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Without another word, Hagan grabbed onto Zoey's hand and helped her up to her feet, and then the two nodded at each other. Stacey wasn't that far ahead... but he seemed a bit rattled by what happened. And all of them were. All of this was probably going to require lots of therapy to get over but they had to stay strong. Because Zoey was, again, the leader.... or close to one as this little band of strangers and other weirdos was going to get. Eventually, Finn and Trent stopped running and then came back to them.

[quote=Finn][color=LightSteelBlue]"Y-yeah I...I recognize this p-place but...it feels...different."[/color]
[/quote]

As Finn spoke, Zoey unconsciously tried to take a puff of a cigarette... that she dropped when that weirdo scared the piss out of her. The stress was starting to bear down on her and she had to... shit. What the fuck was she supposed to make out of this? Zoey had to stay cool, stay calm, stay collected because it was all she could do in this situation. And what would help is some cigarettes.

"... Because this ain't that place, sweetheart," Zoey said... as she tried to take a puff of a cigarette that wasn't there. Jesus Christ, she needed some cigarettes. "It looks like it, but... it ain't it." 

Zoey harkened back to when "Paradise" took the appearance of Farmer Hill, just for a bit before they ended up on that damn cruise ship. To her, [i]this[/i] was no different than [i]that[/i]. She shrugged as she looked around... looks like Zoey was piloting this ship it seemed. Trent and Finn were too young, Stacey was... Stacey, Hagan was not any different from what Zoey remembered him as, Isla was loony as a toon, and fucking Penny, Odessa, Mao, and Lilith were gone. 

There was a grim thought in her head that the missing members were gone for good and with a place like this, they might as well be. Zoey shrugged as she just had to stay positive and get her head on the right shoulders as she tucked her hands into her pockets as she looked down the girl.

"... Okay, let's think like really hard here," Zoey said as she put her hands up, "Do you know where anything like a train or a bus would be? Or better yet.."

Zoey looked around.

"Somewhere I can get some damn cigarettes so I can focus."


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“I...” Odessa didn’t exactly take Penny’s comment in jest, unfortunately. It was yet another reminder that everything that she did. She didn’t take Penny’s hand as she wiped the tears and stepped off. “You’re right, I [i]am[/i] a bitch.. I can’t just… I thought I could just move on from what [i]I[/i] did… but I’m simply not the Britney you knew anymore.”

Odessa’s fingertips graced her face as she said, “[i]This isn’t my body…[/i]”

[color=goldenrod]“Yeah, well…”[/color] Penny swallowed the [i]no shit[/i] that was about to come out of her mouth. Odessa didn’t seem like she was in the mood for levity. Since she didn’t take her hand, Penny sat down on her haunches so that she was level with Odessa. [color=goldenrod]“Maybe that’s a good thing? The Britney I knew she was…”[/color]

Penny winced as she tried to think of a gentle way to put it. [color=goldenrod]“She wasn’t the most honest person I ever met. She had good intentions, and I’ll always consider her a friend, but she, uh,”[/color] Penny sighed and rubbed her neck. [color=goldenrod]“She made it real difficult to do that, you know? It’s fucking hard trying to defend someone when they’re always keeping the whole truth from you.”[/color] 

Penny grimaced and looked away. Odessa had lied to her just like Britney used to lie to her, omitting certain things whenever it was convenient. Maybe she wasn’t so different after all. Penny looked back, trying to hide her feelings of betrayal. [color=goldenrod]“Why did you keep this from me?”[/color]

Every word that Penny said was correct, cutting into her like [i]knives[/i]. Another tear ran down her cheek as she couldn’t bear to wipe it anymore. The sky began to get dark… and rain began to fall. Odessa knew that she wasn’t honest… and regardless of how far she reached she couldn’t say that she was a good person.

“I did it because I wanted to start again, Penny,” Odessa sobbed, “To move on… and finally, forgive myself for it all. Yet....”

She sobbed as the ground was being stained with the rain until her tears were gone. “I can’t do it anymore, can I, Penny?”

[color=goldenrod]“That’s your call,”[/color] said Penny, slowly reaching forward to lift Odessa’s chin so that she’d have to make eye contact. The tenderness in her voice was warm, but it was being fueled by the little flicks of blue fire that burned underneath her words. [color=goldenrod]“But I feel like hiding what you did isn’t moving on. It’s treading down the same path but pretending like it’s a different route. Everyone either hates what they were or what they’re becoming, but only one of those things can ever be changed.”[/color] 

A sigh escaped Odessa’s lips.

“... Moving on isn’t easy,” Odessa sobbed as she shook her head and had to wipe the tears away… even as the rain continued to drench her. She felt herself become hydrated as she absorbed the water through her skin unconsciously. It was… too much for Odessa. She pulled her face away from Penny’s hand. Odessa stood up as she shook her head and kept her hands together at her chest

“But, I don’t think you understand...” Odessa started. “I’m not Britney anymore… I’m not even [i]human[/i] anymore.”

The skin peeled away at her chest and out came her heart… which was strange. It was green, made out of plant matter instead of flesh and blood. And didn’t even beat. It had a strange orange glow to it… it was connected to her body through a network of wooden vines and roots. Penny visibility flinched at Odessa’s parlor trick, reflexively taking a step back. 

“I’m just an apparition that [i]just so happens[/i] to be clinging on to the leftover memories of Britney and this body is just… human [i]shaped[/i].”

[color=goldenrod]“Yeah that’s...look I’m no botanist or whatever but you probably shouldn’t get that thing wet,”[/color] said Penny, hoping the girl would take her hint to put her organs back inside of her body. She gritted her teeth and turned her eyes up to look at the rain. It was coming down. Odessa was able to absorb the rain, but Penny just felt her cardigan weigh on her as it continued to get soaked. She moved past Odessa to stand under the reminder of Sucre’s awning and wrung out the end of her cardigan. 

“It’s not like it works...” Odessa kind of missed what Penny meant but she put her heart away nonetheless and the skin furled back over. In an instant, it looked like she didn’t.

[color=goldenrod]“Listen, even I’m willing to admit that I’m not smart enough to get into some whole big debate about what it is to be human. It’s not this, though,”[/color] she said, pushing up a sleeve and pinching her skin. [color=goldenrod]“You saved me back on that ship, too. It seems like a pretty cool human thing to do. So even if you are just an apparition you seem to have a better sense of humanity than most people.”[/color]

Penny bit her cheek. [color=goldenrod]“I’m sorry, should I even be talking? Because you’re right. I don’t understand. I still don’t, but I’d like to.”[/color]

The tears stopped as Odessa sighed. Not that Penny would notice due to all the rain. “... You will in time,” Odessa said. “Like I said… All Awakened become...”

Her dreadlocks were drenched as she said.

“... Apparitions.”

She shook her head as she remembered why she said that in the first place… why they came in here in the first place. “I think I made this too much about me… yes?”

She sighed.

“Let’s find that Apparition.”

[color=goldenrod]“Yeah,”[/color] said Penny with a twisted, angry grin. She didn’t like to think about how she’d one day become an Apparition, but there was something strangely comforting about knowing what would await her at the end. It was kind of nice knowing there was a second chance in case she did mess up, although judging by how Odessa had been acting it wasn’t without its horrors. Besides, if Penny had to choose, she would rather set everything right the first time.  [color=goldenrod]“Yeah, let’s get that fucker.”[/color]