unless you're bullet proof || open (with some closed prompts in comments)

[swordandshield]

CHARACTERS: Felix, closed prompts for Kazuma, Finn and Steve, and OTA prompts
LOCATION: various around Ximilia station
DATE: the weeks post-Die is Cast mission
CONTENT: boredom in the infirmary, escaping said infirmary, random tidbits; giving Kazuma his pocketwatch back, training Finn and Steve
WARNINGS: language, whiny bored manchild, maybe mild violence in training

i. we set to survive || infirmary

[Felix barely remembered getting to the infirmary. He was pretty sure someone dragged his limp body through the hallways to get him here after their arrival back on the station. Lucky for everyone involved he didn't have his armor on. Everyone but him actually.

What was done was done. Felix could hardly move to scratch his nose even now that he was back on the station, pumped full of medicine, liquids, magic, and whatever else this place had for healing methods all combined. He hoped they mixed better than meds and alcohol generally did not in his personal experience because otherwise he was not looking forward to his days here.

A week's worth of time. He was stuck in the infirmary recuperating his strength for a full goddamn week. Every second of it was dull and aching and boring when he wasn't flat out sleeping off the pain.]

When can I leave?

[He asked often as if he wasn't still using up all his energy just to lift a glass of water to his mouth. Thank fuck for straws.]

Why are you here?

Fuck. That hurts!

This is the longest time I've spent in an infirmary and I hate it.

Just give me a damn book to read, I don't care what it is.

[Were also common things he said to whoever came too close. He was miserable, bored, and everyone around was damn well going to know it.]

ii. we tread, we rise, on earth can't keep us || hallways from infirmary to rooms

[After a week passed, Felix was ready to get the hell out of the infirmary. Except perhaps his body wasn't quite as ready as his mind would have liked. It took him a few tries to make it off the bed quietly enough not to alert a damn medic or helper. Then it was an effort to make it out of the door without his legs giving out on him.

When he made it into the hallway he felt instant relief--followed quickly by the urge to sit the fuck down. Just slide down the wall and plop his ass on the floor. He somehow managed to resist the urge and put one foot in front of the other. Felix was determined to make it to his room before he passed out. He had walked farther and survived worse than this, he could manage a simple walk down the hall to his quarters. Despite his determination however, his hand stayed against the wall for added support.

And he didn't necessarily make it to his room without being caught. He was easy to spot whenever he stopped to regain some strength every so often, leaned heavily against the wall just to stay upright. Hopefully no one would try to put him back in the infirmary. He was very insistent he just get to his room. He'd be fine after that.]

iii. it's lonely on the other side || common area(s)

[A few more days passed while Felix stayed in his room well away from everyone else. It was nice but Felix was used to social interaction on a near daily basis. He couldn't stay hidden away forever.

When he reemerged he had somehow managed to get his armor on by himself. His swagger returned with the comforting shell of form fitting undersuit and carapace-like outer armor. He no longer limped or held his hand against the wall for support although those with a careful eye might notice he did pause every so often possibly to regain his strength. But the armor hid the rest and supported him with its shape and powered form. It held him in place. He felt better with it around him. He wasn't going to take it back off for a while.

During lunch and super times he could be found in the cafeteria. His helmet was off while he ate, set aside on the table near him. Anyone trying to touch it would get their hand slapped.

In the common area he could sometimes be spotted lounging in a chair with a book in hand. Yes, he did manage to lounge while in his full set of armor. He even managed to look comfortable. Keep him company and he might read a passage from his book out loud for entertainment. It seemed to bring him some calm and comfort to read for an audience.

In the training room the mercenary found out rapidly that his usual work-out routine was still a little bit too much for him. A piece of equipment clattered to the ground angrily as Felix threw it to the ground in frustration one late evening. Even with the armor supporting him he grew tired too fast. He had to take breaks often and reevaluate his routine to suit his current condition. It irritated the hell out of him so he made for a poor exercise partner at the moment.]

iv. wildcard!

[something else you'd like to do? hit me with something! or give me a ping via PM or AisuYoukai for plotting.]

Comments

For Kazuma

[swordandshield]

[Felix knew he had to get rid of this damn pocketwatch before it became real trouble. How he managed to keep it away from the medical staff was simply dumb luck and a miracle but it made it back to the station with him and now he was stuck with it. He had meant to keep it until they'd returned to the Ximilia anyway but hadn't expected to end up in the infirmary for a week upon return. It sucked.

Now that he was back on his feet he needed to get rid of the sentimental item. His armor was too conspicuous just by merely existing here since no one else had anything quite like it. The amount of robots on the station had dwindled considerably as well recently. So Felix determined to make the run without his armor on. Normally just as easily done as said for the professional. It should have been not much different from when Felix took the watch except he hadn't been injured then.

Moving around for too long lengths of time was proving to be a bitch for Felix. He got tired and his body began to ache again much too quickly right now. So he got in easily enough but the excitement and tension from getting this far began to slow the mercenary down. He stumbled once in the unfamiliar room and had to take the time to replace objects back where they belonged. Then he found somewhere to place the pocketwatch where it would be found and pushed his way back out of the room.

There was always a chance the exiting would be more obvious than the entering. He didn't have gear to alert him to presences outside the room. He had hoped for more time but-

Well. Sometimes things didn't always quite align right.

Felix was barely out of the door when he saw movement down the hallway. He froze, put his back to the wall as the door closed beside him, and hoped nothing was noticed as he simply concentrated on breathing and looking less like he was resting his weary body and more like he was lounging casually against the wall for no particular reason.]

[karumic]

[Unluckily for Felix, the person in question is in fact the very guy he's trying to avoid. Kazuma doesn't notice him immediately, as he's distracted with something in a notebook he's holding, and it isn't until he's a few paces from his door that he looks up in a double take and notices Felix, well, there. Conspicuously.]

...Hello.

[It's a little suspicious, but mostly just confused. Felix is one of the last people he'd expect to find just loitering around near his door. Kazuma had filed him into the list of people who mildly got on his nerves for no particular reason, and had assumed the feeling was mutual.]

Is there something you need?

[swordandshield]

No.

[Felix shook his head and then rethought his attempt at looking casual. He let the weariness he felt show through in a low increment, rubbing at his eye like a tired person and taking a deep breath to recenter. He pushed against the wall to right himself but kept his hand against the wall for longer than necessary, using it for support as long as he could.]

I was just heading back to my room to get some more rest.

[It wasn't like anyone had to guess what happened to him during the past mission. It had been on the network for everyone to see. So there was no reason to wonder why he'd need more rest.

He started walking away. As he said, back towards his room. His movements were slow as if lackadaisical but in truth still tired from the exertion. He wasn't lying at least.]

[karumic]

[Kazuma watches Felix suspiciously for a moment, but doesn't say anything. He might not like the guy very much, but it's true that Felix had been through plenty recently--Kazuma has no need to give him a hard time.

So he decides to let it go, and retreats into his room.

It takes a moment to notice that something about it feels faintly off. Some objects seem to not quite be in the exact place that Kazuma left them, but that doesn't have to mean anything; he has his own moments of thoughtlessness. It's odd, but perhaps Kazuma just needs to pay more attention to his surroundings.

Then he sees the pocketwatch, lying innocently on a shelf as if it had always been there.

The thing is, he knows it wasn't. Kazuma very definitely brought it with him to Alydhion, and he'd figured that's where it still was--wherever he'd happen to lose it. It's impossible for it to be back on the station.

Unless, of course, it hadn't been lost at all, but taken and returned. And the most obvious candidate for that is...

Taken by a sudden fury, Kazuma grabs the watch and spins on his heel before he has a chance to have second thoughts. Felix's injuries are to his advantage now--the man is still making his way down the corridor, seemingly unbothered, and it takes very little time for Kazuma to make his angry pursuit.

Maybe he should care that Felix is still injured, but he doesn't. Instead, he grabs the man by the shoulder and shoves him bodily into the wall--hard--and then fists the front of Felix's shirt, holding him there.

Their faces are very close. Kazuma's voice is low and calm, but his eyes are venomous.]

Did you take this?

[swordandshield]

[Felix doesn't even fight the sudden manhandling. In part because he's too weak and tired to really put up much of a convincing fight right now and that pains him on a different level entirely from the actual physical pain of getting shoved against the wall hard. The other part, however, was more a personal decision, a learned reaction from years of experience being thrown around by a much larger, stronger man than himself. He'd learned to ride through the manhandling like a buoy in rough water--his head didn't always stay above water but if he waited it out long enough he'd eventually return to the surface.

The lithe mercenary couldn't say he didn't deserve what he got. Even back home, he'd almost always been the provocateur. It was usually exciting, blood-pumping, fun. He gave as much as he got. But right now it fucking hurt and he wasn't here to have fun. And he knew before he was re-orientated after the spin and capable of focusing on his manhandler who it had to be. Boy sure did have a temper on him, didn't he. Shoulda known that from their time sparring in the training room--that was when it was fun. Not today.

Felix stared at Kazuma with a neutral expression as he blinked his vision back into place and then glanced at the watch in question. He blinked again and gave Kazuma a small twisted smile--one that was not happy or mocking, but entirely sheepish and full of pain. It wasn't hard to put on the act since, in a way, it was true. The concept of being caught put the shame in his eyes and the pain of his injuries made that genuine as well.

He huffed out a timid 'heh' and laid his head back against the wall in defeat.]

Yeah, I did. Back planet side, during the mission.

[Felix didn't even try to lie. There was no point in it at this time.]

For Finn and Steve

[swordandshield]

[Working out was proving to be a huge pain for Felix even after his week of recovery and re-donning his armor for additional support. The armor kept him upright and painless if he added drugs to the med-suite but it didn't get rid of the fatigue as he tried to get back to his regime. It was going to take time before he could get back up to full speed.

Which rankled him like no other thing on board the station right now. Then he realized how much trouble keeping Finn in line would be whenever the teenager began to display tons of misplaced energy from the stress of the mission riding on his shoulders. Felix kept his mouth shut, he wasn't a fucking therapist, but god he needed to find a way to keep the kid from annoying him to death in trying to help too much. That was when the idea hit him: just train the kid into exhaustion.

Except it took very little for Felix to reach his limit and Finn had energy to spare long before that came along in the day. Which meant Felix needed an extra something to add to training to settle the boy down. The solution came one evening when he saw Harrington in the hallways and Felix recalled their first meeting in the sim room. His form had been atrocious with the axe during the last mission but his orc strength had made up for it then. It wouldn't do him any good going forward now that the bonus was missing. So Felix invited Steve to train alongside Finn while the mercenary finished recovering from his injuries. Two little birdies, one well thrown knife.

So there he finally stood one evening with two kids in front of him attempting to keep his cool as they mostly chatted instead of practicing the last move he taught them. What a brilliant idea he had had. This was working out so well for him.

Well. At least he could relax against the nearest equipment for a sec while he recovered enough strength to yell at the young adults again.]

Are you two even trying?!

[He finally snapped.]

[heroooic]

[ Finn - thrilled as he was to be training with Felix, and even more thrilled when Steve had been added to the mix - had a hard time keeping his eye on the prize in this environment. The low stakes of a simulation or training excel use had always paled in his eye compared to simply learning as he went. But the whole point of shadowing Felix was to learn a more disciplined way of fighting, something he could apply to his experience in the field. He had to remember that.

When Felix snaps at them, he shuts his mouth, stifling the last of a laugh. ]

Yeah, we’re getting it. See? [He shifts into the stance that Felix had been drilling him on; it was starting to become more natural, especially when his instructor had a perfectionist streak that never let him get away with being so much as a hair out of position. He grins confidently.] Come at me, Steve. I think I can take you.

[spikedbats]

[ Apparently you can take the boy out of Hawkins but you can't take the Hawkins out of the boy, because Steve, who had up until now been perfectly fine training with Finn, as ridiculous as it had felt in the moment, is now feeling super self conscious with an audience of Felix. A very judgment audience at the sounds of it.

He flinches at Felix's snapping, trying not to think too much of what that reminds him of, and focuses on Finn. At least it's Finn he's training with, right? And thank Christ for that, because he doesn't think he would last long with anyone else. At least not before he snapped right back.

But Finn is placating, and Steve relaxes his metaphorical ruffled feathers, keeping his focus on Finn and Finn alone.

He nods his head, letting his lips turn upwards into an easy smile. ] I don't doubt that. [ It comes out a bit muffled, though Felix probably has no trouble hearing it. But after a moment's hesitation, he does charge, trying to heed at least some of Felix's instructions.

Even if he is maybe a little more distracted than usual. ]

[swordandshield]

[Felix kept his distance as he watched the two start another sparring session. Finn had experience with weird encounters and, apparently, fighting monsters back home but lacked formal training. Steve wasn't much better off but Felix could tell the young man had been in a street brawl or two back home. He fought like a kid with something to prove. Felix knew because Felix had been there in his youth. Memories he didn't think about, ever, and kept it that way.

He focused on the two kids fighting one another. Finn was getting better at precision, the perfected fighting stance and repetitious basic punch and kick training beginning to pay off. Even when the teenager busted out an informal move like he used back home the payout was getting better simply by the adjacent practice unconsciously maneuvering his limbs into better positions. Felix would be more impressed if the kid didn't remind him of himself trying to show off so much. The improvisation would be fine if Finn didn't get the giggles every time he did something impressive and then immediately do something less impressive--like get his ass kicked, literally, from letting his guard down.

That may have not been as much an issue with Finn fighting Steve right now though. Steve's low remark wasn't without knowing truth behind it. The young adult knew what he was about but that just made Felix cringe more as he watched. The older of the two simply had less experience but Felix recalled that Harrington was quick to learn so he knew what to do next. He let them finish a small bout first though to look for more insight on where to begin.]

Infirmary

[bindsthedead]

[Magically inflicted injuries tended to be nastier than those inflicted by mundane means, and serious injuries take time to heal, even with magic.

All this means that Felix is staying in the infirmary for a while, and Sabriel has had to heal him repeatedly, recasting the same spell every time it wears off, and put up with him in the process.]

Here- read this.

[It's a book from one of the supply dumps- an etiquette textbook, describing the proper use of more utensils than anyone could reasonably use in one lifetime.]

Or I could just use a sleep spell on you again.

[swordandshield]

[Felix took the book with uncharacteristic enthusiasm--which unfortunately faded the moment he got his eyes on the title. He frowned in disappointment and a little annoyance. He knew what he said but yeesh this was going to be a hard one to swallow.

He looked up at Sabriel over the cover of the book.]

I'm sure this will do the trick on its own, thanks, but I'll keep the spell in mind.

[Who needed a sleep spell when you had 358 pages of etiquette to read?]

[bindsthedead]

I'm sure the diagrams will keep you entertained. [Is she serious? No, she is not, but after listening to Felix complain so much, she had to get revenge in some small, petty way, and using magic to get him to shut up is probably going too far.]

Everyone's trying to get you well as soon as possible But the magic that harmed you was extremely powerful, and recovery will take time.

[swordandshield]

[The bonus to using the sleep spell on Felix definitely outweighed the moral dilemma of how petty it was to do so in order to stop him from complaining. His mouth was hard to shut up on a good day and on a bad day it was impossible or the silence that emanated from him was both depressing and a little scary. When he wasn't being a jerk there was an intensity to him that spoke of something serious and deadly in his past. The war, no doubt, that he had mentioned to Sabriel once or twice.

The topic of the book's subject matter was less entertaining for Felix so much as a good excuse for him to use sarcasm liberally.]

I'm sure they will. Immensely. To the point of pure joy.

[The joke was on both of them though: he would probably end up reading a majority of the damn thing simply out of boredom. It wouldn't keep him happy though.

He sighed heavily at her last statement, a huff of annoyed air that passed out of his lips as above his eyes rolled into his head. She was trying, and intellectually he understood that, and he didn't entirely hate her, but-]

Yeah, I know. I get it. That shit fucked me up real good. And you're all doing a wonderful job of pumping me full of whatever works... but damn if I haven't been knocked down for this long of time in a long time. It sucks.

And not to say it for the billionth time but, hey, it's boring being cooped up like this.

training room

[deaddrop]

[Natasha approaches with a deliberately relaxed posture, arms at her side, thumbs tucked into the waistband of her workout pants—while it would be naive to assume she's completely unarmed, there's no visible weapons ready to reveal, and she doesn't look like she's planning to ask for a spar.

She she greets him with a lift of her chin, a sort of nod of recognition.]

Not that I have much room to judge, mind you, but I hear the whole recovery thing works better if you actually rest.

[Her tone is wry, but eminently reasonable.]

So they always tell me, at least.

[swordandshield]

[Felix held his hands at his sides and at the remark they balled into fists. But a moment later its seemed he let out a breath and his hands relaxed. The armored man turned around to face Natasha, his posture lax.]

I rested for a week in the infirmary. I've had enough rest.

[His voice was bitter but (mostly) without bite.]

I need to do something.

[deaddrop]

From here it looks like you did something. That's a start.

[It's always easier on this side of the recovery though, isn't it? Natasha isn't exactly a fan of down time either.]

Maybe a good time for a breather. That's something too.

[swordandshield]

[Felix scoffed at her words. She was being diplomatic but all he heard was criticism and his own weakness being pointed out to him. The tension rose in his voice despite obviously trying to hold his patience.]

That's just another word for resting.

[He accused her with a helmeted stare that, despite the covered face, still somehow conveyed the expression by the angle of his head.]

[locumstudentesquire]

[Ryunosuke is no fan of hospitals himself, so in many ways, he can sympathize with Felix's plight. However... the amount of complaining this guy is doing? It's making him wish he was still sedated.

He's hardly in the mood to be confrontational, though, so he just suffers through it. Doing his best to focus on literally anything else. That mostly works, up until his noisy neighbor is actually asking him a question directly.

'Why is he here...?' What, the bandages all over his body that are patching up multiple lacerations aren't enough of an answer?]

...Ah. Um...

[He stiffly lifts his oneA arm, which is in particularly bad shape.]

Dremnin bite.

[Well. More like a dremnin mauling, but. He's not really about playing up his own suffering for the sake of garnering sympathy or looking tough, or whatever.]

[swordandshield]

[Felix winced in...sort of sympathy at the answer. A bite from one of those nasty dremnin beasts. Felix recalled that the group was told the creatures were highly poisonous when they first entered battle with them. The mercenary had mostly avoided fighting them as he'd moved through the battlefield on his way to the ruins. Though from what he remembered from the few that had spotted him they were strong, tenacious monsters that were troublesome to defeat.

He tilted his head to one side as he considered the younger man in the infirmary alongside him.]

That couldn't have been fun. When'd you get taken out: early on or late fight? They had poison, right? Did that effect you? Did it make it worse?

[locumstudentesquire]

Er... Mid... Fight? I suppose? [He wasn't really keeping track.] And, yes. They do very much have poison. [Huff.] The pain it causes is... Significant? I'll just leave it at that.

[Ryunosuke shifts his position slightly, wincing as he does.]

Even with the antidote it's still managing to cause me some lingering pain...

[swordandshield]

[Better than the beginning of the fight so Felix took that into consideration in his judgement of the weak kid. Which didn't really change much but that was Felix's disposition for you.]

...I can imagine. [He didn't know how the poison felt but lingering pain was how he felt with the orb's attack on him, too.] We were warned it was death to be bitten by them so I guess you're lucky you're not dead.

How did the fight go before then? You get any hits on the dragon?

[Because by god Felix wished he had been able to hit the dragon at least once. Or a few dozen times. With his daggers. Right in the face. As lethal as possible.]

wildcard

[heyciri]

( She's not good at staying still, and short as the time is meant to be on station before they're sent on what will be her first mission, she still can't keep herself contained. In no small part because the station is too contained, the dark outside the windows not the balm of a cold, quiet night, but an emptiness more cold and vast than she's comfortable navigating. The stars don't have any reassuring twinkles, and what points of light she makes out through staring provide no familiarity, just the illusion of some light caught down in a dark valley before the one who carried the torch vanished behind an unseen landmark.

Which makes her warily curious about her 'crew' as it were, and the conversations over the strange earpiece. She adapts to it quickly, the concept of thought communication all too understandable. The text is disorienting, when it flashes across her vision, but even that she's learning to both read and ignore to some extent.

What catches her attention in this moment ends up being a form of weapon unfamiliar to her. Guns don't have a real equivalent in her world, at least not in a form she recognises when she observes what is visibly a target practise session from near the entrance of the training area. It's not an intentional shadowing before speaking, but an awareness that interrupting is rude, and curiosity can wait. If it'll ever get addressed anyway.

When she gets the chance, she'll speak out: )

What kind of weapon is that?

[swordandshield]

[Felix made it look easy. He was a sharpshooter during the war and his skills had not diminished over the years as a mercenary. He often set up multiple targets for himself at different angles and distances to fire upon and frequently switched targets mid-burst firing as he practiced. Most of his shots hit center of mass, and the ones that didn't hit as headshots instead. None of them missed, not even when he switched targets quickly.

Of course, he thought this sort of practice was too easy. He'd much prefer a moving target, especially one that was living. Less predictable, more challenging.

He was putting away his pistol and getting ready to clean up the range for the next person when he heard Ciri come up behind him and ask her question. Why was he not surprised there was yet another "ancient history" crew member added to the roster that had no idea how modern technology worked? He turned around to explain listlessly and paused before the first word even got out of his mouth.

Not only someone without knowledge of modern weaponry but another kid? What kind of sick game did this Orb like to play? Even Felix was disgusted by it. What kind of dumb regrets could these kids actually have anyway? He suppressed a sigh and instead straightened up his spine in attentiveness. He showed her his piece: a military efficient hand pistol that was light-weight and compact but with a decent kick. The perfect side piece when a soldier got really desperate or wanted to save ammunition for something more worthwhile.]

It's a type of gun. Specifically this one here is a pistol. To be exact- [He cut himself off and shook his head.] Nevermind, I don't want to overwhelm you with useless information.

But here's the cinch: there are many types of guns but the essence of it is that it's a weapon that fires projectiles or directed energy or something deadly at an enemy at high speeds that can either rip the enemy to shreds or vaporize whatever it touches. It uses technology, not magic, to operate and it's fairly easy for anyone to use. It takes practice to get good, but all you essentially have to do is pull the trigger.

[heyciri]

( Pointedly, she keeps her distance, enough that it's likely she's thinking about his reach and her own reaction speeds. Her eyes are fine, as far as she's concerned, so watching him handle his odd weapon from where she does gives her... well. A view on it.

Then he starts speaking, and she pays attention, even if she agrees: largely, it's still useless information, because she has no context for it. A projectile weapon was apparent, from the last of what she'd seen. The force of its impact is surprising, based on what he says. She hardly sees why he needs to clarify that it uses technology, not magic, but then again it's not like she detects specifics of that anyway. Just that she's more used to technology than magic, whatever it is that she knows Yennefer did at Sodden. Whatever she can, in theory, do, which requires nothing outside of herself to shred or vaporize whatever she doesn't even have to touch.

It leaves her stomach vaguely upset, and she nods. )

More like a crossbow than a longbow in that sense.

( Winch it back, pull the trigger, there goes the bolt. She'd not done much of anything with either, but she knows of them, because no one is the granddaughter of her grandmother and remains unaware of the weapons of war. )

Its... what did you call what it shot? The things it shoots, how difficult are they to make? And isn't it possible to use magic with it?

( He was a bit too emphatic about the not magic. She doesn't smile, but if he has a read on teens, he can suss out she's definitely... absolutely... being a touch sassy about that, specifically. )

[swordandshield]

Yep, that's the idea behind it.

[More like a crossbow than a longbow, indeed. It simply got more complex and deadly as the years passed. Details weren't really needed to operate it, thankfully.]

Bullets. The ammunition for a gun is called a bullet. Making your own bullets is...feasible. Not sure if you'd consider it hard or not, but you'll need to be able to shape metal and you'd need a supply of gunpowder.

[He'd never really tried to make his own ammunition although he knew the concept behind it. He knew enough about guns and how they worked to customize or make his own from scratch if he really wanted to put in the effort. He wasn't really the type though. He barely got around to taking care of his gear here on the Ximilia--wasn't too used to someone else doing it for him. He knew how, had it ingrained into him while in the navy, but years as a mercenary had given him room to grow complacent.

An idiot move and he knew it, but some things just couldn't be helped.

He frowned slightly at her question and thought about how to answer before he straight up dismissed the idea as ludicrous and insulting. He still hated magic. But at this point it had saved his life practically two times (and almost took it the once) so he had to give it some merit. He still gave her a look for the sass though. He'd gotten enough of that over the past month or so from his time with Finn to recognize it when he saw it.]

...Maybe. I don't do magic so I wouldn't know how that would work. Seems redundant? The bullet does enough damage on its own.