Participants:
| Scene Title | Payback |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | After months of taking care of Delia, it's Brian's turn to get a little love. |
| Date | March 1, 2011 |
Bannerman's Castle — The Hallways
He had insisted on staying on Pollepel. He had to be as close to his sick kids as possible. Had to be there for them. Even if he wasn't allowed to be near, he had to be as close as possible. It was the only reason one Brian was left at Pollepel. He didn't serve much of a purpose. Helping where he could, doing oddjobs. But the body was more necessity than anything. Even though he is focused on his sick children, his actions are focused elsewhere. Off the island. So here Brian has remained. Remaining to himself most of the time, though sometimes seen crying off in a corner. But most of the time just going through the motions. So it is odd… That at this hour of the morning, a Brian is creeping through the hallways. Wearing nothing but a pair of purple boxers.
The howling of the wind has got a little wild outside the castle. The rain continuing in intensity as it hammers down on Bannerman Castle. But other than the raging of Mother Nature, the Castle interior is left in a somewhat quiet state. Those on guard shifts are at their posts, but few roam the halls at such an idiotically early hour.
Except for Brian. Despite the chill that hangs in the castle, Brian is sweating. Some might say he is sweating bullets. His feet creep along the castle floor, moving along in an exaggerated sneak. Like in the cartoons he moves forward on the balls of his feet as much as he can. Eyes flashing back and forward at any sound of noise, Brian seems… spooked to say the least. Trying to keep his breathing down, because it sounds so effing loud, he pauses to peek around a corner. No one, and so the mostly naked creeper creeps around, keeping to the wall as much as possible.
"Three thousand two hun— " heavy breath "hundred— and…" Delia's hand goes to the wall and she slides down to the floor just around the corner from the mostly naked creeper, just in time to see him skulk into view. A sheepish smile is pointed up at him and she heaves an exhausted breath, trying to rest enough to get back up.
"H-hi Brian.. phew.." The redhead's eyelids sink down halfway and she crooks her arm over her mouth and coughs violently into it. Unlike his to the normal ear, hers rattles audibly and after taking a few calming breaths inward, she scootches back against the wall and sits there for a moment. "H-how are you?" She's bundled up as much as she possibly can be, even so far as to wear her shearling coat over a few sweaters. Yet she's still shivering.
Sneaking around in the presence of someone that can feel you before seeing you doesn't do much good at all. While Huruma has been able to offer the same help she did before, it is on a slightly smaller scale, for now. Mostly because she'd rather take it easy for at least a day longer if she can manage it- let the vaccine do its work, keep resting up from the weekend. It was more stress on her mind than her body, though. The stunning was just an excuse.
Scouring around to find an early breakfast was harder than it sounded, though. She turned up only to find the kitchen more than occupied by some of the mom-aged women, and rather than subject herself to a henhouse, Huruma moved on under the explanation she was looking for someone else. They believed it, and let her be. When she first feels that person creeping around in the hallways, Huruma meanders after it with vague suspicion, keeping at least a corner away so that she isn't seen or heard. When she does catch up enough, she takes a long peek around the wall as Brian creeps around the other end of the corridor, heading right into Delia. The dark woman stays mostly back, though, padding slowly down the hall towards where Brian had disappeared again.
Practically flipping around, Brian's feet tangle around themselves as he stumbles forward. He has no chance of catching himself. Toppling over, he splats against the ground before immediately pushing hard against the ground. Throwing himself up to his feet. It's only adrenaline that keeps him moving. The amount of fear coursing through him is borderline ludicrous. Back on his feet, his hands are spread out in front of him as if ready to deal with some oncoming crisis.
The barely clothed Brian turns to face Delia, eyes going wide. Lips tightening, his feet rapidly backing him up into the wall. His breaths are heavy now, panicked even. Needless to say he doesn't answer Delia's small talk. But for the moment he stays cemented in place.
A confused tilt of the head and squinted blue eyes follow Brian's backpeddle away from her and Delia reaches into her pocket for a mask. "No, it's okay, Brian… I caught a cold from Nick before I came home. It— it's just a cold, honest. I got vaccinated already and everything." Placing the mask over her nose and mouth, she pinches the bridge to tighten it while pulling the elastic over her head. "It's okay, see? I got a mask on, you won't catch it." Sniffle.
Pushing herself to a stand, she leans heavily against the wall and hunches forward to press both of her hands against her thin legs. "Brian? Are you okay?" He hasn't talked yet, Brian always talks. ALWAYS.
Maybe it's the weird series of emotions that come through on Brian's channel, or maybe it is Delia's confusion- one of these makes Huruma step forward a bit faster, and in a few more seconds, she rounds the corner like a wraith in the castle. She stops there, quite abruptly, to look at them both, and eventually settle her eyes on Brian. Why?
Well, he kind of is in his skivvies. She considers them a moment, opening her mouth a little only to promptly close it again. "Do I want t'know what is going on down here?" Huruma's tone is somewhat cautious, unsure if she has accidentally walked in on some sort of weird young people thing.
Back pressing against the cold wall, Brian's eyes go wide as she murmurs his name again. His hands practically quake as she speaks to him. His eyes flit for some kind of escape. This way then that. Past Delia, over to the corner from which he came. He doesn't answer. His lips part like he might maybe answer but it's more a staying gesture than anything…
And then Huruma appears. Which doesn't help, really. Brian practically bowls over at her appearance, sprinting in the opposite direction. But his running is ill formed, having him giving a few stumble steps away from the wall before he can really start running. Aaaaaaa.
As Brian tries to make his getaway, Delia reaches out her lanky arms and tries to loop them around his waist. The fact that he's too busy trying to get away from Huruma might help her in the feeble attempt at a tackle. Life and football lessons never carry guarantees. The man's clammy skin slicks against her palms and she stumbles forward after him, her heavy clothing providing just enough padding to help her as she goes down.
The young redhead lands against the slate flooring of the castle with a sickly smack of flesh against stone. She winces and groans as she turns over onto her side, letting loose another cough into her mask. "Owwww…."
Delia's fall is rough, Brian's fall is a little rougher. With the pseudo tackle, Brian's heart practically leaps out of his chest in shock. Body slapping against the wall, he stumbles forward before going into total wreck mode. Head slapping against the wall and then the ground, Brian goes quiet after his fall. He rolls to his back, his hands coming up to his face. Buh-loo-duh?!
The blood coming out of his nose has his eyes jumping to his hair line. He writhes along the hallway, hands touching at the blood that rushes from his nose. He gives a bewildered look up to Delia then up to Huruma. Elbows aiding him in a sort of stunned scramble away. It has lost it's fervor though because, buh-loo-duh?!
It's a little like standing on the other side of a glass panel at a zoo exhibit, especially where monkeys are concerned. It looks like they're a couple of awkward-limbed baboons, really. It is only after she knows Delia's fall is mostly broken by blankets, and when Brian starts to try and scramble again because of the appearence of blood on his face- that Huruma starts doing something. If she did happen in on something weird, this is going a bit far.
"Brian-" Huruma's voice takes up a soothing tone; the tall woman swoops in to take him gently- but firmly- by the wrist, at the same time delivering an almost numbing sense of calm, as sudden as being let down into a tub of warm water.
Picking herself up slowly, Delia rubs her head and then glances toward Brian. "Oh geez… Huruma, can you get him to the non-flu infirmary? We need to get him cleaned up— and— see where he's bleeding from. Oh god Brian, I'm so sorry…" She reaches out to clasp him by the other hand to try to ease him toward the second medical ward. "I didn't mean— I mean, I didn't want to hurt you. You're just acting really weird."
It's possibly something he won't forgive her for but at least she can fix it with a few stitches. He might even get a cool scar to show off to his fiancee. "Don't tell Sami that I hurt you, okay?" A worried furrow of her eyebrows follows her question as she begins the slow trek toward the infirmary. "You got your shot right? You're not contagious or anything, are you? You didn't catch the flu?"
The fear in him is building up rapidly. Threatening to explode in a scared cowardy mess all over Delia and Huruma. As the latter approaches, Brian tries to twist back but then his wrist is taken. And that numbing calm takes over. Whhwww. His eyes close for a moment as he sags against the floor. His other hand is taken and he gives an almost hysterical smile to the pair of them. "Uhmm. Sorry." Brian lets out, voice totally at ease despite the blood dripping down around his mouth.
"Uh. How do you know my name? Where am I?" Winters asks, and as he relaxes some his eyes go down. Taking in himself for just a second. His brows arch in surprise, though the calm still fights in against that. "Why am I ripped?" And huge! His eyes flick back up to the woman surrounding him. Hmm.
"He was skulking, I was tailing him…" Huruma offers that much to Delia after Brian's moment of seeming lucidity. She uses her other hand to snap her fingers in front of his face, checking to see if he is also lucid enough to pay attention to it. It sounds like he's on drugs or something, doesn't it? "Because you are a grown man. We're friendlies." She hesitates to say friend, because while Delia might be, Huruma is not so much out of just not knowing him. One hand stays wrapped around his wrist like a babysitter with a child, pulling him up and along with her and Delia. Ward. Yes.
"How are you feeling, boy? Except your nose…" Huruma scours a jacket pocket for the bandanna she keeps around, lifting it to wipe the blood off of his face.
"C'mon Brian, let's go clean you up…" And yes, he's pretty ripped. And in his undies. And it's hard not to look. Delia's blue eyes slide to the side every once in a while as they walk down the hallway. The dimly lit infirmary is nearly clear of patients, due to the flu ones being in a completely different area of the castle.
Quickly, the young nurse gathers a few supplies, first being squares of gauze and a small bowl of water. "Okay, have a seat, I'll get you cleaned up, okay?" A small flashlight is produced from her pocket and after Brian takes a seat, she flashes it across his eyes. "Brian, what's the date today?"
Allowing himself to be led by Huruma and Delia, if only for the calm that has been laid down on him. He moves along giving a dumb nod to the female voices chirping into his ears. He gives a somewhat confused glance to the left, then to the right. At the two women hovering beside him.
Sitting down as instructed, Brian glances over to Delia. If she notices Delia checking him out, he doesn't react to it. But he does react to her question. "May 19th, two thousand four?" He's not sure why he's ripped. Why he's big. This might be his movie moment, like Big, or 13 going on 30 which wasn't as good. But… He kind of expects his answer to be wrong. Oh that's why. "Sorry. Two thousand five." He keeps forgetting.
Huruma casts a quick look over her shoulder to the rest of the room- there is at least one bed with a drawn curtain, due to having the room. She lets go of Brian and allows Delia to do what she does best; meanwhile, she stands just to the other side, thumbs finding beltloops. The expression she gets as Brian speaks is a concerned one, followed quick by a lift of her browline.
"Uh-oh." Possibly an understatement, if Delia ever heard one. For a preemptive stroke, Huruma works on keeping him as cool as a cucumber. "This is getting worse by th'second…"
"Mmm no Brian, it's a little later than that." Delia speaks quite calmly as she starts wiping the blood from Brian's face. Huruma's little bath of warm fuzzies on Brian are actually helping the redhead too, everything is always so much easier with a patient that's not panicking. "Tell me, what's the last thing you remember before you hit your head? Well before I tackled you…" She'll take responsibility for this one.
"And… uhm… where else are you right now?" It's a fair question, considering Delia knows a little of how Brian's hive mind works. She's used it for traveling before. After cleaning up his face and seeing no cuts, she smiles and hands him two little rolls of gauze. "Here, plug these up your nose."
Brian peers at Delia then over to Huruma at the 'uh oh'. He doesn't interrupt her, that would be rude. But he does look a little uneasy. Even though she's keeping him chill, something is wrong. His eyes roll back over to Delia. A little later? Wha? Brian leans back some, his hands being summoned into his lap. And it is about now that he realizes he's in his underwear in front of two women. Color immediately floods into his cheeks as he hunches down as if to cover him some.
"Uh. I remember waking up in this weird place. And before that? I was playing the computer game I got for my birthday." He bites down on his lip. "Ahm. Am I in trouble? Like. Am I under arrest or something? Is this a dungeon? Where's my mom? And—" He pauses, frowning. "My computer?"
"It is two-thousand and eleven." Huruma drops the bomb that is going to be dropped anyway. And she does it while keeping his emotions under close scrutiny. "This is not a dungeon. And… you are safe here." She treads more cautiously with the other parts. "Have you seen anyone besides th'two of us, so far?" And then, an aside to Delia, quiet.
"Should we wake someone?" Megan, Eileen, Abby? Someone else? Huruma does not sound completely sure about what is going on- Brian clearly has a lot of sudden memory loss, and not to a scale that would have happened with tripping and hitting his nose on the floor. He was so scared before that- it all makes sense that this is bigger.
"I uhm… I don't know where your mom is, Brian. I never met her. My name is Delia, you usually call me Deebag or Delibeli." Getting up, the redhead pulls a blanket off of one of the empty beds and moves to wrap it around the man's shoulders. Her lips quirk into something of a sad half-smile and she fixes the 'collar' of the cover so that it covers him from his chin all the way down. "You took care of me for a few months."
Now it's her turn, it seems.
Shifting her gaze to Huruma, she nods once and presses her lips together. "Yeah we should, maybe get Eileen." Reaching out, she wraps a hand around Brian's wrist and gives it a small squeeze. "It's March first, two thousand eleven. Your name is Brian Winters and you have a lot of catching up to do." One of which is, apparently he doesn't know about his ability.
New problems start to leap at Huruma's ability, but they are quickly laid down. His chest rises up and falls normally. His heart remaining at his steady beat rather than beating crazy. He looks from Delia, then to Huruma. "No." He murmurs in response. "No. You have me mixed up. My name's Brian Fulk. Brian Andrew Fulk. I go to highschool, I don't know what a deebag or a delibeli is. And you two are scary." Because boobs. Staring at him.
"Umm. How did you get me here? I'm sorry but I don't recognize you people." He glances to Huruma. "I mean you two. Like I don't know you guys. And..No. It can't be.." He falls silent. Well that would explain his hugeness and ripped..ness.
Huruma waits for Delia to further explain things, even if just a little bit. Her eyes are stuck on him, for the moment. Not helping that awkward teenageness much at all. "There are scarier things than us." She smiles, the gesture a flicker of white on her mouth. "There seems to have been… an… incident with your memory." There is really not a better word for it, because they aren't sure what did just happen. "But you will b'taken care of."
"Delia, are you able t'watch him while I go get her? I am hesitant in letting his own emotions root." Because he might tantrum or something, she has no clue.
A brief moment of panic glimmers in Delia when Huruma questions her in regards to her ability to be a guard. "Uhm.. I suppose I can?" She's not that strong, she knows it, but he doesn't. Hopefully. "This is Huruma, she's going to get someone that can maybe explain things better than I can. I'm uhm… not really good awake." It only occurs to her then, he might not know about abilities at all. The date he mentioned was before the bomb.
"So— " Feeling a little more at ease, Delia removes the protective mask from her face and gives him something of a reassuring smile. Then she takes off her coat and lays it on the cot behind him. "You got a game for your birthday? My birthday's coming up next week, I doubt I'll be getting a game. Heh."
Brian glances from Delia to Huruma. His breathing still steady as long as Huruma hangs around. Though it threatens to accelerate as soon as her ability influence is gone. Which might scare him in and of itself. The weird comments she makes implying abilities fly right over his head. There's enough questions floating around. But then he comes to a solution.
"Yeah. Total War. It's like. You can build up these armies in Rome. It's kind of a strategy game but you get to like have your own guys and generals and they get traits and st—" He looks up. Narrowing his brows as she managed to distract him! "If this is really the future. How does Lost end?"
"Your birthday is next week?" Huruma tilts her head, though after another second of this she apparently remembers what she was supposed to do, furrowing her brows and lifting a hand towards the 'young' Brian. "I will be back. Stay here." This is for him, mostly, just in case he might want to not listen to Delia. A bit of a warning. Maybe. As she steps away, she tries to make the transition from influence a smooth one.
"Don'tell him that, he'll be disappointed." Huruma says this to Delia right before leaning her way out of the infirmary door. It might be comical if this weren't so serious. But with that, she is off, padding away to find Eileen.
Eyes widening suddenly, Delia raises her hands and shakes them excitedly. She's about to drop the mother of all spoilers when Huruma gives the directive and then? Her shoulders sink and she lets off a little whiny whimper. "But— LOST!" The moment Huruma leaves though, the redhead is back on track with spoiling.
"Oh my god, so what was the last episode you saw?" She's like a little kid at Christmas with candy. No one ever talks to her about these things. It's usually about serious stuff. This is why Brian is so vital to her life. With one knee bouncing energetically, she focuses on the teen. "So like, the smoke monster? Dude… it's like.. whoah."
"Polar bears." Brian murmurs with a little frown. "But the tivo didn't record the last episode and…" He lets out a light whine, tilting his head back some. It's good to get distracted with Lost rather than talk about how he's suddenly adult, and doesn't remember anything of it. He looks after Huruma before looking back to Delia. "But like really. Where's my mom?" He asks, starting to sound worried once again. "Umm.. Can I leave? Like can I go home?"
"Huruma's going to go find someone that knows where you live," Delia answers gently, once again reaching a hand to take Brian's. Giving him a little smile, her eyes crinkle at the corners and she lifts one shoulder in a sheepish shrug. "Just sleep here tonight, okay? I'll stay with you and make sure that everything is alright."
Reaching behind her to lift up the coat, she leads Brian toward the bed and helps him in. A couple more blankets are laid over him and he's tucked in like a sweet little baby~. Perching at the side of the cot, she pulls her coat on again and gives him a little smile. "You know, when you finally remember everything, you're not allowed to use the fact that you bathed me and changed my diapers as blackmail anymore. Not that I'm going to give you baths or change your diapers, but I'll take care of you and make sure nothing happens. Promise."