Megan Henderson (meganinthedark) wrote in downfallrpg, @ 2010-04-23 22:16:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2015-09-03, megan, megan and tayne, tayne |
Common Scents
Who: Megan and Tayne
Where: Hall, first floor
When: 2 pm
For the first time since the attack, Megan was venturing outside of her room. While it felt wonderful to be outside the confines of her room, she was absolutely terrified at the same time. Her ankle no longer bothered her, thankfully; Catie had come and healed it, after Megan had finally let her touch it. She was on guard, though, making use of all her senses to get an idea of what was around her as she descended the stairs. She particularly tried to listen for Charles and Tony. Charles would probably be easier to recognize if she heard or smelled him, as she'd spent more time with him. Tony would be more difficult, but she knew she would never forget the way he smelled.
She hadn't come unprepared, of course. She had her cane in one hand, even though she really didn't feel like she needed it anymore. She was getting good at "reading" the echoes and using them to determine where things were. She also had her dagger tucked into the belt on the too-big pants she wore. She hoped that her cane would be enough to scare off any would-be attackers, but if it came to it, the dagger, while supposedly for ceremonial purposes, would be more than enough to make her point.
As she hit the landing on the first floor, she took a moment to catch her breath. Considering she hadn't done much more than pace her room for the past 5 days, it was fairly taxing walking this much. One more flight to the ground floor, then maybe I can sneak into the kitchen without too much trouble. She could already smell the kitchen, she realized. Some of the food was going bad, and while an ordinary person might be able to ignore the smell, there was no way she could. Concentrating, she tried to block out all distractions and focus on the task at hand: getting downstairs, getting something to eat, and getting back to her room without being noticed.
Tayne was just coming up the stairs from the ground floor, making his slow and unsteady way upwards in search of the actual doctor. The smells from the kitchen didn't bother him, mostly because he was just too miserable to register one more miserable thing. That, and a lot of the things that were bad had been thrown out by now, too, the last time he'd been in the kitchen for an extended period of time. Nobody with a nose like his could have spent hours baking bread and cooking steaks surrounded by rotten smells. All that would be left by now would be things that'd gone bad *since*-- and there were probably plenty of those. It'd been a few days.
The appearance of Megan, the blind girl, at the top of the stairs when he reached them made him pause. Just how good *were* her senses now, anyhow? He didn't know that he'd had a chance to ask her. "Hey," he said with a wan smile, continuing up the last few stairs sluggishly. "Megan, right?"
Megan had heard the person's footsteps and breathing long before they'd spoken. She wasn't entirely sure who it was, but the way they were walking gave her pause. It sounded like there was something wrong with them, like perhaps they were drunk. Her attempt to figure out who was there hadn't gotten any easier when she smelled them. While they had that distinctly (dirty) human smell that she'd come to expect, there was something else there that was just... off, somehow. All of this did nothing to put her at ease. She held her cane close, her free hand sliding towards her waist, just in case as the person approached. When they spoke, she tried to fight the wave of unease that went through her. A man. Shit. She really hadn't wanted to be seen at all, but especially by a man right now. Especially if he was drunk, except there was no smell of alcohol on him. She knew she'd been spotted, so she couldn't exactly bolt back up the stairs at this point, so instead she pressed herself against the wall and prayed for strength. "Um, yeah," she responded nervously. "I'm, I'm Megan, yeah. Who's that?"
The fear-smell was pretty obvious, and Tayne slowed down a little, stopping a few feet away and holding up his hands with a sheepish kind of smile, neither of which she could actually see. Right. "Sorry. Didn't mean to startle ya. I'm Tayne. Tayne Peregrine, the, uh. The one who turns into a t-tiger. If you remember th'meeting at all." He'd found powers seemed to be one thing people remembered each other by, if they didn't know names or faces-- or in Megan's case, he supposed, the sound of his voice, or even his scent if her senses really were that strong. It still felt a little weird to say it, though, to just come out and say he turned into a tiger. Would it ever feel normal, really?
Now she remembered him. It hadn't registered at first- the meeting had been too crowded for her to get individual scents and breathing patterns at the time, and she was still learning her powers as well, so she didn't have the reference she might have had with someone she'd spent one on one time. But the tiger thing was something that stuck in your mind. You didn't easily forget that. It also explained the "off"-ness of his scent, there was tiger mixed in there somewhere. "Um, yeah, I remember you now. I heard you coming, actually. And smelled you," she added, a slightly awkward look on her face. She knew how weird that had to sound. "I was just heading downstairs. I haven't... been feeling good and today's the first day I've felt like going out. Are.. are you okay?" Tiger-man or no, he didn't sound good.
"It's okay. I can smell you, too, so... no harm no foul, right?" So she *did* have a nose like his... or at least a lot better than your average person did. Tayne took that in stride, hoping she'd relax a bit, and leaned against the door frame as casually as he could, to try and hide that he really kind of needed the support. ... Not that she could see that. Ugh. Dhaval's condition was easy to remember and was something he was used to. Blindness, not so much. "I'm kinda sick. You can prob'ly smell that, too. I sure can. Got some kinda stomach bug. You might not wanna get too close, or anythin', I'd hate to pass this on to anyone who wasn't a bad guy."
“Ah, that’s what that is,” Megan said, getting another sniff of his scent. "Tiger and stomach flu. A... unique aroma," she observed, trying to force a smile. She had moved her hand away from the dagger, but she still held a tight grip on her cane. She wasn't letting that out of her reach again anytime she was out of her room. She'd heard him lean against the door frame, and wondered if it was to be casual or if it was because he wasn't feeling well. Probably a little of both. "You're the first person I've been able to talk to about scents since all this happened. You don't kind of look like a tiger now, do you? Or do you just keep the senses?" She had a memory of an old cartoon she'd seen when she was a kid with a tiger who walked, talked and dressed like a person. An old superhero cartoon, although the name escaped her.
"God, wouldn' *that* be weird," Tayne chuckled, a bit tiredly. "No, I just look like I always did, only light hurts my eyes, I see better in the dark, and sounds'n'scents're sharper. And I growl, sometimes." His tone was a little sheepish again as he said that one, since it was a tad embarrassing. "But otherwise, just look like me. I'd letcha touch to see, but, y'know. Germs. I had kinda been meaning to look you up ever since you said you had the senses thing... jus' time got away from me, an' I got sick, and shit like that...." This stupid flu-thing had really ruined a lot of plans.
Megan briefly wondered if her eyes would have problems in light or if she'd see better in the dark if she could see. As it was, she wished she'd brought her earplugs when she'd been hurriedly packing her bag. "I'll take your word for it," she said with a forced smile. She still was a bit uneasy, although she knew she needed to get past it if she was going to be living with these people for the foreseeable future. "You growl, huh? I know a couple of people who would've liked that." She stopped herself, then corrected it. "Well, knew, anyways." She was intrigued by someone having similar senses to her, though. Even if she still didn't trust him- after all, if he really wanted, he could turn into a tiger and maul her before she could react- it was still kind of nice to have someone who knew what she was going through. Tentatively, she walked a little towards him, trying not to get too close, but close enough that they weren't shouting halfway down the hall at each other. "So, how do you block it out? Does it ever get overwhelming, all the extra input?"
"A pillow?" Tayne suggested with a wry little grin, trying not to blush at the comment about growling. It was not only not something he wanted to be blushing about, it was kind of tasteless, since it'd been followed up with a past-tense correction. It was kind of hard to control that kind of thing, though. "Though I've got earplugs, too. Lately it really ain't been so bad... town's kinda quiet, and th'windows in this place are a lot better than th'windows in my truck were. That and, y'know, too busy wantin' to throw up than worry 'bout what I'm hearin' and smellin'." He chuckled faintly. "Was really bad m'first three or four days, but then I started kinda gettin' used to it."
Maybe we are a little different after all, Megan thought. "I've tried to block it out, but it's really hard. I kinda got a bump on the head and it just seems like it got worse. I really can't block out too much, just try to focus more." Her thoughts turned to what he'd said at the end, though. "Is there something going around? A flu bug or something?" She was really starting to regret coming out of her room now.
"I dunno, far's I know s'just me and Dhav-- Dhav-- Dhaval. However the hell you say his name. I interacted with a bunch of people 'fore I figured out I was sick, though, so... dunno." Tayne shrugged awkwardly. "Nobody I've talked to seems to've come down with it yet, anyhow." He paused, then suggested, "You got earplugs an' shit, right? For yourself." If she wasn't used to it yet-- maybe she was worse off, or maybe it was just the head bump-- she would need them a whole hell of a lot more than he would.
Megan didn't feel too much better about the fact that he hadn't talked to anyone else who'd come down with the flu. She really hoped she didn't come down with anything. Surely she would have by now, though. "Um, I left my earplugs at home when I left. I had them by my bed, cause my neighbors were always loud and my walls were like paper, but when I got out, that wasn't one of the things I thought to get." She had been more concerned with survival at that point and getting some of her more irreplaceable "blind girl toys" than comfort, and she'd also assumed at the time that she'd be able to go back at some point. "I really wish I could go back and get a few more things. I don't think we're too far from where I live, but with everything going on, it's probably not a good idea, is it?" She rubbed her eyes a little as she talked. Being personable when you were scared was hard work.
"Prob'ly not," Tayne agreed. "'Least not alone. You could prob'ly find someone who'd be willing to go for you, though, if you asked around. Hell, I would, if you could give me an address. Once I'm not sick anymore." It seemed like everything he wanted to do had to wait until he wasn't sick anymore. It was getting really tiring to have to put things off. "But for now, y'know, I've got earplugs. I was a woodcutter, and that was pretty noisy work, so you kinda needed things like that... you can have mine, if you want."
"That.. that might work, for now. 2 senses down, 3 to go, I guess." Megan said, managing a small but genuine smile. "Other than clothes, though, I can't think of anything I absolutely need at my apartment." Part of her wondered if her apartment was even still standing anymore, what with the monsters and everything. Which brought something else to mind as she thought about it. "Hey, was there a fire or something last night? I could've sworn I smelled something burning, but I was still a little out of it."
"Not in the building," Tayne answered. "I think somewhere 'cross town-- I saw th'smoke, but that was 'bout it." He'd really been pretty out of it, himself. He'd seen the smoke out the windows during his long and frequent-rest-filled tour of the building the previous afternoon, but hadn't been in much condition to really think about it much. "Seems to've cleared up today, though." Though what they'd do if there was a fire inside the hotel, he hadn't a clue... they needed places to escape to, that was for sure. Tayne wished he had his notebook with him so he could write that down, because he knew he'd forget it soon enough.
“Oh,” she said. Megan had a sinking feeling that it might have been her apartment that had caught fire, but she really had no way of knowing. The smell had come from a couple of directions, and since she wasn’t entirely sure where her apartment was in relationship to the hotel, she had no way of knowing for sure. “Hopefully there wasn’t anyone in there.” She decided to change the subject to something less depressing. “So, um, yeah, earplugs. You haven’t worn them since you got sick, have you?” Even if they helped, she really didn’t think it was worth getting sick for.
"Nope," Tayne promised. "Not really since th'truck, actually, since I moved here...." He pushed up from the wall, gestured-- paused, realized she couldn't see the gesture-- and said, "C'mon, I'll get 'em. They're in my room-- on this floor. And I promise I'll scrub my hand 'fore I touch 'em, for you." No sickness for Megan. He started down the hall towards his own room-- which really was only about half a dozen steps, and they were there. "I got the first room on th'first floor, heh...."
“Well, that’s lucky.” Megan hesitated as she got close to the door of Tayne’s room. Was she seriously considering going into a man’s room? Alone? She stood at the door, rocking back and forth on her heels as she contemplated what to do. “I’ll just… wait out here for you. Really, it’ll be fine.” She really hoped that it wasn’t obvious how much she was shaking right now.
Tayne glanced back at her, frowning. He could smell the fear rolling off her, confused. Was she that scared of catching what he had...? Or was it something else? He couldn't really think clearly enough to puzzle it out, so he didn't even try. He just gave her a sheepish sort of grin and said, a little uncertainly, "Uh... well, if you wanna. Though I promise it's not too... dirty or germy or whatever." He shrugged. "I'll be back in a minute, I guess."
Megan moved a little closer to the door, but didn’t go in. You’re being completely irrational, Megan Anne, you know that, right? the little voice in her head told her. What happened to you was a complete and total fluke. An accident. You know Charles and Tony couldn’t control themselves. So relax! She swallowed her pride a little and, tapping her cane on the sides of the door, followed Tayne in. “I’m sorry, I’m just being silly, aren’t I?”
"Since I got no idea why yer so nervous," Tayne answered, a bit vaguely, as he wandered in to the bathroom, first, to wash his hands, "couldn' tell ya if you're bein' silly or not." He turned on the water and grabbed a bar of soap to wash up his hands. It was the best he could do, really, and he just had to hope it was enough.
The room itself was kind of cluttered, and smelled strongly of big cat, male, and a little bit like vomit. It wasn't a pleasant smell, and Tayne had to swallow heavily to keep down the urge to make it worse.
Megan recoiled a little at the scent of the room. She'd smelled it a little from outside, but once she was inside, it was very potent. Even without a stomach flu of her own, she felt like her stomach was on the tilt-a-whirl, only having less fun. She made a mental note of where the water was coming from, just in case. "I'm sorry... I've," she breathed in a little to collect herself, only to regret it immediately. "It's been a rough few days for me." She wondered how much the attack had been hushed up by their "leaders".
Tayne winced, swallowing again, and rinsed off his hands-- the bandage was soaked; he'd need a new one, after he saw Zane. Zane would wanna see it anyway, he figured. "Sorry. It prolly stinks in here. I've, uh, been sick once'r twice...." Not all of it had been in here, but enough of it that he could still smell it, at least. "Here, lemme find those earplugs an' we can close things up again." Or, maybe, open the window a bit. Or both. He shut off the water, dabbed his hands on a towel, and came back out into the main part of the room, shuffling over to the dresser.
“It’s fine, really,” Megan lied. It was far from fine and the sooner she’d gotten what she came for and left, the happier she’d be. “I’ve dealt with worse. I used to have a guide dog with bad gas.” She laughed a little nervously at the memory of Noelani. The dog really did have the ability to clear the room if Megan wasn’t careful with her diet. “I really wish she was here right now. Not to be a guide or anything,” she added, trying to cover up her weakness. “I mean, I’ve got that covered now, really. I just… miss the companionship.” She leaned against the wall and sighed. “Her cold little nose, her furry head on my lap, even that stupid tongue of hers.” The laugh was a little better now as she remembered how often she’d have to call the dog off when she got in a particularly friendly mood and showered her “momma” with kisses.
"Aw.... If I had a pet, I bet I'd miss it, too...." Tayne rooted around in his drawers, looking for the little fabric bag he kept his earplugs in. He managed not to ask what happened to the dog. He could already imagine, and was thinking clearly enough to know that she probably wouldn't wanna talk about it. "Though I've had ideas 'bout tamin' monsters... they're just animals, far's I can tell, and you can tame any animal.... You've got th'guiding part covered?" he asked, instead. "Howzat?"
Megan shuddered at the thought of trying to tame one of those… things. She hoped she’d never come into contact with one again. Her feeble attempt at fighting one to rescue Charles Should’ve just left him had been enough to make her want to stay as far away from them as possible. “Well, I don’t really need it anymore,” she said with a shrug. At least she was getting sort of used to the smell now. Enough that her stomach was only mildly swimmy now. “I mean, I can get a pretty good idea of how a place is laid out now from the way it sounds, if that makes any sense. It’s kind of like sonar, I guess. I still keep the cane with me, just in case. Plus it’s an easy way to let people I don’t know know that I’m blind easily.” She gave an awkward smile. “I know it sounds crazy but it’s true.”
"Oh yeah?" Tayne glanced back at her with a grin, one that was audible in his voice. "That's pretty awesome. So you're really pretty self-suff-- suff-- you can really look out for yourself, then. How sensitive it is? I mean... can you tell faces an' shit? Or just general stuff like where the bed in here is? --Oh, hey, found 'em." He pulled up the little bag triumphantly, finally, and shuffled back her way to offer them. "Uh, stick out your hand, I'll drop 'em into it."
Megan could definitely hear the smile in Tayne’s voice. “No, I can’t tell faces yet. I’d still have to do the stereotypical blind-girl-feeling-your-face thing to get that.” Her voice indicated she would’ve been rolling her eyes if she had that kind of control over them, instead of them just darting back and forth all the time. “But yeah, I’ve got a good idea where things are in here.” Admittedly, that wasn’t much of a challenge, since most of the rooms here were laid out the same, but he didn’t need to know that. “I might not quite know what it is, but I can tell something is there.” She swallowed a little, but she figured she needed to get through this. Her hand shaking slightly, she extended it to accept the earplugs.
Since he was being careful of touching people, she didn't even get a brush of his hand against hers. All Tayne did was drop the little bag into her outstretched hands. "It's got a pull-tie, to open the bag. They're pretty good plugs, really... didn't totally block out a chainsaw or a welder, but did a pretty good job of blockin' out the guys' snorin' in the next tent over, that was for sure. Might not take out everything of yours, though... since yours's pretty strong, an' all."
“Anything will help,” Megan said as she caught the bag and turned it over in her hands a couple of times to get a better look at it. “I don’t know when the last time I got a good night’s sleep was.” An odd look crossed her face as she thought about something she wanted to ask. It would really sound crazy, but she decided to go for it and ask. “Could I ask you a really strange question? And if you don’t want to answer, it won’t offend me cause I know it’s really really weird.” She braced herself, unsure what his reaction would be. At least she knew where the door was if she needed to make a quick exit. “When you’re… a tiger. Do you, like, still have your person brain? Or do you have a tiger brain?”
"Not a strange question, at all," Tayne assured her with a wry smile. "I ac'tully get it a lot. I think everyone who's talked to me 'bout it asked it. Answer is: somewhere inbetween. I think, anyway. I'm kinda stupider, as a tiger, an' kinda more... I dunno, instinctive? More in the now, not likely to make any kinda plan beyond the next minute or two. But I still know who I am, an' where I am, an' who I'm with. I can still understand people talkin', to an extent, long's they're not talkin' about somethin' too complicated." He scratched his head, then winced as that made the headache throb a little more. "That help? I ain't gonna go huntin' friends, if that's whatcha mean. Not anybody who I know b'longs here."
Well, that was a little bit of a relief. At least now Megan didn’t have to worry about Tayne randomly attacking her while he was in tiger mode. She hoped at least. That also made her next question a little easier to ask, even if it would probably still sound crazy. “Well, I was wondering- when you’re better, of course- if you could… change for me sometime?” Her pale skin turned red again. “I mean, assuming you can control it and all. It’s just… I’ve never actually seen a tiger before. Plus it would kind of be nice, feeling the fur and everything.” She chuckled a little. “Okay, now you must really think I’m crazy.”
Laughing a bit, Tayne said, "Sure. Maybe by the time I'm better, I'll even have it under better control... I'm still a little iffy on the whole change itself thing. Mostly it's happened kinda... on accident, y'know? Or cuz for some reason I really needed t'be a tiger. Changing back's even harder, since th'tiger doesn't really realize he might need to not be a tiger. S'hard to explain. But yeah. I'd be glad to show off, a little. I'm told I'm a pretty awesome tiger."
Megan smiled, her first full, genuine smile in several days. “That makes sense, I guess. Hopefully I’ll get to see it sometime.” She pocketed the bag with the earplugs. “Who knows, maybe when you’re better you’ll feel like you need to be a tiger and come up and see me.” Patting her pocket, she added, “Thanks again for the earplugs. Hopefully they’ll help some.” She was feeling a little better about things and people at least. She still didn’t know how she’d react to Charles or Tony if she ran into them, but other people weren’t totally freaking her out any more.
"I'll track you down by scent if I gotta," Tayne promised with a grin, albeit a tired and somewhat vague one, as he tapped the side of his nose. ... not that she could see that. Dammit. "Now, though... think I'll get back to tryin' to find the doc. See if he's got any ideas 'bout how to fix this. Or at least make it so I don't feel like I gotta barf all th'damn time." Maybe Andre found some of that stomach stuff, or... something. "And you can get back on your way. Wherever that was headed, anyhow."
Megan heard the odd tapping sound at about face level. Flesh on flesh, eye level… “You just tapped your nose, didn’t you?” she said, proud of herself for having figured it out. “I was just going down to find some food, if there’s anything left. I hope you feel better soon.”
Tayne laughed, delighted. "That's awesome, you figured that out. Go you!" He gestured towards the door, wondering if she could figure that one out, too, from the rustling of clothes or the movement of the air, or something. "After you, then. And there should be somethin'-- Joyce an' I brought in some dog-things two days back, got 'em butchered last night, so it should still be good, if you're safe to cook stuff, or can find somebody else t'cook for you." Man, next time he was well he was going to figure out how to dry meat... they'd need it.
Megan could tell that he’d made somegrand gesture, but couldn’t quite figure it out herself. “Sounds yummy,” she said, a sparkle in her twitchy eyes. “But don’t worry about me. I’ve already cooked down there, so I think I know where things are hiding.” She smiled at him again. “Thanks. I’ll keep an ear out for you,” she said as she turned and headed back to the stairs.
"And I'll keep a nose out for you," Tayne agreed, grinning tiredly, and he locked the door behind him before starting down the hall again, hunting down one Doctor Zane. There had to be something he could do....