Room 322, Sunday Night

[not_every_mage]

It had been barely more than 48 hours since Anders was last in this room, this safe space that was bright with Rapunzel's paints and littered with his own clothes and books. It felt like it might as well have been years. When he'd left, he could be flip about killing because he hadn't needed to do much of it, not enough to make it real. Now he'd done more than he had expected outside a war. (He didn't feel all that bad about it. Deep down, he wondered if that were a problem.)

In Rapture, he'd been fueled by potions and adrenaline -- too tightly wound by the situation to sleep, to rest, to eat more than a mouthful or so when they'd had the chance. It had gotten him through the horror of it all, and Nathan's pizza had helped dull the gnawing in his stomach. But now ... now he felt, all at once, as if he'd die on his feet if he didn't lie down immediately.

He took off his boots and sprawled on his bed. Drifting with his eyes closed, he imagined what would happen if he took the same crew back to Thedas.

The templars would never see them coming.

[OOC:Closed door, open post!]

Comments

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Bloody hell, this was embarrassing. When she had promised Barry that she'd go to Anders or Rapunzel with any difficulties, she was assuming that would be some unforeseen difficulty with her, not .... well.

Eleanor looked like she had thrown her clothes on in a hurry, say, ones that had been balled up on the floor. Her hair was tousled, and her cheeks were flushed.

And she was half-carrying her significant other, what with a hand injury making it damned hard for him to use his crutches.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

For his part, Joker was shirtless, and barefoot in his leg braces. He was also a little loopy, from taking too many of his pain pills at once. He leaned out to knock on Ander's door, but luckily realized in time what a bad idea that would be. Instead, he called loudly, "Hey-o! You in there, Mage-boy?"

[not_every_mage]

"Mage-boy?" Anders muttered drowsily,then raised his voice and called toward the door. "I'm in here. Can it wait for morning?"

He felt at the moment as though very few things couldn't.

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Joker's hand was purple and swelling in what looked to be very bad ways.

"Is Rapunzel in there?" she called through the door, hopefully. "It's all right. We can just go to the ... the clinic."

She had no right to impose on him, after dragging him to hell. He probably needed rest. Now seemed like a good time to get over her fear of doctors, anyway.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"Are you shitting me?" Joker asked, even though the clinic had been his first thought not five minutes ago. "Casts itch like fuck and take forever. No more casts. Anders is my new best friend. Besides, what if Dr. Navaan is there?"

[not_every_mage]

"No, don't walk all that way," Anders said. He dragged himself out of bed and over to the door, reasoning that -- if he honestly meant to be a healer -- he'd need to get used to midnight visits. "And don't trust Navaan. Just give me a second, please."

The door came open. Before he'd registered much more than that they both looked rather disheveled, Anders greeted them with, "I'm up. What's happened?"

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"Sorry to wake you," Eleanor said, her blush deepening. "Joker is -- he's got a medical condition? His bones are brittle, so sometimes they snap."

And now she had to, um. Explain why his hand was -- exactly how he'd managed to become injured. She was almost as red as his hand, by now.

"He tripped."

She really should have thought of something better than that.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

Joker snickered. "I tripped really well," he explained. "I am the man."

[not_every_mage]

"Good thing you only hurt your hand and not your legs, then," Anders said mildly. Honestly, between Eleanor's reddening cheeks and Joker's snicker, and the way they were both (un)dressed -- well, he didn't need anyone to draw him a diagram.

He reached for the hand. "Can I see? This might be easier if you sat on the bed."

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"Oh, bloody good idea," Eleanor said, guiding Joker into Anders' room somewhat carefully. She was essentially being his other crutch, now, or at least taking enough of his weight so that his legs didn't snap. And then, to figure out exactly how to negotiate sitting from standing.

"Don't mind him," she added. "He's taken rather more pain pills than he ought and he's a bit ..."

Well. Joker, but more so.

[fly-so-serious.livejournal.com]

"I'm a bit awesome, is that what you're saying? Joker demanded. It sounded like she had been about to insult him, when she should be singing his praises. He held out his hand for Anders to see. "Look, it's just broken. Hurts like a son of a bitch, but it's not like I haven't broke my hand before." He gave Eleanor a big grin. "Not like this, though. This woman is so amazingly, wonderfully..." He cut off sharply, and had a bit of an internal debate. "...I tripped," he decided.

[not_every_mage]

"You tripped," Anders sighed, managing not to roll his eyes. It was bad enough to have people gooey in love around you when they weren't on the verge of an epic overshare.

He reached out and delicately took Joker's hand, evaluating the swelling with his eyes. "But it isn't too bad. If you're already on pain pills, I'll skip the potions and go straight to spirit healing."

He wished he could stop Joker's bones from breaking to begin with, but that seemed to be beyond the reach of any magic he could access. Still, it was something he might research next time he made it into the shop.

[OOC: NIGHT.]

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

The overshare was going to get Joker thwapped, shortly. Except not literally, because that might actually shatter his skull.

"Thank you," she said, "in advance. I wasn't -- I didn't mean to bother you. I know it's been a long weekend, for all of us."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy had been in a rec room when they cavalry'd come in, looking like a herd of the walking wounded. A bit concerned, a bit curious, more than a bit worries. With the exception of Anders and Joker, she didn't really know anyone in the group well enough to call 'friend.' But they were friends-of-friends, and Anders was her friend and that was enough motivation to convince her that it probably wouldn't be too pushy to knock on Anders' door and make sure he was okay.

And so, there she stood, tap-tap-tapping on his dorm room door. "Anders? It's Kathy. Umm, if you'd rather be alone, just stay quiet and I'll assume you're sleeping and go away."

[not_every_mage]

"No, I'm still up," Anders said wearily. Joker and Eleanor's visit had put the kibosh on sleep, at least for the moment.

And then he thought about who it was, and most of the weariness dropped from his tone by the time he'd opened the door. "Hi," he said. "I'm not quite up for more DDR right now, but I am happy to see you."

[OOC: You caught me on my way to bed, I'm afraid! SP is awesome.]

[spin_kick_snap]

"Hi," Kathy replied, giving him a soft smile. "I'm glad to hear it. And doubly-glad I left all the video game equipment downstairs."

She gave him a quick once-over, making sure there were no obvious injuries or anything she should be worrying over.

"You sounded pretty beat before you opened the door," she said. "I don't have to stay long or anything if you want to go to bed. I just saw you come in and..." She shrugged. "I just thought I'd check in, see if you were okay or if you needed anything."

[not_every_mage]

He looked fine; dark circles under his eyes, and a small red mark on his cheek he hadn't quite healed away, but more or less the same as ever.

"Thanks," he said, and stepped back from the door to wave her in. She didn't have to stay long,but he didn't want to stand in the doorway informing the entire third floor about Rapture. "I think I'll be okay. Did you hear something about what we did?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy shook her head. "Not a word," she said, following him inside. "I was in Baltimore for most of the weekend, taking down a drug smuggling ring."

She couldn't help the warm glow of pride when she said that. It wasn't the time to dwell on that, not with whatever Anders had gone through, but it still seemed almost absurd that she, quiet and shy Kathy Li, had taken down a covert smuggling operation in Baltimore harbor.

"So if there was anything on the radio or whatever about what you guys were up to, I missed it. Sorry." She paused for a second and then offered, "Would you like a hug? I don't want to make assumptions, but...I kinda think you look like you could use one."

[not_every_mage]

Drug smugglers? Anders suspected he had missed something, too.

"I would love a hug," he said, reaching for one. He wanted to talk to her about all of it -- about Rapture, and drug smugglers -- but the hug seemed like the place to start. "It sounds like you have a story to tell me, and I want to tell you mine. But the hug can be first."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oh, mine can wait if you'd rather..." she began, and then shook her head. Protestations could also wait. He needed a hug and Kathy was pretty sure that hugs were something she was good at. She had lots of practice as a big sister.

She pulled him close and wrapped her arms around him, tilting her head slightly so he could put his head down on her shoulder if he wanted.

"I've got nowhere to be," she murmured softly. "I'm happy to hug you for as long as you like."

[not_every_mage]

"It might be a long time," Anders murmured into her shoulder. Kathy was very good at hugs.

A long moment later, he lifted his head so he could speak again. "Thanks," he said. "We went home with Eleanor to save her foster aunt. It wasn't like anyplace I'd been before."

[spin_kick_snap]

Right now, Kathy had every reason to give this hug her all.

Even though it was his room, Kathy was the one to nudge them towards the bed to sit. She figured this might go better sitting down and they could keep hugging while he talked, if he liked. "Anything I can guess at?" she asked, assuming it was bad. People didn't seem as weary as Anders did if they'd gone to a land of fun and candy. "I've been to some really rough parts of L.A and Baltimore."

[not_every_mage]

"I don't think it's like anything they have on dry land," Anders said, shaking his head. He ended up explaining where he'd been in almost the same words he'd used with Nathan. "Rapture is a whole city underwater. It's a marvel - even now you can see bits of how beautiful it was once. But of course it didn't last. The leaders went crazy, and half the people got addicted to a terrible drug that ruined their minds and warped their bodies. Most of the rest have died or left by now. There's almost no one good left in the place."

He ran his hand down her spine. "Worst place I've been. I doubt Baltimore stacks up."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy wasn't sure about that--mostly because she was picturing a bunch of people addicted to heroine or meth or something and not the true horror that were splicers. But she also wasn't going to argue with Anders about it. It was the worst place he'd ever been and that was what was important here.

She had no idea how wrong she was, or how lucky she was that she could be wrong.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through somewhere like that," she said, cuddling close. "Please say you managed to rescue Eleanor's aunt?"

Even with her wrong idea of what Rapture was like, no one should be trapped in an underwater prison while drug addicts ruled the streets.

[not_every_mage]

Really, it was kinder to let Kathy be wrong. She wasn't that far off, and imagining angry heroin addicts was better than having Splicers in your head.

"We did," he confirmed, not letting her go. "Got an extra passenger, too. There was a little girl who -- she'd been given up by her parents and treated badly. We brought her back with us."

If Kathy pressed, he'd tell her more about Louise. But her story was almost too horrifying to think about, let alone discuss.