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

[badbutsadboy]

[He has trouble finding the right words for a second, because he is thrown, and a little moved...but also guilty.]

[Without meeting her eyes.]

No you haven't.

Luz is so good and the ra- uh, your son? He saved all of us. And Luz said Lilith was only ever trying to save you. You took all of them in but they're good people even if Lilith is...Lilith.

[His view of her is very colored by years of her being...her.]

I threatened you and your family, and tried to arrest Luz, and I've done horrible things. And I helped set Belos up for the Day of Unity.

[And what he did to all those Palismen over the years...]

[It's murder. Palismen are alive, they think and feel and can even talk. And he helped kill them.]

It's one thing for Luz and the others to give me a chance because it's just as much a way for me to do good things for them as it is for them to be my friends.

But you - you'd just be giving me something I couldn't give back equally.

[He knows he'd never be able to make enough to pay for his share of the rent.]

And it's different than someone like Jason offering when I haven't done anything to him or his world.

[harageous]

( that's more than a little annoying.

her face clearly reflects her disapproval when hunter nearly refers to king as a rat for what wouldn't be the first time. he's got to cut that out. )

His name is King.

( she interjects, making sure to correct him. he should both know and use his name. it's really the least he could do, considering what king did for them. that's another thing that this kid doesn't know about either. doesn't know who king really is and why it is especially troubling to have him involved at all with the collector.

maybe one day she'll reveal this particular truth.

still, eda listens as hunter tries to explain his feelings. it isn't until he finishes that she flaps a hand dismissively, obviously unconcerned about all of that. )

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've all done horrible things.

( some a little worse than others, but eda has never had a track record of being unforgiving or holding onto a grudge. besides. . . what was there to hold against him for working with belos when he lived his life convinced belos was his uncle? that he was doing a good thing?

the problem was with belos. )

Lilith. Luz. Myself. You don't even know the half of it!

( a little laugh.

then she continues before hunter can get a word in edgewise. )

We've all made mistakes. We'll make more in the future too. But, it's not about the mistakes. It's about what you do about your mistakes.

[badbutsadboy]

[King, right. Yes he's a weird little rat-child, but he's her son and Luz's brother and he saved them all so he needs to be more polite.]

If - if you do want me to live with you, I can definitely earn my keep. I can do chores! And I can try to find work to help pay towards rent.

[Yes, she offered, but he wants to make it clear that it'll be worth her while. That he'll be a good houseguest. That he won't be a burden.]

[He won't play loud teen music or anything.]

[harageous]

Hey, hey. Don't trip all over yourself.

( quickly said with a wave of her hand, trying to stop him before he starts doubling down on his offers of servitude. she's got the picture and there is no need to start drawing up terms of contract or something. neither did eda want him to worry about money.

she'd make plenty use of him without needing him to concern himself about that. he might as well get it out of his head now. )

Just don't give me a hard time and we'll be alright. ( then she clicks her tongue and points at him. ) If you play your cards right, maybe I'll teach ya something too.

( more importantly, however, is that none of this can happen immediately. not only is she still living in the hotel that they got her set up in when she'd arrived, but hunter needs time to recover from his wounds. that, and she is also entirely certain that all of hunter's friends would turn into a swarm of angry firebees.

it would be much less of a headache to let him recover here for a while and allow everyone the time to settle down before she retrieved him. )

But for now, you should probably stay here.

[badbutsadboy]

[He perks up at the mention of being taught.]

Can you teach me how to use magic?

The Confluences can give people powers when they're brought here, ones they don't have back home.

[He eagerly grabs a nearby pencil and scribbles on a piece of paper on a notepad. The light glyph.]

Even though we're away from the Titan, glyph magic works for me. See?

[He touches the glyph with his hand and just like it does for Luz, it curls up delicately, like a flower blooming in reverse and turns into a little orb of light that he cradles delicately in his hand.]

[He holds the spell like it's a living thing, something precious like Flapjack. He still looks awed that it's something that has come out of him.]

Without the Titan here, it feels like it's coming from inside instead. Even though I don't have a magic bile sac.

But even when I can figure out glyphs, controlling the effect of the spell is something I have to practice.

[It's one thing to make vines burst out of a surface but they still have to be guided by his will to do something. Focus and willpower and intuition factor in.]

[Even without her old power, it is something she can help with. There are ways of thinking while working magic, ways of feeling, ways of getting in touch with the world around him that can help, just like how she parked Luz on top of a mountain until the ice glyph revealed itself to her.]

[There's a zen involved that he struggles with because it is possible to try too hard and to overthink something that takes instinct. Emotion. Intuition.]

[harageous]

( tell her how you really feel, hunter.

it's such a contrast to see him now, as compared to before, with his face illuminated by the soft glow of magic. hunter looks enamoured and delighted with it, appreciating it as the gift that it is rather than seeing it as a danger. honestly, it almost feels like some kind of ironic joke.

then a pretty horrible one.

while her curiosity has been piqued by the description of hunter feeling magic inside of him despite his lack of functioning bile sac, it also feels like a small punch to the chest. she's already tried gylph magic herself, but it hadn't felt any different. the hollowness inside of her hadn't been miraculously filled.

it was still hollow. )

Hey, hey, hey. Don't start getting ahead of yourself.

( she says, lifting up a hand towards him as a cue to taper it off. )

I said if you play your cards right.

( and that's an important distinction. she's not about to just offer this kid the whole farm or anything! )

I don't just teach anyone! It's an honour to be taught by me, kid!

[badbutsadboy]

Right. Of course.

[It is an honor to be taught by one of the best witches in the isles. Even if she can't do magic anymore, she has a lifetime of expertise exceeded by very few, even more than many other adults by virtue of not giving up parts of her magic.]

[Now she has guaranteed him trying to prove he is Worthy by doing as many chores as possible, all the time, before she has to ask, during their first few weeks of living together.]

[It doesn't help that he feels like he has a lot to make up for.]

[harageous]

That's right.

( immediately said, making sure to reinforce the idea. it was something important for him to keep in mind, especially after his previous disrespect.

but that's as far as she thinks they need to discuss this. no sense worrying about something that far off. who knows? maybe they'll leave before it even comes up again. no, no, the future plan that mattered was the one where she needed to get a good place for the both of them. )

You heard me before, right? You'll stay here until I fetch you?

( since he's apparently a runner. )