Welcome to Gaia! ::

The city was still in chaos, which was why Angela had decided to give things a break. She's pretty much sat back and allowed herself to watch things as they developed around her; the fact people had woken up (though apparently rather... traumatised) meant that there was a lot to do, and very little time to do it. She'd thus thought it to be a good idea to let Nathan adjust to.. well, whatever situation he was going through; she wasn't entirely sure what was going on there, but that was because she hadn't asked.

From what little he'd told her, and what little she'd gathered from intuition alone, Angela knew that Tony was Nathan's dad, but that there was some sort of bad blood going on there. She'd waited a day or two, before deciding to go over for a visit; she used the fact she hadn't really given him a birthday present as an excuse to drop by. In all honesty, she wasn't entirely sure how the boy was going to react when he saw she'd gotten him a pet tarantula for his birthday. She'd had a spare terrarium over at home, and a bit of spare equipment, so all she'd had to do was actually buy the spider, which had been afordable.

It wasn't the most conventional of presents. At all. But she'd remembered the fact he liked her scorpions, and Tarantulas weren't as unmanageable as scorpions were. She was holding the terrarium against her side with one arm while she reached up to knock on the door with the other, hoping against all hope that she didn't interrupt something.

Things hadn’t been going very easily for Tony since waking up. But he was adjusting. Everyone was adjusting. He thought about the others, everyone he had met in that dream, how they were doing now that they were awake. It was still impossible to believe that they had all been asleep. With all the death and… he was trying not to think about it.

His leg still required the use of a cane to hobble around, but at least his head had healed up nicely. The good thing about being in a coma so long, he supposed. He was fit enough to return to work, and he would be headed there the next day even against his doctor’s orders. What was he going to do? Come hunt Tony down and make sure he was resting? Tony didn’t think so.

All he wanted to do was get back to his normal. Nothing else. He wanted to go to work, shelve some books, catch up on all the problems and mail he had missed, even talk to Carol. He wanted to check books out to people who weren’t freaking out still. Or, as he imagined, he just wanted to sit at the desk and watch the day slip by, peaceful, away from traps and riddles and magic.

When he heard the knock at the door Tony sighed, expecting Carol, who had been hounding him since he woke. Apologetic for leaving him, for fighting with him, for his coma in general like it had been her fault. He got up, limping over, and opened the door without peeing out first.

“Carol, look-oh,” he blinked at the young woman standing at the door. He didn’t recognize her, and he frowned thoughtfully. Then he realized he was frowning and offered her a warm smile, “hello, there! I’m sorry, I thought you were somebody else. Do you… ah… need something?” He thought she was selling something door to door, since she seemed to be carrying… something.

Queue... awkwardness. For some odd reason, Angela hadn't been expecting Tony to open the door, even if the man did actually live there. She'd grown used to Nathan opening the door, though then again, that was due to the fact the man had been in a coma, "Uhm," she shifted the weight of the terrarium a bit before looking up, "I was looking for Nathan. Is he home?" she actually moved a bit to peek behind the librarian, as if to make sure the person she was looking for was not, in fact, directly behind him.

There was no way for her to know that the poor man had no idea whom she was talking about and that he probably thought she was utterly crazy, "His birthday just passed and I wanted to drop off a gift," a pause, "I'm glad to see you're feeling good enough to be up and about, sir. You didn't look particularly well when we went to visit you," another pause as she pointed behind him, "I'm sorry about the strange stain in the living room, by the way... I forgot to let my raven out and it... anyhow I'm extremely sorry. I promise I'll fix it."

It was hard to tell if the girl was trying to pull a prank on poor Tony (at least from his perspective), since she looked about as serious as a heart attack, "I am also sorry that we ate up a lot of your food - I promise to make up for that," in all honesty, she hadn't expected the sleeping people to wake up before she could help Nathan replenish the fridge.

Tony didn’t quite know how to understand what was happening.

This girl seemed very familiar with his situation and, as it seemed, his home. The stain, the food… and she had visited him in the hospital? And yet he had no idea who she, or this ‘Nathan’ was. Still, one didn’t just guess at a poop stain in the living room, and how did she know his fridge had been raided if she hadn’t been there? Yet she was no thief, as she had knocked on the door and now seemed to want to find this Nathan and give him something.

Was someone staying in his apartment while he was unconscious?

“I… I don’t know anyone named Nathan, miss,” he said, looking baffled. Maybe he was getting something wrong. Maybe she was just at the wrong apartment? He didn’t want to embarrass her, as from first glance she seemed like a very nice girl. And Tony hated upsetting people when they weren’t doing anything wrong. She looked so serious! She was either one very invested actor in some kind of an elaborate, strange prank that Tony just did not understand, or she actually meant everything she said. He wasn’t sure which one was worse.

“Are you… a-are you at the right place?”

Something about the situation at hand was... distinctly off. Not only did the man look at her like she was crazy at first, but like he had no idea what the hell to do with her. It was clear to Angela that poor Tony was trying to be very polite with her (she hadn't really dealt with him much - she knew her way around the library, but it sure was a bit of a contrast with Nathan), but it was also becoming distinctly obvious that the man was profoundly confused.

Which could only mean that Nathan had not even spoken to him yet. The man soon enough confirmed her thoughts, and if a girl could have looked like an awkward, sheepish puppy... she sure did, "Angela," she offered him, "Angela Bryne," if for no other reason than to show him that she was no thief and thus did not fear giving him her full name, "I thiiiink I might be a bit early then," she said, biting her lip slightly; she'd actually given them a whole day, and yet she'd still managed to get here early. Oh boy, oh God. What the hell.

Where the hell was Nathan when she needed him? "I... yes, sir. This is the right number," she shifted the weight of the terrarium and pointed behind him, "Your hamster is called Booder, and... yes, this is the right place," a pause, "We kept him fed for you," this was absolutely awkward; it was much more awkward than the second time she'd met up with Nathan, under her civilian identity. This time, she was distinctly aware that she was treading thin ice and had no idea which direction to take to get to the metaphorical shore.

“You… you knew Booder…” he said blandly, apparently so baffled he could no longer quite comprehend things. She knew his hamster’s name. That wasn’t written anywhere, and unless she had hunted someone down who knew him and asked them what his name was before coming into the apartment… no, that made no sense. None of this made any sense. Whoever this Angela was, it seemed she was, at least, up on her Tony knowledge.

“You fed Booder? I was wondering… who was doing that. I’m sorry, I’ve had a rough time lately… so this might be the… obvious question, but… who are you?” Had he lost some memories from that coma? The thought struck him and filled him with dread. What if he did know her? And he was just forgetting that he did? That would be terrible, and suddenly he felt very guilty and miserable. He did not want to insult her by not remember who she was.

Opening his mouth to apologize for this possibility, he was interrupted by a sharp tone down the hall.

“Angela!”

Nathan came jogging up, not seeing that the door was open. He had been hoping to get there before she ran into Tony, so they could sneak off and he be none the wiser. It certainly had been a surprise that the sleepers had woken up, and Nate needed to explain to Angela that he didn’t actually live at the… crap. He saw the door open and, not only that, saw his father standing there, staring at him like he had just seen a ghost.

“Uh,” said Nathan. “s**t. Angela, let’s go.”

"I... yes, I do. He's a very friendly hamster," she felt entirely out of place; maybe she should have waited another day or two, but she hadn't wanted to keep away just because of the chaos that had erupted the city. It felt oddly rude to her, to ignore Nathan (even if she wasn't and had only wanted to give him space), just because the sleeping people had woken up. However, she had obviously miscalculated, if the baffled look on the man was any indication. How was she supposed to explain this (any of this) to him without potentially giving away more than she probably should?

That aside, turning away and leaving seemed out of the question and felt even more horribly rude than leaving the man baffled, so poor Angela remain rooted to the spot, holding the terrarium and tarantula as she offered Tony a sheepish look, "Angela," she offered again, though it was clear this wasn't what he was asking for, "Uh... you might know me from the library; I frequent it quite often. I haven't spoken to you though, because I know my way around and... you obviously have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about," a pause, "Oh God."

Her name being called from down the hall caused her to turn, spotting Nathan, and for a second, she lifted her head up, pretty much looking like she was thanking the heavens he was there, because she was honestly at a loss for what to do, "Uhm... but," a pause, "Nathan, your dad and..." she shifted the terrarium yet again, as if to tell him that moving this around and carrying it was actually starting to get a little bit frustrating, even if it was a small terrarium, "It's going to die if I don't plug the heating mat up soon," what 'it' was... was up for debate, since it probably wasn't very clear from either Nathan's or Tony's perspective.

Tony looked very confused and unhappy, but he was trying so hard not to express it. He didn’t want to insult her, or make her think he was being rude. He wasn’t! He didn’t think he was, anyway. He was just… very confused. Was that rude? Maybe it was. He would have to apologize for that, too, when he found his voice again. At the moment, of course, that didn’t look like it was going to happen.

He was too busy being absolutely stunned by the sight of a young, dark eyed… Tony.

Had she said ‘dad’?

Nathan, on the other hand, clearly looked as upset as he felt: maybe he even looked more upset. He glared at Angela when she let that one word slip, then glared harder at the man it was to. He didn’t know why his first instinct was to be angry, but it was, so he went with it. This was his father, finally awake, and at the moment Nathan didn’t know how to just say hi like a normal person.

“C-come in,” Tony stammered, stepping back. He didn’t want anything to die, “you can put… uh… whatever it is… on it’s heating pad in here? And we can all… talk a bit.”

Nathan sighed and nodded, helping Angela with the terrarium. He looked down at it, not seeing what was inside. “Did you bring your scorpion?” He asked her, apparently ignoring Tony as he pushed by the older man. Tony watched them, face going a bit pale.

“S-scorpion?”

She'd caught her slip the moment she said it and to her credit, the girl actually winced before Nathan glared at her, showing that it had, indeed been a slip. See, this here was exactly what she'd been trying to avoid by giving them a day and a bit; given the fact she'd thought Nathan lived in the apartment with Tony, (even despite whatever bad blood was between them), she'd figured that was more than enough time for the explosion to occur and subside.

Angela had had absolutely no idea that this was what she was going to walk into. She hadn't know the man didn't even know Nathan, and the situation had now officially breached past awkward and well into unbearably uncomfortable territory. She turned her head and offered the boy as much of a 'sorry' as she could silently transmit through a simple glance.

When Tony stood out of the way, offering her space to finally come in, the girl once more turned to Nathan for a queue, and then walked in, setting the terrarium on the table in the living room, far enough away from the hamster that he wouldn't grow restless, "It's a tarantula," she said matter-of-factly as she she knelt down , plugging the cable that hung out from the inside of the terrarium before turning to look at both man and boy, "Yes, the heating pad is inside," she then placed a small, closed beaker to the side; further inspection would have revealed the content to actually be crickets, but she was hoping the man did not notice that yet, "It's harmless," she assured Tony before turning her attention to the terrarium.

Reaching inside, she brought out a rather large spider, which she held carefully in her hands, "I noticed I'd missed your birthday, and since you liked my scorpion, I got you this. No stinger, so it's actually not harmful to hold," a pause before she looked up, "I'm sorry. I thought..." she stopped and turned to Nathan, "I didn't know."

Nathan stooped to look into the terrarium, then looked up at Angela as she took out the spider. “Aw, you got me a spider?!” He said, forgetting he had been mad for a moment. He got up, petting the spider on its fuzzy back carefully with one finger, before leaning to kiss Angela gently on the cheek. “Thanks. And I know you didn’t know. I was gonna tell you but… things… happened.” He looked at Tony.

Who was looking a bit pale and wobbly.

“There… th… uhm,” said Tony inarticulately. He moved over to his sofa, sinking down and dropping his cane. There were two stranger kids in his apartment, and there was a big, terrible spider with fur and… what had he taken that morning to bring this kind of a hallucination on? He thought he had woken up from all those nightmares. Though, since they weren’t wearing armor, he doubted they were part of Camelot.

He just watched them for a moment, like this was some kind of television show.

“I-I’m sorry,” he said at length, “I’m trying to… understand… y-you are… my son? And you are… his girlfriend,” he frowned, “right. Okay. You got him a spider for his birthday… I’m going to assume that’s something he’d like and you don’t just… hate him, or something.” He ran a hand through his graying hair, which he could almost feel graying further because of all this new stress.

“Yeah,” Nate said finally, “my mom was hooker you knocked up. You moved before she told you. I left her but you were in a coma so I stayed here.”

“Which explains… why you’re both so familiar with my house. And my hamster.”

He needed a drink. Desperately. He stayed surprisingly quiet, though, at all this news. He just sat there, staring at his feet. Nathan looked at Angela, shrugging.

This was... surreal. Granted, Angela was sure this wasn't quite as surreal to her as it was for the poor librarian, whom looked about ready to faint. In fact, he moved to sink on the sofa, and the girl shifted her position to allow him access, keeping the hand holding the spider inside the tank, just in case it decided to try and escape. Now... wasn't the time for a runaway tarantula, "Yes, I did. I remembered you liked Watson, and these have no stingers. This one doesn't even have poisonous hairs, so you can touch it and it'll be mostly okay. The only thing you must watch out for is if it falls; it may die, so keep it inside the tank until it grows used to you," that said, she placed the animal inside it's enclosure and turned to watch Tony, "I think he's going to faint," she whispered when Nathan leaned away from her after kissing her.

In all honesty, she couldn't really blame the man, "No, I don't hate him and... I'm going to guess you don't much care for spiders," a pause, "It's a good thing I didn't get the scorpion then... and it's probably a good thing Edgar didn't come along either," she wasn't sure how much more poor Tony could take.

After a moment, the girl got to her feet and made her way to the kitchen, grabbing the milk from the fridge before putting it in a mug, which she heated in the microwave, "I'm very sorry," it was directed at both boy and older man, "I thought... I waited a day and a bit. I thought that by then, the... whatever was going on her would've washed over," when the microwave beeped, she took the mug out and offered it to the librarian, "I don't know if you like warm milk, but it'll help."

Okay then, so introductions were apparently over with. Angela did not recall a worse introduction process, ever, "Is it a bad time to mention it eats crickets and that I brought a month's supply in that beaker?"

Tony looked up at Angela when she handed him the cup, smiling thinly. “Thank you, that’s very kind.” He really did look like he was going to fall over, and it was surprising that his hand wasn’t shaking when he took the mug. He very nearly dropped it, though, when she mentioned the crickets. Eying the beaker in horror, he sipped at the milk carefully and tried not to think too hard.

About anything.

“A month’s supply huh? You’re too good to me,” Nate said, with a grin. He moved to kiss her again, then looked at his father. The dope looked miserable, and Nathan sighed. “Look, Tony, we don’t have to be sentimental about this. I can leave and find somewhere else to stay and you can go back to not having a son, right?”

Tony looked up at that, “no, no. No. I want you to stay here. I… we need to figure… this out,” what did he think, that Nathan was lying? It seemed too farfetched to be made up, “Miss Bryne, thank you for being so calm about all this. Ah. I-I’m sorry I’m not a better… host… at the moment.”

Nate snorted, “whatever. We’ll talk later, when you’re not about to pass out. Angela, do you want to go or something?”

Anticipating Tony's reaction, her hand remain under the bottom of the mug in case he dropped it, "It just eats a cricket, once a week. They're very easy to maintain," she removed the hand from under the mug when she was sure the man wouldn't spill the milk over himself. To her credit, she did understand that this was a lot for him to take in, and didn't quite expect him to digest it all just yet, so having him be mostly unresponsive was perhaps a good sign.

It was a better sign than having him rage, which was half of what she'd feared once she'd understood that the man hadn't even known they'd been using the place. She had to admit though, that the way Tony looked at the beaker was mildly hilarious, and had this been any other place or time, she'd have smiled. As it was, she nodded at him, "It's fine. It's all I can do to make up for uhm... spoiling the surprise I guess," this wasn't exactly a surprise though, it had to have some other sort of name, Angela was sure of it. A not particularly pleasant name. She felt this wasn't a good time for her to be around, but at the same time, she felt that having her around a bit as a third wheel might actually help the ice breaking, given the fact it was increasingly obvious to her that what Nathan Did Not Want To Do... well, he didn't do. Talking to his father was apparently on that list, though she was sure it was more due to anxiety and other issues than not actually wanting to talk to him.

She was momentarily distracted by the fact Tony had called her Miss Bryne. That was something... Angela was only used to hearing from teachers, and only in a school environment. It was especially strange to her given the fact she'd given him her name, and there was something sweet, almost gallant about the simple gesture. She blinked at him, deciding that had she not been involved, and had he not been too old for her, she might've considered feeling flustered or embarrassed, "No, no, that's... that's fine," she did however, sound surprised, and when Nathan spoke to her, she blinked again, "He called me Miss Bryne," she was obviously mildly bemused, though her features remain calm, "I'm fine. would you rather I leave?" her gaze slid to the man, "I'm not sure you should leave him - maybe he should go to bed. Even if he did just wake up not long ago."

Tony looked up when he heard the two speaking. Nate wanted to leave? The librarian didn’t know what to think about that. He wanted to boy to stay, but he didn’t think he’d get much talking done in this state. After all he had been through, this was what blew his mind so thoroughly that he couldn’t function? That didn’t make any sense. Still, it wasn’t every day that someone found they had a son. Particularly one that seemed to be seventeen or eighteen years old, and was only just popping into Tony’s life.

He couldn’t even remember the prostitute. Of course, when he was younger Tony had been… less than the gallant, kind man he was now. It wasn’t surprising that he couldn’t remember something as, in his youthful mind, ‘trivial’ as that.

There was some research he needed to do now, though. Finding this woman, of course, was now at the top of his list. And learning about Nathan. And taking a nap.

“I think I should go take a rest. You two can go, if you’d like. You’re both welcome here. I mean it. Please… I mean, if you go and… and please come back. I mean, Miss Byrne, you don’t have to come back, of course, you have your own home. Unless… unless you want to. But. But uh… Nathan, please. Come back?” He looked like he was pleading. He sounded like it, too.

Nathan just shrugged.

He was a bit miffed that Angela seemed so happy to be called ‘miss’. Didn’t that just make girls feel old? He didn’t get it, but he was instinctively jealous.

“Well, come on, Miss Byrne,” he grinned, “let’s go. We’ll let him rest is wittle head while we go have fun. We can mess with the paintball gun.”

Angela seemed to think that Tony resting was a perfectly good, healthy idea, because as the man spoke she nodded slightly before focusing her attention back on the boy. She wasn't so much worried for Nathan's wellbeing (having been witness to the fact he could look after himself well enough) as his actual mental stability; she knew he had issues, and a lot of them revolved around Tony as far as she could tell. The fact he shrugged, instead of flatout refuse, was enough for her to let it go; it meant he'd be back, no doubt, whether Tony believed it or not.

That aside, the spider would probably die of hunger if it had to rely on just the poor librarian to feed it. She was suddenly glad that she'd acidently picked out a creature poor Tony could not quite stand, if only because it meant it'd rely entirely on Nathan actually coming back, "If the invitation still stands..." she nodded to the man, whom seemed like he really, really couldn't take more surprises that same day. He was still calling her Miss Bryne, and he was stuttering, and it was pathetically adorable in a way. Plus, she'd only just realized where Nathan got that rambling, stuttering habit of his, and she had to refrain from pointing at Tony as if she'd only just discovered the Mona Lisa, or something horribly interesting.

In a way, the man almost reminded her of an older and... slightly pansy-er Nathan, though she also refrained from mentioning that. As Nathan spoke she paused and blinked, "At least lend me a T-shirt I can dirty up? That sounds good though," she pulled away from the couch and neared the boy, stopping beside him to lean in so only he could hear her, "I'm sorry... when he says it, it sounds both polite and gallant. When you say it, it sounds like you're teasing me, which is fine too. I love you anyways," that said, she pulled away, "Where is the gun and gear anyhow?" of course, the sort of sloppy, almost awkward confession was disguised by the other words, and she'd said it as it'd come, which meant she hadn't even noticed.

Nathan looked at Angela as she came closer to him, feigning more annoyance than he felt. He knew Tony wasn’t a threat. Right? Though, he had done it again, and she just said that it sounded nicer coming from the older Darrow. So what if Nathan had been teasing her when he said it? He thought she would have to immediately think his was more charming. He was going to have to tell Tony to back off, should the boy return to the apartment later.

Now it wasn’t so much a mystery why so many young ladies came to visit him in the hospital.

Tony listened distantly. Paintball gun? That was something he was going to have to worry about, he was sure, just looking at Nathan. He looked like the kind of kid who wouldn’t use it just for fun. He’d get into trouble with it, undoubtedly, though Tony had no idea that Nathan had already done quite a bit of damage with it already. That would just be too much for him to think about at the moment, as overwhelmed as he was. He just sipped his warm milk and tried to stay focused on absolutely nothing at all.

“I’ll go get it,” Nate said. He moved off into the bedroom, getting his paintball gun and some gear. As well as one of Tony’s long shirts.

Tony noticed when the young man returned.

“Oh, that’s one of mine… ah… that’s fine. Go on, have fun. I’ll take care of your… uhm… spider.” He looked at the terrarium and frowned deeply. Nate nodded toward the door, heading to it.

“Don’t wait up, Pops,” he said, grinning. When they were finally out in the hall, after Tony called a polite goodbye, Nathan rolled his eyes. “That guy… is not the man I thought was my father. Or want. Man. What a p***y. Come on, let’s go shoot paint at things. It’ll be more fun than all this.”

She knew deep down that he was feigning more annoyance than he felt, but regardless, she stretched her hand and patted his arm before he left to grab the gun. No doubt, from Tony's perspective, they were a bit of a mismatch, but in a way, she'd realized that she kept him grounded while he helped her out of her shell. It was a bit like the quid pro quo game she'd told him about on their second meeting, and it worked. When she was around, she hadn't really seen him get into any actual trouble, and she wasn't sure if it was because he wanted to keep her safe, or something else altogether.