MEDICATION

DEFINITION

A drug or other form of medicine that is used to treat or prevent disease.

"He was given medication for pain."

-

DATE - JULY 8TH 2015

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The Warden stood in his office and spilled pain medication onto his palm. Tabby awkwardly stood by the door, most likely fumbling with her plastic thumbs. The Warden would pick out three pills and force them into his mouth before he drank from a flask to wash them down.

After a cough from the whiskey subsided, Tabby's whirring cleared up. She had news. The Warden looked over just in time for Tabby to cheer slightly, "Yo, Chief, check-it!" She pointed to her screen to show a graph with several peaking lines, "Everyone just had a huge disease-usage spike!"

The Warden showed a slight interest, but not enough to get him to lean off his desk or even express it. A dry sigh escaped him before he rubbed his face. Tabby was slightly disappointed by his lack of reaction, so she followed up with, "And they all still have a pulse, so no one was murdered!" She cheered, "I mean, no Virus, at least, the Psychiatrist lady might be dead, they don't seem like they liked her."

Warden shifted his leg to test the pain levels. He winced with a grumble. Tabby flinched, "Woah, hey, don't sweat it, we can check out who died later!" The machine flailed her arms, "Alvi isn't dead, so he'd still be writing everything!"

This brought the greying man slightly comfort it seemed. His breath was hollow and quiet before he spoke, "I have to make a call," He explained, "Call Veronica." He shooed his hand at her, and Tabby got the memo.

However, she felt the need to have a final message, "I want it on record that the child psychologist was Tabby Vonelché's idea," She brazenly stated as she dialed up the scientist.

-

At that time, I returned to my own vision. I was still scratching the logs in from earlier to catch up. My wrist hurt horribly, but I ignored it. A foot or so beside me, Clover was leaned against the wall she was left at. Joslyn and Naya were in-charge of helping Clover with her wounds.

Surprisingly, Joslyn knew quite a lot about first aid. Just as Naya was about to use a bandage, Joslyn had butted in, "No, don't bandage yet-" She explained, her hand outstretched to stop the other, "You need water for chafe marks."

Naya hummed, "They didn't give us any water," She looked around, seeing Skylar in the distance where she hadn't moved, "Sky probably would have helped if she wasn't so..." She shrugged, looking to Joslyn, "Stubborn?"

Joslyn hummed and looked to the ginger who had static around her puff of hair. Joslyn sighed, eyebrows furrowed slightly. Naya let them sit in silence for a few seconds before she felt the need to ask, "Hey, why uh... That sunscreen trick was really funky," She started, "Like a really good idea, cus it worked 'n all but... How did you know that would work?"

The way she said that made it sound like she had a hunch of why. Joslyn picked up on her tone, and her face grew somewhat anxious, which of course, spread to Naya, who doubled back, "Uh, you don't have to answer, obviously!" Naya re-assured, "But like, I won't judge or nothin, ok?" She offered a pensive smile.

Joslyn let off a tense hum. With a grumble, Clover swayed her hands slightly, "Stop!' She harmlessly slapped Joslyn in the face, "Your feelings are contagious!" Clover then looked at her hand, "Why did your face scratch me?" She stuck out her tongue with a displeased expression.

A strike of pain went through me, and it seemed to go through Clover and Naya. It was undeniably Joslyn's disease at work, and the emotion was unparalleled to anything else; despair, shame, embarrassment, and pain. A sad pain.

Joslyn rather quickly shot up and clutched her jumpsuit legs out of frightened instinct, "I-I'm gonna go get water for-for Clover..." She spun around and darted up the stairs and into the Mound.

"Clover wants iced coffee!" The sun-burnt girl called out, slightly disgruntled. Once Joslyn was out of reach, we all simultaneously let off a breath of relief.

Naya held a concerned expression, sighing as her shoulders sunk. She then looked over at Clover with a pensive smile, "You know coffee dehydrates you," She put a hand on her hip after she had stood up, "Probably not a-"

"Shush, I can't hear you. I'm asleep," Clover exaggerated a snore sound, "I'm snoring because I don't have my coffee." She whined further and hid her face in her crossed arms that she had splayed across the box.

"I- ok, sure?" Naya snorted slightly but went along with it. She picked up the baseball bat from the box, "Ok, shout if you need me!" She waved, and Clover had an eye open to see it. After a few seconds, Naya shouted over to Dex, "Yo, poindexter, wanna place bets on who can hit the ball over the fence?"

Of course, Dex jolted upright next to Skylar excitedly, "Hell yeah, I bet you can't hit me!" He pointed to himself and randomly dodged around.

Skylar made a face and moved a few steps back, "Hey, not in front of me, dumbass!" She crossed her arms, "She could hit me!"

Dex shuffled away, facing the strawberry blonde still, "Sorry, Bhess- Ow!" He had been hit in the head with a baseball.

"Don't sweat, Sky!" Naya shouted out, readying another ball, "I haven't missed a shot since I was eight!" She aimed up with her thumb.

Before Sky could retort, Dex gasped, "Wait, Naybles, I wanna see if I can catch it in my arm!"

Naya let off a similar gasp with a loud 'Dude!' spoken like Dex had a stroke of genius. Skylar visibly cringed at the concept and I had to say I felt the same. Naya threw up the ball and belted it with the bat, a pleasant crack went with it.

Dex was hit in the stomach, and it didn't sink into his skin, but a bruise absolutely would as the lanky teenager keeled over. Skylar leaned on one leg, "You know you're both idiots, right?"

The shortest girl noted this, thinking for a moment, "Yeah, maybe, let's stick to throwing them first," She picked up a ball, "Then we graduate to the bat!" She hurled the ball at Dex, who still hadn't recovered from the whack to his stomach.

Dex whimpered slightly, "How can a girl hit so hard?!" He then immediately regretted the choice of words as he saw Skylar lean down and pick up a ball as well, "I meant a girl- like a short girl, no, no, Bhessie- Ow!" Skylar pelted the ball at him and he had fallen over.

-

Adrien watched from the sidelines, legs scrunched to his chest and arms crossed over. Skylar had let out a roar of laughter as Dex was getting up and in the process of trying to run away. He would then be hit again with a ball, but that time laughed in response.

After a few seconds of observing the others, Adrien hissed. He shook his hand a few times, then looked down at the damage. Only to find there was nothing there. He looked down at the receding shade he was sat in. It was likely he would get a sunburn later.

He grumbled as he stood up rather quickly, "Adrien!" Fritz's voice made the ginger jolt to look at her. The psychiatrist was visibly concerned, "Sorry, but have you seen Joslyn?!" Her clipboard was pressed to her chest.

"I think I heard her go inside," Adrien crossed his arms, "To get Clover a drink or something?"

Fritz made a sound of concern, looking around frantically, "I was on the walkie talkie for five minutes!" She hissed under her breath, "Adrien, honey, can you do me favour?" She placed a hand on Adrien's shoulder.

His eyes darted to the hand, to Fritz and back. She seemed to catch on and she flinched her hand back, "Sorry," She cleared her throat and stood back, "I just, don't trust this place." The look on Fritz's face made it click for Adrien.

"Uh... Yeah, I mean it's too hot out here anyway." He crossed his arms before he dodged around Fritz who took a hold of his shoulder again.

"Be careful, alright?" Her smile was soft and full of concern, "If you find a walkie talkie, I'm on radio seven." She gave him a light pat on the shoulder which made Adrien less angry then I would have expected.

Which didn't last as Adrien's face forcibly turned huffy, "God can everyone stop fuckin grabbing me for like two minutes?" He forced his shoulder back and begrudgingly stepped into the Mound.

-

Joslyn walked through the maze of the Mound, her posture becoming shallow every time a soldier passed her, and ever so slightly she would pick up the pace. She only had a vague idea of where she was going. She took almost every turn, only sure that the cafeteria was at the center of the Mound, and so the kitchen would be just behind it.

After a few minutes, Joslyn slowed down as if she heard something. Behind her a particular set of footsteps stuck out. Considering how the corridor was basically empty, and how Joslyn had purposely placed herself close to the right wall, there was no good reason for those footsteps to be so close behind.

The footsteps slowed, behind her. Joslyn made an audible gulp before she started to walk again. Slow steps at first, and the footsteps behind followed. Joslyn took a few more slow steps until she reached the corner.

As soon as she met the corner and her eyes spotted the kitchen doorway, she took a slight breath. Then she spun around the corner, quick to get to the door which she slammed her small frame into to open it. Once in the kitchen, she stopped to listen for the footsteps.

They were still coming quickly. Joslyn let off a sharp hiss, her attention darted around the room. She snatched a knife as soon as she saw it before she tried to shove her way into the food storage. The door was locked.

Immediately, Joslyn readied her knife, her breath heavy as she had a frantic switch of either knocking on the door in a spree or holding the knife with both hands, her back against the door. The kitchen door creaked open slowly, and Joslyn's heart thudded in her ears.

Her voice was almost inaudible as she tried to choke out something. Once the soldier stepped foot into the room, it seemed all too quickly that the door was forced shut behind him. There was a hand gripped around her neck as he leaned over Joslyn who had shut down completely.

The soldier said something, but there was a ringing in Joslyn's ear that made it impossible to decipher.

That's when out of the corner of Joslyn's eye, the door spasmed erratically out of existence, much like it did in the cells. Joslyn fell back, not able to comprehend what was happening even after she had hit the ground.

The soldier toppled over Joslyn who still had that knife at the ready. Before what just happened could register, there was a blur over Joslyn's vision. Then a thud as that soldier was lunged by the skull off of the mortified Virus.

"Huh-holy sh-shi-it." Reece's voice barely computed but that stutter was unmistakable. Joslyn snapped back just enough to control her eyes to look at the knife, then the soldier who was grunting in confused agony.

The girl's heart rate peaked again as she scrambled to sit up. With a bloodied knife in her hands, she forced the knife into that soldier's hand, then their hip as they crawled closer to the screaming soldier. The stabs became sporadic as the camo-coated man started to die. As his screams went silent, Joslyn's started to rise.

As typically in snaps, Joslyn's vision cut out frequently. I switched my vision to Reece's as he watched in slight awe. The blood trickled across the floor and sprayed over Joslyn and the orange tracksuit she had been forced in. Reece looked down at a bag of frozen salami that I had correctly assumed was what he had used to attack the soldier.

The chest-area of the soldier had eventually become mush and the spray of blood had ceased. Reece dropped the salami bag and went over to Joslyn who's screams had turned into choked out grunts.

Reece dropped the murder weapon and stepped over to the other Virus, "H-huh-hey, hey!" he desperately tried to get her attention. Joslyn paid him no mind as she kept to her violent parade. He was careful to tread around the blood, though it would have been a miracle if there was no blood tracked onto his shoes.

"J-J-Juh-oh fuh-for fucks s-s-s-sake!" He looked over his shoulder, and to my mild surprise, Toby lounged upside-down on a crate watching the scene un-foil, "You wanna huh-help maybe?!"

"Not particularly." Toby's neutral expression was more surprised than usual. From his ears hung two wires that slipped into his pockets. Reece huffed heavily, looking down at Joslyn once the knife had slowed down.

There was a choked sob-sound as her emotions caught up with herself. At the first sign of a sob, Toby spun around to sit upright, "I'm going to watch outside," He declared quickly, "Try to keep the nightjar from screaming again." He dropped off the box and made a B-line for the door.

Reece made a face, and looked down at Joslyn, the door, and back, "Yuh-You don-don't like... Explode wh-when you're s-s-s-sad or anything ri-ight?" He awkwardly asked, which made me aware that Reece had no clue of Joslyn's disease. Joslyn had stopped stabbing and left the knife in the chest of the soldier.

Joslyn didn't reply, only quietly crying. Reece's breath hitched before tears flooded into his eyes. It clicked for him pretty quickly by the way he looked over to Joslyn. He forced back a few sad noises and straightened out his hands which shook slightly. He knelt down in front of Joslyn, trying desperately to blink out the uncontrollable influx of tears.

He hesitated, mind blurred from Joslyn's contagious emotion. He carefully reached forward and took a hold of Joslyn's wrists. A sweet gesture in thought, however, it caused Joslyn to shudder out of her tears, grab the knife and swipe at Reece's direction. Reece gasped and pressured Joslyn's wrist up out of the way.

Even though it was barely there, Joslyn's face was harshly violent, a frightened scowl, wide eyes with thickened pupils and the splatters of red only made it worse. Reece was quick to become audible, "Yuh-You're Oh-oh-kay, drop th-the knife!" His voice cracked from the panic. Joslyn movement's stuttered, "St-stop, pluh-please?" Reece's eyes twitched as he heard those words come out.

As strange as a 'please' was in this situation, it seemed to click Joslyn out of her mental prison. Her eyes blinked to normal, and her clenched jaw loosened. She panted as her struggle against Reece faded. The knife clanked against the ground.

After a second or so, Reece sighed in relief and dropped Joslyn's wrists. She momentarily collapsed, shaking slightly as her head collapsed into the half-dissociated Reece who had been trying to subtly kick the knife away from the both of them. He was forced out of that focus pretty quickly after Joslyn had clutched onto him like he was about to disappear.

His eyes focused on Joslyn, the body that he was being forced to lean over and the blood that wouldn't stop pooling. He hummed as he pet Joslyn's shoulder in a poor attempt at comfort, "Th-Thuh-there, there." He whispered coherently, "It's-s f-ine... Th-Thi-is is fine." That last line seemed more like a desperate call to himself.

-

Beside me, I felt a poke into just below one of my eyes. I gargle in surprise and flick back into my own vision. I was met with Clover staring directly at me with her pink eyes unblinking at me. Confused, I looked around and hoped that she wasn't talking to me while I was in someone else's vision.

"You're really weird," She started, that was the first time she had spoken to me, which would be a relief if I wasn't offended and confused at the same time, "Come here." She made grabby hands at me, and after some short deliberation, I shuffled over slightly, awkwardly connecting my legs up to my chest.

She shuffled herself as best she could with the box on her legs. She tilted her head at me, scanning my face which made me overly self-conscious. Eventually, she reached forward with both hands, carefully cupping my face so she wouldn't harm my eyes, "You have so many eyeballs," She blatantly commented, which could have been an insult until she clarified, "They're pretty."

There was a wave of blinks as I failed to hold back a surprised gurgle. Clover noticed the noise and blinked, her eyebrows raised slightly. She looked for the spot on me that could have made the noise, eventually, she shifted her arms ever so slightly. She let off a gasp, "You have gills!" Her eyes lit up, despite there being no other detectable emotion on her face, "You remind me of an axolotl..."

Her voice grew silent as she investigated my face and gills. I felt a slight shame at being marveled at, but it was mixed with another strange softer feeling then. She blinked a few times before she whispered a soft question, "Did you know that axolotl's can turn into salamanders?" I didn't know that, I also didn't know what an axolotl was.

She let go of my face finally, and looked at my hands, "Your hands are weird too." She put her hand up, fingers out in a splayed position. After a few seconds, I got what she was wanting to do and pressed my hand against Clover's. My fingers were elongated, charcoal black and sharp, hers were petite, a snowy pale and her nails had been bitten back rather harshly.

It was a little hard to tell, but she seemed extremely amused as she toyed with my hand. I didn't at all mind, her lack of expression and words made her somewhat relatable to me. Her pink eyes also made for an interesting coincidence, which made me realize that her calling my eyes pretty could have easily been a compliment to herself.

In the past, scientists would investigate me in a similar way, or at least the hand-to-hand gesture was common. Very rarely any compliments were thrown into the examinations. Typically the nicer scientists would also be the ones to venture the basement, so they all suffered a violent fate as a result.

"You do a lot of scribbles, huh?" She asked, which snapped me out of my thoughts, "You'd be good at drawing, with all those eyes, huh?" She let go of my face, "Go back a little bit..." She shooed me back with her hands. I obeyed and shuffled back to give Clover some room for whatever she wanted to do.

She pressed a finger into the sand and carefully scribbled a small circle, then added eyes, many eyes. It took me a little too long to realized that she had drawn a small version of me, but by the time my tail was added I realized. The smaller dirt version of me had their hands splayed out like I was mid-air and my tail was used to hold me up. Not realistic sadly, my tail is not that strong.

It was a very cute drawing, and I stared at it for a little longer than intended, "You like it?" She asked, her head tilted as she tried to read my expression. Of course, I was unable to verbally reply, so it took a moment of thought on how to reply. Sure I could nod, shrug or give a thumbs up or some other gesture, but it wouldn't meet the value.

I shuffle slightly before I start to scribble into the dirt just beside the drawing she did of me. It's not nearly as good and is much more stick-like than Clover's art. She watched me scribble it, and once it was done, she hummed before she spoke, "It's not very good." She was right.

I had an idea, which felt somewhat rebellious at the time. I picked up a piece of paper I should have used for the logs and offered it to Clover, with a pencil included. It took her a moment to register, but she took the paper and pencil. I coiled my tail around myself, sat close as I wanted to watch her draw.

She got the message it seemed, and she started to sketch small circles that formed cartoonish versions of characters I slowly recognized as the other Virus. Clover occasionally hummed or made a 'pop' sound as she quietly worked. She seemed happy, even though her face didn't show it.

In the background of the soft sketching sounds, I heard Dex and Naya yell at each other playfully. Mostly Naya would shout warnings, then there was a click of a bat, then a loud 'OW' or cuss from Dex, then rinse and repeat.

-

Reluctantly, I shifted my vision over to Adrien's, as I still had a job to do. Adrien was making his way through the halls of the Moth Mound, on his way to the kitchen to make sure Joslyn was ok. He made sure to glare at any and all soldiers as they turned their backs.

As Adrien was on the last corner, I made a quick realization of who was on watch at the door. Adrien peered around the corner and spotted Toby leaned against the kitchen door, one of the wires no longer hanging from his ear, instead he swung it from one of his fingers. In his hand was a small device I couldn't see.

"Oh, you're fucking kidding me..." He grumbled, perhaps a little louder than he originally intended as the metal walls traveled the noise. Toby's attention darted up, and Adrien quickly swung himself back around the corner. I could only imagine the look of sheer horror on his face.

His back was pressed against the wall, and I could faintly hear fire crackling from his shoulders. Adrien had his hand pressed against his own face, mumbling incoherently to calm himself down.

He forced a grumble out of him before he walked around the corner. Toby was leaned against the wall, elbow being used to prop up his smug face and the best of him in a cutesy pose. Starkly different from his mood earlier. Adrien let off a guttural pained groan before he walked over.

Toby's smile quickly escalated into a wide grin, "Is that sunburn or are you just happy to see me?" He taunted, and I do remember Adrien's face being slightly pinker while he was talking to Fritz, but it must have escalated at some point.

"Fuck no I'm not happy to see you!" Adrien kept his distance, with his arms crossed, "Surprised maybe, I thought they finally had your ass iced."

"No, not yet," Toby leaned his whole body against the wall to keep looking at Adrien, "Can't shoot the precious cargo, you know how it is."

The redhead couldn't help but scoff, "Gross, don't call yourself that ever again." The laugh echoed through the blonde, though much more quietly. The earnest laugh must have caught Adrien off guard, as he went quiet.

"Sorry, let me rephrase," Toby said coyly, "The cute conceited cargo." He leaned over slightly, smugness practically radiating off him.

"Oh fuck off, pissface," He rolled his eyes, "I'm just here to make sure Joslyn doesn't cark it, is she here?" He asked, and gestured to the door that Toby was leaned against.

With a slight scoff, Toby leaned-off the door, spinning on his heel dramatically before he opened the door. He bowed slightly, cackling under his breath when Adrien rolled his eyes with a groan and stepped inside.

-

When I flicked over to Reece's vision, I was met with the morbid sight of Joslyn carefully covering a dead body in frozen food packages. She had several make-shift binds from felt grocery bags that she used to cut off blood flow from in the appendages.

Reece was leaned against the freezer wall, a hand rested over his mouth, "Suh-So like, sho-should I, b-b-b-be wuh-worried with how good you are with d-dead bodies or?" He tensed at the shoulders, and as Joslyn looked over, she looked at about the same level of surprise, "I muh-mean, I won't ju-judg-dge if you-you've watched a few too many true-crime doc-docu-ume-me-mentaries or-" He stopped talking as he felt no sign of Joslyn agreeing with him.

"You-you know wh-what, forg-forget I said anything..." He raised his arms up defensively, "I shouldn't complain." A little out of his field of vision, he saw Toby and Adrien step into the kitchen. Reece groaned slightly and focused his eyes onto the center spot of the entryway.

It took a few seconds but the door crackled slightly before it completely disappeared. Toby hopped in nonchalantly, and Adrien had to stop and stare at the sudden disappearance. The blonde eventually cackled under his breath and grabbed Adrien by the sleeve and pulled him into the room.

"Don't gawk, blowtorch," He sang slightly, "You'll give Rover a brain-bleed." Adrien huffed but went along with it. Toby happily hopped along in front. Reece swept his wrist under his nose and I vaguely made out the new blood smear on his orange sleeve.

Almost instantly, Adrien spotted the bloody face and bound hands, "Holy shit that guys fucked up!"

Reece lamented, "It-t-t-t-t was a-an accident, don-n't tell ok-k-kay?!" He sounded so insecure about it, and Joslyn just stood in front of the body, eyes flicking to Reece occasionally after his false statement, "Wuh-well no, it was-wasn't, bu-but it was duh-deserved!" He stammered heavily, hands rotating to replicate how he was backtracking.

"What the fuck did you do, asshole?!" Adrien turned to Toby, firing up at the shoulders.

The blonde let off a sound like he was about to have a witty retort. He stopped when what Adrien had said hit him. Toby looked over at the redhead, "Wow, really, you think that low of me?" He raised an eyebrow, "That I'd kill somebody and make others clean it up?"

"I mean- yeah?!" Adrien's face grew a shade darker, "It's habit, ok, I'm-I'm sorry!" He stuttered, hands up slightly, "Actually, fuck you, I'm not sorry, you've killed so many people in here, don't say 'wow' like-"

"Ah, tah, no, Firecrotch," Toby nudged Adrien in the side, "I haven't killed anyone here, remember?" He cackled slightly and turned around.

"h-here?" Reece asked, looking up at Toby as he slowed down between them, "You've kuh-killed someone before here?"

"Can-it, Rover, you beat a man to death with frozen salami," Toby absent-mindedly stated as he examined the body. He seemed to spot something as he strode over. The soldier had sunglasses and a small box protruded out of his chest pocket. "Ey, nightjar, scotch for a sec," Joslyn agreed, confused as ever until Toby picked up the sunglasses and carefully checked out the tiny box.

From Joslyn's eyes I could just barely make out that it was cigarettes, which Toby pocketed rather quickly. "Yuh-you're ju-just gon-gonna loot a corps-se?"

"What are you gonna tell on me?" Toby grumbled, "Not like this guy was gonna use these anytime soon anyway." He rubbed his gloved fingers over the lenses, likely to smear off any blood. Reece looked barely surprised by Toby's attitude, only looking to Adrien with a 'can you believe this guy' face.

Toby then cackled at a thought of his as he waltzed away. Adrien huffed slightly and crossed his arms as he waited for the blonde turn around the corner of the shelves to walk over. Once the blond was out of sight, he looked at the dead body and winced, "Fucking christ," he averted his gaze, "Can you hurry up, the psychiatrist lady is looking for you."

"Clover wants an iced coffee," Joslyn said, giving a sad look to Adrien as Reece passed an ice-bag into her brittle arms. She then shoved the ice bag over the body, completely concealing it.

Reece stepped over to Adrien after that, watching Joslyn check for any visible body parts, "It's- Is like muh-murder effi-efficiency like a thuh-thing for Virus or?" Reece asked, as he looked to Adrien who had an equal look of concern.

"Fuck if I know..." Adrien sighed, and peered at the door with curiosity. It had been boarded shut, "I'm guessing no other soldiers get in?"

"N-Nuh-nope, b-been using my uh... Dis-ease to oh-open the d-d-d-oor for Charlo- and now Joslyn- and... You," He explained, awkwardly, "And the blonde guy just comes through the vents," Adrien looked to the vents against the wall which were vertical all the way to the ceiling, "Makes good practice."

Adrien chuckled, "So the prick comes in here often, I'm sorry you're subjected to that."

Reece shrugs, "Once yuh-you guh-get past th-the weird fuh-food ha-ha-habits it's not too bad."

Just as Adrien opened his mouth to question that, Toby walked back over with the new fixed sunglasses over his eyes. He had an avocado in his hand, "Hotspot, have you ever seen these weird pears with the shells?" He cackled slightly, "Look like burn victims, ey Firecrotch?" He then took a bite into the avocado top, taking the 'shell' with it.

All Adrien could do for a moment was stammer, "What, how?" He wasn't even yelling, he just sounded tired, "How do you manage to get worse every time I see you?"

Toby just gazed up with a confused look at Adrien, then at the avocado, "All the bagels are frozen," He said with a sense of honest sadness, "Actually now that you're here-" He grew a large smirk as the idea sunk in.

"How do you even, shut the fuck up, first of all that's a god-damn avocado!" Adrien threw his arms up as he walked over. I could sense a dog chasing its tail argument coming on so I switched over to focus on Reece and Joslyn.

Reece crept over to Joslyn quietly, "Yuh-you nuh-nee-needed an ic-iced coffee?" Joslyn looked up with interest, "I c-c-c-can mak-ke one fuh-for you." She vaguely looked over, eyes semi-focused on the trainwreck of an argument. She however nodded.

He gave a smile before he stood up and picked out a tub of ice cream from the shelf that Reece leaned himself beside. He then left the freezer, carefully walking around the two arguing to not get involved. He made his way to an old spotty coffee machine that looks like it hasn't been used in years.

"Whuh-What's th-the b-b-b-bet this th-thing still wuh-works, huh?" Reece says before he peered over his shoulder, likely expecting Joslyn to have followed. Which she didn't. Reece sighed before he started to murmur under his breath, "Nuh-Nobody hear-heard you, guh-good j-j-j-job, Reece."

Adrien turned around to look at Joslyn, arms flung in gesture to Toby, "Can you believe this fuckin' guy?" He sounded out of breath as if he was exhausted from the argument itself and heated from the fire on his shoulders, "How the hell do you explain people shooting themselves around you?!"

"I guess people just kill themselves around me, can you believe that?" Toby took another bite of the avocado, "Why did they replace the sticks with rocks, the sticks tasted better."

"You know what, maybe I can," Adrien asked in an almost normal tone until he realized that Toby was about to bite the avocado pit, "God I'm gonna fuckin' crack your new glasses if you don't cut that shit-!"

Reece from the corner of the room seemed to note the noise rising, so he stood in, "Uhm, hey, hey!" He called out, which caught both of their attention, "If you don't mind, could you keep it down?"

Toby and Adrien looked at each other confusedly, and it was likely they forgot Reece was there. Toby finally scoffed, "Rude ok, can't you see we're having an important discussion here, Rover?" He gestured to Adrien who blinked over to Toby with a mildly confused and annoyed expression.

Reece shrugged enthusiastically, arms out-splayed "What- Why the nicknames, man?"

"Why do you still talk if it's so hard for you, Rover?" Toby's grin went back to it's cold self, but his tone went flat. The silence that came over was immediate. Joslyn and Adrien shot each other a look before they stared at Toby.

"What the fuck, man?" Adrien's voice was hushed, "Why are you such an asshole?!"" Reece seemed fairly unphased by it, annoyed at best as if he'd been enduring Toby's attitude for a few days.

"Rover doesn't care," Toby shrugged, hands in his pockets, "he knows that without me he wouldn't have a fa-" A box of cereal was shoved into Toby's chest. Without noticing it, Joslyn had at some point stopped dealing with the body to collect a box of cereal.

Before Toby could comment, Joslyn spoke, "Here is some cereal, go sit outside, and makeup," She demanded, stress behind her words, "Or argue more, I don't really care but do it somewhere where we won't be in knee-deep shit if we're found."

Toby snorted with a grin, "Knock me down, Nightjar," He snuck the box under his arm, "I can't say no to a face like that." He grinned earnestly and looked to Adrien, "I'll be off then, try not to die of boredom without me." Toby poked the taller one's cheek as he spun around to leave.

Adrien flared up instantly, swatting at the blonde's hand, "You are-!" He started.

"Insufferable, we know!" Joslyn interrupted, "You don't need to argue about this, out both of you!" She demanded, her voice cracked deeper which made Joslyn flinch a hand over her mouth.

There was a silence for a long time as everyone tensed and stared at Joslyn. The silence was only intercepted by a scratching noise by the door. Adrien gazed over to watch Toby try to claw open the box, completely uncaring for the situation. The blond finally noticed Adrien looking over and decided to speak, "Firecrotch, tell Rover to open the door."

"Dude." Adrien was about to start but Joslyn raised her hand as a signal to shut up.

"The room has fire alarms," Joslyn rumbled through her hand, "Just leave." Adrien took a few seconds but nodded, mumbling out a quenched 'sorry' before he left the room, making sure to keep an eye on Joslyn before he slipped out of the room.

Reece watched over from that corner, eyes on Joslyn who had her face in her hands. She didn't look as if she were crying, but she was clearly upset. After a few seconds, Joslyn retreated back into the freezer to likely finish taking care of the body.

After Joslyn was out of sight, Reece looked down at the paper cups beside various flavor-mixes. He let off a hum before he picked out the chocolate powder and started to get to work.

-

Adrien was still alight at the shoulders as he stared down at the ground. His arms were crossed sternly until there was a splash of something on his face. As expected, Adrien immediately shouted, "Dude, the fuck?!" He rubbed his eyes and glared at the blonde who was holding a familiar dusty water bottle with a smile.

"You looked like you needed it," He shrugged before he threw the water bottle into the redhead who fumbled to catch it, "You're red enough already." Toby then climbed onto the kitchen counter, as he fumbled through the cupboards.

The redhead just rolled his eyes as he leaned against the wall and slid down, "You didn't drug this, or like, use it or anything right?" He looked at the dusty water bottle, sounding slightly less angry than usual.

Toby held the box of cereal as he crawled on top of the fridge. He awkwardly hung upside-down as he rummaged through the cold box's contents, "No and no," Toby hummed, "You think I'd resort to poison to kill somebody?" His voice was strained from holding himself up by his waist, "We've established that I have no intention of killing you."

"Oh ok, so when no one's around you'll talk about how you kill people." Adrien rolled his eyes before he started to take a drink.

Toby cackled slightly, "Last I checked, you constitute as someone-" The blonde was cut short when his legs slipped from their place and he whacked onto the floor. Adrien's immediate reaction was to spit out the water and burst into laughter.

As Adrien's eyes were closed as he laughed, I could only hear Toby shuffle around. By the time that the fire Virus opened their eyes, the blonde had their glasses back on. However, there was something flat on the ground that caught Adrien's attention; the wires and a tiny flat device with a hollow circular button in the middle.

"Wait a fucking second," Adrien pulled the device over by the wires, "Where the hell did you get this?"

Toby shifted around, and pouted slightly, "Well there's that surprise ruined," He clicked his tongue, "I was gonna give it to you in a few days as a... Present," His pause unnatural, as if he cut himself, "It was with the contraband."

Visibly confused, Adrien stammered, "Yeah right!" He took the wire from his ear, "You could have shown up at any time to give it back, don't bullshit me!" Toby only vaguely paid attention to Adrien's rant as he cut up the box with a switchblade he had hid in his jacket.

"Firecrotch, you're a clever cookie," Toby's voice was preoccupied as usual, "Can you count the risks to wins of me showing up to your cell, taking care of the guards busting you out just to give you an mp3 player," He explained, and before Adrien could answer, he added on, "Plus you don't have any way to hide it, they'd planned on breaking it before."

Those words sunk in for Adrien and he tucked his legs to his chest, "Yeah well-" He looked for an excuse, "I guess, it just- you don't know how boring it is in that shitty tomb," He plugged one of the wires back into his ears.

"I've been sleeping in vents," Toby snorted, as he slid the massacred box of cereal into the center of the room, "Don't tell me what I already know, hotspot." The blonde hopped over the gingers one outstretched leg, but ended up slotting himself against the opposite cabinet.

The two were quiet for once as Toby shoveled cereal into his hand, and Adrien seemed to just be in his own world as he listened to the music through the small device. Over the past eight days, Adrien was the one who I would be least likely to channel to. His surroundings were miserable, dark, and grey in that box.

He sniffled and instantly wiped his eyes, "Can you fucking stop staring at me, you freak?!" He blurted as he half-glared at Toby who indeed was watching Adrien with his face pressed into his hand, "Do you get a kick out of seeing me upset, is that like your fetish or some shit?!"

The blonde snorted, "You sure do have a perverse mind, firecrotch," Toby kicked the cereal over to Adrien more, "No, I don't get enjoyment out of you getting upset," He explained, leaning back slightly, "Edible confetti?" He offered

After a sniffle, Adrien took a handful of cereal, "Why do you even talk to me then?" He chipped one of the pieces of cereal into his mouth, "Sky's the one who likes you," He grumbled out, "Why don't you go bother her or some shit?"

"I don't like Little Mrs. Sunshine," Toby replied rather snarkily, "She's too... Full of herself, thinks she has it all figured out and she can get all the answers," It was silent and Adrien must have made a face, "Don't give me that look, it does not mean I like you," It was then Toby's turn to make a face, "I just value the entertainment you offer," Adrien must have kept making a face, "I'm tired, you can't judge me, you're tired too."

"Yeah I'm fuckin' tired, sleeping while standing in a tomb is kinda impossible," Adrien chuckled slightly, voice softer than usual.

"Vents are bad enough," Toby smiled in return, "The music certainly helps." He quietly added, almost unheard.

Adrien looked up as if that phrase clicked something for him. He looked down at the other wire bud for a second, then at the blonde, "You want the other earbud or something?"

"We both know you don't want that," Toby smiled with a slight scoff behind it, "And I'm ok with that." It took a few seconds but Adrien nodded and muttered a soft 'thanks.' He then plugged in the other earbud into his ear. Toby lightly nudged Adrien's foot in a playful manner, and Adrien kicked back. Only faintly I could hear Toby's giggle through the music.

-

Before I flicked outside, I decided to do one last check on Reece and Joslyn. I turned to Joslyn, who was sat in the freezer still, likely enjoying the chilled air that wasn't offered anywhere else in the Mound. Joslyn flinched with a hiss as Reece popped his head into the freezer.

"Sh-uh-Shoot, sorry!" He cleared his throat, eyes widened in guilt, "I- ju-just uh, muh-made you a hot chocolate," He offered a styrofoam cup to Joslyn, who eyed it suspiciously, "Whuh-which is k-kinda st-stupid since it's sum-mer but- I just wanted t-t-t-to check if the muh-machine still worked." He rambled until Joslyn took the cup.

"Thanks." She murmured, and let the dreadfully awkward silence sink in.

"Uhm, if-if yuh-you d-don't m-m-m-mind me as-asking, where'd-d-d you learn t-t-t-to do all th-that?" Reece asked as he gestured to the pile of ice and groceries.

"Home," Joslyn answered. The silence grew more awkward, "I just wanted to be a nurse."

"Oh, ok, yuh-you just wah-wanted to b-b-b-be a n-nurse, that's- that's way better than what I-" Reece laughed with a nervous surprise which he almost immediately regretted. Joslyn held a confused flat expression at him. "Wuh-Well, e-even if it was suh-something el-els-se su-su-spicious, it's not like I can judge if you, right?" just as it felt like there was no way that the awkwardness was going to leave, Reece stepped backward from the freezer, his fingers clicked into finger guns, "I'm gonna go make that coffee now." He hit the doorframe on the way out.