Bailey Kinlan (soldierofsass) wrote in reality_dome, @ 2014-05-28 11:01:00 |
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The past week had sucked ass. When he’d gotten up that afternoon, the first thing Bailey did was raid his bed and the closet for sheets and wedge them up around the living room and kitchen windows as best he could. That done, he kept his sunglasses on and flopped down on the couch with his sketchbook propped on his knees. He didn’t bother looking for breakfast yet, assuming either Alex would have some leftovers or his stomach would force him to trek through the water across the new bridges to the Keep before he starved. He shoved the shades farther up the bridge of his nose and squinted at the pad of paper, wishing he could make the cabin just a little darker. As the week had worn on, his ability to see in the dark had only gotten better, but his sensitivity to light had gone up just as fast. Even with the sunglasses on, it was becoming painful to deal with afternoon sunlight. “My kingdom for an eclipse,” he groaned, pressing the heel of his hand to his forehead before rolling over. He let his sketchbook and pencil tumble to the floor and shoved his face into the cushion, ignoring how the hard plastic of the glasses creased into his face. It was going to be a long time before nightfall... -- Alex hadn’t been able to sleep the night before. Her body was sore from the fight with Sin on Wednesday and the helping with the bridges the day before hadn’t helped. When she tried to sleep she had been unable to get comfortable. Finally she had moved out the living room, and curled up with a book on the couch. She was acutely aware of the absence of Ches, and that had made her a little depressed. She couldn’t help wondering if he was okay, wherever he was at that moment. She may have dozed at one point because when she became aware of the sun it seemed to be coming into the cabin at a different angle. She rose from the couch stretching as her stiff muscles protested at the movement. She limped slightly as she moved to her bathroom to run a bath. She fought with the water to get a decent temperature. After bathing, she got dressed in shorts and a light tank top, then she slipped on her sandals and headed up to the keep in search of food. Imagine her surprise to see a package for her waiting on the table. She picked it up and brought it into the kitchen with her while she cooked. She cooked enough for both her and Bailey, figuring he might be up around the time she got back to the cabin. After eating and cleaning up she picked up her package, still unopened, and the plate she had made for Bailey and headed back home. The bridges helped a lot on getting back without any incidents, though she did see more sharks in the water between the cabins. Once back at the cabin she pushed inside quickly and paused to let her eyes adjust to the dimmer light. Then she set the plate on the counter of the kitchen and peeped over the couch at Bailey, “Hey, if you’re up, I brought breakfast.” Then she moved to the armchair to check out her gift. --- “You’re killing me,” dramatized Bailey, throwing his arms over his head as the light was let in for a moment. Alex closed the door quickly, though, so he didn’t whine too much more. He chanced a look out from under his arms, rolling to his side to get a better look at Alex. “Breakfast might be enough of an apology for letting in that devil light.” He hesitated a moment while he tried to decide just how lazy he was, then with a heavy sigh rolled to his feet to go retrieve the plate. He managed a quick, “Thanks,” then dropped heavily back to the couch with the plate in hand. Noting the box, Bailey gestured with a slice of bacon. “‘S’up? Get something from the powers-that-be? Tell me it’s a pool noodle.” When the others had gone to get the bridge materials, Bailey had responded by piling pillows on top of his head to block out the light and declaring he’d rather let the sharks eat him than go out during the day. Sin might have been the vampire (and the thought of her left a bitter taste in his mouth), but Bailey might as well have been the one denouncing garlic and crosses with how much he hated the light right now. Everyone had said things would probably balance out once he started to adjust, but for now... it sucked. --- Alex rolled her eyes slightly at Bailey’s comment about killing him. She chuckled slightly before responding, “If I were killing you, you’d know it, eat your food before it gets cold.” She began to open her gift, wondering what could be in it. She hadn’t requested many things so she wasn’t sure if they had given her one of her requests or if they had given her something random. She was a little happy when she pulled out a seed tray. “Hey look,” she said glancing over to Bailey, “I got a seed tray.” Of course that didn’t necessarily mean that they had also given her seeds. There wasn’t anything else in the box, so she set it aside to examine the tray. She ran her hand over the top of the soil and felt a slight tingling feeling in her hand. “I think there are seeds in here too,” she said with an excite smile on her face. She got up quickly and carried the tray to the kitchen. She poured some tap water into a cup testing it to make sure it wasn’t boiling, before pouring it over the soil. Returning to the armchair she set the tray on the small table. Then she hovered her hands over the tray and focused on getting the seeds to grow. She wanted to know what kind of seeds they had given her. She chuckled slightly, “With my luck they gave me poison ivy here,” she said looking over at Bailey. “Wouldn’t that be a kick in the ass?” --- “Keep it to yourself if they did,” Bailey ordered before taking a bite of bacon. He started to wave the rest of the piece at Alex, then seemed to think better of and finished it off instead. While Alex messed with her present, Bailey wolfed down the remainder of his food, then shoved the empty plate halfway onto the coffee table. Glancing briefly at Alex to see if she’d disapprove, he narrowed his eyes and extended his hand slightly, aiming for the plate. He was fairly sure he didn’t need to use his hands to direct the air, but at this point he still needed that extra bit of focus. Whenever he tried to control the air, he could feel his skin tingling slightly. Maybe it was all in his head, but he focused on that until he thought he could feel the air in the area immediately around him. In his mind, he balled the air up as tightly as he could, adjusted his aim, and pushed. The plate wobbled dangerously. Bailey shot out his other hand, sending another jet of air underneath the plate. It slid this time, but only a little. It was still too heavy for what Bailey could pull off. “Well that was shit,” he admitted. “How’s that poison coming?” --- Alex was pretty focused on her plants and wasn’t really paying attention to what Bailey was doing. Though she did notice when his plate wobbled. “Please don’t break the plate. I don’t want to have to explain that there is one less plate because you wanted to make it float.” As she was looking up at Bailey there was a tug on her pinky. She looked down to see a piece of a plant wrapped around her finger. She looked back up at Bailey, her face lighting up happily. “Well it’s growing, but I am hoping it’s not poison cause it just touched me. She stood up and took the seed tray to the kitchen for more water. Then she moved the tray to the other side of the sheet that Bailey had put over the window so that it could get some sun. She gave it another mental push, urging it to grow. After that she returned to the armchair and watched Bailey experiment with his ability. Leaning back into the chair she closed her eyes for a minute relaxing. She wasn’t sure why she wasn’t sleeping well again, but she figured it might have something to do with not having Ches to curl up next to. He really had been a comfort for her and she missed him a lot. She sighed slightly, “Do you think they will give Ches back ever? Or do you think he’s gone for good as punishment for the fight?” She almost wished that she had left him with Dahlia, at least then she would be able to see him. She opened one eye to study Bailey wondering if he was glad the kitten was gone. She wouldn’t blame him. After the annoyance with the break in and all. Still it had been nice to have Ches around. Maybe she could ask the producers for a stuffed animal or something, just to have something to hug when she went to sleep. Opening both eyes she leaned forward and asked, “So how’s your power coming?” --- “They should have gotten plastic plates if they didn’t want us to break ‘em.” Bailey shrugged, unperturbed as he leaned off the couch to grab the plate again, balancing it on his hand and trying to concentrate it into doing what he wanted. Which was flying like a frisbee. The plate simply wobbled again. Bailey scowled. Sliding the plate back onto the table, he offered Alex an unconcerned shrug. He didn’t like to wonder too much what the powers-that-be might be up to. Even in the little time that he’d been there, they didn’t seem too inclined to doing anything predictable. He still didn’t get why they had taken the cat. Remove the toy and the kids would stop fighting over it? That worked in theory, but now he was pissed. Sin had broken into their place and attacked them. She’d made it to an almost impossible to attain position on his shit list. Cat or no cat -- if the opportunity came up to cause her trouble, Bailey was going to take it. “Beats me,” he answered, waving up toward the ceiling. “Put in eight or so requests for him and see what comes of it. Maybe they’ll say fuck it and give him back just so you’ll stop spammin’ ‘em.” As for his powers... Bailey gestured at the table, rocking the plate with another blast of concentrated air. “I’m a glorified air cannon.” --- “Or they’ll just take something else away from me for spamming them. like my ability to post at all.” She got up and began pacing the room agitated. “I can’t believe that, no scratch that I can believe they took Ches, I just wonder if they took anything from her too. It wouldn’t seem fair for them to punish me and not her, after all she is the one who broke in. Gah! It’s just fucking frustrating” She broke off as there was a thud from the kitchen. She moved over to that room to see what had caused the noise. Alex smiled as she saw the seed tray, laying on it’s side, plants sprouting out of all of the sections with a vengeance. She picked up the tray with wonder. Even with her urging she didn’t think the plants would be growing this fast. “Hey look at this,” She mused, “Why do you think they grew so fast?” She set the tray back on the table and knelt before it, leaning her head on her hands, elbows on the table. She watched the plants as they continued rapidly growing. Moving some of the leaves out of the way she fingered a small fruit. “They gave me strawberries.” she laughed. “In a place with almost no fresh food, they gave me strawberries?” --- “Had to be your--” Bailey wiggled his fingers dramatically. “--Poison Ivy charms.” He pulled himself up to a sitting position again, leaning forward to peer at the little plants and the growing fruit. He wasn’t an expert on gardening, but he could smell opportunity here. Plants had seeds, didn’t they? Alex could make plants grow in minutes. Plants made plants. “Can you start another batch?” he asked, reaching forward to prod one of the leaves experimentally. “If we get something to hold them in, I mean?” There was an idea tumbling around in his head now, almost ready to release on the world. Fresh fruit wasn’t a thing here. They had fresh fruit. If they could make more fresh fruit -- give it to the people they liked... Bailey grinned. Maybe they’d be owed a few favors. -- “Poison Ivy charms my ass,” she laughed. “Still working that villain angle?” Alex shook her head and went back to studying the fruit on the plants. “This is really cool, and yeah, I think I could grow more if I had things to plant them in. Why?” She kept running her fingertips over the plants lightly as she spoke. She was really amazed by this power to make plants grow that she had in her. She wondered what else she would be able to do once her power fully developed. Unless this was as good as it got. Though she didn’t think that she would be too upset if it was. Alex glanced up and caught Bailey’s grin. She tilted her head at him curiously. She wasn’t sure what he was thinking and debated with wanting to know for a few moments against coming out and asking. Finally curiosity gave way and she inquired, “You look like you are plotting something. Care to share?” She sat back on her heels and watched Bailey waiting for his response. --- “Villains are hot, right? Working it for all I’m worth.” Bailey waggled his eyebrows, shooting to amuse Alex if he could. Whether that worked or not, he kicked at the table with one foot to indicate the plant again. “Just a thought. You make enough extra strawberries for the rest of the guys here who aren’t living in crazy land, and maybe they’ll share if they get something nice.” He shrugged easily, another grin tugging at his lips. “Or at the very least owe us a favor. I dunno about you, but lazy asses like me love being owed favors.” -- Alex was amused by Bailey’s antics and never knew what to expect anytime he opened his mouth to speak. Usually it just made her smile and shake her head. She liked Bailey, rooming with him was bringing a level of joviality back into her life that she had been missing for a long time. She rolled her eyes in good humor at him. “Don’t you think you are hot enough without adding the villain bad boy appeal?” She pondered his idea for a moment. “Yeah that would be a nice thing to do with the strawberries. Though I don’t really care about favors for them. People might just like to have something that isn’t frozen or from a can or a box.” She stood up and walked around the table before flopping backwards over the arm of the couch, laying on the part not occupied by Bailey. She dangled her legs over the couch’s arm and looked at Bailey upside down smiling. “So how do you propose we keep crazy land residents from getting any? If I give some to Dahlia she’d likely share with Sin.” --- His expression grew serious for a moment. “Alex, one can never be too hot.” The next moment, Bailey slipped easily back into a grin and started mentally counting everyone in the dome, using his fingers to keep track. “I’ve gone on exactly one romantic midnight stroll looking for your zombied ass. I have... what? a dozen more hearts to win over still? Jake’s being stubborn. But I think he loves me.” For a moment, he considered shoving Alex off the couch with his foot, but thought better of it just in time. While it would be hilarious, he knew he’d get dragged down as well somehow. He settled for quirking an eyebrow at her. “We like Dahlia,” he reminded, holding up one of his hands (the one that was counting the imagined people who loved him). “We can’t do much if she gives away her present. Just’s long as we aren’t giving the crazy people presents. Leave that to the powers-that-be.” -- Alex shook her head, “You are trying to win over everyone in the dome? Why?” She shuddered briefly at his mention of the zombies. That was a week she would much rather forget. Yet she doubted that it would be the worst thing the producers threw at them. She was pretty sure, at least in her opinion, that this wasn’t a show. Just some sick twisted experiment. She lay on the couch pondering what Bailey had suggested. She was trying to figure out the best way to distribute the strawberries to people. If they gave them the strawberries taken off of the plants then they may go bad before they get the chance to eat them. She chewed on her lip as she thought. She snapped her fingers and looked back at Bailey. “We can transplant the strawberries into other pots and I can get them to grow. Then we can give the pots to the people we like when they finish those I can grow more and they will stay fresh on the plants longer than they would if we picked them first. What do you think?” While waiting for him to respond another thought hit her. What if they had given her something that looked like a treat only to have it be laced with something. “I am going to have to sample the strawberries first. I don’t want to give away something poisoned on accident. “ With that she hopped up off of the couch, stretching as she walked toward her room. “Anywho, I am going to go take a nap or something, I didn’t sleep last night.” --- “We can find stuff for pots, probably,” Bailey agreed flicking a finger one way, then another. “Or request some if shit happens and we fail at that.” Bailey stretched out again, reclaiming the entire couch. “Got it. See ya later, Sleeping Beauty.” He would catch up on a little napping himself. Anything to pass the time until it was dark enough to be out and about. |