[ The texts are strange for Eleven - the technology not on a level that exists, and she has not used a computer. To her, it's almost like morse code. Like dots and dashes that make words, and sometimes that is easier for her than putting those words on her tongue and feel clumsy about it. It certainly is easier than writing with her hand and producing the symbols with a pen, and feeling like it's a monumental skill to make the lines look anything like what she wants to express.
Eleven hovers in the room, unsure for a moment, and finally opts to stand next to the fort by the time the door opens. Everyone else gets greeted with a small, soft 'Hi' - Laura of course, instead gets... ]
Hola.
[ The fort is large - larger than Mike's, because Erik and her built an actual frame. The floor under it is covered with blankets and pillows, and the metal frame is covered in blankets, too. The light from outside hits those blankets in all their mismatched colours and patterns, and all but makes them glow. The fort spans the distance between both of their beds, and has plenty of space inside of it. For both girls and then some. ]
( The moment her eyes alight upon the fort in the middle of the room, they go wide and round and delighted. She slips the rest of the way in the door, lips parting in surprise, and after the bafflement finally passes she manages: )
This is the most wonderful thing.
( She's never had one of these. Only ever seen one once, on the motel television. It looked so fun — and it looks even more fun in person.
Her eyes flick up quickly to Eleven, excitement building, barely restrained. )
[ She demonstrates the flap - the fabric that hangs over at the front and can be pulled down to fully enclose the fort, or lifted up to leave the front open to the room. Then she points at the metal frame holding the blanket structure up. ]
Erik helped.
[ She thinks it will make Laura happy to know that. ]
We can put things inside. You can make it pretty. It can have a name.
( For us; the smile she levels at Eleven is utterly genuine. She's made friends here, of course she has. John began as her friend, even, though she thinks of him more as an older brother now. It's just — all the friends she's made here have been older. It hasn't been the same as how things feel with her friends from the facility. She misses Rictor, and the camaraderie she had with him. She misses whispering quietly with Delilah.
But she can see the beginnings of this again with El. She feels it. That it will be like it was, that she will have something again where there's been only a glaring vacancy for three months.
Erik helped — her smile only widens. That he would help Eleven do this for her, for them... it makes the warmth in her chest glow brighter, expanding, touching every rib. )
What do we name it?
( She has named dogs, but she's never named blanket forts. )
[ Laura's smile is returned immediately and just as genuinely. Friendship is still new for Eleven, and Laura is her first girl friend - and her first friend who is like her. She considers Kali a sister - and isn't sure she'd call her friend, exactly. The first buds of this feel as familiar as they did with Mike and the boys, and yet different. It's exciting.
It makes losing home... sting a little less. ]
You like... westerns, right? Shane. Joey Starrett. Horses. [ Other ideas. Mike's blanket fort didn't have a name. But Will had the one in the forest... ] Or it can be... a castle?
[ A small shrug. She's just pulling from things she knows other people like, Eleven doesn't really know better. Or what she likes, personally. ]
( Judging by the subtle way her expression lights up, it's clear she had no idea El understood her network name. So far, nobody else has — it's especially exciting that the first person to get it is her friend. She hasn't seen many westerns, but spending the day watching them with Charles made her love the few they managed to get in before everything went to shit.
Westerns, she decides, are better than castles. This is mostly just because they're in a castle already, and it's because they've been kidnapped by people who want to use them as weapons. She'll stick with the former and, after a beat, suggests: )
The Alamo?
( She's never been there, but it's in a lot of westerns, and it's near Mexico. Both of these things are good. )
[ Eleven remembers that name too, and has about as much context for it. The name rolls off the tongue nicely, though. ]
Alamo. Si.
[ It's good, she likes it. Though thinking of Castle Byers, the way she'd seen it in the Upside Down with Will hiding inside, gives her an idea. She thinks stealing the idea is probably allowed. She's just trying to copy from her friends for her friend. That's fair, right? ]
We could... make a sign.
[ Write 'The Alamo' on it. Make it look nice, perhaps. Put it on the fort. ]
( A sign — she brightens, darting around the blanket fort toward her nightstand to rifle around until she finds her paper and pencils. She comes back holding them, beaming. )
Erik is teaching me to draw. I can help make the sign.
( Since she didn't do anything to help with the rest, she can at least contribute this much. )
Maybe we can make it inside?
( She's eager, impatient to go in — and manages to wait all of two more seconds before ducking into the flap, deeply pleased and shrouded in the wonderment only a kid can have when presented with the dope ass interior of an expertly crafted blanket fort. )
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Eleven hovers in the room, unsure for a moment, and finally opts to stand next to the fort by the time the door opens. Everyone else gets greeted with a small, soft 'Hi' - Laura of course, instead gets... ]
Hola.
[ The fort is large - larger than Mike's, because Erik and her built an actual frame. The floor under it is covered with blankets and pillows, and the metal frame is covered in blankets, too. The light from outside hits those blankets in all their mismatched colours and patterns, and all but makes them glow. The fort spans the distance between both of their beds, and has plenty of space inside of it. For both girls and then some. ]
no subject
This is the most wonderful thing.
( She's never had one of these. Only ever seen one once, on the motel television. It looked so fun — and it looks even more fun in person.
Her eyes flick up quickly to Eleven, excitement building, barely restrained. )
Can I go in?
no subject
[ She demonstrates the flap - the fabric that hangs over at the front and can be pulled down to fully enclose the fort, or lifted up to leave the front open to the room. Then she points at the metal frame holding the blanket structure up. ]
Erik helped.
[ She thinks it will make Laura happy to know that. ]
We can put things inside. You can make it pretty. It can have a name.
no subject
But she can see the beginnings of this again with El. She feels it. That it will be like it was, that she will have something again where there's been only a glaring vacancy for three months.
Erik helped — her smile only widens. That he would help Eleven do this for her, for them... it makes the warmth in her chest glow brighter, expanding, touching every rib. )
What do we name it?
( She has named dogs, but she's never named blanket forts. )
no subject
It makes losing home... sting a little less. ]
You like... westerns, right? Shane. Joey Starrett. Horses. [ Other ideas. Mike's blanket fort didn't have a name. But Will had the one in the forest... ] Or it can be... a castle?
[ A small shrug. She's just pulling from things she knows other people like, Eleven doesn't really know better. Or what she likes, personally. ]
no subject
Westerns, she decides, are better than castles. This is mostly just because they're in a castle already, and it's because they've been kidnapped by people who want to use them as weapons. She'll stick with the former and, after a beat, suggests: )
The Alamo?
( She's never been there, but it's in a lot of westerns, and it's near Mexico. Both of these things are good. )
no subject
Alamo. Si.
[ It's good, she likes it. Though thinking of Castle Byers, the way she'd seen it in the Upside Down with Will hiding inside, gives her an idea. She thinks stealing the idea is probably allowed. She's just trying to copy from her friends for her friend. That's fair, right? ]
We could... make a sign.
[ Write 'The Alamo' on it. Make it look nice, perhaps. Put it on the fort. ]
no subject
Erik is teaching me to draw. I can help make the sign.
( Since she didn't do anything to help with the rest, she can at least contribute this much. )
Maybe we can make it inside?
( She's eager, impatient to go in — and manages to wait all of two more seconds before ducking into the flap, deeply pleased and shrouded in the wonderment only a kid can have when presented with the dope ass interior of an expertly crafted blanket fort. )