“There we go,” Mel said with a small smile as she gave Lulu a playful pat on the head. “Settle in for the night, girl. The weekend’s just getting started!”
The young woman stood then, beaming down at her pup who was already circling and pawing at her bed, prepping to get it “just right” the way she usually did when she “claimed” a spot. These weekend overnights at her wonder had been tough on Lulu at first, but the more she brought over creature comforts and created a space just for her, the easier it had gotten. It was the least Mel felt she could do, considering she was dragging her pup into her knight life.
Honestly, it felt right. They were besties, right? And she wanted to share every aspect of her life with Lulu. Not to mention if she wanted to go on these overnight trips without Lulu that would have meant having to explain to someone why she needed them to dogsit and where she went every month, and that...
Well.
That was surprisingly the more difficult thing to do between her options. So she brought Lulu into the fold, in a way, and she was very glad to see that she had gotten fairly acclimated to the space. Once it wasn’t just absolute pitch black throughout most of the wonder, Mel was hoping she could let her roam free or alongside her as she continued to explore the space. For now, though, she had her little pup sanctuary set up inside the knight’s quarters, just beside the bed.
Mel watched Lulu finally settle into the bed–and just before looking away saw that Boo had joined her just nearby (which pulled her lips up into an even bigger smile)–before moving to her own bed and slipping under the covers. She had downloaded the available episodes of a new mystery-thriller she was curious about, and was planning on watching a couple of episodes until she got sleepy, so she made herself comfortable first–set up her pillows and huddled up the blanket so she could set the tablet up properly–before turning to the nightstand and opening the drawer to get the tablet in question.
The room was already mostly dark, so she didn’t have any lights to turn down and jumped straight into the show. It fully captured her attention, and by the end of the last available episode the young woman was wide awake, her mind racing with all the possible stories that could be threaded together in the episodes to come. Setting the tablet aside, she finally moved to lay down and…
Promptly tossed and turned as her mind continued to run away with its imaginings. It was only after what felt like an hour–closer to two, she found, after checking the clock on her phone–that she finally got out of bed and quickly went to her bag. She grabbed a pouch and took out a small box, popping it open to reveal a small organizer that was full of medicine one often took with them when traveling. Antihistamines, motion sickness medication, medicine to help with diarrhea or constipation, antacids, over-the-counter pain medications, cold medicine, and…
“Nice, got one more dose in here.”
Smiling, she popped out two small tablets from under the “sleep aid” section of the organizer, then quickly put it away again and glanced around. “Water, water…” she murmured to herself. She wasn’t great with medicine and always needed a good helping of water to wash down anything she took. “Maybe in the night stand?” she said, eyeing the lower section. It was a small cabinet that she definitely could put water in, so she had easy access to some overnight. She made a mental note to do that in the future, because for sure she hadn’t filled it with bottles, but maybe she put one in there at some point on a previous trip?
It was worth a shot, she thought, so she made her way over and opened up the one closest to her. Empty, which got a frown out of her, but there was still the other one. Moving over the bed, she quickly made her way to the opposite side and opened up the cabinet of the nightstand there. Sure enough, there was a bottle there!
When she picked it up she could immediately tell it wasn’t something that she brought–she touched cold glass. Upon closer inspection she saw that it was a large vial of some sort, and inside was a clear liquid. Suspicious? Yes. But if it was in her knights quarters…
It was probably safe, right?
She wouldn’t keep poison in her own room, right?
Mel stared at the vial for a long moment, and then suddenly shut her eyes tight as a memory flashed through her mind.
– [ ] –
“Did they tell you what it was?” she heard Sebastian say as he followed her into her room. She glanced back at him, very clearly amused at the concerned look on his face.
“Something about…energy…or something?”
“Energy?” His brow quirked in the usual way it did when he questioned her. She didn’t mind; she was so used to it by now, and actually found the expression sort of cute on him.
“Mhm! I…left the booklet in the lab, but I can grab it later. They said it’ll probably taste gross but it’ll be good for me if I drink it!”
“Emi.”
“Seb.”
He gave an exasperated sigh. She laughed and moved over to him, standing closer than she usually did when they were anywhere but either one of their rooms. There was a line that she never crossed when they were with others, out of professionalism, but when it was just the two of them she was more than comfortable crossing it. He was too, clearly, as he peered down at her from his one-foot height advantage.
“I know you trust them.”
“Of course, I do.”
“But they work in a lab and test potentially dangerous things out for a living.”
“Yes they do, but I trust them. It’ll be fine, I promise!”
Their eyes met and she blinked, curiously, as she watched him, his silence drawing her in as it often did. He would never come right out and say it, but she could sense the worry radiating from him. She could feel it in his gaze, see it in his microexpressions, hear it in his voice. She couldn’t help but smile despite it, and after a moment of just staring at each other she finally stepped just a little bit closer, tilting her head back just a little bit further before giving him a little smile.
’Fine, but you owe me.’
He seemed to smile as though he heard the thought that she just had, and he slowly closed the small distance between them before leaning down…
– [ ] –
Mel gently shook her head, her cheeks warmer than they had been moments ago, and her eyes shut tight as the memory faded away. When she opened them she found herself staring down at the vial and wondering if her past self had simply forgotten about it because he asked her not to drink it.
She went back over the memory. Something about energy and that it would taste gross, but that it’d be good for her. Her past self had trusted whoever gave it to her, she said as much in the memory. Sebastian didn’t, clearly, but she had.
“If I trusted them back then, then it’s probably okay…” she said, looking over the vial and combing through the memory one more time. She made up her mind after another minute or so, and was soon trying to get the thing open. It took a moment to figure that out, since it wasn’t a regular bottle and wasn’t a simple cork stopper like she often saw on smaller vials, but once she did she popped the pills back and downed the water-looking liquid in several, very large gulps.
While she expected something awful…it actually was rather tasteless. She was also expecting tingles or some weird, immediate side effect all things considered, but all she felt was a little more full because she downed what looked like a twelve-ounce bottle of water.
Civilian Passive Enhancement Acquired
Quick Charge
Quick Charge
“With any luck I won’t get any weird dreams with this one,” she said, recalling the morning she woke up after drinking whatever was in that vial she found at the antique shop. Knowing what she knew now, it was an amusing memory, but back then she was mortified and worried for days about the dreams that she had then.
She didn’t have much time to linger on that memory though, amusing as it was. The sleep aid kicked in soon enough, and it wasn’t longer that, that she slipped off into another dreamworld.
1522 (gdocs)
Backdated to 7/12/24.
Backdated to 7/12/24.
