Welcome to Gaia! ::

Monica had decided to take a break. After their best efforts she wasn't sure whether the message she'd coordinated with Diana was working out - the casino seemed to just be getting more and more crowded. How many people were going to die here? Why would anyone do something like this in the middle of an apocalypse? Shouldn't they be working together to get humanity to...rebuild? Find a cure to whatever infection this had started from? Repel undying?

She just didn't know anymore. She was sitting at an empty poker table with a large frown on her face, her arms curled protectively around her coins.

She didn't like being pitted against other people, and that was really what this was. She had to look out for herself, right? But why did that mean stabbing other people in the back? If she won games, that meant someone had to lose them. Was Athena right after all?

"I miss the prison," she mumbled.

Monica looked up. Someone had heard her, and the voice was familiar...a taller woman with an elaborate hairstyle. Monica couldn't place the name but she could certainly believe that this woman had been in prison with her. "I'd pay real money to be back there right now," Monica said, rubbing at her dry eyes with a hand. "I mean...I don't know if real money has any worth anymore." But she would. "It was just...so easy. Wake up, do your portion of the work."

"Was that what you used to do?" Monica said, looking the other woman over. "You should tell me about it!" There was a trace of her usual chirpiness in the sentence, but there was also clearly an implication that Monica was willing to do anything to pretend she was elsewhere right now. Because she would.

"That sounds...so far away," said Monica, sending a watery yawn at her table companion. "It's almost like a soap opera, though!" she grinned, leaning over conspiratorially. "That woman's life..."

It must've been nice. Well, not nice: just. Normal. No death involved. No creepy undying, or threats of being snapped in half by a giant set of teeth. Monica kicked her feet around under her table. "I...I used to be a drag racer," she giggled. "Well, I drove the car - I helped a little with maintenance, but." She fluttered a hand in the air. "It was our first big purchase. I loved that car."

She still loved that car. "Then I, um, got caught driving under the influence," she said guiltily. "Not - not during a race, of course! I'm not [that irresponsible." She pulled at her cheeks, though. "But I miss being irresponsible. My - my little brother was on his way to visit me when it all went down, and now I have to..."

She had to look after him, was what she had to do. Sure, they had parents, but neither of them had really spared much thought to finding them. They'd nearly disowned Corgi when he'd dropped out of high school. They didn't see how creative he could be. "I just want everyone to come out of here safe, you know?"

"It sure does," Monica smiled, shaking her head. "And..." She paused, tilting her head to think about it. "I'm - it definitely got my blood going," she grinned. "But cars are - cars are safer than they look, and I always had my team to help me out in case...in case something went wrong, or I needed it. It's hard on them." On the cars - Monica had treated them like they were people, once. "But I loved it, and - and now I don't even know where we'd get the gas for it!" It was a silly thing to worry about, but there were also a lot of things about the apocalypse that Monica had never thought about before.

"Oh, don't - " Monica said, putting her hand over her mouth and rubbing it like she was about to yawn. She wasn't - it was midnight, and she'd hardly slept, but she couldn't afford to stop paying attention. Right? Were there still energy drinks in the apocalypse?

"Yeah," she sighed. "It really has. He's - I mean - Cory was with us, in the prison. But I never would've wanted him to go to prison in the first place, and now. Now. I don't want him to die." She'd save him if she did anything right.