The Quiet Of A Room With No One Around To Find Me Out [Open]

[millenyal_pink]

Who: Elle & you!
What: Elle has been hiding since Halloween night. She's fine.
Where: Her room, the infirmary, or the kitchen.
When: Post-Halloween event, aftermath of meeting the Baba Yaga (content warnings below apply to this thread!)
Warnings/Notes: limb loss, dismemberment, self-inflicted injury, references to cannibalism


Elle doesn’t want to admit that she’s avoiding everyone, but every day she fails to leave her quarters is a day that makes that fact harder to ignore. In the aftermath of Halloween night, it’s been all too easy to fall back into her tried and true coping mechanism: isolation and making sure it’s no one’s problem but her own.


a. Elle won’t be leaving her room anytime soon, but there’s plenty of reasons to seek her out. Maybe they need to ask her something, maybe they heard the elves or yetis gossiping about how she was in the infirmary on Halloween, or maybe they just haven’t seen her recently and decide to visit. She can only hope that Jack and Loki have kept quiet about the whole thing.

If someone knocks on the door, she will answer it, but she’ll only open the door enough to stick her head out, keeping her left side blocked from view. She’ll greet them with a casual “what’s up?”

She looks exhausted.


b. Inevitably, the food and medical supplies Elle hoarded before people got back from Burgess is has run out. She doesn’t have much of a choice but to leave.

Elle decides to venture out early in the morning, ideally before even any ‘morning people’ have woken up and after even the ‘night owls’ have gone to sleep. She plans to hit the infirmary first, then the kitchen, and hopefully slink back to her room unnoticed. Her arm is covered by a heavy blanket thrown over her shoulders, so hopefully if she does run into anyone, she can make the interaction short and get past them unscathed. She’s silent as she sneaks through the halls (which is not very helpful if she ends up in someone direct line of sight), but noise is inevitable as she rifles through the medical supplies and pantry respectively. Anyone passing by those rooms will be able to hear that someone’s up and about.


c. Let me know if you have another idea!

(( action or prose is fine, will match style ))

Comments

B

[myagents]

Price has been taking his new job seriously. He figures that it's better to put his regained powers to use, keep his mind busy with something that is not a dead end. He's making the conscious effort to think of the future, and helping comes a lot easier when you think about the future, even if you don't care too much about those who surround you.

For this reason, he mostly spends time at the infirmary, he basically lives there. The noise certainly doesn't go unnoticed. Elle might be sneaky and possess cat-like reflexes, but Price has learned his way around his place enough pop up in front of her.

"Welcome back." he greets her with a pleasant tone and his patronizing default smile "How may I assist you?"

[millenyal_pink]

Shit, this is possibly the worse-case scenario. Elle whirls around and pulls the blanket tighter around her shoulders.

"Aiden, fuck! You startled me!" It's true, and she isn't thrilled about it. Is her environmental awareness really so fucked up up that she got snuck up on by a human? That doesn't bode well at all.

"I don't need assistance, but thank you for the offer. I know my way around."

[myagents]

Aiden? Who in their right mind would call Price by his first name? The reason many people even call him Price in the first place is because they don't want him to be the Counselor but that has always very much been the most appropriate way to address him. He's an unnerving authoritative entity first and a human being second, you know. That reminder goes double for Elle because she is annoying and nosy (ah yes, the pot calling the kettle black), but he will let it slide because she's so obviously not okay.

He activates his white laser to scan her for a split second, just because he can. Not having taken the time to give a good look he doesn't notice much, aside from the arm.

"What happened to your arm?"

B

[not_your_mary]

Oh, great. Someone's had the same idea of ransacking for painkillers. That's unfortunate. Maria is just about to leave, thinking she'll just come back another time, but she starts having a coughing fit. Ugh, fine, she'll bite.

"Who's there?"

[millenyal_pink]

Elle really should've gone to the kitchen first.

"Just grabbing a couple of things, I'll be out of the way in a moment."

She shoves more wound dressings into the bag slung across her shoulder and turns to leave. Standing in the doorway is a woman she doesn't recognize.

"I don't think we've met. I'm Elle," she says as she starts moving toward a different, unblocked exit. She is not in the mood to get close to people, much less strangers.

cw: blood

[not_your_mary]

"Maria."

She extends her hand, but the coughing got it all bloodied. She withdraws it, shaking her head.

"You seem awfully in a hurry for someone who needs to be here. Do you where they keep the painkillers? I'm sure we could both use some."

Elle seems vulnerable enough, but intoxication can always help loosen her up to get information for Kuk.

b

[changechild]

Nyara's generally been off the Pole, answering Need's calling more than anything quite myth-related, though that may have come up. She's out of her old pseudomedieval fantasy clothing! Tonight she's in yoga pants and a dull orange hoodie, oversized, with the hood up all the better for hiding in. And Need, of course, still in the same weathered scabbard.

It's more bearable here than when she first came but she still doesn't like it, especially as noise and activity increase with the season. The small hours feel calmer and have less glaring light and blaring sound, so if she has to be here, this is the time.

Maybe Elle is soundless enough that her keen ears don't catch her, maybe she's not, but Nyara's Empathy catches something either way. She pauses, considers going the other way, and pads forwards hesitantly. "...Elle? You are hurt again..."

Need probably knew earlier. She doesn't comment. Nyara already is easily stressed in conversation with people she doesn't know well, and little asides from her don't help.

[millenyal_pink]

Shit. She didn't think about the other crepuscular feline in the workshop when planning her supply run.

"Nyara..." she feels at a loss for what to say.

"I'm okay, I've been taken care of. I just got hurt on the mission the other week."

That might be enough to settle Nyara's concern and curiosity, but she's not holding out hope.

[changechild]

Nyara doesn't know if it's a smell, or Empathy, or the memory of her sisters while they still lived, but she knows Elle is lying and licking her wounds in private. She pauses, yellow eyes wide. Won't she give offense if she insists? Need doesn't say anything either way. It's reassuring when Need has the answers and will actually give them to her.

"You are favoring your left side. I can help... I can carry things, I can change a bandage," she says hesitantly. Can she change a bandage without getting any fur in it? Probably. "Need is a healer, if she will help. I can ease pain for a time, and not blur your thoughts as poppy would."

She can ease pain by taking it on herself. Miguel had taken offense at the idea, but she doesn't have to tell anyone that's what she's doing.

B.

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan's sleep schedule is so upside-down that he's still awake when Elle ventures to the kitchen, using the alone-time to vape by the open window. He ran out of pineapple vodka and so he's taste-testing some of North's other offerings, having poured himself four half-shots, one of each of the most enticing-smelling flavors Dan could find, so he can decide which bottle to take back to bed with him.

He's just kicked back cinnamon roll bourbon - pretty caustic - when he hears the door crack, then uncrack; someone must have realized he was in here and decided to leave rather than get what they were coming for. He hops off where he was sitting on the counter and tucks his vape away, scuttling for the door and opening it, figuring he should let whomever it was know that it's okay to use the kitchen, he isn't trying to monopolize it, when he sees Elle's silhouette and the way the blanket hangs against her-

"Elle?" The concern in his voice is evident, sharp.

[millenyal_pink]

Elle immediately brings her arms-- arm to cross around her middle, dragging the blanket with her to cover it. She can only hope that she's quick enough to hide the full extent of her injury. Maybe the back full of medical supplies hanging under the blanket, across her right shoulder and sitting on her left side will help her disguise it?

"Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt," she apologizes and quickly turns to leave.

Out of everyone who would eventually find out about what happened, Elle's been dreading Dan's reaction the most. She doesn't want to hurt him. She doesn't know how to keep this from hurting him.

She feels bad for bailing on their standing appointment in the mailroom with nothing but a voice message, but she needed time to figure out how to approach him.

She still hasn't figured it out.

[hallelujahjunction]

Dan follows her down the hall, not trying to catch up to her, not trying to press in on her boundaries, but not just letting her lose him.

"Elle, Elle, stop. Don't leave me here assuming the worst."

Dan's fairly certain that the situation is as bad as he's assuming, certain that getting the details won't soothe either of them, but he can't let her just walk away from him right now to leave him to fret and her to worry about what he's thinking.

He wouldn't be surprised if she could smell it on him, the flush of fear, the way his heart starts to pound with the fact that he's already seen one kid die and her death is so close to the surface this time of year, the fact that his heart starts to careen at the idea of something happening to Elle too and his mind fills in all the blanks with the worst possible scenario - that his head started filling up with those possibilities before he even saw her injury, back when she was canceling plans on him.

"Come back to the kitchen with me. I won't keep you long if you don't want to talk, but..." But as horrible as whatever she may have to tell and show him is, he would rather be there, certain, supporting her however he can, than chewing his hands in concern wondering how bad the damage really is.

c: wildcare baby!

[demonicmiracle]

[It's not that Crowley like, gives a shit or anything, but he does notice things, and after the dust has settled, there's one particular person that he fails to see around the Pole. He's never intentionally sought Elle out, but they've run into each other enough times before the whole Halloween mess that he eventually starts to worry. Just a tiny bit.

The elves are annoying, but they're a great source of information if one knows how to bribe them, so he's able to discover that a) Elle made a trip to the infirmary before the big fight and b) the elves haven't seen her leave her room since.

He could just show up and knock on her door, but if she's avoiding people, that's not going to be a great start to the interaction, so he takes a different approach.]

couple of quick questions: have you got a favorite food, and are you old enough to drink alcohol?

[The text comes early in the afternoon and somewhat lacks context, although Elle might be able to put the pieces together. She isn't stupid.]

[millenyal_pink]

[Deep sigh. This is not a conversation she wants to have, but she was planning on reaching out to Crowley before-- yeah. Him reaching out first is better in a lot of ways. She can't find it in herself to appreciate it the way she knows she should.]

1. i would kill for a good burger right now

2. alcohol doesn't affect me but if it's sweet i'll drink it

[demonicmiracle]

[In a way, he's a little surprised to actually get a response, but he won't look a gift horse in the mouth.]

1. pub burger or fast food burger?

[He might not eat, but he's been around long enough to know there's a difference.]

2. seems a shame. how about a milkshake, then?

b

[branchifer]

Unfortunately for her, Branch sometimes gets up before the butt crack of dawn. Old habits. He's used to getting up early to forage or collect things or do bunker maintenance or tend his garden.

He walks into the kitchen at his 3-foot-tall size yawning, hair truly impressively messy, what with it also being another extra 3-feet tall. He doesn't think anything of seeing someone else there rifling in the pantry. Certainly, he's not the only early bird. He's occasionally run into others in the morning.

So he just nods and says "'Sup."

Then he digs around in some of the lower cabinets and immediately gets frustrated when he can't find what he's looking for.

He throws his head back and lets out a loud "UGH!"

What is the point of being big able to grow big enough to do things for himself if people just keep moving stuff where he can't reach anyway?!

"Why do they keep moving it?!"

The "it" he's looking for is the coffee and the reason the yetis keep moving it up from the lower cabinets is because the last thing the Pole needs is for the Elves to just chow down on raw coffee grinds and get all hyped up on caffeine. Because they absolutely would.

The problem is that idiot-proofing things against the Elves means also effectively Branch-proofing them, too. He's only slightly taller.

Last time he just felt around in the upper cabinets blindly with his hair, but he had to take things down and put them back again and knocked over the flour by accident, which was a hassle, so this time he just drags a chair over to the counter, starting the entire ordeal of climbing on the chair, and then trying to heft himself onto the counter so he can just stand on it and rifle through the upper cabinets.

He doesn't even think to ask Elle for help, just goes about the ordeal muttering in annoyance to himself.

"- stupid yetis hiding the stupid coffee where my stupid arms can't reach. Too early for this -"

It's not in the upper cabinets this time. Unbeknownst to him it's been moved to the pantry where Elle is.

[millenyal_pink]

Elle sighs-- so much for going unnoticed. It seems like Branch is preoccupied, so maybe she can just sneak out of here...

Which is, of course, when she notices the coffee on a shelf in front of her. She sighs again-- curse her better nature.

"It's here," she says, taking a step back to give Branch the opportunity to grab it himself. Normally she would just give it to him herself, but her hand is occupied with keeping the blanket in place.

"If you keep having trouble finding it, I'm sure you could ask for some to keep in your room or something."

A

[credit_not_blame]

Stacia sticks her foot in the door the moment the crack is wide enough. She smiles widely at Elle, balancing a tray of soup in her hands.

"Oh, not much," she says airily, as if this is a Normal Conversation. It's not. They both know it's not. "It's just that the last time I saw you, you were about to go off and deal with Baba Yaga and have been holed up in your room since." She makes her eyes big and round and innocent. "I thought you might like some Nourishing Soup."

Re: A

[millenyal_pink]

Elle's absolutely fucked.

"Alright, come on in."

Elle's room is classily Christmas-y, with fairy lights, snowflakes, and various baubles, but the color scheme is mostly varying shades of pink, gold, and white. This is slightly undercut by the bloodied bandages in her trash can and a small hospital's worth of a medical supplies sitting on the desk.

Elle's injury isn't hard to see. On her left side, about where her elbow should be, her cardigan goes limp.

She sighs and gestures her right hand to a pair of dusty pink chairs in front of the fireplace which have matching side tables. "You can put that down over there."

Re: A

[credit_not_blame]

Stacia can appreciate a good aesthetic choice, and it seems Elle can too. She trends more toward gray rather than white herself unless she's trying to make a particular point, mostly for the same reason the bloodied bandages are so eye-catching. She's not really surprised to see the blood.

What does catch her by surprise is the limp sleeve of Elle's cardigan. Interestingly, where Stacia normally lets such things show on her face -- surprise, empathy, sympathy, all that stuff that makes her so good at endearing herself to people -- what Elle will see is Stacia's expression go from deliberate false-innocence to practiced mild neutrality.

Ooh. Oh boy. She hadn't expected to run headlong into that trigger. Easy there, fight-or-flight reflex.

"Hm," she says, her voice faintly abstracted as she scrambles to handle her reaction, "I guess we'll need to get you a little table and chair to eat at, since your desk is busy. Maybe painted wrought iron?"

b

[thismaskismybadge]

The hall leading towards the kitchen area probably seems empty, when Elle steps into it on this particular supply run. There's no one walking towards nor away from her across the wooden floor, no obvious sounds of anyone up ahead.

Which would usually mean she's in the clear, except for the fact that some people around here can walk on ceilings.

From above her comes a voice: "If you're trying to be sneaky and avoid people, I'd give it a few more minutes before hitting the kitchen. That girl with the bunny ears was in there when I left."

Gwen spent far too many months sneaking around her father not to recognise someone trying not to draw attention to herself.

Re: b

[millenyal_pink]

Elle must be really off her game if she wasn't able to hear or smell someone above her, this whole no-arm thing has to be affecting her more than she thought.

"Thanks," she says quietly. "That must be Cammie. I'm Elle, I don't think we've met."

If she finds talking to someone on the ceiling particularly strange, it doesn't show.

[thismaskismybadge]

"We haven't," Gwen says, as she drops to hang from her fingertips. Her free hand is holding a bagel. "Until now."

She's not met a lot of people, actually; the solo-act routine is a hard one to shake, even after everything at the Society. Maybe especially after—it's strange to go from finally accepting you had friends to being trapped without any of them.

"Gwen Stacy. Sorry to butt in on your sneaking around time, but I kinda recognise the look and figured you'd appreciate the warning."

a

[letskicksomeice]

[Jack had initially given Elle some space. He was the one that caused her to get hurt and even if her arm would grow back he was still the one that made it so she went through that pain.]

[The rap at her door is a little wooden knock as he taps his staff there.]

[Then he withdraws and leans against it.]

[When she opens the door, he struggles to meet her eyes. It's clear from the way he grips at his staff it's almost like a security blanket of some kind. The way he makes himself feel grounded when he's upset. The hood of his hoodie is up, too, something the others haven't seen him do that often.]

[It's a strange liminal space to exist in when you're immortal. There are times it's obvious he has three hundred plus years of life experience. There are other times it's impossible to forget he's eternally a teenager.]

Hey.

I just, uh. [His voice is raspy.] I wanted to check on you. Hank said you'd gotten to settle in.

[Hank the yeti was one of the yetis that helped out in the Infirmary the most.]

[millenyal_pink]

[Just the person Elle wants to see.]

I'm doing alright. Hank, and everyone else, did a good job and I'm healing well. Do you have a minute?

[She holds the door open in invitation.]

I wouldn't mind the company. I don't want to go out much until I've removed the stitches.

[Elle isn't against emotional manipulation, for a good cause.]