Just visiting

[Blue Horizon] The dorms. Built into apartment buildings re-purposed as housing units for students. Long narrow hallways and large wooden doors. Numbers and rickety elevators. College students wandering up and down the halls to shared bathrooms in robes with shower caddies. Plain wooden furniture and bunk beds made out of the same simple wooden construction common in every college. The indestructible kind.

Some students were just waking up after wild Saturday night parties. Others were still sleeping, or out running errands. Emily finds the door a ways down one of the hallways. Propped slightly open, in invitation.

[Emily Littleton] It brings back memories of earlier years, before she'd moved out of the (cages) dorms and into an apartment with a passel of roommates. It brings back other memories, too. East Asia. People crammed into livings spaces that Americans would deem inhumane. Perhaps that's why the pardon me she mumbles as she passes one of the shower-minded co-eds in the halls comes out as: Duìbùq&+464;.

She's wearing her winter coat again. The flirtation with spring-weight dresses passed as soon as the near freezing temperatures and hostile weather. On campus it's jeans, and a wool sweater, under that jacket. Then her messenger bag slung across her torso, shoulder to hip, and her hair spiraled back in a neat knot at the nape of her neck. She knocks, twice, on the half-opened door, and pauses a little before gingerly pushing it open.

[Blue Horizon] The girl Em is here to meet is named Kate. Or Katherine McCaffry more properly. But she goes by Kate. Slender, unassuming, short blond hair barely longer than her ears. Petite. She sits at her indestructible desk and seems to be working on school work. One arm held close to her body. Cradled there in her lap.

From the door, the room is a square. Against the right wall is a set of bunk beds. In the corner to the right, at the foot of the beds is a free-standing wardrobe. On the left wall are two desks, spaced apart by a low table with a TV on them. Indestructible wooden furnishing, looking like nothing more than smoothed 2x4's hammered together. Similarly with the chairs.

The girl looks over, and up. "Oh, Emily. Hi..." Where she'd been cheerful and smiling before, she was slightly more withdrawn. Although her stay in the hospital didn't seem to have hurt her much. She starts to get up out of her chair and limps a little on one leg. "Come on in." A wane smile. Her face a little paler than usual, but not much.

[Emily Littleton] "Hi, Kate," Emily says, and there is warmth underlying the oddly-angled accent this time. She's more open with her classmates than the magi she knows, and genuine concern colors her expression when the other girl stands and starts to move toward her.

"Just stay comfortable, please," she says. "I'll find a place to settle," again, gentle. Warmer. Emily moves into the room, and slips her messenger bag strap up and over her head. "Here..." she offers Kate a hand, to help steady her, or help her back to her seat. It's easily offered, and just as easily withdrawn if the girl refuses.

"How are you holding up?" she asks, because it's obvious the blonde is not well.

[Blue Horizon] She smiles. A faint glimmer of warmth coming back to her features. "I'm actually doing okay." She sits back down carefully. Turning her chair a bit away from the door. Towards the desk furthest from the door, which is now empty, with an empty chair. Obviously the roommate's desk. But empty at the moment. She motions to it with up-turned hand.

"They were pretty good at the hospital. Released me pretty quick. They said I'll be fine after a little while. Have rehab and stuff to do, but fine."

[Emily Littleton] "I'm glad to hear it." Emily slides her bag onto the empty desk and takes up residence in one of the indestructible chairs. She doesn't pull anything out of her bag, yet, instead focusing on chatting with Kate a little longer.

"If you need anything, you can give me a call. Even if it's a ride to the grocery or something." This is offered easily, too, as if Emily had some personal knowledge of what it was like to be suddenly less than she had been before. Every little thing takes that much longer, that much more effort. There's a gentleness underlying the offer; it does not imply that Kate necessarily requires help either. Just that it's offered.

Now she slides her laptop and a spiral binder out of her messenger bag, it gives Kate a chance to answer without being scrutinized (but that is incidental [coincidental]), certainly.

[Blue Horizon] She smiles faintly and nods. "Thank you. My boyfriend's being real helpful. He's been bringing me groceries. Walking me to the chow hall." Turning her chair a bit more. She has on loose pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. Em can see a long wound along the girl's arm, going from just above the wrist to just below the elbow, curving up her arm. It's still red, but seems to be healing. Strip of tape hold it loosely closed.

From the earlier limp, Em might surmise there's a wound on her leg too. Shave favors her right leg a little over her left, leaning on it more.

"I appreciate you coming by. I've talked to my professors and they're being real nice about it. Everyone's heard about the accident. They can't believe I was in it. It's like I'm a celebrity." Midwestern accent shining through. Somewhat anxious smile. Lifting a hand to flick hair back out of her eyes. Using her uninjured right arm to do so.

[Emily Littleton] "I'm sure the department would let you take incompletes if you need to," Emily said, with a growing certainy that she would argue with the faculty on Kate's behalf if there was any resisitance at all on that point. Her features pinch a little, concerned, when that red striping on Kate's arm comes into view. It's sympathy, muddled with growing concern.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to talk about it," she starts, pauses purposefully here, then continues, "But it sounds like you've had quite an audience lately."

Her hands fall away from the table, into her own lap. Emily's fingers find her pulse point, let the throb of her own heartbeat echo in her mind. She doesn't reach yet -- mostly because it's an invasion of privacy -- but she's considering, strongly, reaching out with her newfound senses.

[Blue Horizon] She shakes her head, a worried suddenly serious look on her face. "Oh no, I'm not taking incompletes. Worked too hard this semester. I've still got A's." She smiles a little, laughing nervously. "And the hospital stuff is all taken care of." She lowers her head. Brushes another stray lock of hair away from her face. "They were real nice there. This man from the truck? From the company I mean. He came in and said they'd pay for it all." She lets out a quick laugh. "I think they were afraid I'd sue!"

Then, like a woman with a secret, hiding her face a bit. "But I can't discuss what happened there. I signed a contract and stuff. Said I wouldn't say nothing bad about Blue Horizon and they'd pay for my hospital treatment and stuff. They were real nice about it. Even gave me this experimental treatment to clean up my cuts...." Her voice drawling a little. She shyly holds out her arm. The red stripe of the wound there. Held together with tape, but much more cleanly mended than usual. "It's healing real fast, the doctors say."

[Emily Littleton] Emily nods a little, as if she understands completely. And it's possible she does. There's an easy edge to it, too, as she says, "Oh, I understand. My father worked for the Embassy when I was young, so I can imagine it's intimidating to sign something like that."

A pause here, then a gentler smile. "But I also have no connection to the chemical company, or any reason to speak out... if you need to tell someone. I only heard about Blue Horizon because of the spill."

She takes a careful look at Kate's arm when the other one offers it out for inspection, looking deeper than her mundane senses might otherwise be able to reach. It requires Emily to hold fast to the underlying beat of her heartbeat, echoing in the fingertips she keeps pressed against her pulse point. There's no need to hurry this.

And Kate, as a mundane, may or may not sense the Reverence and calm coming off her TA. It's subtle still, building as Emily works her Will more over time.

((Life 1, diff 3))
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 10 (Success x 1 at target 3)

[Emily Littleton] ((Int + Med, dif 6))
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 3, 10 (Failure at target 6)

[Blue Horizon] Kate blushes and looks around a little. She's a girl with a secret, alrighty. And she doesn't seem inclined to easily spill the beans. She glances around for a moment, as though afraid of being caught out. Then laughs nervously, leaning back in her chair. "Well, that gray stuff from the tanker? That stuff was awful scary. I don't think they talked about it much on the news. How it spilled outta there and got on everyone."

And the girl prattles on as Em's perceptions slip from the mundane to the sublime. Reaching into places that humans rarely gain access to. The fundamental patterns of the living things, organisms and beings, that surround them. Seeing them on a level they never could comprehend quite the way Em is right now. Em can see the girl's pattern is damaged. She apparently broke her left left around the shin. And lacerated the skin pretty badly in that area as well. There's the laceration on the girl's arm. Relatively deep as well with what was once pretty bad damage to the body.

But now there's something new there. There's some sort of... inorganic and yet... seemingly bio-soluble.... something... in her wounds. A kind of... hazy fuzzy spot in her scan of the girl's body. A hole, in her life senses, where they register that there should be bone or knitting flesh, and instead pick up something else. Something foreign. Something inanimate. Filling the gaps in flesh and bone. Working with both to knit them together. In some strange way.

[Emily Littleton] The damage to Kate's pattern isn't consistent with HCl burns. Not lacerations that deep, not digging down to scour away the strength (stories) hidden in the girl's bones. She is an Apprentice, but she has seen healthy patterns (Jarod's) and will-weakened ones (her own). Nothing, though, nothing like this. And never the fuzzy places that refuse to come into focus.

Emily blinked a couple times, and resettled herself in her chair. Hopefully it came across that she was surprised by what Kate had said, not that she was concerned about some odd and mystical insight.

"All the news said was that there was a hydrochloric acid spill," Emily confirmed, her voice a little more cautious now. "Was the grey stuff something else, then?" It's a careful, curious question. Maybe Emily just didn't understand. She tried to keep the girl talking in innocuous ways, but the concern came forward whether she bade it or not.

[Blue Horizon] She laughs shyly. "Hydrochloric acid? Yeah, I heard that..." She looks off to the side. "Well, I don't really know. Physics and all. It was kinda nasty. Smelled metallicy..." She trails off. And slides her nails gingerly along either side of the gash. Then blushes, and laughs. "Itches, ya know? But it's healing." She strokes her arm carefully.

"I don't know what that stuff was though." Tilting her head, bangs swaying. "At the hospital they cleaned me up and stuff. The uh.. nurses..." Blushing still. "I had to get a sponge bath or whatever? Gawd, it's so embarrassing. And they took my clothes. Said they were contaminated. But they wiped me with this stuff that they said would neutralize it and bathed me and stuff... So they said I'll be fine."

[Emily Littleton] "I'm always told that the big cuts, breaks, itch when they're healing," Emily says, repeating something often heard from her youth, "So maybe it's a good sign?"

She doesn't tell Kate not to scratch at her arm; the coed likely knows as much already. And Emily tries to keep her concern for the odd inorganic yet synergetic something in the frosh's pattern on the down low. No need to alarm her over what might be a great leap forward in medical technology. These things hadn't been around when Emily had broken bones of her own to mend, so many years ago.

There's a warmer smile here: shared embarassment: understanding. "Hospital is hard on one's dignity," she says, looking down and away herself for a moment. "I'm glad you're alright, though," she says again, this time with a bit more emphasis.

"It sounds like quite the ordeal! And you're already on your feet again and back at your schoolwork. You're pretty resilient, Kate," Emily says, and it's a compliment. Meant to bolster the other girl.

[Blue Horizon] "Yeah, that's what they say..." She trails off. Looks at Em strangely for a moment. Then down at her leg. "Yeah, broke a bone in my leg too..." She glides her nails over her arm for a moment, then cradles it against her again. Part protection. Part shyness. Thinking its ugly perhaps.

"But the men that came to see me were real nice." Her face getting a little light behind it again. "Said they'd okay me for a medical trial another company was doing. This place called Blue Sun Biomedical. Said they're friendly and would hook me up." She laughs nervously. "I'm not supposed to talk about that." Looking away for a moment. "But they gave me a special treatment for my arm and leg. Said it'd help things heal faster. And the doctors say it's working."

Then she leans forward and whispers. "And they said they have another company they work with? Barnes-Leibowicz United Engineering? Said they're doing a lot of neat physics research and stuff. They said they got a transcript of my records and I was doing real well. Said they'd keep a special spot for me when I finish school. Ya know, keep me in mind for a job there. Isn't that great?!" Her eyes lighting up. "So tough these days with the economy and stuff...."

[Emily Littleton] ((Manip + Subt, dif 6))
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 3, 5, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Emily Littleton] The odd look Kate gives Emily gets an odd (confused?) look in response. She winces with the girl admits her leg is broken, and covers quickly with, "Ouch. I broke three of my ribs when I was 16..." Which would be why she knows that broken bones itch (ache [throb]) as they heal. "Anything that makes breaks heal faster is welcome, in my book."

Almost anything. Perhaps not what was floating around in Kate's body, but the sixteen-year-old Emily would have accepted it happily without complaint.

"That sounds like a great opportunity," she adds, about the intership or future position. Emily's excited for her too, or seems to be. "If you need a letter of recommendation, when the time comes, just let me know." There's a broader smile now, only slightly tinged by something else (possibly envy).

Then her brow knits and Emily fishes her phone out of her pocket and stares at it. Types a quick message out and drops it back in her pocket. "Friend of mine," she says, by way of explanation if Kate asks, though the softer set to her features (fondness) implies openly to the other girl that it's likely a bit more than just a friend who's trying to get in touch with Emily.

[Blue Horizon] She smiles. And finally seems to realize she's been blurting out a lot of stuff that she'd said she wouldn't in the contract. She gets a serious look on her face. "Oh, thanks, I appreciate that." Smiling faintly. "Just uh, don't tell anyone what I said, ya know? I don't wanna get in trouble with them. Ruin my chances at a job and all... And they've been so nice to me. I hope nothing bad happens to their company because of the accident. It was that stupid woman's fault. She freaked out on the highway and stopped in front of that truck driver guy. I hope he's alright too."

When Em gets the text, Kate grins a little, knowingly, and glances at the phone. Then at Emily. "Yeah?" A playfulness in her voice. "Got a boyfriend, Emily?" Grinning suddenly.

[Emily Littleton] "I hope you're all okay," Emily says, and it's genuine again. Nothing occulted or gingerly implied. She's glad that everyone's she's heard about so far is more or less recovering. "It sounds like such a mess," she's talking about the incident now, shaking her head a little. "Again, I'm just glad you're okay, and that some good might come out of it after all."

And now a pause. A little look down at her pocket, where the phone is now (Buzzing again [Chuck is insistent] worried), back up to Kate. "Maaybe," it's tentative, but not teasing. "We'll have to see where it goes, but maybe." And now a warm smile, hopeful.

[Blue Horizon] She grins. "Go get 'em girl." And winks at Em. "Oh my god, one of the firefighters that saved me? He was so cute. I mean, I was so hurt and wasn't really thinking about that." Blushing faintly, back tracking. "But afterwards I remembered the guy that pulled me out of my car? He was like, so nice." She grins and straightens up a little. "He was so nice. He stayed with me in the ambulance until I calmed down. Told me his name. I told my boyfriend that if he ever dumps me, I'm going out with that firefighter." She laughs.

Eying Em's phone again. "Ya know, if you got a hot date with your boy..." Trailing off.

[Emily Littleton] Emily laughs too, and it's a lighter thing: resonant and unintentioned. Honest. Her grin broadens and the warmth touches her eyes now.

"It's good to have options!" she agrees with Kate, in a teasing manner as she pulls her phone out of her pocket to check it again. (Next time I'm putting you on silent). She shook her head a bit about the hot date. "I think we're going to grab coffee," she says, which is enough, at their age, to be an official date.

"But if you'd like to meet him," she offers, eyebrow raised, good-natured grin in place, "I can give him a ring. He's good at cheering people up, and not a slouch in physics either," indicating the homework they hadn't touched on just yet.

[Blue Horizon] She laughs and turns sideways a bit. Considering her homework. "No, I think I'll be good. I think I may have some questions about this last homework assignment but I'll e-mail you. I know we kind of got off topic and all..." She readjusts the positions of some books and paper on her desk. Considering. Flipping open her laptop briefly to check all the flashing messages awaiting her on AIM. Then closing it. Turning her attention back to Em.

"But thanks for coming to see me. That was real sweet of you. I don't want to keep you away from your uh... not-a-boyfriend." Smiling.

[Emily Littleton] She pulled the course handouts and notes she'd collected for Kate out of her notebook and handed them over. The course notes are in Emily's own handwriting -- small, perfectly legible and controlled. The hand outs are the professors general sort, and there's a large yellow sticky note with the additonal office hours & sections before the upcoming midterm. Emily's cell phone number is written on it as well.

"Don't fret over it," she says, in that muddled and mixed up accent of hers. Emily's putting her things away, getting ready to go. Standing now. "You can call, too. With coursework, or anything really. Though it sounds like you've got it covered."

A smile now, a subtle glance toward the door. If there's no pressing need to stay, Emily lets Kate get back to her Sunday afternoon. "Be well," she says in parting. There's a little wave, and then the Junior is off on her way, back through the crowded halls and out of the nearly tenament-style housing.