Megan Louise Mills (inspiteofall) wrote in rrinitiative, @ 2013-01-30 22:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | aaron, day eleven, meg, meg and reece, pippa, reece |
Lost In A Box
Characters: Meg, Reece, Pippa and Aaron
Setting: The courtyard
Meg’s head was spinning and she felt more than a little nauseous as she made her out of the cafeteria and into the courtyard, her legs distinctly unsteady beneath her as the hand at her back kept her moving forward in a mostly straight line. Really it was like a not-fun version of being drunk which, coupled with the ache in her wrist and the pain spreading across her cheek where Susanna had punched her, meant that her mood was souring by the moment. All she really wanted to do was go to her room and sleep it off but given that her hands were tied behind her back and she was being accosted by the Kentucky Fried Good Samaritan that wasn’t really looking to be an option. Dropping herself down onto a patch of fairly unscathed grass, she turned to glower up at the man in question, struggling to keep him in focus as her vision swam a little. “So we’re here, now what?”
Reece frowned as he looked down at her. She was a mess, obviously, and while part of him was pissed at her for stabbing Susanna, he was also distantly worried about her health. "We wait until I can find some help."
“That’s your plan?” she replied, looking distinctly unimpressed. “Man, you are wasted in a place like this aren’t ya?” Looking back to the floor in front of her, she suddenly felt gripped by a wave of exhaustion and despite a small voice in the back of her head that actually knew a little about concussion saying it was a bad idea, she let herself slump over sideways so she was lying down on the grass, hoping she might be able to fall asleep.
"Yes completely lost in a box," Reece said rolling his eyes. When she slumped over he made another frustrated sound and pulled her back up with a fist in her clothes. "Try again. You get to stay with me."
For a few brief seconds Meg felt comfortable, the ground cool beneath her swollen cheek but then she was being yanked back up and with it came another wave of nausea. “Fuck you asshole,” she said, voice holding a surprising amount of venom given how weak it sounded. “I’m not goin’ anywhere, can’t you just lemme sleep for a minute?”
“Right, well, yet again I am saving your life you seem so keen on throwing away,” he said shaking his head. “Stay awake.” He tapped her forehead then went back to looking around, trying to find someone to help.
Pippa didn’t expect to see a scene like this when she ventured downstairs. The courtyard was a favorite place of hers, she frequently checked up on the spot where the books had burnt and it had been her original destination until she saw this. A big, tall man with a girl who had her arms tied behind her back. “Well hello...What kind of party did I stumble onto? And is there room for one more?”
The new voice had Meg looking round, confusion clear on her features as she tried to make sense of what was being said and where the words were coming from. "Man, you have been to some weird parties," she said, eyes finally settling on Pippa. "You want an invite tho you gotta ask Kentucky here, he's runnin' this show....'pparently."
Reece looked up confused, not sure who he was expecting, but she was definitely not it. "You're the one that went all trailer trash and stabbed a chick," Reece scowled at Meg and then looked at Pippa. "She probably needs a doc or the little pixie nurse. And we need to put her somewhere which sucks because we're probably two hours out from finding out who gets to lock her up." Which had Reece hoping wasn't him. He didn't want to deal with this.
"Maybe you've just been to some boring parties," She retorted in Meg's direction. Pippa tilted her head as she watched the scene. "Why does she need a doctor if she did the stabbing?" His liberal use of 'we' had Pippa amused, though, as she rocked back on her heels and slipped her hands into the back pockets of her black corduroy pants.
Being the mature adult that she was, Meg’s response to Reece was to pull a face at him only for it to quickly falter as it sent a wave of fresh pain across her swollen cheek. Pippa she didn’t reply to at all, instead she just looked up at Reece, waiting to see how he’d respond to her comment.
“Well she managed to knock the hell out of her head in the process,” Reece said, shaking his head. “And I’d rather her not die on me.” The last thing he wanted to do was deal with that. “Are you going to help or just stand there?” he directed at Pippa.
Pippa turned a lazy gaze Reece’s way. “You’re lacking in manners, Sir.” Looking back at Meg, Pippa shrugged. “She looks fine to me. And I recently had my head knocked, so I would be the expert on this.” Except that she didn’t look fine, she looked miserable, but still...none of this was really Pippa’s concern.
Meg almost wanted to laugh at the banter occurring between Pippa and Reece but her headache was only getting worse the longer she sat there and the urge to fall asleep was getting stronger. Squeezing her eyes shut, she let her head loll forward, silently hoping that if Pippa proved to be enough of a distraction, she might be able to fall asleep without Reece noticing, regardless of how bad an idea it might have been.
Honestly, Pippa's knock on the head explained things for her overall self, though he was getting the feeling most of her traits weren't the result of the knock to the head. "Who hit you?" He asked her, concern rising up. What was with people hurting the women here? They were more dangerous than the men.
He almost missed the way Meg slumped, but caught her after a second, nudging her none too gently with his boot. "Stay awake."
“It’s none of your business who hit me,” Pippa said simply, looking back at Meg but not saying anything for a moment. “Let her sleep if she wants to sleep. You’re telling me that a girl with her hands tied behind her back is too much trouble for you to handle on your own and all she wants to do is sleep? Seems pretty ridiculous to me.”
Less than impressed with the attempt to keep her awake, Meg let out a faint grow in protest and had her hands been available to her, would likely have attempted to take a swing at her resentful chaperone. Instead, she settled for replying "Fuck you," and tried to wriggle away a little, put some distance between her and his boots.
"It might be the makeshift police's concern," Reece pointed out but made a face as she mocked him. "I can handle her fine, obviously, I'm just not sure where to put her." He ignored Meg's comment, but did glance to see where she'd got to.
“I don’t really give a flying fuck about the police, makeshift or not. Kinda what landed me in here in the first place, dont’cha know...” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, if you can handle the girl by yourself, then do so. I still think she’s doing better on her own. Not sure who gave you any right to tie her up and drag her around. Then again, she might like it, who knows. I can’t say I’d be opposed to it under the right circumstances...”
Reece didn't have an answer for the cops part, because frankly that was why he was here as well. "Her wailing on me and stabbing someone seemed like reason enough." The last part had him faltering, looking down at Meg to not look at Pippa.
“Oh yeah, big tough man gettin’ wailed on by a girl. I bet you feared for your safety, shaking in your boots or some shit.” Pippa watched Meg again, looking back at Reece. “Why do you get to decide what’s best for her?”
"Hear, hear," Meg said, voice barely more than a murmur now. All the fight had fled her body and it was taking all her energy to stay upright and not just flop over onto the ground and without her hands to help keep her sitting up, she was on the verge of losing her battle with gravity.
Reece moved away from Pippa because that seemed like a good idea and closer to Meg, using his leg to keep her upright. "No, I wasn't afraid, but I don't hit girls." He looked around and shrugged. “There isn’t anyone else here is there?”
“I’m here,” Pippa said, looking back at Meg. “She’s probably easier to carry with her hands untied. She’s a tiny thing, you want to take ownership of her, then you can carry her instead of dragging her around like a dog.”
"I don't want to take ownership of her," Reece said. "And I didn't drag her anywhere. Just guided her here." Forcefully. So maybe it was the same.
Pippa rolled her eyes. “Whatever you need to tell yourself to get to sleep at night,” She said, looking back at Meg. She didn’t necessarily want to help her either, but it was fun to pick a side and stick with it, maybe see if she could rile up this man in the process as well. “Do whatever you want. Obviously she’s dead to the world and I’m sure as hell not gonna stop you. I’d be concerned about the way you’re presenting yourself, though, if I were you. With a witch hunt going on and all? You’re making it almost too easy.”
She may have been on the verge of passing out but Pippa’s choice of words struck such a deep chord with Meg that it cut through the haze curling through her brain and had her almost snapping upright. Almost. It was enough to make her pull away from Reece, unsteadily shifting on to her knees and looking up at him warily. Sure he had played the good samaritan up in the activity room but aside from that, she knew nothing about him, had no reason to trust or strike him off the list on her head.
Reece's head snapped around at Pippa when she said that. "You shut your mouth. I wouldn't dare. I'm trying to find out who did." It registered after the fact when Meg moved away from him, that look and it dawned on him who it was that had been hurt and his stomach turned over.
“A little too close to home?” Pippa asked, face twisted into an empathetic pout for a moment. “Don’t much care one way or another, just stating a fact here. You’re taking some ballsy liberties tying up a girl when there’s a predator on the loose.” She looked back at Meg then. “You’d probably like to be untied about now, wouldn’t you?” Did Pippa want to insert herself enough to do it? Probably not. Not just yet, anyway. That was a little obvious and she was having just too much fun twisting the topics.
Whatever Pippa was trying to accomplish, she couldn’t have guessed it would wind up with Meg and Reece agreeing, the small blonde trying and failing to get to her feet, wanting to get as far away as she could from the conversation. “Shut up, shut up,” she said, voice a little stronger now, not even hearing Pippa’s question as she muttered the words over and over like a mantra to herself.
Aaron emerged from the cafeteria into the courtyard in time to see the group. He sighed at the sight of what appeared to be another disagreement brewing and headed over. Maybe this one could be broken up before it got out of hand. “Hey there,” he said, putting on a more charming front than he usually bothered with. “What’s going on?” He didn’t sound accusatory, or angry. In fact, if anything, he was almost, well - friendly. It was an approach he hadn’t used for several years now, that was for sure.
Great. Not what Pippa was hoping for, another person added to this group. It shifted the dynamic and she wasn't ready to let go of the control she felt she had over this one yet. She disregarded Aaron at first, watching Meg squirm with a little smile on her face, then finally turned her attention toward the newcomer. "I'm curious, what does it look like to you? As a newcomer, I mean. We've got a frightened girl in restraints, a man leading her around…seems pretty fishy to me."
Reece actually had to check his fist to keep from shaking Pippa. "This one attacked Susanna," he said pointing to Meg. "So I was trying to figure out what to do with her. This one is no help to anyone."
Aaron looked at the group. “So - Meg?” He looked at the man. “And you would be Reece then?” Casting an eye over Pippa, he added, “And your name is...?” He left that hanging with an air of expectation that it would be filled in. He made no comment on the fishiness or other of the situation. He had a good handle on what led to this, for all that he wasn’t sure Susanna had told him the entire story.
"I answer to a great many names, oh New Man." Pippa said, looking back over at the scene. "But that's not really important right now, is it? Not when this is happening right in front of our very eyes. I was aghast at the possibilities of what deviance could be created here! It's why I stepped in, to make sure nothing untoward happened to Miss Meg."
For her part, Meg was pretty much oblivious to the three-way conversation happening around her, her head spinning as the panic and frustration brought on by Pippa’s comments burnt through the last of the adrenaline in her system. Without that to combat the pain still thrumming through her body and the exhaustion from the fight, she finally lost consciousness and with nothing to support her, she toppled sideways onto the ground out cold.
Reece was considering strangling Pippa again, giving Aaron nothing more than a terse nod. He was halfway to saying something when Meg toppled and that caught his attention instead. "Fuck," he spare softly, kneeling by her and patting her cheek to try and wake her. "Susanna slammed her head into the floor," he told Aaron. "She's hurt but she was also furious and violent." He pulled the spare sharpened knitting needle and handed it over. "Let me guess you get to be one of our new police force."
“You’d guess right in that. Name’s Aaron,” he said, also kneeling next to Meg. He took the knitting needle off Reece and pocketed it. “If she’s hit her head and she’s out like this, we need to get her down to the doc.” Which, all things considered, wasn’t the best result, given that Susanna was also down there, but injuries were the priority and this girl clearly needed treatment.
"Or you could just let her sleep it off, like I've been saying," Pippa said, crossing her arms over her chest as she watched the two of them. She came no closer to the scene than she had been before, not outwardly concerned for Meg or anyone else really. "People get hit in the head all the time and fall asleep. Most of them wake up just fine."
“And the rest of them have severe concussion and could die,” Aaron pointed out, sparing her a glance that was enough to properly take her in. “Best move, get her checked out. If she’s fine, then she’s fine. Doc says okay, then she can sleep it off.” He looked back at Reece. “Want help carrying her downstairs?” he asked.
Reece was already working the ties off of her wrists. She couldn’t hurt him in this state. It was easy to lift her up shaking his head as he did so. “I can handle it. Just lead the way.” It wasn’t like the girl weighed much of anything anyway. Again Reece found himself thinking, this needed to end. He needed to stop carrying broken women around this place. He needed to stop getting involved in anything.
This was a good enough time for Pippa to skedaddle as any. Reece was sufficiently distracted with Aaron, Meg was asleep or worse, and this was getting really boring, in her opinion. "Well, looks like you two gentlemen have it covered. I'll be seein' you two around, I suppose." Giving a salute, right hand to her head for a moment, Pippa turned and started back towards the building with plans already set in her mind to find these people at a later time.
"Who was that, anyhow?" Aaron asked as Pippa disappeared. The woman had never given her name, after all.
“Fuck if I know,” Reece said shaking his head and looking back at the other blonde before hefting the one in his hands. “Can we? Before this one dies too? I’ve got a bad track record.” Though from here on out he was done. These women were nuts.