wildkotetsu: (miserable. drunk. depressed.)
Kotetsu T. Kaburagi ○ Wild Tiger ([personal profile] 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))

frost_jewel: (defining duty)

[Action, evening]

[personal profile] frost_jewel 2012-05-20 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
[It is a few hours before she comes to check on him again. Sometimes life is working the latest shift. He's still asleep when she comes into the room, but it's obviously not a peaceful one.

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.]
frost_jewel: (soft rain)

[Action, evening]

[personal profile] frost_jewel 2012-05-22 03:14 pm (UTC)(link)
No, I'm sorry. [She can't very well lie to him.

Her back straightens a bit when his hand rests over hers, though.]

It's all right. Stay asleep.

[As she turns her hand enough to grasp his, gently.]
frost_jewel: (gentle)

[Action, evening]

[personal profile] frost_jewel 2012-05-24 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)
That's right. And it's late.

[Implying - or should she say it aloud? - that it is well past time to be asleep.]
frost_jewel: (assured)

[Action, evening]

[personal profile] frost_jewel 2012-05-27 06:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I will, as soon as I'm sure you are resting.

[It's only a small lie. This is her shift and she'll be awake until it's over.]
frost_jewel: (content)

[Action, evening]

[personal profile] frost_jewel 2012-05-28 02:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course. I seem to be keeping you up instead of helping you sleep, however.

[Perhaps if she sits quietly for a while, instead. He's made no move to let go of her hand, and she also keeps his, understanding the value of a tangible presence. After a while, if he still seems to have trouble sleeping, Mia reaches for something she has generally known to work.]

In a small village named Vale, on the continent of Angara, there lived a quiet boy called Isaac.

[She happens to know a most fantastic bedtime story.]
frost_jewel: (soft rain)

[Action, evening]

[personal profile] frost_jewel 2012-05-30 01:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Shh. Just listen. [A careful hand moves any stray hair out of Kotetsu's face, before coming to red gently on the back of his hand, so that his is between hers.]

...Yes, Isaac. He and his friends grew up in this village - one that kept watch over an important secret. It was a secret that could remake the world...or destroy it.

[It's quite a long tale, and she doesn't even expect to get to the part where she comes in before he falls asleep. She'll continue quietly until he does, all the same.]