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Tweak says, "I love when you order me pizza"

ιѕαвєℓα (rivaini) wrote in valloic,
@ 2021-05-05 16:03:00

Entry tags:

!: action/thread/log, ~plot: ancient vallo, ₴ inactive: isabela, ₴ inactive: molly hayes

WHO: Molly & Isabela
WHAT: Finding each other and Bela does the mama bear thing a little, nbd
WHERE: The forest, on a trek toward a waypoint
WHEN: The second day of the Ancient Vallo plot, I think!
WARNINGS: Nooooope
STATUS: Complete

If there was one thing Isabela was certain of, it was that she planned to vacate the forest before it got too dark - already the tall trees looked like looming ghosts, naked earth and giant roots and leaves, the sounds of the woods almost eerie. Everything was gray and shadowed and while she had camped out in much worse places, she and Diego had already found a place in the more bustling area of Civitas anyway - it was a small room attached to a small house, sparsely furnished because they were in the age where home dwellers didn’t want to offend the gods they worshipped by having material possessions that were more luxurious than what was found in a temple.

Well, fine. Life on a pirate ship wasn’t much cleaner - standing outside in the rain and risking pneumonia was essentially all there was to bathing. At the very least, they could likely find soap in this time period. Perhaps not shampoo, but beggars couldn’t be choosers right now.

Her priority was to get to Molly. Bela had arrived in the forest, stolen a few daggers from errant smithys that were scattered about in the villages, and then (after a rather intense introductory battle) discovered Diego along her path. Luckily. He was fine (not injured), but they thought they ought to fare better in Civitas despite the lack of juicers and protein shakes available, so - next step was to find Molly. That hadn’t taken too much time thanks to the journals, and now Bela was on her way to get to her while Diego ran some other errands. Hopefully finding food, and she’d eat just about anything at this point.

And Molly needed to refuel too, most likely. She’d been punching hard, Bela would guess - poor thing.

Steps were silent as she made her way along the worn paths, journal at her hip - she brought it out to check and see if she was nearing the correct village they were meant to meet at, however, and scrawled a note to Molly to let her know she was close.

Molly showing up in the same place as Steve had made her a little annoyed. Sure, he was okay and hadn’t tried to do anything since being here, but that didn’t mean she wanted to feel like she had to rely on him for survival. And she didn’t really trust a lot of adults. She guessed she didn’t mind Darcy since she asked about the Squishmallows, but that didn’t mean that she knew her or trusted anyone fully. With both Isabela and Diego there, Molly wanted to get away from the group she was with to someone she knew.

She’d been safe, though. Nothing had happened. She’d punched big and done her best. At the very least, she’d told the others that she was leaving to find Isabela and be with her and Diego instead of with them. She made her way to find the meeting place for Isabela, not sure if she should shout about anything or be quiet. It was possible she’d have to punch big again if she shouted. Still, she wanted to find Bela.

“Bela?” It wasn’t shouting, but it was slightly louder than her inside voice. “Bela, are you here?”

Stealth wasn’t so much Molly’s thing, but that was to be expected - she was a small bean who punched big and won big prizes. Isabela chuckled to herself, slipping the journal back into its place at her belt (where her stolen daggers were also sheathed - ah, gifting herself with new shinies, now that was something she was familiar with) and quickened her pace.

“Over here, love,” she called, since if a nasty beast was going to pop out and attack them they likely would have drawn attention to themselves by now - the forest seemed to be crawling with creatures, but what else was new. They’d handle it, if something did happen - but she’d keep her wits about her and remain determined to return to the relative sanctuary of the city.

She approached and saw Molly in the distance - and, well, Bela couldn’t help it. This had been a hairy situation and emotions were running high - so no one could blame her if the first thing she did was immediately hug the girl, squeezing her in a protective hold. “Are you alright??”

Molly wasn’t the most stealthy. She didn’t usually have to be. Only sometimes when she was trying to sneak snacks and she usually got caught anyway. Maybe she’d have to teach Rufus to steal things for her. Another pang of sadness and anxiety hit her each time she thought of Rufus alone in their time. She wished she could reach out to him with her mind and let him know, but someone was there. Some of Diego’s siblings.

Hearing Isabela’s voice made the part of her that was used to acting bigger and tougher than she was break and she started to run, letting Isabela pull her close when she finally got close enough. Her arms wrapped around Isabela in turn and she pressed her face into her shoulder.

“I’m fine. Captain America wasn’t too bad and there were some other people.” But they weren’t Isabela and Diego.

Out of all the ones Molly could have landed in ancient Vallo with, naturally she had to be doing a bit of time travel with one of the adults who was incredibly questionable back in her own world - but this was a different version, at least, so Isabela was fairly certain she didn’t have to stab him. Or anyone else. Perhaps.

She was so glad Molly was okay though - and she said as much in that hug, so much relief poured into it; never in a thousand years did Bela think she’d have taken up with someone as wild about throwing knives as she was (and sometimes as emotionally constipated - but they’d both come so far, her and Diego), nor did she think she’d have eventually asked that someone if they could take in such a young teenager to look after.

Maker’s nutsack, Bela was hardly mother material. She never wanted to have any of her own but for Molly she was the fiercest mama bear to ever be a bear and anyone who didn’t like it could run straight into her blade.

“Well, me and Diego have got you now and we’ll stick together,” she promised, hand resting on the back of Molly’s head and holding her a second longer before letting go so they could get on their way. “We’ve got a room in Civitas, it’s almost cozy!” Sort of, anyway. “What do you say we find one of the few waypoints and use that?”

They weren’t all over the place like they were back home, but that was alright. Her and Molly could make it to the one she’d come from without issue (in theory).

Molly appreciated Isabela and Diego more than she probably ever said. She wanted to do everything she could to help them out. They weren’t her friends from home, but she felt safe with them, which was more than she could say for most of the adults in her life. So she took the moments where she didn’t need to be tough and let herself be a kid, which was hard sometimes.

When Bela pulled back a little, Molly glanced up at her before reaching for her hand. Did she need to do this? No. But she was supposed to be happily bouncing around and expecting her birthday and she was here instead, so she felt it was acceptable to want to lean a little on someone. She nodded at Isabela’s words.

“Okay. Does Diego have enough knives? I don’t think he’d like it if he didn’t have enough.” She also hoped he wasn’t scared or worried about his siblings. It had to be hard to be without them when you had so many. And she knew he loved them even if he got weird about it. But she was ready to get back to their shared living space and maybe see if Diego would accept hugs if she promised to tell no one about it.

Bela gladly accepted the hand hold - she didn’t bring attention to it, or say anything, but she understood why Molly needed it right now; it wasn’t babyish, it was perfectly natural to feel scared and unsure - especially after being tossed so far back from what you were used to. Balls, she just hoped this was fixed soon - she had this nagging sensation that they’d be here awhile and would have more than enough time to acclimate.

Not a brief affair, really. Well. That’d be alright. They’d make it work.

With a secure hold on Molly, she started off in the direction she’d come from - back toward the waypoint. It was already feeling a bit eerie out here; the woods at night always carried a sinister sort of air to it - she’d much rather be on her ship, lying on the deck and gazing up at the stars in their black velvety sky. Besides, the aroma of salt-kissed air and brine was so much more comforting to her than - this.

“I stole plenty, love, cleaned a blacksmith right out,” she stated cheerfully, which - perhaps she shouldn’t be proud of that fact, except she sort of was. “I’m sharing with him and besides, he had a couple knives on him when he got here anyway.” Isabela was almost jealous because she’d appeared in this strange new world empty-handed.

Next time she just had to remember to keep a dagger on her at all times, even in the privy. Obviously Vallo was telling her not to get sloppy. “A couple of his siblings are here too, I think. Some aren’t though.” She knew he had to be going mad with worry, as he did - not only his siblings, but he was looking for the Frye twins as well which was an adventure.

Molly didn’t like the woods at night on a regular day in Vallo. The woods at night in this Vallo were even worse. She’d had to punch a squirrel and felt really bad about it. Even worse than that time she’d punched Punisher and didn’t realize he was just a regular person without superpowers. But he deserved it.

She smiled a little when Bela said she’d stolen an entire blacksmith’s shop full of knives. Then they’d both be okay. Molly was starting to think she needed a knife now, but she thought the butterfly kinds were cute. And you could have so many colors. She wasn’t sure if there were multicolored knives regularly.

“Is Miss Vanya here? Or one of the other ones? There was umm...the one that cares about Mr. Mime and the moon one and the one that’s like my age on the outside and my grandma’s age on the inside?” She considered it for a moment, “He’s not the sort to experiment on cats and make them mutants, is he?” Not that any of this was actually important. She was just talking.

Surprisingly, Isabela could put a name to all those descriptions - while she didn’t talk to all of Diego’s siblings very often (she was closest with Vanya, she thought), she at least knew about them thanks to observations and his descriptions. “I think the only one who’s here is Klaus,” she said, though that was just a guess - she’d observed chatter through the journals, noting that Allison was stuck in the more modern time without her daughter which ought to sting. Vanya had been left behind too. No clue about Five or the moon one, however - Five seemed terrified of Bela for some reason, maybe it was all the talk of dicks. Specifically, Diego’s.

Well, no apologies there. She loved a good sausage and his sausage was top notch so she’d done well for herself.

“None of them will experiment on cats though.” Or at least, Bela was fairly certain of that. Just in case, she added, “We’ll send a note to Vanya and ask her to look in on Rufus.” Hopefully Diego wouldn’t mind that his sister would essentially just let herself in without doing the secret knocks but no one was bloody well there to answer the door anyway.

It felt like it was a lot longer to the waypoint than it had been on the way here - Isabela felt unsettled about it. And it took a lot to unsettle her, it really did. All these keen animal eyes peering out, watching them from the safety of the trees and leaves - she tightened her grip on Molly’s hand and quickened her pace.

“Mr. Mime Enthusiast,” Molly said as a way of confirming who he was. In case Isabela didn’t know who was who. Moon Guy and the other two seemed explainable. She didn’t know much about him outside of the fact that he apparently liked Mr. Mime, who was honestly nightmare fuel. Him and Jynx. She never got why people liked them. Mime Jr was kinda cute, though if you ignored that he eventually turned into Mr. Mime. Then again, some people argued that Mimikyu was creepy, too, but she just thought it was cute.

“That’s good cause I don’t want to have to fight any of them.” Rufus had a bad enough time losing his entire cat family, but he seemed content with her and Old Lace. Though, sometimes he’d send mental pictures of Old Lace and sad expressions now that he knew he could. She agreed with him. Everything was black and white, but she knew. “Okay.”

The tightening of Bela’s grip on her hand and the way she started moving faster made Molly start to feel more anxious about what was going on. If Isabela was moving faster and seemed more concerned, probably something bad was going to happen. “Is something wrong,” she whispered, now being quiet because she didn’t want anything to attack them suddenly out of nowhere.

“No, no - nothing like that,” Isabela insisted. “It’s just - being in the woods at night like this is utterly creepy, and maybe some of those do-gooding people like to run patrols and throw themselves into danger but it’s not really my thing anymore.”

Not since Kirkwall, admittedly. When Hawke accused her of having a heart made of polished gold, they just had to ‘dig it up and sell it.’ And Bela supposed he hadn’t been wrong - the people she did care about, she cared for them fiercely. Of course she’d fight for them - and she had. For her family then and her family now. Perhaps not necessarily for a bunch of strangers, but. That was a given. Anyway, those who were from Vallo seemed to have banded together regardless - everyone looked out for each other. It was almost sweet.

In these times, the waypoints were a very early design and while Bela wished they were conveniently placed as near to each other as they were in modern Vallo, that simply wasn’t the case. “Just stay close to me - we’re almost there.”

Molly frowned, but she kept moving anyway. It didn’t really settle any of her anxieties. If Isabela was concerned, then she was doubly concerned. “I can punch whatever it is,” she said, but it lacked her usual bravado and confidence. She would fight anything that might come at them, but she didn’t really want to have to either.

“Okay,” she said, voice still quiet. She looked around them as they moved, trying to see where everything was. She missed all the waypoints and she kind of hated the past. It wasn’t even fun. There were NO pokemon and NO phones and there wasn’t even Rufus. “The past is lame,” she said as they walked. “We better be back in time for my birthday!”

The idea that they wouldn’t be back in time (or...forward in time? Was there a clever quip to be found there?) for Molly’s birthday was nearly enough to give Isabela spontaneous hives. Or spontaneous eye twitching, either one. The girl’s birthday was at the end of May - and let’s just say that Bela had gotten used to the luxuries of the year 2021, most notably cushy beds, sleeping in them, and waking up hearing Diego’s juicer going at some ungodly hour before he went out for a run.

“We’ll be back by then,” she promised, though she couldn’t make it so. She’d do her best, however - even if she was going to be not helpful when it came to actually formulating a plan. Her talents involved sharp blades and effectively putting them into squishy body parts, not anything magic.

Why was it always magic around here anyway?

“Just stick with me and Diego, love, and we’ll be alright.” By the grace of the Maker’s cock, they reached the bloody waypoint - a lone beacon, one glowing crystal that illuminated a quick way to their temporary lodgings. “Now let’s go. I’ll take you to where we’ve set up and we’ll get you settled and remind someone to check on Rufus.”

It’d still be a little bit of a hike in Civitas once they hit the waypoint, but it was better than traveling on foot the whole way. At least one thing was going right.

Molly really hoped so. “Good, cause that would be the lamest birthday EVER.” She clapped her free hand over her mouth when she realized she’d said the last word louder than she meant to, but nothing sprung on them, so she was glad she hadn’t just gotten them eaten.

Once they got to the waypoint, Molly was glad to see something that looked even remotely familiar to her. She was glad, at least, to be out of the forest once they showed up, but the city was a lot different from the future. She looked around it in confusion. “Is this what cities look like where you came from? All like...different?” Cause she wasn’t really sure.

“Something like this, aye,” Bela confirmed. “Thedas was about at the same level of danger, anyway. Dirty. Dead bodies strewn about. Some frozen to death, you know, things like that.” The same level of anxiety-inducing danger was why she was so glad to have gotten to the waypoint without getting eaten by something.

Small favors. But she still kept ahold of Molly, taking the trip further into the city - they were together now, and that was what mattered. Anything else? They’d figure out along the way.