capitalh | [Closed] hit the showers!

Rikki wasn't expecting anyone in the showers. After all, she just saw basically everyone in the common areas and the hall on her way up here, so who the hell else would be in their building? She just wants to get the grime and smoke and blood off her before she tries being social with other people... which is apparently not going to happen, because she can hear a voice echoing off the tiles before she even gets within sight of the other girl.

She recognizes that voice, and it does not belong to a Trailblazer.

Rikki sets her towel down on a bench and approaches hesitantly, poking her head around the corner so she can just barely see into the showers. Oh good. She's still wearing clothes. "Uh... hi?"

Strange vigilante girl who shouldn't be here...? Not that Rikki's going to chase her off, especially not in the state she's in, but--

"Whoa, are you okay?" Rikki's a bit scraped up, but this girl is covered in blood and most of it looks like her own. And then there's that arm... Maybe she had that before, but somehow she doubts it.

Araña was not expecting company. Of course, the moment she yelps and whirls around and processes who she's looking at, she feels stupid for not. Nomad wasn't with the group that tried to rescue her and Jon, and they weren't looking for her, which meant she was somewhere else presumably doing Trailblazery things just not with the main group.

"Jon said I could take a shower," she says immediately, kind of defensive. And then realizes that... no, Nomad had not actually questioned her right to be here.

"Uh. Yes. Sort of. Not really. It's been a long week." she laughs a little, in a not-very-reassuring way, and runs her good hand through her hair. "I'm trying to figure out if I'll electrocute myself if I get in the shower."

"If you'll... Oh!" It took a second for her to connect why that was a concern. Leave her alone, it's been a long exhausting night. "Iiii would maybe talk to a tech guy about that. I'd offer you mine, but he's in New York."

But she does, clearly, need to shower. And maybe see a doctor, with all that blood... Rikki's a little annoyed at Jon now for leaving her unsupervised, even to shower, because honestly, what if she passed out in here? She doubts telling the girl she should go to a doctor, or call one from CONDOR, would go over well, though, considering how their last conversation went.

"If you can just... keep it from getting wet... I can go get some garbage bags if you want?"

"Mine is, too," she says mournfully. Granted, he's more "computers and electronics" than wide and varied "tech", but he could probably tell if she was in danger of DEATH or not.

"Ugh, I hate this. Yes." She only pauses a second before shouting, "Wait, no! I mean. I can't shower with a garbage bag over my arm forever. Okay. I just."

She stops, and takes a couple of deep breaths.

Look, they're out now? It's very hard to keep her thoughts coherent. She'd really like to curl up on top of Tommy and sob hysterically before sleeping for the next five years. But first she desperately needs that shower.

Rikki knows that nearly-hysterical tone. She wants to give her a hug, but she's not sure how well she'd take it - or how sore she is, around her new arm, and she would prefer to not hurt her. She does step forward, one hand held out, to catch her opposite shoulder gently and look her in the eye. It's the same kind of calm, quiet reassurance Cap would give her when she was freaking out, and maybe she's not quite as good at it, but she can try.

"Hey. You can figure that out later, okay? One time I spent a month showering with my hands wrapped in plastic because I broke my thumbs, so I think it's a valid strategy, at least for a while. And I promise you'll feel a lot better when you're clean."

The breathy almost-giggles that had been slipping out fade away at that contact. It might've been kind of cheesy, the hand on the shoulder with the earnest tone thing, except for how it actually, strangely, unbelievably works.

Not as well as if it were Captain Victory, maybe, but no one else could do it like Captain Victory, right?

Aña sniffles a little - she wasn't crying exactly, but she felt like she might and now her nose doesn't know what it's doing - and nods. "Why did you break both your thumbs?

Rikki smiles a little, relieved that she seems to be a little less freaking out now. Apparently that worked, somewhat. She's kind of surprised, to be completely honest.

"I had to get out of handcuffs. I wouldn't recommend it if you can help it, but..."

"I usually just break the handcuffs," Araña says. She also has superpowers, so y'know. Not a comparison or critique, just an observation.

"Do you think we can get a bag to stay all the way up over my shoulder?"

"Pfffft. Cheating."

She steps back a little, eyeing her arm, and shrugs slightly. "Duct tape? We've definitely got that, we use it for everything that breaks around here."

Aña slumps a little in a mixture of "thank god someone knows what to do" relief and weariness. "Yeah. Yes. If you don't mind, thanks."

Not having to worry about figuring it out on her own is a huge weight off.

"Okay. Hang on here for one minute and I will be right back." She steps back, holds up her hand with one finger raised for a moment, like she's afraid Araña might disappear if she leaves her alone, and then turns and bolts back for the door. She really doesn't want to keep the sad panicky girl waiting - and not just because the sooner Araña showers, the sooner Rikki will be able to.

Araña has, in the meantime, realized that she's gonna have to take her shirt and bra off for this to work, and doesn't particularly relish stripping in front of a Trailblazer, even if she'll see her mostly naked anyway.

So, when Rikki gets back, Araña's standing in the middle of the bathroom in her panties, with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Um. Sorry, I figured this was easier. Than trying to do it after."

It affords Rikki with a view of the new seam between the metal and her skin, still vivid and puckered, and all the various bruises, cuts, and scrapes she's sustained, not to mention the dried blood that's lightly crusted all over her back and right side.

"Does it look too bad, Doc?" Araña adds, trying to make light and not quite getting there.

"...oh." Rikki stops for a moment inside the doorway, mostly... startled. She's been around other girls when they change. She and the female members of Cap's team often shared a locker room. She just... wasn't expecting that. And she can't help but wince at the fresh wound connecting metal to flesh.

She manages a soft laugh as she steps forward, setting duct tape down for a moment while she shakes out a garbage bag.

"Well... I've seen worse. You're still standing. It doesn't look infected or anything." She steps forward, holding out the bag. "So if you wanna just... stick it in here... and I'll tape it up... Promise I'll be gentle."

Gentle as she can be, anyway... She's probably going to catch the edge of some wound no matter what she tries, but she can avoid the worst of it.

"And I won't peek." She flushes as she says it, a red almost as bright as her hair, and silently curses herself for it. God, Rikki, why would you even say that?

"I think they put something on it to speed up the healing and keep it from hurting too badly," she says with a shrug. "Figure if it was gonna get pussy and infected, it would've been a couple days ago."

Wow. Wow. Araña thought she was the only one who failed so hard at flirting. Apparently not.

That's a weirdly comforting thought.

"I wouldn't mind," is her immediate response, which is followed by her face, neck, and chest all going red as she quickly clarifies, "I mean, it doesn't bother me! It's no bits you haven't seen before, right? Just like showers after gymnastics!"

Oh god kill her now. She all but shoves the arm into the garbage back, blushing furiously and not looking directly at Nomad.

Rikki only blushes brighter at Araña's response, even with her clarification. She places a hand against the top of the bag to keep it in place, gentle as she can, and all but lunges for the duct tape just so she can have something to look at other than Araña.

"Yeah. Been there, seen that. You... did gymnastics, then? I used to be a dancer, before I got into this business. Didn't get into Julliard, so... somehow fighting evil was the obvious next choice..."

She's rambling a little, but at least it's something to fill the silence, keep Araña distracted. She wrestles with the duct tape for a moment, one-handed, and then sighs. "I'm sorry, can you... hold the bag up for a second? I'm either gonna drop it or the tape and neither one is helpful..."

"Yeah, since we moved to the States until the whole superpowers thing." Which should've been ages but was really only like 5 years or something.

Araña laughs a little, softly, and grabs the bag to hold it in place so Rikki can tape. She's grateful for the distraction, and the company.

"I bet you were a great dancer," she says. "Even if you didn't get into Julliard. It's a small school, I bet loads of awesome people don't get in."

"Heh. Thanks." She smiles softly as she tears off a piece of tape and tries to figure out the best way to attach it to Araña. "I don't get to do it much anymore... but sparring's almost as good. Not the same, but what're you going to do? Bad guys don't exactly find ballet threatening, for some reason."

"I had dancer friends," Araña says, nodding sagely. "If they knew what dancers do every day, they'd be scared as shit."

"If they had any sense, yeah," Rikki laughs, securing the bag far up her shoulder, close to her neck. It's a little overcautious, but probably the best both in regards to avoiding electrocution and not touching the healing wounds.

"You know... if you wanted... I could grab you some antibiotics or something. I don't know what the state of your first aid supplies is like over in vigilante town, but ours are insane. No one will even miss it, especially after tonight."

"Yeah, I... that probably couldn't hurt. We've mostly just got the basics." Vigilante Town has a box of bandaids, a half-empty bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and an almost-empty bottle of extra strength Tylenol.

Araña flexes her bagged arm a bit, and smiles faintly. "Thanks. Didn't mean to cut in on your shower time, I'm pretty sure everyone feels grody after all that."

Showering with the plastic bag had been awkward, and wiping down the metal arm and the skin that had been covered by the bag was annoying, but eventually Anya was clean and Nomad was taking her own shower. She'd gotten Araña some of her own clothes - yoga pants and a loose t-shirt. None of her normal bras had fit, but one of her sports bras was too big and fit Araña just fine.

Which was good, 'cause she only had one bra left at home after this debacle.

She'd been somewhat-furtively texting with Tommy ever since they'd started heading back to the dorms, and now that her only chaperone was busy, she texted Tommy to let him know she was ready.

<come around back, i've got a window open on the first floor>

Ever since Tommy had tracked Ana back to the building, he'd been hovering around outside, trying to figure out how he'd be able to break into it. Of course, there was the obvious, but he didn't think that the Trailblazers would like a brand new hole in their wall, and he wasn't completely well practised enough to phase through the wall. So instead he just continually texted Ana, demanding to be broken in, completely ignoring her intial text telling him that she was okay and that he should go home.

He wanted to see for himself. He hadn't spent last night fighting off hoards of cyborg dogs and getting covered in dirt, oil and blood to just be told to wait at home. Nah. Something totally felt off.

The moment she texts him, he speeds around the building and searches for the window, spotting it before he's hit send on his own text.

She sees that blur, and it's almost sad, to her, how much of a relief it is. She waves with her good hand and steps back to let him clamber in, new metal arm hidden (she hopes) discretely behind her back.

It's not gonna work, she knows it won't, but she feels like she should try.

He heaves a sigh of relief when he finally sees her, wasting no time on climbing through the window.

"Hey," he says, sounding a little more exhausted than he wanted to as he rights himself, running a hand through his grimey hair, pushing his goggles up afterward.

The relief doesn't last as long as he hoped when Tommy gives her a brief once over, and his stomach practically hits the floor when he catches a glance of puckered flesh and a metallic shine. His face pales, and he grabs Ana's good shoulder so he can turn her to get a better look.

"...Whu--"

Edited 2014-05-18 08:47 (UTC)

"It's fine. I'm fine," she says quickly, as soon as he's turned her to see The Arm better. She lifts the hand (not her hand, her hand is rotting in a pit somewhere under downtown, probably) and waggles the fingers, trying to put on a smile.

It's a weak smile, though, and it doesn't reach her eyes. To say her eyes are haunted is cliche as anything, but the echoes of the trauma are there, all of the freaking out and screaming and sobbing she hasn't let herself do properly are there.

She's alive, she's not badly wounded other than the arm (just bruised and scraped), but she's very much not fine.

"I'm glad you're okay," she says, wrapping her arms (her arm and that imposter arm, intruder arm, the arm she never asked for that replaced the arm that was stolen from her) around herself instead of hugging Tommy like she really wants to. She doesn't want to touch him with that metal... thing. It feels wrong. "I was worried they'd get you, too."

He gawks at her, with a mixture of horror and confusion, and takes a small step back when she outstretches it. There's a million and one things running through his head right now--how he's going to find and kill whoever did this to her, how the hell she thought this was fine, how maybe if he'd gotten to her sooner it wouldn't have happened--but he doesn't say any of it. Not yet anyway.

He grabs her, being careful not to jostle the seam between metal and flesh too much, and pulls her in for a tight hug, hand going up to her hair to hold her against him.

"It's not fine."

She freezes for a split second when he hugs her, then pretty much just collapses against him the moment his hand hits her hair. She clutches at him tightly - maybe a little too tight with the new hand, she'll apologize for the fingertip-shaped bruises on his back later.

She wants her Papá. She wants Miguel. So so desperately she wants them. But she has Tommy, and that's almost as good, because he's her friend, and he was scared for her, and he's hugging her, and it's all she can do not to start sobbing right then and there.

She doesn't want the Trailblazers to hear. She doesn't want to break down completely in somewhere that's not safe. But that doesn't mean she doesn't cry.

She shudders in his arms for a moment, clutching him like a lifeline, before she answers.

"No," she says, voice trembling, "pero no está muerto. It's not dead. It could be worse, right?"

He makes a small noise when he feels the metallic fingers press into his back, but he makes no effort to move himself or get her off. They both need this. He'd been so freaking worried and she was here, alive, but not in one piece but she was here, and holding her made it real. And he could only imagine what she'd been through. TRIDENT had been an experience, but he at least still had both his legs. Even if they were covered in horrific scarring. This was way worse.

He takes a deep breath, his hand tightening on her waist a little when she speaks. This is hitting very close to home. They had teamed up to stop TRIDENT, to make sure nobody had to go through what he had. But turns out, it's not just TRIDENT they have to look out for. What good were they if they couldn't protect each other?

"Fuck. Fuck, I'm so sorry I didn't find you sooner."

She hears the noise, though it takes a moment to connect that to pain to the metal fingers digging into his back. This was going to take practice. Maybe she should learn to write with her left hand... She relaxes the right hand a bit, so hopefully she won't be hurting him, and presses her face into the nape of his neck.

"Not your fault. I was stupid and went out alone, they did this almost as soon as I'd got there, after they tried to pry the exo off." She shivers a little, grateful for his warmth.

The new arm doesn't get warm like the rest of her body.

"I think they thought if they took my tattoo, my powers would go away." Which indicates that they did not. To be honest, it's a little bit of a surprise to Aña, too - she honestly had thought the magic tattoo was the source of everything.

He leans his head against hers, and sighs through his nose, holding tightly onto her. He's started to thread his fingers through her hair unconsciously, mind racing with all the things hed do to her captors if he ever got his hands on them.

"Yeah, what the hell was that about? I thought we were gonna go out together?" he frowns, pulling his head back a little so he could look down at her mop of hair. It was weird to see it down. She never had it down.

"I swear, I'm gonna kill them. Every last one. I'm gonna break off their arms and I'm gonna make them watch, and then I'm gonna break their atoms one by one from the inside out," he grabs onto Anya a little tighter, scowling.

Rikki only just got out of the shower. She hasn't even had time to get dressed, just wrap a towel around herself, but she heard gradually rising voices and thought maybe she should check to make sure nothing's on fire.

What she finds is Araña sobbing and an angry (annoyingly familiar) delinquent hanging onto her and threatening violence. So she does the only sensible thing, in her view, which is to stride forward, yank the criminal off the traumatized girl, and punch him directly in the face.

Fun fact: it is basically impossible to keep a towel up while punching someone. She hadn't really figured that into her plans.

"I know, but it just... didn't seem like that much of a threat at the time, I guess," Aña admits with a sigh. She's smiling faintly even as she cries, when Tommy starts ranting, until suddenly he's...

Okay.

That was Nomad hauling off and punching him in the face.

And losing her towel.

Aña is torn between gaping at the (frankly really pretty) naked girl, indignantly protesting the treatment of her best friend, and laughing hysterically.

She votes a mix of c and option d - blaming Tommy for this girl being mad at him. She starts laughing through her tears in a startled way, trying (and failing) to be subtle in her attempt to watch Rikki with her pretty body, and immediately asks. "Fuckin' hell, Tommy, what'd you do to piss her off?"

Tommy is so wrapped up in Aña's situation, that he doesn't even have time to register that Nomad is ripping him off of her and punching him in the face. She gets him right in the nose, and he reels back, tripping over something so that he's flat on his back.

"Whatthefuck!?" he screeches, pushing himself back up, one hand on his nose to see--...

Well. That sure is a naked superhero. Now he knows that the carpet matched the drapes. Dammnit why did she have to be naked. He could shout at her if she wasn't naked.

He stares for a bit, his brain obviously having shorted out after the jostle from the punch and the nakedness of the situation, and then Aña brings him back just as his nose starts to spurt blood all down his face.

"I didn't do anything!! I should be pissed off at her--goddamnit I think she fuckingbrokemynose!"

Edited 2014-05-18 10:02 (UTC)

She doesn't move for a second, fist cocked back for another punch if he tries to come at her - she probably wouldn't be able to do anything, with the whole speedster thing, but she has to try.

And then he doesn't attack her, and he's gushing blood, and she is... very very naked. Shit. She yelps softly and lunges for her dropped towel, pulling it up to cover her as best as she can.

"I thought... You were shouting and she was crying and... How did you get in here?"

"I let him in," Aña blurts. "I'm sorry, he was just really worried and wanted to make sure I was okay, plus y'know, the showers here are way better than the ones at the Y-- Uuuuuh than ours."

Well, nothing like peacekeeping to distract you from angst.

She turns her back on Rikki to examine Tommy's nose. "Yeaaaah, it's broken. You gonna let me set it so it heals right?"

She's fussing, enough that any normal person would probably assume she and Tommy are a couple. Well, they're a couple'a something, anyway...

"How many times do I gotta tell you that I'm not a psycho?" he shouts, before grimacing as he touches his nose, hissing a little in pain. Goddamnit.

Tommy pushes himself up into a sitting position and squints up at Aña, removing his hand, which is now bloody and gross (that he's wiping on the floor by the way, Rikki), and lets her do whatever she needs to do to it.

"Yeah, just don't make it worse. This is the money maker."

"I didn't know!" she protests, taking the opportunity of him being distracted to wrap her towel around herself properly. "You just appear in my building and you're... kind of being scary and..."

She sucks in a breath, folding her arms over her chest (which has the added bonus of holding her towel more secure, god, she's just going to pretend that never happened).

"I'm sorry. It's been a long day and I'm tired and not really... Do you wanna go to the infirmary? We don't have a nurse on staff, just... medical supplies..."

Aña pretty much ignores their little argument to gently feel Tommy's nose and then, rather abruptly, tug the cartilage back into place.

Sorry, Tommy. It'll feel better once it's back in place, though, so there's that, right?

"He was worried about me and threatening the people who did this," Aña clarifies on Tommy's behalf, waggling the metal hand's fingers. "Veloz, this is Nomad. Nomad, mi Veloz. I assume you two have already met." She turns to Rikki. "He's my roommate. And basically my best friend. So please don't punch him again, thanks."

Edited 2014-05-18 10:40 (UTC)

He yelps when she yanks his nose, and sinks back onto the floor, holding his face and muttering something under his breath with the pain. God, he was going to get black eyes wasn't he? Goddamnit.

It takes him a few seconds to recover, sitting back up, his shoulder brushing against Aña's good one, scowling a little at Rikki.

"Oh, we go way back. I met her when she was still Bucky," he snorted, wiping his hand across his face with his sleeve to try and get rid of the blood. "She basically arrested me," he finishes, carefully touching the bridge of his nose and wincing.

"I don't need to go to any CONDOR infirmary, okay? Chica, can we go? This place is giving me the creeps."

"It's not a CONDOR--"

She gives up protesting halfway through, throwing up her hands in frustration - and then quickly remembering to grab her towel before it loosens and slides down again.

"Fine. Whatever. I just thought you might want painkillers or something to stop you bleeding everywhere, but sure, go ahead. I am sorry."

The unspoken "jerk" in that sentence somewhat undermines the apology, maybe.

Aña lowers her voice and leans in to murmur in Tommy's ear. "At least stay here and let me grab some things?" she asks. "Given everything, I think we could use some supplies. Por favor, don't start a fight, and I'll grab some stuff and then we'll go home, sí?"

They could use some antibiotics. Some gauze, some splints, whatever you use to stabilize a broken nose. Basic first aid items. She can get at least a few of these things, and she would really like to, in the event that one of them gets hurt. Again.

He looks up at Aña, frowning at her suggestion. He hates how good the idea is, especially since the last time one of them got hurt they had to go and steal a bunch of supplies. And really, he was trying to cut back on the criminal activities. He groans at Aña, gives a brief nod and then eyes Rikki, pointedly wiping his hand on the floor again.

"I guess that's the least you can do. Since y'know. You ruined my face."

"Your face is fine," she retorts with a little eyeroll. "Bloody, and you're gonna be black and blue for a week or two, but your face looks fine. Maybe don't break into people's homes and you won't get punched so much."

She glances to Araña, lips pressed together in annoyance. She is sorry. It's just hard to stay polite with someone as abrasive as Tommy.

"I'll show you where it is. Um. You might not want to leave him behind? Because if another Trailblazer comes down this hallway..."

Somehow she doubts he'll be able to charm his way out of getting decked again. He's got that kind of a face. And mouth. And everything.

"Your face was never fine," is Aña's retort. "He'll be fine here as long as he keeps an eye out," she adds to Nomad. "No offense but I am way too tired for bickering."

Bloody broken nose or not, though, she gives Tommy a one-armed hug and a hopefully-discrete peck on the cheek to hopefully reassure him she's kidding.

She kinda likes his dumb face.

And also Nomad's face.

And she has a metal arm, which is unrelated but adds to the amount of complicated in her life.

"Right. First aid stuff?"

He mutters something under his breath, and shoots Nomad a look when she speaks--god everything about her just gets a rise out of him--and then huffs loudly when Aña does too.

"My face is so fine, chica, you don't even know," he starts, before promptly stoping at the hug and kiss. He rolls his eyes rather dramatically, and wipes his nose on his sleeve.

"Don't be too long, yeah? I'll die of boredom."

[Closed] hit the showers!

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sorry this is so short, but you're the one pouring the vodka, sooooo...

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After her shower, for Tommy

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