2020-05-10 - The Showering

Laying long on the tussled bed, Everett teaches the kitten unhealthy skills, watching her while he uses a long strand on his hair to entice the feline's prey pouncing behavior. The food he found for her is still half-eaten on the mattress from where he had placed it down and then interrupted her breakfast with forced cuddles and play.

The house is empty.
He checked when he woke up alone. The possibilities kept him from going back to sleep and also from straying from the spot for long. Nor has it done anything for his mood. And he was so happy last night.

It always seems to happen this way. The returns. The food slips off the side of the mattress,
spilling onto the floor with a skittering sound. Dry kibble going all over. The commotion has
Flerken leap to the edge of the bed to peer down. Then leap down. A distraction. Something that
causes Everett to turn and look away for a second or three.

The bed shifts slightly. But enough to denote an additional weight where there hadn't been before.
And what can be found there when Everett looked back? But a gore-spattered Kailey with dirt
covering her legs from ankle to knee. And some still clinging to her feet and toes. Still
dressed in the pajamas she favors, they're no spattered with bloody streaks and splotches.
Nothing looks like an arterial spray, but there's enough dark red and brown to be alarming on
the otherwise cotton candy pink short sleeved shirt and shorts.

It appears that Kailey is asleep. But her face is tense and a soft whimper comes from her, head
starting to shake back and forth. Returning to being conscious slowly.

The dry food scatters on the floor, and Everett murmurs, "Stupid cat," while he keeps trying to entice her to play with his long hair. Leaning over the side, the strand of hair is released to sway over the bed's edge while he watches the calico investigate what she didn't do.

Staring for a second, Everett rolls back. And double takes when Kailey's returned. First there's a breath of relief, then gasped as he takes in the way she was returned. Not at all the way she was left. He searches her, none-to-gently, making sure the gore isn't hiding worse wounds. Large hands breaking the grime off on her sheets, uncovering clots of dirt and nothing underneath. The minor cuts and scratches nothing more than a mirage.

She's ok. Phew, she's ok.

Well, except for that bump on her forehead. That looks like her own. It's already turning red and
purple colors too. Shiney. Kailey moans and her eyes flutter open, "NO! No cuttings!" She says
suddenly, urgently jerking away from the rough and grabby hands. Disoriented in the extreme she
starts moving and winds up falling over the side of the bed.

"AACK!" Kailey cries as her body hits the floor with a heavy thud.

Cat food. Cat. Kailey.
It's all going over the bed.

It's with concern that Everett pulls his hands back after she shouts, then follows her over the side of the bed. Though his worry lingers in his wrinkled brows, he smiles softly all the same down at her. A second passes, then he offers a calm, "Have a good fall, Kiki?" His attention turns to his side, where he takes one of her pillows and adds to the mess on the floor, pushing the pillow off the mattress and on to her. "I'm glad you're back," he murmurs after the light play.

Kailey's face is surprise and fear and confusion. "Ev?" She says with a heavy dose of the later
three. A hand goes to her forehead and touches the bump there making her hiss in pain. "Fuck,"
She says softly as she blinks and tears fall unbidden. "No I didn't!" Is her almost angry
response as she swats and then grabs and hugs the pillow. Closing her eyes and becoming as small
a ball as she can, what with having a belly and all. "It was awful!"

Three nods sets his long free flowing hair swaying while he continues looking down at her. "It's supposed to be," Everett murmurs, then draws a long breath and exhales it slowly, sighing. To the opposite side he scoots then steps out of the bed before walking around, still dressed the way he had been when he fell asleep. He bends down, and scoops up Flerken, tucking her into his arm like a football for all the good it will do. Then he lowers his other hand to offer her a hand up. "C'mon. Get up. We'll put some ice on that boo-boo. And I have to eat and stuff." He pauses to consider, "I imagine you do too."

An answering rumble from her stomach as Everett helps Kailey up has her smirking faintly. There's a
grunt as she is pulled to her feet and then she sways and almost falls again. "Oooh...yes to the
ice...though I think I need to wash this ick off first?" She glances down at Flerken who has
returned to the activity of attacking Everett's hair. It's right -there- after all. Dangling for
all claws to catch. Then further down at her own attire and grimaces. Without another word she
begins to strip out of the gorey clothes. "Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew."

Playing the kitten only some attention, Everett cants his head when the undressing begins. His right cheek bulges out while he looks on, his own private show even if that's not the intention. Then realization occurs to him, just when the good bits are being bared. "Uuuh. I'll get some ice," he offers quickly.

Putting The Claw down on the bed, she gets an ear tugged before Everett's quick to retreat, opening and closing the bedroom door quickly, before he's followed by a fuzzy. His socked feet heard going down the staircase not soon after. Then the sound of running water through the house's cooper tubing.

Kailey is in the shared bathroom by the time Everett is done fetching ice. In fact she is already in
the shower and making a serious effort to wash her skin off. Soap and washcloth are leaving the
entire area sudsy. Of course for all that she had thought she'd closed her door firmly, she
hadn't. And Flerken has followed her into the bathroom. And has discovered the joy of toilet
paper rolls while Kailey is thoroughly engrossed.

When he returns it's without his leather jacket. In its place, he's returned with an ice pack from the fridge in one hand and a thick pita sandwich in the other which already sports a few bites missing from it already. The sound of the shower attracts his attention, but still, he peeks his head into the bedroom, just to make sure she's not in there before entering the bathroom. His green eyes on the shape in the shower, Everett casts a glance over his shoulder, licks his lower lip of crumbs and steps into the bathroom.

Watching the little agent of chaos as he approaches the shower, Everett hangs his hand over the curtain, offering the ice pack. "She's horrible," he says, his tone couldn't convince the gullible. "We're going to put her up for adoption, right? Yours and Bean's pets both." Even though there's no way he can reach, Everett kicks his leg in the kitten's direction, "Stop that!"

Flerken has made herself a right little next of toilet paper. And is now happily pouncing and
tearing at it like the little monster she is. Everett's vague pawing only earns him a swip of
her claws at his stockinged foot.

"Huh? Why? What is she doing?" Kailey asks and slides the curtain back even as she takes the ice
pack from overhead. The pack is gingerly set against her brow with a hiss of pain. But then she
just guffaws at Flerken. "Seriously?" Then she simply flicks her very wet hand at the kitten.
Water splashes and hits the kitten. Making her scrabble about and go running for the now-closed
door. THUD

"OH! Are you okay baby?" Kailey asks trying not to laugh. Soapy suds cling to her shoulders and body
as she peers past at the kitten, shaking her little noggin. Where did that door come from?

"I think she inherited the brains in the family," Everett murmurs, after watching the kitten brain herself. He steals a glance inside the shower and then snaps his gaze forward and takes a bite of his sandwich. Lettuce. Ham.

Socked feet over the floor carry the big man back down the hall to the confused kitten, which he scoops back up again, turns around and returns back to the bathroom all the while checking to see if the kitten hasn't knocked her little brains loose. "I think she's fine. Here, wanna smell this?" he asks, offering a corner of the sandwich to the kitten while he turns around to lean on the counter. "While you were gone, she and I hung out. She kept me company."

Kailey watches worriedly for a moment longer. Then retreats to the water and rinsing off the first
time. Flerken is indeed interested in that ham. Sniffing and then trying to lick and bite at the
offered meat. Little paws going to grab and sink in tiny claws. Her sandwich now!

"Yeah? How long was I gone? It didn't seem that long to me...but those places are all weird," Kailey
replies. The smell of vanilla and jasmine fills the bathroom as she carefully starts to wash her
hair. The ice pack is set out on the back of the toilet while she uses both hands. "I woke up
planted in a pot surrounded by other people planted in pots. Except most of them -were- plants
and not people. And August was there and these two other guys I've seen before in the Upside
Down," She begins to talk about this latest encounter slowly. "And there were these people
easily twice as big as any of us. Except they were made out of weed."

The gorilla's attention turns down to the kitten in his hand, letting her decimate his sandwich, even though the little growing beast had dry food a moment ago. He waits until she's got a mouthful of ham and her paws on the pita bread before he shakes the bread and mimics her little kitten growls, "GrrRRrr. So fierce."

Bending over, Everett puts the kitten down on the toilet seat before turning the sandwich around. "It. Was awhile," he says to the curtain. "I wasn't sure if or when or where you were coming back so I just stayed there." All day. Without leaving. Quietly he offers, "You don't. You know. Have to talk about it it," he taps his forehead, "if you don't want to. I understand more than anyone. In fact, I kinda feel like its my fault. I came in, told you about mine and then it happened to you." He nods, at August, and Upside Down, whoever and whatever those are, and chews. "Are you sure that was across the Shroud and not, like, your brain telling you you want drugs?" he asks with a micaceous grin, speaking with his mouth full.

Kailey sighs when he tells her it was awhile, but doesn't pause in working the shampoo through her
hair. Careful of the tender spot where she was hit. "I dunno. I don't think it works that way. I
don't think it works any specific way to be honest." There's a pause from her as she ducks into
the water. Letting it wash the soap from her hair. "And I dunno...what I saw made me -not- want
weed. Not want it. And I think it's clear it -was- an actual trip to the Upside Down or Shroud
or whatever you wanna call it. Seriously, we need to sit and binge some shit here soon."

Frowning mid-bite, Everett pulls the sandwich out of his mouth to ask, "Binge some shit of what?" Turning the sandwich around, he rips a little piece of the sandwich off and puts it down in the toilet paper nest the kitten made to quiet her mews. That's her side now. "I know a lot of people have different names for, you know, the whole thing. I've heard veil being used around most, but I like shroud. It's more..."

He thinks about it. "... me."

"Stanger Things for one!" Is Kailey's reply. Back to round two of soaping off now that her hair has
had it's first go. The smell of irish springs fills the room now as Flerken pounces into her tp
nest after the sandwich. "Shroud works. I've called it a couple things. Dreamland, Dreamscape,
and such. My mom called it a veil. But it seems so much more than that to me," Kailey goes quiet
for a little bit then. "I now understand why she kept moving. Kept running from it..."

No sooner are the two words out of her mouth then Everett's rolling his eyes in an over exaggerated manner, "ugh." Here comes his inner Millennial. "That show is so done, though. Everybody watches it." The soft, knowing smirk he gives the shower curtain ebbs when the conversation moves on. "Yeah," he murmurs. Not wanting to be the jerk here and adding how little it helped her mother. "I think it's more like. A sheet of paper between two places. You know, a Veil."

Kailey snorts and that is the only response Kailey gives to his commentary. Well, for a few seconds.
"You can't comment on something you haven't even seen," She says primly then. "Yeah. Some places
are thinner than others. Here especially. Half the time it feels more like...I dunno...plastic
wrap?" A pause as she again rinses off.

"Ugh...okay...finally feeling like I got all the ick off. Though can you do my back?" The curtain is
drawn back and soapy washcloth held up. She smiles tenderly, hopefully, at him. Turning to offer
her back when he accepts. Because she knows him.

THAT makes him scoff in reply. "I so can. I had all sorts of comments about what you were like naked, but I kept them to myself." Mr. Smug smugly smirks. "So, it IS possible." He glaces down, at sandwich first, and then kitten, digging for her prize when asked to help. It's with a sigh, shoulders sinking that poor, poor Everett crosses the bathroom to help the wet, nude woman. "I suppose I can. But if I put this down she's going to attack it. It's almost like she doesn't get fed." How would he be able to say no? Never in a million years. But it's with one hand that envelops hers to take the cloth from her before he starts to slide the cloth over her shoulders and shoulder blades, because he's not putting the sandwich down.