| Sample Platter - AIM Example - Shilo Wallce/Graverobber (Repo! The Genetic Opera) |
[21 May 2008|03:10am] |
ME: During Graverobber's first absence, at least Shilo had been able to sleep and ignore the fact that she was utterly alone. However temporary that was, she couldn't stand it, would probably never get used to it. Even when her father had been out on business, she still felt him looking over her shoulder. She hated him for it, most of the time, but she was familiar with it. Still, being alone in the house with an unlocked, even open bedroom door shouldn't have seemed so daunting.
Almost immediately after his departure, she pulled her window shut and sat in the seat that surrounded it, for at least fifteen minutes, in silence. But if he came back and found her like that, she had a feeling he'd probably be pretty disappointed. So she climbed down from her perch and shuffled over to the dresser to collect her phone. Not that she anticipated immediately needing to make any calls, she just ought to have it on her, if she was going exploring. Another security blanket, of sorts. Rather than leaving just yet, though, she made her way to the dresser, rooting through the drawers for something she could put on, make herself more presentable in for Graverobber's return. But her heart wasn't really in the search, so, another twenty minutes passed and she came up empty-handed. When she left for the bathroom, black wig in hand, she still wore her nightgown.
At least washing her hair gave her a task, something real to keep her occupied the next little passage of time until her friend returned. Came home. Friend. Seemed silly, now, to try to think of him as just that. It wasn't really the case anymore, was it? If songs and stories and all the other things she'd turned to in order to learn about the things her father refused to teach her could be believed, it was something much more. The thought brought that very familiar fluttery feeling back into her stomach. So that's what it was like to be in love...
It didn't take too long for the water in the sink to start running clear again, when passing through the wig. Now that it was less encrusted with blood, though, it was damp. Ugh. Shilo brushed it a few times, but ultimately left it in the bathroom to dry. If she was lucky, it'd be ready in an hour or so.
Now what? She took to the stairs, hopping down, putting two at a time behind her, as if rushing down them might drive away whatever she thought was waiting for her underneath, at the bottom. Why was she so afraid of her own home? She hadn't been, back when she had freer run of the place. At the foot of the staircase, she lingered, eyes sweeping over the faux fireplace. If she ever wanted to break anything in her whole life, she knew she'd find it down there, in what looked like it might have been her father's slaughter house. Without realizing until she was peering down into it, she pulled the secret door open. Well. It wasn't like she couldn't run out if it was too much. At least this time, she'd had the forethought to step into her slippers before trying to brave the room.
Her stomach flopped and all the butterflies from earlier disappeared. Withered up and died, really. Before she knew it, though, her hands were gripping a metal tray and flipping it over, dumping all the tools - the murder weapons - off. She swung it at the rolling cart that had been propping it up, knocking that over too. Tears streamed down her face and she might have been screaming into the empty laboratory, but she couldn't be sure. Then, as if none of that had happened, she calmly gathered a little armful of the containers sitting on one of the shelves and carted them up the stairs. To the foyer. One of the glass bottles slipped out of her arms and shattered on the floor, as she tried to shift the load around in order to open the front door. Ignoring it, she stepped through the mess and out onto the porch, where she set all her things down, then picked them up, one by one, to lob towards the same place the machines from her room had landed. This time she was very conscious of how hard she was crying, but when all was said and done, she chalked it up to the sliver of glass she'd managed to step on and let pierce the sole of her slipper. Damn it.
Back inside, she nearly collapsed, exhausted, on the staircase. Unhelpfully, the phone around her wrist beeped, announcing in its automated voice that she needed to take her medicine. Her chest tightened at the suggestion. No. No, she didn't need to take her medicine because she didn't have any to take. Only poison. ...Okay, poison that helped her in a cinch, but not in the long run. It was not worth dragging herself up the steps to find the bottle inevitably sitting on top of the fireplace, waiting for her. So to spite the announcement, she pushed herself off the stairs and trudged into the den, where she instead came to rest on the sofa. Forced herself to take slow, deep breaths, as best as she could manage. Shut her eyes and, somehow, managed to keep breathing until she fell asleep. Which was certainly better than full-on passing out, at least...
THEM: He was carting the boxes up the stairs, unsurprised that he didn't hear or see Shilo anywhere, when Graverobber noticed the broken glass on the stairs and furrowed his brows a little. He cleaned it up quickly, threw it all away and figured that Shilo had just taken his advice about looking for more stuff to throw out. But if she did, he was certainly going to have to do something about all the broken junk and glass in the yard below her window. It could be done later, he supposed, and continued stacking boxes by her bedroom door. The idea that she was off exploring something made him happy and nervous at the same time. She was being brave, but bravery and stupidity sometimes went hand in hand.
It was only when he'd finished moving the boxes of Mag's stuff and the bags of clothes he needed to go through and wash, that he ventured back down stairs to make his way out to the graveyard - just to grab some clothes and books that he'd stashed away earlier in the afternoon. And it was then that he found her curled up on the couch, asleep. He rest his arms on the back of the couch and watched her for a moment, thinking that he should probably just let her rest - because who knew what she had gotten into while he was gone. Quietly, then, he slipped through the fireplace passage and started through Nathan's lab.
He couldn't say he was shocked by what he found - amused, really. A bit proud. But he carefully picked up the scattered scalpels and tools, tucked them away into the drawers and cabinets they belonged in and rolled the tray into a closet. He wandered for a bit, tucking things away and throwing other things into a box that he'd carry out to the trash later. Admittedly, he found it weird that he was doing the protective nesting thing for Shilo, trying to turn this house back into a home for her, but he really did need to keep his hands busy and sitting still just made him nervous. Another hour passed, occupied by this tedious work before he lugged the box to the dumpster along with the shattered pieced of medical equipment from the front lawn. And then he was back inside, sitting on the floor in front of the couch Shilo was sleeping on, his hands behind him propping him up and a rather amused smile settled on his face. Just... watching.
ME: If asked now, Shilo probably would have owned up to being a little more stupid than brave. Brave meant marching into something, unafraid, and taking care of it. She just stumbled into a room and started throwing shit. That was stupid. It was stupid to let herself get so worked up and it was stupid to think she should go into her dad's secret basement on her first real day out of...well, captivity. She ought to have started small, like in his bedroom, maybe. But if she'd broken anything in there...it might have felt good at the time, but she'd never forgive herself after the fact.
Her nap had been anything but restful, filled with little bursts of nightmares, all interrupted by imaginary phone calls from her father, demanding to know why she hadn't taken her pills yet. She coughed and whimpered in her sleep until she was too beat to even do that. Hours later, when she did fight her way out of it, she sat up, drenched in sweat, with a sudden jerk and a loud, deep gasp. Although she had to blink, and hard, at least five times to get the blur and spots out of her vision, Shilo immediately felt that she was being watched and almost floundered to right herself before she completely had her wits about her. Now erect, she gripped the edge of the couch until her knuckles turned white and staunchly refused to look Graverobber in the face until her heart stopped beating so fast. "Hi," she said in a little, slightly hoarse voice, finally daring to peek up at him. Boy, was she ever aware of how stupid she was, now. "You're back." That, at least, put a small smile back on her face.
THEM: Smiling back at her, he nodded and moved to push himself up off the floor, sitting next to her on the couch and pulling her into his arms. "And all in once piece," he said with a tone that clearly conveyed how he was impressed with this fact as well. He brushed his lips against her neck and nuzzled against the skin there with a soft sigh. "There's some stuff upstairs, by your room that you should go through when you're ready. And there's some stuff I have to wash before you go through as well. A couple of the girls found out where I was staying and felt bad about the whole incident at the opera so they sent some stuff to help you out - clothes, new wigs, I think I saw a couple pairs of shoes in there too. And uhm..." he scratched the back of his neck, "there's some things from Mag's place, and a letter she left for you explaining what everything is. So when you're ready, it's there for you."
He guessed he didn't really see it as incredibly generous, doing what he did. It was something that he had to do because it was the right thing to do and Shilo deserved to have Mag's things. He'd only mentioned what size Shilo was and the bit about the wigs while he was out last night because, well, he'd been asked. And not all the girls were strung-out junkie whores. Not all the time, at least. Most of them were pretty decent people, who'd go pretty far out of their way for Graverobber, who'd never hesitated to help them out where and when he could. The thing was, he just usually didn't let people know he was the one doing things like this in the first place.
ME: Immediately, Shilo crawled into his lap and hung onto him. The last of what had plagued her in sleep slipped away, once she touched him again. Better, all better. Despite how badly she wanted to curl up and drift off again, now that she knew she was safe, she listened to his voice and tried to make out what he was telling her. "What kind of -" she pulled back and started asking, before he had a chance to go on. But even once he did say what he'd brought back, she couldn't comprehend it. "What? But...I, I don't..." Why would they do that? What made her so special that, now, even strangers wanted to help her out? Had her father been wrong, were there actually good people left in the world?
Well, duh, of course there were. She was sitting on one of them.
"Mag? You mean, there...no one threw it away?" ...Of course, the opera had only happened last night, but it seemed like lifetimes ago. And GeneCo, she'd learned, could move fast. "And I can have it?" Somehow the idea had never crossed her mind. Things she would have killed just to touch, mere days ago, even before she knew Mag's relation to her, were sitting outside her bedroom right then. Belonging to her now. "That's what you were doing?" She uncurled to look him in the eyes, wondering if she stared at him long enough if she'd find a reason for all this, somewhere in there. Mostly, though, she just had the tendency to get lost in the blue of his eyes. Electric. Yeah. Kind of like Zydrate, but better, she reckoned. She put her hands on either side of his face and leaned in to plant a kiss of gratitude, and, of course, much more, on his lips. It scared her to death, sure, but it was the least she could give back.
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