Logs:Of Candy Bars and Healing

Of Candy Bars and Healing
Dramatis Personae Cassy, Harm, Astrid
In Absentia	2020-11-24 '
Location Somewhere in Maine
Cozy doesn’t even begin to describe the conditions of the now occupied riverfront cabin. Seventeen teens is cramped, but at least it’s a place for them to take a minute, rest and figure out their next steps. Still, seventeen teens crammed inside is a lot to handle. Needing some time away from the mass of bodies, Astrid has relocated outside. It’s cold, that’s for sure, but she has wrapped herself tightly in a blanket with her black beanie pulled low and hood up. She looks surprisingly comfortable sitting in one of two Adirondack chairs just to the left of the front door on the cabin’s porch. She finds something peaceful about the crisp, frozen air pushing along in sporadic bursts of wind, tree branches swaying and rustling at times in rhythm to her own puffs of breath. Not surprising, she looks a little worn out, dark circles having formed under her eyes and small, minor cuts criss-crossing her face. Seventeen teens in one cabin would be awkward at the best of times. For awkward dating teens it is likely even worse. The lack of personal space highlighting flaws and personality quirks. Which is why Cassy is rather tentative when she pokes her head out the door. "I'm not interrupting am I?" she wonders, still managing to be cold despite being bundled up in Astrid's coat. "I made sure to save you something to eat while you were out." Harm is even more tentative than Cassy, hovering by the door for some time slowly layering against the cold. When they finally do poke outside it's fully wrapped in their a dark green wool cloak that covers their chunky blue-purple-pink ombre sweater and blue jeans, rainbow scarf and a match knit cap filling out the capacious hood a little bit. "Hi, um..." They wave tentatively at the two girls on the porch. "How are you feeling? I'm sorry I didn't check up on you yesterday, everything was just such a mess and you were asleep..." Their hands pluck and bunch at the edges of the cloak. Astrid turns to face the head peeking out the front door, not immediately recognizing the voice due to the minor ringing still present in her ears. A soft smile appears as her head slowly shakes back and forth. “Not at all. And thanks. Still feeling a bit nauseous, but hopefully that will go away soon.” She doesn’t sound very convinced herself having no clue what was in the dart she took to the hand. She begins turning to face the trees again, but snaps her attention back to the door with the appearance of Harm. “I’m a little sore, but nothing major.” She reflexively pulls a hand free and adjusts her glasses before it disappears back into the mess of blanket. “You had so many people to help, so no need to apologize.” She gestures with her head for Harm to come out and join them. “How are you doing?” Cassy sets down some leftovers for Astrid, then pulls up the second of the two chairs and drops into it. "Sorry about yesterday. I thought maybe if I kept the volume down it'd just break the robot without hurting anyone else but... You did pretty great taking one out!" She sighs, then tucks her legs up onto the chair and burrows into the coat. "Hey Harmony." A little wave of greeting. "Oh if you need to sit to heal I can move! Actually standing wouldn't be bad... exercise will keep my toes warm." "Glad it's not too bad, I mean it looked..." Harm chews on their bottom lip. "Well, it looked really serious at the time! I can still fix up the..." They gesture at the cuts. "...and the soreness. If you like. I don't need to sit, though, this kind of thing is pretty easy." They blush, then blink rapidly at the question. "Oh! Me? I'm fine. Tired, but I think everyone's about there, right?" Astrid shakes her head again, but faster this time. “No worries at all. I know you had some pipes on you, but how can you really anticipate that?” She laughs, pulling the blanket up tighter, tucking it under her chin before sinking further back into the chair. “Glad I could be useful. Things shore up quickly from there?” Her eyes squint, straining slightly through her lenses. “That sounds about right.” Her eyes go from Harm to Cassy before settling back on Harm. “I feel exhausted.” Her glasses start sliding down and she attempts to push them back up with a nose wiggle. It’s not perfect but will do. “When we get back, I should have someone film me so I can see for myself.” She grins. “If you aren't too tired…” she replies to getting fixed up. “But if you need rest, take care of yourself first. I can wait.” "Hopefully everyone else will be as understanding," Cassy says, frowning. "And that there wasn't too much ear damage for Harmony to fix?" A shrug. "I was surprised it actually worked. I had this moment when it got close when all I could think was 'shit what if sound powers are common and they're resistant'." "I totally could use a little more sleep than normal." She mimes a yawn. "But I don't think we'll have the luxury of waiting around anywhere to rest for long enough." "I'll gladly offer to film you exploding." She blinks a few times. "I feel really stupid for thinking your things would all kersplode too. Of course mutant powers wouldn't work that way. That'd only make sense." Harm nods. "There were a lot of smarting ears, but I don't think anyone would have had any like, long-term injuries?" Their shrug is barely noticeable beneath all the clothing. "But also, I think people would have been hurt much worse if you hadn't screamed and exploded some Sentinels, so thank you both." To Astrid the shake their head. "Yesterday this would be have tough, but I've rested and no one else's been hurt since. I just--want to make sure everyone is as healthy as possible before we get on the road again, you know?" They lean against the porch railing and stretch out a hand for Astrid's, glancing a little uncertainly at Cassy as they do so. “Just figure out a way to knock yourself out and hope someone drags you along.” Astrid flashes her usual toothy grin, but it is gone as fast as it arrives. “Then you’ll get some extra rest.” The words sound tired as they come out, clearly countering what was just said. She nods in agreement with Harms sentiment on the effectiveness of Cassy’s scream. “I am definitely glad it worked too. Would have sucked to wake up being detained.” She gets quiet, thinking about the gamble she took by using her powers to the furthest extent she currently can. “Thankfully everything with me just takes a little beating and isn’t destroyed.” Shoes are slipped free from the blankets for a live example. The canvas shoes are far more frayed and torn than just 24 hours ago. Astrid shifts the blanket around and pulls an arm free, taking the offered hand. “Good. We need you rested as much as possible. So many of us can destroy…” she trails off, biting into her bottom lip. “But… well… I’m sure you are going to be in high demand until we can get out of here.” "You'd just assume I was being dramatic and leave me behind," Cassy points out with a laugh. "I think from now on I'd much rather listen out for incoming danger and help everyone avoid it. Don't think we're exactly the finest team of fighters in mutant-kind." She chews at her lip. "We got really lucky and I don't think a rematch will go our way." The audio-kinetic pokes around in the various pockets in the coat. Eventually finding what she's looking for. Half a candy bar saved from earlier. "Healthy is good. If we're all sick, hurt and exhausted we'll make stupid mistakes." She only pauses a second before correcting herself. "Stupid-er mistakes." If she minds Harmony and Astrid holding hands there's no outward sign. Harm takes Astrid's hand gently. Like before, their power isn't flashy, just a subtle easing of soreness and discomfort and even to some degree the exhaustion. "Yeah, I can take care of this in a few minutes," they confirm after a few seconds of concentration. "I hope we're not going to need me much at all, but -- you're probably right." Their brows gather into a deep frown. "I have no idea how we'll get home. We don't even know how we got here." “Good point.” Astrid’s eyebrows rise up and are held for several seconds as she slowly cracks a smile. “That is the risk of dramatic behavior, right?” She looks between the other two holding her smile. “I don’t even want to think about next time…” She shakes intensely as a full body shiver runs up her spine. “What’s worse than not pretty? I think that’s where we’ll be.” She quiets down once Harm starts working their power, not wanting to do anything to break their concentration. Her shoulders slump slightly at the word home. Usually she can muster some sort of humor or silver lining, but not on the subject of how they will get back home. "I'm pretty much all out of extravagant, mysterious and dramatic tricks too," Cassy laments. Although from the smile on her face she can't be too upset. "Lost my hat, the trick handcuffs and I think half the playing cards got left all over the street. Still less junk to carry right?" "Picture the Terminator movie. But with spiders." She adds to Astrid. "I'm going to cross my fingers then and hope you have so little to do it's boring Harmony." She looks at the candy bar, then holds it out. "Anyone want to steal a bite?" The cold has at least kept it from melting. "As for getting home.. No idea." Harm blinks wide eyes at Cassy. "What tricks do you have left? Or, are you allowed to tell?" They lay their other hand on top of Astrid's, pats once gently. "Hey, I'm sorry to bring that up. And I may not know, but Marcus is -- really, really smart, and I think he's trying to figure stuff out. Maybe some of the people with tech powers can gather information, figure things out." Cassy begins counting on her fingers. "Lets see. Back in the dorms I have the magic joining rings, a straight jacket and chest I can be locked inside and escape, some trick coins and... I think that's all I took to school." She nods. "My Dad has lots more at home." "I'd offer to listen for clues if we can get close to anywhere which might have clues to listen for but... people don't generally wander around repeating important facts," She tilts her head to one side and looks up into the sky. A little zoned out as if perhaps concentrating on sounds that're far away. "Most of what I overhear is dull, gross or mildly salacious." "But like, the real magic -- in stage magic, I mean -- is like...the skill and misdirection, right?" Harm tries hard to sound cheerful, but it doesn't quite come out right. "I can't imagine overhearing as much as you do. I'd guess most people in this world probably don't know about a parallel world any more than most people back home do. I mean, I didn't until Gae told us. I mean I guess we are just kids." Astrid remains quiet, letting the conversation flow around her. Her eyes are half closed, hand still held out and held by Harm. Her breathing has slowed down, fallen into a low rhythmic pulse, almost like she is meditating. For the first time since they somehow ended up in this other world, she looks content. “You don’t even want to know what all she hears.” Astrid chimes in, eyes still mostly closed. "Yeah that's most of it," Cassy agrees with a smile. "There's a lot of making people focus on the wrong thing. But some tricks are also just about preparation. Or cheating. Mirrors, secret pockets and stuff." With no claims made on the candy bar she takes a bite and begins eating. Although it doesn't actually impact her ability to talk. "It's just a power thing you get used to." She blinks and blushes a little at Astrid's comment. "Given our current living arrangements I think everyone is getting a taste of what my daily overhearing is like." Harm nods slowly. The last of Astrid's cuts have closed up, though any remaining blood on her skin would still need to be cleaned away. "There you go," they say, setting Astrid's hand gently back down on the arm of the chair. "Guess we all have...pretty different sets of things to get used to." They also blush as they straighten up from where they'd be leaning. "I'm going to go in and make another round, but I think you might be my last patient for now. I'll see you two around later, ok?" They tuck their hands inside the cloak for warmth and manage a thin smile before they head back into the cabin, their steps slower than before. Astrid’s eyes are fully open now that Harm has completed healing her. Her smile remains, but it softens. “Thank you.” She takes in a deep breath, holding the cold, burning air in for several seconds before letting it out in an extended exhale. She turns to face Harm, nodding before her eyes fall to the front door. “I think you’ll be seeing us real soon whether you want to or not.” She pauses. “But seriously, thanks.” Her attention falls back to Cassy. “What do you say we head back into warmth?” She briefly eyes the plate of food that was brought out to her. “Heat that up and see if you have any more candy? I think I can finally stomach some food.” "You need a hand just ask," Cassy offers Harmony as they head inside. "I'll be listening out just in case anyone needs help with anything." She considers Astrid's suggestion for a moment, then digs her hands in the coat pockets. "Probably a good idea. Now'd be a terrible time to catch a cold.." She bites her lip. "I think I'm out of candy but I have a wet wipe if you wanna clean up the blood?" She hops to her feet and turns to offer Astrid a hand up if she wants it. "And hey if we don't find any more candy inside we can go halves on a stick of gum." “I suppose the blood no longer makes sense with my battle wounds gone.” Astrid mocks disappointment as she grabs the outstretched hand, using it as leverage to pull herself up from her chair. “A wipe would be a great idea. Don’t want to scare the kids inside.” She grabs the blanket from the chair, and wads it up, holding it in her left arm. She moves towards the door and holds it open saying, “After you.” Cassy gives Astrid's hand a squeeze. "I'd say you look fierce but everyone saw Nessie haul you around like luggage so.." She winks and then, while the door is being opened, scoops up the still full bowl of food to bring inside with them. "Why thank you." And with that she slips back into the comparative warmth of inside. Astrid laughs, offering what she can of a shrug while holding the door open. “Can’t win them all.” She nods her head, making a very loose gesture like she is tipping a hat as Cassy moves by. Turning to head in, she hesitates. The door is held open while a rush of warm air starts escaping from the cabin past Astrid. She turns back looking past the trees, past the road and half expects to see all her fears come barreling down. But nothing stirs except the wind blown trees, and with a loud exhale, she follows Cassy in and shuts the door.