Jan 18 15:06:06 106 PA
From Chronicles
The current game time is: Mon Jan 18 15:06:06 106 PA.
This is one of the many recovery rooms available in the KEC. Most rooms have two to four beds, though private rooms are available as well. Due to the nature of most of the clientele the KEC takes care of, most of the rooms are relatively spartan but feature miniature televisions with wireless headsets and offer an assortment of local shows and new to pre-rifts movies. Each bed has a simple bedside table complete with a stocked magazine rack. What few pictures there are on the walls are usually of assorted battle scenes, though these can be altered at the touch of a button to a wide assortment of views for those of a less war like nature. Meals here come thrice daily for most, though sometimes more or less for those with special dietary needs.
Mid-afternoon, and Caliopa's room is silent. The beeping machines are gone, and the peace is restored. The majority of the tubes are gone, and Caliopa is left only with a small needle in her hand, just in case. At this moment, she is curled up on her bed, on top of the sheets. She is dressed in a pair of cotton pajamas, possibly the first items she has owned without oil or grease on them. Her feet are bare, and she is reading quietly, her head bent over the book.
A form will appear on the other side of the frosted glass that makes up part of the door. Someone peeping in! The handle turns slowly and the interloper will poke a head in. Oh, wait.. just Kid. Now able to actually see the contents of the room, she spies Cali and.. no one else. So she slips in. She hasn't been back since that day she watched over Cali and as she closes the door quietly behind her, she remains in that odd state of emotional ambiguity.
The door opening draws Caliopa's attention from the book and she looks up, her body tensing briefly until she sees who it is. She closes the book, sitting up, offering Kid a small smile, not quite the wattage of her normal sunny one. "Look ma, no tubes." She offers quietly, swinging her legs over the side of the bed to sit on its edge. "Atti's gone to shower."
A slight bit of a smile flickers to Kid, but it's a fleeting thing, slipping away a moment later. "Yeah.." Her hands link before her as she slowly steps towards Cali's bed, quiet for a few moments before she wonders, "How are you feeling?" She's in that strange, quiet state again, though just what eats at her isn't readily obvious.
Caliopa gives the question serious thought instead of giving her usual smile and brush off. "Hurts to talk, 'n' eat, 'n move. Hurts to breathe." She frowns, tilting her head, before offering a wry smile, tucking her feet beneath her. "Makes you think a piece." She observes softly. The multicoloured bruising stands in stark contrast with the white pajamas and her pale skin. "You?"
Kid's eyes do catch on the bruising, lingering for a moment before they snap away. Her expression firms slightly before she looks up to Cali's face again. The question met with a great deal less specificity. "Dunno.." A shrug added to that. Though after a moment she slips in, "I'm glad you're.. better. I mean, they wouldn't take all that.. stuff away if you weren't, right?" She's paused a pair of steps away from the bed, not quite close enough to be next to it.
Caliopa's gaze skitters to the side and her smile wavers a little before she pushes it back into place. "Doin' my own breathin', 'n' I got enough blood I'm told." She replies, barely answering the question. She rests her elbows on her knees, the movement giving her a twinge of pain. "Ain't needin' to watch me but I ain't to go home for a bit." The quiet admission holds more than the first, more detailed answer.
Kid accepts what's given quietly and nods her head a little. Though she seems to run into a conversational wall for a moment as the silence stretches for a few moments before she glances to the side, towards where most folk in a place like this have their present piles. "When you were.." She makes a vague gesture towards Cali. "..I brought you something. I dunno if you saw it already. Just thought.. might be something nice.. they always helped for me." Not that she has the presence of mind to actually explain what 'they' are.
Caliopa gives Kid a side long look before turning her gaze to the table. She begins to speak, reconsiders it, and then there is a moment of silence before she blurts out. "I remember you bein' here." She speaks quietly, cutting to the centre of the matter. "Don't remember the present though." Another hesitation, before she speaks quietly again. "I love you too, stoopid."
Kid starts to speak again when Cali says that last. That stops her, a mix of emotions crowding through her expression. "I never said.. that's not what I.." For whatever reason she can't seem to pin down a precise response to that, the set of her expression suggesting she's not too sure just why herself. After those two attempts, she turns abruptly, going to the presents. It isn't hard to find the one she brought, the only one wrapped in plain, unassuming brown paper. She pulls it out and brings it over, setting it down on the edge of the bed quietly. "That's it." What is within the plain paper is a fancy looking box of equally fancy chocolates. The dark kind, with a variety of liquid centers.
Caliopa takes the box, opening it quietly and giving Kid a smile that warms the honey brown eyes. "Thank you." She replies softly, the statement not just for the chocolates. She begins to open it before hesitating. "I ain't sure if I'm meant to eat..." She explains the hesitation away, giving Kid a half grin, ruefully. "Uh, Kid..." She hesitates, on uncertain ground with this topic, emotions always difficult where Kid is involved. "Thanks for visiting me."
"Sokay.." A response lacking in upset to the note of inability to eat them for the moment. By the looks, this moment is no less awkward for Kid, her stance edged with it. "That's what friends do.. don't they? I mean, if I ever got laid up, you'd come and visit me, I bet. Couldn't.. you know, not come.." Spoken as if to dismiss it as being odd or out of the ordinary. Then she stops again for another moment of quiet pause before her eyes dip. Coming upon the box of candies, she lifts a hand to motion towards it. "I buy those sometimes.. for me. When I'm really feeling low. They cost a lot.. I don't get em much cause of that, but they really help me feel better most times."
Caliopa nods slowly, giving Kid a steady look, considering. "Reckon if I have one, 'n' you have one, then they can't yell..." She offers quietly, her fingers fumbling with the wrapping before she holds the chocolates out to Kid. "I ain't daft, you ain't good with talkin' over stuff, 'n' I heard you before, 'n' take a chocolate." She offers a quick smile, her eyes warm with affection.
Kid nods her head to the plan, taking a step forward when Cali starts fumbling with the wrap, but she stays herself from finishing the action. When the box is held out towards her, she considers the dozen that are in there. There's a liner that was overtop with the flavors marked on it. Cherry, Apple and Strawberry, four of each. She picks out one of the strawberry ones, though it is held for the moment as Cali confronts her again with what was said before. As if she might get a different story, Kid murmurs, "What'd you hear me say?" She was out of it after all.. maybe she'll not quite get it..
Caliopa reaches into the box, taking an apple one, giving Kid that half smile, as if a real smile is too much effort. "Least apple is fruit, right?" She offers quietly, before putting the box aside. She too holds her chocolate, not eating it, not until she deals with the elephant in the room. "That I'm nice to you all the time, 'n' nicer than your friends." Blunt words, and then with a flicker of a smile, "'n' that my nurse is a ditz." She pops the chocolate whole into her mouth, licking her fingers quickly, a gesture Atticus might have been glad to see.
Kid just holds her chocolate, her lips pursed. Damn. "Well.. you are nice." Easy enough to admit a vague, truthful statement. "But I didn't say I love you." Finally able to belt that out. Which is another literal truth. Easy, considering how she dislikes that word, the straight line purse of her lips lingering on. "I don't.. do that anymore."
"No, you never said that." Agrees Caliopa quietly, with a small smile, "I weren't dead neither." She observes, shifting to lean against the pillows. Being upright for this length of time is clearly tiring and she takes her body's clues finally, resting with a faintly irritated look in her eyes. "Want another chocolate?" She offers softly, with a smile.
She hasn't even eaten the one she took, realizing that as the question is asked. "No.." She looks down and lifts the candy up to eat it. And it does seem to calm her down somewhat. And give her a valid reason to say nothing for a few moments at least. Her eyes move to Cali as she does and when she's finished it, she murmurs, "I should probably go.. cause you need rest and stuff."
Caliopa does look tired, and she snuggles into the pillows, curling up on her side. "You ain't got to go, I've been sleepin' at everyone." She speaks with a wry sense of humour, acknowledging her situation, despite not being entirely clear on what that is. She nibbles on her lower lip, frowning slightly, before speaking bluntly, abruptly. "Kid, I keep forgettin' stuff."
Kid looks up a little at that last, a slight frown come into being. "Forgetting what?" Despite herself, there is a bit of concern to be heard and she will slowly take a step or two closer, nearly by the edge of the bed.
Caliopa makes an irritated gesture, with a small frown, now the one to avoid looking at the other. "Like anythin'. Like somethin' I said ten minutes ago, or somethin' I was lookin' for..." She shifts, uncomfortable as her pain killers begin wearing off, pulling a pillow onto her lap, cuddling it. "Like forgettin' what happened." She finishes softly.
Kid nods her head a little, her fingers tapping lightly on her armored leg as she looks at Cali. Quiet for a few moments before she edges a little closer. "It'll.. be better," she murmurs, the simple act of reassuring platitudes not coming easily to her. "MIght be better, you know.. not remembering. Plenty of things I wish I could forget, you know?" A little smirk tugs at the corner of her lip. "Maybe I wouldn't be as fucked up as I am if I could."
Caliopa keeps her gaze averted as she talks softly, the smile gone, just like that. "No, I don't remember goin' to Kalvin's, nothin' after dinner. I keep forgettin' why I'm here, or where I am, or..." She looks up then, blinking rapidly, her lips tightening against the emotion, before she forces a smile. "Guess you're right."
Kid frowns a little, her smirk fading away. "Well.." She glances around a moment, then finds the notepad. She steps over to take it and brings it back to Cali. Laying it down with the pen. "Maybe.. just write down the things you remember.. that you want to remember. Maybe.. it'll help?" Her voice filled with uncertainty.
Caliopa gives Kid a serious look, the smile vanishing again. She takes the notepad and turns the page back, handing it silently to Kid. The page is a list of things that Caliopa should remember, where and whys. On the page before, in Caliopa's childish scrawl, are the same questions, over and over, from before she could speak. "Don't seem to." She replies softly.
Kid blinks and scans the pages shown, her eyes dipping a moment later. "Oh.. sorry." She will turn and take the notepad back to where she got it, lapsing into silence again. With a look about her that's more hangdog than is normal for the girl. She lingers where she replaced the pad for a few moments after.
Caliopa looks at the other woman, and bites her lower lip, before pushing a stray strand of hair from her face with an impatient gesture. "Kid, its me that it meant to be mopin' all over the place." Unusually sharp for Caliopa and she shakes her head, dismissing it. "I'll live. More than I could have said last week."
Kid sniffs softly without turning back towards Cali. "Sorry, I just.." She lifts a hand as if to rub at her eyes, yet seeing the pad and plate armored thing her hand is at the moment, she stops and emits a frustrated noise. "Damn it." Half muttered.
Caliopa looks down at her hugged pillow, biting her lower lip. "I'm sorry. That weren't fair." Her voice is low, apologetic. "It ain't... I mean, I'll live, Kid. I ain't sure what is what, but... be back in the garage in no time." Forced cheer, and a forced smile to go with it.
Kid shakes her head a little. "Not that.." She lifts her right hand, firmly unlatching and working off the gauntlet that covers it up, yanked off once she can get at it. She rubs at her face without turning, sniffing softly again. looking to regain her prior calm. "I'm not.. used to this kinda thing no more.. I feel.. so many things and I don't know if I like it. I dunno what to do with myself half the time cause things feel like they're changing and I dunno what into." Her voice a touch thick, but she holds together.
Caliopa puts her pillow to one side, sliding from the bed and moving to Kid's side. She reaches out, a light touch to Kid's shoulder, her face softening. "It ain't easy if you like folks, Kid. Costs 'n' all." Her voice is soft, sympathetic. "Look, it'll pass, 'n' mostly I'm grand." There is a slight hesitation in the latter, uncertainty. "Kid?"
Kid tenses a little, almost turns quickly before she thinks better of it. Turning slower, her e yes moist about the edges. "You shouldn't be up," she says, trying for the detour. Yet the way Cali looks at her, seen despite the slight aversion of Kid's eyes, works at her. "What..?" Her eyes slowly lifting to look more directly at Cali.
Caliopa offers her a lopsided smile, a true one if unsunny. "Love you, idiot." She speaks bluntly, without undue fuss, and reaches to hug the other woman, seemingly needing it as much as Kid would deny needing it. "I'll go back to bed in a minute, ain't worth fussin' over." She mumbles.
Kid tenses a little at the start of the hug, rigid as she often is when touched in ways undesirable. She doesn't say anything to what Cali tells her, but ever so slowly she starts to relax. Even lifts her arms to return the embrace. Slowly.. exploitively. She sniffs again, then turns her face into Cali's shoulder. Perhaps the thing that cracks whatever strange blockage is inside of her. For a short while anyway. Tears coming, hidden against Cali's shoulder, the girl's body starting to shudder softly with faint, quiet sobs. Even in this sort of release, she's restrained. Secret. But she can't hide it from Cali.
Caliopa's hug tightens and she just stands there, holding Kid for a bit, without commenting or fussing. After a few minutes, Caliopa gently begins to loosen the hug, whispering softly, "Kid, I gotta sit down." The words are more a statement, than any request for fuss, and Caliopa steps away, sitting abruptly on the side of the bed, her face a little pale. "Here." She holds out a box of tissues to the other woman, her eyes glittering with her own tears. "Stay here? For a bit?"
Kid doesn't show much desire to pull away throughout, starting to quiet as Cali mentions a need to sit. Kid will nod her head a little bit, turning away slightly when released, sniffing softly as she rubs at her face again before turning back towards her. Of course, she can't get rid of the immediate evidence. But it seems her choice in makeup is waterproof, as she doesn't have any runs or streaks. She steps closer when the box of tissues is shown to her, taking one to do a better job than she can with just her hand. She seems, when asked to stay, hesitant. It's more obvious, her stiff front bent just a little in the now. But after a few moments she nods slowly. "Ok.." And so she will edge over to slowly sit down in the chair near the bed.
Caliopa curls up into the pillows, giving the other woman a wobbly smile, aiming for rueful humour but missing. "Weak as a kitten." She jokes, her voice a little tremulous. She pulls a pillow down to cuddle it, her gaze resting on Kid, her eyelids heavy with exhaustion that comes from being upright for more than five minutes. "Guess if I ain't nappin' every hour, I got to fall over." Another joke, aiming to making Kid less uncomfortable.
Kid does smile ever so slightly, but she still seems disconcerted.. uncertain. "It's ok.. get some rest, Cali. I'll just.. be here a while, ok?" Another tissue taken to discreetly blow her nose. "I'll be around for a bit.
Caliopa nods slowly, giving Kid another small smile, her eyelids drifting shut. Her face is pale, a slight tinge of blue to her lips. Clearly, it takes time to settle in a new heart. Her arms stay curled around the pillow, and she sleeps on her side, dead to the world.
Kid watches Cali quietly for a while after she drifts off into the abyss. Her expression shifting. Uncertain.. perhaps a touch scared in the face of things. But she does linger for a while. At least until the next time Cali awakes. She'll save her demand for discretion until later. For the time being she sits and allows her silent worries to pile back on. Tags: caliopa, kid
