Rowan on the Wing (rowanonthwing) wrote in downfallrpg, @ 2010-06-05 23:08:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | 2015-09-07, liah, rowan, verity |
Hugs All Around
Who: Liah, Verity, Rowan and Jasper and Juniper (NPCs)
Where: their suites
When: late afternoon
Liah had never wished more fervently for a DVD player and some children's DVDs. Oh, yeah, having electricity to run it might be nice, too. She was just about out of ideas for trying to entertain two kids who were worried about their older siblings-- particularly Jasper, who'd been without Verity for days now. Because he didn't talk, she had no idea what he was thinking, but she figured his mind was probably on worst-case scenarios by now. She'd finally just sat down and let Jas and Juny do whatever without her intervention, which was probably a good thing since they seemed calmer now. Hell, they were probably tired of her, and she couldn't blame them. She was getting tired of herself.
She swung her foot, her gaze on nothing in particular as she tried not to wonder what would happen if they didn't come back. Either of them or both of them. It seemed as if Rowan had been gone forever, even though she knew he really hadn't. She so didn't wait well, and it was taking all she had to keep her butt parked on the couch. Maybe she should put another coat of that gold polish on her nails, even if the kiddos complained about how it smelled.
Verity ran all the way up the stairs. He probably couldn't have done it if he'd thought about it. He was built for endurance, yeah, but he'd never been a runner. With Jasper waiting, though, fuck those stairs. Those stairs had better get out of his way. He was a bit sweaty and gasping when he burst into their bedroom, but he didn't really care. Without stopping to speak, he pulled his little brother into a tight hug, lifting the skinny boy a few inches without noticing. Jasper didn't seem to really hug back, but he did smile, a real smile, as Verity let him go.
"Sorry about that, kid. You wanna help me get floodlights put up around the building?" Jasper nodded and Verity finally remembered his manners. "Hey, Liah. Sorry I left you babysitting so long." Maybe he wasn't quite up to making sense yet. Even as much as Verity ever did. Stress and sleeplessness and so forth had taken their toll.
Liah had to just stare at him for a few seconds, taken aback. Only Verity would have gone missing for days and then bust back into the suite nonchalantly apologizing to her for her having to babysit his brother. It was like maybe he'd just wandered off somewhere and then wandered back instead of being rescued. Well, she was assuming he was back because of the rescue, anyway. Then she pushed up from the couch. "Are you all right?" She put her arms around him to hug him once she'd reached him, something that might horrify him for all she knew, but she had to. She'd thought maybe she wouldn't ever see him again.
Verity didn't generally like touching much. He wouldn't have hugged Jasper if he hadn't been so horribly worried and (though in denial about it) pretty sure he'd never see the kid again. But he knew Liah well enough that he reacted just by stiffening a little and raising one eyebrow, not pulling backward. "Mostly. Bruised, I guess. Not bad... Considering. That there were shots fired and a guy who breathed fire and stuff." Nah, not making sense. He sat down rather suddenly in the rickety chair that went with the little desk. "Wow. I... I didn't sleep. For like... any of that time. How're you?"
Liah smirked a little as she let go of Verity and took a step back. It wasn't that she hadn't been aware he didn't seem crazy about being touched, but considering he'd been a missing person for several days, she'd decided he'd just have to deal with her hugging him. Occasional hugs were good for people. "A guy who breathed fire," she repeated. That wasn't so hard to believe, she supposed. They had a guy who could set things on fire with his mind here in the hotel, she'd heard. "I bet you guys saw some crazy sh-, uh, stuff." She smiled at him when he sat down and asked her how she was. "A lot better now," she said honestly. "Where's Ro?" So yeah, she was anxious to see for herself that Rowan was all right. Sue her.
"Behind us. Um, someone got hurt. That Terry guy. Rowan's helping with him. I don't know anything about that kind of thing and I didn't want Jas to have to wait any more, so I ran ahead." He should probably have stayed, but he'd just have hovered around pretty uselessly trying to seem nice and not been able to do anything. Might as well get back to the kid instead. "Don't worry about him. He's probably a little bumped and bruised up, but he'll shake it off. Rowan's cool like that." Verity hadn't lost any of his admiration, bounding on hero worship, of his friend. "So did we miss much? We definitely didn't find those missing people. Did the other group? Or are they still gone?" It hadn't even occurred to him to wonder too much about that, and he felt vaguely guilty.
"Yeah, absolutely," Liah agreed when Verity explained why he'd come back before Rowan did. It made perfect sense to her. No point in hanging around when you weren't needed and other people had the situation under control. And Jasper, needless to say, had needed to see his brother as soon as he could. She could tell just by looking at the little guy that he felt incredibly relieved. Hopefully he'd sleep better than he had in several nights with Verity back. "I'm not worried," she said of Rowan. "I'm sure he's fine." And if he wasn't? Well, she might have to do some kissing and making things better. She sat back down on the couch, crossing her legs and swinging one flip-flopped foot. "Yeah, one of the groups found 'em. They were in the basement. There were some, uh--" She flicked a quick glance at the kids as she tried to decide how much to say. "--big spider things? I think it was kind of not good down there. I'm not sure how they're doing now, but they got rescued."
Now that Verity was done hugging his brother, Juniper decided it was her turn, and she snuck around Jasper, patting his back a little, to try and climb up on Verity's lap in said rickety desk chair so she could hug him properly. The fact that Liah's hug hadn't gone quite so well didn't even occur to her.
At that moment, Rowan was alighting on the roof and heading down the stairs, not feeling remotely up to climbing, and much happier to fly it, even if his back hurt like hell. Hurting took less energy than trudging up twelve flights of stairs. The sound of the roof access door closing was probably audible in the suite.
"Um, hey, Juny." He patted her shoulder. "No worries. Your big brother will be here soon. So, spider things, huh? In the basement? How... RPG. Next level you get a plus-two dagger and you get to fight rats in the sewer level. Is everyone okay?" The last question was a bit of an afterthought. His connection to reality was perhaps dangerously tenuous at this point. He wasn't sure what damage spiders would do. Regular old pre-mutation spiders could really only hurt you if they happened to be poisonous. Poison was definitely a possibility, but he couldn't help imagining big, clawed spider-monsters with pincers or flying darts. Before he could get too caught up imagining, he heard the door close. "Oh, sounds like Rowan."
"Kind of," Liah said when Verity asked if everyone was okay. Truthfully, she'd heard that the girl might die, but that wasn't something she wanted to repeat in front of Jas and Juny. She gave Verity a significant look, not knowing if he'd be able to interpret it or not. She'd heard that the stuttery pyrokinetic kid had burned the spiders up and Terry and the black dude who was a preacher had gotten the two victims out. It must've been really damp down there, she'd thought when she heard about it, or the whole hotel could've caught. "Good," she said, wanting to have Rowan in here with them too, have their entire makeshift family back together.
Juniper lifted her head from where she'd tried to rest it on the uncomfortable Verity's shoulder at the sound of the door opening behind them all. Then she practically launched herself off of him-- scratch that, she did launch herself off of him, probably painfully, in an obvious flying tackle when it became quite clear it was Rowan.
A Rowan who winced just as obviously when she hit him, his wings half-open with their pinions dragging, though he did bend over a little to hug her back. "Everyone home?" he asked, stroking his clinging little sister's hair and looking around. There was Liah, and Jasper-- and Verity. "Good."
"All here." Verity felt like he should be in worse shape. Rowan was in worse condition just from being there long enough for a rescue than Verity was after his days (well, it felt like days, even if the plural was barely deserved) of imprisonment. In a mattress store, admittedly. Not very scary. But considering the guns and scary powers and very real danger, he was only a bit bruised. He kinda sucked. As usual, Rowan was about ten times as badass as he'd ever be. He didn't have it in him to object, though.
Verity blinked a bit in surprise when Jasper stood, but he was considerably more confused when his brother walked rather stiffly over to Rowan and hugged him. Not just because Jas was so quiet, but because he was even more hug-phobic than Verity himself.
Wow, really? Verity wasn't the only one who was surprised by Jasper hugging Rowan. That kid was hard to get close to, and Liah knew because she'd been trying. She didn't comment about it, because that might make him self-conscious. "Yeah, we're all here and we're all good now," she said. "Pretty much, anyway." For the first time in days, their little group was going to be all together in their suites, and right now that was good enough for her. Absolutely.
That was a bit surprising for Rowan, too, but he wasn't going to complain. After all, he loved kids, and having Jasper actually show a little affection was kind of awesome. He rolled with it, though, grinning lopsidedly down at the kid and hugging him, back. Around Juniper, who hadn't let let go of him, herself, and who promptly included Jasper in her hugging. It wasn't like she didn't have a spare limb, or anything. "Well, I'm a little less than whole. Who wants to help out with changing the bandages?" He freed one hand from the kids to jerk a thumb at his back.
Jasper blinked and took a step back. For a second discomfort flickered across his face and then it was empty again. Verity winced for him. "Jas isn't great with injuries. He couldn't put on his own bandaids until he was eight." Oops. Once again Verity might have slipped accidentally-on-purpose. It had been great to see Jasper behaving like a kid and not an automaton for a second there, and it seemed to be over already. He shook his head and went to sit down again, apparently done with being affectionate. Verity sighed. "I'd give you a hand if you wanted one, but, uh, not my forte."
Well, maybe that was a breakthrough of sorts, Liah thought as she watched Jasper leave Rowan's side and sit down. Maybe not, but she could hope. Again she thought how much worse all this was for the kids, because they didn't have much of a vantage point from which to comprehend how the entire world had just turned to shit, as young as they were. "I've got it," Liah said to Verity and Rowan both, pushing up from the couch. "Not like I'm not used to patching you up by now." She gave Ro a smirky little grin and wondered if he was ever going to stop injuring himself so she could drag him off somewhere and have her way with him.
As Jasper left the hug, Juniper finally let go, too, though she kept one of his hands. "I can put on band-aids!" she declared, as if hoping to be some use.
"Why don't you go tell Verity about what all he missed, and we let Liah take care of the bandages?" Rowan suggested. "You can get him a snack. He looks like they starved him. All skinny an' dour an' shit." He shot Verity a grin, probably too cheerful and relieved for the statement he'd just made. He was pretty glad to see the guy, to be honest.
Juniper considered this in all seriousness, then punched his hip for the swear-- "OW!"-- and let go of his hand to hurry off to the little fridge that, despite no longer working, still was where they kept their food. "What do you want? We have lots of macaroni and cheese, and a bunch of crackers, and some gummy fruit things!"
Rowan chuckled and glanced to Liah hopefully, to lead the way off to the bathroom. All the oozy bleeding on his back was getting uncomfortable, and he was tired of ignoring it.
"Hey, um, no worries, Juniper. I'm always skinny and dour." Though he was definitely hungry. Debating his options, he opted for crackers. Eating something sweet on a completely empty stomach would be a bad idea, and he wasn't the biggest fan of macaroni and cheese. Not that he'd turn it down if he didn't have any choices. But he did. "I'll have crackers, howzat?"
Jasper was quiet, his hands folded in his lap, facing directly away from Rowan. Injuries made him nervous, and he didn't like to think of any of his new siblings hurt.
Liah thought that they were all tired of mac and cheese, except of course for the kids. Kids could live on it along with chicken nuggets, it seemed to her from her experiences as a waitress. Crackers were probably a good choice. "I'll fix him up good as new, guys, promise," she said to everyone, her words really meant for Jas and Juny. She'd noticed Jasper's sudden withdrawal, but she didn't want to call attention to it by fussing over him. Maybe a casual bit of reassurance would help. "C'mon," she said to Ro, taking his hand and beginning to walk to the door that divided this suite from the other one; all the first aid supplies were in their bathroom, she believed.
"Crackers it is. And peanut butter," Juniper added in, rummaging into the fridge and the cupboard next to it for each one, to bring them both out and presenting them to Verity. "Because you need protein." It was something she'd heard her big sister say, not something she actually understood. But peanut butter was protein. That much she did know.
"Coming, mother," Rowan said lightly, unable to stop grinning, and kept his hand in hers as they headed off. Even feeling oozy and hurting wasn't keeping him down, today, not with Verity back and completely unharmed, not with Jasper showing the first sign of affection he'd shown ever-- probably out of gratitude for bringing back his brother, Rowan had to guess-- and not with Liah, holding his hand. Life was good.