Chester, the jester, little bird, and an atom
Who: Charlie and Pippa, later Wren and Adam also Where: Cafeteria then toolshed When: Evening
Pippa had been downstairs when the lights started to flicker. She’d stuck it out in the kitchen for a while after the lights went out and when she’d gotten bored, wandered back towards the cafeteria. She smirked, watching the lightning strike for a while longer, impressed with the way it never once looked the same.
After she grew tired of watching the lightening, Pippa padded absently into the bar, feeling her way around it to the back where the liquor was. As soon as she had her hands on a bottle, she was tossing it over the counter and listening to an extremely satisfying smash on the ground. Laughing, she repeated the process with another bottle, then another, tapping her fingers on the counter to an inaudible song.
Charlie had been headed across the courtyard when the lights went out and possibly his destination would have been different - until he heard the sounds of breaking glass from the cafeteria and headed that way instead. “Hey, you okay in there?” he asked, leaving the last vestiges of ‘light’ behind (given that it was after sunset, there was little residual light left in the sky) and heading into the dark cave which was the cafeteria.
“Why do you ask?” Came Pippa’s voice, pleased with it’s sound filling the mostly empty cafeteria. This room had so much potential. She should really do something with it. “Are you ok out there?” She countered, curious now as to who her new playmate was and what they were doing in her new room.
“Well, I’m asking because I hear things breaking in there,” Charlie pointed out. The way the female voice put it made him cautious, and made him wonder if the destruction was on purpose. After all, there had been comments from the Administration about vandalism. “I’m fine out here - you could join me?” he suggested to her.
"Maybe you only think you hear things breaking in here?" Pippa countered, leaning against the bar as she squinted into the darkness and still saw nothing. "Why would I want to join you if I am also fine in here? I don't even know who you are! And there are some bad people in here."
"No, I definitely hear things breaking," Charlie said, glaring at the darkness, unamused. "So why don't you let me know why you're breaking the bar. And don't. Please. The fuckers won't replace the alcohol." He had no love lost for the administration, that was for sure, but he also wasn't going to randomly trash the place either.
"You have no idea what's breaking!" Pippa accused. "Could be anything. Could be windows, could be snow-globes, could be anything," She said, smiling as she smashed another bottle, not concerned at all about the glass possibly making contact with her new friend. "Which liquor is your favorite?" Maybe she wouldn’t smash it. Or maybe she’d make sure to smash only it from now on, if she could figure out which bottles housed it.
Charlie rolled his eyes. “It can’t be windows, since the only windows anywhere in this entire place are on the outer wall,” he said, with forced patience and a hint of irritation. “Doubt there are snow globes.” Shit - she was gonna make him come in there and find her, wasn’t she? He glanced behind him and then headed off without another word, deciding that if he was even thinking of that, he wanted to see if he could find a flashlight in the toolshed - even if he had to feel for it in the dark, which he figured would be an almost impossible task.
Pippa was quiet for a moment but then she didn't hear the breathing of another person, didn't hear any words being exchanged or mumbles or anything, and that had her laughing. He'd been so easy to run off! Where was he going? Curious, she followed after him, feeling her way around the bar, out from behind it, and towards the cafeteria exit. She could hear the crunching of glass under her boots and that produced an extra satisfying smile on her lips as she leaned against the doorframe to the cafeteria, tapping her boot's toe on the floor.
Charlie found the outline of the toolshed easily enough. Finding the door - and then finding his way in and finding anything inside was something else entirely. He soon realised that he wasn’t going to be finding a flashlight in this place any time soon, especially not when he knocked over a box of tools onto his foot, causing him to swear loudly.
Pippa was watching the bits of lighting illuminate the sky and as she peeked out into the courtyard, she squinted and noticed that the door to the tool shed was open. Pulling up the hood of her hoodie onto her head, she stuffed her hands into her pockets and strolled out through the rain storm, heading for the tool shed. “Why’d you run away from me?” She yelled into the shed, though she wasn’t positive it was the same friend in there that had been in the bar just moments earlier.
Charlie moved back around the hammers and screwdrivers which he figured now littered the floor. “I was looking for a flashlight,” he called out to her as he headed towards the door. At least she had stopped wrecking the joint now. That was something.
“Flashlights are artificial. Let the lightning light your way. It took our lights out in the first place, maybe you should let it tell you what you should see and not see?” Pippa offered, stepping just inside the door to lean against the wall but keep her head turned towards the exit, towards the storm.
Wren and Adam were searching around for people to join their little sleepover. Wren had a candle, though when she saw people moving around in the courtyard, then heard 'Why'd you run away from me?' over the rain. She wasn't sure what that sort of situation might entail, but she glanced at Adam, then nodded in the direction of the tool shed, indicating that she was going to go see, if he wanted to join her.
“Flashlights are artificial. Buildings are artificial. So is gas, most clothing... I think I’m gonna go with artificial,” Charlie said, conversationally. He kept his tone light and in good humour - at least whoever the woman was, she wasn’t breaking things any more. He was going to consider that progress. Maybe he could keep her talking.
Adam nodded with her, hearing the same thing and definitely giving her an indication that he’d follow after her. In the dark like this he wasn’t about to leave her alone and even now he was reaching for her hand, just to help keep her close as they started towards the shed.
Pippa tilted her head a little, turning it back toward the darkness of the tool shed. “How’s your artificial lighting situation working out, though? I still don’t see a flashlight beam. At least there’s a flash of lightning every so often. If there is not flashlight, there can be no beam.”
Wren tugged Adam behind her as she walked through the rain, her candle being put out only a few steps into the journey. They got to the barn just as Pippa spoke, and the lightning she'd been talking about lit up the courtyard, framing Wren and Adam there. It was enough that she thought she spotted Chester. "Chester?" she called.
Charlie stopped in the doorway, blinking as the lightning flash burned his eyes, ruining what little night vision he had. Thunder rolled, but he still heard the unmistakable question. And anyway, nobody else called him that. “Little Bird?” he asked, using the pet name instinctively in reply. He was automatically on guard. The other woman he was talking to hadn’t sounded like Kaspar, but he was taking no chances.
Adam wasn’t so sure how he felt about her calling him Chester since that wasn’t his name, but what could he do? He didn’t like ‘Little Bird’ either, but all he did was squeeze Wren’s hand more, and try and wipe some of the water out of his eyes with his free hand. “I think I’m soaked,” he murmured, not really to anyone.
"Little Bird?" Pippa echoed, following the sound of those outside as she dipped back out of the safe cover of the tool shed and into the storm. She grinned, wet hair sticking to her face, wet clothes sticking to her body, as she just studied the newcomers. "A little bird and a little…drowned rat? Duck? What are you?" She asked, directing her question to Adam though Wren wasn't lost on her, just not someone she was engaging quite yet. She wanted more time to silently assess Wren before approaching her.
"Hello, Chester. I'm stuck here tonight, we were wondering if you would like to join us." Wren directed in Charlie's direction. She gave Adam's hand a squeeze in return for his, thinking they were both soaked to the bone by now. At Pippa's questions, however, she turned her attention in that direction. "Little bird." she said, not knowing that Pippa wasn't quite addressing her. "As in Wren." she explained. "And he isn't a drowned rat. Or a Duck. He's an Adam."
“Sure, I’ll join you,” Charlie said, approaching the group. He got a better look at the other woman who had been talking to him. “And maybe... Erm - I didn’t catch your name...” he said to Pippa, expectantly. “Maybe you could join us?” he asked, knowing that maybe he was overstepping boundaries, and possibly asking for trouble, inviting a stranger to someone else’s party, but he couldn’t in all conscience leave her here, not when he knew she had been breaking things. He would prefer her to be somewhere he could keep an eye on her.
“An Adam, “ Adam agreed, not letting go of Wren even if he was starting to shiver. He was definitely going to have to change before they camped out in the spiritual room. Wren probably too. Without really thinking about it, he moved closer to Wren, almost protectively.
"So he's a particle of matter?" Pippa asked, tilting her head as she looked back at Adam and then over at the man called Chester. "You didn't ask for it before. And what makes your party so special that I should drop everything and go join you, a tiny bird, and a particle?"
"Surely you've heard the name 'Adam' before." Wren said, eying Pippa warily. Why was she being deliberately alienating? It seemed like such a strange thing to do. But she certainly seemed to be leaning heavily in that direction, with the things she was saying. How was anyone meant to respond? She waited to see what Chester would say to her, however, about joining them. If he wanted to invite her, he was more than free to do so, of course. Though she wondered how they would have anything resembling a coherent conversation if this woman couldn't even grasp simple names.
If Charlie had known where the wall was, he probably would have just gone and hit his head against it repeatedly. Whoever this woman was, she was a pain in the ass. He should just walk away, leave her to it. But there was the destruction to think about. Another flash of lightening meant that he could pinpoint where everyone was again and he headed over to stand by Wren, just in case. His protective instincts were up, that was for sure. “Well, I’m gonna go join the party. You should too,” he told the other woman, though he didn’t really want her there - it was simply that he didn’t like the alternative of leaving to her own devices.
Adam laughed then realized he was the only one and tried to hide it. At least it wasn’t an Adam and Eve joke. It was fun at least. What he didn’t like was Chester...no Charlie, drifting closer. “We should get out of the rain,” Adam said to Wren, giving her hand a slight pull away from the rain.
Pippa shrugged after a moment of just staring at the group. “Your party looks lame,” She said, thinking that she wasn’t sure what kind of fun the three of them would get into, especially if one had been so against her own fun to begin with. “But where are you going? Just in case my party isn’t as fun as I think.” Maybe she could play some pranks on them in the dark. That sounded way more fun than holing up with a bunch of people who weren’t embracing the night.
"We were going to head to the spiritual room, I believe." Wren said, thinking yes, they needed to get out of the rain. And possibly she needed to ask one of the boys if she could borrow a shirt, or something. "Should you wish to join us later, you'd be welcome." she offered Pippa. Chester had invited her, so she was going to make sure the offer was still present. Then she nodded to Adam's assessment that they needed to get out of the rain. "We should. Shall we?" she asked the group at large.
“Sure, let’s go,” Charlie said, though he sounded a little doubtful. He didn’t like the idea of just leaving this other woman to do... whatever it was she was going to do. Still, he couldn’t force her.
"Yeah," Adam said as he started away, pulling Wren with him. "You can borrow something dry to wear," he told her, smiling a little though he doubted she could see it in the dark.
Pippa smiled at Wren, an actual, real smile. That girl was sweet and it definitely settled in her that maybe she'd like to play a little more with Wren at a later date. For now, though, she needed to get back inside and see what havoc could be made elsewhere. The spiritual room wasn't going to give her much to work with, not with the watchdogs here. "I'll catch you all later. Places to go, people to see, what not. Have fun, folks!" She said before she started off towards the main building again, lit by the lighting.