Post by Magella Jones on Feb 2, 2015 9:18:51 GMT 10
It is easier to know where you are going... ...When you know where you have been
The Mess Hall door squealed open, Magella poking her head in. The plastic covers were still over the table, dust still covering them in a thin layer. She stepped through the door, opening it fully so light and air could reach into the dusty depth and hopefully clear it out without much work on their part. She really had to start getting some 'housework' done around Sanctuary, especially if she was going to keep bringing home strays.
Speaking of strays, she'd brought back an interesting one named Lex, a young woman pretending to be a boy, the smartest disguise she'd seen so far for a girl to don. The boy-girl was somewhere behind her with the luggage bag full of things for Alice. And if Alice didn't appreciate it, she'd kick her in the teeth.
"This way to the kitchen!" she called over her shoulder, stepping into the hall and walking up the centre isle to the kitchen door. "Honey!" she called, barging the door open with a shoulder. "I'm home!" She stubbed her toe on a slightly uneven tile and she squeaked, one arm waving around to keep her balance, the other desperately trying to keep a tight grip on the stack of plate she was holding.
A glare was shot down at the floor as she regained her balance and she cleared her throat. "Alice!" she called, looking around the kitchen and finding it empty. "Huh, where'd the little dear get to." Magella laid the stack of plates on the bench and went back to hold open the door between kitchen and mess hall for Lex when she arrived with the luggage bag.
Post by Alexandria Winters on Feb 2, 2015 10:28:54 GMT 10
With the wind in my face All problems disappear
Lex was panting slightly as they finally entered Sanctuary, but she was all eyes as she took in where they were staying. She was amazed such a place existed, understandingly perfectly why they had decided to stay there, and why Gels was so eager to get more people to stay with them.
Heaving the luggage through the door with a nod to Gels, staying silent as she felt a bit timid at meeting new people now that it was so close to actually happening. She quicjly mentally prepared herself to try and deepen her voice as she usually did around new people, remembering Gels' advice from earlier, though from what she had heard, she didn't have anything to worry about, at least with Alice. Still, it would help her cope to know that she could pick when to tell people about herself properly.
She wheeled the luggage into the kitchen, looking around the room before setting the container standing upright near a table, finally crouching down and heaving big breaths. She hadn't asked for a break at all on the trek back, and she was proud of that. But now her shoulders and legs burnt with exertion, a feeling she both loved and hated, though soon her breathing started to slow down again, always being quick to recover.
"How many people did you say you had here again?" She asked Gels, silently hoping nobody had run off while they were looting the house together. Straightening up, she took in the rest of the room, just being in a kitchen enough to make her stomach grumble. a testament to throwing up earlier. She frowned at her stomach and paced over to the door to the mess hall, giving that a proper look over as well, trying to forget her hunger by wondering about what Gels planned to do with the place.
Post by Magella Jones on Feb 2, 2015 10:59:12 GMT 10
It is easier to know where you are going... ...When you know where you have been
"Huh? Oh, people." Magella scratched the back of her head. "Well... you, me, Alice and Dessie. Desmond, his name is Desmond by the way. So... four of us so far. But there'll be more. The promise of walls and food will be enough to bring people by the dozens. At least that's what I'm hoping. There's a lot of work to be done around here, especially to be able to sustain ourselves."
She dragged the luggage up onto the table and opened it carefully, a soft sigh of relief when she saw that nothing had popped open on the trip. Starting to unpack the things they had found, Magella waved the cutlery at Lex, wanting her to put it away in the drawers while she took a closer look at the powders inside the sealed containers.
"If you're hungry, there should be something around here. Somewhere..." she tapped her chin, setting down the container she was currently looking at and poking through the cupboards to see if she could find some ready-made food. "The kitchen is not my forte. I'm more of a gardening girl, plants are so much easier than feeding people. I can never get the taste right so no one ever wanted to eat what I cooked."
Backing out of the cupboard, Magella ground her teeth a little. "Sorry kid, can't find anything. Alice should be around shortly, she'll be happy to feed you. And me too I hope. Oh, oh, wait, one of these tins was baked beans! We could share that and hope Alice doesn't catch us being naughty."
With a grin, Magella pulled out a can opener from one of the many drawers and dumped her backpack out onto the table, sorting through the tins to grab the baked beans. With a fugitive look around, she opened the tin, picking up one of their new spoons and offering tin and spoon to Lex.
Post by Alexandria Winters on Feb 2, 2015 11:10:46 GMT 10
With the wind in my face All problems disappear
She nodded as she put some of the cutlery away, happy to be one of the four people that were in Sanctuary so far. She decided that if she managed to convince Desmond that she was a boy, she could confidently continue the disguise. Lex sighed, quite eager to have a warm meal, but her hunger was blind to flavour the past year and a cold can of baked beans was always welcome.
Chuckling, she accepted the tin and spoon from Gels and eagerly dug into it, manners left at the door. In almost no time the can was half empty, and the growling of her stomach was gone. She was still a touch hungry as she offered the other half to Gels. "Would Alice really care? She almost sounds like the mother of this place or something." She smirked at that thought, thinking this place could use a mother's touch. Her family didn't have much, but what it did have always looked nice at least - this place could use some elbow grease to clean up, and while cleaning wasn't on of her favourite things to do - in fact she hated it - she would get it done if she needed to. She preferred getting dirty to cleaning up after, a fact that reminded her it had been a while since she'd been able to wash, hoping her hygiene hadn't offended Gels.
"Any water around here? I wouldn't mind a chance to clean up once everything is settled in." She grimaced as she moved her cap, feeling how gross and sweaty her hair was underneath.
Post by Magella Jones on Feb 2, 2015 11:35:43 GMT 10
It is easier to know where you are going... ...When you know where you have been
When the tin was offered to her, she took it gratefully, having a few spoonfuls of the beans before holding it back out to Lex. She was still going through her eating routine of only eating every few days, and if she ate off those days she actually started feeling sick.
"Eat up kid, don't worry about me. I get plenty to eat." Magella hopped up onto the table, swinging her legs a little. "She might be. She's sweet enough for it. I found her on the beach, she was standing there in the middle of the sand doing yoga." she shook her head. "Silly girl. Yoga, on the beach. She didn't even hear me until I was a few metres away. Could have been a creeper and she'd be nommed."
She wasn't sure what else to say about Alice, not wanting to give away anything that the girl didn't want others to know. "Water? Well, unfortunately no, we had to dump the tank because it turned green and you couldn't drink it. Its been cleaned out and stuff but we're still waiting for the rain. We could head down to a creek once you've met the others if you like. You can't go alone, have to use a spotter in case there's a creeper or an animal in the water."
"How old are you anyway?" Magella asked suddenly. "You seem really young to me, but I'm terrible judge of age."
Alice flung the door to her kitchen wide open, pulling off her muddy boots using the top stair to hold the heels as she pulled her legs out and entered the room backwards. She had a skirt full of Aniseed Myrtle that she had seen growing not to far from the wall and had decided to go pick. She was exhausted and bright red in the face, when she turned around she jumped a little when she saw two people standing there. Busted. Magella was sure to notice she had gone outside of the wall by herself, and probably wouldn't be too pleased.
Alice lowered her hold on her dress, letting the skirt sit lower as she noticed that the person beside Magella was a boy and blushed bright red, "Um. Hi." She said with a smile. She stared at him for a few seconds before moving to the sink and droping her haul into it, brushing the dirt off her skirt and turning back to them. She noticed the can of beans in the boys hands and blushed, "Did you want me to make you something tastier than that? I'm sorry I wasn't here when you got back." She said to Magella. Hoping they hadn't been looking for her.
Post by Alexandria Winters on Feb 2, 2015 21:33:28 GMT 10
With the wind in my face All problems disappear
Lex took the can back happily and began shovelling what was left into her mouth, choking for a moment as she laughed at the yoga on the beach part of Gels' story. She'd never tried yoga herself, so she wasn't about to slander that, but the image of that happening while zombies are everywhere was too bizarre for her to hold in a giggle.
Finishing the can and holding it as she leaned against the counter top, pausing to think for a moment. "Let's see... I'm eighteen now I guess, seventeen when all this started. I was aiming to drop out of school and focus on my running to become a proper athlete, but... Well, something interrupted that dream." Her smile faltered slightly, remembering the first few days of the outbreak, before shrugging it off. "School was weird for me, people seem to hate albinos for the same reasons as some hate gingers - aren't overly common. Plus I got picked on for needing to stay out of the sun on hot days and all that."
It never really bothered her that much when the other students would do those things - she got just as bad or worse from her family most days, though she didn't want to bring that up yet.
She trailed off as she heard the door opening, craning her head to peer at a girl around her age taking off some boots. Raising an eyebrow at Gels before looking at the girl again, she took in her appearance; shorter than she was by a little bit, slender... A skirt? She had to hold back a smirk as she flicked another questioning gaze to Gels. The offer of warm food would have been more enticing if she hadn't just stuffed herself full of cold beans, Lex monologued, before she leant forward from the counter and offered a hand to Alice as she approached her with a smile.
"You must be Alice, I've heard good things. I'm Lex, Gels just found me - well, pushed me through a glass door to save me I guess, and brought me here. I hope we get along famously." Lex's bright blue eyes stared confidently into Alice's as she introduced herself, always trying to make a strong impression when meeting someone, a trait she failed to do with Gels at their jarring introduction to one another.
Post by Magella Jones on Feb 3, 2015 8:02:10 GMT 10
It is easier to know where you are going... ...When you know where you have been
"Only eighteen?" Magella nodded a little. "So I wasn't too far off my mark. I was thinking like fifteen, sixteen. But eighteen is good too. Well, there's no bullies around here. Anyone who's survived this long gains some respect from me anyway, a year is a long time. And hey, you don't look sunburnt so you're doing pretty good on that front."
As Alice walked through the door, Magella turned and looked the girl over. The muddy boots and red face sent up red flags instantly and she slowly followed Alice to the sink, looking over her shoulder to see what she was putting in the sink. Clearing her throat, she leaned on the bench. "Alice... Darling... I would like you to meet this strapping young lad that I found out there in the Great Beyond. And don't you be dissing my attempt to save your life, you're alive aren't you?"
She grinned, shaking her head and grabbing Alice's arm, pulling her over to the table where they had their loot. "Tada! I found some things you might like. And plates! I found plates!" Magella moved the plates to sit in front of Alice, showing off the lack of dust, dirt, chips and cracks in the smooth surfaces. The tins she'd poured out of her backpack were still lying over the table and she moved to start standing them up, checking the labels again as she went.
"It's not too far out of date. How long do you think it will last us?" She chewed her bottom lip a little, hoping it would be long enough for the garden to start giving them food to live off.
Alice smiled to herself, Sanctuary was growing rapidly, and made the lie that there were people here already that Magella had told her to get her here justified. Alice was so happy that she decided to come and no longer had any reason to think she shouldn't have. Hell there was even a guy here around her age, that wanted to get along with her. Famously along with her. It was a huge percent better than her life for the last year.
"This will go well with a lot of things. It's sort of like star anise, but native to Australia. I did a "bush tucker" course at TAFE as part of my apprenticeship." Alice said starting to process the branches in the sink. She was trying to act as calm as possible but inside her head she wanted to question the newcomer with a million questions. He wasn't really Alice's type visually, but maybe his personality was enough to make up for it.
Alice looked at all the things Magella had brought her, they were fantastic. There was enough stuff for Alice to be able to get creative with her cooking again. And be able to serve it up to all the people that kept coming in. She was so happy that she threw herself in Magella's arms for a hug, "Thankyou so much for bringing all this back, it can't have been easy."
Post by Alexandria Winters on Feb 4, 2015 22:14:00 GMT 10
With the wind in my face All problems disappear
Lex fidgeted slightly as she leaned back against the bench once more, not really understanding the food talk. She'd considered TAFE at one point, but wasn't able to decide on a specific area she wanted to focus on, pursuing running instead. Still, she admired Alice's passion for it, hiding a smile as she pulled her cap down slightly. She realised she didn't have a good reason for wearing it indoors, making a mental note to cut her hair a bit later on when she got a chance just to aid her disguise and lessen the chance of being gripped by unwanted hands.
So far, so good, she thought to herself. The trepidation she had tried ignoring at hearing there were more people Magella had found waiting for them here was being dispersed by how friendly and harmless Alice seemed, and it made her feel better knowing there were other women around. She was slightly concerned about the Desmond Magella had also mentioned, but she trusted Gels' judge of character and would do her best to overcome her mistrusting nature with those she now shared a roof with.
Lex's eyes widened as Alice threw herself at Gels, holding in a noise of amusement, thinking she honestly wouldn't know how to react at having an attractive girl throwing themselves at her. On that thought, she noticed she could appreciate the looks of her fellow survivors, something she hadn't thought to check before, and honestly had never really paid much attention to before the outbreak. She cleared her throat and averted her eyes from the exchange, just in case there was more to their relationship than she initially thought.
"Gel's found it all, I just helped bring it back... No biggy." Lex was doing her best to hide her smile, the situation so awkward for her in an amusing way.
Post by Magella Jones on Feb 4, 2015 22:32:35 GMT 10
It is easier to know where you are going... ...When you know where you have been
"Yeah, I have no idea what you just said Alice, but that's nice." Magella grinned, aiming to irritate the girl just a touch. "But hey, if you want me to leave and let you two love birds get to know each other better, I can. I've got plenty of other things I could be doing aside from chaperoning you two."
She was thoroughly surprised by Alice suddenly throwing herself into her arms. Her hand awkwardly petted Alice on the head for a moment before shifting to get the girl to let go of her. Shooting Lex a wink over Alice's head, Magella cleared her throat.
"Like Lex said, he dragged it all the way back here. All I did was grab some of the containers out of a lightly guarded pantry and dump them in a bag. Lex did all the heavy lifting, so if you want to thank anyone, you should thank him. It was a nice break from having to drag everything back myself."
Even though she knew it was bad to play match-maker while Alice was still under the impression that Lex was a boy, she couldn't help it. It was just so cute that Alice was acting so flustered, and Lex being all boyish was coming across as rather authentic. She hopped up onto the table, swinging her legs as she watched the two young people, a light smile playing on her lips. Despite the utter destruction of the world they knew and everything they ever cared about, they could still form new relationships. They could still heal and fall in love.
Turning her head to look out the kitchen door, she wondered if there would be someone for her. With a little snort and a shake of her head, she banished the thought, noting to herself that she needed to focus on surviving and keeping everyone safe before she worried about anything like that.
Alice blushed as Magella made all the hints about her and the new male possibly being an item. She tried not the think about it, she tried not to hope, but she was a little bit happy inside. Glad that Magella was otherwise occupied gazing out the window and had stopped the thinly veiled attempts at getting them interested in each other she turned to her newest companion.
"So uh did you want me to make you some food?" She asked because that's all she could think of to say, she wasn't too hungry herself and he had just eaten a can of beans so she didn't know if she was going to have to cook or not, she didn't mind either way, it would give her something to do, even if they didn't eat it all and reheated it later.
"So uh, how have you been?" She asked trying to make small talk but failing miserably, she played with her dress trying to calm her nerves, she was never good at talking to boys, "Other than the grr arg zombies trying to kill you."
Post by Alexandria Winters on Feb 8, 2015 21:52:16 GMT 10
With the wind in my face All problems disappear
Lex was rather grateful to her cap as it served to hide her cheeks under the slight shade it granted her, finding the girl rather adorable in her mannerisms. While she mused with the thought of what Gels must have thought about Alice upon meeting her, she was rather enjoying the exchange, a touch more civil than her last meeting, and so far without any bloodshed or full body tackles.
"Oh, uh... I couldn't make you cook for me, I mean I just had most of that tin-" Lex cut off as her stomach grumbled, and she dipped her head slightly with embarrassment before playing it off with a sideways grin, making sure to not forget to disguise her voice through her embarrassment. "Well... Maybe something small would be nice. It's been ages since I had something warm to eat."
She shook it off at the mention of zombies, looking confidently at Alice once more while shrugging with mock modesty. "Well not to brag, I put down two of those damn things earlier on... Gels showed me how though, but yeah, I just nailed it, hey Gels?" She glanced at the woman, hoping she wouldn't tell the whole truth. "Aside from that... I've been doin' alright. I run a lot, so uh... If you need anything from anywhere quickly or something like that, I'm your man."
She was pleased with herself for not hesitating at all at saying man instead of girl, though she did her best not to let it show.
Post by Magella Jones on Feb 10, 2015 12:21:23 GMT 10
It is easier to know where you are going... ...When you know where you have been
Magella couldn't help the silent snickers that were threatening to become very loud. Lex's attempt at seeming braver and more capable than she was quite amused her. While it was also sweet that Lex was trying to get in Alice's good books, she still wanted to blurt out Lex's little secret about not having killed a zombie before that day.
"If you're going to cook for him, could I have something as well. I've been getting lightheaded while I'm out scouting the area. I'm thinking of heading back out again, see if I can get back to the house we found all of this and see if there's anything left. I only got through half the cupboards before we were full up so there might be some more in there." she rubbed the back of her neck, checking her skin for sunburn.
She smiled and nodded. "You nailed it alright, put that bat of his right through the skull. The other one was tied up nicely on a string though so it wasn't that much of a challenge. But he's quick. My legs are aching after trying to keep up with the little sprite, so don't ask me for stuff." Her eyes moved to Lex, expecting a thank you later for not crushing the little picture of herself that she was trying to create for Alice.
