Ellie (
onlyimmune) wrote in
thecapitol2013-12-22 06:43 pm
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WHO| SEMI-CLOSED - Ellie, Howard, Venus, Mindy, Orc, R, Wyatt, Hawkeye. (If you think your character has a good reason to be there, ping me and we'll see if we can work them in.)
WHAT| Ellie's birthday.
WHERE| The Laser Tag place.
WHEN| A couple days after the crowning.
Warnings| None!
The crowning had been weird as fuck, no lie about that, and Ellie was having a hard time really integrating into her new home, despite having been there since before the Arena had started. She was fairly cheerful - outwardly at least - but deep somewhere inside everything was still eating at her, slowly.
The idea of a birthday party was a welcome distraction.
She'd never had a birthday party - not a real one, anyway. She'd once gotten an extra ration card for her birthday from Riley, but that was about all she could think of. Birthdays were generally only marked with a 'oh, so you've survived this long' - kids were more mouths to feed and usually unwelcome ones, especially after her mother had died.
But this wasn't home, and no one had yet told her that dying in the arena meant that she wouldn't age - that though her birthday should have just passed, she was in fact back to herself a month or so <i>before</i> her birthday. Thankfully ignorant, however, she could celebrate. And she knew who she wanted.
Howard figured out most of the details and she had let the rest of them know where to meet - just in the lobby of the Laser Tag building, before they got all geared up. Ellie was brimming with a low-key excitement, she'd never played laser tag before but it sounded like something out of a science fiction comic so she liked it. She was there first - way too early - and waited for her friends to arrive.
Then, after everything, they'd have cake.
WHAT| Ellie's birthday.
WHERE| The Laser Tag place.
WHEN| A couple days after the crowning.
Warnings| None!
The crowning had been weird as fuck, no lie about that, and Ellie was having a hard time really integrating into her new home, despite having been there since before the Arena had started. She was fairly cheerful - outwardly at least - but deep somewhere inside everything was still eating at her, slowly.
The idea of a birthday party was a welcome distraction.
She'd never had a birthday party - not a real one, anyway. She'd once gotten an extra ration card for her birthday from Riley, but that was about all she could think of. Birthdays were generally only marked with a 'oh, so you've survived this long' - kids were more mouths to feed and usually unwelcome ones, especially after her mother had died.
But this wasn't home, and no one had yet told her that dying in the arena meant that she wouldn't age - that though her birthday should have just passed, she was in fact back to herself a month or so <i>before</i> her birthday. Thankfully ignorant, however, she could celebrate. And she knew who she wanted.
Howard figured out most of the details and she had let the rest of them know where to meet - just in the lobby of the Laser Tag building, before they got all geared up. Ellie was brimming with a low-key excitement, she'd never played laser tag before but it sounded like something out of a science fiction comic so she liked it. She was there first - way too early - and waited for her friends to arrive.
Then, after everything, they'd have cake.
Re: CAKE
His head comes up as he hears the birthday girl approaching. Ellie.
"Pretty...cake, Ellie," R groans. He's been careful not to get too close. He might be slightly less Dead than before, but he's been having problems with saliva production recently. One of its side effects.
Last thing he wants to do is drool on her cake.
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"Thanks!" She said to the compliment, grinning. "It barely even looks like food to me, but what do I know."
"You look great though, R!" She sidles up beside him and leans down to sniff it. "So can you even eat this stuff?"
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One of the better side effects of his Cure is his syllable limit seems to have gone up. The stumbling pauses are still there, sure. But he can feel the cobwebs that used to block his thoughts and sentences starting to corrode, pathways opening up. His mouth feels less stiff. (He should know - the smile he returns feels less stiff).
"Thank...you..." R shuffles to the side so Ellie can check it out. "I could...try."
As if to prove it, he reaches down. His fingers slip against the knife's handle but eventually he gets it in his hand. The question is if Ellie wants a zombie brandishing a knife on her birthday...
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"What, you're not going to let me cut my own cake on my birthday?" She says, instead of something more along the lines of 'R, you zombie, give me that knife'. She holds out her hand expectantly.
"Don't worry. I'll cut you a nice big piece. You can mash your whole face in it, if you want."
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He hands the knife back, a little annoyed he hadn't remembered a detail like that but at the same time relieved she's doing all the complicated work. She's less likely to stab someone on accident than he is.
"I'll...try." Shuffling back a step, R looms over Ellie, as if he's never seen anyone cut a birthday cake before and he doesn't want to miss a second of it.
No pressure, Ellie.
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"There you go. Give that a try, yeah? That'll make you feel human in no time."
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It's not doing much for him. "Here...goes..."
R fits a fork into his hand, shakily stabs it into the slice, and lifts it to his mouth. Chews as he stares at Ellie. To his surprise, it doesn't taste like ash or rot. It just takes like...nothing. He's had worse. Swallowing, he forces a feeble smile.
"Good," he tries to lie.
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"Well, it was worth a shot," She reassures him as she cuts another piece for herself. "I'm sure you'll get used to it, R. You're looking way better than you were when I first met you, after all. Baby steps!"
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If this works on him, who knows? Maybe the Cure could work on her brand of Infected?
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She hopes they still have a chance at a cure without her.
She forces a smile again, and shoves a bit of the cake into her face and then rolls her eyes in mock ecstasy. "Oh my god. Oh my god that is amazing. And here you had me all worried it would be disgusting."
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He can't tell if it's just that good or she's overacting. He thought he'd seen something flicker behind her face before she smiled, but he can't be entirely sure, either.
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"Like fucking clouds," Ellie said. "Clouds of sugar, with like... chocolate rivers or some shit. I don't even know it just tastes amazing."
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He seems to have forgotten about silly things like mold and staleness taking away from the "amazing fucking clouds" aspect.
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She offers him a reassuring smile and carefully cuts a small piece to put aside.
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He's anything if not polite. Must've had his manners drilled into him at a young impressionable age.
"How...old?" He suddenly asks. He assumes those candles formed a number but they only reassemble shapes to him, no automatic clicking in place.
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She tilts her head at him. "I uh -- I have no idea how old you are, though, actually." And she knows it might be a delicate question - who knew how long he'd been infected?
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"Don't...know," R doesn't have the dexterity to do that hand thing Ellie just did at him even if he did know, his face going still as he retreats into his head. Age, age. He's youngish, he doesn't think he is (was?) as young as Ellie or an older zombie, like M, but it's hard to tell. Anyway, do you even count the years you were dead? "How old...think?"
He peers over at Ellie, curious to get her take on things.
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"But infected don't age, so who knows, really. How deep were you guys in the apocalypse?"
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He shrugged. Until you couldn't look the other way anymore. When countries were tossing missiles at each other and one day you realized holy crap, there's dead people in my front yard. That was the only memory he had, this gut feeling of dread closing in.
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She couldn't really pinpoint why that made her feel so sad.
"Yeah. Fair enough. I was uh... born into it. You know. A few years in. I don't remember anything else."
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Probably safe to say if Ellie's world was like his, there wasn't anything like daycare and hop-scotch.
"Sorry...to hear. Maybe..." R pauses, thinking about the Cure they're testing on him, that bite on Ellie's arm. "They can...fix. Give you...new world."
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"Yeah, maybe," She says, knowing that really, she was condemning her world by being here at all. "We'll see, I guess. Gotta keep optimistic, right?" She gave him a good pat on the arm.
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"Keep on...." R thinks back to something he heard a Stylist say. "Keeping....on."
wrapping up c:
"Keep on keeping on."
Endure and survive.