Her mind blanked. Her brows furrowed. She took another look at the photograph.
My son...?
Her eyes went wide. The room felt like it was spinning. Lily swallowed hard and shook her head. "No... It can't..." She looked down at the photo again and back up to the pained expression on Edric's face. "I don't have a son. I..." Her voice trailed off as she stared at it.
She knew what this implied. She knew exactly what it implied. Her heart and mind were screaming for it to be false but her mind knew deep down that if it was, it would have serious... serious implications. Her eyes darted around the room, as if trying to find something that could save them, though it was no use. "I.. um... I..." She stammered, her head pounding like mad.
She had... a son? With that man? "This... This man is your father?" She asked, holding up the photo, pointing at the dark haired man there. Without waiting for him to respond, she closed her eyes. Frantically, she let her energy expand, she focused it on the boy before her and searched, searched with a frenzied speed. For something, anything that would tell her something.
She found it. Deep within the boy a small sliver of golden pink lay, nestled in his heart, next to a sliver of faded blue, both entwined together. Opening her eyes, Lily swallowed hard. This... This was bad. This was very bad.
"...Edric." She lifted a hand to touch his face but brought it back just as fast, her fingers touching her lips, shaking. "G-Give me... some time to think a-about this..." She told him, her eyes darting side to side as she stared down at the floor, her mind whirling. "C-Can I keep this?" She asked, suddenly looking up at Edric, motioning towards the photo.
She needed to be alone right now. No...
She needed Carmen. Her heart tightened as she waited for his response. She knew he would be upset by this but she didn't know any other way to remedy it. She didn't remember who these people were but she knew he wasn't lying. And that alone scared her to pieces.
Illias waited in awkward silence, completely forgotten for a moment. As she looked around the room, she noted the Infirmary was simple enough, though it was less homely than the healer's huts she was used to, and there were plenty of tools she didn't recognize. She also took the opportunity to subtly glance into the red haired boy's eyes while he was focused on Kathy.
Now that she had a proper grasp on the language, she cleared her throat. "Soooo... is this kinda hello, like, normal here? If so, I get the feeling I need some kinda armor."
Within Elaniel lay a desolate area nearby where Athalia Academy had once stood. Nothing but dirtied structures stood still, the entrances of the location blocked off with large magic barriers. Small patches of grass stuck out of several cracked cement roads, dust painting the place.
A hundred demon soldiers-in-training stood at guard in front of the entrance to a subway.
For quite a while, nothing big in particular had happened in Hell. Everyone trained by a harsher routine to prepare for a potential war with the outside world. Lucifer demanded all soldiers to give more than their “everything” to his cause, stating that their efforts were required to take over the surface at the right moment.
So when the hundred soldiers were called out so suddenly, they naturally felt tense. They were given the order to enter the surface of Lavanya given by Thane himself. Judging by his grave expression, the intention behind their formation was not the most pleasant one.
They all noticed that they had one thing in common, for they all knew each other. And that alone made them come up with all sorts of assumptions that had a high chance of being the case.
Emerging from the subway, Apophis, the Deity of Chaos, revealed himself. Everyone froze.
“Hello,” he said with his eternally mad grin.
No one said anything.
They had heard of something like the situation they were in happening before. From what they remembered, it did not end that well.
Apophis’ presence only deepened their suspicions.
“So you all might be wondering why you’re out here,” Apophis said, motioning at the broken buildings around them. “Why you’re in this… desolate place, waiting for further orders.
“I will be clear about this. Now, listen.”
The red-haired deity took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he tasted the air. It did not taste thick enough for his liking.
Opening his eyes, Apophis’ smile widened.
“As of recent events, there have been some… traitors to our cause,” he explained, taking several steps towards the hundred-man group. “A week ago, we picked out two hundred- yes, two hundred soldiers who were suspected to have participated in a plot to destroy us.
“Needless to say, we’re still here, so we can only presume that they’re all dead. I, myself, was not present in their execution, unfortunately. Because I hate people who do not faithfully follow their words, you see.
“I hate them so, so much.”
The soldiers tensed up as he approached them slowly, his arms open loosely as he continued, “So I have brought all of you out here with unfortunate news. You have all been labelled as traitors. Closer surveillance on our soldiers have led us to believe that all of you have decided to participate in an act of betrayal.
“Am I wrong?”
They all froze deathly still. The soldiers’ eyes were wide open, all of them struck in fear.
“…I’m not wrong, huh…”
His head hanging down, the deity sighed, closing his eyes. “It’s sad, really. You all are elite soldiers picked out by the King of Hell himself. Do you know how disgraceful that is? It’s almost… immature. To bite the hand that feeds you.
“I did not watch you grow, but Thane, Idolon… the officers of Hell all- excluding me- have watched you gain experience within our ranks. They watched you grow, thus increasing your own potentials to let us win the war. But you have decided to take a strange and misguided path, and it’s a path that you, unfortunately, cannot return from.”
Silence took over. The soldiers glanced at each other. Mages, warriors, and soldiers who had unique powers felt their blood pressure rise as Apophis rambled on.
“So I will give you a chance,” Apophis said, standing still as he remained idle. “If you kill me, I will let you go. You will have your way, and there won’t be another Apophis chasing after you.
“Of course, I won’t be just waiting for you all to kill me. It’s a good deal that way, right?”
At first, the demon soldiers remained still. They kept exchanging glances, communicating with their eyes and visible emotions. They all shared the expression of fear.
A few seconds later, they all drew their weapons.
“…Well, I expected less forwardness from you all,” the Deity of Chaos admitted. “I guess it just shows how the mighty can fall.”
Reaching for his back, the skin-wearing deity grasped the handle of a golden blade- the Encircler. He unsheathed it, letting its frame reflect the blue skies.
As he brought the blade to waist level, the demon rebels-in-disguise took a few steps away from him, armed for an inevitable battle against the deity.
With a swift kick of his feet, Apophis dashed towards the demons with his blade raised by his head horizontally.
A stream of fireballs, a storm of lightning, a blizzard of deathly cold ice, and multiple ruptures of the ground headed straight towards Apophis as he approached the demons. Leaping forward, he propelled himself off of the ground, flipping wildly in the air as he threw himself towards the demon rebels.
As he landed, the deity of chaos cleanly sliced a mage in half, letting his blade slam against the ground before he picked himself up and kicked one of the pieces at one of the rebels. The red-haired officer of Hell ducked and dodged a battle axe swung at his head as he slashed at a swordsman without giving a chance of retaliation. The rebels all began to disperse, realizing that his presence directly amongst their group had easily disoriented them.
One strike and another, Apophis clutched his golden blade as he swung wildly, deflecting attacks sent by some of the more brutish rebels. He slashed again and again before abruptly pulling back, raising his weapon by his head before charging forward, depriving the two warriors of their legs as he cut them apart. Before they landed, he twisted his body before letting his gold tear through the flesh of their necks.
As soon as he dealt with the brutes, he turned quickly and smashed away a fireball sent at his direction. The deity of chaos leapt forward, landing with his hands as he propelled himself to the air, twisting his body as he fired a thin line of dark matter at a group of mages. The line went straight through several of their brains, sticking inside of their heads for a split moment before Apophis forcefully tore away the line out of them.
He did not stop his assault in the air right there. As a group of longsword-wielders tried to dice him simultaneously, he twisted himself forward as he swung out a blade. The three grey swords clashed against the lonely gold blade, and Apophis remained still in the air, his body upside down as he held onto the blade, for one flat second.
He grinned at their utterly confused expressions as he twisted himself and his sword, taking the swordsmen by surprise as they stumbled away. As he landed, he coated the Encircler with dark matter before he spun towards the ground. His blade, extended by the dark matter that had solidified itself as he diced the three men apart.
Picking himself up immediately, he caught a stab that came from a heavily armored rebel’s lance with a hand. With the tip of the lance right in front of his eye, Apophis pulled at the lance, dragging the large rebel towards him. The deity of chaos kicked the rebel in the stomach as he pried the lance straight out of his hands before stabbing the demon in the head, letting chunks of the rebel’s life splatter against the men and women behind him.
Screams echoed down the desolate area. But no one heard their cries of fear aside from himself.
Truthfully, Apophis did not rely on the Encircler when he fought seriously. But the elite so-called-soldiers were far out of his league, and even the weight of the Encircler was not enough to give him a big-enough disadvantage the traitors could use against him.
A woman with a warhammer roared as she charged forward as she swung her heavy weapon straight at his head. His eyes darting towards her, he stepped to the side and caught the long handle of her weapon before pulling himself under the hammer. With a mighty pull, he swung himself up and caught a hold of her head, snapping her neck with a perfect turn of his hand. Using his momentum as a weapon in itself, the deity of chaos let himself be propelled towards the group of mages he had not completely finished off earlier.
One by one, they fell like bugs making contact to bug spray. He did not even need to use the golden blade to kill them; swift attacks from his own body let him kill them quickly. The deity of chaos kicked a mage across the face before dashing forward, letting a fist tear right through a feminine lightning mage’s chest. It seemed that she got a heart attack from his gracefulness, for she had given him his heart in the most literal way possible.
With a grasp on a bleeding heart, the red-haired officer swung the lightning mage towards a fire mage that had been preparing a spell as he rushed over to an ice mage that had been trying to disrupt his movements. He slammed his knee against the mage, who gasped for air, before slamming the heart into the mage’s open mouth. Apophis threw out a swift uppercut, letting the mage’s teeth slam against each other as both his tongue and the heart’s blood flow with each other like wine being spilled across a table.
The battle was incredibly one-sided from the beginning to the end. A duel between one of the strongest among the group ended within a manner of seconds, the elite swordsman having his spine ripped out by the deity of chaos. With a weakly connected structure of bloody bones in one hand and the Encircler in the other, he dodged the punches and complicated footwork of a martial artist before swinging the spine at her, letting the bloody skull shatter upon impact. He made short work of her by letting his blade slide through her neck like butter before kicking it towards more foes that dared to approach him.
A chain ball did not stop him. He leaned away from an iron ball and caught the chains, pulling its wielder towards him before he punched the rebel to the ground. Apophis pulled at the chains and swung the iron ball to the skies before letting it obliterate the entirety of the rebel’s upper body.
Before he went on to slaughter more of the traitors, a particularly annoying mage came out and used glyphs against him. He felt his body stiffen as she attempted to keep him in place.
The rebel was fairly powerful and quite experienced with his glyphs.
It was a shame that he had seen too much of the particular magic before.
The deity of chaos forcefully tore his hands out of the movement-restricting magic, horrifying the glyph user as he set up glyphs of fire. Streaks of fire blasted towards the deity of chaos.
Apophis slid under the streaks and forcefully stuffed his hand into the glyph mage’s throat, squeezing his hand as he let blood squelch out of the man’s neck before he tore his hand out. Dropping something that came out of the traitor’s throat, he turned to the remaining forty rebels.
All of them had a look of fear in their eyes. It made him feel nostalgic. Everything, from their expressions of despair to their fear of death, was identical to the creatures he had slain throughout centuries. He snorted before snickering.
And then his carved smile grew wider, his eyes leaving behind a glowing trail of red as he approached the group, who now backed away from the deity of chaos with great haste. His Encircler had its gold go through a temporary paint job, and his left hand- the darker colored of his hands- had suddenly gained a color quite similar to his other hand.
Red.
Without a word, he let the remaining rebels scream and cry as the sound of flesh being torn apart became less and less frequent. Soon, there was nothing but the footsteps of a lone man.
Apophis
Sitting on a throne of eyes, Apophis, the Deity of Chaos, remained still with his eyes shut. The Encircler sat with its clean and golden form by a wall, and his workshop remained dimly lit behind him.
Apophis had encountered some sort of “scientist’s block.”
Writers were known to have writer’s blocks every once in a while, or perhaps a bit too often. Whenever a writer’s block popped up to aggravate a writer, he or she would be unable to write about almost anything and would be forced to find a way to kill the block. Was it something that could be overcome? Yes. Did people ever enjoy getting over writer’s blocks? No. If someone claimed that he or she enjoyed overcoming writer’s blocks, then such blocks were not actually blocks. Everyone hated blocks; that was a given.
So when Apophis found himself unable to come up with any experiments that satisfied his creativity, he became frustrated to no end. He tried venting it on some prisoners, but they died too quickly. He tried venting it on Thane, but the stupid ninja ended up punching him for talking endlessly about it. And since Idolon and Macbeth were too quiet for what they were, they were absolutely no help in his situation.
“I don’t get it… How am I stuck on this?”
The red-haired demon growled and shook his head. No, he could definitely come up with an idea. As he leaned forward, he got up from his soft throne of eyes as he walked to his workshop.
He could come up with something…
He couldn’t come up with anything.
“DAMMIT!” Apophis shouted as he slammed a bloody axe on the red worktable that once had a nice, light brown color to it. “I can’t think of anything!
“This is a huge problem…”
Leaning over, Apophis let his elbows rest against the table as he clutched his head, staring at the axe in front of him. Being unable to come up with experiments meant that he would not be able to advance his own development. And being unable to advance his own development would mean that there would be a possibility he’d fall behind not only the slow and steady progress of Hell’s officers, but also even the students of Athalia.
And that idea in itself was utterly humiliating.
Picking up the axe, he rammed the sharp side of the axe against his forehead, letting blood flow out as he screamed, “DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT!” He thought that taking out some bad blood from his brain could solve his creativity block.
It turned out it did not work.
“This is really, really bad,” Apophis muttered to himself. “I need to do something about this damn block or else I’ll end up being the weakest asshole among the group of asses! Think, Apep, think…”
And so, he came up with an idea.
Tai Norel
People told Tai Norel that he was a cure to many diseases. He did not understand why that was the case, but he considered it to be a compliment that helped motivate him.
Tai was just a barber, and every day, the demons would tell him that he was doing a good job. And he appreciated their every compliment! The only thing he found strange was the fact that both men and women sometimes stared at him with very fond looks. It was as if they wanted to keep him for themselves or something…
Of course, he believed it to be a silly thought. Tai did not belong to anyone. Heck, his parents, though gone, had once told him that.
The jingling of bells signified that someone had entered his shop. His long dark ponytail flowing down the back of his neck, the barber’s eyes widened as he smiled brightly.
“Welcome!” He said as he stopped cutting the hair of a demon soldier. “How may I-“
Apophis, the most infamous officer of Hell, walked in with an absolutely massive aura and presence as he said,
“Gimme a haircut.”
Tai froze deathly still, his smile frozen along with his body. The demon soldier he had been cutting hair for whispered to Tai,
“Like, before you possibly leave us eternally, I’d like to point out that I love you.”
The soldier was a fair man. Tai could not care any less due to the huge thing that had been thrown into his life.
C-Cut… the hair of a warlord? He thought, frightened to no end. This.. T-This is something new… Please watch over me, mama…
Needless to say, Tai hoped that he would survive and live to see the day his barber business becomes an even bigger success.
"Wow! A ghost! That must feel weird. Does that mean you're... dead?" the little girl asked. Oliver chuckled "not exactly, but i suppose a little, it's quite complicated" he smiled "my body's upstairs but my soul is here" "What is it that you need?" Oliver looked back up at the Otaku teacher as he spoke and smiled. "Actually, Maria needs you, i'm just her slightly terrifying messenger, apparently she has something special planned for orientation and you are one of her props" he chuckled. he floated a little higher as he waited for a response.
- Andromeda -
as they walked, she became aware that Eric refused to look at her and her blush deepened. she actually felt a little insulted, but she understood that he was probably just trying not to be a creep. she was used to people averting their eyes when it came to her anyway, though Athalians don't do it as often as most everyone else who knows what she is. she was just as surprised as Eric to see the infirmary bustling with activity. "that's odd" she muttered. she was a tad startled when Eric spoke "S-Sorry... We may have to wait a bit..." "o...ok" she muttered as he walked towards the wall, she was a bit confused as he leaned against the wall without having let her go. her mind started wandering into inappropriate places. 'what if he's thinking the same thing i am?' the blush, if at all possible, got darker and she honestly wanted to bury her head in his chest so no one would see, but that would only make things worse so she refrained. "i... uh... you don't..." she was stammering and really couldn't find the proper words "you don't have to... hold me... anymore... if you... you don't want to" 'very smooth Andromeda' she thought 'subtly is definitely an art' she didn't let go, or make any move to get down herself, she just stared up at him.
"Y-yeah sure. Why the hell not." Edric stood up and grabbed his wallet from the floor "I'm going to go to the, uh, wherever the hell I'm supposed to be." He stumbled to the door way of the bathroom. "Here's his phone number, if you want to talk to him." He quickly pulled a pen and a napkin from his pocket and wrote his father's number on it. "His name is Jason. Jason Karst."
Ed, you okay?
Not really.
Okay.
That's it?
I'm not your therapist.
Got it.
Edric stumbled out of the bathroom and out of the infirmary. He stepped out into the halls and jogged towards the assembly hall.
The girl shrunk under their questions and gazes, and she soon fell completely silent for a brief moment. Rain and Ara seemed to get along well, which was surprising to the girl who found socializing to be tremendously hard to master at the slightest extent. Rain did not seem to read books that much, and Ara was good with a gun. She remembered meeting a sharpshooter before she came to Athalia, though she did not know much about the man aside from that he liked money. Ara seemed to be quite the adventurous type.
And that alone presented itself as a daunting presence to the timid girl.
Before she was able to say that she did not feel confident about exploring places, Ara wrapped an arm around Aurelia's shoulders, freezing the girl's train of thoughts and actions. As her face slowly turned redder out of nervousness, the girl looked down as she trembled a bit, utterly failing at preventing herself from the smallest frown ever.
Rain joined in by wrapping an arm around Ara's shoulders and telling Aurelia that she should join them. Hoping that they were not luring her into a mean trap like several people had outside of the academy, the dark-haired girl silently nodded.
Ryuu Yamauchi
Ryuu woke up from his lovely dream as he reverted back to his regular confused scowl.
"Huh? Maria? And me as a prop?" He muttered as he furrowed his eyebrows. "The hell does she want from me this time? And just an FYI, but you're not as scary as that... thing of a woman. If she's even a woman, that is."
Sighing, the otaku opened his mouth to say something, but something stopped him from letting him speak. He felt something warm lay against his neck. The otaku gasped silently as he prevented himself from choking, his eyes slowly glancing at the direction of the warmth.
The smol girl... leaned against his neck.
And she was so warm.
So alive.
So...
SO...
KAWAII NANO DESU NYAN PASU NYAGAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-
Ryuu instantly returned to his strange expression as his aura returned, telling Oliver,
Upon hearing Kathy's laugh the shapeshifter felt his grin grow, almost forgetting the blunder he'd made before...the grin subsided and relief flooded his face when she shook her head, his gaze didn't leave her even as she glanced at something else. Mostly because he was nervous, if he looked away...well, it was obvious what he was worried about on that count. "W-well...I didn't have much choice in the matter" He murmured, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. He swallowed nervously as Kathy looked at the offered hand, worried for a moment that she wouldn't accept it. He was beyond relieved when she closed her fingers around his, he recalled how she had always gripped his wrist rather than his hand before the...
Once Kathy was on her feet, Crash reluctantly loosened his grip on her hand and small smile flittered across his face as he parted his lips to say something, lifting a hand as he was going to touch the back of his neck. When Kathy suddenly wrapped her arms around him however Crash's mind went blank, he wondered if she could hear his heart thudding in his chest. He swallowed a lump in his throat as her words hit him, calling a mixture of emotions to cross his face, guilt, uncertainty, relief, sorrow, joy it was unclear what was what. Two seconds in he hugged her back, folding one arm around her back as the other came around her side so his hand could briefly touch the back of her head. When he felt her move his arms sprung out of the way so they didn't hinder her retreat, his face had only just started to return to a normal color, now the blood came rushing back into his cheeks. One of his hands shot up to rub the back of his neck and the other dropped to his side.
"I-it's-" He tried to stutter out as she took another step back, his arm reflexively shot up and he jerked forward as she slipped on something though he retreated as she regained her balance. 'It's more than fine...' he finished in his thoughts, deliberately ignoring the damp patch that he could feel on his chest. He was acutely aware that Kathy hadn't hugged him before...he pulled his hand away from his neck and ran his fingers into his hair unintentionally pulling it away from his eye patch as he tried to find something to say, he knew he'd missed his chance to say he'd missed her too...yet those were the only words that jumped to his lips. The nervous laugh made him smile as Kathy whirled through two more unnecessary apologies...well at least he thought they were unnecessary.
Crash felt his smile soften as she grew more flustered "You don't need to apologise..." He murmured, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck again. He went to say he was 'fine' when she promptly reminded him exactly where he was. "The infirmary?" He repeated, taking his eye off of her to glance around. He felt like he was actually seeing it all for the first time...technically he was because of the way he'd entered. His hand lifted to his forehead, wiping at the drying blood "I...Lily, made me come here" He answered "I had a run in with a rose bush...and a tree" He admitted sheepishly "Wh-what about you?" Concern crossed his face and for a moment it looked as if he were going to step closer to her but he stopped short.
He jumped as Illias cleared her throat and turned to look at her in surprise, having not noticed her before he felt instantly guilty. Kathy had a way of pulling his focus. Color flushed his face with renewed vigour as he rubbed the back of his neck and smiled apologetically "Only if you're around me I'm afraid" He glanced back at Kathy briefly. "Ah sorry, I'm Crash by the way" He added turning back to Illias and tapping his head with two fingers as if he were saluting, he managed to bash the tender part of his head in the process, cutting the action short as he jolted backwards. "Forgot about that...I should probably fix myself up...Lily seems to be lost in the-" He cut himself off as a boy he hadn't seen before, suddenly ran out of the bathroom. The shapeshifter barely got out of the way in time, he frowned after Edric no doubt wondering what had possessed him to run. Suddenly the color drained from his face and he sheepishly checked the direction he'd come from, in his experience people ran from the Athalia infirmary for one reason..."Or maybe that's the sign that it's time to go"
Ara shrugged. “Depends. How worried would you be about being caught hunting without a license?” She had an extremely mischievous grin on her face as she asked. The venue to hunt itself was a challenge on its own, but more than that she figured the consequences of illegal hunting would be the far bigger obstacle in their way. Well, that is, if Rain was adverse to her plan titled: It’s Easier to ask for Forgiveness, than for Permission.
Catching that the question was mostly directed at Aurelia, she did not bother supplying her own answer. Although it was less due to respect for Aurelia than it was the fact that her answer was quite boring. She was not very picky with her books, and as a result basically read everything from children’s fairy tales to dry textbooks.
“What?” For the first time, despite all the other strange things Rain had said, Ara looked at the other girl like she was from an alien planet. “You’ve no idea what those are? Either your native language must not be English, or we really need to go out and break free of your sheltered bubble.” Moving onto her next question she answered, “Mostly FPS types. Oh, that means ‘First Person Shooter’. Games where you shoot others.” She clarified, having the feeling that if she didn’t even know what those places were she was probably not familiar with gaming lingo. “Rhythm games are the real fun at game centres though. Since they’re a little harder to set up and enjoy at home.”
Her grin grew when Aurelia gave them a nod. “Great! Accomplices acquired.” She laughed. Mischief she could conduct on her own… But the idea of going as a group appealed her greatly. ‘Take that A,’ She inwardly savoured the feeling of victory. ‘I’m already making friends. Good luck trying to replace my existence with yours.’
“Oh? Is this the place?” She asked as they neared a set of open double-doors. Normally she would have tried to answer her own question from observation alone, but there were far too many students in this area for her to see their destination clearly.
A wry smile appeared on her face as he listed the Crash accident count for the day. She would have liked to say that she was surprised he had bumped into so many things in just a single day but that would have been a lie. Really, she would have been more surprised to learn if he ever had an accident-free day. Kathy opened her mouth to answer him when Illiasriel interrupted them. She winced in guilt; she had completely forgotten the girl’s presence since Crash’s dramatic entrance. She thought of introducing the two of them but at the mention of Lily she recalled the photograph she had seen. ‘I wonder if he knows about her new family as well?’ She wanted to talk to someone about it, but it seemed rude to divulge personal information without asking for permission first.
“Ah! Edric?” Kathy called out in surprise, as he suddenly shot through. Although the boy was probably in such a hurry to leave that he hadn’t heard her. She stared at the door he’d left open, wondering what could have possibly happened in such a short amount of time for him to be in such a hurry to leave.
"Or maybe that's the sign that it's time to go"
Raising a brow, she turned her attention back to Crash and shook her head. “You’re not going anywhere until you’ve been treated.” Having had time to calm down, the bright blush she’d had on her cheeks had faded to just a rosy colour on her now-serious expression. She looked down at the digital watch on her left wrist and added, “I hope the person on duty comes back soon… Or we’ll be late for the assembly.”
As she lifted her head back up, the glint of something on the ground caught her eye. ‘Ah… I’m glad Edric didn’t trip on any of this.’ She thought as she looked at all the tools scattered throughout the room. Bending down to pick up the first tool, Kathy glanced over at Crash and warned, “Stay where you are, okay? The injured are supposed to be rest in the infirmary.” She didn’t mention that the primary reason was to ensure that he didn’t add to the list of injuries he already had. Luckily there weren’t too many tools scattered about so gathering everything up really was better suited to be a one-person job. At the very far side of the room Kathy picked up the last instrument from the ground while keeping her back to the rest of the room. Hesitantly she asked, “Crash… This was on my mind for a while but… What happened to your eye?”
Lily held the number in her hands as if she were holding a bomb that could blow up in her face at any moment. She had absolutely no desire to call this man... Jason Karst? She let out a sigh and stuffed both the picture and the number into her white coat pocket. She could sense the others outside and without so much as a squeak, she walked outside and began preparing to fix up Crash, ignoring everything on the floor. Her face was still, emotionless, a face she hadn't made in a very long time.
She pulled Crash away from Kathy and sat him down on the bed before getting to work cleaning whatever needed cleaning and bandaging him. She felt weak...
With a sigh, she stood up and grab some of the herbs Maria had brought her and put some of it on Crash's wounds. He'd feel a slightly tinged pain and then it would fade into a warmth. She couldn't remember what Maria had called the flower, but it had properties similar to Lily's powers and so was very useful.
"Who's next?" She asked, looking around the room with dull, almost lifeless eyes. Her voice was dull as well. It lacked any of the warmth it usually held and instead was replaced with a kind of cold one would expect to find in the voice of a dispassionate doctor.
...@ Almost Everyone
Eric was silent. He ignored Andromeda's telling him he could put her down. He actually... didn't want to. But he also wasn't the most talkative type so he just sort of... stood there, waiting, staring down at the floor, thinking.
Mostly about Andromeda, but now also about his next plans for making Lucy more real and how she was doing with Ryuu... He let out a soft sigh and leaned his head back against the wall.
Lucy, leaned against Ryuu's neck, smiled as he told Oliver to lead the way and raised her hand up playfully and pointed at Oliver. "Yes! Lead the way, siiiir!" She shouted, her voice sing-song. At the back of her mind, however, sat a little seed of doubt. Eric had left her almost... too easily. Wasn't he worried about her? Wasn't he going to come get her and tell her not to part from him again like he usually did? Who was that girl and why did Eric seem to care so much? She hated all of this, but didn't want to upset Ryuu or Oliver either so she kept it to herself. She'd just disappear again in another 30 minutes.
Fate whistled an innocent tune as he walked down the hallway, a hint of a smirk on his lips. He'd already taken those that he'd wanted and moved them out of the world. He had... other plans for them.
He sauntered down the hallway, fully aware of where his pet was. The collar was certainly still doing it's job. He frowned, however, when he came upon the room to find his pet surrounded by other females. Now... that wouldn't do, would it? He need some alone time with his pet...
But Fate was not an impatient being. He would wait for the right moment. Waiting... He'd certain had his practice at that. He needed to finally give his thanks to his pet. He deserved that much for letting him go, didn't he?
A hollow chuckle came from Fate's throat and reverberated through the hallway hauntingly. Continuing to whistle, Fate made his way through the hallways with no real destination in mind.
((With this, all of chuk's character have been removed from the world and have been stored away by Fate doing something else for him.))
Crash huffed but stayed where he was "To be fair, I think I just need a plaster for this thing...my head's so used to trauma it's worked up a resistance" He grinned, tapping his head with his knuckles before rubbing the back of his neck. He felt guilty about holding Kathy up and he knew the right thing to do would have been to encourage her to go on ahead so she didn't miss anything...but...the fact was, he didn't want her to go and the idea that they could head there together was too good a chance to pass up. So he didn't pass comment on it at all, he gave her an apologetic smile and thought about fixing himself up so they could head off.
The shapeshifter had just taken a step towards one of the tools on the floor when Kathy's warning reached him, having already started to reach for the implement, he quickly retracted his hand and lifted both of them in a sign of surrender as he stood back up. "Okay..." He murmured, feeling more than a little awkward about it as Kathy cleaned up his mess. 'I should be doing that...my mess, my responsibility' tucking the tips of his fingers in the pockets of his jeans, Crash leant back on his heels and stared at the ground in front of him, subtly glancing at Kathy as she moved around the infirmary. "So...do you think the assembly will be just like the last one?" He asked after a moment of silence, no longer able to keep quiet...a moment was a long time for him, considering the speed of his thought processes. It was also a lame attempt at breaking the silence, not to mention the last thing he wanted to ask her.
He felt his breath catch in his throat as Kathy asked the question he'd really hoped she wouldn't...anyone else and he could have deflected it with a semi truth. But Kathy...he lifted his fingers up to touch the rough material of his eye patch, desperately searching for something to say. "Well..." He stopped to clear his throat when his voice wavered. 'Not yet' Luckily for him before he could admit his hesitance or his secret, Lily came out of the bathroom...and scared the hell out of him. He jumped back into the bars of the bed behind him with a sharp intake of breath, clearly thinking the pink haired angel was someone else for a brief moment. "Jeez-Lily, do not sneak up on..." He trailed off as she seemed to ignore everything and started to prepare something.
Despite the fact his new found 'spidey' senses were tingling, Crash quietly moved over to Kathy "Just for the record, she wasn't like this before she went in that cupboard" He murmured, feeling a frown cross his face as he tried to think of something to say to Lily. He didn't resist her as she pulled him away from Kathy and sat him down, rather he willingly complied...even when she wrapped a bandage around his head to cover the small cut on his forehead. The mysterious flower did cause him to wince for a brief moment but apart from that he remained silent as he watched her work, up until she spoke and went to turn away from him.
Possessed by a rather bizarre moment of maturity, Crash got to his feet as Lily turned away from him and reached out to gently touch her upper arm. "Lily? Hey, look at me a sec" He asked, trying to catch her eye even if she turned away from him "What happened in there?" It seemed like a decent enough question though he knew all too well that it was also a difficult one, he gave her a moment or two to answer before speaking again "You don't have to answer that...but you do need to tell me what you need, right now. Somethings clearly happened...so tell me what you need and I'll get it" He offered, really hoping a hot beverage, a sit down and a listening ear was all she needed...he remembered too late that the last time he'd done such a thing, he'd ended up in a rather unsavoury place at a rather unsavoury time. He'd also forgotten how bad at this he was, he knew Lily but he didn't know Lily...he didn't even know her favourite color, so how could he know what was wrong with her? He just knew it wasn't right...Either way he was so focused on Lily and Kathy, he didn't hear Fate's hollow chuckle neither did he notice him go past...not that he'd of recognised him in his current form.
Rain wrinkled her nose at the idea "You need a license to hunt here?" She repeated almost in disbelief "Screw that. I'll hunt when I want and where I want, these 'license' people can bite me" Was her indignant response, it was a little brash but she was dealing with enough change and restriction. 'Rules, regulations, licenses...just like home except there's more paperwork' she decided in her mind, though she did rethink her words...they had been rather irresponsible, and hunting without a license would be the same.
The werewolf was rather disappointed when Aurelia -nor Ara for that matter- offered up an answer to her question. She had hoped for some suggestions, considering reading would probably be a must here...the idea of picking up reading again was tempting. 'It's been a long time...perhaps too long' she thought to herself, frowning as a memory flitted to the front of her mind. A memory tainted by pain...before it could show on her face she pushed it aside. "Nothing? Books around here must be really boring" She decided on saying, glancing at Aurelia. "My source clearly didn't steal books from here" She added, lifting a hand to her face she pushed a lock of hair behind her ear "Although Little Women loses its edge after a while...and seems to be completely inaccurate come to think of it"
She raised an eyebrow at Ara, questioning the look she'd given her 'It is...though it's less complicated' she thought inwardly, noting again how different it was back home...she really had taken their way of life for granted. "I almost learnt Spanish...but English is pretty much my native tongue" She told Ara with a shrug "I have an...overprotective family" She decided on adding, thinking that would probably be enough to explain her naivety. 'Overprotective...more like strictly traditional...oh hello' Rain's thoughts -and eyes- were distracted as the trio passed by a rather pleasing blonde. She almost missed Ara's answer to her question...almost. "You shoot other people? For fun? Sounds like a waste" She shrugged, wondering why they'd go to the trouble of wasting bullets...or why there would be any other type of shooting. "Rhythm games..." Now that was something she liked the sound of, less messy than shooting.
Rain smiled as Ara laughed shaking her head as she did, she had to briefly wonder what she'd gotten herself into but the thought didn't linger. It was all very exciting...and different. Besides exploring with Ara and Aurelia wasn't irresponsible, it was logical, she needed to know where things were...etc, etc, etc. "Probably..." She lifted up onto her tiptoes to try and see over the crowd of students. "One way to find out I suppose" And with that the werewolf, poked the person in front of her out of the way and proceeded to push her way through the crowd. Most of the students moved aside without complaint and those that didn't seemed to change their minds once they locked eyes with Rain.
The werewolf stopped once she was on the other side of the double doors and looked behind to make sure Ara and Aurelia had followed her through, the gap behind her probably didn't stay open for long. If they had followed her she asked "Why do we need to be here again?" if they hadn't she stood there for a moment before moving over to the back row of chairs and ushering a trio of students out of their seats. They weren't happy about it but she didn't seem to care, she simply sat herself down in preparation for whatever was coming next.
he smiled at the two and said, "Alright, but i have to poke my head in to grab Carmen too" he walked over to the door and for a second forget he was incorporeal and tried to grab the handle. his hand went right through and he sighed before concentrating and knocking before quickly stepping through slowly, hoping he wasn't interrupting anything "Hey Carmen, you got a second?"
- Andromeda -
she wasn't sure if he was ignoring her because he simply didn't want to let her down or if he was just really freaked out but he was ignoring her. she found herself just staring at her hands, which were clasped by the side of his neck. it felt kind of nice to be this close to another person, without them freaking out, she liked it. she didn't often touch other people so that alone was contributing to her flaming blush that she was honestly a little embarrassed about, her snakes were curling in around her, trying to comfort her without actually understanding what's going on. she coughed lightly and glanced at the infirmary door, people seemed to have moved some, they could probably get in now "Eric, it... looks like it's not so crowded... anymore... we could probably... get inside now" she looked up at his face now.
Kathy wanted to make sure that Crash was not making light of his own injuries, but she let the matter slide with a laugh. She had been worried that he would be insistent about leaving the infirmary so she was pleasantly surprised that he ended the exchange with a light joke. She wasn’t quite sure what the apologetic smile he gave her was for, so she merely tilted her head slightly to the side and gave a clueless but happy smile of her own in return.
“Ah, to be honest I don’t remember much about the last assembly. I fell asleep while Brako made his speech so the only thing I really recall was…” She trailed off there with another laugh, recalling how a drumstick had suddenly hit her on the head, waking her up from the rather pleasant nap she had been having. Instead of discussing the memory though, she continued with, “I’m hoping that Criston throws another party though. Hopefully one that will end peacefully.”
The strangely detached manner Lily displayed felt alarming. And when Crash mentioned where Lily had come out of and… ‘Edric came out of there, didn’t he?’ First him, and now Lily… She wondered just what had happened to the two of them while they were in there. She had wanted to ask Lily about the photo but… It hardly seemed like the time to do so. While she was conflicted about how to talk to her, luckily Crash decided to spring to action first. “Illiasriel also needed-” Kathy froze mid-sentence, realizing that the girl she was referring to had suddenly disappeared. The logical assumption to make would’ve been that the girl had walked out while they were preoccupied but Illiasriel hadn’t even been able to walk. “There’s no one else…” She finally mumbled out, wondering if she had actually hit her head somewhere without realizing. It would have certainly explained why she felt so confused about everything. “Lily, do you want to sit down for a moment? I can get you a glass of water in the meantime.” She supplied after Crash.
Lily jolted slightly when Crash touched her arm as if she'd been pulled back from whatever broken wonderland she'd ran off to. Her eyes were wide and she looked at him in shocked, looking around as if trying to grasp the situation. Despite whatever the hell was going on with her, she could tell there was still someone outside with an injury. Andro, by the look of it.
She ignored Crash's question, giving him a look that hopefully told him to stop asking questions. When Kathy also chimed in, Lily silently lifted her hand and shook her head back and forth. "No... Just... treat Andromeda in the hallway. Looks like a sprained ankle. Just wrap it up and tell her to stay off of it and to come see me tomorrow." She explained, staring down at the floor with her brows furrowed. She then turned her head to look up at Crash and narrowed her eyes at him. "You too. Come see me tomorrow." She told him, glancing slightly at his eye-patch. It wasn't the first time she'd noticed it, but she suddenly remember she'd wanted to have a look at it. But...
That would have to wait. "I need to go." She told the group before walking outside past the two in the hallway and towards where Carmen was. She didn't even pay attention to where she was going and ran into walls several times because of it. She just followed Carmen's aura.
"Carmen..." She called out weakly, the tears threatening to break through.
[roze is tired of doing mentions... is lazy]
Eric took in a sharp breath when Andromeda spoke again and nodded after a moment. However, as he began walking inside, the nurse suddenly walked out looking worse for wear. He blinked for a moment and then stuck his and Andro's head in to look inside.
"She's hurt..." Was all he managed to say, but he wanted to ask about what had happened...
Every badass needs a young and adorable person to protect. For years, I have never had such a tiny little thing lean against my neck and suddenly bring clarity upon me. Okay, maybe I did put figurines on my neck, but that sounds pathetic no matter how many times you try to convince yourself that it's awesome. I never had such a moment.
But then some almighty dude must've gone "No, you'll get it today" and granted me this epic turn of events!
Ryuu remained still with the same aura even as Oliver mentioned Carmen. "Let's go," he said in the strange flat tone he kept using ever since Lucy popped up. As he followed Oliver, he saw Lily bump against a wall multiple time with the saddest look ever.
Hmph. She's probably realized she won't have an adorable girl leaning against her neck and is lamenting about it-
...
...
...
...Wait.
As soon as he realized Lily was the one crying, Ryuu's tense aura and expression vanished as he watched her go to Carmen's (supposed) location. Now, even if she was pretty in her own way, he only considered her to be a good friend to have. She probably had a background older than him, after all, so it would have been rude of him to think that he went through all the cruelest crap the world had to offer.
A sad look never fit her; that much, he knew.
Then again I probably can't do anything about it, he thought as he watched at the fragile-looking angel approach the curvy trumpet woman Carmen.
Aurelia Triniel
Aurelia hoped that she was making good friends.
After all, Ara did casually state that she enjoyed shooting people, and Rain called it a "waste." She had no idea what they meant by "rhythm games," and they seemed like they could handle rash things quite easily. Unable to come up with a proper response to any part of the conversation, she remained silent and wordlessly watched the girls talk as she followed them from a distance.
As they approached the double doors, however, Aurelia found the distance between herself and the girls shortening greatly. She shrunk as she looked around, nervous at the sight of many students flowing into the large room.
They were people she did not know of. She felt that if one of the students in the crowds suddenly called out to her, she would be frightened out of her mind.
So she followed Rain and Ara, though she continued to remain silent as she did so. The gap between her and Rain had been cut noticeably.
Crash in turn wasn't sure what he'd done to deserve such a smile, it made his cheeks flush even further with embarrassment. He was pretty sure he was going to get dizzy soon, it'd been quite a while since this much blood had rushed to his head, he feared that it wouldn't remember how to cope with it. He tilted his head to the side as she trailed off and laughed, blinking in confusion when she didn't continue. '...did something funny happen? Damn it I missed it' He thought to himself, he didn't really remember any of the assembly, he'd spent most of it daydreaming and the rest of it executing a less than elegant drumstick retrieval mission.
Before he could question what she'd laughed about however her next comment practically wiped it from his mind, the memory of that party was pretty hard to ignore."If he isn't we should convince him to" He grinned "Well, apart from the whole angry dragon, rampaging demon and burning building part...it wasn't a bad night" He attempted, though his smile softened as he thought about the 'okay' part of the night. The memory -like most of Crash's memories- incited happiness and an equal amount of guilt. He'd proven he could be useful that night but at the cost of Kathy's hand. His expression was a conflict of guilt and uncertainty as he thought on that "Still...peaceful would be nice" He decided, rubbing the back of his neck. "Say...i-if he does would you..." Crash started in a quiet voice before trailing off. He was going through the motions of uncertainty and wondering whether finishing his question would be strange or not when Kathy got him with the eye question. Again, his train of thought instantly snapped to the new topic and pushed the other into a back carriage of the thought train speeding around his head.
Crash glanced at Kathy as she mentioned the other girl, though he'd already forgotten that was her name. '...I've really got to work on paying more attention to these things' he thought, looking around the infirmary for Illiasriel very briefly before his attention was back on Lily and she was forgotten again. Lily's look was enough to halt him in his tracks, he flinched back from her and dropped his gaze to the floor. Though it didn't diminish his want to help her, she'd made it perfectly clear that his questions and concerns were unwelcome. He looked up at Kathy as she came to Lily's aid 'How does she do that?' he questioned himself, feeling her reaction was far more fluent and reassuring than his own. '...her heart beats' the thought snuck through but it was easily pushed away by his concern for Lily.
As Lily walked out of the infirmary, Crash sighed and rubbed the back of his head clearly uncomfortable about letting her head off alone but -even with his lack of social perception- he knew better than to interfere 'Even Kathy couldn't help...'. "...What just happened?" He murmured, before Eric and Andromeda poked their heads round the corner, the former speaking all but two words. The shapeshifter nodded at Eric..."Come on in"...now he felt divided. "This could make us late for the assembly..." Crash murmured "...you don't have to wait for me if you don't want to..." he trailed off again, unable to hide his feelings on the matter. Though it was probably harder to read the more subtle parts of his expression because of his patch, he was still terrible at hiding his emotions...it was probably a good thing that they changed so swiftly and frequently.
He was feeling guilty for holding her up but he wasn't about to leave Andromeda in a rut. "If you put Andro on the edge of this bed I can have a look at her ankle? Lily said it's a sprained ankle...I can't magically make it go away but I can help" He grinned at them both, falling easily into his medic head. He moved over beside the bed, waiting for them to come in he rubbed the back of his neck "K-Kathy?" He called, turning to look at her again. "I-if you aren't in a hurry though...could you possibly hunt out a cold compress, ibuprofen gel and a support bandage?" He asked, flushing with color he quickly added "Not too worry i-if you can't..." Silently kicking himself for the multiple stutters. 'I thought I'd got a handle on it...' He thought glumly.
“I’ll take that as ‘not worried at all’ then.” Ara laughed. Rain was a mystery in the strange disjoints present during the conversation, and Aurelia… Well, the girl was just a mystery in that Ara still didn’t know anything about her. Except that she was extremely quiet and not one to really engage in small talk. “People or zombies.” She sort-of clarified.
Though she had been walking more or less alongside Rain, she joined Aurelia in following behind the blue-haired girl as she pushed the crowd aside for them. The few that looked like they had complaints on their minds just earned a ‘try me’ smile from Ara as she passed by. Whether they didn’t actually have any intentions of picking a fight or if they decided to post pone it, no one actually challenged them as they continued into the room.
She waited for Aurelia to take the seat beside Rain, since it was quite obvious by now that the quiet girl intended to stick with the latter, then sat down in the remaining seat. “It’s to listen to some important person give a speech about not-really important things.” Settling down, she was pleasantly surprised to find that the seats were actually quite comfortable. “If they take too long though, I’m probably just bailing.”
Katherine Argall
‘And the fact that I slapped you.’ Kathy thought, inwardly cringing at the memory. She had successfully managed to forget all about it until Crash listed out the less pleasant events that had occurred back then. Not only had she hurt him, she had shown a rather pathetic side of herself as he stitched her hand back up… Shaking her head, she consoled herself that it was all in the past. She was different now. If something similar happened again, she would be able to find a more peaceful resolution herself…. She hoped. Though Crash’s voice was rather quiet, she waited patiently for him to continue. After a while though, she began to have doubts about whether or not he was actually going to finish the sentence and ended up asking the question that had been on her mind for quite some time.
Kathy looked on in dismay as Lily left, feeling quite disheartened at the fact that she hadn’t been able to do anything to help. “I wish I knew…” She sighed. When Eric and Andromeda became visible, she quickly fixed her expression and gave them a smile to greet them. “It’s been a long time.” With Crash’s mumble she looked down at her hands, clasping them in front of her. She wanted to stay and help, but she wondered if it would be better to move out of their way and wait outside. And as she listened to Crash he really seemed to have everything under control. Hearing her name though, she lifted her head back up to meet his eyes. “Oh, sure!” Her expression brightened up as she moved to the cupboards. “I’ll stay and help. I’m sure we can afford to be a bit late to the assembly.”
She had to rummage around a bit, since understandably she wasn’t sure where everything was in the infirmary, but she managed to find the things that he asked for. Walking back over to them, she held out her findings to Crash. “Here’s the cold compress, the… Uh, I wasn’t sure which size you wanted so I just grabbed every bandage I saw.” Kathy had at least 6 different rolls of bandages in her arms. “And as for this…” Her gaze went to the bottle of pain medication in her hand before she looked at Andromeda.
Hesitantly she began, “Er, just a question… Andromeda, do you know if you can take ibuprofen? A lot of human medication tends to be poisonous to other species…” Giving a very apologetic look she quickly added, “Sorry, I really hope I’m not offending you. I don’t mean that you’re an animal in any way but I’ve never helped to treat a gorgon before.”
Carmen had gone back into her office, partly because she liked it and partly because it seemed like Ryuu really didn't need any help being embarrassed around Andro and the others. She sat with her legs crossed like she usually did, pondering and twirling a slick fountain pen in her hand. Soon, her silence was interrupted by a quiet knock, which was followed by the door opening and Oliver walking in.
At least...she thought it was Oliver.
It was Oliver, right?
Yes.
Carmen was at least 93% sure...
"Oliver, dear," she sang, throwing caution to the wind and continuing her trend of calling everyone "dear".
"I have plenty of seconds. What brings you h-"
Carmen couldn't finish her question because she was interrupted by what sounded like Lily meekly calling out to her.
"What...?"
It did not sound like Lily normally sounded. And why would she call out instead of just walking in...? Carmen stood up with a concerned look on her face. As she walked past the blonde man towards the door, the skylark said "I do apologize, Oliver, but I don't exactly know what's going o-"
Her voice was cut off yet again as she opened the door and looked to the left, beholding Lily meandering towards her with a very distressed look on her face.
"..."
Carmen ran over to the pink-haired angel and wrapped her arms around her before so much as asking what the trouble was. "What on Earth happened?!" she asked, audibly concerned.
Lily let out a breath of air she hadn't known she was holding when Carmen's arms wrapped around her and the soft voice of her friend gently asking what was wrong. She swallowed hard as the tears came full force now. She didn't even know what she was going to tell Carmen.
'Oh, by the way. I think I might have a son.'
'Yeah, every single angelic being is going to try to hunt him down.'
'And it's my fault.'
'I don't even rem-'
She let out a shuddering sigh after a few minutes of hanging onto Carmen and then gently pushed the Skylark away to look at her. "I think I have a very... very large problem, Carmen." She began, her brows furrowed. She motioned for Carmen to go back into her office before walking in that direction herself, pulling Carmen with her by hand.
Once inside, she pulled out the picture and the number and handed them to Carmen. "I just happen to see this picture fall out of a student's wallet. That..." She paused, her heart tightening. "That woman... I think it's me b-but... I don't remember any o-of it..." She explained before burying her head in her hands, tears returning to her.
Eric was silent. He slipped out as quietly as he'd come after putting Andromeda down. He didn't think anyone there honestly wanted him around anyway. He was annoying and would probably just get in the way. He'd check on Andromeda later.
(I'm giving Andromeda a chance to tell him to stay. Otherwise, he's really going to leave for the assembly.) (And Lucy is just sort of chillin')
he smiled at Carmen but was just as surprised as her when he heard Lily. "I do apologize, Oliver, but I don't exactly know what's going o-" Oliver was a bit taken aback when he saw Lily in such a state and was not the least bit surprised when he was ignored. he caught the first bit of Lily's statement before he had ducked out. he guessed it was time to find Maria. he looked at Ryuu, with his little female friend "I think we should leave those two alone for now, come on, let's find Maria"
- Andromeda -
Andro watched Lily leave with apprehension, but say nothing as Eric carried her inside. he said she was hurt and headed towards the pair still in the infirmary. "This could make us late for the assembly..." Andro went red again and quickly muttered "I'm sorry..."
"If you put Andro on the edge of this bed I can have a look at her ankle? Lily said it's a sprained ankle...I can't magically make it go away but I can help" Andro felt a little sad at the suggestion but said nothing as Eric set her down. she held back a hiss as it jostled her ankle, she felt bad because she had a low tolerance to pain and everyone probably thought it was worse then it was. she smiled at Eric regardless. she saw him start to leave and hesitantly said "Eric, wait... ummm thank you for helping me... do you... could you... I feel bad but... I might need help getting to my room after this, is there any chance you can stay?" she honestly just didn't want him to leave and that was the first excuse she could think of, she immediately added "it's ok if you can't! I'm sure I'll manage"
“Er, just a question… Andromeda, do you know if you can take ibuprofen? A lot of human medication tends to be poisonous to other species…” Giving a very apologetic look she quickly added, “Sorry, I really hope I’m not offending you. I don’t mean that you’re an animal in any way but I’ve never helped to treat a gorgon before.” Andro laughed a little "don't worry, I'm part snake so you could say I'm an animal" she smiled "It's very nice that you worry about offending me though" then she brought her mind back to the original question "I'm not entirely human, but I am mostly human so it won't work exactly the same for me as it would a normal person but it shouldn't hurt me"
Crash touched Kathy's shoulder as she sighed, it was supposed to be a sign of comfort but as he opened his mouth to say something...his words failed him. Which wasn't really that surprising, he'd tripped over his own tongue at least three times in the last twenty minutes. He retracted his hand and cleared his throat as Eric and Andro walked in. After his tongue had sorted itself out...kind of, he was caught off guard again. The fact that Kathy wanted to stay and help was enough to bring a more confident smile to his face. In fact that was exactly what he had wanted to hear...he didn't quite realise it until Kathy's expression brightened and she moved off in search of supplies. With a happy smile on his face Crash turned his attention to Andromeda as Eric brought her into the infirmary.
The shapeshifter blinked and looked over at Andromeda as she quickly muttered an apology, he hadn't actually heard exactly what she had said neither did he realise how his words had been taken thus the confused look on his face. As Eric moved away Crash quickly bent down to look over Andro's ankle though he had enough sense not to actually touch it until she'd at least finished talking to Eric. "So judging by the looks of it, it's probably only a minor sprain...how painful is it? Can you weight bear at all? I'm going to have to touch it to bandage it but tell me if it's too painful...and sorry but we've got to elevate it" He told her "If you sit back on the bed a bit and just place your foot on this pillow" With that said he pulled a pillow from one of the other beds and placed it on the one she was sat on so she could rest her foot on it.
As Kathy brought over a selection of supplies, Crash gratefully took them from her with a smile of course, and placed them on the side of the bed. "Thanks, one of these is bound to be perfect" He grinned, taking the cold compress and bandages from her, he put them on the bed beside Andro before wrapping the cooled gel pouch in a towel and providing the gorgon had shifted position, he placed it over her swollen ankle trying to be as gentle as he could. "This needs to be on for 15-20 minutes every two to three hours today...for now I just wanted to get something cool on it before bandaging" He murmured, turning to look back at the assortment of bandages whilst Kathy spoke to Andromeda. 'I should have thought of that...' It occurred to him that he may actually be out of practice as well.
"I'd say you were unique Andro, animal doesn't really fit well here" He chimed in just after the gorgon finished answering Kathy's question. He had just removed the cold compress from her foot and was about to bandage it up "Sorry this might be a little painful" He apologised before getting to work, making sure he stayed focused on what he was doing so as not to hurt her. He had to admit he rather enjoyed this kind of thing...though treating people had never been his strong point, too many ways to embarrass himself or accidentally upset them when he opened his mouth.
The bandaging didn't take long at all and once he was done, he put the cold compress back for the time being "So in this situation, just think price. Protect, Rest, Ice, Compress and Elevate. And be sure to steer clear of harm. Heat, Alcohol, Running and Massage...if it's too painful you could take some paracetamol or apply more of this gel, I mean you could take the tablets. You could also use Arnica gel, it'll bring out the bruising and the swelling faster, relieve some of the pain...just make sure you're not allergic to it before you use it" He grinned at her, then realised how much of a tangent he'd gone off on. "Er-erm well...I mean you could do that stuff, but Lily will probably be able to fix you up properly tomorrow..." He quickly corrected himself, rubbing the back of his neck. "She wants you to stop by tomorrow to see her" He added, before he stepped away and glanced at Kathy before back at Andromeda "All done...well unless you want to take one of those tablets now" He commented pointing at the bottle in Kathy's hand. "Also, remember to rest it as much as possible and keep your foot elevated! Don't let her overdo it on the way to her room Eric" He tacked on the end, clumsy with his words but clearly concerned for Andro.
