(Untitled)

[in_verbatim]

He doesn't know how long he's been asleep, but it's been a long time.

At least, it feels like a long time. When he wakes up in the quarantine wing of the clinics, his head aches with the sort of sluggish tug of a too-long nap. It's a little difficult to sit up, but he manages anyway. He stretches his arm out in front of him, watching it waver and

Comments

[handle_gently]

Someone else-- a small someone, this time-- arrives wearing a protective suit. If Jeff's asleep, he'll wait; if Soze isn't asleep, he'll bow and greet him politely.

[in_verbatim]

Soze's awake this time around, and so he returns Hanatarou's bow with a polite nod.

He puts one hand on the curtain separating him from Jeff. "Do you want me to close this?" ...Not that it blocks out sound or anything, but it's good at pretending to be private.

[jmlevitt]

Jeff is actually awake, typing away on the old laptop they've allowed him. He looks up when the door opens and smiles widely, leaning forward to peer inside the suit's visor. He can guess who it is, but it never hurts to be sure. "Hanatarou!" he exclaims, and pays for his enthusiasm with a coughing fit. Give him a moment. "Ugh, sorry," he says sheepishly when he finishes. "I've missed you."

He shakes his head at Soze. "Nah, it's fine," he says. "You don't have to unless you want to."

[handle_gently]

"Me too," Hanatarou says (in a muffled, tinny voice, although that isn't his fault). He takes a seat at Jeff's bedside, puts his hands in his lap, and scrutinizes him carefully. "You look..." --he hesitates, then decides to assess honestly: "... awful," he finishes, with a sheepish laugh.

[in_verbatim]

He keeps the curtain open, then, for ease more than anything else. He's got a nice pack of laminated cards, and so he busies himself with them as Jeff and Hanatarou talk.

[jmlevitt]

Jeff laughs, punctuating it with a few more coughs. "That sounds about right," he says dryly. "I feel awful. Doctor's say I've got a bunch of uh...foreign matter my system needs to get rid of. Mostly um...fungus." Yes, it's about as unpleasant as it sounds.

One thing Hanatarou might notice is that Jeff's aura is completely normal, as is Keyser's. Normally that's, well, nothing special at all, but their auras haven't been normal in six months. And yet now, instead of the large, single tangled aura Hanatarou would normally see, there are two, right where they should be.