( closed & open prompts )

[tearsinajar]

Who: Primarily Adrien, Elena, and Nate for the closed prompts; for the open, anyone who wants to visit at the house and bump into her.
When: June 25 to June 30
Where: Ingress Complex, then at the house
What: Elena comes out of cryo after being 'dead' for the past 2 weeks and coping with the damage. It isn't a fun experience.
Warnings: Emotional things? Possible swearing. Will update if necessary.

closed to adrien
[ Things in the complex that day were relatively calm and quiet. The beeps of the monitors were going in a consistent pattern, no interruptions. It had been that way for most of the morning and well into the afternoon until around evening time, that steady pattern was met with a disruption. Erratic, shrill. Abrupt warnings to break through the peace of everyday life within the complex for the assistants and scientists and doctors. The noise pierced the air, like a scream for help that had initially gone unanswered.

Beep beep— beep-beep-beep-beep—

A pod had begun to go through the process of drainage and coming apart. For some, it should be an all-too familiar sound. For the others on that floor, they'd hadn't had many who were placed in the pods often to go through proper procedures on a routine basis. It was the nurse assistants to the complex that were first to arrive, and what a handful they would need to work with.

Elena had come to without any indication to her vitals signaling a slow rise out of cryostasis. It should've been a familiar scenario for her, the fluid releasing through the port filters, the tugging sensation lost to the freezing cold left all over her body as she began to struggle against the wires attached to the patches stuck to her skin, the catheter and her IV. By the time the two nurses arrived, she was half hanging out of her pod and expelling the fluids in her system on harsh, pained sounds, gagging through it, coughing and unable to get her breath.

She pulled at her own wires herself, only dimly aware of the dull pinch of the catheter coming free. The IV left a fresh, bright red trail down the length of her forearm. The blood made for a slippery grip on the edge of her container, the slippery water-like fluid she'd been asleep in not helping. Everything was so disorientating, and worst of all, Elena could not breathe. She felt like she was choking, drowning, suffocating.

The nurses did their best to try to get through to her, speaking calmly, loudly, aware of how someone coming fresh out of cryostasis was unable to fully hear or see. Like a newborn babe coming out into the world, everything startling and loud, frightening. There was no comfort to be had.

While fighting them, they managed to get her out of the pod and onto the floor without dropping her too hard, a blanket draped over her naked, shivering form. Her pleas were gasps of breath, raspy croaks that were nothing but sounds and no words. Each breath and attempt to speak, it felt like hundreds of razor blades were caught in her throat and that her chest was tight, being squeezed. It was with bloodied fingers that she tried to get across that there was something in her throat, it was cutting into her, whatever it was.

She was dying all over again, it was happening, this was it.

That was all she could feel and understand, not hearing the nurse's call for any of the doctors to come to their aid, as they were half carrying and half dragging her weight to get her to a bed to sit on in the meantime. ]

closed to nate
[ By the time things are calmed down, it was all thanks to the light sedative one of the nurses had slipped into Elena's IV to help her relax better after Adrien had soothed her. They'd learned that laying her on her back made breathing difficult for her and so they had her on her side, facing the door of her private room. A blood pressure cuff was wrapped at her upper arm while her IV sat taped at the side of her other wrist, a gel-like cover on her finger for further monitoring of her vitals. A pillow was propped behind her, an oxygen mask covering her nose and mouth, hissing with the oxygen flow as each breath she took rattled in her chest, short wheezes from in her throat.

The nurses had been kind enough to layer her with heated blankets, her shivering from earlier now eased. Only now it made her look impossibly small beneath them.

For now, she lightly dozed, half hearing the beeps of the monitors and the sounds of the oxygen, half hearing whenever a nurse came in every fifteen minutes to check her blood pressure and vitals.

At one point her lashes lifted, eyes cracking open. They closed again, the hand hanging off the edge of the bed unconsciously making a fist before relaxing.

Where had Adrien gone to? Hadn't he said he would be right back? Or had that been a while back? Elena couldn't remember, everything was so groggy. She felt alone, left to the sounds of the machines, going in and out of consciousness. ]

open to anyone visiting the house & housemates
[ The effects of dying, the memories, that never left someone. All Elena could remember was the choking, being unable to get in a breath. The horrified look on Chloe's face and her pleading words for her to hang in there, to not go anywhere. Nightmares made it extremely hard to sleep, and with her being jolted harshly awake at what felt like every hour, she felt terrible for Nate. He likely got just as little to no sleep as she did most nights since she'd been home.

It'd been made clear that she wanted no visitors, at least not for the first few days of being home. She wanted to get things under control before seeing anyone— the tremors in her hands that felt uncontrollable, the inability to fully focus on more than one person, the pain that lingered in her chest and throat threatening to choke her, even when she was safe and no one here would hurt her.

Talking was the worst; she'd been given a new TAB to communicate through, keeping it mostly to text format, and writing or doodling. Her main forms of communication. Talking verbally was something she was still working on with Nate, her voice scratchy and rasping like she had a bad case of laryngitis.

Throughout the week, Elena can be found in different parts of the house that are open, such as sitting areas, outside on the back deck. Color has returned, though not by much, her time in cryostasis adding a bit of weight loss to her already slim frame, showing more in her face and shoulders how much she's lost.

If she spots anyone, she'll greet with a wave or forced smile, maybe even write out a simple 'hey :)' in one of her notebooks for them to see. ]

Comments

[prorenataa]

[ Over the past couple of weeks, Adrien had spent quite a bit of time navel gazing sitting in the dark of his home and lost to his thoughts.

Nate's message to the network should have come as a shock, and in the academic sense it had. Mostly because Adrien hadn't expected Elena to be out and in the line of danger. A silly thing, really, given the danger he had patched her up from while they had been traveling on the Moira but he simply hadn't expected it here.

Perhaps he'd gotten too complacent? No that wasn't it.

Ultimately, he'd come to realize that he'd settled into a head space where his friends from the Moira had gone back to their regular lives and ... well, settled down. Perhaps it was part of the disconnect he'd begun to feel over the past few months, fueled by the way Elena had withdrawn from him over that period of time as well.

In a way, he'd already had to mourn her loss, which was part of why he didn't experience an emotional punch to the gut when Nate announced she'd been killed. Expecting that Nate had people who could properly support him, Adrien had sent a softly worded message of condolence, extended an offer to help if needed but otherwise kept his distance. He recognized it was probably the kindest thing he could do for the man.

More and more he was seeing the monster in the mirror. Scar tissue building up over emotional wounds to the point that the emotions themselves were almost hopelessly blunted.

That didn't stop the doctor from keeping a professional ear on the clinic up in the Ingress Complex, just in case, and when he'd been alerted to a body fitting Elena's description, arriving in cryo, Adrien began to make daily trips to the Complex. His assistance to the Savrii medical community over the past few months, held him in good stead and kept him in the loop, so he was able to track Elena's progress without being hampered by too much red tape. And as luck would have it, he was at the Complex when she came out of cryo.

Alerted that her pod was in countdown, Adrien arrived on the scene around the time that the nurses were struggling to help Elena's mind reconnect with her reality and her body. A process that was difficult enough, without the added complication of compromised lungs. ]

Attach a mask to the oxygen line, give me 100% flow. [ He ordered, his voice low and calm, to steady the nurses. Initially he made no move to try to talk to Elena, instead he moved up behind her and helped get her sitting up to alleviate the pressure on her lungs and airways. Folding one leg under himself, he half sat on the bed behind her to provide support while reaching around her to take the mask that was now hissing softly with the flow of oxygen.

He didn't try to press the mask directly over her face, expecting that would result in more panic, but instead held it to her face just under her mouth and nose, so that she could feel the wash of the oxygen. Give it a moment, and her natural struggle to breath should see her body taking in the 100% flow, which -in theory- would help alleviate the sense instinctive panic she was suffering.

When he had himself and the mask in position, giving the oxygen a couple of moments to get into her system, then he spoke to her. ]

Elena just breath in, and exhale. Breath in, and exhale.

[ He matched his own breathing, the rise and fall of his chest against her back, to the words. Movement out of the corner of his eye, drew his attention briefly but he shook his head to wave off the nurse who was approaching with a sedative. The last thing Elena needed was to get knocked back out and have to go through this exercise in disoriented panic again. ]

[tearsinajar]

[ One of The nurses had managed to tape a thick cottonball over where she'd ripped out her IV as the doctor tended to her, anything to stop the bleed. The other had ditched the sedative, for now, instead helping with trying to keep Elena's blanket covering her nudity as best as possible. They both kept an eye on her, watching how Adrien was coaxing her into getting a proper breath.

It had almost worked. Unfortunately it was on the third inhale that Elena was coughing up blood, red splattering against the inside of the mask. Panicked gasps wheezed then to the point that the contact between her back and his chest would have him feeling how much trouble she was having.

Elena could hear him, kind of, the sound of his voice from behind muffled to her ears, as close as he was. She began to push at the mask, turning her face away as another coughing fit took her. ]

[prorenataa]

[ A couple of the nurses were young and looked uncertain how to manage a situation that was not proceeding in a textbook manner. The third nurse, was slightly older and more experienced; she took her cues from the doctor who continued to remain calm and low key. ]

That's not a problem. [ He said in those same low tones, recognizing that the pitch of his voice was probably all that his patient could comprehend from him at the moment. He could be cursing roundly, so long as he kept his voice steady, and so the words were as much for the nurses as the patient.

The more experienced nurse needed only a glance, before she was moving to secure another mask, the two younger one's watching and learning. Adrien shifted his grip slightly so he could put pressure on the IV wound, though it was probably going to swell into a nice hematoma, his other hand prepared when the nurse returned with the mask.

The clean was swapped out for the bloodied and Adrien's voice came again. This time he was speaking directly to the nurses. ]

If this doesn't work, we'll move forward with the sedative. Regardless, I want her scheduled immediately for an HRCT.

[ One of the younger nurses grabbed on to this task, grateful to take on something in her wheelhouse. Adrien went back to providing a quick moving support platform, to keep Elena sitting up, while simultaneously shifting the mask in an effort to avoid contaminating this one.

With his hands full, literally, he was dependent upon the older nurse to help clean up Elena's mouth when she coughed up blood. The other nurse was sent to secure fresh linens for the bed, which would need to be changed out once they got Elena stable. ]

[tearsinajar]

[ There'd been only a few more episodes where she was coughing up blood. As keyed up as she was, her weight was sagging back into him. They'd been able to get her calmed down enough to breathe in enough oxygen to make up for what the shock had pulled from her. She was tired now from her body fighting consciousness, shivering as the rush of adrenalin from the struggle was beginning to leave her system.

Elena's hand was weakly gripping his wrist, the nurse cleaning away most of the blood by then. Her breathing continued as short and labored, wheezing, but her head rested back against his shoulder.

One attempt at saying something resulted in a dragging croak, her whimper pained.

—where was she? Who were these women? Was it...Adrien behind her? Things were still unclear. ]

[sketchycharacter]

[This isn't like the last time she came out of cryo.

The thought crosses Nate's mind briefly, uselessly, as he stares at her from the doorway. The procedures aren't that different, as far as he can tell, despite being a different facility than the one they'd had on the Moira. The real change is in him. Adrien putting her under to save her life had terrified him, but he'd kept going, and rushed to be by her side as soon as he could.

This time she hadn't been frozen for her safety. She'd been dead, and it had changed him. Nate doesn't have to look in the mirror to know that he looks like hell, gray and messy around the edges, a shadow of himself. He's pretty sure he's lost weight. For the last two weeks, it's taken everything he has just to keep existing, caught between fear and hope, not knowing whether he'd get back the most important person in his life or have to learn to live that life without her.

He's still caught, hovering in the doorway for at least a minute before he stumbles forward. Then he's the one who has trouble breathing as he looks at her, takes in her undeniably alive appearance, and brushes his fingers against her hand.]

Is it really you?

[tearsinajar]

[ Slipping in and out of consciousness, she comes awake when he's first in the doorway. Her eyes close again and then when they open one more time, he's closer. There's a touch against her hand that takes her a moment to register, her fingers twitching in response.

Is it really you?

What kind of question is that? How long had she been out— gone? She remembers Adrien saying she'd been in cryo, that she'd been injured off-world. No, she'd died. She'd been dead.

Elena shifts against the pillow, just enough to lift her tired, hooded gaze to meet his, as pale as ever against the white sheets and blankets. It's difficult to recpgnize him, at first, the haggardness, the weight loss, how he literally is a shadow of himself. He looks like he hasn't slept in days, like he hasn't seen the sun. Like he's been neck deep in a bottle and had only found his way out today.

She opens her mouth to respond, shown through the clear mask her lips moving. There's just...no sound, no voice. It hurts, it hurts a lot, which is why her hand moves to grasp his, brows knitting. ]

[sketchycharacter]

[It feels like a punch to the gut when she meets his eyes, and like a stab to the same spot when she grasps his hand. Such little things, but they mean everything right now. His hand spasms, tightening around hers almost painfully before he forces himself to relax.]

Oh, god. Elena.

[His face crumples and he more or less falls into the chair placed beside her bed, whatever strength that was keeping him going these last two weeks gone now that it doesn't have to. He's trembling hard, her hand in his not enough to stop that.

Why is it that only now does he want to cry?]

[tearsinajar]

[ Down he goes. She watches on, helpless, using whatever strength she has to squeeze his hand, feeling the tremors pass through the contact.

This is what she'd done to him, she'd left him broken, barely holding on.

A tightness squeezes painfully in her chest and she begins to push up onto her elbow. Her hand grasps harder, trying to speak, to say his damn name. ]

Nate—

[ —like nails on a chalkboard, harsh, unpleasant. The damage left behind. ]

home

[otiosity]

[Hawke knows what Elena is going through. Kind of. She hasn't died (yet). But she's been close enough more than a few times to know what it's like. The first time was when she had a nasty bout of pneumonia when she was eleven. But the starkest time had only been a year ago (or maybe two now? Savrou made time confusing). When one missed step in a fight had resulted with a qunari spear jammed through her left side. She'd still won, of course, because like hell Hawke would let severe damage to her muscles and organs stop her. But she remembered what happened after the crowd had cheered for their new champion and she'd collapsed on the marble floors of the Viscount's chambers.

She remembered coughing and choking on blood as hands grabbed at her arms and shook at her. As other hands tried to raise her head so she didn't swallow any but instead had caused wounds to rip further and cause pain so intense she couldn't even scream.

Then Hawke remembered waking up two weeks later in a bed that stunk of sweat and blood with tubes, much more rudimentary than the ones here, sticking out of her torso draining pus and fluids into buckets on the floor. She remembered the helpless feeling of not even being able to lift her head for days. And then the compounding of the feeling when she tried to stand and couldn't force her legs to move and do something as simple as walk. It was shameful and disgusting. A betrayal of her own body. And even worse was how everyone else knew and so moved around her and treated her like she were made of glass: helpless, useless, prone to breaking.

So she knew she wouldn't do that to Elena. The woman deserved that dignity at the very least. So when Hawke goes to visit, toting along Tenzin in her arms, she acts like nothing's happened. She's been looking after the cat and Nate and it's been very exhausting and if she ever breathes through her nose again it will be a miracle, but she does her best to look cheerful.

She drops next to Elena and presents the kitten like he's an adorable but rather naughty child that she's trying to not seem too amused at their precociousness.]

Someone missed you. I've been trying to distract him but I figured the charade was up.

[tearsinajar]

[ There isn't anything forced about her smile as the sofa dips. She looks over, smile sliding in place, both for Hawke and for the kitten. Despite the night terrors, despite the strain and the recovery for both her and Nate, it's good to be home.

To be alive. ]

You mean— you?

[ Scratchy, raw, she still makes an effort to speak. To try and tease.

Making sure the light blanket isn't slipping off her shoulder, she then reaches for the kitten who's begun to wiggle in Hawke's hold. Tenzin is more than happy to be passed between them, curling up against Elena on a chirping little meow. ]

How are you?

[otiosity]

Me too. But with much less adorable eyes and overall precious sense I can't manage the sweet and innocent eyes. It mostly looks like I'm having a horrible allergic reaction instead.

[She lets Tenzin go with a funny little feeling of loss. Despite being someone who likes to proclaim, prompted and more often unprompted, how much she hates cats and how they're the most the most useless animal ever, Hawke certainly stepped up to take care of Tenzin without so much as a hint from anyone else. She cares for that little bugger as much as she pretends not to.]

Me? Oh, I'm alright. Getting by. Actually, I think my cat allergies are improving considering the circumstances. [And then she sneezes. Twice. Leaving her looking pretty ridiculous. So there's just a sort of embarrassed shrug of her shoulders.] Well. Maybe slightly improved.

[tearsinajar]

You still have nice- nice eyes.

[ A small bit of coughing startles the kitten but as soon as she begins rubbing down its back, Tenzin settles again.

Elena's glad he was looked after (especially by Hawke), and she's even more so that Nate wasn't alone in the house, that he had support in her time away. Friends who truly cared to keep him from falling too far into that dark hole. ]

Slightly is better than not at all. You need to- keep building up your cat tolerance.

[ascendit]

[When he found out Elena had been revived, Nate was relieved - but more for his older self than Elena, whom he doesn't know as well. Which is kind of terrible of him. So once he gets the all clear, he drops by to pay his respects, bringing a punnet of pastel colored berries and a rolled up piece of paper to her seat on the deck.]

Hey - welcome back. [He presents her with the roll.] I made you something.

[Inside is a cartoony drawing of Elena in a power pose (along the lines of Wonder Woman, if Nate knew who Wonder Woman was), framed by a border of less cartoony feathers.]

[tearsinajar]

[ The fresh air has been good for her. Sitting out on the deck in the sun under the shade of an overhead, wide umbrella and a light blanket over her lap, it's helped with her recovery. Being stuck inside a lot of the time hadn't been good, no matter how many windows Nate opened up for her.

Speaking of...

Elena looks up when she hears the door slide open and shut and hears the footsteps. She blinks at the offerings and then smiles, taking the paper. ]

Pull up a chair.

[ There's plenty around, given how many folks occupy the large house, but Elena occupies the lounger to be able to lay back and nap if needed.

While he does that she sets the berries on the table between them and unrolls the paper. A Wonder Woman pose. Her smile is soft while she studies it. He's always been great at the art, no matter what age. ]

It's nice. Thank you. This is definitely going on the fridge.

[ascendit]

[Nate's smile as he brings a chair over to sit on is caught somewhere between proud and embarrassed. His art had never gone on display at their dad's place, the orphanage, nor Garden, but here, it's on the office fridge and apparently going onto his older self's.]

You're welcome.

[He opens the berry punnet and takes one the shade of lilacs, using it to indicate the feathered border.]

Uh, the border's phoenix feathers. Because in some cases in my last place, those could bring you back.

["From death" seems like it doesn't need saying, between the usual ideas of a phoenix in mythology and her recent resurrection.]

But I'm not really into coloring.

[Else they'd look a little more phoenix and less generic feather.

[And with that, he pops the berry into his mouth.]

[tearsinajar]

[ He doesn't need to outright say it for her to catch on. She gets it. Her fingers brush along the feathers, feeling the soft brush of them underneath her touch. ]

I've heard about the phoenix. Or I mean I've read about them. Makes you wonder if it would work the same here as it would back in where you were before.

[ She glances over as he begins to munch on the berries. ]

That doesn't really change the older you get. Between you and me, the older you doesn't know about how I've taken some of his drawings and added color to them.

But that's our secret.

[a_shadow]

[ When she hears Elena is back, she goes and gathers some comfort items to give to her in a basket, as well as some helpful items, and goes to Elena and Nate's home to greet her. It's painfully familiar to her, the effects of cryo and of dying in this place, and whens she sees Elena she can't help but feel a stab of sympathy. She's been in this place, and she has suffered through the need to recover. She goes in where Elena is, and sets the basket down next to her. ]

I wouldn't wish dying here on anybody. It sucks.

[tearsinajar]

[ So lost in thought, hearing someone approach and speak up nearly startles her. Recovery week has been strange to her; she always feels like she's walking in a dream, dazed. She doesn't feel completely intact yet. ]

I would say dying in general is rough. Should— should be avoided at all costs.

[ The need to break off to cough overwhelms her, her words rasping until the coughing takes over. Somewhere in there she tries to wheeze out an apology, grimacing. ]

[a_shadow]

You don't need to apologize.

[ She takes a seat nearby, and waits for the coughing to abate before continuing. ]

Well, typically when you die you stay that way. There's no recovery process involved in that. I put some cough drops in that basket, by the way, and some teabags. You want me to track down some hot water?

[arcreact]

[ Tony doesn't hunt her down in person at first, knowing she'll need her time and space. But no matter how much he tries to avoid staring the situation in the eye, there's no way around it: Elena's his friend, and she was dead.

Supporting Nate had helped ease some of that crushing dread if only because it kept Tony moving, but eventually it came for him too. It's terrifying - someone can be there one moment and gone the next, as simple as a few lines of text on the network. It could happen to any of them, he knows.

He wishes it hadn't happened to Elena.

By about the second or third day, she gets a message on her new TAB, apropos nothing. ]

could get you a full-body heated snuggie this time
results may vary
and you'd probably get made fun of
actually, you'd definitely get made fun of, the people who live here are assholes
but it's still an option

[ Jokes. Probably. ]

[tearsinajar]

[ It hasn't been a fun experience, not only for her but also for Nate. The first days back have been terrifying. For her it's been the nightmares, the jolting awake from choking in her sleep, and for him it has to be the fear that she's stopped breathing, the sounds he has to wake up to. Sometimes, to Elena, it feels like Shambhala all over again.

As exhausted as she is, she worries more about Nate than herself. It can't be helped. She knows he's struggling with this just as much as she is, if not worse from what she'd remembered when he'd appeared in her room at the complex the first day back and he'd looked haggard and pale.

Sitting now on the couch, cocooned in two blankets, her TAB goes off on her lap. Seeing who it is, an uptick of a small smile appears. ]

at first I thought you were offering to come snuggle in under the blanket with me
but you're right, they can be assholes
isn't that why we all live together?

[arcreact]

[ Light banter can cure all ills, right? It's certainly his life's mantra, so no sense turning away from it now. ]

i'm not so sure the missus would approve
shame really

[ C'mon, he has to get the zings in when he can. Harmless. ]

i like to think we all have friendships built on more than just intense dickishness
but if i try to dig deeper for common ground things get murky
so maybe i have to admit defeat there

[nicearsenal]

[It's taken her too long to come here. Chloe's been hiding out with her guilt and grief when really she should have been offering any support she could to Nate. It had taken no small amount of convincing on Sam's part to get her to accept that what had happened hadn't been her fault, and in some ways she had known he was right but it didn't stop her from feeling awful.

But that's not what she's thinking now as she lets herself into Nate's house and quietly makes her way to the living room he's apparently been living in according to his brother. She'll take whatever abuse she deserves, but she knows that right now the person who's pain is greatest is Nate, and she needs to help in whatever way she can with that.

She expects the couch to be occupied. She just doesn't expect who is occupying it.]

Oh my god!

[tearsinajar]

[ She must be like a well-kept secret if that's the kind of reaction she gets to anyone coming over. Nate only occupies the couch these days to cuddle her and keep her warm. It's her who's never leaving the damn thing now, always in a blanket, either sitting with a book or her TAB or napping to try and make up for what sleep she loses from the nightmares.

Today she's reading but she's distracted, unable to concentrate, feeling like she's reading the same paragraph over and over. Hearing someome suddenly speak up and exclaim, the peace and quiet in the sitting room is broken, Elena jerks her attention over to the source and stares.

Of all the faces that have come to visit, Chloe's has been missing from the bunch. Elena had wondered too long about that, kept that to herself. Not once had she asked Nate about it, only asked him how she'd been if he'd seen her since.

Her fingers tighten on her book as she stares back. The air feels tight; all she can remember is hearing her muffled voice in her helmet, the shouting and pleading, her eyes panicked and wide.

It's so hard to keep her voice steady. ]

H-hi.

[nicearsenal]

[Chloe swears under her breath and stands there at the door for a split second, shaking her head in utter disbelief. Of course it could have been a possibility, of course normal rules don't apply here. Hadn't space already landed a very definitely dead Harry Flynn in their laps? Why wouldn't it bring Elena back from the dead?]

You complete and utter arsehole.

[Despite the harshness of the insult, Chloe's striding across the room a split second later and taking her friend in her arms for a fierce, tight hug. She's here, she's warm and alive and she's here, not dying in her arms on an alien planet or vanished a split second later. When Chloe speaks again, her voice is muffled in Elena's hair and is thick with raw emotion.]

I am never going anywhere with you again without bubble wrap and a team of paramedics.

[It's easier to make jokes, to play it light and pretend to shrug it off when for the last few weeks she's been plagued with nightmares and guilt and so much disgust with herself for letting it happen in the first place. She'll hide her face for a few moments more as she gathers her composure, but her grip on Elena gets a smidge tighter.]