Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ennéa was laying on her bed and trying her best not to think about her stuffy nose. It was boring but at least the ceiling had an interesting water stain that kind of looked like a jellyfish. Or maybe it looked more like a comet? She titled her head and squinted at the stain until yet another coughing fit interrupted her.

"Ugh." She wheezed. Her cough still sounded horrible and phlegmy but at least her fever had broken. Ennéa grabbed a tissue and blew her nose.

"Okay Baraz, let's see if I can make it this time." She rasped, wadding up the tissue and taking careful aim at the trashcan over by the door. There were several tissue wads littering the floor around it.

Go for it.

Ennéa threw the tissue; it bounced off the rim of the trashcan and landed on the floor. "Drat."

Ooh, close but not enough. Baraz said. Score is holds at nine.

"To how many misses?"

Pfft, I don't know. I lost count long ago. There was a knock at the door followed by a muffled voice. Hey, someone finally remembered that you're alive.

Ennéa perked up at the knock. Everyone must finally be back from the mission! She rolled off her bed and wrapped a blanket around herself before opening the door.

"Maddie!" She said, genuinely pleased to see the other hunter. It had been lonely alone in the dorms and sick to boot. "How have you been? You went on that mission, right?"

"Hey, I did go see a doctor." Ennéa protested. "I went to the infirmary and everything."

Not that it had done her much good; in the grand scheme a things, a cold was a waste of time compared to the severed limbs and monster maulings the infirmary usually dealt with. The doctor on duty had very quickly and coolly looked Ennéa over before shooing her away again with some decongestant medicine.

"I'm mostly better now." Ennéa said. "Not contagious anyway. Wanna come in?" Ennéa shuffled back into her room, leaving the door open for Maddie to follow. She shoved a small pile of laundry off her desk chair and then offered the chair to her friend.

"So tell me how the mission went?" Ennéa asked once again as she settled herself cross-legged on her bed. She fished a tissue out of her pajama pocket and blew her nose. "I've been bored out of my mind here."

Ennéa made a face. "Ewwww." She couldn't remember the squishy room very well, mostly just chaotic images: the scythe; manic laughter; red and not-red; the walls... Ennéa pulled her blanket closer around her shoulders uneasily. The mission Maddie and the others had just gone on was like that?

Ennéa reached out and gave Maddie a pat on the knee. "That sucks." She said, stating the obvious. "I'll definitely come cough in your face next time!" Her smile was more than a little forced but she was trying.

"So did you guys stop what ever was doing the killing?" Ennéa continued lightly, "I bet Kouki sliced it up good, huh? Baraz was so bored here with me."

I was. Baraz agreed.

"Ewwwwww." Ennéa made yet another face and waved her hands in distress at that thought of that. "Ugh, what a way to die." She sincerely hoped nothing like that would ever happen to her. Then again, she sincerely hoped she wouldn't get killed, period.

Ennéa readjusted her blanket and looked over at Maddie; even she could tell that the other hunter was shaken by that mission. Ennéa's heart went out to her friend but she was at a loss for what to say or do or anything to help cheer her up. Ennéa was just floundering along herself, lost as ever. Perhaps even moreso, having missed that mission. If she had gone they could have at least commiserated together.

She bit her lip, not knowing what to say and feeling useless. On impulse, she grabbed her pillow and bopped Maddie with it. "Well, you killed it so it can't go eating more hunters. Don't worry about it for now, okay?" She forced a grin and then bopped her friend again. At the very least, she could distract Maddie.

Ennéa shrieked and giggled, flopping about trying to get untangled from her blanket and failing. She had dropped the pillow so she groped about and grabbed her dinosaur plushie. Ser Mestor had neither the bulk nor reach of the pillow but his smaller size made him a more flexible weapon. Ennéa quickly retaliated with a flurry of rapid bops. "Ha-HAH! Take that! And that! And that!"

Ennéa could hear Baraz laughing and that cheered her too. The ahriman was usually so disdainful and impatient with her antics; it was nice to hear him enjoying himself too. The past couple of days had been hard on everyone, it seemed.

Ennéa tried to duck and avoid Maddie's pillow swings only to get squarely bopped several times over the head. "Ack! Hey! No!" She giggled, trying to squirm away.

Ennéa was so preoccupied with untangling herself from her blanket and avoiding Maddie's relentless attack that she scooted off the bed and fell in an undignified heap onto the floor. She laid there like a lump, breathlessly laughing and holding her stomach. "Okay, okay, truce?" She called. She held up her dinosaur plush's tiny arm, mimicking it waving in defeat....

...only to suddenly toss the dinosaur straight at Maddie in a surprise attack. "But wait, Ser Mestor doesn't give up that easily!!" She crowed. Ennéa wiggled about, finally freeing herself from her blanket and gaining her feet. "Ha-hah!"

"Sorry, couldn't resist, you were wide open." Ennéa gave Maddie her best innocent smile. Maddie still had a pillow and she was now weaponless, after all.

For a brief moment, Ennéa was tempted to try and throw her blanket at Maddie and continue the pillow fight but she quickly curbed in the impulse. It wouldn't be good to be too obnoxious. Tobias was always poking her about taking jokes too far. Ennéa raised her empty hands as a show of peace and sat back down on her bed.

"Yeah, I'm feeling mostly better." She replied to Maddie's comment. "Still a little sneezey and snotty but much better than before." Much, much, better now that everyone was back from the mission and she wasn't sick and alone in her room. That had... not been pleasant.

She smiled at Maddie, full of genuine affectionate warmth. It was good to have friends. "Thank you for coming to see me." She said earnestly.

Ennéa then paused, remembering what Maddie had said about the mission. "Um, are you going to be okay?"