[Open] Some Rats Don't Go Into Mazes

[work_wife]

WHO: Robin, Open
WHERE: Warrens Common Areas
WHAT: Anxiously Waiting For Results, Learning To Own A Dog
WHEN: November
WARNINGS: None

1. Back In The Same Maze

The Warrens. The last time they had ended up here Robin had still been new on Agra-10. Now here she is in the underground, looking worn around the edges, bruises around her throat existing as the faintest ghost of a memory, and hoenstly, looking annoyed. This time she doesn't have her things. She doesn't have all of her friends because some of them went and disappeared into the depths to explore (seriously, Eddie, why?).

Still doesn't make her feel any less worried. People are scattered and separated again. There's still a threat out there. In here. With them. Probably.

To say that Robin's jumpy is a serious understatement. While she's coming out of the shower area she jumps almost half a foot when she hears someone approaching. Well, more like when she hears Little Bear's excited boof over hearing someone approaching. At least the dog serves as an early warning system.

"Who's there?"

2. Exploring The Side Passages

At least there were ways to distract herself without her friends around. Sure, going off on her own had already made trouble for her in the past. In the recent past at that. But staying still in a single place had never been her style. Sure she hadn't been popular in Hawkins, but she had been used to wandering around town and biking places she wanted to go.

Being cooped up was never her style.

Thankfully she wasn't wandering completely alone. She had Little Bear on a makeshift leash at her side, the dog's tail wagging excitedly as Robin stopped them at an intersection off of the main Warren's area. She pauses, runs her fingers over a scratched in name on the wall. Something Billy Hargrove left here last time, when he named corridors based on streets he remembered from California. It made her feel closer to her absent friend.

"So, what do you say, Little Bear, left or right? I mean, we should probably double back, but you're clearly still excited to stretch your legs."

The dog just does a tappy little dance of excitement.

"Such a conversationalist," she sighs. "If only we could teach you english."

She needed someone to talk to before she went crazy.

Comments

1.

[crystalmaster]

"It's just me," comes a voice. "Radley."

He appears, holding his hands up to show he's not a threat. He's glad to see Robin seems to be doing a lot better now, at least physically.

[work_wife]

Oh. That's a name she's heard before. Even remembers. He came to talk to her, after she was injured. The young woman stops and looks at him, and of course Little Bear is quickly on his feet, excited to get pet.

"Thank you, for the food. While I was in the hospital."

[crystalmaster]

"Sure," Radley smiles, and reaches to pet Little Bear. "Glad to see you're feeling better. There's enough misery going on right now without being under the weather too."

[work_wife]

"Yeah, I can understand that," she says, her voice still a bit soft from the damage to her throat. But she looks content too. "Back home we strangely get that luck. No illness when the world is going wrong."

Though she supposed that was merely luck in their corner right now. Some small amount of it.

"You chose to stay behind too?"

[crystalmaster]

“Huh. That’s a wild coincidence,” Radley remarks. “I guess it helps with saving the world, though?”

He nods. “Yeah, I figure I can do more good here. Somebody needs to stay back.”

[work_wife]

"It really does. There's always the whole mental burden, and the injuries. Those tended to come from the literal fight. And now..."

Now they're lost again. She's lost without something to do.

"I wish I knew what good I could do, beyond keeping Max out of trouble."

[crystalmaster]

Radley ponders. He always likes to try to help people feel useful.

"You could help me with making meals?" he suggests.

[work_wife]

Help him make meals? Robin frowns at that as she thinks about it.

"I did serve ice cream for a while. I'm not the best cook. Or the worst. I'm just, you know, average. You sure that's okay?"

[crystalmaster]

"As long as you're not the kind who can blow up the kitchen, I think we'll be fine," Radley smiles.

[work_wife]

"I haven't blown up a kitchen yet."

But only should always allow for the potential of it. Things can always go wrong.

[crystalmaster]

Radley laughs. “Good to hear. Are there any special dishes you like to make?”

After being around 20+ college student-age guys, he definitely allows for the possibility of things going wrong.

[work_wife]

Special dishes? Wow, that's probably more than she had under her belt.

"Not really. Mom was more of the cook and I guess I was in a bit of a rebel phase. But if it comes in a box with instructions I can do it. Or if someone's telling me what to do."

Maybe that was something she should work on back home. To be able to feed herself when she hopefully one day gets enough peace to head off to college.

[crystalmaster]

Radley laughs. "That works. I'm used to doing that back home." He smiles and winks. "I've taught my friends to cook."

2

[cactusy]

"Hey, Little Bear," Shaw murmurs as she comes into view, offering a hand for the dog to sniff. Robin herself just gets a nod, though it's personable enough, and not meant as a slight; dogs pretty much always get greeted first and more effusively in Shaw's world.

"I'm not even gonna ask how you're picking up after him. You find something?"

She's not close enough to read the letters scratched into the wall, but she doesn't need to be to see Robin checking them out.

[work_wife]

Not like Robin was going to judge Shaw for liking a dog more than people. People can really suck. And Little Bear was actually sweet in how he had adopted her.

"Yeah, probably best not to ask. But I promise I am. As for the something..."

She reaches up and runs her fingers over the words scratched in the wall.

"I think these are place names. But from somewhere in California from what I understand. My friend, one of the ones that went out to do the investigation thing, he wrote these last summer."

[cactusy]

"Huh."

Stroking the dog's head one last time, Shaw moves towards Robin, scanning the wall.

"Graffiti, or something else?"

[work_wife]

Well, clearly it is time to look at walls. Little Bear stands to squeeze himself between the women so he can sit and look up at hte wall too. Isn't he a good boy?

"Something else. Apparently it helped him remember how to get around here. Some people made maps. He just remembered home."

Was that weird? Or was it a better strategy than most had come up with? Robin didn't know.

[cactusy]

"Good mnemonic device, but useless for everyone else," she murmurs, rubbing her fingers over the street names. "But sometimes that's a perk. He wanted to be able to navigate down here without anyone else realizing how he was doing it?"

[work_wife]

"I know I didn't wander around much, so it didn't help or hurt me," she says with a shrug. But if she knew Billy, he wasn't really that interested in other people's needs.

"Still, seeming mysterious like that might be his style. And since he probably felt more lonely then, I could understand him running around like that."

[cactusy]

"Which friend?" Shaw wonders - the pronoun usage makes it clear it's not Max. "Billy, Eddie, or--?"

There's a fair few from Hawkins hanging around, and she's still not sure she has them all down.

[work_wife]

"Billy Hargrove," she says. "Though I guess maybe Max would recognize these to. I thinks he lived with him for long enough to know some of them."

Though she doesn't know for sure. "Guess that might mean two people can get around with just these."

[cactusy]

"Are they related?" Shaw asks, mildly surprised; she knows that they're from the same world, and that they know each other well enough for Billy to worry about Max, but she's missed the stepsibling connection.

[work_wife]

"Step-siblings," Robin explains before shaking her head. "But they're alike enough that it's shocking they don't share blood sometimes. I think they make each other better."

Billy sure was resolving to be a better person for his sister after all.

[cactusy]

"He asked me to keep an eye out for her," Shaw says, slowly. "And I suck at dealing with kids, but whatever. He's got people who do the same thing for him, right?"

[work_wife]

He did? Robin's eyesbrows do their best to escape into her hair. Billy Hargrove, asking someone to help him? Going out of his way to do it? What the hell?

"Yeah, I... Wow. I didn't know he could ask for help like that. Not for adults."