Kotetsu T. Kaburagi ○ Wild Tiger (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
wildkotetsu) wrote2012-05-08 06:24 pm
wildkotetsu) wrote2012-05-08 06:24 pm
9 • Heroes • [Action]
[Kotetsu's been unconscious, comatose, for three days now.
He tries to wake up on the last day, a few times. Feels himself rising up to the red-orange light under his eyelids - but it's a struggle, one that leaves him spent. And then, without a moment's notice, his eyes open wide to stare at the ceiling. Awake.
He remembers. He remembers exactly what happened. Bunny had been stabbed — and he was dying, had died. He'd died, with a blade through his chest... and Pao-Lin had done it. He rips the catheter out, all the wires, the device pumping oxygen into his nose, and drags himself up on quivering legs. Thank god they at least put pants on him, though they'd prefer that: he's burnt and he's been stabbed, near fatally. Even now with healing put in place, he's bound up tight.
How long has he been out? It couldn't have been that long. If he had enough sense, he'd feel the short stubble on his face and recognize it's been far more than 24 hours. But right now, common sense - what little he enjoyed using - was thrown right out the window. He staggers, knocks over a chair (had someone been around?), and all he can picture is the look of disdain on Pao-Lin's face and the look of shock on Bunny's.
He has to go.
He's gotta get outta here. He has to find them. If he stays, the people here will keep him still and not let him go, and he doesn't want that. So gathering up all of his strength in the pit of his stomach, ignoring the low ache in his shoulders and ribs, he instantly glows blue before fleeing from the clinic through an open window. He's a flash of neon color through the forest and village as he returns to the apartments.
He looks in Bunny's room first, slams it open with his shoulder, and the wind is knocked out of him on sight.
Everything's gone.
Everything's gone.
He doesn't realize he spends the next twenty minutes sitting in the middle of the empty room. When he finally does, he swallows hoarsely and uses his NEXT power to keep himself moving.
Pao-lin, he has to find her.
Somehow, he already assumes she's dead. After jumping through the window to the seventh story of her complex, he easily forces the door to her apartment open. The stillness of her room, untouched, tells him nothing's right. He wants to assume it's just her hiding, after all that's happened. But she's gone away. He tries to leave her messages on the journal and there are no replies back. No sign of her. Nothing. He'll be looking around CH7, asking if anyone knows where Pao-lin is.
The bandages and New-Feather-esque hospital clothes may raise some confusion. And the glowing, too, maybe.
Walking through the forest, his powers clocked in, he gives up and quietly curls up under a tree, burying his face in his knees, exhausted. He's sick and hot and in pain, and more than likely he's reopened his injury, but he's hardly aware of any of it. None of that matters, because he's failed. Barnaby's gone, and it's his fault he was killed like that. It's his fault he wasn't strong enough for him or Pao-Lin. His partner went home, and the last thing he saw in Luceti was Kotetsu as he bled out.
Dammit.
A few sharp, strangled yells are muffled by his hands but echo, regardless, into the treetops, scaring off stray birds. Eventually, they break down into sobs that shake his whole body. At this point, he's not budging, even as it starts to trickle rain through the canopy.
Eventually as the sun starts setting, he'll be directed back to the clinic without much struggle, staying at last to heal and get fixes for the burns and injuries he has. Honestly, he just wants to leave. He's not hungry - most of his food's not touched, he's not much for conversation, and he'd rather vanish into the covers than anything else right now.
But he'll try to be himself. Attempt to smile and talk, if spoken to.
He just wishes he could leave and find a way to get his mind off it all. Frankly, this is all a countdown so that he can hide in his own apartment like he intended.]
((ooc: feel free to run into him out in the woods after he's given up his search, or talk to him as he's looking for pao-lin. also, at the clinic after he agrees to finally go back. if you got any other places you'd wanna pop up, lemme know. he's pretty out of it, pre-clinic return.
most of this takes place on may 8th, but the last little bit can happen any time in the next 7 days or so. :|b
also timeline breaking is a-ok, just be subtle about it later or something))
He tries to wake up on the last day, a few times. Feels himself rising up to the red-orange light under his eyelids - but it's a struggle, one that leaves him spent. And then, without a moment's notice, his eyes open wide to stare at the ceiling. Awake.
He remembers. He remembers exactly what happened. Bunny had been stabbed — and he was dying, had died. He'd died, with a blade through his chest... and Pao-Lin had done it. He rips the catheter out, all the wires, the device pumping oxygen into his nose, and drags himself up on quivering legs. Thank god they at least put pants on him, though they'd prefer that: he's burnt and he's been stabbed, near fatally. Even now with healing put in place, he's bound up tight.
How long has he been out? It couldn't have been that long. If he had enough sense, he'd feel the short stubble on his face and recognize it's been far more than 24 hours. But right now, common sense - what little he enjoyed using - was thrown right out the window. He staggers, knocks over a chair (had someone been around?), and all he can picture is the look of disdain on Pao-Lin's face and the look of shock on Bunny's.
He has to go.
He's gotta get outta here. He has to find them. If he stays, the people here will keep him still and not let him go, and he doesn't want that. So gathering up all of his strength in the pit of his stomach, ignoring the low ache in his shoulders and ribs, he instantly glows blue before fleeing from the clinic through an open window. He's a flash of neon color through the forest and village as he returns to the apartments.
He looks in Bunny's room first, slams it open with his shoulder, and the wind is knocked out of him on sight.
Everything's gone.
Everything's gone.
He doesn't realize he spends the next twenty minutes sitting in the middle of the empty room. When he finally does, he swallows hoarsely and uses his NEXT power to keep himself moving.
Pao-lin, he has to find her.
Somehow, he already assumes she's dead. After jumping through the window to the seventh story of her complex, he easily forces the door to her apartment open. The stillness of her room, untouched, tells him nothing's right. He wants to assume it's just her hiding, after all that's happened. But she's gone away. He tries to leave her messages on the journal and there are no replies back. No sign of her. Nothing. He'll be looking around CH7, asking if anyone knows where Pao-lin is.
The bandages and New-Feather-esque hospital clothes may raise some confusion. And the glowing, too, maybe.
Walking through the forest, his powers clocked in, he gives up and quietly curls up under a tree, burying his face in his knees, exhausted. He's sick and hot and in pain, and more than likely he's reopened his injury, but he's hardly aware of any of it. None of that matters, because he's failed. Barnaby's gone, and it's his fault he was killed like that. It's his fault he wasn't strong enough for him or Pao-Lin. His partner went home, and the last thing he saw in Luceti was Kotetsu as he bled out.
Dammit.
A few sharp, strangled yells are muffled by his hands but echo, regardless, into the treetops, scaring off stray birds. Eventually, they break down into sobs that shake his whole body. At this point, he's not budging, even as it starts to trickle rain through the canopy.
Eventually as the sun starts setting, he'll be directed back to the clinic without much struggle, staying at last to heal and get fixes for the burns and injuries he has. Honestly, he just wants to leave. He's not hungry - most of his food's not touched, he's not much for conversation, and he'd rather vanish into the covers than anything else right now.
But he'll try to be himself. Attempt to smile and talk, if spoken to.
He just wishes he could leave and find a way to get his mind off it all. Frankly, this is all a countdown so that he can hide in his own apartment like he intended.]
((ooc: feel free to run into him out in the woods after he's given up his search, or talk to him as he's looking for pao-lin. also, at the clinic after he agrees to finally go back. if you got any other places you'd wanna pop up, lemme know. he's pretty out of it, pre-clinic return.
most of this takes place on may 8th, but the last little bit can happen any time in the next 7 days or so. :|b
also timeline breaking is a-ok, just be subtle about it later or something))
[Action, evening]
He inhales, face reddening a little because wow, he must look like complete hell to any of the people coming in. But he gets over it.]
... You could say that.
[He's not so graceful with words. Never has been, and today will be a sad milestone for him when it comes to talking.]
Sorry. About... y'know... [He drops his head back, staring down his nose at the sheets.] Making a mess.
[Action, evening]
[For example. The way he looked a few days ago.]
Please don't run out like that again. Your condition is still very serious. [Because he's probably heard this lecture already today more times than he cared to, Mia keeps the scolding level to a minimum.] That aside...it is good to see you awake and talking.
[Fever and exhaustion aside. Some of it is to be expected; it surprises her a little that he's sitting up, let alone talking. Then it strikes her that he probably has no idea who she actually is. He's been unconscious, after all, and she was busy when others brought him back after he ran away.]
My name is Mia, and I work here, as well as in the other clinic. If you feel up to it, I'll heal you a little. I promise it doesn't hurt.
[In this place, checking on the things she usually spends the most time checking on is a bit superfluous, with all the machinery. Even if some of it still escapes her understanding.]
[Action, evening]
[A pause.]
You've been coming in to check on me, right?
[He doesn't know her, but considering how she's talking, she's been involved at the very least after he'd been stabilized.]
[Action, evening]
Can you tell me where you are in the most pain? [He really isn't strong enough to unload Pure Ply on him until there aren't any injuries left. If he were, she would have done it already. Better for him to get help with anything that manages to hurt him through all of that painkiller, she thinks.]
[Action, evening]
[His hand trails over the sheets numbly to rest on his stomach. This is where he'd been stabbed through and through, and would have internally bled if not for him using his Hundred Power. That sort of thing is a strain on his body and he rarely gets to use it thanks to that fact, so the wound is more painful than even the burns across his body.
Though, those are a close second.]
It's a... stab wound. From a sword.
[Action, evening]
[Mia closes her eyes. She doesn't need to touch him, or even to have her hands close by - though she likes to, because it tends to help her narrow her focus - and in this instance she won't touch him. It might hurt. That's the last thing he needs.
After a moment, even if he can't see the soft blue light and the attendant Psynergy angel-shapes, he should feel a soothing cool-water sensation in his stomach and across his burns. It condenses, after a few minutes, into something stronger and more centered on that stab wound.
When she is done, her eyes open again and she watches him carefully. People in equally serious conditions have fallen asleep on her before, while she worked. If he has, all the better.
She doubts it, though, for one reason or another.]
[Action, evening]
But when she's done, he at least feels better. Less pain, too.]
Thanks...
[It's genuine, but a little hesitant.]
What kind of power was that? I've seen Nala work before, but...
[Action, evening]
Can I get anything for you? [The Ply should have helped with his fever, a little, but only temporarily. Before he has a chance to answer her question, and with a slight hesitation, Mia gently rests a hand over one of his.] ...I know it's been a difficult day, too.
[Action, evening]
It's been a very, very difficult day.
He forces a pathetic little smile, afraid of turning into a sad, achy, curled up ball on the bed.]
... Some water'd be nice.
[Action, evening]
[She pats his hand before she gets up to bring him some water. If it happened, he would at least be a well-cared-for sad achy curled-up ball.
There's water in the room, so it takes almost no time or energy to bring him over a cup of it - with a straw.]
Try not to drink too much, or too fast. I don't want you making yourself sick.
[Action, evening]
But his mind is on a loop, full of questions and images ans thoughts. So before he can really stop himself, he asks her - without looking at her -]
When people's things disappear, they... they definitely went home, right?
[It's illogical that he fears something else, he knows. Things being gone means they went home. But... the thought that maybe he didn't go home, but didn't come back, would never come back -
He keeps thinking about it. The images of a pale woman's hand in his, her face masked by a thin white sheet, burrow into the back of his mind.]
[Action, evening]
She's keeping herself busy around the room just to make sure he's all right with the water. The location of his stab wound could be problematic that way. If he tried to escape again, she doubts he would get farther than the door under his own power. Healing him let her know how exhausted he is.
She looks up at the question, one finger lightly tapping her chin for a moment.]
When my friends left, that is what I was told happened to them. The sign of it is all of your belongings also disappearing. I also know of a few who have returned here, at a later time, and remembered Luceti - so yes, they did go home after their stay.
...I am sure your friend is all right. [Since for Kotetsu to ask this, the person he lost probably isn't dead.] Even if he was injured here, it shouldn't...stick.
[Action, evening]
He clears his throat, but there's a hoarseness to his voice that can't be fixed immediately - he'd done his share of yelling in the forest.]
... If someone dies here and their stuff vanishes... It means they went home? They're home, right?
[Action, evening]
[Is she one hundred percent certain about this? No. That doesn't matter, this time. He needs to hear that his friend isn't dead somewhere.]
...As alive and well as they were when they left it, as far as I know.
[Action, evening]
Good.... Good. He needs to be home.
[Home, where he can sort his head out, where he didn't have to have experiments or shifts or wars thrown in his face. Where he could handle his own demons without adding anymore.
Kotetsu was okay with being left behind.
It was okay. Right? Right...
He'd stay and help Pao-Lin. He could try to fix his mistakes.]
[Action, evening]
It seems he isn't going to immediately empty his stomach of water, after all. Mia stops beside the chair again, smiling gently.]
If you want company, I will gladly stay for a while. You should try to sleep if you can.
[Action, evening]
No, no - I mean, I don't wanna take up your time. I can sleep just fine.
[Sort of. When it comes to sleeping, Kotetsu appreciates the peace but dreads the moment where the peace ends and the worst of it begins. He's feverish and sore and the blankets feel like a sheet of lead over his torso, though, so maybe it would be for the best to blank out.]
[Action, evening]
[She'll have to come back and check on him again anyway. Hearing his preferences for privacy is meant to help him.]
[Action, evening]
[A soft breath that's sorta' a like a laugh.]
Ah, I, uh... didn't catch your name.
[She probably knows his, he supposes. What with everyone here probably wondering where this particular patient had ran off to not that long ago.]
[Action, evening]
[Action, evening]
I'm Kotetsu, anyway... Thanks a lot. I'll let you know if I need anything.
[A half-lie, since some things... he'd rather not bother people for. But at least he knows what's important enough to bring up.]
[Action, evening]
Have a good rest.
[Action, evening]
[But he doesn't really, of course. He spends the next few hours tossing and turning a little, and despite his best wishes it's not at all dreamless. Flinching, eyes working behind his eyelids, he listens to phantom voices, sees dream-made people.
A mumble under his breath.
Dammit.
In a dream, it's hard to tell yourself the people you care about will really be okay.]
[Action, evening]
She doesn't want to wake him, though. If it's a nightmare, there's nothing she can really do for him; just in case he's in pain, she uses her healing Psynergy again once, hoping it will help him settle. Running out into the rain in his condition also gave him a fever to deal with, and she doesn't want to take any chances.]
[Action, evening]
hoarsely,]
... Tomoe...?
[that's accompanied by his palm reaching down to the hand doling him psynergy to his injury, and he's still lost in some hazy place, attempting to break the surface and come to.]
[Action, evening]
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