Recovery

[badbutsadboy]

Who: Hunter badbutsadboy and his CR
What: Hunter recovering
When: After he gets out of the hospital
Where: Jason's Safehouse
Content Warnings: N/A for now

[He's only in the hospital a few days. Vascular injuries are bad but the artery wasn't completely severed, the muscle was only nicked, and the rest was mostly a flesh wound. It was a low speed, small caliber handgun of some kind.]

[Hunter spends a lot of his recovery sleeping on the pull out couch where he can be checked on. At some point, he plans to ask Nico if Will can heal him (though he wouldn't be shocked if Nico brought him around soon on his own) but Flapjack chases away everyone so he can sleep first.]

[So he spends a lot of time just knocked the hell out on pain meds, until one day he feels like he's rested enough.]

[And then he's left at a crossroads. Huvrye wanted him to stay with someone and he knows he meant an adult. But...]

[But he's still feeling so unsure about it. Even with adults rushing him to a hospital, even with them staying by his side while injured.]

[So whenever he gets a visitor they find him sitting up on the couch, in sweats and fuzzy socks, his arm in its sling packed with ice packs. He sits, staring forward at the TV, expression troubled, lost in thought.]

[The TV is off.]

[Flapjack is squished next to his thigh on the couch and the fingers of his good hand gently pet his fathers.]

Comments

[effiomsfavorite]

[Huvrye leaves the flan where it is - on the table for later - grabs both coffees, and follows Hunter to the couch. He sets the drinks down on the coffee table, making sure Hunter is settled in, and - yeesh, the couch might be more comfortable, but he definitely looked happier at the table. He takes a seat on the couch himself - far enough away not to crowd Hunter, but close enough to talk.]

What's on your mind?

[badbutsadboy]

I don't...

I don't know what to do right now?

[He's able to articulate it. He knows what the feeling is. And he figures Huvrye might understand better than most.]

Back when I was at the castle, when I didn't have missions, I was training and studying. Then I was part of the Rebellion. And when I got here, I knew I didn't want to stay in a guild, so I was preparing for being on my own.

But now I'm here. And I'm not supposed to overexert myself and the medicine means I can't really walk around outside.

[It really isn't the best idea for him to currently take a walk or engage in anything strenuous until he's off the pain meds.]

I'm not used to not knowing what I'm supposed to be doing.

And I don't know what I'm supposed to do after this.

[After he gets better. He knows no one wants him to go back out there, but where is he supposed to go then? What's he supposed to do? He still doesn't want to join a guild or go to the school.]

[effiomsfavorite]

[It makes sense, in an awful sort of way. Hunter and Huvrye were both built to be working breeds, and that's not the sort of thing that goes away with a change of scenery.]

It's hard to turn it off, isn't it.

[Huvrye certainly hasn't been able to. He's definitely rested more in Central City than he ever had in Lasardhi; he's also been bored out of his mind far more frequently and resorted to making his own fun, as it were. What would he do if he were injured, laid up, and on painkillers for the foreseeable future?]

[Climb the walls, probably. Not helpful, but true nonetheless.]

It's probably better to wait until you're off painkillers to try to plan your next move. You've got time - I don't think Jason's going to make you leave.

[Anytime soon, or at all. They're all in agreement that Hunter can't go back to living on the streets.]

[He turns a question over in his head, then tries it out.]

Forget what you're supposed to do - what do you want to do? Not in the future - right now.

[badbutsadboy]

I...I don't know?

[His first instinct is to say he wants to hang out with one of his friends but he knows that this is just as much because they tend to push the overall direction of any activity as much as he just likes them. They think to bring something to watch or think to bring games. They think of activities for him.]

[But they can't stay here 24/7. They have school. Homework. Families. Nico has a boyfriend.]

[And he knows he has to try developing this on his own. Figure out his own sense of direction. Figure out what he likes and what he wants.]

[But he doesn't know where to start. It doesn't help that he's been too fuzzy to do much reading. Back home, he'd been able to sit down with books that he just read for pleasure instead of studying, normal teen books his uncle never would've approved of, like the adventure series Ruler's Reach and the Demon Valley High books.]

[But he's been too out of it, he's just fallen into wikiholes about animals and been aimlessly flicking back and forth between streaming services, barely able to focus on much for long.]

[He flops over on his side - on the uninjured shoulder. It puts his head closer to Huvrye, but it isn't clear if he wants to be comforted at all.]

[It's mostly dramatic. He's allowed to be dramatic.]

[Flapjack ruins it a little by landing on the side of his head nad preening his hair.]

I don't know how to want things.

[Not yet. Someday he'll figure it out. Someday he'll know enough about himself to say he wants to go to school, and play flyer derby, and to learn about carving palismen and wild magic.]

[That hasn't gelled in his head yet, though. He still has to survive in this world, get back to his world, and stop the Child.]

[effiomsfavorite]

[That is a very dramatic teenager. Huvrye doesn't move to touch him - Hunter didn't initiate, and much as he'd like to comfort the kid, he also knows Hunter doesn't trust him quite like that yet - but he does sling an arm over the top of the sofa, letting it rest along the top edge. It'll be easy enough to drop his hand onto Hunter's shoulder if Hunter wants it, but for now, it's there.]

[He can't help but smile at the whole thing, though, especially when Flapjack lands on Hunter's head and starts preening him. What a good bird.]

[And then Hunter says that, and...oh.]

[He opens his mouth to ask you don't know how, or you've never been allowed to? thinks for a moment, and closes it again. Huvrye knows there's a difference - he'd been right in the middle of it himself in Lasardhi - but it's probably not going to help Hunter right now. Time for a different tack.]

Okay then, what do you like? It doesn't have to be activities - just anything that comes to mind.

[badbutsadboy]

[Hunter stays there, on his side.]

[And he tries. Because he knows this is just... a weird mood he's in because he hates not being sure what's going to happen next.]

I like reading, but I can't focus right now.

[He thinks of things that maybe he'd like the on TV or something. It's hard because his go-tos like a quiet interest in wild magic, don't really factor in here. He's had to develop new interests.]

[At least there are some definitely interesting human subjects.]

I like learning about human science. Apparently, they built ships that let them go up into the stars somehow? All the way to their moon.

And I like Earth animals.

[He pulls a face.]

Except for giraffes. They're freaks.

[It's a common demon realm prejudice against the exiled demons.]

[effiomsfavorite]

[Reading, science, and animals except for giraffes. He's got questions about the giraffe thing, but aside from that, those all sound like doable interests, even if he's a little out of it because of the pain medication.]

[(He wonders, for just a second, if Hunter would be capable of learning alchemy, and immediately squashes the thought. Huvrye's no teacher, and most of what he knows is combat-focused. Even if Hunter could learn it - doubtful, since Huvrye's the only one here with an aura - what would Huvrye even have to teach him? No, that train of thought is better off derailed.)]

[He nods towards the TV.]

You know, humans have all sorts of channels dedicated to one specific thing. I bet we could find a nature channel if we tried. You don't have to focus on it - it just might be nice to have on when nothing else is happening.