Post by Sinopia DeStellanova on Apr 23, 2020 7:57:46 GMT -5
Being back in civilization felt weird. Everything was close together and she no longer had to worry about emptying her boots of sand every thirty minutes, but more than that she didn't have to fight the terrain anymore. The road wasn't going to open up into a sinkhole, buildings were probably not going to collapse on her, and she didn't have to prepare for several different extremes in temperature. The worst she had to deal with was a bit of altitude sickness, but her lungs would adjust to that in time. The people she had less confidence in and could never shake the feeling that most everyone would mug her given half the chance. Probably paranoia, but even knowing that didn't stop her from being very aware of where everyone was. After being in Vacuo for so long it almost felt unsettling how peaceful it was here.
Adjusting had been difficult, and she still wasn't entirely comfortable with being back in a city even without all the baggage that came with it, but she couldn't let herself sit idle. Physically couldn't. It was impossible. If she stayed alone with her thoughts too long, they went bad places. Unproductive places. She couldn't stand going too long without accomplishing something, and she was getting restless. Even though she wasn't sure how to feel about Mistral yet, she could try to look at it objectively. There were things she could do here that wouldn't be possible in Vacuo, so she focused on that.
The first that came to mind was cooking. She had a house with a fridge and a stove, among other things, so she didn't have to worry about what would keep or how it would be cooked. In the desert she was limited to what would fit in the trunk for the next month, and if she really needed to cook something, the best she could hope for was wiping off the hood of the car for the sun to fry it and hoping the meal didn't end up covered in sand. It was about what she could improvise rather than any actual cooking skill. Red was perfectly fine with that (and would be even if the food ended up covered in sand), but Knight liked the finer things in life. Now seemed like a good time to actually learn how to cook so they could stop ordering take out and pizza.
It was evening, just after dusk, when she decided to go out to get groceries. The streetlights were just coming on, and it was early enough that the houses lining the streets still had lights on and she could hear the sounds of people enjoying dinner. The roads were well-kept enough in this part of the Wind District that she decided to walk to the store instead of drive. As much as she liked driving, she was feeling restless and a walk sounded nice.
She decided to start conservative and bought a bunch of cheap meat and canned fruits and vegetables. Red fully expected to fuck up the first dozen tries or so, and didn't want to waste money on good food until she had a degree of expertise and comfort in a proper kitchen. To compensate for her current lack of confidence, she bought a lot of extra food. That way, if her attempts ended up completely inedible, she could throw it out and try again without worrying about running out of food. It meant she had about ten pounds of meat on her, as well as a few bags of cans and bread. She was starting to regret her decision to walk to the store instead of drive, but the mountain air did feel nice. It wasn't as cold as the desert at night and had a certain freshness to it that made her understand why they tended to use it for those shitty car air fresheners.
What really made her regret the decision was that she couldn't shake the feeling she was being followed. Her arms, tired from carrying so much food, tensed, but otherwise she tried to play it off like she hadn't noticed. The feeling only got stronger the more she walked. There was no way she could go home like this. If something happened because she ignored this feeling she would never forgive herself. Rather than stay on the main roads like she initially intended, she started walking down some of the side roads. They were darker, more beat up, and narrower. It'd be easier to lose someone here, and it'd be easier to find a wall to go through if she really needed it. Yet, the more she walked the worse the feeling got.
Eventually, her stalker revealed itself and she realized she was surrounded by more cats than she had ever seen in one place in her life. The smell of all the meat she was carrying must have attracted nearly every stray and outdoor cat in this corner of the Wind District, and she found herself with at least thirty pairs of eyes staring at her from all directions. Red had never found herself so intimidated by a seven pound animal as they closed in in her and started clawing at her legs. She was pretty sure she could just run through them (either literally or figuratively) and outrun them with no problem, but there was something so surreal about the scene that she just stood there dumbfounded for the moment.
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912/912
Adjusting had been difficult, and she still wasn't entirely comfortable with being back in a city even without all the baggage that came with it, but she couldn't let herself sit idle. Physically couldn't. It was impossible. If she stayed alone with her thoughts too long, they went bad places. Unproductive places. She couldn't stand going too long without accomplishing something, and she was getting restless. Even though she wasn't sure how to feel about Mistral yet, she could try to look at it objectively. There were things she could do here that wouldn't be possible in Vacuo, so she focused on that.
The first that came to mind was cooking. She had a house with a fridge and a stove, among other things, so she didn't have to worry about what would keep or how it would be cooked. In the desert she was limited to what would fit in the trunk for the next month, and if she really needed to cook something, the best she could hope for was wiping off the hood of the car for the sun to fry it and hoping the meal didn't end up covered in sand. It was about what she could improvise rather than any actual cooking skill. Red was perfectly fine with that (and would be even if the food ended up covered in sand), but Knight liked the finer things in life. Now seemed like a good time to actually learn how to cook so they could stop ordering take out and pizza.
It was evening, just after dusk, when she decided to go out to get groceries. The streetlights were just coming on, and it was early enough that the houses lining the streets still had lights on and she could hear the sounds of people enjoying dinner. The roads were well-kept enough in this part of the Wind District that she decided to walk to the store instead of drive. As much as she liked driving, she was feeling restless and a walk sounded nice.
She decided to start conservative and bought a bunch of cheap meat and canned fruits and vegetables. Red fully expected to fuck up the first dozen tries or so, and didn't want to waste money on good food until she had a degree of expertise and comfort in a proper kitchen. To compensate for her current lack of confidence, she bought a lot of extra food. That way, if her attempts ended up completely inedible, she could throw it out and try again without worrying about running out of food. It meant she had about ten pounds of meat on her, as well as a few bags of cans and bread. She was starting to regret her decision to walk to the store instead of drive, but the mountain air did feel nice. It wasn't as cold as the desert at night and had a certain freshness to it that made her understand why they tended to use it for those shitty car air fresheners.
What really made her regret the decision was that she couldn't shake the feeling she was being followed. Her arms, tired from carrying so much food, tensed, but otherwise she tried to play it off like she hadn't noticed. The feeling only got stronger the more she walked. There was no way she could go home like this. If something happened because she ignored this feeling she would never forgive herself. Rather than stay on the main roads like she initially intended, she started walking down some of the side roads. They were darker, more beat up, and narrower. It'd be easier to lose someone here, and it'd be easier to find a wall to go through if she really needed it. Yet, the more she walked the worse the feeling got.
Eventually, her stalker revealed itself and she realized she was surrounded by more cats than she had ever seen in one place in her life. The smell of all the meat she was carrying must have attracted nearly every stray and outdoor cat in this corner of the Wind District, and she found herself with at least thirty pairs of eyes staring at her from all directions. Red had never found herself so intimidated by a seven pound animal as they closed in in her and started clawing at her legs. She was pretty sure she could just run through them (either literally or figuratively) and outrun them with no problem, but there was something so surreal about the scene that she just stood there dumbfounded for the moment.
---
912/912