kore_logs | stranded in this spooky town, stoplights are swaying and the phone lines are down

Entry tags:

stranded in this spooky town, stoplights are swaying and the phone lines are down

Who: Laura Hawley and OPEN
What: Girl's gotta keep herself busy now that the excitement is over, right?
When: Day 48; all day
Where: Pharmacy, general store and then all over!
Warnings: Maybe language, will update as needed.

If anyone's paying attention on this lovely day, they'll probably notice at some point the short, scrawny girl walking around town with a list in her hands. Seriously. She's pretty absent minded and these are all important things, and she can't forget any of them. After the talk with Erik about agriculture, she's decided to start actively looking for anything that could be useful to farming now. Planning early isn't going to hurt anyone after all, and she's fiercely determined to be useful here. This at least she knows a lot about.

There's also a trip to the pharmacy on that list, though it's scrawled somewhere near the bottom. The fact of the matter is, when even near-strangers start to comment on it it's probably about time to start attempting to look after yourself, and Laura really needs it. The food situation isn't getting any better though, and like hell is she letting anyone take less to give her more. The solution she's semi-scraped together is vitamins. There's got to be something there that can help, right? Maybe if her diet was a little more balanced people might stop worrying so much.

After all that's done though, she still can't face the idea of going home and just sitting so she keeps moving. Slow idle walks are good for zoning out, and that's what she does, just walks around the town to the places she hasn't seen yet. It's worth having a little look around anyway, it's a small town and there's no excuse not to know it all, and anything beats sitting on a couch and trying not to think about too much right now.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It turns out Stiles wasn't the only one with plans for the pharmacy today. This place is a sad sight for already sore eyes, been picked relatively clean - especially for all the 'good' stuff that someone might associate with the pharmacy. It was kind of to be expected. It'd taken Stiles way longer to get his scrawny ass down here than he'd really meant to, and he supposed he had to pay for those consequences. Whatever, there had to be something good here.

What he was looking for anyway.

He's behind the counter when Laura makes her way in, a few bottles of pills clutched in his arms as he spontaneously reads labels, puts a few back, juggles the vials around and then back again, chanting, "Nope, nope, nope," with every label he reads. This might be a bust. But there's the creak of a door and everything freezes, from his arms to the pill bottles to the guilty look on his face when it meets Laura's own. "So, I, um."

The bottles all drop from his arms and onto the floor, and Stiles scrubs at the back of his head. "I'm on a mission. From God."

Laura's not expecting to see anyone at the pharmacy of all places so she's really not subtle about her entrance. She nudges the door open with her foot, scribbling 'pharmacy' off of the list preemptively. She's still looking down at the piece of paper in her hand, and doesn't actually look up until she hears someone else in there too. It makes her jump (congratulations Stiles, you totally scared someone!) and she peers at him for a moment.

Then he talks and she just snickers quietly under her breath. He's not intimidating, that's good. Can't be much younger than her either, and that's a relief. She's seen people do some pretty nasty stuff to survive, but this kid obviously isn't that type and she relaxes quickly.

"So what's the man upstairs got to say about this place then, hm?" She smiles as she stuffs the scrap of paper that is her to do list into her back pocket, the pencil back behind her ear as she walks in a little more and glances at some of the shelves. "You can chill you know, I'm not going to bust you. I came to pick up some stuff too, see what's left."

Judging by the shelves though, there's not much. She might have to rethink this strategy.

Hey, it's better her than him. If she'd caught Stiles' attention at a less opportune moment than this one, she'd have had a flailing mess on her hands.

As it is, he just looks relieved that she's as non-threatening as he is. He doesn't know why he hasn't fallen into the habit of carrying a weapon around with him yet - maybe it's just habit, maybe it's because he never learns, or, hell, maybe it's just because he's really not all that GOOD with any of them. He doesn't head into the woods at all, there's really not that much danger in the area. For the time being.

His hands go to his hips, a mock sort of authoritative stance as he watches Laura, gives a grim sort of smile right back at her. "Hell if I know. I never asked." Oops, looting. But he doesn't much care and he doubts Laura does either - strange times and strange places. "Why, what're you looking for?"

Laura's deliberately making the point of not carrying a weapon, despite the growing concerns that maybe she'll start having to soon. With the way things are going it's starting to look like it might be necessary, but she really doesn't want to start living life like that again. She'd kind of enjoyed feeling safe for a little while.

She kind of lags a little with answering his question. Fussing with things on the shelves, she inspects a box of q-tips very thoroughly before she actually says anything. It feels a little dumb actually explaining it to someone, but after a moment she shrugs and sets the box back down. "Uh, vitamins and stuff I guess. You know, supplements. Don't know if there'll be anything left but I thought it was worth checking. What are you looking for, anyway?"

She hesitates before she says it, because she thinks it's stupid or embarrassing or whatever it is the reason behind it. "Because of the food dep," Stiles immediately prompts after she's done, a shrug of his shoulders after. "Because we're not getting our daily amounts and the daily vitamins will kick in and, y'know," he snaps his fingers, "help out. That's a good idea."

Of course, putting off what he's looking for might be the ulterior motive of his lauding her for her idea. Stiles hesitates on his own a moment - embarrassing, stupid - before he hops up on the counter, swings his legs over the thing a bit messily, almost knocks over a few things in the process. "Oops, hi, yeah, I'm looking for, you know. Vitamins too," he shoots off, and sits on the counter for a moment, his hands gripping the edge. A beat, and then, "That was a lie. I'm sorry. I don't know why I did that. I'm trying to find Adderall." Another beat, in which his arms flail out into a 'whoa, wait' sort of sign. "Which I have a prescription for back home, that's not, like, a 'whoa, hey, I love speed' thing."

Much.

"Basically, yeah." She drums her fingers against the shelf a moment as she keeps her eyes firmly on those bottles. It's both stupid and embarrassing, as far as she's concerned. Laura's a little on the scrawny side, so maybe she never had that much in the way of excess reserves to dip into. She's not an idiot, she knows this, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating. She's getting really tired of preferential treatment. "I don't know, if it keeps people off my back it keeps them off my back."

She drops the bottle - still no good, nothing useful to her - and is about to comment that it's not a bad idea for him either when he continues. She just smirks a little at the confession, holds her hands up and walks over to lean on the counter. "Hey, it's cool. I believe you." Like it's hard not to, honestly. The smirk drops into something a little closer to an actual smile though, and she looks around the pharmacy for a second before glancing back at Stiles. "You know they keep all the prescription stuff over that side, right? Want a hand looking?"

Stiles definitely gets it. He's on the scrawny side himself, even if cleverly hidden with some too-big clothing and an awful lot of well-meaning flippancy. The biggest difference there was that he didn't really have anyone of importance hounding him down here for his health issues.

"Why do you have anyone on your back anyway?" he asks curiously, leaning forward onto his knees and peering at her as she rifles through some of the undesirables around the pharmacy. Vitamins or not, he's not sure yet, but he'll sure as hell try to help her find them. "Not exactly like we're sitting pretty at the end of the world here. You can't really help what food comes your way."

He slips off the counter then, peering in the direction that Laura's gesturing and, oh, there, that would, yeah, but he sighs instead of heading over straight away. "The biggest problem's that they mix it then and there at the pharmacy, usually, right? So I'm looking at a slim chance of finding what I need, but here's to hoping. Help would- honestly be great. I'll help you find what you're looking for too?"

"I don't know, people like to find things to focus on, I guess?" She gives gives a vague shrug and folds her arms over her chest - that sounds about right, anyway. It's what she's doing, after all. Focusing on fixing other people's problems so she doesn't have to actually worry about her own? That's what people do. "I went and landed myself square in the middle of a couple people's targets and now, yeah. I guess I'm distraction technique numero uno."

Which is accompanied by the biggest eye roll ever, and pretty much sums up her feelings on this worry in one gesture. There's no need for it to be targeted on her, seriously. She is fine. If she's having a little more trouble here and there than usual, well that's her business and her business alone. This should work though, the vitamins and the likes. It's a step in the right direction towards getting people to worry about more important issues, right?

"Ouch, sounds complicated. It's worth checking out at least though, right? Come on. Two heads are better than one and all that, right?" Now that definitely comes with a grin, and she ambles along after him. "So, have you got a name?"

She does look like she could be carrying a bit more weight. Everyone's underfed in Kore, though, it's really not something that should be surprising him. Like a gentleman, he's not gonna be commenting on it, because, hey, das rude. Besides, it's kind of a case of the pot calling the kettle scrawny or however that saying goes. "Looks like your ninja skills," and he punctuates that with a little karate hand action for emphasis, "could use a little extra work. I'm always willing to teach you, should the matter ever come up."

Yeah, because this flailing mess of teenage boy really seems like he ought to be teaching anyone about anything involving physicality.

"You're telling me, I've been working on it since I got here. Lucky enough to get some in the crates back in the big ol' Capitol cornucopia but, uh," and he pulls a vial out of his pocket, rattles a few scant pills left inside the thing, "shit doesn't last forever." The question gets him a nod as he starts to paw through some of the stuff on the shelves, hoping to find anything useful within. "Unfortunately, I was bestowed with one, yes," he admits, shrugs a shoulder. "Most folks call me Stiles." He gives a dorky bit of a wave and grins. "Hey. What's up."

"Oh, man. My ninja skills need a lotta extra work. Embarrassing levels of extra work. Like, work out the wazoo." Flailing mess of a teenage boy seems fully qualified to her, thank you very much. Granted, Laura may not be the best judge of these things, given her own status as flaily teenager, but is that really the point?

She quickly steps over to take a closer look at the label, frowning a little as she scans the information on there before nodding and she gives him a little salute. Their chances aren't exactly sky high, but if nothing else it's a way of passing an afternoon. Not the most positive attitude, but Laura's starting to get a little bit positived out. There's not exactly much left to slap on a big grin and a thumbs up over here.

"Well, Stiles. Most folk call me Laura. All folk actually. Hi yourself," she lets out a soft chuckle under her breath as she raises a hand and wiggles her fingers quickly in response. "How you doing?"

"That's what I'm saying. No offense." Not that his bleed something amateur-esque and everything, no, yes, he's very qualified. If there's one thing that he's learned in his time doing anything, it's that if he doesn't admit to his failures then they don't have to exist in that moment in space and time.

Hey, besides, if she was all positived out, Stiles didn't think he'd be able to master this conversation. He's wearing a little thin himself, tired of doing nothing and really tired of people missing and especially tired for the time being in having to ration out his Adderall to the worst of days only in order to make the stuff last. He has a lot of worst of days.

"ALL folk, well, in that case, I shall have to be a sheep. Sup, Laura. Not much, just perusing a pharmacy with my fellow kidnappee and trying to find her some vitamins so some assholes get off her back. How about yourself?"

"Dude, Sensei Stiles. Teach me your ways. I'll learn, just you watch."

You know what's way, way easier than being happy cheerful and positive? Being dumb and stupid. She doesn't do dumb and stupid very often, she barely even sees anyone her own age around here. No one is going to die or disappear if she has five minutes to just be an idiot teenager, right?

"Well, you can come up with something new but I can't promise I'll respond to it right away. it might take a while to settle in, you know?" She gives a lazy shrug, tossing the latest bottle towards the nearest shelf and wincing when it misses rather spectacularly. Damnit, that was supposed to be smooth. Maybe ninja lessons really wouldn't be amiss.

"Well Stiles, I appear to be in a similar situation with my own fellow kidnappee. Looking for some speed - that he's assured me he most definitely doesn't love, but we prefer the term Adderall around here anyway." She holds the very very serious expression for all of...a second, then it breaks into a lazy grin instead. "Although we're not having much luck so far. What are you going to do if you can't find any?"

Whoops, so that last question diverted less into dumb stupid and teasing and ventured into 'I am genuinely concerned here' territory. So sue her.

And Stiles gives a bit of a bow, hands clapped together in a prayer position. "You will learn quickly from me, young grasshopper."

It's lucky, that Stiles is pretty much the master of dumb and stupid. He's matured way too fast for an age not high enough for it, learned quick after his mother's death when there was all this slack to pick up for it - wised him up, kinda, in a way that he can't really trade in anymore. But there was always this zany side of him that he didn't think he was ever going to shake - in part because of the ADHD, yeah, sure, but largely because he just kinda lives to make people laugh, when he can.

"Whoa, just trashin' the place, aren't we?" he jibes in turn with her throw, laughs a little and runs his fingers along a few more vials on the shelves. "Look at us, civilization gone to shit and we're already looting. You know, though, I'm kinda fond of Laura. Unless you prefer something like Tits McGee or some other style name to go with your mysterious side. I can be Detective Douchebag."

He's thought about it. Not being able to maintain his supply, it's easy to when it's not regular like it was back home, and it's crossed his mind more than once. He sobers for a moment, playing around with a bottle of Oxycodone in his hands. His fingers are restless, his arms shrug as he thinks - there's not really ever a part of him that's not in motion.

"Soldier on, I guess? I mean, I made it through a good long while before I was ever diagnosed, longer before I got on the right meds for it. I mean, hey, if six-year-old me could do it, right?" He cracks a grin, though there's a mirthless side to it that's not really looking forward to having to deal with his full-fledged disorder when he hasn't had to for so long.

The bow gets a quick salute in response, suppressing the small smirk creeping onto her face and trying to replace it with something a little more stern and serious looking. She fails hugely, but whatever. That's okay. She drops her hand and with it disappears the terrible attempts and she's grinning again, turning random vials quickly to read the labels before moving on again.

"I can't help it, I reject authority." Or something like that. She's having no better luck this side than anywhere else though, so after a moment she turns to look at another shelf, idly stepping sideways every time she finishes reading another label. "I like it, you know. Super cool. Detective Douchebag and Tits McGee, best code names out."

She doesn't envy the guy one bit. Far be it for her to think she understands, there's no way she could deal with having to learn to deal with going unmedicated for something like that, especially after being treated for so long. She doesn't get it, doesn't pretend to, but it does spur her drive to actually find something of use to him. "Yeah, but I bet six year old you was a badass. You're not cool unless you're missing like, at least one tooth, you know that right? I'd offer to pull one out for you but it might be a little late."

Ivy considers herself provided for; there's no real reason for her to visit any of the public buildings (save maybe the library, and only then when she gets bored). But by her second day in Cape Kore she's aware of the urgency of the locals' situation. Though she's stll on the fence about helping beyond the advice she gave River, she might as well discover the lay of the land.

The gardening section isn't bad. Most basic implements, bottled fertilizer, seeds. None of it's going to worth much until the ground thaws, but it's a start.

She's crouched behind a rack of tools when she hears footsteps, and lifts herself to her feet easily, moving into view of the doorway.

Laura is focused if nothing else, with her list of things she's hoping to find and responsibility weighing down on her shoulders. Last time she'd been here it had been before the funeral, and late evening doesn't exactly make for an easy time to go browsing shelves (not to mention the part where all she had wanted was a few shovels) but this time, it's completely different. She's driven, yes, but she's a lot more relaxed.

Relaxed enough that she doesn't actually notice anyone else in the shop with her until Ivy makes herself very visible to her, and her reaction shows as much. She drops the empty basket she's picked up with a clatter, eyes wide for a minute before she's all flustered apologies. She ducks to grab the basket again, rubbing a hand over her face before straightening up and - attempting at least - to sound a little more composed as she switches from 'oh shit, I didn't see you wow I'm so sorry' and such other eloquent forms of communication, to something a little more structured.

"Sorry, it's just- you startled me a little. In case you didn't get that," a nervous laugh follows, and she really isn't sounding much better than before. "But, uh, hi? Guess you're looking for the same stuff as me?"

"I guess I am." She lifts her eyebrows, nonplussed by the stranger's startled reaction. Not that it'd be unusual in Gotham but she's under the impression she's largely a stranger here. "I don't bite. Who are you?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

stranded in this spooky town, stoplights are swaying and the phone lines are down

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject