January 10th, ??? / 10:15-10:40

Leroy Hall/Ethan Brimstone/Axel Founte

16/B-/O/A/Male/Trans male/Water/Aura Sensing/Quicker Healing/Both/Pansexual/Gay/Asexual Panromantic

“Yeah, I guess you’re right, I mean, you yourself said you’re a medical magician!! We also have TJ, the mans practically a forest spirit, who can Macgyver just about anything a helluva lot better than me. Lil’ E is just a fucking Quiz Kid at everything. Like a damn Wikipedia!! Evie can just think on her feet like a ballerina of doing smart stuff. And Nabih? Nabih is just the damn smartest!! Always thinking ahead. I bet he’s an all-A’s stubeacht. I bet he barely had to even try to get +As!! Nabih is probably the closest any of us will get for an actually good father-figure. I am the only damn stupid one here?? This is an outcry! Outroar! Out-what-the-actual-fuck!! I can’t believe this. Fine. I guess I will be the comic guy relief. God knows ya need it when you all are so damn serious all the time without me! And don’t say I am not dumb cause I am. I am sure ol’ Nabih over here- can totally agree, eh? I am super stupid! At least compared to you.”

Axel shook his head and smiled kindly. "I-I think you're smart C-Cal, just in a different w-way than Nabih. Y-You're observant and you c-come up with a bunch o-of witty jokes! G-give yourself some c-credit!"

“Wait a second, I am the only damn stupid one here?? This is an outcry! Outroar! Out-what-the-actual-fuck!!”

Axel let out a soft chuckle, amused by Calvin's dramatic words. "A-again, your not s-stupid, no need to s-start a revolution."

“Oh, hey! Axel, can you save my seat for a minute? I will be right back, but I just need to go to the bathroom. I will take Aries with me so I don’t get snatched off by kidnappers or whatever. Buddy system, ya know? I’ll be right back, I promise, so you won’t have to save my seat for long!!”

Axel nodded, still smiling, and placed his bag on Cal's seat to save it before turning back to Ethan who was again closing his eyes and trying to rest. The angry pain had calmed to a dull pulse and he was able to relax a little more than before.

When Tyler spoke, E looked up, nervousness entering his gaze when he realized what the other boy was asking. Getting his arm out of his sleeve would definitely hurt... A lot.

Taking a deep breath, Ethan nodded, slowly reaching over and, even more slowly, pulling his injured arm through and out of his sleeve, wincing in pain as he did so. It would be easier if he took off his whole shirt off, but then they would see the scars. Some from his own hand and others from Val. That definitely wasn't ideal, so Ethan hoped TJ and Axel could do what they needed to without fully removing anything.

"I'll look," Leroy stated from the back, his voice just loud enough for the others to hear. Both Ethan and Axel, who had been about to volunteer to look for the first-aid kit himself, looked at Leroy in surprise. They hadn't expected it to be him of all people to offer help. Leroy saw these looks and quickly made up an excuse. "Nothing better to do." He huffed. "May as well move around." He didn't give the others time to answer before walking off. They didn't need to know he cared, that would make him look weak, and then they would try to get close to him and he'd just lose them faster.

It was best to keep up his 'tough guy' persona.

"T-that's good, E, t-thank you." Axel said, deciding it was probably best to just let Leroy go. "Y-you don't have to, b-but as TJ said, i-it will be e-easier if you take o-off your shirt..."

Ethan bit the inside of his cheek, that was two people now that suggested it, and Axel had a lot of medical knowledge, plus he was nice. So, most likely, if he said 'you don't have to, but...' it actually meant 'please do it, it will be hard if you don't.'

Taking a deep, nervous breath, E nodded again and slipped off his shirt completely, feeling terribly exposed with his skin showing. As expected, his whole left side was starting to bruise, but it was actually his chest that was the most surprising and sad.

Long, jagged scars trailed the whole of his exposed skin in random, awkward patterns that looked like whoever had done intended only to cause pain, not caring if they did permanent damage, and on his uninjured arm, deliberate, straight scars were now visible, going all the way up to his shoulder.

Knowing what the others saw, Ethan dropped his eyes to the ground, avoiding eye contact at all costs and trying to ignore the flair of anxiety that was rising in his chest, clenching and trying to steal his air.

Axel froze at the sight of his friend's scars, staring for a moment before taking a breath and smiling warmly.

"D-deep breaths, Ethan. N-no one here is g-going to hurt you, w-we'll just get you c-cleaned up when Leroy g-gets back, and then you can get on some clean c-clothes, okay? Y-you're safe now."

Cal ‘Collie’ Thi Lê | 16 | AB- | Male | Visions | Both | Questioning | M: Aries (Dir) + Everyone Else (Ind)

He’s lying to you. He probably hates you.

As soon as Aries entered the room, Cal closed the door and locked it. He just hoped that if anyone saw the two go in, they didn’t instantly think that they were making out or something. Because that wasn’t Cal’s intentions in the slightest. And that would be awkward. Cal swallowed hard as he studied Aries for a moment. Collie was trying his best to hide it, but he was worried. Visibly so too. What would cause Aries to want to lie to him about this? What happened after he punched Leroy? Would Aries be okay? So many damn questions to ask Aries.

He’s lying to you. How dare he lie to you. You should-

“Bullshit,” Cal hissed harsher than he had hoped, his words coming out of seemingly nowhere. “You’re lying. I know you are. I know you think your lies are good, but they are not. That or I am just not as stupid as you think.” That last part was said bitterly. Cal didn’t know why he was so frustrated all of a sudden and took a few deep breaths. He hated getting mad. Especially if it was towards other people. He couldn’t help himself sometimes because he always cared too much about everyone he trusted. “If you’re going to lie to me Aries-” Cal harshly jabbed his finger into his chest with enough force to push even Aries at least one step back- “at least make it pretty damn convincing.”

The train lurched forward and Cal nearly fell into Aries, but caught himself last minute before he landed into his chest. Yay, more awkwardness. Cal huffed defensively and before Aries could make any remarks, did a full 180 spin around to grab a couple of hand-drying paper. He ran the paper under the fossett and let the water sink into it. Cal turned back to Aries and placed his hands on his hips. Cal debated whether to be sassy, snarky, and passive agressive until Aries himself admits to lying or to just lay him down with all the facts until he has no choice but to admit he was lying. Cal chose the alternative options.

“You know how I know you’re lying Aries?” Cal asked, circling to be behind him like a shark circles it’s prey. “Because for one, ya have that stupidly smug face on as to think you’ll get away with this.” Cal didn’t even give any warning before gently poking the back of his head where the bleeding was, reminding him of the fact that Cal could now see it and use that as evidence against him. “Two, the way these cuts look, they look like someone scratched ya. Or maybe that you scratched yerself, which brings me to evidence number three-” Cal grabbed his hand gently from behind Aries and Cal brought Aries’ hand up for Aries himself to look at it- “there is blood under your nails. That wasn’t there when I first saw ya in the alleyway. So it happened sometime after the fight. You can’t get blood under your nails by punching someone, then it would be on your knuckles. There was no blood on Leroy because you bruised him, not made him bleed hence the blood came from you. Plus, you didn’t punch with your knuckles because you actually know how to punch properly and- wouldn’t you know it-” Cal tilted Aries’ hand and studied it some more before looking to Aries with a glare- “no blood on yer knuckles. You can’t even tell me you got the scratches in a fight because Leroy did something to you. I would have seen that happen then.” After a moment’s hesitation, he let go of Aries’ hand with a huff. “All the evidence points to you lying to me about this. I can bring up more damn evidence about you supposedly ‘not acting strange’ or I can bring up evidence that there is something going on and that you’re not telling me.”

Aries hates you now. He hates you. God, you are such an idiot!

“I would warn you that this is going to sting,” Cal mumbled in an oddly quiet and weak voice for Cal, “but maybe you shouldn’t have done this in the first place.” Cal swallowed down his anger and glared at the back of Aries’ head for a moment. As if glaring at the back of him would help Cal any. Cal took a deep breath and took his shaky hand and started to wipe away the blood on the back of his head. Collie placed a hand firmly on Aries’ shoulder to steady himself as he gently wiped away the blood. He was genuinely surprised no one in the group had noticed all of it. There wasn’t a lot of it, but enough for it to be visible. Another thing that surprised him was how soft the back of Aries’ hair was. Shit. Cal couldn’t be thinking of this. Not right now. He needed to focus on Aries. Not in that way. His friend needs his help so Cal has to help him in whatever way he can!

You can’t even help him. He doesn’t trust you. He hates you. What kind of a friend are you?

Part of Cal just felt defeated. Like he fucked up big time yet again. No surprise there. Cal got all the blood off him but he still was hesitant to move after. Cal wouldn’t get Aries to tell him the truth, would he? Aries didn’t trust Cal. Aries hated Cal. It was sad thoughts like this that really hit Cal in the gut. Made him wish he could go to the nearest building and do a swan dive into the concrete. The people he cared about didn’t care about him, so why did it matter? Why did anything matter? Why live when living feels like dying? It seemed fun though. Jumping off a building that is. Cal jumped off a bridge once and broke three of his ribs and his left leg. He didn’t remember much of it, but he remembered that falling almost felt like flying.

Fuck! Why was he thinking this? No no no no no! So what if Aries hated him? He still had Axel and the rest of the group. They didn’t hate him. They didn’t hate him, right? They don’t hate me. He at the very least wanted to make sure Aries was okay and that whatever was going on, would be fine. It’s all going to be fine. It was the least Collie could do before he told Axel bedtime stories and that everything would be okay. Everything’ll be okay.

“Please just… talk to me, okay Aries?” Cal took a step closer to Aries so that there was only one more step between them. Cal just rested his forehead against Aries’ back and let out a long, tired sigh. “Why? Why are ya acting so different right now? Why didja make yourself bleed? Why didja punch Leroy?” Cal’s voice felt so broken but he took a deep breath. “Why couldn’t ya at least promise me ya wouldn’t get yerself killed stupidly?”

January 10th, ???? | 10:41-10:46 PM

G.A.F. 'Khorne/Ariethous'/N.R.V. | 16/17 | AB/B+ | Male | Pain Adren/High Intel | Both | C Demi(HML)/Pan | Mentions; The Others(Ind. & Dir.)

Nabih listened to what Tyler said, though for the most part was trying to think of ways to help Ethan too. When Tyler asked for someone to go and look for a first-aid kit, he’d looked over and was about to stand up and offer, but then he noticed the look on Leroy’s face and settled back down. Not even a second later, Leroy was volunteering to look.

--

After the other two looking in surprise and Leroy explaining himself, everyone seemed to agree to turn towards Ethan. He looked at Leroy a bit longer, trying to find out if he could do what Axel and Ethan did so often and tell Leroy to also look for rubbing alcohol with a 70% isopropyl concentration and a 30% water concentration. Though he did try to add to the end of it that 99% isopropyl concentration would be fine too.

--

For a split second he even tried to put that vodka would even work if he(Leroy, Nabih reminded himself) couldn’t find any actual rubbing alcohol. But he didn’t let himself put that one in, mostly because he didn’t want to be near alcohol at all… But also because he doubted that Ethan would want to be either.

--

Speaking of Ethan… Now that he had finished the thing with Leroy, he turned and looked at the mute. Just in time to see his shirt gone… He didn’t outwardly react to the scars, because quite honestly… Probably should’ve been expected, what with how bad he, and they, already knew Val to be…

--

For split second, he wondered if he should’ve told Leroy to bring vodka if he couldn’t find rubbing alcohol. And then he was mentally punching himself because; No. He wasn’t doing this. Not here. In front of his friends that thought of him as the most emotionally stable. He couldn’t lose himself now, not when his friends were in need.

--

“Bullshit. You’re lying. I know you are. I know you think your lies are good, but they are not. That or I am just not as stupid as you think.”

--

‘He’s about to push you. Do not react other than the intended purpose.’

--

“If you’re going to lie to me Aries at least make it pretty damn convincing.”

--

And it did react as intended only, it’s face stayed the same but it took a singular step backwards, though even that looked almost planned.

--

“You know how I know you’re lying Aries? Because for one, ya have that stupidly smug face on as to think you’ll get away with this. Two, the way these cuts look, they look like someone scratched ya. Or maybe that you scratched yerself, which brings me to evidence number three- there is blood under your nails. That wasn’t there when I first saw ya in the alleyway. So it happened sometime after the fight. You can’t get blood under your nails by punching someone, then it would be on your knuckles. There was no blood on Leroy because you bruised him, not made him bleed hence the blood came from you. Plus, you didn’t punch with your knuckles because you actually know how to punch properly and- wouldn’t you know it- no blood on yer knuckles. You can’t even tell me you got the scratches in a fight because Leroy did something to you. I would have seen that happen then. All the evidence points to you lying to me about this. I can bring up more damn evidence about you supposedly ‘not acting strange’ or I can bring up evidence that there is something going on and that you’re not telling me.”

--

‘Let him rant. Easier to know all of what he’s thinking before answering than only half. Don’t react when he wipes away the blood.’

--

“I would warn you that this is going to sting, but maybe you shouldn’t have done this in the first place.”

--

And it didn’t react as the wet paper started wiping at its head, the pain was nowhere near the worst it’d dealt with.

--

“Please just… talk to me, okay Aries? Why? Why are ya acting so different right now? Why didja make yourself bleed? Why didja punch Leroy? Why couldn’t ya at least promise me ya wouldn’t get yerself killed stupidly?”

--

‘Sigh and speak freely, tool. He won’t believe anything you repeat.’

--

It thought for a moment before sighing and glancing at Calvin. “Didn’t mean to lie earlier… Honestly thought that was the truth, meant every word… Sorry ‘bout that, Cal… Didn’t even realize the scratchin’ was caused by…” It trailed off for a second before just tackling the next question. It couldn’t say ‘me’, since it wasn’t a person, but something told it that saying ‘it’ wasn’t a good idea either. “Punched Leroy ‘cause he was mean to you… Threatened you… Remember thinkin’, did Leroy seriously just threaten Cal for tryin’ to cheer him up? As for the promise… Didn’t make that since didn’t want ya to see the dried blood again… Didn’t want ya to worry ‘bout something like…” Paused for a moment. It? That? Both? It would probably look more suspicious if it didn’t say that… “Something like that… Ya know? Didn’t seem that important… Plus, you kind of moved onto something else real quickly- Didn’t wanna bring that back up since ya looked happier talking about friendship rules…”

--

It stared at the ground in shame. It truly hadn’t meant to lie. It hadn’t thought it was lying. It had simply followed orders… Had it lied? Cal said it was and… Cal wouldn’t lie to it, right? It couldn’t blame Cal if he did but… Cal wouldn’t do that… Nobody lied for fun… Right? Nobody lied to make something feel bad… Right? Nobody had lied to it before… Right? It had lied just like Cal said. It had lied, albeit without meaning to.

--

‘It’s a liar! Who would’ve guessed!’

--

‘This is dumbbbbb! Punch a wall!’

--

‘Text Jacob! He’s probably worried!’

--

‘Can’t believe this thing has the nerve to lie. How worthless.’

--

It’s finger twitched, the part of it that had its long nails twitching the most. It forced it into a fist instead, keeping its eyes on the ground. Waiting for even more repercussion to its accidental lie, waiting for more repercussion in general.

January 10th, ??? / 10:15-10:40

Leroy Hall/Ethan Brimstone/Axel Founte

16/B-/O/A/Male/Trans male/Water/Aura Sensing/Quicker Healing/Both/Pansexual/Gay/Asexual Panromantic

Ethan bit down hard on his cheek, his panic rising. Everyone was looking at him, they were probably judging him, or worse, figuring out a way to hurt him.

He managed to stay mostly calm (at least, he acted calm) until TJ reached over to touch his arm again. E instinctively pulled back, eyes lighting with fear.

"E-Ethan, it's okay, i-it's Tyler. He's going t-to help you. We a-all are. No one's g-gonna hurt you." Axel's tone was calming and a little sad as he spoke to his friend. "J-just hold still a m-minute and let TJ w-work, okay? We have t-to get the bad s-stuff out of your a-arm before it g-gets infected."

The mutes eyes flickered to Axel and he allowed TJ to pick up his arm and dig out all the glass and rocks there, waiting until he was done to pull away again. The whole time he kept his eyes on the ground.

He hated everything about this, he was exposed and injured, completely helpless if someone decided to...

'No. NO. Stop. You can't think like that. They aren't going to touch you, they aren't going to beat you. Val's not here.'

Yet, as much as he told himself this, E couldn't get the fear to go away. What if they decided he wasn't worth taking care of? What if they realized that he really was just a worthless mute good for nothing but their personal pleasure and money? What if they changed just like Val had?

What if? What if? What if?

Ethan's panic was steadily growing as his mind started to spin, it was getting hard to breathe again.

"E-Ethan, hey, deep breaths, l-look at me. W-we're safe. Breathing exercise, remember? We d-did this when we m-met, right?" Axel paused a moment, refraining from touching Ethan as he spoke, he knew that would make things worse, the mute was very sensitive to touch. E managed a slight nod and Axel continued. "G-good, four seconds in, t-through your nose." He did it with E, watching the other boy as he struggled to get a good breath. "H-hold for seven. G-good. Exhale eight. O-okay, try again."

They repeated this process three times, but Ethan didn't seem to have any reaction to it, except for him breaking concentration and starting to sob halfway through. Axel watched his friend anxiously, that wasn't good, E could usually pull himself together with his guidance, but not now.

Leroy walked through the train, finding a train employee. "Hey, do guys have a first aid kit somewhere? Maybe some rubbing alcohol too? A friend of mine did some stupid shit and got hurt."

The employee nodded. "Yes, sir, I'll get you that first aid kit right now, we don't have any rubbing alcohol, will vodka work?"

The half-blind male nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"Okay, one moment." The employee disappeared, reappearing a moment later with a first-aid kit in one hand and a bottle of vodka in another.

"Thanks," Leroy said, taking the supplies and walking back to where the others were waiting. He paused once he saw Ethan, the guy was a complete mess, tears running down his cheeks, his exposed chest rising and falling swiftly in panic, his left side bruised, and his arm raw and torn. Damn. "Here, Axel, I got the stuff," Leroy stated, thrusting the bottle of vodka and the first-aid kit into the shy boy's arms. "They didn't have rubbing alcohol." Well, Axel obviously wasn't able to help E very much (which was very odd), and no one else had stepped up yet so... Leroy's brother used to have panic attacks, maybe he could help.

Without saying anything else to anyone, the larger male crouched in front of the mute and held out a hand. "Oi, Ethan. Look at me a sec." Everyone else was being gentle, but E felt exposed, sometimes a hard, protective presence was what people needed. The mute looked up, shaking. "Listen to me, if any bitch comes up and tries to lay a hand on you I'll punch them into next week. Now take some more breaths and pull yourself together, no one's gonna hurt you on my watch, got it?"

Axel, yet again confused by Leroy's unusual behavior, blinked in surprise and smiled lightly. The guy really was a big softy at heart. Ethan looked at Leroy who met his eyes without hesitation or sympathy and took a few more breaths, finally calming a little, though his breathing was a little faster than normal still. The mute nodded, wiping his eyes and wrapping his good hand rather protectively over his chest.

Leroy nodded approval and stood up. "Good, now let Axel and Tyler take care of you, eh? You'll be fine."

Ethan nodded again and Leroy stood, walking back to his original spot and pretending like nothing had happened, though he still glanced towards E and Axel again occasionally... just in case.

"T-thanks, Leroy." Axel said as the larger male walked away.

"Whatever, pipsqueak."

Cal ‘Collie’ Thi Lê | 16 | AB- | Male | Visions | Both | Questioning | M: Aries (Dir) + Everyone Else (Ind)

Cal didn’t like it when people lied. It was really hypocritical of him and he knew it. Cal lied too easily. So much so, he hated himself each time he did it. But he had to lie growing up. There was no other option for him. It was hard to get out of the habit of lying once you start. And now? He honestly felt bad for Aries. Terrible really. He just yelled at Aries for lying and he couldn’t even look Aries in the eyes after. It made him feel like shit. There Cal was, blaming Aries for all this stuff that Aries might not even have felt comfortable talking about. Cal just hid his face more into Aries’ back, wishing he could disappear.

It was nice to hear Aries talking at least. It felt more honest this time. More like the real him. Cal was just being paranoid. He knew he was, but was he not allowed to worry? This was one of the closest friends they were talking about! He still couldn’t believe that Aries meant every word. It didn’t feel like Aries was lying that time, but… Collie was still suspicious. Well, not suspicious, more worried. Did he not even realize he was scratching himself that hard? Hard enough to make himself bleed? Cal just had to keep a better eye on Aries now.

Cal had dealt with someone who harmed themselves a lot before. A few people really. Most notably Sarah though. Sarah was Peppy’s on and off girlfriend. Or maybe they were just weird friends. Peppy was the only guy Cal knew who hung out with so many girls anyways. It was always hard to tell with those two. That was besides the point though. The thing he remembered the most about was Sarah always wore sweaters. She wore big bug glasses and was always wearing mix-match socks because she said ‘it just looks interesting.’ She was a year older than Cal yet in the same grade as him because of her being so bad at science. Cal got to tutor her throughout the summer and even occasionally in the school year. Even in the summertime though, she wore her sweaters. Bright yellow sweaters, colorful stripes, and ones with animals sewn onto it. She always seemed so happy. One day, Cal couldn’t help but notice her scratching her sleeves and wrists. He hadn’t noticed before then. The next day and the day after that he kept noticing it. Thinking back on it, long before then he had seen her scratch at her wrists and arms but he never thought much of it. It was peculiar so Cal finally asked her about it. Cal just remembered her bursting into tears at the mention of it. She just sank into the fabric of the sweater, her face covered by her long blonde hair. He had seen most of the girls at his school cry, but he had never seen her. Sarah. She seemed so cheerful. So above it all. Like a badass with a heart of gold. So similar and like minded to Evie if she smiled more or tried to be more optimistic. Cal asked to see her wrists to see what was causing her to itch them so much. She didn’t respond so he just moved her sweater to reveal so many scratches. You would have thought a monster attacked her. Every time they met after that, Cal had to remind her to stop scratching at herself. It was sad. It really was sad to see her in this new light. She hadn’t realized she was even doing it at that point. Cal hadn’t seen her in so long at that point. He wondered if she was even still alive. The worst part was that he actually had to even question if she was still alive.

Cal bit the inside of his cheek and focused back on the situation at hand.

“Don’t apologize…,” Cal mumbled, his voice muffled as he refused to look up from Aries’ back. “I shouldn’t have- I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you. I really shouldn’t have. I am your friend. I am supposed to trust what you say not get mad at your damn words… As for the whole Leroy thing-”

Aries punched Leroy for you so this was your damn stupidity that got E-

“As for the whole Leroy thing,” Cal repeated, this time a bit louder before quieting his voice again, “thank you. I mean it. I really really do. I shouldn’t encourage you to do things like that, but…” Cal smiled slightly despite himself, chuckling quietly under his breath. “I guess it means a lot to me that you cared in some odd, only slightly violent, way. Next time, don’t fuck up with Leroy just for ol’ me.” There he was. The real Cal. The one who made stupid jokes and sly comments. “Leroy ain’t that bad of a guy. Even if acts like a cat’s ass combined with a cow’s fart a lot, it doesn’t mean he is an asshole all the time.”

“As happy as I was talking about ‘friendship rules’ and whatever,” Cal replied to Aries’ last comments, “I would be much happier knowing that you won’t do anything too stupid.” Collie gave a long pause before finally backing away from Aries. Collie went back over to the front of Aries and reached for the doorknob. He stopped himself before he grabbed it though, Cal’s hand hovering just out of reach of the doorknob.

He’ll get himself killed and it will be your fault.

“Can ya promise me now then?” Cal questioned, looking back at him. Cal stayed quiet for a moment as he looked to the door and back to Aries. “Can ya promise me ya won’t do anythin’ stupid? We can leave after that, but… Look, I don’t know why you think you’re unimportant and what not, but yer important to the group. Yer important to me.” Cal held up his pinky, giving a small grin. “You gotta pinky promise me, Aries. That way you can’t break the promise. It’s illegal to break a pinky promise, so yad be a helluva criminal if ya broke it! You’re not as bad as a criminal as me though so I doubt you’d break my promise.”

January 10th, ???? | 10:46-10:51 PM

G.A.F. 'Khorne/Ariethous'/N.R.V. | 16/17 | AB/B+ | Male | Pain Adren/High Intel | Both | C Demi(HML)/Pan | Mentions; The Others(Ind. & Dir.)

Nabih had to look away when Leroy handed Axel the bottle of what he could only assume was some sort of alcohol… He’d looked away quick enough as to not catch too many details. Though, if he had to take guess… He’d guess vodka, the alcohol and the bottle had been clear.

--

“Try not to use the vodka. It's not very effective, and who knows what's in it. Nobody should have left a bottle of alcohol with a first-aid kit, and if you asked for it, they should have carded you or something.”

--

So it was vodka… He bit down on his tongue in the least suspicious way he could. Mostly so he didn’t look over but partly also so that he didn’t correct Tyler. Because while vodka wasn’t as effective as rubbing alcohol- It was still a rather good pick for if there wasn’t any rubbing alcohol due to the high isopropyl concentration.

--

What was really worse though, was the fact that he knew this. The fact that he couldn’t tell them this because then they’d wonder how he knew. And telling them that was not something he was hoping to do. He didn’t even want to lie about it either.

--

Especially if Ariethous was around when they asked- He knew how much that guy hated liars… He’d probably get cursed out and punched, if Ariethous found out he’d lied. Maybe even worse. In fact, he was surprised that Ariethous hadn’t already gotten to him for lying about when the train was leaving… Maybe he was waiting for later? Nabih wasn’t sure, though he definitely wasn’t going to test his luck.

--

It listened quietly as Cal spoke, reacting as instructed with a grain of salt, it wasn’t sure if the voice was making it lie anymore… It didn’t want to lie. It didn’t want to hurt anyone…

--

‘Did it literally just think that?’

--

‘It did. It doesn’t wanna hurt anyone.’

--

‘Like it can actually choose that. It’ll hurt someone eventually.’

--

‘Probably sooner than later. That’s just what it does.’

--

‘Or did it forget?’

--

‘It probably repressed the memories.’

--

‘Ah, how pathetic can it get?’

--

‘Probably way more. This isn’t even its final form for how pathetic it is.’

--

“Can ya promise me now then?”

--

It looked up at Cal. When had he moved? It hadn’t heard him move…

--

“Can ya promise me ya won’t do anythin’ stupid? We can leave after that, but… Look, I don’t know why you think you’re unimportant and what not, but yer important to the group. Yer important to me. You gotta pinky promise me, Aries. That way you can’t break the promise. It’s illegal to break a pinky promise, so yad be a helluva criminal if ya broke it! You’re not as bad as a criminal as me though so I doubt you’d break my promise.”

--

It hesitated, staring between the pinky and Cal. What if it accidentally broke the promise? What counted as stupid?

--

‘You do, idiot tool. Don't make the promise, you’ll fail immediately.’

--

‘Loudmouth didn’t mention anything about it when he was talking about what made everyone smart, so obviously it must be pretty stupid.’

--

It stared, blinking a bit to try and push away the voices… What to do, what to do… “What if it...”

--

And then it paused, hearing its own voice saying what it was… It didn’t know what to do. The word sounded terrible, disgusting, useless, unnecessary, worthless- And the word was it. It, as in itself. It. It couldn’t just go back and change what it had been about to say though… Been about to say about itself… “What if it accidentally breaks?”

--

‘Go back. Clarify. Abort the statement. Make the promise. Foolish tool, why would you- Useless. Clarify the meaning of that statement or else.’

--

“Ya know… What if the promise is accidentally broken? Would ya be angry…?” It still went and wrapped its own pinky around Cal’s, making the promise. It didn’t want to know what the voice could do, would do…

--

‘Text Jacobbbbbbb!’

--

‘Punch a wall!’

--

‘Liarrrrr.’

--

It tried not to react to the voices, pushing them away and waiting for Cal to answer it… It needed to know.

Cal ‘Collie’ Thi Lê | 16 | AB- | Male | Visions | Both | Questioning | M: Everyone (Dir)

“If… you break the promise?” Cal hadn’t thought about that. Cal paused for a moment. What would he do? “Well… I guess I have three options from there. One, I make a shitty attempt to move on despite whatever helluva way you die. Two, I… I die too.” Cal shrugged his shoulders and almost seemed confident with his answer. “The only reason I would have to stay is the group. Even they don’t need or like me that much.” Cal put a dashing smirk on his face to make everything seem lighthearted again as he let go of Aries’s hand. “Three, I will start practicing necromancy to revive your dumbass. How mad I am at you when you get back to the land of the living depends on what you did to die on me.”

Cal opened the door and walked back to the others.

You should have gone back to the others sooner. Are you listening to me?

Pay attention to me, dammit!

As he walked back, everything was blurry. For a moment it was impossible to tell what color everything was. Everything seemed a neon green and blue. Cal just kept blinking in hopes everything would go back to whatever colors they were before. It didn’t. A man in a hat and a black coat brushed passed Cal, bumping into him as Cal barely processed it happened. Cal mumbled out a quiet ‘sorry,’ but- Did he have a knife? No. Cal forced himself to shake his head, things slowly turning back to normal. Is he going to kill me? No. Is he going to hurt the- No! Cal forced his eyes to focus as his head screamed ‘no.’ His eyes were still seeing everything through what felt like a distorted glass when they got back to the others, but it was clear enough to see what the others were doing. And also to see what happened to Ethan.

“What in the hell is happening in this shithole?” Cal asked, his eyes instantly observing the others. The most noticeable things were the vodka and the fact that Ethan was shirtless and covered in scars. They seemed everywhere. Now, Cal was less worried about the more recent wounds he had and more about who ever did that to Ethan. Cal’s head instantly snapped over to Leroy and he stalked over to him, gently grabbing his wrist. For a second, you would have thought Cal was about to punch him. Yay. More drama. Helluva lotta fun.

“I have two damn questions for you,” Cal hissed. Oh, he was pissed. “Who did that to Ethan and how much money does it take to bribe a conductor into turning this train around to go jump whoever the fuck did that?” Cal let go of Leroy and gave a quiet sigh, looking from Ethan to Leroy. Lil’ E. The most sassy yet sweet guy Cal had ever met. Who could have even dared think of doing that to him? Cal paced a few steps one way and then back the other as he thought. Cal ground his teeth before turning back to Leroy. “I am sorry, but…” Cal mumbled a few curses under his breath in Vietnamese. Cal wanted- needed- to calm down, but he couldn’t. This group was just too damn important to him. Cal stopped pacing before turning back to Leroy. “It was that one guy, wasn’t it? Ven? Van? That V-motherfucker. Hell, it don’t matter what his name is because he’ll forget his own name too when I beat him to a lumpy, shitty pulp of pure bags of dicks. ‘Cause he’s a bag of dicks. No! Not even a bag, a fucking vault of dicks!! He’s an… He’s an…” Cal started snapping his fingers. He did this a lot when he forgot the word of something. “He’s an… He’s a lỗ đít! Anh ta là một lỗ đít!!” Cal paused for a moment before the word finally came to him as he threw his arms up in the air. “Asshole! He is an asshole!!”

So angry!~ The others will yell at you for being the asshole in the room now.

Cal was pissed. Incredibly so. He knew Leroy and Nabih and the others would yell at him for being loud so he instinctively went over and hugged Axel with a quiet grumble escaping his lips. Cal loved doing physical stuff with people. Not in the dirty minded way, but more in the slight wrestling, playful hair ruffles, tickle fights, and, of course, hugs. Hugs were just the best. They always calmed him down unless he was really fuming, which only happened when he was off his meds for a long time. Or when the chemicals in his brain acted up or whatever. This rarely happened though. Axel must have felt smothered by Cal. Here this six foot four dude was, hiding his face into Axel like a toddler hiding in it’s toy. If Axel told him to stop, he would immediately, but for now, the hug was greatly appreciated.

Cal shifted his grip on Axel slightly, revealing his face again as he looked at Ethan for a long moment. Cal felt terrible. Even if his anger wasn’t directed towards Lil’ E, the poor guy looked like he had already been through enough today. Cal started tapping gently on the train seat. Anyone observing him must have thought he was crazy, but Ethan knew what he was doing. Morse code. Collie learned in the third grade and basically mastered it at this point. Axel and Ethan had this ‘telepathic’ communication system as Collie called it, however the hell those two talked was well beyond Cal, and everyone else just talked to him. This would be how they communicate.

“Sorry I seemed mad,” Cal’s message started off with. “I was not mad at you. I was- I am- worried about you.” Cal paused for a moment and sighed before starting to tap away on the chair again. “Are you okay? You seem sad. Are you in pain? I can find more sweets.”

Cal let go of Axel after a moment. Cal gave a sigh and a weak smile. “Thanks for saving my spot.” And letting me hug you. And keeping me sane. Cal took a deep breath and prepared for whatever everyone would yell at him for this time. He’d take his pills in a minute, but for now he just wanted to get whatever shitty things they’d say to him out of the way.

They hate you. Good luck dealing with them all.