Neo was sitting up in the bathtub, rubbing her throat curiously. Something strange had indeed happened, and she couldn't explain it. She knew she would rather not talk, even given the ability, but somehow she was talking. It didn't make sense, even though she was the one who had decided it. When she wanted to say something, she spoke, and she was having difficulty controlling that. It was annoying, especially considering the kinds of things she might accidentally say. Was this how Ruby felt all the time, completely unable to keep herself from talking? Probably.
Ruby was out of the room, trying to find something clean for them to wear most likely. It wasn't like Ruby had told her. Ruby couldn't talk, for what Neo assumed was the same reason she could now. So Neo was left to her own devices in a bathtub filled with pink water. She had to assume it was her blood that mixed with the water to turn it pink, and that was unsettling, but at least it was somewhat comfortable. If only she could change it out for some fresh water, though. She could really go for a proper bath. Figuring she might as well try, she turned the tap on. Fresh, clean water came out, to her total shock. She turned it off quickly, then stood up in the tub. There was no way to clean the water for Ruby's use, but if she drained the tub, they might both have access to more water. Drinking water.
Neo reached down and pulled the plug, letting the water drain. It wasn't lost on her that she was now dripping in water that was mixed with her own blood. It was gross, but at least it was all her own. It wasn't long before Ruby came running into the room in a panic, which was reasonable considering the noise the pipes were making as water ran through them. She went wide-eyed and gaped at the draining tub, then looked up to Neo questioningly.
Neo let out a sigh. "It wasn't going to do us any more good. Besides, watch this." Once the water was all drained, she reached down and turned the tap back on. Water came out again, splashing around in the tub. Using her hand to quickly rinse out the pinkish remains of the previous tub full, Neo cleaned it out and put the plug back in, allowing the tub to fill up once again. "It's warm too. I don't understand how it's still working, but I think we should accept this as it is."
Nodding, Ruby set the clothes she'd found aside with some clean towels. Before she actually got in the tub, she took one towel and got it wet, using it to wipe herself down. There was still plenty on her that was far from wanted in the tub water, so Neo helped make sure she was actually properly scrubbed before letting her in. Once that was done, Ruby plopped herself into the warm, clean water, a happy smile on her face. Neo sat across from her, staring at her, with plenty of concerns running through her head.
Once they had finished properly cleaning themselves, and another tub full of water was poured, Neo voiced her concerns. "None of this makes sense. I can't even stop myself from talking now, and you can't talk at all. It's like we switched." Ruby splashed her. Neo returned the favor. "I'm serious, you really can't stop talking. Now I can't. I hate it. We need to switch this back somehow, but I don't have the slightest clue how it happened in the first place, so there's no way to know how to fix it."
Ruby shrugged, then held her hand over her mouth and breathed in, sucking air through her fingers. It made a sound like she was breathing through a mask, and Neo got that she was referring to the gas they'd both inhaled. There was no argument that it had messed them up, but would that really include making Ruby mute? Maybe it would. But making Neo talk? No, there was no way it had done that. She had to wonder if there was something that had caused the direct switch, some sort of mental or psychic trickery, or perhaps an Atlesian science experiment.
Neo couldn't figure it out on her own, that was for sure. She sank lower into the tub, unable to come up with a good explanation, or even a theory. "I bet if you were talking, we could figure this out." She opened her eyes to see Ruby was glaring at her. "What, it's true. You say so many things, one of them is eventually going to make sense. You can't expect me to do that. You're the one with years of experience." Ruby rolled her eyes at Neo. Neo rolled her eyes right back. "Fine, what should we- ah, I mean, what should I talk about?"
Ruby just stared at her, not answering. Pretty much as Neo expected she would. She was about to start talking about whatever came to mind when Ruby reached up and mimed tipping a hat. Of all things, Neo couldn't believe that's what Ruby wanted to hear about. She wanted to hear Neo talk about Roman Torchwick. Why would she want that? Neo wouldn't have anything good to say to her about him. Of course, everything about Roman would be glowing reviews, but a lot of criticism would find its way pointed at Ruby if that's the topic they went with, and Neo didn't feel like making the atmosphere hostile right now.
"How about no. Another idea?" Ruby shook her head, so Neo decided to take the lead on choosing a subject. "Okay, okay, let's try something useful then. The weather. Let's talk about the weather." Ruby sighed, which was a good sign. "We nearly freeze to death, then we nearly bake to death." Ruby pointed at her, and Neo had to correct that statement. "Okay, fine, I nearly bake to death. Then it rains for forever, and it's super windy. How is it that it was so cold and then so hot, changing so quickly, but then this storm gets to rage on basically until the end of time? Hold on, maybe all this rain is why there's running water? You think?"
Ruby did look like she was considering it, but since neither of them really knew how the plumbing of Mantle worked, there was no way to know if it was resistant to the temperature changes they'd endured, or if collected rainwater could be added to the cycle. They could investigate, but really what would be the point? So they would know how they're getting clean water. If it was true that the storm was providing it, then all that did was show them that it was entirely out of their control, which wouldn't help. However, because it's Mantle and Atlas, there might well be some seriously useful things in the water stations. For one, they probably wouldn't have to worry about running out of water. Not that they would have to worry about that with the storm still raging anyway, but it would be simpler and safer to collect and use.
Neo had made her choice. "Okay, that's where we're heading. There has to be somewhere in Mantle that handles all the water supply. And since it's most likely supplying Atlas as well, that means there's a way for us to get up there. A way for us to reach Atlas. There's no one down here, but that doesn't mean there's no one up there. Whatever happened in Mantle didn't necessarily happen in Atlas, and the people up there wouldn't want to come down here, so it makes sense that we haven't seen anyone else."
Ruby looked up, like she was looking through the ceiling at the city floating above them. She was clearly skeptical of that idea, but she had to agree it could be the case. If no one was here, then no one was here, but there were other places and they had not looked in those places yet. They couldn't just be the only two people left. That would be insane, and impossible, or at least very very improbable. What about the Grimm? If every single person in the entire world had vanished, what had happened to the Grimm? Were they gone too? Were they still out there, just scattered because there were no people left to attack? That reminded her, though. There was something she needed to discuss with Ruby. Something very serious, that might explain one of the more horrible features this world had.
"Ruby." The other girl looked up at her from nursing a bad cut on her shoulder. Neo had her attention. "Those monsters... There are going to be more of them. But there's something you don't know about the first one we fought. You remember, in that gas chamber, you saw the face on the ceiling, right?" Ruby nodded. "There was one on the vine monster. It died when I destroyed its head. Ruby, I think these monsters used to be people."
There was silence between them, and it looked like Ruby was thinking through that idea. It might have made sense, but Neo wasn't entirely sure how. She knew Cinder had a Grimm arm, but that was very weird. These things didn't look like Grimm, anyway, so it wasn't the same. Ruby shook her head and got out of the tub, taking a towel and beginning to dry herself off. Neo got out as well, figuring they were done with bath time. She let the water drain and quickly wrapped a towel around her shoulders. Unlike Ruby, who had to wrap the towel around her body under her arms, Neo could cover everything with these towels without even leaving her arms exposed. It made for a much warmer experience.
The two girls changed into the clothes Ruby had collected for them and stepped out to take in the rest of the house more extensively. It didn't take Ruby long to find what she was looking for, and before long she was sitting at the kitchen table, writing with a pad of paper and a pencil. Neo sat next to her and watched, wondering what it was Ruby had to tell her. It wasn't all good news.
Neo read it out loud when she was done. "At first, I thought maybe it had just killed her, but after seeing that I think I have to agree with you. I remember those eyes that the monster had, and I remember they belonged to someone. I don't remember who they belonged to, and I don't remember that person's name, but I know they existed. It makes me wonder who else I've forgotten. Was there someone I should have remembered when we were fighting the vine monster? I don't know. And I'm afraid of who I might forget next." She looked away, her eyes wandering off to the wall while she thought about how to answer that. "Maybe... maybe it's some kind of disease."
Ruby looked up, surprised.
"Well, think about it." Neo cleared her throat and stood up, so she had more room to wave her hands around while she spoke. It felt necessary. "It's like in those zambie movies, right? There's some science experiment that gets out of hand, or aliens infect us, or something like that. Then people turn into monsters and start eating other people. Maybe it's something like that, right?"
The skeptic look Ruby gave Neo was enough to quash that idea almost completely. There was no way Ruby was going to accept that outlandish story.
Neo slumped. "I give up, then. It's some kind of otherworldly poison that's mutating people into horrendous monsters. There's gotta be a source, and if we kill the source, maybe we kill all the monsters."
Ruby looked like she was considering the possibility, so she started writing again. It didn't take very long, but Neo wasn't all that enthused about what she saw Ruby writing, so she kind of wished Ruby would take longer, to prolong Neo's having to read it.
"I've read some books about edr- elderi-" Neo gave up. "I don't know how to pronounce that word or what it means." She skipped it for now. "Abominations. Yeah, that sounds fun. Okay, so... Elder Obama blah blah blah, cosmic entities beyond mortal comprehension." She fixed Ruby with a glare. "If we can't comprehend them, there's no way we can fight them, so it's obviously not that. Let's stay grounded on Remnant."
Ruby interrupted her in order to jot something down quickly, holding it up in Neo's face and pointing to it.
Neo leaned back away from the paper, just a little annoyed. "Geez, okay, what... We can fight them? How do you figure that?"
Turning the pad around and writing in it quickly, Ruby explained, or at least Neo hoped she explained, how she intended to fight these 'Elder Obamas' or whatever they were called. Ruby showed her the pad again, and Neo read it out.
"We go to the water plant, like you said, and then go up to Atlas. There, we get the best weapons we can make, and then we hunt these motherfuckers down until they've all paid for what they're doing to people." She looked back to Ruby. "Oh no, you said a bad word, can you still be a hero?"