#13

"Pompous army brat? Damn, and here I thought we were getting along famously. You know, Carolyn, I do my best to be friendly with people. I do. But you seem to go out of your way to make enemies with everybody who doesn't follow every single rule all the time." Gently pushing himself against the wall, he turned and narrowed his eyes at her. "I do respect you, for one thing. You have the common courtesy to keep out of people's heads. Because trust me, if you actually took a look inside me, you'd shut your prissy little spoiled mouth faster than a fuckin' bullet." The last words came out with the venom of a scornful Drill Instructor, and Jacob had to close his eyes and take a deep breath. "It's not every day that somebody can make me angry like that, so at least you have that, too."

Turning to Jade, he inclined his head. "Seems like I gotta take your advice from last night more seriously. My habit of butting into other people's business has officially gotten bad for my health." Smiling as he turned away, he said one thing back to Carolyn. "But Carolyn, if you really want to get anybody out of the Academy, I recommend not assaulting them beforehand. Or do you just show affection by shoving people into walls and threatening them?" By now, his smile had twisted and he walked away, putting his hands into his pockets and letting his shoulders down for once. Rounding the corner, he made his way back to the White Mages' Guild Hall.

/Jacob has left Scenario #13

"HAHA, OKAY, said by the prefect who was at the scene of a MURDER! LATE AT NIGHT!", said Cancer, cupping his hands around where his mouth should be. He scoffed. "Your clout."

"Have you told anyone about it yet? Because I think it is your DUTY to do so, not only as a prefect BUT AS AN OUTSTANDING student of these hallowed grounds to uphold peace and prosperity and TRUTH!", Cancer said completely mockingly.

He put his hands to his face, imitating a shocked expression, and gasped with large doses of mockery. "WHAT IF the killer goes to The Academy and is A STUDENT AMONG US!? ...AND OH MY GOD WHAT IF HE GOES POSTAL!?"

Cancer was at this point hyperventilating. He calmed down after his small rant, and listened as Jacob make his own and left. As Jacob walked away, Cancer gave him a thumbs up. "FUCK YEAH DUDE!", he called out. He then turned to Carolyn. "Caro. Hey. Hey Caro. Carooooo."

"Ya cheeky lil cunt.", he said flatly, giving her the finger.

#13

"Inane questions?" She muttered to herself, confused for a second before Jacob came in the picture. Jade opened her mouth to reply to Jacob and held a finger up but stopped, seeing Carolyn's attention snap back to Cancer.

Jade stood there, frozen, with wide eyes as the arguing went on and gasped as Cancer finished off with calling Carolyn a cunt.

Carolyn watched Jacob leave with a small frown on her face. Although she had a very meagre opinion of him, suddenly made worse by his juvenile tantrum, perhaps he had a point. She did find it hard to empathise with others, especially when they didn't defer to her authority.

By now, Cancer had begun his obscene rant against her, finally dropping the word 'cunt' on her as if it was a verbal nuke. She surveyed him carefully, the silence stretching out awkwardly as her own impassive face gazed at her through the dual visors on Cancer's skull mask-helmet.

She could give him two months worth of detentions. She could even grab the finger he was flipping her off with and break it in half. What she did not think she was capable of doing, however, was turning on her heel and walking away.

To her great surprise, she did just that.

-Carolyn has left Scenario #13-

#14

Kyo reflected on the uncertainty of her words and the hesitant cadence of her voice. His spirits weren't set soaring but he appreciated experiencing the kindness of a stranger first-hand.

"Guess that'll teach me to save puppies from burning buildings, huh?" he joked half-heartedly, his gaze drifting from Mei's eyes and back to the ceiling.

#14

Mei rolled her eyes, finishing up the second layer quicker than the first. "I'll bet..." she turned her gaze to the roll of bandages, almost finished from the two layers already wrapped around Kyo's head. "So...um...what did get you this bad off?" she asked, not letting her eyes meet where she knew his were under the gauze.

Cancer flinched slightly as she left. While his rude gestures were normal, he actually expected Carolyn to break his finger. Or worse.

There was an awkward silence as she left, and Cancer couldn't believe it. "Fuck yeah", he whispered, still in a little bit of shock. Then the volume of his voice grew louder as he realized that he just called a prefect (Carolyn no less) a ridiculously nasty name and got away with it.

"FUCK YEAH!", he shouted as he pumped his fist in the air.

13.

"My god what is going on out here?" Aphrodite says with a yawn, her hair in a quick pony tail and still walking around in her pajamas which consist of a tank top and Dark's shorts. She looks over at Cancer, while wiping the sleep off her face.

"I can hear you guys all the way from the dorms."

14.

Dark finally arrives at the hospital wing, asks where Kyo is and proceeds to walk down to the beds. He notices a young lady talking to what seems like a mummified Kyo. He cringes at the sight of him, but manages to keep it to himself as he clears his throat to alert them of his presence as he approaches Kyo.

"Hey man."

#14

Kyo opened his mouth to reply to her but, with serendipitous timing, Dark entered the room. Kyo acknowledged him with a curt nod before returning his attention to Mei.
"How did I get this bad?" he repeated, hopefully not making it too obvious that the mimicry was for Dark's benefit. "It was just... an accident. My fault."
Kyo understood that revealing the true nature of his injuries would indict Dark as a sadist. It would also portray him as a weak fool. Both things were unacceptable to say in the open, especially in front of present company.

"Caro's fault! All her fuckin' fault!" Cancer exclaimed as he immediately pointed to the direction where Carolyn made her exit. "She MANHANDLED ME with her HULK HANDS!"

14. Dark rolls his eyes, glad to see that Kyo is putting up an act. Would be pretty awkward if he outright said "That guy right beside is the reason why I'm in here."

"Some accident. Don't let it happen again."

At this point they're practically giving each other code.

________

13. Aphrodite lets out another yawn and calmly raises her hands to tell Cancer to calm down.

"Whoa, whoa what now? Breakfast just started and you two are already going at it."

Aphrodite leans in close to his helmet and in a teasing, yet soft tone asks him. "Was she the man?"

14

Mei nearly jumped, too engrossed in her work to notice anyone enter. She regarded the young man who had just entered. Superficially, he looked fine, so he wasn't in need of medical attention. "I...there aren't supposed to be visitors. Not until the night shift nurse gets here." She then turned to Kyo, nodding automatically to acknowledge what he said quickly, though she did not believe a word of it. She then turned her attention back to the other when he spoke again. Accident. Right.

"Can't I have guests over?" he pleaded to Mei. "Hell, he has some first aid experience, running with the Guardians and what not. I actually feel guilty with you wasting an evening like this, so let him take over. He owes me a few favours too so I'm sure he won't mind. Right, Dark?"
Kyo gave Mei a warm and encouraging smile in order to convince her that she could take a break. He turned his head to flash Dark the very same smile, a simple protocol for avoiding the arousal of suspicion in Mei's perception, surreptitiously creating a telepathic link with him.
"You owe me, asshole, just roll with it!" said his annoyed voice in Dark's head.

"As a Guardian it's one of the things I do best, you look very exhausted as well, so it would be rude of me to let you stay up in this condition. Please go take some rest, I'm sure the other nurses will understand. If anything they can talk with Professor Balthazar he's the one who said I could come and visit him."

Mei looked at the new guy confused. Dark? People name their kids that now? And he was a Guardian?! Something didn't seem right, but her stomach was starting to grumble violently from lack of food. If worst came to worse, there was likely a prefect or professor roaming the halls outside. "I...just get out before the night shift nurse shows up, all right? If I lose my volunteer credits because you were caught in here without a volunteer overseeing, you'll end up looking like him," she warned Dark, motioning back to Kyo. She then turned to Kyo. "Don't let him stay too long. You need to rest. The nurses will likely have you out of here sometime tomorrow. I...uh, might see you again," she told him before moving to exit the room, keeping a suspicious eye on Dark until she closed the door behind her.

/Mei leaves S-14/

Dark waits for Mei to completely leave the area before focusing his attention on Kyo. Dropping the act of being content with their story their expressions are far more serious.

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine," said Kyo genuinely, waving his hand passively. "How are you doing?" he added in a concerned voice.
The irony was not lost on him. He knew full well that he was the one in the hospital wing, wrapped in bandages that covered horrific burns, but Dark and Kyo had both been friends long enough for them to know that mental scarring could be much worse than its physical counterpart. Of the two souls remaining in the room, it was possible that the one without the burns was in more pain.

"Not as well as I thought."

Dark said disappointingly as he slouches on the vacant seat next to Kyo's bed.

"Don't get me wrong, I mean to do that attack on you, just not to such an extreme. Perhaps seeing what happened last night in the city and letting Aphrodite search through my head, got the best of me and brought up past events. You know what I'm saying?"

"Not really." said Kyo uncertainly, scrutinising Dark.
Seeing any kind of weakness in his friend, emotional or physical, was a completely alien phenomenon.
"In all the years we've known each other, you've never really mentioned your past. I know what it's like to hold your cards close to the chest though, don't worry. What happened in the city?" he said quickly, changing the subject so as to not make Dark feel as if he had to divulge the surely tragic details of his past.

"Aphrodite, Jade, Carolyn, Cancer, that military guy, and I witness a murder just outside of the shopping district. While Aphrodite and Carolyn tried to break his dome, I sat there and watched him do it. I didn't see it as a murder, I saw it as vengeance. After what that man told the attacker before he died, I knew there was some great conflict that needed to be settled. I know that feel, I tried to block it out, but seeing it from a different perspective, I could do nothing but just watch. Hopefully that man doesn't carry the burden forever."

"Damn..." whispered Kyo, reaching out to grasp Dark's shoulder firmly. "Sorry you had to see that, man. What are the odds of running into a murder? Things just keep getting worse. Sometimes I think, neither Wanderers nor Humans deserve to inherit the Earth."
After the years and years Kyo had to cultivate his wide array of different masks for different situations, he had become a prolific and proficient actor. Maybe one day he would tell Dark who the man behind the mask was, but that day would not be upon him for a very long time.