Camille and Aya - Awakening
((Collab between some Frog and some Ramen))
Cannons were shot, pirates shouted ARG and a Squid cursed them all with its obnoxious pink tentacles. It was literal chaos, and the two young girls stranded on the shattered ship were as disoriented as the bony crew that had confronted them. As Camille prepared their desperate escape with obligatory style, her body went limp as she lost her balance. She fell in face first on the wooden floor of the ship's bridge, her vision being consequently put into darkness. A darkness that wouldn't last for she would open her eyes almost immediately after the shock, pulling the upper part of her body upwards as a reflex, nasty whiplash ensuing.
It felt as if she had one of those dreams where it would start off with her falling into the abyss and waking up right after, but she could actually remember most of it. Shocked by where she had ended up, she struggled like any normal person would, but she didn't have to for very long as her aging abilities reacted chaotically to her stress. All the machinery and liquid around her quickly disintegrated themselves after being aged far being their life expectancy. She arose, wearing a strange set of clothes, fitting her quite well without actually being spandex. Though free, her body felt tired and she was more than just confused, everything felt so blurry both in terms of her vision but also her memories. The name "Ann" running rampant in her mind despite Camille's inability to remember that person. She could barely stand
Near the gap of emptiness she had crated upon destroying her personal tube, she noticed a familiar face attempting to break out just as Camille did. She seemed just as confused, but with a lot more visible fear on her face than Camille. The little girl's small body slowly tried to stand itself up in order to approach the panicked Aya. Stumbling a couple of times, she found the strength to finally solicit her attention.
"... Who are you?"
She inquired, with a weak and raspy voice. Her throat and lungs weren't too swell either, making it hard for her to formulate vocal responses.
Aya jumped when the question cut through her panic. Still shaking, she looked up to see a small girl, dripping wet and wearing some odd black and green uniform.
"Camille," she gasped out, her voice a small, frail thing. What was she doing here? What was Aya doing here, for that matter? Finally coming back to her sences, her eyes darted around trying to make sense of everything. Nothing looked familiar (except for the French girl standing before her) and she realized she was in the same weird outfit. "I… where are we? What happened?" There'd been a beach and everything had been fine… but before that everything was pain, and screams, and blood. So much blood. She was horrified with herself when she wondered if maybe that's what she needed to calm down right now – to see blood leak from a body. She shut her eyes against Sebastian's memories, desperate for some form of focus.
As the asian looking female responded with a question of her own, Camille couldn't help but ask herself the same question. Until now she was too disoriented to think things through and only latched on to what seemed familiar, but now uneasiness took over. She didn't know if she was trapped by the enemy, if she had been used against her own comrades, everything felt as if she was still in a nightmare. Plus the decor reminded her of late night sci-fi horror. With uneasiness came anger, and Camille wasn't one to take a step back and think.
"I do-... I asked you a question." she replied with hostility, setting her hand on the edge of Aya's tube before applying her barely controlled aging ability on the machinery. A small portion simply vanished. "Who are you?"
Aya flinched away as Camille put her powers on display. When the younger (older?) girl was mad, she was like a child throwing a tantrum, wild until she got what she wanted. At least, that's what Sebastian had thought of her. "Lynn," she practically shouted as her tube continued to melt away. That odd fluid was leaking down the side as it crumbled. Why on earth had Aya just given her middle name? The last time she'd done that, it hadn't exactly helped her. She knew why she'd done it though – she didn't want Camille, or anyone in the Underground Movement to know her. Not after the carnage they'd wrought at the Reformist base. Lynn was what Sebastian had called her though. Would he have mentioned her to anyone aside from Cassandra? Well, it was too late now.
"My name's Lynn," she said, voice slowly growing steadier. Aya was still shaking and in too much pain, but navigating this was something to concentrate on, at least. She wanted to shoot herself when she'd realized she'd said Camille's name already when she shouldn't have even known, but the French girl didn't seem to have noticed. "I'm sorry. Do you have any idea what's going on?"
"Lynn..." Camille's mind became steadier as her new "friend's" voice did, finally recalling the recent events clearly. Sebastian and his sidekick were never around Camille due to tensions between the two groups in the Movement, but during the invasion she clearly remembered Sebby addressing her as Lynn. It became more than just clear, it felt like it was just a few hours ago. "... I remember you. You were...". Camille tried to steady her balance as her weak body remained frail after the prolonged exposure to the tube. She ended up slipping and falling down to her knees, barely catching the remains of the shattered tube she had broken to keep herself from hitting her face, again. It didn't stop her from finishing her sentence, though.
"Mine." she finished, as bluntly as possible. Camille remembered having her along with other individuals, including a dog, in the palm of her hand at the end of the invasion. She kept a cold stare at Aya's eyes, unsure as to what she should do, but as of now she wasn't showing any particular ambition to cooperate with Aya. That would probably be because she had absolutely no idea where she was and could only assume her supposed enemies had tricked her.
As the fluid continued to trickle out of the tube, Aya no longer had anything to help support her. Unable to hold herself up in the empty tank, she pressed her back against the far side and let herself sink down, taking their weight off of her legs. She felt an uncharacteristic flash of anger shoot through her at Camille's words. Aya wasn't hers. As if this brat would ever own her. Aya grit her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut again against Sebastian. Every second was a rush of his gruesome memories, warring with her own, and it was too difficult to tell them apart. She didn't have enough energy to keep her feer and adrenaline up. Opening her eyes, she looked at Camille through the glass. The girl's power had weakened it, making it aged and frail, and maybe thin enough to break, even in Aya's state.
"I need to get out," she murmured. That was the only warning she gave before lifting her foot and slamming it with whatever strength she had left against the glass. Cracks blossomed from the impact, and she scrunched her eyebrows before doing it again. The glass shattered and the entire side of the tube fell away, shards trickling on the floor, mixing with the liquid. Aya rested her head back against the other side and closed her eyes again. Goodness, she was tired.
While Aya have Camille the silent treatment for a short period of time, the angered child had time to cool down a bit, especially as she noticed how bad her condition seemed to be right now. She could be killed by pretty much any low meta at this point. She sighed, barely reacting to the breaking tube she had infected with her powers in the first place. Camille gathered the courage to at least stand up once more and attempt to keep herself steady and avoid another fall.
"Debout..." she ordered the girl shed assumed to be a reformist. She seemed less hostile and a little more anxious than her previous tantrum, but nonetheless she menacing aura she shrouded herself with had not left as of yet.
Aya didn't react when Camille gave her a command. She just kept her eyes closed, feeling sleep so near. She just wanted to sleep. Her mind was overwhelmed with the soul of another, she ached everywhere, and she was so tired.
"<I don't speak French,>" she mumbled in Japanese. It was oddly petty of Aya. She wasn't a petty person. Especially when faced someone who was capable of such destructive things, but maybe this attitude was all Sebastian. She was too tired to fight him off at the moment. A dull pain pulsed through her foot, and she smelled the metallic tinge of blood lacing the air. It seemed she'd cut her foot on the glass when she'd broken free. That would likely be a problem.
Camille's left eye twitched in disbelief, followed by a bludge of veins forming on the center of her forehead. She didn't like being made fun of, it made her feel inferior and could barely cope with the amount of frustration in burdened her with. Her right hand was shaking, she wanted to kill Aya just for that, for such petty reasons. Aya was right to believe Camille was like a child throwing a tantrum, as the little girl could easily perform an action she'd uickly regret later on. But her sudden rise in rage was stomped by the captivating presence of blood she had caught in the corner of her eye. Aya was bleeding, eaning she'd probably be screwed for future navigation.
Now in one hand Camille wanted to strangle Aya, but on the other hand, if she wanted to get out she'd likely need support. That and deep down she'd be scared to be left alone in this creepy place she was more than just lost in.
"Tch. Well done, dumbo!" she kicked away most of the scattered glass around her that seemingly floated over the spreaded liquid on the floor before approaching Aya's damaged foot. "To think you beat Sebastian... He may have sucked but c'mon..." she claimed out of the blue as she was speaking her mind out. Camille wasn't a medic, but she had ways to improvise support at times. She slowly approached her hand toward Aya's foot, not even anticipating the possibility that she'd get burned for acting with such haste. Although not gently, she placed her hand with care on the wounded foot, expecting a magical burst of genius from that point forward.
Aya jumped when she suddenly felt Camille grab her foot, giving an involuntary kick. She didn't actually hit the other girl, but a flash of fear shot through her. She remembered what Camille had done at the base. Heck, even what she'd done to the tube not three minutes ago. But then her heart rate started to slow and she realized that Camille hadn't actually done anything to her foot. It was still in one piece, if a bit cut-up.
"Sorry," she said meekly. Camille had the power to heal things, too. Aya had forgotten that, though maybe that was understandable when it was the girl's other powers that were so memorable. Scrunching her face at the pain, she bent her knee so her foot was closer to her face. She looked at the cuts and gave a small sigh. It wasn't the worst injury she'd ever had, but it certainly wasn't helping anything. She began the process of picking out shard after shard of glass, wincing at the pain. After a moment, Aya looked at her fingers, stained with her own blood. Then she thrust her hand into the shallow puddle of liquid she was still sitting in, waving her hand around so the blood fell away.
"So…" she started, awkward. "I take it you don't know where we are either?" Aya doubted this was the Movement's work. Sebastian didn't know anything about this place, or the machinery. Now that she was back to her senses again, concern grew in her. If this wasn't the Movement, then what was it? And where were the others? She chewed at the inside of her lip as she worried over Jake and Ann, and all the others. The whole time, she continued picking glass out of her foot.
Camille had approached the foot to examine it before working her magic, but she'd be greeted with a kick across the cheek. She froze for a second, her patience nearing its already short limit. Despite the apology, she gave Aya a murderous glare, manifesting a clear killing intent if any new false movement were to be made. But before Camille could spew out another threatening response similar to what she had said the entire time, she remembered why she was helping Lynn in the first place. Her hand free of blood rubbed her damaged cheek before forcing it back on Aya's damaged member.
"Non, we're probably trapped by some pervert or something." she randomly responded as she started to focus on the foot once more. The shards were nearly all gone and thus she could work her abilities. First off, aging. As dangerous as that ability could be, if controlled it could bring miracles. She had aged her foot for a period of approximately 20 hours. The effects of coagulation were accelerated to the point of forming massive crusts where the large cuts were made. All the blood was dry and the foot was slightly red from inflamation. There came her second ability, rejuvenation, which set Aya's body in a "prime" state. Her immune system was boosted and her body wouldn't be as tired.
As a result, Camille's body felt numb as she fell once more on her knees, barely able to stand. "Jeez... You suck like all of them..." she said, more or less satisfied of her work but quickly regretting the toll it would have on her body.
Well now Aya really felt bad for kicking Camille in the face. She sighed as relief surged through her, and stretched her arms up above her head. She shot Camille a bashful look.
"…Sorry," she said again. Pushing herself up, she tested her foot out. It was still sore, and she'd probably wouldn't be making any quick getaways, but it was better than nothing. Aya awkwardly jumped out of the tube, over the shards of glass that still littered the ground. Turning, she looked back down at Camille. The girl was dangerous, no doubt about that… but she had also just healed her at the sake of her own energy. And Aya really didn't want to be alone here. So she leaned down a bit and stuck out her hand, a silent offer to pull the Underground member to her feet.
This was the second time she was healing an enemy, and for petty reasons. If Isabella were to know about this, she'd get yelled at, and Camille hated being scolded, whether it was by her colleagues or even her enemies. At least she wouldn't be alone on this for now. When Aya presented her hand to help the little girl, Camille felt weak. She hated that feeling just as much as being yelled at. Her ego took a critical hit, but in exchange Aya owed her one, so she could live with this for now. She grabbed her newly made friend's hand and pulled herself up, only to sit her little bum back on another, unopened tube.
"Okay.. Lynn. Erm.. Thanks?" it pained her to say it, but she did. She thanked someone who was supposed to be her enemy. "Now, you owe me one answer... What happened to Sebastian?" she asked, dead serious about it. It wasn't that she cared about Sebastian, if anything she would have eventually tried to kill him herself, but she wanted to know what Aya had done to render him like how he was back there.
Aya was tempted to reply that the last thing she remembered was Camille kidnapping her and her friends after helping to commit mass murder, and so she didn't actually owe her anything. But then she asked about Sebastian and Aya felt her heart skip a beat. Her mind spun with possible answers, most of them useless. She'd been at the Reformist base, so there'd be no way Camille would buy that she wasn't a Meta and had no clue what'd happened. But then she had another idea.
"That blonde girl, Ann? Do you remember her?" she asked, starting the lie with surprising ease. She vaguely remembered how Camille had been taken aback by the specter. "Her sister's Ariadne. They share a body, and sometimes one of them is a ghost." Wait a second, what was she doing? Aya was a terrible liar. And yet she continued on, as though it were the simplest thing in the world. "It's one of her powers," she said. "Pulling someone out of their body, I mean. I don't know what happened after that." She didn't want Camille knowing her name, her power, and certainly not that she'd ripped Sebastian's soul to pieces and absorbed part of it.
"Ann..." she mumbled, processing the name that was tormenting her mind before she got busy with Aya. So that name running freely in her mind belonged to that blonde girl back then. What Aya said made sense, Ann did have a strange manifestation that could talk while her physical body acted independently. Her lies made sense, and Camille didn't have the wit or maturity to distinguish blatant lies, however when it came to powers and finding creative ways to kill, she was one of the best. She was about to accept that idea until...
Reaching into her pocket, she hoped to find her cell phone. Their belongings were (I think?) left intact, though without any possibilities of obtaining wifi or anything. She did not care about that for now, she simply wanted the picture she had taken. The one were she had captured Sebastian's body without a scratch left on the floor, right next to him, Lynn just as she awoke. Camille frowned, connecting the dots together as if she was analyzing a battlefield.
"She has a scary power... So why did she use it on you...? Unless Sebastian attacked you... Hmmm... He did a sloppy job, his hit didn't even burn you. Tch... Il est nul." she said, exposing what she thought of the picture before her. "So, is he dead?" she asked almost casually.
Sloppy? He was a mass murderer and a torturer, and she just complained that his work with sloppy?! Aya stared at Camille, face frozen in a perplexed expression. The truth was that she was too mortified to come up with a coherent response. But then she asked if Sebastian was dead and her mind snapped back into focus.
"I… really don't know," she answered. "I don't know much about the twins' powers, but I don't think that soul pulling thing is very precise, which is why I got nabbed too. I was kinda too busy getting kidnapped to check his pulse after." A bit of Sebastian's bite was coming back into her voice and she tried to pull herself back, telling herself to keep it together. It was then she remembered something that was almost like a dream. "Wait," she said almost to herself. "I saw him on the beach." He'd been there with Cassandra, but he'd been… different. But that couldn't be, right? Sebastian was dead. She'd watched as his soul dissolved to stardust. She'd felt him break apart. Aya shuddered at the memory. Jake had said the beach was a Matrix… so had Sebastian been an illusion? She hoped so. Aya didn't know what she'd do if he came back and she saw him again. But still, she continued to Camille, "I guess… if he was at the beach, then he must still be alive somewhere."
Camille's expression demonstrated how puzzled she was toward what she was hearing. A beach? Camille remembered a beach, yes, and a ship and a squid, but strangely enough it was fading little by little like a dream you start to forget as soon as you wake up. It was maybe specific to Camille, but the entire simulation was based off invented memories implanted in her mind, which may have been the cause of her difficulties recalling inconsistent events. This may have been the same with Aya's trip with Sebastian being alive.
"Wait... You were in that beach too? I thought that..." before she could finish, she thought a bit. Was this all like that fun movie, The Matrix? The conspiracy theorist in Camille rose highly, accumulating ideas of betrayal and government manipulation. Heck, even aliens came to mind, and she couldn't be closer from the truth. "Ugh... This is so messed up." she complained, looking in various directions to get the slightest clue as to what they could do. So far, she could only guess what was in the thick liquid in the intact tubes. Should she break them to find out what was hiding in there? The idea became tempting.
Aya found herself agreeing with Camille. This was messed up. She looked around, trying to make sense of anything. With a sigh, she resigned herself that maybe there was just no sense to be made. With a slight limp in her walk, she made her way to a far wall. It looked as though there was a door in it, though it was strange and unlike any door she'd seen before. Should they… go through it? They didn't know what was on the other side though, and that was concerning. And they didn't know if opening this door would trigger some sort of alarm, either. Heck, Aya wouldn't be surprised if they'd already triggered something when they'd broken their capsuls. She looked behind, unsure, to see Camille looking around at the other tubes in the room. There were two of them, and even with Aya's weak vision, she could make out the forms of what looked like people in them.
"If you want to help them," she called to the other girl, "I'm going to… investigate a bit." Without waiting for a reply, she turned back towards the door, placing her hands on it to steady herself. And with a snap, she jumped over to the astral plane.
Camille nodded, it wasn't like she could do uch about anything at this point, considering her condition. She then peered down at the tube she was sitting on, the shadow of the individual trapped within unnerved her ever so slightly. How uncomfortable to should have felt in there if they weren't asleep. Her sight neck pain from brutally waking up became more apparent when she thought about it. As an act of kindness and curiosity, she poked one end of the tube in order to break down multiple components that seemed to keep the machine active. Camille acted on impulse, again, as she didn't consider the possibility that this could kill the hosts.
TL;DR: Camille and Aya meet, stuff happens between them but nothing dangerous. Aya investigates the locked door while Camille sabotaged a tube containing one of the characters with us.
@Weird Tales
@NarcissisticPotato
