InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I love cupcakes"

Annie Cresta (madwinner) wrote in makebelievelog,
@ 2012-05-09 17:27:00

Entry tags:

annie cresta, karrin murphy

Who: Annie and OPEN
What: Annie finds somewhere quieter to eat her dinner.
When: Wednesday evening, dinnertime.
Where: Castle corridor
Rating/Warnings: TBD
Status: In progress/Open

She hadn't liked the dining room today. Sometimes it was okay, when there were people she knew there and the crowds didn't press in against her with all their chaos and noise. But today hadn't been good - various insignificant things here and there had sent her mind spiraling until it had been hard to keep a grip onto the strings of lucid thought. The tracks of half-formed ideas bounced from side to side inside her head, images from her past kept swelling until Annie had to stamp them back down into the quiet. The brief trip into the dining hall had been one more step in the wrong direction, and within a few minutes Annie had grabbed her plate and made for the door. Now she could be found sat cross-legged in the corner of one of the hallways, her plate resting in her lap.

Annie picked up a piece of potato between finger and thumb and slipped it into her mouth, chewing carefully. As she did so, her fingers threaded anxiously through her dark hair, teasing out an invisible tangle in the strands. She was just about to take another piece of food when there was the noise of someone approaching and Annie froze, her hand hovering inches from her balanced plate, green eyes widening like a frightened animal caught in approaching headlights.

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putontheboots
2012-05-10 03:45 pm UTC (link)

Karrin was heading up to her suite, just making a quick sweep of the castle on her way before she showered and changed for dinner. Seeing the fragile, frightened looking girl in the corridor switched on all her protective, cop-instincts, and though the presence of a dinner plate suggested that she girl had probably not been threatened, it didn't mean she didn't feel that way.

The police detective slowed, spreading her hands, and speaking in soft tones. "Is everything okay, honey?"

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madwinner
2012-05-10 04:18 pm UTC (link)

Annie froze, her thoughts and body all seeming to seize up hopelessly. She opened her mouth a few times without much success. Annie had never been a particulary brave or confident person, and her time in the arena and afterwards had only made her worse. Sometimes she felt able to cope, but today... today wasn't really one of those times. She curled her fingers around the edge of the plate until it dug into her palms rather painfully.

"I... Sorry," she managed, her voice little more than a whisper. "I just... the dining hall was too noisy and I didn't... I came out here instead. Sorry."

The lady seemed kind enough, but Annie just wasn't quite sure if you could get in trouble for eating in the hall - she hadn't put much thought into where exactly she would sit for her meal, and now she was worried she'd managed to offend someone. After all, things were so different here.

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	putontheboots 2012-05-10 11:25 pm UTC (link)
	At five feet and a couple of inches, Karrin Murphy wasn't physically intimidating, though she was all lean muscle and could hold her own in a fight. She didn't think it was her size that scared the girl, though. "It's all right," she said, "You don't have anything to apologize for. You're not in anybody's way." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

madwinner
2012-05-10 11:53 pm UTC (link)

Annie nodded, still managing to look thoroughly nervous and uncomfortable as she turned her gaze down to the plate in her hands. She realised she was still gripping so hard that her knuckles had gone white, and forced herself to release it a little, feeling the blood rush back to her fingertips. Her hair had fallen over her face, and she peered back up at the woman between the dark strands.

"I... erm... I'll take everything back?" she offered. She knew the lady had said it was okay, but she wanted to be sure. She really didn't want to upset any of the staff, or anyone at all for that matter. "You don't think... I don't want to be any trouble."

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	putontheboots 2012-05-11 01:50 am UTC (link)
	"It's fine," she said again, "There's no hurry. I'm sure housekeeping will pick up the dishes whenever you're ready to send them back." It wasn't too hard to guess that the girl had some kind of post traumatic stress going on. Murphy had suffered a touch of it herself, for a time. "You're not going to be in any trouble." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	madwinner 2012-05-11 10:17 am UTC (link)
	There was something reassuring about the blonde woman, and Annie finally managed a tiny, shy smile as she pushed her hair back off her face. "Thank you," she said softly, unravelling her body a little from the tight knot she'd managed to wind herself into. "I'm Annie," she added, almost as an afterthought (Reply to this) (Parent)