Author Topic: Consequences [Private]  (Read 3098 times)

Zwei Not

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Consequences [Private]
« on: August 16, 2017, 11:36:53 PM »
Juno didn't know how many times he had thrown up that day, but as he knelt, hunched over the toilet of his dorm's shared bathroom, he knew that it was somewhere between "food poisoning" and "severe bacterial disease". The image of the bleeding, burned, brutalized body of fourth year student Acero Walker was simply stuck in his head. He was alive, thank the gods, but that wasn't how the match was supposed to go. Acero was winning, and Juno knew he couldn't hold out against someone of his caliber, even with restricted semblances and swapped weapons. And yet, by some twisted stroke of bad luck, Juno managed to hit the bag of grenades. Sure, the round didn't puncture, thanks to Acero's aura, but the sheer force of impact caused at least one of them to go off, followed by another... and another...

Juno retched again as the image replayed in his head, glancing over at Phi as she held his hair out of the way. While he was somewhat relieved that nothing came out this time, he was, to say the least, disgusted. Disgusted with himself, disgusted with what he saw... Disgusted at Malina's suggestion that he wasn't "mature" enough to have Phi. As if he didn't have enough on his mind after what had happened during that training exercise.

Why, just, why did this have to happen? It wasn't even the first time, either. Jack had the same thing happen to him in the tournament, and he came away from it no worse for wear, save a damaged ego. But this... Juno gagged again, only to push off of the toilet and forcefully close the lid when nothing came out. Maybe Malina was right, but... He couldn't let go of Phi. She was the sister he never had. Yes, she wasn't used to human interaction, and had a tendency to not stop talking, but could anyone blame her? As far as he knew, she was his first human contact, and it would be just wrong to keep her away from all human contact. Sure, he limited that to those he had trusted, but it seemed Phi made a choice of her own. He understood her line of logic. Malina was Juno's superior, and Juno was her superior. Phi trusted Juno, and therefore believed she had reason to trust Malina.

But it was ultimately his fault. He didn't tell Phi that there were some things she wasn't supposed to talk about. He didn't keep her away from the eyes of those running the school. He didn't want to lose Phi. He couldn't let that happen. Just the thought of what they would do to her made him sick to his stomach again...

The sound of Phi flushing the toilet snapped him back into reality, his eyes flicking to the AI's avatar as she rested a hand on the handle. She seemed just as concerned as he did about the entire situation, if not more, watching as he braced against the toilet to walk on shaky legs to the sink. All she could do was rest a hand on his shoulder as he washed his face, watching as he dragged himself to his bed. It didn't stop her from joining him, however, sitting behind him and wrapping her arms around him in an attempt to comfort her handler.

"I... I'm sorry." Phi eventually whispered, her head pressed against Juno's back.

Soon enough, Juno replied, his voice weak and raspy. "It wasn't your fault, you didn't pull the trigger."

Phi paused as she mulled over the many, many potential ways to respond. She knew she had screwed up, too, but she was also aware that dwelling on their failure wouldn't get them anywhere. Juno was, for lack of a better word, shattered by what happened today... He definitely needed a friendly voice to talk to. One that wasn't her own. However, she doubted he would be willing to make the call himself.

Taking matters into her own hands, Phi interfaced with Juno's scroll, sending a message to Samuel and Xanh. It wasn't anything fancy, just a simple statement saying that he needed someone to talk to. With any luck, one of them would show up.
Juno Varia: The Street Punk

Juno Vert: 1st year student of Beacon, Armored leader of Team VCVS

Phi: #007ba7

Nebu Nekhbet: DUAT unit 01: Desegnation RA

Nebu/Rho: #FFD700

Austin Vartra: TBA

Kiith

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Re: Consequences [Private]
« Reply #1 on: August 17, 2017, 02:48:00 PM »
With an expression on her face that looked a bit like it was unsure what emotion it wanted to convey Xanh had another look at her scroll as she closed the door of the dorm behind her. The message displayed on the screen, short and concise yet confusingly ambiguous did not need to do much else other than just be there to catch her attention. It seemed...odd. At least the way the girl knew him Juno usually was not quite like this, not necessesarily a man of few words or big secrecy. So if something had gone so far south that he was looking for an open pair of ears to talk without any further explanation shit truly must have hit the fan.
Well, that, or he finally had found that perfect secret spot to hide alcohol on campus there were so many rumours about.

Faced with these possibilites Xanh had been quick to find an excuse to bail from the sparring session she had just been about to have with a bunch of of classmates, quickly picking her stuff to drop it at her place before going on her way. The response Xanh had written up while walking back from the training grounds could also be seen, right below the original text and not much more elaborate than it in its mix confirmation and perhaps a little inapropriate humour.

'Right mystery man, be there in 15
The fuck did you do, kill someone?'


From that point on it did not take her much longer to get from one dorm to the other, the main delay being her trying to not collide with the occasional student passing by her while still staring on the scroll, trying to anticipate what this really could be about, half intrigued, half confused - and just a tiny bit worried. As Xanh found hersefelf infront the door with that little 'VCVS' plate on it she put the scroll away, using the now free hand to give it a half hearted knock and a: "Hey, delivery's here! Or...erm, something. Look, you know, it's me", The girl had expected someone already waiting for her arrival, seeing how against his usual nature her friend had so clearly asked for support with...whatever it was now. But as it was not immediately that the door was opened to her or even just a reply was sent her way a frown found its way onto Xanh's face. "H-hello...?"

Zwei Not

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Re: Consequences [Private]
« Reply #2 on: August 17, 2017, 10:37:03 PM »
Juno's eyes flicked to his scroll as it buzzed on his bed, a light sigh escaping his lips as he left Phi's embrace and picked up the device. Odd... He didn't remember inviting Xanh over, nor did he remember sending a message to Sam, either. Granted, he hadn't remembered what he ate for dinner that day until... Well, five minutes ago. However, he didn't know if he wanted company. What would Xanh say? "I almost killed someone today" is not a sentence that can be taken lightly, especially when such an event actually happened. Yet... She took the time out of her day to come see him. He might as well oblige her, right.

"The door's unlocked... You can come in." Juno called from his spot on the bed, his voice still weak and raspy. He needed water, and quite badly as it was, what with the taste of bile and soreness in his throat. He was hungry, too, but he wasn't exactly... confident in his ability to keep anything down at this point. His legs were still shaky, too... So there he sat, simply watching the door for his friend's next move, a hand on his scroll with the other resting on the Hardlight Generator.
Juno Varia: The Street Punk

Juno Vert: 1st year student of Beacon, Armored leader of Team VCVS

Phi: #007ba7

Nebu Nekhbet: DUAT unit 01: Desegnation RA

Nebu/Rho: #FFD700

Austin Vartra: TBA

Kiith

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Re: Consequences [Private]
« Reply #3 on: August 20, 2017, 05:17:26 AM »
As she finally received an answer from inside the room Xanh's frown only intensified. That did not sound all to great. Did Juno catch a cold or something? Was that why he had called her over? If so then that surely sucked for him but was far from anything that she had expected. What a shame, she somehow really had hoped for that alcohol thing. But that is how life plays.

Not concerning herself with what could been for much longer however the girl reached for the door knob, shoving the aside to alllow her entry into the dorm. Xanh did not have to take a lot of steps into the room to notice the faint, barely noticeable smell brushing against her nose coming from the vague direction of the bathroom. She could not quite place what it was but it definetely had something off about it and reminded her of something. It was oddly close what her hands smelled like the morning after first time she really got drunk.
Odd indeed.

"Juno", Xanh finally greeted her friend as she spotted him in the corner of her eye, and as she noticed the faint blue glow around him added "Robo girl". After she had closed the door behind her it did not take long for her to properly turn around to properly face the two. "You know, if you've been at it without me and are now feeling a little bad I'm not sure if I'm a little mad or...", she spoke as she did so, but was interrupted by the sight of Juno cowering on the bed somewhat like a wet sandbag. That was the first time she had taken a real look at him today and that looked not all like someone just suffering from a mild hangover. "What the fuck?, was the first thing that crossed her mind - and lips - as she took in the scene of Juno sitting on the bed like he was done with the world, Phi leaning against his back from behind. "Are you alright? You look terrible".
« Last Edit: August 20, 2017, 05:18:23 PM by Kiith »

Zwei Not

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Re: Consequences [Private]
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2017, 11:32:27 PM »
Juno curled up tighter as the door suddenly opened, glancing at Xanh as she spoke, eyes narrowing as she insinuated that he was hungover. He didn't get drunk. Maybe buzzed a few times, but never drunk. Xanh, however, eventually seemed to understand the levity of the situation. Cringing as she made her initial impressions clear, Juno sunk deeper into his place on the bed, relaxing slightly as Phi hugged him from behind. Upon being asked if he was okay, Juno looked up at the girl, his tired eyes almost absorbing as much of her face as he could take in. He... He honestly didn't know what to say. He knew what had to be said, but...

"Xanh... Would you think any differently of someone if their mistakes cost someone their life?" He asked, his eyes locked onto hers.
Juno Varia: The Street Punk

Juno Vert: 1st year student of Beacon, Armored leader of Team VCVS

Phi: #007ba7

Nebu Nekhbet: DUAT unit 01: Desegnation RA

Nebu/Rho: #FFD700

Austin Vartra: TBA

Kiith

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Re: Consequences [Private]
« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2018, 03:11:21 PM »
A few moments of hardly bearable silence followed Juno's somewhat ambiguous question with Xanh trying to take in what she came to be a witness of. That feeling deep in her gut that something must be off had been there from the beginning, when she had received that message in such a very un-Juno-like manner. And just taking a quick glance – and sniff – across the room made clear that things were definitely amiss. But only now, after the initial moment of surprise, did she get to take a closer look at her friend cowering on the bed, looking like it was only due to his companion Phi holding him up that he was still able to sit at all – and not just fall over and roll into a pile of sadness.

When the Xanh had first spoken up it was not really more than a slip of her tongue, but seriously, Juno seemed terrible. Not only because he looked like he had rings under his eyes that might as well be worth a week of sleeplessness, sported a voice like he had taken up chewing on sandpaper as a hobby and, of course, was probably the cause for this faint yet distinct smell filling the air with a slightly sour note. It also struck her how utterly deflated he appeared.
His whole posture, the slight shaking of his voice as he uttered his question, the way a pair of defeated eyes was glaring at her. This was about as far away from the typical Juno as Xanh had ever witnessed the usually so determined, steadfast man. Hell, even when she was trapped in the recovery ward together with Caja and he came by to visit his girlfriend who had literally been stabbed he had not been this troubled, instead still trying to find encouraging words to get Xanh off a rather dark train of thoughts. So what in the name of all hell had to have happened for someone like Juno to end up like this? Unable to do much else than ponder this question she simply stood there for a little while, blinking in disbelief a few times.

“You know”, the girl eventually opened up as she found her voice again, somewhat timidly reaching up with her left hand to scratch her head, strands of short black hair quietly rustling as she did so, “when I asked whether you killed someone I wasn't serious”.
Xanh kind of knew that this was not the best start to a conversation the moment the first words crossed her lips, but as it often did her sometimes misplaced approach to serious matters compelled her to go through with it, anyway. Shortly after however she followed up with a faint head shake, as if to invalidate what she had said before, opting for an apologetic if mildly crooked smile.

“Sorry, not the time to joke around, I guess. But...”, the smile vanished as quickly as it appeared, exchanged by a thoughtful, worried and almost somewhat pained expression as she focused on one of the corners of the room for a second, looking for the right words to follow up, presumably.

“I'm not sure how to answer that”. Another moment of awkward silence, becoming part of an ever growing collection of such. “Depends, I guess?”. The sound of Xanh taking a deep breath was about the only noise propagating across the room next, followed up by her finally remembering she had a pair of legs which she should use to do … well, anything but stand in the middle of the room like a child someone had forgotten to pick up. Slowly she walked over to the bed, making a small detour towards one of the desks to the side of the room to grab one of the chairs idly standing around, placing it next to Juno's bed. Accompanied by a muffled thump the girl let herself drop onto the seat.

“What are we talking about, here?”, she asked, preceded by a quiet sigh and her gaze focused more on the ground before her feet than who was sitting on the bed, her voice drained of much of the usual energy and roughness conveyed in it. As her head raised slightly, giving her friend the courtesy of looking at whom she was talking to, Xanh added:
“What happened, Juno?”
« Last Edit: April 15, 2018, 03:13:57 PM by Kiith »

Zwei Not

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Re: Consequences [Private]
« Reply #6 on: May 21, 2018, 02:27:58 AM »
”What do you think?” he asked, lifting his head from its shelter behind his arms, his head turned to her, looking her dead in the eye. ”I just accidentally crippled a student durinf a training exercise, and now one of the higher ups thinks I shouldn’t have Phi. That I’m not responsible enough to work with her or some shit.” he spat, only to break into a mild coughing fit at the end.

Gods, was his throat sore. Hunger was a problem, too, but as he was right now, he was a tad too concerned about keeping anything down to have an appetite.

”I’m sorry.” he started, curling back up into his ball of sadness as Phi started playing with his hair. All was silent for a few moments, save for the ambient sounds of the school around them. Eventually, however, Juno deemed the silence unbearable, and his sore throat enough of an annoyance to warrant speaking up. “Could you pass me a bottle of water? We should have a few in the fridge.”
Juno Varia: The Street Punk

Juno Vert: 1st year student of Beacon, Armored leader of Team VCVS

Phi: #007ba7

Nebu Nekhbet: DUAT unit 01: Desegnation RA

Nebu/Rho: #FFD700

Austin Vartra: TBA