faderift | AUGUST RIFTER ARRIVAL

I.

[She doesn't really remember her dreams, most of the time. She's accepted that as a part of the exhausted sleep that comes from work; in the favela she used to dream in soft and lilting amounts, catching sleep in the narrow mattress that was her bed, a sibling pressed in on at least one side of her. In Minas, they keep her too busy, and dreams are a luxury for the lazy.

So it's not a surprise that when she drops into the river, she has literally no idea why she's wearing a headdress for Carnival. There are feathers everywhere, it's almost three feet tall on its own, and despite the rough landing she is still sporting it on her head when they (whoever they are) fish her out of the river. She is more interested in the monsters, and that's why she turns to the person next to her.]

That looks-

[Whatever that looks like is lost, because in the pocket of her extremely comfortable jeans (purchased for 50 reais from the shittiest store in Belo Horizonte) is her cell phone, and it fall out of the pocket with an unceremonious thud. She dives for it but might not be quick enough to get it first.]

Fucking whoreshit-

[The swearing is smooth. Where the fuck are they?]

II.

[She's being careful, and she thinks that Aluisio would be proud. Usually she shifts at least three or four times a day, either to sleep (napping is so much better as a wolf) or to avoid the heat or cold, or because she gets less tired, it's easier to cross distances as a guara, but she hasn't done that at all here.

She wants to get her bearings first.

The people are curious and kind, there's food and beer, and they're walking now to somewhere called Kirkvall (her Portuguese consonants are not helpful here).

But still, she's not all without instinct. It takes a bit before she slips away from camp - not too far - shifts, and takes a long, lengthy piss, making sure that anything in the area (including blunt human noses) know that there is something predatory nearby. It smells a bit like skunk, musky and strange. But more than skunk, it smells very strongly of pot, and the smell lingers slightly on Luana when she shifts back and slinks back into camp.

Hopefully no one noticed her disappearance.]

I. "Come on!" Jang reaches down in the water and gives her a hand, pulling her towards the boat, waving another hand at the masses of feathers. "Um...What's with the headdress?" After depositing her in the boat, and hearing her swear at the huge demon, she gives a slight shrug. "Suppose you're right, we got bigger fish to fry than colorful birds. Come on, you got a weapon of any kind? Any magic at your disposal?" She speaks with what Luana may recognize as a western accent, a bit of a southern drawl mixed in. She sounds like a cowboy, which is very odd in this place.

Jang takes a knee in the boat, a hand of cards seeminly appearing in her hand as she flings them towards the creature. They burn with a greenish yellowish light and slam into it, not seemingly doing any damage, but getting it's attention without a doubt.

"Hell. I think we may be in trouble."

Luana is still disoriented, reaching up to tug at the feathers on her head, squinting at the person in front of her. What the hell is going on? She stares when the cards appear in her hand, and when they glow-

For the love of god.

Luana wrestles the headdress off her head - it's a task, because those things are designed to withstand being worn during some intense dancing - and checks what she has on her person. Her phone is the immediate source of relief, oh thank god, when this is done she can call Aluisio and he can come pick her up, and her figa, that's good too. Okay.

She looks at Jang again, this time her upper lip rising a bit. Everything smells terrible. "I don't do that magic shit. I just got here, does it look like I have any weapons?"

Maybe that's unfair, but she's also in an understandably shitty mood.

"I don't know! You had a damn multicolored headdress, I'm not gonna be makin' any assumptions!" She brings a hand across and above the bow of the boat, like she's polishing a huge pane of glass. The air gives a brief sparkle as she does so, but after a arc of electricity strikes it, the glitter is gone.

"Can you call out where others in the water are? We gotta get out of this river before they fry us all!" She tosses another card towards the demon, this one explodes in a colorful flash of dazzling lights in it's face.

Mother of God, they're going to die here. Luana feels a growl deep in her gut, but she doesn't let it out. She looks around the water, and is grateful that her eyesight is so good even in the midst of magic. She still thinks this is some kind of test, so instead of arguing that no, she won't do it, she just goes ahead for it. "There!" she cries, and bumps this girl. "Stop fucking with electricity and water if you want any of those assholes to survive, though."

She says it with a rub of her hands against her hair. Jesus, what the fuck is going on?

"I'm trying to deflect it away from the water, but it's a bit tricky! Not like I can control lightning here." The rowboat begins to move towards one of the people in the river. "Well spotted though. What's your name anyway? I'm Jane."

It seems like most of the rifters have been pulled out, only a few more and they can get out of the damn river, deal with this demon on firm ground. "Come on, help me lift them into the boat. I think this is almost the last of them."

He determines that his condition is adequate, given the circumstances. Having a human body is more difficult than he could ever have expected, not that he had ever given it a moment's thought. He was a machine. That was all, and how humans managed was not his concern.

So long as he keeps focused on what the others are doing, he can ignore the panic thudding in him. In this way, he is getting by with eating when they eat, resting when they rest. A few people seemed to notice his child-like mimicry, how he seemed to follow this one or that one like a lost puppy for a time, but didn't make a big deal out of it.

When he sees the young woman return to camp, he realizes the meaning of the odd sensation he had been experiencing for the last few minutes. He all but runs off past her into the woods, as if he had been waiting for a restroom stall she had just vacated. When he returns, he looks paler. His eyes are like saucers as he sits down again. Slowly.

He looks over at her, making eye contact sheepishly, keenly aware of how he must have drawn attention to himself this time. "Hello. My name is Connor," he says forcing a smile.

Luana looks at this guy, who looks weird, but not for any reason that she can put her finger on. He doesn't seem like a spirit, because they're all laughs and sly glances, or, when they're serious, they look like they can and will fuck you over. Maybe he's a spirit from somewhere else.

Oh.

His name is Connor.

Luana takes a breath. He smells new. She can't pinpoint what that means, but maybe it's that everyone else doesn't smell new. Jesus, she wishes Aluisio were were. Not for the first time. Fuck. So she should introduce herself too. "I'm Luana," she says, raising her eyebrows. "Have a good piss?"

He shifts around for a bit, uncomfortable. It's just small talk; maybe he could simply dodge it. Nodding could work too. But he doesn't know how much he really cares right now- everything is so exhausting and difficult. Finally he just looks at her askance.

"I'm not sure. It's my first time."

That was probably a mistake.

She takes a long look at him. What the hell is he talking about, she thinks, and she tilts her head like maybe she's trying to catch the sound of what he just said. Excuse me? What? She frowns a little, and an eyebrow goes up. "It was your first time."

She sighs. Okay. They're doing this. "Well, did it feel good?"

He blinks back slowly. It's difficult for him to fathom the horror of what he has just experienced, so her question just sits rattling around in his far-less-optimally functioning brain for a bit. And that's on top of everything else that has happened since he died.

"Does anything about being human actually feel good-- People enjoy it? Or is it like a game where everyone knows the rules and the only rule is not to talk about the rules?"

She tips her head up and smiles a little, just to be flirty - just to be an asshole. She's not actually flirting with this man who clearly has never had a piss before. Instead she is rubbing her thumb on her top lip and smiling. "Sure. Lot of things about being human feel good."

Oh, that's some innuendo.

He briefly entertains the whole idea of unreeling a convincing enough speech about how he has been programmed with a variety of erotic techniques, maybe that he has customizable genitalia- why not? He's pretty sure CyberLife offered 'special' parts for its HR400s and WR400s. But she looks too smart to fall for that, so he groans instead. But he smiles a bit too.

"Excuse me if I remain unconvinced? I'm topped up on horror for one day, so let's talk about falling out of the sky for a bit. It's my first time for that too."

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I.

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