Overheard at Camp Melai; Does this mean Robbie's Klinger?

[balladin]

Who: Robbie and anyone (special starter for Dixon and Sirius)
What: OVERHEARD AT CAMP, Robbie accidentally figures out the healing thing. Someone tell him about it in the morning.
Where: Camp 1 - Melai Temple
When: Shortly after arrival. All conversations will pre-date that with Dixon and Sirius.
Warnings/Notes: "Overheard at camp" is basically my idea for posting several quick, one-off lines that can be taken out of context (or maybe in context) and seeing what people make of them. Possibly some talk of Dixon and Sirius' injuries.

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[ 1: In the kitchen. ]

Dibs on the fleshhook!

---

[ 2: In the main hall, as he dumps a collection of wood-ish things in a pile in the center of the room for an anticipated fire. ]

Yay, carbon monoxide!

---

[ 3: Anywhere. ]

Hey, V- guys? This old Enya statue won't not stop undressing me with her eyes. It's freaking me out.

---

[ For Dixon and later Remus. ]
[ When Robbie heads over to Dixon, he doesn't have a specific plan in mind. He's got what small bits of cloth he could find, not wanting to cut up blankets; anyway, he's unsure how to bandage a face without mummifying Dixon. He remembered to clean them by boiling and to boil separate water for cleaning the wound, which has him feeling rather pleased with himself. He's no doctor, and he wouldn't call any of this sanitary, but Robbie's doing what he can. ]

Hey, I figured you might want to... I don't know, get the day's crap off of that.

[ He looks pointedly at the burn and then resumes talking to Dixon's face as a whole. ]

Or whatever your doc told you to do. If it's one of those things where you flinch too much to do it yourself, I'm not skeeved out by it. I can help.

[ Infections are nasty business, and his pockets don't have any Tylenol. You get a high fever - you're dying. ]

Comments

[awfulcer]

[Dixon is miserable, and for the last several hours has been keeping uncharacteristically to himself, sitting with his back to one of the temple walls with his eyes closed but clearly not sleeping. His heart's been pounding on and off, he's sweating, and any attempt to try and nap it off is met with a sort of skin-crawling anxious feeling and trembling. Any painkillers he had for his face are long out of his system, and Brainy's high-tech medicine was not a curative so much as a temporary anodyne.

He knows it's not the burn that's the worst part, though. The most lethal if it gets worse, possibly, but right now he'd take that risk over the shakes and cravings he has as circumstance forcibly cuts him off from two decades of habitual, aggressive drinking.

When Robbie approaches, it's a kindness. His eyelids flutter open.]

Huh?

[It takes a moment to place Robbie, but he puts it together soon enough. The kid who stood up for him when there was that stupid debate about rocks and Phos tried to whale on him. He winces and sits up straighter.]

My doc told me a lot of things that ain't happening here. You're looking out for me?

[balladin]

[ Robbie shrugs – the question implies a deeper thought process than he’s using. ]

I guess? I’m not stalking you. Your face is jacked, so I figured you’d want help. If you don’t, cool, but you should still take the clean stuff.

[ He holds out the pot, which has cooled to room temperature, and the fabric. The latter is hooked over one finger on a bandaged hand. Robbie doesn’t want to contaminate it more than absolutely necessary. ]

Besides, until someone proves otherwise, we’re stuck together like magnetic trains. Choo-choo.

[ And Dixon’s not off on the right foot with some of the group. Not even the left foot. So maybe Robbie is making it a point to make sure the guy doesn’t get ignored. ]

[awfulcer]

No, I didn't mean that, it's just...thanks. [Dixon isn't in any sort of mood to resist Robbie's companionship. If anything, the generous gesture awakens some kind of desperation in Dixon to continue it. He hasn't wanted to be on the outs with the rest of the group; it's just been an unfortunate reality, fueled by his own aggression and impulsive loudmouthing.

Just like that, Robbie's earned a swell of earnest goodwill.

The burns cover Dixon's left hand, half his face and a good portion of his neck, so his first motion is to gingerly take one of the clean fabrics and clean his burned palm. It's taken a beating with the attack with the Wheelers, and most of the barely-healed tissue has been ripped away to an open wound. It's painful enough to touch that Dixon's attempts to wipe pebbles and dirt out of it are fairly inept; he isn't able to force his mind to override his body's instinctive repulsion to pain.]

You know, my momma says I was pretty handsome before this. [It's a pitiful attempt at cracking wise. He gives Robbie a look, like he's seeing him for the first time, undistracted by inebriation or monsters or anything like that. Tall, lean, looking like a college football type, probably as wholesome as city Yankees get (at least, that's what Dixon assumes from the accent).] You got a name? I didn't catch it back at the...you know, the thing.

[i.e. that whole thing where he nearly got brained by a space-rock that was a teenager, somehow. He's almost stubbornly refusing to try wrapping his head around that one.]

[balladin]

No problemo, compadre.

[ His Spanish is half-terrible, half living in New York gives him just enough of an idea of how the accent sounds. ]

You'd do the same for me.

[ It's nonchalant, but Robbie wants to assume a baseline of decent humanity in every normal person. It's part of his every-life-has-value mindset. Normal people are the real heroes, day in and day out.

... it's still not going to give him a complete pass on a statement like that. 'My momma'? Oh, there is a entire universe to be had in this response. ]

Yo momma lies so much she got kidnapped in a rug store. [ He flashes a sheepish grin. ] Sorry, I had to, but I meant what I said earlier. It doesn't look that bad.

[ He pauses, considering the state of the skin on Dixon's face. It's far from healed, but it doesn't look as gooey as it might. A tight nod. ]

You just have to keep it clean and whatever you do, don't pick it. Insert joke about how I'm not yo momma. And I'm not. My name's Robbie.

2

[wherenoonegoes]

[Hiccup looks up from where he's inspecting Toothless's tack, doing basic maintenance and cleaning. If a part broke, there was no telling how long it's take before he could find or make a replace it, so it was best to make sure things were in working order now that they had some breathing room. Toothless is nearby, resting on a spot that looks somewhat fire-blackened.]

Either explain your strange future words when you say them, or stop using them. Personally, I'd prefer the former.

[balladin]

[ He throws Hiccup a bland look, but it falters he registers Toothless. It's hard to be smooth around dragons. ]

Carbon monoxide is the thing in smoke that'll make you sick if you build a fire in a closed space or your flue's blocked. And how am Isupposed to know what words are strange future words? Like Internet's a given, but what about sledge hammer?

[ It's only mostly a joke. ]

[wherenoonegoes]

[Hiccup rolls his eyes while fiddling with some gears.}

I assume it's some kind of hammer. Look, don't worry about it. If I ned something explained I'll ask.

I don't think the smoke will be too much of an issue. [He pauses, looking around to inspect the temple.]

It's too well ventilated for that. Probably *because* they'd need fire. Burnt offerings *are* a thing.

[balladin]

[ Robbie nods. He doesn't mind explaining, but he doesn't want to overexplain or to be constantly wondering if he should or if it's pandering. Asking is better.

Also, they've now exceeded Robbie's 'my parents have a fireplace' understanding of fires, so he follows Hiccup's lead and looks around, trying to assess how much ventilation is 'enough'. ]

How can you tell? [ There's a roof, and walls, so Robbie considers the room at least 80% enclosed. ]

Seriously, burnt offerings? And people wondered why the gods were always pissed. I'd be pretty pissed if the only thing anyone ever gave me was charcoal dust.

1

[followingdawn]

All yours, but I hope you're not asking me to toss it over there.

[ Because Sothe does happen to be standing closer to the fleshhook in question, rummaging through all of those implements...and tucking a couple of the better looking knives away. Don't mind him.

But yeah, he's not throwing you that, Robbie. ]

[balladin]

[ Whatever, he can and does fetch it himself. He promptly waves it around like he's Captain Hook. ]

Blast good form! Did Pan show good form when he did this to me?

[followingdawn]

[ Robbie has definitely been winning the "most confusing person" race so far. Superboy has a weird name, but at least he tried to explain it! ]

...

[balladin]

Everyone's a critic.

[ It never occurs to him that someone doesn't know Peter Pan. ]

This'll come in handy when start moving again. If.

3.

[outofresets]

[ Not picking up on it being a joke, Imp looks curiously between Robbie and said statue before settling a confused look on Robbie. ]

Your clothes look okay to me.

[balladin]

[ E tu, Goggles? The hair, the bug-eyed demi-cowl. He had such high hopes for a sense of humor that matched Robbie's inner 15-year-old as well as the uniform look did.

Instead he just picks at the hem of his hoodie. ]

They're fine for now, sure. Winkwink, nudgenudge.

[outofresets]

[ That 'winkwink nudgenudge' was something he'd heard from Kon enough times to get that this was probably a sex joke, maybe? ]

Oooohh.

So you want her to take your clothes off...Wait-...no that dosen't-...

[ He's back to looking confused, and eventually slightly defended. ]

I don't get it.

[ Sorry Robbie. He tried. ]

[balladin]

[ He backs off immediately, not wanting to embarrass the kid for not getting the joke. Clueless - yep, Robbie can remember being that innocent. ]

Ah - no. I like my clothes where they are, and I'm not auditioning for any Mannequin remakes. Let's leave it at that.

3

[suckitblue]

[ Simmons squints at the statue. ]

Crap, now I can't unsee it.

[balladin]

And you just can't decide, right, if it's more disturbing if it's Enya or if it's an old lady.

[ Robbie knows he's making it worse. ]

It's almost like it would be better if it was a gargoyle.

[suckitblue]

You're making it worse.

[ And he knows he's making it worse. Simmons is familiar with this kind of conversation. ]

1

[konman]

[Kon looks up at Robbie from rummaging through kitchen implements.]

And I thought I was oozing creepy right now.

[Anytime he steps inside the temple, the whatever-it-is that's curled up somewhere deep and dark inside him stirs up like it's uncomfortable, and the changes happen. Blackened eyes, thin black veins spidering around his face around his eyes.]

[He's already had his freak out about it and is trying to just... work around it. He can still see, even if his vision is a little warped and weird. It's not like he can just sleep alone outside or something. Too cold and too dangerous.]

[Kon peers at Robbie with those blackened eyes but there's a twinge of a smile on his face that softens up the creepy a little bit. How much it does so is debateable. He picks up a knife and wiggles it in the air.]

Want this, too? It's probably better for if you want to get a good REE REE REE in. If you're going slasher monster, I don't see anything creepy you can use for a mask but I guess that's what human faces are for.

[The question of the hour is whether Kon is joking about horror movies or offering advice on actual murder. Time for Robbie to guess: 1, 2, 3 go! ]

[balladin]

[ Robbie holds off a moment to take it all in. The obviously “bad” seeming powers, the bitter sarcastic humor – ree ree ree is the big clue that the teen is joking, but the human face joke is dark.

He thinks randomly of Hazmat and how he should have been a better, calmer teacher in the face of her anger and poor coping skills. Robbie won’t let this kid get to him the same way. ]

Back in the diseased ages before refrigeration, the safest way to cook anything was boiling it in a giant pot.

[ He ticks his head towards the large collection of said pots. ]

But you can’t just reach into a pot of boiling water and grab an entire leg of lamb, so. [ He holds up the fleshhook. ] The guy with the fleshhook is the guy they find when dinner's done.

[ The plan is diabolical in its simplicity, and Robbie’s brief grin says that he knows it, before it falls away. ]

Pass on the knife. I’m not good with blades.

[konman]

[In that half second's pause, Kon is already kicking himself. Making jokes about horror movies, and human faces, while holding a knife? While looking like this?]

[What were you thinking? Idiot.]

[But then Robbie continues and explains, and Kon smiles widely.]

Okay then, if I see you come running while holding up a flesh hook, I guess it means we're not in Bikini Summer Slaughterhouse 5 and that I should follow you instead of running away screaming.

[Because he's going to want food a lot. He's a growing teenage boy, after all, and now he can't get energy from the usual Sunny D. He's already hungry right now as he speaks. ]

[But then Robbie's smile falls away again and Kon gets self conscious once more.]

I'm not really a knife guy either but we're probably going to have to hunt stuff and learn how to live all caveman style and make fur cloaks or something.

[He picks one that looks like a hunting knife and rummages around and finds the sheathe for it. He's keeping this one.]

2

[fiteclub]

[Anita looks up from where she's carefully sharpening one of her swords on a whetstone she liberated from the kitchen. At some point she snagged a tan cloak, which she's got the other matching one carefully laid on.]

Mon, we'd need a way bigger fire for that to be a problem.

[balladin]

[ Robbie knows when he's being sassed. He huffs in exasperation, because no one here seems to have much of a sense of humor. ]

... boo, oxygen.

[fiteclub]

[Okay, that gets a short laugh at out of her. Congrats, Robbbie, you succeeded.]

Is this the part where I tell you we need that? [She's still grinning, at this point, and has set whetstone and sword to the side.]