Follow-Up Check-Up

Nathan Marszalek

On the plus side he will be getting the hell out of here soon.

On the other plus side he is in a room by himself and no one is around to hear him rustling around as he refuses to stay in bed any longer than he has to. Coughing as his lungs continue the work of riding themselves of years of tar. Turning the lights on and off at all hours of the night because he can't sleep.

Visiting hours only last until 8 o'clock. Bless winter. It gives nocturnal individuals more time to work with. Nate's room assignment hasn't moved in a month. He's still here.

When Lux comes by tonight he's wearing a zip-up sweatshirt overtop of his gown and has managed to connive a pair of scrub pants out of someone. Having connections in a place like this is helpful. His eye is loosely covered by a bandage taped down rather than firmly wrapped with gauze and he has the earbuds of his iPod stuffed into his ear canals. He's not sleeping. The lights are on. It's dark outside but not in here.

Winter...

Lux

Here is Lux to keep Nathan company, coming by around seven o' clock. Here is Lux in a leather jacket with her hair a tousle-dark mess swept over one side of her head the part somewhere Veronica Lake would've approved but not that neat. Here is Lux in a leather jacket cracked and well-worn with something painted in the back and her hands in the pocket of her jacket and ridiculous shoes for winter for anybody to really walk in but Lux enjoys ridiculous shoes and she is so precise and so poised and so in cahoots with grace that it'd be a calamity if she fell, glass-spun delicacy, she'd just shatter, but no: she never will; will just contain light and shadow, make it over into something compelling, moving, lovely, a beautiful girl (woman), the vibrant edge of a smile, first a hand-wave hand-wiggle hand coming out've her jacket pocket in order to wave, rings on every finger except her pinky and middle finger, resin rings flaked with something, one luminous and clear, drinking up gold, the other heavy like honey catching shadow, and the other a mingling of both, a set, two on her thumb, and anyway, after the wiggle-wave, she takes a seat on the edge of his bed, waits for those headphones to come out and if they do not come out stays still and watchful and absorbant and when they do come out she says, "Hey. 'Sup."

Lux

[Belated. ART. But this was ages ago, so we'll extend once and/or re-roll if there is a hideous botch.]

Dice: 10 d10 TN6 (2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Lux

[Eh, one extension.]

Dice: 10 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 7, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 4 )

Lux

[That'll do, pig.]

Nathan Marszalek

It doesn't take long for the headphones to come out. They drown out sound but not other folks' presence. Not the shadow of her form cut through the pane of light stood between him and whatever tries to whisper to him when his ears aren't stopped up. Sometimes even then.

He takes a deep breath like he's been roused from a daydream and smiles tired at Lux as he winds the earbuds around the device.

"Sup yourself," he says. "How's it going?"

Lux

Lux gets comfortable quickly, bracing her weight on her hands.  How is it going? She swallows a sigh; it sticks in her throat, disappears, and her shoulders take on an insouciant sharpness, or the angle of her chin does, or - "I used to like winter; now it makes me feel hopeless. As if a stone were sitting on my heart, waiting to - waiting to be a tombstone." A beat, and then: a curling sort've grin, and it is vibrant-edged still, too, because whatever melancholy infused that first confession, she is not melancholy, "But you are getting out of here soon, aren't you? What then?"

Nathan Marszalek

"Then I get to be half-blind and nauseous at home on the couch instead of in the hospital."

Mr. Bright Side, over here.

"If it's any consolation, I think everybody starts to want to kill themselves by the time February rolls around. Vitamin D is supposed to help. Or a sun lamp. But, ah..." Abort. Abort. "They're kind of expensive."

Lux

(But, ah...) Lux raises an eyebrow at him, and it is coupled with a questioning look; a shadow-sluice thing. Even her flirtation with misery is precise, is poised between carelessness and masterwork; fucking piece of art, Lux. Decorative, only. "What do you do when you need consoling?"

Nathan Marszalek

"I don't..."

Hard to tell if he was going to claim to not need consoling before he realized that was a lie or if he was going to say he doesn't really know what he does before he realized that sounds pathetic. He must need consoling. His best friend died in a car crash that nearly killed him three months ago.

In the end he goes with:

"Uh. Wow. I don't know. If you need consoling we can figure something out though."

Lux

For a moment her consideration does not notably change - how she looks at him, wide, pensive eyes, such a tarnished up colour, especially contrasted against the leather, against the messy gloom of her hair. There is smoke of shadow around her eyes which brightens them; artifice, a lick of shimmer to dredge a quartz shimmer out've her iris'. Her mouth firms, but not angrily, just - thoughtfully, maybe. Lux ain't forthcoming, is she.But she leans more heavily on the arm that is nearer Nate.Now she shifts her weight again so that her balance is more precarious, and she considers at the heel of her improbable and impossible shoe, digging into the hospital room floor with desultory glamour. "Thanks, if you mean it. Can we figure something out if you need consoling, too?" And a pause, and then a shake of laughter: "I'm sorry. I really don't mean to be bad company, especially as I didn't bring you a present today. If you want to go to a concert once you're outta here though the tickets are one hundred percent on me." 

Dice: 4 d10 TN5 (2, 4, 5, 9) ( success x 2 )

Nathan Marszalek

"Lux, I got a secret for you."

Doesn't have anything to do with tickets. She's trying to be forthcoming. Metaphors about gravestones notwithstanding. That is some heavy shit and they've known each other since the nights were so short and he was still taking a summer course just to get a jump on his schoolwork.

"I can't remember the last time I felt anything other than tired. Or... I don't know." He doesn't want to admit to the things he feels in the dark when no one else is around but the dead. Scared or angry or suicidally sad. "Having this..." He gestures to his ear with his right hand, with watered-down exasperation. "... sense, I got used to being alone. So I don't know. Whatever would console you would probably... console me too."

No wonder the ladies aren't exactly pounding down his door.

"A concert'd be a good time. We should do that."

Lux

Lux considers Nate's secret. His 'secret.' The firm line of her mouth unfirms: restraint - a breath. The laughter diminished of course but like all echoes it lingers long after the original sound has gone: a hint of brightness there - a sharp gleam here. Vivacity; presence. Presence: if he wanted to feel something, she could make him feel. She thinks about that. Thinks about what would console her. What would be consolation for fruitless months, for dark nights - for Everett's death, for Richthofen Castle still under siege, for Charles on the loose, loosened, for her eyes still too dim to see a halo when she wants to - like now. What she wouldn't give to see clearly now. She never used to care about seeing clearly; about reading the auguries, about dredging up omens. Finally, Lux makes a discontented, frustrated little-sound - 

- and slides up his bed, smooth as a sword slipping out've a sheath, or a switch-blade snapping out've its hilt, its home, and she puts a hand on the outside of his arm, and kisses his cheek, just under his good eye. It's a lingering kiss, and she is not cold - because she always plays pretend for Nate. She always uses somebody's moment of almost dying, of almost being consumed, to be a little warmer. 

"I don't think so. Maybe some things. Would you give it up?" 

Nathan Marszalek

[oh christ. PERC + EMPATHY -2 dice because ow.]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (1, 2, 9) ( success x 1 )

Lux

She means his ability to hear ghosts. She is a little sad, with maybe some macabre humor going on with the 'yeah we probably wouldn't be consoled by the same shit.' 

Nathan Marszalek

With the only physical contact he's had recently coming from nurses manhandling him in and out of gowns or surgeons wrenching his head into place so they can cut into his eyeball this is probably the closest to anything intimate he's experienced in months. Yet Nate is not a teenage boy and he is not a testosterone-laden dudebro upon whom a woman cannot breathe without the disturbance flipping a switch.

He watches her with an uncertain cast to his gaze and Lux can feel the inquiry in it. Never so close and never so sharp as this he doesn't shrink back from her any more than he opens up. Bent over him Lux can feel the heat of his body through the thick material of his sweatshirt and smell the salt of his sweat. Can see the arteries throbbing in the side of his neck. He's pale enough to pass for One Of Them but there's that heartbeat. He breathes easy through his nose.

When she puts her lip on his cheekbone Nate flinches and swallows thick for not having a reaction primed for this.

"I don't know," he says. Quieter for her being so near him now. "I've never thought about it."

Lux

"Do you believe I want to hurt you?"

Lux

[well, maybe I can use my empathy too. -1 auspex!]

Dice: 4 d10 TN5 (2, 4, 6, 10) ( success x 2 )

Nathan Marszalek

That he thinks about. She can feel the moment where he searches his thoughts so he can give her a proper answer. A true one. Not reflex.

Nate draws a breath.

"No," he says.

Lux

Lux hasn't withdrawn, really. The classic vampiress, hm? all a-languish over some poor sucker's bed. But no: she is poised, still - careful, though when she smiles faintly, reflexively, he can certainly feel it. Hesitation, you know, don't go back, past in the past.

Then, frankly, "Do you think I could?" " - or would?"

Nathan Marszalek

When he exhales Lux can feel it as a perfusion of warmth for the processes of his body still working. Her breath doesn't get warm like that no matter how much blood she drinks. Most people don't notice other people's breaths. Not even after it's stopped.

Does he think she could?

"Yeah," he says. Just as frank.

Would?

"Possibly. Not probably."

Lux

"Why?" - her gaze cuts over to his, uh, eye; she shifts her weight again, so that she is more comfortable, and the leather of her jacket creaks, smells of winter.

Nathan Marszalek

"I just..."

He watches her as she shifts but then his gaze drifts away. Focuses brief on the opposite side of the room where the wall is bare and the cabinet takes up space in the corner. Whatever lies beyond the wall that gives him mortar for his answer. He shifts on the mattress before he looks back at her.

His hair is just about flopping into his eyes now. Someone helped him comb it this morning but his hair never really obeys commands.

"You never really know what's in someone's head, do you. Just because I don't think you would doesn't mean you couldn't if you decided to." A beat. A joke: "You're way better at holding doors shut than I am. You could kick my ass."

Lux

Lux laughs; it dips her head, so for a moment her hair is in his face, in his good eye or his mouth, and her eyebrow touches his temple; then she straightens, so they have more space between, though she doesn't slide back on the bed.

The laughter fades, and diminishes, so that she can say - "But, correct me if I'm wrong, you don't think I'll break your heart. You think 'possibly' because you think I'm a - " a sudden frown, because Lux really isn't of the school of using the word 'monster' to describe herself, or even what someone else might think, and just saying 'vampire,' that's too.

C'mon Nate, help a lady out.

Nathan Marszalek

Nate keeps his lips closed when he breathes out a hard sound almost a laugh but for the fact this isn't funny. They both know she knows he's suspected she's the same breed of beast as Flood since the night she left him alone with Bo for too long.

Wasn't lying earlier and he wasn't lying now. All he sounds is tired. Like if he's going to answer all her questions straight she can just give him this one.

"Are you?"

Lux

[Hmm. Charisma + Expression.]

Dice: 6 d10 TN6 (1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 8) ( success x 2 )

Lux

Surely, not that long; it must just feel that long, hm?

"It is supposed to be a secret," she says, and she reaches into one of her jacket pockets to take out a pack of cigarettes, tap one out before she remembers where she is. He can see her debating whether or not she's going to give a shit about rules or just break them. Breaking rules is what comes more naturally, but she doesn't actually start smoking now. That'd require a lighter, anyway, and she might be out of them. He can also hear, the way she says that line, confirmation and warning - a dark thread of vibrancy, see, in the voice, which is also worry about something that's not exactly Nate. Secrets: she needs to be good at keeping them, man.

Nathan Marszalek

He wouldn't do anything to stop her if he didn't have a lighter to give her. This hospital isn't exactly crawling with doctors and nurses who care about putting themselves in danger if it means nothing immediately dangerous is happening. Nate isn't on oxygen and the tendrils from a cigarette won't set off the fire extinguisher in the ceiling.

It probably doesn't work anyway.

Whether she is or not is supposed to be a secret.

"Well," he says. Like that settles it. "While you could, I don't think it's likely you'll hurt me any way you wanna define 'hurt.' But I'm pretty goddamn ignorant. So I could just not know what I'm talking about."

Lux

"Mm. I'm more concerned - " and she flicks her hair out've the eye it'd begun to drape in front of; it's an incisive gesture, and of course - well, use the word - preternaturally graceful. The liquid measure of immortality, drawn fine, etched into loveliness. Dancers want that kind've interaction with the world. " - that you will hurt me. I want you to feel." Slim pause. "Is that funny?"

Nathan Marszalek

At the brushing of her hair back from her own face Nate seems belatedly aware of the fact that she had been near enough to him for it to register on his skin. Not so depressed that his skin wouldn't flick if a fly began to crawl across its surface but this is the first time he's admitted yeah you know I don't feel too much of anything instead of exaggerating how great it is to have a job to go to and hobbies and people dragging him out a couple times a week because that's what someone wants to hear.

This isn't cathartic for him. Lux is the one who started it.

"If it is the joke went over my head."

Lux

"If you would like to stop hearing them," says she, pauses; exhales, again, as if she is frustrated with - something. "I can look into it. See if anybody knows a way to stop it. Silence them. I honestly don't think anybody will, but there might be a chance."

Nathan Marszalek

"It's..."

Now he laughs. Another staved-off disbelieving noise that could be laughter.

"No. I'm sorry, I'm not laughing because it's funny, I'm just laughing because it sounds like... something you can't stop. And I don't know as..."

She could find someone who knew a way to stop it but it would require him to go completely deaf. Could open up his eyes to actually seeing the dead. He's seen enough late-night horror programming to know you don't get rid of one supernatural inconvenience without paying for it later. Don't meddle in the affairs of sorcerers. That's a good rule to follow in one's daily life.

"You don't need to look into anything. It's fine. All I was saying is, it..." He sighs and shows his teeth brief for running out of words. Keeps his hand up over his right eye as he fumbles his way forward. "I thought I could maybe try to understand and... help you, or..."

Lux

[I'm paying close attention. What d'you mean? Empathy, Empathy, and willpower.]

Dice: 4 d10 TN5 (5, 6, 7, 10) ( success x 5 ) [WP]

Nathan Marszalek

Nathan's seen a lot in his life and he's smart enough to recognize when he's about to go skittering into something that's totally outside of his experience or comprehension. This appears to be one of those things. He was like "Hey! You feel depressed and isolated because you're weird? So do I! Maybe I can help!" and now he's like "... yeeeeah IDK what I'm talking about." He still under all the flailing around wants to help her but he's having trouble following the conversation. Tricksy goddamn vampire.

Bonus explanation: he's more scared of what it would take to make this "power" stop than he is of just living with it. Maybe he would rather learn to control it than make it go away.

Lux

Clarity; this is a moment of clarity; of that sharp, gleaming edge, that glass-delicacy transmuted into a moment of vision. Visionary; Lux is not a visionary, Lux is a rebel-star, something that falls and by falling attracts others down [Lucifer-girl, Lucifer-smile- first among the seraphim-]. She's a mistake somebody makes or a conviction somebody loses. But every now and then- she has been working on it, too- something means enough to her (see? Not cold-dead yet: everybody fucking acts like that's just the way it goes. Weaklings and cowards and bastards and liars) that she has vision. This is apparently one of those times.

What does she do with this delightful moment of clarity? She buys time by dragging her fingers through her hair- hey look. She tapped out a cigarette, but there is still no lighter in her pocket.

"I know," she says. "I mean, I ... Well, I don't think it's something you can stop. I don't know if I'd like you talking to the sort of people who would claim to be able to stop it. But if it would make you feel better, or hopeful, or something, I'd see what I could find out on the sly. That's why I offered. Consolation," tap her toe against the ground, as if energy's a thing that she can't quite entirely contain.

"As for me, there are things you could do, since here we are. To help. Perhaps."

A pause, just to see if he has a sudden change-of-heart, like: oh shit, wait

Nathan Marszalek

No laughter now but another wan smile. He takes his hand away from his eye. Perhaps that did serve as consolation. At least she was willing to look into it. At least he can bear it being as the alternative is too unsavory to fathom.

As for her.

He doesn't have a change of heart. Maybe he would if he had any idea what she was about to ask but Nate is more trusting than he has any right to be and as many nights as they've spent in each others' company without her taking advantage of his trust he hasn't got much reason to doubt her now. Yet.

"Sure," he says. "I've got some books lying around here somewhere, if you want..."

Lux

"Are you offering to read to me?" - contained laughter. That doesn't seem to number among the 'things he can do to help.' She wets her lips. (Wouldn't he taste good? He would, he would. That's not it.)

"You could help me find somebody," she says. Then: "And you could be less ignorant." Before he responds to that, she puts her hand on his leg. Over the blanket; pressure to pause him. "Let me make you less so." Her tone is difficult to read here - because. Because Lux is mysterious? Because it's a complicated situation, and they both know it? Because secrets? "So that ... I feel like you are less likely to be used by assholes who know me."

"If anybody shows up asking about me or, well. You could tell me."

"You could also ... still come out to a concert."

Nathan Marszalek

Any offense he could have taken to her use of the word ignorant dissipated before she even had a chance to lay a hand upon his leg. By his own admission he is ignorant. Nate lacks basic knowledge or information about the world Lux lives in. He hasn't had any real desire to learn anything else. All he's wanted to know was whether he ought to get her out of his life the way he wanted Flood out of his life.

Ignoring things is not the same as being ignorant but Nate is good at ignoring things.

That pressure stops him from firing off a question she can see brewing in his furrowed brow and drawn breath. In the lines he's already drawn and the delicate position he doesn't know he's been in all this time. Talk of anybody showing up has him grimacing like something just burst inside his skull.

He draws a breath to clear his expression and looks at her with his one clear eye. Though she has no way of knowing the left one is completely bloodshot. If he chooses to go out in public after they spring him from this place he'll have to cover it up until he's completely recuperated. His forearms will probably bear scars until he dies.

"Sure," he says with a tired quirk of his lips which might have been a smile if his head weren't spinning. "I... yeah. I could. I will. Thursday, I'm out. We'll..."

Spit it out, Marszalek.

"Amber came by about a week ago. To ask about you. When I said it was a mighty weird coincidence and... joked that I thought for a second she was gonna start asking me if I knew Flood, she picked up her shit and left."

He could tell her. He did tell her.

Where's a cyanide tablet when you need one.

Lux

Lux raises an eyebrow. "What, like she knew him?" A pause, the presentiment of a smile, though there's a sharp line etched between her eyebrows; it could cut diamond. "The mighty weird coincidence being that we'd met, I suppose?"

Nathan Marszalek

This kid has sat in a witness stand before. This entire time they've been talking he's given short answers where possible but now Lux gets amputees in the place of what might have otherwise been his long rambling variety of responses.

What, like she knew him?

"I don't know."

The mighty weird coincidence being that we'd met, I suppose?

"Yes."

Lux

There is some dissipation of tension - see? The tension dissolves - a sweet thing, when it leaves. "How strange. I didn't expect that. I'm not worried about Flood, if that is the connection; but thank you for telling me." A pause, and - "So tell me, frankly. Am I the worst visitor you've had?"

Nathan Marszalek

"Nah. My father's way worse. And then my editor showed up one day. Sorry. I don't know if you're even in the top five."

Lux

"My vanity is crushed; it will not recover," says she, lightly, and then the phone in her pocket goes off. Her pocket, not purse. She does not have a purse tonight, nor a clutch, nor anything else girlsome. See how lovely is the sweep of her lashes? How smooth she is when she rises, takes out the phone, checks the screen - all one motion. "Apparently, I need to go lick my wounds." The leather jacket creaks when she makes a small gesture with her shoulders, reaches over to flick his bangs away from his eyes. "Thursday, huh? I'll come over. Lucy will be thrilled." That he's home, or that a vampire is coming to visit.

Nathan Marszalek

He wrinkles his nose when she flicks his bangs but doesn't otherwise react.

"Lucy's having quite the time with Molly's puppy over at her place. I don't know if I have the heart to separate her from her new best friend."

Shit. Part of him wants to leave her there just so he doesn't have to look at her anymore. It was Shannon's idea to rescue the fucking kitten anyway.

"Alright, Lux. Take it easy."

Lux

- roll credits! Too tired for more posts!