"I'll try."

She closes her eyes, tries to - meditate or something, she doesn't actually think she's ever done that before - and thinks about the laundromat, about how desperately she wants out of here -

A minute later, it's very clearly not working. 

She huffs, opens her eyes, and looks down at her hands.

She's still holding her grandmother's scarf.

"...I wonder..." she mutters, glancing up again. It's awfully far, but - she has a magic dream scarf -

"You thoughta something?"

"It's probably stupid, but - what about the scarf?"

"-Way I see it, there's no point in not trying it."

"Yeah."

She looks up, squints, and swings the end of the scarf a few times, feeling silly, before throwing it up.

It's a scarf. Not weighted or anything, shouldn't go far before flopping - 

It soars, up and up and up, the trajectory almost unnatural, the way it keeps going definitely unnatural, a river of red what looks like miles long stretching into the sky - 

And, impossibly, it hooks on the little speck of light, pulling taught.

Bina sucks in a breath, but it holds. Out, and a glance over to Ant -

"Well. That seems to have worked." She hesitates, glances up, and huffs out again. "Come on, I should be able to pull both of us up."

Ant pauses, bites at eir lip, and then nods and holds out eir hand. "Let's get out of here."

"Yeah, let's."

Bina takes eir hand, helps em grasp onto the scarf - it's weirdly slippery, though not so for Bina, so Bina huffs and tells em to hold onto her back.

Ant does as instructed, tight enough to not risk slipping, but loose enough to not constrict.

And she climbs.

It's a long, long way up, but - the higher it gets, it's like that fades from her mind. Like a memory of a long but boring intermission, but happening in real-time.

It's a weird feeling, and Bina doesn't like it one bit, but it keeps her arms working, keeps her from getting bored as she climbs into the sky -

Then the light's close, and - 

She doesn't remember what happens next.

Except then she wakes, from where she was lying down on the uncomfortable plastic bench in the laundromat.

This isn't where she'd been - 

It's - 

She looks around.

There's no Ant.

(Was she dreaming?)

But, no - the washing machine that the not-person came out of is gone, and there's smears of dark sticky mud on the floor.

Bina stands up, shaking.

(Not entirely gone.)

And the door is opening.

Her arm is bandaged and itchy and hot and hurting and something has gone horribly weird.

She doesn't really manage more than a few stumbling steps before the odd woman's in.

"Ah - there was - the washing machine - " she stutters.

Great job Bina. Real smooth. Definitely not going to get you killed.

"-What the hell?"

"I have no idea! The washing machine was rattling a lot and then it fell over and I've been really tired, lately, okay, so I took a nap, and then it was gone."

"-I got rid of that. That's where I just came back from."

Bina sort of freezes. Contemplates punching her, talking, running...

And some little niggle at the back of her head tells her to play things cool. She nods, says, "No clue how that happened," stretches a bit since she just woke up, and starts moving her wet clothes from the washer to the dryer.

"Hn." The woman doesn't turn back to the door, but there's a distinct sound of the lock engaging, and her hands are behind her back.

Bina's not going to start this conversation! Instead she'll just keep doing her laundry. Like a normal person who doesn't have weird dreams or odd wounds.

Her arm itches.

The woman is quiet for a moment. "What did you do to your arm?"

"Banged it on a part of the bench that was kind of sticking out. I'm clumsy."

"Hn. Hurry up. Don't want to keep the Green Lady waiting."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Bina isn't quite able to smile but is able to look serious and nod a bit. "I need to get my laundry in a dryer, first," she says. "It'll get wrinkly if I don't dry it." Maybe scary lady will get bored and wander off if Bina keeps inventing tasks and give her a chance to run? She thinks there's an exit in the back. It might be a fire door, which'd be bad, but Bina at least hopes she's a faster runner...

She doesn't seem immediately inclined to move.

There's abruptly yelling from the back room - in French. "Hey, c'mon, let me free. I won't call the cops, I swear!"