Chloe Sullivan (ladyofwatchtowr) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-05-25 11:16:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, ~2017 may, ~25 points, ~~lydia martin (drawntodeath), ~~~chloe sullivan (ladyofwatchtowr) |
Who: Chloe Sullivan and Lydia Martin
What: Meeting of the Minds
When: Thursday
Where: Public Library
Warnings: Nah
Status: Closed/completed gdoc
Chloe was continuing her research. Her Clark would know that this was her way of not dealing with her situation, and avoiding social interactions. The truth was, the longer Chloe was here, the more scared she was getting that she’d never go home, never see her friends and family again. To avoid that kind of hurt she avoided making connections here. Research was a great escape from all that.
Today she holed herself up at the library, specifically at the microfiche machine, pouring through old newspaper articles. Her brand new tablet was at her elbow, where she was comparing the notes the future her had made with the notes others had collected to articles from the same time. One name kept coming up: Tony Stark. Depending on who was writing about him varied his reputation. Chloe wanted to know who he was.
The newspapers were almost infuriating with their lack of information. There was one time when apparently this Tony Stark attacked the dome and paid for it, but the local newspaper barely mentioned it. Chloe growled at the screen. “Oh come on!”
***
Lydia had been in the same situation once, more than a year ago now. She couldn’t believe it had only been this long. But she’d resisted making this place home, resisted making connections and settling. She’d found someone who had made it easy to set that resistance aside, who she was now moving in with. Apparently about to buy a house with. It was a big step, and something she wasn’t sure was the right decision, but there weren’t exactly a lot of options and houses generally seemed a better fit for what Lydia wanted.
That meant a bit of research of her own, and while she was completely comfortable just googling something, prowling the internet for answers, she sometimes liked the atmosphere of a library. There was just something about being encompassed by knowledge.
Sliding into a chair beside a girl who looked about her own age, she started at the sudden outburst.
“...Excuse me?” Seriously? That was how she reacted to someone sitting by her in a public space?
***
“What?” Chloe blinked out of her focus on the screen to give a confused look to the girl next to her then realized she spoke outloud and that it had been taken entirely out of context. She offered an apologetic smile as she huffed.
“Sorry,” she said. “Not you. I honestly didn’t realize someone had sat down.” She turned a glare back to the screen. “This thing is giving me fits. Well, not the machine. The newspaper and its decided lack of reporting.”
***
Not sure if she could believe it, she accepted the explanation anyway. She knew perfectly well the frustration of not being able to find information. It had been her life for a long time, trying to figure out what being a banshee meant. Being the only one, being something there wasn’t a lot of lore on that applied to the way she was, it was difficult.
“Did you expect something more?” They were in an isolated small town, under a dome. Lydia thought it was a wonder they even had a functioning newspaper.
“Most people just find things out on the network around here.” Which seemed like a terrible way to do it, who was preserving that? Who was writing the history of this place? Not really her problem, though. One day she’d go home again and forget all about this place and everything good in it, everyone would, so who cared if it was preserved.
***
“I’ve tapped into that,” Chloe said. “I have files and files of backlogs, and I haven’t exhausted it all yet. I just thought I’d cross reference after I read some things on how the locals feel about us and all that.”
Chloe chewed on her lip as she scowled at the screen. “But apparently they really don’t like reporting on anything much to do with us.”
***
“Refugees?” The way Lydia said the word made it very clear that she didn’t like it. It wasn’t accurate. Not in the slightest. “Yeah. You must be new.”
If she’d been around any real length of time, she’d have realized that the people of this place didn’t like them. It wasn’t as bad as it had been once, before Lydia’s time though she’d heard the stories, but they were hardly one big happy community.
***
“Relatively,” Chloe said with distraction. Then it dawned on her that this woman must either be a local or a “refugee”. She tore her attention away from the microfiche, turning in her chair to face the red head.
“So which are you? Local or transplant?” No, she had no shame in asking pointed questions. It had gotten her into trouble more than a few times back home, but that didn’t stop Chloe there and wouldn’t stop her here.
***
“Transplant.” That was one of the questions people just asked around here, and once someone had spent enough time in Madison Valley, they got used to that. People were just generally all up in each other’s business, and that was alright. For them. Mostly Lydia preferred to keep to hers and her own.
Her own, though, had expanded significantly by being here. At home she never would have considered Derek Hale someone who’s life she cared about. Here, they were almost friends.
“Around two years now.”
How had it only been two years.
***
“Wow!” Chloe’s eyes went wide as her brows shot up. “People stay here that long? I mean, I know they say no time passes back home but...wow.”
She mused on that for a moment then smiled and held out a hand. “I’m Chloe.” She definitely wanted to talk to this girl, pick her brain, get a first person account of events.
***
Lydia looked at the hand briefly before taking it. “Lydia.” There didn’t seem to be any reason not to place nicely. “People have been here a lot longer than I have.”
Almost all of her friends from home, for example. Except for maybe Scott and Liam, who had gone home and come back without memories of the place at one point. And Malia now. Okay, so it was half of her friends from home who had been there longer than she had.
***
“I’d love to talk to someone about it,” Chloe said. She was beginning to get the idea she might be annoying Lydia, but maybe she could point Chloe toward someone willing to talk. “I mean, I can’t imagine being stuck here for that long. How do you not go crazy with the urge to go anywhere?”
It was a weird truth. You never wanted to do something until you couldn’t. Chloe couldn’t help but wonder if anyone went insane for being here for too long.
***
“It’s not easy,” Lydia admitted. It wasn’t like she hadn’t wanted and wished for a way to escape. “I think the weirdness of things that happen here tend to distract from the jailed feeling. But I might not be the right person to talk to about not going crazy.”
She was most definitely going to go crazy sooner or later. For unrelated reasons.
“Having something to do here that isn’t just researching here helps.” She’d started out the same way, desperate for information. She’d met Thomas through an agreement that this place and people’s acceptance of it wasn’t sane, wasn’t right. They’d really changed their tune, apparently.
***
“I don’t know,” Chloe said with a lopsided smile and a tilt of her head. “You seem pretty sane to me. Other than indulging a total stranger who is obviously obsessed with figuring out puzzles.” She chuckled.
The advice wasn’t anything she hadn’t already told herself. Sooner or later she was going to have to pull her head out of her research and accept the fact that she was stuck here like everyone else. Scary. “Yeah,” she admitted quietly. “But for now, research it is.”
***
“You don’t know anything about me.” It wasn’t something Lydia concerned herself much with. As long as her abilities weren’t making things hard for her, she could forget that there was a very real possibility of them driving her over the edge one day. As long as she wasn’t waking up half dressed across town in the freezing cold, as long as there weren’t voices screaming at her, never making any sense, she could pretend she was normal.
“Okay, look. If you want to be an isolationist or whatever, that’s your call, I don’t blame you.” Again, she’d been there, done that. “But if you want to have a life, I’ll be throwing a party some time. You should come.”
She didn’t have any plans to throw one, but they were kind of her thing. She was bound to do it sooner or later.
***
Chloe blinked in the face of that very icy shoulder treatment. So much for being friendly. Her brows lifted. She hadn’t seen this sort of behavior since high school. Lois could be snippy, but she was Chloe’s cousin. Chloe was both used to it and usually Lois didn’t aim it at her. This Lydia? Yeah. Chloe wasn’t going to take attitude from someone she just met.
“Don’t do me any favors,” she said with a chilly edge to her voice then she began gathering up her things.
***
She hadn’t intended to sound like she was, had genuinely meant the suggestion, but Lydia wasn’t inclined to go around begging strangers for friendship, either. If Chloe wanted to read things that just weren’t there in the way she said things, that wasn’t her problem. She just looked at the other girl mildly.
“I don’t do favours.” That wasn’t like her. “I don’t know when yet,” probably soon enough, it had been a while since she’d thrown anything, “but if you feel like making some friends, I’ll introduce you to some people.”
It was her way of being nice.
***
Chloe paused in packing her stuff up and eyed Lydia. Maybe this was some sort of backward gesture of goodwill on her part. Maybe she was the former prom queen and now was struggling to actually make friends type. There was only one way to find out.
“All right,” Chloe said as if in challenge. She pulled out a small notepad and wrote her number down, tore off the piece of paper then set it on the table next to Lydia. “Call me. Or text. Let me know when and I’ll come.”
***
That was pretty much exactly Lydia’s type, in the simplest terms. Complicated by the supernatural and a lot of other things, but at the root of things it was what she was. The most popular girl in school with a reputation for her parties all around town, uprooted to another place where no one knew her. She tended to stick to her friends from home these days. And Thomas.
She wasted no time in putting the number into her phone right then and there. “I will.”
And if it was a challenge, it was one she was definitely going to take on.
“Until I make plans, try talking to my friend Stiles if you want to know more about the people transplanted here; he’s nosy enough he might have what you’re looking for.” A better chance than newspapers that didn’t care about them would, anyway.
***
“Stiles?” Chloe’s interest was suddenly renewed and she lowered herself back down into her seat. “You know Stiles?”
Stiles. The guy who had the computer her future self had programmed and worked on. Stiles, the stubborn guy who wouldn’t let her anywhere near it. Stiles, Chloe’s current nemesis. If Lydia knew Stiles, then maybe...just maybe...Chloe would find a way to wear him down.
***
“...Yeah.” Of course Chloe already knew about Stiles. He was like a plague in some ways. It would be more annoying if it wasn’t so much like him. “We’re from the same place.”
Their relationship was a lot more than just that. It was a little more complicated. None of that mattered. They were friends, good friends; their past and possible futures outside of this place had no bearing on that.
***
From the same place was not the same thing as saying he was a friend. Chloe noted the difference. “Do you know him pretty well? He has something of mine.” She paused. “Well, something that a future me created and he won’t let me near it. I really…really...want access to it.”
And the more Stiles resisted letting her have that the more she was convinced there were things on that computer that she wanted to see.
***
“Why?”
Lydia didn’t know anything about any stolen whatever. But to be fair, she wasn’t as interested in other people’s things as Stiles was. She certainly had no idea why he’d be keeping something from someone. Though the future her thing was a little concerning. No one could really say for certain how something like that would impact a person’s timeline. No one could really say that it would at all. Time travel was something that was only possible here. Where nothing made sense.
***
Technically it wasn’t stolen. The future her apparently said Stiles could have it if she ever left and never came back. Chloe as she currently was didn’t count. But the more Stiles dug his feet in about letting her so much as near the computer then more convinced Chloe was that whatever was on it was important.
“Apparently, I built and programmed the thing. It’s kind of a super computer or something.” Chloe lowered her voice as if to keep anyone else from overhearing. “There’s information on there that is referenced in the notes I have, but I’m lacking details. I just want to spend a little time going through the files. I’ve told him I won’t take it from him, but he won’t let me anywhere near it.” Chloe scowled. “Frankly, he’s a pain in the ass about it.”
***
“He’s a pain in the ass about everything.” She loved him, really, but he was so Stiles. “Honestly I think it’s better not to waste your time on it. I have no idea why he’d care so much but it’s completely possible he’ll drop the protective crap eventually.”
Possible, but not likely.
“What sort of information are you looking for anyway?”
***
Chloe sighed as she rubbed her forehead with her fingers. “I have these files, information I and a few other people were gathering on this place and some of the people in it. It’s a lot of information. Needs to be cross-referenced. I’m positive I have information and further details on the computer Stiles has based on what I found in the files I do have.”
And it was infuriatingly frustrating knowing there was information being denied her.
***
“Have you talked to the local scientific community? There’s a collection of research they’ve got on this place that they’re always happy to give out.” Lydia had gotten her hands on it the first day she’d arrived, thanks to them. It had helped her understand where she was, the impossibility of where she was. It hadn’t been any help in accepting being here, other things had done that for her, but it had definitely helped with understanding.
And not understanding had been a big barrier for her.
***
Chloe nodded. “Doctor Banner is the one that gave me the files I have now. I met Wes at WAMM who answered some questions and gave me more information. I’ve spoken to even more people on the net. Everyone who’s been here a while has told me the same thing. There’s more information on that computer.”
She growled a little. “If I were any better at it I’d punch him just for fun.”
****
“How do you know there’s more information on it?” If she hadn’t seen it, then she was obviously just reaching for something that might not even be there.
She was too serious, Lydia decided. And for someone who was pretty serious in her own right, that might be saying something.
***
Chloe looked at Lydia as she kind of got a taste of her own medicine for the questions. The irony annoyed her, but she tried to restrain the huff. Of course, this didn’t mean that now that she knew how annoying being grilled was that she’d stop any time soon.
“Because the notes I got from Doctor Banner that I wrote reference the files on the computer in a See More Information Here kind of way. Which tells me that the information is not just good but detailed and confidential. Ergo, I want to see it.”
***
“Fair.” Lydia didn’t really believe that there was anything there that couldn’t be found elsewhere. “What do you plan to do with the information?”
What could anyone do with information about this place?
It wasn’t going to get them out. If all the brilliant minds already here couldn’t do it, some nosy computer-obsessed girl wasn’t going to do it.
***
“I won’t know until pieces start falling together,” Chloe said. It was about then that she realized she was actually kind of enjoying talking with Lydia. She made Chloe think. Made her be certain of her stuff. It was kind of rare when you found someone who could do that.
“But for that to happen I need all the pieces.” She smiled a bit helplessly as she shrugged. “It could turn out that there isn’t anything that can be done, but I don’t know that for sure.”
***
She would. Of that, Lydia was sure herself. She’d eventually accept that there was nothing to be done about being here. Everyone did, it seemed, or whatever was going on in this place took pity on them and sent them home. Eventual happiness, or back to whatever life they’d lived.
She hummed thoughtfully. She could understand not wanting to just accept the way things were, and being stubborn, but as someone who had a better life here than at home, if only because there was nothing trying to kill her and her friends here, she couldn’t understand the distaste for being here anymore.
“Hopefully you’ll find whatever you’re looking for.” And relax a little, or get sent home. At this point, Lydia didn’t care either way. She didn’t know this girl enough to care about her.
***
Chloe never said this place was better or worse than she had it back home. If asked, she wouldn’t be able to answer honestly, otherwise she’d have to admit that what she was doing was avoiding accepting how alone she actually was here. Deep down she missed Clark, Lois, even Lana. Jimmy didn’t even bear thinking about even though they had broken up amicably.
But, she was still in denial so she arched a brow at Lydia. “So I take it that’s a no on the unspoken request to help me wear down Stiles.”
***
“I’m not going to get in the middle of that.” She was smarter than that. “I’ve got bigger worries right now.” Things that mattered a lot more to her than a stranger’s problems with Stiles.
She was buying a house, moving in with a boyfriend for the first time. It was huge and it was all-consuming, and she just didn’t have the room to care about much else. Maybe if Chloe was more of a friend, she’d be willing. But as things stood, she was just a girl in the library who she’d tried to be nice to. Who was weird and way too intense and probably needed to get laid.
***
Chloe figured it was too much of a reach. She’d figure something out. She always did, and it was always better when she did things for herself. Besides, Lydia obviously had her own problems.
“Ah,” she said with a smile. “Sorry. I get it. I hope everything goes all right.” Whatever it was. She wasn’t going to pry.
***
Lydia smiled, just a little, appreciating that she’d actually just let it go. She’d been prepared for a little more fight than that. Not giving one definitely earned some points in her book.
“Anyway.” She wasn’t going to sit there and let things get weird, and she wasn’t going to talk about that part of her life with someone she didn’t know. That was for her girlfriends. “I should probably get going. I’ve got things to do.” And she’d only had a few minutes when she’d stopped by the library anyway. “It was nice meeting you. And I meant it about the party. You’re coming.”
She wasn’t someone who just took no for an answer.
***
Chloe chuckled. Ok, she could give in to one party. “Yeah, okay. Just let me know when it is and I’ll be there.” She might even bring something. She wasn’t 21 so alcohol was off the list, but she made a mean bean dip.
***
Lydia always managed to handle alcohol anyway. She had her ways.
“I will.” There was nothing to worry about there. It was something she could do for someone. She wasn’t willing to cause waves with one of her best friends for someone she didn’t know, but she was definitely willing to embrace her and make her join in.
With a smile, she picked up her own things and stood. “Nice to meet you.”