Eleanor Lamb (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
notyourutopian) wrote2017-01-24 07:51 pm
notyourutopian) wrote2017-01-24 07:51 pm
Application for Recolle
PLAYER
YOUR NAME: Dalrint
18+?: Yes
CONTACT:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
dalrint
CHARACTERS IN GAME: New
YOUR NAME: Dalrint
18+?: Yes
CONTACT:
CHARACTERS IN GAME: New
CHARACTER: CANON SECTION
NAME: Eleanor Lamb
AGE: 18
CANON: Bioshock
NAME: Eleanor Lamb
AGE: 18
CANON: Bioshock
CANON HISTORY:
Here is the Bioshock wiki for Eleanor. She would be coming in from near the end of a 'savior' route, with Delta sparing his enemies and saving all the little sisters.
Her canon point would be after the death of Augustus Sinclair, while she and Delta are trying to rescue the remaining little sisters.
CANON PERSONALITY:
Eleanor is in some ways extremely worldly, and in others painfully naïve. She was raised in Rapture by her mother, but spent most of her childhood sequestered away from the general population. Her mother wanted to ensure she was ‘untainted’ by society, so she never went to school, or had any of the usual ‘social lessons’ children learn by growing up. Her first real interaction with another child her age was when she snuck out and got in a fight with a boy and made his nose bleed (then became friends with him.)
And then, when her mother was arrested and she was living with her aunt Gracie, and she might finally have a chance at a normal childhood, instead she was stolen and turned into a little sister, losing almost all of her life from when she was eight to when she was fifteen or sixteen. She remembers almost nothing, and all that time where she would have grown up, she lost. She was forced to adapt to being an older teenager as soon as she woke up, thrust into a life she wasn’t prepared for.
But she’s doing the best she can, made easier by the fact that she is extremely stubborn in general, and especially in the face of adversity. As a child, she constantly found ways to get around her mother’s control and now that she’s older she has channeled that attitude into getting around any obstacle that comes before her. She found a way to do the impossible and bring someone back from the dead just to reach her goals.
As a backlash from years and years of having absolutely no control, she really doesn’t like it when people try to control her life. Between her mother, the Little Sister program, and then her mother again, she’s always been under someone’s thumb, and now that she’s tasted freedom, or at least the hope of freedom, she’s exceedingly unwilling to give it up.
As a side effect of these issues, she can be something of a brat at times, especially when she’s trying to make a point. After her mother locked her in Persephone ‘for her own good’, she wandered around breaking things that belonged to her mother while pretending to learn things from the noise.
Watching Delta move through Rapture, fighting his way tirelessly towards rescuing her, and seeing him spare her ‘sisters’ and even his worst enemies, has given Eleanor a rather positive perspective on the world. She believes that people deserve a chance, that even the most terrible person, even her mother deserves a chance to repent for the evils that they’ve done. She honestly wants to believe that people can change, and that even in the face of something terrible, you can find a way to something good.
That’s not to say she is a pacifist, at all. If someone threatens Eleanor, or someone Eleanor cares about (especially her father or the little sisters she has adopted as ‘her’ sisters), Eleanor can be downright vicious in her defense of them. She’s dangerous, and she’s not afraid to be dangerous, and she won’t hesitate to kill someone if they are an active threat. During their escape from Rapture, she killed dozens of splicers, though she often gave them the chance to run before she did so.
Unsurprising given the life she has endured, Eleanor has an extremely poor self-image. She knows that the treatment turning her into a little sister, and the years of living off the meager rations in Rapture, have left her thin and sickly looking, and there’s nothing she can really do to fix it. But on top of that, she has a sea slug living in her stomach, a disgusting creature that can never be removed without killing her or turning her into a drug-crazed lunatic.
She honestly believes this makes her a monster, no matter how well hidden it might be, and that tends to color her attitude about life. She doesn’t let it stop her, and she understands the ways in which having the slug is a good thing and that it powers the abilities that make her special. But, in her words, “Mother found a way to rehabilitate me psychologically, but she can’t remove this…thing inside my body. I look in the mirror…and I see a freak.”
Despite all of this, of all the things she has gone through, everything that has been done to her and every horror that she had been forced to live through, Eleanor has somehow emerged out the other side as an optimist, about the world at least, if not about herself. Partly as an influence from watching her father sparing the lives of his enemies, and her Aunt Grace, and her experiences with the not-terrible people in Rapture before her life went to hell, but she just can’t seem to help but see the good even in something terrible. She shouldn't want to give the world another chance, but she does. She honestly believes it can be a better place.
And she'll fight to prove herself right.
SKILLS/ABILITIES:
Eleanor has undergone a process of experimentation and genetic manipulation, both when she was eight years old, and recently, which has left her with a variety of powers and abilities. She has enhanced strength, agility, and physical regeneration, although her own abilities are a bit less than that of a standard Big Sister, due to the effects of her mother and Doctor Alexander attempting to ‘repair’ the damage done to her as a Little Sister. While a big sister might regenerate a stab wound in a few minutes, it might takes Eleanor hours, depending on the severity of the injury.
She has a sea slug implanted in her torso just beneath her stomach from when she was a little sister, which releases the chemicals necessary to power her Plasmid powers.
She has three active Plasmid powers.
Pyrokinesis - Eleanor can generate fire from her hands, turning it into fireballs and hurling it, or keeping it contained in her hand. This fire is not damaging to Eleanor, though it does make her skin appear to be burning.
Enhanced Telekinesis - Eleanor can lift one large object (approximately the size of a small car) or several smaller objects, and manipulate objects from a distance. She is also the only example of someone in Rapture who can use her telekinesis on people.
Stable Teleport - Eleanor has a short-range, high energy teleport where she can take herself and something or someone she is holding up to approximately 500 feet away. It uses a lot of energy, and using it several times in a row tends to exhaust her. She ‘explodes’ when she teleports, into a cloud of purple ionized energy that solidifies into floating particles before it vanishes. When she reappears, the same basic energy appears in the air before she does, then ‘collapses’ into becoming her.
And she has two passive Plasmid powers.
Little Sister Possession - Eleanor is capable of taking control of the second generation of Little Sisters in Rapture, seeing through their eyes, controlling their actions and accessing their memories. This probably won't matter.
Implanted Memories - As part of the process of turning her into a ‘true utopian’, Sofia Lamb injected her daughter with ADAM taken from the minds of many of Rapture’s citizens. She has the memories of scientists and artists and philosophers rocking around in the back of her mind. Luckily, they aren’t strong enough to cause any personality problems, they’re more like glimpses from her childhood that she can’t quite grasp, but they linger there, and bits of their knowledge tend to pop up when she’s dwelling on something that they ‘knew.’ These would be scientists from the 1950's and 60s, so her scientific knowledge cuts off then.
Tinkerer: From a young age Eleanor has had a natural aptitude for machinery and engineering. Before she was five she was experimenting with the machines her mother owned to remarkable success. She can take apart a security system (from Rapture) and put it back together in a way that it obeys her instead of its owner. She loves doing this sort of thing, but she hasn’t had the opportunity in a long time.
Here is the Bioshock wiki for Eleanor. She would be coming in from near the end of a 'savior' route, with Delta sparing his enemies and saving all the little sisters.
Her canon point would be after the death of Augustus Sinclair, while she and Delta are trying to rescue the remaining little sisters.
CANON PERSONALITY:
Eleanor is in some ways extremely worldly, and in others painfully naïve. She was raised in Rapture by her mother, but spent most of her childhood sequestered away from the general population. Her mother wanted to ensure she was ‘untainted’ by society, so she never went to school, or had any of the usual ‘social lessons’ children learn by growing up. Her first real interaction with another child her age was when she snuck out and got in a fight with a boy and made his nose bleed (then became friends with him.)
And then, when her mother was arrested and she was living with her aunt Gracie, and she might finally have a chance at a normal childhood, instead she was stolen and turned into a little sister, losing almost all of her life from when she was eight to when she was fifteen or sixteen. She remembers almost nothing, and all that time where she would have grown up, she lost. She was forced to adapt to being an older teenager as soon as she woke up, thrust into a life she wasn’t prepared for.
But she’s doing the best she can, made easier by the fact that she is extremely stubborn in general, and especially in the face of adversity. As a child, she constantly found ways to get around her mother’s control and now that she’s older she has channeled that attitude into getting around any obstacle that comes before her. She found a way to do the impossible and bring someone back from the dead just to reach her goals.
As a backlash from years and years of having absolutely no control, she really doesn’t like it when people try to control her life. Between her mother, the Little Sister program, and then her mother again, she’s always been under someone’s thumb, and now that she’s tasted freedom, or at least the hope of freedom, she’s exceedingly unwilling to give it up.
As a side effect of these issues, she can be something of a brat at times, especially when she’s trying to make a point. After her mother locked her in Persephone ‘for her own good’, she wandered around breaking things that belonged to her mother while pretending to learn things from the noise.
Watching Delta move through Rapture, fighting his way tirelessly towards rescuing her, and seeing him spare her ‘sisters’ and even his worst enemies, has given Eleanor a rather positive perspective on the world. She believes that people deserve a chance, that even the most terrible person, even her mother deserves a chance to repent for the evils that they’ve done. She honestly wants to believe that people can change, and that even in the face of something terrible, you can find a way to something good.
That’s not to say she is a pacifist, at all. If someone threatens Eleanor, or someone Eleanor cares about (especially her father or the little sisters she has adopted as ‘her’ sisters), Eleanor can be downright vicious in her defense of them. She’s dangerous, and she’s not afraid to be dangerous, and she won’t hesitate to kill someone if they are an active threat. During their escape from Rapture, she killed dozens of splicers, though she often gave them the chance to run before she did so.
Unsurprising given the life she has endured, Eleanor has an extremely poor self-image. She knows that the treatment turning her into a little sister, and the years of living off the meager rations in Rapture, have left her thin and sickly looking, and there’s nothing she can really do to fix it. But on top of that, she has a sea slug living in her stomach, a disgusting creature that can never be removed without killing her or turning her into a drug-crazed lunatic.
She honestly believes this makes her a monster, no matter how well hidden it might be, and that tends to color her attitude about life. She doesn’t let it stop her, and she understands the ways in which having the slug is a good thing and that it powers the abilities that make her special. But, in her words, “Mother found a way to rehabilitate me psychologically, but she can’t remove this…thing inside my body. I look in the mirror…and I see a freak.”
Despite all of this, of all the things she has gone through, everything that has been done to her and every horror that she had been forced to live through, Eleanor has somehow emerged out the other side as an optimist, about the world at least, if not about herself. Partly as an influence from watching her father sparing the lives of his enemies, and her Aunt Grace, and her experiences with the not-terrible people in Rapture before her life went to hell, but she just can’t seem to help but see the good even in something terrible. She shouldn't want to give the world another chance, but she does. She honestly believes it can be a better place.
And she'll fight to prove herself right.
SKILLS/ABILITIES:
Eleanor has undergone a process of experimentation and genetic manipulation, both when she was eight years old, and recently, which has left her with a variety of powers and abilities. She has enhanced strength, agility, and physical regeneration, although her own abilities are a bit less than that of a standard Big Sister, due to the effects of her mother and Doctor Alexander attempting to ‘repair’ the damage done to her as a Little Sister. While a big sister might regenerate a stab wound in a few minutes, it might takes Eleanor hours, depending on the severity of the injury.
She has a sea slug implanted in her torso just beneath her stomach from when she was a little sister, which releases the chemicals necessary to power her Plasmid powers.
She has three active Plasmid powers.
Pyrokinesis - Eleanor can generate fire from her hands, turning it into fireballs and hurling it, or keeping it contained in her hand. This fire is not damaging to Eleanor, though it does make her skin appear to be burning.
Enhanced Telekinesis - Eleanor can lift one large object (approximately the size of a small car) or several smaller objects, and manipulate objects from a distance. She is also the only example of someone in Rapture who can use her telekinesis on people.
Stable Teleport - Eleanor has a short-range, high energy teleport where she can take herself and something or someone she is holding up to approximately 500 feet away. It uses a lot of energy, and using it several times in a row tends to exhaust her. She ‘explodes’ when she teleports, into a cloud of purple ionized energy that solidifies into floating particles before it vanishes. When she reappears, the same basic energy appears in the air before she does, then ‘collapses’ into becoming her.
And she has two passive Plasmid powers.
Little Sister Possession - Eleanor is capable of taking control of the second generation of Little Sisters in Rapture, seeing through their eyes, controlling their actions and accessing their memories. This probably won't matter.
Implanted Memories - As part of the process of turning her into a ‘true utopian’, Sofia Lamb injected her daughter with ADAM taken from the minds of many of Rapture’s citizens. She has the memories of scientists and artists and philosophers rocking around in the back of her mind. Luckily, they aren’t strong enough to cause any personality problems, they’re more like glimpses from her childhood that she can’t quite grasp, but they linger there, and bits of their knowledge tend to pop up when she’s dwelling on something that they ‘knew.’ These would be scientists from the 1950's and 60s, so her scientific knowledge cuts off then.
Tinkerer: From a young age Eleanor has had a natural aptitude for machinery and engineering. Before she was five she was experimenting with the machines her mother owned to remarkable success. She can take apart a security system (from Rapture) and put it back together in a way that it obeys her instead of its owner. She loves doing this sort of thing, but she hasn’t had the opportunity in a long time.
CHARACTER: AU SECTION
AU NAME: Eleanor Lamb
AU AGE: 18
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: No sea slug until that gets 'regained.' Not as thin or sickly. (Still a bit unhealthily thin though, which she is self-conscious about. A beanpole without being all that tall.) Not horribly pale. Just herself, essentially, as if she were never trapped in a undersea dystopia for her entire life.
AU NAME: Eleanor Lamb
AU AGE: 18
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: No sea slug until that gets 'regained.' Not as thin or sickly. (Still a bit unhealthily thin though, which she is self-conscious about. A beanpole without being all that tall.) Not horribly pale. Just herself, essentially, as if she were never trapped in a undersea dystopia for her entire life.
AU HISTORY:
-- Born in the US but moved to England when she was four for her parent's work. Moved back to the states (and into Recolle) when she was eleven.
-- Kept the accent she picked up, though it's muddled with American vocabulary and some vague irish overtones.
-- Has a relatively normal, kind, loving family. Her parents are moderately successful and have given her a life full of the things she wants without quite managing to spoil her.
-- She has two younger sisters.
-- Her two big interests are mechanical engineering and being involved. Causes, events, the 'good fight' as it were.
-- Writes for the school newspaper (or runs it if no one else wants to). Is a bit of a pain about it, writing the occasional inflammatory thing that annoys the administration. (The newspaper is probably actually a website, isn't it.)
-- Has a blog. Because of course she has a blog. It's about whatever current wrong she feels the need to try and right.
-- Is a good student though, gets decent grades, participates in class.
-- Not very athletic. But does like to jog.
-- Gets involved in a lot of different 'causes' like save the whales or the rainforest or a random local spot or animal. Puts up flyers a lot. Often in places she probably shouldn't.
-- Tends to stick up for the underdog and has gotten into a few fights because of it.
-- Was arrested once for being at a protest that got a little messy when she was fifteen. Let off with a warning but now she's banned from them by her parents. Mostly obeys them.
-- Will graduate this year and is taking some college entry-level engineering classes at night to get ready.
-- Set to attend a local college for engineering.
AU PERSONALITY:
Eleanor in some ways very similar to the person that she became in Rapture, just with different origins. The real difference, the big one, is that without the terrible, terrible parenting of Sofia Lamb, Eleanor is not quite as much of a mess emotionally as she was. Growing up with loving parents has left her feeling far more complete and connected than she ever did in Rapture. She has been encouraged to follow her own dreams and goals rather than raised to become her mother's dreams and goals, and it's given her a sense of purpose outside of herself and her freedom.
The other big difference is that, since she was never turned into a little sister, she doesn't have the disgust and self-esteem issues towards herself that having a sea slug implanted inside of her and being a tiny monster had instilled. There isn't that underlying hatred of what she was 'turned into' or the feelings of violation that accompanied them. Which isn't to say that her self esteem is magically perfect. She's still a teenage girl, and one who's on the 'too thin' side of the spectrum that has left her feeling self-conscious and concerned about her appearance. Typically she keeps herself too busy to really worry about it, but the problem is there. Just nothing like it would have been.
She also retains her determination and optimism, albeit again from different motivations. Rather than her determination coming out of a desperation to escape from the nightmare she's trapped in, it's been instilled in her by her parents. They've given her every opportunity to do the things she wants to do and dreams of doing, and she doesn't want to let them down. She is going pull off her dreams so that they're proud of her (even though she rationally knows they'll always be proud of her) so she throws herself into everything she does.
And her optimism, her belief that the world actually can be a better place, shows up in her tendency to get caught up in just that: making the world a better place. Of course she's eighteen so she hasn't really figured out how she can actually do that yet, so she ends up with this unconscious undirected need to try and fix everything that seems wrong. Political causes? Check. Local social issues? Check. Some kid getting bullied? Check!
These two traits do tend to get her into trouble at times, as she also tends to not really look before she leaps. She can't actually fight a bully, but she'll sure as hell try, and wind up in detention right along with them. Or she'll stand up for someone when, honestly, they probably didn't need her to and wind up making a situation worse.
-- Born in the US but moved to England when she was four for her parent's work. Moved back to the states (and into Recolle) when she was eleven.
-- Kept the accent she picked up, though it's muddled with American vocabulary and some vague irish overtones.
-- Has a relatively normal, kind, loving family. Her parents are moderately successful and have given her a life full of the things she wants without quite managing to spoil her.
-- She has two younger sisters.
-- Her two big interests are mechanical engineering and being involved. Causes, events, the 'good fight' as it were.
-- Writes for the school newspaper (or runs it if no one else wants to). Is a bit of a pain about it, writing the occasional inflammatory thing that annoys the administration. (The newspaper is probably actually a website, isn't it.)
-- Has a blog. Because of course she has a blog. It's about whatever current wrong she feels the need to try and right.
-- Is a good student though, gets decent grades, participates in class.
-- Not very athletic. But does like to jog.
-- Gets involved in a lot of different 'causes' like save the whales or the rainforest or a random local spot or animal. Puts up flyers a lot. Often in places she probably shouldn't.
-- Tends to stick up for the underdog and has gotten into a few fights because of it.
-- Was arrested once for being at a protest that got a little messy when she was fifteen. Let off with a warning but now she's banned from them by her parents. Mostly obeys them.
-- Will graduate this year and is taking some college entry-level engineering classes at night to get ready.
-- Set to attend a local college for engineering.
AU PERSONALITY:
Eleanor in some ways very similar to the person that she became in Rapture, just with different origins. The real difference, the big one, is that without the terrible, terrible parenting of Sofia Lamb, Eleanor is not quite as much of a mess emotionally as she was. Growing up with loving parents has left her feeling far more complete and connected than she ever did in Rapture. She has been encouraged to follow her own dreams and goals rather than raised to become her mother's dreams and goals, and it's given her a sense of purpose outside of herself and her freedom.
The other big difference is that, since she was never turned into a little sister, she doesn't have the disgust and self-esteem issues towards herself that having a sea slug implanted inside of her and being a tiny monster had instilled. There isn't that underlying hatred of what she was 'turned into' or the feelings of violation that accompanied them. Which isn't to say that her self esteem is magically perfect. She's still a teenage girl, and one who's on the 'too thin' side of the spectrum that has left her feeling self-conscious and concerned about her appearance. Typically she keeps herself too busy to really worry about it, but the problem is there. Just nothing like it would have been.
She also retains her determination and optimism, albeit again from different motivations. Rather than her determination coming out of a desperation to escape from the nightmare she's trapped in, it's been instilled in her by her parents. They've given her every opportunity to do the things she wants to do and dreams of doing, and she doesn't want to let them down. She is going pull off her dreams so that they're proud of her (even though she rationally knows they'll always be proud of her) so she throws herself into everything she does.
And her optimism, her belief that the world actually can be a better place, shows up in her tendency to get caught up in just that: making the world a better place. Of course she's eighteen so she hasn't really figured out how she can actually do that yet, so she ends up with this unconscious undirected need to try and fix everything that seems wrong. Political causes? Check. Local social issues? Check. Some kid getting bullied? Check!
These two traits do tend to get her into trouble at times, as she also tends to not really look before she leaps. She can't actually fight a bully, but she'll sure as hell try, and wind up in detention right along with them. Or she'll stand up for someone when, honestly, they probably didn't need her to and wind up making a situation worse.
SAMPLE
Eleanor stared out the windshield at the high school building, a good thirty feet away, and sighed. Outside was a cold February morning, just before dawn, and she was not relishing the racing through the semi-darkness that she knew was about to come. She'd cheated at home, parking her car in the garage and using the remote start to warm it up, but there wasn't any getting out of this. It was going to be cold out there.
Ugh. The things she did for the truth. Or at least the school newspaper.
Finally she sucked in a determined breath, grabbed her backpack off the passenger side seat and shut the car off, then climbed out and bolted for the school, barely slowing down as she hit the door and scrambled inside. And...the heat clearly had not been on long enough this morning to actually warm the school.
"Bloody hell," she muttered to herself and the chilly hallway. Well, at least it wasn't as cold as outside.
The only person she passed on her way to the tiny newspaper club room was the janitor, who offered her a friendly smile and a comment about how it should warm up shortly, and she gave him a tired wave in return. He was used to seeing her there at stupid hours, and had long since stopped asking about it. The newspaper had to be printed, after all!
It didn't, actually, if she was being honest with herself. Most kids read it on their phone, if they read it at all, but the school had a budget for printing the paper, though admittedly a small one, and she was sure as hell going to take advantage of it.
By the time she was in the newspaper room she was starting to warm up, and she was actually starting to brighten up herself once she'd set things up and the printer was whirring away spitting out copies of the newspaper. Admittedly it was more of a pamphlet, barely four pages, but it still counted.
When it was finished she scooped up the pile and headed out into the school, humming tunelessly to herself as she went from classroom to classroom setting them in the little metal baskets next to the doors that she'd fought all year for last year to get. She'd found them in an old closet, apparently when the newspaper was a real thing people cared about, they'd been used everywhere. Yet somehow they were a waste now even when they didn't cost any money?
Ugh whatever. She wasn't going to let that sour her rising mood. Today should be interesting, at least. When she was done, she grabbed the last copy off the pile and headed back to the newspaper room to get her bag. Wouldn't be long before the rest of the school started showing up. She skimmed the newspaper as she walked, checking it over for errors which she probably should've done before she handed it out but oh well too late now.
The top article was about school sports because it basically had to be, it was the only way she could get people reading half the time, but afterwards was the article she was interested in, the one she'd written herself after a week of...well. She wasn't really sure what to call them. Dreams? Confusing memories?
Going crazy maybe? Sure, why not. It made as much sense as anything else.
'Does anyone remember horses?' the article asked in simple bold letters, with a brief explanation beneath about what they were and a little drawing, not great but she thought it got the point across. She'd felt silly writing it, but they felt so...vivid.
It couldn't just be her, right?
Second Sample:
"Alright, so you'll handle the football game and Jessica will go to the PTA meeting." Eleanor's voice was quick and tinted with relief as she talked two the two students sitting in the three chairs in front of her desk in the newspaper office. "Thank you both because I haven't any idea where I was going to find time to go to either one of those."
Since the newspaper was technically a club, albeit one with a bit more funding than usual, she was never entirely sure who she could count on to actually show up and get assignments. Or do those assignments. And she knew she could do the same thing everyone else did, show up when they felt like it, but if she did that, then who would run the paper? No one, her brain unhelpfully pointed out. Since we're already short a person.
"And I guess that means I'll be going to the hockey game tonight," she couldn't hide her frustration, and the other two students started to speak when she held up a hand to cut them off. She did not need empty comments right then. "It's not your fault. Neither of you volunteered for it, we all know who did and he isn't here, so." She felt herself starting to glare at the empty chair and forced it away. Damn it.
Instead, she just shrugged. She really should've known better, she told herself. But every time when she knew she should assume no one would show up, she still let herself hope. And was disappointed. Didn't someone say that was the definition of insanity?
I don not have time to go crazy, she told herself.
"I think the bell's going to ring so I'll see you tomorrow." She smiled, pushing up out of her chair as the other two students waved and left, leaving her to grab up her bag and books and-
*bling*
Her phone chimed a message at her, and she just stared at it. That was going to be the plainly absent third member of her mostly successful meeting, wasn't it. After counting to five to reign her irritation in, she grabbed it up and-yup...there he was. Apologizing for missing the meeting and...saying he was too busy. Oh no he didn't.
You are going to go to that hockey game or I swear I will kick you off the newspaper!
She typed, fast and making way more typos usual. Autocorrect didn't turn it into her complete disaster though, so that was something. And then she immediately felt a bit guilty after she hit send because, well, that was kind of harsh. But he deserved it, damn it!
Twenty seconds later, another chime, a slightly panicked message asking if she could even do that.
I will find a way! She typed, but stopped herself before she hit send, her previous anger starting to fade. Because even if she wanted to (which she didn't really) she wouldn't actually kick him out, she knew that. Everyone deserved a second chance. Or a fifth chance in this case.
She sighed and deleted the text.
Just go to the game. Please? I'll owe you one.
She finished packing up her things while waiting for his reply, and it came a moment before she was going to just give up and go to class. A 'okay fine I'll go.'
YES!
She was glad she was alone since she was pretty sure she was grinning like an idiot. No wasting three hours at a hockey game for her! THANK YOU! She send, and then a moment. And don't you dare forget!
Before he could send anything else she muted her phone and stuffed it into the bottom of her bag. Problem solved! Or, if he changed his mind, at least she wouldn't know it until it was too late to do anything about it.
Eleanor stared out the windshield at the high school building, a good thirty feet away, and sighed. Outside was a cold February morning, just before dawn, and she was not relishing the racing through the semi-darkness that she knew was about to come. She'd cheated at home, parking her car in the garage and using the remote start to warm it up, but there wasn't any getting out of this. It was going to be cold out there.
Ugh. The things she did for the truth. Or at least the school newspaper.
Finally she sucked in a determined breath, grabbed her backpack off the passenger side seat and shut the car off, then climbed out and bolted for the school, barely slowing down as she hit the door and scrambled inside. And...the heat clearly had not been on long enough this morning to actually warm the school.
"Bloody hell," she muttered to herself and the chilly hallway. Well, at least it wasn't as cold as outside.
The only person she passed on her way to the tiny newspaper club room was the janitor, who offered her a friendly smile and a comment about how it should warm up shortly, and she gave him a tired wave in return. He was used to seeing her there at stupid hours, and had long since stopped asking about it. The newspaper had to be printed, after all!
It didn't, actually, if she was being honest with herself. Most kids read it on their phone, if they read it at all, but the school had a budget for printing the paper, though admittedly a small one, and she was sure as hell going to take advantage of it.
By the time she was in the newspaper room she was starting to warm up, and she was actually starting to brighten up herself once she'd set things up and the printer was whirring away spitting out copies of the newspaper. Admittedly it was more of a pamphlet, barely four pages, but it still counted.
When it was finished she scooped up the pile and headed out into the school, humming tunelessly to herself as she went from classroom to classroom setting them in the little metal baskets next to the doors that she'd fought all year for last year to get. She'd found them in an old closet, apparently when the newspaper was a real thing people cared about, they'd been used everywhere. Yet somehow they were a waste now even when they didn't cost any money?
Ugh whatever. She wasn't going to let that sour her rising mood. Today should be interesting, at least. When she was done, she grabbed the last copy off the pile and headed back to the newspaper room to get her bag. Wouldn't be long before the rest of the school started showing up. She skimmed the newspaper as she walked, checking it over for errors which she probably should've done before she handed it out but oh well too late now.
The top article was about school sports because it basically had to be, it was the only way she could get people reading half the time, but afterwards was the article she was interested in, the one she'd written herself after a week of...well. She wasn't really sure what to call them. Dreams? Confusing memories?
Going crazy maybe? Sure, why not. It made as much sense as anything else.
'Does anyone remember horses?' the article asked in simple bold letters, with a brief explanation beneath about what they were and a little drawing, not great but she thought it got the point across. She'd felt silly writing it, but they felt so...vivid.
It couldn't just be her, right?
Second Sample:
"Alright, so you'll handle the football game and Jessica will go to the PTA meeting." Eleanor's voice was quick and tinted with relief as she talked two the two students sitting in the three chairs in front of her desk in the newspaper office. "Thank you both because I haven't any idea where I was going to find time to go to either one of those."
Since the newspaper was technically a club, albeit one with a bit more funding than usual, she was never entirely sure who she could count on to actually show up and get assignments. Or do those assignments. And she knew she could do the same thing everyone else did, show up when they felt like it, but if she did that, then who would run the paper? No one, her brain unhelpfully pointed out. Since we're already short a person.
"And I guess that means I'll be going to the hockey game tonight," she couldn't hide her frustration, and the other two students started to speak when she held up a hand to cut them off. She did not need empty comments right then. "It's not your fault. Neither of you volunteered for it, we all know who did and he isn't here, so." She felt herself starting to glare at the empty chair and forced it away. Damn it.
Instead, she just shrugged. She really should've known better, she told herself. But every time when she knew she should assume no one would show up, she still let herself hope. And was disappointed. Didn't someone say that was the definition of insanity?
I don not have time to go crazy, she told herself.
"I think the bell's going to ring so I'll see you tomorrow." She smiled, pushing up out of her chair as the other two students waved and left, leaving her to grab up her bag and books and-
*bling*
Her phone chimed a message at her, and she just stared at it. That was going to be the plainly absent third member of her mostly successful meeting, wasn't it. After counting to five to reign her irritation in, she grabbed it up and-yup...there he was. Apologizing for missing the meeting and...saying he was too busy. Oh no he didn't.
You are going to go to that hockey game or I swear I will kick you off the newspaper!
She typed, fast and making way more typos usual. Autocorrect didn't turn it into her complete disaster though, so that was something. And then she immediately felt a bit guilty after she hit send because, well, that was kind of harsh. But he deserved it, damn it!
Twenty seconds later, another chime, a slightly panicked message asking if she could even do that.
I will find a way! She typed, but stopped herself before she hit send, her previous anger starting to fade. Because even if she wanted to (which she didn't really) she wouldn't actually kick him out, she knew that. Everyone deserved a second chance. Or a fifth chance in this case.
She sighed and deleted the text.
Just go to the game. Please? I'll owe you one.
She finished packing up her things while waiting for his reply, and it came a moment before she was going to just give up and go to class. A 'okay fine I'll go.'
YES!
She was glad she was alone since she was pretty sure she was grinning like an idiot. No wasting three hours at a hockey game for her! THANK YOU! She send, and then a moment. And don't you dare forget!
Before he could send anything else she muted her phone and stuffed it into the bottom of her bag. Problem solved! Or, if he changed his mind, at least she wouldn't know it until it was too late to do anything about it.