#{ 𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐍 *// nika }

[thcmpscns]

In a strange sort of way, it felt nice to be wanted.

Dayn sat on a couch with a blanket over the armrest, and he could feel its rough fabric under his fingertips. There was still plenty of time before seven, before he had to begin to worry about getting back to his own little hovel. A few days ago he had been up and around the settlement out of curiosity, like how one would peruse a museum, and when a quiet girl rushed up to the gas station before he was even awake this morning with an invitation to the settlement, he said fine - what else was he going to do today anyway? But what could it have been for?

The trek took a little bit and he had been seated on a semi comfortable sofa in a room, keeping an eye on the daylight outside and the watch face on the inside of his wrist. He yawned - it was the second time he had yawned since he was let into the house, waiting for this leader of the settlement to make an appearance so that he could attempt to get an early night's rest before the chaos of the night begun outside his window. Dayn's hand had propped his head up until he heard footsteps. He stood up as the woman came into the room and gave a smile of innocent confusion. No one had yet told him why he was here. "Hi," he said, an easy nod following. He wasn't much for pleasantries, and was admittedly a bit antsy. "I'm Dayn, one of your... a girl told me to come here?" *// @nikaxrootless

[thcmpscns]

Dayn shockingly didn't know the average amount of people it took to build a hut, so anything less than ten he'd consider impressive. There wasn't much else to do around here, though, so whole days and weeks being taken over by a project of this scale just made sense. He didn't see the appeal, but even he'd chip in and help if it meant he'd have something to do. Staring at the walls of the bar were starting to get boring. He felt like a dog locked in its cage for one too many hours - there was a desire to start getting destructive.

He had to take her at face value with the statistics about the death rate, until he could cross-check himself. In the gas station, and the bar, there were those little amulets that stayed by the door. He hadn't had a chance to look and see if anything in the settlement had similar. How did they protect themselves then? So many more questions, but he'd refrain from those until he figured out what he owed for the first few.

"I do," Dayn answered. "I live at the gas station. I agree, it's nice not living with a cluster of people who might fuck up and put me in danger." Dayn was no hero, no knight in shining armor - at the first sign of trouble, it would be his ass, and his alone, that was getting saved. What did he used to joke with Joel, when they talked about horror movies, and killers like Michael Myers, or Jason Voorhees? All I have to do is run faster than you. It was a bit sickening in hindsight, that he would say that knowing how they were separated years ago. "I was still bartending," he answered. It wasn't even worth going into the niche sort of disgusting fame he would endure on anniversaries, after five or ten year increments. "Odd jobs for money when that wasn't enough. Stayed on my feet anyway. Yourself?"

In twenty years, Nika had seen many changes to settlement, both in its infrastructure but also in its people. It was a cautious balance to navigate bringing about change. Without it humans became restless in the constant, but too much change, or the wrong change, and it eroded the fragile foundation of trust that held this place together. Implementing separate living quarters from the main building had been a necessary change, one that had been rather well received even if the first few attempts had resulted in the loss of settlers, may they rest in peace.

"Five," she stated, "it takes five people to build these huts, men or women. Four if they have experience, though it's been a couple of years since we've had to make any. Try as hard as we might, people cannot be saved from their own mind, their own thoughts." Nika fixed her gaze on Dayn. "We do better here than in town, in terms of fatalities. But... if people want to open the doors to these creatures than they will. It's why it's safer, you see, to live separate of others sometimes."

"Tell me, Dayn, do you enjoy where you're living currently? And, I hear you bartend? Is that right? What were you doing in your previous life?"

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There was something oddly childish about this, about him following this strange woman around by interlaced fingers. But it wasn't the strangest situation he'd found himself in in his life - he'd go with it. Dayn wasn't exactly known for his apt risk assessment; the older he got, the more likely it was he would find himself in dangerous situations - or if not dangerous, just somewhat bizarre. He had four years to sit still in the same place, and he had a life to live.

He squinted up at the roofs, recalling something in a history book he read once, about how people years, centuries even, ago, used to build their huts and houses and keep them weatherproof without modern technology. The buff in him was curious how that all worked, and he supposed he was seeing it in practice now. "Must take some decent manpower to build," he remarked. Unless she meant they just popped up like magic - if that was the case, he had far more questions.

Dayn halted with her, his feet stuttering in the mud. He watched her, the quiet admiration had for the offshoot community she no doubt had a major part in constructing. "It's not like we can go anywhere else," he said, a quiet agreement. "People still keep showing up somehow regardless." Though, counterpoint, there were still plenty of places in town people could stay that were less... grassy.

He didn't have to say anything for Nika to know that rumours ran rampant in Arcadia. She could hardly blame the town's people for their gossip, what else was there to do in this place except talk of others and make assumptions? All she could do was course correct people's ideas about her to fit the purpose of the tree. She intertwined her long slender fingers with his and kept holding his hand as they began their walk.

"Best to start with the outskirts and work our way in. We were just in one of these huts," she said gesturing to a row of little log cabins with straw roofs, "most of these are where people stay, especially if they want their own space. Though most people in the settlement stay in the main house. The house has been here as long as I have, the huts have just popped up as we've needed them. Technically speaking, while they're fairly rudimentary in design, these are some of Arcadia's newer buildings." She paused in her step, tugging Dayn to a stop. "I think maybe that's one thing the town people can't seem to understand, why we would build to invest in the future of this place. But without innovation, where is purpose?"

[thcmpscns]

The more he was in her presence, the more she spoke to him, it was clearer why she held some authority around here. She was confident, and sure of herself, and while Dayn always regarded himself as someone who was steady on his own two feet, this was different. He couldn't command a room like her, even if he was the only other one here. And at the very least, even if this was a bit of stranger circumstances, he was getting some questions answered, and that's all he wanted. Before, stuck in a basement, asking the same questions over and over again got him nowhere - or, even worse, got him punished. He'd long since buried that apprehension to be curious, forcing it into the grave of his subconscious.

Dayn still hadn't seen these creatures firsthand, not really. Through a dirtied window once when he'd just arrived, and maybe it was still too early for Them to get a grip on what scared him. Were they shapeshifters, taking forms of things, or people that would really illicit fear? His mind was reeling, and while he was curious, he didn't really want to find out. "I didn't say anything about rumors," he said. Maybe he'd heard a few, sure, but he never bought into those. Dayn knew of rumors about himself through the years, so he knew from experience that those weren't often trusted sources. That didn't mean he wasn't itching to know what went on here.

So, when she offered him her hand, he grinned and took it, hauling himself up without using her as a support, glancing at the watch on the inside of his wrist. Alright, ample time before sundown. Dayn breathed a bit of a laugh at her noting that it was two questions, that she'd consider it as two, but otherwise didn't say anything else. "I'd love one," he said. Though the lack of clarification on whether it was favors or information made him bristle, he'd have to just wait and see. "Where to first?"

His laisser-faire attitude pulled at the corner of Nika's mouth, perhaps the only sign of amusement that this boy would get out of her. She decided that she liked him, though Nika knew she would never trust him. He was too open, and he was too nice, which meant he would care too much about the people he grew to love here. Caring was a dangerous thing. For her there was only purpose, those that helped it, and those that made things difficult. With a bit of a push, she was sure Dayn could fall into that middle category.

Nika raised an eyebrow as the boy negotiated the amount of information he wanted and would share, quick to agree to their deal without ever getting an answer as to what Nika wanted from him. Careless perhaps, but at least he had questions to ask, this she could respect. Nodding to solidify their deal, she began easily.

"We know very little about them other that they come out at night, man made weapons can't kill them, and they kill to kill. They don't want your flesh, they want your terror, they feed on it. It's best, truly, not to be afraid. It's all a test, you see, about whether you can stay sane. Many fail." She clicked her tongue, tried to recall his second question and then offered him a smile.

"I've been here twenty years, that's a long time for a lot of rumors," she stated very matter-of-factly, "best to get your facts straight from the source, I always say. Even if that source has a price."

In response to his last question, Nika pushed herself off the wall and extended her hand for him to grab. "Technically, that last question was two, I'll remember that when I come to collect. Best to show you to answer them. Would you like a tour, Dayn?"

[thcmpscns]

Dayn wasn't quite sure what to expect here. He could remember hearing Charlie's words chiming in his head: witches. Part of him was expecting earthy hippies in robes and he still hadn't totally let go of that assumption.

Though in the moment the woman walked in the room, Dayn could understand a bit where some of the... animosity, he'd call it, came from. Just from the get-go he could tell she had a presence about her, a confidence many seemed to lack and he couldn't entirely put his finger on what quality specifically gave him that idea. The other standing guard and what he had heard about the settlement in the little time he had only added to the picture.

Rhetorical or not, it had Dayn chuckling and shooting back: "Depends on the girl," with his classic, smug and slightly upturned smirk. "And I believe it." A whole additional colony back here - it didn't even seem like part of the town at first. Not a bad gig, and it made him wonder how long she had been here. For some reason, he was always a little bit apprehensive to ask others about their tenure, not wanting to remind them of how they were all stuck here. But there was no time like the present to test those waters.

Even though he stood up when she had walked in, Dayn sat back down before he realized she wouldn't be joining him, and opted to stay where he was. It was comfortable here, anyway. "About me or of me, like favors?" he asked, a brow quirking up expectantly. But fine - how personal could it possibly get? "I'll trade you three - what do you know about those things that come out at night, how long have you been here, and what is this - what do you call it, the settlement? - what goes on back here?"

Time passed in mysterious ways in Arcadia, some times the hours stretched on, and others trickled by in a blink. It often meant that Nika ran late to appointments, though she supposed tardiness didn't apply to people in charge or to the people making them. These appointments she hardly minded, made it a point to meet all the newcomers to Arcadia if they survived the first week. She found that by now she could accurately assess whether she could grow to consider them an ally or a powerful enemy. And she particularly enjoyed when the newcomers were young, felt it was easier to convince them that they had more purpose, were more important than they might think.

Prior to entering the room, Nika tilted her head back, dropped a few drops of hallucinogenic liquid in the corner into her left eye and then blinked it in. Her first dose of the day had been wearing off, and the connection to the tree was becoming muddled by sanity. Satisfied, she stepped into the room with renewed purpose, indicating with the smallest wave of her hand that the person she had had keeping guard was free to leave. Her eyes looked at the boy like a farmer appraising cattle. He was strong, in decent shape, and had an innocent like wonder to him that made her tongue curl to the top of her mouth in anticipation. She levelled him with a pointed stare.

"And tell me, Dayn," She said his name like it had been made to cross her lips, her usual melodic and intonation-free way of speaking slipping out with practiced ease. "Do you often do what girls tell you to do?"

It was a rhetorical question, and Nika leaned back against the wall. "Nika," she introduced herself, "very little happens around here without my say or my knowing." The latter was said with the implication that she knew he had been around the settlement though she didn't see him as a threat. Yet.

"Figured I could sate your curiosity. Ask me anything, I promise my answers will be true. But," she paused and looked him up and down with a smile, predator to pray, "in turn, I can ask anything of you." Information, the currency of Arcadia.