milliways_bar | (no subject)

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rae "sunshine" seddon

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Sunshine has given up on getting to sleep, tonight, and has dragged her exhausted self down the stairs for caffeine. She hopes she'll have some luck in napping during the daytime hours, when nightmares are less likely to bother her, but she wouldn't bet money on it.

But for now, when she turns from the bar to find a place to sit and take her second cup of darker-than-an-exaggerated-metaphor black tea, she decides on the corner of the fireplace couch. It's her favorite spot, and the warmth of the fire is a great comfort on bad nights. She curls up on the couch with her feet pulled up beside her, toes tucked in between couch cushions, leaning against the armrest and one of the squishy throw-pillows that litter the couch. Discontent, she wraps her hands around the large, hot mug of tea, breathes in the fragrant steam, and tries to remember a thing called peace.

(ooc: Mun will be in and out for the rest of the day. <333)

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There's a woman she's never seen before a few chairs over, curled up and reading a book.

Rae watches the fire for a good long while, slowly sipping her tea as it cools from being tongue-scalding to merely hot. Eventually, she notices the woman reading in the chair.

Being a reader, herself, Rae hesitates at the idea of interrupting. She waits until the eventual pause - the coming-up-for-air moment of finishing a scene or chapter - before asking, "Good book?"

Edited 2016-11-09 20:55 (UTC)

She still looks a bit bewildered, as if only slowly disentangling her mind.

"Oh yes, it's brilliant," she says. "Really very scary, too."

That seems a good thing to say about a book.

"The best kind of book," Rae smiled tiredly. Well written scary books have always been her favorites.

"Can I see the title?"

She offers the book to Rae -- the title is I Remember You.

"Definitely sounds interesting," Rae says, smiling slightly as she looks over the cover and reads the back blurb. Her sleep-deprived eyes don't really feel like focusing on print, at the moment, except to add weird, wavering, almost-red edges to each letter, but she makes it through the blurb before handing the book back. "Neat. I'll have to check it out. I like a good scary story."

"Very scary in a dry and calm way," she says. "Read in a warm, well-lit common room."

"Not suitable for 'under the covers with a flashlight at a time when all the sane members of the populace are asleep, except what was that noise' reading?" she grins.

"Unless you want to be meta-scared in addition to the simple book generated scariness," Alex says, smiling.

Edited 2016-11-10 21:36 (UTC)

"When I was little - reading under the covers with a flashlight long past bedtime-age - I had that trouble. But as an adult, I've gotten a lot better at separating book-scariness from real-life scariness," she says, grinning wryly. I rarely get bleed-over from one into the other."

"Adult fears," Alex nods. "Vampires and ghosts are no longer as scary as drug lords and lost loves."

Rae chuckles faintly. "I guess it depends on the world you come from."

"I can't say I've run into any drug lords or lost loves."

"Vampires or ghosts though??" she says. "They're real where you're from?"

That is a thing? Not just magic?

"All too real," Rae confirms, tiredly. But the talk of ghosts and scary things pings Rae's memory.

"Hey, didn't I see you at the Halloween party?"

"Yes, that was my first day," Alex says.

Bonnie looks tired too. In fact, she's dozed off on the next sofa.

In the pram next to her, baby Billie is apparently playing contentedly with her own feet, because you can see little socks peeping over the top of the pram periodically.

Rae smiles slightly to see Bonnie dozing on the couch nearby, and eases up to get back to her feet and gently settle a blanket over Bonnie while she rests. Seems Sunshine isn't the only one short on sleep these days.

"Hey hey, Billie Rae," she murmurs in a quiet singsong voice, smiling down at the child in the pram. The child's shadows are light and ever-changing, like the refracted light shadows at the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day. "Good to see you, little kiddo. You're growing so fast..."

Billie smiles up at Rae, wiggling her little hands and feet.

Bonnie stirs and mumbles something about keys, but doesn't quite wake up.

"Such a pretty smile." Sunshine can't help but smile back at the girl, though it is a tired smile. Rae brushes a light finger along the back of Billie's little hand, letting the child grab at her finger and hold on as she wags it gently back and forth.

Billie grabs the finger.

"'f you want to give'r a cuddle Rae be my guest, be 'wake in a minute." Bonnie says, in a slightly more awake voice.

"You get some rest," Rae replies quietly. At least someone should have a good sleep. Rae, elder sister to two boys she helped raise, gently scoops up the child and cradles her securely in her arms, swaying gently. Some things you don't forget. "Billie and I are just fine, aren't we, pretty girl?"

"There's a bottle in the bottom of the pram." Bonnie says, with a grateful nod, still without opening her eyes.

Billie, who is about four months now, giggles and enjoys the ride.

There's a mechanic on one of the other couches, boots off and feet up on the couch as he fiddles with something small and technical. He gives bark of success and the little machine projects a rainbow hue over Rae's feet.

Though content to watch him quietly, focusing on steadying herself after the nightmares that led her to give up on the night's sleep, she can't help the tired smile at the cast of rainbow light from the machine.

Rae's rainbow-hued toes wiggle at Jay.

"Is it supposed to do that?"

"No idea." He shrugs, adjusting something that causes the rainbow to spread wider, covering they whole couch in softly coloured light.

"Lock built it but it got knocked off the bench during a rather messing experiment. I thought I'd try to fix it for him."

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