Peter Kimura Whelan (itakunai) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-09-27 21:23:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2019 [09] september, pete whelan, rose montgomery |
Who: Pete Whelan & Rose Montgomery
When: 9/9, afternoon
Where: Quarantine for him, her house for her
What: Rose has some news.
PETE: [he's bored, and he knows Rose's work schedule pretty well by now, so he doesn't have any qualms about hitting the video chat button next to her name on his phone.] Hey, is this a good time? ROSE: [having been staring at her phone, flipping through recent photos of her and Jackson, her face surely appeared startled when she accidentally hit the accept button. She would have accepted anyway, but...she would have tried to look a little more put together first.] Hey! [she chirped, sitting up in her bed.] Yeah, yeah. How the fuck are you? PETE: Not bad, considering everything. This is day three, so. [There's something slightly off about her, but he can't pinpoint what it is.] What about you? ROSE: [She exhaled, either from relief or exhaustion.] Well, you don’t look like you’re emaciated so I’d say quarantine isn’t so bad. [A blatant deflection, though her smile was genuine that he was on the up-and-up.] PETE: I could think of worse places to be. [he props the phone up on his pillow and lies down in front of it, scrutinizing her face a bit more. Then, more pointedly:] And how about you? ROSE: Uh… [tucking her head she looked almost like a reprimanded child before making her own set-up, using pillows to prop it up and scooting herself back against her headboard, hugging another extremely fluffy pillow that dwarfed her torso.] Well… PETE: Yeah? [he only looks a tad bit impatient.] ROSE: [Wrapping her legs around the pillow she now officially looked like a child. Well, okay, a very leggy, pantless, woman-child.] They don’t tell you who dies in there? PETE: [His eyes narrow at the sudden change of topic, that impatient look replaced quickly with a downturned frown.] No. I had my first checkup today, which was really fun. They kind of tie you up in case you convert and check any injuries you have. But they don't exactly gossip about everyone or anything. Why? ROSE: [She winced at both his annoyance and the mental image.] Probably not the kind of tied up you want from a medical professional, huh? [A typical Rose quip.] PETE: No, but -- ROSE: [Barely a moment had passed before she started crying quietly, the real give away being the tiny hiccup of a sob as she spoke.] Jacks is dead, Pete. PETE: [He's silent for a moment, staring as she gives into it and starts to cry, wishing he could comfort her. There's the guilt, too, as he remembers that Jackson only got bitten because he and Mina had been, too. When he speaks again, his voice is thick.] Oh. Oh my God, Rose, I'm so sorry. ROSE: [Another pillow muffled hiccup escaped before she looked back at the screen.] You’re okay though, right? You're not going to…[her words hitched, coming out in a desperate whine]..turn too? PETE: I -- [he isn't sure what she wants to hear, and the grief mixes with his guilt on his face.] I don't think so. I mean, not yet. I still…. Feel the same. ROSE: [not yet. her breath caught in her throat as she eyed him, scrutinizing the picture on her phone.] You look okay. You don’t look sick. [a pause, her head tilting as she tried to combat her own sadness. A decision her professional self would have tsked at..] Maybe annoyed, but not sick. PETE: I'm not annoyed. I just -- [he shakes his head.] I can't believe what happened. [he pauses, wondering if he should ask questions, before remembering Rose has no qualms about telling him if he's overstepping.] What happened to him? I mean -- When? ROSE: They called me yesterday to tell me he wasn't doing well, and it happened today. I guess he turned faster than most. [her voice seemed abnormally calm now. A regular fluctuation for her in the past two days.] Stress lowers our immune systems so, [she waved her hand, a poor imitation of her work face] I'm betting most people with lowered immune systems turn fast. At least he was restrained. PETE: [his face is unreadable now, as he tries to imagine the face of the man who'd saved his life -- Mina's, too. He can't possibly understand the kind of pain Rose is going through right now and he wishes guiltily that he never will have to.] I'm sorry. ROSE: [she breathed, apparently having forgotten to do so while she spoke.] I have to tell the Posey’s. I guess I'll be telling Nathan like I'm telling you, since he's there too. PETE: Yeah. [he can't help the grimace he makes, either, thinking about Nathan and Savannah hearing the news.] Are you… Is there anything I can do? You want me to tell them instead, say you need your space? ROSE: You’re already in quarantine, I can’t ask you to do that, even if it sounds good. I don’t think I could look at myself the same if I didn’t tell them myself. [she looked down then back up] I think me not telling them myself would be worse, and I’m not sure I need my space. I think that’s the problem, everyone I love is still in quarantine or...was in quarantine. PETE: [he nods, a pained look still on his face, as he looks back at Rose.] It sucks. I don't remember things ever being this bad… even right when shit was first hitting the fan three years ago. Maybe it was this bad then and I blocked it out… I don't know. [he hates feeling like there's nothing he can do.] ROSE: Maybe it's because we made new lives. We adapted, we even started to thrive and to have this happen is possibly more traumatic than the first. [she paused] Don't ever let me psychoanalyze myself out loud. I make sense and sometimes that's bad for me. [scrunching her face she sighed, stretching out her legs so that her toe poked the camera.] PETE: No, I mean it makes sense. We thought things were gonna get better and for the most part that's what we got, and then… [he shrugs, glancing around at his surroundings.] But I guess it's gonna turn out how it turns out. ROSE: Hey, we’re okay. We’re going to be okay. [she offered a smile, the best one she had at the moment] One of us has to keep looking gorgeous and not snot nosed, and I know you're in quarantine but I'm sorry the responsibility is yours. Wait, are you going to have a scar? [she said it with a flourish and a raise of her eyebrows, indicating it was more of a badge than a downer.] PETE: Yeah, actually. [he's glad for the lightness in the way she asks about it, even though he's sure it's an effort to maintain. He holds his left forearm, wrapped in a bandage, to the camera, forgetting about the tattoo underneath it that's now ruined by the zombie's bite.] ROSE: Ohh-la-la. [her face turns coy, throwing him an all too familiar set of bedroom eyes and a voice reminiscent of a purr.] I love a man with battle scars. [she smirked] But really, I think it gives you some extra sex appeal and street cred. [shifting she slid onto her stomach, head on a palm] PETE: [he laughs good-naturedly, continuing to allow her to set the tone of the conversation. Whatever she's comfortable with or needs right now, he's good with making she has it.] Thanks for the vote of confidence, Rose. It means a lot coming from you ROSE: [flipping her hair in an exaggerated display of arrogance she smiled] Well, something good’s gotta come out of this, might as well be that. [dropping her charade she sighed, though it wasn’t as heavy as any of the other ones.] I guess I’ll let you get some rest and I’ll start playing ring up the Posey’s. Next time you call me I’ll be less…[motions to face] this. PETE: Hey, you can be whatever you want whenever we talk. [He offers her a sympathetic smile.] And you can keep texting whenever, all right? Good luck. ROSE: [she gave him a bright, genuine smile] Thank you. I'll still hope to be less “this.” I'll text you later, I promise. [tapping the circle she collapsed, swearing she would call Nate in just 15 minutes.] |