Over the past three weeks in the compound, Ziva had paid more attention to the conversations of others. She had paid more attention to her own liminal interactions. She was trying to refine the English she had learned in school, and luckily, she was pretty smart when it came to books, so it wasn't an overly difficult thing to learn by the same experience she had learned all her other languages - she just had a jump start on English.
One thing was for certain; Flora definitely did not seem too reassuring, with her hand over her heart and a hushed tone, that slightest bit of dread in her voice. And Flora definitely knew what Ziva was talking about now, even if Ziva didn't know how to outright say it or talk about it - she had never learned how. She didn't really have parents. She couldn't possibly...
No. No. It was just stress, she promised herself. Most of the symptoms, they could definitely add up to stress. Her hands had begun to shake, so she tucked them against her sides, crossing over her stomach, but by that point, her whole body had started trembling a little, so it was a moot point.
"I-I mean... J-just a couple weeks... That could be stress..." she looked at Flora pleadingly, her lower lip also trembling a bit. "Tell me it's stress. Tell me i-it's just something about the compound. Maybe from that appointment, I don't know..."
She swallowed hard. It felt as if the world was slowly collapsing on her, and she wasn't strong enough to hold it up. "It was just... Just one mistake... W-we didn't know the punch was spiked. If we did, we wouldn't have gone. Well, he might've, but I-I wouldn't. It's the...the only party I ever went to. It couldn't ruin my life that badly, could it?" she stared at Flora with wide eyes, trying to control the panic, but slowly being consumed by it instead.
Edited By Creativity on 2/17/2019 at 7:17 AM.
Britters
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Posted: 2/17/2019 at 7:16 PM
Post #382
The shock of the realization of what Physic was getting at had temporarily overtaken Flora's usual sense of compassionate diplomacy. There were so many reasons why this was bad, and her heart felt like it was breaking just thinking about the situation this young girl was almost certainly in. For a few moments she could only stand there and gaze at Physic, trying to figure out what needed to be done, what needed to be said. She had ideas but nothing seems adequate enough.
And then, just as Flora was sure she was going to bungle the whole thing, the girl looked at her with her lip trembling and look that was begging for comfort.
"Oh, sweetling," she said, rushing forward and taking Physic into her arms with no hesitation, holding her close in a gentle embrace, "There now, there now, shhhh...everything is going to be alright. We'll figure this out." She instinctively reached up and stroked the teenagers thick dark hair.
With her maternal instincts in high gear, Flora knew she wasn't going to be able to let Ziva go through any of this on her own. The girl had sought her out which suggested Physic felt a level of trust towards her. She wasn't sure what could possibly be done about the situation, but right now all that mattered was calming her down and trying to figure out what they could do for the time being. Thankfully, she had come from a remote community where home remedies had replaced many modern medicine and such.
"Alright, hon," she said, taking a deep breath and pullinf slightly, "The first thing we need to do...is get you tested, which we obviously can't do the conventional way, so we're going to need a clean cup and a tube of toothpaste." She smiled then, a warm, compassionate smile. No, this young girl was not going to be in this alone.
Edited By Britters on 2/17/2019 at 7:21 PM.
Creativity
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Posted: 2/17/2019 at 7:44 PM
Post #383
Her heart wouldn't stop the marathon it seemed to be partaking in, and it didn't help that her chest was too oddly sore for her to cross her arms higher and protect herself more. When Flora hugged her suddenly, Ziva welt stock still, eyes wide as she stiffened up in the woman's arms.
Any contact she had had with people over her life had been pathetically minimal. Her parents hadn't cared about her and mostly left her alone with the cheapest babysitter they could find until she was old enough to take care of herself - a babysitter who just lounged on the couch all day on her phone, usually. Her foster parents weren't much different - there'd be an odd one that would be more affectionate, but usually, they were preoccupied with the tougher cases. Diego was the first one that actually got her used to touching, and he was really the only person she could remember who'd ever hugged her.
Slowly, Ziva felt herself relax into the hug a little bit, and she nodded against Flora, hesitantly wrapping her arms around the other woman as well. Tested. She just needed to get tested. She didn't want to know the results... But... She needed to know. She needed to be tested.
"I-I can't... I can't do it..." she murmured, though it was barely even audible. Closing her eyes, Ziva just tried to accept the feeling and sweet scent of Flora, reassuring and warm and how she kind of always thought a mother would be.
At the ingredients listed for the testing, Ziva pulled back a little in alarm to look at the older woman. "...Toothpaste?"
Edited By Creativity on 2/17/2019 at 7:44 PM.
Britters
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Posted: 2/19/2019 at 2:23 AM
Post #384
The potato was making Diego angry. The peeler was making him angry. The wooden crate he was sitting on was making him angry. The grass was making him angry. He just sat there, staring at the ground as he furiously wielded his peeler, not even really seeing the potato in his left hand. In fact, he didn't even really see the ground. All he could see were dark eyes glaring from behind a pair of glasses, and all he could hear was the grumbling of irritable Hebrew and the stomp of petite feet storming away.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid," he muttered angrily under his breath, his grey eyes clouded, "Just had to go and open your big mouth didn't you?" He tossed another peeled potato in the bowl and grabbed another.
It had been several weeks now since Diego and Ziva had been dumped at the compound. Things had been scary for a few days, especially their first examination, but already he and Ziva had fallen into their own routines around the place. He had tried to stay close to Ziva in the infirmary, but the pale blonde woman had scowled at him and Ziva had made it clear that if he blew this for her she'd kill him. For a while he hadn't known what to do, but it turned out there were plenty of menial tasks that almost always needed to be done.
Even having different schedules, Diego and Ziva still made regular contact with one another and spent nearly all of their free time together. He felt so glad that he at least had her through all of this. However, lately she had been getting more and more moody, and during the last few days they had had more than their average amount of bickering arguments. He couldn't even remember what this morning's spat had even been about, but all he knew was that he was angry because he felt like he was losing his best friend.
"I can't win," he continued to tell himself, "I can't when if I try to talk, can't win if I stay quiet, can't win if I ignore it. She had to be so confusing and stubborn...what exactly am I supposed to do?" He briefly glanced down at the alligator sitting in the grass next to him, but Quixote only stared back silently.
Creativity
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Posted: 2/19/2019 at 5:30 PM
Post #385
Necro really wasn't the type of person to butt in on people's business, nor was he really the type of person to share unnecessarily. He was on his own path, and other people were on their own. He didn't feel the need, really, to share burdens; people were kept at a distance not because he was cautious, but simply because he didn't see the point of keeping them close unless he cared for them. And it took a lot to break that barrier; he didn't care easily. He stayed in his own lane, and that was that.
But. Well. Steel's irritation was radiating off of him in waves, and his incessant mutterings were interrupting Necro's thoughts. He was a little annoyed at it, as he had been thinking of his daughter, how he was going to find another way to escape the compound so he could save her from Amelie and hold her as a father was supposed to hold a daughter - all of this brooding swam through his mind as he tried to ignore Steel's frustration with a straight face.
Once he gave up, he focused a little on what Steel was saying. Again, he didn't like to listen...or share, really... But it was pretty clear what Steel's issue was, and after just a couple sentences, Necro knew exactly what the young teenager's problem was.
He couldn't help a small laugh, shaking his head a little at the plight of love. Necro had had experience with women, of course. Some days, Elvira would be literally attached to his side, and other days, she'd kick him out of bed for no apparent reason and then splay out on the bed. And others, still, she'd violently swing between the two. Of course, that one was when she was carrying Cordula, but Steel wouldn't be in that scenario, Necro thought.
Grinning broadly at Steel, he decided to tap into that chivalry that his Engelskuchen so proudly announced he excelled at.
"So. How long have you been in love with her?"
Britters
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Posted: 2/19/2019 at 9:15 PM
Post #386
Peeling potatoes had not been Diego's idea. After Ziva had stormed off in a huff that morning she had tried fleeing to the sanctuary of the infirmary. He had been on his way to follow her, despite of this fact, when the dark-skinned woman, who seemed to be the second in command around here, had waylaid him and told him he was needed cover someone for potato peeling. There was a storm brewing and a lot of people were being reassigned to other duties in preparation.
The fog of anger had been so thick around Diego when he'd first sat down to start peeling, that he had hardly even acknowledged that Necro was even there. A brief nod was all, and then he sat down and went mindlessly about his task. He began to realize this was probably for the best, that he put his tension into something else, but that was when he'd begun ringer angry. He had done nothing wrong, he would tell himself, but then he would remind himself of the greatest wrong he'd ever done. That shouldn't have to condemn him forever though, right?
"What?" he spoke sharply, his head snapping up to look at Necro, and then a split second later he let out a shout as the potato slipped out of his hand and the peeler scraped the side of his finger, "Aarrgghh!" His cry of pain was loud and followed by some colorful swearing in Spanish.
If there was one secret Diego could think of that he was the most embarrassed by, it was probably his squeamishness when it came to his own blood. Other people's blood didn't bother him, but he almost always had to have Ziva deal with his own cuts and scrapes while he looked away and tried not to vomit. It was a testament to the mood he was in that he spared the abrasion on the side of his left index finger only a single whimper and then he just picked up a towel from the tool bucket and pressed it over the wound.
"That hurt," he stated obviously, trying to look at Necro and not at his small cut, "Now what are you talking about? How long have I been in love with who?" He knew before he'd even asked exactly who Necro was talking about, but the longer he could avoid the truth the better.
Creativity
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Posted: 2/19/2019 at 9:35 PM
Post #387
It was with a reserved sort of interest that Necro examined the cut that had resulted from Steel's potato peeler slipping off of the potato and onto his finger, scraping a nice, solid layer of skin off. The teenager had definitely been surprised by the question, but if anything, it just confirmed to him that he had been correct. He remembered when he discovered he was in love with Elvira, who had been his best friend. He had had doubts, before then, that even felt romantic love. But Elvira was special.
His own heart didn't actually beat as much as a normal person's due to his state of being only half-alive. A normal heart rate was 60 to 100 beats per minute, but Necro often averaged around ten to twenty, max. Adrenaline didn't have much effect on him, either. Because of his slower heart rate, he often didn't bleed very much or very profusely; he could suffer a deep cut and only shed a couple drops. Other fun things resulted from his half-life and partially-beating heart, too, such as numbness rather than pain and a slightly cooler natural body temperature.
It was amusing to watch Steel as he sort of whined and cowered from the sight of his own blood. Blood had never bothered Necro in others. But it seemed somewhat debilitating to Steel, and the teenager only recovered enough to question Necro on his question.
Oh, yeah. He was certain he was right.
"The girl you arrived with; I'm bad with names," he answered nonchalantly, continuing peeling his own potatoes. What was Flora doing, that prevented her from being here? The thought was random, and fleeting, and Necro was quickly able to center back in on the conversation. "It's rather obvious, you know."
Britters
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Posted: 2/20/2019 at 5:50 PM
Post #388
The first thing that Diego became aware of after spending a few moments simply staring at Necro, was that his hand didn't hurt anymore. It was perhaps more accurate to say that he didn't feel the pain anymore. He was gazing at the older man with his grey eyes wide and somewhat crazed, his heart thumping erratically in his chest. He could hear the words Necro was saying, but his brain seemed unwilling to compute them.
"Ziva," he said automatically, for neither of them bothered with the strange code names they were given upon arrival, and just saying her name seemed to send an electric shock through his body, "But I don't know what you're talking about. She and I are just friends." He put significant emphasis on that last bit, as though that would cancel out the glaring accusation.
Ever since that night at the graduation party, Diego had tried to simply move on and pretend everything was just the way it had been. That was what Ziva had wanted to do, and so that's what he'd done. However, especially with everything that had happened to them since then, he had begun to realize just how truly ridiculous that idea bad been. Things were different, but the difference didn't feel bad, he only worried that things would continue changing and he would lose his best friend forever.
"I mean," Diego began haltingly, still holding the rag to the shallow cut on his finger, his eyes darting between Necro and a spot on the ground, "I love her, of course I do, but...not like that. She's been my best friend since I was fourteen." It was the truth, but despite not wanting to lose the friendship that was the best part of his life, he worried he was not going to be able to change his feelings back to what they had been.
Edited By Britters on 2/20/2019 at 6:07 PM.
Creativity
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Posted: 2/20/2019 at 6:22 PM
Post #389
Ziva had calmed down...somewhat. She was still freaked out - she was hoping there had been another diagnosis that Flora could recognize immediately, she had hoped that they wouldn't even need to do a test at all, and that they could just write it off as stress and have that be true and that was that and her symptoms would merely fade away once she had adjusted to the compound and life could go back to normal - but she at least remembered how to breathe now. Somewhat.
It was indescribably awkward, what Flora had asked her to do, but Ziva was educated enough to know that the same process was probably required for any method of testing, conventional or not, and there was no going around it.
Still, well... It was true. Ziva had never actually had a mother. Information she learned about her own body when she was fifteen (a late bloomer) had been from the internet. "The Talk"? She never had that; just exposure through the internet. She had never had a mother to teach her about attraction, or to teach her how to do certain things and discuss certain things.
She didn't look at Flora as she handed her the cup, her own face burning at the awkwardness of its warmth. She refused to look at anything, really. She avoided Flora, the cup, the tube of toothpaste, the building they were behind, even the general direction she knew Diego was in. Her gaze remained fully fixed on a sharp-looking rock on the ground.
Rocks didn't have to worry about this. Rocks didn't have to worry about anything, except maybe erosion. But besides that, they could just go on through time as steady, yet flexible, parts of nature. They could live their entire lives undisturbed, and if they were disturbed, they just went with it, because they had nothing to lose. Ziva wished she was a rock...
Britters
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Posted: 2/20/2019 at 7:00 PM
Post #390
Even though these were modern times, Flora had grown up in a small community on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. She had grown up listening to her mother and her aunts all swapping home remedies and folklore with each other, so that she knew how to accomplish almost any task with common household objects. When faced with the problem Physic had presented her with, she had known exactly what needed to be done right away, even of she didn't know what to say to the young girl.
The reaction Flora had gotten from Physic when she had mentioned the need for toothpaste had been almost funny enough to lighten the mood...but not quite. She had done her best to keep the teenager calm, but this was a serious situation, and for now she was content as long as Physic just kept breathing. She kept thinking about what would happen when the younger girl was faced with the results, kept trying to thinking what she was supposed to do when that happened, but she still had no ideas.
"Okay," she said, keeping her air casual as she took the cup from Physic without comment, "This is a trick one of my aunts told me about. What we're looking for is whether or not the toothpaste turns blue...which is positive." She glanced up once at Physic, her heart aching to be able to just embrace her again and tell her it would all be alright.
But they needed to know for sure, Flora reminded herself. She couldn't help Physic properly until they knew for sure...
With a final deep breath, Flora poured a small amount of liquid from the cup into the clear cup she had squeezed a tube of toothpaste into. She gave the contents a brisk stir to mix everything up and then set the cup down to. What felt like hours and was, in reality, only more seconds...nothing happened, and she felt a jolt of relief that was shortlived. Instead of celebrating, she watched grimly as the white goop slowly began to take on a bluish tint...
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