Welcome to Gaia! ::

Finding gifts for Jack was the hardest part of the whole game. If the time clock hit past a certain hour he wouldn't accept food gifts, but the player got major points for giving him sashimi, which was a real pain to find and just ugh why was Abbi playing him as her target again? Somewhere between the perfect finish of her last game and the start of this game she had forgotten, but there was a dull beeping that indicated she was running out of time on the mini game clock. Distracted with trying to remember, the teen accidentally let the clock run out and instead of just the annoying buzzer and a low score, she actually felt a jolt on her forehead.
"Worst... otome game... ever..." She mumbled, squeezing her eyes tight for a second before opening them to find a bright white ceiling instead of her game screen. Hands flexed, but felt stiff and bulky, not at all feeling the sleek pink of her handheld game. Confusion and reluctance to let go of what she had just known, Abbi blinked again, dragging in a slow breath that hurt more than it should have. A whimper left her and the mental check list of what the hell was going on began.

Hands, bandaged. Rib area, sore as hell. Face and shoulders felt ok, but her arms had stuff on them and her whole torso felt a little funny. But what made her sit up far too quickly, the blanket thrown off in a huff, was the dull ache combined with tightness in her legs. That had happened once before, that had been terrible and the teen felt her chest squeezing tighter as she looked down to find both legs nearly completely covered in bandages.
"Craaaaap."
The nausea set in a second later and she wobbled to continue sitting, flailing a little to sit back slowly.
When Abbi had turned thirteen, she had spent the day in the hospital following an emergency appendectomy, so waking in a hospital bed was not familiar, but not new. The crinkle of an ill fitting gown didn't bother her, nor the bandages and pain. She could ask for pain medications and sleep it all off, no big. What bothered her was that feeling of not being able to breath, the fuzzy memories and the general confusion of who had woken her.

Most helpfully, voices spoke up, scattered through out the space around her. Abbi shifted herself back up as best she could, blinking eyes she only now realized had been bereft of her contacts to find Jack. Oh... Then--
Not being able to breath already meant when she looked out over her beat up legs and across the way she saw Finn with a deep gasp, the sight of him bringing back all those terrible images of him before she'd been crushed.
A noise like a choked off whimper left her and she fought to move, not sure where to go first. Coaxing her legs into even a gentle shift left or right hurt immensely, but she had to make sure he was ok and-- Another noise distracted her, this one on her right. Swiveling fast enough that it hurt pretty badly, Abbi gasped again, flinching because this was all hurting really bad.
"R-ripley why are you in here? What happened-- Jack! Jack is Finn ok he- Uh hi other guy-- But Finn--Ow ow owwwww" Nope nope nope. Slow that roll...

"Shuttup, Ripples." Otto barked at Ripley, tempted to smack the man for even thinking of signing Otto up for an exam of that calibur. "a**."

He instead did the first decent thing he'd done all day; he propped some pillows behind Ripley, and with a small warning, helped the other man sit up more comfortably. "There. Now ya'll can chatter at yer little friends."

Otto was lucky Jack didn't hear the prostate exam bit. Mostly because he would have seriously given one if it was necessary. "Coat's hanging around that chair by you, Finn. Now, stay still," he ordered Abbi, and that was the last thing he said for a stretch of time as he got to work checking up on her.

"Ripples". He'd have to remember that one.

After making a few notes on her chart--it didn't take Jack very long since he was still shadowing those Life techs who were more qualified as the doctors here--he moved on to Finn and ran most of the same diagnostics. "She stopped by a few times," he added as an afterthought, the moon's question filtering through his data-focused mind like a piece of driftwood in the ocean. "Same as usual; calling me names like it's my fault you both got in here." With a sharp rap of the pen, he finished the preliminaries. "Someone'll come by to check on Abbi's legs and your arm specifically, but they're healing rapidly. Don't do anything stupid to interrupt the process."

With that, Jack began to set Finn's chart back down and went to wash his hands. "Yo," he at last greeted Otto directly. "Halloweener myself. What are you turning, seventeen?" He was being serious about this, because after one met Abbi, one did not know what exactly the age limits were anymore for Deus recruitment.

Ripples? Finn scoffed a laugh at the nickname, a slow smile curling up his lips. He'd heard it said before in his fake!sleep, but hearing it again reminded him, and he decided that he would likely be using that same nickname for his pale friend from then on. The moon trainee continued to work himself up into a slightly straighter position so he could see everyone a bit better, gritting his teeth against the pain that was every simple movement.

At the introduction, Finn gave a small nod. Otto? Toto? Which was it to be? "You a trainee too?" He asked the other blonde haired man, "One of us newbs that doesn't know how to keep ourselves from ending up here?" Poor naive Finn, not realizing that even full hunters could get severely hurt on the job. But really, the guy just looked too young to be anything but a trainee, so it was all based on assumption.

"Well, Happy ******** Birthday, anyways. Aren't you so glad you get to spend some of it here with us?" His smile did not, as per usual, reach his eyes, making his words seem all the more bitter.

Glancing over his shoulder towards the chair Jack indicated, Finn reached out to paw at it slowly, managing to grab a hold of one of it's belts so he could drag it towards him, hauling it up across his lap before he began rummaging around in it's pockets. A bottle of old spice, a lighter, a quarter of a pack of cigs that were...remarkably still intact though a little bit squished, and his cellphone.

Pulling that out, he powered it on, recalling that it'd had at least a quarter of a battery left the last time he had used it. "Fantastic." He muttered when Jack mentioned that she had been by several times, then made a disgusted sound in the back of his still raw throat at the rest. "Of course she would." All Finn could really remember before falling was that he had been defending Jack, however, which was hardly the giant mans fault. "Hey, I must have done a hell of a good job keeping those bugs off of you, though, right?" He smirked, before tapping in a quick message on his phone....as quick as he could with one thumb since his other was unable to move at the moment.

Nothing else was needed. He'd ask her to wait a while before coming to see him but it would have been pointless because when did she ever listen to him? Sighing, he flopped back into his pillow.

And that's when Abbi started to have her freak out.

"Abbi." He said her name in an assertive manner, flat, calm, and with a hard edge. "Abbi listen to me, you need to breathe, right now, slowly. In through your nose, as deep and as slow as you can. Do not talk, do not think, just ******** breathe. And then, you're going to let it out, slowly, through your mouth, okay? You keep doing that, and don't stop. You keep doing it until you feel calm."

He hoped she would at least listen to him. The last thing he wanted to hear right now was somebody rambling hysterically and then probably crying on top of that. Panic attacks were a very real, and very vicious thing and a difficult cycle to break out of once one began, so he was trying to n** it in the bud early. He wasn't going to sit there and coddle her and continue to tell her he was fine, because clearly she wasn't stupid enough to believe that.

And while that was dealt with as much as he was currently able to, he finally reached up and touched at his hair, tentatively, probing carefully with the fingers of his right hand.

What he felt he was not happy about or relieved by in any way. Quite the opposite, actually. Letting out a soft hiss, his eyes sought out Jack's once more. "How ******** bad does it look?"

Why yes, Finn did seem to give more of a s**t about his hair then anything else now that he focused his attention towards it. Nobody should have been surprised about this at all.

"Toto's a full-fledged Hunter." Ripley corrected Finn, squinting at the ceiling. "I had to bury that ******** once, but it turns out he was alive." Which was a fun shock for him, or not. "I got hurt." He explained to Abbi as clearly as he could; there was no way he could avoid telling her that, seeing as he was in the hospital along with being bandaged and bruised. "N-nothing serious, though." That part he could lie about. Abbi didn't need to know he nearly bled to death from a neck wound. "I'll be okay, I promise." His gaze shifted and he took the bottle of water from Fini, returning her smile gratefully. It took him a moment to get it open, but once he did and once the water washed through his dry mouth he knew it was worth the effort. He had never tasted anything better in his entire life.

Had Ripley been more clear-headed, he would have made a very solemn vow to strangle Otto with his own hat. As it were the feeling was only a small simmer of hate, one that was easily overpowered by more important things; such as an upcoming panic attack from a young girl, and one of his friends.

"Abbi, listen to Finn. You just need to breathe, okay? We're alive, and we're on the mend." It felt weird to hear Abbi start to panic, because despite what had happened, he felt okay. Perhaps it was the drugs or perhaps it was plain old disbelief...but he wasn't about to start panicking, and out of everything that was what scared him more. Was he defective? Did he have something wrong with him? If not, he was already dreading when it would come rushing up to him.

That would come later he supposed, but right now, well, there was one very upset Abbi a bed or two over. Ripley drew in a painful breath and shifted, swinging one leg off the bed before he was forced to pause. The other leg soon followed and though every muscle in his body screamed at him, he forced himself to stand. He leaned on any surface he could find for step after painful step until he reached Abbi's hospital bed. The hard part was to sit down without hissing in pain, but once he did it he was more or less okay. Enough, at least, to reach out and take her hand in an attempt to comfort her.

"Your eyes are blue?" He commented idly, unsure if he was trying to change the subject for her benefit or if he was actually surprised. Probably a bit of both, he decided. Well, at least now he knew what her real eye colour was!

"...More hell or less hell than the rest of us?" His gaze was on Fini now, his lips pulled into a half grin. Hey, he wanted to know! It was important to him! Though he as at least polite enough to advert his gaze while they shared a little moment. Normally he would have a quip for that, maybe tell them to get a room or something, but under the circumstances it was allowed. They did almost nearly die, that prompted a politely overlooked display of public affection.

Nineteen, whatever; half the people here still looked too young. Lucky guy got to take a nap while he dealt with this mess.

Jack had said explicitly not to do anything stupid. So, naturally, Abbi had to. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he surveye'd Finn's hair for a moment, not having thought about how the jagged cuts done during previous procedures would impact the Moon. "Yeah, hell of a job; I'll call you next time I have a bug problem alright. But I'd say . . . Put up a funeral, because any semblance of good looks you've had are gone, man. Condolences. Being a hero is suffering." He gave him a few pats on the shoulder. "They say a buzzcut works on most anyone."

Fini announced herself with a smack of a snack against his chest. Actually, when had he last eaten . . . hmm . . . Jack peeked into the bag and counted its contents, popping a cracker into his mouth before setting it aside and moving towards Abbi. "Had to bury one of them too, huh?" he noted after listening to Ripley, though he sounded half distracted again. "Nice. Now how about getting back in your ******** bed. You aren't supposed to be walking yet."

Or maybe he could, Jack didn't know. He hadn't read Ripley's chart yet and more wanted the space to navigate around Abbi, because Jesus Christ they both needed some air. As long as he didn't actually tumble onto the ground or something.

With a dispassionate look he pulled the covers off Abbi's legs and rechecked her bandages which, while a little on the bleedy side, didn't seem all that bad to him. But if she was going to cry about it, he had a duty to stop it before it caused a scene. "Stay still," he commanded as he got to work unwrapping her old bandages. A fresh roll was pulled out along with a liquid that he squirted onto it before carefully wrapping each leg up. "This solution is meant to sooth burns, like aloe," he explained.

It wasn't long before his phone was buzzing in his hand again and Finn was looking at it, dismayed but not at all surprised to see that Fini planned on showing up sooner rather then later to see him...or all of them, probably, but likely mostly him, and at the moment it was the last ******** thing that he really wanted. Inwardly, he was seething, a build up of emotions, of anger and angst and frustration. He had to drop his phone onto his lap, because he was squeezing it so hard he thought that it might break. None of it showed, however, in his face or in his eyes. When Jack told him his good looks were gone, his everything remained steadily neutral. When Abbi ignored what he told her about breathing, he gave up on her, because like hell he was going to be helping somebody who wouldn't shut up for five seconds and listen. Stormy? Nevada? Who the ******** even cared. He had a chance to hope that they were both dead, but with Jack walking around seemingly fine, he thought that the chances of that were slim.

Otto left, and Finn had a split second to wonder if he had maybe offended the man by asking if he was a trainee, but that moment of wondering ended abruptly when he also remembered that he didn't give a s**t. Talk of burying past friends only to find out they were still alive, Jack telling Ripley off for getting out of bed, Abbi's panic, it all became far away as Finn felt himself just disconnect from it all, like a safety switch being flicked into place to keep himself from exploding on them all in a fit of rage.

He didn't even notice when Fini arrived, not right away. He was no longer focused on his surroundings because it had become too chaotic for him to deal with without completely erupting.

But she was indeed there, smiling at him as though there was nothing wrong, and for that he at least had a modicum of appreciation, because if she had looked at him with pain or pity, or had fallen to weeping on him in some sappy fashion, that would likely have been enough to make him snap. His world was drawn back into sharp focus, and he offered her a tight lipped smile in return, the kiss she gave him barely returned, and the bottle becoming clutched in one hand.

"Sunshine." He replied, his voice still a hoarse rasp. "I appreciate your honesty, and so I'm going to be honest as well. I really don't want to be here any longer then necessary, and when I get out, which I can assure you will be within the next thirty minutes, I am going back to my room, and I am locking the door, and I want you and everyone else to leave me alone for at least the remainder of the day." It was a mouthful to say all at once, and it hurt his throat to do so, but he wanted to be very, very clear on that matter. He needed his privacy, to be able to comprehend what had occurred, to be able to cope with it, and ultimately, to be able to bury it deep inside where he buried everything else, before being forced to be in any kind of social situation, before having to deal with anybodies attentions or affections.

Another cold smile was offered. "You understand that, don't you, Sunshine?" and then towards Jack.

"Discharge me. Right now."

And then towards Abbi, because for some reason, her question, which wasn't even directed towards him, was just enough of a spark to set off his agitation, though he answered her in the most cheerful tone he could manage.

"Because, darling, I was set on fire, and hair tends to be pretty flammable." He left out the 'especially when full of hair product' part.

"Calm Down. They've probably already been released." He guessed, though he couldn't possibly be sure. He watched Otto leave then, able to focus a little more now. Goodbye, Otto. Ripley wouldn't miss you at all.

Funerals? Ripley knew Funerals. But he wasn't about to offer arranging one for Finn's hair. To Jack's comment though, he nodded. "Yeah. I helped put him in his box and everything." The rest seemed ignored though, in favour of staying near Abbi in hopes that would keep her from completely freaking out. He wasn't supposed to be walking, but he could so he was going to.

"No I don't." He insisted, and tried to stay sitting up as she leaned into him. Damn these beds for being too small! They were ruining his plans to keep from passing out and make Abbi settle down! Jack wasn't helping much either, though he technically was. His blurry gaze did move to see her legs, though more to see what the damage was than anything else. He had a horrific flashback to a pair of feminine legs visible from under a wheelchair, and suddenly he knew. That must have been Abbi. That poor girl. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze and averted his gaze from her legs, only to find a very large pair of blue eyes staring up at him as pathetically as possible. Augh, damn those huge eyes of hers--

"It doesn't matter so long as it works, right?" It was a rasping, hoarse reprimand but it was short lived in favour of keeping her from whining any more than she had to. He let her lean on him though, and tried his best to not fall prey to those big blues. It wasn't as hard as he thought it'd be, especially since he could listen to Fini tell off Finn, which was fun because it wasn't happening to him...but of course it meant that he had to listen to Finn. What he was saying was completely understandable, it really just solidified the fact that he had no tact.

"Don't worry, that's the last thing I want to do today." He assured the short-haired, short-tempered Trainee. "--And you should let her help you there." He added as an afterthought, fully agreeing with Fini on that point. None of them should attempt to go back on their own without help. That'd be a terrible idea.