Log: Kurt & Cammie

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Kurt stops by to visit Cammie and she gets the free dime tour and asks more questions about the institute...

Cammie was finally sitting up instead of laying down. She poked at the bandages that covered the stitch work that was better than anything she could attempt on her own. She couldn't see it, but she knew there'd be a nice size scar there from the hick who had decided she needed an extra hole in her. Even without the itching, poking at the wound was becoming a nervous habit of sorts.

She had that to thank for being farther north in the winter than she had been for a very long time. And she likely had a group of people to thank for saving her life, not that it was worth all that much anyway. She put her shirt back in place, only wearing one right now instead of layers. The building was warm, after all and there wasn't any reason to have all her clothes on her back at once.

She did manage to get a new ace bandage and held it in her left hand, getting ready to start bandaging up her arm. It wasn't as dark green as it could be, which meant she wasn't carrying all that much at the moment. It left her wondering if she had discharged involuntarily right after she had been stabbed, it would've made sense, she supposed. She didn't really remember much of the last part of that fight.

There was a polite knock at the door and Kurt stepped in, smiling when he saw her on her feet. "Hello, Carmilla. How are you feeling?"

Cammie looked up, still in the processes of binding up her left arm. It felt really weird to hear someone call her Carmilla that wasn't either one of her parents. Not even cops called her that because she never gave out that name. It had been almost four years since she had someone call her that she realized then.

"Kinda sore," she said simply, though the overwhelming pain was gone, "But I'll live. Call me Cammie," she said. "Only my parents ever called me Carmilla."

"Cammie", he echoed. "And yes, so the doctors tell me. My name is Kurt, by the way."

"Yeah they pretend to know things so I guess I'll have to go along with it and pull through," Cammie said, tying off the bandage just below where the sleeve on her t-shirt sat. She had plenty of practice with making it just tight enough to stay on without cutting off circulation.

"So... um... thanks, I guess."

"No need. It is, rather, what we do." He hesitated, then, "I did mean what I said - you are free to leave as soon as you wish, as long as the doctors give you leave. And since you are probably fit to get up if you do not over-exert yourself..."

"Oh yeah, because you know I'm sure I'll get a warm Texas welcome if I head back," she said. That was two places she'd never be heading back to. That and her home. "I don't really have anywhere else to go, so I suppose staying for a bit won't kill me."

"Then consider yourself welcome. You are not the only one who has come here with nowhere else to go."

"Yeah, I suppose so. Nothing like a home for the transient freak population," she said dryly and totally without malice. It was something of which she considered herself a part of. "This place is a school too? I mean, Dr. Grey told me about classes and stuff."

"We are a school, yes, both for under-eighteens and graduates. We also have an NGO operating from the old boathouse and the institute is something of a think tank."

"Freaky," Cammie said, stretching - or trying to, her side didn't really like that, "What type of NGO?"

"Mutant-related issues in Third World countries", Kurt told her. "With a focus on child soldiers, though they deal with other things."

Well, at least that was a good thing to be involved in stopping, the child soldier part. But the world really wasn't a kind place that was overly forgiving to kids that were different. From something as simple as braces to people like them, "Well, fighting the good fight then. The fight that doesn't end," she muttered the last. "Heh, I'm in school. I haven't been in school for years."

"Most of us here fight the good fight in one way or another", he said quietly, then half-smiled. "Do not feel any obligation to treat it as a school, though we do have a well-equipped library if you get bored."

"I don't read when I get bored," Cammie said, taking some steps away from the cot. Into the great wide awesome that was a cot free existence. At least she didn't feel like passing out anymore. Which would be good for what she did do to kill boredom. Though, on reconsideration, what she did to kill boredom got her all this trouble in the first place.

"So, what's the price on a dime tour, Kurt? Twenty bucks?"

"For our newcomer, nothing", he answered, the smile turning more genuine. "There is quite a lot to see." Even not counting the areas he couldn't show her.

"Oooh, a free dime tour. Throw in a hotdog and it will be like I won the lottery," she said with a grin.

Kurt laughed. "If you are hungry, a hotdog can be arranged. Or venison, as we seem to have a surplus."

"I'll eat anything," Cammie said. Silently adding literally. "But something resembling real food would be nice."

"That is one of many things you will discover about this place - there is always real food to be had."

"Well, then I'll at least hang out until spring. I mean, it's warm in here and there's food. How can I not hang out?" Cammie quipped. She hated winters this far north of the Mason-Dixon line. She wasn't taking off if it meant sleeping outside in the snow and she wasn't going to steal the money she'd need to get buy in a hotel room from people who had saved her life. She was a thief sure, but she had better manners than that.

"A sensible decision", he agreed. "Not that we do not have the means to take you somewhere warm if you wished, but none of us would throw you out. And perhaps you will find you like it here."

"Yeah, first time for everything," Cammie returned. This wasn't one of those halfway houses or homeless/runaway teen shelters where the help there was either half-assed or shoved down your throat.

"And now, that tour", Kurt said with a smile. "Starting with the kitchen, perhaps."

"I like kitchens," Cammie said. And filler conversation, the type that didn't ask you to offer anything worth while and didn't care when you didn't. "Hopefully it's a big one." She hadn't had real food in awhile.

"Big enough to feed everyone who lives here. There are kitchenettes in the resident suites, but most of the food is kept in the main kitchen."

"Makes sense," Cammie said. This place sounded big, as of yet she had only really seen this small area. But she reasoned if it was a school it had to be at least decent sized. And in a pinch, it was good to know where the food was kept, even if food didn't exactly feed some of her stranger cravings. Well, cleaning chemicals, sometimes found in kitchens did.

"I think so. Follow me."

She did follow, looking around drove it in that this wasn't like any place she had been before. All traveling aside, she was still a runaway that was from a small town, her experience with places she was 'welcome' to were limited to the small buildings back home to homeless shelters or abandoned buildings which were as empty as they were big.

This was something different.

"...Must be really easy to get lost here."

"I certainly found it so when I first arrived", Kurt admitted. "But that is some years ago now and as I remember, I got used to it fairly quickly."

"You guys have a map or something to help until then?" Cammie asked, as they came to what she assumed had to be the kitchen. It was big.

"Not that I remember, but I am sure we could make one if you like." He held the door open for her. "Most of the upper floors are the residential suites."

"That's a lot of people," she said, half to herself. A lot of people she could accidentally hurt if things went wrong. Like they had a habit of doing. "And don't bother, I can't make heads or tails of maps, I'll get it. It will just take a few days...weeks..." she said, walking past him with a nod for holding the door open. Yep, this smelled like a kitchen.

"If you go astray, it does not matter much", he told her. "As far as I am aware, all of the places in the house you should not be, you could not get into accidentally."

"Places I shouldn't be?" Cammie echoed, "What, a school with forbidden rooms? Sounds sinister."

"I mostly meant studies and bedrooms that are not yours." He shrugged slightly. "And then there are some areas in the basement."

"Ah, I get'cha," Cammie said with a grin, "What do I look like," she joked, "a thief?" The irony of that statement, given she didn't own a single thing NOT obtained somehow through theft was too much to resist.

"No more than anyone else here", Kurt said cheerfully. "Many of us have interesting histories."

"Must make for interesting story times," Cammie said, heading towards the fridge, might as well 'nick' a drink, while on the subject of theft. She was thirsty, and hungry. Even if it didn't have any flavor, she'd eat it right now.

Kurt leaned in the doorway, not particularly wanting anything himself, and let her explore the food on offer. "When people are willing to tell them, yes."

"So the whole talking thing is optional then," Cammie said, "Good," she found pop, which worked, and nothing else in the fridge really appealed to her at the moment. At least without spiking it with something else, simply because the more she thought about it, she might be thirsty enough to deal with everything tasting like water. But she wasn't hungry enough to deal with something that tasted like nothing.

"Oh, certainly. We have an in-house therapist, but no one will force you to go to him. Unless it really seems necessary, that is."

"Well, I'd pass on that, I'm fine being a ball of teenaged issues and angst," she said, opening the pop and drinking it, even though it was like just drinking carbonated water to her. She had come to terms with what she considered herself to be a long time ago.

"So, will I get a room while I'm here, or do I get to sleep in the closet?" she asked.

"Of course you get a room", was the half-amused response. "Most probably one of a double-suite with someone else, unless you object or no one needs a suitemate."

She paused at that, "Um... I'd kind of worry about it being... well.. safe."

"You can talk to the Professor about that", he said reassuringly. "And if you really feel you should be in a suite on your own, I am sure that can be arranged."

Cammie nodded, "Yeah... I don't know what it is, but I seem to make some people sick. I wouldn't want to be doing that to a roommate, so yeah." It happened at random, and she had to wonder if some people weren't just overly sensitive that way. Either way, it wasn't a risk she really enjoyed.

"If you wish, you can learn about your powers while you are here", Kurt suggested. "Knowing how they work may help you control when that happens."

"That would've been nice to know a few years ago," Cammie muttered darkly, "That much, I think I might take you guys up on."