Raining shoes (open)

Laura was exploring. She would have done it before, but between the school and the snow and cows and things she somehow hadn’t quite got to it yet. And trying to learn dividing again was making her feel like a cat that had fallen in a particularly icy pond. She had seen all the places on the tour when she’d first arrived because a nice lady showed her, but she’d been feeling so mixed up and scared and nervous and homesick that it had all sort of blurred into one big blob labelled ‘Highgrove’. So she was doing it all over again. And this time she was going to find the library and she was going to read a book. Even if she was scared she’d read the wrong book. Which she was.

Except somewhere along the line she seemed to have ended up somewhere completely different. Staring around, Laura reasoned she was actually in a pretty big library, trees were made into books after all, these ones just didn’t have words on yet. She hadn’t realised there were trees here. Were you allowed to climb them?

She thought for a second before deciding that if the trees didn’t mind it was probably ok, as long as she didn’t fall off. And trees didn’t usually move that much unless it was very windy. And she liked tree climbing when she didn’t have to do it because someone had thrown things up there. Although the people usually told her to get down before she broke her neck. Laura wasn’t sure when breaking her neck was scheduled for, but surely being up a tree would be good for that? If you could only be in trees before you broke your neck, wouldn’t your safest bet be to stay there and not come down? But then, this argument hadn’t really worked at the other place either. They just told her to go and do something or draw or stop being childish. She hadn’t known she was being childish, or what was childish about it, she was just being her. People were always telling her to be herself, but they didn’t seem to like it when she did. Could you only be yourself if ‘yourself’ was normal? What was normal anyway? Laura’s idea of normal was sitting on the table drawing and devising new ways to get across the flat without touching the floor as quietly as possible. Apparently that wasn’t normal either. She wished someone would write down what normal was so she could refer to it from time to time…

Scrambling into the lower branches, she methodically made her way up until she could see a very long way, then gingerly sat on the nearest branch, one arm around the tree’s trunk, watching the world go by. It was nice up here. Maybe she’d stay for a little while. She could do a picture of up here. Just not right now. She felt a little precarious. After a few minutes of staring at the view and thinking about normal and not normal, Laura’s shoe decided that it did not like heights and made a bid for freedom, landing on the ground with a thump. It wasn’t until Laura looked down to see if her shoe was being stolen by squirrels that she realised she’d disturbed someone. Whoops. “Um. Hello?” Well, it’d do for a start. Even if it came out as a question. “Sorry about making it rain shoes.” She smiled hopefully and began to chew the nails on her free hand, seeing where she’d accidentally grazed it on the tree when she’d been climbing. Ah well.

After her failed attempt to score a hit from the stables, Lottie had mostly been keeping to herself. This place was full of whores, self important princesses and the kinds of people she'd hoped never to see again after leaving her parents and their money behind. Social services had told her this place was somehow going to help her, but they pretty obviously didn't have even the slightest clue what they were talking about. Locking her up in the arse end of nowhere with a shitload of people she despised was not going to help her, in any way, shape or form, why was that hard for them to understand? Sure, if she was out, she'd be sat on the cliffs above Hastings right now, taking drugs and annoying tourists, but what was the harm in that? It was better than being stuck in a place like this, surely?

The scowl on her face as she wandered around the grounds was pretty much a permanent feature these days, and she saw no problem with it. She hated this place, she needed a fix more than she needed her next breath, and she'd give her right arm for a taste of freedom, but she was trapped and she knew it. Barring some miracle, she'd have to wait to age out of this shithole, she'd already walked the perimeter twice looking for breaks in the fence or trees she could use to get over it, and nothing. Not one branch, not one animal scrape, not a thing she could actually use. Bastards, the lot of them.

Impenetrable fortress or not, she couldn't stay inside all the time. The people in there just made her want to murder something, or someone, anything to get out of the sterile, controlled environment and the whiny self entitled people it contained. She hated her roommates, hated the occupants of the other dorm even more, and was convinced most of the boys here were gay, insane, or both. None of that was good from her point of view, all the more reason to stay outside, and fuck the weather. Who cared about that? Kicking at a rock, she started towards the woods, her hands in the pockets of her old leather jacket. this would be a great time for a crafty cigarette.

She didn't have one of those, unfortunately. What she got instead was almost hit by a shoe from above. Naturally, she assumed someone had thrown it at her, presumably the slut who slept in the bed above her. looking around though, she saw no sign of, well, anyone. Frustrated, she kicked the shoe, shook her head and muttered a few obscenities under her breath, only to be pulled out of her strop by Laura speaking. She didn't know the other girl, certainly didn't know why she'd be throwing shoes at her, and with a frown, picked the offending footwear up. "Watch where the fuck you're throwing shit, yeah?" she replied, before throwing the shoe at the girl. Not to, she didn't much care if Laura caught it or not, but at. Sometimes, Lottie really was an idiot.

Laura waved cheerfully at the girl on the ground. She looked like a nice person, although that wasn’t hard to attain in Laura’s mind. The other girl could have had demons from the depths of hell following her, a red tail and a pitchfork and Laura would still decide this new person was obviously lovely. “Sorry. I didn’t throw it, it fell off my foot. I’m not allowed to throw things unless people tell me to because it’s not nice and things get broken. And people ask things and it all gets bad and complicated. And then people get upset.”

Trying to catch the shoe, Laura wobbled for a minute and grabbed back onto the tree trunk as her shoe hit the ground behind her. “Sorry! I’m not a good catcher. It’s ok if you throw things though, because you’re not me.” Laura eyed her other shoe, which looked suspiciously like it was attempting to escape as well, wondering if she should warn the girl on the ground. “My name’s Laura. What’s your name? Um. Do you like climbing trees?” Suddenly the realisation that she wasn’t entirely sure how to get down again caught up with her. Oh well, she’d work something out. She’d need to get rid of her shoes first though. How were you supposed to know where your feet were if they were all wrapped up in stuff? They just made her misjudge where her toes were, which was slightly problematic when people were trying to trip you up anyway.

She could just stay here until… um. Until it was time to come down. And if she still couldn’t do it then she could pretend to be a bird and maybe see if there was any way to get out of the fence. She hadn’t really planned on it but if she was out here at night anyway she might as well. Besides, she had shoes and a jumper so she was fairly well equipped. She wasn’t sure where exactly she’d be running to but London would be a good place to start. It was big and had lots of people and maybe one of those people would be her uncle. She wasn’t necessarily a good planner, but it was as close as she could get. She’d miss Kizzy though, and the cows. “Um. Do you like it here?” If they were both going to be here, Laura wanted to be nice and hopefully the other girl would like her. She always wanted people to like her.

Lottie really wasn't expecting the wave, and the apology that followed left her almost speechless. Either she'd just found someone with access to some serious drugs, which while it would be fun was really not likely, or she'd finally stumbled across someone who was actually insane enough to belong in an asylum like this. The staff might not call it one, but schools, shelters and whatever else this place might claim to be didn't tend to have anything like as much in the way of security as Highgrove boasted, people and equipment she expected to tangle with sooner rather than later. Maybe not today though.

"You're a fucking nutter, you know that, right?" she asked, grinning up at the girl as she introduced herself. "I'm Lottie. What the fuck are you doing up there anyway?" she asked, moving closer to the tree, apparently forgetting she'd just thrown a shoe at this girl's head. It was a lousy shot anyway, no harm done, and as much as she wanted to., it was rapidly proving impossible to hate this girl. What would she be like while high? That would definatley be an awesome thing to see, if she could ever get her hands on any kind of drugs in this terrible place. She just needed an hour in that stablemaster's office, without him around. How hard could that be?

"How the fuck did you get up there anyway?" she asked as she reached the tree, giving the trunk a tap with her foot. "You mean out here, or in this shithole in general?" she asked, shaking her head and looking around. "No-one likes being fenced in. I doubt there's any fucker here who actually wants to be. Fucking hate this place." she continued, finally looking back up at Laura. "Can you actually get down from there?" she asked, grinning. Missing a shoe and clinging to the trunk? If she was as stuck as she looked, Lottie was going to have great fun laughing at whatever ended up getting her down in the end. She doubted the staff would leave anyone outside at night, but they were obviously incompetent, so who knew?

Laura giggled as Lottie grinned up at her. She didn’t mind what she’d said, she seemed nice and although Laura wasn’t allowed to say bad words like that she didn’t mind if other people did. “I wanted to climb a tree! I haven’t climbed trees here, I thought it could be fun because they have different trees here and I didn’t have to. I used to have to a lot at the place before but people don’t throw my bag and books and jumper and shoes and everything in trees here. It’s nice up here though, I can pretend to be a bird.” She made a sort of experimental owl sound, and giggled at herself again. She was feeling silly today, and this girl seemed really nice.

“I did some climbing,” she explained. “And lots of wobbling and a bit of jumping. It’s easier when you get started, because then it’s like stairs or not using the floor.” Floors, while useful for holding things up, were not always for walking on in Laura’s mind. Years of scrambling about on furniture in the day time had led her to feel a little more like she was part squirrel than normal people would. Trees were the same, just higher up. And sometimes pricklier.

“I don’t know.” Laura thought for a moment. “Both? I don’t know about here but I like being outside.” Outside was still a novelty for Laura, especially since it was something she was allowed to do that hadn’t happened while she lived with her uncle. Outside was fine, it just so happened that it tended to contain a lot of people. Secretly Laura was quite glad there was a fence. She knew where she was allowed to be then. When she’d been at the other place she hadn’t got any idea where she was allowed to go and where she wasn’t. Fences made things simple. At least then she wouldn’t get shouted at when people knew where she’d been. Suddenly going from living with her uncle and knowing exactly where she could go and when to somewhere where she was apparently allowed to go wherever she liked as long as it didn’t involve illegal things or moving country had made her feel very worried. She didn’t want to be at Highgrove, but it had been a relief when she’d realised there was a fence.

Laura considered the last question carefully. On the one hand she was an ok tree climber, but not really an ok tree getter-downer. Luckily at her last place the tree had been small enough that if she really did get stuck she could jump. Unfortunately she’d been a little enthusiastic climbing this particular tree and she wasn’t entirely sure she could see a way down that wasn’t very fast and involving a lot of ouch. “Um…” She wriggled a little to see if she could reach the next branch down with her toes and found that she couldn’t. “I think I might be up here for a little while because I think I might be stuck.” She giggled again, but really she was a little nervous. What if people had to touch her to get down? Maybe she should just stay put.

If Lottie needed any more confirmation of just absolutely out of her tree (Perhaps a bad metaphor for this particular situation) Laura was, then she'd just got it. The girl was more than just a few sandwiches short of a picnic, and it made her strangely likeable, as far as the blonde junkie was concerned. How could she hate someone who was so amusingly batshit insane? "That's a good hoot you've got going, just don't try to fly, okay?" she replied, grinning up at the girl. "I'm not a mouse, so don't go trying to eat me either, okay?" she added, shaking her head. This was a seriously surreal conversation to try and have while sober, and she shook her head, grin widening, as she imagined what would have happened if she'd met Laura back in Hastings. That would have been one hell of a way to spend a week, if she could stay out of the K-hole that long anyway. "If you're on something, wanna share?" she asked, though it was rather unlikely. She was probably just nuts.

"How the fuck did you not fall?" she asked, leaning her back against the trunk and looking up at the other girl. "No way I hell I could get up there, you must be part monkey or something. That or you really are an owl. Twit Twoo" she continued, giving her own very, very bad take on an owl's call. She heard a lot more of those out here than she did in Hastings or London, or even back where she was born, in Hitchin, the shithole her parents likely still called home, she supposed that was what happened when you lived out in the arse end of nowhere though. They were probably days away from civilisation, even if they could get out of here. Isolation was it's own brand of security really.

"Outside is all good, yeah, but if you don't hate here now, there's something wr-" she paused. There was pretty obviously something wrong with Laura anyway, why rub it in? "If you don't hate it now, you will soon." she added, shaking her head again. Since when did she censor herself for other people, especially people she didn't know? This place must he getting to her already, Frowning, she closed her eyes for a moment, thinking of better times. Freedom, or at least the illusion of it, the thing she, and likely everyone else here, wanted more than anything else.

Thankfully, Laura spoke again, and pulled her out of it. "I never thought I'd say this, but do you want me to go find one of the staff? The fuckers have probably got a ladder somewhere, and you'll break something if you jump." she replied, looking up at the girl once again. Getting carried down a ladder wouldn't exactly be dignified, but it'd be better than sitting up there till she froze and fell, right? She had no idea about Laura's touch aversion, predictably, so couldn't even begin to imagine the chaos someone actually picking her up would cause. She was just trying to be nice, for the first time in a very, very long time.

Laura giggled. She had already decided she liked this person. “I won’t! I don’t like biting people, they get really annoyed and then they die.” At least that was what her Uncle had said when she’d accidentally decided to find out what it was like to be a kitten one day. Kittens were allowed to climb curtains as well, which always looked like fun. She didn’t really understand what Lottie meant by the next part though. “I’m on… a tree?” Somehow she got the feeling she wasn’t answering the right question. “You can share if you like! There’s lots of trees here, and this one has lots of branches but it’s not very comfy.”

Looking down, she realised it had been a bit tricky getting up here. Her theory at the time had been that getting down would be easier because gravity would help. She was beginning to think gravity might be a bit enthusiastic for this particular situation. “I don’t know.” At least she was being honest about it. “I wanted to be up… and then I climbed a bit and then I was. And now I think I might have done a bit too much going up.” She patted the trunk of the tree as if it would help somehow and wondered what exactly she could do. “I did lots of climbing before, but not up trees. I was just not being on the floor.” Not being on the floor tended to be a good thing back at home.

She thought about what Lottie said. “Ok. I’m glad I don’t hate it now. That would make me worried in case I did something and hurt someone...” She didn’t like being sad. It made her worry because she felt like she might be more dangerous then than usual. She hated that feeling. It made her even more nervous and then people started asking things and telling her how to breathe, which Laura was fairly sure she was already quite good at because she wasn’t dead, and then they started fussing and she went to hide places and then they got all freaked out when she decided to come out when they were doing the dishes because she’d forgotten they were there.

“Um.” Laura hugged the tree a little tighter and risked another look down. “Maybe? I think I might need a parachute if I jumped and I don’t have one. But… they wouldn’t touch me, would they? Because I might be able to… I don’t know.” She began to chew her nails, then realised maybe not falling would be a safer option. “Thank you! I need to evolute into a bat or an owl or a giraffe or something. It would be useful!” Well, it would. Never mind that she knew it wasn’t exactly how evolution worked, being able to evolve at will sounded much more fun.

"Really annoyed, then die. What, do you have Rabies or something? bet that goes down well with the boys." Lottie replied as Laura spoke again, still grinning. She was assuming the crazy girl was just joking about the 'dying' thing, Still rather obviously clueless as to exactly what was wrong with her. "Good answer." she added with a small laugh as the girl continued. That was one way to avoid sharing with a complete stranger, and just another reason for Lottie to make sure to offer Laura a hit of whatever she did eventually manage to get her hands on, after she'd got her own fix of course. "I'm not an owl, or a squirrel, or whatever the fuck else you are, I doubt I'd get up there in one piece." she added, her grin growing a little. "Never thought I'd find someone here I actually liked, 'specially not an owl-squirrel-girl. Nice one." she said, finally standing up off the trunk and staking a couple of steps away from it so she could look up and see Laura a bit better, before going to retrieve the shoe she'd thrown.

"So what did you climb then, buildings and shit? You into parkour?" she continued as the climber spoke again, tossing the shoe to the base of the tree where Laura could at least find it if she ever managed to get down. "I tried that once when I was really fucking high, nearly broke my neck. Roofs are nice, but...yeah. What the fuck was I talking about?" Another small laugh escaped her lips, and she took another step away from the trunk, trying to figure out how Laura had even climbed it. Predictably, she couldn't see a way up, not that she'd have used it anyway. "What, you don't hate this place? Too many fences, bullshit rules and jobsworth cunts for staff, same as everywhere. Place is as bad a fucking prison half the time. Foods probably better inside too." she continued, sounding a little bit surprised. then again, Laura was mental, so was it really that surprising?

"You're not gonna hurt anyone, no bugger is going to climb up there like you did. No chance they'll fall off of a ladder or a cherrypicker or whatever." she added, looking from the tree back to the girl. "I think they'd kinda have to to actually, you know, get you down from there, I dunno. You can argue that with whatever one brings a ladder. If elf and safety let 'em anyway." she added, assuming Laura was probably a rape victim or something, the kind who'd get all PTSD if a man touched them. That might explain why she was so obviously nuts too. Grinning and shaking her head again as Laura spoke, she turned away from the tree. "Anyway, yeah. Ladder. I'll go see who I can find, be back in, I dunno, ten minutes or summat? Try not to jump out before then, unless you manage to grow wings." she called over her shoulder, already wondering just where she was going to actually find a member of staff.

Surprisingly, it didn't take her too long to find one, though she didn't quite know if the woman, one of the nurses, was going to be any real use. Still, she probably had a radio, or the keys to wherever this place kept ladders, right? "Hey!" Lottie called to her, wishing she paid enough attention to know her name. "I need some help, uh..." Glancing down at the woman's legs, but not saying anything about them (she did need the help after all), she shook her head again. "So, yeah. there's this kid. Laura. She's stuck in a tree, and I dunno how the fuck to get her down. Can you like, I dunno, help me find a ladder for her or summat?" she asked, looking over in the general direction of the tree again, then back to the nurse. "I can go up it if anyone needs to, i mean...sorry." she added, glancing downwards again. She had to go and find the amputee, didn't she. Wonderful.

Lucky had decided it was about time she explored those woods. A little hike had been in order. During her break she's stepped in the office for a quick change. Blouse replaced by a T-shirt and a fitted zip windbreaker. Chinos replaced with spandex athletic capris. Flesh coloured all purpose legs swapped for her sport set. Where her regular legs did their best to mimic the flesh and freckling of a real human leg her sport legs were a vast departure. Making her more cyborg looking that human. Some were shy about their sports legs, trying to hide them under long pant legs. Lucky had never liked the look of that, or the stares it got. The odd movement of fabric around the too thin to be real legs tended to attract the gaze of people a hold it. They were puzzled, they wanted to know what nature of tricks their eyes where playing on them. Lucky always felt the smart money was just letting the legs show. So people could just see it, understand it, and move on whenever they were ready.

So she moved along campus with her head held high. Why not. This was her grand unveiling no doubt. Anyone who didn't know, the patients largely, would know without a doubt now. The news-information really- was bound to spread. Probably rather quickly. Surely certain students would like to know how little help kicking her in the shins would be to them.

She spent some time trekking through the woods. Taking in the smells and sounds. There was a lovely peace there. It seemed to make any nerves she may have had regarding her not-so-secret little secret melt off. Like the snow-melt on the brink of spring. The brink they'd see soon in the weather. Lucky couldn't wait. When she left the woods she was smiling broadly. She couldn't help it. It had been a lovely time. Meditative. She felt undeniably fresh and revitalized. Like she'd just slept a deep dreamless sleep through an intensive Reiki session. Like she could take on everything ever and win.

"Hey! I need some help, uh..."

"Yes? What the problem then?"

The sheen of black toned metal accented the narrow line of metal tube supporting her weight as Lucky turned around. The Nurse smiled in a reassuring manner, knowing what the young lady was thinking. She was patient, giving her the moment she needed to readjust. "So, yeah. there's this kid. Laura. She's stuck in a tree, and I dunno how the fuck to get her down.... I can go up it if anyone needs to, i mean...sorry." Lucky gave a good natured chuckle. She was used to things like that. With Tim more than ever strangely.

"It's alright dear, I can handle it fine. 'Least in these legs. I have shocks and everything." It was true, even if she said it in a joking tone. Lucky's lack of legs was far from a handicap at this point. With a quick change of hardware she could even be superior to whole humans in certain arenas. "Now where is she?" She gave Lottie a moment to point her in the direction. Then followed along with her to Laura and the tree. She lifted her radio on the way and requested a ladder be brought over, along with someone strong enough to hold it steady. Coming to the tree she waved her hand up to Laura.

"Heeeeey, there little monkey. Here you're a bit stuck, yeah? We'll have a ladder here any minute. Are you alright?"

Laura giggled. “I don’t think I have rabies. Bats can have it though… I’m evil instead so people get hurt if they touch me and it’s sad and scary.” Well, it was. Especially when those people died and then Laura felt very bad and guilty and everything and it made her very sad, but she couldn’t cry because that would make everything worse and then she felt all sick and mixed up. She perked up a little after Lottie told her she liked her though. “I like you too! You’re nice. And maybe you have different animals, because there are lots and lots. There are octopus things really really deep in the sea and they swim around with their ears like Dumbo, and there are ducks that have babies really high up in trees and then they have to jump out before they can fly so maybe you’re not those animals but there are lots so maybe other ones instead.” She wasn’t making lots of sense, but animals were one of her favourite things, like drawing and talking to cows.

She wasn’t entirely sure how to explain everything but Lottie seemed like a good person, and she was nice and everything, so she liked talking to her. “I don’t know what that thing is. It sounds fun! Parkour…” She happily rolled the word around in her head. It sounded like a good thing. “I wasn’t allowed to touch the floor in the daytime because people might hear and get worried, so I climbed on the table and chairs and on top of everything! It was really fun, but here they want you to walk on the floor all the time. They say that chairs are for sitting on, and not to climb on the counters because I might slip and fall and break something and die. Which is funny because I did it all the time when I lived with Uncle Kenneth and I didn’t die or anything then.” She thought for a second. “Well, I don’t think I did. I think I might notice being dead. And then I went to the home place and people kept throwing things in trees so I had to get them down, but their trees were easier to get out of than here.”

Wriggling carefully, Laura decided that her bum was definitely going numb from sitting in the tree. Maybe the next time she got stuck she could bring a cushion or something. Or maybe something that would help her get unstuck. She didn’t really know a lot about prisons, but she was fairly sure they didn’t like you to climb things. “I like it that they have lots of animals and you’re allowed to draw and everything. I talk to the cows, and they’re nice. They understand everything and chew grass at you and you get to collect eggs if Faith doesn’t mind, but she does mind a lot sometimes, and there are horses and I don’t think they had that in prisons… But I don’t know lots about prisons.” She’d never had to, really. But even with the rules and things that this place had, it seemed like the height of freedom to her. More was just scary, how did you know where you were allowed? “Ok. I’ll stay here!” She waved from her tree, and went back to hugging the trunk.

Humming to herself, she looked around her and decided this was a nice place to be if you weren’t stuck. You could see everything up here! And maybe if the squirrels were not hibernating any more you could talk to them. She’d always liked the way their tails moved much slower than the rest of them. Finally she saw the nice girl coming back and she had a lady with her. Laura waved back. “Hello! Your legs are really really cool! People say I’m being an owl and a squirrel and a monkey today.” She’d never seen anyone with legs like that before, and she’d fast decided they were spectacular. “I’m ok. I’m worried in case people touch me because I’m stuck but I don’t want to make people die either, so it’s making me feel a bit worried.” Well, a lot worried. But she could pretend it wasn’t happening until she couldn’t any more. “Lottie’s been keeping me company! I nearly accidentally hit her with my shoe when it came off.”

Lottie was a little surprised at the response the woman gave to her hesitant comments. She'd expected someone who worked here to be more than a little bit snappy about things like that, it would certainly fit with the way the rest of the staff in this place tended to act. Maybe she'd just managed to find the woman after a few good bong hits though. The thought that there might actually be a cheerful person working here, especially one with missing legs, was really too far a stretch for the young addict. "Are you supposed to do shit like that?" she asked, giving a cheeky grin, "I mean, 'elf and safety and all that." she added, suspecting that while she probably shouldn't be taking the piss too much, the nurse seemed like the sort to take it in her stride, rather than the type to lock her up for it. Maybe she'd even got really lucky and found someone who'd give out jokes too, but that was really not likely with the staff here.

"I dunno how the fuck she got up there, but she's pretty well stuck, and I don't wanna have to watch her fall." she said as they walked, unsure if conversation was even possible with an adult. Still, she'd tried, that had to count for something. Not only that, but she was actively helping another kid here. Maybe once that got onto her file, they'd decide she must be sane again and let her out? Wouldn't that be nice, if about as likely as kosher bacon. "So, uh...you an ex-squaddie or summat?" she asked, making a point of not looking at the nurse's legs as she walked alongside the adult. Tact was really not something she bothered with, and she couldn't see any other reasonable explanation for someone to be missing both legs like that. Would this place hire a vet? She supposed they must do, they probably had an arrangement with a charity or something. Jobs for veterans while they remembered how to not shoot everything that moved.

Thankfully, they made it back to Laura without incident, Lottie didn't even get lost! "Told you I'd be back!" she called up to the frighteningly cheery girl, wondering if it was even possible to bring her down. Maybe THAT was the reason she was in? Sure, she might claim to be evil and to kill with a single touch, but Lottie thought that was just messing around. "How long have you been up there anyway?" she called, looking up again as the nurse made her radio call. Help would be here pretty quickly, and watching someone without any legs climb a ladder should be good for a quiet laugh or two, right?

Lucinda gave a little snort of disbelief and amusement.

"And wait the hour it will take us to get permission and go through the paperwork. No thanks. Anyways, I'm not exactly the lawsuit type. Terribly drawn out and messy don'tcha think?"

It was a bit of an exaggeration sure, but Lucky did hate paperwork with an especially fiery sort of passion. The nice bit about the nursing field was the fact that so often things were a race with time. There was no time for observe the red tape so much as cut through it and deal with the consequences later. Consequences aside, Lucky much preferred that way of life.

"Oh, nothing so noble I'm afraid." the nurse said with a shake of her head. Her legs alongside her somewhat athletic body type usually brought people to that conclusion. It always made her a little sad to say no, somehow. She always kind of wanted to deliver the hero-type that people wanted. She eyed the young lady's make-up application and hair colour. Not a far cry from how Lucky looked at her age. When she was so entirely whole, reckless, and young.

"I was a teenager, looked at lot like you at the time actually. With all the Kohl. Had a disagreement with a great number of Fosters' and a train."

Off in the distance Lucky spotted an agriculture farm hand struggling with a large folding ladder. She waved him over. Turning her attention back to the girl in the tree as he approached.

"Well thank you hun. Those are pretty smart people. What else could you be. Maybe a Tarzan, huh? Or Jane I guess, since she's a lady." Lucky smirked a little. Cute kid, but a lot more a kid than a teenager like she ought to be growing into. Nearly accidentally. That was kid speak when the kid knew a lot of words. More than a kid would normally know. As the farm hand reached them Lucky quickly thanked him and helped the man position the ladder. He too offered to go up instead but Lucky waved him off. I’m worried in case people touch me because I’m stuck but I don’t want to make people die either was what Laura had said. Lucinda recalled that from a file. The girl figured her touch could kill. Lucky figured she had a better chance of managing this worry, being partly made of metal and all. She glanced at Lottie and motioned her to the unmanned side of ladder.

"Hold it steady will you, love?" Once the ladder was fully braced Lucky grabbed on and slowly started up. Step by step, making sure each one was solid. Reaching the top, quite nearly even with Laura she gave her best reassuring smile. It was one that came quite natural.

"Alright kiddo. Do you know what a cyborg is?"

Laura waved back at Lottie and went back to hanging on to the tree. “I’m not sure. It feels like a long time, but maybe that’s just because it’s cold.” It was quite cold, but not as cold as it had been when she had got lost in the dark. At least she could mostly feel her fingers, even if one of her shoes had decided it was afraid of heights. The other one was thinking about jumping off as well, which would be bad in case it hit someone. Although she would have two feet the same, which was usually easier.

Watching the lady climb the ladder, Laura wondered how exactly she was going to get down. She wasn’t facing the right way for ladders, and she wasn’t very sure she’d be good at climbing down one, especially with one shoe off. At least it would be faster than sitting on a leaf and waiting for autumn, whichever way this ended. And while hugging a tree was probably good if you were a tree, she’d rather do it on the ground. Or inside where it was warm. Did trees feel the cold? She knew trees didn’t grow or grew very slowly in some places where it was cold, but that was because they didn’t have enough sun.

“Um…” The word rang a bell, but she couldn’t really remember. Finding herself chewing a fingernail, Laura hastily put her arm back on the tree. Not falling would be good. “I don’t know… is it an animal?” If it was an animal maybe she’d heard of it before. And that would explain a lot, but she couldn’t quite remember what it was right now. “I know what an eider duck is.” She sounded hopeful. It was hard to say exactly how ducks would get her down, but then this lady had an idea and she didn’t. Finally something clicked in the back of her head. “Computer people?” That would make a lot more sense. Were they real then? People liked putting computers in things, especially things that didn’t have computers in them in the first place. Like phones and… other things she couldn’t think of right then.

"Exactly! People who are mechanical."

Lucky paused, giving the young girl a pointed look with a single raised eyebrow. She waited for a sign. A look of either dawning or disbelief, but something to let her know what she had to work with at that point. Lucky figured if she phrased it like she was letting Laura in on a secret that was her best bet. Plus kid's loved secrets, and Laura was obviously more of the kid end of the teenage spectrum.

The nurse was silently praying that this worked. Doing her best to focus on Laura and good energy and... robotness. Yeah, perhaps she shouldn't have been playing into the young girl's delusion, but right this second the most important thing was getting her out of the tree before she hurt herself or something. She was up really high. High enough that the whole thing made Lucky a little nervous. She'd never been a huge fan of heights, but who was really. It wasn't anywhere near a phobia obviously, but it was just enough to make her a little concerned about the girl trying to get down all on her own. She'd need a hand. And the sooner Lucky could get her to accept one the better.

"So what do ya say we get you out of here? Take my hand and will head to the dining hall for dinner."

Lucky repositions her hands, holding one out to the young blonde and hoping for the best. Robots had nothing to do with curses and evil, they were of different realms entirely. The nurse was hoping that was enough to let the girl touch her. Because delusional or not, it would help the home greatly if there was someone who could touch her without consequences and distress. Before long she might need a nurse, for a cut or something worse. What were they supposed to do if she was still convinced her touch could kill anyone. Giving her one safe place within her issues was a small allowance wasn't it? Something that had the potential to help far more than it could ever hurt.

She looked at the lady for a moment. People who were made of robots seemed sort of unlikely, but then so did girls who were evil and liked to cuddle cows. Her uncle Kenneth said ‘stranger things have happened’ a lot, so maybe that was true. And they could do everything with computers, that’s why they were all over the place even if they were pretending to be other things.

Staring at the outstretched hand with her head on one side, Laura tried to entertain the possibility that this lady would not drop down dead instantly if she did touch her. Things hadn’t gone wrong with computers so far, except that time the sat nav tried to tell them to turn around when possible and they’d turned around in increasingly smaller circles, until they ended up going round and round a roundabout while people yelled at each other. She’d been busy being upset because someone touched her at the time but it was sort of funny ish now. She hoped they hadn’t died. Would someone have told her if they did?

“Are you sure?” She said it quietly, just in case it really was a secret. And it was cold, and she was hungry. But not cold or hungry enough to just forget about the whole murdering thing. She doubted there was enough cold in the whole universe for that. But if she was right maybe… Uncle Kenneth hadn’t really told her much about computers. They hadn’t had one, he didn’t like them much. Sometimes he went to look at the one in the library if he thought he might have an email, but that was it. It hadn’t bothered Laura until she hadn’t been allowed to live there any more. Now she’d learned how to find things and watch funny animals she was alright, but her typing was very slow. She didn’t think computers could get hurt by her… “Um…”

She stared at the hand again, trying to untangle her thoughts. It was a clear ‘maybe’ but she was still worried. It had been a long time since she’d touched someone all by herself (Well, someone human anyway, but she doubted the cows and chickens would be much help right now.) Hesitantly, she reached towards the lady and hastily put her hand back on the tree. Partly because she’d wobbled but also because she was scared. “I don’t know.” Her tummy felt screwed up and she wanted to draw something. Why did everything have to be hard?

Lottie winced a little as the nurse explained things. She'd done her share of messing around on railway lines, even played chicken once or twice, but she'd never been hurt doing it. Sure, she'd seen the leaflets, the videos and the presentations they'd given in school, juvie and care homes, not that she'd been paying a great deal of attention to them, but seeing someone who'd been so badly hurt doing the kinds of stupid things she used to get up to made her more than a little uncomfortable. One thing was for sure, if she ever did manage to get out of here, she'd stick to taking drugs on top of the cliffs, not dicking about on the tracks, not that she was going to say anything about it. Cheery as the nurse seemed, she didn't want to say something to annoy her while Laura was still stuck up the tree. Maybe later, once the loon was down safely.

Feeling a little surplus to requirements now, she moved to try and help the farmhand steady the ladder. Not necessary, she was well aware, but still, she was worried about the blonde in the tree, and figured making it look like she was doing something to help wasn't going to reflect badly on her. Craning her neck, she watched the woman climb, flashing Laura what she hoped was a reassuring smile, and tried not to look quite so concerned as she was. Who'd have thought someone like her was going to find anyone in a place like this to actually care about, even a little? Hopefully, once Laura was safely down, she could actually get to know her a bit, make friends and all that good stuff. Hardly normal procedure for her, but then, nothing here was. It wasn't like she could just get stoned and stare up at the sky for hours here, lost in a deep, dark K-hole, not till she found where the stablemaster kept the damn stuff at least.

Staying quiet for now, she watched the exchange up above. This was so far outside of anything she'd done before that she had no idea what she could possibly do to help, even when Laura hesitated. The nurse would get her down somehow though, right? Even if it took sedatives or something? "C'mon Laura, she's a cyborg, she'll be fine!" she called up to the pair, though she doubted it'd do all that much good. Still, at least she'd tried, right? Maybe that'd go on her records too, and she'd wind up looking so good in the eyes of the staff that they'd leave her the hell alone for five minutes so she could find what she needed in the stables. Probably not, but it was nice to dream.