NEW COMERS POST 1

[proximods]

Who: OPEN TO ALL
What: The first wave of newcomers arrive in the hospital.
Where: The Hospital, Center City
When: July 26
Warnings: Please tag any smut or triggers in the comment subject line.

The common room is just as brightly lit and white as the rest of the hospital. There are some scattered seats - large plush chairs and stiff looking couches, as well as wooden chairs at tables - and a TV blaring local soap operas in the corner. A few long tables are set up along the walls, each with a sign dangling down from the front to inform newcomers of what they can find here. Housing, job opportunities, and the Proxima Gamma Information Desk. Minus a few pamphlets about the unique attractions the island has to offer, there isn’t really that much of use on the last table. It’s clearly meant more for tourists than people who have been kidnapped.

Another set of tables hold a variety of snacks; fruits, vegetables, various candies, as well as a table with water, punch, and soda. No alcohol, unfortunately - this is a hospital, after all. You’ll have to leave to go find a bar for something stronger than that.

There’s not much place else to go - so come on in, settle down, and maybe find a familiar face, if you’re lucky.

Comments

Kim Ross | Dresden Codak | OTA

[misanthropicmezzode]

"Oh my god candy. Soda. CAFFEINE." Kim rushes over to the refreshments table and proceeds to STUFF HER FACE with junk food. After maybe ten pieces of candy she just grabs an entire bowl and just sits down on a chair nearby, unwrapping candy and shoving them in her mouth.

Initial reaction complete, she scans the room (metaphorically and literally, given the advanced optical technology built into her cybernetic eye).

"Mwhere ith thish pwashe shupposhed to be, anyway?" It was waaaay more modern and sophisticated than anything the hedonists had ever put together.

[true_noir]

Ok, she was just going to watch this scene play out. It was infinitely more amusing than almost anything she'd seen in a while, and considering some of the madness of that damned island, that was saying something. To date, though, she had never seen a soul attack candy with the kind of ravenous appetite that Kim had just done.

When she attempted to talk, that was when the purple haired maiden approached, walking slowly up and snagging an apple from the table. She whipped out a knife and started to slice a piece off after coring it. She offered the piece to the girl and winked. "It's rude to talk with your mouthful. Want to try that again?"

[misanthropicmezzode]

She took the piece of apple and shoved that in her mouth too, then gave Chloe a petulant look. She takes a swallow before she speaks again, but her mouth is not totally empty.

"Life ish too short to washte on manners," she said. Then she shoved another piece of candy in her mouth. Oh my god chocolate was so good.

"Shit, wait do they have showers here?" she grabbed several handfuls of candy and shoved them into her hoodie pocket, then sprung up looking for a bathroom.

[true_noir]

She giggled again, her lips parting in a playful grin as she couldn't help but be amused. Someone must have been on some terrible, deserted island or something. The thought of watching Kim shower came to her mind and she had to shelve it, push it away and remind herself it was a new world. Until she knew what was going on, a new leaf needed to be turned over. She didn't have the luxury of behaving like she had in that place...

Much.

"It's never too late for manners," she tittered in a tinny little voice. "And it's a hospital. Beds. Showers. Bathrooms. Scrubs. Strange talking heads on screens. All the comforts without terrible, revealing hospital clothes." Somehow, she half expected this conversation was getting shelved for a half-hour.

[misanthropicmezzode]

Chloe wasn't wrong, unless she wanted to follow Kim as she walked down the hallway looking for telltale restroom signs.

She passed a nurse and thought to momentarily ask questions, but for once, investigation was a secondary objective.

"Ah ha!" Kim announced to no one in particular when she found the doorway to what looked like a shared shower room. She half-walked half-stripped on her way to the shower controls.

[true_noir]

Chloe was certainly more than willing to follow along, the bemused attitude flowing with her while she walked. As soon as she caught sight of what appeared to be a shared shower room, she actually breathed a sigh of relief. There wasn't any explicit reason that she needed to stay out of there, which meant it was socially acceptable at least in part.

Slipping inside, she caught sight of bits of clothing falling to the ground, saw glimpses of wires, metal, and her eyes simply took in the view, at least until the girl slid out of sight into it. "Is there more than one head?" she asked, undoing the cloak but not taking it off. She had less of a rush on this subject than someone else. Bathing wasn't a luxury on the island of Amat, thankfully.

[misanthropicmezzode]

Kim sort of jumped when she heard Chloe speak. Right! Other people continue to exist when you walk away from them!

"Uh, yeah, it looks like?" Kim said, noting that there did seem to be multiple heads in partitions. She walked past them to the disabled shower, which had a seat, and flicked the water on.

"Uuuuuh, oh my goooood," she said, just standing in the water flow for a second, before shutting it off and sitting down. Her limbs were largely water proof but it was best not to push it. She powered off and disconnected her legs and then arm, setting them on a shelf nearby, and then turned the water back on. She just laid back, letting the warm water strike her body. Heavenly.

[true_noir]

Indeed, not only did other people continue to exist, but occasionally they didn't turn into deranged escher paintings following you around and moaning about getting left behind. What a concept! One of those not-escher paintings laughed at the sound of Kim relishing the flow of water and hung her cloak before pulling her clothes one by one. By about the time that she was finished disconnecting and starting the water up again, Chloe was disrobed and padding into the space.

She cast a discreet glance and it was hard not to appreciate, to enjoy a quick look before she was before another of the shower heads, flipping it on good and hot and letting it sluice down her pale, thin and lithe form. "You sound like you haven't had a good bath in ages," she murmured.

[misanthropicmezzode]

"I haven't. It's been... jeez has it really been months?"

Aw jeez, now that she was thinking about it, all the things that happened in Carvaka were flooding back. She remembered going into the fog... aw jeez, she hoped Accelerator was okay.

"Wait, so you're not from the wasteland then? You don't know about the Hedonists?"

[true_noir]

"Mmmm, relish it and enjoy every minute of it then. There's nothing like a good shower after a workout." She let it flood over and slick her hair down, her eyes closing while she faced into the stream. The next words washed over her as well for a moment, the thought of them sort of unimportant. She'd heard the island called many things, but not 'the wasteland.'

When she spoke again, her head dipped just enough to not need to sputter. "I somehow doubt it, unless that's a colorful way to refer to the island. But I do have plenty of stories of hedonists to tell, if you've an ear."

Not that kind of hedonist, thank god.

[misanthropicmezzode]

"I mean like, alien duck thing hedonists. With reality bending mind powers. They ended the worlds. All of them. Allegedly."

Oh shit, that was a bar of soap. Oh man. It even smelled nice. The soap she'd made was pretty okay but it smelled like rotten meat. She picked it up and started the rub it on her body.

[true_noir]

It smelled like rotten meat because they made it from the left over fat of rotten carcasses they cured by dehydrating meat with hydrokinesis. Someone added lavendar to this. It made all the difference in the world. She laughed rather openly at the description, though, shaking her head.

"Oh, I only wish I thought to call Atia a duck face, but no. She looked completely human, the bitch," she said. "I last spent a few years on the island of a goddess of sex as one of her many playthings. I almost envy you, baths or no baths."

shit she's onto us Latroma

[misanthropicmezzode]

"...huh."

She felt the side of her neck sting as she rubbed soap on the still fresh wound of the microchip injection, reminding her of the new situation. "We had to have sex in the wasteland too. To keep from fading away. It 'distracted' us so the hedonists could do their mojo.

"Have we stumbled into some bizarre sex-fueled collection of multiverses?"

How about ... 8/7

[true_noir]

They'd been kicked out by now. One could only stay in the Hospital for a few days, after all. Chloe had a place to stay, but she spent very little time in what translated to little more than squatters rights in a place nobody in their right mind really wanted, which happened to still have running water due to a bureaucratic oversight. She'd move when it got remedied.

For now? She was using it as a place to squat, get her bearings, and as a base of operations from which to rove, to find where everyone who had been trapped here was staying and start pinning down their habits. Why was she doing what effectively equated to some serious level stalking?

Old habits died hard.

So it was that, out of the blue, there was a knock at whatever place Kim had managed to find for herself. It was, perhaps, a sign of Chloe 'attempting' to behave like a normal person that she knocked instead of breaking in through the window in the middle of the night. If Kim knew her better, maybe she would have been impressed. It was certainly a rare thing for Chloe.

[misanthropicmezzode]

Kim had just moved into a new place after it was obvious that sleeping out in the street was a thing that was not allowed, stupid police and their vagrancy laws.

It was nice to have a place to fuck around in though, although she hadn't had much time to pillage parts or put together a workshop yet though. It would probably be a smart idea to find a job before doing that though, so she didn't get kicked out and have to start over again.

Which was odd when she got a knock at the door. Whenever anything unexpected happened, Kim became immediately worried that she'd done something wrong and everything was going to be horrible. She opened the door hesitantly, surprised to see Chloe.

"Oh, hi Chloe!" That was kind of a surprise. Well that probably meant she hadn't done anything wrong. Probably. Unless she had? Was Chloe coming to tell her that she hated her for something she did wrong at the hospital?? "Uh, what's up?"

[true_noir]

And, just like that, Chloe was walking in like she owned the place. Cloak wrapped over her shoulders, she gave Kim the smallest of smiles, barely visible over the lip of her collar, as a sign that nothing was terribly wrong. She walked past her into the house, looking around for a second, at the decorations, the size of it, what had been done so far.

She glanced over her shoulder and chuckled. "Just a social call. You're looking well," she offered. Her eyes took in the woman with the sort of careful study that she'd had the first time they met. It had the feel of a practiced motion, one she was used to giving to others, regularly.

[misanthropicmezzode]

"Did you have any trouble... finding... the place?" Especially since she was pretty sure she'd never told Chloe where she'd decided to shack up.

[true_noir]

"Mmm?" she murmured, as if she hadn't heard the question at first. She started to wander the place, moving towards the window and looking out. "You have plenty of space, I see."

She glanced back and gave Kimiko a slightly quirky little grin. No, she was avoiding the answer to the question with a little twinkle in her eye. Kim had definitely not told her where this place was.

[misanthropicmezzode]

"Yeah, I was thinking of putting a workshop together. Needs space."

[true_noir]

"It suits you," she said, walking back towards Kim and smiling as she brushed her fingers along the girl's shoulder, flicking at her hair and leaning in. "It's a nice neighborhood for one. You wouldn't happen to have tea, would you?" Yep, totally making herself at home right now.

[misanthropicmezzode]

"I don't really drink tea," she said. Not enough caffeine. Not that it really mattered, she didn't really have any food stocked. She was pretty poor at planning mundane activities.

[true_noir]

"mmm, we should get you something then. Let me have a look in your fridge," Chloe said, turning and grinning as she walked in the direction of the kitchen. The sound of the door being opened came quickly afterwards, followed by a tinny little sigh.

Oh... this one was going to be a project.

[misanthropicmezzode]

"Uh, I generally just have stuff delivered, or go out." Occasionally there would be leftovers in the fridge, but Kim usually forgot about them and they'd sit there till she remembered to throw them out. Since you generally had to take rotten food outside so it didn't stink up the house, she'd often just leave it in the fridge to procrastinate having to go outside.

It was a vicious cycle.

[true_noir]

Chloe blinked and looked at her with what equated to an almost horrified look. There was something decidedly unhealthy about that way of handling her food. "So, I'm going to be teaching you how to cook for yourself, aren't I? Because you can't just do that all the time."

[misanthropicmezzode]

"Uh, why not?" Because it wasn't a problem when she was living off of the millions of dollars that her father sent her and she'd never had to work for her living expenses. Obviously working for a day wage was going to be no different, right?

"And I don't need you to teach me how to cook." She was a genius. She could figure out how to use a microwave.