[PRP] Well Done (Evan/Nora)

[Inle-roo]

As eager as Evan was to leave the Life labs after his forced confinement, he found that he couldn't without checking to see if everyone else was okay. Many of the people who had been on that mission were trainees, and they were only just more durable than regular people. There had been several Suns among the wounded, as he recalled, and he felt a responsibility to them, especially. It cost him nothing but a little bit of his time, and most of them had been asleep, anyway.

If Evan saved his visit to Nora for last, it was entirely on purpose. Of all of the new recruits, she seemed to have the levelest head, and that was always an asset in the field. He thought, not for the first time, that she would do well as a Sun, and she deserved to hear it.

Evan cautiously opened the door to Nora's hospital room, quietly knocking on it in case she was asleep. "Nora? Are you awake?" He was extra careful to keep his voice down; he knew firsthand how she reacted to being woken up, and he didn't want to disturb her. His skin was still so sensitive everywhere that he would probably just cry if she kicked him now.

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

"Nnnnggguuuuuhhhhh . . ."

It was like being drunk, except instead of a hangover, it was her whole body participating in the madness. What skin Beatrix had managed to repair during the five days there itched, half because it was a new layer, half because she still had visions of bugs crawling out from underneath.

Another moan left her as a small wave of nausea tossed her stomach around. Nora felt hot even while on top of the sheets, and if the Moon hunter who had tended to her hadn't sternly warned her that moving around and messing with the bandages would tamper with the healing process, then she would have been half naked and in her room by now, chugging all of the water bottles she coudl get her hands on. Her body had other plans, though: namely, making her sweat it out.

Scratch it: it wasn't like being drunk. It was like being a damn junkie.

She winced as someone called her name, disliking being so unpresentable--especially once she recognized it was Evan's voice, practically her CO for the moment. But she hoarsely replied, "Yeah, m'awake. Come in," anyway, forcing herself to sit up with a wince. "Tell me you've got some water on you, I'm burning up in here."
 

[Inle-roo]

Oh, Evan recognized those zombie-like sounds, having made some of them himself while he had been in the early stages of recovery. He offered Nora a sad, empathetic smile as he slipped inside her room, closing the door behind him. A quick once-over reassured him that she was healing and not actually dying, and he settled into the chair at her bedside.

He huffed a laugh at her request, awkwardly fumbling a mostly-full water bottle onto the bed beside her. His arms were still loosely bandaged from his palms just past his elbows, and while he was physically past the point of wanting to drown himself in anything liquid and cool, it was still a comfort. The skin-memory of being burned alive hit him at unexpected times, making him crave water, but it was all mental and he would and could push past it, or push it into one of the boxes in his mind where all of the bad things lived and forget about it.

"Dumb question," he cautioned, "but how are you holding up?"

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

She tossed him a half-hearted scowl for laughing at what she thought was quite the serious need for water, not to mention thanks for bringing nothing, jag, but it was more draining than it was worth. "Slap some butter on me, add a little garnish, and I'd make a great addition next to some chips," Nora replied with a sigh, smoothing back sweaty bangs from her face.

It was almost painfully noticeable how red and irritated her normally ghostly pale skin was.

"Lesson learned: pack some sunscreen and water before you report to anything." She groaned. "Maybe if I'm lucky I'l just get a few more freckles instead of cancer. What about you?" Nora squinted him up and down enviously. "How the hell are you walking, mate? You were in the blast just like the rest of us."

Inle-roo

 

[Inle-roo]

Nora's flaming pallor combined with her description immediately made him think of a lobster. It was too easy to imagine her with claws, as prickly as she could be--and then, from there, cracked open to reveal hundreds of black, writhing bodies and millions of wiggling legs.

Suddenly, her metaphor wasn't so funny anymore. Evan swallowed hard as his head bobbed in agreement. "Well, I'm a badass, obviously," he bullshitted easily. "Mind over matter, you know--and we've been around a while longer, we heal faster. For what it's worth, I don't think any of us can even get cancer anymore."

He leaned forward, suddenly serious. "In all honesty, though, I just wanted to let you know that you did a good job out there. You kept your head, you rallied the troops, and it all turned to s**t in the end, but that's just the way these things seem to go. Not much to be done about that, but you did well for your first mission. This was a hell of a lot worse than my first mission, I can tell you that much."

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Natch." Not that she had any room to doubt after that one spar they had. "Good to know I won't have to worry about pink ribbons and wigs then. Just massive monsters that can eat me without a second thought. Big weight off my chest."

Nora was surprised he had come over to give some praise, though. Were missions really so awful that the best thing someone could say was "at least you kept sane all the way through"? Granted, Deus had yet to give her a great overall impression, and after getting firebombed by who had presumably been a higher up . . . that wasn't changing any time soon, job well done or otherwise.

"Bah. Nothing hard about that," she rasped with a shrug, wincing as Beatrix tutted her for moving excessively. "You're not the only badass here." Nevermind that Nora had only been a chatterbox because of nerves, that in all honesty by the time they had gotten swallowed she was just inches from declaring it all a nightmare and pinching herself to wake up. Distractions and Beatrix's supply of energy had been the only thing keeping her going.

Pretending to be alright long enough eventually fooled the mind, she found out.

"Now are you going to get a girl some water? I tried waving down a Moon earlier and I swear she was ignoring me."

Inle-roo

 

[Inle-roo]

"Clearly," Evan replied, flashing Nora a smile. He thought, not for the first time, that she would definitely be an asset to their division--anyone who could survive the trauma they had just experienced and shrug it off with sass had no place hiding in the Life labs, or skulking around in the shadows like a Death hunter. She seemed bright, despite it all, in all meanings of the word.

"Yeah, I can," he said to her request, eager to help. He rose--stiffly, still sore and in the process of healing--and went to terrorize some hapless trainees. He returned a few minutes later looking awfully pleased with himself and carrying not only a pitcher of water, but cups, paper towels, and--wonder of wonders--an ice pack.

Most of it got dumped on the table by Nora's bed, but he poured some water into the cup before setting the pitcher down. "What do you want first?" Evan asked, holding the cup of water in one hand and the ice pack in the other.

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

She let herself fall back on the pillow while he was gone, panting and grimacing. She'd had sunburns before, but nothing remotely as deep as this: it made even talking hard to do for extended periods of time, and she had only had a few exchanges with Evan. Being this helpless was a foreign concept to Nora, and she hoped Beatrix was working as fast as she could to fix it.

Yesyesyes, of course! But you should totally ask Hot Guy #1 to ~help heal you~ too.

Glad to see being burned alive hasn't affected your priorities.

When she heard Evan's footsteps, Nora forced herself to sit up again, jaw clenched as her body protested. "Good grief, who'd you muscle for those?" she asked with a grunt, brightening and motioning for the cup of water first. "Tell them you were a badass?"

Inle-roo

 

[Inle-roo]

Evan shrugged nonchalantly--and regretted it when the new, tender skin across his shoulders rubbed against the soft cotton of his shirt--as he handed Nora the cup. "Didn't need to," he replied. "This was all charm."

/What a lame gift,/ Gir chimed in. /Anyone can get water. You should have killed something for her! Ghouls love dead stuff!/

Evan pointedly ignored him as he put the ice pack down on the table, within arm's reach should Nora need it. "Do you need anything else while I'm up? Change of clothes, painkillers, sponge bath?" All delivered with the same kind of sweet, innocent affability that had gotten him his armful of goodies. That Moon huntress that had snubbed Nora definitely hadn't ignored him.

Ol-j-man

u knew it had to come to this

 

[medigel]

Giving a weak laugh--charm, eh?--Nora took the cup, swallowed one mouthful, and then promptly inverted the cup and started pouring water over the more affected areas: around her neck, arms, and back. Her hiss of pain slowly turned into a sigh as she felt herself cool off.

I'm no expert, but I don't think cups are used for that, Beatrix put in, though she was pleased by its effects. She then proceeded to give off little thought blips to add, all of them innuendos about being wet and how a sponge bath sounded delightful and totally heal-ish. Nora took it in stride: at least it was a step up from the frantic whining from before.

"Shower's done," she told Evan, wincing as she gently spread the water around her affected skin. No doubt it'd have to mean bandage changes sooner because of it (a process that made her want to literally cry from pain last time), but she still felt it was worth the momentary relief. "Here's one," Nora said, obviously teasing. "Peach cobbler. Promised the kids I'd make some after the mission, and it'd be a right shame if I went back on my word." Then she grew a little more somber. "How is everyone anyway?"

Inle-roo

 

[Inle-roo]

Evan snickered as Nora started pouring the water over herself. It was funny and a little sad that this was what their lives had come down to: clinging to life by their burnt-off fingernails and healing when and how they could before moving on to the next inevitable crisis. He passed her the roll of paper towels, which he had figured would come in handy. "Blot," he advised, "don't rub. You'll only irritate the skin more."

He settled once more into the chair at her bedside, his eyes nearly glazing over at the mention of cobbler. That sounded amazing: a bowl full of sweet, sticky cobbler, topped with ice cream. "I don't know if I can make it," he admitted regretfully. "I never have before. Guess you'll just have to heal up and show me how it's done," he said, nodding decisively.

At the mention of the others, Evan half-shrugged, giving Nora's burns a quick once-over. "Somewhere between well-done and crispy," he answered honestly. "But they'll live to fight another day. There could always be worse things."

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

"Thanks, doc." Her eye twitched as she folded the paper towel up and began dabbing at her skin; even the lightest of touches still felt like too much. "Guess it was too much hope we didn't all nearly get turned to chips. Ah well. A promise is a promise; I'll add you to the guest list once I've got my things together, eh?" Good food always lifted spirits, and cooking gave her something to look forward to.

Speaking of worse things, though..."What was all that back there anyway?" Nora had to ask. "Throwing words around like titans and Famine and horsemen? I got bits and pieces from the lecture after adopting the dog, but not the full picture."

Inle-roo

 

[Inle-roo]

"Already looking forward to it," Evan replied with a smile and a nod. "I'd suggest we take it outside and make a full-blown barbeque out of it, but from the looks of it, we've all been grilled enough. I don't even want to think about cooked meat," he said with a shake of his head.

He hesitated at her next questions, unsure of how to answer. On the one hand, she'd been through enough for one week, and he didn't want to scare her any more than necessary. On the other hand...well, she would find out anyway. Best to do it all at once, he figured, like ripping off a band-aid.

"About, oh, a year or so ago," Evan started, sitting back in his chair, "the island lost its power source. More than that, it lost its protection. It used to be covered in some kind of fog that kept it some degree of safe. Since then, there have been these giant monsters--titans--wandering around. You can see them from the shore sometimes. Do not," he warned, "go after them by yourself. As for the horsemen, those monsters you signed on to kill? They're the worst of them. In the field, anything that's not a person is kill-on-sight, but horsemen especially. Famine horsemen are just one," he paused, looking for the right word, "type, I guess, of horsemen, just like Sun is a division of Deus Ex. They mostly live in the desert, so the thing that ate us was probably one of theirs."

He paused to let that all sink in. He knew how overwhelming it could be--fortunately for him, he preferred to kill first and ask questions about it later, if ever. "These are all things you'll come to learn eventually. All you need to remember is humans: good and monsters: die."

Ol-j-man

 

[medigel]

She winced. "No kidding . . ." Although the idea of a barbecue was actually nice . . . Maybe they could still make one some how. Nora wasn't going to turn down good meat just because she got fried, not with the stuff being served at the cafeteria.

Reaching over for the ice pack, she gingerly placed it over her shoulder with a small hiss of pain and listened to Evan's explanation. Fog that protects, now that was something odd . . . The rest went in line with what that Life guy had said. No way was she tackling any of those titans if they were anything like Mr. Sarlacc, though, he didn't have to tell her twice. "So they're real, then," Nora said with a frown. "Horsemen. Apocalypse and the pale rider Death and all of that? Thought it went as Pestilence, though . . ."

It was an odd detail to get stuck on, but Nora coped with all of this information by digesting it bit by bit, and delicately skirting the part about worms springing from her skin.

"Yeah, just . . . yeah." She shook her head and shuddered. "Easy enough. Any other suggestions about future missions? Besides avoid the evil guy who bombed us in the first place?"

Inle-roo

 

[Inle-roo]

"Death didn't seem all that pale, as I recall," Evan remarked, thinking back to his first mission in the Sahara. The only thing that made this most recent mission at all better than that one was the fact that it had only happened the once. "I don't know that there's a Pestilence clan at all--I don't think there is--but let's not go looking for extra trouble."

Nora seemed to be taking everything okay, which was good, because they had barely scratched the surface. "It's hard to prepare for missions because you don't usually know what's supposed to happen until you get there, and then all hell'll break loose anyway. Pass the training courses to get qualified for runics, they can help you out in the field," he suggested. "Maybe see if you can pull House duty. There're usually monsters running around in there, but they shouldn't give you much trouble. You can volunteer for missions off-island, too. Let me know if you need any help; I'm always happy to lend a hand."

Evan gingerly turned to look over his shoulder, making sure there were no other eyes or ears on their conversation, before scooting his chair closer to the bed. He leaned in close to Nora, his voice for her ears only as he said, "The best advice I can give you is stay out of the way of the division leads. They're all batshit crazy--ours especially, but at least he's harmless-crazy and not homicidal-crazy. You see them coming, you run as far and as fast as you can in the other direction."

Ol-j-man