rose can't help feeling defeated as she sits there in the black sand, holding her daughter's soaked teddy bear to her chest. Maybe it should be giving her a fresh hope — it could be a sign, after all, that Sharon really is here — but in the moment, it just feels like a reminder of what she's lost. And losing the locket... it's a deep, deep ache.

It has a photo of her little girl inside. It's the only way Rose has to see her face, her child's sweet smile. She hasn't entirely given up on looking for it, maybe she can ask around later, but.... right now, she's too tired. Too exhausted. She wants to give up.

Then Rose hears a voice and looks up, startled. It's..... a child, and some sort of animal. The woman stares, tear-glazed eyes wide. For a moment, none of this seems real.

The little girl... has her locket, holds it out to her. Rose gasps quietly, hardly daring to believe it. How....? Carefully, she reaches for it, drawing it to herself. )

Thank you. ( She almost whispers, voice soft, stunned. ) You... got it back from him? All by yourself?

( Concern immediately drips into her tone, brow furrowed deeply. )

wilful machine

[13thcommander]

A little girl?

[Erwin is off exploring, slowly getting used to this new place where he finds himself. So far, so good, but then he's approved by a frazzled looking woman.]

I'm sorry, I haven't.

[However!]

Where have you already looked? Perhaps I can help you find her.

[rosae]

( At least the people here are, so far, noticeably more helpful than those in Silent Hill. )

I already searched that— boardwalk place? The one near the ocean. And a little bit of the city, but... this place is huge.

( Rose's brow furrows. It's... easy to feel discouraged, but she can't allow herself... )

Are you from here?

i.

[klussy]

(Eddie has been doing this for a long time now. He has been seeing this for five years. He was sixteen just this November and had spent all of his teen years going through this process month after month after month. He knows what a new Sleeper looks like who still hadn't figured it out yet, knew that disjointed look of someone who hadn't fully comprehended the situation they were in.

Normally, he just minds his own business. Even after all this time, he prefers to keep to himself. He's still awkward with adults, with anyone really, and too lacking in confidence to feel like he'd really help anyone out.

But if this lady was looking for her a young girl...

Eddie's walking his dog, but he slows to a stop, frowning at the question. He looks down at Gucci, who, like a good girl, sat down, sensing her owner's hesitation. He looks again at the woman, and shyly, quietly speaks up:)

She's probably not here. Sorry. There normally aren't too many people under ten.

[rosae]

( The answer stuns her — a much different answer than what she's gotten so far. There've been plenty of hard no's or offers to help, but nothing like 'she's probably not here.'

At first, Rose doesn't at all know how to take the answer, how to process it. Her body language (tense and ready to walk off again at any moment as she circles around the area, approaching person after person) loosens a little; she turns to face the young man fully instead. Eyes taking him in: youthful-faced in a sweet way, clearly just a teenager. He has a dog — her eyes drop to the little thing, blinking for a moment as she realises with a strange sensation that she hasn't seen something so normal as a dog in what feels like an extremely long time. )

You.... live here? ( She pieces that information together from his answer, the way he speaks about this place like he knows. And he has a dog. This... must be his home? As she asks, she's pulling the locket up out of her shirt, opening it to expose the photo of the missing little girl in question. With her long, black hair and blue eyes that are much darker than Rose's lighter pair, the girl doesn't look a thing like her. )

Here— this is a picture of her. Just to make sure— you haven't seen her?

i. WILLFUL MACHINE

[oldhound]

[ John isn't exactly trying to eavesdrop but it's a hard thing to block out. A mother looking for a child, he's seen it all before in different ways. He remembers Anna Kate and her daughter Vesta and the crazed Satanist. Bastard, he was. So, he perks up a bit from where he's sweeping out the shop, raising his voice to be heard: ]

You said you were looking for your daughter?

[ If the lady is new then it could be the little one didn't show up with her. That's hardly a call for him to make and even if it were he's not ready to offer that out just yet. Hope can be a dangerous thing. It can also be the only bloody thing that keeps a person holding out in a place like this. ]

Did you just get here?

[rosae]

( On the surface, he looks like a normal person and not some deranged cultist, which is a definite plus. Rose knows she should be careful regardless, but she's moving into the shop with more determination than caution, approaching where the man's calling out to her. Brows lifted — does he know something? Her voice comes out like a pent-up inhale released: quick and a little breathless. )

Yes — have you seen a little girl around here? She's nine. Long black hair— blue eyes—

( She's describing the basics of her adopted daughter quickly as she approaches him. )

Just a couple hours ago, I think. Maybe a little longer than that. ( Hard to really pinpoint time these days. And the watch on her wrist stopped working before this place.

...But yes, Rose underwent the squid-to-person transformation and decided to search for her daughter all in the same day, and though she's perfectly capable of walking around now, maybe that odd fatigue is a little obvious by the breathlessness, the haze lingering in her eyes. But she can't waste any time. )

i. willful machine

[kingofsarcasm]

[Stiles has gotten lost this month so many damn times, it's insane. It's like the city is shifting the streets around and considering what he's been hearing about Trench being part of the Pthumerian known as the Tower… that makes sense. And then he has to take a second to reflect on the fact that that insane sentence makes sense to him now.

He's busy rolling his eyes about that as he's browsing one of the food stalls, asking the vendor if he has anything besides mushrooms.] Seriously, if I eat one more mushroom I'm pretty sure I'm gonna start growing them out of my-

[He halts that sentence as he notices Rose looking stressed and lost, holding an old phone in her hands. He hears her ask about her daughter and then a charger for the phone when the local vendor shakes his head. When the man shoos her off for the charger question, Stiles heaves a breath and approaches, unable to ignore a worried mom who's apparently brand new.]

Uh, hey. I might have a charger for that fossil you call a phone in my jeep but it's not gonna work here. Have you found your Omni?

[rosae]

( Frustration and despair feel like two synonymous things, one big word that makes a lump in Rose's throat, makes her eyes feel hot at the corners. She wills that feeling away as much as she possibly can, recognising it as a certain stagnancy she can't afford to let herself fall into.

But she feels so hopelessly alone. No one can really help; it's the same story, over and over. No one's seen a little girl, and no one seems to even recognise the phone for what it even is. It's like she's trapped in some nightmare, and if Rose hadn't quite literally just come out of that same kind of situation before, she'd think she was asleep.

Suddenly someone's talking to her, and the woman's eyes jolt upwards to look at the young man approaching her. Immediately, he says two things that stick out to her: charger and jeep, and she almost cries out in relief. He has a fucking jeep. She has a fucking jeep. Had. )

Thank god, someone who knows what a goddamn jeep is. ( She's turning to him, relief clear in her features, before— ) What's an Omni?

ii. DARCMOUTH

[beforetheverse]

[Sam isn't exactly supposed to be wandering all over Trench with reckless abandon, but these days he feels better knowing where everything is — and being able to warn people if something seems to be going sideways. Makes him feel useful. Capable. It's exactly what the older him is supposed to be... from before Lucifer got his hands on him.

Anyway, the sound of a lady calling out sets him on guard, because it could be any number of things, not just an actual woman in need of help. Water wraiths, sirens, ghosts, they all have their ways of luring people into their dooms. Sam takes his walk toward the sound very carefully, and when he finally sees the lady and the teddy she's holding in her hands, he clears his throat and speaks up:]

... Are you alright?

[rosae]

( It feels like she's losing her daughter again, and again, and again. Rose isn't sure how much more of it she can take. She has to get up eventually, she knows this, but in the moment, she lets it consume her. That grief, that loss — that confusion. The soaked stuffed animal in her arms serves as some strange paradoxical hope and hopelessness: a glimmer of her precious daughter, and a reminder that Rose has no idea where to go from here in order to find her.

There's a voice, soft with youth and careful, and Rose looks quickly up to see a young man standing there. More boy than man, her mind automatically thinks, and she gives a quiet gasp. )

I'm— ( She doesn't know how to answer that, but she's aware how this must look. A woman who usually has such a careful composure, frazzled in the sand, crying out a name, clutching a toy like a child.

...There's only way to answer: the truth, but it makes her voice come out very small, and it breaks a little at the end. )

I can't find my daughter.

Sleeper Farm - Stalls

[luckystriker]

[ Herc grunts something that might've been English by some stretch of imagination, rolling onto his side to peer up at the woman. He's got his arms cuffed at his back like Rose, and he groans on seeing where he is. ]

Not this again...

[ He has got to set some better defenses up around the house or something.

He rolls onto his back for a moment and then sits up. ]

You all right? [ All the while, he's shuffling his arms lower, pushing his wrists past his rear and slowly down the back of his legs, muttering to himself: ] Who needs yoga when you got this to deal with?

[ It takes a bit of stretching but he eventually gets his wrists past his feet and flops back against the wall with a relieved sigh. ]

[rosae]

( She's been waiting — for whatever grotesque creature brought her here to return, for something horrible to happen, for the man in the stall with her to wake up.... all she can do is wait.

...Well, after an attempt at getting out of her own cuffs, which very much proved unfruitful. Now Rose is just sitting there trying to keep as calm as possible, though she startles when there's finally movement from her companion, eyes snapping over to watch the display. )

I'm okay, ( she answers, eyes following his movements until he's managing to get his arms from behind his back. It's an impressive display, admittedly (and speaking of yoga, the ladies in her yoga class back home would be giving him nice white smiles right about now, just flirty enough to make each other laugh quietly, like girls back in high school do. Nothing like a bunch of moms in Lululemon pants getting worked up over a rare male presence. Seriously.)

The days of yoga and afternoon cocktails with her girlfriends are long gone. Now there's dirt smudged on her face and matted unpleasantly in her hair, and she feels the slickness in her throat that generally precedes vomit. Rose forces herself to ignore it. Focus on what he's said. )

You've been here before?

Mom On A Mission

[survivalthroughhate]

[Maul's property in Prufrock is large, enough that one might easily stumble onto it without realizing it, especially since now there are no fences on it to mark off where it ends from other places in the district. Mostly, there is some grass which has grown long, wild, and tangled, though with how poor the soil is here in Trench it's having a great struggle to survive. Still, in some spots it goes right up to the knees or even the thighs of a person. Every so often, a bush can be seen, and as one gets closer to the house two large oak trees can be seen.

What most people from Deerington already know but many new Sleepers and natives alike don't is that Maul's property is protected by several fearsome creatures. A low growling is all the warning Rose will get before a pair of yellow eyes is seen. As the beast comes closer through the grass, it will reveal a form like a cross between a wolf and a panther. This is Malice, Maul's vornskr, a creature from his galaxy that has a fearsome and vicious temperament. She's out patrolling the property today and sees Rose as an unwanted intruder. And there is only one way Malice knows of dealing with unwanted intruders. She lashes her long, whiplike tail one, two, three times and then comes after Rose with a loud roar.

Vornskrs are fast but a scared human has adrenaline borne of fear on their side. If she can get to one of the trees, it is tall enough to prevent Malice from following, since she is unable to climb trees. Or if she can make it all the way to the house, there might just be someone around to help call the angry alien beast off. But it's best to hurry. Malice is very territorial and vicious, not prone to calling off the hunt when she's found something to chase.]

[rosae]

( This place certainly seems... unforgiving. It's strange out here, less like a city than the other places she's been wandering. She's frightened, but it doesn't stop her from exploring this place, too. Sharon could be here, and Rose has searched places that are much worse.

The woman moves through the tall, wild grass that brushes up all the way to her thighs, wading it like it's a shallow ocean. She's uneasy, tense, and it's perhaps that tension that saves her life. When she sees the flash of yellow eyes, she's already prepped to run, body tight and coiled like a spring.

She's running as fast as she can, towards those trees stretching up near the property that comes into view. Rose hears the roar and screams loudly, running faster, faster, heart hammering in her throat. She finds a tree and scrambles upwards, boots pushing her up its trunk and branches as fast as she can. More screams are released, as she climbs higher, finding a spot on a large branch and grabbing ahold of the trunk. )

Go the fuck away! ( She screams at the top of her lungs, grabbing for a smaller branch and flinging it downwards at the beast. )