Roleplay: Lettie x Reznor

Dated: September 18, 2026

Grimwych Village Square

Lettie hugs Reznor.

Reznor oofs from the hug, but rebounds fairly easily. "You too, kid?"

Lettie clings to that hug, because he is solid and real. "Yeah, Dad. Me too."

Reznor takes a deep breath. There's that word again. Dad. Just give him a bit, he'll get used to it. "And...mom?" He questioned softly, amber eyes quickly scanning the area.

Lettie nods her head slowly, "Mom too...She doesn't think I'm real though. She fell asleep standing. I brought her to the house and miss Hela." She points in a general direction, that hand poorly wrapped with something still stuck through the palm.

Reznor sends his gaze trailing off in the direction Lettie points, making note of the general direction and the mentioning of Hela. Another one. "And what of your hand?" He tilts his head to the wound as his gaze flicks back to the youth. "Has that been properly cleaned?"

Lettie shakes her head slowly, "Its stuck and I don't wanna show Hela because she didn't seem happy to see me either." She would offer him the hand, not sure what she fell on debris wise that got stuck. "So, if you are here too. Does that mean you also killed me?"

Reznor was somewhat fixated on the hand for a few breaths, wondering just what might be stuck in her palm. A normal human would no doubt be suffering from some sort of malady by now, but Lettie, he knows isn't normal. Her question brings his eyes to her face by way of a 'are you really serious' look. "No...no I didn't kill you. I'm not dead, therefore, you're not dead."

Lettie takes the dirty make shift bandaged off, there is something metal and corkscrew shaped in there peeking out. It is the lynx, she is a chaos magnet in a whole new world of trouble. "I can't pinch it or bite it." She tilted her head to the side, giving him a 'are you serious look' right back. "No, pretty sure I am dead, few times over. Hela says we are dead in Perrigie? Ya know what place the dead-dead go."

Reznor stares at Lettie quietly and gives her a rather fatherly sigh as she removes the bandage. "Purgatory." He corrects as he puts his eyes on her new...appendage. "Trust me, dearie. This is nothing like Purgatory. In Purgatory, you feel no pain. No hunger. No thirst. You just...exist." The corkscrew shape is noted as his eyes pass over the object one more time. "Have you tried turning it counter-clockwise?"

Lettie lifted a hand to scratch behind one of her fuzzy ears, "...I've never felt pain. That doesn't help me know if I'm dead-dead or not." She twisted her hand to look at the bit of metal poking out one side and the hole where it enter the other. "No? Why would I turn it? What does counter-clockwise mean?"

Reznor tilted his head to the side a tick, mildly amused that Lettie was examining the hole in her hand like a mild curiosity rather than severe trauma. "For starters, you're still talking. Dead things don't ask so many questions. So, for now, you're alive." He closed the distance between them, reaching out to gently but firmly wrap his fingers around her wrist, stopping her from twisting the metal any further. Even if she couldn't feel the pain, he could see the torn edges of the wound shifting. "You would turn it because it has grooves," he explained, pointing his free hand at the threaded edges of the metal spike. "If you just yank it straight out, it's going to shred every muscle and tendon it touches. As for 'counter-clockwise'..."He paused, realizing a clock analogy might be completely lost on her. "It just means turning it to the left. Backwards," he clarified, shifting his grip to steady her forearm against his chest. "Actually, just hold perfectly still. If you can't feel it, you won't know if you're making it worse. I'm going to twist it out for you, but we need to stop the bleeding immediately after." He looked up from her mangled hand, locking eyes with her. "Do you have any bandages or clean cloth in that pack of yours to wrap this up once it's out?"

Lettie had forgotten about it after wrapping it since it didn't hurt and was more worried getting her mom away from the lake's edge. Now, she started at it curiously, the insides of the hand she could peek at from the wound almost poked with her finger before he had secured her wrist in his hold, gentle but firm. "Hrm, you are sure dead things don't talk? Them zombie things make noises and they are dead? Miss Hela says we are dead, wouldn't she know?" She paused, watching him as she puzzle through it all, "Never heard a zombie ask questions, so maybe you are right then and Miss Hela is confused?" She was listening as she picked up her dirty locks of black hair, squinting at them then dropping them and repeating with the 'brown' side to her eyes. "Left is this side? Turn it brown hair direction?" Her ear twitched, but she tried her best following his shifted grip to stand perfectly still. Then she pulled out from one of her pockets a rolled wad of bandages, it was clean never used. "Miss Hela gave me this and said to be careful, try not to fall through more floors and slice myself open again. This world is really....really abandoned with almost no people. So, dead seemed fitting."

Reznor snatched the pristine roll of bandages. He tucked it under his arm for a moment to free up his fingers, his expression a mix of disbelief and amusement. "This Miss Hela sounds like a real ray of sunshine," he answered, shaking his head. "I don't know the exact mechanics of what you are, deae, but zombies just groan and try to eat brains. They don't debate the semantics of being 'dead dead' while casually inspecting their own anatomy. So let's just agree you're alive enough to need your hands in one working piece." Fair enough. He glanced up at her mismatched hair as she established bizarre, yet effective, sense of direction. "Yes," he confirmed, "Brown hair direction. Exactly." Taking a slow breath to steel himself, he tightened his grip on her wrist to keep her steady. He pinched the protruding end of the metal spike with his other hand. "Alright. Do not move an inch." He started to slowly twist the metal backwards. It gave a scrape against the bone and cartilage inside her hand. "The world might be abandoned," he grunted through a tight jaw, trying to keep her distracted. "But all that means is there are no doctors around to put you back together if you fall through another floor. So you'd better listen to Miss Hela on that front. You have to be careful." With one final rotation, the metal slipped free from her flesh. He immediately dropped the bloody spike into the dirt with a quiet clatter. Moving quickly, he unrolled a length of the clean bandage, folded it into a thick pad, and pressed it hard against the puncture holes on both the palm and the back of her hand. "Hold this," he instructed, guiding her good hand over to press down firmly on the compress. "Keep the pressure tight. You might not feel any pain, but you've still got blood in there, and we need to keep it exactly where it is. Understand?"

Lettie flashed a smile, one that revealed two simple sharp canines teeth both equally feline in nature, no vampire fang on one side anymore. "Miss Hela is from Solol too, you don't know her?" Somehow, logic said everyone in the city must know everyone else, right? Wrong. She let the lock of red or as she knew it 'brown' hair fall when he confirmed she had something right. "I don't want to eat brains, that sounds icky. Not a zombie then. Alive enough to be not dead-dead." She agreed with him, even if she still wasn't sure where they all ended up or how. She didn't move, she managed to be a very still werelynx even if she was curious as ever. Just slightly leaned forward before that freeze order was given. Her gaze was glued to her hand and his fingers working out the metal from it with enough care to keep her hand in working order over just yanking it out. "Oh. Oh. I did not think about that. I normally just twist or snap the pieces back into place...No breaks, I checked." She did not move to wiggle her fingers or toes as she was holding utterly still, a miracle. "I didn't know the floor would swallow me and spit me down stairs again. I thought I was all alone here and just exploring. I found Hela the next day and that night I found mom, here by the lake." She let her gaze follow the debris as it was dropped and he was quick to covered dress the two holes in her hand. She never flinched during the whole process. The lynx wasn't trying to simply be brave like some, she truly didn't register what should have been very painful. Thumb and index of her good hand pressed tightly, as he showed her. She watched the bit of red form, confirming there was indeed blood in there. "Alright, Dad. Keep the blood in. No dead-dead. Don't make mom cry with getting hurt, got it. Is Brian in your pocket? I haven't found Brian. Not with me or Mom."

Reznor slowly withdrew his hands, watching closely to ensure Lettie maintained the pressure on her wound. He wiped a smear of her blood onto the soft leather of his pants. So much for expensive leather. She was an impossible one, standing there with her mismatched hair and detachment from her own injuries. "Well?" He prompted as he peered down at her, trying to read whatever strange gears were turning behind those fuzzy ears. "I asked if you understand. You keep holding that tight. No letting go to check on it out of curiosity." He shifted his weight, his gaze drifting over the ruined landscape. The decayed structures loomed in the distance like the rotted teeth of a dead dragon. "Once that stops seeping," he continued, rolling his shoulders as he scanned the perimeter, "we need to get away from the water. Fresh blood draws things...even in a 'dead world' as you put it. Where is this Miss Hela of yours? Do you know a safe place we can go before it gets too late?" He paused. "Brian...no. Why would I have Brian?"

Lettie had just started to ease up on the pressure to try to look when he informed her to keep that grip tight on it and not to look. She quickly resumed and pretended like she had not nearly given in to curiosity, again. "Yes, I understand." She finally answered the question when prompted again. Her mismatched gaze lifted to scan around them at the decay left of a world when the people ceased to exist within in. Broken down buildings in the far distance with the wild over growth of nature reclaiming what once all belonged to it. Still holding her hand she pointed to the east, "Old tower thingy there, really tall for looking far off." Then she shifted her hand to the north, "Village of sorts there, that is where I feel. I did not climb down into the well, yet." An arc motion back towards the east from the north, "Through the village and past the shiny ground bumps there is the house. I think it was a farm, its got one of them buildings that look like the one people put the moo-moos in. I brought mom there and Hela is there." She turned back around to face him giving him a lopsided, proud smile for all her exploring, "Brian because someone has to have him? Mom didn't have him when I found her and he wasn't with me. Maybe he is still back in solol? I don't want her to be sad he is gone."

Reznor caught Lettie's snap back to attention. He didn't bother scolding her again. Keeping this oblivious young woman from accidentally dismantling herself was quickly becoming a full time occupation. He followed her pointing finger, eyes tracing the skyline. The 'tower thingy' jutted up to the east like a skeletal finger against the bruised canvas of the sky, The village to the north sounded like a labyrinth of death traps, and her casual mention of a well she "hadn't climbed down into yet" made his jaw clench. She possessed an alarming lack of hazard awareness, moving through an unknown landscape without a single thought for basic safety protocol or self-preservation. "Right. The farm with the moo-moos," he whispered, dragging a hand down his tired face. Survival is a matter of mitigating risks, not untangling their bizarre family tree. "Listen to me," he said, his tone shifting into one of those fatherly sorts. "We are going to this farm, but we are doing it my way. That means no wandering off the path to investigate shiny things, and absolutely no exploring abandoned wells. We stick to the perimeter of that village, assess every area for threats before we step foot in it, and keep a low profile." He gestured toward the east, positioning his own body between her and the inviting water of the lake shore. "Lead the way. Keep your pace steady and keep that pressure locked down on your hand. And I do think Brian is here...somewhere."

Lettie had that proud almost grin for knowing the land in a round about way, finding people one after the other with her inability to sit still, but that faded quickly watching his expression. This world was a brand new place full of many possible shiny things to explore. It was almost a playground for the curious cat with no sense of fear. Most likely in correlation to no pain receptors. Her ears twitched once and her gaze locked up onto his when he told her to listen to him. She was doing her best to stand still and let him be her entire focus. No wandering brain to all the things around them of interest. "I understand, no wandering off, no well exploring, stick by you and follow your lead," she paused a moment, a sadness falling over her face, "Well, Mom, if she still wants me... she didn't when I found her right here. She avoided me and said I wasn't real. Her eyes were glowing silver..." a beat, "She will be very happy when she wakes up to see you and hopefully she thinks you are real." The catling turned them and almost ran off to lead the way. She caught herself before her second step, forcing her feet to walk in a steady walking pace all while keeping pressure on her hand. Doing things his way was already starting off on a hard foot note. "If he is, will just have to watch for him?"

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