TEST DRIVE ∞ May 2025

[thediadem]

Test Drive ∞ May 2025

The First Collision

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Jump ⇅ :: Arrival — Panorama — Fringes — Invite Request

The Diadem is an invite-only panfandom game set in a retro-futuristic world where uprooted souls find themselves deep within an eerie wasteland of roads and highways frequently assailed by cosmic storms. Three united strongholds keep the population. Its capital is Panorama, a large metropolis at the planet's center.

Soon, you realize you aren't alone. Calling themselves fluxdrifts, the "locals" have similar stories to you, either for themselves or their ancestry. You speak to an old woman who claims she hailed from another star. You meet a young man who says his great-great-grandfather knew a strange language everybody spoke "back home." As you explore, you stumble across a coin you recognize or your sister's locket. How did it get here? What does this mean? That's for you to discover.

But first, you need to find a ride.

No invites needed to play on the TDM. Everyone's welcome! Use the Invite Request thread below to request an invite from another player.

∞ Summary ∞

IC-wise, arrivals are scattered throughout the month. Events described on the TDM are also ongoing throughout the month. If you'd rather jump right into the action, you're free to begin in media res with your character having already been on the planet for several days.

Post-impact, characters will wake up in a med tent by the Scrapyard. From there, they must accept a vehicle on loan and make the 2-hour drive to the nearest city, Panorama. If they refuse the car because they don't want the loan, they'll be in debt for medical bills instead...so just take the car. It'll come in handy.

Some things to keep in mind when bringing in your character:

• Pick an injury. At minimum, they got knocked out; at most, whatever they can recover from. Medicine is decently advanced so they'll heal faster if not painlessly.
• Decide items kept. Reasonable items on their person only: photos, keys, clothes, costumes. No pets or animal companions. Wildly out-of-place tech and personal cell phones will be damaged beyond repair.
• Select a weapon. Do this only if eligible. Guidelines about weapons and powers are on the FAQ.
• Choose a vehicle. Decide whether your character gets 2-3 options or if they're stuck with something they hate. Players can pick directly from our collection or source their own images. Anything under a similar aesthetic will work. If your character needs accommodations for driving, they can have them. Ask us for details.
• Get a phone. Characters have to obtain a phone (and a SIM card) themselves. If they've got one from home, it's damaged beyond repair. Phones are cheap. It'll only take a couple of weeks to afford one. You need to know the number before you text or call anyone. Read about phones and the Forum before you hop on it.

TDM threads can be canon if characters are accepted. Top-levels made to the TDM should be open to all.

TDM Questions? Here — Game Questions? FAQ

Setting — Taken — Reserves — Applications ::: ⇅ Top

Fluxdrift

Arrival & Introduction

Date: Throughout May

You've tumbled over a cliff. You were fighting for your life. You're on the cusp of death. You slipped in the shower. Whatever the catalyst, you struggle to cling to consciousness. As darkness overtakes you, a swirling vortex warps light and shadow in a way that defies all physics. A dark wail etches into your very bones. You couldn't describe it if you tried. You can barely comprehend what it is.

Then you open your eyes.

Through the figure's mask ©, you swear the face is grinning down at you. The tent you're in smells of antiseptic, and scratchy blankets line your cot. Injuries you've sustained have been bandaged. In the corner, you spot a MedBot that's fixed you up. Depending on the extent of your injuries, the doctor on duty might give you some painkillers before you go. Thankfully, your belongings are by the exit. Sorry if anything's damaged. Your landing was pretty rough.

You follow the figure outside. They are Yom Crook, here to lend a hand to fellow fluxdrifts like yourself. Their car's parked beside them. Actually, there are lots of cars around, but Yom Crook's stands out with its painted shark mouth. They explain they found you, unconscious, in a diffusion zone and brought you here. The nearest city is a 2-hour drive northeast. Forget about walking. You'll never make it. Also, you owe the doctor a lot of money for patching you up. But you're in luck: they've got some wheels for you and if you accept the vehicle on loan, Yom Crook will cover your medical bills. That's a good deal, right? It's not the shiniest car or motorcycle, but it'll do. If fortune favors, you'll get to choose between two or three options. Plus, if you need accommodations to drive—like adjustments to your seat height or modified controls—you'll receive all that for free.

Take the vehicle. (And the loan.) Yom Crook assures you that you'll have six months before collectors come around. Any time you're ready to pay a part of it down, return here to the Scrapyard. You'll get a receipt and everything. Paying off the loan in six months isn't impossible, but it will take a lot of work. Just don't get too lax. There's a good chance you'll be juggling multiple loans as you try to get by.

You either know how to drive, or you'll have a bare-bones manual to get you started. Road rules are more a suggestion than enforced, so just hit the pedal and go. The car has some basic features. The built-in compass will help you navigate.

OPTIONAL PROMPTS: a flat tire; a body on the road (is it a trap?); a fender bender

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Panorama

Explore & Settle In

Conditions: Warm spring temperatures, light showers

After 2 hours on the road, you find civilization. The largest of the strongholds, Panorama is where the economy thrives. Massive power plants glowing red make it visible from a distance. The city is divided into three districts. For now, you can access the Pavilion and the Blocks. Don't worry about the Sanctum; they're not letting you in.

You only need to know two things about Panorama: 1) it's big, the size of a modern metropolis, and you'll need your car to get around; 2) anything goes as long as you don't pick a fight with the wrong person. Street smarts will get you far. Despite its geographical size, the population isn't huge. With roughly a million people in a city designed for over twice that number, Panorama is far from deserted, but nor is it overcrowded. It's a good thing. Resources are limited as it is.

The Pavilion: Free Samples

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Like any large city, Panorama features a couple of supermarkets. The stock's not as consistent as a proper supermarket. On occasion, shelves can remain cleaned out for a week or two. Regardless, the long tradition of free samples remains. If you're not already shopping, you'll notice the crowded parking lot and clusters of lines inside.

Try samples, push through the crowds as you shop, or give yourself a five-finger discount. If you're cautious, you can pocket a few small items without consequences. The Pavillion doesn't have the infrastructure for surveillance; unless someone sees you, you won't be caught. Steal from the store or pilfer someone's wallet. Maybe you even make a new friend if you bump into another fluxdrift. Or, start a fight with somebody who cut you off in the cheese line. Don't make too much of a ruckus, or you'll be thrown out.

As you look around, you'll see posters advertising temporary positions for the cash register or graveyard shifts in the warehouse. Seems they might've lost several employees recently (how'd that happen?), which is good for you! It's just a 6-week position, but it'll get you on your feet. The city has temporary positions like this all over. Permanent ones are harder to come by when you're new.

Samples include: steamed cabbage dumplings, synthetic cherry juice, cheddar cheese, and chocolate-covered alien eggs (it's crunchy and weirdly tasty). They're served in the usual throwaway paper cups with little toothpicks.

The Blocks: Power Outage

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Power's finicky in Panorama, especially in the Blocks. Saint Margery's Hospital, located in the same area, has priority for power so the first to go are the motels. Maybe you've been in your room for a couple of weeks, maybe you just got here—and by the way, every motel desk is happy to put the fee on your tab if you don't have the money upfront—but all the motels on the east side are in a blackout, leaving only the west side motels up and running.

What do you do? You have three choices:

• Risk leaving your room and head to the other side where there's power. Knock on some doors and negotiate with another to share the room. They might shut the door in your face, ask for a favor in return, or be nice enough to help you with no strings attached. There's no guarantee your unattended room will be untouched, though, and you'll be on the hook for any damages an intruder causes.
• Sit in the dark and deal. It's not the worst idea, but the TV's down, the vending machines are powered down, and with the entire place plunged into darkness, you risk getting robbed. If you struggle with defending yourself, you might want to find some trustworthy company. You can also sneak out of there and let them take your leftover pizza. It's not like you've got a ton of valuables, right? Plus, clobbering someone in the face with a frying pan sounds great until you realize you've gotta do something with the body. And what if this person's got a friend waiting?
• Get in your car and drive (or grab a friend for a road trip). If you scroll the Forum, you might notice reports on diffusion zones southward. Besides, these motels are hardly your forever home. The city can only provide so much. Why not go for a ride and see what you can find out there?

OPTIONAL PROMPTS: clean up on aisle 3 (what is that goo?); a knock at your door but no one's there; you hear screaming or a commotion down the hall

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©

The Fringes

Quad 3: Lockdown

Conditions: Stormy, with flooding roads

Felix Bjurstrom
> Date: 125-05-17
> Time: 02:15:57

> Emergency road lights have been reported in Quadrant 3! Please, can someone go see what's there? When last we chasers investigated emergency lights, a whole truck filled with sour candy had tipped over. Our stores were stocked for weeks! Oh, be careful - reception looks bad in that zone.

Whether you end up here on your own or you were following a tip on the Forum, the outcome is the same: you come to a stop in front of a 2-story office building that's flooded several inches deep. Emergency lights from a roadblock flicker through the stormy night. Stepping out of your car, you're soaked within seconds. When you check your phone, you don't have any bars. No calls in or out.

Through the open windows, a computer awakens and displays a cheerful smile. The lights inside switch on.

Pick your scenario role below. Your thread partner doesn't need to take the opposite role! They can join you in the same scenario (i.e. trapped together). Players are also free to create a generic NPC for the other side to facilitate the thread.

After characters escape, they'll find one bottle of antibiotics in their pocket or car, whether they remember taking it or not.

A: Sealed In
As you peer through the windows, you see crates of medicine floating around. Antibiotics in the diadem are valuable. Hospitals and doctors are always buying. You can keep it for yourself or make a quick buck. Or maybe you're compelled to help somebody back in the city who's in need. Whatever the reason, you decide to take the risk and step inside.

Water splashes around your ankles. The lock buzzes behind you. If you try to break the windows, you discover they're unnaturally resistant to shattering. With the whole place locked tight, the water begins to churn. Then the computer lights up again.

Warning, it flashes in large, bold text. Quarantine in progress. Release code required for exit.

• To find the code, you'll have to search. Duck under the water, go through sopping envelopes and sticky notes or pick the locks on the filing cabinets and desk drawers. You can also try hacking the computers. Use your computer knowledge or fall back on the age-old trick of seeing who wrote down their password.
• The files, notepads, and emails start innocuous, but as you look through them, disturbing phrases jump out at you—a dark thought you've had or a cruel taunt from someone in your past. The longer you're fixed on the terrible words, the higher the water begins to rise. Only another can break you out of your trance.
• With the rising water comes fear. And the more you're afraid, the more the water also rises. You begin to see faces in the water, bobbing like balloon heads. Do you recognize them? If you move to take a closer look, they will sink back beneath the surface as if never there.
• If you manage to swallow your panic, you can eventually find a triple-laminated binder with the release code and instructions. Bad news: you need someone on the outside to punch in the 6 strange symbols in order. The instructions explain that the code panel is located at the back of the building.

Let's hope a friendly face comes along.

B: Set Free
As you peer through the windows, you see not just the crates of medicine but someone trapped inside. They look like they might be in trouble, and from your vantage point, you notice that the water is bubbling strangely. It's definitely not normal rainwater. As you watch, the water rises unnaturally, stopping and starting. It's as if the water level is responding to an external stimulus.

• The glass is soundproof. You can't hear what the person inside is saying, so you'll have to communicate with each other another way. Try charades, typing on your phone, or whatever you think of. Eventually, you determine that they're stuck and that you need to enter some sort of code onto a pad located—according to your trapped partner—at the back of the building.
• Around the back, shadows swallow your surroundings. The panel must be pried open, but a slippery substance makes it hard to get a good grip. Each time the substance touches you, you grow uneasy. You swear you see eyes watching you, though when you turn around, nothing's there.
• You can't seem to keep the instructions in your mind. And those symbols...they burn into your retinas. Through them, you glimpse an incomprehensibly massive figure unfurling in the darkness, pulsing as if in a deep sleep. When you snap back to reality, you realize you've injured yourself, slicing your hand on a sharp edge or a bruise you can't remember getting.
• Once you manage to release the doors, the water inside the office drains upward into the sky as though sucked out by a giant hose. The darkness spreads. Get out of there fast before the shadows drag you or your partner into the void.

Of course, you don't have to help anyone. You can leave the individual there, make a deal, or outright extort them. But remember, you're not the only person on these roads. You might want to play your cards carefully, even if altruism isn't your first instinct.

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Comments

POWER OUTAGE; this never happened tho.

[terrorisms]

( It sure would be nice to be able to say this is the first time Karen Page has ever pointed a gun at his face. There's something distinctly funny about the first five seconds of this scene — the whirl of a barrel, the dark and imposing shape that is Frank, Karen's slender figure at arms and her hands entirely too steady, Frank's own hands coming up to hover placatingly in the air. Not because he couldn't disarm a civilian easier than breathing, but because right now, he doesn't have a reason to. That pistol pointed at his face barely a pea-shooter compared to the heft of the rifle hanging from a shoulder strap at his side.

He's out here for the same reason as her — that scream, that woman's voice, carrying through the silence of his dark and empty bedroom with the kind of terror that suggests victim. He's not the hero type, but he's also not the type to sit back while somebody takes advantage of a woman within shouting distance, so here they are.

Only now, his eyes have adjusted, and he can finally make out her face through the darkness. His hands drop instantly as he rasps out an incredulous, )

Karen?

no it did not. c:

[pagings]

[ she's on edge - there's no telling what she might find when she finally steps out of her run down, dirty motel space. anything of value beyond her car is on her person, the highest value the gun in her hand and the phone in her pocket. she's exhausted, but you wouldn't be able to tell that from how steady her hand is around the pistol, the slow steps she takes making her way down the hall.

there was never going to be a world where Karen wasn't here when the woman started screaming, wasn't going to be a world where she wouldn't come for help. she knows that she might be walking into a trap, maybe a crowd of people, a mugging, a robbery, but night after night she's heard too much shit and it's keeping her up, anyway. she had to look. she has to make sure.

what she doesn't expect is the figure of a man right around that corner, a familiar set of shoulders, the tilt of his neck. his hands are out, placating, trying to hold off an unsteady trigger finger despite the rifle hanging from his shoulder, but he knows how to diffuse a situation. knows how to calm someone who might be a little in out of their league.

the last time she saw frank castle, he'd been covered in blood - his arm has been wrecked, his jaw tight from the pain, and he'd been looking at her like she was the only thing that mattered. and she'd let him go - right up into the elevator shaft, out of harm's way, as she waited to be found. interrogated. to go on with her life.

karen? he asks, and she lowers the barrel of her gun, her mouth falling a little open. no matter how much she might have been telling herself to expect the unexpected, to be ready for anything, this, somehow, was never part of it. ]

Frank?

[terrorisms]

( His shoulders relax a microscopic amount the second she says his name — more than they did when she lowered the gun, honestly. That recognition, seeing and being seen, being on the same page, that's invaluable... but her presence here is an entirely new complication he wasn't prepared for. Watching out for himself in this new, alien shithole of a city is one thing. Knowing she's here, and the immediate resolution that he's gonna have to watch out for her, too? Yeah, that's a higher difficulty level.

Especially when she does shit like chase after screaming people in the middle of a rolling blackout in a place like this. Gun or no gun, it's a dangerous choice.

But they don't really have time to go over that right now, nor have a touching reunion, nor for Frank to drill her with half a dozen questions. They came out here for a reason, and his yes snap back up to the corridor before flitting back to her again. He's not gonna bother telling her not to follow him, he'd bet money she won't listen. What he will do is gently settle hands on her arms and maneuver her around so that he's taking point, in the front, with the target on his chest shaped like a stark-white skull. )

Stay behind me, keep your safety off.

( If someone comes springing up at them from the back, she needs to be ready to pull the trigger without delay. He's more worried about that than the possibility of her accidentally shooting him in the back.

And then his hands are on his rifle again, and they're moving. Tracking the sound of scuffling, muffled noises like screams behind a muting hand clapped over a mouth, the low, deep baritone growl of a voice over top of it. Starting to seem a lot like somebody might be taking a bullet in this corridor tonight. )

[pagings]

[ the last moment she saw frank castle was months ago, after he'd climbed out of the roof of that elevator, bleeding and broken, holding himself together out of willpower alone. it had eaten away at her, in the following weeks, that she'd just let him go. she'd kept up with madani, with the case, with the way that frank castle died somewhere in the chaos. that billy russo was in the hospital. that things had moved on and she'd likely never see him again...

and here he stands, impossibly so, in the midst of a decrepit motel hallway with a rifle hanging from his shoulder and his hair cut short, and it feels like her knees have been taken out from under her.

he's alive (though some part of her knew he was, even when she wasn't sure. even when she didn't know for sure) and he's here (how long? how long has he been in this same city, this same place, and she hadn't known?) and now-

karen opens her mouth to say something, feels the urge to push forward and touch him (just to make sure this isn't some nightmare, or she's not hallucinating, or any combination of the two), when the voices from down the hallway start back up again and she notices his eyes jerk off towards them and then back to her. they are both out here for a reason, and while she has to swallow back the realization that if she hadn't come out to investigate, she might have never known he was here, she knows where their priorities are.

his hands are warm where they settle, lightly, on her arms - and that's all the reassurance she needs right then. that he's real, that this is real. that he's here. he tells her to keep her safety off and Karen nods, stepping in behind him as he steps by her and continues, and Karen keeps her eyes behind them as she follows. it's noticeable, how much safer she instantly feels, how that cloying, suffocating feeling of survival lifts now that she's not alone. now that the frame she follows is familiar, even if the rest of their situation is still off.

the sounds of muffled screams have her tense, her hands tightening around her own gun as her eyes go from the hallway behind them to frank and back again. this would be his forte, something she knows he could do on his own without backup, but she's not about to let him.

there's one voice, and then another, and the kind of rustling of a body trying to move and others holding it back. karen thinks she hears a low chuckle, a few exchanged words, and then more muffled screams. her eyes shoot to the back of frank's head as they come to a stop at the end of another hallway, as she waits for his... she doesn't know. signal? directive? something. ]

[terrorisms]

( There's an awful lot to factor into this equation now. Karen's a grown woman, a capable and competent adult, he knows that, he respects it, but there's no pretending like this place they're at is normal. This isn't surviving a particularly rough crime spree in Hell's Kitchen, this is a place with cosmic storms that bring on things beyond what humans are meant to see. This is a city where crime isn't just tolerated, it's expected. A place where the justice system has given up the charade, where law enforcers work for the wealthy or the business owners, where it's easy to go hungry and wind up on the street.

This is a place where a woman can scream in a motel hallway, and all people will do is make sure their doors are locked and thank god it isn't happening to them. Everything about this place is filthy.

Yeah, he might be glad to see her, but more than that, he hates that she's here. Adapting the strategy for how he approaches life here is inevitable. They're gonna have to sit down, they're gonna have to talk, they're gonna have to get on the same page. He needs to know how long she's been here, how she's doing, if she's secure, if she's got food, if she's got a plan.

And he needs to forcefully shove all of that out of his mind right now, immediately, thoroughly, to focus on the situation that's unfolding. So, for the moment, Karen's getting the soldier instead of the friend.

They hit the corner, he peers around it, then holds up a silent hand at her without glancing back. Wait, hold. Let him assess.

Two men. One securing the woman by locking her hands behind her head, his thick arms wound up under her shoulders, biceps swollen and taut, effortless even as she writhes and fights to get out of his grip. The second man's sporting a knife in one hand, the other palm slapped over her mouth to mute the feral, quavering noises trying and failing to escape her throat.

He can't put a bullet in that guy without it clearing straight through him and hitting her next — and besides that, he's trying to be conservative with his ammo. He hasn't found a place to resupply yet, and he doesn't have the funds to afford it even if he had one. If all they've got are knives, and it looks like that might be the case, then he should be able to handle this without expending a round.

It's a little too much to spell out for her in the brief seconds-long window of time they have, so instead, voice low, eyes locking on hers, he murmurs: )

Stay here, don't let anyone come up the hall, and only pull the trigger if they start headin' your way fast.

( Not that he intends to let them, but he doesn't pretend to be infallible. His effectiveness comes from being thorough and being over-prepared, not from being cocky.

With that plan thrown down on the table, he rounds the corner and starts stalking silently, gracefully, smoothly up the hall without saying a fucking word. No hey, assholes! Not a sound. Sometimes you need a sledgehammer, and sometimes you need a scalpel. Frank can be both, and this'll all go more smoothly if he can clear a significant bit of distance before either of them notice him coming in the dark. He makes it to about ten feet away before the bigger guy barks out a sharp, "Hey, who the fuck do you think you are?"

And that's about when things get real. )

[pagings]

[ karen is a grown woman who can handle herself - has been handling herself, up until this point, without his strategy in place. has it been easy? far from it. karen page might be a survivor, but this life, this place, is not for the faint of heart. so no, it has not been easy. every day feels like a little more of her resolve falls away. day upon day of survival, of paranoia, of knowing that the moment she might relax, even the smallest bit, will be the day it's all over. it all has felt a bit like an ongoing nightmare, the worst nights that she's ever experienced in hell's kitchen, over and over and over again. but she has done it, she would continue to do it too, alone, for however long it took, but-

well- that is all something they can talk about once they get to that point, when she knows his attention isn't fully on the task at hand. frank castle is a soldier, something that will always be at the core of him, and while it will never be the only thing there is to him, she can recognize when the situation calls for it. and right now, his expertise is warranted. wanted. because if there was ever going to be a chance for a woman getting attacked, it would be near frank. karen would know.

they keep walking, and Karen stops - silent - when his hand comes up to tell her as much. she doesn't risk also leaning around the corner, and instead waits for frank to check the scene, to make a plan. she keeps her eyes on the back hallway, keeps wanting to be of more use but knows her limits, knows that if she engages, the chances of it getting worse are higher. too many bodies, too many changes.

frank turns back to her voice low, and tells her about what she'd been thinking. she nods, trusting him, knowing that it's unlikely but she also doesn't want to get in the way. she's been around long enough to know that ammunition isn't easy to come by, but she also hasn't had a ton of uses for it, so she's not necessarily thinking about it. but of course frank is, of course frank has it top of mind. there's another sound from around the corner, more of a struggle, and Karen quickly catches his elbow before he turns the corner. she's not planning on saying anything, but her eyes say enough. be careful. even when she knows he probably doesn't need it. she squeezes his arm, once, and then lets go and turns her eyes back to the hallway.

she resists the urge to look as frank moves silently around the corner, and has to resist it again when she hears one of the men bark out, angrily. what follows is just about what she expects - yelling, the sound of fists, of breaking bones - and Karen lets one of her hands come to her mouth, holding back the noises she nearly makes in response. frank doesn't need long, barely a few minutes, but then the silence that follows is all that karen needs before she lowers her gun and finally peeks around the corner to see what happened. or, maybe more accurately, what frank's left behind. ]

[terrorisms]

( She catches him with that touch to his elbow, and he thinks for one single second that she's going to ask him not to. That she's going to try to convince him to go easy, like she did once outside of a shack at night. Maybe he should've known better; she's never done it since. Never again asked him to stop. Never acted like she expected anything from him other than what he is. What he gets instead is a be careful, and he spends a moment lingering in that look. Drinking it down like a man that's been trawling the desert for too long.

And then, abruptly, he breaks away and is gone.

What's left behind when Karen finally rounds the corner is Frank breathing hard, standing over the fallen bodies of two men who lay suspiciously still, and the sobbing figure of a woman huddled in the corner. She looks more than shaken, she looks absolutely compromised, shooting looks at Frank like she isn't sure whether she ought to be appreciative of him or terrified of him. Like she doesn't know whether to be thankful or to run.

His eyes flicker from Karen, to the woman, then back again. He doesn't have to say what he's thinking for her to pick up on it, probably — that it might be best for her to step in here instead of the guy who just violently dropped two people in front of her. He's got the bodies to get rid of anyway. )

[pagings]

[ once upon a time she might have - might have asked him not to, to please don't. what if they had families? what if there were people waiting for them? who knows what they could be doing, if there are reasons behind their motives. but the thing is- the karen now does not wonder. does not question. she's been in this motel for long enough to know that screams like they heard, screams from a woman and voices from multiple men, there's no misunderstanding here. and Karen, now, knows that even if she had been on the fence about that much, that convincing frank of it would be another herculean task. something she doesn't see the need to, right now.

( does she like it? absolutely not. does she accept it? yes. in that same way she knows that with each bullet and each grunt and the thuds of bodies falling will sit, heavy, in her gut for hours, days even. she doesn't like it, but she's also no stranger to it, and does not second guess the choice of it now. )

karen is a quick study. she'd asked that of frank once, and saw what happened. now? now she squeezes his elbow, a silent be careful, and lets him go.

and then it is over. karen comes around the corner, finally, to see the two bodies on the ground and the woman in the corner. karen's eyes go to frank, briefly, sees him look to the woman and back, and then karen is putting away her pistol and kneeling down in front of the sobbing woman - her hands, gentle, as they set on the woman's shoulders, as she gently tells her she's safe, it's okay, they're okay. there aren't many words exchanged, but Karen gets a name (janelle) and gets the woman to her feet. she was just trying to get home, she lives just a few doors down, she doesn't know why- and Karen listens, makes sure the woman isn't hurt, doesn't have any other injuries, and then wraps an arm around her shoulder and leads her down the hall.

she glances over her shoulder, once, to where frank is dealing with the bodies - swallowing that weight a little further down and, with a single look, letting him know she'll be right back. that she's going to help the woman back to her room and behind a locked door.

when frank's finished, he will find karen finishing up helping janelle get settled. reminding her to call Karen if she needs anything, anything, and that she lives in the same building, can be by whenever she needs. by the time frank gets there, Karen will be closing the door behind her, waiting for just a few moments to make sure she hears the deadbolt sliding into place before she lets out a long breath. ]