Raven loves waffles more than life itself (ofevilsfire) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-01-29 10:45:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !partner thread, peter pan, rachel roth (raven) |
Who: Peter and Raven
What: Residual empathy issues
When: 29 January 2016, late morning/early afternoon
Where: UC Irvine campus
Warnings: Blood and Raven's guilt issues, otherwise no
Status: Partner Thread | Complete
All things considered, Raven knew she shouldn’t be going back to classes yet. Or work. But she had two tests that day and neither professor was understanding, especially as she had missed classes on Tuesday. Nor were either of them on the network (despite the number of UC Irvine professors there) so it wasn’t like she could say ‘oh hey, you know the weird fog and people disappearing and everything? it messed with my empathy so I can’t take these tests.’ She probably could have found a doctor on the thing but honestly, that was too much work and Raven felt that she had it under control.
Mostly.
The five days of mounting tension and pressure, the bleeding, let alone facing the monster of herself, well… they had taken a toll but she was a Teen Titan for one, and she was stubborn. She had worked too hard to graduate early and start university for something like recovering from empathy issues keep her down. Having finished her first test, Raven’s initial plan had been to go and find a quiet place to pull herself together, but that had been put to a halt when she’d noticed that Ed’s energy was wrong so she’d gone to him to find him unresponsive and had repeatedly tried to heal him even as she knew it was his dreams causing it. That he was alive. But it didn’t make it any better and finally someone had called an ambulance for him and she was left behind. She still had another test to take, on top of the fact that she had failed to heal him and she didn’t know how to handle that. So she went back to her initial plan and found an isolated tree to sit under.
So for now, it was just...closing her eyes to ease the tension behind them and meditate, to try and calm her mind, guilt and deal with the tension. No levitating though since this was a public place despite the isolated location.
School was school and despite Peter finally deciding on a path to follow with studies he was still feeling a bit bored. It was mainly because sometimes it felt like the weirdness of the OC was far more exciting than his real life. He enjoyed what he was studying, but it felt to pale in comparison to the fanciful dreams he had at night. He wanted to be out and about exploring the world and right now he just had a bit of time between his classes that he could just relax a little bit. At least it was the beginning of the semester because he truly hated finals season.
As his feet lead him down the path towards the cafeteria he noticed a familiar figure off in the distance under a tree. A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth as he realized it was Raven and he was slightly surprised he hadn’t run into her sooner on campus. Things were still odd between the two of them and he hadn’t really bothered to put forth much effort into figuring things out because she wasn’t making any indication that she wanted him to. It didn’t hurt that he was able to go spend time with other people and not think about what a messed up life he lead.
So, he made his feet change course and went over to where she was. He stopped short because he didn’t want to loom over her and gently cleared his throat to see if he could get her attention.
Seriously? Why was someone bothering her when she was trying to meditate? It was annoying. Though, she didn’t know many people who would even come towards her without warning who were strangers which narrowed it down some to whom it could be that was interrupting her attempts at meditation. It should have been easier to figure out who it was, but as Raven was still working at getting her barriers back in place, pinpointing specific energy signatures was a bit more difficult than usual.
Which was why she ended up opening her eyes instead of just saying something as… she didn’t know who it was. Oh. Peter. Well. That explained it. He really was similar to Beast Boy, though Beast Boy wouldn’t have bothered clearing his throat.
“Hi.”
Quirking a brow to see what he wanted, Raven blinked rapidly. Her eyes felt… dry. But given the strange things were done, it shouldn’t be the whole bleeding issue again, so it was probably just her eyes adjusting to the light. That had to be it.
“That’s it? First time running into each other on campus and all you say is a hi,” Peter gave her a mock frown before it twisted in a more natural smile and he reached up to brush some hair out of his face. It was getting a little shaggy and he was going to have to make sure to clean it up in the next couple weeks. He studied her for a moment and he was surprised that she hadn’t registered him at first and her eyes seemed a little strange.
“Is everything okay?” as he asked the question he took a few steps forward to her and then folded his legs and sat beside her. His backpack moved in front of his lap and he looked over at her. Even if they hadn’t talked lately at least he could find out what was going on. He wouldn’t stop caring for her over something simple like that.
“I was unaware there was a proper etiquette for running into people on campus.” No wonder she didn’t have many friends. It was odd enough she was starting to consider Peter a friend. That was something she had never thought would happen and yet… It was something. Which was also why she didn’t see the point in some big to do about running into him. That and weren’t they there to learn?
“Mm. Get through the latest weirdness in tact?”
Yes she skipped over the question on herself. Raven wasn’t really sure how she was. Well beyond feeling guilty and annoyed that her eyes were still acting up. When she rubbed at them, that was when she noticed that once again there was blood. She really shouldn’t have come to campus so soon after everything, let alone try to heal someone, but it was too late now.
“Well, it’s called having at least a little bit of excitement. Maybe a bit of a smile? At least make it seem like you don’t mind seeing me,” Peter teased, “But I also consider your gloomy face to be normal, so I guess I’m not surprised. I’ll take what I can get.” He wasn’t going to be that guy who told her that she had to smile all the time because he wasn’t like that. And he wanted to punch people that told him he had to have a better attitude and such.
“And I guess? I didn’t get much more out of it than fog and such.”
It had been a really strange thing to happen. There had to be more underneath it all, but he didn’t worry too much about that. And yes, he had noticed that Raven skipped over the question and arched an eyebrow in her direction. The look only darkened when he noticed the blood on her face and he leaned in to get a better look, “What’s going on, Raven?”
“I didn’t tell you to go away.” It was true. If Raven didn’t want to deal with Peter, she would have straight up told him to leave her alone. Not that he would have listened as he seemed to enjoy messing with her. But it was nothing malicious she had determined. Even so. It was annoying but as she hadn’t told him to go away, it was something, especially right now. Raven was blunt and to the point. She wouldn’t just say hi if she wanted to be left alone.
“Lucky you.”
Not that she really talked about what she had faced during it. But given he was leaning in, it would seem that he had noticed the blood. Which..not hard to do.
“It messed with my empathy. Fear, guilt and regret? Much stronger than anger. Still dealing with that I guess.” At least it didn’t feel like her heart was going to explode on her and she was able to breathe? That was something at least. But empathy was dangerous even if it came in use when it came to knowing how people she considered friends were doing.
A small smirk appeared when she mentioned that and he reached into his bag to dig around a little. Once he finally found what he was looking for he pulled it out and reached over to where Raven was and set it on her knee. It was a Hershey’s kiss and he couldn’t help but grin a little as he settled back, “There, that’s your reward for telling me not to go away. Keep it up.” He was more than willing to give her candy if it meant she would be nice to him.
After inspecting the blood he reached back into his bag and grabbed some tissues. He leaned forward to wipe the blood off her face and paused briefly just to make sure that she would allow him to do this otherwise he would hand the tissue off to her.
“I’m sorry, Raven,” he let out a soft breath of regret that he couldn’t do anything for her, “I can’t believe that that kind of stuff would affect you. That totally sucks because you really shouldn’t have to suffer just because everyone else is. I wish I could do something.” But there really wasn't much he could do. He was basically able to offer up his condolences and sympathy and maybe try to think up some kind of plan later.
“Yay.” The comment was deadpanned as she picked up the Hershey’s kiss and just looked at it. But it was better than the jerks who always told her to smile, she would be prettier that way or whatever other nonsense they tried to pull. And after the day she was having, chocolate might actually be necessary. Once it was over at any rate.
As he seemed to lean in to wipe the blood away, Raven just shot him an odd look before taking the tissues herself. She was more than capable of taking care of herself, and it was just… uncomfortable.
“Joys of being an empath. I feel everything. I was unable to block it.” There was also a very strong chance that part of it was now she was punishing herself and not letting herself block it, but she wasn’t really considering that as an option because she wasn’t even aware of it.
The deadpanned comment earned a playful eye roll from Peter. He would never tell her those kind of things, but he would give her random candy if it would make her feel better. And when she shot him that weird look about the tissue he easily handed it over to her. There was just a part of him that wanted to think what he was doing was chivalrous, but he was never quite sure. Raven was a puzzle that he would probably never be able to solve and he still needed to figure out if he wanted to try his damndest to do that or not. At least trying to offer up friendship was easy.
“I’m surprised there’s not a way to block it. You would think that someone out there would have a solution. No one wants to sit around and feel this way all the time,” Peter didn’t know the first thing about trying to find a solution, but it did make him want to scour the net and see if he couldn’t find someone that might know something. There were all sorts of dreamers out there and someone might have something.
Friendship was something Raven could manage and was more than fine with. Well, once she had accepted that she was apparently unable to keep people at a distance and had let them get close to her. It was still strange, but the dynamic was there and she was aware of his energy and seemed to pick up on spikes in it which meant he had crossed into the territory of one of her people.
“Usually I can. Or at least, better. It’s always there, but I have barriers. Whatever was going on messed with them and my magic.” So it was rebuilding her barriers, which just… seemed to be taking longer than she had expected even if it made sense. Especially now that she was distracted.
Wiping the blood from her face, the half-demon stared at the tissue absently. Pressure still there. Just great.
“Well, it’s over now, so are your barriers going to be able to build back up? And are you absolutely sure that you are feeling alright with this happening? Do you have something urgent you need on campus because I would go home if I was you,” he also didn’t want her to freak out any of her professors by suddenly bleeding in the middle of a lecture. He was more than happy to give her the time off of work if she needed it, but he wanted to make sure that she was alright.
And she certainly didn’t look the greatest. He worried his bottom lip with his teeth a little bit as he studied her. If there was something bigger going on then he wondered if he could help her. It would be hard to do anything when it involved her empathy because he didn’t have that kind of skillset, but at least he could be there for her.
“I came to campus because I have two tests and couldn’t get out of them.” And that was all there was to it. She couldn’t get out of them, so she had shown up despite the fact she knew that she really shouldn’t have. But there were things she had needed to do, and as she now knew she would have ended up showing up just because of her connections and empathy…
“They should…” After all, she had gotten them up before. She just… had to figure out how to get them up and how long it would take. “I already healed the damage to my lungs and heart yesterday. That will help.” In theory. “I don’t know how long though.” Which was frustrating. But that was the way it went. Especially right now as she knew she would undoubtedly just go to the hospital after her last test even though she couldn’t do anything and she knew that fact and hated herself for that fact. What was the point of being able to heal if it did no good in situations like this?
When she mentioned the tests he completely understood where she was coming from. Most professors were nice enough to allow you to make up the test, but some were complete hard-asses and it sucked when you were a brand new freshman and didn’t know the ins and outs of how to navigate college just yet. He couldn’t help but check his watch and frowned, “I hope it’s soon. I know my next class is.”
As she detailed how things were going with her and his eyes went a little wide at the mention of damage to her organs. How in the -- ugh, he didn’t not understand how this magical stuff worked. He would have promptly freaked out if he had been injured like that, but Raven wrote it off as a normalcy. “You should really rest and not worry about school after your tests are done. I don’t want you to end up hurting more than you are right now,” Peter knew she probably wouldn’t follow his advice, but he hoped she would heal quickly.
Looking to her own watch, Raven nodded some. It looked like her class was going to be soon as well. Then again, with everything that had happened after her first test, it wasn’t that shocking that she had lost track of time. That more time had passed than she had expected because she didn’t know how long she had tried to heal Ed before realising that she was powerless to do so.
Did she deserve to heal? That was a question. If she couldn’t use her powers for good, if the thing she had seen eventually became reality…. but no. She could change that, she had to. It was a lot. But while her initial plan had been to go home after the test, now her plans were changed.
“I guess.” Blood stopped, Raven pocketed the tissues to get rid of. She was going to need to wash her face before going to class. While she could strengthen her glamour just in case, it would just be better. “I guess I should get going. See you around.”
“Alright. Good luck on your test and I really hope you start healing up soon. Let me know if you need some time off to heal,” Peter was more than happy to pick up a couple extra shifts if he needed to. It would make him feel better to know that Raven was healing herself up and not suffering like she was right now. He picked himself up off the ground and dusted himself up. It was a disappointment that he would have to run off to class, but he also wouldn’t hold her up. At least he had found her and knew what was going on instead of being in the dark. Hopefully she would be able to make it through her test just fine.