Immediate Fire Aftermath (Joel)
[Joel opens his eyes. Around him are stone walls and a wooden floor. He’s in a bed. His lungs ached but they felt more free than they did in the fire.]
[Joel sat up and rubbed his eyes, beginning to remember. The fire… the laughter… He’d collapsed, then, he realized. His arm stung; when he looked down, he realized it was carefully wrapped in bandages.]
[Joel looked up at the sound of footsteps and voices; Cleo and Bdubs. What were they doing here? Wherever “here” was.]
[Cleo and Bdubs came into view. They froze at the sight of Joel sitting up in bed, though the silence didn’t last long.]
Bdubs: [He lets out a sigh of relief. However, he doesn’t smile.]
Cleo: “I’ll get him some water.” [She leaves.]
[Bdubs, however, quickly made his way to Joel. Joel barely looked up.]
Bdubs: [Slaps Joel across the face.] “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU!! SETTING THE FOREST ON FIRE—COLLAPSING—WE DIDN’T KNOW WHERE YOU WERE HALF THE FIGHT!! WE JUST GOT YOU ON THE TEAM AND YOU’VE ALREADY GOT A DEATH WISH!! YOU KNOW HOW SCARED WE WERE?!?!” [He’s breathing heavily and his eyes are watery.]
[Joel didn’t respond at first; not to the slap or to Bdub’s yelling. When he finally spoke, it was quiet and very unlike himself.]
Joel: “Why do you care.”
[Bdubs looked caught off guard.]
Joel: “Etho and I shot a missile at you guys.” [His voice was dull and hollow.] “You hate us. You hate me.”
[Bdubs just stared at him. Then, he shook his head, resisting the urge to slap him again.]
Bdubs: “You’re one of us now, got it?! What do I have to do to get that through your thick skull?!”
[Joel was silent again. Eventually, he spoke again.]
Joel: “Where am I?”
Bdubs: [He exhaled a bit, trying to calm down.] “The Crastle.”
Joel: “Is the fire out?”
Bdubs: “Yeah. Tango helped with that.” [He paused.] “He saved you, you know.”
[Joel was silent again.]
Joel: “You were there, too.”
Bdubs: “And?”
Joel: “He saved you.”
[Bdubs looked almost hopeless at that.]
Bdubs: “Joel, you’re here. In the Crastle.”
Joel: “…Thank you.”
[Bdubs didn’t respond.]
[Cleo entered the room holding a glass of water. The moment was over.]
Later, with the Voice:
Joel: “You made me hurt him.”
Voice: “I only asked for you to do what I thought best.”
Joel: “But Etho—”
Voice: “I expected him to be gone by then. And besides, Bdubs and Tango saved you—that’s good, is it not? Even when you burn an entire forest to the ground—a flower forest, no less—they still want you on the team.”
Joel: “…it’s because Dogwarts has a lot of members. The Crastle doesn’t want to lose anyone. It puts them at a disadvantage.”
Voice: “Dear, sensible people don’t think that way. Besides, a disadvantage can’t be the only reason you stay alive, can it?”
Joel: “…”
Voice: “Come on, you can’t let yourself think that way.”
Joel: “I’m sorry.”
Voice: [hums quietly] “You really do like saying that, don’t you?” [a pause] “But anyway. Are we on good terms, now, little bug?”
Joel: [He hesitates]
Voice: [it’s voice drops lower] “You’ve already lost Etho. You wouldn’t want to lose me, too, would you?”
Joel: [a strike of fear crosses his heart, and his breath hitches] “N-no, don’t go! Please, I’ll do anything, I—”
Voice: [it interrupts him] “Then are we even?”
Joel: [he tries not to make a pathetic noise. After a moment of hesitation, he answers.] “I-…okay…”
Voice: [smiles] “Good.”
Meanwhile, Cleo and Tango:
[Cleo returns with Bdubs from another search mission for Grian; he’s nowhere to be found. It had been two days since the fire. Reluctantly, Cleo broke the news to Tango and Joel; Joel mumbled a small, “oh..” and Tango didn’t respond. Cleo retreated to the bunker for a while, deciding to organize some of the items to take her mind off of things.]
[After a bit, though, she went back up to her and Bdubs’s room at the top floor, walking up the spiral stairway but pausing as—while walking by Tango and Grian’s room—she heard a quiet noise.]
Cleo: [glancing inside the room] “Tango?”
Tango: [on his bed, blankets over his head, crying quietly; at Cleo’s voice, he stiffened, trying to stop his tears]
Cleo: [she walks over to his bedside and crouches beside it] “Hey bud… you okay?”
Tango: [the blanket ruffles slightly as he nods]
Cleo: “You sure?”
Tango: [he nods again]
Cleo: [she’s quiet for a moment, thinking of how to coax Tango out from under the covers.] “You know… your fire won’t really like being suffocated like that. You might get dizzy.”
Tango: [he slips his fire-tipped tail from out the covers; it dangles half-off the bed]
Cleo: [she gives a soft sigh and tilts her head] “What about your hair?”
Tango: [he pauses for this one. Eventually, though, he pulls the blanket down to his shoulders. He’s not facing Cleo.]
Cleo: “There you go.” [For a while, she’s silent; that is, until, she notices that Tango’s still trying to hold back quiet sobs. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she spoke up.] “Hey… you can cry, you know. It’s fine, I’m not bothered.”
Tango: [he doesn’t respond. But right as Cleo is about to say something else, he lets out a quiet sob. Cleo stays quiet as the sobs grow a bit louder. They last for a while, but when Tango calms down, Cleo speaks again.]
Cleo: “We’ll find him. Okay? We’ll get him back soon.” [She gave his shoulder a small squeeze.] “So far, we haven’t seen any messages in chat. He might just be stuck somewhere.”
Tango: [he sniffles a bit but doesn’t respond. However, his shoulders relax a bit under Cleo’s touch.]
Cleo: “Do you want me to stay here?”
Tango: [he doesn’t hesitate to nod.]
Cleo: “Okay.” [she pulls up a chair and sits down]