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[redwinekindofgirl]

Sooooo everyone noticed the fucking strip mall starting up outside, yeah?

[Julie is standing near one of the outside windows. The 'HOT' part of the 'HOT TOPIC' sign is visible over her left shoulder. Her right shoulder is occupied by a small, cat-like creature that's staring into the camera while Julie speaks.

She jerks her thumb over her shoulder, both eyebrows raised.]

Are we not talking about the strip mall? Is it like the first rule?

[There's a pause, then she tosses her head slightly and grins.]

I'm going to Hot Topic, in like... ten minutes, if anyone else wants to come.

Comments

[livingdeadgirl]

[ Even in the space future, radiation suits aren't comfortable. Once her suit is sealed, it's all of three seconds before she feels like a baked potato wrapped in aluminum foil, steaming hot and crinkling when she moves. Julie's voice sounds slightly muffled, and her own seems to echo when she replies. ]

Yeah! Get in, losers...!

[ The airlock seals with a hiss. The seconds while it depressurizes feel like an eternity. Ami clutches the loops of her whip with both hands, trying to keep her breathing steady, and only partly succeeding. There's no turning back now. They're really doing this.

And she's terrified. It's a kind of terror she hasn't really felt since that fateful August, when the ocean was swallowed and monsters overran the city. This isn't the first time she's willingly put herself in danger, but this time there are no friends to save, no city to protect. She's risking her life to go shopping. How stupid is that?

Yet... part of her is excited.

There was a week or so, about a month back, during which Ami forgot a lot of things. Her friends, her parents, her own name... but she also forgot her fear of the unknown. She closes her eyes and thinks back to the flooded hall in the basement, the sense of wonder she felt in the presence of those ancient artifacts. She remembers feeling brave.

It doesn't magically dispel her fear, of course. But it helps.

The outer door slides open, revealing the windswept red desert beyond. The light of the twin suns imparts little warmth to the desolate landscape, and a brown, dusty haze half-obscures the distant hulls of derelict starships that call this planet their grave. The stores, completely incongruous, stand nearer than she thought, but farther than she hoped.

But there's no turning back. With a deep breath, Ami takes her first steps onto alien soil. ]

[redwinekindofgirl]

[While Julie has been outside once or twice so far it really hasn't been enough to prepare her for the shock of adrenaline each time. It pulses through her in a rush, her breath shaking with the mixture of nerves and excitement and the kind of thrill that she's sorely been missing living in this relative safety.

She steps out without hesitation, and she reaches for Ami's hand to give it a reassuring squeeze before she nods her head out over the stretch of wind-blasted desert in front of them. It's not far, but when you know what dangers might be waiting for you out here, any distance is far enough.

But hey, girls need clothes.

So they walk, and with every step the small strip mall gets a little closer.]

Hey, this isn't so bad.

[livingdeadgirl]

[ The little squeeze Julie gives her hand bolsters her resolve. Right - and she's not alone out here, either. They've got each other's backs.

With every step, Ami's fear grows a little less, supplanted by a sense of awe as she drinks in as much as she can of the unfamiliar scenery. How long has she been living underground, anyway? Six months? ]

... I'd almost forgotten how big the sky is.

[ She hadn't realized until now, but she's missed it. Walking under the open sky, going somewhere she's never been before, something new, a momentary escape from routine. Doing something a little dangerous on purpose, rather than meekly waiting for danger to come to her. It's oddly liberating.

And that's an easy feeling to get caught up in, apparently, because she doesn't notice the creature that's begun to stalk them.

In fairness, it's somewhat concealed. The path they're walking is not perfectly flat, after all, and it passes within a few meters of a rocky hill... where the first sign of its presence is a reflected glint of sunlight. ]

[redwinekindofgirl]

[It's just the two of them out here in the big world, where one misstep could mean disaster for either of them - or for both - and it's the kind of excitement that Julie has been aching for since they arrived here. The thrill of not being entirely certain of her own safety. That feeling of walking into danger.

She hadn't even realised she'd missed it.

Julie looks up, grinning slightly as she takes in the expanse of sky above them. In truth, she'd almost forgotten how big the sky was, too. It was an easy thing to forget, with the dome between it and them all the time.

And she misses all the signs of the creature following them. Feeling watched in a place like this doesn't seem too out of the ordinary, and she shrugs off the sensation as paranoia.]

It's actually kind of nice out here. I wish it wasn't completely toxic.