Dawn of a New Age - Oldport Blues

Hospital - Patient's Room, The Moral Is That Hospitals Are Dangerous

Fortunately for Martha, Ciro had exhausted himself trying to protest his hospitalization since the second he was loaded into the ambulance. His throat was raw by the time they arrived- not helped at all by the smoke that had invaded him earlier- and even though he had regained control of his body, the seizure had left him so spent that it was all he could do to put one foot in front of the other.

Still, he wasn't happy as he was led into the sterilized room. He didn't look it either- his skin was less ashen but not quite back to its healthy brown tone. His clothes were rumpled from where they had dried, his curls still damp from entrapped condensation. And though he couldn't see it, there was still a blot of red in his eye where a blood vessel had burst.

All in all, some rest was exactly what he needed, and the temptation was overwhelming as Martha directed him to one of the empty beds. It'd only been, what, six hours since he awoke that morning? It felt like weeks. His legs all but crumpled beneath him as he sat on the bed's edge, the dipping foam inviting him to lie his entire body down.

But he couldn't sleep, not here. Every second he spent in here was more that he owed Irene, and he already felt terrible for owing her anything at all. He'd discharge himself, and then find a way to pay her back- he couldn't think of anything he could provide that she wouldn't already have, but he could think of that later.

He was just about to ask Martha when he'd be able to leave when the girl in the bed over spoke up. The shock of blue hair helped him to recognise her immediately, his tiredness forgotten for the moment as alarm took its place. "You..?" His voice was scratchy, his brain racing to remember the name that Zia had dropped. The one that he hadn't quite been able to place. "C-Carlie, what... what happened..?"

But the rollercoaster wasn't over yet. Another boy was led through the door, and Ciro stiffened as he recognised the figure that was responsible for this whole mess in the first place. Simon. Ciro's head throbbed as the memories of fiery strands of plasma resurfaced. Without realising it, he lifted himself off the bed again, words slipping out his mouth before he was even aware of them. "Wh- why are you here?"

So...ride over was just as awkward, painful, awkwardly painful and painfully awkward as you might expect. A minute or two in, I was able to breathe again, but I still sat there in a stranger's car, with a ribcage full of pain, surrounded by people who hate me now for reasons I'm not even close to understanding. Still, these crazy people managed to get me to a hospital all right. Finally, somewhere that could be easily explainable to my parents. They'll know that I'm safe, that I'm in good legal hands...then I can worry about the police having some mask or other with my DNA in it. But that's for later. Right now, I'm being put in for a checkup. Hopefully wouldn't set my parents back by anything, damned if I know how these hospital fees work. All I know is the doctor can maybe give me something for my chests, and maybe, just maybe, figure out why I've been waking up in either weird clothes or no clothes. Probably an answer above their pay grade, maybe some kind of mind control or superpower dementia going on, but still, so long as I'm grasping at straws, maybe best to have a professional grasp at them too.

Is that phrased weirdly? No cure for that part of me, certainly.

But no time for that now. Nurse leads me into a patient room, and the immediate thing to greet me is a brand new member of the Hate-and-Fear-Simon club springing up with shock on his face...and something red in his eye too. Think I might know him, might share some classes, certainly seen him at the meet up in the park. 'Why are you here?' Just from the way he says that, the way he looks at me, he clearly thinks I've done something terrible. He could even be right, I don't know any more, I just know that I'm not a threat to him, and I don't want to be a threat, I just want this terrible, horrible day to be over with already.

'Why are you here?'...Well, what sums it up? What's the reason anyone goes into a hospital at all? Sheepishly, barely making eye contact, and with a chest full of pain, I respond.

"...Because...there's something wrong with me."

Wincing again, hand on diaphragm, I take my seat on the waiting bed. Nurse asks what seems to be the problem. "Couple," wince "...things. Got hit in the chest, really hard, 'bout an hour ago. Knocked the wind out for a bit. Still hurts." Should I say the other thing now? Should I wait for a doctor, go in more depth then?...No, I should say it now. So that this guy knows I'm not an enemy, that whatever happened out there wasn't my fault. "There's...something else... Since last week, I've been having blackouts. Wake up tired, muscles aching, sometimes in bed, sometimes in weird places. Don't remember anything, don't know what I've b-" Ow, owwow, tense up, too much talking, chest really hurting now. "...Prob'ly...just...deal with chest first, maybe."

Edited by LizardOfAus on Aug 18th 2019 at 9:35:15 AM

Hospital Waiting Room

After the music started, Hyeon wasn’t really sure where the ride ended and the waiting room began.

He’d borrowed some headphones (may his old ones rest in peace, hallowed were their sound) from someone who he was pretty sure was actually that chick who thought she was dead on that first night, a million and one days ago, before he eased into a pleasant, absent-minded musical trance that did its best to drown out the persistent pounding in his head. In no time at all, he was sitting in familiar seats, smelling the familiar smell of healing—which, the nursing home attendants never told you, was exactly the same as the smell of death. Still, there weren’t nearly as many unpleasant undersmells as a building primarily filled with old people, which made it easier to let his mind drift off instead of focusing on the anxious rhythm that his heel beat against the hospital floor while he waited for Lenore to say any of the things he was too afraid to ask. Kwang perked up at the sound, sticking his head over the edge of Josephine’s purse that they’d used to smuggle him inside, prompting Hyeon to take a moment to break his stressed reprieve in order to reach in and gently but firmly push his furry head down back into the purse’s depths with his index finger.

But when the punk girl finally gave him the answers that he’d been almost dreading to hear, the Korean boy to practically deflated in his seat like a birthday balloon left behind long after the party’s end. “Thank, fuck.” Surged out of both his lips and some deep well of apprehension and exhaustion, before he turned his head to look at the punk teen while he gathered his hand into an OK sign for emphasis. “If you ever wanna teleport into any senior party in a fifty-mile radius, I will hook you up." He rested a grateful hand on her shoulder, giving it a shake that was equal parts happy disbelief and desperate congratulations. The mood was soured somewhat, however, as an all-too familiar voice made itself known, and Hyeon turned to face the source with the instinctive combination of narrowed eyes and raised hackles mostly known to dogs stumbling upon cats. “Normal exam stuff,” he replied, his tone indicating how he was trying and desperately failing to pretend that her question wasn’t the stupidest thing he’d ever heard, “stress, headaches, paper cuts—also the fucking school exploded.” He glared at her over his sunglasses like he had a lot more to say about whatever part she might have played in said explosion, only to glance over in Kev’s direction instead, before unwinding his posture and settling back in a reluctant but genuine offering of peace.

Feeling the bile lower even while the next song on his setlist began to rise, Hyeon would attempt to look over at Josephine before nudging her with his elbow. “Hey,” he would say, softer, even as he pulled out the headphone closest to her. If she listened close, she might just hear the familiar-or-not opening chords of the acoustic, almost soothing melody of “That’s The Way”, even while he offered the ear bud out to her. “How you holding up?”

"It is."

After they arrived at Marko's shop, and the boy prepared the store to house them, Rhys' adrenaline finally gave out. The searing pain in his hand threatened to overtake him, and he very nearly collapsed on the spot from the rush. He got a chair, tucked into the corner of a stack of boxes and a shelf full of liquor. The smell was not helping him keep his guts firmly in his stomach, so he fell back on an old habit of his; every few seconds he'd pinch a finger, press down on his knuckles, did something to make the pain flare up again. It was easier to deal with the pain if you got used to it, his dad always told him, and it helped him focus... eh, mostly.

"If..." He took a deep breath, fixing the bandages Emmanuel had wrapped around his hand. "You could have stopped this before it happened. You could have stood up, made your friend listen to reason, but you didn't. You left. Ran away."

Was he being harsh? Maybe. But it was fact. Marko was Daigo's friend, and instead of cutting any thoughts at the source, he up and left him to his devices. That's what it was, so that's how it is.

Another breath, and Rhys doubled over, heaving and coughing as the pain and the smell got to him. "I-Is there anywhere else better for us to be than surrounded by booze?"

Uber Ride

At a certain point during the car ride to the hospital, Jacob decided to check the time on his phone. It was at this point he realized his phone had been turned off since before the exam was supposed to begin. Giving a sigh, he had rebooted the device...

Only to immediately start shaking when the screen lit up with plenty of missed calls and texts from his mother. Understandably, she was pretty desperate to get in contact with him after hearing that she had dropped him off into a building currently dealing with a bomb threat.

The instant he looked at the messages, his mother started typing. Obviously she had been waiting for the texts to show they had been read.

Oh no, he really should have thought about informing her. This whole time, she must have been assuming the worst. He quickly began typing out a response.

Another response came from his mother soon after.

He spent the rest of the ride forcing himself to come up with a fabricated series of events to assuage his mother's justified fears. There was no way he could be honest, much to his distress. Mrs. Miller had been surprisingly accepting when he said he needed some time alone to calm himself down after the incident.

Hospital Waiting Room

Knowing barely any of these people, beyond the surface level, and being slightly scared of several of them as well, Jacob made himself look as small as possible as he sat in the waiting room. Now that he had basically gotten all the answers he wanted, there was little point in sticking around here.

However, he was still staying here due to social obligation. It wouldn't look right to immediately leave. For now, the teen was focused on fabricating a very coherent narrative to tell his mother about the events that went down on this day once they could talk in person.

He tried to ignore any arguments or stressful discussions, as getting agitated now could cause his powers to act up a bit. There were too many witnesses to risk that.

Whatever impetus that made Ivy install an off switch in Ziz was a blessing in disguise. To think, if she let it fly around in that Uber, scanning things and flashing lights in drivers' eyes, just how dead would she be?

She absentmindedly rubbed the spot in her now (mostly) dry coat where she had stuffed her little drone, looking at the aquarium in front of her, thinking...trying to not think about the...you know, the usual. At this point, it was pretty usual for Ivy to be fearing for her life.

Ivy kinda wanted to laugh about that, but she also didn't because it was horrible.

Aside from the one receptionist who had given a positive appraisal to her fancy new coat, very little was going right. Naturally, after all of this, she feared and dreaded the reaction her mother must be having...Mom knew, of course, what was really going on, but she probably thought that it made her even more likely to get kidnapped or murdered...and to be honest, that was entirely true. Probably. Can't really defend yourself with an R/C helicopter and a parka.

Ivy wondered if, since her abilities were so weak, maybe the...government? Illuminati? Whatever Travers worked for would let her off lightly.

Her eyes drifted upwards along with the vision of her normal life going up in smoke, and...who was that guy?

Dang it, this isn't the time to keep on forgetting names. He was in the car ride over here, and he was at the meeting thing, so he was involved in this, and...waaaaaiiiit, Jake? Ivy could remember that...uhh, normal-looking face from the second grade. Put on top of that the clothing style that hadn't changed even slightly since then, and...yeah, that was him, wasn't it?

At this point, Ivy had been staring at him for a while, so maybe Jacob noticed.

"...hhhhhhhh..." Ivy said to him.

Hospital Waiting Room:

As her clothes became creased due to the dampness drying up, Josephine's body was carried towards the hospital. However, her mind was still in that past. It created a landscape revolving around that incident.

There was no doubt that her parents would have watched the news by now. Unless, by a cruel miracle, that was not ought to occur, it was only an inevitability. There were bound to call her. On the one hand, the joy she would feel from hearing their concern might alter her flicker of hope into hopeless optimism. On the other hand... how would she explain to them what had occurred? In case of many possibilities where she would be damned, did Josephine have to prepare to separate herself from them?

No, that would not happen. She felt that all these denials would lead her to become addicted to it and separate her from reality for eternity... Nevertheless, she swallowed it.

Being in her own mindscape for quite some time, she woke up from this waking dream to witness the hospital... and the mix of familiar and unfamiliar faces. To her surprise, after analyzing the situation, it turned out that she had met quite a significant amount of people in here. Josephine was not sure if that was a source for relief or concern.

At Hyeon's question, she only answered: "Fine... I guess." For she could muster no other question. The girl also accepted his offer of an ear bud, letting the soothing melody flow in to her brain. "Thanks."

In a way, feeling obligated to say something, Josephine asked Hyeon a question that did linger in her mind, although not as hardly as other ones: "What happened on your end? When the whole thing... just exploded?"

Rhys' accusation made Marko's face crumple up into an angry frown. He opened his mouth, ready to reply, but the words died in his throat. Instead, the boy just clasped his hands together and rubbed his thumb on his palm, carefully listening to every word coming out of the bespectacled boy's mouth.

"Why? You got a problem?" He asked out loud when Rhys made his distaste of alcohol clear, and though his entire posture made it seem like a quasi-threat, there was genuine concern on his tone. Emmanuel, meanwhile, would reach out to Rhys with every cough, before pulling his hands back and focusing his attention on just tapping his foot as much as possible. "You can step outside. There's no one in the store, anyway."

Marko made his way to the other side of the room, this time focusing on Harriet. "You said you wanted to look at... immigration records?" He asked, turning to Rhys. "You know about that, right? You know what she wants?"

"Didn't expect you to get involved with someone of Brayne's ilk." Benedict muttered under his breath at Irene, not aware that she might not even be paying enough attention to listen to his snide comment. He turned his attention to Jacob, noticing the tiny discrepancies in his actions, the little movements which betrayed a bubbling fear underneath the steel facade. "Are you holding up, Miller? Or should we worry about something?"

"Worry about something?" Luna piped up, getting back up on her feet and hobbling over to Benedict's side, giving her a perfect location to look down at Jacob. "What should we be worrying about, hm? I'm trying to get a handle on any possible power fuckups before they fuck us up." She turned to Ivy, pointing at Jacob. "This is the guy I was telling you about, the one with the bowtie and the robot stuff?" She stopped, narrowed her eyes and tapped her chin. "No, I... I didn't tell you that. I told Nadine... " She added, her words heavy with guilt.

Hyeon's answer about the school exploding made Lenore murmur something under her breath, before a tiny, almost imperceptible smile made itself known across her lips. "Cool." She whispered in response to the school exploding, sitting back down and reaching for a nearby magazine talking about the perfect vacation. The sight of Hyeon's eyes over his glasses made her back down a little "Or not."

Lenore peered over her magazine at Irene and the others. "Don't I know you?" She said to Irene from across the room.

"Yeah, what happened on your end?" Jae piped up, scooting over to where Hyeon and Jo were, one hand holding the icepack and the other pointing at Jem. "You know Jem— whatever, shut up, what happened on your end?" She pointed at Hyeon, furrowing her brow. "I really wanna fucking know what went down, because when we walked out of the building, there were seven hundred cops all around us and it freaked me the fuck out."

Carlie let out the loudest of chuckles when Ciro asked how she had gotten there, loud enough that one of the nurses sent a quick 'shhh' her way. "Oh, I got... shot, y'know. Like people usually do. It was pretty dope all things considered. The thing came at me and I just took it right in. Super bad-ass." She raised an eyebrow, unaware of the fact he was now speaking to Simon. "Did you get shot too? Was it cool?"

"Please." Nurse Martha muttered at Carlie, sending her a stern glare before putting on gloves. "How does your eye feel?" She asked Ciro, placing a wrapped up tongue depressor in a nearby metal tray whilst she fished around for a portable flashlight in her other pocket. "How do you feel, in general. Try and tell me, focus on me."

"Not on him." The male nurse added with a grunt as he finished writing something down on his clipboard, sending Ciro a stare before nodding at nurse Martha. "Right now, we're not in a position to deal with blackouts, so let's go by parts—" He said to Simon, putting on gloves and pointing at his chest. "I want you to just point at where it hurts the most. Just point, don't touch. If it hurts to move your arms, don't move 'em." He peered up at Simon for a moment. "These blackouts- you dealing with a lot of stress lately? School-related stress?"

Edited by Stratofarius on Sep 2nd 2019 at 6:24:46 AM

Irene - Hospital Waiting Room

Did Lenore know her? She could not recall the specifics at that moment. It was ultimately, unimportant, and so she shut down the line of thought a few moments in.

She put away her phone for the moment, a carefully neutral look on her face as she looked up at Benedict.

"Do not insinuate under your breath, Mr Tudor," Irene said. "If you have complaints or criticisms to level at me or Miss Brayne, speak them clearly. I will hear what you have to say and extend the courtesy of proper consideration."

Internally, she was more than a little angry, but for the moment she was keeping her temper in check.

Edited by joergenjetsam on Sep 3rd 2019 at 12:53:08 AM

Hospital - Patient's Room, Fine's My Middle Name

Now, granted, Ciro didn't know what kind of answer he was expecting from Simon since he had never intended (consciously, anyway) to ask a question in the first place. Still, nothing but a timid admission was surprising, enough so that Ciro only followed his movement silently until the nurses both insisted that he move his attention away from the other boy and onto Martha.

Which he did, but half-heartedly, barely paying attention to her questions. "My... eye? It's..." Despite not knowing which one she was referring to, his hand knew to raise up to his left one. "I dunno... a little itchy, I guess? I feel fine, really..."

He knew that eavesdropping was rude, but even so he found his ears pricked in Simon's direction, trying to pick up on anything that would explain his weird behaviour- both now and before, when he'd adorned the mask. His focus only lasted until Carlie gave her reply, which was very effective in watering the seeds of worry that were eternally buried in Ciro's heart. "Shot?! There was- someone brought a gun to school?!"

Thinking back, Zia had said that Carlie was bleeding out. And not just her... with a sudden chill down his spine, Ciro's head jerked around the room. There was no sign of Devin or his crew, but the fear didn't subsist entirely- instead it continued to gnaw at the back of his mind, like the itch in his eye. Like he wasn't out of danger just yet.

"What happened?" he asked Carlie, his gaze momentarily a mile away before he forced himself to focus back on her. "I mean, where did it happen? And who- who did it? And-" Martha might as well not have been there for how Ciro ignored her entirely, pushing past his internal dread to scrounge up the next question for the blue-haired bruiser, "-I heard that- that Devin got hurt too. Devin Chayne? Was he with you?"

Waiting Room

You know, I always wanted to be a superhero. Heroine. There's a difference, right?

Not the dark, brooding kind. Not one with too many problems and not enough powers. Nah, tiny Jem wanted to be a real hero. A real savior of the day.

Just like Bananaman! Or Anpanman! Or Matter-Eater Lad!

Hmm. Now all I need is a special food.

Jemimah Chen; Or - Hey, I'm Alive!

Jem was anywhere but in the waiting room. Her eyes were on the far wall. Her arms were stock-still at her sides, fingers flickering at intervals as her natural hyperactivity reasserted itself. The ghost of a thought wailed and winged across her furrowed brow, before giving up and going to its eternal rest.

"Hey, wait a minute!"

Her gap-toothed grin split the somber air. She bounded over to Hyeon and Jo in two swift strides, looming over the pair like a enthusiastic stormcloud. The fact that the two were sharing earphones went completely unnoticed.

"You're that guy Jae-Jae kept telling me about! That cool guy with the rock band! Uh..." She tapped her foot, frowned, bit her lip, stared at the ceiling lights, then lit right back up.

"Nylon Hylon! Isn't that right, Jae-Jae?"

Edited by troydenite on Sep 8th 2019 at 7:30:40 AM

"Not particularly," Rhys snapped, hunched over his lap and staring at Marko over the rim of his glasses. "It's simply that the smell of stale alcohol filling this room has me a bit queasy, seeing as how my hand is broken trying to stop the mess you made."

Rhys stood, a bit wobbly on his feet at the sudden elevation, and made his way for the door. He stopped on the question, and turned to look over Harriet.

"Why would I know what she wants? I don't make a habit of talking to anyone, least of all the homeless girl haunting out school."

Murmuring disjointedly, Harriet pushed herself to prop her back against the wall; while the thought of finding that person in that 'dream' remained, the realisation that she would be alone in...whatever this is. Only an idiot would look for some vague individual all because some dream told them to. Marko also did not look like the sort to have such confidential information on hand.

"Forget it. It was just some stupid dream."

With that, a long breath escaped from her mouth, the thought and the tension set aside for now. She would not trouble other people on this wild goose chase. There was other things on her mind too, anyway.

"...how's Devin?"

Hospital Waiting Room

Of course Benedict would notice something was up. With his new powers, every little motion must have been adding up to paint a clearer picture of his mental state than even a verbal explanation could provide! "I really don't want to have to explain where I was to my mother later," he answered honestly, figuring that Benedict would be able to see through his lies. "I've basically confirmed everything I care about here is going alright, so now I'm just... wasting time here, I guess."

"I'm going to have to provide a full description of what happened today, and all of this is going to require even more lies," he added. "...It's really going to take a lot to make something convincing out of this mess."

Of course, the problem child Luna Black had to pipe in here. At least Benedict was probably thinking things through a bit, instead of just being annoying. "I barely ever wear a bow tie, and I don't appreciate the robot jokes Black," he remarked sardonically. "As for 'power' mishaps... all you need to know is that stress will cause mine to act up, and noticeably at that. If you can't put together what that means, stressing stimuli, such as yourself, are only going to make things worse for me."

"Do you mean the kid you nearly murdered in cold blood for no good reason?" Rhys gave Harriet a very level look as he said that, pointedly vacant so that what she did could sink in. "He's in the hospital right now. Should be, at the very least."

Giving Marko a sideways glance, Rhys started talking again, before the inevitable question came up. "From what I know of the situation, your friend was close to outright killing her." He gestured to Harriet with his broken hand.

"I...I intervened. I'm not sure quite what happened after that, but when we got to Murphy's Field, Devin was asking us to kill him. Seeing as how I just saved his life, I thought it better to not do that, and called for the ambulance to pick him up. He seemed fine otherwise; his wounds healed entirely, not even a trace."

Hospital Waiting Room

Hyeon’s stressed smile bloomed into something a bit more genuine as Josephine took hold of the earbud, the Korean teen glad that the other girl was at least able to pretend things were going anything like okay. He set down the phone the buds were connected to between them, resting it carefully on the lip of Josephine’s purse, letting the device sag deeper to brace against the squirrel perched within, tickling the creature with the song's residual vibrations. The animal settled into a half-lidded crouch while Hyeon did much the same thing in his own seat, the acoustic groove seeping into and battling against his anxiety until, just for a moment, things almost seemed like they were going to be okay. Almost.

Then Jae sat next to him, and asked how his day went.

On any other day, he might've dished out a spirited insult, taken whatever she gave back in stride, and once they were done greeting each other suggest that she fill the underachieving-loser-shaped-space at her table of equally underachieving losers. But this, this was not a good day. His fist began clench on its own, ready to do something that he might just regret later he if she said the words “what happened on your end” one more goddamn time—

Hyeon paused, blinking, staring blankly into the face of some kind of hulking wild animal that was, for some reason, able to walk and talk and attend their school. “That’s Neon Hyeon, yes, thank you,” he said, glancing about in a testy haste to see if anyone had heard, knowing that he couldn't let this mangling catch on unless he wanted to deal with it for a while. "It's a stage name. Lots of people have them. Lots of people have them!” He repeated, louder, projecting out both his voice and the unmistakable note of defensiveness that was couched within. As the immediate red in front of his eyes was somewhat quelled by an entirely different sort of red filling his cheeks, he turned at an almost complete right angle in order to turn towards Jo even as he turned away from Jae, all the while privately wondering at the wisdom of showing the delinquent his back. “Anyway, Josie," he said, giving his shoulders a playful waggle back towards Jae as he made the subject of his response clear, "the good news and the bad news is… not much.” He poked his finger into the air, tracing an idle, annoyed circle through the air as if to highlight just how much nothing he had to show, before reaching down to scratch Kwang behind his ears with that same finger. “This guy here followed the trail, and it was all… smoke and mirrors, basically, supposed to make us think there was a…” The Korean teen glanced this way and that, at everyone who was there for an aching stomach and not because they were almost singed to death, before obviously and obnoxiously mouthing the word 'Bomb' in Jo's direction. He then adopted a thoughtful expression on his face, that grew and matured even as he said “But then, you know, it actually did happen, so…” He found his eyes narrowing instinctively while he made to peek above the seats, glancing from each of the teens he knew to have powers to the next, before acknowledging that the thought was silly that the culprit was someone in this very room. His gaze set back into place as he sat back down, drifting back to a place he'd been trying to avoid ever since he'd scooted into the back of that Uber. "I don’t know if you’ve ever met Daigo Hiraga’s scrawny ass,” he said, tone distant even as it rose at least loud enough to carry behind him, “but I have it on good authority that the whole thing was his idea." And he ain’t so scrawny anymore…

Unable to resist, Hyeon threw a glance over his shoulder, the curl of his lip squirming in place to work at being equal parts disgusted and smirking at any given moment, the cruel tilt to his eyes conveying a silent, yet somehow unmistakable message to the Korean girl behind. Your parents aren’t here right now, so do us all a favor and stop acting dumb.

Before Hyeon could follow up his silent challenge, his attention was abruptly swept away by the faint mention of Nadine’s name from somewhere behind them. He immediately and instinctually craned his neck backward, not taking his eyes off of Jae, before calling back "Somebody tell Nadine,” he said, tapping his thumb impatiently against his phone's screen, where Josephine would be able to see Hyeon's open chat client (with Spotify minimized in the corner) featuring several variations of Where are u? over the period of the car ride and their hospital wait thus far, “to pick up her fucking phone already.”

Edited by Uncandescent on Sep 23rd 2019 at 3:59:44 PM

There wasn't any comment that Ivy could make in regards to what Luna said. Everything was either painful, embarassing, awkward or all three in varying intensities...she was, indeed, kind of close to saying "Of course she'd like that kind of stuff," but she wished to spare Luna the trouble. She did just die, you know.

Also...yeah, there wasn't any way she could deliver that line properly.

"Luna...give him a little...space, okay?" Ivy looked up at her, pleadingly. "Today sucks for everyone, e—and I don't think that...you know, that kind of stuff is g-gonna..."

Gonna what? You'll never find out.

She let that linger for a moment, before turning to Jacob. "I...don't know, maybe, err...not...lying might work, J-Jake."

"Wh..." I turn to look at this girl, and I have to imagine I have the same expression that whatsisname... Dave Silverman had when Bill O'Reilly said that not knowing how tidal flow works is proof that god exists. "...no. No! I don't th- no! How the hell is that in any way cool? I could've died today for all I know, in what univ-"

Ahh. Wince. There's the pain again. Can't keep talking for too long at a time.

I point around my chest area. Generally at first, but managing to zero in on the epicentre of Luna's lightning punch. Is that the right use of the term? Oh, who even cares anymore?...

I sigh. "Oh, that and then some... I thought it was to do with...I'm on a regimen of risperdal, and I was starting to skip doses when...the blackouts started. I've been taking my proper doses...proper times since, but the blackouts just keep happening...Today was worst one, since last week..."

Nurse Martha's hands 'gently' slapped Ciro's fingers away from his eye. "Don't scratch it." She muttered hurriedly, holding his hand down for a moment before pulling out a notepad and writing something in it. Him turning to face Carlie only earned more of the nurse's subdued ire, as she gripped Ciro's chin and forced him to at least face her. "Please stop looking away, mister."

"Uhhhh...." Carlie trailed off for a moment, leaning back on her bed and clicking her tongue. "It was this really cute kid with glasses? I don't know his name. But he had this resting bitch face like you just gave him something to eat and he didn't like it." She said, lowering her eyebrows and letting her lips rest in a dissatisfied position. "Wait." She narrowed her eyes. "Who's Devin?"

"If it matters, Devin Chayne is now under our care as well." Nurse Martha hissed- and as soon as the words Devin Chayne escaped her lips, Ciro would feel a faint pounding in his head, as if he could hear a distant heartbeat through the many walls of the hospital... and with every second, the heartbeat got slightly faster. "I'm gonna get some tear drops." Nurse Martha added, unaware of Ciro's condition. "You need to stand perfectly still. Don't touch your eye." She muttered in quick succession before hurrying past the male nurse, who listened intently to Simon's responses, nodding after each one.

"Okay." The nurse said, clearing his throat. "I'm going to feel the injured area. I want you to tell me at which point it starts hurting." He said, putting on a glove and placing his other hand on Simon's shoulder, holding him steady. Carefully, the nurse began to massage the area Simon had pointed at in his chest, trying to find the precise point where it hurt the most. "We can't do anything right now about your medication, since we'll need to consult your doctor about that. But considering you skipped doses— well, you can't assume things will just snap back to how they were after skipping doses, y'know?"

Letting go of Simon and removing his glove, the nurse checked a clipboard. "Were you shocked? Did you give yourself a shock? Is that the source of your pain?"

"Not much use in voicing complaints to Ms. Brayne, Melissenos-" Benedict replied in the same smart-alecky tone as before, effortlessly moving his glare from Irene to Zia. "-considering Ms. Brayne's abilities allow her to take her disdain for personal space and privacy to a whole new dimension." He finished, crossing his arms and quickly adding mentally: further displaying just how unprepared and undeserving she is of such abilities in the first place, considering she's listening in right now.

Jae cleared her throat, looking away from Jem in embarrassment. "I never said he was cool, Jem, c'mon. Look at him. He's anything but cool." She chuckled, trying to distract from the seriousness of the situation, though her smile and her laughter died the instant Hyeon sent that particular glare in her direction. Jae's fingers curled around the back of the seat that she was holding onto, and she threw her leg over the other, biting on her lower lip and looking away from the Korean boy.

The mention of Nadine's name came as unexpected help for Jae, as Luna let out a cough. Not a random cough, the kind you make when your body involuntarily decides that, y'know what, I feel like it's time for a cough. It was the kind of cough you made so that you kept your body from letting out any other kind of reaction. Luna looked at Jacob, processing his haughty answers, and the desire to insult him tugged at her... so she simply coughed once again.

"Fine." Luna added under her breath to Ivy, sitting down besides Jacob and burying her head in one of her hands, trying to think of something clever and witty and insulting to say at that particular moment. "Look, just... just lie, okay? We're all lying here. And the key to lying is making up some key details. It's not about quantity, it's about repetition. You've lied before, haven't you?"

Under the shadow of the coughs, Jae turned back to Hyeon, now with a more practiced, composed glare of her own. "It was." She added with an equally disdainful tilt of her chin, trying to look down at Hyeon despite both of them being somewhat around the same height. "I bet... it was all his plan. Because if I knew, I would have done something." So put your fucking glasses back on and stop looking at me like that.

"I didn't do this." Marko emphasized, glaring at Rhys (much to the chagrin of Emmanuel, who seemed to be one step behind Rhys, trying to make sure he wasn't putting undue stress on his broken hand). "The alcohol ain't stale, and that's not a nice way to refer to anyone. She's..." He waved in Harriet's general direction and then looked away from her. "She's dealing with stuff. I've heard that about her."

His ears perked up at the mention of Devin, prompting him to stand up suddenly. "He's hurt?!" Marko asked, outraged, but when the conversation mentioned Harriet's role in the situation, he tried to simmer that outrage under a recurring layer of pity. "I don't care—" He turned to Rhys again, finding it far more comfortable to be angry at him than at the poor homeless girl. That is, until a key series of words reached his ears.

"Did you..." Marko ran a hand over his mouth, his face taking on a somber expression. "His wounds... healed up? And he was asking to be killed?"

It was Emmanuel's nods that confirmed whatever bad news was floating inside his head. Marko turned to the door, and then back to the speedster. "Did you—" When Emmanuel shook his head vicariously, he turned to Rhys and Harriet. "Did you see him interact with Daigo? In any way? Especially, uh, did you see Daigo... bite him on the neck? Because if you did, then we need to go to the hospital, because... because Devin is gonna put people in danger."

Marko's Shop

Sebastian has been quiet for most of the conversation, meekly following around Emmanuel and Rhys, still in shock. What was he supposed to have done? Should he have actually killed him? No, that would've been insane. Devin was in pain, delirious, not in his right mind.

Fuck, everything was moving so fast... Daigo was insane, he had almost speared Rhys himself, Devin had been brutalized, Harriet had actually stabbed Devin... things were in such a downward spiral he could have almost laughed.

Pull yourself together, Fesxis commanded. You need to focus on the here and now. Rhys and Marko were at each others throats because of course they were. Why wouldn't they be?

"No, we... we didn't see if Diego bit him. It was such a whirlwind of violence and everything was happening at once, and... why does it matter?" He was having a hard time pulling himself together. The image of Devin's blood on his hands was at the forefront of his mind... and so was the realization that he had tried to kill Daigo.

Edited by Cwest5538 on Sep 26th 2019 at 2:24:03 AM

Marko spun around to face Seb, throwing part of his upper body forward as if trying to use his own broadness to tower over Seb. "Because—" He growled, before stopping himself and rubbing his face once more. "Because, D-Daigo... he turned into a v-v-v..." His lips struggled with the word, and so he clenched his fist, his teeth and blurted it out. "—a vampire."

"I thought something was weird after that night, when we got our powers. He used to be nice. He used to worry about us, ask if we were doing fine, break apart our fights." Marko clutched his own chest, looking down. "He started acting weird. And the more... the more he went after other people and... t-t-the more b-blood he drank..." His face grew paler with each word. "... the worse he got."

"And then he realized that if h-he just bit people... he c-c-could control them." It almost looked like each word was making Marko sicker and sicker. "H-he could make them do things. His b-blood let them control t-t-them, and h-he called it... his... t-t-thralls... and i-i-if Devin's been b-bit, then h-h-he's going to do something dangerous..." He covered his eyes, trying to hide the small tears that were pooling around them. "I-I should have done something..." He sobbed under his breath.

Rhys would feel a tug at his sleeve, and if he were to turn towards it, he'd see Emmanuel, putting on his best we need to help this person (saved only for whenever they found a subject for the newspaper that reaaaaally needed their help, 'journalistic integrity' be damned).

Hospital - Patient's Room, So Many Plot Points So Little Time

Ciro might've struggled against the nurse more, insisted once again that he was perfectly fine and that her examination was unnecessary, if he hadn't suddenly realised that he'd been in her shoes one too many times- fussing over an injured child while they fidgeted and tried to make good their escape. Humbled by the knowledge that she was only trying to do her job, he offered a quiet "Sorry." and stilled himself so that she could properly check his eye.

While waiting, he ruminated over Carlie's description of the shooter. Unfortunately, it was too vague to work with- Jacob was the first person he thought of who could fit the bill, but there were a dozen other bespectacled, grumpy kids in the school. It could easily be someone that Ciro wasn't familiar with. And that still left out the "why"- it had to be related to the powers, didn't it? Something so drastic happening by mere coincidence... it was difficult to believe. But then why was Carlie the victim? She didn't have anything to do with it, as far as he knew, besides knowing Nadine and Luna...

Thump thump.

The theories and speculation suddenly washed out of his head, replaced with an unfamiliar, aching void. His breath hitched, his eyes focusing on nothing as he tried to identify the sudden weirdness pervading his body. He barely even heard Martha as she left. Left. He had to leave this room. There was something waiting for him. But the other nurse...

Glancing at the man in question, Ciro swallowed, shook his head, and turned back to Carlie, trying to stall the invasive desire to leave. "N-Never mind." he replied to her question, his tone distracted. "Just... focus on getting better, alright?"

Thump thump.

His hands clutched the bedsheets tightly, anchoring him in place.

Hospital Waiting Room

Luna was possibly the last person Jacob wanted to share an amicable chat with at this moment, right after a certain vampiric teenager. "Of course I've lied before," he shot back testily, not hiding how little he thought of this advice. "Contrary to what is apparently popular belief, I am a human being. Everyone lies, the only difference is about what."

"Not that I'm very good at convincing people," he appended his statement. "But I will be fine. I can handle this myself, like always. I certainly don't need your help." Yeah, he was being petty. He knew that. He also didn't care.

His frown inverted into a small wry smile. "You should take your friend's advice more seriously. Giving someone some space generally includes not interacting with them. There are clearly... other people who might need some outside help to smooth things over. We're all a bunch of powder kegs who could explode at a moment's notice," Jacob remarked, glancing towards whatever conversation Hyeon and Jae were busy having. He had no interest in getting involved with that.

Don't need your help? Really? Right now every person in this room had a bigger need for help than just about anyone Ivy could imagine. Maybe Jacob was just being extra-spiteful and took it to mean that he didn't need Luna's help specifically...

...but, you know, both of their advice was ignored in the end.

Ivy grimaced, and drew slightly backward into the fluffy fringes of her coat.

"Y-You're...not really s-s-that..."

She trailed off for a moment.

"...you know?"

Things were getting awkward. Mostly for Rhys who, for the first time in a long while, was face-to-face with a peer who was on the verge of an apparent breakdown. Not one of the ego-fueled, hormone-induced freak outs that were all too common during school; Marko was seconds away from curling up into a ball and turning completely useless.

He returned Emmanuel's look, a beseeching You're good at this people stuff, but he knew he had to step up here. He was the only person in the room who could, really.

Rhys took one step towards Marko. "Yes, you should've."

Great start to a pep talk.

"You should've stopped your friends from doing something dangerous and idiotic. They shouldn't have done it in the first place. I should've—" His voice caught in his throat. I should've stayed out of it, he was about to say, staring down at his hand, the 'smoking gun'.

"...It's all in the past now," Rhys continued, softer than before. "You can sit in this room, fretting over it, wallowing in pity and hindsight. Lots of people do. Or you could try and fix it, do something right while you still can."

He wasn't used to talking this long in such a quiet room. It felt weird. Does he always sound like that?