Participants:
| Scene Title | On The Edge With You |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Eve's presence is something of a distraction at The Benchmark, but a welcome one for some. |
| Date | March 8, 2018 |
Morning sunshine filters in from the windows at Benchmark illuminating the shadows and cobwebs that ebb at the edge of people's minds while they wake. One of those patients here has been awake for hours now. Her room was a mix of sounds in the wee hours of the morning. Furniture being pushed around, some singing that stopped once the wall was banged on. To which Eve had been offended by because, "It's Gaga!" How could you not love The Edge of Glory at four a.m.?
It wasn't until about eight that Eve wandered out of her room, barefoot and carrying her sketchbook and a black blanket in her hands. She pads softly around the halls, peeking around corners before she goes down them, looking over her shoulder and then she's.. entering the garden. A look around in wonder at the place, she smiles as she finds a nearby place to perch, her feet crossed as she starts to hum.
Her toes wiggle in the air, her raven dark haired is pulled into a messy bun on top of her head.
Complaints… have happened. Which is why Lynette is awake at eight in the morning. She would rather not be, which is why she's still in pajamas and a silky, flower-print robe when she finds Eve. Seeing the woman with her sketchbook, Lynette doesn't interrupt her, exactly, since she might be busy seeing something. But she sits down next to her. On the floor. In the middle of a hallway.
At least the carpet is comfortable.
She should have gotten coffee before this, but she's always half-worried about and half-protective of Eve, so she hunted her down first.
The fact that Lynette has that much respect for Eve really warms her heart. She loves that she has a real friend in the blonde. It reminds her of when she became friends with Gillian. At first she had friends but they were all afraid of her. Or were assassins (we don't judge Jessica).
The raven haired woman does notice Lynette there but she doesn't say anything for a few minutes, the sounds of charcoal on sketch paper filling the page, she finishes her third page of sketching and flips the page in a rush before she starts on the next one. Another few minutes go by before,
"I honestly thought I was in a dream." To be screaming Lady Gaga that early in the morning.
There's a rustling as she stops her sketch and then turns it towards Lynette. It's her. But not in a dire situation or anything just her sitting there in the hallway, the sketch of her seems tired and like they need coffee. "I'm sorry Lynette, I think the echoes.." she always feels like she blames the echoes on her behavior but welll.. they were at fault.
"I feel clear and bright this morning." Her mouth twitches at the statement.
Eve's work is always fascinating to Lynette and she watches her charcoal moving across the paper with her head tilted. When Eve speaks, though, Lynette looks up from the paper. "It's alright, Beautiful," she says, her fingers moving some of Eve's stray hair back behind her ear. "No harm done."
And she means that. Anyone she woke up would get over it. They would go on largely unaffected. Eve's the one that has to live with it.
"You never have to apologize to me, Eve," she says before she glances back to the sketch. The image of herself there is terribly accurate. And it gets a smile. "Well, that's good. I don't think I've ever felt that way at this time of the morning," she says with a chuckle.
"— I'm sure it won't happen again," a voice filters into the background that is very familiar. Mateo speaks to one of the cooks who lives and works within the Benchmark, even as he walks toward the garden. This one is far more used to being up early. He's fully dressed, dark blue sweater that's far more reasonable in color to his favorite one, and regular jeans. He's not really one for dressing up much, prefering the casual. At least his clothes are clean— and varied now. He no longer lives out of single bag.
It's a nice change. Waving the cook off, he comes closer, grinning at them both. "I thought I saw you head this way," he says to Lynette, showing why he had stepped over in the first place, even whilst the cook tried to register yet another complaint.
"Morning, Eve. Did you sleep well?" No, that wasn't a pointed question. Not really, but he still looks amused from the way his lips curl in the corner.
There's a shift of weight as she leans in closer to smile at Lynette and nod. "Thank you," She says softly closing her eyes at the touch of her hair. She feels safe here, she feels safe at Cat's Cradle too but this was different. She had friends here. "You look radiant in the morning Lady Zeus." Theres a small smile and a light hum escapes the woman as she tears the page out of her sketchbook and hands it to Lynette. The other two sketches have not been shown yet and she keeps her arm over them.
"I- Otter Eyes!" At the sight of Mateo, Eve grins widely and sits up straighter. "Hoi," She says in a sing song voice. The cook was probably complaining about the fact that Eve raided one of the fridges in the middle of the night. Lots of snacks in this place. Eve liked. She looks between the two. "You look so.. bright together." Theres another toothy grin and Eve is wiggling her toes as she studies both of them. "I.. I did sleep. Gaga was in my head and I had to get her out."
"I have been known to cause damage," Lynette says dryly, purposefully misunderstanding Eve's use of 'radiant', "but only after coffee." She takes the page, looking down at it again for a moment before she looks back to Eve. "Can I see the others?" And it is a genuine question, one that she'd accept a no to.
Eve might be saved, too, by Mateo's appearance. Lynette turns to him, a smile spreading across her face. "My darling," she says reaching out to take his hand for a warm squeeze. She chuckles a little at Eve's observation, but she's not going to argue. "Lady Gaga is very demanding in that way, as I understand it."
"So we heard." Not personally, though. Just the aftermath of the singing. Well, not him, at least. Mateo had been sound asleep. He sleeps quite well with Lynette at his side. Maybe he is teasing her a bit about making all that noise, but he has to nod at his wife's addition. "Maybe later we can put on a mini concert in the common room. I think I can play a few songs you can sing to." Either on the piano or on the guitar. Either one.
No one would complain then he's sure, because they're already used to him playing the piano pretty much every day.
Only during the day though, of course.
"Oh! I would love that, RA-RA," Eve snaps her hands up in an ornate fashion with a snicker and it causes her sketchbook to fall on the floor, the pages turning slowly until they settle on one of the sketches at Eve was hiding with her arm.
"Can we have cookies? I should bake them. Gilly says if I look at the oven it's boring but then I won't burn them!" Gillian and Chicken have had to eat way too many burnt cookies so teaching Eve to be present. It hasn't gone well for awhile.
With a yawn Eve stretches out her hands. She isn't even trying to pick up the sketchbook. She just stares at Lynette, sometimes Eve still plays games. Okay, often. And this would be one of them. Her gaze flicks from Mateo to Lynette, take a lookie at the two sketches are leave them alone? Eve tries not to force people's hands.
"I would love that, too." Lynette doesn't participate in these things, not with other people around anyway, but she never misses one if she can help it. Even if it's just Mateo relaxing after work.
"We'll have to make it on the cook's day off," she says teasingly, as far as cookie baking. "Maybe we can all take turns on the boring part," she says, since burnt cookies would be ever so disappointing. Lynette does her best not to overindulge in such things, but her time in Mexico has given her a weakness to baked goods that she never really had before going there. Vices exchanged for a new one.
Lynette lifts an eyebrow when Eve looks at the two of them, and she looks back for a long moment. But she ends up reaching for the book, to get it off the floor and— yes— to look at the sketches.
"Won't be as boring if we take turns watching the oven." Mateo responds, giving her a grin as he glances down at the sketches that are visible. They'd been based of her most recent dreams, which had been, as usual, confusing. One is all these little mouths with teeth, like hundreds of them forming into a shadow, like a swarm of mouths and teeth, but no bodies. Teeth of all types. Human teeth, canine teeth, rodent, shark. It's almost like she couldn't focus on the teeth so much as the feeling, the idea. Of hundreds, thousands of mouths filling the ground and sky.
The second sketch is slightly less nightmarish. But confusing and simple in comparison. It's a triangle. A triangle filled with little dots and lines.
"I'm sure Silvia would love some cookies, so we could do that. Do they have cooking therapy?" He's not even joking on that thought. He always found cooking to be relaxing. Which is good cause it sounds like he's the only one of this trio who can.
The prospect of having her friends participate in the boring part causes Eve to clap her hands with a nod. She would like that very much, very much indeed. "Ahh he can join, he's sweet." The cook that is but Eve's version of sweet is getting yelled at for having damn near emptied the fridge.
As the couple views her sketches she wobbles her hands, "I.. these are new." She says this without much drama, it's obvious what they are but maybe not what they mean.
"So many teeth, chomp chomp chomp." Eve uses her hand to mimic a monster eating people. "Careful of the teeth."
"We don't," Lynette says to Mateo's question, but her expression is a thoughtful one, "but we could. That's a good idea. Maybe I'll even go. Might learn something." Like how to make the food edible. That would be good.
She flips between the two sketches, her expression thoughtful. Eve's voice brings her back out of it. "That's just good life advice," she says, about avoiding the teeth. If she has thoughts on what they might mean, she doesn't voice them. "Speaking of, though," she says to Eve, "Would you like to help me secure the building? We don't need anyone getting any ideas about storming the place." Riots and all. And they have their own food storage here, although she hasn't been advertising that. But anyone who gave it some thought could figure it. "Less grenades," she says with a crooked smile, "than usual."
The talk of teeth makes him hear them, that gnashing sound that animals make when they eat or chew on wood. Or bone. He focuses on Lynette instead, even as she mentions preparing the place for a defense. "You're worried about the riot," Mateo responds, understanding. Everyone had heard about it. He's sure that more places are worried about the theives than the riotors, cause they'd probably only done that out of panic for the thefts, not actual hunger yet.
"No grenades," he instead offers. Less, to no. He rather likes the building and it's people intact.
"And it might be nice to be able to cook with you without you being afraid about burning down the kitchen," he adds with a smile at Lynette. But them cooking together? It might lead to, well. Distraction. And more burning.
"I.. heh." At the mention of the riot and passing over her visions Eve is grateful, something more fun to talk about. Though her sketches nag in the back of her mind still. "I.. Well that cowboy just was asking for me to ride his shoulders, then I had to subdue him with the butt of my knife. Lemme tell you, people are hungry," It would seem that Eve had left out the riots while coming in last night to spend the night. "I was totally cool though, completely." She didn't tap out of lucidity and knock a bunch of fools over, you did.
As they speak of defending the gates though, Eve stands abruptly with her hands on her hips. "AYE AYE Cap'n! They must not be allowed to storm the gates! Heh." She almost pouts at Lynette and Mateo, "But what if there's a man who can eat anything and he tries to come inside. I might need to shove one down to his belly," For a big big boom.
"I'm worried about the rioters. And the people who decide that the only explanation is SLC-Expressive trickery. And the opportunists who will take the chance to loot a medical facility." It makes them a target. Mateo has heard this reasoning before, in Mexico. She wasn't totally wrong there, although she might have taken security a little too far. She doesn't have a small army of former Ferrymen at this facility. But she does have a Huruma. That's a pretty good substitute.
"No grenades," she echoes, giving Mateo a smile. Amused, but in agreement with the edit. She looks back to Eve, her head tilting some. "Usually when a cowboy asks you that, it's reasonable to knock him out." That's a joke. She smirks. She doesn't believe for a moment that Eve was cool during the riot, but she's not going to out her right here in front of god and everyone. Or even just Mateo.
There's a glance toward Mateo at this comment, a smile coming to her face, too. It's very likely that she is thinking about the distractions, too. "I guess now I'll have to learn," she says, a hint of suggestion in her tone.
But she turns back to Eve, and her arguments for grenades get a chuckle and she moves to stand up. "Come on, Eve," she says, holding a hand out toward her, "I'm going to need real clothes on if we're going to make battle plans." Flower robe is not tactician attire. She looks over to Mateo, though, and then edits herself. "Security plans." She hooks her arm through his and turns all of them back toward their apartment. Mateo gets to come to the planning. Since he may be the only voice of reason here.