Not Quite The Princess You Were Expecting [OPEN]

[no_apples_please]

WHO | Snow White & Ruby | Snow White + YOU!?
WHAT | Fresh meat?!
WHERE | The Cornucopia and probably Fantasyland eventually?
WHEN | Snow's Arrival - Week 6
WARNINGS | Nothing to speak of yet


Snow White looks the part of a storybook princess, head to toe. The dress and the cape they've put her in do not strike her as something out of the ordinary, but the machines that lifted her here and the strangely destroyed looking future certainly do. 

For now, the only plan she has is to get somewhere out of sight. Somewhere less exposed. Safer. If anything, all she really wants is a quiet minute to herself to just collect her thoughts. To try and make any of this make any sense in her head. So the moment she feels it safe to take her first step out into this strange new place, she starts to run at as quick a pace as she dare. She's defenseless here and she knows it. Lost in a completely unknown territory with only the vaguest understanding of what is going on,  she heads for the thing that looks the most familiar.

The castle.

Comments

[grandmas_gurl]

It's been a while since Ruby wore these kinds of clothes... Not that she'd ever really worn things so fancy. She was a village girl - woolen clothes, and practicality. The finest thing she'd owned back then had probably been the cloak.

That's not the only thing that's different now, though. Her senses have been shut off. There's been a tracker stuck into her skin. And she's been set loose in what looks like an apocalyptic theme-park. None of which can be good...

She presses back the fear, though, on the alert for others as she moves toward the closest monument - the castle. Her eyes keep scanning for signs of other life, other people.

She thinks she hears something, and moves into a defensive crouch.

[no_apples_please]

Why is she always running?

Literally. Metaphorically. Just when things seemed like they were going to get to stop running forever. And now? Now she'd been ripped from everything she knows and loves and the gaping hole in her heart hurts far too painfully right now for her to be afraid.

She isn't afraid.

Not of this place. Not of dying. Just of never seeing anyone she loves and cares for ever again. Or perhaps more so... that they are here also. And have met worse fates.

Emma.

She holds the name in her mind like a prayer and hopes with every fiber of her body that she's not here. That whatever they did, they didn't send her to this place. But the only real way she will ever know, is if she survives this. She may not be a trained killer, but Snow's learned a thing or two about surviving, and if it means finding Emma, Charming, Red and all the others again...then survive this she will.

In this place though? Avoiding anyone and everyone she possibly can is going to be her main strategy and unfortunately, there seem to be many places ahead for a person to be lurking just out of site. She slows her pace as she gets nearer, concentrates on the quietness of her footfalls.

[grandmas_gurl]

Soft, almost gone - but Ruby knows what she heard up ahead; and while she's not a killer she is most definitely a fighter. She doesn't know what's going on. If her family is here - if she's the only one who's been snatched. She needs answers, and she hopes whoever she heard has them.

So she moves slowly toward where she heard the sound, listening for the patter of footsteps as she silenced her own movements. She wishes that she still had her own senses to make things easier, but she'll settle for what she's got right now. Namely years of hunting and her time surviving in the woods with Snow.

It takes time, pushing back the fear - the worry over whether they were ally or friend... she thinks she catches sight of someone, though, and picks up the pace. Hoping they can't hear her. Her footsteps and heartbeat sound loud in her ears. Closer. Closer...

[no_apples_please]

Its the moment of shadows and light on the ground she notices before the sound of another person approaching, but it's only the hint of movement that she needs to take that as her queue. Lucky the shoes they have given her are fairly decent. She turns, mid-step almost a full 90 degrees to her left and does what she can to hide amidst the remnants of a nearby wall.

[grandmas_gurl]

Ruby steps into the open, eyes roaming, traveling. She tries to keep the fear out of her eyes as she searches for a sign of life. If there's tracks on the ground, she will find them - assuming her "quarry" doesn't show herself first.

She keeps silent as she starts to search, worrying that she might have lost them, but convinced that they can't be that far. If they aren't in the area, then it's anyone's guess where they went anyhow. Without tracks, it's all hopeless...

Maybe it's time she takes a risk. "Hello?"

[no_apples_please]

There's the sound of movement. The presence of another person is palpable and Snow shuts her eyes tight and takes a breath. Hopes that this is just some person passing by. Hopes that she will remain unnoticed by them entirely.

She can wait it out. Let them pass. And then keep running another way. Any way. As long as she keeps out of sight.

What she doesn't expect however, is the sound of someone's voice. A woman's voice. And... for a half a moment, Snow swears it's even a familiar one at that.

With one more breath, she opens her eyes and turns her head enough to get herself a small look at the other. But the smallest look is all that she needs.

"Red?!" Snow pushes herself from the wall and to her full height in an instant, at the site of her.

[grandmas_gurl]

"Snow?" That voice. That sound. She hasn't realized yet how accurate her choice of names is - that this is purely Snow, with no Mary Margaret mixed in... Not that it would matter in the moment, either way.

One moment of staring seems to stretch into eternity. Thoughts running through her head. Snow there, in danger - who else? Is she hurt? Was anything done to her? What caused this?

All important. But oh so meaningless - because even as her mind struggle with answers, she's already dismissing every question. She's already running forward. She's already scooping Snow up and into her arms, and hugging her tight as she feels sudden hot tears in the corner of her eyes, and relief.

She's not alone. She hasn't been separated from Snow yet again. Hope hasn't been lost. She's with Snow...

[teethofneedles]

Karis is a bit lost - metaphorically, that is. She's alone again (she lost R ages ago and he's been confirmed as dead, but she can't spare the time to mourn, even if he was a good kid). She's been prowling the ruins of the park for days now. She's nto sure how long it's been - the days blend together, especially when you don't sleep or rest. The last time she made a kill was with R on the little snot from the Cornucopia, but that's been it. More people are dead, but she's determined that she's going to come out on top, no matter what. She's going to claw and fight her way out of this, because that's what she does.

She's sweeping through the ruins again, moving in a low crouch, head cocked as she tries to detect anyone before they get a chance to see or her her. The castle looms in the distance and she edges around a corner back onto the main street, which is when she sees the other woman (she looks fresh, not like she's been hiding out for days on end) and Karis freezes for a moment before baring her sharpened teeth in a silent snarl and then tries to go to ground before she's spotted.

Of course the quick, jerky movement is probably going to attract attention. She'll worry about that later.

[no_apples_please]

Snow's used to the forest; the trees and the animals and the dangers that lurk therein, and she has learned how to live among them. Survive. Keep herself safe. And it's those instincts she's falling back on in this place. The alertness. The coiled tension in her arms and legs, ready to turn and run or stand and fight if she needs to. She'd prefer neither. But she knows she won't be so lucky.

A shuffling sound. A flicker of movement. Those are the things she notices.

Is there wildlife in this place that she needs to worry herself over? Or is this another person?

Snow has no idea.

She tenses. Slows to a hurried walk and tries to concentrate on making herself as quiet as possible so as not to bring any more attention to herself. If only she could get somewhere less exposed...

But she isn't sure that she can. Not as quick as she would like, at least.

The best she can do for now is be mindful of where that movement came from. Maybe try and go avoid it.

If Karis is can still see her, she may notice Snow's eyes looking in that direction. Scanning for some other hint of movement. Another sign of life. She hasn't seen her yet, but Snow is, at the very least, concerned that there is something over there.

[teethofneedles]

Karis thinks she's been noticed and mutters a quiet little curse to herself. That'll make this harder. She waits, not moving a muscle for a few long moments as she tries to wait it out. she wants to get close enough to sink her claws in and let her teeth do the rest. She wants to add another notch to the running tally. She wants to win. Then she tries to creep a bit closer, moving in a slow, deliberate crawl, trying to stay hidden among the refuse and debris scattered on the street. There's an up-turned concession cart that she tries to use as cover. But of course, she isn't noiseless.

There's the scrape of a boot on asphalt.

If she's noticed, she might just throw caution to the wind.

[no_apples_please]

Snow stills altogether. Pauses in her steps and movement and breathes in deep. Calms herself. Thinks. Something, or someone is near. And all that she can think of is the woman's voice telling her the rules of this game:

Be the only one left alive and you win.

If this was because of the curse - which Snow cannot help but believe - it is a cruel curse indeed. Never before has she been so wary of the simple presence of another person before. But she knows that she can't die here. Not now. Not yet.

She does her best to keep as far from the noises as possible, and the area she thinks the other being might be. She will avoid it as long as she can, so long as no sign of confrontation arrives.

Maybe it's just an animal. More frightened of Snow's presence than she is. Or perhaps it is another person, wanting to avoid her just as badly.

[teethofneedles]

Karis hisses softly through her teeth. She's been spotted - or at least the other woman knows she's there. With a low little snarl, she mutters, "To Hell with it-" and rolls to her feet. In an instant she's bounding across the open space, picking her way through debris as she hurls herself toward Snow. There's still a fairly large gap, but Karis aims to close it as quick as she can.

She's all bones and dead skin and claws and glowing, acid-yellow eyes. Fight or flight time.

[no_apples_please]

The other registers as something wild; more animal than human at a glance and the rush of blood and adrenaline pulsing through Snow's body is instant. She's defenseless and she knows it. But that won't stop this situation from unfolding and she needs to fix this. Now.

Snow's faster than she looks and there's a practiced grace to which she drops to the ground and rebounds half a moment later with the longest and most suitable branch she can get her hands on.

"Stay back!" she warns. Keeps her shoulders set and her eyes on the other, but she doesn't still. She keeps moving. Backwards. Away.

This is definitely not a good start to her day...

[splendid_roman]

Someone new stood out a mile in such pristine clothes. Ian had been at the top of the castle looking out for a while and she wasn't someone he'd seen before. Since she was heading this way he went down to meet her.

As she approached the door to the castle he slipped out of the shadows and stood in front of it, holding up a plank of wood that used to be a fence post. "You can't come in here," he said.

[no_apples_please]

A welcoming invitation inside was the last thing that she was expecting to find here, but neither was strange man holing a plank of wood. It is only in this moment that she realizes how completely defenseless she is, and how big a mistake that might be.

So, she slows her pace to a near stop and keeps a healthy distance away from the man and the wall, and raises her hands as a sign of defense.

"I'm sorry, I..." she doesn't even know what to say to him. "I don't want any trouble.

[splendid_roman]

"That's good. Neither do I." Now he could see her properly she looked defenceless. But it wasn't always good to judge by appearances, so he didn't move yet. "What do you want?"

[no_apples_please]

"Shelter," she answers honestly.

"I arrived out in the middle," she points behind her in the direction she'd came, "I thought there might be someone at the castle who could help."

Looking around her surroundings, she's only just starting to realize that this castle is not a real castle. Just some large imitation of one. A decoy. From a distance it had looked real enough, but now that she was so near, it was actually quite obvious. And this man doesn't look all that thrilled at the idea of helping her at the moment.

There is a lot about this world Snow has to learn...

[splendid_roman]

He chuckled. "We're here to kill each other, not to help." A small rational part of Ian was telling him that he could help, but the rational part was losing sway by the day.

"You can go in there if you like." Ian stepped aside. "It's dark and dusty and probably booby trapped."

[no_apples_please]

"Not all of us are here for that," she tells him with all the sincerity that her naivity gives her. Just because she knows the rules doesn't mean she's going to play by them, after all. And until pressed, she has no intention to.

"What is this place?" she asks with an almost smile, as she peers around him, past him into the darkness beyond. "I thought it was a castle..."

Later in the Week?

[blondevigilante]

She was tired of looking at this place. Already she'd explored about half the arena and already she was sick of the way it twisted what had once been a childhood fantasy. Her family could never have afforded such an extravagant vacation, but that didn't mean that she hadn't asked and even begged at least once in her childhood. It was depressing, but she didn't say that out loud because she was slowly coming to the realization on how much their lives were in the hands of those outside.

Her dress was stained with blood and dirt and she was working on little to no food, so seeing a fresh Tribute made her pause. God, had she looked so shiny and new when she had arrived? There was a chance the woman was one of those who actually liked this whole killing thing, but there was a higher chance that she was totally confused as to what the hell was really going on. Steph mentally flipped a coin and sighed at herself.

"Hey. Princess Newb!" O would so be shaking her head.

Perfect!

[no_apples_please]

The sudden shout startles her, but there isn't anyone else around and after all these years, it's hard not to respond to the title of princess, even if it had been in jest.

Snow stops dead in her tracks and scans the area for the origin point of the voice. What she finds is a lovely blonde girl in a bloodstained dress. And Snow has no idea if she is another of this so-called game's players, or just... another lost young woman such as herself.

"Hello?" she replies, because there is no point in hiding. But she has no idea what a newb is.

[blondevigilante]

Oh good, the woman hadn't whipped out some weapon and killed Steph where she stood. Well, there was always time later Steph supposed.

She pulled on a tired smile as she walked up to the woman. "Hey. Hi. New?" Duh.

[no_apples_please]

Snow stiffens as the woman approaches, unsure of what she wants, she's ready to run at the first sign of trouble. But Snow has always been the sort to give a person the benefit of the doubt on a first encounter. It may be her undoing in this place, but she may learn to be less trusting eventually.

For now though? She answers.

"I'm really that obvious, aren't I," she gives a bit of a smile as she speaks, and continues to look the other woman over. Do they all look like this, eventually? "Are you alright?"

[blondevigilante]

"You're just shiny. Don't worry eventually you'll start to look like us peasants." Probably not the best words to offer someone who so obviously just arrived. Stephanie was dirty and had more than a bit of blood on her once lovely dress. Personally she couldn't wait to get rid of the thing and have a bath. God what she wouldn't give for a hot bath.

"No worries, I'm peachy." Did I just say that? "Oh, um, I'm Stephanie. You're the first new person I've seen since I was brought up the Tube of Doom since everyone else was shoved in before me."

[no_apples_please]

Snow smiles at the woman, a little thrown off by her slightly odd way of speaking, but refreshed and quite relieved at her exuberance. Not to mention her admission that she was, at the very least, not seriously harmed.

"Snow White," she introduces herself, hoping that there is no harm in admitting her name in this place. Those that brought her here had known it.

"How long have you been here?"