2.17 - Text + Voice

[breakingmyheart]

[Warden Filter; text]

Jesse's fallen into a coma.

We're both in his cabin. Level 7, room 6.

I'll stay with him until someone brings a stretcher from the Infirmary.

[Private to Derek; voice]

[This comes a bit later.]

Hi.

Ah -

I've been thinking. About - what we talked about.

Comments

Spam

[smilederek]

[Derek makes a sound, a soft exhale that's almost laughter but not quite.]

At your true strength, bullet wounds would heal in seconds now. Your body would repair itself almost instantly.

[He touches the bite, ginger and cautious. Not wanting to hurt her more.]

You'll see it with this. Being here has weakened it a little, but I still feel it.

Spam

[breakingmyheart]

[Toshiko draws in a breath suddenly at the contact - more shock than pain. She's starting to go a little lightheaded but she can't pinpoint an exact reason, she just feels...strange, everywhere.]

What's going to happen to me...? I mean...there's no moon here.

[And there's no way to delicately ask under what circumstances she's likely to turn into a wolf person. Or a wolf. She really should have gotten clarity on these issues before the bite.]

Spam

[smilederek]

You can still change without it, but without the moon it'll be easier for you to keep control over yourself.

[Derek keeps his voice low and reassuring, they probably should have talked about this before he gave her the bite, but Derek's not great at talking. This makes it easier.]

When you're angry, when you're afraid, when your adrenaline runs high? That's when you'll change, until you learn to control it. The full moon makes the wolf stronger. It agitates your instincts and your hungers, until it can be hard to think. Without it, everything should come easier for you.

Spam

[breakingmyheart]

[She chews on her bottom lip for a few seconds. Toshiko's felt angry and afraid for weeks, even if it's just been on a low boil; she hasn't so much as raised her voice since the first time she talked to Jesse. Her adrenaline hasn't got a look-in for a long time, though.]

And you can teach me that? To control it?

Spam

[smilederek]

Yes.

[But he won't yet, because she's not got the first flushes of the change yet, and he doesn't want to overload her yet.]

Spam

[breakingmyheart]

Good. I don't...

[Yeah, her legs are going out from under her now, and she sits down heavily on the sofa.]

I don't want to hurt anyone else.

Spam

[smilederek]

You won't.

[Derek sinks with her, down to his knees beside the couch, staying close.]

I won't let you. We'll be there for each other from now on, all right?

Spam

[breakingmyheart]

Yes.

[There for each other. It's an immediate sense of connectedness, and she hasn't felt it for so long - not love or desire but the sense of being genuinely relied on, of being a part of something, of mattering.

Her eyelids are fluttering and every time they close it takes a little more effort to reopen them. She feels simultaneously energised and drained, like the combined exhaustion and adrenaline after a sudden sprint.]

We will.

[It becomes more than she can do to keep her eyes open, and already the paranoia that should accompany being vulnerable to a virtual stranger is being swallowed up by something else, an instinct that Derek isn't a stranger any more.

Everything blurs and then goes dark.]