Reclamation

Roxanne was left gobsmacked by the tower.  Moreso by the crazy girl running around telling the ADULT their...names? She got Richard at least. Why was she "Cutie"? Marcus made sense but her? No way. And she was suggesting they be this adult's maids. Haha. No. "I'm not going to be anyone's maid. Sorry, not interested. We'll find shelter somewhere else."

"Rox, there might not be more shelter for miles. This is the only building we've seen since it happened. If it means that we get food and shelter, it's okay to do a little chores. Suck it up." He returned his attention to the girl waltzing around telling names. Or more like, nicknames. "I'm Richard, not Dick. This is my sister, Roxanne, and that's Marcus."

"Why the hell are you calling me cutie, Riley?" Roxanne demanded. "Also, why the hell are you volunteering us to do work? We don't know who the hell you are, let alone what the hell you want. You could be a serial killer or something like that. I don't know. Why the hell would you want to cut things up anyway?"

"I don't think that is the important issue. I think the more important one is why there's an parasol toting adult here." Richard said, directing her gaze to the woman. "Since, you know, all the adults are gone." Richard was the one whose gaze was completely transfixed on the woman. An adult. How did she even survive? And what could she possibly want from them? She had the ideal place for killing all of them. Lure them in, offer them food and shelter, and suddenly try to eat them, like Hansel and Gretel. 

But he wouldn't let her die. Nor would he allow himself to die and leave her alone. He didn't trust any of these people with his beloved sister. Roxanne, while very smart, lacked the control that he had. But she had the ballsiness and emotion he didn't. They balanced each other out. They would die without the other. When it had all started, he had vowed he would keep them both alive as long as possible. If it got bad, he would get them out of this tower. No matter the cost.

 

"Serial killer..." Riley stopped, her head hung in silence. She flicked her wrist, the knife back in it's handle/sheath. She brought her head up slowly, facing the twins but her eyes staring off past them.
"A serial killer is someone who kills repeatedly. I guess in a sense I am- I hunt to eat. I kill repeatedly. But to think I might even be capable of... of... a human..." She shook her head, silent tears dripping down her face. But she was capable. All too capable... She slipped her knife back into the holder on her belt.
"Well you know- maybe I am. Humans aren't too different from animals. But I wouldn't just randomly..."
She turned to the Anya "Whatever- I'll do whatever you need. Would you let them stay if I did their work? They seem unwilling... So... So I'll do it in their stead. Can I?"
She stepped in front of the three others "I can't do much but I'll try my best. You can let me stay in the worst room you have if it betters their own. I... As a sign of good faith."
She silently dried the few tears that had slid onto her face, glancing back at the group.
"I won't... I won't hurt you."

(I'll add a tiny thing to History because of this- check it out)

 

Malik was a little startled to see Zein almost pass out behind him, she must really not like the Sun. He thought about leaving the girl behind as he took his first steps toward walking inside but decided to go back and drag her inside, hoping that she would okay. After touching her head he couldn't find anything physically wrong or notice any obvious wound and so he left her just inside the door. The parasol lady was strange because she was the first adult Malik had seen in a very long time, but the girl on the roller skates was even stranger by the way she was blurting out all those names way too fast. At least she didn't tell the lady his name, but she didn't know it yet and it would probably stay that way for a while. The girl needed to shut up. After scrawling something down in his notebook he walked to the girl and tapped her a little hard with the tip of his bow and thrust the note in her face. "Shut up" was written across the page in big black letters. That should be enough to hopefully get her to shut up.


With that situation taken care of, Malik looked at the lady and tried to see if he could notice anything strange. The only really obvious thing that was weird was the parasol and the fact that she was adult since all of the adults he had seen were dead bodies. He had to guess she had some kind of flow power, but he had no idea what that power could be. It was times like this when he wish he still had his voice. Instead of talking he just looked at her and waited. He turned to look back at Zein and pointed at her and then at the lady before opening and closing his hand like a mouth.

 

Zein heard the group enter the building, judging by the sound of the knocker of the door, followed by the door scraping open, and finally, muffled voices. She was in the middle of deciding whether or not she should enter, but that choice was taken from her as Malik seized her by the arm and dragged her inside. He checked her temperature, then walked away, leaving her sprawled out by the door. Zein groaned and slowly rose to her feet, pushing back several strands of damp hair that managed to escape from her ponytail. She picked  up her gear and lugged it several feet inside before dropping it again. Immediately, she felt better. She was still upset that her body was covered in perspiration, and especially in front of so many attractive people. She didn't know the names of anyone there. Zein recognized the girl that rocketed past her and Malik earlier. Other than rollerblades, there was a boy with a spear, and a duo that looked like siblings. The brother introduced himself as Richard, not Dick, and his sister as Roxanne. The other boy was apparently Marcus. Unfortunately, Zein missed the beginning of the conversation and had no idea what was going on.

Roxanne snapped at rollerblades--Riley? Zein took a few tentative steps towards Roxanne while Richard (Zein decided she'd call him Dick to be passive-aggressive) was on his skeptical tirade. "I'm a little late, mind explaining what's going on, 'Cutie'?" she asked.  As obnoxious and annoying as Riley was being, her nicknames were on point. Zein spared a glance towards the girl, only to see Malik holding up a piece of paper with 'SHUT UP' scrawled on it in black ink. Zein had to resist the urge to laugh out loud. She chuckled to herself. "I'm Zein, by the way," she added, directing her gaze at Roxanne.

 

Roxanne was upset that she had made this Riley girl cry. Just because she didn't know who she was didn't mean she was trying to be mean. "Hey, look, I'm sorry..." she said before the other adult came in. Thadius. They bantered a moment, and left.

"I'm not cute. Stop it." Roxanne snapped at the new girl, Zein.  "I want to know what those two's deals are. I don't know about you guys, but I'm staying the night. Primarily because there are probably beds. Secondarily because of the mystery."

"Rox, I don't think that's a good idea." Richard said. "This place seems sketchy. Let's leave." Richard said, grabbing his sister's arm, who promptly shook it off.

"If you want to leave, go for it. I'll catch up to you." Roxanne said.

"Don't you dare, Rox. If you stay, I stay. We stick together. I'm not losing you too." Richard quickly changed his tune. "But can we please just make it a night?"

"Okay. But we do need to check things out. There's some weird shit happening." Roxanne said, and turned to the new people. "Hi guys. You're welcome to stay or go. I really don't care what you do. I'm not going to hurt you and neither is Dick here. I don't mind getting to know you better and learning your names and being friends and all, but that's optional. We don't have to be friends, we don't even have to talk. But I request that you show the same 'I'm not going to hurt you' attitude as us." She looked around at them all. "And don't call me cute. Call me Roxanne."

"And don't call me Dick. Call me Richard." He looked around at the newcomers. One boy caught his eye with his lack of verbal communication. He wrote on a note to Riley to shut up. He probably couldn't talk. He kind of wanted to know why, but he also did want to learn more about the tower. He could sniff some clues out later about the boy. The girl, Zein, seemed to be incredibly weak at the moment, and it was cool of him to drag her inside.

Roxanne, however, was eyeing Marcus with curiosity. He didn't say anything throughout the exchange. He seemed like an okay guy. He was definitely older, and looked almost like an adult. Maybe he was close enough to being an adult. But there were still too many questions about this tower. She needed to explore and find answers, and ask more questions and find more answers. The people could come and go as they pleased. The tower was what she now focused on.

 

"I'll stay." Riley patted her knife on her belt "If anyone does anything funny to us- Me and Sydney will show em'!" The handle glinted in the light of the room, as if in response- or at least that's how Riley saw it. So if they were to stay they had to talk to the guy in the armory... Riley had never been good with directions and couldn't decide where the dumb room would be. She could try to help, though! The guy in all the clothes who flashed the paper with the weird black lines on it seemed ok. The twins seemed fine. Speary looked like he was waiting for them... So she skated up to Zein- Sweaty? No that was just rude...- and held out a hand.
"Need help?" She grinned "I don't know where exactly we're going but if you're tired- Rely on ol' Riley to get you around! I can carry you and then-" she glanced to her roller skates "-just zip off! It'll be like a roller coaster! But probably more dangerous."

 

Zein watched the exchange between Anya and Thadius without much of an expression. So there was an armory? What other facilities do they have here? she wondered. She looked around the room, taking note of the different colored doors. Normally doors weren't markwd by color, and for some reason it piqued Zein's interest. She hardly noticed Riley talking.

"Huh? I'm fine," she remarked, not even looking at the girl. "I'm not in the sunlight anymore, so I don't need a spaz to watch my ass." Zein shrugged and picked up her gear, heading immediately for the stairs. "I'm going to try and find a shower and a meal. I'll see you if you stick around," she said, her tone rather cold and uncaring. She only spared a glance back at Malik. There was something about the oddly-clothed boy she found endearing. She hoped that he would stick around so they could trade insults again.

It didn't take long for Zein to make the trek to the second floor. The main room looked similar to the floor below, with stairs on the south, elevators on the East and West sides. The main difference was that there was no red or blue door, only ten rooms to the Northern side. She shrugged and picked the room farthest to the left. She was somewhat surprised to see how well-furnished the room was upon pushing her way through the door. She wasted no time dropping everything on the bed and heading for the shower.

"Hot water, oh how I've missed you," she said to herself, letting the water run down her body. She stood facing the showerhead for close to five minutes before she actually began to wash herself. She took around ten minutes to bathe before she reluctantly switched off the water and grabbed a towel. She dried off and put her underwear back on, then plopped down on her bed, sprawled out with a relaxed grin on her face, enjoying the cool air on her skin. She closed her eyes and decided taking a little nap was in order.

 

After watching the series of events unfold before his eyes, and being invited to stay by one of the denizens of the tower, Malik decided it was time to take full advantage of his new home. For him, full advantage meant using the training area to shoot at something to ensure his shooting skills wouldn't degrade. Maybe he would even be able to find someone to spar against or challenge to an archery contest. Zein would be an interesting person to spar against but by the time he turned to motion her to follow him into the training area she had already disappeared. He would challenge her later then. Marcus had found the training room so Malik passed him on the way into the room.

There was already a group of people inside training. Mostly other teens, but there were a few really young people. A few paused briefly to stare at the newcomer, and he stared back. He stared mostly for the fact that there were so many other children; it was almost as weird as the amount of adults that lived in the tower and presumably owned it. There were already feelings of mistrust forming in the boy's mind about the motives of the adults but he could address those feelings later. There were targets set up, and a few were using them to shoot or throw things at the targets downrange. Malik strode up to the line and set his pack on the ground and put his jacket over the pack. He had to readjust his quiver and bracer after taking his jacket off and once that was done, chose to remove the horns and cloth from his face. The fabric was comfortable enough but there was no longer an reason to wear it outside of the wind and combat. The removal of the fabric revealed the scar on his neck and shaggy hair that matched the color of his eyes. He wasn't horrible to look upon, but he certainly wasn't  super model.

There were 19 arrows in his quiver, and the one arrow he had taken out when he had arrived. Malik took a deep breath and began to shoot. All the arrows had been sent downrange in 60 seconds and every arrow hit its mark. A smile spread across the boy's face as he examined his work from afar. It was good work, but he needed to shoot at more distant targets at some point. 

 

Riley laughed nervously as Zein passed her, twiddling her fingers. She decided to give up on the chit-chat for now- it seemed no one here was particularly fond of her, and she got the feeling she was seen as a bother. Spaz, she thought to herself, thinking of Zein's words.
"Haha... I guess I'll be Spazzy, guys." Riley smiled and skated to Marcus by the red door, somewhat slower than she had moved earlier. The armory was definitely ahead and that Vanthus guy they needed to talk to was supposed to be inside. She turned to Marcus, who hadn't spoken much- but thought better of speaking and simply hummed to herself, nodding. She wouldn't speak. Nope. Not at all. She could go at least the rest of the day without bothering anyone. Yep...
"So you're planning on staying?" She blurted out the words before she could stop herself "I- I am too! We can be staying-at-the-tower-buddies!" She sighed- Staying-at-the-tower-buddies!?
Riley realized that spending time with only Sydney by her said had perhaps turned her into a mess. Not that she was any better in past years. She shut herself up and stepped foot inside, not travelling awfully far from the door. She could see little papers on bags and they had more of the black lines she had seen on Malik's paper... She stared at them, confused- what were they? What did they mean? She thought of asking Marcus or Dicky or Roxanne- but she remembered that in past years no one seemed to answer her, they would only laugh.
Perhaps it was best not to vocalize her curiosity...?

 

Roxanne and Richard started to follow Marcus to the red door, and found something like a training room. 

A training room? Whatever for? Probably for the same purpose as the armory, but what are they training for...? Roxanne thought as she peered inside in confusion and almost horror. There were children younger than her and her twin in there. They were tearing the targets apart viciously, too aggressive for children that age. That was scary. Roxanne half wondered if they would end up doing that themselves. She'd rather not be pitted up against her brother in a fight like this.

Marcus opened the blue door for them, and encouraged her inside. She stepped in, and Richard followed. She made eye contact with her brother and made a look that said 'We'll talk later,' and looked around at the supplies around here. They had nice weapons. But the question was still in Roxanne's mind. Why...?

 

She turned to see a large muscular guy- Vanthus, she realized. She stared for a while, the man reminding her of a large, fluffy, and cute bear. Eyes sparkling, Riley picked up the bag of supplies and walked to the man "Hi. I'm gonna call you fluffy bear. Or fluffy." She poked his muscled arms, like poking a bear with a stick. It was odd how such a large, menacing man seemed like an adorable puppy to Riley- but her previous years of life were certainly not the norm, she thought differently than the rest. Continuing to poke the man in silence, Riley made her way behind him, calmly and swiftly climbing him and sitting on his shoulders. She rested her hands on his head, petting him and looking down at the rest of the group. "Why so many weapons? And where'd you get all this food? I'm Riley by the way. Hey fluffy, what're those things on those papers?" She pointed at the labels on the supply bags, still befuddled by the strange black lines.

 

Riley squeaked, Vanthus pulling her off and setting her back on the floor. The ball coiled around her wrist like a bracelet and she looked at it closely- Great, more weird lines! "Vanthus- What's reading?" She somersaulted around the room, looking at the various labels "Is it some magic that lets you do stuff with those lines?" She returned to the group, pulling out her butterfly knife and opening a tiny bag, it was filled with... rice? Maybe... She wasn't entirely sure- it had been too long since she had eaten rice. "So that's what it was!" She twirled the knife in her hand, grinning at it "We figured it out Sydney!" She turned to Marcus and the twins, grinning.
"Food, guys!" She lifted the bag "At least we know ol' Fluffy ain't a liar!" She patted the man's shoulder, smiling sweetly and then looking back to the group.
"Ah wait... was I supposed to open that...?" She laughed nervously.

 

Richard and Roxanne both instincively went to catch the balls, but both missed and were shocked when they were snapped on like bracelets. "Whoa, cool!" Roxanne said, examining the bracelet. "This technology isn't bad. How'd you get it to keep working like this despite... Everything?"

"Can we take it off if we want to leave? We're only staying the night." Richard asked. "And why do we have all these weapons if you don't want the other kids to hurt us? Logically, you wouldn't give us weapons lf your thought this place was safe. What is this place for, really?" He went over to the rack and found a sword. He picked it up and investigated it out of curiosity, but didn't wave it around like Marcus did. He could learn to use this to protect her. Now what would she use to protect herself?

Roxanne examined the shelves. Daggers, swords, spears, tridents, bows and arrows, axes... Axes. Roxanne. Axe. That pun worked. Sort of. That could be fun to use. She picked one up and looked at it, trying to figure out how she would... She didn't know, hit people with. Although why she would want to was beyond her. But maybe playing along would help her get her answers.

 

"How are they special though?" Richard asked.

That reminded Roxanne. She should ask what the others' Flows were. Later, though. "Dick, maybe we should stay. You heard him, this is the safest place for miles." Roxanne piped in. "They have food here, weapons. We can survive here. We were barely surviving out there. Remember? We were struggling to even find food."

"Something's going to go wrong though. I smell something about this place, and it feels... Wrong." Richard said.

"Please, Richard." Roxanne only used that name when she really wanted something.


And Richard knew it worked. He sighed. "Alright. We'll stay. But if things go wrong we get the hell out of here."

"Obviously." Roxanne hugged her brother tightly, and returned to her axe. "Where do we learn to use this stuff?" she asked, returning her attention to Vanthus.

 

"Training room!" Riley popped up in front of Roxanne, clinging to the rice bag "That's where, of course!" She had Sydney, sheathed, in one of her hands and was playing with the handle. "Want some rice?" Riley glanced from Roxanne to Marcus, then turned to Richard "Hey Dick- listen to your sister and stay! They've got food! An' I'll be here! So will Speary, and Fluffy, and Umbrelly, and Gruffy, and Tsundere-y!"
She glanced at the axe in Roxanne's hand "Axe... hmm... That's pretty good against armor!" she glanced at the sword in Richard's hand "Better than a sword!" She pouted and looked to Sydney "Better than a knife... Hey Sydney why couldn't you be an axe?" She laughed and then pet the handle gently "Kidding, kidding..."
"But axes are heavy... And you have to put a lot of weight into swings. If you miss a downward strike, for example, someone with a faster and lighter weapon- like a sword/Sydney- could... yeah..." Riley tried to get a happier conversation started.
"You could name it Francisca! There were old axes named that! They were associated with the Franks! I think it's a great name... Oh! We could call you Axe-anne!" She burst into a fit of laughter as she realized something "Wait- wait! Dick wants to use a sword! Dicks and swords- hah!" She hid her face against the bag, giggling at the immature comparison.