The roof, Friday late afternoon

[nadiathesaint]

Yeah, Nadia's back up on the roof. She has her guitar with her, not that she can play it right now thanks to the cast. Still, she's trying to see if she can find an angle that's not too incredibly awkward where she can get her fingers on the frets.

Failing that, she's content to just sit with it, occasionally plucking or strumming the open strings with her still perfectly usable, thankyouverymuch right hand.

[ooc: locked to a particular someone]

Comments

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"You really shouldn't be doing that."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia gritted her teeth. "I'm not doing anything wrong."

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"You're trying to play the guitar with an arm that shouldn't be used. That qualifies as 'wrong'."

[nadiathesaint]

"The doctors never said anything about trying not to use my fingers."

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"That doesn't mean it's kind of a stupid idea to attempt what you're doing," Pip said.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia was tensing up again, making it harder to even try and get her fingers on the frets. She kept going, though, out of sheer stubborness, trying to play a scale. "Weren't you the one who kept telling me I had to practice every day, 'or else'?"

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"I thought it was obvious that inabillity to play due to injury was permissible."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia tilted the neck of the guitar up until it rested on the palm of the cast, making it easier to position her fingers. She tried for a G chord. "I'm not 'unable' to play, though."

Still couldn't quite reach. She adjusted the guitar again.

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"Rebellion through extreme literal-mindedness. Interesting choice. And you're barely playing. You're picking at it."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia shut her eyes and took a breath. "At least I'm doing something."

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"There's a large number of things you can do that don't involve you using your hurt limbs like an idiot."

[nadiathesaint]

"I'm trying to relax!"

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"Nadia, if you want to argue and complain about not being able to do stuff while you're injured, I suggest that you don't take up the arguement with the guy who was bed-ridden for a month at the age of ten for multiple injuries, including one that left him with a piece of headgear not often seen outside of a showing of "The Pirates of Penzance.""

[nadiathesaint]

"Oh, and is that what makes you such an expert on what I can and can't do?"

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"No. No expert. However, since you seem completely and totally unaware, I figure I may have to step in and offer one or two experienced pointers."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia barked out a laugh. "Completely unaware? What, do you think I've never been injured before? And pointers? You've been ordering me around!"

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"Could have fooled me, the way you're acting. I'm ordering because nothing else seems to be getting through to you."

[nadiathesaint]

"Maybe you should have tried leaving me the hell alone?"

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"What, and let you go around and injure yourself? You've already demonstrated a thick-headed desire to make your injuries heal as slowly as possible."

[nadiathesaint]

"What, because I didn't ask someone to magically make them all go away? I have a broken arm, Pip, I'm not dead!"

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"No, but you are acting like a prig headed idiot. Walking around, trying to go to birthday parties. I saw the condition you were in, Nadia. I carried you on my back all the way from Blackadder's appartment to the clinic. You have no right trying to walk around and worry and go places like you're trying to."

_{[[*coughs* Now with the right icon.]]}

[nadiathesaint]

"No right? Who the hell are you to tell me what I have a right to do? You have no idea what they did to me, and you have no idea what I'm capable of."

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"...Nadia. Of everyone on the island, aside from the doctors, I know the best what they did to you. Because without me, you'd probably be dead. As for what you are capable of, as you so nicely put it, it doesn't really matter unless you've been secretly a regenerator. And I know you aren't because you aren't Scottish. You've been hurt. Same as any of normal humans. You have to get better."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia's voice dropped. "The last time I saw you before I woke up in the clinic, you were unconscious and in the hands of that fairy bitch. I fought them, with the broken arm, with the cracked ribs. I know what I am capable of. You lucked out; you got Pippi and Walter when you woke up."

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"...So, you're saying that you're stronger than me? What, you think they knocked me out and I went down without a fight?"

Pip's voice had grown very quiet. Dangerously quiet.

[nadiathesaint]

Yeah, Nadia really didn't care about the volume of Pip's voice. "I'm saying that I'm as strong as I need to be, and I know my limits. And I'm saying that you do not get to tell me what to do."

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

Pip advanced, very slowly. "Really? Because as far as everyone can tell, Nadia, you don't know your limits. Or, to be very accurate, you're a smart girl, Nadia. But you become very stupid when it comes to Walter. Love's a wonderful thing, but maybe there's a reason, what, nine people threatened Walter? Is it because we think he's a bad person? Maybe it's because we know that there's been a problem with your infatuation in the past? That's led to some very bad things happening? Have you forgotten those things so quickly?"

[nadiathesaint]

"Infatuation?" Nadia set her guitar to the side and stood, her right hand curling into a fist, her voice lowering to match Pip's. "Infatuation. Walter has saved my life on more than one occasion. I'm thinking that warrants just a little bit of trust. And need I remind you of your stellar success rate with the ladies?"

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"Exactly," Pip responded. "Infatuation is a very dangerous thing, Nadia. Even when it's returned. For the record, I've saved your life as well. From Walter, I might add. My saving your life counts for nothing, then? It only counts when Walter is involved?"

[nadiathesaint]

"That. Wasn't. Him."

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"Not. The. Point."

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia took a step closer, the nails on her right hand starting to cut into her palm. "What, you think I can't think straight around Walter? You think I wouldn't hurt him if I had to? You. Don't. Know. Me. You have no idea what I've done before I came here."

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"...Could you kill him? Not hurt him. That's easy enough. Could. You. Kill. Him? Have you even killed another human being? Because I have. I've killed quite a few. I killed one just a couple of weeks ago, when I picked up all those scars. I had to point a pistol at Walter and shoot to kill. I had to fire a killing shot at someone I cared about. You do not know what that's like and you don't ever want to know. God willing, you will never know. You will never have to wake up in the middle of the night and realize that you are capable of killing your friends. Do not pull the "I've seen some shit in my time" card on me, Nadia. I've been to war. And that's something you never want to see."

[nadiathesaint]

Wake up thinking she could kill her friends?

She'd already done that. Every time she dreamed about what would happen in that grey city, she woke up knowing that she could, some day, kill all of them. She stared Pip in the eye, her hand relaxing, her voice at a calm whisper.

"You don't know me." She picked up her guitar and moved to step around him. "We're done here."

[cyclopeanmerc.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Pip said. "We are." He turned around and, ignoring Nadia's movements, walked down the stairs.

[nadiathesaint]

Nadia watched him go, then set her guitar back down and sat, pulling her knees up to her chest.

She was no longer in the mood for music.

She wasn't in the mood for much of anything.