[ota] February/March Catch-All

[aperturesubject0001]

Who: Chell and her new neighbors!
When: Some February, mostly March
Where: Around and about!
Open/Closed: Noted in starters
Applicable warnings: Feb TDM warnings may apply; descriptions of agoraphobia. Anything that comes up will be in the comment headers.

a. The Errands - OTA, early February

Once the smoke clears, and people are allowed out of their houses again, Chell is faced with a brand new test: grocery shopping.

It's not like she's never done it before. She knows she has. Her memories of life before waking up in Aperture may be hazy in places, but she certainly knows that she used to go to the store and buy food and probably even make it sometimes, although she also has a feeling she used to eat a lot of microwave meals. That's not an option here. And her household has gone through most of the easy-to-prepare stuff like canned food during the lockdown, so now she needs to go restock.

And the thing is -- the thing is, Chell has faced down giant mashy plates with spikes and arrays of turrets training their sights on her and bombs and floors covered in toxic waste. A grocery store should be no problem. And yet, faced with the aisles of food, the people, the constant mechanical whirr and ching of the cash registers, Chell is finding herself uncharacteristically overwhelmed. She can't see the exits when she's trying to pick between oatmeal and cream of wheat. Everyone else seems to be moving with certainty and purpose where she's a welter of indecision and nerves. What if she picks the wrong thing? What if everything is poisoned? What if something comes through the door? What if she throws up? What if--?

All of which has resulted in Chell standing in front of the freezer case for at least five minutes, looking more like a deer in the headlights than a shopper. She moves out of the way when other customers need to get past her, but she doesn't seem quite able to shake herself into either picking something or moving along herself.

b. The Zoomies - mid-March, OTA

It's been several weeks of adjustment, and the idea that Chell doesn't need to be running for her life and probably isn't going to be put into cryosleep unexpectedly is starting to sink in. That hot urgency that propelled her through testing chamber after testing chamber is being replaced with a cool, prickly unease that never entirely goes away.

Unease, and boredom, particularly as the weather gets nicer and there's reason to be outside. Mid-March finds her in the park pretty regularly, despite the masses of pigeons, power-walking laps around the pond and the edge of the park. Occasionally -- very occasionally, and usually only if she thinks she won't be observed, because she's already gotten some odd looks for it from the locals -- her energy gets the better of her and she breaks into a sprint for a few dozen meters, her skirt fluttering indecorously and her jacket flapping behind her. Then she brakes to a walk again, breathing hard.

Who'd have thought that a whole town could still feel as enclosed as a salt mine?

Comments

[aperturesubject0001]

Anywhere. Just go anywhere. It's all she's wanted since Wheatley woke her up, and now it's actually an option, and she's not sure what to do with it. Hell, part of her wants him to tell her where to go, so she doesn't have to face the enormity of anywhere.

That rattles her, a little. Maybe better not to think about it. So she nods, firmly, gives him a thumbs up, and heads upstairs.

She'll be in the shower for a long time. Until the hot water runs out, probably.

[freakymagoo]

He doesn't abuse the time she gives him too much. Although he doesn't tear through the house in a flurry of trying to get everything sorted in a hurry, he isn't as methodical with his approach as he would have maybe liked. He has to double back a few times, make two trips when he ordinarily would have only needed one, but eventually it'll be as tidy as he can manage. He also makes sure to disable the most fatal booby traps around the house and keeps his paranoia confined to just the basement door and the back door like he promised.

While he doesn't feel comfortable going through her clothes, he will bring the towel as promised. He doesn't rush her to finish up her shower though, placing the towel down just outside the bathroom door.

He's probably overthinking things. Or stressing out about this sudden new arrangement more than he needs to. In time he'll settle down. Might even get comfortable with someone else to share this big old empty house with. The fact that she doesn't talk should suit him but he might find her silence a little disconcerting at first.