hfm_logs | Midnight Mayhem [Closed]

Entry tags:

Midnight Mayhem [Closed]

Warnings: Violence will occur.
Location: Near the apartments.
Characters: Rose Quartz, Casey Jones
When: 2 days after everyone want jogging.
Summary: Nox appear; people head out alone to fight it, end up not being alone.

Hearing that Greg had been attacked while out with his friends wasn't exactly the kind of news Rose had expected to receive when he came back from hanging out with his new friends. Fortunately, he hadn't seemed physically hurt at all- he just needed some rest, which Rose was making sure he got.

Which is what she was doing late at night, sitting in the room with Greg and deciding not to indulge in napping for the night, feeling just a bit paranoid that if she leaves or stops paying attention, that something could go wrong again, and he could end up hurt a lot more than he was last time. He'd only been gone for an hour or two, after all, and then that happened... even with all the other humans there backing him up, it seems like things had been just a bit too close. She really should've been there with him... She probably could've helped, and so far, she has yet to even SEE one of these shadow creatures.

And as if on cue, she happens to notice something out of the corner of her eye, crawling around outside. Something that, even in the middle of the night, seems to look entirely too dark.

Definitely one of those shadow creatures. Probably scouting around or... something, she's not entirely sure. But it probably means there's a rift nearby, and this close to their home, it's not something they can afford to just leave there, given what she's heard of them.

Rose gives a quick look to Greg, sleeping peacefully, and carefully steps around so as not to wake him, grabbing her sword, and heading outside. Maybe she should be getting someone else to help out, but they all seemed a bit worn out last time she checked. And even if they weren't... Rose doesn't feel quite right asking for their help. They're not as strong or as durable as her, and she's used to this kind of thing anyway- she feels confident that she can handle things on her own, as she moves towards the location where she last saw the Nox.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Waking up with Rose gone wasn't too far out of the ordinary. Waking up to the sound of nearby cracking, crashing, and other such noises of destruction... well, that wasn't entirely unfamiliar to Greg, either, but it sure didn't put him at ease. Between it being too dark to see anything outside and his still lingering exhaustion, options went between waiting alone, or waiting with someone else. Greg left a note in the apartment for Rose.

It wasn't a surprise to find he wasn't the only one up, but that he wasn't the only one with a missing flatmate. Though that shouldn't have really surprised him either, in hindsight.

"Hey, at least they're watching each others' backs," he kept saying, thumbs twiddling fast as he perched on the couch, glancing between window and door, peering out with each new rumble and crack in the distance. "Probably."

Wash wasn't doing too well with this whole "bed rest" idea. The network was quiet, Bones would barely let him out of his room, and he was running out of ways to distract himself. Given distraction and running himself into the ground were his usual coping mechanisms...well, sleep wasn't happening, or at least not too much of it. Too much energy to settle down coupled with a stubborn refusal to take any sort of sleep aid saw to that.

Which meant he was dozing lightly enough to wake up fully when Casey left. Which meant he was wide awake and already in the kitchen (bed rest be damned) when Greg knocked on their door. At least hot chocolate wasn't too difficult to make.

"They'll be fine," he said, reaching over the back of the couch to hand Greg a mug. His tone allowed for no argument; you didn't consider the alternatives if you didn't have to. Given that he didn't yet have to think about checking the top of the spire tomorrow, he wasn't going to; he'd cross that bridge if he came to it.

Between the clinic, Wash, and attempts to find proper damn labspace in the city Bones tended to come home and crash hard. It didn't exactly keep him down through the worst of the chittering and crashing outside his window on an average night, but he'd been testing his magic more and more as of late and if nothing else, that helped knock him out pretty good. Which meant the one crash that rolled through the apartment had him skittering out his bedroom still in scrubs, eyes wild, ears primed for a kalxon that wasn't coming.

Just the usual then. Christ.

It took a moment to shake himself of it before he took a headcount. Greg over from his place, Wash- "I said bed rest damnit and I meant it!"

If he weren't tired he'd drag him back to bed. As it was he looked for their third and.

No.

"...Where the hell is the kid?"

After that especially loud crash, things had gone quiet. That was probably good, right? Greg figured it probably was. He cupped his mug in both hands, blowing on it, refraining from peering down into the street any more.

"Morning, Doc." 3 AM is technically morning. He can pretend this is normal. Cocoa makes things feel all right.

"Well... those sounded like something Rose might be doing. Knowing Casey... he'll be where the action is... hah..." Ha, ha ha.

With the racket going on outside, it was only a matter of time until Bones woke up and came out to yell at him. "I wasn't tired," he replied lightly, as though it were a legitimate answer. "Have some cocoa."

That second question had an easier answer. "He snuck out about half an hour ago. If he's fine, he'll be out for a while; if he's injured, he'll be back soon." Casey wasn't as subtle as he thought, especially given the fact that Wash was a light sleeper.

"...your Lady makes shit like that happen." Bones just. Stared at Greg for a long moment. He had yet to meet the woman on account of being stuck underground for the better part of a month and then work to keep himself sane from be'n stuck underground for a month. He'd heard some things, kind things, from Greg but not much else.

"You an I are gonna haveta have another talk 'bout the definition of rest, aren't we?" Leonard muttered as he stalked to the kitchen, nails drumming on the countertop. "We don't go out at night for a reason. Kid is gonna get himself killed."

Before much longer, after that last, big crash, while everyone's awake and alert, they can probably hear someone coming up the stairs, and going down the hallway of the apartment building- as well as what sounds like an argument going on. Mostly Casey insisting that he doesn't need to be carried.

Then the door opens, and everyone can see the giant woman carrying the young boy over her shoulder, stepping inside and looking over at everyone, sitting around the room like they're waiting. "...Hm? You're all still awake? And... Greg? Is this some kind of late night get together?" She'd intended to just quietly drop Casey off, rather than being faced with a group of people here- but really, this is probably for the best. "Well, that's fine. Anyway, this young boy needs a bit of patching up. Do any of you know... human medical stuff? I think I heard something about one of you being a doctor."

She doesn't seem all that concerned or guilty about having gone out to fight things in the middle of the night.

At this point, Casey is willing to admit that maybe, just maybe, this fight could have gone better. He's sore, he's completely wiped out, he's not sure if he's still bleeding or if it's just soaking into his bandanna. He should've remembered to put out the fire on his stick when he lost it instead of letting it drain his energy. He should've told Rose what his plan was for getting down instead of trusting her to get it immediately. He should've watched for the rocks.

But those were all just little notes for next time. They're both alive, his heart has only just started to even out from the adrenaline rush and, most importantly, they won. Though it IS a bit humiliating that what little strength that he has left he could be using to walk with is being used to argue with Rose that no, he can walk, he's fine, he's not that hurt. When he cranes his head to see, he can tell the lights are on but Casey figures that, hey, that was pretty close. It figures it would have woken everyone up.

But then they get inside and everyone is sitting around the table, watching the door. Casey suddenly realizes with the experience of a lifelong trouble-maker that he's in trouble. Real Trouble, not the kind that gets him yelled at once and then gets forgotten about. Rose seems to have no clue the way she's talking. Maybe she's never been in trouble.

Probably not. Do people who can punch holes in the wall spend a lot of time getting lectured? He doubts it.

"Before you say anything," he says to the attendant adults, "this ain't near as bad as it looks."

Greg wasn't much for lectures. He wasn't much for scolding or anger, either. What he was big on, was seeing people safe. He'd spent an awful lot of his life waiting for people to come back from monster hunts. It was dangerous, and frightening, and needed to be done. He didn't have to like it to see why it was more important than his nerves.

So when the battered pair cane through the door, Greg just gave a sigh of relief. A day they came home in one piece was enough to satisfy him. "Thank goodness you're okay. ...Relatively."

He'd have rushed to check over Casey, but like Rose said, Leonard had the better background for fussing. Instead, he hung back, looking over Rose. It was harder for someone unfamiliar to pick up, but Rose looked an awful lot more dissheveled than usual. "Your arm... what happened out there?"

Injured it was, then.

Wash also waited for Bones to make the first move; he straightened up and folded his arms instead. "You know, I'd like to know that too." His tone was light with a sharp undercurrent; Casey might recognize it as the prelude to trouble. "What did happen out there?"

"...Here's a tip, kid. Never, ever open with that. Cuz now you're gett'n a full scan- also put the boy down on a sofa for christ's sake." He wouldn't normally snap at a lady but she had Casey flopped over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and that just- He scrubbed at his face and ducked back into his room to grab his medkit.

Deep breaths, Leonard. Deep. Even breaths.

"He also wouldn't need patch'n up if you'd sent him home when you bumped into him. And you." He was already glowering at Casey as he flipped open his tricorder. "The hell were you think'n? No, don't tell me. You weren't. Take the bandanna off and follow the light. If you're concussed I swear to god..."

"I TOLD him to go back to bed, but he insisted on coming along. It wasn't my place to stop him." She says, as she listens to what she presumes to be the trained medical professional, and lays Casey down carefully.

She then turns to Greg, holding her arm up a bit and examining it a bit, seeming to be trying to focus on doing... something, as she explains. "I saw one of the shadow creatures snooping around outside, and went to take care of them. It was a bit tougher than I thought it'd be, but we managed to get the rift closed..."

Another moment of looking at her arm, before she lets out a long sigh, and pretty much collapses into a chair. "I don't know if it's because of how much this new magic takes out of me, or if I can't do this either anymore, but I can't seem to just... shapeshift my body into an uninjured state. Would you mind taking a look at it after Casey's been taken care of?" It does seem to be a rather deep cut, still bleeding pink blood all over her arm- and still vanishing into little sparkles whenever it drips off her.

"Was there anything I coulda said that would get me out of a full scan?" Casey rolls his eyes and crosses his arms in a sulk when he hits the couch. "I'm not an idiot. That rift was super close! It was either go out and take care of it or wait for those monsters to get the drop on us!"

He undoes his bandanna and follows the light as instructed, but in a sarcastic teenage manner. "Seriously, Doc, just get me some bandages and med-stuff and I'll patch myself up. Don't waste the thing's batteries when you got an actual-" he gropes for the word "-non-human lady to patch up."

"But..." Greg's eyes were still on Rose, bewildered and concerned. It felt so... off, Rose without so many of her usual abilities. She looked so tired.

"Hey, don't worry, honey. Leonard's got all sorts of space doctoring under his belt! He's gotcha covered." Sure, she's magic, but she's still an alien, which means that he was definitely experienced in this! He's probably treated lots of stuff like this, right? Everything's gonna be fine.

"Casey, you gotta be the only person I know who doesn't like getting healed up." Maybe Wash too, but bedrest is pretty tough. "C'mon, we're safe now, no need to brush things off." Everyone's back, and safe, the Nox are gone, there's no reason he shouldn't be optimistic. Let's all be in a great mood, why is no one in this room in a good mood, please be in a better mood.

"In case you haven't noticed, Casey, they don't come inside." Wash was very quickly losing his calm, but he kept a lid on it for now. The time to lecture - or as it would very likely be in his case, to yell - would be after everyone had stopped bleeding. Starting in on them now while Bones was still working wasn't going to help anyone. Instead, he crossed the kitchen, pulling a towel out of a drawer and handing it to Rose. "Put pressure on it."

"Almost anything BUT that." He muttered, running the sensor over Casey's head and down his torso. "You're an adult. What dumbass choices you make on your own are, of course, yours to make. Enabling this was, like I said, a dumbass choice. Casey, I will worry about the charge on this thing and prioritize my patients as I see fit. When you get a medical degree you can say somth'n. Till then? Sit still and tell me where it hurts."

One patient at a time. He probably should worry about Rose's injury, in all honesty he was worried, but the blood was just...vanishing.

He needed a moment to work with a patient he knew how to treat before hopping over to entirely new alien physiology. Headwound, bruises, exhaustion. It looked like the Jim Kirk special. "Gonna give you a painkiller and an antibiotic. Take off the headband so I can get at the cut. Soon as I get that sorted I'll take a look at you, Rose. Anything you can tell me about your species physiology in the meantime would be mighty helpful. I've run into sentient rock races before but they weren't humanoid."

She takes the paper towel, not seeming to know quite what to do with it for a moment before pressing it down on the wound- she's seen humans do similar things a few times, that seems about right.

Rose seems much more confused by the conversation that's going on, though. "I'm sorry, I don't know you all that well yet, but did Casey... do something wrong?" He was brought here to fight, after all. All of them were. So why do they seem so upset that he went out and fought?

She takes a moment to lean back in her chair, closing her eyes and collecting her thoughts. Rose can't remember ever feeling so exhausted in her entire life. Or at least not for a few thousand years, anyway. "Well, Gems are just that. Our consciousness and power is contained within a gemstone, and our bodies are just illusions made of light generated by them. So far as I can tell though, they're near enough to human bodies in most ways."

"Yeah, if they break down the walls they won't hafta come in! That thing was huge! Who knows what it coulda done if we didn't take it down!"

He grips his bandanna in his hand, knuckles getting whiter the more he squeezes. At least Rose seems to be on his side. "It's just a few cuts and bruises," he mutters, "I've had worse in the hockey rink."

Besides, it was much more interesting to listen to Rose talk. Her body was made of light and she could punch walls over, which Casey was pretty sure up until that point light couldn't do. And also he'd heard something about shape-shifting while Bones was fussing? That was awesome.

This was rapidly slipping out of control, and into some serious danger zones. There had to be a way to defuse this, but no one seemed especially intent on listening to each other.

"Look, we were all just worried about each other, that's not a crime." Rose and Casey wanted to keep the three of them safe, and the three of them wanted to keep Rose and Casey safe. They were all on the same page, just reading different parts.

"Casey knows what he did." He'd resolved not to yell until everyone had been patched up; the sharp tone wasn't yelling, but it probably wasn't helping either. Wash folded his arms, clamping them tight against his chest. He could keep a lid on it for now.

(And it turned out Rose - and, by extension, Peridot - was a living hard light projector. What the fuck.)

Rose sounded so- confused. And aliens had their own culture, their own way of handling things, their own naivete about humanity. There wasn't anything unkind in the question. It was enough to cut some of the anger out of him. Greg's stress and Casey's vehemence help cut the rest down to a simmer.

"...Wrong, not so much." Going out to fight the good fight ain't WRONG. Foolish at this time of night and without backup? Yeah. But not wrong. "A li'l unwise, yes. Pretty sure we all got issues with people go'n miss'n from back home and wak'n up to find him gone is a little jarr'n- especially with what happened to me- but. But not wrong. We'd prefer he'da not gone out alone is all. Fight'n like we're supposed to ain't wrong. It's brave. Reckless- but brave. He's lucky you were there t'help."

And luck wasn't something that often held all that long, far as Bones knew. "Cuts, bruises and- Kid you have a metal plate in your head. Why do you have a-"

Deep breaths. Hand scanner set down, he plucked up the dermal regenerator and started running that over the worst of the scrapes. "Later. Lemme get this fixed, then I'll help you out, Miz Rose."

"...Mm." That's the only response Rose gives to Bones' explanation. He absolutely makes a good point, and she certainly agrees that he probably should've let people know what he was doing- but agreeing out loud and chastising Casey would just seem too hypocritical, given her own actions.

"To be honest, he... may have fared better without me there. I don't exactly have the best control of my magic, and, well. Some of his injuries may have been a result of some unintended friendly fire." A moment passes, as Rose tries to give an awkward chuckle. "Or, all of them. Ehehe..."

Casey narrowed his eyes and frowned. Right. The sewers.

Now he felt like a jerk. He hadn't meant to scare Bones like that, not after he'd been stuck for so long down there with those creatures. A bubble of guilt rose in his throat and he couldn't swallow it down.

"Dude...Bones, I'm-"

And then Rose said the dumbest possible thing imaginable under the circumstances and the bubble popped, replaced by the seizing of his heart. When you don't ever get in trouble, you don't learn how to navigate it. Rose had violated the biggest rule of sneaking out: You NEVER admitted fault. When you came home after curfew looking like you'd eaten total shit, which Casey had, it was just an act of fate. An accident. Nobody did anything wrong, it just happened.

He cleared his throat and swiped his hand across his neck a few times, but Rose couldn't be stopped. As happy as Casey was not to have to talk about the plate holding his skull together...this was going to get ugly.

Bones was cooling down, just a little. Casey was starting to apologize. Wash... was still a breath away from snapping. Things were moving in the right direction, though, and so long as everyone kept their heads about them--

Greg stared at Rose. Oh. Oh no. Did she seriously... he ran a hand over his face, holding back a groan. He couldn't fault her for honesty, or for difficulty with her powers, but. There was difficulty, and then there was this. "Oh... Rose, you didn't."

Welp. He'd tried.

Wash had honestly tried to keep his temper in check, and then Rose went and admitted to that. He'd seen too many cases of friendly fire end in death to let that one go.

"You mean to tell me," he started loud and only got louder, "that all of those injuries are because of you?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!" He'd moved closer to Rose, tension drawing his shoulders tight. It was tough to get up in someone's face when they were head and shoulders above you, but he'd had enough experience dealing with Maine - the Meta - Maine to be good at it by now. "You're the adult in this situation! If you know you can't use your powers without injuring your partner, then it is your responsibility to either find him a different partner or get him someplace safe. He's combat capable, but not when you beat him up yourself! You didn't have enough control and you knew it. His injuries are on you.

"And you, Casey Jones." He rounded on Casey, saying his name like a slap to the face. "You know better than to run out without backup, and no, I ran into Rose doesn't count! We've talked about this! You take someone with you or you don't go!"

Edited 2015-09-03 03:33 (UTC)

Midnight Mayhem [Closed]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)