[log] trying to keep you close to me [closed]

[devoutish]

Characters: Alfie Solomons, Fiona, John Watson
Location outside while walking, and in various houses
Date: throughout the Shimmer event (148-149) and into 150
Summary: hallucinations, biting cold, and possible hypothermia, oh my!
Warnings: n/a; will edit if anything comes up

Catch-all for EVERYTHING - wandering in the snow, settling in various houses, etc. Top-level and tag as you see fit.

Comments

OUTSIDE - morning/day 148

[devoutish]

[devoutish]

[The extreme drop in temperature had been noticeable even inside, but when they step out into the snow, it's still a shock to Alfie's system. -4°C had been unpleasant, to be sure, but it hadn't been impossible to deal with. But -34°C? That's completely outside his realm of experience, and he can't help but gasp when he feels the cold hit him. It's enough to hurt.

He bundles up well as a general rule, but today he adds some extra protection around his exposed areas, wrapping his extra hat (luckily, it's made of felt, and floppy) around his neck as best as he can, and covering as much of his face as is possible with paper towels. It's better, even though it's still not enough.

When he opens his mouth to try to talk, the cold rushes in and stings his throat, but he manages to get out a few words through chattering teeth:]

Short walk today. Or we take rests.

[jumpthegun]

Yeah. Short walk.

[This really isn't good for his ear. The healing tissue has been slathering in petroleum jelly to protect it, but he's not sure even that is going to stand up. He has a baseball cap... and that's pretty much it on his head apart from the sweatband and the bandages. He does have part of what remains of a mesh jersey, and that gets tied around his face much like Alfie's paper towels. The throw pillow he has also gets stuffed down into the front of his jacket.

John doesn't want to be the one to slow them down, but-

He blinks, brow furrowing as he looks toward the distance. Okay, perhaps a bit more conversation is in order.]

Are you... there. [He points off into what may appear to be random snowy nothingness to the south.] There's a lawn there. Is there? I can... what? [John shakes his head. Hypothermia can't be setting in already, can it? No. That's stupid.]

[plundering]

[Fiona is miserable, shivering uncontrollably despite herself. Everything seems strange, too. Hazy, almost, but she can't quite pinpoint it. She rubs her eyes and wonders if it's some strange effect of the cold or... something, but then Watson points south and she follows his gaze, squinting.]

What? John, it's just snow.

[He's just tired, she tells herself. Everyone seems tired all the time here.]

BUILDING 79 - evening 148/morning 149

[devoutish]

A standard two-story house with a basement. The first floor has a kitchen, living room, and dining room, while the second floor has two bedrooms and a bathroom. Each bedroom has a mattress. A cardboard sign on one of the mattresses reads "DAY 60, REACHABLE SHELTER TO EAST, NEARBY. REACHABLE RESUPPLY POINT TO EAST." "ALPHONSE ELRIC, TADASHI HAMADA, STEPH BROWN, MAMI TOMOE, FREYA CRESCENT, EDWARD ELRIC, DAY SEVENTEEN, TRAVELLING SOUTH" and "ALPHONSE ELRIC, STEPHANIE BROWN, GREED DAY FORTY SIX, TRAVELLING EAST" have been carved into one of the walls.

[devoutish]

[Inside is still much more uncomfortably cold than usual, but it's at least better. Alfie still changes out his underclothes like he normally does, but he wears his big coat over his bathrobe, and he wraps his feet up as best he can under his slippers. He takes pictures of his skin, like he always has on the days when he's worried about frostbite - he wants to be able to track how it looks from day to day, and take note of anything worrying.

When he's not up and walking around, he cocoons, hunkering down inside a pile of pillows and blankets. All in all, it's absolutely miserable.]

[plundering]

[Fiona has been slowly getting used to the cold. Sort of. She's lived her entire life in a desert that got disgustingly hot at times and only chilly at night, and the cold here seems to seep into your bones. It's better inside, out of the wind, but she still wraps her blanket around her shoulders like a cape as soon as they get inside. She looks miserable.

She's jumpy, too, and very pointedly not looking at the windows, because they've been seeing... things all day. Hallucinations or not, they're still unsettling, and god, she just wishes they could get a break for a solid week maybe.

Fiona finds Alfie and sits down beside him, pulling her knees to her chest, wrapping her blanket more tightly around herself, and then pressing her shoulder into his instinctively. She can't stop shivering.]

I never want to see snow again.

[devoutish]

[Alfie has been hoarding blankets, so he has three of them by now, and he's very, very glad about that. Two are on the thin side, but when they're all piled together, they add up. He's happy to share with Fiona - when she sits down, he unwraps himself just long enough to pull her in, then burritos them both.]

We'll have to watch each other for hypothermia, frostbite.

[jumpthegun]

[His ear is aching fiercely, even with Tylenol, his whole body hurts, but the hallucinations are the worst. Had been the worst. John's set on taking the living room floor or sofa again for the night, but god if he wouldn't welcome Fiona inviting him to share her bed. Christ, at this point he'd welcome Alfie. There had been a few disturbing hallucinations, but just the fact of them being there is a problem. It takes him back to Baskerville, to the Hound, and the fear and panic induced by that gas. Is that what they're using? Is this really all just one huge experiment like he's seen the others talking about?

John doesn't have a blanket. He just curls up around his throw pillow and shivers on the sofa as he tries to read through some of the network for the distraction. Although, he does pop off to the bathroom to tend to changing the dressing on his ear and might be heard hissing and muttering in irritation and pain as he fumbles to work with half-frozen fingers and ice cold water.]

[devoutish]

[Alfie spots him hunkered down miserably on the couch, and tosses him his throw blanket.]

You've been here how long, and you don't have any blankets for yourself?

[He would bet actual money that he'd had some at one point, but had given them away to other people.]

[jumpthegun]

[Well, he'd had a sheet blanket from the hospital, but apart from that, he's found nothing, really. That had gone to the cause of bandages for Charles and Charlie.]

I'm fine. If you're gonna take off your clothes, you need this more, y'know? Wrap it around your feet or hands.

[GOD HE WANTS THAT BLANKET. But he can't just take it from Alfie. It wouldn't be right when the other man is wearing less.]

[plundering]

[Fiona joins Watson not long after lockdown, her blanket still wrapped tightly around her. She's freezing, freezing in a way she hasn't been, ever since she arrived, and she can't stop shivering, even indoors. The hallucinations have shaken her, but at the moment, she's trying her damnedest to compartmentalize. Just some stupid effect of this place that she doesn't want to analyze at the moment. She made the decision this morning to focus on taking care of Alfie and Watson, and that's what she's going to do. It's just that... Watson usually takes more care than Alfie does.

She sits down on the couch beside him, scooting close and then offering him half of the blanket. She'll cocoon them both in it if he lets her.]

Any fun gossip?

[jumpthegun]

[Offering to share gets John more into the mood to take what's given, and he shifts so that he can take the other half of her blanket and wrap it around his shoulders while he presses close to her. John knows the others were suffering some of the same hallucinations he was, nothing pleasant.]

Not much on since yesterday. I like Charlie's music. Wish I'd been able to find a clarinet in the school. Would've been able to plague you and Solomons with it. Sorry. Entertain. I said 'entertain,' right?

[plundering]

[Sometime after lockdown, Fiona gives up on trying to think about anything but the cold and bunkers down in one of the bedrooms, wrapped tightly in her blanket. Thank god Watson and Alfie agreed to all pile in one bed, because Fiona is starting to worry that she might actually freeze to death, not to mention Watson, without any sort of blanket.

So, Fiona plants herself in the middle, of course, not so much out of concern for Watson or Alfie's comfort, but more because the middle is the warmest. It's only fair, considering they grew up somewhere much colder than she did, right?]

[devoutish]

[Alfie is winning on the blanket front, with three of them - two are on the thin side, but they're still better than nothing. They're also all big enough to spread over the bed, which means they're big enough to cover all three of them, as long as they're squished together.

It is a little uncomfortable, to Alfie. Platonically sharing a bed with another man is fine with him. Sharing a bed with Fiona is also fine with him, by this point. But the three of them, together? It's necessary, and he's not going to complain, but that doesn't completely take away how weird it feels.

Still, he can mostly hide that.]

Interested in lighting a fire?

[He props his tablet up on the bedside table. A childish-looking drawing of a fireplace is displayed on the screen.]

There we go.

[jumpthegun]

[This is going to be awkward. There's no getting around it. It's less because Fiona is a woman, and more because Fiona is a woman John is actively attracted to. There's also Alfie who... is Alfie. John doesn't think the other man is going to roll over and try to put a knife to his neck again, but they aren't exactly the best bedfellows. But needs must, and Alfie has all the blankets.

John's ear still hurts like hell, so he lies down on Fiona's right side, sliding in close to her, but not as close as he could be. He's not going to get an erection. He's not going to get an erection. He is not going to get an erection like a college kid. Luckily, the cold is helping with his fervent hopes and wishes surrounding the issue.

He lifts his head at Alfie's comment, then snorts when he sees the fire.]

Is that from Kesara, then? Or the other one? Emily, right?

BUILDING 79 - day & evening 149/morning 150

[devoutish]

STILL IN THE SAME HOUSE at least it's a nice-ish one

[jumpthegun]

[Well, they're stuck in the house for the day and the temperatures are moderately less freezing than the night. John's tried to avoid looking outside where there's flickers of grass and strange, disturbing things crawling around outside that might or might not be real. He'd asked Alfie for a haircut, and he needs to change his bandages, anyway. It's a little strange, having him do this - having him want to do this - for free, no less. John's suspicious, he's been looking for the angle. But as far as he can really tell, it is just a genuine kindness, one of those little things that Sherlock would de every so often to remind John that he actually does care.

Not that John wants Alfie to be caring about him. He's wrapped up in one of the blankets when he heads over to wherever the other man is.]

Up for that trim, Alfie?

[John had washed his hair in the very cold sink water that morning and it's still a bit wet, but that will likely make it easier. He's taken off his ball cap, sweatband, and earmuffs, leaving just a few neat strips of fabric taped over his injured ear.]

[devoutish]

[Alfie has been taking advantage of the free day to do some laundry. The water in the house runs cold, so he hasn't tried to bath himself, but everything he's not currently wearing is being washed and hung to dry - and later, when he's in his bathrobe, he'll wash and hang his day clothes, too. He keeps a close eye on the hanging things, so that he can shake off any ice crystals and and do his best to keep the damp fabric from freezing. He's in the living room for now, keeping watch over a pair of towels that are thumbtacked to the wall, hanging over the windows. (This placement is not a coincidence. He's been seeing things too, especially since talking to Royce.)

When Watson comes in, he pulls out the little scissors.]

Ready to take a risk on me, eh? Yeah. Let's get to it.

[jumpthegun]

Well, when you put it like that. [John rolls his eyes.] Where d'you want me to sit? Kitchen? Or drag a chair in here?

[There are a few wooden ones intact in the kitchen, and normally John would be inclined to limit the mess of this, but... well, they aren't exactly in anyone's actual home, and the Admin will probably clean everything up after them.]

BUILDING 87 - evening 150

[devoutish]

A standard single-story house with a living room, bathroom, and bedroom. The kitchen and dining room have had their wall collapse, exposing them to the elements and filling them with snow. The doors to the kitchen and dining room still work, however, allowing the house to still be sealed up against the elements at night.

[devoutish]

[After speaking with Royce and finding out about his situation, Alfie is particularly quiet for the rest of the evening. He does all his usual routine things, but he seems distracted, and can more often than not be seen with a deep frown on his face. He spends the early evening on the couch, and then holes himself up on the bedroom early - checking his tablet regularly, wondering if he'll hear news of a monster attack tonight.]

[plundering]

[Of course, Fiona can't leave Alfie alone when he's looking that upset, so when he disappears into the bedroom, she follows. She knocks, but then she peeks her head in before he can answer.]

Hey. You okay?

[jumpthegun]

[It seems no one is having a good night. John is looking extremely agitated after an unproductive discussion with Estinien. He's been sat in the living room, but now he's up and just pacing, expression tight with frustration, and hands balled into fists. He doesn't actually talk to his companions, just stomps a bit noisily from the living room to the bathroom and back again. He'll be wearing a new track in the floor for a while.]

[devoutish]

[Alfie, shrouded in blankets on the living room couch, puts up with it for about fifteen minutes before he sets aside his communicator and looks up.]

John. Either talk about it, or don't talk about it a little quieter. Yeah?