First Aid Course Part 2

## Rose | Rhett | Marci03/13/2019

Though this sort of thing wasn’t entirely in Rhett’s educational range, he followed Vindaya’s instruction rather easily, watching everything she did while acting as her demonstration dummy. His eyes took in the finished product in awe before looking up and around at the others. There were a few who didn’t seem to be getting much from this but he didn’t pay it much attention as Daya continued to suggest partnering up.
He glanced to Cole and Val and wondered if he could get Kyle in on this learning experience just as the instructor spoke directly to him. “I wouldn’t mind that.” He responded to being partnered up with the woman. Afterall he was actually rather fond of her even if they hadn’t interacted much.
“This stuff sounds hard but you made it look easy enough…” He trailed off as he began mimicking what he’d seen of Daya’s exhibition. In the end, his attempts were a success. Re-doing the motion a handful of times before grinning at the doctor. “I think I’ve got it so what else can you teach me?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Observing the back of your eyelids, maybe.” She quietly chuckled before glancing to Vindaya. The woman’s respect was only building for the other as she put her work on display. Even if she could heal people through touch, Daya was also a trained doctor and that alone was a feat that Marci could only ever dream of. When the demonstration came to an end and everyone was advised to pair up, her eyes settled back to Leo.

“Alright, babe. Let’s see how this thing works.” She took up one of the tourniquets and took Leo’s arm from under the quilt. Slipping the contraption on and around Leo’s forearm, she tightened it only enough to keep the thing in place before grinning at her achievement. “It’s your turn now.” Removing the thing, she set it in Leo’s lap wondering if he would actually give it a go.

## Mob Boss Peggy03/13/2019

"Be gentle." Leo replied feigning an air of superiority as if she was pampering him after Marceline took him by the arm. With this other arm, he reached for his coffee. While Marci was working, he took several gulps of it.
When she was finished, he looked down at her work. "Is that it? What's the use, again? I could do this using myself!" He wiggled his arm before she removed the thing.
"Ugh... You're really going to make me do this, huh?" Alright, so Leo hadn't been paying the *most* attention to Vindaya's demonstration. Before he had dozed off, he had mostly just been watching her work, but that didn't mean that he knew how to use that thing, or what it was even called. He hadn't even really watched Marceline put it on him.
He picked it up between his thumb and forefinger. How hard could it be? Leo took Marceline's arm much like she had done his. Gently, of course, as she was a proper lady. Leo tried to tie the thing. No, it wasn't supposed to be tied. He tugged on it, but that didn't do what he wanted it to. "This fucking *chingadera*..." Leo mumbled as he struggled.

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis03/13/2019

Vindaya held out her arm patiently while Rhett practiced, noting respectfully that he was getting the hang of it. Not that tourniquets were as difficult as sutures, but when you were unaccustomed to it, it could still be awkward. Plus, he wasn’t pulling it too tightly, which was nice.
“Very good, Rhett,” she said, shaking the tourniquet off and setting it down on the table again. At least he was a willing and eager participant. “Did you have a chance to practice sutures?” she asked, indicating the kit she’d been using to demonstrate that was still open in front of her. “While everybody’s paired up practicing tourniquets, I could catch you up.”
She began demonstrating and explaining, again, though a little faster than before since it was just Rhett. When she handed the materials over to him so he could try, she asked, “By the way, I can see you’re still recovering. Would you like me to heal that for you?”

## sephet03/13/2019

Kyle watched as everyone paired up except him and the two pretty girls who seemed to have their life together and decided maybe instead he would just die. He rubbed the buzzed hair on the back of his head and got up to go into the kitchen and sort of get a drink but mostly hide from having to talk to people he didn’t know well.(edited)

March 14, 2019

## Mouse03/14/2019

Dax began to practise on Andys arm, it wasnt surprising that he was decent at all this sort of thing. The amount of times he had attempted to patch himself up. Purposefully ignoring Andys cheerful greeting he sat awkwardly on the floor, feeling like he was back at school - not that he really went often.

"Pretty shit." He responded bluntly without looking up when Andy asked him how he was doing. There was no point hiding it. He wanted to not be pissed off but he was feeling extra irritable. His eyes were heavy with dark circles and he really needed to eat something. He hadnt touched the pizza yesterday and his body was still processing the alcohol from last night. The buzz of static in the air around him made it impossible to hide his irritation but there was no way he was going to talk about it.

## Mob Boss Peggy03/14/2019

Andy looked over at his arm while Dax worked on it and was both surprised and also not surprised when he seemed to know exactly what he was doing. He had trained with Dax many times, but admittedly didn't know much about the man himself. He assumed just by looking at him (which made him feel bad, because judging people by appearance is the wrong thing to do) that he had a lot of real-world experience. Andy knew that Dax had his secrets and never asked about them, nor was he ever planning to.
"I'm sorry," He muttered at the man's curt reply. "I'm sorry that I haven't checked in on you. I figured you'd be resting and didn't want anybody to bug you... How's your wound? Can I see it?"
He didn't feel nervous asking, but he did notice that his hair seemed to be fluffing up a little out of the ordinary as he sat beside Dax. Andy knew well by now the feeling of the man's static, but wasn't quite sure yet whether it was related to the man's mood.

## Rose | Rhett | Marci03/14/2019

Marci snickered at the professor’s dismay, finding his whining, for the most part, amusing. Had he actually been paying any semblance of attention things would‘ve been going much smoother for the elastic man. With this in mind, the illusionist wasn’t too eager to assist as he muttered curses to himself.
“Really, babe,” she grinned at the dreadlocked man before wagging a finger much as though she were scolding a child, “watch closely.” Prying his hands off the tourniquet, she carefully adjusted the thing and tightened it on herself, of course experiencing a little bit of difficulty in the process.
“See, easy?” She shot a cheery smile at Leonardo before noticing a certain someone slipping away from the groups. “Kyle,” She didn’t necessarily shout for him or anything but her voice carried enough to catch his attention. “I just lost half my arm, mind helping me out? Leo clearly can’t handle the task on his own.”
@sephet @Mob Boss Peggy

## Rose | Rhett | Marci03/14/2019

The praising was nice, no doubt, but Rhett still felt a twinge of uneasiness as Daya suggested testing out the sutures activity. Even if he wasn’t sewing himself together, the thought of having to patch any of his teammates made him beyond nervous. “I didn’t.” He replied a little less than enthusiastically but still took up the kit anyway.
Practicing the motions once it was explained, he wasn’t much better off from any of the others although he did give it a couple go’s for improvement. “Thanks for catching me up.” He appreciated her patience.
His eyes darted up from the stitching at her next question and a sheepish smile spread across his face. “Andy patched me up the best he could and it’s healing ok...but, I wouldn’t say no to that.” Speaking the truth seemed to be much better than continuously playing these things off and Vindaya’s offer did sound very tempting. “How does it work? Your power?” He finished his second attempt at sutures and set it down on the table with a small smile, curious of the doctor’s answer.

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis03/14/2019

It was fairly obvious that Rhett wasn’t thrilled about this task, but Vindaya paid it no mind. If he was going to attend a *voluntary* first aid course, he was going to have to do it. Besides, especially in light of recent events, it was a useful thing to be able to do. That went for everyone—it didn’t matter if they were perfect or even neat, just that they had some familiarity and could provide some assistance in a pinch.
This was Vindaya in her element, in her work mode; as no nonsense as ever, but focused. This was not a social interaction she had feelings about one way or another, but a problem to solve and a goal to be accomplished.
“You’re doing fine,” she informed him, mostly sitting back and watching or occasionally gently redirecting him.
When he accepted her offer she briefly studied him a little more carefully—whatever Andy had done, it was effective, and his wounds were no longer bleeding. Lucky for her, since she hadn’t anticipated healing anyone today and hadn’t brought her suit.
Leaning forward, she stilled his hands for a moment with her own and, maintaining the contact, healed his wounds. They stung and pulled uncomfortably, but no worse than the still broken ribs. Pulling away a handful of moments later and letting him resume, she said, thinking too much about the task in front of her to go into any detail, “I can ‘see’ what’s physically wrong with people and heal them via physical contact.” Without missing a beat, she continued, “Careful, your knots need to be tight. As long as you close the wound, it doesn’t matter if they’re straight and neat. Try on that one,” and pointed to a differently shaped faux wound.

## Rose | Rhett | Marci03/14/2019

His curious gaze stayed fixed on the doc as she took his hands in hers and held them in place for what could’ve been no longer than a minute tops. He was studying her outward composure but when she sat back, he let out a relieved breath. “Thank you.” He’d already been doping himself up with various pain killers he’d found about the place but knowing the pain was truly gone now put his nerves at ease.

“That’s really useful, no wonder you went into the medical field.” He stammered absently while returning his attention to the stitching. At her constructive criticism, he nodded before quickly setting back to work. Her instruction of testing his luck with another silicone wound was soon met with a grin. The boy’s fingers setting to work, keeping in mind what she’d said about his knotting. “Did you always want to be out saving people’s lives?” His question, in his mind, was harmless and rather than solely focussing on the work, he wanted to know a little more about her.

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis03/14/2019

He seemed to be improving a little bit and even if he wasn’t, Vindaya was satisfied that he was trying and getting the practice in. She hadn’t spent so much time studying anyone else doing these sutures; Val definitely would’ve benefitted from some more individual attention.
She failed to acknowledge Rhett’s idle commentary, far too focused on the stitches and the movements of his hands. While she was considering how else he might improve, his next question took her off guard. Focus broken, she blinked a few times and looked up at his face.
As far as she could tell, his intentions were sincere.
This had now become a personal interaction and as such, Vindaya was wary, though not drastically so. Rhett didn’t give her any discernible reason to be suspicious, at least not yet.
She glanced over quickly at Andy, who was preoccupied with Dax. Seeing the latter, especially in conjunction with Andy, brought a reminder of guilt and also brought her back to Rhett’s question.
Surely he hadn’t thought it so complicated. In fact, before joining this ragtag group, neither had she.
“No,” she said finally. “That was not the intention.”
Defaulting to her usual method of deflecting by turning questions on her interlocutor, she sifted through what information she knew about Rhett. Turned out it was next to none. She didn’t even know how old he was.
Even though it wasn’t the most natural segue she’d ever made, she said smoothly, “And you? Do you work? Are you in school?”

## sephet03/14/2019

Kyle exhaled slowly what was either a sigh or a wheeze as Marci called out to him. He turned slowly and shuffled back over to the group, and then over where Marci and Leo were sitting. “Man you paid so much for that arm, that’s unfortunate.”

He dropped himself down onto the floor to sit with them and tentatively took the tourniquet and started tying it off on Marci’s arm, careful to not actually cut off blood flow. “Sorry about your fictional maiming.”

## Mob Boss Peggy03/14/2019

"Whatever..." Leo huffed as Marceline corrected his work. He watched groggily through his sunglasses at her hands and - let's be real - her cleavage as she tightened the tourniquet. His gaze followed hers up as she beckoned for Kyle.
When he came up and demonstrated that he had also paid attention to Vindaya's lesson, Leo threw an arm around his shoulders.
"When I *need* to do this in *real* life, I'll do it right. Promise." He said, flashing a toothy smile. "Hey Kyle, I'm sorry you lost your home. How are you doing, *hermano?* You still workin'?"
@Rose | Rhett | Marci @sephet

## Mouse03/14/2019

Dax shrugged and glanced around the room purposely not looking at Andy for a while. "Man whatever Im good." He brushed off the concern, easing his temper slightly. He may have had a short fuse but it also dissipated easily when he wasnt provoked.
He looked at Andy when he asked to see the wound and raised an eyebrow. "Ok, s'pose its not the first time Ive been half naked in your house." He pulled off his tshirt with some difficulty.
The work Vindaya had done on the wound was good, but the area surrounding it had come up in a nasty bruise and the wound was still weeping. Dax had been quick to take off the bandage as it restricted his movement. Which he shouldnt have been doing anyway.(edited)

## Rose | Rhett | Marci03/14/2019

*”That was not the intention.”*

The shifter couldn’t help but eye her with an even greater interest. There was no denying how mysterious the doctor could come off as and though this quality seemed to deflect some of the others, Rhett was unaffected. He simply supplied her with a weak smiled while carrying on with his task. If she didn’t want to talk, he’d have no choice but to leave her be. Or maybe he’d just annoy her until she complied? Rather, he was sure, Vindaya would just up and leave him with his ramblings.
His attention drifted from the sutures upon hearing her own inquisition. A smile was given before his shoulders rose in a shrug. “I’m here because I want to help people. Technically, I don’t have a job at the moment and no, I graduated and figured that was as good as it’d get.” A short bought of laughter left him at the revelation though he quieted down and went on almost immediately after. “Even if you weren’t planning on saving people, you’re good at it and I’m sure plenty of your patients would agree.”
@Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis
~ ~ ~
One glance and Marci could read the absolute disarray going on in the boy’s mind. She just wanted to wrap her arms around the younger man and keep him safe from the horrors the world had to offer. Not like Kyle was any kind of stranger to shitty situations. Poor guy just seemed to attract bad luck.
“Thanks for that, babe.” She smiled in her usual manner before turning to glance at Leo. “You won’t catch me holding my breath.” Grinning slightly, she let it fade back to a smile as Leo questioned Kyle over his misfortune. “If you need anything, don’t be afraid to ask, alright?” She added softly to the tail end of Leo’s questions.
@Mob Boss Peggy @sephet(edited)

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis03/14/2019

Vindaya, still a little taken aback by the turn this conversation had taken, tried to at least partially redirect Rhett's attention to his work. He might as well take the time to practice and, besides, those needles were sharp, if small.
But she seized what information she’d gleaned out of him—not that that was so hard to do, he wasn’t like Leo—and tried to formulate more questions, slipping into her practiced make-conversation habitude. He was so different from her, she realized in the course of doing this; he was outgoing and forthcoming, but also so incredibly aimless. As far as she could tell, he was relying on an incredibly unstable foundation for survival at the moment—an illicit group of superheroes and their various generous and fortunate benefactors. Vindaya couldn’t imagine either being so aimless or relying on other people to such an extent (let alone such unreliable ones because, really, nothing about this was legal and somehow that was the least of their concerns), and she was having trouble coming up with a follow up question that *wasn’t* a tiny bit condescending.
It only partially worked.
Glossing completely over his compliments, she asked, a little astounded, “So, what are you going to do?”(edited)

## sephet03/14/2019

“Well I’ll be honest it fucking sucks, but Andy’s letting me stay here so that’s like. Slightly less stress than it could be. I took a week off work to try and sort some shit out. Had to buy new clothes again, new toothbrush… so much stuff you just don’t think about needing until it’s not there anymore.” Kyle shrugged a little, not really making eye contact with anyone at the moment. The tourniquet was good enough for him to pretend to be focusing on that instead of avoiding looking at stuff. “I was wearing some of the clothes you got me. I’m sorry about the rest. That was… bad timing. Sorry.”

March 15, 2019

## birdman | Valentine03/15/2019

"A death metal band logo?" he raised his eyebrows at Cole, "I'm glad *somebody* appreciates my art, at least. I think its rather dashing." he laughed, before Cole's voice lowered.
"It's a fucked up feeling," Valentine agreed, finishing up his stitches. "I'm just glad none of us got hurt, not too badly, anyway. The other team kinda fucked it, but we weren't exactly up against people with guns." he kept talking as Cole prepared the tourniquet, and took a second to reach around him to feel where in the hell his arm actually *was*, before tying a rather lovely knot- a surprisingly lovely knot, in fact. Not so bad at all. "Turn that F into a D for me, alright?"

## Rose | Rhett | Marci03/15/2019

Carefully maneuvering the needle in and out of the silicone pad, Rhett was only halfheartedly paying attention to his actions, finding his small conversation with the healer to be closer in the boundaries of his comfort zone. She wasn’t a bad talker, in fact. Her voice had such a soothing quality to it that he wondered if she’d always been so calm and collected. Surely she hadn’t been born with such a mild temperament, right? That would be another question. One he nearly got to ask before Vindaya continued on. Her avoidance of his spoken admiration becoming a bit daunting though he chalked it up to her maybe being modest? Yeah, sure.
“Going to do?” He echoed her words with a sideways glance, briefly distracted from the stitching before returning to it. Hardly skipping a beat, he responded with a nonchalant shrug and finished up the last knot. Scanning over the finished product, a prideful smirk resting on his lips for a moment. “Not too bad, right?” The stitches weren’t straight or even all that pretty but he felt proud with the result anyway. “Maybe I could get into the medical field and you could be my mentor or something?” It was primarily meant as a joke.
“What got you interested in being a doctor, anyway?” He continued, actually wanting to hear her answer and training his gaze on her instead of resuming his practice.

## Mob Boss Peggy03/15/2019

No shit it fucking sucked. *Damn.* Leo felt so fucking bad for Kyle that he didn't know whether he should've felt guilty or not for just existing without having as much bad luck as the guy. Why did all kinds of bad shit happen to *Kyle?* *Kyle* got attacked. *Kyle* got kidnapped. *Kyle's* home burned down. It wasn't like his life had been rainbows and butterflies to begin with. And how old was he? No older than 22, Leo would guess.
Life wasn't a basket of roses for Leo at 22 either. But this almost seemed like overkill. What ancient gods did the kid offend?
Despite their disagreements, Leo thought that Andy was a seriously righteous guy for letting Kyle live there.
"It's just stuff, man. I'm just glad you weren't there when the fire happened. You going to school?" He asked, but he couldn't recall whether Kyle had ever mentioned going to any kind of college. He almost didn't seem the type.
@sephet(edited)

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis03/15/2019

Vindaya tried not to let it show how horrified she was by his clear lack of an answer. It was one thing to not really know what you wanted to do in life, but to have absolutely no plans, no ambitions or goals whatsoever? Unfathomable. And probably unwise. She bit her tongue; her knee-jerk response would probably have sounded as judgmental as she felt.
Focusing instead on his finished product, she nodded in approval. It sufficed, which was good. The neatness would come with practice, should he ever do so. At least she was satisfied that he knew how to do it properly, in theory. In other words, she’d done all she could.
At his question she paused and gave him a blank, “what do you think” look. A little dryly, she said, “I wanted to be able to understand and explain what I was seeing.” She made a vague hand gesture, intended to indicate the passive “sixth sense” part of her power. Though her answer was the simple version, it was true; her power, in so many ways, had not only dictated her life path, but her life in its entirety and the ways she related to others and the world around her.
Somehow, she didn’t think that was true for everyone.
Brought back to her befuddled and critical musings on Rhett, she frowned and said, “Do you do *anything* outside of this?”

## Mob Boss Peggy03/15/2019

"You don't have to--- okay." Andy muttered meekly when Dax stripped in front of him and everybody else. It was really hard not to just *look* at the man. His tattoos were interesting and distracting, but it wasn't like Andy was checking him out. Although, Dax was rather fit and should've been really proud of that.
Andy leaned in with the tourniquet still wound around his arm to look at the bullet wound on Dax's body. His nose scrunched up a little as he scrutinized the mangled skin. Andy didn't make any move to touch it, though. He didn't really know Dax well enough and it was clear that he didn't care for being fawned over. Not that it was what Andy was intending. He wanted to be polite.
"Um, have you been cleaning it? It looks..." How was Andy supposed to know what a healing bullet wound was supposed to look like? "It looks weird."
@Mouse(edited)

## Rose | Rhett | Marci03/15/2019

Rhett had to keep from laughing at the deadpan expression he was returned with. Her dry tone made it clear that she wasn’t all that amused and it prompted the beginning of a grin to form. This didn’t mean he wasn’t still entirely engrossed in what she was saying, however. Even with the response being stupidly simplistic, he was no less eager to accept the explanation given. “Makes sense...but, what did you actually wanna be as a kid?”

His question came just before the subject was focussed on him once more. Why was she asking so much when it had to be painfully clear that he had nothing of importance to say? He frowned slightly then shook his head. “Nope.” Again, he answered without a second thought. “Although, I have been thinking about getting another job...maybe volunteer at the zoo or something? That could be fun.”

## Mouse03/15/2019

Dax smirked as he caught Andys muttered protest. He had never really been bothered about modesty. He was clearly quite comfortable in his own skin.
He watched Andys face as he inspected the wound. Rolling his eyes a little at the comment. "Its barely a scratch." He replied inspecting it himself, his fingers tugging a little at the skin around it. "Just glad it didnt fuck with my sleeve." His hand rested on his upper arm for a moment over the before he put his shirt back on.
He played with a roll of bandage absent-mindedly, "That weird girl that was here last night got so fucking wasted man." He laughed but turned to Andy clearly diverting the subject from his wound before the conversation got all personal. "She okay?" He questioned then caught himself with a shrug, "Shes a fucking looker man, can see why you started this club of yours now." His mood was clearly improving the more they spoke and his eyes flickered to Marci unintentionally for a moment before shifting back to Andy.

## Mob Boss Peggy03/15/2019

His sleeve? ..oh, right. His tattoos. Andy looked at the wound as if he could feel it too until the other man's shirt was back on. His eyes finally traveled back to Dax's face. He cringed a little bit at all the cursing.
"You mean Iskra? And... You mean Monday, right?" He replied, mouth widening a little into a grin when Dax didn't manage to remember that a couple of days had passed since then. Andy felt a little bit guilty that he hadn't seen Iskra in the last couple of days especially after their mission was so successful.
A laugh escaped his throat at Dax's observation. Of *course* Andy had realized that almost everyone in their group was attractive. But that was just a coincidence. He was far too polite to start commenting on the way people looked.
"I'm sure she's alright. She has a business to run, after all. It has nothing to do with how anybody looks, trust me!"
@Mouse(edited)

## Mouse03/15/2019

Dax shrugged, hed basically spent the past few days drinking and sleeping - "Whatever man." He brushed off the comment on his lack of memory regarding the girls name and the apparent passing of time.
Dax glanced over the group, "Yeah suuurreee." He looked at Andy pointedly, before a slow smile spread across his face. "We all know thats why you kept me to yourself for this long." His eyebrows quirked up a little.
@Mob Boss Peggy(edited)

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis03/15/2019

It seemed to her like Rhett was always smiling, which she also didn’t really understand. Was everything so pleasing to him? The only time he wasn’t smiling was when she was asking him about himself, which she definitely noticed. She absolutely had no problem backing off, but she felt too uncomfortable only talking about herself (and god knows what questions he might ask that she didn’t feel like answering).
Not to mention that this had gone so far off topic. Rhett wasn’t even pretending to try sutures anymore; not that he needed to unless he simply wanted to practice. Which he could do on his own time, not when she was supposed to be actually teaching.
So if he wanted to keep talking to her, that was fine by her, but they ought to at least be doing something productive too.
“Hold on, let me get everyone started on the next topic,” she told him, and went to fetch the few CPR dummies Andy had procured—these really *were* expensive, so there were very few. She also brought a handful of practice AED kits and several CPR face shields.
She gently tried getting everyone’s attention and first went over the practice AED kit and how to use it, pointing out that it would also talk to and instruct the user. Once she’d given the preliminary information, she suggested that people group up and work together to use the AED kits on the dummies.
That done, she steered Rhett to a dummy and a practice kit and while they waited for a few more people to join, she said, “Having an activity sounds like a great idea. And to answer your question from before, I don’t remember wanting to be anything before I wanted to be a doctor.”

## sephet03/15/2019

“Yeah, I guess it was kinda a good thing I was hiding out from the cold…” Kyle murmured, thinking on it and how his luck worked out well enough that he wasn’t caught in the chaos of his home burning down. It had been a bad fire and his room had been pretty close to the boiler room. “I had my backpack with me, so I was able to keep my laptop and stuff… though I’ve lost a lot of old notes and stuff. Guess I should be glad all my photos are digital, huh?”
He picked a little at the tourniquet and nodded. “I’m uh… I’m doing some online upgrading. I kinda fucked up high school. Graduated, but didn’t get good enough grades for college. I managed to save all my texts and workbooks by bringing them here to work on.”
“So I guess I saved the really important stuff from home. Honestly it’s kinda nice bein’ here… I spent so much time just sitting around on my own. Here there’s always someone bustlin’ around, right? Never know when Rhett’s gonna just bust into your room with an idea or something…”
@Mob Boss Peggy

## Rose | Rhett | Marci03/15/2019

Rhett bounced up from his seat on the floor to help in passing out the limited supplies being brought out. He intentionally passed out the items among every 2-3 people to be sure there was enough and Vindaya’s suggestion of grouping up was effective. When he came back to his place beside her, there was a dummy and one of the fancy kits left in front of them.

He nodded along with her belated response, letting his head roll to the side facing her. “Really?? Not a mad scientist or a race car driver? Nothing?” He was purposefully talking about absurd careers. A doctor was a pretty cool and lucrative profession but there were so many others that it seemed hard to believe she’d never entertained the thought of being something else. “I wanted to join the circus as a kid, it sounded like it’d be a lot of fun! But I made it here instead.” He grinned, seemingly happy with the decision in the end.

## Rose | Rhett | Marci03/15/2019

Marceline’s chest ached for the boy in front of her. Just listening to the interactions between Leo and Kyle was enough to break her heart into pieces, but Leo had a valid point in the comment of the materials being lost being ‘stuff’. “We can replace your clothes and textbooks, we can’t replace you.” She sighed then looked up as some more items were being passed around. Grabbing the items from Rhett, she nodded her head then went back to hearing Kyle’s school situation.

She smiled a little, finding it hard not to be proud of him pushing to further his education. More so with everything constantly falling apart around him. While he explained the positive side of staying at Andy’s, she set out the things she’d been given. Scooting away from Leo to place the dummy and kit between them. When that was done, she laughed at what Kyle had said. “I’m sure that’s much more excitement than you’re used to. Don’t be afraid to lock your door to keep the crazies out every now and again.”

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee03/15/2019

Cole chuckled "for you, dear, I'll make that a C minus." Val tightened the tourniquet and Cole waved his arm to feel how *in place* it was. "Wow, judging by how I definitely can't feel blood reach my hand I'd say you killed it, my guy" he complimented, "alright. How does this..." he turned his arm and studied the contraption until he figured out how to undo it "here we go- umph" it was on pretty securely so it took a little blunt force but the tight hold on his arm was finally released.
"Woof, that was peculiar" he remarked, setting the tourniquet aside and flapping his arm to get his circulation going again. "Good job team!" He beamed, taking Val by the wrist and holding his hand up in place to high-five him. "Not gonna lie, listening to you make me feel... *unprepared* for my first mission." He had yet to go on his first hero venture and so far every endeavor had left his teammates in a dark place immediately after. Those involved in the fire mission were wounded, tired, strained.
"I guess I'm just not even sure what- thank you" he was interrupted as Rhett handed him a dummy and a kit. "Uhm..." his train of thought had departed at the sight of the dummy on his lap "wow. Uncanny valley coming in hot" he muttered uncomfortably poking the thing's face. "Now we uh..." he peered over to check what Daya and Rhett were doing, "okay. Val, I'm gonna need you to give this handsome fella CPR."
@birdman | Valentine(edited)

## birdman | Valentine03/15/2019

"Oh shit, did he drown? Poor fucker," Valentine began, already all up in the dummy's face. "Oh- hey, I remember these things! Okay, fuck, I might *actually* be good at something," he laughed, "We had a guy take my class to the pool an' make us do CPR when I was like, fourteen." of course, he proceeded with making a rather lewd hand gesture, and stuck his fingers straight in the dummy's mouth. "oops."
CPR was, thank fuck, a piece of cake. He'd remembered precisely how to do it, and once his turn was over, passed the dummy to Cole to try his hand. "You know, they always told me to do compressions to the Imperial March, but I always preferred Stayin' Alive- you know, by the Bee Gees. Robin Gibb deserved better, man." he shook his head solemnly. "how're you doin'?"

March 16, 2019

## Mob Boss Peggy03/16/2019

Andy's muscles went rigid as Dax made some off-handed comment. He was... Flirting. Oh, *God.* Andy couldn't do anything but just gaze at Dax politely, with the most neutral expression he could muster. He was definitely joking. Andy forced a small laugh.
He felt a little bit awkward that Marceline was sitting right there, knowing that she and Dax had some kind of thing going on.
Andy didn't even know how to reply except to deflect the conversation entirely. Fortunately, without even realizing it, Vindaya stepped in to do just that as she introduced another lesson. Andy's eyes shifted away from Dax's face to pay attention to her.
He absent mindedly untied the tourniquet from his arm. "Hey," he started, looking again at Dax. "You don't really need a defibrilator, do you? You should just..." Andy gestured with his fingers in the air, as if he was prodding electricity into someone. "... Right?"

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis03/16/2019

Especially in light of all these questions about her childhood and Rhett’s other activities, Vindaya had to wonder what he’d been like as a student. (It couldn’t have been so long ago; he seemed so *young*.) He was so eager to please and help out. No wonder Andy liked having him around all the time.
She wasn’t quite sure what to do about it.
She snorted in amusement at his questions, knowing that they didn’t need a response. No, she hadn’t been the most whimsical child, which probably came as no surprise to anyone. “I’m sure you’d make a great circus act,” she said, setting the AED kit in front of him and gesturing to the dummy. “Give it a try. I’m here if you need help.”
Catching sight of Val and Cole out of the corner of her eye decidedly *not* doing what she’d hoped (she’d been just in time for Val’s fingers to go straight into the dummy’s mouth, which wasn’t even close to being required for using an AED), she frowned. “Or if anyone *else* needs help.”(edited)

## Rose | Rhett | Marci03/16/2019

“You think so?” He beamed with the same childlike charm as usual. It felt good getting validation from someone so much higher up than him and from how casually she was talking, it seemed that she’d picked up on it as well. “I still think you had to have had something else on your mind...and hey, if the circus comes to town I’ll give it a shot! Bet you would do wonders as a tightrope walker.” His eyes flickered down to look at the kit and dummy with vague interest.

Sparing a glance around the room, he bit his lip and started unpacking the kit to try and figure out what it was he was even doing. It would be a good minute or two before he’d successfully followed procedure and did the thing. “So, your hands go like this, right?” He asked for the sake of clarity while placing his hands down onto the dummy, clearly hesitant with the placement and ultimately waiting to be shown.

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis03/16/2019

It was painfully obvious to Vindaya how much her word meant to Rhett. He practically wore his heart on his sleeve. So earnest and open… she almost felt embarrassed for him. How someone could go through life like that was lost on her. Not to mention she wasn’t exactly the best suited to be providing anyone with validation or mentoring, but she supposed that was his choice, even if it was an unwise one.
She paused while Rhett went about deconstructing the kit and then leaned forward to help him adjust the placement. “Good, you want them here, and here…” and once the pads were in place, she gestured again to the kit, which was providing further instructions about keeping hands away and providing the minor shock.
As ridiculous as his choice of topic was to her, she’d be remiss if she flat out ignored him. Besides, it wasn’t like he was asking her anything all that difficult. *And* he *was* actually paying attention and practicing, so she had no issue keeping the conversation going. “I’m not *nearly* coordinated enough to be a tightrope walker. But a cat, bear, and owl all in one that come pre-trained must be awfully appealing.”

## Mob Boss Peggy03/16/2019

Leo looked back and forth lazily between Kyle and Marceline. He didn't really know how anyone could live in a house with that many guys in it. They were all a little quirky and weird. Andy's house would've made a good sitcom. Leo wouldn't have been able to take it. Although, it kind of made him wish he had a roomie of his own sometimes.
"If you want to learn some shit in an actual class, I mean, you could just come to mine. Nobody'd notice or care or even know you're not a real student."
It was around that time when Vindaya started another portion of her lesson. Leo watched her, leaning back on the couch with his head propped on his hand. He still didn't really pay much attention to what she was saying about all of this complicated medical stuff.
Instead, he found himself watching the doctor herself. The way her hair fell and her mouth moved. A weird thing to notice, but she was a lot more interesting than looking at the funny rubber dummy.
"Yeeeeaah, you guys can handle that. I'll supervise." Leo said, looking at the dummy with a hint of distaste as Marci was quick to retrieve the things.
@sephet(edited)

## Chew I Venus I Cole I Dee Dee03/16/2019

"Poor fella went right under, Pam Anderson could get to him in time" Cole said solemnly, sliding the dummy over to Val's lap. He listened to Val as he excitedly got ready for perform some class-A CPR even though one look around the room made it obvious this was *not* the task. As the eyes of this team Cole didn't have the moral backbone to stop this because he– A. wanted to see a giant like Val give CPR and B. thought this could be productive in its own way. He watched as Soothsayer fingered the dummy's mouth and then got right down to it, actually learning something form his gross derailment from Daya's training.
"You think they knew what they were doing? Writing Stayin' Alive to that beat?" Cole mused, taking the dummy for himself and looking down at it. He peered into its mouth but didn't see what he was supposed to be fingering to he skipped that step and instead wiped the dummy's face with his sleeve. "Great, excited. 'Bout to get my first kiss" he joked leaning down and blowing into the dummy's mouth but winding up just breaking out into laughter at the hilariousness of the affair. Cole cackled hunched over the dummy until a tear slipped out the corner of his eyes and then straightened up. "Oh, he's good, he's good. Good job team" he said, catching his breath and looking over to Daya and Rhett. "I have to be honest with you, everyone is putting stickers on this thing and I have no idea why. Can you get Daya to help us? I would but... she scares me" he confessed in a near-whisper.(edited)

## Rose | Rhett | Marci03/16/2019

The assistance given wasn’t lost on the boy as his fingers moved nimbly to correct anything and everything he’d misplaced, which surprisingly wasn’t too much. At Vindaya’s redirection to the guidelines inside the kit, he sighed a little. He made a mental note to look the instructions over later when he had nothing else to do. Right now he was perfectly content with his expansive knowledge.
He lifted his gaze from the dummy after practicing one of the little shocks at Daya’s addition to their conversation. A smile wrapping around his face again as he nodded his head. “There’s also the trapeze or juggling! You already do that with all the patients you look after in the hospital, so nothing new for you.” His chipper tone stilled for a moment to turn his head and raise a brow at Cole. The boy’s laughter was damn near contagious as he wheezed over the dummy before leaning into Val and whispering something Rhett could just barely catch.
Looking back to Vindaya, he tilted his head toward the other pair taking the initiative to get them the help they needed. “I think they need you over there,” he looked back down at the dummy in front of him and went back to practicing compressions. “I’ve got an idea of what I’m doing now, thanks to you.”

## Mob Boss Peggy03/16/2019

It was hard not to watch what Valentine and Cole were up to. They were the ones that started first and immediately proceeded with their childish shenanigans. Leo laughed heartily aloud at them.
"Hey-- hey," He raised his voice toward them for an offhand comment. "You're supposed to pinch the nose first!"(edited)

## Elysium | Vindaya | al-Fasis03/16/2019

Vindaya shook her head at Rhett, partially amused, partially dumbfounded. She really *didn’t* know what to do about or with him. Most other people did something or had something about them that would, for one reason or another, put her on edge, but Rhett was far too earnest for any of that. Not that she believed him completely free of malevolence in all shapes and forms, but there was nothing *immediate*.
Still, she didn’t have any pets for a *reason*.
He redirected her attention back to Val and Cole just in time for Leo to quip at them. Standing up straight with her arms folded, she firmly added, “You’re *also* supposed to use a *mask*,” she said, indicating the masks Rhett had helped hand out before. “But you would’ve known that if you’d waited for me to teach CPR.”
Though her words were harsh, she wasn’t irritated. As hard as it was to believe, they were adults here of their own free will and they could do—or not do—as they pleased. There was no reason they *had* to learn any of this, as wise as it would be to do so. “*Would* you two like some help?”

March 17, 2019

## birdman | Valentine03/17/2019

Valentine had essentially collapsed in upon himself as Cole began cackling, wheezing and trying to keep quiet as he could, trying not to shake from how hard he was laughing. He snorted at Cole, but absolutely fucking *lost* it as soon as Leo shouted from across the room, he had to slap a hand over his own mouth to keep himself from spontaneously combusting. Part of him worried about Cole just... chucking up an active grenade in this state, but he couldn't find it in the foreseeable future. What he did see, though, was a rather perturbed Vindaya, standing over the two of them like a strict teacher- he felt a little bad, all things considered, but it really didnt take *that* much away from the lesson.
"Ghkz- I am so sorry," he tried to whimper out at Vindaya, through a face scrunched up in laughter. "We're- we good Cole?- we good, we good," he waved, "Todd here's been revived in more ways than one, y'know what I me-" he stopped himself before he could get in any more trouble.