they call me a menace

they say that i'm cursed

he hands at her ankles were unexpected, so she jerked a second and sought the source. Seeing Logan reached for them, she narrowed her eyes but let him pull her legs over his lap, which was.... weird. And a little nice, and strangley comforting... but mostly just really fuckin' weird. She kept them there, though, trying to force herself to relax when he'd just caused her nerves to go on high alert. She was strung as tight as a bow, but it was all internalized. Her blood pressure was giving her a headache, but the muscles of her lower leg were loose. A deep inhale and prolonged exhale were her attempts at calming the fuck down.

Actually getting an explanation out of him was unexpected, so she tipped her head to look at him as he started speaking.. And immediately raised a brow. The corner of her mouth went with it, conveying her thought: Oh really now? That tired smile was disarming, though, so she forgot to be mad.

"You were Captain Douchecanoe at one point, I think... But I changed it up just about every time," she confessed, too strung out to even care she was divulging far more than she needed to. This was not a heart-to-heart.

For some reason, him saying she didn't seem like the type to talk about herself really made her want to prove him wrong. Forget the fact that he was 100% correct. She thought back to the first time she'd seen him, making himself at home in her campsite. She remembered everything that had gone through her head in that moment, including the realization that he was probably not so different from herself. She didn't remember thinking it since, but it still stuck in her mind.

"Before all this," she started, jerking her chin to indicate the world around them, "what did you do?" Why she cared, she wasn't even going to attempt to figure out. He just.. struck her as someone who didn't exactly rough it, but knew how to...

Head pulling away from the tree, her expression became thoughtful, like she'd just figured something out. "Which branch?" she asked suddenly.

they call me a menace

they say that i'm cursed

he was caught so off guard by his laugh that she found herself smirking in turn. For a brief moment, she realized she felt… at ease. And then, naturally - because she realized it - she erected the barrier again. Her expression flattened, and she looked away until he answered her next question.. just in time to see that muscle in his jaw twitch. Her eyes narrowed, confused at the reaction, but she didn't press about it. Sensitive topics were sensitive topics, and for some reason she didn't feel like being a dick about it right now.

”Special Warfare,” she parroted, giving it some thought. ”Sounds fancy,” she teased.

Hearing that he'd actually roughed it made her feel bad for having assumed he hadn't. She guessed it made sense, what with his overwhelming douchiness, but taking life into your own hands at a young age gave a person a certain edge that she felt unique for having. Logan didn't have that edge. (Okay, he probably did, but she refused to notice or acknowledge it.)

Instead of feeling a pang of sympathy at his somewhat pitiful comment, heat wove down her spine. Not just one thing…

As if reading her thoughts, his hand began moving along her leg, and she allowed it because her hormones were trying to take over. By the time she got them under control, he’d moved on to her calf and it felt surprisingly good… so she allowed it. Hey, if a man suddenly decided to start catering to you, you wouldn't stop him either. He clearly wasn't paying attention, so she stayed very still to avoid knocking him out of the trance. He was reliving something, and she kind of wanted to know what it was, but…

His eyes found hers, and Farrah's eyebrows inched toward her hairline. He looked like he was going to say something, and in response her lips parted ever so slightly. But then he changed course, and the look on her face suggested she caught it.

Her gaze fell to the hand on her shin, mind turning over what he could have possibly been thinking about. Of course, one very solid possibility came to mind, but she pushed that away.  He’d probably been about to ask her something about her past, then thought better of it, because he was a smart cookie and knew better than to pry. He started to speak again, so her eyes flicked to his face. She didn't know what she'd been expecting, but for some reason getting back to business disappointed her. ”Sure,” she shrugged, even though if the smoke went up like it was supposed to, she didn't understand what significance that would have.

”The lack of noise concerns me a little more,” she divulged, ”We know there's an exit somewhere, so we're going to find it. But if there's nothing here to eat in the meantime…” Her hand went to the grip of her blade, toying with it in her anxiety even though her expression remained flat. She'd figure a way out of this, she always did.

… Whether Logan was going to be a help or a hindrance had yet to be determined.

they call me a menace

they say that i'm cursed

he looked at him in a mix of surprise and disbelief. Did he just blame my ass for this? she thought, though she couldn't bring herself to get mad over it. "I blame your stupid face instead," Farrah countered, raising a brow as if daring him to contradict her.. Event though saying that would make him think she found him attractive.

Which she didn't, just for the record.

God, she was confusing even herself. "Well, if worse comes to worst, I could just kill you for food," she stated very matter-of-factly, even managing to keep a straight face when he looked back to her. That is, until she flashed a shit-eating smile at him. He probably wouldn't taste very good, she mused, which was only a little terrifying. Five minutes in a creepy forest and you're already considering cannibalism? Yeah... totally. She 100% wasn't thinking of just one particular bite she'd like to take out of him.

"I hope you die in your sleep tonight," she offered cheerfully after he muttered the date comment. At the same time, though, she crossed her legs over his, bringing the calf he had yet to massage closer to him. "You can continue now," she "offered", and tipped her head back against the tree again so she wouldn't have to see his reaction.

What exactly had shifted in the cosmos surrounding this planet to have put her in this situation? It was like the universe shoved them together, tried to force them upon one another, then threw a temper tantrum and stuck them in this god forsaken forest with the demand to figure it out. Well, the universe could suck it, because she didn't want to figure it out. And being stuck with this asshole wasn't going to change her stance on that.

It didn't escape her notice that she was suddenly being far more harsh in her thoughts towards him than she had been only moments previously. But why?

"We should try to get some rest," she suggested suddenly, pulling her legs back to herself even though she didn't want to. Folding her arms over her bent knees, she rested her chin there and closed her eyes. It wasn't profoundly comfortable, but nothing about the current situation was, and she'd slept in worse conditions before. A few minutes later, though, she sleepily opened them again - just a little - and peered over at Logan.

they call me a menace

they say that i'm cursed

ould he stop laughing at things she said, maybe? It was sexy really annoying. He didn't need to find her funny; he needed to shut the fuck up and get out of her life.

Uh, harsh much?

Okay fine, he could stay a little longer. But only because there were some serious kinks in her calves she hadn't known were there until he started probing. And getting them worked out felt fantastic. So... he was useful for that.

And only that.

When her eyes slid open again, it was a little too dark to clearly see Logan's expression... But the tension was so palpable she didn't really need her eyes to tell her it was there. Was that more of it in his tone, too? Brows pulling together, she studied him even after he turned away from her. What crawled up his butt and died? Maybe nothing.. Maybe he just remembered how much he loathed her. It was about high time she drudged up that feeling in herself, too - so she reached down to pull it up.

...And realized she couldn't find it. What the hell? Concentrating harder, she closed her eyes again and called up every instance they'd found themselves together, from him stealing her campsite to stealing her food to being too incompetent to defend himself against a giant monster worm thing... To the sting in her back from being grated against bark. Absently, she noted that the trees here were much smoother, and she wondered if she'd get the same end result if the scene were re-enacted while in here.

Uh, no thank you.

With a grunt that in no way corresponded with anything Logan said, she turned her head away from him, resting her cheek on her knees. "Can you hang those damn things up somewhere?" she asked, not looking at him but assuming he'd understand what she meant. "You smell like wet dog." No he didn't; but sitting in sopping wet clothes chafed something awful, and he could avoid it if he didn't sit in sopping pants all night. But telling him she was looking out for his best interest was definitely not on her agenda.

they call me a menace

they say that i'm cursed

fter all the quiet suffocating them, Logan's movements sounded like an elephant stampeding through what little clearing they'd managed to find. She grumbled incoherently, but otherwise didn't comment. She was sure he was aware of the noise difference too.

"Sure," she responded dryly, making no attempt to actually look at him mostly because she knew she'd regret it. It was too dark to see him anyway, what with the trees blocking out even a hint of stars. If it weren't for this planet having three moons, they probably would've been cloaked in complete blackness. ..How cheery. Thankfully, some semblance of a nightly glow reached them - but it wasn't enough to see detail by any stretch of the imagination. Just... vague outlines.

When he finally settled, Farrah wiggled a little to situate herself more comfortably. Thankfully, the creepy silence was actually the perfect environment to conk the hell out in; she drifted to sleep a matter of minutes later.

Rustling woke her. It was quiet at first, like Logan was trying to be considerate. Then he gave up that ruse and stomped around like his feet were encased in lead. "Dude, shut the fuck up," she grumbled, bending a little further to bury her head between her knees so she could cover her ears. He didn't want to see sleep-deprived Farrah, huh? Well, he was about to.

He gripped her ankle and jerked her leg out from under her, causing her to slide harshly from the tree and hit the ground. She was slow-moving, so her head hit right at the base, causing her to hiss in pain and grip her skull. "You are fucking delusional if you thi-,"

A growl interrupted her. A blood-curdling, spine-melting, 100%-not-Logan growl. Hot, fetid breath washed over her face, nearly making her vomit, and then she was streaming along the ground at a terrifying pace.

She could hold her own. Back on Earth, she ran with the worst of them. Here, she could ride a goddamn Worm and live to talk about it.

But she couldn't fight something she couldn't see. Tearing her knife from her wrist, she started slashing in the direction of her ankle, but felt no purchase. She kicked with her other leg, but made no contact. What the hell was she fighting? Grappling for anything she could grab, she managed to reach a low-hanging branch just in time to be torn away from it and either lose her grip or lose her arm. She chose grip.

A root protruded from the ground, and she greeted it with the bottom of her rib cage. A sickening crack reverberated through her, and she hurt so acutely she saw the stars the canopy blacked out. She moaned in pain, and the last thing she remembered before nothing mattered anymore was the horrifying feeling of being sucked into the earth.

they call me a menace

they say that i'm cursed

he didn’t think it was possible to get any darker than it already had been, and yet the space she now found herself in was suffocatingly black. Not to mention cold. If she could see anything in front of her face, she knew she’d be seeing a puff of condensation every time she exhaled. If she’d still been on Earth, she would have guessed someone put her in a meat cooler. On PE…. She hadn’t the slightest clue. All she knew was that she had approximately thirty minutes until her core temperature dropped low enough to put her in a coma.

Closing her eyes (since they were useless down here anyway), Farrah leaned her head back against the damp…. Something-or-other she was mysteriously tethered to. She felt bonds on her wrists, but when she felt for them, nothing met her touch. What were these things? Because there was more than one; she could hear them chittering some distance away. It was so far from any human language that she had no hope of discerning what they were saying, but she had a sinking feeling in her stomach that it was about how to dispose of her.

Was it just this planet that made her think they were going to eat her?

For the first time in her conscious mind, Farrah wished Logan was here. He was a pretty useless human being and didn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground, but he’d at least be a second head to figure out how in the fuck you fought something you couldn’t see. Sighing heavily, she kicked a foot out at nothing. She wanted to just give up, say, Alright, this is it, I’ve met the end of the line, but a larger part of her told her to stop being a fucking pussy.

She could get out of this, she just… didn’t know how right this second.

All she knew for certain was that she was underground. It took her a few minutes to remember the sensation of being drug down, but it was undeniable. She didn’t recall seeing a tunnel of any kind when her and Logan were exploring, but truthfully they weren’t looking all that hard. And now it was dark, so how in the hell was he going to find her? She really wanted to believe she was going to get out of this on her own, but with every unrewarding struggle she felt a little more helpless. Farrah never felt helpless - there was a way out of everything, you just had to find it.

Tears of frustration burned at the backs of her eyes. Keeping it pent up wasn’t doing her any good, so she finally let out a scream, taking all her exasperation with it. Breathing heavily, she jerked again at her wrists.

A shimmer - so slight she would’ve missed it had she not been staring straight ahead at the blankness for the past minute - made its way in front of her vision. It was just a speck, and a quick one at that, but a moment later she felt the hot breath of whatever had dragged her down here wash over her face. So… it could be seen. Kind of. A claw - or hand, or hoof, or whatever - raked down her arm, and with it came a jolt. ”Ah!” she coughed out, and kicked reflexively. Of course, she made no contact, but the sensation ebbed.

The rechargeable battery of her monocular beeped a full charge.

Uhm… what?

Another glimmer. She ducked, and a spark wove up the wall where she’d just been. Were these things fucking electrically charged? Her brain tried to wrap around it, and things started to make sense… If she tried really hard. Maybe she couldn’t see them because.. They were noncorporeal? It was ridiculous to even think it, but this planet was ridiculous, so she didn’t dismiss it. So then what held her here? Another charge? Concentrating fully, she noted that her wrists were, in fact, subject to the slightest of hums. And if she smacked them against the stone wall behind her, they gave off a spark.

So how in the hell did she combat that?

they call me a menace

they say that i'm cursed

hivering hurt like a bitch.

She forgot about the little rib escapade for all of about twelve seconds, until she took her next breath, or moved, or thought about moving, and pain ripped through her. Now she had to take tiny little breaths which did nothing to clear her head, just so she could maybe sort of concentrate on what the fuck to do. But then, a person could only hypoventilate for so long before passing out.

At least there it was warm.

She heard a clack, and a growl, and this horrible screeching like metal being drug against stone. But she heard it all from somewhere not entirely here, her body having started to shunt blood flow to the vital organs to keep her alive. She was unconscious, and she couldn't tell if being aware of that fact made her more or less hysterical.

Then there was warmth; the real kind, not the sort that her body invented to make her less terrified of death. It touched her leg and maybe even up to the side of her face. Her head lulled toward it, seeking it out, but when that didn't heat her up her brain managed to wake up just enough to drowsily open her eyes - and immediately wince from the brightness. Grimacing, she turned her face away, before realizing it wasn't the only fire in the cave.

Wait.. Fire? "..Logan?" she whispered, voice hoarse from the cold, even though in that moment she didn't know how that name had any significance to her. Where did they go? Where did who go? The creatures hadn't gone anywhere; they were standing right there, glistening as they did in the firelight. They were stationary, though, which her mind was beginning to realize was odd. "Here," she croaked, and waited for him to understand. Every word felt like a fresh stab to the rib cage, but she had to keep it together. Her mind was just sluggish from the beasts' attempt to put it back in cryo.

A roar signaled something was happening, but she was barely able to keep track of it. There were quick movements, the sound of sizzling flesh, and the smell of a fried electrical outlet - none of which she could currently compute. A few minutes later (she thought; truthfully she didn't know how long it'd been), someone was beside her, urging her to a stand. Because this someone was far warmer than their environment, she leaned heavily against them, unable to hang on due to her restraints.

One step, and she hissed out a breath. That hurt too, so she grunted. That, also, hurt. And apparently that was what she needed to get her mind together, because Farrah finally looked up and realized she knew the person supporting her. For some reason she felt like he should have been smirking annoyingly down at her, but she couldn't piece together why. As it were, he was entirely business.

"Figure... out.. later," she urged, consciousness a fickle thing. "Let's.. go." Thankfully, her legs worked fine despite her not having it completely together upstairs.