the grocery store: it's the new kitchen.

Who: Calvin and Lina
When: Noonish
Where: the grocery store. it's the place to be.

Calvin hadn't realized how much he'd missed having a fully stocked kitchen until he'd faced the prospect of bare cupboards. He wasn't sure whether the fact that he could now choose what the hell he wanted to eat fully made up for the inconvience of having to buy it, but it kept him from bitching about it too much. He locked up the house tight before leaving, only to have to return for money, not quite used to paying for things again.

His second attempt at reaching the market was successful, and he grabbed a cart, taking a moment to scowl down at this list before searching for food. He bypassed the fresh food, grabbing at just about anything in a can. Not like he had to be choosy, he had the money for it after all.

Before the experiment, Lina had never really been a list person. She sort of always lived like a broke college kid, grabbing shit she needed when she thought of it and could afford it. That afford it part was terribly important, and no few nights she just mooched off of friends. Now she had the funds to get whatever she wanted, or fully stock her house with shit she'd possibly want someday a few weeks from now. She didn't. She still waited until she thought of something specific she needed, and went for it then. At least some things never changed.

She was trying not to think about anything important and just space out, but it wasn't working so well. She paused as she took a turn and saw Calvin. Looking grumpy. Yeah, some things never changed. "Apparently, we're the spoiled fucks of the traumatized labrats club. Who woulda thunk it?"

Calvin snorted, not looking up from deciding between fruit cocktail and just plain canned peaches. "Well, hell. Guess we were the sadistic fuck's favorites. Lucky us." Finally deciding on peaches, he tossed four cans into his cart and turned to face her. "Long time no see, sweetheart. How's life since the ressurection? Come back with any new powers?" He looked again at the shelf, tossing some fruit cocktail in just for the hell of it.

"Coming back from the dead isn't enough of a super power? I have to have a shiny x-men origins story, too? Fuck. Only other people that can do that are Jesus Christ and Elvis." Lina answered. "Nice to see you haven't changed." She didn't even attempt to correct the 'sweetheart'. If that hadn't gotten his ass kicked in the past few months, by Hannah and her death dog alone, she wasn't going to bitch about it. At the moment.

"What'd you expect, a broken and shattered man? Advanced psychosis? Politeness? Honey, it'll take a hell of lot more than that to bring me to that level," Cal chuckled, turning to lean against his cart, taking a moment to look Lina over. "Guess you haven't changed much either. You go ahead and run for mayor of our fair town, and it'll be just like old times. Feel like a trip to the beverage section?" He asked, nodding down the aisle.

Well, the scars on his neck sure as hell said something had happened. Lina didn't bring them up. Yet, at least. She almost had a bitch moment and asked if he'd woken up hanging from any trees lately, but managed to hold it back. "Yeah, I'll get right on that." she said, rolling her eyes and nodding ahead. "If I'm the best we can get, we're even more fucked than anticipated."

Calvin laughed outright, maneuvering his cart down the aisle toward the drinks, stopping for a moment along the way to consider the dairy section. "What do you think of our little commune, anyhow? Pretty damn creepy, if you ask me." And Cal wasn't joking about that. The town not only harkened back to his time in the bunker, but simply rubbed his subconscious just the wrong way.

Lina walked with him, not having to worry about a cart herself. "I think it's pretty fucked up. Abandoned fifties military base? I'm waiting to find a bomb shelter in my back yard." she answered. "I grew up in places like this, I'm sure there's all sorts of surprises."

"Surprises are something I could do without for awhile. Never thought I'd look forward to boring as much as I do now." All Calvin could think of doing was getting back to the real world and sleeping for three days straight. No matter how many times he was told they'd been rescued and were safe here, Cal wouldn't relax until he was slap in the middle of human squalor agan. "You grew up in creepy replicas of 50's nostalgia? Fun childhood."

You have no idea. "I grew up on military bases. Close enough." Lina grabbed a carton of orange juice and dropped it in her basket, a little curious by all the different languages all the labels were in. That didn't bode well for communication. "But eh, boring could just mean that people have more time to listen to the voices. Might be better to keep all us twitchy fucks busy. We had a meet and greet yesterday. With coffee. Whoopee."

Calvin hefted a gallon of milk from the cold storage, unscrewing the cap to make sure the freshness seal was still intact. Satisfied, he dropped it in the cart, grabbing a stack of prepackaged cheese along with it. "Christ. You know you're in rehab when they bring out the refreshments. What would they call this, you think? Being fucked with a baseball bat on a daily basis anonymous? Or is that too long?"

"Mental big black cock, maybe." Lina answered, shrugging. "But the other people still consider us as having it easy because we had sunlight and other people around. Imagine that shit. So they take the group of traumatized people, and dump them in with the fucking traumatized interns and expect people to play nice. I don't know what to expect first, a fire or a lynching."

"Hell, honey, with all the shit we've been through, it'll be something a hell of a lot more imaginative that that. You're right about one thing, though. The people running this thing are some new level of stupid," Cal huffed, grabbing a large jar of peanut butter and going through he seal check before tossing it in with the rest. "Maybe they want us to get revenge. Maybe they think it'll be therapeutic."

"Could be. D'be a whole new level of fucked up and wrong, but what the hell, we're used to it." Lina replied. "Met a few of the interns too, they're all pretty creepy. Or utterly terrified." Though yeah, they had a right to be. They knew she was a murderer.

"Got to say, I'm looking forward to meeting a few of them, too," Cal replied darkly, pushing his cart with more force than neccessary. In reality, he wasn't sure exactly what he'd do if he ran into any of them in a dark alley - but his instincts weren't kind.

"Pft. Good luck with that." Lina said, snorting faintly. The way her luck had been running, it seemed she hadn't been able to avoid them. "How'd you react after Drew outted himself?" she asked out of curiosity. She still hadn't made her mind up on that one herself.

"I didn't give him a pat on the back and tell him it'd all be okay, if that's what you're asking. But," Cal shrugged, pausing for a moment to get the words together in his mind, "I was of the opinion that getting chucked in with the rest of us was punishment enough. Besides, I sure as fuck wasn't about to do the scientist's dirty work for them." Of course, Drew had revealed his little secret before the shit had really hit the fan for Calvin. If things had come out more near the end of their time, well. Things might have been different.

After mulling that over, Lina figured that was probably the smarter way to go. Still didn't mean that was how she would have done it, but she could hope. Sort of. "Met one of his friends, Jeremy - another intern that got put in the solitary experiment. Couple days ago he posted on the journals to let everyone know he'd been one. He's skittish as hell. Has a right to be, too."

"Yeah, I'm betting there's more than a few people who'd like to string him up. Still, I'd say getting that out on the table is a good move. Better to out yourself than be outed by someone else." Calvin picked up a carton of eggs warily. "You think Russian eggs are safe to eat?"

"Probably. Not sure if I would have jumped to that on day one, though." she replied. Lina raised an eyebrow at him, and tried not to smirk. "Why wouldn't they be? Chicken eggs are chicken eggs, dude. Not a hell of a lot of ways to fuck that up."

Cal hesitates, not sure how to answer that. "Mm. Not sure. This place still considered a third world country, or have they gotten past that? Ah, what the hell. Live dangerously, huh?" He finishes, setting the eggs in the cart. "So, how's it feel being rich?" He glances into her cart, raising an eyebrow pointedly.

"I'm pretty sure Russians have been surviving successfully on their own food for quite a while." Lina replied, rolling her eyes. She looked down in her basket and shrugged. "At least I can say the money never changed me." she answered. "And it's not even like I can go out and blow a shitload and feel like a baller or something. All I've done is order car parts, and I don't even know if I'll get those. You?"

"Oh, the money was totally worth my sanity and humanity. Fair trade. Can't wait to blow it all on coke and whores once I get back to the real world," Cal replies with a snort, not able to hide a tinge of bitterness. "You work at the garage, huh?" He asks by way of changing the topic.

"Yeah. Put me in a house right next to it, figure that was their way of a subtle hint. It's slow, but alright." Least I never have to cut anybody down from trees. "What about you? You gonna get yourself a job and prove useful to society, or whatever the fuck we're supposed to do?"

"No real market around here for my skillset, darlin'. And if they think I'm going to flip burgers or some shit all in the name of reintegration? They got another thing coming." In all truth, Cal had been keeping a ready eye out for any sort of job that looked promising. There was only so much time he could spend trapped along with his own thoughts. "You hear of anyone who needs a skyscraper designed for them, you go ahead and send them my way."

Lina chuckled as she grabbed a loaf of bread and dropped it in her basket. "Yeah, I'll get right on it. Good luck with that." she said. "Well speaking of work, I've gotta hit up the deli and get over there. See you around man, watch out for fires."

"I'll stock up on fire extinguishers just in case," Cal smirked, leaning against his cart and watching her head off, calling out to her after a second. "You hear anyone bad mouthing experiment A, you kick their ass for me."

Lina laughed loudly as she turned the corner and walked away. How very high school. There was nothing about this place that resembled the real world.