Angeline had no experience, which hardly surprised Ellen. The girl looked like she was trying to avoid being physically sick when she first came upon the injured man before. She didn’t have any experience thus far, and Ellen raised her brow skeptically as Angeline said she could learn. It wasn’t exactly the best time to learn how to use a weapon, especially with their limited ammunition. 

Ellen settled in the van and listened as Angeline told her she didn’t have much she could contribute to this...whatever this was going to be. “Patching us up is probably the most important thing you [i]could[/i] do.” Ellen chuckled lightly. 

She totally understood Angeline’s concern about Imposter Syndrome, though. None of them really had enough experience to embark upon this mission. Regardless of their experience and particular magic abilities, though, they were here, and the people in Goodnight needed this medication. 

“A ballerina, that makes sense.” Ellen said after stifling back a chuckle with the ‘slip’ regarding the features of their transport. “I would have guessed gymnast, but I supposed both make you pretty agile, and dedicated.” Ellen recalled watching the woman stretch and do yoga poses some of the days at Goodnight.

“I...actually spent the last few years working on a crab fishing boat. You know, like those Deadliest Catch-type of shows.” Ellen explained. “It was a little dangerous, but not nearly as dramatic as it was made out to be. I did get this nasty scar one time, though.” Ellen held up her left arm, where a nearly twelve cm scar went down the length of her forearm. 

A taut cord snapped and struck her on the arm. It would have been her face, had she reacted a bit slower. “It wasn’t exactly what I dreamed of as a kid, but...life threw me a few curveballs even before this, so I’m used to adapting and going with the flow.” 

Angeline’s face lit up at the mention of ‘Deadliest catch’ “Ah- I used to love watching those shows with my mum!” She sounded excited, though the scar did somber her a little “I guess that’s why they call it uh - ‘deadliest’ huh?” She didn’t want to comment too harshly, she could only imagine the state she’d have been in after the accident. “Sounds so adventurous… I mean even though this is totally different you must be a little in your element.” She commented, though in her head she had Ellen paged as this swashbuckling rugged fisherman type although wildly inaccurate. “You know… Unpredictable nature of the sea and whatnot. I got to admit, shamefully, the hardest thing to give up was my nice double bed with fluffy blankets and soft pillows.” she laughed, she didn’t seem at all ashamed of missing the finer things in life, though. The sleeping bag on the hard floor was a harsh wake-up call, or… Bed-time call for her.

“And - well as far as what we’re about to do… I guess like you said just got to ‘adapt and go with the flow’ I’m not entirely sure what I can do to help but there are people back in goodnight who need these supplies and well any good person would try their best to help.” She laughed, though the twinge of nerve was notable in her voice. Her experience so far with violence was rocky at best and downright catastrophic at worst, and she wasn’t eager to face any more of it any time soon. “I mean I’ve seen Mark in action, he saved my life once before. Not that I want him to do it again, wayyy too much pressure for one man but you know, good to know we’re not alone. And you seem to know that Hans guy, they both seem pretty ‘well-versed’ in this kind of thing, you know?” she had lowered her voice to talk about them, almost conspiratorially.

"Hans… has a great balance between thinking and doing. Whereas I think I definitely am a do-first, think about it maybe after, kind of person." Hans had also saved her life, after she recklessly put herself into danger. 

"I think what I miss most is…" sex. Could she say sex? Ellen looked to where Abigail was nursing her injured hand, and had the sudden urge to be a bit more G- rated. Maybe she could go more vague and just mention the eye candy. Strong, confident types were definitely better than scared injured folks back at Goodnight. 

"Probably the company. You know, drinking, playing games, hanging out with friends." Company and companionship, sort of lumped it all together. 

"So what do you do, other than shove plants in open wounds to heal them?" Ellen asked. She wasn't trying to be rude, she was just curious and wanted to make conversation. 

Angeline nodded understandingly “Yeah it’s odd for now but who knows maybe things can become more normal in the future? Life is what we make of it and whatnot, no need to say that those kinds of things can’t happen here in our life now… It’ll just be a little different from how we expected it to be?” She suggested. She did want similar things too, just an ounce of normality. Goodnight was a pretty bleak environment and while she did her best to try and keep things how they were, her yoga, dance practices and the like it was all bound to be different from how it was.

“What can I do? Well… Aside from that, I can make a little water in my hands? And…. Go blind, apparently.” She laughed, recalling her experience earlier. “I think it shows me certain types of plants… Or something like that? But I can’t see anything else, and since I was inside a house there weren’t many plants to see so yeah not sure how useful it will be but a very jarring experience nonetheless.” She snickered again, such an odd sounding ‘power’. “And yourself? I don’t think I’ve seen first hand anything you can do yet, though I guess that’s a good thing that we haven’t been in enough danger to need it.”

Different than they expected was probably a huge understatement for most of the people who had awoken to their new powers. Ellen felt...like she had always known this was coming, and was waiting for it for the last few years, but she figured she was an outlier for having such a mindset.

She listened as Angeline explained she could create water, and have some sort of plant-vision. “Interesting, though. And we are in the desert, I feel like creating water could come in handy in a variety of ways.” Ellen offered. “Is it like, a geyser of water, or a stream, and can you control how much?” She asked curiously.

“Hmmm well I haven’t had much practice with it, it’s probably closer to a stream. I think a geyser could be pretty extreme as I’m fairly certain it comes from like somewhere inside me? So I can get dehydration headaches if I use a lot of it…” She grimaced, the water was always clear and as far as she was aware it was fine to drink but… Body-water… Gross. “I guess if people really need it, it can come in handy.” She agreed, hesitantly.

“Huh, Interesting.” Ellen replied, thinking about the water coming from her body. If she had like, a hand in a river, could she absorb it too, and then shoot it out of her other hand at someone? Or if it was pure water, could she filter out pollutants and stuff? Ellen had tons of questions, and thought it was mildly amusing how much more interested she was when it was someone else’s ability, compared to hers. 

Probably a coping mechanism, degrees of separation, sort of thing.

“So I can make my body really slippery, I think it is also a water thing, but it doesn’t make me dehydrated. I think the water comes from like… evaporated water in the air around me. I can also turn my hands into this really fucking trippy crab claws.” She mimed the way her fingers sort of molded together to make a claw with one hand and a pincher with the other. “When it is really cold outside, I get a second layer of skin that keeps me from feeling the effects of the cold, like a blubber. Not super helpful in the desert though. I can turn glass into sand, and I can sort of create a hologram version of myself and control that while my body stays in a different spot.” There was something she had recently fiddled with regarding plants, but Ellen didn’t quite understand that one enough yet.

“Basically, I turn into a bizarre sea creature fit for an episode of Scooby Doo.” Ellen grinned again, preferring to find the whole scenario amusing, rather than slightly horrific.

Angie was definitely taken aback, letting out a quiet “Woah-” before catching herself. “Ah, sorry not sure on the whole etiquette about talking about other people’s powers, just sounds very…” She trailed off, unsure exactly how she felt, was the transformation gruesome and ugly? Were they fleshy claws or normal hard claws… Was it impolite to ask? “Oh- I mean very varied.” She finally settled on a neutral term. “Mine all feel quite samey aha but you’ve got all these interesting and unique abilities, should I be jealous?” she queried, chuckling afterwards, what an absurd thing to be jealous of.

“That hologram one sounds like it’ll be useful in a pinch-” she cut off, the totally unintentional crab pun causing her to laugh “Sorry, I mean for this little mission of ours, nice way to scope an area out [i]without[/i] giving me extra work afterwards, don’t you think?” She suggested, although she felt very smart thinking of the idea she was sure Ellen had probably already considered that being a very likely possibility. “How long can you be a hologram for, anyways? Is there any like… Distance cap or something? Can’t be too far away to your real body? And what happens to your body, do you pass out or something?” She laughed again, guess the curiosities of learning things about different powers to your own just brings on a whole host of questions, just as she herself was asked many questions, she had many to ask of Ellen.

“I would have gone with Gross.” Ellen replied when Angeline tactfully tried to call it ‘varied.’ There were a variety of things, but they came together to make her into a rather terrifying sea beast--at least, she imagined they would if she tried to use them all at once. 

Ellen caught onto the crab pun a moment after Angeline and laughed as well. Why not go into almost certain death with a pun and a chuckle?

“But yea, I totally agree. If I can ever stop myself from running into the line of fire like an idiot, I think the hologram thing will be great, especially for sneaking around and checking things out. Still… not super helpful in a car.” None of her skills were particularly useful when they were actually in this van, as she doubted she was going to get into melee combat with someone in the Billy Bus. Thus, she hoped they were able to track these thieves to their hideout and then do some sneaking when they got there.

As for Angeline’s questions, Ellen didn’t mind them, but she didn’t have a lot of the answers, yet. “At Goodnight, I practiced the hologram thing for a minute or two. I was definitely able to go like… around corners and into rooms that my body couldn’t have seen. When I looked back at myself, I am just sort of sitting in a sort of ‘trance’ state. Man, if we get back, we should have you like… jab me while I’m doing it so I can figure out if I can still feel things going on to my actual body when I’m doing this.” Ellen mused aloud. They might get the chance on this mission, but now probably wasn’t the ideal time for testing what she was capable of.

“I haven’t figured out the downside of that one yet. Other than maybe I am still visible, so it isn’t like I can really be super sneaky.” Ellen voiced. So far she had learned that all of their abilities came at a price. That one, though, she hadn’t quite figured out.

“We don’t know how this is going to go so I guess we’ll have to make do with what little firepower we have.” She was subtly referring to the guns, even though she paled at the thought of using one herself. “Definitely a good idea to practice somewhere safe and out of the way of danger.. I.E. not here. I should hope no one tries anything they don’t already know, we’re already in enough trouble as it is.” Angeline readjusted her position and looked at the others nervously. It wasn’t a warning per se as she assumed everyone would be sensible, but… 

She dropped her voice to a whisper “Speaking of, surely it’s not very smart to bring…” She trailed off but gestured with a flick of her eyes towards Abigail. “I mean- not to underestimate her or anything but she’s already injured, and she’s young I can’t imagine how traumatising this might be for her… And I heard she and the other girl had a spat as well…” All signs pointed to BAD IDEA in Angeline’s mind and she couldn’t shake the moral force driving her to have her sent back with the other injured man…

Ellen hardly thought they would get anywhere if they could only do things they already knew. If Ellen stuck to that mantra, she definitely wouldn’t have gotten out of her first mess. Angeline then whispered her concerns about Abigail being there. “I don’t like her being here, either. I thought Brooks was bringing her to get picked up earlier. Maybe they had a talk… Maybe she is really fucking strong. I don’t know. And it really isn’t [i]our[/i] call. I’m sure if the kid wanted to leave, she would have.” 

"Well hi there, Angie!" Mark gave her a sly wink as he tucked his own weapon into the waistband of his trousers - to the obvious horror of Hans.

"Mark…"

"What? What? Relax, Hans, the safety's on."

Hans sighed, and gave Ellen a look.

Mark turned back to the two ladies.

"Excitin', huh? Bein' on task like this. Been cooped up in either Goodnight or my apartment way too much recently, happy to get back into the shit. Plus I ain't never been to Australia."

“Hans just doesn't want you to waste our ammunition.” She left unsaid the rest of her thoughts, that he probably didn’t have much down there to shoot off anyway. Overcompensating much? Ellen grinned at the obviously delinquent man in front of her. “I’m Ellen.” She introduced herself. 

Angeline didn’t really know how to react so just waved back at him with a little “Hi, are you well?” She didn’t talk to him much in her extraction, and it hardly shone her in a good light anyways. “Ready to go?” She asked him, but also everyone else. No point waiting on things for much longer… “If everyone’s in the van that is..”

Ellen nodded to the ballerina. She was eager to get things started. Had she been driving the Billy Bus, they would have left ages ago... for better or worse.