Who: Madison and Kiley Where: Outside by the pool When: After pizza time
Another day, another bit of proof that being part of the so-called Experiment B meant nothing at all when push came to shove. She had still been outed with the rest of them, and now people knew she needed daily medication to function. And what was worse, little miss nurse knew exactly what she took, and how much. Madison had managed not to tell her why, but there were only a few uses for the medication; sooner or later Cecilia would manage to guess, Madison supposed.
After the pizza lunch thing she had barely attended as it were (mentally, if nothing else), Madison wandered around the house for a while, away from where people had congregated, and had ended up outside near the pool, where Kiley, whose cigarettes she had stolen to make the lovely fire, was sitting. Having a smoke, ironically enough.
"Hey," she greeted, not even trying for a smile.
After their little pizza party, Kiley slipped away with a cigarette, craving the nicotine and silence. She went out to the pool and sat in her usual lounge chair to light up. Soon enough she'd have to find a jacket and bundle up when she wanted a smoke. Maybe she could try and quit again. Maybe Chase would try and quit with her. She would have to ask, once she made up her mind.
At the sight of someone else coming out near the pool, Kiley lowered her cigarette and exhaled, please that she actually remembered the woman's name. Madison. "Hey," Kiley replied, arching a brow and holding out the nearly empty pack of cigarettes, in case Madison had come out to bum a smoke.
As a part of Tobias’ little gang, as it were, it served Madison well to make a good impression on Kiley, even if right at that moment those things were not at the forefront of her mind. Instead there was anger, a bit of nerves, her hands shaking slightly when, raising her eyebrows in surprise, she took a cigarette from Kiley’s pack. It was a nice gesture, so Madison smiled in thanks and took a seat in the lounge chair next to Kiley’s, holding out her hand for the lighter, or matches if she recalled correctly.
“We’ve never really spoken, right? I’m Madison. You’re Kiley, correct?” It was about the best conversation starter she could think of.
Kiley handed the near empty book of matches to Madison once the other woman sat down. "Yeah, it's Kiley," she said, drawing her knees up. She supposed there were plenty of opportunities to talk to other people and get to know them, but Kiley hadn't really taken advantage of them. Since Reginald and Noah, Kiley hadn't really put herself out there beyond Chase and Lennon. It was hard, knowing that on any given morning, they could be gone. She eyed Madison curiously. "You're friends with Tobias, right?" Kiley had seen then hanging out around the house, and they sat next to one another at both house dinners.
Igniting the match to light her cigarette, Madison couldn’t help be amused by the irony of what was happening right now. Sure, the morons in this house were so desperately to be friends with one another the fire hadn’t provoked the conflict she had expected - who was so quick to believe each other? These people were going to die quickly once things really got serious. She took a drag of her cigarette and passed the matches back to Kiley with a faint smile.
“Yeah,” she replied, seeing a window for showing a bit of relatable weakness. “He spoke about us - me and his other friends, like you and um, Chase and Lennon - hanging out together but I guess it just never came to pass yet. If I’m honest I was kinda scared of being the odd one out of a cohesive group of friends, you know what I mean? That’s never fun.”
Kiley still wasn't sure who set the fire, but she leaned toward it being Them. It wasn't that she trusted everyone in the house, but it felt made sense that They would sabotage the cleaning efforts with a fire. It was dangerous, and life threatening, and who would risk their own life just to fuck with people? Maybe someone was that insane in the house, but if they were, they hid it well.
She looked at Madison, studying the girl silently for a moment before taking another pull from her cigarette and looking back over the pool. "I don't think there's anything to be scared of. I think you sort of have to gravitate toward people in this place if you want to stay sane. I don't know Tobias as well as Lennon or Chase, but he seems like a nice guy. I mean, we don't do a whole lot," she admitted with a faint smile. "Just fuck around really. I think they play video games when I'm not around. We're certainly not going to look at you funny if Tobias brings you around."
This was the hardass one, the observant, no holds barred one. Madison liked Kiley from what she’d seen of her, and if it wasn’t for the crush on the antisocial gamer she might even have been invited to join them over at ExB. Not that that mattered for shit, apparently. They were all, still, little dancing monkeys just dancing to a different tune. It made Madison not want to do anything else that furthered the ExB’s prime directive. Fuck conflict, apparently she couldn’t do as well as the people in the house did themselves with little to no prodding. Why was she needed, anyway?
It amused her to hear Kiley admit that she needed other people to stay sane, and Madison wanted to answer that that ship had sailed long ago as far as she was concerned, but she nodded and smiled anyway. “I played video games with Tobias too, when we first met. I guess they really like that stuff, huh?” She took a drag of her cigarette, considering what Kiley said, and then offered the girl another smile. “I can fuck around.”
Hell, when wasn’t she fucking around one way or another? “Okay, well, if you say so. I’m just not into clique breaching is all.”
"Chase is, anyway. Not sure about Lennon." Kiley shrugged. She really needed to go see how he was doing. They hadn't hung out in a while, though she had a feeling he was probably feeling like shit now because of Marco's sorry ass. "I think it's just a form of distraction, or maybe it reminds them of home, or whatever. But I could think of more entertaining ways to ignore whatever the hell is going on in this place." Thankfully Chase seemed on board with them. Wrinkling her nose, Kiley looked over at Madison, distaste evidence on her face. "Is that how people view us? As a clique? Gross. It's not that at all. Lennon seems to hang out with other people, and Tobias... well, there's you. He's kind of shy so I have no idea what he's doing when he's not with Lennon or Chase. And Chase is just... well." Kiley shrugged. "No breaching going on, promise, as long as you're not a nutjob like Pam. I get that options are limited in this place."
Lennon, poor Lennon. Offended at her having called him immature, and now probably feeling ridiculous for standing by a man who deserved less than nothing. At least Madison would feel ridiculous. Maybe Lennon didn’t. “You and me both.”
Madison struggled not to roll her eyes about the sensitivity over semantics. “Fine, I’ll rephrase: weaseling into a tight-knit group of friends.” She snorted at the Pam thing, smoke going down her throat uncontrolled, which caused her to cough and her eyes to water. “I like to think I’m not. I hope I’m not. Did you know she personally micromanaged Tobias’ room cleaning the other day?”
"No weaseling," Kiley said, stretching her legs out in front of her again. Honestly, she couldn't care less who Lennon or Tobias, or even Chase, brought around, as long as they weren't insufferable. It didn't make sense to her to only attach herself to two or three people in this place. She still worried that one of them would be gone on any given morning, and then what would happen? When Madison began to cough, Kiley looked over at her and raised a brow, her lips twitching. "Don't worry, I think Pam's pretty much one of a kind. I don't know many people who can even pretend to be that crazy. Poor Tobias." The grin came quickly as she pictured Pam in Tobias's room, bossing him around. "Did he come out of it unscathed?"
Well, it looked like Madison had made another friend. Tentatively, of course. She recovered from coughing and took another glorious drag from her cigarette, which she was trying to make last against all odds. It was amusing how talking shit about someone else always brought people closer. “I like how she thinks she’s extremely normal and well-adjusted though, don’t you?”
Soon enough she was laughing along with Kiley. “Well, sort of. You could tell he was kind of rattled, honestly. He said when she smiles it doesn’t reach her eyes.” She raised an eyebrow in Kiley’s direction. “Honestly, watch out for that one.” It was only mostly a joke. Madison couldn’t say for sure Pam wouldn’t one day snap and make use of that lovely crossbow.
"I noticed she likes to insult people and then add a quick laugh and 'I'm just kidding' along with it, so you're the asshole if you get pissed at her. Either she's an evil genius, or she really has no idea what she's doing. I'm not sure which is worse," Kiley said, amused as she thought of her brief time with Pam in the kitchen. "But yeah, I get what Tobias is saying. I would trust his judgment. He's like a dog that loves almost everyone, but knows the ones to avoid. And I mean that in the nicest way possible," she added, bringing her cigarette back up to her lips. "I really can't imagine They put so many people in this place without adding a psycho or two. That creepy poem that put out before pretty much laid it all out there anyway, it just seems like no one's paid attention, or they've forgotten. Too busy adjusting to this place and getting comfortable. Are you?" Kiley asked before taking a drag from her cigarette.
If Pam were an evil genius, They would know and add her to ExB. Madison was quite sure of that. So sadly, she didn’t really know what she was doing. Of course Madison didn’t say that, simply made a sound of agreement and then chuckled lightly when Kiley compared Tobias to a dog.
“No, I know what you mean. He is like that.” Madison looked back at Kiley as she spoke of the poem, eyebrows raising. She had almost forgotten about the poem, but Kiley wasn’t wrong. “Adjusting?” She snickered. “Somewhat. Getting comfortable? No. I have no doubt in my mind this will never be the dream spa vacation of a lifetime some people think it is. And that everything good is meant to make us soft and forget that the bad will be terrible.” She took a final drag on her cigarette. Today was a ‘no fucks given’ sort of day, which meant being more truthful than usual.
“It doesn’t stop me from trying to have fun or live with as much normalcy as I can muster - studies have shown that those in concentration camps who attempted normalcy and strove to keep their dignity through any means possible, even fashion and grooming, were more resilient and likely to maintain their sanity. It came from the inside out. But I haven’t forgotten.”
Kiley appreciated Madison's truthfulness. People weren't always fond of the things Kiley said, whether back home or here, but she didn't really care. She had never felt the need to filter herself. What was the point? Especially in Zenith. What did sugar coating accomplish in a place like this? She listened to Madison speak, slowly exhaling the smoke form her lungs as she digested what the other woman was saying. Concentration camps. Thank god they weren't suffering like those people had. "I can see that," Kiley murmured after a moment. "At least they're giving us the means for normalcy. Grocery store, clothes, medicine. I don't know why, or what the purpose behind it is, but it definitely helps in dealing with this place day to day. Of course, the downside to it is dealing with some of the people here, but it's a small price to pay. I keep telling myself it could be worse. Maybe it will be, eventually."
“To lull us into a sense of safety. And then they put us in extreme danger. I think they might be wanting to turn us insane - slowly.” Madison shrugged, putting out her cigarette. “But yeah it helps, so I’m not going to say no. No one should.” She eyed Kiley when the girl talked about dealing with some people here. “I’m not usually a pessimist, but...you’re probably right. And then there’s the people you can’t help but befriend” she motioned between the two of them. “Which also become weaknesses because you could wake up tomorrow and they could be gone. But keeping isolated only harms you too.” Madison shrugged. There was no winning. Not even her. Well, maybe her. She wasn’t particularly attached to anyone that much. She stood up from the lounge chair.
“Well Kiley, it’s been fun talking to you. Depressing, but fun. Hit me up whenever you wanna fuck around some time.” She smiled, and looked inside to see if there was anyone still in the kitchen. Madison would rather not participate in the cleanup of the disaster zone that had been that group lunch. “Videogames completely optional.”