Room 510; Thursday Morning.
Perhaps climbing up several flights of stairs wasn't exactly the best idea for someone of Adah's state of body and mind, especially when considering that, despite herself and her constant chastising of being absolutely ridiculous, she'd barely gotten any sleep last night. How could she have? Well, technically speaking, she should have, because she'd been tired, and sleep was what people did when they were tired. But she'd also been worried, horribly so, and it made her guts all tipsy-turvy and flopsy, grumbling and keeping her up worse than Bob in her cage. Worry was not an emotion that Adah Price was used to feeling. She could count the times in which she could remember feeling worried enough that her homeostasis was knocked off-kilter on her one good hand, and still have a finger or two left to poke someone in the eyes. She wasn't exactly happy about it, either.
Adah had barely slept last night, which hardly left her in any condition to be climbing stairs, but those sleepless hours were spent developing a plan that required the hike. She really was concerned about River, although most of it, she had to admit, had more to do with the fact that she hadn't seen her in an extensive amount of time than the announcement yesterday. And, really, River hadn't been expected. The Eel had been. She didn't think anything of it beyond a slight stab of disappointment at first, but it had to be piggybacked by that announcement, and then disappointment turned to the sort of dread that Adah had felt only a few times in her life. And then it festered in her brain, incubated, like a pre-mature baby monitored on hospital equipment. She had hoped that, like some premies, no matter what treatment it received, it would still falter, and fail, and die, but, no. The dread had been like she had been: you'd look at it, think it wouldn't last, but then it flourished and grew strong. But there was a plan. She would check on River; checking on River was safe. The journey was greater, but it gave her the excuse that she could, almost as a second thought, simply detour on the third floor while she was passing, simply because she was passing. And for no other reason. Certainly not because she'd been worried, concerned, or, Dog ho, even afraid.
Meanwhile, the door to River's room was open, to give Adah hope as she made her way down the hallway, but it would have been a mostly false hope, as it wasn't open because of River. Although he was a little squeamish about moving around too much after the announcement, A.J. had promised River that he would make sure her weird-ass tentacle monster...thing (Berthold, he kept telling himself, but he just couldn't get it to stick).
Who either really didn't like A.J., or seemed to very much like A.J., but only to mess with him. He'd only just gotten his ankle out from a tight tentacled grasp when Adah reached the door, and the effort let him staggering and falling back on his butt.
"Yeah, real nice way to treat the guy who feeds you," he muttered at the tentacle. "I'm not made for weird octopus...thing...games, okay? If you cut it out, I can just get you your ice cream and just go."
Out of anything her brain could have attempted to conceive to help get her brain around some of the obstacles to avoid in checking on River -- she was safer, yes, that the Eel, but hardly safe all together --, this scenario had certainly never surfaced. She reached the door and stood there, almost a little too confused to even recognize the dull pain her body was sending to her brain. Her head tilted, question in her eyes for the moment when the artist realized that she was there.
Which would have never happened if it weren't for a slight uncoiling of one of Berthold's tentacles, drawing away from A.J. and drifting toward the door. A.J., still on the floor, stared at it in confusion for a moment before following it, where he blinked, and stared some more. "Adah?"
Adah kept a steady gaze on the artist, her confusion as to why he was there pulling the losing side of the rope against her noticing that it really was just him, his floppy hair, and the tentacle monster...thing.
"What are you--" A.J. gawked a moment longer before it caught up with him where he was. "Oh! Oh!" He started to scramble up to his feet, brushing some of Berthold's food off the front of his shirt. "River, right. Uh, she's not here right now."
If they hadn't been so well fixed in, Adah's eyes would have popped right out of their sockets as this hit her like a brink wall and they widened in shock. She'd considered the possibility that River might have been abducted, but it was in the realm of possibility that had placed into the practically impossible end of the scale. Adah thought for sure her heard had actually stopped.
A.J. frowned at Adah for a moment over that response, which, at first, seemed really dramatic for such a simple thing, but then his brain caught up and put pieces together and his own eyes widened. "Oh! Oh, God, no, not like that! No, she's been gone; she went home for the week for something, so she's in space and all that. Oh, God, no, I'm sorry, Adah. I didn't even think..."
Although her shoulders instantly fell, relaxed and relieved, Adah's stare hardened on the artist. Didn't even think. Yes. Of course. Typical stupid male.
A.J. gulped under that stare. Forget Berthold. He would take the tentacle monster...thingy's relentless, playful tripping of him over having to sit under that stare for too long, and he started to shift. "S...sorry," he said. "I really didn't think. But she's safe, definitely. She's a lot better off than the rest of us, in fact. I didn't....I mean, I figured you'd have hea-- Didn't she tell you?"
No, she hadn't, and this all started to make another little burdensome reaction start up inside of her. She and River hadn't talked...seen eachother, rather, in a while, since the bunny and the singing, and...Her lower lip started to disappear under her teeth with the beginnings of a thought, but she sharply set herself back to realizing why she was here in the first place and the fact that the artist was here and she wasn't about to show weakness around him. He displayed enough weakness for the both of them, and then some. She gave a stiff shake of her head, and then nodded, because she'd found out what she needed to know, and slowly started to back out of the door.
No, he didn't like Adah, but A.J. could definitely tell that something was wrong, and, even if he wasn't fond of someone, sometimes he couldn't help caring. She was important to River, though, and had been, to Beauty, so he would probably never be able to completely hate Adah, even if he kind of wanted to. He frowned at her reaction. "Adah, everything okay? What...?"
It wouldn't be the first time he'd wondered about how things were between the two of them, and his brow furrowed with a frown. "You need help or anything? You don't look too good. Here, let me--"
When the artist started to move forward, Adah took an even larger step back and waved a hand at him dismissively. She shook her head, waved her hand again. She definitely didn't want his help or anyone's help right now, thank you very much. She tense a little, thinking of what she was going to do in case the artist insisted; he seemed the type that would. Stupid and overly kind and optimistic and trying to see the good in everyone, including him, like a complete fool. Complete fool though that he was, he was the one that River had entrusted information to, and her pet to, and...
Berthold. For a moment, her eyes drifted that way, toward underneath River's bed, and she blinked. She bit her lip, concentrating on the movement of his tentacle, uncoiling, slowly reaching.
Good old Berthold. Adah smiled lightly at the perfect distraction as it happened, glancing toward the artist to catch his eye. When she did, she nodded, toward the advancing tentacle.
A.J. didn't figure it out until it was too late, tentacle around his ankle, pulling him to his but again with a surprised little shout, leaving him with more important things to worry about than Adah's slow and limping departure toward her next pursuit.
[[ Establishy, and late-ish because work training sucks. A.J. is still there, though, if anyone want to run into him. Or help him. Room and Berthold modded with permission ]]