|
It's maybe four in the morning, and Lif is having another of those nighttime coughing fits. This one sounds worse than most, like they're gasping for breath, struggling through whatever causes these attacks (most likely related to the scar on their throat, somehow).
Qadir had tried to isolate. What was the point of hiding and having vampires escort you invisibly home if you just announced yourself? But those super senses and the adrenaline couldn't keep the physical therapist to be in his room. So out he comes in that same outfit from the video, hovering just a moment at the door. One brief knock before, "Sorry, Lif, I'm coming in!" And making his way into the room.
She's clearly having a rough time, a gargling, gurgling, wet sound in the back of her throat before she manages to turn on her side and expel...what looks to be water, just plain pure water onto the floor, before coughing a couple more times weakly and trying to catch her breath.
And that's when she looks up and sees Qadir, staring at him uncertainly.
"يا لحاوي"
The words comes the word unbidden from the psyvamps mouth before he darts in with shaking hands. "Are you alright? Can you breathe?" Invading space and reaching out to touch even as he knees in that pure water...
A nod. She's still working on getting up to talking, but as she works her way toward sitting up--probably with help--the breathing is coming more easily.
The water he's kneeling in is cool to the touch, like it's just been drawn from some deep well.
An uncontrolled shudder comes from him before he starts doing the thing people do when you're 'choking' but can breathe - patting Lif on the back as if that will help clear the airway. Getting more up to his feet which then puts bare foot in it and prompts another shudder. "It's ok, it's ok."
They close their eyes as they catch their breath. "I was dreaming. I'm sorry." Low whispered, tensing up after seeing, feeling those shudders. "It's been a rough night."
"And what, dream chugging?" Qadir glanced around for a culprit glass of water near the bed that may or may not be there. It didn't seem to stop him from trying to sooth the other as hands kept patting and rubbing. "... Ditto on the rough, but at least I didn't nearly drown."
There is no glass of water. There is no empty glass, and Lif's waterbottle--the large aqua Nalgene that's always clipped to her backpack--is across the room on the desk.
"The...event at the bar. You know that was you, right? You were the epicenter. It all exploded out from around you, when you got upset."
Qadir swept his foot back, dropping onto the bed as if invited to look into Lif's face. "What... How in the world did you start drowning in your own room?"
"Did I do this?"
"I was dreaming." She repeats the words with emphasis this time, as if that's meant to be an answer to the question asked.
"I get the psychosomatic reaction about drowning, but... how did you have that much cold water to puke up?" asks Qadir. "This... this doesn't make sense." He picks at his lip idly. "Has this only started since you've moved in?"
"Qadir, don't worry about me, let's focus on your problems. Please?" She reaches out to touch his arm, her hand about as cool as the water. She always ran cold.
"Weird... weird stuff keeps happening around me. Maybe it's me," he says quietly with another small shudder. Picking more at that perfect skin. "Maybe I'm haunted? Or cursed. Or... I don't know."
"You're not haunted. Cursed...cursed, maybe. But what you are isn't affecting me." They shake their head. "I dreamed about you. At the bar, and in general. 'Don't really care how the fuck you think you changed, I'll believe it when I see it.' And then you exploded. You...were the poultergeist, there. You were upset by those words, and you got mad, and you exploded out."
Which is weird, because the viral video clip didn't have good enough count to capture Calamity's words exactly.
That bit of puddle on the floor sure is interesting. Sure. Is. Interesting. He contemplates it for a long hard couple moments. "You're... psychic?"
"Close enough." A hand wibbled mid-air, clearly prevaricating. "You are, too. Telekinetic. Psychic...parasite. You take from those around you, and it makes you better, stronger, more beautiful. You've been changing. You've been changed."
"... Parasite?" echoes Qadir as the pretty one has problems™, drawing his feet in towards himself. "I... from the mugging?"
A bit of a nod. "That's my best hypothesis." She gestures for him to come closer, arms open. "It's okay. Okay? I don't hate you, no matter what you are, no matter what you become."
"Are you a witch?" asks Qadir who, after a long moment, finally shifts to lay shoulder first into the hug position. "Is this... have you seen this? Am I going to Carrie and kill everyone at the prom?"
They stroke his hair gently. "I haven't seen your future. I haven't looked for your future. I was trying to dream what you are, to understand, so I would know how to help you. When I dream like this, I...it's not drowning, I'm part of the water. I am water. It's the waking that hurts, coming back to not being water again."
"Like a mermaid," says the one swinging and missing for the third time. He's out. His hands come up to gently touch one of the arms. "I... I'm in trouble, I think. Things are... things are coming out of the woodwork. I... I think I wanted it to be a ghost."
"I'm sorry that it's not. But...but we can work through this together. Okay? This is weird, and it's new, and it's scary. But it's not the end of the world. Not even the end of your world. And you're not going to be going through this alone." She reaches out to touch his chin, directing his face so she can look him in the eyes. "I'm here, and I'm not going to abandon you because of these changes."
You'd think he was about to cry - the watery type could call to the tears nearly as well as the puddle below, but they didn't fall. He turned more fully into the hug, and boy was he stronger now as he squeezed for the moment before pulling back and pressing a palm to each eye to wipe away the unshed. "I guess... it's not all bad. Daytime sucks, but at night I get superpowers."
"Tell your professors you got a daytime job, something that pays too good to refuse. See if they'll let you drop with an incomplete, that's better than failing. Next semester, we find evening courses for you." Planning already, confident. Her unshakable presence is here to be his pillar while he's panicked. "Just...don't get any ideas about becoming a superhero? That's stupid. A bad plan, especially before you know your actual limits."
"It's just labs now that we're in summer. Maybe... maybe I can video record results. I'll talk to them," murmurs Qadir while they stare at Lif with the moment that says Lif may have said the exact wrong words.
"Qadir! You cannot. You'll get arrested, or killed, or something. I'll have to worry about you. A lot." She huffs. "Just because you have powers, that doesn't mean you get to be a hero now."
"But it does mean I get to try," says Qadir as he pulls back fully. "You don't even know what I can do - I'm... figuring it out, but I could do some really good stuff. Like... glamouring people or being real strong, or like seeing almost Daredevil levels in dark areas. And now I've got Carrie powers."
"And you don't have control over the Carrie powers. Some kid saying something mean to you made you go nova in a bar. If you can't be precise about what you can do, then you can't be sure you're not going to kill someone on accident."
"Matilda didn't have control over her powers at first either. Or Spider-Man," argues the other before gesturing to Lif. "And you can be the Oracle to my Nightwing - Batman's too angsty. Nightwing's got the better body. I'm definitely Nightwing."
"Excuse me?" She snorts. "The Oracle to your Nightwing. I'm almost insulted."
"Because it's not Poison Ivy?"
"You can make an amalgam of them - but you literally are an oracle so... Did you read No Man's Land? It was great."
"You don't know what I am, or what I'm about, Qadir." She disentangles slightly to touch the puddle on the floor with both hands. And he feels, even though it's impossible, cold clammy fingers running slowly up his spine and then grabbing at the back of his neck. Not to hold, but just to spook. (That was an Intimidate check done with the Elemental blessing.)
Qadir shudders still, jumping up and away as if that would make a thing. "Alright, what are you. If I'm... a parasite, what are you? Are you a mermaid? La Llorna? That ghost was watery right? Or just crying?" Hands coming up behind his neck to rub.
The touch goes away the moment she pulls her hands from the puddle and shakes the water off. "I'm of the waters. Closer to them than being a person, a lot of the time. But you know what, if imagining me as a mermaid helps, go ahead. Or a siren? Those are supposed to be pretty awesome, I suppose."
"What does that mean of the waters?" asks Qadir as he crosses his arms over his chest. It's strange as one can start to see the beauty fading and whole posture slowly slumping more and more in on itself - perhaps as the sun is rising.
She glances at her window, and then touches the puddle again, a dribble of water flashing across the cord to somehow, somehow pull the curtain closed without her getting up.
"Exactly what it says on the tin."
"So you were born in the ocean?" asks Qadir. "You're... not exactly coming with details and my brain gets... weird this late-early."
"I can't explain the details to you. I'm sorry. It's...complicated. I've been hiding a lot from you, all this time. And I'll probably continue to hide things. Keep secrets. Avoid truths." Her tone of voice is apologetic.
"... You know if this whole Carrie theme keeps up, I'll find out. She could hear thoughts. Maybe I can," he suggests. "You can trust me with secrets. I... know how important it is to keep them."
"If it was just a matter of trust, I would tell you. But the secret itself is one that could harm you." They think for a moment. "Cthulhu mythos, mad from the revelation, that's a similar level of danger, but not an exact parallel."
"Ooooooh..." Clearly gears clicking into place. "... Huh. Gives me a different thought. Maybe one I'll look up... tomorrow night." A pause. "Are you fighting Cthulhu tonight? Instead of a wealthy industrialist?"
"Uh, closer to that, yes." That's a bit sheepish. "If it were a wealthy industrialist, I would invite you along with, especially now."
"... Remember Katara from Avatar?" asks Qadir. "She was of the water too - well, water tribe. Embodied it in every way - mutable, emotional, deep, sometimes caring, but able to connect and flow with others? Be like Katara. You'll bloodbend when you have to, stop the rain, or even just start a splash fight to make people feel better. Sometimes taking out the darkness just needs that small moment to really bring it to light..."
"...I'm still not cosplaying her, though." But she smiles, taking a deep breath and sitting up a little straighter. "But. Thank you for the benediction. I think that's perhaps the kindest thing anyone's said about my nature."
"Yeah, well, people are dumb. That's some knowledge from growing up Muslim during the Bush administration," he offers with a mirthless smile. "I'm going to get out of your hair, but... If you need something, just talk to your local Psychic Mosquito - working title."
They nod. "I will. Wait. There is one more thing I can tell you--that may someday be important. Something you should know. If you ever see me and I am...I seem like my head is not on straight. Or like I'm breaking down. If there's something wrong with me, in a way you can't define? Get me to the Awbury Arboretum as soon as possible. It's...a way to root me, when I am not rooted."
"Awbury Arboretum - it's got magic get Cthulhu-out-of-my-head powers. Got it," says Qadir with a nod as if somehow stamping some form in his brain. "And if you don't wanna go, do you prefer glamouring or kicking and screaming?"
"...neither would be good. Messing with my head, with your powers? That could knock me further into it. So could abducting me..." A frown. They shake their head. "Glamouring, if you must."
"I got someone once to quack like a duck when I was... figuring things out. Still, last resort for if you really aren't cooperating."
"Yes. I might make a list of emergency phone numbers later--and if you have people you'd want called for you, I want that list, in turn. In case you walk in here extremely hurt and need help from those who you trust. Besides me, of course."
"Ummm... I'll see about making one." Another back of the neck rub. "Not that... anybody really... cares at the moment? Not like my parents or anything. But, uh, I'll think on a list."
"Well. I care." They stick their tongue out at him.
"I better be going on your list for other people. I do have medical training," shoots back the other with a tired grin.
"You are definitely on my list. Closet thing I've got to family." There's a smile of her own. "Sun's rising, you should be going to bed. Hopefully I get home at a sane hour tonight."
"I'll have the first aid kit ready," he offers. "Try to... not puke up more water. That seems painful."
A little laugh. "I'll try, for you."
|