[ota] It leaves us with regrets and picks apart the threads

[shorthair]

Who: Clementine + you
Where: Mansion
When: April 5 - 12. Plus, all of April and May
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Clementine returns from her canon update. Feel free to reply to the network post here since I won't actually spam the network community too. Action spam or prose is totally cool with me.
The Story: First week and a half

It's warm.

She's felt like she was freezing since she fell into the lake of ice. Was that really just yesterday? It's warm here. Her hands press to grass, and she stares at the ground, shuddering because she thinks the frozen water might have seeped into her blood. She knows it's warm but she still feels cold.

She's back in Wonderland. A rush of memories, of emotion hits her. There are so many people she cares about here, and she hasn't seen them since she left, and it feels like she's been gone for years instead of- days. Weeks? Time is funny.

AJ isn't in her arms anymore. It's just him and her now. Seems right. She can't trust people anymore.

Now that the adrenaline has faded away, the bullet wound in her shoulder hurts like fucking hell. She killed someone else she cared about. Again. Does she even belong in this place with people who are good, who do what's right? If they knew, what the fuck would they think of her. She feels like she might be sick, but there's nothing in her stomach to puke anyway so it's just her insides twisting around like knots.

She pulls her network device out, texting a quick open network post, because she won't remember everyone she'll want to text to let them know:

It's Clementine. I'm back. In my room.

If anyone is up at night, they might run into her, a child with blood on the shoulder of her jacket with a very clear hole through it. No gun for once. She left it with the last dead body she's left behind her.

When she finally makes it into her room. She writes the names of more dead people on the wall (Sarita, Sarah, Luke, Rebecca, Kenny). She pulls out blankets from the closet and piles them on the bed and puts herself underneath them, but it doesn't help with the cold. She tries to get out of the damn jacket, but she hisses out pain and stops midway. She stays there for a week and a half without leaving.

Rest of April/May

Eventually, later in the month, she finally leaves her room again. She's got the small shot gun from Christmas with her, holstered to her back.

She's in the cafeteria in short sleeves, which means she's revealing a certain scar for the first time since she came to Wonderland. Sometimes she's reading books about taking care of babies as if osmosis will happen if when she's sent back. Somewhere in between reading how often they have to feed and sleep, she tosses the book away from her so hard that it almost hits somebody.

Then she picks up baking. She used to with her mother all the time, and if she can kill people and survive walkers and gun shots and ice lakes, she can make some cookies if the recipes right there, right? Maybe.

She ends up making a big mess in the kitchen as she tries to spoon big chunks of cookie dough out on to pans, smirking at her giant mess. It's kind of hilarious she can survive so much and fight so hard and then get defeated by cookie dough.

Comments

[shorthair]

Clementine lifts her head up from her very focused work on the cookie dough in front of her, and then she almost laughs in amazement at the- whatever it is. She can't really tell. She hasn't laughed in a really long time it feels like.

It's almost there like a little light in her chest, reminding her she can still feel more than cold.

"Woah!" She hands over a spoon full of dough willingly before she looks over at Newt, and she waves a hand in recognition. "What is Andy?"

[mr_englishguy]

She had been so serious the day they met about zombies, and seeing her laugh like that made Newt smile. It was a good look on her. Always good seeing children smile, especially when they were all trapped in this places.

He laughed, waving Andy down from the counter. Given he had his spoon and his long tongue was lapping at it, he didn't mind settling down on the floor.

"Andy is a pyjak. I found him on that space station, and then when I woke up here after we returned, he was there with me. He's a space monkey anteater type creature. I've been researching him since I found him."

[shorthair]

Clementine fetches a fresh spoon out of a drawer and then looks curiously at the both of them. She really can't help but watch Andy since she's never seen anything like him before. It's amazing.

"I heard about the space trip. Kinda disappointed I missed an actual fun Event for once," she says, standing back up on the stool so she can reach the counter properly and scoop out another spoonful of dough. "So now you can do your job here too a little."

It must make Newt happy since she could tell how passionate he was about it.

[mr_englishguy]

Andy settled in, lapping at the spoon contentedly and making small noises as he did. Newt smiles at him before turning her attention to Clementine.

"You did? That's a shame. I found this arcade and it was..." He shakes his head, not wanting to sound as if he was gloating. "I'm sure there will be others. Maybe it's a shift in how things are in Wonderland." He doesn't believe it, nor does he expect her to.

Beaming at that comment though, nodding. "I am excited for that chance here. I won't let myself hope that Wonderland will always do this, but I am so thankful for this chance." Pausing only a moment, still smiling widely. "I've never made cookies," he says. "Or baked anything. A friend recently baked beautiful things but then she uses magic," he added, his smile turning fond. "Would you show me what you're doing?"

[shorthair]

"Yeah. It sent me back for a little while, but I like hearing about the space event cause we're sure as hell not gonna get another fun event for awhile," Clementine says. She's been around too long to believe anything else. He got a cool space monkey out of the whole trip, which is good, and overall Wonderland is better than where she's from even if the next hundred Events are bad ones.

She's grateful to be here at all.

"Really?" She looks at him in surprise until she registers the reason why in her head. Magic probably means no one needs to actually bake. They can use the magic to do so. "I'll show you and put you to work." She gets another spoon, holding it out to him with a smirk.

[mr_englishguy]

Sad, but even the short time that Newt has been there, and he knows she's right. He's been through four events now. One killed him. This one had given him back his livelihood. He wouldn't expect to have this again, but he could hope.

"Given what you told me about your world, I'm so sorry. It's nothing you should have to go through." Except, with ways he's thought of things, she has gone through it. Will, no matter how he might think, because eventually their worlds had to go on, didn't they?

"My mum spent our childhood working. Theseus, my brother, he cooked a bit but I was bad about popping a pasty in the oven and that was about it," he admits, blushing as he ducks his head. Yet when she offers the spoon, he can't help but to smile as he takes it.

"Yes ma'am, I am at your service." Pausing only a minute before adding. "And thank you."

[shorthair]

Eventually, they get sent back. This place is temporary. This place is not real as much as she may want it to be, Events and all.

"Do you have more brothers or sisters?" She smirks in amusement at the ma'm, deciding she likes the formal term. Then she pushes the bowl over in his direction. "Okay, this is the easy part. We take a spoonful of the dough and then you put it down here in a line. Not too close or they spread out and become a giant cookie."

...wait that's not a bad idea.

[mr_englishguy]

For Newt this place is a take it or leave it. So long as his creatures are protected, frozen in time, then he doesn't mind being here. He just has no idea what he's truly going back to, what he's going to find when he continues chasing down the obscurus.

He shakes his head, nodding as she talked about the cookies. "So if your mum tells you that you can only have one cookie..." He grins, even as he makes the suggestion. "I only had the one brother, and we lost my father when I was a child. So it was Theseus, me and mum... and the hippogriffs." He pauses before adding. "I don't want to ask and upset you but I am curious about your life and family." But he understands if she isn't comfortable talking about them.

[shorthair]

"I like the way you think," Clementine says with a smirk. One giant cookie could totally replace the rest. She puts more spoonfuls of dough on to the pan. Her gaze darts over to him with a frown when he mentions losing his father.

She gets loss. "Sorry about your dad."

There's a pause when he says the rest. She swallows, getting another spoonful.

"You mean about my mom and dad?"

[mr_englishguy]

"I've been told I never fully grew up," he admits, knowing those that had told him that meant it as an insult and refused to take it that way. "So that may be part of it."

Newt shakes his head, waving it all away with one hand. "Oh no, don't worry. I was young, and we had mum, and hippogriffs. Then you go off to Hogwarts when you're eleven so you have other people in your life." Not that Newt really did but it was a good story.

"You don't have to talk about it. I'm willing to listen though if you want to."

[shorthair]

Clementine smirks lightly. "I think that might be nice. To not fully grow up."

It's said from a kid who grew up too fast. She looks up at him but nods. She remembers Hogwarts. She remembers the life she had in the other universe, and it felt good, because there were all these people (there was a whole house of people who liked her and had her back). "I really liked going to it for that Event."

She gets another spoonful of dough and sets it on the pan.

"When the walkers came, my parents were out in another town. They'd left me with a babysitter. It's not like they had any way to know what would happen."

[mr_englishguy]

"There should be a choice though. Not like this place. To grow up but not grow old then," he says, realizing that is a lot of what his life has been. Something that nearly got him, and Tina, killed.

He nodded about the event, thinking of Hogwarts. "There can be bad things in my world. I'm glad none of you had to experience those things." Already he has talked so much about inferi, for one, that he worries for what could become here.

Newt barely nods. "Not as if a person can ever know when things like that will happen. I'm so sorry. For that. For your whole world."

[shorthair]

There should be a choice. Life doesn't usually offer it wherever they happen to be.

"There are bad things in every world. You told me about the creatures from your own, the ones like zombies there," she says, and it does sound terrible. "I remember some of what I learned in Hogwarts. There were dangers there. People died too soon."

It happens everywhere. She closes her eyes, sliding more dough on to the pan. She tightens her hold on the spoon so much her hand shakes. "They- I tried to find them, but it was too late."

She saw them as walkers. They were dead, and Lee died shortly after.

[mr_englishguy]

Sadly not a world yet that Newt had found where choice factored into it. Not before this place, not after they were all brought there.

"The bad there is truly the dark wizards," he admits. "The inferi are just tools they use. Dangerous tools, but it's truly the wizards themselves to fear."

He nodded. "We were just past a war, in my time, wherein a dark wizard sought to out our world and to imprison muggles. Or worse." He didn't believe his world was better, not with what he had been dealing with before he came here, he just wished people had a choice in it here, and not constant events that were more bad than good.

"Oh. Oh." He isn't even sure what else to say, hands balling up, fighting the urge to scoop that poor child up and just hug her until she kicked him in the shins to get away. "I'm so sorry."

[shorthair]

"It sounds pretty damn bad, fighting wars with dark wizards, with people who want to imprison other people," Clementine says, and she shakes her head. Worlds are shitty all over, and she hates it. She hates there's no escape.

She hates there's nothing anyone can do to change it.

Her gaze darts over to him. She swallows and shakes her head before she gets more dough on to a spoon and sets it on the pan.

"Me too. It happened years ago now." She shrugs. Sometimes she forgets stuff about her parents like the sound of their voice or- small things but important things. Not cause of Wonderland but just cause people forget stuff.

[mr_englishguy]

"It can definitely be pretty bad. Thankfully there's much better people than the bad. I wish I felt that it was the same in all worlds but I'm not sure it is," he says, accepting that, sad that it may well be the truth.

"Well, you're not alone here," he notes. "Which I hope helps. I know there's none from my world here, and I'm glad to have others here who I can make a life here with. Like learning to make cookies," he says, giving her a bright smile, even as he reaches over and baps Andy's paw lightly as the pyjak reaches to try and steal dollop of cookie dough.

[shorthair]

Clementine smiles softly at him as she nods in confirmation. She's not alone. Returning to Wonderland, having so many people waiting for her, it reminded her of it, and God- She wishes the version of her back where she's from could know and feel how important it is to have people.

She's been taught otherwise, and there's no changing it.

"I'm glad you have that too. That we both do," she says and then gestures to the oven. "I think this pan's ready. Then Andy can have some leftover dough. Maybe not all of it."

Who knows how all that sugar might affect him?

[mr_englishguy]

"Perhaps I should see if the closet might give me brooms. I could teach you how to play quidditch, if you didn't learn when you were at Hogwarts," he says, thinking that could be so much fun in this place, and to distract them from events.

"A bit more for him, though I'm still learning his diet. When he gets excited though, he rushes off and when he returns, it's with pieces of things I don't recognize. I suspect they're technology that remind him of his world.

"I hate that I'll have to break him of the habit, for the sake of everyone. Perhaps I can teach him to find other types of items. Without taking them from others."

[shorthair]

"I didn't learn. It always looked pretty dangerous for a sport a bunch of students were playing," Clementine says with a little smirk since she's not afraid really. She was just surprised they were allowed to all fly around on brooms so high up.

It'd be cool to learn anyway. She gets down with the pan in hand and then sets it into the oven, shutting it and setting the timer.

See? She can follow directions on a recipe. Kinda.

"Might be a good skill. I know some people who are pretty attached to their stuff."

[mr_englishguy]

"Well, I'm certain it is dangerous but it is also a delight. I've been playing since my first year at Hogwarts. Eleven year olds who have never flown before, and we're chasing a snitch at high speeds." Which explains that he does truly know just how dangerous it was.

"I will do my best not to let you get hurt," he vows, giving her a smile as if he is capable of doing that.

Newt smiles then. "I have felt lucky know one has come following him back to my room, yelling."