Day 44: Arts and Crafts Room, 4th Shift

[ryuuzaki]

The day had been slow for L so far, slower than he required: the events of the previous night were traumatic, but they did not outweigh his need for information and a useful way in which to apply whatever he might learn.

When the nurse shepherded him from the cafeteria, through the Sun Room, and over towards the door of the Arts and Crafts Room, he experienced a small internal wince: this was the room where it had happened the night before. Unpleasant, yes, but likely to be irrelevant in terms of my own welfare, except in terms of what I can learn from it, he reminded himself.

He had the impression that he could avoid the room if he wanted to, but there were several convincing reasons to push past his reluctance: his meeting with Lunge was necessary, the opportunity to see the room in more usual circumstances might be valuable, and he did not want the staff to see that he had been affected. He wasn't sure how they were tied to the events of the previous night, but the buzz of information around the Institute suggested some kind of strong connection.

As he stepped into the room, feet feeling imprisoned in the slippers that the staff kept insisting that he wear, he avoided the area where he had collapsed. Instead, he turned to the right and proceeded as far into the room as he could, then left, then took a seat in the back corner.

If the nurses pressed him to be more creative, he would take up painting. However, he expected to express his creativity in other ways.

[For Lunge.]

Comments

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

Wally sighed. "Yeah, I've been there before too," he said, leaning forward again to dip his fingers in some of the paint and start smearing it around on the page in a way that was probably going to end up with him having paint all over his hands by the end of the shift.

"Except when we tried it, it didn't turn out to happen the same way we thought and everything got messed up and then you're scrambling just to stop it from getting worse..."

He might have seemed like he was just rambling about his own, very vague, experience while smearing paint around the place, but Wally was also keeping an eye on Peter at the same time. Something told him that chances were good this would hit close to home for the guy, and sometimes that was all people needed to keep talking.

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

If Peter wanted to get technical about it, then things had still happened the way they'd been predicted to. There had still been an explosion, and while it hadn't leveled New York, it had happened. The really devastating part had been, obviously, that he'd been the whole problem. The ticking time bomb.

That was one thing he didn't have to worry about anymore, at least. Still, he wished he could at least be given the chance to really learn how to control all of those abilities. Maybe he didn't deserve it, but the thought of how much good he could do with all those powers...

"Yeah, I almost ended up screwing things up for everyone," he admitted, continuing to stay vague about it. He just couldn't get the words out, even to people who hadn't been involved. "I was lucky enough to get some help at the last minute, though." And he would never stop being grateful for that. He hoped that Nathan knew that.

[scarletspeedstr.livejournal.com]

"Hey," Wally said, looking up from project 'Get Paint Everywhere', "there's nothing wrong with getting some help if you need it, right? I mean, I've had my ass pulled out of the fire lots of times!"

Probably a few too many times, if he asked the League about it. Especially for things that they probably thought he shouldn't have needed the save for in the first place, but at least they were there to help, right?

He wondered how everyone was doing while he and Bats were gone. He'd have to have a serious chat with everyone if they all decided to go evil or something.

"But the important thing," he continued, picking up the container of glitter and scattering enough around to guarantee an even covering on the painting, himself, and Peter, "is that you didn't actually screw things up, right? I mean, you still found a way to stop it, didn't you?"

[human-sponge.livejournal.com]

It wasn't so much that Peter minded getting help. The main problem was that he hadn't needed help for little things, but instead had gone to Nathan when his girlfriend had ended up dead, or when he was about to explode. His brother had told him before how he needed to grow up, and Peter knew that he couldn't keep relying on Nathan for things, especially such important things. The amount of stress that had to put on the man...

For that reason, he was kind of glad that he was the one in the know here. He had been leading Nathan around and explaining things to him, and while he imagined his brother thought it was weird, Peter found some comfort in it. He didn't have to be the one begging for help this time -- not that Nathan did that, but.

On the other hand, once Nathan got his footing here, Peter would defer to him if he decided to take charge with things. He was good at organizing people, and Peter wasn't going to deny that. That wouldn't be happening for a while, though. They were still working on the bare essentials with him.

He looked over at Wally and the abomination of glitter and paint he was creating, cracking a smile before he nodded. "That's true," he agreed. If he had killed all of those people... He couldn't even imagine it.

That was when the intercom came on, promptly cutting them off. Peter let out a sigh, though he wouldn't mind getting to check on Sam before the night came. "It was nice talking to you, Wally," he said as he stood from his seat.