in from the rain

[lastofthekellys]

WHO: Kate Kelly
WHERE: The Inn
WHEN: 10th - 13th
OPEN TO: Helen Magnus | E V E R Y O N E
WARNINGS: TBA
STATUS: Closed | Open

---

Closed to Helen

Once Kate's back in the Inn - once she and Margaery have been found, once the forest lets them be found - her first port of call is her bedroom. She wants clean clothes, dry clothes. She wants to warm up and she's too cold to bother much about propriety.

Someone said something about getting Helen Magnus, but, really, Kate is fine. Scratches, including one across her nose. Bruises. Her ankle is painful, but she's fine. She just needs to warm up and maybe sleep, which is why she's in the bathroom, half-undressed, sitting in the bath and scrubbing at her skin with a warm washer.

She wants clean clothes, dry clothes, but she can't pull those on until she's warm and clean. She just...

She can't.

Open

Mostly, after Miss Magnus has sorted her out, Kate spends a lot of her time sleeping. In her few lucid moments, she thinks it is not unlike as if her body has suddenly realised how little she's been sleeping, and is trying to catch it all up at once. She gets out of bed to eat, to perform necessary bodily needs, and then she goes back to bed.

Once, she goes for a brief walk, because just being inside was making her feel awful, but only a brief one, where she wound up seeing Miss Carter. Then, it was to the Inn and her warm, warm bed.

By the second day after her and Miss Margaery's rescue, she's progressed to sitting up. It's all terribly indulgent of her, but people fuss when she tries to do anything more serious than checking up on her chicks, and she's so very tired. She can relax this once, can't she?

So Kate sits in bed and she sews. She plays with Miss Hoppity, who alternates between clinging to her as if worried that her human mama will vanish again and ignoring her, as cats do. She combs out her long hair with her fork, which takes rather more time than she'd admit. She naps. When she feels adventurous, or rather, when she's tired of her bed being so seductively warm, she sits at the chair at her dresser in the little alcove her room has, and sews there by the light of the now appearing sun.

She leaves her door open when she's awake, to let anyone come in when they want to. She might feel awkward admitting that sitting by herself is lonely, when she's been ordered to rest, but she does get that way.

Comments

[hawkeyesniper]

A few days after Miss Kate is returned there is a gentle knock at the doorway. Even though it is opened, Riza feels the need to observe etiquette and give the woman the chance to dismiss her if desired. Once she is sure Miss Kate is willing to accept company she steps in a little further, "I remembered you enjoyed this last time...so I brewed us some tea. Would you care for a cup or two?"

Riza studies Miss Kate for an answer, but also to assess how she is doing. Riza knows something of shock and of trauma. She wonders if she'll be able to help, though first she would have to figure out how Miss Kate was doing.

[lastofthekellys]

She's been keeping herself as busy as she can, when she's not sleeping. And sleeping, sleeping she's been so much of. But there's sewing to be done, and more thread to accumulate. So when Miss Riza looks in, Kate is in the middle of unravelling a length of fabric (sheet, as it happens), spooling the resulting thread around a sturdy stick.

"I would love a cup of tea," she says warmly, blinking a little to focus on her. Her mind had been rather far away.

[hawkeyesniper]

Riza is relieved to hear it as she had already come up with a tray in hand. She offers a slight smile, almost imperceptible, but it's visible in her eyes and its probably about as warm as the tea. "I'm glad to hear it."

She sets the tray on a nearby table and pulls one of the chairs closer to Miss Kate's bed. As soon as she has that set, she starts making two cups of tea, pouring it out of a kettle and into the cups.

As she prepares their drinks she comments, "So are you gathering that thread for a particular project or just building up your supply?"

[lastofthekellys]

"A bit of both, really. I've been quiltin' a skirt and blouse, to make some winter clothes. It takes more thread than you might think. But at this point, might as well just unravel the rest of this thing. Saves someone else from needing to later."

It also gives her fingers something to do. And Kate is someone who cannot stand her hands being idle. There's always something to do, or there should be. There needs to be.

"That tea smells heavenly."

[hawkeyesniper]

"Sometimes I wish I had paid more attention to skills like that," Riza replies with a tinge of regret. As a state alchemist, her father had been well off until her mother had passed. The money had been squandered after that, though her Grandfather had seen to it that she was taken care of in terms of food and clothes. Her father hadn't much worried about stuff like that as she got older and Riza started to manage the house. Still, that had meant cooking basic means and trying to keep the place clean, not sewing. To be fair, she could mend a tear or sew a button on just fine, but making an entire outfit was beyond her.

On the other hand, if it's just unraveling some thread Riza can't imagine there is much skill to it, "Could I help you with that while we drink our tea?"

Riza turns and holes out a cup and saucer to Miss Kate, "Here. I made it close to how we had it last time."