InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I've never meant anything more"

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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tufui_egoeris
2009-05-19 12:18 am UTC (link)

Cheryl closed her eyes as she struggled to calm herself. Her hands curled into fists in the snow and she fought to even out her breathing. All the while, she repeated to herself that the one caught in the snow was a normal human being - not some sort of monster and certainly not a half-formed shape from the nightmare of her mind. There was nothing to fear. Edward was sweet and gentle. Edward was kind. He wouldn't hurt either of them no matter what.

The metallic scraping crawled like a million spiders along her skin but Cheryl forced her eyes to open. Carefully, she pulled herself to her feet and, holding her wrist against her body, she studied the tragic face of the trapped Edward. She searched for any sign of deceit or any sign of danger - but she didn't seem to be able to find any of either. Briefly closing her eyes, she drew a long and shaky breath.

"Those..." Her voice halted and she swallowed. When she started again, it was in a very controlled voice. "I don't think he'd holding knives. I...I think those are part of him. But I think he could have used those on us any time while we were digging him out. So maybe he isn't gonna hurt us."

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-19 03:08 pm UTC (link)

Shannon kept her eyes trained on Edward and her heart sank when he shook his head to answer her request. It took a moment - and Cheryl's assessment of the situation - for Shannon to really absorb what was going on, rather than thinking (as she was) that he just didn't want to put the weapons down. At Cheryl's words, Shannon noticed the way Edward was moving his arms and the blades weren't falling away. The sound of metal on metal gave her the chills.

But Cheryl was right. At least, Shannon fucking hoped she was. If he wanted to hurt them, by now, he could've and would've. "Okay, okay..." she said softly, trying to calm herself down. "Okay, Edward, okay, can you, uh..." Shit, they still had to finish digging him out, after all. They couldn't just leave him there... "Can you put your arms up? You know, so...they're out of the way...so we can finish?"

It took a little more effort than she'd have liked for Shannon to look away from Edward and over at Cheryl. She raised her eyebrows in a silent query. You okay? Can we still do this? She hoped like hell that her eyes communicated for her because she felt horrible about the prospect of actually having to ask out loud in front of Edward.

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shear_innocence
2009-05-20 02:33 am UTC (link)

Edward was gentle, and he was kind. He just happened to have the worst set of circumstances for people to get close to him, was all. If he had his way, no one, ever, would hurt anyone else, and he certainly wouldn't hurt people who were so overwhelmingly kind as to get him out of a terrible situation.

Fortunately, Cheryl seemed to overcome her shock and reach the realization that Edward was not holding knives, but that his hands actually were scissors. His eyes widened when he heard that there had ever been any sort of suspicion that his motives were less than pure, that there was even the slightest possibility that he would have hurt either Cheryl or Shannon on purpose, and he had to swallow and blink back tears. It was difficult, but he nodded and complied with Shannon's request for him to hold his hands out of the way while they continued to dig him out of the snow. They were heavy, and he clearly strained with the effort of holding them up.

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tufui_egoeris
2009-05-20 04:34 pm UTC (link)

Cheryl was fortunately able to catch the silent communication and she paused only a moment before moving her head in a slight nod. She really didn't know if she was okay. She rather thought that she might have to go around behind a building and break down a little once Edward was somewhere where he couldn't see or hear but she wasn't going to let her fear and her emotions hold her back from what needed to be done. She could quash her emotions. She'd done it before. She just needed to hold on until Edward was free and she was alone.

Regathering herself, Cheryl bent back to work but she was rather clearly pushing herself to dig at the snow as quickly as possible. "We'll get you out as fast as we can," she spoke again in that same tight voice as she glanced upward. She took a moment to search Edward's face for any sign that he was going to lower those bladed hands and put them to use but all she could see was how he was struggling to keep the hands aloft. "Just hold on a little longer."

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-21 12:40 pm UTC (link)

Shannon felt a wave of guilt wash over her when she saw the look on Edward's face before he lifted his hands out of the way. She knew that look as one she spent a lot of time hiding from the world. They'd hurt his feelings. And for that, Shannon felt really badly.

Once Cheryl started moving again, Shannon felt like she could, as well and when Cheryl told him that they'd get him out as fast as they could, she nodded and joined Cheryl in the effort to get Edward free. The cut on her hand stung like a fucker against the snow, but she made a conscious effort not to let it show, because she could tell that Edward felt badly enough about it and she didn't want him to feel worse. Especially since the cut really wasn't that bad; it probably could've been a lot worse.

When she looked up at Edward again to see how he was doing, she noticed that he seemed to be having to put forth a lot of effort to keep his hands up and she felt badly all over again. "Almost done, Edward, just a little more and you should be able to get out the rest of the way on your own," she encouraged.

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shear_innocence
2009-05-21 01:09 pm UTC (link)

Even though he had to strain with the effort, Edward managed to keep his hands up and out of the way as the two women continued to dig him out. He felt horrible, seeing the cut on Shannon's already red and stinging hands, and Cheryl wasn't faring much better. He had always loved snow, but apparently, it could be very troublesome for people. This was a new revelation, and it made Edward wonder if the Suburbians had ever gotten annoyed when it snowed because of him.

Soon, it was as Shannon said. He was able to clamber the rest of the way out of the snowbank, his limbs and movements appearing stiff and jerky. Of course, he just was that way; his tottering and clumsy motions had nothing to do with the cold and everything to do with the way he was put together. Of course, now that he was freed from the snowbank, the entirety of his pathetic and somewhat scary appearance was completely visible to the women. Edward fell into the same category as car accidents and photographs of starving children in poor countries: appalling, but impossible to look away from.

"Are you OK?" he asked immediately, fixating on Shannon's injury but not making a move to go near her.

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tufui_egoeris
2009-05-22 01:47 pm UTC (link)

Once the digging was done, Cheryl sat back on her heels. Her hands, red with the cold and the effort, dangled loosely over her knees, but the sharp pain was already giving way to a welcome numbness. This same numbness settled comfortably over her mind and so she watched silently as Edward moved forward out of the snowbank in jerky and uncertain movements; movements which were so similar to those used by the creatures which had seemed like monsters to her.

But Edward wasn't a monster. The appearance was there, more or less, but his face was gentle and his words were soft. He could have attacked either of them at any time but he only wanted to be set free. He was clearly concerned about Shannon's injury and sorry when it had happened.

Closing her eyes, she shook her head at herself. Maybe the problem was with her own perception after all.

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ballerinadreams
2009-05-26 08:43 pm UTC (link)

Shannon took a careful step back, making sure she didn't trip over the discarded snow for a second time, when Edward managed to make his way out of the snow bank. His movements were jerky and if she was honest with herself, it looked a little creepy. Mainly because of the way he was dressed and, well...all right, and because of his hands. But, he didn't seem like he planned on hurting them and as Cheryl had pointed out before, if he'd wanted to, he'd probably have done it already.

Nodding, Shannon gave Edward a small, tight-lipped smile. She supposed it would be more genuine if she wasn't so damn cold. "I'm fine, don't worry about it, okay?" she asked, wrapping the hand with the bottom of the oversized hoodie again to block the icy air from making it hurt even more than it already did. Shannon thought, though, that it wouldn't hurt at all anymore if it wasn't for the shitty weather aggravating it. "Let's get back, huh?" she asked, looking back and forth between Edward and Cheryl. "I'm freezing my butt off," she added with a small smile.

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shear_innocence
2009-06-01 02:26 am UTC (link)

Indeed, Edward was psychologically incapable of intentionally hurting an ant. However, it was his encumbering physical capability that got him into trouble so often. You can't touch anything without destroying it, a bad person had once said, and it had hurt because it was true.

"Go back?" He asked in his small voice, wondering where "back" was. He had no home, yet, and would continue to stand blithely out in the snow unless someone took him inside. Not that he minded; he clearly didn't feel hot or cold things, and had no preference so long as he could continue to move about.

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