"I know I can hit you," Abby says, shrugging. Is this what they do now? Come and see what the other is up to? She doesn't... hate it, actually. Especially when Clarisse is out of the Gallows and she's barely spoken with anyone else today.
"You're in luck." She's coming over to her, strapping her mace back into its holster. Noting that odd, shadowy look about her, the stars reflected in her eyes. It's starting to get warmer out at night, not enough to be comfortable in anything without sleeves, but enough that she doesn't have to layer up, maybe wear a hat. It's good. "Just finished my shift. I need food."
"You could still try," Ellie answers, raising both of her eyebrows at Abby, a little serious, but also not. She likes that they mess with each other like this, even if it's probably unfunny as hell to anyone else.
"... yeah, I should probably eat something too," she concedes, frowning to herself as she tries to think of the last time she ate. Huh.
She trails Abby, at her side and just a step back. Almost with her and yet not quite. Habit almost, watching her braid sway against her back.
"I kinda write books in my head," she confesses, folding her arms across her chest as they take the stairs back down. Is that weird...? Whatever. It helps the time pass. "But I heard that some people are getting double shifts. If that happens to me, I'll scream."
That's a threat.
It's hard not to feel a little bitter about this arrangement. It's all over the place and Abby feels like Forces is flagging as they wait for somebody to step up and into Flint's place. Diplomacy is fairing the exact same. Riftwatch doesn't feel as strong as it did when Abby joined. It's been making her weirdly antsy, kinda pissed off.
By Ellie's tone that doesn't sound like something she disapproves of.
When Abby confesses what she does for one, Ellie's head snaps to the side, her eyes narrowing into a frown, both confused and desperately fucking curious.
"Maybe I wanna get reassigned." You don't know her.
She gives Ellie a funny look to cover up the fact that she's thinking about how much to confess to, exactly. "I dunno. Just — historical stuff, I guess. From back home I mean. Like Jane Eyre."
A plain girl, battling life's struggles? Um, relatable.
"No," she deadpans, eyeballing Ellie right back. "To Diplomacy, cuz I'm a people person."
Har har. She's not gonna say that if she did have to pick another division to be in she would probably pick Scouting... Not when Ellie has just handed a chance to discuss Jane Eyre to her on a plate.
"It's about this girl who grows up with her aunt after she's orphaned. Her aunt's awful and she lives in this shitty charity home with a bunch of other kids but when she's old enough to leave she finds work as a governess, which is a good thing. But then she falls in love with her boss, and discovers a dark secret about him. And she basically has to decide if she's gonna stick around or not."
Abby laughs and takes the punch, tickled by the constipated look on Ellie's face. "Don't look at me! It was a thing back then!"
All those classics are always talking about women spiraling into bouts of hysteria. Must have been something they found a cure for, because it doesn't seem to exist outside of that time period. That's good.
"See, this is why I always stuck to comic books," Ellie spouts off, knowing that it'll rub Abby's fur the wrong way, only barely bothering to hide her smile.
"Space battles. People punching each other. Things blowing up. None of this falling in love with your absolutely psycho of a boss who keeps his wife in an attic somewhere."
"You know you can get those things in books too," she says witheringly, turning her head sharply so her braid flounces off her shoulder. "You'd like the Narnia series. It's about evil witches and kids doing magic and battles at sea, shit like that—
"Though," amending, softening as they reach the bottom of the staircase and Abby angles her feet toward the dining hall, "Guess it doesn't matter. Can't get them here anyway."
She sighs heavily, like this is the worst thing in the world.
Edited (nukes the extra hard return from space) 2024-05-31 04:25 (UTC)
Ellie starts to resist the urge to reach out and yank the braid, and decides, fuck it. She's going to live dangerously.
She reaches out and bats at it hard enough that it smacks back between her shoulder blades when gravity reasserts itself. She'll be able to hear the grin in Ellie's voice.
Abby's so caught off guard by this sudden audacity that she doesn't react right away, not knowing quite what to do. Then she stops dead mid-stride and turns to fix Ellie with a single, unimpressed look.
Cut that shit out.
Once she's satisfied with having made her non-verbal point, she keeps walking. Her stomach is also grumbling, she really does want that food. Ellie, keep up.
"I'm not gonna write a book. Are you gonna draw your own comic?"
This is the moment where Abby figures out something she already knew: Ellie has no goddamn sense of self-preservation. She gives Abby a shit-eating grin right back, and continues to catch up to Abby.
She restrains herself, momentarily, in order to keep up.
"Fuck you," Abby shoots back, amused. She's resisting the urge to look at her over her shoulder, not wanting to encourage her; her own heart is thumping a little bit, adrenaline up. Ellie never fails to make her feel off-kilter whenever they talk and Abby still doesn't know how to react to it, even after all this time. Ellie really is the only person who can make her feel this kind of awkward.
"If you only came looking for me to be annoying, go away."
They still do this fucking thing where they make each other a little uncomfortable on purpose, almost to prove that they still can. And Abby trying so hard not to react to her only makes Ellie want to bare her teeth in a grin.
She won't outright bully her, but can she put her a little bit on edge? Sure.
"Please. Like you aren't just as bored out of your skull as I am."
"I'm not that dependent on Clarisse for entertainment," Abby shoots back, which is a bold-faced lie. She would tell Ellie that she thinks the two of them act just like Leah and Jordan used to, if that would have any impact on Ellie at all. She wasn't there, she didn't have to deal with all the eye fucking. She'll never know.
"Are you gonna keep following me after dinner? Are you gonna come for a sleepover?"
Ellie laughs rudely, way more loudly than is neccessary, but the smile's real. She catches up to Abby's side.
"Shit," she says, shoving both of her hands in her pockets and dipping her head forward to hide a grin. She scuffs her boots against the stone as she walks.
Abby splutters, can't help it. Her mouth is open to tell her to fuck off and of course it's not an invitation. They've been sharing a tent! She's had more than her fair share of Ellie Williams all up in her space, but... fuck if it doesn't feel like some weird dare. Ellie doesn't ever push her like this either, she's usually the first to back off. Are they still teasing?
This is confusing, but she'd like to understand.
Abby can't quite look at her when she asks, "What are you doing?"
It's not the first time Abby's asked her this, and she didn't have the answer back then either. She falls to silence, still walking with her, hands in her pockets, her hair brushing the back of her neck.
Something crazy occurs to her, but then she can't. Shake it.
Abby snorts, even though nothing about this is funny.
"I dunno."
Her relationship with Ellie is unlike any friendship she's ever had before and, honestly, she wouldn't call it being friends. At the same time, it isn't nothing. They hang out. Have conversations, even about things that are hard. Ellie used to be so frustratingly opaque but now Abby knows things about her, what she reads, where she goes during the day, songs that are stuck in her head. Abby has laughed at her dumb jokes. She can't slap a label on it any more than she could explain why she'd be so upset if she ever lost this.
She hates the way she sounds when she asks, "Do you want to be friends?" Halting, awkward. Vulnerable.
Ellie's skin prickles, but despite the strange vulnerability of it, it does feel like she and Abby are standing there together. In this weird, impossible situation together. She is from home. Despite all the pain they've inflicting on each other, in another life, in another world, they probably would have been friends.
Abby nods, holding her own reply in her mouth for a moment. She feels uncomfortable but not in a bad way, just off-balance and working to keep herself from tripping. It's not bad to do work like this. She thinks she's getting good at it, existing in discomfort and letting things between them both be strange. Letting strange things slowly become good.
"Same."
Now she looks, guessing at Ellie's reaction. "We could try it."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
"You're in luck." She's coming over to her, strapping her mace back into its holster. Noting that odd, shadowy look about her, the stars reflected in her eyes. It's starting to get warmer out at night, not enough to be comfortable in anything without sleeves, but enough that she doesn't have to layer up, maybe wear a hat. It's good. "Just finished my shift. I need food."
no subject
"... yeah, I should probably eat something too," she concedes, frowning to herself as she tries to think of the last time she ate. Huh.
She trails Abby, at her side and just a step back. Almost with her and yet not quite. Habit almost, watching her braid sway against her back.
"Dunno how you stay awake for these."
no subject
That's a threat.
It's hard not to feel a little bitter about this arrangement. It's all over the place and Abby feels like Forces is flagging as they wait for somebody to step up and into Flint's place. Diplomacy is fairing the exact same. Riftwatch doesn't feel as strong as it did when Abby joined. It's been making her weirdly antsy, kinda pissed off.
no subject
By Ellie's tone that doesn't sound like something she disapproves of.
When Abby confesses what she does for one, Ellie's head snaps to the side, her eyes narrowing into a frown, both confused and desperately fucking curious.
"Okay, but what are the books about?"
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She gives Ellie a funny look to cover up the fact that she's thinking about how much to confess to, exactly. "I dunno. Just — historical stuff, I guess. From back home I mean. Like Jane Eyre."
A plain girl, battling life's struggles? Um, relatable.
no subject
Ellie lifts her eyebrows, then frowns again, giving Abby a long look.
"Jane Eyre?"
She doesn't just sound dubious. She might not even know what that is.
no subject
Har har. She's not gonna say that if she did have to pick another division to be in she would probably pick Scouting... Not when Ellie has just handed a chance to discuss Jane Eyre to her on a plate.
"It's about this girl who grows up with her aunt after she's orphaned. Her aunt's awful and she lives in this shitty charity home with a bunch of other kids but when she's old enough to leave she finds work as a governess, which is a good thing. But then she falls in love with her boss, and discovers a dark secret about him. And she basically has to decide if she's gonna stick around or not."
no subject
She sounds very interested up until the girl has the shitty sense to fall in love with her boss. Ugh.
"Well, what was the dark secret?"
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You know.
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Ellie reaches out to lightly punch Abby in the arm, leaning forward so Abby can see the flabbergasted expression on her face.
"The fuck kind of books are you reading?"
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All those classics are always talking about women spiraling into bouts of hysteria. Must have been something they found a cure for, because it doesn't seem to exist outside of that time period. That's good.
no subject
"Space battles. People punching each other. Things blowing up. None of this falling in love with your absolutely psycho of a boss who keeps his wife in an attic somewhere."
no subject
"Though," amending, softening as they reach the bottom of the staircase and Abby angles her feet toward the dining hall, "Guess it doesn't matter. Can't get them here anyway."
She sighs heavily, like this is the worst thing in the world.
no subject
Ellie starts to resist the urge to reach out and yank the braid, and decides, fuck it. She's going to live dangerously.
She reaches out and bats at it hard enough that it smacks back between her shoulder blades when gravity reasserts itself. She'll be able to hear the grin in Ellie's voice.
"Maybe you should write that book after all."
no subject
Cut that shit out.
Once she's satisfied with having made her non-verbal point, she keeps walking. Her stomach is also grumbling, she really does want that food. Ellie, keep up.
"I'm not gonna write a book. Are you gonna draw your own comic?"
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She restrains herself, momentarily, in order to keep up.
"Fuck you, I might."
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"If you only came looking for me to be annoying, go away."
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She won't outright bully her, but can she put her a little bit on edge? Sure.
"Please. Like you aren't just as bored out of your skull as I am."
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"Are you gonna keep following me after dinner? Are you gonna come for a sleepover?"
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"Shit," she says, shoving both of her hands in her pockets and dipping her head forward to hide a grin. She scuffs her boots against the stone as she walks.
"That sounded almost like an invitation."
no subject
This is confusing, but she'd like to understand.
Abby can't quite look at her when she asks, "What are you doing?"
Her voice is steady and quiet.
no subject
It's not the first time Abby's asked her this, and she didn't have the answer back then either. She falls to silence, still walking with her, hands in her pockets, her hair brushing the back of her neck.
Something crazy occurs to her, but then she can't. Shake it.
"... Abby? Are we friends?"
no subject
"I dunno."
Her relationship with Ellie is unlike any friendship she's ever had before and, honestly, she wouldn't call it being friends. At the same time, it isn't nothing. They hang out. Have conversations, even about things that are hard. Ellie used to be so frustratingly opaque but now Abby knows things about her, what she reads, where she goes during the day, songs that are stuck in her head. Abby has laughed at her dumb jokes. She can't slap a label on it any more than she could explain why she'd be so upset if she ever lost this.
She hates the way she sounds when she asks, "Do you want to be friends?" Halting, awkward. Vulnerable.
no subject
Here they are. In another life, in another world.
"... yeah, I think so."
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"Same."
Now she looks, guessing at Ellie's reaction. "We could try it."
See what happens.