InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "It's meat and then you flip it"

Shannon Rutherford (ballerinadreams) wrote in vas_captio_rpg,
@ 2009-05-15 12:38:00

Entry tags:

!dropped, !incomplete, cheryl mason, day 07, edward scissorhands, location: museum, shannon rutherford

Day Seven - Afternoon
Who: Cheryl Mason, Edward Scissorhands, and Shannon Rutherford
What: Meeting Edward and digging him out of the snow (lol poor guy)
Where: Between the museum and the theater to start and then off to find Edward
When: Day 7, afternoon
Rating: PG?
Status: Incomplete; dropped

Shannon had been, needless to say, horrified by the idea that Edward hadn't said a word about being stuck out in the cold steadily getting buried in the snow until it was up to his chin. When he'd mentioned it in the journals, her maternal instincts kicked in and there was no way anyone was stopping her going out and at least trying to find and help the poor guy. He said he was a man, but his innocence - and not to mention handwriting - suggested a very childlike mind. Shannon wasn't sure he was just insanely sheltered or perhaps a touch mentally retarded, but either way, she couldn't just leave him there. So, when Cheryl said she was going out, Shannon had jumped on the chance to offer to help. If there were two of them working at it, the job would be done much faster.

If she remembered right, Cheryl was staying in the theater. For all Shannon knew, she'd since migrated elsewhere, but it hadn't occurred to Shannon to wait a few minutes to ask. Instead, she bundled up, grabbed her two-by-four and torch, and headed out in the direction she thought Cheryl might be in, making sure to keep her eyes peeled in case Edward was in the same area in which she was going. It seemed a bit silly that two girls were the ones going to help Edward out of the snow, but no one else had seemed to notice. That figured...

The wind whipped at her torch and she was fairly certain that if not for the liberal amounts of lighter fluid she'd soaked the canvas in when she'd made herself a new one, it wouldn't have done her any good to have the damn thing at all. She thought maybe if she stuck the torch in the snow on one side of Edward, it might melt the snow a bit while she and Cheryl dug around the other side. It was worth a shot anyway.

Squinting against the sun, she paused when she thought she saw someone moving about in front of her. "Hey, Cheryl, is that you?" she called out a little cautiously by reflex. It looked like her, but then again, the snow was coming down so hard, it could've been anyone with blonde hair and a similar stature and Shannon wouldn't have known the difference.

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-15 12:41 pm UTC (link)

Shannon grinned slightly when the other person confirmed their identity and complimented her on having brought her torch along. "Hey, check it, I'm good for something, huh?" she joked.

Looking over her shoulder and scanning the white out conditions, Shannon frowned slightly. She had no idea where Edward might be. "Did he say where he was?" she asked. The last time she'd heard, he was down by the barn with that Tonks woman, but he'd made no mention of where he was except, "outside," which wasn't much help.

She looked back at Cheryl. "I know he was down by that grubby ass barn before...think we should just head down that way and hope maybe we come across him in the meantime? Like maybe he was on his way up from there to maybe the gas station or something and just got stuck?" she suggested.

Then, she held out her torch to Cheryl. "Can you take this? I'm freezing, but with both my hands full I can't really hold the body heat in without worrying about setting my hair on fire or something stupid like that," she said with a small smirk and a playful roll of her eyes.

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	shear_innocence 2009-05-15 01:08 pm UTC (link)
	Near the barn, it seemed that the snow had literally stopped Edward in his tracks. The wiry, leather-clad figure was buried well past his shoulders in a snowdrift, completely immobilized except for one arm, which he had been using to write in his journal. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

tufui_egoeris
2009-05-15 03:53 pm UTC (link)

"Hey, what d'you know? Guess even blonds can even have a smart moment, huh?" Cheryl laughed. The joke seemed appropriate since they were both blond - even if she was a bit of a bottle blond, herself.

"I don't think he wrote anything about that," she frowned briefly as she tried to remember what Edward had written in her journal but she really couldn't remember any location being mentioned. "So much for not having blond moments; I left my journal back with the rest of my stuff since I didn't think I'd need it out here."

"Yea, that seems as good an idea as any. We're bound to run into him somewhere along the line and I don't think he'd be able to go very far in snow this deep." Of course, she really didn't have any way of knowing if the guy could just muscle his way through but somehow that idea didn't quite fit the tone he had used.

Cheryl eyed the torch warily for just a moment before nodding and taking it from Shannon. "Sure. Just let me know if you want it back or anything."

Torch in hand, she turned to make slow progress in the direction in which she believed the barn to lie and it was only a short while before she spotted something sticking out of the snow ahead. Squinting her eyes, Cheryl had the immediate, horrifying thought that there was a decapitated head and disembodied arm left lying about, but she soon realized that it had to be the Edward whom they had set out to find

"Hey, up ahead, do you think that's him?" She nodded toward the head and arm sticking out of the snowdrift but she didn't really wait for an answer before struggling through the snow to get a bit closer. "Doctor Livingstone, I presume?"

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-15 05:53 pm UTC (link)

Shannon grinned and nodded. "And how, biotch," she joked back. She appreciated Cheryl's sense of humor, since the last time they'd met the other woman had seemed pretty on edge. Not that it was unwarranted, or anything, but...this was better, Shannon thought. She supposed she, herself, had calmed a bit, as well over the past week.

"He didn't," Shannon confirmed. "He just said it was outside and it was bright and cold," she added. She hadn't brought her journal, either, but she remembered that much, at least. "Me too, I guess we just evened the score out on both ends, huh?" she replied with a small laugh as they started off.

When Cheryl took the torch, Shannon gave her a grateful smile and wrapped her free arm around her middle, hugging herself against the cold. "Thank you," she replied. "I just needed a free hand, I hope you don't mind..." she added a bit sheepishly.

It was with an awful lot more effort than Shannon had imagined when she'd offered to come out and find Edward, that she had to push her way through the snow on the roads. Some of it was lower, around her waist, and some was still higher, around her chest. This was going to take forever and she was going to be wet and frozen to the fucking bone by the time they found him, never mind having to dig him out and get back to where they came from.

Hopefully, Cheryl wouldn't mind taking him back with her to the theater, because the museum seemed to be left with no vacancies - as if the Doctor, she, and Sam weren't enough, Jack had come back to stay after the Weevils the previous night and, since, Jack's friend Ianto had moved in, as well. On top of it, Domeki had sent her a message on the journals asking if he and his friend Watanuki could stay for a bit, since they'd been snowed out of the thrift shop. Shannon had a full house and didn't think that one more person was even actually feasible, much less preferable. She'd cross that bridge, though, when she got to it. "Jesus, I feel like we should be on the Discovery Channel right now, with some guy with a deep, British accent commentating on our mission or something," she laughed.

Then Cheryl nodded and spoke and Shannon followed the gaze, letting out a reflexive gasp at the sight of what looked like a disembodied head and arm hanging out of the snow drift that had built around them. "Jesus..." she breathed and, in spite of herself, she couldn't help the tiny airy laugh that escaped with it. She felt guilty about it, but there it was. "Edward, sweetie, you okay over there?" she called out, muscling her way forward beside Cheryl.

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shear_innocence
2009-05-15 08:56 pm UTC (link)

OOC: I'm so sorry about the short post above! I was literally on the way out the door and on my Ipod touch, so I'll make up for it now. :)

Despite the somewhat dire appearance of the predicament, Edward was enduring the whole situation rather cheerfully. He felt pain, hunger, and chill differently than other people, and none of them actually hurt him in the long run unless they damaged something inside of him, so he was extremely happy to simply while away the time buried up to his chin in snow. As long as he had one arm free to write in his journal, he didn't even get lonely! It was much better than being left by himself in the inventor's mansion. Infinitely better.

Just then, he heard a voice asking if he was Dr. Livingstone. That confused him to no end. Glancing at Cheryl with wide, innocent brown eyes, he said, "No... my name is Edward.... I don't know Dr. Livingstone..." There were two blond women there to dig him out; they had hair like Her, and Edward's hopes soared for a moment, but they settled patiently again when he realized that neither of them were Kim.

"I'm okay!" he assured Shannon brightly, smiling to show her that he was, indeed, unaffected by the cold. Despite the fact that Edward's wild-haired, pale-faced head was every bit as alarming as his leather-bound, threatening-looking arm, he had the eyes and the mannerisms of someone both ageless and untouched by the world.

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tufui_egoeris
2009-05-15 09:33 pm UTC (link)

[OOC- oh, no need to apologize! it worked perfectly fine ^^

Cheryl was both surprised and amused at how well the guy seemed to be taking the fact that he was buried nearly to his chin in snow. She knew that she wouldn't be in quite the same cheery mood had she been in his situation but, then again, it didn't take much to notice that this guy was pretty singular.

"It's okay, Edward. You don't have to know the good Doctor to get unburied," she assured him with a kind smile. There was something sweet and gentle about the guy that made it seem natural to want to help him and, though she knew next to nothing about him, Cheryl already found herself liking Edward. "You just have to know Cheryl and Shannon, I guess."

She was careful to make sure that Shannon's torch was a safe distance from Edward before sticking it deeply into the snow and she gave it a considering glance for a moment. It did seem sturdy enough and if it helped to melt some of the snow - well, the more help the better. Speaking of removing snow, Cheryl moved to start work at pulling away the snow highest on his body. "Let me know if this gets too uncomfortable or if I hit anything that isn't snow, okay?"

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-15 10:10 pm UTC (link)

How Edward was taking this as well as he was was beyond Shannon, but he seemed to be not only taking it in stride, but keeping a sunny outlook. Not sunny. Sunny reminded her of Luna and she didn't like Luna. Bright outlook. That was better.

Up close, Edward looked very pale and disheveled, but his eyes were still bright and childlike. He hadn't been lying; he was a man...but there still remained an endearing sort of innocence and blind happiness there. Shannon couldn't help smiling slightly. "She's Cheryl and I'm Shannon, by the way," she tacked onto Cheryl's statement.

Had Shannon gone around the other side of Edward, she might've noticed the ominous arm, but she hadn't and instead, went to work digging the excess snow away from him the with two-by-four. "Geez, you really hung in there with this, Edward, you're a trooper, bud," she replied. Once she'd worked away as much as her arms could stand, Shannon dropped the wood and shook her arms out as she shivered, trying to help her blood circulation; her fingers were red, raw, and numb before she even started to dig at the snow with her bare hands.

"Same goes for me, if I hit anything that isn't snow or if I hurt you," she added. Because, really, she almost thought if she and Cheryl hadn't said as much, he wouldn't let them know if they did hurt him and that was definitely the last thing Shannon wanted. While Cheryl worked up near the highest point of the snow, Shannon worked down a bit lower to pick up the slack. "You must be freezing..." she murmured more to herself, really, than to Edward, even if he was the one she was addressing.

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shear_innocence
2009-05-16 12:54 am UTC (link)

Edward took most things pretty cheerfully; from his perspective, he didn't have many reasons to be moody or upset. Most days, he was amazed that he'd even managed to be alive, when the odds of his existence really worked against him. He was a mess of used body parts and odds-and-ends, so to be was a gift that Edward never lost appreciation of for a moment.

His face brightened when Cheryl said their names. He had spoken with them both over journals, of course, but this was the first time he'd met them. "Oh! Cheryl and Shannon! You're both very nice," he said, with a broad smile. "Thank you for coming to help me!"

He looked perplexed when Shannon called him a trooper, since he was definitely not in the military, but continued to smile gratefully. Oddly enough, Shannon was correct in assuming that Edward wouldn't say anything even if they did manage to hurt his leather-encased body. He had a long history of patiently enduring things that hurt; it hurt for someone like Edward to be created, after all. "I'm not freezing! It's cold, but it's not that bad," he said pleasantly. "Are you OK?" he asked, a shadow appearing for the first time on his open and innocent face. "Are you arms cold?"

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tufui_egoeris
2009-05-16 01:54 am UTC (link)

Cheryl found that she had to pause in her work before she had managed to break away more than a few inches of the snow. Gritting her teeth, she flexed her numb and chapped fingers against her equally numb palms but she wouldn't allow herself to rest too long before digging back in. She was rather determined to get Edward out of this mess as quickly as possible, even if he didn't seem to be too bothered by the fact that he was well and truly snowbound.

"It's not like we could just leave you like this, kiddo," she reminded him with a slight shake of her head. She knew that calling him 'kiddo' was probably a bit ironic since he was likely as not older than her but it somehow just seemed to fit. "Besides, you're too sweet of a guy to just leave to the elements."

The spreading numbness of her raw hands seemed to beg for a break and Cheryl played with the thought of putting her knife to the effort of cutting Edward from the snow. Fortunately, she recognized that doing so would be a bit too dangerous; she really didn't want to take the chance of doing anything to hurt the guy and with her hands as they were, she likely wouldn't have all that great a grip on just about anything.

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-16 02:09 am UTC (link)

Setting her jaw to keep from grunting with unladylike effort, Shannon looked up at Edward as she dug. "You're welcome, sweetie," she said. "Like she said; we couldn't just leave you here." Shannon didn't really want to explain why, because it was too grim for her to want to think about. She felt a bit badly that she talked to him like he was one of her girls; she tended to use "sweetie" a lot on the kids in her ballet class once upon a time and now it seemed to extend to Edward.

Shannon had been watching Edward's face for signs of...well, she didn't know. His lips weren't all blue, although he was really pale. Maybe they should fucking hurry. In fact, she thought so much that they should hurry it along if at all possible, that she found herself digging harder until she felt a nasty stinging sensation on her hand and gasped, pulling away as though she'd been burned. "Ow, fuck..." When she brought her hand up to examine it, she frowned, furrowing her brow at the blood on her palm.

"Shit...hang on..." she murmured, wrapping the bottom of the hoodie around her hand and holding it there to stop the bleeding. "Edward, are you wearing a belt or something?" she asked, looking over at Cheryl with an expression that said take it easy just in case.

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shear_innocence
2009-05-17 05:50 pm UTC (link)

Both of the women were being so kind to help him... the fact that their hands were red and stinging was not lost on him. He decided that he'd do something super-nice for them once he was unburied, so that they wouldn't feel at all bad about helping him when he needed it.

Just then, he felt something brush against one of his hands, and heard Shannon cry out sharply and swear. He flinched, aware of what must have happened. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry...!" he said softly, eyes wide. This had happened before... he always wanted to help, when he accidentally cut someone, but usually he got so flustered and upset that he panicked a bit and it was really safer for everyone if he just went somewhere quiet.

Edward was, in fact, wearing many belts. "Yes..." he answered miserably, hanging his head.

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