Who: Darien Keegan and Mark Hendricks (NPC) What: Enlightening the unwanted When: June 29, Wednesday; Late in the evening Where: BPD Rating: Medium Status: Complete (solo)
“I rather be working on something else than this piece of shit case,” Darien said to himself with no one in sight. There were times where he did like working late into the night, and this would be one of those times. Well, if it didn’t deal with doing another lab co-worker’s job. This wasn’t the first time he had to do it, but he sure hoped it was the last. With a loud sigh, he rubbed at his eyes and went back to what he was doing. Piss and moan all he liked, yet he wouldn’t stop doing what he loved to do. It kept him sane, so to speak.
What he was doing tonight, though, wasn’t really allowing him to keep his head above sanity. So, the best thing to do instead of destroying evidence by throwing it across the room was getting up and leaving the desk for a bit. He wasn’t the only one still in the crime lab, or station for that matter, but no one seemed to want to come anywhere near the station he currently was at, which was better for them. He was rubbing the bridge of his nose while wandering out and toward the lounge that had coffee waiting for him – he hoped.
Guess what? No coffee for Darien.
With a groan loud enough to rouse anyone from what they were doing, he plopped down on one of the couches and threw his head back against the back of it. “Figures,” he breathed out. Darien was actually going to be the nice guy (for once) and make a pot for those who needed it, like himself. But a little chuckle far too familiar to be anyone within the station caught his attention and he was standing up before even realizing it.
And there she was, waving at him with the widest, innocent smile that she could make at him before disappearing into a room down the hall. Darien was either going to flip out right there and cause a scene or stand there frozen as if he has seen a ghost. Well, it kind of did look as if he was doing the latter because suddenly the hallway that went toward the lab shimmered into the hallway that was from his childhood home. He didn’t know what to make of it, because this has happened to him on more than one occasion, but it was the sound of footsteps suddenly behind him that made the illusion stick around longer than normal as he whipped around to confront them.
It was Mark Hendricks. Mark was an officer. And from the looks of it, he was working as late as Darien was. But the look on his face showed he either saw a ghost or he needed more coffee to keep him awake. Mark pointed a finger toward a different hallway than what was the BPD’s decorating. “What- What the hell is that?” he asked with a hiccup of fear. Being the presence of the man who could scream your head right off and now this… it was making Mark want to shit in his pants.
Darien didn’t know what to do at first. He blinked at Mark as if the man was completely insane before slowly turning to see if what he saw before was what Mark was seeing now. Which couldn’t be possible because only Darien could see his own made-up reality that his mind loved playing tricks on, but when he faced the hallway the illusion continued on for a second longer before shimmering out like a light. “You did that, didn’t you?” Mark asked him, fasciation masking the fear instantly.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” was Darien’s reply once he collected himself and stood with pride only a jerk would carry around with him – nothing could harm him – that kind of logic.
But Mark continued to pester on and finally came to the conclusion that Darien was an evo. And with this accusation in the air, facing Darien and pointing it at him with a physical finger, it was only natural for the dark haired field tech to flip out and smack the pointing digit out of his face. There was no one in sight to hear him ranting on and on that he was no stinking evo and what Mark was clearly seeing was nothing but a man who needed more sleep. But doing this only triggered the power that hid in plain sight inside Darien and made the whole room warp into another area of BPD. Mark pointing this out wasn’t the wisest thing to do, and the illusion shifted to a crime scene that was far too gruesome for anyone’s own good to look upon. This scared Mark far worse than what he witnessed before, and since Darien could see what it was he was doing, two and two clicked finally and that caused a fuse to finally explode.
Darien ripped into Mark as if he wasn’t an actual human being that had feelings as well. The young officer could do nothing but cower away from the field tech before he couldn’t take it anymore and finally reached out to touch the man on the arm.
The shouting ceased just like that. Mark was dragging a sedated Darien over to the couch. “I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry.” He kept apologizing as he tried to make it look as if Darien simply passed out from over doing it on the workload. And with one last look around, the BPD lounge looking like it was, he stepped away from unconscious man. Should he tell someone that Darien was indeed an evo and that he could clearly create illusions? But if he said a word of this night, Darien would have his head mounted above his fireplace; if the field tech had a fireplace in his home. He didn’t know what to do as he went back to his desk, chewing away at the flesh of his bottom lip from worrying so much.