nine † that He bring visible & speedy help

[visetvires]

spam } kitchens & greenhouse

[For one day - one day only - Clementine skips her dinner shift. It's not out of any sense of laziness; she simply loses track of time after Dean says what he says, and so by the time she realizes she's supposed to be there, the shift's already over.]

[The next day, she makes up for it by arriving early and staying until she's kicked out. There is very little else she wants to do, she realizes. Sitting still in her cabin and getting drunk is not going to cut it, not today. Not now.]

[She is listless, purposeless, and wanders more or less by accident into the greenhouse. Sitting under a small tree (whose species she could determine if she gave two shits), she considers a prayer, tries it out, her hands clenched in small fists on her knees. It doesn't feel as though anyone's listening, though.]

voice } open minus dean

I'm at loose ends.

[This is not what she'd meant to say; her voice is thin, croaky, as though she hasn't spoken in years.]

If anyone needs an extra pair of hands. I have one.

[That's more or less it.]

private } scott

[Now she sounds desperate, hungry for purpose, lost and alone. He is her last hope - and what fucking irony is that?]

Tell me what to do.

private } iris

Are you okay?

Comments

[bodilesswarrior]

[Her smile is strained, and her words are rough, like she's speaking around a dull ache.]

Want to shoot things?

[visetvires]

Yes.

[An immediate, grateful yes. Can she shoot everything?]

[bodilesswarrior]

[Her grin feels more like baring teeth than anything else, but at least her blood is pumping.]

Good. Enclosure?

[visetvires]

Yeah. Meet you there.

[video]

[tucky]

What's wrong?

[permavoice]

[visetvires]

Nothing. Just bored.

[Liar, liar.]

[permavoice]

[tucky]

You kinda sound like shit, is all. You sick?

[visetvires]

Maybe. I didn't think you could get sick after death.

[whatthewrackspurt]

[Luna, standing next to Clementine, watches her for a long, long moment before finally speaking up]

You look like you're in a very deep well of thought.

[visetvires]

[She's a little startled by the sudden voice; she hadn't realized Luna was there. Bad attention, bad reflexes. She doesn't smile.]

A little, yeah. Sorry. [She can get back to work, she means; she can do better.]

[whatthewrackspurt]

It's nothing to apologize for.

[She leans forward, in order to look over what Clementine is making]

Hmmn.

Something wrong?

[visetvires]

[A salad. Nothing fancy, nothing that should make Clementine's brow furrow the way it does at that question.]

Nothing. No. Long day. Long week.

Sometimes I just get . . . caught up in my own head.

[text/private]

[routemistress]

this depends very much on one's curent definition of okay.

i haven't forgotten about lab work tho, i'm just finding it hard to stand up and walk about right now.

[text/private]

[visetvires]

That's fine.

Do you need a drink?

[text/private]

[routemistress]

omg always. dillon's sisterperson drank all my gin, bless her.

[text/private]

[visetvires]

[She doesn't question this, although she does in fact have a lot of questions.]

I'll be up with gin, then. Anything else? Whiskey?

Spam

[chlorophylliac]

[Of course Ivy notices visitors to the greenhouse. Rather, the plants notice them, and after a while she becomes so deeply attuned to their abstract observations that the difference between one and the other sometimes begins to blur. She's on the other side of the space - half-dozing in one of the higher tree branches, barely distinguishable except by the shock of red hair - and while Clementine vaguely registers, she's not doing any harm and so Ivy doesn't shift from her post.

Her pets also notice the human presence. The creature that approaches Clementine owes some of its genetic heritage to a rabbit, but it's as much flora as fauna now, its 'fur' green and mossy, its feet tipped with little blunt thorns rather than claws. Still, it's affectionate in its role as Ivy's eyes and ears around the greenhouse, and it gives her knee a little nudge with a dark nose.]

Spam

[visetvires]

[Clementine misses the telltale bit of red. She's not so much looking up, doesn't expect anyone to be in the trees, although maybe she should, here.]

[She is in the middle of yet another unanswered prayer when the . . . thing approaches her. For a moment she just looks at it curiously. There are things she recognizes in it, both plant and animal, but as a whole the thing is foreign and odd.]

[Carefully, she reaches one hand out for it to - smell? Possibly.]

Spam

[chlorophylliac]

[The plant-rabbit gives Clementine's fingertips a sniff, then a cautious lick with a green raspy tongue. At the other side of the greenhouse, Ivy descends from her tree on a descending length of vine, bare feet touching the ground almost silently. Strangers' treatment of her hybrids is as good an indicator of any as to how well she should treat them in turn.

By the time she approaches, the rabbit is trying to clamber onto the woman's lap. Far too trusting.]

Not bothering you, I hope?

voice

[rickitikitarr]

Me too.

[And she chatted with him last time he was going nuts, he can return the favour.]

Tic tac toe?

voice

[visetvires]

Better than nothing.

[Although there are only so many ways that can go.]

Common room, or?

voice

[rickitikitarr]

Common room. But on the way, I'm coming up with something better- tic tac toe is too tragic.

private }

[semifreakingnormal]

[Something is wrong, something is very wrong, and he's not sure what. But she's admitting to loose ends and asking him for guidance and--

Panic rises in his breast, but he thinks of everything Dean told him, and squashes it back down again. This is about her, not his panic.]

Do you know how to make a pizza?

private }

[visetvires]

I--

[She almost says no, instinctively. She never used to. But Luna taught her, here.]

Yes.

[It would be something to do, wouldn't it?]

private }

[semifreakingnormal]

Good. Let's make one. I always burn the crust.

Meet you in the cafeteria?