[hr][center] [img]http://txt-dynamic.cdn.1001fonts.net/txt/b3RmLjcyLjkyM2Y2MC5VR1Z1Ym5rZ1RHRjNjMjl1LjA,/youth-and-beauty.regular.png[/img][/center] [sub][@Ruler Inc][@Ciaran][/sub] [code]Grand Ridge Academy[/code] [hr] Penny nodded in approval as Britney joined her group. Her old petty feelings towards the other girl, spawned originally from approval-seeking jealousy before morphing into outright contempt, weren’t completely squashed, but Penny was willing to play along—and she was glad Britney was too. She showed a more warm reaction when Lynette and Paige made their way to her group, too. It was nice to have some people that were more than tolerable. "I wanna say for the record that before I got this thing-" she said, gesturing with her head towards her prosthesis "-I was pretty fuckin' good at dodgeball, so speak for yourself." “I’d still pick you over most of these bitches, anyway,” said Penny with a smile as Britney gave the group the spiel on telepathic communication, something her and Billy had already dug into. In fact, she would’ve sent him with the other group if she hadn’t promised Rita she’d watch him. Penny tapped her sigil. “Hell, I might actually be good at the game now thanks to this stupid thing. Maybe once all of this is done we could set up a little friendly. More than a few of us deserve a red ball being blasted in their face.” The comment wasn’t necessarily directed at Sharon, but it did land right as she forced her way into their group. Penny bit her lip. The girl was volatile, but considering how poorly bugs would fair in the snowstorm it would’ve been downright unfair to send her over to Justin. After Britney already welcomed Sharon into the gang, Penny nodded in affirmation. She did a quick once over of the two groups; it wasn’t too hateful of a split, which meant it was time to go. She whirled her finger in the air and started towards the door. “Remember Justin, we’re back here in two hours,” she called over her shoulder. “Don’t do anything too stupid without me.” [hr][center] [img]http://txt-dynamic.cdn.1001fonts.net/txt/b3RmLjcyLmJmYzRjNS5VbWwwWVNCV2IzSnZibUUsLjA,/divat.regular.png[/img][/center] [sub][@Ruler Inc][@Fernstone][/sub] [code]Library[/code] [hr] Rita thought she had hated Texas. It was all trucks and cowboy boots and toxic masculinity. In her book, it was the absolute worst. Turns out she was wrong. It was the second worst—Montana was the absolute, ultimate, undeniable worst. It had all the bad parts of Texas, plus a world-ending matter eater, a cult from another dimension, and this fucking cold. Rita buried herself in her coat and clung to Tuyen like the girl’s shadow. Fortunately, she avoided witnessing most of the dead because she was acquantainting the front of her face with the back of Tuyen’s coat to avoid the wind. The group stopped in front of the library, stuck as they waited for Justin’s fire to melt the barrier. Rita couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t been using the fire to keep them warm this whole time as she tried to ignore the body in front of the door. Death was becoming quite the usual sight, but Rita felt like she’d never be comfortable with seeing it. A cackle tickled her ear. Rita whipped around and got a full blast of ice cold wind in her face and not much else. "Perhaps something was supposed to be kept in there...." “Just books. Hopefully,” said Rita, rubbing her hands to stay warm. [i]Maybe we can burn the magazine section for heat. I don’t think we’d need Ten Tips To Get A Guy during the end of the world.[/i] [hr][center] [img]http://txt-dynamic.cdn.1001fonts.net/txt/b3RmLjcyLjkyM2Y2MC5VR1Z1Ym5rZ1RHRjNjMjl1LjA,/youth-and-beauty.regular.png[/img] [img]http://txt-dynamic.cdn.1001fonts.net/txt/b3RmLjcyLmY4YzE1OS5RbWxzYkhrZ1RHRjNjMjl1LjA,/playtime.regular.png[/img][/center] [sub][@Ruler Inc][@Ciaran][/sub] [code]Town Hall[/code] [hr] Boy, this cold really sucked. Billy usually enjoyed the cold, but that was when he was in his jams, under a blanket, and drinking some cocoa. Trenching through some heavy snow and wind with a borrowed jacket was an absolute nightmare. Why couldn’t they have let him stay back at the school? He could’ve done some recon of the other rooms, scavenge up some food, maybe find a little weed to take the edge from nearly over it right on back down to moderate. It wasn’t like he would be much of a hand anyway. He couldn’t fight. He couldn’t use those magical powers. And he didn’t even really know what they were going after. There was only one good thing about being out here right now, and that was that nobody could hear Billy bitching about why they got the far building. Well, almost nobody. Penny gritted a cigarette that would no longer burn—after an ordeal of getting it nestled through a scarf and hooked up with a lighter, the burning cherry decided to elope with the wind—between her teeth as she tried to find a way to make Billy’s telepathic complaints go to voicemail. She made a mental note to hit Britney later for reminding him of their connection. Maybe she’d just push her into the snow now and get it over with, but it wouldn’t have the same effect since they already were all wet, cold, and miserable. Why didn’t any of them have those nifty portals? Penny led the group through the snow, but she lagged every once in a while to walk alongside Paige and make sure that the other girl was keeping up. She didn’t want to seem doting, hell, she bet Paige would hate it if she did, but she was afraid of what might happen if anyone fell behind. So she’d drop back for a moment, try and yell something over the wind, and bounce back up to the front. It was during one of these check-ups that Penny caught sight of Lynette stumbling. She rushed forward to help her up, but any words of encouragement or appreciation were cut out by the wind and Billy’s goddamn mental bitching. She had just enough of it and was about to pelt him in the face with an abstraction-enhanced snowball when the stream of consciousness fell silent. It was for a good reason. Penny and Billy scanned the carnage of what remained outside of the town hall, the scene like one of those artistic renderings of how things would be after the rapture. For Billy, it was all the more reason to go “fuck this” and get the hell out of town as soon as the snow lifted. However, to Penny it was all the more reason to stay. Her face was set in stone as she walked through the death. She recognized faces on both sides. She had figured a lot had happened while they were out, but she didn’t think it would be this catastrophic. Even if they beat the Glutton, people didn’t bounce back from things like this. [i]Shit,[/i] she thought, pulling down her scarf as the wind died and they could finally hear each other. Britney pointed out how the Corrupted might hold the town hall already, and judging by the scene outside she was probably right—those bodies didn’t crucify themselves. Sharon suggested burning the place down and, while tempting, it wasn’t what they were here to do. Penny lit a new cigarette, praying that the wind wouldn’t kick back in, as Britney and the others turned to her to listen for an idea. Penny cocked her head in thought for a moment. If she screwed this up, everybody could get killed. No pressure, right? “We know what we came for. Now we just gotta get it and get out. I think Britney’s right about there being a bunch of assholes holed up in there, so we’re gonna stick together so they can’t pick us off. I don’t actually know where the archives are,” Penny glanced over at Britney, “but my guess is they’d probably be ground floor or the basement. I’ll take point. Paige, I’d like you up front with me. Lynette, you should hang in the back with Britney. If things get messy, she can buy you enough time to do some of that graffiti of yours.” She pointed at Billy and Sharon. “You two stick in the middle. You’re on shouting duty. You see anything, [i]anything[/i], besides us move in there and you let us know.” “Okay,” said Penny with a sigh as she exhaled a cloud of smoke. She put her hand on the door, ready to open it and push forward as soon as the group was situated. “Something has to fucking go right for us at least once, yeah? Let’s go.”