. (terryinthesky) wrote in downfallrpg, @ 2010-03-02 02:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2015-08-27, penny, penny and terry, terry |
Someone Take These Dreams Away
Who: Terry and Penny
When: 9:03am and onward
Where: Kitchen
9:03...
Terry sat up in bed, his hands planted on the mattress as he looked around his still-dark hotel room. The shades were drawn, blocking out what must have been the sunrise by now. It didn't matter, considering the lack of sleep he'd been getting. No matter the time he laid down, Terry couldn't seem to just... let go. It was just never going to be as easy as that, not anytime soon. And so, with a sense of defeat, he left the warmth of the quilts he'd layered over himself and took a few steps toward the bathroom. He was woozy, and his head was pounding from the day before. The blood had mostly stopped flowing hours ago, but as Terry reached up to touch the bandages on his forehead he could feel the dampness there. He needed to change them.
But first, Terry needed to eat. He was starving.
Quickly, he dressed himself in a pair of plaid pajama pants, socks and a loosely fitted tee-shirt before leaving the hotel room. It didn't seem important to bother with finding anything more proper, and especially at this time. If people were up, they were up. He would deal with it.
Penny was already down there, eating 'dinner'. Even so, with all of the time she had spent staying awake nights and sleeping days, she had never changed her food choices. It felt weird to eat steak or some other dinner food so early in the day, even if she would be going to bed soon, so she was stirring some cereal around lazily in a bowl. Her mind wasn't really on the food, it was upstairs with Zane, wondering what had happened yesterday to cause that reaction, and wondering how he would fare this morning. Penny wondered if he would even admit it had happened, that he had had that moment of weakness. Knowing Zane, probably not.
She snorted a bit and took a bite of her cereal, looking up as Terry walked into the room. Her eyes burst wide open, seeing the cut on his forehead, and it made her wonder if some of the blood on Zane's shirt wasn't from the man after all. Getting up, she went over to him cautiously, looking at it. "Are you alright?"
The walk down to the kitchen was fairly quiet, which was a good sign for him. It meant he'd likely be left alone, which would be nice if this headache didn't go away soon. Upon entering though, Terry quickly realized he wasn't the only one up right now. He blinked when she stood to come over to him, not quite pulling away but hesitant all the same. "Yeah, I'm good," he answered, forcing a small smile to stretch across his face. "I've had worse bang-ups in my life. This is just... it's nothing." He waved as though it didn't hurt and hadn't bled through several bandages already, trying to dismiss the subject if he could.
Penny nodded, looking at it again critically. Well, it was bandaged, and it seemed alright... "Did you get that while out yesterday?" she asked, unable to help herself. She worked her lip a bit, her mind again shooting to Zane upstairs. What had happened when they were out? Presumably, they met a woman, and a monster attacked and killed her. From the short, irrational things that Zane had said, that was her conclusion. "Zane already told me... a little bit..."
"Yeah," he said, blinking his gaze down to the floor. The images of the child flashed through his mind, but he didn't elaborate or offer up anything further. It hadn't been easy to shake it, and even still, it was almost all he saw when he closed his eyes. The nightmares that had plagued him had all had her face in them... "It was... it was a little rough going, being out there..." Terry moved past her toward the pantry, not sure what he wanted but knowing he needed to make himself eat something.
Penny nodded, just watching him, not saying anything before going back to the table and sitting down, crossing her legs. She'd be there if he needed her, ready to open up or just to distract him. Otherwise, she didn't know much about what made Terry click to even begin to know where to start consoling him.
Terry came out a few minutes later with a bag of cookies, knowing it wasn't the best thing for him... not that he cared all that much right now. He pulled the bag open slowly, stopping to lean against a counter near Penny as he started eating. "So... how are you doing?" he asked, curious about the state of the people living in the hotel with him. People seemed to be dealing better than he ever had imagined, moving forward as though nothing had ever happened at all.
She grinned when she saw the bag, holding her hand out expectantly. Hey, a five year old could not survive without their cookies. "I'm fine," she shrugged, taking a bite of her cereal with her other hand.
"Fine works," Terry answered, moving to sit down across from her. He watched her with dark eyes, taking in a deep breath as he dumped a few more cookies out onto the table. He would make something proper for himself later, if he felt up to it. "At least you aren't healing from a major wound or spending the day sobbing hopelessly." It was said with a quiet sort of mourning more than anything, his sympathies extended to those that were having a harder time dealing with the world the way it had become.
"True, at least I'm not," Penny admitted, looking up at him and tilting her head, studying him softly. Whatever happened out there certainly was impacting more than just Zane; Landon probably wasn't feeling so great, either. "I'm here if you wanna talk, you know. I'm a great listener." She took another bite of her cereal and looked over his food, swallowing a bit. "I can make you something more, too."
Terry smiled when she offered to talk, considering it carefully. He glanced between her eyes, staying silent another few moments. The offer of food was tempting, too, and his stomach growled obviously. He let out an embarrassed sort of laugh and sighed, picking up another cookie to nibble at it. "Something else to eat might be nice," he said, his tone on the lighter side. "But don't feel obligated. I'm a big man. I can make something later..." He glanced down at the small pile of cookies in front of him, shifting his weight on the chair. Finally, Terry said, "We found a small girl while we were out there."
"I am mama hen, I've got this," she smiled, getting up and resting a soothing hand on his shoulder before heading towards the cabinet. "What would you like?" Penny paused, however, when Terry said small girl. And here all this time she'd been thinking it had been an older woman, perhaps someone her age; no wonder Zane was so overcome with guilt. She took another second and cleared her throat, before asking, "What happened?"
Smirking to himself, Terry's eyes followed her as she got up to go and find something for him to eat. It was kind of her, considering they hardly knew each other. When Penny asked about the girl, Terry leaned forward onto his elbows, settling his weight against the table. "We... found her in the streets. She was being attacked by... one of those things. It was..." He stopped and rubbed his chin, obviously dealing with it on a deeper level. "We were too late." It was said with a very finalized tone, his gaze rising up to see her, eyes strained. "There was nothing we could do. And... we tried. But..." He stopped, not really wanting to explain exactly what had happened.
Stopping her rummaging, Penny turned and went over to him, giving him a tight hug from behind, even if it was slightly awkward. "It's okay, you don't have to go there," she said softly, understanding how difficult it must have been to even think about, much less share with someone else. She stayed there until he said it was enough, pouring as much comfort into it as she physically could.
Terry nodded, falling silent as Penny wrapped her arms around him from behind. It was comforting, even if he didn't know her very well. She was part of his family though, and from now on these people were all they had left. "Thanks," he said quietly, reaching up to touch one of her smaller hands. "It hasn't been easy, getting along after all of that. I'll probably have nightmares for years... I just wish things had been different."
"I'm sure," she sighed, squeezing him gently. "But there was nothing you could do about it, right? You came up upon it, it wasn't like you tossed the girl to the monster. And you said you tried, right? There's only so much you can do, you are only human. And even if you had saved the girl, what were her chances of surviving? Hell, it's a miracle that Charity's even gotten this far." Penny sighed again, knowing that really wasn't going to help, but she had no idea what else to say. What did someone do in a situation like this?
"I don't know... at least then she would have had a chance, I suppose." Terry looked back at her briefly, the movement short-lived as he returned his eyes to the table top. "But... like you said... at least we tried." Somehow it didn't quite make it any easier. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, brushing it away from his face to tuck it behind his ears. "Makes me wonder how many other children are out there, lost... alone like that girl was. Maybe there aren't any others... maybe she was the last. You know? How long can children really survive out there like that?"
Penny let go of him, shrugging and going to get him some eggs. A good, hearty breakfast, that was what he needed. "I don't know," she said softly, grabbing some cheese as well. "I don't think we'll ever know how many other people are out there, let alone children... But hey, if Charity can survive with one arm, and Dhaval can survive in a wheelchair, then children can survive. You can't give up hope. You just... can't expect to save them all."
"It's hard... accepting that." Terry didn't like it, on any level. The idea of having to just accept defeat... though he knew that billions of children had already died. More would follow, just as the adults that cared for them would. As was made clear by the hospital trip, death had not quite finished with the human race. Children were all they had for the future of the human race, and there were so few. It occurred to Terry that eventually they would need to consider that... they would have to start thinking of re-population if they were to survive as a species. Not right away... but it nagged at the back of his mind regardless. Raising children in these times would not be easy.
"I know, I don't like the idea any more than you do. But if you keep thinking about it you're going to go crazy, and that won't do anyone any good." Penny shrugged and sighed, going over to the cabinet and grabbing a pan, putting it on the oven as she turned it on, watching it heat up. Who knew how much longer they were going to have power... What were they going to do for meals after, then? Hell, how were they going to keep the stuff they had.
"No, it won't," Terry agreed, not wanting to push himself that far, that hard. He was already struggling as it was... there was no need to dwell. But... the girl... He could see her face still, the tears running down her cheeks as she cried. He swallowed hard against the mental image and attempted to push it out of his mind, not wanting to let it get the best of him right now. He'd done all he could for her... they all had. Terry made a mental note to check in on Landon and Zane later, try to find out what had happened to them if he could.
Penny just stood there silently, making his food, not sure what else to say. Not sure there was much else she could say, even. It would just take time, she supposed. Sighing, when his food was ready she put it on a plate and set it in front of him, smiling softly.
Terry pulled the plate toward him with a grateful expression, looking it over before returning his attention to her. "Thank you," he said, nodding once as he reached for a fork. "You really didn't have to make me food." Although he was glad she had. In the end, he probably would've just gone back up to his room without having a meal, settling on the cookies as good enough for now. "So... Penny... tell me about yourself." Terry gestured toward her with the fork, waiting with curious eyes.
"You're a man, could you really feed yourself?" she teased, nibbling on a piece of cheese as she put the rest of the ingredients away, cleaning up and frowning a bit. How much longer would they have water? What were they going to do when it ran out? Penny sighed a bit, grabbing another piece of cheese before putting it away and sitting back down. "What do you want to know?" she asked, shrugging a bit.
"Of course I could," he told her, a smirk on his face despite himself. "I'm still alive today, aren't I? And I've been living on my own for uhhh..." His mind did a quick number count. "For sixteen years. I'd be a hell of a lot skinnier if I never learned how to cook." He took a bite of food, chewing on it while shifting to lean on the table. "I don't know, really. I guess I just feel like we're all still strangers. What did you do with your life? Where did you work?"
"Can you make anything good, then?" she asked, lifting a brow and getting a yogurt out of the fridge, eating it. Cereal and yogurt, dinner of champions. Sitting back down, she played with the spoon in her mouth for a little, thinking. "I was born and raised in Las Vegas. Moved to Atlanta with a boy when I was twenty. We were married for a little while, and about six months ago I moved to Detroit. And unfortunatley discovered I hate snow. You?"
Terry laughed briefly, letting it fade out on its own after a few moments. "Nah, nothing particularly good. I can follow directions on boxes, but I'm not like... a chef, or anything. I don't bake all too well." He shrugged and continued to eat. "I uhh... I moved out here for college. I was raised in a boarding school. Uh... I don't know, I guess I just went to school, got my degree and went about my adult life. Worked at Wayne State University up until all this..."
Penny shrugged, eating the yogurt slowly. "What boarding school? Why?" That seemed weird. Although personally she would have loved to have gone to boarding school, or something such, she didn't have the option. She didn't really understand the whole concept. "What'd you do there?"
Frowning slightly, Terry couldn't help the flashes of images that passed through his mind, the years he'd spent in that miserable place something he would always despise. "My father..." He shifted, lips pressed together before he moved forward to lean more heavily on the table, his hands together in a loose steeple. "He couldn't... handle having a son around the house," he explained softly, not quite meeting her eyes, "...after my mom died." It wasn't something he talked about very often. It was never an easy subject. It never really had been. "So I went to a Christian boarding school in Auburn Hills. I did most of my schooling there, from... about seven years old and right on up to eighteen."
Penny nodded, looking down at her yogurt before finishing off. "And then you went to Wayne State. Did you go to college there, too?"
"Yeah, I went to college at Wayne State." Terry took in a deep breath and sat back, abandoning the food for the time being. He crossed his arms over his chest and watched her across the table. "I needed to get away from... the things that were bad for me, I guess."
"Yeah, I guess so," she nodded, sighing and stretching a bit. "My mom took off when I was eleven. I never heard from her again. I don't even know if she was alive or not when all this happened," Penny admitted with a shrug. "Didn't really care, either." Standing, she started to clean up. Just because it was the end of the world, didn't mean flies had died. No thank you. "So what'd you do at the University?"
Terry watched as Penny started to clean up, glancing from her to his food, and back again. "I taught creative writing and in my spare time, I offered piano lessons." He shrugged and stood up, taking his dishes to the sink just behind her. He didn't want to stay sitting down while she did all the work. "It paid the bills." He smiled a little, though his mind was still stuck on the last time he'd spoken to his father.
"So you didn't enjoy it?" Not that he couldn't enjoy something that paid the bills, and perhaps what he meant was that he wasn't a rich man, but that didn't even matter anymore. In fact, all that seemed to matter anymore was that you didn't have any regrets; something she certainly couldn't say.
"No, no... I enjoyed it," Terry said, setting his dishes down to ponder the question. "I just... I don't know, I think I just... allowed my job to overtake the rest of my life. I didn't really leave a lot of time for anything else." He laughed a little, though it was mostly awkward. He hadn't let himself live a very fulfilling life.
Penny nodded, sighing and washing her hands. "Well, you have plenty of time to bond with people now," she teased lightly, drying them on a towel and then hopping up on the counter. She started to swing her feet lightly, tilting her head at him. "So did you write yourself?"
Terry leaned on the counter nearby, using his hip to hold his weight. He shrugged loosely, shaking his head a few times. "No, not really... a little bit, maybe, but... mostly I enjoy reading the work of others. I don't know. I guess I never really got around to doing a lot of writing just for me. My books and my piano were pretty much it."
"And yet you taught creative writing? For shame, Professor," she teased, poking him lightly with her foot. "A professor of creative writing should write a bit more, don't you think?" Penny smiled and leaned back, stretching again, letting her shirt ride up- even though she knew it was rather even with his line of view. "I was a stripper, myself."
Unable to help himself, Terry chuckled a little at the feel of the foot poking at him. "I know," he said, shrugging almost awkwardly. Women made him uneasy when the flirting game was started up. "I'm more interested in the writing of others, rather than my own. It's not that I can't write, just... well, it doesn't really matter anymore anyway, does it?" He blinked when she stretched, taking a moment to collect himself as best he could. "A stripper?" Terry wasn't sure what to say to that. He'd been to a strip club before (what young man hadn't?), but he'd never really spoken to one off the stage... sorta. Clearing his throat, he blinked and met her eyes, attempting to stay focused. "I certainly hope you were better at your job than I was at mine." Wrong thing to say...?
Penny smirked a bit to herself, letting her foot draw slowly up his side for a second before dropping it. "Probably, but then again I never watched many other women dance. It's a shame. Maybe I can start a group field trip to a strip club and teach everyone."
Terry sucked in a slow breath, smiling up at her in an almost shy manner. Shit, this wasn't at all how he'd imagined their conversation would go. "Sure, you let me know when you go, though. I don't want a bunch of people running around stripping without at least letting someone know where you've gone to." He laughed, at least able to find humor in the situation.
"I imagine whenever we finally run out of alcohol here we'll organize a trip to go find one. There's been booze since the dawn of time, why should we live without it now, right?" she teased, studying him for a moment. His shyness was endearing. "You really don't have that much experience with girls do you?"
"Sounds good," he said, snorting a laugh. The next question was unexpected, and Terry found himself at a loss for words. He simply stared at her a moment before answering, "I do. I just... well, this is a little different. I don't think I've ever dated or even really talked to a stripper before. Not like this. ...The talking to part, I mean."
Penny smirked, wanting a cigarette, but not sure how he would like it. Some people didn't, not that she couldn't blame them- she hated the habit sometimes herself. But then, it was better than being drunk all the time and certainly much better than needing coke every second of your life, so she figured dying of lung cancer wasn't so bad. Especially considering the alternative right now. "So what have you done with a stripper, then?"
"Wow, I really dug myself into that one, didn't I?" he asked her, running a hand along his jaw and chin as he considered her question. He'd just walked himself right into all kinds of questions, without even meaning to do so. He didn't want to talk about his experiences with strippers... not even a little bit. That stuff was best left where it was -- in the past. It was humiliating, and somehow it seemed so... just not a good topic. He shrugged, laughing a little as he tried to just let go of his anxieties over the questions. "Watched them. Paid them. A few times. I was a younger man, then." As though he needed an excuse. Men did stupid shit like that. They wasted their money on those sorts of things when there was no one telling them not to. Not that women didn't do the same thing, he reminded himself. He'd known plenty of women who frequented strip clubs just for a good time. Terry didn't feel the need to elaborate further on the subject. If Penny pressed him, he might offer up more... but for now, they weren't particularly close. Not just yet.
"Actually, I should probably get to work on some chores I have lined out for the day. Thank you so much, Penny, for the food... and the conversation. The uhh... the stuff about going to the hospital. It helped... you know, to talk about it." Terry was being honest. It hadn't been an easy topic for him.
"Yes you did," Penny laughed, crossing her legs, amused. She enjoyed toying with men, particularly ones that seemed somewhat awkward around her; the ones that weren't womanizers, or didn't come home with someone new every night at the club. There was just something more appealing about them. But when he thanked her, her eyes had a soft look come to them and she nodded, resting a hand on his shoulder. "You're welcome. Feel free to come find me if you need to talk, okay?"
Terry was grateful for the look in her eyes, the fact that she had seemed to back down a little on the flirting. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate it, but that it seemed so out of place here... and he had just never gone out of his way to learn much about what to say in return. Dates had always been like pulling teeth. "I will," he said, nodding as he took a few steps backward, "I'll definitely come and talk if I need to. I could use that... you know, just someone..." Terry shrugged, turned and headed to the door, sending her a glance back over his shoulder. "Thanks again, Penny. I'll talk to you later."