Logs:Options
| Options | |
|---|---|
| Dramatis Personae | |
| In Absentia
|
2019-05-28 "You know, this might make me a terrible friend, but for once I'm /not/ gonna back the 'why not both' option." |
| Location
NYC - Mount Sinai Hospital - Harlem | |
On the cutting edge of many medical technologies, Mount Sinai Hospital is often ranked as one of the nation's best hospitals. The medical school attached is one of the best in the world, meaning that even your med students know what they are doing. Chin up, then -- when you come in here badly mutilated after the latest terrible catastrophe in Times Square, you're in good hands. It's early in the morning -- quiet, in the city, now that last night's fireworks have /finally/ tapered off (what better way, after all, to celebrate the military dead than by traumatizing their still-living comrades with long hours of constant explosions?). Still dressed in the black and red of his clinic guard uniform, it's unlikely Jax has slept much, if at all. He's curled up in a chair by Ryan's bedside, a blue paisley-covered Kindle in his lap from which he's currently reading aloud. "--brought irresistibly to mind a golden-haired cocker spaniel. He was a typical specimen of the younger son in avid pursuit of the mediocrity with which the Theurgist's teemed: the cut of his coat was faultless and his neckcloths were fearful in their construction, but he had never managed to inspire in anyone a serious suspicion that he was capable of magic." There's a faint knock at the door, which Skye pushes opens a moment later with one shoulder, her hands occupied with two tall travel mugs from Evolve (they have the same colorful DNA motif in warm and cool palettes). She also looks she hasn't slept, dark shadows under her eyes and a slight sluggishness to her movements. Her hair is damp and her clothes fresh enough that the fold lines are still visible: blue jeans and a purple t-shirt that reads "Social Justice Mage" in large block letters and beneath that, in cursive, "you call that a flame war?" The scent of coffee and, more faintly, of yuzu, follows her in. She sets one of the mugs down beside Jax wordlessly and lowers her Bag of Holding messenger bag to the floor beside the other chair in the room before sinking into it herself. "Oh, you're a lifesaver." Jax looks up from his reading with a quick smile, tapping lightly at the corner of the screen. "I was startin' to get all scratchy I don't know how I would do good voices." He leans forward, snagging the mug to take a quick sip. "You read this one? /Sorceror to the Crown/, it's great. I feel like if /Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell/ was a bit faster paced and not about two white dudes it would be kinda like this'n. I was doing /Who Fears Death/ before but I thought maybe he was gettin' stressed. That's -- probably I was imagining that." His brow creases, eye dropping to the lid of his mug. Skye bobs her head as she sips her own coffee. "Oh yeah, I love that book! The sequel just came out, and it's on top of my list..." The sentence feels somehow unfinished, but she only gives a quiet sigh and looks at Ryan's unconscious form. "Who knows. Maybe he /can/ understand, and get upset." She hesitates. "Especially now. I mean, I hear he's been..." Her jaw shifts as she searches for the right word. "... rumbling." The door opens again, this time to admit Joshua, or a reasonable facsimile thereof. The young man looks as tired as the others, eyes darkly shadowed, a slouch in his posture, thick dark hair mussed and his dark blue tee (a star of life on the front right breast, FDNY on the back) rumpled. His hands are tucked into the pockets of his jeans as he leans back against the door, shutting it behind him. "/Is/ he rumbling." It doesn't quite come out like a question. Just slightly disgruntled. "He shouldn't be." "Yeah, I -- I'm hoping -- I mean, not hoping that he was /upset/," Jax says hastily, his cheeks flushing faintly pink. "Just --" He looks up swiftly when the door opens again, relaxing just as quick when !Joshua slips in. "No, no," he reassures the other man with a shake of his head. "I mean, not, not right /now/. Just like a /general/ rumbliness. You ain't been slippin'. You look beat, though, honey-honey, do you need some um --" He picks up his coffee, waggles it in Mirror's direction. "Hey." Skye nods when Joshua enters -- a lazy nod, just a lift of her chin, really. Then, maybe to make up for her laziness, she adds a slightly belated wave. "Sorry, I didn't mean to um, cry wolf." After a pause and a glance at Joshua. "Is this like, around the clock, now? Has to be either you and Matt -- stopping him /rumbling,/, I mean." She chews on her bottom lip, eyebrows pulling together, worried. "More or less." Mirror!Joshua ambles over toward Jax's chair, leaning against the younger man's shoulder and swiping the cup. Taking a long swig. "/Just/ awake enough to be trouble. It's so --" He squints one eye up, peering over the rim of the coffee toward the wan and scruffy man in the bed. "/like/ him to not actually commit." Jax drops his hand to rest on the cover of his Kindle, curling his leg up under him once Mirror takes the coffee. He breathes out a quiet laugh at Mirror's comment, his head shaking. "I'm sure he likes the drama of it all. Is he gonna wake up? Is the hospital gonna come crashing down around us all? Who knows. Keep us on our toes." Despite his light tone, his brows knit deeper. He looks up, studying Mirror's face a long moment. "Just wish there was more we could do for y'all right now." "You know, this might make me a terrible friend," says Skye solemnly, "but for once I'm /not/ gonna back the 'why not both' option." She sips on her coffee and kind of sinks more heavily into the chair's cushioning. Jax's last comment earns a nod from her, and she looks up at Joshua again. "How are you even...like I'm sure the school is willing to put up with Matt missing some work and/or being a zombie when he is there, but like the fire department?" One of her eyebrows goes up. "I feel like you hardly even sleep /normally./" "You forgot option number three," Mirror replies levelly, taking another sip of coffee. "He could die." He passes the cup back to Jax, moving to take a careful seat on the edge of Ryan's bed. One hand drops to rest over Ryan's. His jaw twitches slightly. "I have work handled. And plenty of coffee." Jax exhales sharply. Holds the cup close to his chest. "Didn't forget. Just trying hard not to think about it. After all this he /better/ not." He swallows, watching (Mirror)Joshua with his teeth scraping slowly against his lower lip. "Coffee only gets you so far on this kinda schedule. Has he been -- can you tell if there's any -- I mean, I /wanted/ to think the rumblin' meant he's been getting better but I --" Skye stares at (Mirror)Joshua, then stares at Ryan, hiding her expression behind her coffee mug for a moment, though the tight hunch of her shoulders bespeaks her misery well enough. "That...has to be a /good/ sign, right?" She doesn't actually sound anywhere near as sure as her words, glancing to Jax nervously. Mirror doesn't immediately respond. His hand closes a little more firmly against Ryan's, his eyes fixing on the musician's face. Briefly, there /is/ a small rumbling, a faint tremor that rattles the room. And then goes quiet, Mirror's breathing calming. Several long minutes later another, a little stronger. Then quiet again, for a long stretch. Mirror's eyes close. Ryan's open. Slowly. His head turns against the pillow, the tremor beginning again. His gaze lights on Jax. With a soft sigh and a fluttering closed of his eyes, the shaking subsides. Jax's hand flies to his mouth. He almost starts out of his chair -- physically clamps a hand down on its arm as if to hold himself there. More restrained, reaches out to touch fingertips to Ryan's arm, blinking hard. "Oh --" He looks to Ryan -- looks back to Mirror. "There ain't enough coffee in the world to make this up to you." | |
