007 || {Video / Action} || BACKDATED to the 3rd, late morning.

[contempsi]

[It's not cold at all - even in spite of the rain - but after a bit of shivering, disoriented wandering Hope will find himself stranded on the path, and even more confused than when he initially came around after being the unfortunate victim of routine experimentation.

He plops to his knees in the dirt before slipping in the haze and landing squarely on his butt, not caring at all for the muck that would inevitably stain his shorts.]

Ugh...

[With a groan, he first lifts a hand to wipe away the silvery bangs dripping in his eyes, then wraps both arms around himself with a shiver. The camera's view might catch a flash of chalk-white on the back of a wrist, stark even against his fair skin, if one were looking hard enough.

The journal's been recording all of this, but the boy doesn't seem to notice, drawing his knees up and resting his forehead against them.]


(ooc: Lightning and I think Gem are going to go find him, but anyone else is welcome to poke him through the journal too. :D)

Comments

[action!]

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

[Wrapping his fingers around the handle of the umbrella, he attempts to stand again at Lightning's guidance. He nearly drops the umbrella when that same hand automatically goes to grasp at her forearm for balance, the thing sort of getting shuffled around in the process and ending up somehow balanced in the crook of an elbow. Once he's on both feet again, however, and without slipping and sliding around—he'll be grabbing at it again.]

I missed Baldr too. Um... he didn't track paint all over my room, did he? [Somehow, as soon as she mentioned home... that seemed to conjur up a distant memory of his paint can getting knocked over in whatever struggle he was going through. Oops.]

[action!]

[thestormishere]

[ Lightning's got good reflexes, so she won't him - or the umbrella, though that's a whole lot less important - fall. Truthfully, she's pretty tempted to just pick him up and carry him back home by now, but drugged or not she does have some sense towards trying to preserve the teen's pride. ]

It's fine... Zack and I got it cleaned up. [ What fun that had been, but Lightning hadn't wanted Hope to come home to such a messy, blatant reminder of what had happened. ] The walls still need to be finished, though.

[action!]

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

Okay... [He seems satisfied by that answer, stumbling after her, his little shoes squishing in the mud and wet grass beneath them.]

He can help me paint it. [Whether he means Zack or Baldr is left to be certain, but his voice is groggy enough that either way the statement's obviously a little out of place. Hope rubs at his forehead.] Lightning? How long was I out here like this?

[action!]

[thestormishere]

[ Lightning falls silent for a few seconds more, genuinely uncertain whether or not to tell Hope just how long he'd been missing. She's been counting the days, of course, no matter just how counter-productive something like that is towards keeping her patience... but when he's out of it enough that he's acting like that and phrasing the question as if the entirety of his time away was... spent sitting in the rain for a little while, her knowledge is a little more guarded than her usual honesty with him.

Maybe he won't even remember any of his missing time. She isn't sure if that would be good or bad, though. ]

A while. [ And so she chooses to dodge a bit and answer only for what's happened today. ] Long enough to get yourself soaked, obviously.

[action!]

[contempsi.livejournal.com]

[He blinks down at himself, idly plucking at his clothes. They're pretty much sticking to his skin, proving Lightning's point.]

So it's been like... a few hours or days or something. I can't really tell.

[Hope continues to idly slosh his feet through the mud and grass, enjoying the squishing sounds the motions make. Doing so also happens to be coating his shoes almost entirely. That's going to be lovely, tracked through the house when they get there. If Lightning doesn't stop him first.]

Let's jump in that puddle over there...!

[. . . .]

[action!]

[thestormishere]

[. . . .]

No, Hope.

[ She just continues pulling him along doggedly, not even looking in the direction of whatever has caught his attention. This is better than that one experiment not very long ago, she reminds herself. It could be worse. ]