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Tweak says, "hot cocoa is my name-o"

Kimberly Corman hearts nerds (cheatingdeath) wrote in vas_captio_rpg,
@ 2009-12-09 12:25:00

Day Thirty, afternoon
Who: Kimberly Corman, Connor Temple, and eventually Andy Gallagher and Elliot Reid
What: Gettin' some grub
When: Day 30, afternoon
Where: The Gym
Rating: PG-13?
Status: Active

This would be the first time Kimberly was willingly leaving the safe haven she and Connor had created in the library. Kimberly was anxious with worry. The fact that the last time she'd left, while it was through no control of her own, she and Connor had ended up in tanks, fighting for their lives and she'd lost the war was enough to deter her. It was cold as hell and Kimberly was freezing just thinking about leaving the barely-there warmth of their Safe Room just to venture into the main room again, never mind outside. But, Connor said there was food and Kimberly hadn't eaten in days. The one day she'd actually had food, the interaction between she, Connor, and Spencer had made her lose her appetite. By the time she'd gotten it back, it was too late.

Wrapping her arms around herself, Kimberly hung back from the door. "I really hope that the thrift store you keep talking about is on the way from here to the gym...I'm gonna freeze," she murmured quietly. Her heart was racing with that familiar panic of knowing she was about to do something that might end up being her last something. Hypothermia. Frost bite. Pneumonia. God she was so screwed...

"What would I have to do to get you to leave me here and bring things back to me?" she asked pathetically, giving him a weak, sheepish smile that said she was only half-joking. By the time Connor managed to bring anything back, even if it had been the theater instead, it would've been ice cold and barely worth eating, anyway, she figured.

There was really no getting out of going with Connor and she did want to spend more time with him. She just kept looking back at the clothes Connor was wearing - with perhaps a touch of jealousy or envy in her eyes - and wishing she'd been taken from someplace other than her bed. Tank top and pajama pants in the winter. Totally unfair.

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cheatingdeath
2009-12-10 05:07 am UTC (link)

Kimberly walked down the buffet table slowly, picking out things that interested her and pausing in front of things that normally wouldn't have, trying to decide if now was a good time to give them a chance. She could feel Connor's eyes on her and she wondered if it was because he wanted to be looking at her or because he felt like he had to. Or, for that matter, if it wasn't Connor's eyes at all that she felt. Kimberly had that feeling a lot these days. That she was being watched. It was unsettling in the best of circumstances, and Kimberly was not in the best of circumstances; not by a long shot.

Looking over her shoulder, she caught Connor looking over at her briefly and then putting his attention back on his friend and so she discounted it and went on down the buffet line until she'd reached the end of the table. Then, she made her way over to a corner of the gym as far away from the rest of the people milling around in it as possible. Normally, Kimberly wasn't a drinker, but the beer had called to her. Maybe Connor dragging her over to that Andy guy when he knew she wanted for them to be alone was his way of trying to gently tell her that she needed to get out more; meet other people. Maybe it was his way of trying to tell her that he needed a break from playing babysitter and he didn't want to feel badly about doing so.

So, she sat alone and drank and ate and hoped that the food would strengthen her body while the alcohol would strengthen her will. As she sat, she looked around the room at the people walking, sitting, and standing around. None of them seemed like threats, but then one never really knew what it would take for someone to snap. Moving her eyes away from the people, Kimberly surreptitiously studied her surroundings for signs of danger. It was so reflexive that she found herself surprised that she hadn't done so sooner, but there it was; it might've had to do with Connor's friend and Kimberly's self-consciousness reminding her that she didn't need everything thinking she was as crazy as the chick from the woods and King had thought she was. Andy was one of Connor's friends. It behooved her to put forth a good first impression. She thought maybe she had with Chris and he was a friend of Connor's. That guy Stephen, from the journal, seemed nice and he was a friend of Connor's too. So maybe Connor's friends were safe and she should just chill out and let them think she was normal.

That being said, now that she was alone, she was surveying the ceiling for cracks; the floor for upraised nails. Kimberly scanned the bleachers for loose screws and shifted uncomfortably at the sight of every single one of those things. She took a deep breath and forced herself not to focus on any of it, trying to enjoy her food and silently hoping like hell there was nothing wrong with it.

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frickonastick
2009-12-11 05:28 am UTC (link)

Elliot had kept herself busy for as long as she could. Ianto was a good patient and after she'd stitched him up she couldn't really find many excuses to keep herself busy in respect to his injuries. Under normal circumstances she got the impression that he was a really nice guy and easy to talk to, something that was only strengthened by the number of people who asked after his health, but these were not normal circumstances and she thought it would be selfish to force her friendship on him when he was obviously trying to get over a harrowing event.

Rose was sitting with him now and Elliot had gone over the clinic close to three times and had gone through and rearranged the food so that it was easier to get to the more nutritious items. It may have come across as a little OCD, but if Elliot was honest with herself, that was the point. She needed any little bit of control that she could get at the moment.

Andy had come in and fixed her a plate of food earlier and she hadn't had the heart to tell him, after the thoughtful gesture, that she wasn't really hungry. She'd eaten the food and then made one last round only to find that Andy was involved in a conversation with another guy. Feeling a little relieved she moved towards the back of the gym, planning on ducking into the office that she'd found the first aid pamphlets in and doing some mind numbing alphabetizing. She caught sight of a girl sitting on her own in the furthest corner of the gym and paused. While she wouldn't have minded burying herself in some mindless task, the girl looked lonely and Elliot suddenly found herself thinking of Kim. She hadn't seen her in days and days and the thought that she was gone made Elliot's stomach drop.

"Hey," she said, stopping a few feet away from her. "Are you new here?"

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cheatingdeath
2009-12-12 03:00 am UTC (link)

Kimberly was doing a mental inventory of all the things it would take to make this room a safe place to be. The screws in the bleachers would have to be tightened. Nails in the floor pounded in properly. The ceiling would have to be repaired, the clinic cleaned up, the floor swept and the basketball hoops discarded entirely. The food would have to be trashed by the end of the day and -

The sound of a female voice pulled Kimberly from her thoughts and she looked up quickly. "Huh? Oh, hey, hi. Yeah," she stumbled through her reply. Giving a small, uncomfortable smile, Kimberly shifted awkwardly in her seat. "I'm Kimberly. I got here a few days ago," she admitted. It was horribly intimidating having been snuck up on like that. Well, more accurately, being caught off guard like that. As she looked up at the blonde, Kimberly found herself sizing the other woman up. A little taller than Kimberly, but probably not stronger. The room was full of people; surely the other woman wouldn't hurt her with all those people watching. Though, even if she wanted to, Connor wouldn't let her, Kimberly was confident of that.

Don't be anti-social. Don't be anti-social...

"Do you want to sit?" she offered. It occurred to her just then, as she looked up at the other woman, that she looked a little bit like Shaina. Her heart sank and she found herself chewing her bottom lip. No braids, no shit-eating grin. Just a blonde woman who gave off a vibe of someone who could take care of herself and, in return, making Kimberly feel about two feet tall. Still, she took a deep breath and gave the other woman a small smile that was as inviting as she could manage, given her discomfort.

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frickonastick
2009-12-12 05:34 am UTC (link)

Elliot raised her eyebrows, not expecting for the girl's name to also be Kimberly. She wondered if that was some kind of sign. Some kind of a second chance. She knew she was probably reading way too much into things, but she couldn't help but feel guilty about losing track with Kim before.

"I'm Elliot," she said, giving her the best smile she could muster. "I've been here for..." She trailed off and shook her head. "Way too long."

She glanced towards the door to the office a few feet away and then down beside Kimberly, pressing her lips together and nodding. "Sure," she said, glancing over her shoulder and catching Andy's eye for a minute. She gave him a small smile and then turned back to Kimberly before moving to sit beside her.

"I guess they thought we'd need something to stomach eventually," Elliot said, nodding down at Kimberly's plate. "You know, besides terror and fear."

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cheatingdeath
2009-12-13 07:27 pm UTC (link)

Upon hearing the other woman's name, Kimberly's first instinct was to bite her tongue against asking, "isn't Elliot a boy's name?" Because, really, that would be rude. Besides, Kim could be a boy's name, couldn't it? Maybe not Kimberly, but still. She gave the other woman a small, sympathetic smile. "Nice to meet you. Too bad it was under said circumstances," she empathized.

The way Elliot looked after Kimberly had offered her a seat was not lost upon Kimberly. For a single, fleeting moment, Kimberly thought maybe she was off the hook and the other woman would politely decline and Kimberly could be her skittish, withdrawn self again without having to worry about putting up a front. It seemed like there was no one here she could really be herself around; not even Connor. She put on the biggest show for Connor, really, which wasn't entirely fair to him, but it was all she could do to keep from scaring him off completely. If he had any idea how really and truly wrecked she was on the inside, he'd run like hell, she thought.

She noticed, too, the way Elliot looked over to where Connor was sitting and she stiffened wondering whether the tall, pretty blonde was looking at Connor or Andy. Let it be Andy, she found herself thinking as her eyes followed Elliot's and she gave Connor a somewhat pained sort of smile that said, look: I'm trying. Only because you want me to, but I really am trying.

But she tore her eyes away from him and looked back at Elliot as she felt the other woman sit beside her on the bleachers. "Yeah, I guess..." she said softly, looking down at her plate and pushing a few things around with her fingers. "I read some stuff in that book that makes me think Connor and I weren't the only ones suffering the other day..." she murmured. "That really sucks, though. Is it always like that?" she asked, looking up at Elliot again with genuine, albeit nervous, curiosity. "Did you end up in the tanks, too? Or were you one of the people standing outside staring back at them with empty eyes?" She really and truly tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice. Whether or not she'd been successful, she had no idea.

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frickonastick
2009-12-30 05:32 am UTC (link)

"What happened to you?" Elliot heard herself asking before she could stop herself. It was rude for one thing, since she was pretty sure the girl in front of her didn't want to remember it. That might even be the reason why she was sitting so far away from the others, Elliot realized all too late.

She shook her head. "It's not always like that, but..." she hesitated not wanting to terrify the new comer but not wanting to sugar coat it either. "Sometimes it is," she amended. "People die here," she said quietly and seriously. "The tanks?" She asked looking up at her. "Was that you? I'm so sorry." She swallowed. "They put me in a glass cage with Tonks once and made us pass out on this gas. I thought I was dying."

She shuddered at the thought and crossed her arms protectively against her chest. "No tanks for me," she said, her eyes moving back towards Andy again. "They thought they'd get creative."

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