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xp_logs(backdated to the weekend of January 18th) A week and a half later, Darcy finally wakes up.
January 17th, evening
Her swim towards wakefulness was akin to pouring molasses in winter, a slow, treacly thing that took patience and time before seeing a satisfying result.
The first few tries were things she'd never remember, searing pain and the jerk of her body in a bed as the connections in her brain went haywire. In some ways it was a kindness. She wasn't aware for the pain or confusion, had no idea she'd lost control of her faculties as the electric storm hit the diamonds in her mind and got refracted like a prism, branching and reflecting to sear through copper and gold like wildfire, slagging the lot only to hit a wall of neon and be absorbed. The seizures after that had been no less concerning but significantly less violent, and by the time she landed on Muir they had spread to only a few times per day.
Today was the first day she'd gone without one since shortly after arriving on Muir.
Darcy caught snatches of words as she tried to swim up, but try as she might she couldn't wrap her mind around them. She caught the feel of warm hands wrapped around her own as well, but before she could even twitch she was dragged back into unconsciousness. The next time was better, her brain registering the gun calluses of the warm hands and a particular whiskey note that she only associated with one person. Safety. Comfort. She slipped back under, this time a little easier.
It was late when she finally managed to claw her way to a groggy, pained wakefulness. Everything hurt, from the roots of her hair to the clench of her toes, but she gave the hand she could feel under hers a slow squeeze and got a reflexive squeeze back.
"I know you're confident with your powers, but even you should know better than grabbing a live wire by the teeth, Lewis."
She squeezed again, letting out a pained whimper as she tried to blink her eyes open. The light wasn't bright, especially not as blurred as things currently were, but it still hurt.
"K...v'n."
Her mouth felt like it was full of cotton and her throat didn't feel much better, but she managed a quiet, croaking slur of his name, wincing as she tried to turn her head. She didn't remember how she'd ended up here. Where here was. What was wrong that made her hurt like this. The last thing she remembered was a flash of green, then a gunshot and the tacky feel of blood and viscera. Had she been shot, maybe? "W...t ..... h'ppn?"
It was a struggle to get even that much out, and it hurt to keep her fingers curled, but it was Kevin. She didn't know what was going on, why she was injured, but he - his hand, his presence at her bedside - those were lifelines she could cling to. Safety. Home.
"According to Sarah, you took a graze shot to the hip, realized that the physical shutdown needed to break the physical connection to the power, and diverted the energy long enough to lift the lockdown. But in doing so, you absorbed an awful lot of electricity. You're at Muir Island right now for initial treatment." Kevin said slowly, walking her through the details.
She struggled to remember, but there was nothing there. Just white and pain where recall could exist. Darcy tried to stretch a tendril of thought out to her personal servers and -
n o t h i n g
Her heart rate spiked sharply when she couldn't reach out. Some of the fog cleared, and she noticed how quiet her mind was. She could hear the hum of electricity - the lights, the machines, the things that were active - but she couldn't hear the quieter things. The sleeping hum of the television and the computer in the room. The lights that were off. She couldn't feel them, either.
Her heart rate spiked again in panic, but when she tried to grip Kevin's hand tighter she found she couldn't. Darcy's hand seized, stuck in a clawed position while her fingers twitched through it before going boneless.
A third spike tipped the machine into the incessant beeping that would alert staff, panic and pain combining to make her heart trip rabbit-fast over itself until she slipped back into unconsciousness.
***
(January 18th, midday)
She resurfaced again to the sound of unfamiliar voices.
"The swelling is going down, and her brain activity has increased. She's not in a coma anymore. She's sleeping now because her body needs rest and healing, but it is sleep and we've been able to chart her REM cycles. I am concerned, however, and Yin agrees with me." Dr. Castillo was equipped with recent brain scans for this conversation, along with a set they'd obtained from others with similar powers - either electric or psionic. Her own was in there for comparison as well, though her light healing ability activated different sections of the brain. "These are Darcy's latest scans, Mr. Sydney. This larger dark patch is the area for the concern, though we'll need her awake consistently to really be able to tell how concerning this might be... and whether or not it will heal."
The patch in question was behind her left ear, covering a junction of three lobes and the top of her cerebellum. Lighter than the black of the film used, it was still significantly darker than the rest of her scan - a flat mass of scar tissue rather than the curves and valleys that those images normally showed.
"The primary concern is where that area is. We've noticed that psionic activity seems to originate in that area, as seen here -" A scan was laid over hers, showing a sunset's worth of activity in yellows and red-oranges "- but that's also a vital location for recall, language, emotion, and movement as a short list. There's a real chance that she may not recover fully from this, and we just... can't know how deeply she might be impacted yet."
Darcy took that moment to make herself known, croaking out Kevin's name and then "W..tr?"
"Your mutant abilities are impacted as well as a lot of your mental functions." Kevin said, simmering with anger. He'd told him multiple times to give him updates outside of Darcy's room. "However, I've had a chat with Charles. One the both of you know about." He gave them a pointed look. "What we need is a baseline once you're fully conscious and thinking. It will provide us a map to your recovery - medical, magical and psionic."
"Kay." It was groggy, but otherwise clear. Her fingers quested for his, able to wiggle for attention until they were once again wrapped in familiar, welcome warmth. She blinked her eyes open with a grimace, and slowly, carefully turned her face towards Kevin. "S'okay. Knew s'me...thin's wrong. 's too quiet."
"There's complications with your powers right now. But what you need is rest. Quiet." He said with a flicking motion that cleared the room. "Go back to sleep, kid. I'll be here when you wake up."
Darcy hummed out a drowsy "Mmkloveyou," as she allowed herself to be dragged back under, body slowly going lax with genuine sleep.
January 17th, evening
Her swim towards wakefulness was akin to pouring molasses in winter, a slow, treacly thing that took patience and time before seeing a satisfying result.
The first few tries were things she'd never remember, searing pain and the jerk of her body in a bed as the connections in her brain went haywire. In some ways it was a kindness. She wasn't aware for the pain or confusion, had no idea she'd lost control of her faculties as the electric storm hit the diamonds in her mind and got refracted like a prism, branching and reflecting to sear through copper and gold like wildfire, slagging the lot only to hit a wall of neon and be absorbed. The seizures after that had been no less concerning but significantly less violent, and by the time she landed on Muir they had spread to only a few times per day.
Today was the first day she'd gone without one since shortly after arriving on Muir.
Darcy caught snatches of words as she tried to swim up, but try as she might she couldn't wrap her mind around them. She caught the feel of warm hands wrapped around her own as well, but before she could even twitch she was dragged back into unconsciousness. The next time was better, her brain registering the gun calluses of the warm hands and a particular whiskey note that she only associated with one person. Safety. Comfort. She slipped back under, this time a little easier.
It was late when she finally managed to claw her way to a groggy, pained wakefulness. Everything hurt, from the roots of her hair to the clench of her toes, but she gave the hand she could feel under hers a slow squeeze and got a reflexive squeeze back.
"I know you're confident with your powers, but even you should know better than grabbing a live wire by the teeth, Lewis."
She squeezed again, letting out a pained whimper as she tried to blink her eyes open. The light wasn't bright, especially not as blurred as things currently were, but it still hurt.
"K...v'n."
Her mouth felt like it was full of cotton and her throat didn't feel much better, but she managed a quiet, croaking slur of his name, wincing as she tried to turn her head. She didn't remember how she'd ended up here. Where here was. What was wrong that made her hurt like this. The last thing she remembered was a flash of green, then a gunshot and the tacky feel of blood and viscera. Had she been shot, maybe? "W...t ..... h'ppn?"
It was a struggle to get even that much out, and it hurt to keep her fingers curled, but it was Kevin. She didn't know what was going on, why she was injured, but he - his hand, his presence at her bedside - those were lifelines she could cling to. Safety. Home.
"According to Sarah, you took a graze shot to the hip, realized that the physical shutdown needed to break the physical connection to the power, and diverted the energy long enough to lift the lockdown. But in doing so, you absorbed an awful lot of electricity. You're at Muir Island right now for initial treatment." Kevin said slowly, walking her through the details.
She struggled to remember, but there was nothing there. Just white and pain where recall could exist. Darcy tried to stretch a tendril of thought out to her personal servers and -
Her heart rate spiked sharply when she couldn't reach out. Some of the fog cleared, and she noticed how quiet her mind was. She could hear the hum of electricity - the lights, the machines, the things that were active - but she couldn't hear the quieter things. The sleeping hum of the television and the computer in the room. The lights that were off. She couldn't feel them, either.
Her heart rate spiked again in panic, but when she tried to grip Kevin's hand tighter she found she couldn't. Darcy's hand seized, stuck in a clawed position while her fingers twitched through it before going boneless.
A third spike tipped the machine into the incessant beeping that would alert staff, panic and pain combining to make her heart trip rabbit-fast over itself until she slipped back into unconsciousness.
***
(January 18th, midday)
She resurfaced again to the sound of unfamiliar voices.
"The swelling is going down, and her brain activity has increased. She's not in a coma anymore. She's sleeping now because her body needs rest and healing, but it is sleep and we've been able to chart her REM cycles. I am concerned, however, and Yin agrees with me." Dr. Castillo was equipped with recent brain scans for this conversation, along with a set they'd obtained from others with similar powers - either electric or psionic. Her own was in there for comparison as well, though her light healing ability activated different sections of the brain. "These are Darcy's latest scans, Mr. Sydney. This larger dark patch is the area for the concern, though we'll need her awake consistently to really be able to tell how concerning this might be... and whether or not it will heal."
The patch in question was behind her left ear, covering a junction of three lobes and the top of her cerebellum. Lighter than the black of the film used, it was still significantly darker than the rest of her scan - a flat mass of scar tissue rather than the curves and valleys that those images normally showed.
"The primary concern is where that area is. We've noticed that psionic activity seems to originate in that area, as seen here -" A scan was laid over hers, showing a sunset's worth of activity in yellows and red-oranges "- but that's also a vital location for recall, language, emotion, and movement as a short list. There's a real chance that she may not recover fully from this, and we just... can't know how deeply she might be impacted yet."
Darcy took that moment to make herself known, croaking out Kevin's name and then "W..tr?"
"Your mutant abilities are impacted as well as a lot of your mental functions." Kevin said, simmering with anger. He'd told him multiple times to give him updates outside of Darcy's room. "However, I've had a chat with Charles. One the both of you know about." He gave them a pointed look. "What we need is a baseline once you're fully conscious and thinking. It will provide us a map to your recovery - medical, magical and psionic."
"Kay." It was groggy, but otherwise clear. Her fingers quested for his, able to wiggle for attention until they were once again wrapped in familiar, welcome warmth. She blinked her eyes open with a grimace, and slowly, carefully turned her face towards Kevin. "S'okay. Knew s'me...thin's wrong. 's too quiet."
"There's complications with your powers right now. But what you need is rest. Quiet." He said with a flicking motion that cleared the room. "Go back to sleep, kid. I'll be here when you wake up."
Darcy hummed out a drowsy "Mmkloveyou," as she allowed herself to be dragged back under, body slowly going lax with genuine sleep.
