(Untitled)

[grabmyballs]

There's a couple of things Cook's learned since his first day on this island. Chief among them is that this place is nails your balls to the wall boring. Yeah, there's miles of beaches. Fucking whatever. There's no nightlife to speak of, a limited and piss-poor selection of drugs and alcohol and without those two things playing the field becomes an

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[honestlyrubbish]

The nice thing about the Compound was that practically all services a citizen could require in a pinch could be found on a single floor of the building. For Hermione, having the Clinic, the Council offices, and the IPD in such close vicinity calms her more than she likes to admit, having that bird's eye view of most that she would take interest in, even being able to hear voices through the wall and determine, through the level of panic in their tones, whether or not she's needed to offer extra help. That was how she'd heard a rather disgruntled exchange about some prankster who appeared to be steadily making his way across the island, from callbox to callbox, and why Hermione had set herself out (having already finished more than her share of paperwork for the day) to find the offender and impress upon him how important it was that the lines remain clear and resources not be strained thin in the event of an actual emergency

[honestlyrubbish]

Closing her eyes briefly, Hermione lets out a deep exhale, relieved. And in retrospect, she feels uneasy in a different way now, thinking back on Cormac MacLaggen and how she never tried to stop his behavior at all. While Cormac certainly wasn't even half as aggressive as this young man's been, maybe she could have spared herself a few awkward moments and a great deal of misunderstanding if she'd just been clear. She releases her tight grip on her shirt, arms hanging loose by her sides.

"Thank you," she replies, meeting his gaze and holding it for several seconds, before her brow furrows with a sudden realization, eyes darting to the side and back again. "I'm Hermione Granger. If you're really that... bored, I could probably help you find something more interesting off the bookshelf." She shrugs lightly.

"It tends to give me what I want." With a pause, and deciding that their conversation's been awkward enough, she turns again, as though to leave.

[grabmyballs]

She should have just left it and the fact that she doesn't rankles Cook a bit. The thank you is nice; that's something new, and she way she looks him in the eyes when she says it. But she presumes too much on his kindness and his interest when she deigns to offer him help.

He holds her gaze coolly for as long as she wants it, but when she turns to go Cook makes no move to stop her or to taunt her. He just lets her go as he said (or implied) that he would, unwilling to do anything more, one way or another.