cheerybomb | (no subject)

Drop an image or two, or an idea, or even just a starter if you want, this is where all those things go, plus where I'll move things from memes when they need to be pinned down.

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From:

cheerybomb

[From here]

And it sounds like these two survivors need some new hobbies.
How about it, you want to hit the library and see what we can find?

From:

beyourzoomer

Sure, sounds good. Meet you there?

From:

cheerybomb

I'll have to clear it with the wicked witch of the west, first, but it's educational, so I should be able to get there in about an hour?

From:

beyourzoomer

Sure, an hour sounds good.

[It's going to take her at least that long to walk there anyway. She's not as fast as she used to be. She also doesn't like the sound of wicked witch of the west, but. She knows what goes on behind closed doors isn't always easily perceived on the outside.]

From:

cheerybomb

[It's a well-known fact that Chrissy's family sucks, or at least her mother, her father's apathetic and she mostly gets along with her brother. They have an agreement at least and that's always been good enough for her.

The fact that he's the only one of them who hasn't started treating her differently since her return is also a factor.

Either way, it's almost exactly an hour later that she makes her way up the front steps of the library and into the main lobby, already scanning for that shock of red hair.]

From:

beyourzoomer

[Max is sitting in the lobby of the library, listening to her Walkman when she spots Chrissy and waves hesitantly. They haven't spent a lot of time together, and she doesn't know Chrissy all that well yet. But they'd both somehow survived Vecna, and that ties them together. The fact that they both have shitty family lives is probably another. She rises to her feet, pulling her headphones off her ears and letting them rest around her neck.]

Hey.

From:

cheerybomb

[Chrissy can't help but smile in turn, returning the almost-awkward wave as she closes the space between them] Hi.

[She's a far cry from the Cheer Captain she'd been before spring break, wearing indigo blue jeans and a sweater that's almost big enough that she's swimming in it, sleeves long enough to mostly cover her hands, a large-gauge checkerboard pattern of powder blue and pistachio green, none of her usual makeup and previously perfectly manicured nails chewed down to ragged edges, more than that her hair's loose, which definitely never would have happened in school.

Her smile tilts though, reaching out to nudge at Max's elbow gently to steer her deeper into the building, apparently knowing exactly where to go even without checking the card catalog] C'mon, we'll check indoor hobbies first, move to outdoor ones if we don't find anything there.

From:

beyourzoomer

[She likes Chrissy's new look. It looks more casual, less perfect. She looks more like a real person now, in Max's opinion. Like this is maybe who she really is, and less like she's trying to just fit in. Not that Max is judging her for that if that's what it had been before. She finds herself wondering what kind of hobbies Chrissy is thinking about, if she's done with cheerleading. She allows the older girl to lead her into the library, back into a particular section of shelves.

She finds herself gravitating toward books on writing, though she doesn't go so far as to pull any off the shelves, just...peruses the titles on the spines of the books.]

From:

cheerybomb

[Part of it is absolutely a deliberate distancing herself from the image -and plan- that her mother had for her, and part of it is that she's still learning who she is without that plan. It's a bumpy road.

She's not thinking about that at the moment, however, just skimming past books on crafts and sewing -definitely not her forte and too much like something her mom would actually like for her to do- and along past architecture drawing, art history and then into art, fingers trailing along the spines as she goes, finally tugging a book on Easy Watercolor Techniques down] Art? Or is that too traditional for you?

[She doesn't really know much about Max, not besides the patented Laura Cunningham Rant about anyone and everyone who lived in Forest Hills, but that's not the kind of thing Chrissy's going to repeat.]

From:

beyourzoomer

[Max looks over at her when she asks, considering. She's definitely not Will, who actually has art skills. Good ones. But there was something soothing about art, even if she sucked at it.]

Definite maybe. Writing? [She glances at the book her hand has landed on. Journaling for Beginners. She wonders if that one might be too risky, with Chrissy's mom.]

If -- you didn't want your family to accidentally see something, you could always hide it at my place. If you wanted.

From:

cheerybomb

[She smiles, though it's a little brittle.] I've had a diary since my Confirmation, I was eleven or twelve. By fourteen I'd already learned what not to put in it.

[The smile softens a little at the edges.] But thank you, for the offer of, um, an off-site storage area. I might take you up on it. [She shakes her head] Maybe I should just take up archery again, she'd hate that so much.

[It's difficult to tell by her tone whether that's a point in favor or a point against.]

From:

beyourzoomer

[Max meets her gaze, her own smile a little sad.]

Yeah, of course. Anytime. [They have the opposite issue with their moms; Chrissy's is too invasive. Max's couldn't care less these days.]

Wait, you were into archery? That is so cool!

From:

cheerybomb

I was, yeah, for a while in grade school, even into middle school, because it was a sport that 'was fit for girls' [Both hands lift to make air quotes around the statement, not her words but her mother's.]

But then the range moved archery classes outside, and I had to quit because of the sun exposure. [She gnaws briefly at a thumbnail -or what's left of one- before deliberately curling that thumb against her palm and curling her fingers over her thumb, the sleeve of her sweater sliding down over her hand as she lowers her arm] And that's when I got into cheer.

From:

beyourzoomer

[She listens quietly, doing her best not to grimace at the air quotes, or at the way Chrissy bites her nail before seeming to realize what she's doing and covering her hands up instead. She doesn't have to ask; quitting archery hadn't been Chrissy's idea.]

Did you like it? Archery?

From:

cheerybomb

[Quitting had definitely not been her idea, and the reprimand she'd gotten for 'talking back about what was best for her' was one of the worst she'd ever had. But she's not thinking about that right at the moment, mostly she's thinking hard enough that she only barely realizes she's taking way too long to answer a simple question, and she nods] Yeah. I did. And I was good at it. Never brought home any trophies or anything, but I was still learning.

[She smiles then, it's thin but it's genuine] How about you? Is it just videogames that you're good at or other games too?

From:

beyourzoomer

[Max nods slightly at that, trying to picture Chrissy with a bow and arrow. It's surprisingly easy to imagine. She draws in a breath and lets it out slowly at the question, though.]

Mostly just video games. I used to skateboard, though. [It's been kind of out of the question since Vecna.]

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