ʙᴇᴇᴘ ʙᴇᴇᴘ, ʀɪᴄʜɪᴇ (trashing) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-01-19 18:29:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ~plot: sgvallo, ₴ inactive: leia organa, ₴ inactive: richie tozier (2) |
WHO: Richie & Princess General Leia
WHAT: An introduction, some fangirling, the promise of fruit pie
WHERE: Snowglobe Vallo, Morningside
WHEN: Today
WARNINGS: Lightsaber envy
STATUS: Complete
You know what this was? Bullshit. That’s what this was. Complete and utter. Like, sure, maybe Richie had seen it coming - but Adam always said (always - he should have it cross-stitched to hang over the shitter in the bathroom) that visions were accurate, not specific. And this was a hell of a way to back up the truth to that statement - because what Richie had seen definitely came to pass, but he didn’t get the specific details until he was actually here. Again. Being psychic was also bullshit and it made him uncomfortable and feel not very helpful at all. It was nice to be able to warn people about the approach of something ominous but when the next question was ‘well, what does it mean?’ he often didn’t have an answer. Whatever. This fog sucked too. It made Vallo City look blurry, like an old painting, and everything smelled either like blood and despair, or damp trees that hadn’t bloomed yet - just a depressing sort of landscape, and the fog was so thick he felt like his pounding heart was the only one amid miles and miles of broken concrete. Eventually he made it to Morningside, however, since that had been the agreed-upon rendezvous point when he talked about things with Blue. It was just difficult to see, and he wished he had windshield wipers on his glasses. Well. He headed into the lobby, at least, because being inside meant that he wasn’t just some jackass wandering around in the fog - he could keep an eye out for anyone else here too. Hopefully someone he knew would show up eventually. They had been a small but mighty contingent here in Vallo since Leia's arrival about a month ago, setting up for protections and defenses with the understanding that things could change in a split second. This morning's changes were bigger than most of their others, and they had been warding off monsters and other creatures for months. Now, an influx of people claiming to be from not only an alternate world but an alternate Vallo was treading on their precarious lives here. But if there was one thing that Leia Organa had learned over her years of political, royal, rebellion, and resistance work, it was how to organize unexpected groups of people. She looked up when someone new walked in, kept her blaster on one hip and her lightsaber on the other, and straightened. "Welcome to Morningside," she said. "From the other Vallo?" Leia continued. Holy shitballs. Was that a lightsaber? Like a real one, and not one from the shelves of Party City? Richie blinked, baby blues wide behind the thick lenses of his glasses, and it took him a second to get ahold of himself enough to come up with a response that wasn’t just derp. “Yeah, that’s me - from the other Vallo,” he confirmed, pushing those glasses up on his nose slightly. At least the fog had cleared, literally. It wasn’t particularly cozy in here but it was something. An apartment building teleported in out of a horror movie, where you could feel the chill from outside even standing plenty of inches away from window panes, as opposed to the cozy Morningside they knew back in Vallo proper. Okay, don’t stare. Maybe he should try to find a way to make himself useful. “I’m Richie. I come in peace. Or I mean - I literally just woke up here, which is kind of creepy when you think about it.” How? He didn’t ask to take the fast track to the apocalypse. Leia gave him a once over and nodded. She had heard something similar from some of the others. Some had woken up here, as though they'd been here the whole time, staying in these apartments with the rest of them. Others appeared in remote locations, as other newcomers did. It was a mix and didn't seem to hold any rhyme or reason. "It's nice to meet you, Richie, I'm Leia. How are you feeling? We have some healers on hand in the infirmary if you need anything. If not, I can help get you settled in here. And just because I'm curious, besides waking up here instead of -" she waved her hand a bit "- where you went to bed, did anything else strange happen that you remember?" Oh my god, it was totally a lightsaber. And that was Princess Leia - or General Leia now, he thought, because she wasn’t just defined by her role as princess and kicked so much ass. But he was at least polite enough (miraculously) to not blurt out that she was one of his favorite Star Wars characters because that was just rude, to tell someone they were fictional. Instead he went with, “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of you!” all giddy and excited-like, and for a split second he forgot he was in Actual Hell. “But I'm good. Uh - as for strangeness?” He rubbed the back of his neck, sliding down to work at a knot of tension in those broad shoulders. “Just that I had a vision about this place yesterday. I’m psychic, sometimes.” May as well just come out and say it. Not like his ‘talents’ were in high demand since there were sixteen thousand other psychics here. An amused half-smile passed across her face at his momentary excitement, and she tilted her head as if to say, are you done now? Her shoulders relaxed as he continued, and she didn't feel like she needed to reach for any weapons in that moment. She hadn't felt like she needed to all morning, and that was a good sign. "Well, I see my reputation precedes me even across Vallos," she said wryly. Then she softened a bit. "A vision about this place. Yes, there were some similar feelings from some of our ranks here as well. Anything you can elaborate on? Did you know you'd be coming here?" “I mean, I guess I knew - I saw Morningside, and the state of the buildings and the fog and stuff, but I couldn’t really tell if something was going to happen to Vallo itself or if it was me being transported,” he tried to explain. Hopefully that made sense. Visions didn’t come with all the answers, unfortunately. That would be way too convenient. “But I also didn’t know when? No calendar with visions either.” That was one of Richie’s beefs with the whole thing - he meant to have more time, to go to the market and do some more scrying with Adam to pick out some additional pieces, but that plan went to shit when they were all yeeted here. Anyway. He glanced around (and definitely kept his hands where Princess General Leia could see them, so she didn’t think he was reaching for a weapon - he didn’t really have any on him, but whatever). “You need some help here?” he asked. “One of my friends that I should be meeting up with at Morningside - she has an in to the food storage lockers at a place called Nino’s Pizza. If you wanna stay and greet people I can bring back provisions or whatever.” Plus maybe it would be a decent gesture of goodwill, to make a peace offering and a way to work together so the Shithole Vallo residents didn’t immediately shun the Vallo Prime residents. "In my experience, visions rarely come with calendars or much other useful information at all. Knowing that you had one and so did others here, that's good." It eased her doubt and suspicions and she felt her tension ease as well. "How can you be sure this Nino's Pizza here has the same provisions as the one in your Vallo?" Leia asked, not accusingly but rather simply, frankly. "We've been here for months and many of the easy-to-find provisions have been long-ago gathered and stockpiled." He wasn’t sure, that was the thing. But right now Richie’s mantra was #yolo, so he was willing to try anything. “I’m like, not at a hundred percent, ma’am - “ Ma’am, that was okay, right? He could call Princess General Leia ‘ma’am?’ Fuckity fuck, he was talking to a Star Wars badass, he needed to breathe into a paper bag. “But she said she had the combos to the lockers - so I guess we can check?” he said. “Unless someone already broke into the lockers, but I dunno how easy that would have been if someone didn’t know they were there or didn’t know the combination.” Maybe not very difficult, if magic and superpowers and shit still worked here - he guessed the doors could have been blasted off, at the risk of annihilating the food inside or charring it to a crisp, thus ruining it. He’d try to think positive though. "It's certainly worth the look," Leia said. She hadn't catalogued every single place where they'd looked for or found food, but she knew it seemed like it was never enough. If there was a chance - "Your friend's on the way here? She's from the other Vallo too? When she gets here, why don't the two of you go on and then come back here with whatever you find. People should know to travel in pairs, groups are even better, when out and about here." Please, Dog, let there be pizza or garlic knots; he’d even take some of that mediocre pie. That was all Richie could think right about now. In addition to his inner fangirl monologue, that is. “She’s on the way,” he nodded. “When I had the vision yesterday, we made a plan to make Morningside the rendezvous point in case anything happened.” So he guessed that was the one good thing that came from his scrying-into-soda session - they were able to cobble together something useful. He wasn’t about to head to Nino’s without Blue either, that was just lunacy. He would fight with anything not nailed down, as a weapon, but she was the one who had an ax. “Yeah, me and her will go and then come back. And share the stash, if people need some replenishing.” Sharing was caring. Leia opened her mouth to comment about the fact it seemed like his vision was clear enough to know that he and his friend were going to end up here together, but she decided against it. Though she wondered why he hadn't been as forthcoming earlier. "Good. We can always use more provisions, as they come in. We ration fairly well, of course, but every bit helps." Cool, so he was officially scavenging during the End Times. How awesome. And here he thought this day would never come (he actually hoped this day would never come, but here they were). “I’ve got this,” Richie promised, giving a little salute. “I’ve played a lot of apocalypse survival video games. I know things.” Like to stockpile seeds and how to purify drinking water and knowing that superglue closed gashes. Oh, and Boston was the best place to be during the apocalypse but that didn’t really do them any good in Vallo. Whatever. “I gotta say, it was really cool meeting you?” he continued, giving one of those eye-crinkling grins. “Whenever we get back to Not-Shithole Vallo, I’ll buy you a pizza cone.” They probably didn’t have those here. He was an interesting man, Leia thought, that was for sure. She hoped he was actually able to bring back some more food. That would go a long way here in Vallo. "What makes you so sure we're going to be able to leave here?" she asked. "Was a return in your vision?" Would it be weird to say that he was going to tear this place apart with his bare hands in order to get out? He had like, people in Vallo. Max. Enola. Cat Lady. His other friends. “I didn’t have a vision of it yet - “ But he’d keep looking, that was for damn sure. Maybe try some scrying after things settled a little, and he could find a bowl of liquid at the very least. “I just know how stubborn and determined everyone is, myself included,” Richie said. “Maybe it doesn’t mean much, but - I trust everyone’s skills? Their skills, and working with the people that are already here. For me, I have a kid back in not-shithole Vallo, I promised to look after her...” So it was good motivation. He wouldn’t mention that he was in love with a dude in Vallo too because getting back for the dick wasn’t always convincing but man, that dick was also motivating, wasn’t it? “I’m gonna try though. I can’t speak for everyone else necessarily, but I’m definitely gonna try.” Leia waited a moment and then said, dryly, "It's not like we haven't been trying to get out of here too." She squared her shoulders and glanced past him to look out the door. Or as much out the door as she could, through the fog and wetness. "But let's hope you're right. We'd like to get the hell out of here ourselves." “With the double the big damn hero complexes, I’m sure we’ll find a way,” Richie replied, and he was pretty certain of that. They’d all been working hard here, and with the combined efforts of the other stubborn jackasses who called Vallo home - well, things would work out. He was sure of it. “I’ll keep the optimism alive.” Okay, and he’d love to stay and keep fangirling over Princess Leia (don’t ask about Jabba the Hutt) but there was shit to do. “But yeah, uh - lemme get to Blue and then raid Nino’s. We’ll be back with pizza and mediocre fruit pies.” Yum. Maybe some chocolate cream pies too, that tasted like chalk - here in the wastelands though, it’d practically be Heaven. A fruit pie sure sounded like something else right now, and she tried not to let the pleasure and hope stay across her face for too long. She looked at him with a slight smile. "I'll be here," Leia said. "Nice to meet you, Richie." She turned as someone else walked in and went to greet them. |