Emma Carstairs (alsoflexible) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2020-01-18 13:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !complete, !match-up, ~50 points, ~~chloe price (backtalker), ~~emma carstairs (alsoflexible) |
WHO: Emma Carstairs and Chloe Price
WHERE: Hinkle’s
WHEN: Backdated to Jan 1
WHAT: Sharing a table
STATUS: Matchup
Apparently no one wanted to cook on New Year’s Day. That had to explain the immense crowds and line ups at Hinkle’s, when just the afternoon before, it was a dead zone. Emma, who was one of those people who didn’t want to cook on New Year’s Day (or in general, really), shouldered her way through a crack in the crowd to collect her order. She was somewhat lucky in that she’d gotten here early enough to get ahead of the lunch crowd, but she hadn’t gotten here early enough to get a seat. Most people here hadn’t, it seemed. Where normally there were enough empty spots for people who were eating alone to have their own space, it seemed that people and even families were sharing tables now. Emma waded her way to a booth with only one person. “Hi, mind if I sit?” *** If Chloe didn't want to cook on any day, she certainly wasn't going to start cooking on New Year's Day either. The only thing she really did cook at home was frozen dinners because they were simple and easy, but other than that, she never really made anything else. Maybe she should try at some point but today was not that day. And anyways, she was here already, managing to procure a seat for herself. Amazing, and quite lucky, since Hinkles was absolutely crowded today. There was hardly an empty seat as far as she could tell and she wasn't surprised when someone had approached and asked if they could sit. "Sure, go ahead," she replied, moving her things aside to Emma had room for her own food. *** “Thanks.” Emma slid into the booth and set her tray down, trying to give the other girl as much space as possible. Just because they had to share a table didn’t mean they had to be in each other’s spaces. “I’m Emma,” she offered, and left it at that. If the dark-haired girl wanted to run with that, it was up to her. Otherwise, Emma wasn’t going to intrude on her lunch. *** Chloe nodded as she took a bite of her burger. "No problem," she replied. "It's pretty crowded here, huh?" Not completely surprising, though but it was definitely worse than it usually is. There was definitely not any other places for the other girl to sit, and while Chloe wasn't always the most social or even nicest person there was, she didn't mind sharing her table too much. "Chloe," she returned. "How long have you been in town?" she asked. She wasn't sure she saw Emma around, except maybe a couple times on the network but even then she hadn't really paid much attention. *** Emma took a moment to think. It had been difficult to settle into Madison Valley, where there weren’t Downworlders to fight on a regular basis, but she’d settled in since then. “About half a year?” It was a hazarded guess. “Before school started in the fall, anyway.” She swiped a fry through her ketchup container. “You?” *** Chloe could understand that. While she wasn't a stranger to weird shit (Max did have time powers after all), she still had a bit of a hard time adjusting to the fact that she was suddenly in some strange new town and couldn't escape. She barely remember much of it since she spent most of her time drinking. "It's been a bit over a year for me," she replied after thinking on it for a moment. She hadn't exactly been keeping track. *** “How’re you settling in?” Emma was curious. She’d seen a range of adaptation - from Julian being gleefully happy to be in regular school to Jace, who struggled with Mundane life. She herself was somewhere in between, but she knew everyone had different experiences. *** "To be honest, not so great at first. I remember drinking a lot. More than usual, at least," she admitted. She had always been a bit of a drinker and smoked pot before she arrived. It was just her way of dealing with shit. "But I made friends here and that helped a bit. And having my girlfriend around helped a lot too." Though they weren't dating back then, but even so, having Max around had been a blessing. She always had the innate ability to calm Chloe down. *** “That sounds like a pretty normal reaction,” Emma said drily. She herself was too young to drink, and she wasn’t a drinker anyway, but she remembered being upset enough to need a good strenuous sparring session with Julian to get out the frustration. “Is your girlfriend from your world too, or did you meet here?” *** "Yep," Chloe shrugged. "I mean, how else would anyone react?" Just accepting shit and moving on? Nah, that wasn't her. While it was nice to get away from Arcadia Bay, this wasn't exactly how she thought leaving that shithole would go. At least it worked out fine for the most part. "We're from the same world. We've known each other since we were kids." She left out the details of how they met and all that, figuring Emma didn't care much to know. "You have anyone here from your world?" *** “Yeah, a few people.” Emma frowned as she thought of how they’d been treating her lately: like she had undergone a personality transplant. They kept telling her she wasn’t herself, but she felt totally fine. “They’ve been acting weird lately though. They keep telling me there’s something wrong with me but they’re the ones who’re worried over nothing.” *** Chloe sipped her drink, about to say that it was nice that she had people around. Not that she would ever admit it, but it had been quite lonely at first, being in a strange town and not knowing anyone at the time. It all turned out fine, though, but still. It hadn’t been a great time. But she stopped before she said anything and instead, gave Emma a confused look. "Weird, how?" she asked then added, "I mean, I'm sure it's nothing, like you said. I don't know. But if your friends are worried about you, maybe there's a reason." *** Emma shook her head firmly. “I’m fine,” she said. “They keep looking at me like I’ve been replaced by a pod person, but it’s just because I’ve gotten more focused and organized. I thought they would’ve been happy for that.” Despite the topic of her friends’ issues with her, she was calmly swiping her fries through ketchup as if they were just casually talking about the weather. *** Chloe nodded, sipping her coke. "I doubt you're a pod person," she said. There had been an incident where people were actually replaced by pod people, but that was awhile ago and everyone was back to normal. She highly doubted Emma would still be a pod person after all these months. The Dome did some messed up shit, but it never went beyond a week or so. "And nothing wrong with being focused and organized. God knows I need to do that more myself." But everyone knew that wasn't going to happen any time soon. "I don't really see the big deal," she shrugged. She could tell Emma didn't think it was a big deal either, noticing how detached she seemed when talking about her friends and their worries. *** “Exactly.” Emma nodded, pleased that an impartial third party was agreeing with her. “Someone just needs to tell my friends that so they can get off my case. I appreciate their concern, but just a waste of time right now.” *** Chloe wasn't sure she'd agreed 100%. There was something a bit off about Emma's demeanor when speaking about her friends' worry. But she just didn't have enough information to say for sure things were fine with Emma and that everyone else worrying about nothing. "Well, they are your friends," she shrugged. "If they noticed something off about you, of course they'll worry. Especially if it's like a huge change or something." Which, again, she didn't know if there was a huge difference or not. She didn't know the whole situation. *** “You’d think that if they were friends, they’d lay off when I told them I was fine.” Emma shook her head. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to unload on you. It’s just that I can’t really talk to anyone else about it - since they’re the ones worrying about me. If you’d rather eat in peace, just let me know.” *** She did have a point there. If she felt there wasn't a problem, then maybe there wasn't and she was completely fine. But Chloe still couldn't get rid of the feeling that there was something off about Emma and that maybe her friends did have a reason to believe something was wrong. But rather than say that, she just shrugged. "Some people tend to over worry sometimes." Her mom did, though she supposed she did have a reason. So did Max sometimes, even if Chloe herself didn't really understand why. "It's fine. It probably helps a little to talk to someone who isn't a part of it." She could imagine it must be frustrating not being able to talk to her friends without them pointing out something was wrong, regardless if there actually was or not. *** Emma nodded in agreement. She took a bite of her burger and swallowed it before offering, “I’m Emma.” If she was going to share her woes with someone, she figured they should at least know each other’s name. *** "Chloe," she replied. Funny, a few years ago, she wouldn't have bothered listening to someone else's problem. But now, she didn't really mind. She certainly hadn't minded being someone with an outsider's POV when Adrian asked what she thought about things. Now she was doing the same for Emma. |