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.

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"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)

Any thought Bones had to yell'n or holler'n about what Rose said was undercut entirely by Wash. And while it was dumb, while he wasn't say'n anything that wasn't true-

You didn't yell at a lady. Especially an INJURED lady.

Well no, that was a lie, Bones has done the same damn thing his own self more than once when it was appropriate. But right now it- was appropriate he just was used to be'n the one that did the yelling. Which now meant it was up to him to either roll with it or change the tone of the night.

When he turned to yell at CASEY, who was already looking pretty contrite? That's when Leonard's temper snapped right back.

"THAT IS ENOUGH OUTTA YOU WASHINGTON!" He cracked out, standing up to face Wash head on, every inch of a southern, pissed off father.

It felt pretty damn strange, being on this side of things. Defusing the situation wasn't about to happen. But damage control? That he could do. He took one steadying breath and let his eyes slip back down to Casey- then over to Rose and Greg.

Damage control. Right. Arm flung back, he pointed to the hall leading to the bedrooms. In a tone that offered absolutely no room for argument, he ground out. "Now MARCH your snappy little butt to your room and think about what you just did."

Edited 2015-09-03 03:48 (UTC)

Rose has dealt with a fair share of humans shouting at her for inadvertent damage caused during their fights with corrupted beasts, so she doesn't seem all that phased by Wash pretty much screaming in her face. She waits for him to finish, and then responds calmly. "I know. That's why I made sure he got back here safely. His injuries were my fault, and if my tears still worked, I would've taken care of them myself, but they don't. That's why I'm telling you, so that you can know to give me some space in our next fight." Obviously, it was an unpleasant fact from how everyone reacted, but she still felt it was important for them to know, so it doesn't happen again.

He's not telling her anything she doesn't already know, really. She just doesn't get why he's quite so mad about it, when Casey still wasn't hurt that badly- he likely would've been hurt worse without her help, after all. Still though, she does disagree about leaving him behind because of a lack of control. From what she's heard, pretty much none of them have very good control of their powers yet, but that doesn't mean they can just let things go until they've got it figured out. Rose at least has the sense to recognize now probably isn't the time to start arguing about it, though, and doesn't say anything else.

Casey took deep breaths, trying to keep his cool. He got yelled at all the time, that was fine, he could deal.

(He was pretty sure he could deal.)

But this was just unfair. He knew he did wrong, he was just about to apologize! And now Wash just blew up at him and Rose before he could even get a word in! Wash was just being his usual jerk self, always needing the last word. Well, not tonight.

"Who could I take?!" Casey said, trying to jump to his feet and getting a bad reminder of his bruised ribs. He eased himself back to the couch. "You guys were all-"

Banged up. He was going to say banged up. And then Bones said...something that left Casey completely speechless. He was talking to Wash like Wash was...well, his age. Or whatever age they seemed to think he was. 12, probably.

Maybe it was his exhaustion. Maybe his nerves were frayed. Maybe the adrenaline was finally gone, but he leaned over, balancing his head on his fists, and had a serious attack of the church giggles. He couldn't just...laugh in the middle of everything without making everything worse, but he couldn't help himself. His shoulders were shaking, in fact he was trembling all over, a weird cocktail of hysterics and anger. If he took a breath, it'd be the desperate gasp that would give him away immediately. Nothing to do but ride it out.

There were a lot of things going on at once. Tempers clashing, frustration and exasperation spilling over, uneven ideals duking it out, stress snapping, exhaustion breaking over everyone.

It was too much from too many places in too many ways. It wouldn't matter who Greg tried to comfort, or appease, or cheer up, as nothing he was saying was getting through to anyone in the first place. By this point, it seemed like if things were going to work out at all, they'd do it on their own, and he'd just have to wait for them to figure it out.

Greg sighed, leaning heavily on the armrest of Rose's chair. He felt very tired. They all needed some rest.

He should have been listening to Rose's explanation. Either she had a good reason or she had a poor excuse; either way, he didn't hear it. Instead, he brought the full force of his temper to bear on Bones. After all, it wasn't a real screaming match until someone started screaming back. "It needed to be said and you know it! Don't-"

And then Bones said that, and Wash's anger fizzled out immediately and completely, only to be replaced by baffled surprise. For a moment, he was back on the Mother of Invention, trying to parse Florida's latest bizarre turn of phrase-

But Florida never got angry, just even. This was different.

His head tilted slowly to the side, and he stared, still trying to process what he'd just heard. It took him a few very long seconds to manage a high-pitched, "...what?" There wasn't too much more to say; he was still contemplating the very real possibility that Bones had just had a stroke, because how else could he explain that turn of phrase?

Well that just came out of his mouth. Tell'n Wash to shut it- that much he'd meant to do. The rest was just- instinct and habit. Deal'n with a five year old would do that to you. A willful five year old. 'Course talk'n down to Wash like that, to anyone like that was a mite uncalled for albeit, if Casey's reaction was anything to go by, hilarious.

And a li'l absurd.

"Habit." He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Got a five year old- eight year old. Back home. When she'd throw tantrums I'd-"

There was a vague wave in Wash's direction. Behind him, in the kitchen, the coffee maker clicked on. May as well multitask. "You're pissed. I'm pissed. Casey's pissed. Holler'n ain't gonna change a damn thing. Casey is sorry. Miz Rose is sorry. I'm sorry 'bout whoever we've woken up with all the yell'n. It is late. We are all tired. We are all stressed. I think we can put a pin in mosta this stuff till the morn'n. Awright? We'll talk later- and it needs t'be talk'n not yell'n."

With that he moved from Casey, patting him on the shoulder as he went, to inspect Rose's wound with the tricorder. "I don't rightly know what I can do for you- my tools aren't calibrated for treat'n hard light holograms. But I can look at this."

"Well, glad we've got that all sorted out, then!" Rose sounds totally cheerful now, apparently thinking that the issues are over and done with. They're talking about it later, which means now, everything must be okay, right? That seems to be the attitude she's striking. Either she's trying to lighten the mood, or she's really bad at reading social situations and the underlying tension still there. Possibly a little of both.

She holds her arm out for the doctor to scan, watching curiously as he hovers the tool over the cut. "Hmmm... What is that thing, exactly? I don't think I've ever seen something like it before. Though, I've never exactly had to deal with any doctors before, either."

OK...OK...Casey was coming down from that laughing fit. This was the second time tonight he'd tried to be angry at Wash and Bones had completely sucked the wind out of his sails.

Man, he was exhausted.

Rose was chipper. Bizarrely so. The yelling had taken more out of Casey than the injuries tonight and she seemed almost completely unaffected. He kind of wished he was her. A little. Except he also knew that attitude wasn't going to go over great with the guys.

This position was actually kind of comfortable. He probably shouldn't fall asleep this way, no matter how big a yawn he just now made.

Maybe...He'd screwed it up? They weren't going to trust Rose after this, but they didn't have to find out about it. Rose had been honest, which was fine, but maybe she could have been honest some other time? Or maybe she could have been honest with him about her control or what she was going to do? But what would that have changed, most of the issues were because the Nox had-

His whole head was a jumble of thoughts and he was too tired to pick one out and focus on it. Tired and messed up, physically and emotionally.

"Yeah...look, if you're done with my checkup, I'm goin' to bed." He was going to go to bed whether Bones was done or not.

Greg smiled, faintly, at Rose's cheerful attitude. Maybe it wasn't the best suited for the atmosphere, but she wasn't the sort to let a mess like this keep her down. He was glad someone, at least, could find something to be chipper over. "Leonard's from the future," he told her, half-whispered as though it were a secret. He was too tired to piece together all the reasons talking like that was a bit silly.

"Bed sounds great," Greg agreed. "You earned it, Casey." He really meant it. Whether or not leaving had been a good idea, Casey had risked himself for their sakes and taken out a nasty enemy.

"We should all get some rest, ASAP." Maybe they'd listen, this time. He was ready to conk out the instant Rose was patched up, himself. Not a second sooner, though.

Wash just blinked as Bones walked past him. On one hand, that made perfect sense. On the other hand, how had he not known that Bones had a kid? Had that just never come up?

His back was to Rose when she spoke up. Greg and Casey might have been able to see his expression - eyes shut, throat working briefly like he'd just swallowed something nasty - before it clicked back to neutral in the next breath. "Sure," he managed, voice calm. "We'll talk tomorrow."

There was a part of him that just couldn't let it lie, though. It was two in the morning and he'd been talked down to like he was a child. Payback may have been petty and immature, but that didn't necessarily stop him. "And Bones?" he delivered over his shoulder with a smirk. "If you're that interested in my ass, you could just ask."

"G'head and rest up Casey. I'll check in with you in the morn'n, awright? Sleep well." He stopped scanning Rose's arm long enough to look back over to him. The kid had been through more than enough tonight and, like he's said, they could get everything sorted in the morning. For him? He wasn't about to get to sleep for awhile, may as well have the coffee that he'd put to brew and analyze the data from Rose. "It's a medical tricorder. A scanner. Somth'n that tells me what's wrong with a body and how t'fix it. Normally. Most any kinda humanoid I can work with but you're somth'n new."

He flipped down the Tricorder and pulled a pack of gauze and antiseptic cream from his medkit, smoothing the ointment over Rose's cut and binding the injury tight to prevent the loss of more glitter. blood. Thing. It was the best he could do until he understood what she was better.

Hands on his work and mind bent to the task he didn't spare a thought to Wash's comment, aside from the dryest drawl offered in reply. "Son, talk to me when your training wheels are off. You couldn't handle a ride on the Real McCoy."

For emphasis he lifted a hand from where he was wrapping up Rose's arm to snap.

"Yeah, I've never really known what NEEDING a good rest was like before now..." She lets out a yawn as Bones runs the tricorder across her arm, watching him with interest despite her exhaustion. She seems to be a bit fascinated by what he's doing, even with the more mundane ointment and bandages. Of course, this is an entirely new experience for her no matter how advanced or primitive the process, after all.

Rose looks between Wash and Leonard, giggling a bit at their comments. "Human flirting is always so cute!"

That's it. He can't do this anymore. He tried, but it's too much. Greg broke out into giggles, too tired to hold it in. Everything was ridiculous. "You were always fond of it," he sniggered, resting a hand on Rose's shoulder, finding his feet where he couldn't find his breath. "We should clear out of here, before we end up third wheeling."

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Midnight Mayhem [Closed]

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