revivalproject | November catch-all

[What it says. If you're inspired, toss me something here, I'll follow whatever, prose or brackets, past or present tense.]

Sure, her and Billy had reached some sort of understanding, but she hadn't told him everything, not yet. Not that she could, or he was in any place for it. That night had been painful enough. Max isn't not happy about the fact they opened up, but she's pensive.

To be fair, she's still processing, not just Billy and him wanting to change, the changes he's already made, but also Vecna and what she learns of what happens when she goes home. She's not a fan, but she knows she has to face it at some point, too.

It all leads to this weird desire to not be alone, but not actually be around people, either. She isn't sure she can manage a proper conversation. She finds herself at the diner, and after slapping a large container of cocoa at the counter, snags a table toward the back, a place where she can see anyone coming, and no one can sneak up on her.

She only has a piece of paper and a bottle of nail polish - something blue with a little green in it, already on her nails - so she swipes the brush along the paper as she thinks. The smell might be strong and attract annoyance, but she thinks she's far away enough it shouldn't be an issue. She doesn't even realize, at first, what she's painting, until she sees the waves. The use of white paper for sun blazing on water.

Okay, fine. She misses the ocean, too. One of these days, when the replicator isn't done with her, she'll have to get some colored pencils. Or a book. She needs something

Anytime she sees anyone headed her way she just stares and waits to see where they're actually going. Hopefully a table far from her.

Max gives Chrissy a sheepish smile, but laughs as she shows her the results - a bottle of nail polish, a small tape player with a tiny speaker (but it's something) and admits, "I guess that's it for me. I already have a pillow. I made some other stuff, so I guess we know it has limits."

She tucks the items away.

"Maybe you can get it to make a tape of some other music, and a little food? If you don't have a pillow, that too. Robin kept mentioning pillow fights." Max is smart, and observant, but no, she still doesn't get that.

In the morning, with the device working again, even as Billy took her back, she sent Robin a quick text.

Got rained in. Some bad storm. Couldn't contact you. Billy had me stay with him. I'll tell you when I get back.

And once at the hotel, she didn't check to see what he did, and wasted no time in heading to Robin's room, because if anyone deserves to know she actually managed to tell him anything about Vecna, it is Robin, after their first heart-to-heart, at least. Especially when thinking next steps - like should she tell him everything? She isn't so sure, and without El, or Lucas to toss her thoughts at, Robin is the first that comes to mind.

She knocks.

Robin hadn't been worried all night. Not at all. Not after remembering how many scary looking creatures were in the Dick Shun Airy. The message in the morning, though, is a relief. At least someone was learning the new technology.

I was scared. I couldn't find you in the hotel.

But she doesn't press more than that because Max promised. She is at her door pretty instantly to open it though.

"Max."

Steve's sat a few tables away, and initially he pays Max no mind, assuming she's writing a note on the napkin for someone, and she seems to concentrate on it really hard. It'd be rude to pry.

He's just here for a cup of water and something to graze on; he tries not to take more than what anyone else eats if he's not going to go out and hunt it down himself, because he knows he's got a big appetite.

When he's done, he just waits, nursing his cup, gets up to get more water.

He gives it a little bit before she seems done with whatever she's doing on her napkin. "You must be new here," he says. "I'm Steve."

Kavinsky wasn't one to be put off by others being in less than stellar moods. He didn't know a whole lot of people by sight here yet, so when he saw a familiar face, of course he made a beeline in Max's direction. He offered a smile, though didn't make any attempt to take off his white-rimmed sunglasses yet.

"Hey there, sweetheart." He rested his hands on the back of a chair, but didn't pull it out to sit yet. "Would you mind some company?" He was probably going to join her either way, but he figured he'd at least ask first.

In the case of Kavinsky, after their first meeting, she doesn't mind him interrupting her current mood. She knew going to the diner opened her up to this, anyway.

She manages a smile in return.

Max doesn't miss a beat to teasingly scold him with, "Does you girlfriend know you throw that word around?"

Then she gestures to the seat across from her. "But yeah, join me."

It was hard not to notice Steve - he's a little big - but Max tries to otherwise block out the diner. Until he approaches her table.

She can't ignore that.

Max looks up, fails to offer her own name, as she remarks, "You always approach strange people, Steve? Are you the alien planet greeter?"

She's only slightly hesitant. Steve seems oddly genuine, not something she's accustomed to.

Max was grateful Robin didn't press at the time. She was trying not to draw Billy's attention to what she was doing, and she might understand how to use the device, but she's not skilled at typing on it, yet.

No, this is a face-to-face conversation, anyway.

She breathes in when Robin answers and says back, "Hi, Robin. Back safe and sound." She gives a weak smile.

He laughed, pulling the chair out to flop into it. "Pretty sure she does. I call everyone sweetheart." Or princess...or baby doll- they weren't exclusive to any gender, in his opinion.

"So what're you working on?" He nodded towards the paper. It felt like a better option than asking how she was doing. He'd already taken note of her expression when he'd stepped into the diner.

"Sure," he says. "But it's more like, it's a small community. I'm gonna run into you sooner or later." And also, well, apparently he likes collecting the angry kids.

Mostly, he doesn't think this is a place for kids. And he wants to make sure they're alright.

"Do you have a name?" he asks, because that's not something he missed.

"That's one easy going girlfriend," Max tells Kavinsky, but that's as most as she teases about that.

He's clever - asking how she was could definitely get a snarky retort. Asking about the image is a little less direct.

"I'm just," Max tries to think of a suitable word for what she's doing, somehow thinking while her hands just move? "doodling." Yeah, that will have to do.

At the moment, she's not as angry as sometimes, but she's definitely troubled. Max at least hears Steve out, and she can't refute his points, either. Steve also isn't wrong - it's not the best place for most kids. So far, though, Max thinks home is more treacherous. Maybe not as often as Temba, but still. She doesn't realize things could get worse.

He asks her name, and she's tempted to give a smart-assed response of, 'No, my parents forgot to give me one,' but there's something his earnest, serious personality that stops her.

"Max." She cants her head to the seat in front of her. "You want to sit there? It's easier to have a conversation that way."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Max." He sounds very sincere about that too.

"And sure," he says, taking a seat and not arguing with her about it because he knows if he says something smart then she'll just counter with something smarter. "I've been here about a month," he says. "Lots of people have been here years, so they'd know this place better, but I can answer any questions you have."

He can at least try. And he's got a few of his own, like if she's got a place to stay and does she know anyone here, because those things ultimately will help. He doesn't know how treacherous her home is, he only knows how treacherous it is here.

"It's-" he paused, struggling to figure out the words he wanted to use for a moment. "I wouldn't cheat on her. I think she knows that. No one here compares to her, anyway." Which he meant absolutely no offense with- your significant other should be special and important and irreplaceable, shouldn't they?

He nodded. "I'm taking it that there aren't a lot of art supplies lying around here." Unless her preferred medium was nail polish. He doubted it, though. "A friend of mine's into art, too. I always told him if he was passionate about it, he should try to like- do something with it. And not just so I could brag someday about having one of his artworks hanging on my wall." He grinned. He would though, he would absolutely brag and support his friend.

Anyway, he'd gotten slightly sidetracked there. "So, is that the ocean?"

It's the sincerity that gets her. If he had given her a smartass remark, it might have helped her loosen up with him, but yeah, she would just be a smartass in return. Maybe someday.

"You haven't even been here that long," Max realizes with a raised eyebrow.

"Maybe you have an idea of how we're supposed to help Agra 10? I want to," she hates how she actually means that, her face twists with the frustration of that fact - it isn't just she wants to get home, or she wants to hide here until she's ready to face Vecna again, she actually wants to help - "but I don't know how."

Max seems to approve of that, giving a nod. "That's how it should be." And she isn't going to stop Kavinsky, now that she knows him. It's just a word. If he had said anything like that before their adventure, though, it would be different.

There's a moment where Max's eyes roll from Kavinsky to the nail polish bottle, she runs her tongue along her teeth and looks slightly ashamed, but amused about it, "No, there aren't. I'm not artistic, though. I just wanted something to do with my hands."

Speaking of, "Yeah. The ocean." Not the best, though. There are more levels to the ocean, after all, darker areas, lighter, different shades of greens and blues, what looks like yellow where the sun hits the surface. She's more concerned with how this feels like looking into her soul, if anyone figured it out.

"Guess we're supposed to figure out how to rebuild," he says. "But... I don't know why, the process is going pretty slowly. I mean, we're also kind of a rag-tag group of people and there keep being these storms and creatures."

So, that kind of slows them down. Plus the earthquake that probably destroyed a lot of what they built. "But it's good you wanna help. Have you picked a datapoint?" he asks.

"That's definitely got something to do with it," Max points out, eyes going wide as they flicker to the table. "Especially when you're fighting stuff from the Upside-down. And getting stuck in storms. And people leaving. All of that's going to affect that."

She's not aware how recent the earthquake was.

There's a shake from her as Max mutters, "No. What kind of datapoints are there? Or, where are they?" It's only been a few short days, and mostly she was concerned with getting set up, checking in on everyone from Hawkins, getting the nerve to even speak to her brother, then...that. And processing. But yeah, if she wants to help, it's time to do something.

Well, he can't disagree with her on that.

He starts to explain each datapoint and where it is, and the pros and cons of each. "One at the hangar's not available at the moment," he says. "I've got medical," he adds. "Thought it might help. We don't have a lot of doctors and people get in a lot of scrapes."

"I can help with that, without the datapoint. At least most minor stuff," Max offers.

But the datapoint her eyes lit up on? Piloting. Of course, that's the one affected by the hangar and not available. She's not surprised by that knowledge, just disappointed and sighs out. Maybe she can go for Security for the time being.

"I'll figure something out," she shrugs a little. Would that benefit the others? Speaking of. "You got friends from home, Steve, or you alone here?"

"It's complicated," he says. "I've got friends from another universe where they know another version of me," he starts. "And a couple from back home." And his best friend's here and doesn't want to talk to him.

That's not the kind of mess Max needs to hear.

"What about you?" She is dressed like one of the Hawkins kids, but he doesn't want to assume. And, well. He really wishes the aliens would stop pulling in kids.

November catch-all

Open prompts

Closed prompts

Throw me a prompt

OTA - Ocean of Feelings | definitely refer to cw list on top

Closed to Chrissy and later Robin - Something Softer

Closed to Robin - About a Harmit Crab

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