The house is cluttered, ramshackle, and there's a moment of stunned silence as the woman at the table freezes, hand on the shotgun next to her. "...who the fuck are you?!"
Arie slouches back, pressing against the door, wishing it and the snowdrift against it would disappear. Ideally, taking her with them. Everything is still wrong and she can't get away anymore.
"I'm Nul, she's Arie, and we didn't mean to - we crashed - I am so, so sorry, is there anything we can do?"
"....Ev," the woman yells. "Get a fucking tarp!!!" She stands slowly, holding the shotgun tight. "We've got a hole in the fucking roof!"
A young, dark-skinned man walks in, a length of rope in his belt and a tarp in his arms. "....through the roof?" ( Nul, he... you see a second face to him, hidden under his human face... and it's nothing but smoke and embers, and long, sharp teeth, and sharpened boney fingers clutching the tarp. ) "...yep... pair of kids, right through the roof I just finished fixing before the last snowstorm."
"I. I'm sssss... I'm sssorry," Arie manages, in between gulps of air. Circulation is starting to come back to her toes now, and they hurt like knives.
"...oh, hell. Lee, you actually paying attention? He's mirrorkin." The man snaps, turning towards his housemate.
"Bigger fish to fry." She shoves her gun onto the table, striding towards Arie and grabbing at her feet. "You ran through the snow without any damn shoes, didn't you, kid? Are you batshit?"
"Doooon't-" -touch me, she wants to say, but the first word is all she can force out through the fresh waves of wrongwrongwrong.
"You mirror things. You blend in. Shit. Get over to the damn fire, if Lee is really going to do this-"
"Doing," she snaps, letting go of Arie's foot and leaning forwards to grab her torso and haul her towards the fireplace. "Alley-pop. Let's try not to get you losing those feet."
Arie flinches at the manhandling, but doesn't fight it... much. The heights of panic can only be sustained for so long, and on some level she is starting to feel the cold.
"Defrosting," Lee snaps, hauling Arie in front of the fire. "Ev, get that tarp up before we get chilled to the bone, then grab blankets." She reaches into her shirt and pulls out a lit cigarette, then takes a drag. "Teenagers can't even take care of themselves, honestly...." ( Nul. You see her push her shirt out of the way and reach into a hole in her chest to pull the cig out. ) "What were you two doofs up to out there?!" ...for someone complaining about teenagers, she doesn't look much older than Arie.
"I'm not sure," Nul admits. "I was trying to get Arie to stop running. I think Mutt - they're, uh, one of our siblings? - made her panic."
