Preoccupations

[rpondicus]

WHO Rory Williams and you.
WHAT Open Post
WHERE The Hostel (Particularly the Clinic and the 6th floor), around town, the library, and the hospital. Or anywhere in between.
WHEN Tuesday-Saturday
NOTES Put where and/or when you're running into him in your header, s'il vous plait.
WARNINGS None yet?

It wasn't right, being stuck here. It wasn't right,

Comments

Friday!

[polarisation]

Sefton hadn't been paying much attention leaving the office. It wasn't a normal occurrence, but with the full moon only a day away, his concentration was shot as he tried to keep himself otherwise in check. Too bad he couldn't account for the pencil that had rolled from the front desk to the doorway thanks to some playful guard dogs earlier in the day.

With something of a flail, he pitched forward, expecting to be able to grab onto the clinic door for support before he smacked into it. Not that it would hurt too badly (he was repelling right now, meaning he would simply transfer half of his own force onto the inanimate object - sure, it might rattle the door pretty badly, but it wouldn't hurt him), it was just the principle of the thing.

[rpondicus]

But Rory, equally distracted by the list of missing supplies in his hand, wasn't watching either, and it was his body in Sefton's way, not the door. Reflexively, before he even realized what was happening, he dropped the list to grab the boy, only to wind up shoved backwards, stumbling back through the open door with a startled yelp, and tripping over his own feet to fall on the clinic floor.

[polarisation]

Despite Rory's yelp, it didn't quite register that Sefton had knocked into a person rather than a thing. That release of energy, the way he rebounded and crashed to the ground - it was all telling of an object, his mind defaulting to that over any other sensory input. He, too, found himself on the floor aside Rory's legs, propped up on one elbow while he rubbed a little at his shoulder.

"Ow... what'd I even-?" He looked back toward the office door, trying to find the offending object... but instead saw a pair of feet as his eyes moved. What? What?

His gaze darted back to Rory, eyes incredibly wide, almost in horror. Oh no.

[rpondicus]

Rory caught up his list, pushing himself back to his feet, and reached down for Lowell's hand.

"Sorry! I didn't see you. Or hear you. You a'right?"

[polarisation]

Sefton pulled back quickly, a twitch reaction, until he was sitting up and staring at the hand. His gaze shifted to Rory's face and he looked incredibly confused... and maybe still scared. "You... You moved." Rory didn't change, he moved. That had never happened before. What did it mean?

[rpondicus]

His hand stayed in place, and it was the one with the half-melted finger, fixed in place at a bit of a wrong angle, twisted inwards. "Yeah, I'm really sorry. Must have tripped on you. I didn't step on your foot, did I?"

[polarisation]

To say Sefton was transfixed by the hand might have been a small understatement. That didn't look like a regular sort of scar, or even some sort of improperly-healed break. "No," he mumbled. His heart was beating too fast, anxiousness that always came with his power's accidental activation on a person, but it was all wrong.

With a slight nod to the finger, he asked, "What happened?"

[rpondicus]

No, it looked very much like what it was; a plastic piece broken off and melted back into place with the help of a hot blade. Rory blinked, looking down at it, and then clutched the hand into a fist, withdrawing it to offer the other instead. "... Car accident," he came up with after a moment. It was habit to blame it on a horse, but that felt more out of place here.

[polarisation]

Sefton frowned, scooting back enough to be able to pick himself up without Rory's aid. "I don't..." It was a difficult thing. The only way to check would be to touch the man again, see if the phenomenon repeated itself, yet if it didn't... he would be doing the one thing he'd sworn not to do again. His curiosity verged on overwhelming. Why had that happened, and did it have something to do with Rory's obviously not-from-a-car-accident injury?

"You moved," he breathed, unable to keep from repeating himself.

[rpondicus]

"Well, yeah. So did you." He straightened, taking this hand back too, and rubbed it against his vest. He looked down at himself, double-checking that he was still wearing the clothes he'd shaped this morning, with no sign of the polished bronze armor. Good.

[polarisation]

Sefton frowned, huffing out some air between his teeth. Rory didn't get it, obviously, since Sefton wasn't being very clear. Part of him urged for Sefton to just let it go, treat the fluke as a blessing that the other man didn't seem to be affected by his powers, while the other part pushed him forward, further and further, desperate to figure out what had caused it.

"Not like you did," he said slowly.

[rpondicus]

"... Were you running? I'm not hurt either, or... what's the problem?" He wasn't sure what his boss was getting at here.

[polarisation]

"You should be hurt," he said, almost without thinking about it. Thoughts still leaping about, and even his curiosity could only do so much to keep him collected in the face of the full moon moving closer. In fact, the confusion of the moment likely only made it worse. He bit his lip, then looked away, shoulders hunching. "I-never mind."

[rpondicus]

"I'm not easy to hurt, really." He smiled, trying for reassuring. "Pretty sturdy. That's why I asked if you were hurt."

[polarisation]

"I'm fine," Sefton replied automatically. He was. He just couldn't figure out how Rory was, too.

[rpondicus]

"You pack a lot of punch for such a little guy, no offense."