2021-05-03 - Sometimes You're the Bug

Couple of bent ribs. Broken arm. Sprained wrist, sprained shoulder. Bit of an eyebrow fracture, not severe enough to require surgery. Concussion. Going to keep you a couple of days, Mr Abildgaard, make sure everything is all right.

Not a satisfying verdict according to said Mr Abildgaard who detests being hospitalised. Unfortunately he's ended up in the care of one such young and determined physician who gives not a fig about his reservations. Nothing worse than a doctor who possesses a bit of Glimmer of his own -- enough to realise that when four people (five, technically, but the last guy seemed pretty unharmed at least) come in with stab wounds, fractures, and claw marks, it's probably not a gas leak explosion. No matter what they say, and no matter what the less gifted somehow retcon reality into.

That's the news' version, though. A gas leak explosion. Probably best to stick with that. Ravn is determined to pout and sulk and bide his time and make good on his escape the instant somebody allows him signing himself out. Although at the moment, he's decided to not kick up too much of a fuss -- because being here conveniently does let him keep tabs on the other people who were injured. Kailey, with stab wounds and burns. Vyv, with stab wounds, burns, and severe sartorial injuries. Hyacinth, thrown against the wall like himself, and probably just as broken and bruised.

They say: "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

Currently, it looks a lot like one Conner Hawthorne has planned to fail. At least, he didn't really plan for how difficult it really was to carry four "Edible Arrangements" baskets through the halls of a hospital. They're awkward and they don't exactly stack well, so he's left to juggle them. To peer around them as he asks after Ravn, Vyv, Hyacinth, and Kailey. Gets their floor. Says an awkward thank you through a flower bouquet made of pineapple chunks. Struggles to duck hospital traffic without dropping anything. Gets into the elevator. Scoots politely to the back because...

Well, fruit baskets.

Getting to the right floor, only everyone on the elevator seems not to notice him much more than the ghosts did. They pile out, and as he steps forward the elevator door closes and it starts rising to the next floor. Leaving him to do an awkward twist and turn and a "sorry," to the other people still on the elevator, and finally an exasperated, "Could you...yeah, the floor we just...yeah, thanks."

Watching the elevator go up and up while shifting fruit baskets. Ding. Next floor. People get out. Ding. Next floor. People get out and some get on. Ding, and oh thank god we're descending. Finally hitting his floor and now wising up that he should step forward. Doing so, only for the doors to try to close on him and the fruit baskets. He steps abruptly back and they open in a fashion that's very welcoming. Steps forward and they start to close. Steps back and they open again while everyone stares at him...

"Sorry, yeah, sorry..."

Hears the video game music in his head as he steps back again...and then dashes forward, coming very close to nearly splatting himself and some fruit on the wall, spinning at the last moment, struggle-juggling the fruit and...

Success in spite of himself. Puffing and sweating and still the recipient of a bunch of stares, sure, but by god, he has the right floor and in-tact fruit and now he's going to go see about the business of Comforting and Cheering Up his fellows in the Battle of the Basement.

The Hospital. Thankfully Kailey has avoided the place but for one or two small incidents. Stitches and done. This? Is a bit more work. Because third degree electrical burns cover about forty percent of her chest. Which is bad. The burns travel across her shoulders and chest, wrapping around her back of the right shoulder and up her neck. Two separate spots of bubbling skin and redness in lightning branches . As a result Kailey is here and in the burn unit for a week.

This will surely only add to her own hatred of hospitals. And she is an unpleasant mess to boot. Every day those burns are going to be debrided to keep them from becoming infected. Among other things. At least she isn't attached to an IV right now, though she does have a port on the back of her hand. And she is visiting Ravn when Conner arrives. Dressed in a special hospital gown and robe. Special bandaging around her neck and going down into the gown. She has an ipad in hand and apparently is playing scrabbled on it with Ravn. "Your turn," She says, having spelled Burning on a triple letter for the B. Go her.

Conner wasn't the only one that brought something edible, though Everett didn't bring four. The baby sling he wears across his chest has room for just one. Dark-haired, like her father, the little girl is wide awake and staring at everything as it comes within view with an intense lack of understanding written on her chubby-cheeked expression. Every now and again, she whips her head to look up, either to check who is moving her around or just to make sure he's seeing this stuff too before she whips her head back to keep looking baffled at her immediate surroundings the action causing her ponytails to whip around, hitting the barrel of a chest from which she hangs.

Her chauffeur, tall and annoyed follows the child in with a slight duck of his head. The baby sling is worn under his leather jacket. And when carrying a baby, nearly a year old now, one also carries a small suitcase of necessary items or get accused of being an unfit parent. And so he does, his thumb tucked under its strap over his left shoulder.
He pauses, this large man does take a look at the mad fruit basket juggler, then fixes his gaze on Kailey. Clearing his throat once, loudly. He sounds less perturbed then he looks, but then he usually looks agitated by something or someone unless there are extenuating circumstances. His mouth opens for the observation of this or any other lifetime:
"You," he says to Kailey in his usual deep voice, "aren't in your room."

Baby spies mom and becomes animated. Oh, the stories she has to tell her parent, the adventure she's been on, the things she's seen. There's nary a moment to waste, she has to tell her everything right now before it slips from her adorable, wee head. "Ah, bah bah! Bbbb-ah!"

Who's excited about Scrabble? Not the Dane who keeps finding out that all the words that surface in his concussed brain are in a language Kailey does not speak. Hence, while she'd probably believe him if he told her that marehalmsmareridt is a word, it just doesn't sit right. Also, he has too many Z's and there are like five words in Danish that use a Z.

His head is pounding. Memo to self, heads are not demolitions tools. Next time we want to tear down a wall, use a mallet.

Make someone strong like Joey Kelly use a mallet.

Give the wall a mallet to defend itself against someone like Joey Kelly.

Joey Kelly dressed up like Dot from the Animaniacs.

Oh hey, free association leaps are a part of having a concussion too, how interesting.

He looks up as Everett plus one arrives and raises a hand in a lazy wave because anything that gets him out of pretending he can come up with an English word with three Z's and two Y's is good (is xyzzyk a word or did he dream this up somewhere?). "Looks like you have a visitor," the Dane tells Kailey, smiling.

Conner arrives and starts putting down baskets. He's found one room and at least two of the people he is looking for are in it? Good enough. He can always pick up the other two and go in search of them later. He nods to Everett and smiles at the baby, giving her a little wave, momentarily overcome by All That Adorable. Then he says softly, "Hey guys. How are you feeling?"

The fact that they're up and well enough to play some semblance of Scrabble is a good sign. His eyes alight with interest...he likes the game...but he's not the type that will, say, lean over, peer at Ravn's tray, and attempt to help.

"They wouldn't let me in to check on you before now."

The hospital sure got mighty tired of his daily phone calls though.

Kailey looks up and smiles brightly as Conner arrives. Then her eyes go big and wide. "Is that edible arrangements?! Aw, thank you!" She squeeks as she gets to her feet. Technically she could be referring to Ev and Morganna, but she is looking at the baskets Conner is toating. Albeit briefly.

"Ev!" Kailey turns to him as she rushes forward. Grabbing her daughter's chubby little face and covering it with kisses. "Mew my littlest sweet!" She says in that voice mothers sometimes adopt, though it's a little rough. As she straightens from babe there's tears on her cheeks as she leans up on tip toe to kiss Everett. Mew gives a giggle as she is squished between her parents. Oblivious to the gross display of affection above.

Which is abruptly cut short when her hands grab at mommy's chest. A muffled scream of pain coming from her. First muffled by kiss and then as she clamps teeth down on lower lip. Whirling away with fresh, pained tears and stumbling to collapse in the chair she had been in. Making soft whimpering noises as Mew suddnely frowns and whines in confusion and simple baby worry. Oops.

Acknowledging the lazy wave from Ravn, Everett returns with an uptilt of his chin, then glances down at the Scrabble™ board quickly. Quickly because there's a shriek of his name and suddenly a blur and there's Kailey. It causes a quick jerk of his head back, but her attention is on the baby anyways. The glimmering little baby. His lips give a gentle tug, smirking from the right side of his mouth while watching Mom shower daughter with love and when it's his turn, his hands hold on to her hips, partly to make sure she doesn't accidentally lean in too close and squish his precious cargo, partly to help lift her up so he doesn't have to lean down as much to meet her lips with his.

"Mm, muah," he makes a soft kiss sound once, then is silent when he sneaks two following quick pecks. That's right, so gross. So detailed. And it would have been three, but his daughter grabs at Kailey's girls and, at first thought, must have given her mother a purple nurple. There's a concern on his face, quickly, and he follows Kailey back to her chair and gives the baby attached to his chest something less sensitive to touch. Into her tiny hands, Everett slips his comparatively large thumbs for long enough to look her over then take his right hand back from the baby. With familiarity, Everett gingerly pulls Kailey's collar wide enough for him to peer down it.

And what he sees clearly gives him worry.
Sucking a breath through his teeth, his green eyes look up to Kailey's. Now he sounds more troubled, "You going to be ok, kitten?" he asks, giving the baby back the thumb she can grip but not fit her hand around. Not that she's paying any attention to them anymore anyway, staring up at Connor with the same confusion still on her expression, and her drool wet lips slightly parted. Dad's put her in her red crushed velvet dress and black leggings with a white shirt with snaps on the baby's left shoulder. It'll be a pain to remove when it comes time to change her diaper, but with her black hair tied in ponytails, Daddy's gone all out to make his princess pretty.

The Princess giggles loudly and wiggles her arms violently while trying not to let go of thumbs for Conner's benefit, "Pppfffff!"

Hya has been asleep. Once can tell by the amount of silence and the sheer lack of fussing on this floor. When she's awake one will know. There will likely be foot traffic and a statute of demands going to the woman's private room. And that was... about two hours ago. But hey at least she told them to bring in the other chef to make a fucking decent breakfast for herself, Conner, Vyv, Ravn, and that purple-haired woman without the other 12 kids. You know the one. no she's not that smart just bring her some real damn food.

When your name is on the building and your cousin is the mayor you can get away with some amazing things in a hospital. As it is she is 'practicing walking' with the distinct tone of, "Do I look five to you? I know how it works. Ugh woman you are impossible." A small clatter. Silence. A sigh. "Yes I'll take the stupid wheely chair...thank you."

Still Hya is bored and when you can (usually) make the world what you want by command will, and sometimes glimmer, you take a mystical journey into the wilds of the 4th floor. Woo. Big exciting day. She's in a red satin bathrobe (See Heather for the rules on wearing Red) with one arm in a sling and that sleeve tucked into the robe pocket. Makeup-off and jet hair down which never normally happens without flat ironing it first so there's an un-perscribed bounce to it. She's in the wheelchair using one foot and her good arm to lull forward and to turn.

"Raaaavn good morning. Sonner, Ka-..." Her green eyes freeze on Everett going up up up and stop on the tiny proto-human. "What's that?"

"That is Mew," Ravn replies with a hint of amusement; the Dane may not be much of a smol people person himself but while he is ignorant of the ways of children, certainly, he is not phobic. If he's relieved to be rescued from the Scrabble game he's polite enough to not let it show -- Kailey was only trying to help them both pass some very boring time, after all.

Also, he really wishes his focus would stay in one place, for just a few minutes. Right now, for instance, his mind wants to admire the balancing act that is Conner Hawthorne and the Fruit Baskets, and that show is already coming to an end.

It could be an interesting balancing act though. Draw a fair bit of attention on the boardwalk.

And with a bit of shine to make the baskets not actually fall ...

He needs to talk to Aidan Kinney about this.

Aidan does do a bit of moving, doesn't he?

The leap to thinking about shooting garden gnomes is not far, but it is strange.

The Dane shakes his head, trying hard to convince his mind to stay in the room with him, rather than run free towards the horizon across gentle Studio Ghibli hills and sunsets. "I think I bumped my head more than I realised," he murmurs apologetically to Kailey and anyone else within earshot. "I'm having a really hard time staying focused on anything. Did anyone read the paper yet? What did they make of it all? Attack by biker gang from out of town, or something along those lines?"

“I see,” Conner tells the baby as she makes her baby noises at him. He pulls a chair over and sits, and says gravely, “Well it is nice to meet you, Mew. And what a very pretty dress.” As if he Spoke Baby. He categorically doesn’t, but he does use a soft spoken tone and the trick of treating baby babble like real words, using tone rather than baby talk to communicate.

”Gas leak,” he says seriously to Ravn. “Plus explosion. Old buildings, you know.”

There is a look of concern for Kailey’s condition and then a twitch of his lips as Hyacinth begins Making Her Presence Known. He doesn’t presume to be the one to introduce Hya to the baby though, simply adding a polite: “Ms. Hyacinth,” and a nod.

"Yup. Yup. Gonna be fine. Just gimme a few secs, yeah?" Kailey says in a tight voice. One hand is clenched tight, knuckles white, in her own robe which is just hospital issue. It does take her a minute to recover and something about Everett's presence and touch seems to soothe. Just a little. She turns an apologetic smile up at Everett and then Mew, currently in babble with Conner.

"Aaaabaaa. Dabaa baa eee...do baba?" Goes the baby whose eyes turn to the bright red lady rolling in. Morganna has not had the pleasure of seeing such a thing as a wheelchair before. She suddenly begins to hoot and bounce, staring at Hyacinth and her mobility device. "OOOO! OOooo! Da! Daaaadaaa oooo!" She is clearly trying to get Everett's attention to turn, tugging on his thumb as she shifts in the sling to reach out towards the Addington.

"I think she likes you, Miss Addington," Kailey says with a chuckle in her voice. "Or at least your robe. Kind of jealous, but they won't let me wear anything but hospital issue right now. I'm still at risk for infection in a few spots." Her nose wrinkles in mild irritation as she opts to turn the tablet with Scrabble off. For now. Then her attention returns to Everett. "Doctors say I'll be healing for awhile. They are ordering the skin cell spray stuff, but it'll be a day till it gets here. But even then they have me on profi...profilactic? Something like that for antibiotics. Gonna be a wicked scar though," She doesn't sounds perturbed by the idea. "So I'll be here till end of the week depending on how I heal...I might see if Aidan wouldn't mind visiting..." And she wiggles her fingers in the gesture almost universally known to indicate 'magic'.

It isn't until after Kailey assures she's going to be fine that Everett nods and his concern, while it lessens, doesn't particularly go away. Not all at once anyway. Kailey's given a nod, his agreement to give her a moment to recover from the ugly scars being touched. He looks around for a second, fruit baskets, Scrabble™ and leans to his left, leering at Ravn's tiles. Then stares. His agreement to leave Kailey alone maybe literally lasted a few seconds.

While he reaches out on the tablet and starts shuffling around some titles, he asks Kailey, presumably, "Hey, Kitten, what's the name of that magazine we get delivered, like, three times a year? Has all them words innit? Crazy weird title." Everett looks at what he's created and then nods, his work here is done. Unleaning, he points a thick finger to Kailey's boobs, "And yeah, I think he'll probably help. He's fixed me up once or twice when I've done something stupid." Everett smirks at Ravn, "Not that I do anything stupid."

Clearly seeing Hyacinth at her best, her most prim, Everett turns to face the wheely chair, a slight smirk of bemusement on his lips that tugs the right side much more than right. Like he's talking to a five-year-old, Everett speaks slowly, wiggling his thumbs to keep the baby's attention.
"This is a baby." He compounds on his impression, his deep voice taking on a tone of wonder and delight. "You see when a Daddy and a Mommy rrreeally love each other, there's a special sort of," he pauses, his green eyes looking up for a moment before coming back down, "hug that they do. And then, nine months later, the stork comes and gives you one of these."

Without pausing for much more than a breath, and to release his thumbs from Morganna's grip, after noticing the infant's reaction to Hya, Everett picks the baby from her sling under her arms, her head she supports fine on her own, and lowers the child down to the wheelchair confined person. "Wanna hold her?" he asks before making the gesture to dump the baby, gently, into the stranger's lap. He won't pawn the baby off, of course, if there's a serious or strong reaction negative reaction. The only person allowed to drop the baby is him.

Everett frowns and turns his head back to Kailey, "Wait, a prophylactic?" getting the word wrong, and who could blame his confusion. "All for that?" he asks, pointing to her chest again. He pauses, thinks, not hard enough to make the smoke come out. "What if I," and with his hands he pantomimes withdrawal. He leaves the question hanging before pointing at a fruit basket and looking at Conner, "Are these for them?"

Ravn studies his tray. He was positive a minute ago that he had mostly Z's. Now there's a whole lot of Q's and he has no idea where they popped out from. This game is clearly out to get him and his concussed brain.

"Gas leak," he murmurs to Conner. "That makes sense. It's the sort of excuse the Veil would cook up, isn't it. Explains the smell and the injured people, and no one's surprised when old stuff on Spruce breaks." With a glance towards the rapidly escalating situation regarding Hyacinth, baby, and baby's parental units, he adds, very quietly, "I think somebody might need a rescue in a moment. Probably Everett."

For the majority of his -- is it really so close to two years now? -- living in Gray Harbor, Vyv has been unaccountably lucky when it comes to Veil violence. Oh, there's been plenty, but the prepositions have mostly managed to be 'around' and 'from' with regard to him. Far less 'to'. Until this. And 'this' has done a pretty decent job of attempting to make up for the lack all at once.

As is currently trendy in this group, he's got the exciting aftermath of being Spirit-blasted into a wall by a Wraith, though in his case he's accessorised it with pipe blows to the abdomen and head and a good thorough stab to the chest. If one's going to do something, do it right? Doesn't usually apply to getting one's ass kicked, granted. There was emergency surgery regarding the stab wound and the path it took, the initial damage exacerbated by the following blunt force trauma, and between that and the concussion and the heavy-duty painkiller regimen... well, he's spent an awful lot of the intervening asleep, and this is the first time he's emerged from his room since he was placed there.

Instructions to get a little walking in are part of the reason he's now headed here, and there may well have been at least coordination with the timing of Hya being there, if no one else. Unlike her, he's evaded the wheelchair for the moment, though he is staying pretty close to the wall, guiding an IV pole along with him, and being fairly closely tailed by a rather fit-looking orderly. Presumably in case he falls, not on suspicion of intent to purloin IV poles. Like Hyacinth, he's managed to rid himself of the standard-issue printed-cotton hospital 'gown', exchanging it for cream pyjama pants and a knee-length dressing gown in navy, both silk and the latter embroidered with a decidedly japonesque pattern of trees and cranes. He's also having nothing to do with the hospital-issue socks-with-treads, thank you, and has managed to acquire some far more flattering suede slippers instead. He looks pale and tired and the movement betrays more effort and focus on maintaining balance than he'd probably prefer, but at least he can be reasonably put-together.

And as he steps in: people! Ravn and Kailey aren't wholly expected but also aren't a surprise, and get a faint (and careful) head-inclination of greeting; Conner is more of a surprise, and the fruit basket juggling is a momentary intrigue and potential amusement on the way to spotting Hyacinth, who is not a surprise in the least but may be a slight concern what with the wheelchair (and possibly the rogue bounce to her hair, though as his own frequently tends to a refractory tousle, this may be less of a worry than it would otherwise be). However, there's not much processing time there, as this also leads him to two portions of an entire surprise: Everett. And a baby.

The expression remains flat, except for a single blink. "Sorry. Wrong room," he says, immediately turning to head back down the hall. Or at least starting to. It takes a bit more wrangling than usual with the pole involved. He manages to make it look stylish even so.

Hyacinth looks to Ravn and sloooowly edges into the room rollyrollyrolly, and turn and leave Ravn between her and the proto-human infant. She does warm the smile though, "Mr. Conner." There's's a faint grin of amusement "Formal now are we? But...very kind of you to think of us. I'm flattered and be-pineappled."

And then the small human is making more noises and more animation and Hya can't keep her composure as she looks wide-eyes, "Kailey, I'm so glad youre- ooOOoooOh god it's coming right for me!" She looks around trying to figure out what to do about this and looks to Everett "that's still attached to you. We're okay? Yes? Good." For once in her immaculately manicured life she has no idea how to address...all...this. She looks up, "Vyvyaanaaaannnnn-nuh...don't... you wander off." Trying to ready out telepathetically gets a short of static with an immediate migraine. "Ravn... hi are you... you know?" yeah she's worried.

"They are," Conner tells Everett, with a gentle nod. Ravn's aside has his shoulders shaking in silent laughter, his lips twitching just a little, but he's not going to verbally respond to that. He watches Vyv start noping right out and his shoulders shake harder, and now it's a full grin.

"You're a refined lady," he tells Hyacinth. "My Grandparents raised me right." But there's a hint of humor to that too. For one thing...

There's this entire spectacle of Hyacinth and its coming right for me that's still attached to you. At this point he has to rest his hand over his mouth, like he's covering a small cough or a yawn, because as Larry the Cable Guy once riffed: 'I don't care who you are, that's funny right there.'

"Uhhhh...Zyzzyva? Why?" Kailey offers her giant after a puzzled few seconds of thought. Then she snorts and smirks at him, "Sure. Never do the dumb," She says dryly, watching him with amusement from her chair. His explaining baby origins has her snickering and moving to lightly kick him in the shin. Everett probably has a permanent bruise there at this point in their lives.

As Morganna is offered out to Hyacinth her green eyes go wide and she lets out a happy squeal. Little arms waving at Hyacinth, shiny with drool. The dark haired child doesn't understand that Hyacinth is recoiling because of her. Daddy makes similar faces when changing her diaper after all. So she giggles happily, a sound few can resist. Though it seems two may be in the room.

"Oh leave her alone, Ev. Come sit near me so I can snuggle her a little more safely," Kailey tells Everett after finding herself giggling as well. She moves to take her arrangement and sits back down gently. A strawberry is slid off and she bites a small piece off before offering it to her daughter. Attention immediately shifts to her mother and her mouth opens to receive the treat.

Mouthing an ow at the kick, Everett turns his attention to Kailey. "No reason," he offers Kailey, glancing Ravn's way quickly and then back. I mean, what more of a hint does he need? A whap so hard he gets concus-- oh yeah. "Never the dumb," he agrees.

When Kailey suggests he stop tormenting the snobs, Everett replies with a quick, "In a minute," looking back at the fruit basket Kailey's picked up. He pokes a finger into the arrangement's plastic covering and then pulls it open to extract out a single banana. Thing about banana though is that it's a two handed fruit for the peel. And, gosh. Wouldn't you know it, he spend all of last round setting up he's holding a baby with both hands.
What to do. What. To. ... do.

That's right, Everett's evil and bends at knee and hip, leaving Morganna down on hands and knees while Papa turns where he is to rip into the basket and extracts a single banana. Morganna, other than being extraordinarily pretty, something she gets from her Mom, is pretty average as far as mobility milestones.
That includes being mobile for a crawl. Excitedly smiling a mouth full of gums while waddling towards Mom and her treat, but then. Then the wheely chair and exit. At the recreation room's coffee table she pulls herself up and uses the table's surface to shuffle towards her new objects of interest: the magazine's on the table. Giving them a push when she wanted to grab and take.

Dad uses both hands to crack open the banana, keeping his attention moving back and forth between fruit and homing, drooling, sticky, giggling missile. Not exactly a cruise missile, but she has her moments. It wouldn't be fair to call it a foot race, but peeling the banana, god. So slowly, Everett looks up. His brows lift with surprise as well, just as Mew reaches the end of the table; time to go back to her knees and hands.
"Holy sh--" there's a glance down at the baby, "stuffing, Vyv. You look like trash." Physically, of course. Clothing wise, everybody knows that's not true. Not Vyv or Hya.

Everett nods his thanks to Conner, and takes a small bite from the banana's tip. So he doesn't have to chew for long while the baby shuffles closer. Ever. Closer. "Well, hell. If you're here, who's making bagels at Safeway?" Another banana bite to poorly conceal the thug's amusement slowly spreading on his lips.

Morganna crawls closer.
Is that the Jaws theme?

There are not many people for whom Vyv's step would even hesitate in walking away from this situation. Unfortunately, one of those on the (very) shortlist is the one actually having a moment of half-panic and actively requesting (some might hear it as 'demanding', but these two understand each other) his presence. A deep, long-suffering sigh, and he turns around again, easing his way into the room and broadly in Hyacinth's general direction. The larval human seems currently corralled by her father, thankfully, and while this is initially unreasonably close to Hya and has the very unfortunate corollary that both of them are here, at least it means they're contained in the same relatively small and avoidable location.

Until Everett puts her down and lets her start crawling where she will. Where 'where she will' appears to be far too similar to 'where Vyv is'.

"You must have the most elegant dumpster for miles around," he remarks almost absently, Mew getting a wary eye as she works her way down from that table and back to the floor. A fleeting glance toward the man being addressed, just long enough for a snap assessment of whether anything's changed from what he expects. It hasn't. "No one would've guessed."

The sprog is nearing. Still well out of drooling and stickiness range, but closing at a rapid enough practiced crawl that the chef sees fit to slide sideways with his IV pole, describing a small arc toward Hyacinth's chair. His gaze stays mainly on the creeping menace as he does, which gives him a swift and clear indication of the flaw in his plan: now the tiny terror can more easily threaten them both at once. "Mn, I wouldn't know; presumably some teenager found his talents transcended slopping together your sundaes and got ambitious," he replies to Everett's faux-inquiry, the tone still a bit distracted as he lifts his free hand a few inches in the infant's direction, fingers curling a touch, hand moving another inch or so--

--and nothing happens. Well, nothing but the burbling horror continuing to advance. The fingers curl a little more and the hand moves a little further and the baby's outfit ripples as though it were caught in a breeze, but nothing more. His eyes widen a bit further than he'd probably prefer to be visible, along with a flicker of a look toward his own hand, which unlike his ribs is not technically broken but doesn't appear to be working, nonetheless. There's but a breath to catch it before the hand moves fluidly into a quick little shooing gesture, a few swift sharp shakes of the back of his fingers toward Morganna and her father beyond. "Please reclaim your spawn. That's unsanitary." Whether 'it' refers to child or floor-crawling is unclear and possibly irrelevant.

"I'm surprised Everett is still alive," Ravn murmurs very quietly to Conner, feeling relatively safe behind his shield consisting of a Scrabble tray full things that can be turned into improvised distractions -- or missiles -- if need be. While the Dane does feel that threatening to impale a Z piece in the eyeball of some unfortunate little carpetshark in diapers is perhaps a little overkill, he's entertaining the option of perhaps pelting the father if need be.

No, Ravn is not a children person either. Although not possessed of the outright pedophobia of Vyv or Hyacinth, he comes from a proud family tradition of kids staying in the bloody nursery with their nanny until they're old enough to coherently say 'yes, sir' or 'no, sir' and sit on a proper chair at the dinner table. An upbringing which he does not hold against Mew. He just doesn't want to hold Mew, either. She looks easily breakable too.

Over here, where it's safe, though, the situation is amusing to behold. He shouldn't feel this amused at the plight of either friend but he's still struggling to wipe the grin off his face, and blue grey eyes are sparkling with restrained laughter; after the god-awful experience that was the basement and the violent undead in it, the threat of sticky Morganna slobberings is -- well, suffice it to say, it's a threat level Ravn is far more comfortable with. Little crawling terror may ruin a shirt. Little crawling terror is not going to send anyone to the ICU.

The young mother may be in pain but apparently she is still plenty observant. Especially as regards her daughter. There is concern as Everett taunts those with baby-fears instead of the hoped-for amusement. "She won't hurt you," Says Kailey to the two who are recoiling. Does she look disappointingly at Vyv? Why yes she does as she gets up from her seat and moves to scoop the cruising baby up. Carefully this time and managing to keep the pain wince from her face.

And thusly are Vyv and Hyacinth saved from the happy, drooly, banana and chocolate sticky baby. "Aaaahahaha!" Mew giggles as her mother picks her up. Tilting her head back with a big grin, showing off her two top and two lower teeth. Aren't they cute? Or does she look like a not-naked mole rat?

"I -know- they look so fancy and you just wanna touch that pretty robe," Kailey croons to her daughter. Those paying attention could feel something invisible pass between Kailey and her daughter. The young mother apparently plucking imagery and wants from the pond of her daughter's mind. As she sits back down she says to the rescue trio, "She really likes your IV pole, Vyv," The mother informs the man as Morgana continues to stare at the chef with wide-eyed eagerness. Her chubby little hands reaching out.

With the sweetest baby smile she makes grabby hands at him. "Ub! Ub!" Says Mew to Vyv. Kailey looks extremely amused by something as she reaches for a honeydew ball and offer it to the baby to distract her. Now she's stickier, but she is distracted from wanting Vyv to pick her up for now.

Conner doesn't seem at all fussed by anything at all that Mew is doing, but as with the basement, he is Not a Target. It's easy to be chill under those circumstances, really. His lips twitch as he watches the entire show play out, and he asks Ravn, "Why's that?" In a similarly quiet tone. He's content to just hang out for a moment. His primary aim has already been met here...to make sure everyone is probably going to make it out of here in some reasonable facsimile of health. Everything else is just a bonus.

Really, the general chaos has a camaraderie to it, and he's enjoying that even when he's not directly diving into it. His eyes are twinkling, just a little. Granted, Kailey hurting herself more to Baby Manage is cause for another concerned look, but she seems to have it well in hand.

Recognizing the suffering sigh is perhaps the beginning of where Everett realizes he's going to have more fun than he should be allowed to have, causing the fruit-hidden smirk to widen. Bless those who don't want to suffer alone.
Like the yang to the yin, where Vyv's attention is mostly on the advancing child then Everett, Everett is mostly regarding Vyv. And poorly hiding his widening smirk behind his fruit of choice. In a war of words, Everett is, ill-equipped, and more than likely out-gunned against Vyv. Maybe even with the cheating of having a distracting, crawling child advancing towards the snotty pair, drool ebbing from the baby's grin. Daddy couldn't be any prouder.
When the contents of his trash bin are insulted, Everett just looks down. As though to remind Vyv as what's approaching. Like the movie where the spider slowly creeps up the protagonist's stomach. Don't look at me, the gorilla suggests, look at her.

If there's any doubts that Morganna is indeed Everett's child, with Vyv's attempts to shoo the child away, or maybe it's that he even doesn't want his telekinesis to touch IT and get tainted, Mew proves to be every bit as dense as her father. The father who's shoulders begin to shake, tremble really, with the effort not to laugh aloud. His eyebrows wrinkle as well, those nearest him hear the air escape like a double hic-cup of suppressed laughter.
Of all things to be frightened of, it's the look at Vyv's own hand, like it's betrayed him, that causes Everett's reaction. The spawn is recovered by the mother, all the better since Everett needs to recover. He sniffs and murmurs with that damn smirk on the right side of his face still, "Yeah, you'd know all about unsanitary, I've seen your baking."

There's a glance at Ravn after the disbelief that Everett's still alive, which only livens his smile before he turns his attention to that human grub. Perhaps he does need to be put in his place, I mean poor Hyacinth and Vyv are still recovering from their Close Encounter of the Pampers kind

When mom moves and scoops up Mew, Everett recognizes the end to his fun has arrived and turns his torso to face his family. The banana he was hiding his smile behind, from which he takes a small bite and then removes from his mouth with his other hand. Just like Kailey, he's hoping to distract Morganna with food so she'll stop asking Vyv to be picked up by him.
Well, ok. One more.

"We'll give Unkie Vyvvie and Auntie Hi-hi kisses when we leave. Who wants kisses? You're going to get kisses." And while he surrenders the banana bite to Mew's tiny, chubby baby fingers, Everett leans in and down to put his lips against her cheek. And blows. Elegant. Classy. Daddy blows a raspberry against Morganna's cheek making her squeal and erupt in high giggles, showing her Daddy her mole-rat teeth with the broad grin that follows. Until she realizes now that she's got fruit in her hands and where the hell did those come from and what are they and they aren't the same fruits and this one is squishier then that one and two, two is far too many. She looks up and around with intense befuddlement before offering Conner the hand with the banana now mushed. Maybe he wants it.

But Conner's right, there is an air of camaraderie, and Everett doesn't miss out on it either, not even after finishing his laugh-curtain-formally-banana and asking while he rubs his hands on his jeans (see, classy), "So...? What happened? Or did you all get lucky and end up in the hospital at the same time?"

"Because Vyv and Hyacinth are still in too much shock to tag team throttle him on the spot," Ravn murmurs back to Conner with a glance at the two; more or less the king and queen of the unofficial jet set of Gray Harbor, it's a rare sight to see either one rattled and he's not above silently laughing and filing away images mentally for future abuse. Ravn has lunch with these two people regularly and he's going to blackmail the hell out of them both with threats of baby pictures in times to come. Or with the threat of a threat. Or, you know, just laugh a lot about it. What's the point of having friends if you can't torture them a bit in a jovial fashion now and then.

He watches the show until eventually, the diaper carpet shark is contained and neutralised, before looking up to attempt to answer Everett's question: "We -- essentially found out what was causing the bad smell at the HOPE centre. Smelled like bodies were rotting under the floorboards or something like that. Turns out they were -- the place was haunted as all hell, and the ghosts beat the stuffing out of us collectively. We were honestly lucky to get out of there alive. I expected the dolorphages to strike back at us, obviously -- but I didn't expect it to be so soon."

Conner doesn't seem fussed but he's not being charged downstream by someone's tiny homoculous that looks frightening like... a bit of her 1 year old herself. Ack! And then there's Vyv. Awwww he came back! And his... shawty-go-shoo has... run out of shoo!? One eyebrow goes up.

"Vyvvy, if you have performance anxiety I assure you-" her jaw hangs open for a moment and she shakes her head, "I do not understand. Ooh back up back up." Looking to Kailey she sounds almost impresses, "She is really picking up speed. Oh god... the baby is making sounds. Is that a seizure or what? I don't know if you need to call a doctor or find a young and an old priest or..."

Still... she is sufficiently vexed. Well played, child. Well played. Ravn's comment wins the slow pan of her head and the one she'd come to hunt down. The head turn is slow, but it happens, "Feeling better are we?" Looking back to Everett she says tiredly, almost answering but Ravn does. "Yes, Dolores went through a phase and stabbed Vyvvy, and then tried to play Humpy Dumpty with Ravn and... it was a lot to manage." It doesn't pain her to pay a genuine compliment though admitting she needed help may have her calling the RN for Benedryl shortly.

"Kailey, Conner, you were brilliant. Really, we do owe you appreciation for assisting with that mess and getting us out before the bulldozers get there." Bulldozers?

Morganna smiles big and bright at her mother. Tilting her head back for her mole-rat grin up at Kailey. Her mother smiles and presses a kiss to a tiny forehead. "No dear, no up. Vyv and Hyacinth don't like drool," She explains as she uses the cuff of her hospital robe to clean up some of the sticky. Wiping away the chocolate smudges and banana goodness.

"Everett, hand me a wipe?" Kailey asks. She tries to keep the carpet shark on her knees. Away from her chest and it mostly works. Morganna flops back a bit, her head hitting mom's collar bone and causing her to grunt in pain. But her smile doesn't falter much as Kailey adjusts the babe. And can likely feel or see the shimmer of mental communication from mother to daughter.
Those adorable, and now clean, baby lips pout for a second. Mew's eyes tracking back to Vyv and his pole. "Ub badah eeebaadada ya?" Ah baby babble. If only someone could understand it. Oh wait, Kailey can!

"She says she won't drool on you, she just wants to see your pole," Kailey apparently translates? But she is trying not to grin in amusement as she says it.

The compliment distracts mom and Kailey turns a shy and lopsided smile on Hyacinth. "We all did it together. Definitely wasn't just Conner and me. I think my calling is illusions rather than lightning. Those ghosts just seemed tonabsorb mine. I'm just glad I was able to cover you," She nods at Vyv, "So you could give them hell."

Betrayed! The only reason Vyv isn't even now already back in his room and far away from babies and their fathers is for Hyacinth's sake, and now this? Everett's insult gets so thoroughly ignored this time one could easily believe the chef didn't even hear it (even more easily if one'd seen how irritated he was about the whole Revisionist thing before it got fixed) -- instead, now that the child is contained (for now), he just regards Hyacinth impassively for a moment, before Kailey's translation(?) breaks through.

The younger woman gets a sidelong glance at that, brow quirking. "If I had a dollar for every time I'd been promised that..." He regards the IV pole a moment as though trying to see what's so attractive about it to the wee spawn. "Well, I can't pass it over as they were fairly insistent I need to keep it with me. Perhaps if you ask nicely they'll bring her one to look at." One which is not attached to him. "But yes. I think it likely would have gone worse short any of us. And considering how it did go..." An 80% hospitalization rate (one which includes him, at that) is extremely low on his success rankings, after all. But the ghosts and ghouls are unlikely to fight another day, and soon enough everyone in this room is. Like it or not.

And there was, specifically, the illusion throwing Kailey used to try to aid him, after all. "Mn." A tiny pause. "I did appreciate that, by the way." The child gets fleetingly eyed again, and given there are threats of drooly kisses being made in the background and a decided lack of appreciation for his self-sacrifice and suffering so far-- he reiterates his earlier turn and starts heading back out of the room. "And now, terribly sorry to deprive you of my presence, but I seem to have an urgent appointment. With being elsewhere. I'm quite sure I'll see you all soon." The edible arrangements get a glance as he goes, the expression hard to read. "Kind thought," he murmurs to Conner as he passes, and then he's gone.

Conner gets offered this mushy banana, and he accepts it solemnly. He's stuck his hands down people's garbage disposals and has plunged their toilets. This banana is nothing. "Thank you very much," he tells Mew, ever so solemnly. He raises the goo and makes a pretend-show of eating it: "Nom nom nom nom," he says, before surreptitiously depositing the mess into a trash can and going to wash his hands the moment her attention is diverted.

Hyacinth telling him he was brilliant just makes him smile a little. "It was a team effort," he says quietly. "And I got...extremely lucky. Nobody seemed to want a piece of me. Made things easier."

Vyv thanks him for the thought and takes his leave, and he murmurs, "Please get well soon, Vyv."

A sentiment that really does for all of them of course, save for Everett and Mew. Conscious that Everett, Mew, and Kailey would probably like some family time, he says, "I should be going as well. Kailey, Ravn, Miz Hyacinth..." There's something about her that just demands a Miz. She just does. By her existence. "I hope all of you are out of here and feeling much better soon."

Smirking with a side-ways glance towards Ravn, Everett lifts up, pulling his lips from his cute baby with the teeth set of a beaver. His attention returns to the girl, tickling her under her chin but two times, not enough to distract her, his focus returning to Ravn when Everett's question is answered. A knowing nod. Everett murmurs, "That's a distinctive smell," without explaining more. "Next time call Ghostbusters or something, the police? Let them handle the decomposition."
"I mean, heck," he continues, "you might get the finger pointed at you for stuffing people under the floorboards, but at least you don't have..." and Everett takes his hand away from Morganna's chin to gesture at his own face, smirking still, indicating the damage Ravn's suffering from.
Or is that his normal appearance, what's Ravn's worst visual injury, an eyebrow fracture.
So mean.

When asked for a wipe, Everett unslings the bag from over his shoulder, let's a loop off, and starts digging around. It's a short search and soon he withdraws a package of them, fiddles with it to remove the one wipe, and hand it over while Mew regards Conner and the sticky strings of banana between her fingers with befuddlement until the 'nom nom's. Then it's another wide smile and flapping her arms like she wants to fly and jumping to test her Mother's grip.
The first hint of shared communication between Mother and Daughter finds Everett frowning. But when Kailey translates, the light frown grows deeper and he clears his throat noisily, murmuring through his teeth and out the corner of his mouth, "Stop it," to Kailey, a source on contention between the two for whatever reason.

Hyacinth's explanation comes while Everett closes the baby bag and slings it back over his shoulder. But to prove he's paying attention, he looks up at what happened to 'Vyvvy' with an amused grin while glancing in Vyvverie's direction for a moment. But he does add the question, "Bulldozers?"
There's a nasal exhale at the joke about Vyv's... pole. Yeah, Everett totally gets that one, his head bobbing slightly until, a second later, the amusement is wiped from his expression when he realizes they're talking about his daughter.
Since Vyvvy left Everett to get away with one, he's inclined not to make a comment on The Vyvness retreating. Everett's attention drifts to Kailey, to whom he nods towards Vyv but only because he's standing by the only exit, "Let's go to your room. You can tell me more about what happened before visiting hours is over," he says, with a glance at Kailey's chest, specifically her injuries, and upnodding.

To those present, Everett waves a large paw before offering them both to take the wiggle beast back.

The wiggle beast is cleaned with said wipe. The wiggle beast wiggles the entire endeavor, making her feel like Luke aiming for the Death Star's core trying to get that one smudge of banana on her chin. But on the second pass she snags it and balls up the wipe, tossing it into the basket. So when she turns back Vyv has already escaped and her wave drops back into her lap.

"Stop what?" Kailey asks with utter innocence as she turns back to Everett. Brows up and looking almost as cute and naive as her daughter. Whom she passes up to his waiting paws. "We should head back. I'm sure Ravn will not lament the lost game," Kailey says with a chuckle, beginning to pack it all back up. She'll drop it off at the nurse's desk on the way back to her room.

"Thanks again, Conner, for the edible! I love these things," And she plucks another melonball from the offering, chewing with obvious enjoyment. "Next time let's all opt for less violence and ghosts, yeah?" Her eyes sweep the three others as she gets up carefully from her chair to head off for the burn ward.

Hyacinth looks to Vyv with a wry grin at the dry humor around the IV pole. There's a shake of her head, "Alas. Alright. I thin this is quite enough excitement for today. I thought maaaaybe we'd go find lunch so we can see if Vyv an still translate the menu or hope may be lost. Ravn, you're eating. You're not eating enough. I can tell and you will feel better I promise." Even if she has to practice setting a mood for the room to do so. There's a brief pause and the lumber baroness doth look a bit green from being upright and also pushing herself ( and everyone else if we are honest) around. "Conner...you should join us. They deliver right?" It really is the preferred method. Some people are just not good at being injured even if they have badges for it.

"You're very welcome," Conner tells Kailey, with a smile.

He is almost at the door when Hyacinth issues her invitation. Conner looks startled, then pleased. "I'd be happy to, thank you," he says. He will fall into step with Hyacinth then, choosing to leave when she does. He'll probably offer to push her chair so she doesn't have to keep messing with it...but only after they're well out of earshot of the others, sensitive to any possible pride he might be wounding with the offer.

Either way, he steps into the hall to make room for her to come through, shooting the little family another warm smile, his own exit more or less made.