Participants:
| Scene Title | L for Losers |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Daphne, Kendall and Delilah get worse, and the Den gets a new patient. |
| Date | March 23, 2010 |
"The Den" is a cover name for a Ferrymen safehouse based out of Roosevelt Island. The structure is an expanded basement beneath the Butcher's Fancy located just across the street from the Summer Meadows development on the south side of Roosevelt Island.
Beneath the floorboards of the butcher shop, the Den sprawls out as a surprisingly large underground complex comprising more than just a single building's basement. The basement of an adjacent tenement building under management by the same owner as the butcher shop is compiled into the same structure. The entry point of the Den is a large hall with an eight foot ceiling and industrial spiral staircase descending from the back stock room of the butcher's shop above. This room is decorated with old patched up sofas, a single television and a few old bookshelves stacked with records and an old fashioned turn table. Speakers for the turntable flank the couch, but the left most one is always cutting out.
Adjacent to this hall is a storage room containing non-perishable foods stacked in cans and jars on old wooden shelves as well as a small armory consisting of typically no more than five or six bolt-action rifles and boxes of ammunition and a pair of handguns, necessary in case the safehouse were ever overrun.
Opposite of the storage room is a wide doorway in the concrete that leads into an eight foot long earth and board tunnel lined with hanging construction lamps that connects to the basement of the adjacent tenement building. It's this tenement building that serves as residence for some of the safehouse's tenants. The basement itself contains a boiler, furnace and work-bench with tools, along with stacks of old newspapers and magazines in cardboard boxes. Stairs here lead up to the ground floor of the two-story tenement building, which was condemned by the town in 2008. The front doors are bolted shut and do not provide entrance, which is why the basement access was created to keep outside appearances.
All of the exterior windows of the condemned two-story building are shuddered and covered with weatherproof plastic to keep in heat, while only the ground floor has any working radiators. The tenement building itself looks like it may have been little more than a halfway house before it was condemned. Small rooms consisting of little more than a single mattress on the floor are barely large enough to be considered full bedrooms. The ground floor features the only working bathroom, as well as a communal kitchen and dining room. The second floor is largely vacant, due to the poor stability of the flooring and lack of any furnishings in the remaining rooms.
At night, no lights are allowed in the tenement building, to give it the presence of abandonment.
Time has little meaning in this little room, except that one can tell it's night because lights are not allowed, and one can tell it's day because of the gloomy light that creeps in from the windows. It's late afternoon, so that light is beginning to fade — bad news for those who might be using the light for reading, like Delilah is wont to do — for Daphne, it's just a way to tell how many days have come and gone — and how many days she has been a cripple once more.
The speedster, who seems to go from sweltering to shivering at the drop of a hat, is currently in the latter mode; she's curled up in ball, teeth chattering despite her sweat-beaded head. Now and then she whimpers, inarticulate words of fear, though once in a while a clear "No!" can be heard.
Delilah hasn't done too much reading today; the newspaper, that was about it. Even that was hard to go through- her head feels like it is a thousand degrees and it has been giving her the feeling that she is having herself boiled. Everything is blurry after a while, except for Samson lying on the other half of her bed. His head is on her thigh, and Delilah is using him effectively as a pillow, her arm over his stomach and her head lying dazed on his hindquarters. The various sounds from Daphne have her as concerned as she can get, in this state.
"…Daaaph." Delilah croaks into Samson's fur. He looks up over his shoulder, then back down to the bed.
Kendall is confused. He could've sworn his room was just down the hall. At any rate, he checks the doorknob, and if it's unlocked, he peeks his head in, looking like he fought a fish and lost. Clammy and flushed, with a constantly runny nose and likely a fever. "Hey….uh?" he blinks from one to the other. "There's people here." he mumbles. "I'll leave you three alone." wait… who's the third one? …Samson?
The speedster hears her name and it brings her out of her delirium a touch. "I'm sorry," she whispers. "I was … talking to someone else." Who? She sits up and looks at the door opening, frowning — whatever she was dreaming of or hallucinating a moment before, she certainly doesn't want to see walking through the door. But it's someone else she knows — sort of.
"Oh, it's sharkbait," Daphne says quietly — which to her and maybe even Kendall makes sense, but Delilah will likely think the speedster is still delirious. "That's too bad," she says, sadly, then slumps back into her pillow. It's too much energy to sit up.
Hrr? Delilah tilts her head on Samson's butt to squint at the door. The dog looks up again, to her, sniffing the air at Kendall, ears twitching perked. "Fff. Kendall?" Delilah looks just terrible, but everyone kind of does. Sharkbait? Dee laughs, lolling on her dog. "Sharkbait, ooo-ah-ah. Like Nemo?" Who hasn't memorized that? Really? The girl coughs a couple times into her dog. Samson sighs, as if on cue. Hi, Kendall.
Kendall squints at them again, then kinda stumbles into the room since they're not objecting or.. or naked or anything. "Delilah?" he sounds hopeful when he says her name, aww. Daphne is scowled at. "Oh… you." is that a hint of sulking? Possibly.
Melissa has come up to the sick ward to check on her patients, and she's already peeked in on the kids before wandering thisaway, to D&D's room! Then she pauses when she sees that Kendall has stumbled in. "If you fall, I'm going to laugh at you before I pick you up," she says with a sigh, moving over towards him to help keep him from falling on his face. She's wearing her mask, and her bandage on her forehead.
"Oh, you, back," Daphne murmurs. "Yeah, I donno, it sort of was his nickname." Once upon a time, before everything went to shit. She gives a wave to Melissa, then rolls away, her back to both Kendall and Melissa, staring out the window once more. "Was Hiro here or was that just… no." She shakes her head, speaking more to herself than to them. "I think I've been hallucinating, Melissa. Can I get some Tylenol for the fever?" Her words are flat and without emotion, though tears well up in her eyes, unseen by the rest of the room.
"Hi." Delilah mutters back at him, not too invested in communicating right now. She is falling deeper into the sick hole, and quick. A greeting noise is what Melissa gets before Delilah buries her face back into the curve of Samson's thigh. "Imff sunn sumffnoo." Er. What?
Kendall gives Melissa a somewhat slant-eyed glance, then slides down the wall he was leaning against into a loose sitting position. "Not if it's a controlled fall." he tells her, then coughs into his sleeve. "Can I just stay right here?" might as well add to the pity party, and even if Delilah looks sick too, Kendall still thinks she's sexy. Talk about dedication, or at the very least infatuation.
Melissa looks to Daphne, head tilting. "Hiro? No…there's no one by that name here. But yeah, you can get some tylenol," she says with a smile. She watches Kendall with a protective eye, then pats the pockets of her pants until she comes out with a small bottle of Tylenol. Two are dumped into her hand, then offered to Daphne. "Sorry you guys are feeling like crap. Wish there was something I could do."
The speedster takes the two pills and doesn't even bother to reach for the bottle of water on the bedside table to wash them down. "No, he … I don't even know him. I don't think he was here. Just here." She taps her temple and laughs a little weakly. "So now my mind is going, too." Her dark eyes move toward Kendall slumped on the floor, not looking very happy about having skittish boys in the room, but what's she going to do about it? "I gotta pee." Too much information, surely, but it's a long ordeal for Daphne, so she may as well announce what she's doing so they don't wonder. Or Kendall, anyway, since he hasn't seen the process — Delilah has.
The speedster pulls one leg, then the other so she is in a sitting position, then reaches for a pair of crutches, pulling herself with a groan onto them to begin the very slow path to the bathroom.
"Hnnnnh." Help Daphne, she can't! Delilah makes a fussy noise, wriggling in her bed and grabbing her pillow to hold it over her head. Samson looks over when she moves off of him, mildly concerned. He looks over to Daphne when she gets up, looking like he might be doing that too. Ummmm. Not sure.
Daphne being on crutches just makes Kendall even more confused. "Uh… what do you have those for?" he blinks at them. "Can't you walk?" so says the ignorant kid who doesn't know stuff. He coughs some more into his sleeve, and there's a little red there. Ick.
Melissa stands by Daphne, helping if help is needed and not pushed aside. She looks back to Kendall, smiling a bit. "The flu affects everyone a little differently." She moves towards him, crouching down beside him. "You feeling any better though? Or just worse?"
"Yeah. I can walk. I just use these because I thought they looked cool. Everyone who's anyone's doing it. You just don't know that because you're a Loser." Daphne holds up her fingers in an L shape before gripping the handhold of the crutch quickly before she falls. Since she has no braces to supper her legs, she actually 'walks' the crutches, so there is always one planted on the ground at any point. It's a rather clumsy and slow maneuver, but it works.
"I feel terrible." Kendall whines towards Melissa, clearly fishing for sympathy. But then he hears Daphne, and he rolls his eyes. "Well walking like that makes you look like you're a cripple." he kinda wriggles over towards Delilah's bed, peeking curiously over the edge. Hey… girls in bed. Likely this is the most the kid's ever seen. "You okay, Dee? Oh… that's a dog!" blink. Naw, really? What else would be big and furry and doglike?
Melissa's lips twitch a little at Daphne's answer, then she gives Kendall a sympathetic look. "I know, honey. Is it aching or something else?" She glances back to Samson, then Delilah, but she lets the dog's owner talk about the dog!
"Wow, are you observant, sharkbait." Actually, Kendall makes her feel better in a strange way — being able to focus on something that she can lash out with is productive. "Yes, I'm crippled. Yes, that's a dog. Yes, you're an idiot. No, she's not okay. We're all fucked up and life sucks. Welcome to the real world, little boy." With that, Daphne disappears into the hall, though her lurching steps and the squeak of rubber stops can be heard as she makes her way to the bathroom.
Samson watches Kendall like he is some sort of smaller dog, squinting slightly and following the boy with the swivel joint of his neck. Mmm. What are you doing? He lifts his giant paw up to put it down on the top of Kendall's head. Stop that! She is my Person. Get away! If dogs could frown-
Dee, meanwhile, remains fussy with her face under the pillow, which she pins down with her arms. "Gu'ay, Kuhndul."
Le gasp. Delilah told him to go away! Likely if his powers were working and he had paper and pencil handy he'd draw some little hearts breaking over his head for drama. He allows the dog to push him away, especially since he's more or less the consistency of a wet noodle right now. "Head's pounding." he answers Melissa, giving his best piteous expression to her.
Melissa can't help but laugh as Samson's paw comes down on Kendall's head, and she shakes her own head, then gives Kendall another sympathetic look. The Tylenol comes back out, a couple of pills handed over. "Here, these will help. But…in the meantime," she murmurs, reaching a hand out to rest on his shoulder. Slowly the pain in the boy's head begins to fade, then disappear completely. At least for the time being. "That better?"
And in comes Helena to the safehouse. And she's not alone! At her side - with a distinct lack of physical contact between them, is Anders. He's got a duffle, and presumably, he looks awful. "Melissa?" she calls out, and when she spots Dee, she waves, pleased. "You're looking a little better@"
Anders raises a brow when he sees Melissa is the friend that Helena is putting him up with. "Oh, it's Melancholy!" he says, cheerfully enough despite the fact that he does look awful. Red-rimmed and bloodshot eyes and cheeks flushed. "This your little hospital, Miss Lonelyhearts?" he asks the woman who seems like she's in charge. "And can you get Helena one of those masks? She's being a very brave little nurse, but I don't want her sick."
Samson deals with Kendall, leaving Dee to hear Helena's voice from behind the pillow. She moves the fluffy thing to look, and really she looks just terrible- maybe Helena is being nice. "Who's this bugger?" She don't know him! Well, not off hand. But she could- he's kinda cute. Maybe that's how Helena knows him, hrrhrr. When he notices, Samson edges his bulk off of the bed to go out to investigate the two. Moreso Anders, as he knows Helena very well already. Snff snff.
More people are coming in? Sighing, Kendall makes his way to the wall to lean against it again, staring laconically at them. Kendall's not exactly happy right now that he just got rejected by Delilah. Oh woe. "Who're you?" yeah, sure, he's being a little rude, but…
Melissa looks to Anders and Helena, and she smiles. "Hi Helena." The Melancholy title gets a sigh, but she digs out another black surgical mask and offers it to Helena. "It's Melissa, Anders, not Melancholy. And you…hmm. I think I'll put you in with Kendall here," she says, giving the boy a pat on the shoulder, who she then looks at. "Take the Tylenol hon. I can't keep your head from hurting forever," she gently reminds him.
Helena lifts a brow in Kendall's direction, and replies without any rancor in her tone, "I'm Helena fucking Dean. Who the fuck are you?" With that, she shoots Melissa a thankful glance and notes to Anders, "C'mon, let's get you a bed."
"Melissa," Anders says, looking solemn and contrite for a very short moment before he smirks. "Ah, man, kiddy table! All right. Thanks for putting me up, Melissa. I do appreciate it. I'll try not to irritate you too much." He turns to Kendall and gives a little wave. "I'm Anders, dude." To Helena, he nods. "I could use a little lay-me-down I think… too much excitement for one day." He will follow Helena out, allow her to help get him settled.
Meanwhile, Daphne comes lumbering back in, zig-zagging on her crutches past the busy door way, muttering "Excuse me," to everyone there before heading back to her own bed. She sits, leans the crutches against the wall, then pulls each leg into the bed. Her cheeks are flushed and her congested breathing labored from the exertion of the travel via crutches, and once she curls back under the covers, her coughing begins anew..
Samson spends a minute or so following Helena and Anders, like he is some sort of plague den Maitre'd. He comes back on Daphne's tail, watching her and edging against the bed when she falls into the covers. Delilah spends this time huddling under her blankets, fine with going back into a vegetative state. For now.
"I'm Kendall." the teenager replies, taking the pills from Melissa belatedly. A few minutes after he swallows them, though, he has another coughing fit to echo Daphne's that leaves him leaning limply against the wall. "'m not a kid." he mutters, hunching over to put his head between his knees like he's going to be sick or something, resting his forehead on his crossed arms. …huh, did he fall asleep? Yeah right, like they'd let him sleep in the same room with girls.
Melissa directs Helena and Anders to the room Kendall's been given, then smiling at Daphne when she returns. "Feel better?" She looks down to Kendall then, touching his shoulder lightly. "C'mon. Let's get you to your room."
Helena gives Samson love and scritches, and looks up to Anders as Melissa sees him out. "You'll be okay." she promises as he's escorted away. "I owe Dee some visit time, and I'll visit you too." She clutches the dog for a moment, because he's a canine security blanket.
The newcomer backs up a little from the dog before it apparently isn't planning on eating him, and pats him a couple of times. "All right. See you soon. G'night ladies." It's only late afternoon, but he's planning on taking a nap! He heads in the direction pointed out by Melissa.
"Better's relative. My bladder's empty now, though, so I suppose that's a plus," Daphne mutters to Melissa, flopping her pillow over in search for the cool spot. She closes her eyes, weary and weak, apparently not interested in meeting the newcomers as she pulls a blanket over her head. So much for manners.
Samson is more like a king size quilt. He isn't sure who he has to take care of, so in his alternation Helena is able to grab onto him. He seems fine with this, but he tries his best to keep an eye on everyone that he can. Daddy dog! He must protect his puppies. :( Helena included! Does she want kisses? He'll do that.
Kendall mutters something and leans against Melissa instead of the wall. Melissa's more comfortable, and reminds him of his mom. Likely she'll have to lead him there herself, if not half-carry him.