ooh! Hannah and Steph??? :nighthawk_pwease:
Hannah and Steph huh? You're on!
Steph shouldered her backpack as she pushed through the hallways of the high school. Her hands shook by her side, and she clenched her fists, digging her fingernails deep into her palms.
Yesterday, she could've killed Pete. Today, he was trying to pretend that all of that didn't matter, or didn't happen. For her, it wasn't something that she could even try and get over. If she tried hard enough, she could still feel the cold press of metal in her hands. Pete didn't deserve that.
In her spiral of thoughts, she failed to notice someone approaching from the other side until she collided with them side on.
"Jeez, sorry-" Steph muttered, looking up at who she'd stopped, and gazing upon one of the girls in her shop class. Finally, a familiar face that didn't know the events that had transpired over the last few weeks. Actuallly, she could really use a fresh perspective right about now. And maybe, Hannah Foster could be the one to provide it.
Steph thought on that for a fraction of a second, and realised something. Before Hannah could move on, she muttered, "hey, Hannah. D'you have a moment?"
Hannah looked up at her, clearly registering something in the way she looked at her. She glanced back on herself, and then turned back to Steph with a nod. "Alone?" she asked, as if she knew that Steph was going to need it.
"Sure. That might be better, actually." But now was the question of where to go at this hour that wouldn't actually be crowded with people.
"That classroom's free..." Hannah motioned behind her to the room just down the corridor. Steph nodded absently and the two of them slipped into the empty room as she rounded her shoulders and forced herself to look a little more relaxed. Hannah immediately took one of the seats in the front row, and out of instinct, Steph just sat down on the teacher's desk, crossing one leg over the other. It's not like she wanted to admit her problems to some kid, but the two of them were on good enough terms, and she would actually be one of the few people who would even begin to understand.
"I've just got a question, that's all. Sorry, I wouldn't have asked at all if I hadn't just literally ran into you out there, but y'know, I did, so-"
"It's okay," Hannah said quickly. "What's the question?"
"Webby." Steph had absolutely racked her brain for that one, but she'd remembered Hannah talking about her. And clearly, judging by the reaction she'd gotten- Hannah's wide-eyed, full gaze directed at her immediately- she'd gotten it right. She sighed a little, relieved. "Where'd she come from?"
"The Black and White."
Oh.
She was one of them.
Steph couldn't help the way her breath hitched. "What, and she's not crazy?"
Hannah faltered, her brow creasing. "Crazy? Wh- No! She's nice! She helps!" Sensing that she knew the direction this was going to go in, she begun to leave to get on with her day.
That's when Steph acted faster than she had in a long time. "Wait, hold on! Are there more of her? Like, are there... Others?"
Hannah suddenly stopped in her tracks. Steph took that as a good sign, until she rapidly turned on her heel, and she caught her grave expression.
"Why are you asking?"
"I don't know if I can explain that-"
"No, what did you do?"
"Nothing! Nothing that... Matters any more, anyway. Seriously, are they related? Webby and the ones that I- that me and my friends saw?"
"Depends... How many were there?"
"Five."
Steph didn't understand. Webby was supposedly nice- at least to Hannah- but what had happened with her, Pete and Grace was about as far from a benign experience as they could have. If they were the same, or from the same place, then how could the experience be so different? And what were the chances of them pulling the five most malicious beings out of the lot?
Silence flooded the room. Hannah's low hum broke it after a few seconds, and Steph felt she could do nothing but give a careful assessment of the thoughts evidently racing through her head. It wasn't like she'd be normally aware when she ventured into dangerous territory in a conversation, but this time it was obvious. Obvious from the fear painted on Hannah's face, from the way her eyes were darting in all directions, looking for a distraction of some kind.
Steph's expression softened. She wasn't going to pressure this kid into anything, not if this was just supposed to be some casual conversation that shouldn't have even happened. "Listen, you can go if you want, I don't care... I just thought you might know what's going on..."
"Webby has five brothers." Hannah answered as a chill shot up her spine. "They're bad. Whatever you did... You need to make sure to stay far away from them."
And then she was gone.
A breeze blew through the now empty classroom. Steph shivered too.
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there’s a thing I think about sometimes when I’m writing that I call ‘the rabies condition’
by which I mean: there are no contraindications to getting the rabies vaccine for post-exposure prophylaxis.
every other vaccine usually has a few contraindications like ‘don’t take this if you’re allergic to it’ or ‘if you’re pregnant discuss the risks and benefits with your doctor’ or ‘don’t give to children below age 6′ or something, but not the rabies vaccine. if you’ve been exposed to rabies, there is literally no medical reason that can justify not getting the rabies vaccine--you can be deadly allergic to literally every single ingredient and the correct decision is still to administer the vaccine, because if you don’t, you’re 100% guaranteed to die of rabies. even the life-threatening allergies are a step up in survival rate (especially since anaphylaxis is something that can be managed, even if there are risks associated with it)
which is to say, the rabies condition: if a character has been ‘exposed to rabies’, aka, in some impending absolute worst-case scenario, like the apocalypse or some death curse or the destruction of their entire city via demons or whatever, then that character has to take action and the consequences and risks no longer matter, because literally any other outcome would be better, and 1% chance of survival is still better than 0%. that doesn’t make those actions necessarily good, the same way that injecting yourself with something you know you’re deadly allergic not a good thing to do, but it’s still better than dying horrifically of rabies. desperate times and desperate measures etc
and then, after your character’s prevented some horrible thing by doing some almost equally bad thing, they should absolutely experience the consequences of those choices.
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