Playing House

Who: Lina and open
When: 7AMish
Where: Kitchen

The heavy snow had persuaded Lina to forgo her outdoor morning run, and instead head down into the basement to use the treadmill. She liked running outside a lot more, but she couldn't deny that it was still a great step up from running anywhere at any time in Detroit. Since she didn't have the elements to contend with, she ran a little longer than she usually did. When she finally called it quits, all she had on her mind was food and a cup of coffee. Which probably explained why, after discovering the coffee wasn't where it had been the past ten days, she looked a little like she would have liked to punch somebody in the face. Goddammit, she had just gotten the hang of where everything was.

She headed into the massive pantry, and realized almost immediately that something was different. She wasn't really paying attention to what just yet, but it started to sink in right around the time she found six different brands of decaf, and a hell of a lot more caffeine-free varieties of tea than there had been yesterday. "Oh, oh, oh fuck to the no," she grunted, and then she really started digging around. Now that she was on alert, she realized one of the things that was very different about the pantry. There had always been a lot of soda in here. Towers of coke, mountain dew, and every other kind of pop known to man. Those were gone, too. Replaced with the decaffeinated variations, which she had always thought were kind of gross and pointless.

"This shit ain't cute," she mumbled, heading out of the pantry and basically slamming the door behind her. She hadn't meant to, but her morning coffee was being fucked with, and Lina wasn't the sort of person who responded well to any part of her morning rituals being borked. She headed to the fridge now, knowing just last night she'd seen a few of those bottled Starbucks drinks. They were gone now. In fact, the sight awaiting her in the fridge wasn't half as cheerful as it had been yesterday. It was all a lot less puddings and fruit juices, and a lot more veggies and old people food. "Oh, you dirty rotten motherfuckers..."

Who: Audrey, Ethan, and Lina
When: Shortly after 8
Where: the ballroom

The amount of girlish flailing and tee-heeing over the scientist-thrown party had been annoying, but something Lina could easily ignore. She wasn't about to dress up for the event -- really, dressing up wasn't a thing Lina did... ever -- but she did put on something that was at least slightly nicer than her usual jeans and a hoodie. Most people would have passed it off as club-wear, and they were more or less right. Leather pants, a draped black halter top, her usual boots and she was out the door. Make-up was not something Lina did, either.

When she walked into the ballroom, Lina was glad she had overlooked her earlier considerations of skipping the thing all together. The food smelled amazing, and Lina was not shy about helping herself to damn near a little bit of everything. When her plates were piled high, she grabbed a beer and headed to the nearest empty table. Only to see delicate little name cards set on every plate. Lina groaned internally and rolled her eyes, but went about finding the table the scientists had assigned her to anyway. If her dining companions annoyed her, she'd just move. Luckily she recognized one name -- Ethan, she'd met him and he had not yet proven himself to be an idiot -- and Audrey. She didn't know Audrey, but thought it was possible she was one of the people from upstairs. Neither Ethan or Audrey were there yet, so she sat down and with an internal 'ah, what the hell,' dug straight into her food. "Oh, Jesus tapdancing Christ. There's an orgy in my mouth." Okay. For food like this she could quite possibly put up with a great deal of annoyance. If she had to.

Who: Ethan and Lina
When: ASS O'CLOCK Eaaaarly in the morning, couple hours before Emily and Spencer
Where: Back door/kitchen

When it had started snowing like it was never gonna quit again, Lina had wondered if her peaceful outdoor runs would be a thing of the past. Had that been the case, okay, she would have dealt with it. There was a perfectly good treadmill downstairs. Luckily, once the snow had let up Lina had found that a couple of the trails she had taken to had such thick coverage by the forest canopy that it was still free enough for her runs. So her routine hadn't changed -- although honestly, fighting her way through two feet of snow to get to the trails took almost as much energy as the run itself did. She didn't mind. She really liked being outside, and her morning runs left her feeling centered and okay enough to deal with everything else. Like attic people that had been stashed away like an unwanted mongoloid bastard, or just that pesky redheaded stepchild. Because that wasn't creepy at all. Nope.

More often than not, Lina didn't encounter anyone this early in the morning. After a complete week she'd only seen another person awake and downstairs this early once, so perhaps that explained why she showed no care in the world as she shoved open the door and marched inside - almost to hit some random dude in the face with the door. She managed to snatch the door-knob and catch it back just in time, but it was a near miss. "Jesus," she blurted out. "Where the fuck did you come from? Shit. Sorry."

Who: Lina and Open!
When: 6 AM (yeah, that’s right, bring out your early birds)
Where: Kitchen

Four days in, and Lina’s routine was solid. Up at five, she’d immediately head outside for a run. The forests surrounding the house were full of trails, and she’d tried a different one each day. She was actually enjoying it, too. It was freezing out there, but at least here she was without the risk of being mugged. Significantly reduced chance of it, anyway. She’d been living in the city for so many years that she’d almost forgotten how much she actually liked this nature shit. The year would go by a lot easier if she could just spend most of her time outside.

Lina headed inside about an hour later, and decided to have breakfast before her shower. She liked the fact that she seemed to be the earliest riser in the house. She didn’t know for certain that she was, but it was nice to know that she could eat without being disturbed. She let the back door fall closed behind her as she stepped out of her wet shoes, and once she spotted the empty kitchen, headed on in. She fired up one of the burners and tossed her bomber jacket in the general direction of the table while she waited for the pan to heat up. She had put the coffee on before going for her run, and was relieved to see it was still untouched. She helped herself to a cup, and went about making a Greek omelet. Lina was almost, almost in a good mood. What a novel fucking concept. She smirked faintly at the idea as she unzipped her vest. Wait. Did she just hear footsteps?

Don’t come in here, she thought. Don’t be footsteps. But if it is, don’t come in here. Don’t make me be social this early in the morning. Somehow, she got the feeling her luck was about to run out.

Who: Everyone and anyone! Mini-threads + spinoff scenes welcome.
Where: Billiard room
When: 7 and on

If one didn’t peer out the windows into the vast white nothing, it was entirely possible to feel like you were in an actual bar. Jai felt quite comfortable in the billiard room, actually. It looked, felt, and even smelled like a bar he’d frequented back home.

He’d showed up a little early, setting out snacks and familiarizing himself with the inventory behind the bar. Okay, technically he wasn’t supposed to mix alcohol with his meds, but he’d found that a beer here and there didn’t upset his system too badly. He was still proudly Irish, after all. He’d set himself a low limit, and could happily make drinks for other people and still have fun. He’d never been one of those guys who had to get drunk to enjoy himself, anyway.

By the time seven o’clock crept up, the room was prepared for a party. Granted, if the entire house turned up he knew they wouldn’t all fit, but he didn’t think that was a problem they were going to have to face. If they did, they’d just take things elsewhere. While he waited for people to begin trickling in, he got himself a beer and headed over to the jukebox. He’d always wanted one of these things in his place.

Who: Lina and open!
When: Just before noon
Where: Shed outside

This morning’s surprise had been annoying, but they had all volunteered to come here and put up with occasional annoyances. Lina had posted her stupid answer, gone for her morning run (she’d actually found some decent trails in the woods), and had returned to the house for a solitary breakfast. A shower. And then she’d allowed herself to check the journal system again. She was not terribly pleased with what she’d read. The wheels in her mind started turning, and she couldn’t get them to shut off. Something had left a bad taste in her mouth.

She had tried to find a distraction inside the house, and had been unsuccessful. Finally, she decided she’d head out and try and get a little speed. She had not been lying this morning. She did miss her car. Driving made her feel better. On a bad day she could drive out of town to the little places the cops didn’t care about, and put the pedal to the floor. A while of that and she usually felt a little more centered. She didn’t have her car here, but there were the snowmobiles. She returned briefly to her room for her snow-boots and heavy coat, and headed outside with all haste. There were some new tracks in the snow – she definitely wasn’t the only person choosing to spend a lot of time outside. Maybe people liked the idea of potentially escaping the cameras. The guys in charge had picked a good location for this, though. Not a lot of people would be willing to brave the elements for a little time to themselves. Lina herself had never minded the cold. She was well used to it by now.

‘Shed’ was not the proper word for the smaller building slightly northeast of the house. One could have fit a couple of cars and boats with ease. There were vehicles – bikes, dirtbikes (one of these in particular caught Lina’s eye, and she stared at it longingly as she wished for an early spring), ATVs, snowmobiles, even a dune buggy and a couple of go-karts. There was a closet marked ice skates. There was patio furniture and grills for the summertime. And just about any kind of sporting equipment you can imagine. Lina briefly humored the idea of hitting up the journals to see if anyone knew how to play hockey and was interested in a pick-up game, but dismissed the idea. There may come a day when she felt the need for social interaction, but it wasn’t today.

Lina made her way over to one of the snowmobiles, all of which were identical. She had a feeling it was pretty much fated for some idiot who had never been on one before to give it a try and end up really fucking themselves up. Again, she briefly hesitated offering to give lessons, and dismissed this idea as well. Yes, people were going to get hurt. No, that wasn’t her problem. It was the scientists’ problem. She started looking around for a gas can, thinking that maybe she’d take the rest of the day to go as far as a tank would get her just to see what there was to see, when something else caught her eye. The ‘shed’ had all sorts of cupboards and closets, some marked and some not, but when she saw a partially obscured word on a nearby one she felt compelled to check it. She pushed aside a box of croquette mallets (fucking Shining references, they were everywhere and she didn’t like it), and saw the label clearly. Snowsuits. Lina clicked her tongue and stared at this for a moment, internally debating with herself what to do next. Not my problem, she reminded herself. Not up to me to make sure someone doesn’t accidentally freeze to death because they’re too stupid to know better. I can still get on the snowmobile, get out of here for a while, and figure out what’s bothering me. Not my problem. Sighing, she opened the door anyway. Yup, snowsuits. Of all adult sizes and colors. None of them would be particularly flattering on any human being, but they were all warm enough for anyone who hadn’t brought cold weather gear. I could pretend I hadn’t seen this, Lina thought. “Aw, fuck it,” she mumbled, and she looked around for a container big enough to take them all back to the house in. She could just leave them in the kitchen for people to find for themselves. No one had to know she’d done it. She sure as fuck didn’t want a reputation for being ‘helpful.’

for Skittles (that girl gets around) and Lina.