Room 502 | Late Morning | Sunday | February 7

[therewaslife]

With the snow still laying thick and heavy on the ground outside, Bod's hopes of a trip to the graveyard were set aside for another day. While the snow didn't particularly bother him, he was trying to avoid a case of cheeks so frozen they stung and fingers so numb that they hurt to move. Perhaps tomorrow.

With Jacob nowhere to be found (and Bod's thoughts had wondered to the whereabouts of his errant roommate a few times), it was quiet in the room. Bod figured he could put on music but he'd never really taken to anything having been too used to the quiet from before. Talking to himself held no interest and cleaning the room only worked when there was something to clean.

It would have been easier if he could have called Silas or his parents but where they were, there were no phones and Bod figured there never would be. On a whim, he tried to Fade, to disappear into the wall and spend some time invisible.

It didn't work. With an eyeroll at himself for even trying, Bod shook his head and grabbed for his nearest book. Book in hand, he slid down to the floor, back against the foot of his bed and just idly started reading. It wasn't holding his attention and Bod could feel restlessness creeping up on him.

He'd have to find something better to do soon.

[door and post are open, yep]

Comments

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

For once Rose was following instructions. Really, it was a first; she should get a gold medal or something.

But in looking for Jacob, it seemed like the best place to start was his room. Which was why she was heading up a flight of stairs to knock on the doorframe.

"Hey, you're the kid who doesn't make cupcakes," Rose said with a quick grin as she looked inside. "Bod, right?"

[therewaslife]

"I don't make much of anything," said Bod, looking up from his book and giving Rose a nod. "But, yes, Bod. Hullo. And you're Rose, yes?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, but the lack of cupcakes is the sad part," Rose informed him. "You should work on that."

Okay, so that was totally random conversation, but she wasn't exactly going to be all "WHERE IS YOUR ROOMMATE." Rose had tact.

Stop laughing.

[therewaslife]

"I should?" asked Bod, raising an eyebrow. "Why's that? Because you'd rather I learn so you don't have to?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Hey, I'm being honest about it at least," she replied. "I could've made something up about how it's tradition or you're just preparing for the spring bake sale, but yeah, I just want cupcakes."

[therewaslife]

"And is there a shortage or something where you couldn't purchase them?" he wondered. "Or are you just being lazy?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Lazy," she told him sadly. "It's a hereditary condition. No cure."

[therewaslife]

"I have some chocolate, if you'd like," Bod offered, getting to his feet and wandering over to his desk. "No cupcakes, though. My cooking lesson for today has, sadly, be postponed."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Too much to do?" Rose asked, sounding way too amused. "I get that. Maybe next time, y'know?"

[therewaslife]

"So, you're only going to come 'round if I have cupcakes or other food?" he replied, glancing over his shoulder at her. "How opportunistic of you."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Girl. We're like that, y'know." She shrugged, unconcerned. "But I actually was looking for your roomie, the food's just extra bonus."

[therewaslife]

"I haven't seen Jacob," Bod said, shrugging one shoulder. "And he doesn't tend to tell me where he goes. Is he all right?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Hey, if it was my day to keep tabs, I wouldn't be looking for him," Rose pointed out. "I'm sure he's fine."

Or he mostly was last night when his worf version had skeddadled like a little bitch.

[vanillajello]

"So, I've been thinking," Kate said from the doorway.

"I have an unusual background but it's not unusual enough for this place. I'm not supposed be able to just smile and nod when someone tells me they were raised by ghosts. This place takes its toll on me, and when I get, like, normal stress on top of that? I can't work through it like I should, because the island keeps throwing random crap at me. And that's why I need to go away. So I can get rid of the Fandom effect. And maybe start getting back to acting like a normal person again."

Now, if only she knew why it felt important to explain this to him specifically.

Or why it all came out as so much of a speech. Once she'd started, she couldn't stop until she got to the point.

[therewaslife]

Her appearance was unexpected but the speech that followed was even more so. It wasn't like Bod to interrupt (okay, maybe it was) but he didn't this time. Just stayed where he was, book in hand, back against his bed and stared while she spoke.

Once he was certain she'd finished, Bod closed his book and rested an arm on one bent knee. "Well, it wasn't just ghosts." But, he stopped there and shook his head.

"I never questioned your motivations, Kate. I only wondered if they'd work," he said after a moment. "Why are you explaining all this to me?"

[vanillajello]

"I don't know." But she did, didn't she? In some vague way.

"Um. It's because I want to talk to you, and--" She hesitated, fiddled with her skull-and-bones necklace, pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, looked down at her boots. Then she said, a little quieter, "And I do want to tell you things and answer your questions." She shrugged, and some wryness found its way into her voice, "It's not like you don't already know how much of a mess I am."

She wasn't sure whether any of that actually explained anything.

[therewaslife]

"Messes don't tend to bother me," he said idly, tossing his book aside and pushing himself to his feet. He didn't move towards her though, choosing to stand loosely near his bed.

"You look...slightly nervous about wanting to do all that," Bod observed, taking in the small movements. "You can talk to me whenever you want, you know. I don't have plans to go anywhere. And I'm trying not to make anyone nervous."

[vanillajello]

"There's only, like, two people who actually know me on this island," Kate said, raising one shoulder in a half-shrug, fingers still playing with the necklace. She didn't move. "Maybe three."

She figured that might give some background as to why she seemed nervous.

"And leaving doesn't always depend on your plans," she felt compelled to point out. After all, Jason hadn't planned to spend weeks fighting with her only to leave right when they were getting somewhere.

[therewaslife]

"Well, we're similar in that nature," he said, nodding, "because no one knows me. No one's wanted to. And that's all right."

He'd gotten used to it, in fact. His first attempt at friends had ended badly. His second had ended worse.

"I can't go back home," he explained, sounding quietly resigned to that fate. "And I have no other place where people know me. You may say that now but I really have no plans and no reason to go anywhere else."

[vanillajello]

"How is that all right? That no one's wanted to know you?" she asked, although mostly as a kind of a reflex. Before Fandom, her closest friends had been her brother and one of her mother's alters, and the first time anyone actively wanted to get to know her she flipped out like never before.

So she could see how that would be all right. Or at least how it could seem to be.

She took a hesitant step closer. "And you may say that now, but you don't know the future. Things happen here. You might find a reason to go somewhere."

[therewaslife]

"Graveyards are not the best place to make friends," he pointed out, still sounding resigned but not unhappy about it. "If humans go to one, they're not looking to make friends with a child who talks about ghosts. They're going to see their dead loved ones."

It seemed like explanation enough for him. He loved the graveyard but it wasn't conducive to having friends that stuck around.

"And I don't know the future, that's true," he agreed, keeping still so he didn't startle her for whatever reason. "But neither do you. I choose to be optimistic about my time here. I have friends. I like it here. Stop thinking I'm just going to leave when I get distracted by something else."

[vanillajello]

It was explanation enough. Kate was just having a hard time taking his point of view into account before making questions. Their backgrounds weren't exactly the same.

"I don't think that way." Mostly she didn't think about people leaving at all, because graduation, looming there in the not-distant-enough future, was going drop her current on-island friend count down to one. Not exactly something she wanted to dwell on. "Although I am a total pessimist."

She took a few more steps towards him, then stopped, uncertain.

[therewaslife]

"I don't know what the future will bring but I have no plans to leave," he said again, opening his stance some by relaxing a little more since she'd stopped.

"And I no issue with you thinking I might leave. I've known pessimistic people in my time. I don't like them any less than anyone else. Nothing is certain. Perhaps you're a realist, not a pessimist," he suggested.

[vanillajello]

Kate snorted, rather quietly. "Maybe," she allowed, wrapping her arms around herself. "Sounds a little better at least, even if it's totally a semantic battle just waiting to happen."

[therewaslife]

"Why are you nervous?" asked Bod, taking up the initiative and moving closer to her now. "Pessimist, realist, it really doesn't matter to me."

He grinned a little, brief but there, and joked, "But, if you'd like to have a semantic argument, we can do that."