[DRP] Annabel Lee (Horace + others)

[The Semblance of Unity]

Jello or Candy?

Horace took the spoon and napkin. Looking at it for a second, he sighed and, holding it in his right hand, he bit through the plastic so that he could open it one-handedly. Then he grabbed a jello cup at random - purple. Horace liked purple. He toyed with the foil on the jello cup. "I.. I don't know how long. They... haven't said." Grasping the cup in his injured left hand, he tried to pull the foil off, only to have his left grip fail. Horace switched hands, tried again, failed. And again.

"Can you open it?" Even the embarrassment was a welcome emotion besides blank, or confused. It made him feel, for just a second, normal.

grey dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Jello or Candy?

"I guess nobody around here likes giving estimates..." Oliver muttered as he idly rearranged the remaining jello cups on the table, and then flinched at Horace's outburst.

He quickly took the little container and peeled the top back, even before Horace outright asked. "Ah, s-sorry..." It was sheepishly passed back.

He should have been paying more attention, of course it would be hard... with... What on earth had happened to his friend's hand?! Was he... Was Horace missing a finger? The other teen had been whole and happy last time they had met up, being reminded just how quickly the people he cared about could end up injured and mutilated on this island was like a blow to the chest.

Oliver sniffled quietly into his coat sleeve, feeling those unwanted extremes of emotion welling up inside him. No, he wasn't going to cry. He couldn't cry, not here when Horace was the one who was hurting!

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

SCREECH

"You didn't deserve this, Horace." He did. "You have to understand that he's a bad person, right?" Was Jan bad for believing he lived with a void inside of him that no one could fill? Was there something just fundamentally wrong with him and if there was... "People who actually love you don't hurt you like this." Of course they did. Love was only a hair's breadth away from hate and bearing the brunt of that emotion was better than nothing at all. And Jan loved him in his own way, right?

Horace shouldn't have expected her to understand, to intuitively know they worries that swirled around his mind. It was unfair of him to impose some sort of god-like omniscience on her. It was unfair and yet, he was still disappointed. He had wanted one person, just on, that would somehow understand. But it was enough, for now, to simply take comfort in her presence. The fingers of his good hand tightened around her shoulder, but he could not bring himself to respond to any of her words. Instead, he ducked his head down again, and when he spoke, it was quiet and impossibly weary.

"T-thank you, Hattie. I'm so tired." She could leave or she could stay. Harley was his sister, still, she helped him, even if she couldn't understand.

enoh love

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Huni Pi

Late

Joy was, as usual, dramatic and bright. She lived up to her name. Horace smiled a bit because he could. "Don't worry, Joy. I'm sure I'll be... free soon. Bit of a mishap." He didn't elaborate. Horace wasn't close enough to Joy to show his wounds to her, the places wehere Jan had stripped him raw and taken.

"Didn't think people would spread rumors, though." His right hand fiddled with the sheets. But he didn't want to talk about himself and the things that were wrong and the things that weren't wrong but should be. "Anyway, Joy, how're you finding life here? Ran into any problems?"  

[The Semblance of Unity]

Bittiface

BROMANCE

"No, no one died. And I hurt no one." He might have died, if left. But that was an outcome he would never know for sure and the not-knowing made his skin itch. Jan had said, but he wouldn't have. Horace bit his lip, hard, a smaller pain to accompany his larger ones.

Tap tap tap went his fingers against the bed. Not getting hurt wasn't something Horace could promise Dylon, not with any certainty. His smile strained a little bit. "Don't worry, Dylon. I'll be okay." It might have been a white lie, it might have been the truth. "You're a good guy, casanova. And... I... I kind of would like them." His hand shifted on the bed, fingers touching the edge of the new notebook Dylon had brought him. He wondered if he should put Jan's name in it.  

[The Semblance of Unity]

Prolixity

Pick-me-up

The briskness of his tone was refreshing.Horace relaxed almost imperceptibly. "The Doctor has kept quiet in my head. I wonder if she's mad." It was said lightly, but Horace wondered when Jannisari's axe would fall, when she'd point out everything he had done wrong. But, if he thought about it, she wasn't truly silent - Jannisari was the rustling of old papers, of dry sand, and it seemed as though she was simply thinking, waiting. He gestured to the foot of his bed.

"Feel free. There are no secrets in my chart, I guess." He closed his eyes for a second.  

[The Semblance of Unity]

Beejoux

Things we say

With a small smile (and it was becoming easier to just paste it on even when he felt like doing nothing except staring at the ceiling), he held out his hand for the book. Peyton placed it inhis hand and he looked at it, seeing the familiar title. "Thank you," he said softly. At least it wasn't a romance. Horace didn't think he could handle that right now.

"I have read this before - in grade school, though I never picked up the sequels. I used to pretend I had a daemon that followed me around. A little gnat, I thought. I took all these silly online quizzes like 'which daemon would you have' and I always got a panther, though." His thumb stroked the cover of the book, feeling the ridges of the title.

"I am sorry if I upset you... earlier." He was sorry in at least that regard, although he wasn't sorry for the things he said or the frustration he felt or for her lack of understanding. He realized, now, that he should have expected it. "You've stopped by late, though."  

[prolixity]

Pick-me-up

"She usually get quiet when she's mad? Ferros does that on the occasions he's been pissed at me. He doesn't talk much and radiates grumpiness." Sorry, he said silently to Ferros.

Ferros snorted, amused. I know what you're doing, the weapon said.

Jordan moved to the foot of the bed and picked up the chart, looked through it. Exposure, though that wasn't much of a threat to a hunter's system when not extended; severed finger; superficial injury to chest, circle-shaped, clearly intended to cause scarring. The notes were brief. What they didn't say was more troubling than what they did. Jordan's eyebrows went up briefly, but he returned the clipboard to the foot of the bed and said only, "No set discharge date listed. From personal experience and seeing how long others have been in, I'd guess that the finger's probably sentenced you to around a week of shitty food and bad coffee. Maybe longer, maybe shorter, depends on weapon bond and a number of things, don't take my estimate as a guarantee, I don't want Sunny mad at me."  

[The Semblance of Unity]

Grey Dragon

Jello or Candy?

Horace took the jello cup back, poking it with his spoon. Jello that came in cup was harder than homaemade, typically. He remembered eating the jello from cheap chinese buffets - how if he didn't chew it enough, he could feel the larger pieces jiggles down his throat. Suddenly, he realized Oliver was sniffling. And that, too, he thought was normal. Normal embarrassment, normal crying. He set his jello cup down.

"Oliver, c'mere." He patted the bed next to him. The boy looked so uncomfortable and miserable on the chair. "Why're you crying when I'm the one in the infirmary?" His voice held no teasing or censure, just a small bit of worry for Oliver.  

[The Semblance of Unity]

Prolixiity

Pick-me-up

"No. She usually tells me exactly what I've done wrong, how wrong I have done and what I could have done instead. We usually go over each day's events at night." He paused and took another sip of coffee. "I don't think I need that right now, though." The rustling in his head paused, briefly, then resumed. Horace didn't need Dr. Jannisari to go over his mistake with a fine-toothed comb when he knew exactly how he had done everything wrong.

He listened to Jordan's words. "Hopefully sooner rather than later. There's too much time to think here. Though, somehow there's been things like cookies and smoothies in with my food. Even what's suspiciously like homemade soup." And this time he did shrug, ignoring the pull of pain from around his chest.  

[Grey Dragon]

Jello or Candy?

"I-I'm n-not... crying," Oliver replied, his voice breaking as he rubbed a wayward tear away before it could drip down his cheek.

He rose and obediently relocated to his friend's side. It was like this when Hattie came to visit him in the infirmary, she would sit on the bed and make herself impossibly comfortable in that uncomfortable spot, but at least Oliver knew why she did it. Sitting by the other teen's legs reminded him they were friends, and he was not merely a useless bystander with all that space in between them.

"H-here, I brought these too," Oliver said, pulling random assortments of candies from his pockets and setting them on the bed between them. There were some individually wrapped mints and lollipops, but also snack sized bags of sugary treats like skittles and M&Ms. He rubbed at his face again. "Um... Y-you might h-have to hide some of these if you want them f-for later..."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[Bittiface]

The Semblance of Unity

BROAMNCE

Dylon gave him one more smile, patting the man on the shoulder. "Okay, man. I'll get them." Dylon stood back up, giving his friend another once over.

"I'll come back with them, and if you need me to get the Hell out of here so you can rest, you let me know, okay? But I'd kinda like to stay." Horace was being too quiet, too meek. Too secretive. He wasn't terribly share-happy with him on a normal basis, since they really only ever goofed off with one another.  

[Huni Pi]

Late

Joy noted the pause, noted the sudden shift in attitude and mien. She didn't know the Death trainee well enough to know the hows of proceeding and the things to avoid so she decided best leave it alone. This mishap sounded serious but she didn't want to risk losing friendship privileges. She didn't think they've reached intimate-details-level yet.

"I dunno, you spend enough time in the kitchen you hear people say all sorts of s**t," she nodded with theatrical sageness, then thrust the fruit cups at him. "Here, fresh outta the fridge. It Ought to help with healing and stuff. As for me, eh, I stink of double-used oil and soap at the same time." She shrugged but chuckled at her problem, trying to act like a distraction that the death trainee looked like he needed.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[prolixity]

The Semblance of Unity

"Sounds like she's pretty tuned in to what you need," Jordan said, mostly neutral, just an edge of sympathy in his eyes.

"Damn, I never got homemade soup. You've got connections. Introduce me someday," he chuckled. Friends, perhaps, or someone with a guilty conscience, though he had only the vaguest of suspicions on that front. He didn't have the resources to find out, and it wasn't something he needed to know. Someone else's business.