January 10, 21:49-22:07

Cal ‘Collie’ Thi Lê | 16 | AB- | Male | Visions | Both | Questioning | M: Everyone

Cal laid on his side with his smooth soft hair covering his face, but not for his own comfort. He kept his eyes closed shut as he listened.

Step… Step…

Was he coming closer? For some reason it was hard to tell. Collie swallowed hard.

Step… Step…

Collie struggled to control his breathing as he closed his eyes tighter.

Step… Step… Slam!!

And he was gone, locking the door behind him in an attempt to keep Cal in. Cal was just glad his Ma hadn’t joined in on the fun as well. Fucking hell. Cal rolled onto his stomach with a groan, his hands shaking slightly. A coppery taste filled his mouth. He must have busted his lip or bit the inside of his mouth harshly. Maybe both. The sides of his ribs hurt after it felt like he landed on nails and burning coal. He hadn’t, but it still felt like he did. Everything was a blur as to what happened. Everything just felt numb for a long minute, but at the same time everything hurt? It was hard to explain. Like when you take medication for an allergy but you can feel it slowly creeping back, and before you realize it, it’s back and making your life miserable. The one thing that actually made Cal want to get up was his jaw. It stung like hell. Pushing himself onto his knees that still trembled and shook like he had just finished sprinting and took a shaky breath. Cal nearly fell back down to the ground as he rubbed his jaw with one hand. It was sore and he probably needed ice, but there was no way he’d be able to get it anyway. His dad locked his door to the rest of the house after all. Cal waited a minute before he stood from the cold wooden ground and grinded his teeth, looking to the broken clock. It was off by two hours and twenty-four minutes so by that logic the time would be...

Oh fuuuuuuuuuu-

Cal continuously swore under his breath before leaping to the closest, tearing through his clothes. Collie continued to mumble as he sorted through his clothes, panic rising as he couldn’t find his bag. Where is it, where is it, where is it?! Finally, under his old sports towel he used to bring to track, his small bag sat. Cal let out a sigh of relief as on the upper floor of the house loud shouting and arguing from his parents could be heard. He was somewhat glad for the first time in forever that his parents were fighting. Collie thought at first that they- his parents- had found the bag and confiscated it. The bag was packed… mostly. He still needed to grab one thing. His most important belonging. Striding over to the bookshelf that was empty except for a few school supplies and books and one lone science book. The book was his favorite.

Cal pulled the book off the shelf and studied the cover. It was old and torn at the edges, the pages ripped and withered. A few photos slipped out of the back of it. They landed on the floor silently despite the gravity for Collie that they carried, crouching down to pick them up. He choked out a short sob but quickly swallowed it down, taking in a sharp breath as he looked at the images. A photo of him and his mom smiling in New York, his New York cap too big for his small head. A picture of him crossing the finish line at a sprint he had been preparing months to do, earning him his leather jacket he later added pins and sewn in patches to. A photo and Jackson and Ben he took after…

Cal swallowed hard. He needed to focus and not on this. None of this memory lane shit right now, the others needed him to get down there before he missed the train. He shoved the photos back into the book and the book into his bag. He put on his black leather jacket and New York ball cap. He said goodbye to his shit-hole of a bare room with aging wallpaper and the smell of old people. Cal opened the window, putting in as much effort as possible for the creaking window to be silent while his Ma and Dad argued. That’s when Cal finally fled.

~~~

“Hey guys! Sorry I took so long!” Cal chuckled in a louder voice than he realized. Cal put a smile on his face, hoping to make everyone less dreary and not like something out of an emo poem writing club. “Fuckin’ traffic, am I right?” Collie’s face was bright red from running all the way there, his hair messy and out of place for once. His jaw still hurt as he pressed his fingers along the edge of it as if to push it into feeling better. His lip was busted too still, but this was all nothing compared to Ethan and what he looked like when he got to school sometimes. It is… it was horrible. Was. Past tense. They were all leaving now. It wasn’t going to happen again.

Collie could smell the strong odor of cigarettes. He’d never tell any of them this, but Collie had a strong hatred of cigarettes. For one, it hurt his friends. Aries always smoked and he knew it would kill him and Axel both slowly. Axel always seemed sick so Aries smoking didn’t make a damn thing any better. Two, his own trauma made him always scowl at even the smell of them. And lastly, another damn secret he’d never tell the others, he had asthma. Hell, he would rather admit his whole trauma surrounding these small shitty sticks of smoke then tell a single one of them he had asthma. He had nearly gotten kicked from the track team for it. Plus, what if Axel found out? Axel, extremely surprisingly, looked up to Cal. Figuratively and literally in this sense because of Collie’s long lanky body. Cal was already a greasy nobody, an idiot, and a jackass. He didn’t want to tack on ‘someone with asthma’ to the lists of reasons why Axel should hate him instead of genuinely like him.

“So what’s crackalackin’?” Cal smirked, plopping his stuff on the ground as he proceeded to stretch his arm above his head and his shirt that was too small on him came up to be just under his boney ribs. “You alla ready to getta goin’? I brought some snacks and what not till we get where we’re goin’. I can’t honestly remember where we’re going, but I gotta say I am super excited to get out of this shit-hole.” He said that word a lot. Shit-hole. Whether it was for lack of a better word or because it was the best word to use, he said it all the time. “Oooooh! Remind me later to show you guys my science book. Super cool. Just the coolest. You guys would love it.”

This would be his untreated ADD kicking in, giving him a rapid fire need to talk. This trip would be one helluva time with Cal on board the locomotive to disaster. That’s another word he liked a lot. Helluva. And his favorite phrase? Helluva shit-hole we live it, eh?

January 10th, ???? | 9:59-10:11 PM

G.A.F. 'Khorne/Ariethous'/N.R.V. | 16/17 | AB/B+ | Male | Pain Adren/High Intel | Both | C Demi(HML)/Pan | Mentions; The Others(Ind. & Dir.)

Gwyar pretended not to notice the grateful look Axel gave Nabih, or the nod Nabih gave in response. Instead, he was also pretending to try and figure out what to do now that he couldn’t smoke. And despite himself, he was actually having some trouble coming up with something.

--

‘Whattt, how can it not come up with something? It could literally just punch a wall!’

--

‘You see, this is what we call it’s stupidity. It never comes up with any good ideas.’

--

Gwyar forced himself not to grit his teeth in response to the comments, he knew that wouldn’t help him with other people around.

--

‘Wow… Now it’s completely ignoring us. Not even a reaction.’

--

‘Should we scream until it reacts?’

--

‘That sounds like fun.’

--

Gwyar tuned them out to the best of his ability as the voices turned to debating on whether or not to scream at him. He absolutely hated them… Not really, but… Whatever. They were at the very least annoying.

--

Nabih saw as TJ climbed onto the old dumpster, not to mention heard it. But it wasn’t that big of a deal to him, it wasn’t as if anyone would actually care to look. Besides, the most that could happen if someone did- They’d see a bunch of teenagers hanging out in an alleyway with backpacks and duffle bag before deciding not to waste their time with the scene.

--

Of course though, Leroy wasn’t thinking of that fact. And immediately got onto Tyler. Axel, though, at least got onto Leroy to calm it. Ethan had even joined in at some point- So that was good too. It meant he wouldn’t have to do anything… Yet, at least.

--

And then Leroy raised his voice at Axel and Ethan, which had even caught Ariethous’s attention; who had up until then just been spacing out at a wall. Nabih still didn’t intervene though, because he could immediately tell that the angry teenager was apologetic. A huff and clenching of his jaw was enough to tell Nabih that.

--

And then Tyler had started a rant about becoming a pigeon and stealing french fries. Why did Nabih decide to make this group? As Eva walked into the alleyway and sat down, never looking up from her phone, he was reminded. Because these people either wanted to run away or because they needed to run away. Though, technically, it had started out as just a basic friend group for the people that needed friends. But, as was usually the case with life, technicality never really ended up mattering.

--

Turning back to Tyler though, who had asked a very good question, Nabih spoke. “We’re just waiting for Cal now. They should be here soon. We have to start walking by 10:10 if we want to get to the train station in time for the train.”

--

And right then, as if on cue, Cal came into the alleyway. Nabih gave a light, friendly smirk to the other.

--

Gwyar looked over at Cal as he started talking, the screaming had been starting to get annoying. Luckily now though, Cal was here. Cal. The literal god at being louder than the voices. Gwyar may have been atheist, but if there was a god- He’d think they would’ve chosen Calvin to be, like, an acolyte. He shot the man a confident grin.

--

“Trust me- I think everyone is ready to get the fuck outta here. Not like Janus has that many hands, after all. As far as I remember, he only has two. On the left, we can leave. To the right, we can stay. Both have…” He realized then what he was saying. But twas too late to turn back now, he’d already taken a hand, and this would seem more suspicious if he didn’t finish what he’d been saying. “...Consequences but let’s be real here- For most of us, the left hand will have less.”

--

Nabih gave him a look, one of those looks that people would use the word ‘knowing’ to describe but Gwyar would only use the word ‘judging’. Meant the same thing anyways.

--

Nabih nodded to what Ariethous had said and then looked at his watch. “It’s 10:09 everyone, we should get walking. We don’t want to incidentally miss the train.”

--

And with that, Nabih was beginning to walk out of the alleyway, eyes set on the path ahead of him. Everything would be fine. Everything would be fine. Everything would go according to plan. Right? Right.

--

Gwyar grinned and pushed off the wall he was leaning on, following Nabih out of the alleyway, making sure to set a pace that would be easy for anyone to keep up with just in case if anyone actually wanted to talk to him. He hoped someone did. The voices always tried to fight for dominance once Cal was around, since they knew how loud he was too. And already tuning them out was getting more difficult.

--

‘How dare it act as if it hates us?! We helped it!’

--

‘I bet those human friends tricked it. It used to listen to us more before them, after all.’

--

‘Oh please, who cares? Not like it actually matters!’

--

‘So true! It doesn’t matter! It’ll come back to us once it realizes it’s in the wrong, right?’

--

‘Of course it will! It’s never been able to simply ignore us forever.’

--

‘To be honest, I just want it to punch a wall.’

--

‘That would be exciting and entertaining.’

--

Gwyar tried his best not to roll his eyes at them, they were screaming every word in an attempt to drown out anyone else that tried to speak to him. A desperate attempt, but if no one spoke not like he could just drown them out instead.

January 10th

===========================

Tyler 'TJ' Jacobson/16/O+/Male/Spotted Hyena/Mono/Bisexual/Mentions: General

===========================

His head snapped towards the ally entrance with the sudden loud introduction. Calvin was finally here. About time, though the speckling of blood and brusies peeking out from under his clothes was a pretty valid reason for being late. Still bird-perched, Tyler gave a slight nod in acknowledgment towards the visibly twitchy newcomer, and turned the Nabih as he started talking. It takes a surprising amount of self control to not start cackling and rubbing his hands together like some kid's show villain when it's time to get moving. Jumping down from the dumpster, Tyler straightens and cracks his spine and fingers softly. Rucksack shouldered, everyone there, and excitment running through his veins like river rapids, he's ready to board.

===========================

The whole group wasn't looking to great, at least not compared to him. Considering that Tyler knew that his health was pretty close to 'normal', the differences between their general appearances, ever since he started actually looking at them, painted a very dark picture of their home lives. Just another reason to get out of this hot mess of a gods-damned town. Sometimes everything he's seen makes him want to just burn the place down, but that would end up hurting more innocents than it would horrible people. Sadly, he wouldn't be able to corral every terrible human-shaped crime against nature into one small area and torch the lot, for several reasons. Obviously, he wouldn't be able to catch all of them, but there is also the fact that Tyler knows he has no right to determine which people should die. After all, he doesn't have any kind of legal degree. And no plan to get one, honestly, because formal learning is a mess and totally ineffective. Maybe he should stop considering arson and murder? Yeah, probably.

===========================

The streets were clear, at least. Just some very bored passers-by and a janitor sweeping litter into a bag. Good on you, janitor-man, your continued dilligence does the planet good. Keep on keeping on. Tyler slammed a happy-bright, toothy grin on his face and did his best to emulate 'excited teen on his way to visit the big city with friends'. Granted, Tyler has no idea what that exactly looks like, but he can totally copy 'excited'. "Come on, come on, let's go already!" The smile was already staring to hurt his cheeks, but whatever. It would be worth it to get out of here. Besides, none of the adults actually knew him beyond 'that one kid who vanishes occasionally, but always comes back'. He'd also never run off using any kind of transportation beyond his legs to disappear before, so. There'd be no suspicion, especially because of the rest of the group. They looked like a gaggle of teenage friends ready for a trip, and 10:15 wasn't exactly seen as the optimal running-away time. Whenever someone heard 'running away', they thought of any time between dusk, midnight, and dawn. Plus, school was still happening, so it seemed like they had the approval of whatever parental figures they had, and their guardians were just at work or something.

Cal ‘Collie’ Thi Lê | 16 | AB- | Male | Visions | Both | Questioning | M: Everyone

Everyone was there. Axel, Aries, Evie, Leroy, E, TJ, and Nabih. Cal was just shocked he was the only one late. Maybe he was just the one to be the most late? Evie was never late though. Evie was just the goddess of being a prick, but she was super nice even if she didn’t show it. Cal just loved to play video games with her. TJ, on the other hand, he would have expected to be late. Pigeon Man over there always got distracted by animals so he was honestly surprised he was there. E had all the right in the world to be late and so did Axel. They both had it tougher than Cal. Collie was at least glad they both were getting a chance at something better by leaving the shit-hole. Leroy probably got there first. Besides maybe Aries. Aries is just cool like that where he always seems on time. Aries was genuinely just the best. Awesome guy, really. Meanwhile, Nabih probably just teleported there or some shit. The man seemed magical or like that character in a movie you know is important but you don’t realize just how important until three fourths of the way in the movie when they can just destroy galaxies and do cool shit like that. Of course, there was no such thing as magic. Only science. The guy probably just sped walked there.

So anyways. Back to the conversation at hand before Cal zoned out again.

“So wait, sorry what?” Cal blinked a few times as he looked back to Aries. He heard him saying something about hands. And Janus. Like that Greek god of time or the next year? Oh that reminded him of a story he learned about- Oh god damnit! He needed to focus!! “Hands and stuff. Awesome. Okay, I didn’t get a thin’ ya said, but I trust whatever you said was smart!!” Cal beamed wildly.

Cal wasn’t necessarily the best looking. He was tall and boney, the only muscles he had being on his legs and barely visible on his arms. He still threw one helluva punch, but his arms were still weaker than they should be. He often had a terrible sense in clothes and an even worse sense in figuring out which clothes do and don’t have blood still on them. His hair and his smile were probably his only physical redeeming qualities. His smile was often a goofy one or one that was a sly smirk, but it always suited him nonetheless. Although, fashionable hair didn’t win you a fight. Neither did a smile.

Axel was now talking to him. What was he asking about? When did Axel get this close to him? Maybe he just hadn’t been paying attention. Collie had a history of not paying attention and missing key details. He was just lucky he came to the meeting spot at 10:00 pm instead of 10:00 am like the group had planned. Oh, his lip. That was what Axel was talking about. Collie gently touched his lip. He pulled his hand away and, wouldn’t you know it, a dull crimson liquid. Blood. Collie cursed himself as he slowly processed the fact his lip still hurt and that it was still bleeding.

“I was just being an idiot,” Cal spoke with a chuckle, shrugging his shoulders. His friends knew the truth about his parents for the most part. That they were assholes and that they… that they beat him. He doesn’t remember when he admitted it. It was all a blur to him in the moment. Even despite telling them, he always lied. It wasn’t his fault though. He was so used to lying at that point. “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was goin’ when this cute gal waved at me and I banged into a metal pole like a moron. Ain’t nothing too bad though. You don’t gotta worry ‘bout me, Axel!!” Cal wiped his now blood stained hand on his pant leg before giving Axel a thumbs up with the other and flashing a smile.

Cal looked up when Nabih spoke. Was it really 10:09? Oh shit! They really had to get going or they were going to miss the train. Collie’s instincts were to sprint to the train, but this time he had to wait for the others to keep up with him. He had long legs and being the tallest, or at least tied for first with Aries, he took the longest strides. Plus, he was excited so his pace was far faster than normal. Every few steps he had to stop and make sure the others were still behind him. Maybe it was out of fear they would disappear or just because they were so slow, Collie just kept stopping every few steps and looked back, a wide smile still on his face.

“Hey, BirdMan,” Cal chuckled as he looked over to the small man who only a little while ago was pretending to be a pigeon of all birds, “this the happiest I think I have ever seen ya!! Are you really the real TJ?” Cal looked over to Aries and nudged Aries gently with his elbow. He talked slightly quieter than normal with a smirk, but still loud enough for TJ to hear with ease. “Pretty sure this is an alien imposter. TJ is being too happy to be sane in the head at the moment…” Cal let out a small chuckle as he rested his arm on TJ’s head. “I am just kidding with ya man! But seriously, super happy today! Love the attitude!!” TJ was probably just faking his joy, but it was still nice to see him like this.

Cal looked back at Leroy. He seemed stressed. Was he worried about the whole train thingy? Surely it would be fine. No one would notice so why get all nervous about it. Maybe it was something else. Cal doubted that though. Leroy looked like he had everything together. But maybe he didn’t? Leroy always seemed to look so… above it all? Like nothing ever happened to him. He was just a cool badass with a cool badass scar. Cal chewed his lip. For the first time, he began to question what his logic was for thinking this way. Of course Leroy had something going on. It was no wonder he was stressed. In fact, everyone looked stressed. Maybe Cal could change that.

“Hey Aries! Axel!” Collie called to them, a wide grin on his face. “Five bucks say I can make Leroy smile. If I get punched in the face, that’s an extra ten by the way!!” Before either of them could argue, he backed up from them while giving a wink and cheesy finger guns. Cal walked back to where Leroy was and smiled over to him. “Hey bucko! You wanna hear a joke?” Before Leroy could even open his mouth to reply, Cal is already talking again. “Okay okay, here goes! Why did the can crusher quit his job? It was soda pressing!” Cal snickered at his own joke, biting his lip to contain his laughter. “Aww come! That one was amazing! Okay, how about this? What did the bed covers say when they fell off the bed? ‘Oh sheet!’” Cal couldn’t help but chuckled as he walked along. Before looking over to Leroy with a wide grin. “You gotta at least smile at that one!” While it might have seemed like he was trying to annoy Leroy, Cal was genuinely trying to help. Whatever Leroy was going through, Cal wanted to help. Even if Leroy hated his guts.

January 10th, ???? | 10:11-10:25 PM

Gwyar 'Khorne/Ariethous' Ariethous Froach | 16 | AB | Male | Painful Adrenaline | Both | C Demi(HML) | Mentions; The Others(Ind. & Dir.)

Gwyar only barely noticed when Ethan fell into step with him, shooting the mute a grin when he did notice. For once though, he couldn’t really come up with something to say-

--

Luckily though, Cal seemed to have something.

--

“Hey Aries! Axel! Five bucks say I can make Leroy smile. If I get punched in the face, that’s an extra ten by the way!!”

--

Now, Gwyar didn’t have any money on him. But… He smirked at Cal and nodded, watching as he went over to Leroy.

--

“Hey, bucko! You wanna hear a joke? Okay okay, here goes! Why did the can crusher quit his job? It was soda pressing! Aww, come! That one was amazing! Okay, how about this? What did the bed covers say when they fell off the bed? ‘Oh sheet!' You gotta at least smile at that one!”

--

The voices were easily getting drowned out now, even if Cal didn’t know. But then Leroy raised his voice…

--

“Can you just shut the fuck up for once! Leave me alone and mind your own damn business! You should leave before I knock you out.”

--

Gwyar froze. His gaze easily finding Leroy, the voices had also turned their attention to the half-blind man.

--

‘Forget the wall. PUNCH HIM.’

--

‘He yelled at loudmouth. That isn’t allowed. KICK HIS ASS.’

--

‘SMASH HIS HEAD IN.’

--

‘Blind just betrayed Loud.’

--

‘Did Blind just threaten Loud?’

--

‘SLAM HIM INTO A WALL.’

--

‘BREAK HIS ARM.’

--

Gwyar flinched at the volume, his left hand automatically finding his scalp to scratch at. To anyone else, he seemed to be just staring at Leroy while scratching at his scalp hard enough to draw blood.

--

‘PUNCH.’

--

‘KICK.’

--

‘ATTACK.’

--

‘Oh please- You really think it’ll be able to do anything? It doesn’t have any muscles.’

--

‘The Jambiya.’

--

‘Use the dagger.’

--

‘PUNCH.’

--

‘Useless thing- PUNCH THE DAMN HUMAN!’

--

He couldn’t hear anything else. He took a stumbling step forwards, towards Leroy. His eyes trained on him. Despite his eyes being on Leroy though, he didn’t notice how the boy had calmed down now.

--

His own breathing was getting worse, the voice louder in telling him- it- to attack. Its left hand was still scratching its scalp, its right one found the human’s collar though, gripping him tightly and pulling him forwards in what would seem like a burst of rage to anyone else.

--

It opened its mouth to say something, but all that came out was a low growl. It’s teeth were gritted. It kept it’s eyes locked with Blind’s. There was yelling. Screaming. Inside it’s head.

--

Without even registering what was happening, it’s left hand pulled back, going into a fist, and then rushed forwards to Blind’s face.

--

And the yelling got louder. Its hand stopped though, for a second, things seemed slow. And then everything sped up again. It stumbled back, letting go of Blind- Leroy- He just punched Leroy. He just punched Leroy. It just punched Leroy.

--

He- It- Took a deep breath, turning with slight hesitance before walking again, staring at the ground as he- it, walked, going back to scratching its head hard enough to draw blood.

January 10th, ??? / 10:15-10:30

Leroy Hall

16/B-/Male/Water/Both/Pansexual

Ethan felt Aries start moving forward and realized what was about to happen, but before he could do anything Aries arm was raised and his fist crashed into Leroy's face.

Everything seemed to slow down for a moment as Aries's fist flew through the air. Leroy saw it coming, but for some reason, he couldn't move. The fist hit its mark, square in Leroy's jaw, if it had been angled a little to one side it probably would have knocked him out.

Then there was red, anger and pain ran through Leroy's veins and his vision narrowed to Aries, blocking out everything else... Including Ethan who happened to be standing just close enough to be in the way of the half-blind man as he started racing towards his new enemy.

E was shoved aside and fell hard to the ground. He tried to twist and catch himself, incidentally landing on his arm instead of his head, which was good, but his whole arm was skinned and bleeding, his foot was slightly twisted from pivoting, and his whole side would, inevitably, be bruised. Still, the mute ignored his injuries, staring wide-eyed at Leroy who slammed into Aries, bringing them both to the ground.

"S-stop! Please s-stop!" Axel screamed, watching everything with fear, but unable to intervene.

Ethan, most likely to everyone's surprise, managed to push himself off the ground and to his feet. He was very unsteady, his left foot obviously bothering him, but he limped straight towards the two on the ground and, without any hesitation what-so-ever, threw himself on top of Leroy, rolling the much larger off of Aries and to the side, sacrificing his own body in the process.

Why did he do this?

Well, as scared as he was for himself, Ethan hated seeing others get hurt more than anything, and, at the moment, two people were definitly getting hurt. Besides, E was used to abuse, he could take a few hits.

He only ended up getting one hit though. Once he had managed to roll Leroy away the half-blind man lashed out, hitting Ethan's shoulder. After that, though, a very confused look came across Leroy's face and he froze, realizing that the person he had just hit was not Aries.

"The hell?" Leroy growled, obviously confused. His lip was bleeding and his jaw was very bruised. Both him and Ethan were breathing hard, and when their eyes met Leroy could see the deep-seated fear and pain in E's gaze. This wasn't easy for the mute.

Slowly, Leroy's heart-rate steadied and he lowered his hand from where it had been positioned next to Ethan's head. The anger was still there, but it wasn't directed at the panicked boy ontop of him but rather Aries, who he could still see out of the corner of his good eye.

"Let me up, E." Leroy ordered, not pushing him off, but waiting. Ethan looked at him a moment longer before obeying and slowly getting to his feet, nearly falling over again as he did so. Leroy got up too, glaring at Aries and waiting to see if he would attack again. He was ready to fight back again if needed.

"E-Ethan! Are y-you okay? Y-you're bleeding a l-lot!" Axel gasped, racing to his friends side and looking to Nabih, TJ, and Cal for help. Axel was good with medical stuff, having many medical problems himself, but he hadn't thought to bring bandages or anyhting, so he wasn't sure how to help Ethan. Meanwhile, the mute was on the verge of a panic attack, in pain and terrified about what had just happened.

January 10th

===========================

Tyler 'TJ' Jacobson/16/O+/Male/Spotted Hyena/Mono/Bisexual/Mentions: General

===========================

Before Tyler could really reply to Calvin, the guy was already on Leroy. At least it kept the two of them occupied. He was about to breate a sigh of relief, but then Leroy started getting twitchy. Before he could do any kind of intervention, a fight had already broken out. Leroy moves to punch Cal, Ariethous takes preventive action for the honor of the human incarnation of laughing gas, and the mute puppy throws himself between them all to stop the fight, getting hit in the process. And now they were all panicking and/or unresponsive. Joy. The whole group was just on big mess of neuroses, wasn't it? Huffing a near-silent admission of exasperation, Tyler moved over to Ethan and knelt to the still-grounded kid.

===========================

"Shoulder." Was the gruff order. The other two could get over themselves for a bit, stew in their pain. Honestly, get a grip on yourselves. Sure, Calvin was supremly irritating, but a loud bet and two horrible jokes were not reasons for almost throwing hands. Neither was Ariethous's equally physical retaliation. And now they'd have an hour-ish long train ride together, with probably-unresolved drama and angst. God, Tyler can not wait for twenty-one. Teenager-dom is a curse he would not wish upon his worst enemies. Whatever. Ethan didn't look too hurt, beyond the surface-level scrapes, the joint wasn't dislocated or anything. It'd most assuredly bruise, and probably ache for a few days. Might even have some issues with gripping things tightly for a little while, what with Ethan's general 'starved kitten' look. Tyler pulled the canteen off his belt and unscrewed the cap, and dragged Ethan's sholuder sleeve a little ways off him. A little bit of the still-cold water was trickled over the area to clean off the blood and any gravel or glass in the area as well as to give a little relief, and a bit more was pressed into the fabric to act like a temporary faux-icepack. It wouldn't last long, or be as effective as an actually bag of ice, but it was better than nothing.

===========================

"Anyone bleeding out? Broken jaw? Fractured finger? No? Good." He directed at the other three instigators. Tyler resealed the canteen and returned it to his belt before the others had a chance to respond, and got back to his feet. A few adults were gawking, who he quickly turned a glare to. "Shoo, shoo. Show's over, folks, off with you lot." The statement was made with the accompanying patronizing 'bird shoo' motion more typically reserved for particularly persistant crows and other such animals that were accustomed to a human prescence but undomesticated. Those few watching workers clearly got the message and shuffled off, though with many a backwards glance.

===========================

Tyler sighed more audibly this time, and turned back towards the group to speak more quietly. "Well, there goes any hope of being discrete and unremarkable. Some of them are going to remember us, which will make this harder if the police get involved." He directs a scowl towards Leroy and Ariethous. "Chill." Is practically growled out, more similar to a defensive pitbull than a person. With his repramand still hanging in the air, Tyler turns on his heel back towards Ethan and offers a hand up.

Cal ‘Collie’ Thi Lê | 16 | AB- | Male | Visions | Both | Questioning | M: Everyone

Cal’s shoulder sank and he frowned as Leroy yelled at him. Cal was just trying to help. He couldn’t force Leroy to be happy, but he was just trying to help. Whatever he said must have angered him. Yeah, that was probably it. Maybe Cal just needed to be more funny? No, Leroy just hated him. Which was fine. He still had Axel and Aries who liked him. They were the only ones who he knew wouldn’t ever purposely hurt him. Cal opened his mouth to apologize as-

Oh shit!!

Everything seemed to move in a blur. Like time was just going too fast. Meanwhile, Cal was frozen in place as he struggled to even breathe. Okay okay okay. Calm down. Just recount what happened and figure everything out from there.

Aries punched Leroy. Okay so that just happened. That wasn’t his imagination. That was real. Leroy got pissed, as he always does, and nearly trampled Aries but Ethan intervened. Fuck! Everything was so damn blurry! What was going on?? Cal nearly screamed at his inability to focus before finally being able to process whatever the end result was: Ethan bleeding a lot and Aries and Leroy looking like Captain America and Iron Man in the Civil War. Collie took a deep breath, as if he had held his breath the whole time and finally moved to Ethan’s side just after TJ went over to be in between Aries and Leroy.

“Oooh god! That’s a lot of blood,” Collie mumbled and he kneeled beside him. “Axel you’re good with medical stuff right? You’re like, one of the smartest people I know. I have uhh… One second.” Cal dumped his bag off his shoulder and onto the floor, shuffling around for- “Tissues! I have tissues! I know it is practically useless for medical stuff, but can you just- One more second please.” Cal took all the tissues out of the small, handheld tissue patch. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a clear water bottle as well. “Axel, you can use as much water as you need to keep the wound clean and use the tissues as a sort of bandage for now until I get back. Just keep pressure on it please. TJ did good work with that temporary ice pack thingy, but just in case keep an eye on him and please don’t get involved in the conflict!!” I don’t want you getting hurt. Cal was not trying to show just how much he was stressing. His head was spilling as he forced a weak smile. “You got this Axel. You’re the best with medicine out of all of us and E-” Cal glanced to Ethan as he put a hand gently on his shoulder- “you’re in good hands. I will be right back I promise!”

“Okay, let’s listen to TJ for once and break this up,” Cal announced as he went and stood in front of Aries, placing a hand gently on his shoulder. Shit why was TJ leaving already?? He needed TJ’s help to keep the two separated!! Cal chuckled softly, trying to stay in between the two. “This is entirely my fault, so you two shouldn’t be fighting. If anything Leroy-” Cal flashed an awkward smile to the man, hoping this would resolve some tension- “you should be mad at me. I started this. Aries was probably just sticking out for me.” Speaking of Aries, Cal looked back towards Aries and gave him a smile Before speaking quieter to just him. “I appreciate what you did. I really do. Please don’t pick a fight though! I don’t need you getting in a fight with Leroy over some stupid jokes I said. This is my burden to bear, alright?” Cal’s hand lingered on Aries’s shoulder for a minute longer before he pulled away while he held his breath. Cal looked over to Leroy and walked the distance to be halfway between Leroy and Aries. Cal held out his hand for Leroy. “This is my apology to you. You can shake my hand and be done with this or punch me. Whichever you prefer. I kinda started this damn thing, didn’t I? Just… Let’s not continue the fight between you and Aries.”