Participants:
| Scene Title | Interrupted Isolation |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Kayla is alone until a dog accosts her. Kameron is alone until Ygraine drops by. Then they all go impose themselves upon Kayla's personal space, until solitude reasserts itself and everyone goes their separate ways. |
| Date | February 11, 2009 |
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
The largest Gothic cathedral in the world, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine remains partially unfinished to this day, despite its construction having begun in 1892 — true to form for buildings of its type. Nonetheless, it is a grand and imposing sight; possessing the characteristic grand arches, pointed spires, and beautiful stained glass windows, including a large and striking Rose window. Where the walls aren't covered with old and meticulously preserved tapestries, they are often ornamented.
Guided tours are offered six days out of the week. Services are open to all. Since the bomb, the main nave is open at all but the latest hours, though the smaller subject-specific chapels close in the evening. The cathedral is also a site for major workshops, speakers, and musical events — most especially the free New Year's Eve concert, which has been held without fail each year since the bomb.
St. John's has long been a center for public outreach and civic service events, but since the bomb, those have become an even greater part of its daily affairs. Services include a men's shelter, a twice-weekly soup kitchen, walk-in counseling, and other programs besides. These are open to everyone - non-Evolved, unregistered Evolved, registered Evolved… the philosophy is that they're all children of God, and that's what matters.
Wednesday is one of the Cathedral's soup kitchen days. It means the extra-large basement room which has been given over to such volunteer activities is currently host to a decent crowd, though there have been enough departures that the space is not crowded. If it were, Kayla wouldn't have been able to stake out a small table tucked away along one wall, her back towards the nearest corner and exuding a definite air of don't bother me disgruntlement. Or maybe it's just discomfort amplified by some measure of stress. She has no obvious impairment (i.e. the sling that may have been noted by those reading earlier logs is gone), but is attempting to handle a spoon using her left hand regardless — and not doing so with much grace. Her right hand rests in her lap, a line of displeased concentration furrowing the young woman's brow.
With a large and well-filled travel-bag hitched high on one shoulder, Ygraine wends her way through the tables and visitors, making her way towards the serving table and the helpers behind it. En route, she nods a greeting to a couple of the volunteers, but seems to be most concerned with trying to avoid flattening anyone with her awkward burden.
From Chinatown to the St John's Cathedral is a looooooot of walking. But Kameron had a lot of thinking to do. On the other hand, cabs are a wonderful means of getting around. She'd probably be pretty tired if she'd walked from one end of the city to the other, but there was something she needed to do. In addition to a loot of thinking, part of what Brian had asked her, part of a decision she was making.
The first to enter… is a dog. A collie, to be exact, a single bark noisy and disruptive in the room cathedral. Behind him, clutching the leash like a lifeline, a brown haired girl with a heavy black coat and mirrored sunglasses. A satchel is also slung over one shoulder, heavy from her stumbling footsteps. "Hello?"
The querying voice attracts Kayla's attention, along with the interest of just about everyone else in the Cathedral. She in particular takes it as an excuse for setting down the spoon that is being such a nuisance at the moment. Picking up the slice of bread that goes with the soup (right-handed, this time), Kayla dips a broken-off piece in the broth and just observes while she eats it.
The question, somewhat of a plea as it is, is quick to get a response from the volunteers, inundated though they are. Two of them start towards Kameron simultaneously; one, an elderly woman, gives way to the other with a smile. He threads his way through the tables and occupied chairs to approach the young woman at the base of the steps. "Miss? How can we help you?" Stephen asks.
Ygraine comes to a halt, looking back to eye Kameron for a moment — but upon seeing volunteers moving to her aid, she hitches her bag a little higher one more, and resumes her progress to the serving table. "More supplies," she says quietly to the volunteer who moves to meet her. "Kind of heavy — lots of tins."
Ah, Kameron relaxes at the sound of the nearby voice. Her collie sniffs at the air, inquisitive — perhaps he scents the other dog that was around Kayla. Kameron grins, "Steady." She utters to the animal, shifting her grip on the satchel, head turning towards the speaker. Apparently she had the same idea as Ygraine, though different supplies. "I have some things that I thought could be made use of." She shrugs the satchel off of her shoulder into her hand, and momentarily drops the leash to reach back for the cane she hooked to her belt. "And .. just a second, I have something else." Either by setting the satchel down or handing it over, the contents inside would have clothing of a different quality and sizes. Most of it is pretty good condition, if not brand new.
Prince, with the leash dropped, remains put for the moment, even though when Kameron isn't holding the leash, it's usually a sort of 'okay go wander' gesture. His interest in Kayla is obvious though, probably because he can smell dog in that direction. As for Ygraine — Kameron would probably recognize the voice if she were closer.
The dog is looking at her. Kayla's frown deepens, for entirely different causes than its original one. She puts down the remainder of her piece of bread and picks up the pair of gloves resting on the far side of her tray, tugging them onto her hands. An odd thing to do indoors, especially given that she doesn't really appear to be preparing to leave.
Stephen smiles at Kameron's answer, though the young woman probably can't perceive the expression. The sentiment is also evident in his voice. "Thank you," he tells her with all sincerity, gentle hands removing the satchel from Kameron's. "We can always use donations." Not that she likely needs to be told that.
Ygraine helps the scruffy-bearded young man who came to meet her unpack the contents of her bag into a couple of cardboard boxes, working with at least some degree of practiced ease.
She can't see it, but she can hear it, sort of. "Every little bit helps, right?" She inquires lightly, reaching into her pocket to withdraw a slip of paper. She's not religious, and certainly doesn't attend mass or church herself,.. and she honestly isn't sure whether or not she believes in the whole, 'higher power' thing, but she can respect those who do.
As long as they don't preach at her.
"I hope this will help also," she holds up her hand to Stephen, a check for what is probably just under a thousand dollars made out to the church. It helps to have rich folks that insist on putting money in her account! Head tilted slightly as she listens to people unpacking bags and put the contents into cardboard boxes, she doesn't notice when Prince shakes himself and pads lightly across the floor at an ambling pace, towards Kayla.
Kayla is not noted for her benevolence in normal situations — at least, not these days. And this dog is just a nosy, irritating pest. So when he beelines across the room for her, Kayla offers the dog as little encouragement as possible. She eyes it from the edge of her field of view. Doesn't make any cheerfully meaningless sounds. Keeps her food well away from the table edge so that can't be stolen.
For whatever little that's worth.
Stephen, meanwhile, expresses his gratitude on behalf of the church yet again. "It does indeed," he affirms. "And more than help. God bless, miss…?" He could read the signature on the check, but that presumes she's the signatory. And it's rude.
Finishing unloading the contents of her bag, Ygraine claps "her" volunteer on the shoulder, then starts back towards the entrance. Prince is the first to catch her attention, receiving a faintly quizzical look — before his mistress catches her attention and she breaks into a grin, pace picking up a touch as she homes in on Kameron.
It's a five minute window, but Kameron was able to distinguish the lines on the check that indicate where her signature should go. It's sloppy, but still readable — and on that thought, Kameron had considered just getting a signature stamp, which would save her so much time and grief. "God bless…" Kameron smiles faintly. She's not quite so sure about that but, she isn't one to bemoan her lot in life! There were hundreds of people who had it a lot worse than her, so her job was to try and make things a little easier, a little brighter.
At least that's what she kept telling herself.
"Is there anything else I can —" She trails off curiously, hearing a set of footsteps moving sedately at first, then with purpose. Or so it seemed. Either the owner of those shoes was realizing they were late, or they had to speak with the man Kameron was with at the moment. It doesn't occur to her that Ygraine might be approaching HER.
Prince, on the hand, is well behaved enough to not try and steal what little food Kayla has — that's rude, and he was brought up to not steal people food. Instead, after sniffing the floor around Kayla's feet a bit, proceeds to move on to sniff her shoes and legs curious, with fluffy tail wagging back and forth. Let her glare and glower all she likes — as long as she doesn't kick him he'll keep on bothering her. Until he's called back anyway. Or until Kameron goes towards him to get him back.
Kayla mutters under her breath as the dog checks out her feet, and her jeans, and everything else from about knees down. Which, constrained by chair and table, she can't exactly move away. So she does the next best thing — and that is not kick the obnoxious mutt. "Hey! Lady!" Kayla can make her voice carry when she wants to, and she's gotten pretty good at projecting frustrated ire. "Y'mind keeping your dog in hand?" Never mind that several of the others glare at her for the declaration. Contrarily, she takes a sort of satisfied pride in that.
It's not unlike wishing a person good luck. What matter the blessing, or in whose name it is spoken, so long as it's a blessing? "I'm sorry," Stephen says to Kameron, in the momentary silence that follows Kayla's shout. "Excuse me a moment." Handing the satchel and check off to another nearby volunteer, he starts across the room towards Kayla.
Ygraine steps aside, moving out of Stephen's path as he turns away from Kameron — then approaches closer, speaking up as she enters easy conversational range. "Hello again", she says in her distinctively British accent.
Ire. It tends to wash over Kameron without the expected reaction. She's just… accepting of a lot of things. Some might call it spinelessness, some might call it relaxed — Kameron calls it 'Being Kam'. "Huh?" She turns her head in the direction the voice echoes off the walls, confused. "P—" She cuts off the call for her dog when she hears a familiar voice.
Really she only knows one person with that kind of accent, "Oh! Yg…" Um. How was it? "Ygraine, right?" She may not be pronouncing it completely accurately, but she tries, darnit. "I didn't know you were here. How have you been?"
Prince is deceptively innocent. He's done nothin' officer! He's just sitting here, amused by Kayla's apparent irritation with his presence. Honestly it's the ones that don't like to be bothered by animals that are the most fun!
The reaction Kayla really wanted was the dog being reclaimed and moved away. This does not exactly happen, given Kam's distraction — but Stephen arrives in short order, filling the void left by Kameron's interrupted summons and picking up Prince's leash, even if the dog is now the model image of good canine behavior. The volunteer then launches into a hushed but not exactly subdued conversation with Kayla, which an onlooker might guess has something to do with a suggestion of let's not make a scene here.
Largely oblivious to the fuss surrounding Prince, Ygraine chuckles and nods to Kameron. "However did you guess?", she asks dryly — albeit while cracking a grin. "I'm… well. Life's been… hectic and trying, but I seem to be getting through it without too many disasters. Some near-misses, but… nothing too dire has landed directly on me as yet."
Kameron grins, tapping her ear, "I rarely mistake a voice. " Now, two Brits she might have trouble with at first. Unless one is a dude. "I'm sorry things have been a little crazy for you," she adds sympathetically, "I'm sure that it'll settle down. Life can't be hectic all the time, right?" She doesn't like that yet though, "Listen, I think I heard someone yelling about a dog a few minutes ago. Was that Prince?" She's actually a bit hesitant about asking Ygraine to guide her towards the dog, given her desire for self-sufficiency, "Could you point me in the right direction?" She won't refuse it if Ygraine offers to show her the way though.
The hushed conversation eventually dies in a wall of stony silence from Kayla's end, and Stephen, also less than pleased but for different reasons, steps away from her table. He tugs on Prince's leash with the authority of someone who's dealt with dogs before; though this doesn't mean the collie will follow. If he does, Stephen will work his way back over towards Kameron with Prince in tow.
Ygraine seems quite willing to assist Kameron, taking a slight step to one side, reaching out to very lightly touch the other woman's elbow — a contact readily shaken off, but one that will in short order turn into gentle pressure guiding her towards her errant hound. "He's this way," she says, a smile clearly audible in her voice. "And thank you. I'm very much hoping for a little spell of quiet, myself."
The collie stays put, obstinate for the sheer sake of obstinacy. A classic, 'You're not my dad, you can't tell me what to do!' dig in of claws on the floor. Or perhaps he just doesn't like strangers trying to lead him places. Who knows, the dog's been acting strange lately. The touch to Kameron's shoulder gets acknowledgement in the form of a smile as she moves to follow Ygraine's direction. "Thank you." She offers to the British woman. "Quiet is always good," she muses, "You get to do some thinking that you otherwise won't get."
By the time they reach Stephen and Kayla, she can hear Prince putting up half-fuss, and reaches out a hand, "I am so sorry," this to both Stephen and the girl he was apparently harassing, "Prince, heel," this more sternly. Bad curious puppy.
Stephen passes off the leash to Kameron with a visible relief she most likely misses entirely. "Thank you, miss. If you wouldn't mind keeping hold of his leash while you're here…?" His request is apologetic, polite — everything Kayla's wasn't. Everything the slightly older woman still isn't. For her part, Kayla just snorts softly, and goes back to spooning up soup inelegantly with her left hand, the right closed in a loose fist on the table.
Ygraine spares Kayla a lingering glance — all too familiar with assorted breaks of her collar bones and other shoulder injuries, the woman's awkward stance and clumsy eating prompting feelings of sympathy. But she crouches down to welcome Prince, offering him a whole new person — and a set of leathers — to smell. "Hello, there…"
Kameron slips her hand through the leash, offering no excuses, and only apologies at Stephen's words. "He's usually better," Kameron frowns lightly. It's not the first time he just wandered off — she was going to have to take him off to the park and maybe let him run and get the wanderlust of puppy paws out of his system.
But she also didn't get any kind of acknowledgement from Kayla, and Kameron is a bit anxious on that. While she's not aware of any kind of problem that the other might have, Kameron does reach out, feeling for a shoulder to tap so she can get the other girl's attention. "Miss? I apologize if my dog was bothering you. He usually only does that if there's a dog nearby." Scents of a dog still count, apparently. Here's hoping she doesn't tap an injured shoulder!
Kameron doesn't tap an injured shoulder, first because it wasn't the shoulder damaged, and second because Kayla isn't about to let herself be touched. "Don't touch me," the woman snaps, swaying away from the attempted contact. The soup bowl sloshes dangerously, but avoiding Kameron's questing hand is apparently more important than eating. "Look, just keep him away, all right? That's all you need to do." Apologies don't fix anything.
Ygraine looks up from ruffling Prince's ears, hands stilling on the dog as she frowns worriedly up at Kameron and Kayla. She reaches out to lightly pat at Kameron's leg. "Many people enjoy the comparative quiet here", she says softly to the blind woman.
Well then, that's — okay. "Um… s-sorry," Kameron stammers, more troubled by her own social stumble than the rudeness displayed by Kayla. REALLY. On the other hand, the attitude is actually blissfully refreshing. And then Kameron makes another social blunder, "Are you afraid of dogs?" The pat to her leg gets a turn of her head, smiling weakly, "It's a bit like a library isn't it?"
It's a pity Kameron can't see the glare Kayla gives her. It's a marvelous example of the expression. "No," she flatly informs the younger woman. "That doesn't mean I want them tangled up in my feet while I'm eating, either." Or ever, really, but the important point is that she's trying to eat. Second to 'don't touch me', anyway.
Ygraine shoots a worried look up at Kameron, then gives Prince's ears a last ruffle. "I'm afraid that I should be on my way. The fiancee'll worry if I'm gone too much longer", she says with a smile. "I guess I'll see you around — particularly if you drop in here at all often." She lightly patpats Kameron's shoulder, moving to step past her and start towards the stairs.
Kameron misses out on a lot of things, being blind. "Oh, he wouldn't do that," Kameron insists, "He was probably only saying hello, but he knows better than to get under someone's feet. And you needn't worry about him stealing food— he knows better." This is probably not all that reassuring. The pat to her shoulder again gets attention towardes Ygraine, and the girl is momentarily surprised, "Fiancee?" Well, that's something new to learn. "Um. Yeah I might be stopping by a couple of times," she's planning on assisting Brian at the Lighthouse though, and that's a bit far comparatively. "I'm sure we'll meet again," She promises the Brit.
Kayla snorts again at Kameron's protestations of Prince's innocence. But that's the only statement of denial she makes. She goes back to eating, spoon clinking occasionally against cheap ceramic bowl in the process. It's not as regular and confident a sound as it would make if Kayla were wielding it with her right hand.
"Yeah, fiancee," says Ygraine with a grin. "Take care of yourselves, the pair of you." She's talking to Kameron and Prince, at that point, the dog included in her smile, before she wheels away to the exit.
Of course Kammy thinks Ygraine is talking to Kayla. She shifts her weight a bit awkwardly, listening to the sound of the girl trying to eat. A quick pat to Prince's head, as she notes to scold the puppy later, "Well— I'll… I'll— let you get back to it. Eating, I mean. I'm … I'm really sorry. Really." She's overly earnest in this, just because she's really really really sorry. As if the strength of her conviction could make up for Prince being Prince. "Enjoy the rest of your day," She adds, turning away, a bit guilty and sheepish.
"Bye." There's nothing gracious in it; the pretense of form only, without the politesse that gives form substance. Kayla watches them go, the girl and her dog, up until she's sure the dog isn't coming back; then she puts them out of her mind and sets about finishing her lunch. The better to leave herself. Too many people here.
 February 11th: Backswing |
 February 11th: Make Love Stay |