The sensation that you're screaming, but you never make a sound [OPEN]

[cassie_of_troy]

WHO Cassandra and OPEN
WHAT Cassandra's arrival in Bete Noire
WHERE A park
WHEN Monday, right after sunset
NOTES Multiple threads and fourth-walling welcome
WARNINGS The girl has more triggers than a James Bond movie? Will update

Comments

[so_distracting]

A shortcut through the park was essentially turning into a longcut through the park. Going to the Hill, to that huge creepy house, to see Cinna really cut a chunk out of Finnick's evening. He'd been doing okay for himself with his little escort service, but he wasn't exactly collecting enough money to be buying a sprawling estate. And so, his little studio apartment was clear across town

[cassie_of_troy]

Cassandra whirled around, pointing the end of her branch at the stranger. She was completely breathless, jumpy, and exhausted. All things told, a terrible combination. And she'd been so distracted, beating the tree, that she wasn't paying enough attention to her surroundings. If this place was dangerous, she probably deserved to be slaughtered by some man in a park. Of course, she would give him one hell of a fight.

She didn't like the way he looked. It was the hair.

Slowly, she caught her breath, leveling her eyes on him. "I'm fine," she said carefully. "Why do you ask?"

[so_distracting]

"Well," he said cautiously, "Usually when people are attacking a tree, that means that something is wrong. Same goes for beating most inanimate objects, really."

He took one careful step forward. She didn't look like an asylum escapee, so maybe she had just had a bad day. Maybe she needed someone to listen to her, or to take her stick away from her.

[cassie_of_troy]

He was moving closer. Cassandra didn't make any aggressive movements, but she lifted the branch slightly, never taking her eyes off of him. It was a dangerous world. She was alone in a dangerous world. And she didn't have time to notch an arrow.

Of course, there was her knife. For a moment, her eyes strayed to the sheath sewn into her trouser leg. Could she draw it fast enough? Cassandra doubted her own abilities. More so, she doubted her will to actually use a blade on a living person. She'd never had the strength before.

"It's a laurel tree," she said, by way of explanation, her eyes going back up to him. "Who are you?"

[so_distracting]

"Haymitch Abernathy," he responded, pausing out of reach. He knew better than to give a crazy person his real name, and her explanation for beating the tree wasn't winning her any sanity points.

"And you?"

[cassie_of_troy]

"Cassandra," she replied bluntly. His name sounded more like one of the fancy drinks Cordelia used to serve at the Stoat, but it was hardly important. For a moment, she thought about inventing a surname for herself, but at the moment, she was a little too frightened to come up with something creative.

Since he seemed to be maintaining his distance, she very slowly lowered the branch. Her senses were on fire and she was a little afraid she might make an unwarranted mistake. It was something she was all too skillful with.

Skills. Ha. She was going to have to find an occupation in this world.

"Are you a native here or are you a worldwalker?" she asked.

[so_distracting]

"Worldwalker," he responded. "From Panem." Not that the tree bully would hear of it, no one ever had.

"What about you?" He was still trying to assess the situation, figure out if the woman was a danger to anyone or herself. At least she's set down the branch. He felt his shoulders relax a bit. After years of being on edge, constantly waiting for danger to swoop into his life, it was hard to see a girl with a stick as nothing more than girl with a stick.

[cassie_of_troy]

Honestly, Cassandra didn't know how to answer that question. She couldn't keep track of what home was any more. Was it Mycene? That was where she last lived, as it were. Then there was Rowan and Willaknapp. Rowan felt most like home, but if she were truly honest with herself, the answer was clear. "Troy," she said quietly.

So what if it was no longer there? It was home.

She set down one end of the branch, leaning on the other a little bit. "I'm from Troy." And now she would see if he fell into the category of getting bug-eyed and amazed or of staring blankly.

[so_distracting]

Finnick's eyes neither went blank nor bug-eyed.

He didn't recognize the name Troy, but he was used to not recognizing the places people were from by now. "Earth?" he asked. Seemed like the majority of people at least recognized that term.

[cassie_of_troy]

She nodded. "Earth."

He hadn't made any aggressive moves and Cassandra continued to relax, just a little bit. It helped, too, that he wasn't burst out with, Are you that Cassandra? the way that so many others did. It was tiring really. And she didn't like having to answer it.

Cassandra bit down on her lower lip. "I've only just arrived," she admitted. "This place is...strange."

In Rowan and Willaknapp, she'd had at least some frame of reference, even if things like indoor plumbing were somewhat new. But the things she had seen here, so far, just confounded her. The carriages moving without horses, the lights that didn't seem to have flames in them, and most especially the style of dress was so far outside of her experience that she was struggling to keep her senses about her.

She supposed she could do with a guide of some kind. At least until she managed to track down the others Sam had told her about.

[so_distracting]

"Well, you need to get to the hostel first," he said. "It's not the fanciest, but it's clean and it's functional and they'll let you stay there for free for two weeks and even then, they'll just as you to help with housekeeping or something to chip in."

He offered her his elbow, fairly certain that she wasn't going to kill him. And anyway, she was tiny. He could take her, unless she was one of those vampires.

"You're not a vampire, are you?"

It was worth asking.

[cassie_of_troy]

A chill worked its way down Cassandra's spine. She still wasn't entirely clear on the events of the last few weeks, but there were enough bad memories jumbled up in there to make her feel a little bit ill. She recoiled from his arm, gripping the branch. To her credit, she did not lift it.

"No," she said, quite firmly. "I'm not a vampire."

And then, in a slightly quieter tone of voice, she asked, "What's a hostel? It doesn't sound very pleasant."

[so_distracting]

He raised his eyebrows.

Women did not recoil at Finnick Odair's arm. They latched onto it, eagerly and gratefully. Something was clearly wrong with this woman after all.

"Glad to hear it. I'm not keen on getting my blood drawn." He folded his hands behind his back, nodding in the direction of the hostel. "Like a hotel, or an inn. It's just a bunch of converted apartments for people to stay in. It's not bad, for being free." A pause. "Do you want me to show you the way? Promise I'm not a rapist or ax murder or anything."

[cassie_of_troy]

"Few rapists advertise themselves as such," Cassandra replied uneasily. "And if it's such a good place, why is it called a hostel? I've had quite enough hostility for one lifetime, thank you."

There was something in his mannerisms, now, that was pulling at the corners of her mind. A familiar, faint imprint. She couldn't identify it just yet. It was more like a song that one kept humming without knowing the words.

"Is this your first world?" she asked uneasily. "Or have you been worldwalking in others? I'm quite sure this is my third. Unless I've forgotten some. It's quite possible. I'm barking mad, after all."

[so_distracting]

"My first world since my home, yeah." He glanced around, trying to figure out how to help this woman. Hoisting her over his shoulder might end up in screaming and biting and people assuming the worst, but she couldn't exactly stay here either.

"Look, it's okay if you don't want to come with me, but you really shouldn't stay out here by yourself either. Trust me, this city gets scary at night."

[cassie_of_troy]

Cassandra was hardly afraid of the city, at the moment. Her mind had razor sharp focus as she examined Finnick. "There's something unsettling about you," she said frankly. It had been a very long time since she attempted to be polite and she didn't have the energy for it right now. "And familiar. But I suppose we haven't met before. I've never been to Panem, whatever that is."

Lightly, she tapped the branch against her calf. "Are you a human? You seem human enough. Properly human-shaped. But I have been deceived before."