Looking for...

[Christina Ann Robins]

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"It's in the dead silence that the pin's dropping feels the loudest."

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"...River?" Robin just had now realized how late in the night it was. Pitch black outside, the stars seeming dim, and the corridors empty of all signs of life. Eventually, Robin had managed to half limp/walk herself and half drag/walk Kin over to the Galatia Dorms.

Slowly, hoping the creaky door wouldn't wake anyone across the hall-- Robin eased the door to Robin and River's shared dorm open, wincing at the loud squeak it created. "...River...?" Robin whispered again, into the darkness-- hoping by some miracle that the girl was still awake at 2:30 am and she wouldn't have to wake the brunette up. Slowly, Robin walked into the room, gesturing for Kin to follow; slowly eying the interior.

[River Tam]

**follow the voices**

’RUN, RIVER, RUN! THE POPTART MONSTER WILL EAT YOUR SOUL! HIT IT IN THE KNEECAPS!’ What? That makes no sense, you say? Well… It’s a dream. It’s not supposed to make sense. Just be glad it’s not a nightmare again. Dream-River bits the giant strawberry poptart in the knee, hearing, instead of the crunch she was anticipating, a sound more like a creak. And then… Her name?

“Brmmzzz, lemme alone, Poptart…” she grumbles, cracking one eye open just the tiniest bit. Instead of pink frosting, a person slowly comes into focus. “Hey… What happened to the Poptart Monster?” she asks Robin, utterly confused.

[Kinkade Cymir Malixi]

KINKADE
_{personal pronouns
are the death of me
see, i just said me.
you're an endless
sea of vanities.}

Normally, this would have been a momentous occasion. Not only was he sorta-kinda breaking rules by being in the girl's dorm area, he was now being led into a girl's dorm, by a girl. Awesome. It was even the dorm of two of his good friends; there would have been pride at that. Pride at being able to see the inside of a girl's dorm, and pride at being able to see where Robin stayed when she wasn't sleeping on the roof with him. And, normally he would have found it simply hilarious that River, of all people, was talking about a poptart monster. First of all, poptarts were too delicious to be monsters. Kin, however, didn't seem to think of any of that.

"There are no poptarts. Just Robin and I.

[/color]"Kin murmured, same calm tone from before. Hey, at least he was being helpful! Sort of.[/center][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[River Tam]

**follow the voices**

Oh. Actual people. Now that she’s waking up, the idea of a poptart monster seems ridiculously absurd. She rolls over and squints at her clock. 2:30 in the morning. What in the world were they doing up at two AM? And what was Kin even doing in the girl’s dorm? And what’s that smell? Sharp, clean... Like… Hospital!

“Mon dieu!” she exclaims, pressing a hand against her nose to hide the scent as she pulls herself into a sitting position, leaning against the wall behind her. The smell brings back memories, all of them bad. She can’t let them overwhelm her. “What in the world are you doing running in here at 2:30 AM smelling like antiseptic?! And why are you even here?!” she asks, aiming the last bit at Kinkade. It’s against the rules for him to be here. If a teacher found out, they were all in for it.

[Kinkade Cymir Malixi]

KINKADE
_{personal pronouns
are the death of me
see, i just said me.
you're an endless
sea of vanities.}

(Sorry! Couldn't resist...)

Kinkade wasn't startled by the reaction like he should have been. He just watched her, uninterested, unfazed, even by the words that were strikingly foreign. Somewhere he knew this reaction made sense. Her being scared, that is. Why... it didn't really matter, though. Not now. If it made sense, it was nothing to worry about. When she asked what he was doing in here, Kinkade didn't have an answer. So, he shrugged passively in response. By the sound of her voice, she wasn't exactly thrilled to see him. Oh well.

"I'll leave.

[/color]"Kin stated. Not angry, not annoyed, not anything. Just, well, fact. And truthfully, he didn't mind as he turned and began walking toward the door he'd entered in. Where he planned on going, though, was a mystery. That is to say, he didn't know.[/center][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[River Tam]

**follow the voices**

Great. Disturbing her dreams about poptarts to leave her room. River sighs.

“No, Kin. You’re gong to stay here and tell me exactly why you’re acting all weird and smell like you’ve been in a hospital.” She swings her legs out from under the covers and snags a black jacket from the top of her dresser, resigning herself to the fact that she’s not going to get any more sleep now. River shoves her arms through the sleeves and zips the hoodie halfway up. It’s suddenly very cold to in the room, though River’s sure it’s just her imagination playing tricks on her.

[Christina Ann Robins]

( MY iPad got confiscated... sorry... heheheh. But the poptart thing was funny: lol. Heh. L.O.L. Sorry. Here I go)

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"Oh, morphine. You make the best of us crumble."

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Robin watched silently as Kin simply stared and told River he was going to leave. Goose-bumps riddled up her arm, and there was nothing but worry in her eye as the moonlight projected through the window and bounced off of them.This wasn't right, this wasn't right... "He's been acting weird, very, very, weird. I didn't know what to do, I didn't trust anyone there in that infirmary-- so I brought him here, to you, River."

Robin supposed that since River had the special ability she did, she at least knew something about medical-terminology-- maybe she could tell them if Kin had been injected with something lethal or whatever, and why he was acting as if his hypothetical puppy had just died. Plus, it was highly unlikely that River would have anything to do with the infirmary branch-- the girl would probably never enter a place smelling like antiseptic to save her life.

[River Tam]

**follow the voices**

Finally. Someone with an ounce of sense. Not that River doesn’t make sense, usually, but she just needs to know what’s going on. If she knows what the doctors gave him, then she’ll know exactly what’s wrong. But, then again, that’s probably what Robin doesn’t know. She hopes she’ll be able to find out based solely on symptoms, and the small scanner-ma-bobber she has-- and a flashlight!-- since those are the only ‘medical supplies’ she has. There’s no way she’s going back into a hospital. Well, maybe if Kin’s whateveritis is bad enough, she might be able to sneak the three of them. Not for long, mind you, but long enough to use real equipment. Just so long as no one’s operating on River.

“Okay, Robin. Start from the beginning.” she sighs, “Why were you in the infirmary? What medicines did you take? Any food? Water? New scars suddenly appearing? I want EVERY detail. It could be the difference between this-“ She gestures to Kinkade. “-and the Kins we all know and love.

[Kinkade Cymir Malixi]

KINKADE
_{personal pronouns
are the death of me
see, i just said me.
you're an endless
sea of vanities.}

Okay, whatever she wanted. He certainly wasn't going to argue. Kinkade stopped and turned back around, now a good two steps behind Robin as he watched River.

"I'm not weird.

[/color]"Kinkade corrected. Still, no real defining emotion there. He didn't seem to realize they both said he was acting weird, nor did he know, quite honestly, how to answer her second question. But he tried, after a few second pause.

"We jumped off a roof.[/color]"Kinkade murmured. "This one.[/color]" If Kinkade could have told her when, he would have. But he hardly knew what time it was, much less the day or even the day it had happened, had he been given the current day to count. Time was, well, beyond him even when everything was fine. Not that it mattered; Shi kept track. Not just of time, but of, well, everything. Briefly he did wonder how long it'd been since he saw his dad. But like most things, it just didn't matter after a few seconds. The real tragedy here seemed to be that he was missing the necessary pride that went along with being told they 'knew and loved him'. If he remembered this later, they were never living it down, either of them.[/center][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Christina Ann Robins]

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Happiness is like a cat, If you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you; it will never come. But if you pay not attention to it and go about your business, you'll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap.

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If Robin had managed to get in a word in-- she probably would've been a little more subtle. Like, We woke up in the hospital, after we-- yeah, actually-- Robin probably would've said it like that too. But she didn't because she was more distracted trying to stop herself from saying, 'Well, it all started on a lonely, snowy, night-- December 15th, 1996-- we're I was born...'

Biting her tongue, Robin nodded, trying not to smile, definitely not the time. Instead, she nodded-- looking somewhat embarrassed. "It sounded like a good idea like the time, and there was a pool underneath! It's not like we tried to jump onto solid concrete..." Though it felt like it.

(Heh. That quote was entirely for your benefit, Dawn. I know you love cats. :3)

[River Tam]

(New power time! Postcognition.)

**follow the voices**

She closes her eyes as a picture swims into focus. It’s hazy, but it looks like Robin and Kin in a hospital… And there was a woman there… She gave them small, white pills… What? It looks so real… Maybe, just maybe.

“What pills did you take?” she demands, not particularly caring who answers. “Who gave them to you?” It might have been something in the pills that made Kin go all loopy, though River doubts it. She has to know. She reaches into her jacket pocket, feeling for the lump of the blood tester she had taken from one of the times she followed Simon to med school. She doesn’t know why she took it. It was just so shiny, so pretty… But she has it, and that’s all that matters.

She looks down at the screen. And, of course, it’s dead. Not just out of batteries, either-- she can see the water trapped under the screen. Great, just great. She might have to take the two of them into the infirmary, use one of their fancy machines, and swap her blood tester for one of theirs. But before that, she has to know what pills the two of them took. If they can tell her, great, if not… The machine will figure it out.

[Kinkade Cymir Malixi]

KINKADE
_{personal pronouns
are the death of me
see, i just said me.
you're an endless
sea of vanities.}

Good idea... Why was it a good idea... He knew this one!

"Shiloh didn't see us, so it was a good idea.

[/color]"he murmured, before adding,"We did land in the water.[/color]" River probably gathered that much, but Kin didn't seem to realize that. To her next question, Kin lifted his fingers, showing her three.

"We took three pills.[/color]"Kin stated in explanation. He couldn't remember much about them, especially not now, but there were were three. One, two, three. He'd put all three in his mouth and swallowed them quickly. "And... they worked fast. Really fast. Robin didn't want to take them. They put us to sleep.[/color]" Kin's gaze had shifted to the floor. For a moment, he looked a little bit thoughtful. It still didn't answer her question, but it might help.[/center][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Christina Ann Robins]

Robin cringed, squeezing her eyes shut. She had nearly forgotten, the horrible, horrible feeling of the numbing spreading all up her legs, her spine collapsing from under her, the terrible pain in her chest.

Angry sparks flew off the tips of Robin's fingers-- how could those people call themselves doctors? How could they work in a school? Finally, she looked up at River, eyes gleaming in the moonlight from the window. "They were similar to pills my mother took when she was sick. Very strong sleeping pills. But I don't think... I don't think they were exactly the same-- just similar. They were all different sizes and colors. They smelled weird too. "

[River Tam]

**follow the voices**

River scowls. Neither of them know. Woo to the hoo.

“Right.” she says, clapping her hands together, just as another image floats over the one of reality. She closes her eyes, feeling very, very dizzy, and looks at the picture. A man is hunched over Robin, her hand covered by his. Her eyes fly open, and she fights the urge to hurl as reality mixes with the picture in her head.

“Robin.” she says huskily. “Give me your hand. The right one.” She slides her flashlight out of her pocket, even though it’s already bright in the room, flicks it on, and slides it between her front teeth. She has a feeling she’ll need both hands for manipulating Robin’s hand to see the scar she’s hoping isn’t there.

[Christina Ann Robins]

Great, now something was wrong with River too? The girl looked pale, even in the odd lighting off the room. Will I soon be the only normal one left? Suddenly, it registered in Robin's head that River had asked to to extend her right hand.

What? Why? Robin had wanted to wail. The shear worry and light-headiness that had pulsed from River set the other girl on edge. Slowly, never loosening her gaze on River, Robin gave a small hop/step forward, feeling goose-bumps raise the hair on her arms. The blond leaned forward extending her hand out to River, biting her bottom lip-- suddenly feeling an urge to offer an explanation to an unknown question "If you're wondering why it looks different from my other it's because I use that hand to release my life-force, no other reason-- honest!"