2020-02-14 - My Bloody Valentine

Raul already has on his jacket and is almost to the door when the two customers come in. He offers up a smile for the pair and jabs a thumb over his shoulder to the stock of comics and boardgames. "Hey was just about to close, but if you want something go on and take a look." he says already beginning to turn towards the counter with the register to get behind it for them. He looks a little casually dressed for customers with hiking boots, jeans, a graphic long-sleeve and the dark forest green jacket already on. He'd probably be mistaken for a customer of he didn't just greet them.

The men give a look to Raul and there's a bit of a frown from the tall guy, "Oh hey." he upnods. "Is the owner in? Was kind of wanting to deal with her. No offense man." he states to Raul. Apparently Ruby was prettier!

The bigger of the two heads over towards the counter, keeping a bit of an eye on Raul for the moment.

Raul gets behind the counter and chuckles good-naturedly with a look to the door, "Well she'll be back in a few so that's no problem. Did you have a specific thing you wanted to see, if it's a rare comic I can bring it out so she can handle it when she walks in." he offers evidently all manner of helpful with his attention on the one directly in front of him.

Raul takes the club to the head with an audible thwack and stumbles back against the wall, hitting it heavily and sliding down onto the ground with a fwump as the other man shouts with a knife in hand. He blinks blearily, vision doubled, head warm with his own blood as he reaches up to touch it his head only to look at the red stained fingers. He wisely manages a huh? sound of disorientation in response only now looking up to the man who'd cracked him the vision slowly blurrying into a single figure instead of double.

Raul pushes up slowly, almost just rolling over as the Fat man named Tony picks up the old school register and comes at him. The middle-aged dad bod regrets not going to the gym more often as he tries to tackle the man at the knees. He gets to the ankles but his head swims, his position is to bad and he's just prone on the floor with his hair all bloodied and his arms lamely trying to trip up the taller man.

The life or death scenario along with a swimming head from the club gives Raul a singular focus. He doesn't notice his finacee coming all murder death ninja into the shop and stabbing one of the men with their own knife. He doesn't notice anything except this giant retro register about to crush his head. He rolls to the left, up against the back wall and away from the counter to avoid it with a grunt leaving him with his back exposed to his attacker and his head shielded by both his forearms coming up to cover it. It is a manly sight seeing him on the ground trying to shield his noggin!

Raul doesn't see any of it, when the assailant shouts and begins to flee he rolls off still dazed and watches as the cash register soars through the air to hit him square in the back and then lifts up to crush his head. He just stares, wordlessly at the sight even missing Ruby and her outstretched hand. There is a look of disbelief on his face though as the register hurtls down once more, the man's head becoming...

Raul is finally pulling himself up from the ground, sitting between the counter and the back wall. Luckily the counter is 80% glass and is a display case so he watches Ruby sidestep the assailtant and then stab the cardboard cutout. There's some blood down his face now, brow and temple along with his scruffy cheek. He seems listless and slow but begins to try and stand up, "Called the police" he slurrs somewhat unconvincingly.

"He stabbed Bucky..." Ruby whispers in horror.

Oh he done fucked up now! Ruby marches towards the lanky guy with the knife and proceeds to beat him about the head and shoulders before she takes the knife away from him. Gingers. At the end, he's on the ground and she's got blood on her hands. She looks to Raul and she takes a breath as she rushes over to him, "Did you really call the cops or are you just disoriented. Are you seeing double? Did they hit you anywhere else?" she asks him as she wraps her arms around him to hold him up.

"No... I just thought he'd run." Raul mumbles as Ruby helps him up and for a brief moment he leans against her and then back against the wall he'd been slouched against. "Did you just knock out two men?" he wonders in a sort of dream like tone, for him it's not 2020 and a woman can be a strong independent asskicker. For him it's birds tweeting and circling his head and his barely a buck ten fiancee has singlehandedly stopped to muggers who stomped his ass.

Ruby gives a soft sigh to him, but she digs her phone out of her pocket and dials 911. The call doesn't take long, but she manages to keep calm during it. She doesn't even mind that he's bleeding all over her new dress. "Yes, I just knocked out two men." she whispers as she puts the phone down. There's already a crowd gathering outside and sirens in the distance. She gives a look up to him, "Let's get you sat down. I'm so so sorry I left for the bank." she frowns to that. "You'll be alright." she tells him.

It's uncharacteristic of Raul to bleed on people but he does it rather valiantly by not noticing at all. There's a nod at the sitting down bit and he shuffles towards a chair behind the counter plopping down like a balloon losing all its air. "It's not your fault, better I was here... The guys they said they were looking for you, wanted to deal with you." then he reaches up and touches his bloody head again, with a since. "Is it bad?"

"You'd do anything to get out of Valentine's Day." Ruby teases him softly as she leads him. She gets a wad of paper towels off the roll behind the counter and there's a moment taken to assess the wound. "You're going to need stitches." she tells him. "Probably going to have a concussion as well." she frowns. "Well, I don't know either of them. Probably just thought I was the easier target." she states.

And OH BOY were they wrong.

As it happens he does have a concussion and he does need stitches. There's no ambulance just the police so he hitches a ride with Ruby to the local hospital. There is all manner of you'll have to make a statement and come by the station tomorrow from the officers. Soon enough they're in a private room for observation for the concussion and his head has just been stitched up the doctor leaving them alone. He's in one of the hospital gowns and everything, his street clothes bloodied anyway. Laying back on the bed and instructed to stay away, he looks a little sleepy.

"I know you've always been keen with a knife, but how did you throw the register... I didn't even see you pick it up." he wonders after the doctor leave and those sleepy eyes watch the red-haired woman.

Ruby had been worried and she was a little half Russian worrier that was staring icily at the doctors when they wouldn't give her updates sometimes. Apparently she wasn't his wife and they didn't want to budge. Then they checked paper work. Tada. All was well.

She was currently seated at his bedside and she was picking flakes of dried blood from underneath her fingernails. His assailants were in another wing of the hospital. Both expected to live. She looks to him when he speaks, she scoots the chair closer to the bed quietly, "Hey baby." she smiles to him. Then she takes a deep breath, "I didn't pick it up with my hands..." she tells him. "You know the weird that I always talk about, Raul?" she asks him.

"You talk about a lot of weird things." Raul points out as those sleepy eyes search her face and he adds, "Stories, like comics and fanfictions." clearly he thinks she has a fanciful imagination and even goes on, "You're always working out too, really cosplay is wasted on you." he smiles then a dumb-looking smile as he reaches out for her hand, "Why?"

"The weird things that stem from the town, Raul." Ruby tells him with a frown as she takes his hand and she squeezes it softly. "Some people in the town have...powers. The only thing I can describe them as is psychic like." she tells him. "I've never used them around you, because I was afraid that you'd leave me or that you'd get hurt...but now you're hurt and it's not even because of the stuff." she frowns.

She didn't expect him to believe her.

"Like tarot readings and stuff?" Raul asks in a slow manner, clearly the connection between thrown register and psychic powers isn't clicking for him that and he has stitches on his noggin. "I didn't know you were wiccan, Ruby." it's a brilliant deduction!

Ruby rolls her eyes, "No, Raul. Nothing like that." she laughs softly. "Baby...do you want to wait and have this conversation when you aren't in the hospital? So you don't think you're hallucinating?" she asks him. "Otherwise...I can just show you what I mean." she tells him.

"I'm not hallucinating," Raul confirms as he lifts his hand up with Ruby's own, clearly real no dream here. "But if you want to show me, go ahead. I don't disbelieve you I just don't understand how being wiccan or psychic has to do with what happened? Is there a cult or something, do you have to wipe my memory like some secret society oath?" he's starting to get a little outlandish.

"I'm not Wiccan, Raul. Jesus." Ruby laughs at that. Like that's the most outlandish thing about this whole conversation. She gives a sigh to him and then she leans down to kiss the hand she has a hold of, "Alright. Watch." she tells him. Then she is pointing to the metal tray table contraption at the end of his bed. She then lifts her hand, the table lifting as she does the hand motion.

"It's kind of like being a Jedi." she muses.

Raul watches the table lift up and then holds out his own hand at the TV. His hand begins to waiver. His eyes squint up pretty significantly and then he drops his hand and looks to see if the table is still floating. "So is this like what happens when you sign your official religion as Jedi on the census form?"

Ruby lets her hand down easily and the table touches the ground again. Then she watches him try his hand at the tv and there's a soft smile to him, "No, it's not what happens when you sign the official religion as a Jedi. Sadly." she muses. "I've been like this since I was a child." she tells him.

Raul takes a few deep breathes and then wonders to her, "What is 'like this' mean... You can just pick stuff up? Did you walk up to automatic doors as a kid and wave your hand and just realize you could do it on regular doors? You said it was weird and from the town, did you have to be born here or something?" so many questions and a tinge of confusion!

"It's really hard to explain." Ruby tells him as she looks to him. "And yes, I can do telekinesis and other things." she states. "And no, I found out I could do things when I was out with my father one time." she tells him. "He tried to help me with them. He had a little bit of it as well, but, he wasn't from anywhere around here." she admits.

"Your father taught you how to do this, could you teach me?" Raul asks with a kind of latent childlike wish to be a jedi, clearly a nerd fantasy it showing its face here as he looks at the red-haired woman with a searching if sleepy gaze... He is suffering from a head injury. "But you said the town was weird, it doesn't sound as if the town as anything to do with what you can do?"

"My father basically had abilities and just helped me with keeping control. He taught me how to knife fight and kill a man if needed. That I could teach you." Ruby chuckles softly and squeezes his hand. "I think I could probably teach you, though I'm sure you can do it a little too." she admits. "And the town is the cause of the powers and things. The veil is the main cause of it." she frowns. "It's....there's a lot of stuff you'd need to take in and I don't think telling you with a head injury is the best time handsome." she tells him softly.

Raul is indeed suffering a head injury and has a concussion and should probably be on 'brain rest'. The man takes it all in and then lets his head rests back against the pillow. There's a deep breath and then a sigh, his eyes closing as his brow furrows apparently a wicked headache. "Okay... Well I believe you, you made that table float but I don't understand like why... Why any of this and why don't you do it all the time, is it super difficult or..." then he makes a ugh sound, one hand touching his head. "Did they arrest the guys?"

Ruby brings Raul's larger hand up to her lips to kiss his fingers softly, "I need you to rest and heal." she murmurs to him. Then there's a smile to him, something warm and wholly one of her regular ones for him, "I was worried you were going to freak out and want to be as far from here as possible." she admits. Then she shakes her head, "They are both getting medical attention. And I don't use powers as they attract the wrong kind of attention. I will explain that when you are better." she tells him.