|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 11:52 am
Chris had found out Autumn was in the hospital through the, when he thought back on it, the oddest way possible. It was just a note on his office door at the high school, no signature applied to it, just telling him that his friend was in the hospital. It was taped on cleanly, the handwriting was unknown to him (and Chris had gotten very, very good at learning handwriting ever since he started teaching), and Chris only gave a silent word of thanks to whoever had taped it before rushing into his office, scrawling out an email that he would be out, and then dropping the schoolwork he had on his desk and leaving.
A worried phonecall to his mom (and he knew that Hyejin would be calling later just by proxy), a trip to the supermarket, and an hour later he was awkwardly following a nurse to Autumn's room holding a basket of fruit and chocolate, a tin of one of Chris' mixes of teas tucked in at the bottom. The nurse left him once she showed him the room and Chris took a deep breath, shuffled the basket in his arms then opened the door and stepped in.
"Autumn?" He asked, just to be sure he was in the right room. Hospitals were... they were weird.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 6:44 pm
"Chris." It was later in her stay, and admittedly since Pax's visit, Autumn was admittedly feeling better. Tired, certainly, but better. She sat up a little bit straighter in bed and smiled at her friend, waving a weary hand. They hadn't gotten together since movie night, and she'd wanted to, but life had... thrown a man made of fire at her. You know, the usual. Having a friend with some semblance of normalcy in his life was wonderful. She loved Jeremiah and Zac, but they were adjusting to Other Ashdown. Getting drawn into it.
Chris, god bless him, was reacting typically.
"How are you?" She asked, gesturing to one of the open chairs. Hopefully, he'd be staying to chat for a while. Her discharge was imminent, but someone was seriously gonna go down if she had to deal with that damn machine beeping alone.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 7:03 pm
Chris gave her a small smile, stepping in and sitting down in one of the chairs she gestured to. It felt weird, somewhat, she looked small in the room and Chris wasn't good at hospitals. She didn't look deathly though, just tired, and that gave Chris enough confidence to stay.
"I'm.. good I guess, had a weird experience recently. Made you a basket though," He said, offering it to her. "Some fruit and chocolate in there, also some tea I made. Are you alright? Besides the whole, hospital thing."
He was curious on what had even landed her here, although he didn't know if he should ask or not. Maybe she'd offer? He hoped, he still didn't know what to do. Hopefully though, it didn't have to do with other ashdown. He'd already had a weird run in already, he hoped Autumn was being safe.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 12:47 pm
"Tea?! Chocolate?!" Autumn winced at the pain, but still grabbed for the aforementioned goodies in the basket. She took a long, dramatic sigh of the tea, and sighed romantically. It was bliss. Pure, utter bliss. The Chief had brought tea on his occasional visits, but honestly? She was a damn addict. It was damn lucky that tea was legal, or it probably could've been considered a drug addiction.
"Sweet jesus," She breathed, after taking another sip. "I needed this."
Autumn set the cup down, and idly bit a piece of chocolate. Hopefully, her throat would be able to handle it. Nonetheless it was sweet, sweet caffeine, and it was a much-needed relief from the monotonous food of the hospital.
"Weird experience? I'd love to hear about it," She continued, setting the chocolate bar on her lap. Honestly, if one of the nurses tried to take it from her, she'd probably kill someone. It would be a full on hospital brawl. At the question if she was alright, Autumn frowned.
"...I met a spirit," Autumn said quietly, not meeting Chris's eyes. "It wasn't friendly. It made a friend of mine an offer, and he refused. ...So it burnt my lungs." She gestured to the hospital, and smiled weakly.
"Hence the hospital thing. I.... should be okay. No permanent damage or anything." She shook her head.
"But seriously. Please distract me, I wanna hear what happened to you."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 2:52 pm
Chris smiled in amusement at her enthusiasm for the tea and chocolate. He definitely knew what to bring her if she ever needed a pick me up, or if she was mad at him. He wasn't planning for the second to ever happen really but it was good to know, as Hyejin had taught him many, many times during middle school. Hell, maybe he could even test his newer blends of tea on Autumn? That'd be nice, to have another person to taste.
"I can imagine," He said, "I hear hospital food isn't that great."
He fussed with the edge of his jacket as he listened, his smile turning into a frown. That definitely wasn't a spirit Chris wanted to mess with, but also the fact that it had hurt Autumn made him frustrated. Angry, upset almost. She shouldn't have to deal with this and yet, here she was.
"I'm glad you'll be okay, really," He said after she was done, looking up and giving her a soft smile. "I also ended up in other Ashdown but it's a better story I guess."
He took a breath, trying to decide where to start before finally deciding to tell her all of it. "So I decided I wanted to go look for the other kids the other day, see if I could find them. Maybe visit Heliodora if I failed, you know? It wasn't supposed to be anything too dangerous just... just a look around."
"So I went and found Sunny, and made a deal with her to get into the other place. Just a pack of cigs, which was cheaper than the deal I've heard, and she just ripped open space practically and let me in. Mentioned something about me being able to walk in whenever sometime which reminds me, can you just walk in? You're farther than me in this magic stuff so."
Chris started fussing with his sleeve again, feeling a little odd about recounting the experience. That he had been looking for the kids, still felt guilty about it.
"Anyways, so I got in and I fully intended to go look for them in the park like last time. But I guess I got off the path or something? I was just thinking, not noticing too hard where I was going except that there was green and suddenly I came across this garden Autumn. Like ivy covered wrought iron fence, tall stone walls, looked like something off a plantation. It was gorgeous and I went in, I just wanted to look, which was a great and terrible idea in retrospect."
He looked up from his sleeve to Autumn, eyes wide.
"The garden was.. it was gorgeous. There was everything you wanted in there and then more, seriously. There was stuff I'd never seen, stuff I didn't think could grow here. There were these weird tomatoes and this gorgeous deep blue flower and this weird apple tree-"
He frowned deeply at the thought of the tree, pausing mid sentence. "Autumn, I love apples. I can stand just about every type of apple in the world, I think they're the greatest fruit ever. But this apple was awful. It was pure white, gorgeous to look at and firm and ripe. But I took a bite and it was like.. it was like eating really juicy nothing. There was no flavor despite all the juice, just translucent flesh and the feeling like I was chewing on glass and kind of blood. The weirdest and worst apple ever, of course other Ashdown would bastardize my favorite fruit."
"But it was after that that I realize I should leave and so I followed the path I took and tried to get out and this.. plant spirit. It locked me in, I never saw it really, but it controlled the ivy on the gate and I think it wanted me to stay and tend the garden. And you know, the creatures in other Ashdown like deals, so I made it one. I made it tea, two types actually, so it would let me out and then teach me how to go home. I didn't really want to interact with anything else that day and it accepted, thankfully, so I made it the tea and it let me out. It also taught me how to get out with a yellow rose, I think? I don't remember the flower well and when I got home, it was withered and brown and turned to dust basically in my hand."
He ran a hand roughly through his hair and stared at the ceiling, done with his story before finally looking back at Autumn. "Is it bad that I want to go back, even after all of that?"
Moonstone Dazzle holy ******** word dump I am so sorry, he likes to talk AND THIS IS PARAPHRASED EVEN
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 8:11 pm
Autumn listened intently to her friend's story, pleased with the distraction. Chris's adventures were more like Alice in Wonderland, compared to Autumn's Dante's Inferno. Travels through a garden, meeting flower spirits? It sounded so fun, so light-hearted. Exactly the kind of thing Chris needed, honestly. It was like his Pax, in a way. The thought eased Autumn's mind a little bit. But then...
Autumn gestured for Chris to lean closer, and when he did, bapped him over the back of the head.
"Lemme ask you something. Why the ******** did you eat white-a** apples in Other Ashdown?! What kind of white people in a horror movie logic is that s**t?!" She glared at Chris, mostly teasingly. But there was still an undercurrent of shock and disappointment that he'd ******** EATEN FOOD IN THE OTHERWORLD, WHAT THE s**t. Autumn sat back, and tutted dismissively.
"But it's not bad. I'm glad you want to go back. Gives me a magic-buddy in this s**t to react to things," She smiled. "And yeah, I can kind of get there now? Rosalinde can find entrances. And since I can talk to her, it makes it a lot easier."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 8:25 pm
Chris winced at the hit, rubbing at the spot a little. "I didn't just eat it blindly! There was a lizard nearby and it ate some of the apple so I figured it was safe," He whined, giving her a small look. "I like apples, it was tempting! Anyways maybe they're better cooked, or something."
He definitely didn't want to give up on the apple and after all, mother nature rarely if ever made something useless. They had to have some purpose, although what he didn't know yet but was determined to find out. Apples were the best fruit and he didn't want to give up, even if Autumn was disappointed. Which she definitely was but he was very carefully ignoring it.
"Good, because I want to go back to the garden. I think I want to try raising the some of the plants from there, here," He said, looking at her with a small grin. "That's cool though, that Rosalinde can find them and you can go that way. Easier than giving Sunny a carton of cigs every time I want to go through. Speaking of, how is Rosalinde?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 5:25 pm
"Right, because there's never been stories about reptiles telling people it's okay to eat fruit. Nope. That's not a THING THAT'S TOTALLY A THING," she snapped, pinching the bridge of her nose. Christ. And Eve was the stupid one. Clearly, Adam would've been just as capable of ******** it all up. Womankind deserved a do-over or something, Jesus.
"Rosalinde is good. She came by and yelled at me," Autumn sighed, forcing herself not to be angry about the apple thing any longer than it deserved. Besides, they'd both been doing their share of stupid s**t in Other Ashdown. Despite her joke-anger, Autumn was very genuinely glad her friend was taking to it so well.
"I'll go with you next time. Make us some salves and s**t, so we don't get wrecked when we go."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 5:53 pm
"Ok look, I don't know about you but when I'm wandering a magical garden in the literal equivalent of out town's Silent hill I'm not thinking about the bible," Chris whined, still trying to defend his stupid action. Now that she pointed it out, it was ridiculous, but he hadn't intended to be stupid. He had just wanted the apple, seriously.
"She yelled at you? How did she get in? She's a cat," He raised an eyebrow, wondering if maybe she had some other powers he didn't know about. It wouldn't surprise him at this point, he'd already had his fair share of weird s**t and was starting to get used to it unfortunately.
"That'd be really nice, yeah." He smiled at her, glad to have a buddy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
