exsiliumlogs | (open) days go by and still i think of you

Entry tags:

(open) days go by and still i think of you

Date & Time: June 4th - 9th
Location: Initiative Hospital
Characters: Collette & Open!
Summary: Shenanigans while ill at the hospital.
Warnings: Hospital gowns, illness, trauma, silliness.

[ June 4th-7th ]

Her fever spikes the most during her first few days in the hospital. Collette hesitated to tell anyone; there was little to do but wait it out, and she was more preoccupied with the coughing when she was awake and aware of her surroundings than she liked.

She's even abstained from using the network that often, having difficulty concentrating on the bright screen.

What she didn't expect took her, and several nurses, and any potential visitors, by surprise. When the fever ran too hot, and her delusions started edging toward frightening territory, Collette reacted.

Once, where there'd been a sick girl, there appeared a crocodile. Mouth opened, it hissed and growled at everything that moved in the room, one lash of its tail taking out the IV pole. The privacy curtain is doomed to be half torn down while Collette isn't taking charge of the reptilian brain: it was one very frightened crocodile reigning over a disheveled hospital bed.

[ June 7th-8th ]

She had the crocodile under control when she found herself having episodes of coming to while morphed golden retriever or coyote, hiding under chairs, or wandering the hall with her hospital gown trailing awkwardly between her legs.

Twice she ended up in the cafeteria. Collette really didn't quite understand how she got there.

[ June 9th: after this ]

On the 9th, the fever broke, but it wasn't something she noticed. Not after everything else that happened after she escaped to the hospital roof.

Collette was shaking from something entirely unrelated to her illness, even if the shivering could have been attributed to it. She was scared to close her eyes, scared of coughing because it left her vulnerable, tired and sick and scared all around.

This, she decides, Takes the award for royal suckage.

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"They've got other stuff. Just depends." She doesn't say more past that, trying to will a tickle of a cough to go away. She takes another sip of water to hold it off, feeling the discomfort as she breathed and wondering if they'd have to do something like pump her lungs.

No, she wasn't bad like that. Not yet, at any rate, even if she'd already had the suction vacuum down her throat twice to get fluid out and make it easier to breathe. She kept pulling off the oxygen they provided, knowing she wasn't in real danger of being unable to get enough air yet.

She thinks of Kelly, and her heart hurts. "Stories," she says at last, "I'd like a story, please."

The land on her shoulder gives a slight squeeze.

"Okay then. What kind of story do you want? A true story? A legend? Something funny or made up?"

He could probably regale her with many different tales, given how long he's lived.

"You can ask me to tell you anything you want. You get a free pass since you're sick."

"Something true," she decides, offering a small smile. "A good story. Something where good people win, or someone's happy." Something about the positive side of things, and better outcomes.

Collette will listen to all sorts of stories, but this is one of the ones she'd like now. "That or something really exciting," she adds in, avoiding laughing to avoid another coughing fit. She huffs her amusement instead, chest near to rattling with the sharp exhalation.

"Something true... where good triumphs. Hmm."

Sadly, Drift can't actually think of something that fits all of those criteria. Most of the time, things that have been true have been... well. They've been true.

Exciting is easy. Exciting is exciting. He folds his arms and rests his head in them on the edge of the bed.

"Hmm. Okay. I'll tell you about Optimus Prime. Well- he wasn't Optimus when I met him. Then he was Orion Pax. But he became the greatest leader our kind had ever known." A story about Optimus is a safe bet. Everybody loves hearing about Optimus.

"When I met him. I was at the bottom of my life. Truly the bottom. My aura was corrupted with self-loathing and negativity. I was addicted to circuit speeders and pretty much anything I could get my hands on. This particular day though, I'd had too much, and I was overloading, on the brink of burnout. What's more is that I'd been found by a couple of local troublemakers who thought they'd make some sport of me, Sonic and Boom. Being paralyzed, I couldn't do anything about it. But that's when he showed up. They called him the Super Cop, he was truly a force to be reckoned with."

He makes a wide gesture.

"Just when I thought I was at the mercy of my assailants, he showed up and just like that, single-handedly took them down and arrested them both! No help whatsoever! Effortlessly. They were like what are you gonna do, arrest us? And he was like I already have, and just. Bam." He's not really good at telling stories.

Collette doesn't mind if he's not much of a storyteller. Watching him move, hearing him speak, all of that is the welcome distraction.

She laughs, settling back against her pillows and resting her water glass in the apex of her thighs. "He sounds like a good guy," she says. "Tell me more about what makes him a good leader, please."

She wants to think about James, and Jake. Her own brother, and all those heroes in the extreme sports she so loved as a form of ultimate escapism. Do the most dangerous things. The worst it can do is kill you. The 'or leave you paralyzed' had never been able to phase her.

"He is," Drift says, smiling warmly. Thinking about Optimus gave him that odd kind of hope that only the Prime could inspire in people.

"Well. He's brave, and wise, and he knows how to motivate people. He always knows just what to say, you know? Have you ever met someone like that? Who knows the exact thing to say in almost any situation? He's incredibly hard to kill, too. I mean, my species is hardy, but he's just. Wow. Yeah."

Drift folds his fingers together as he speaks.

"He always tried to do what he thought was right."

"Did it work out? At least some of the time?" Attempting to do what one thought was right didn't always pan out, but it was a creed to survive by. All his traits, all the rest, makes her think that he might have managed to be right some of the time when it mattered.

Maybe not always, but some of the time, surely.

"I guess that depends on what you mean by 'work out'. If you mean they turned out for the better, some of the time yes. Sometimes no, but everything works out somehow."

Drift shrugs.

"Even the things that didn't go well... we just tried our best. I think that's all he ever wanted. Just our best. I mean. Okay yeah he did want to win the war, but that aside."

"What was it like, after the war ended?" The biggest one, before the next came along. It seemed like wars were cyclical enough in nature. She supposes Caesar's right about that, though saying so was unnecessary. He already knew. Drift had to, too.

That's a loaded question. Drift smiles fleetingly, folding his hands together again and sitting back.

"It wasn't what we expected. Our planet was being destroyed by an extra-dimensional monster and well. We had no choice but to fight together. Megatron never came back, Optimus did. Our planet was reborn and angry, and our neutrals and those who refused to take sides were too." It's not a pretty answer, no. But that's the truth.

"They didn't care about Autobots or Decepticons. Optimus eventually left and half of us went with my uh-. Erstwhile captain, Rodimus. We were looking for the Knights of Cybertron. I think some of them just went with because nobody really knows how to..."

He stops himself, falling back into his practiced smile.

"Heh, sorry. It's kind of complicated, really. Things were strange, we'll leave it at that. I don't think things will be stable for a while, back home."

None of that's comforting to hear. At the same time, it all feels real, and that's probably better in the long run. Life didn't have a lot of neatly tied endings, or Disney fairy tale lives. There were moments, and those were awesome.

Better in thinking on those and the bright side than letting the persistence of the unfair reality drag you down.

She reaches out, patting whatever of Drift she first encounters. "It'll work out one day."

He gives a short laugh, grabbing her hand and squeezing it briefly.

"Oh gosh it's okay. Look at this, I'm the one supposed to be comforting you. You're a very good human, Collette. I hope you realize that. I didn't really have a very good impression of humans until I met you."

Then again, he never really met many younger people. He wonders if maybe this is like that time Bumblebee befriended the little girl who he managed to save from the Decepticons. Collette isn't quite as little, but she's still a kid to him.

She snorts, partly trying to stop herself from laughing and failing. She coughs as a result. Collette manages to nod her head to let him know she heard, and leave herself either agreeing or disagreeing in the middle of her coughing fit. She did think she was a fairly good person, human or otherwise, but most of that pays out as being glad she's not helping Drift rack up a serious of bad experiences.

Spitting out the sputum, Collette cleared her throat and allowed herself to catch her breath. "Thanks," she says at last. Her smile is small and tired, but genuine. "You're a very good cybertronian, too." He had shadows and skeletons to escape, but he could see they were there. It's a starting point.

Her eyes drag close to closed, glad to knwo that she was with people who cared about her. Caesar might not be much of a bodyguard, but Drift definitely was, holomatter form or otherwise. "You'll still be here, if I sleep?" He has been, but she wants the reassurance right now. "It's not bad for you?"

His smile fades, watching her cough like that, concern clouding his features. When she quiets, he relaxes.

"I'd usually argue with you but we'll just say I owe you on that."

His smile returns full force at the question.

"I'll still be right here. Promise. I won't leave you alone. This isn't any trouble for me, Collette. In fact, it's kind of nice. I mean, not nice that you're sick, but hey- we get to spend all this time together, right?"

He nods reassuringly.

"Go to sleep. Nobody is going to hurt you, I won't let them."

If someone attempted to harm her, he'd likely tear them limb from limb at this point.

She nods, a slower movement of her head. "'Kay," she says, and she trusts that he mostly means what he says. It's absurd on some level, to feel safe around someone who's confessed to having hurt so many, and not out of an active will to do so.

But she trusts it. Her eyes start to close, and she also trusts that between her friends, everything will be okay. "Thank you, Drift."

He definitely has the weight of every Autobot, organic, even every Decepticon he's killed hanging from him day and night, sometimes it's easier to forget than others. With Wing here, he's very much reminded more than ever. He's there to help now.

The fact that anyone, especially someone from such a finite species, trusts him enough to let him stand guard... well. After everything that happened, it means a lot.

"Any time," He says, voice quiet as he watches her drift off. He'll stay, waiting by the bed like some worried watchdog.

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(open) days go by and still i think of you

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