One Who Understands

Who: Geo and Herbert
When: Late afternoon
Where: Herbert and Olivia's apartment

Geo was used to getting from place to place under his own power - that much was true. What he wasn't used to, however, was walking. But the doctor had been adamant. No bike. Not until he got used to the shift in depth perception that his injury was causing. The thought drew his hand up to his eye, brushing against the smooth white of the bandage. He had to jerk his hand down again as even that light, self-supplied pressure made him think of last night. This morning. Whenever the hell it had been.

He wasn't even supposed to be out, technically, but he couldn't stand the house right now, not with the mess and the looks from his parents - somehow accusatory and sympathetic at the same time - so he'd stormed out. Wandered, carefully, avoiding most areas where he might meet people. He didn't want sympathy. Didn't want to think about his eye, or what the doctor had said...

...granted, that didn't explain why he was at Herbert's door now, hand raising to knock three times on the wood.

After another morning of helping out around town, Herbert was back inside and had just finished with a shower to get the icky drug-scent and sweat-feeling off of him. Elda had showered, too-- afterwards, because he didn't trust the full shower with her-- and was getting her own toweling off when someone knocked on the door. Picking up the still-damp duckling, Herbert padded over to check who it was. The scent at the crack between door and frame made him smile and open it.

The smile died when he saw Geo's bandaged face, caught the unhappy-scent coming off him, and heard the heavy heartbeat and slightly uneven breathing. "Geo... come in. Please. Are you-- are you all right?"

While Herbert really saw more of Geo's little brother, Geo was much closer to him in age-- and height-- and so seemed more peer than mature-little-brother, like Sammy felt like sometimes. And just because he didn't have as much contact with him didn't mean he didn't immediately want to chew to pieces whoever had made Geo bandage up like that.

Except chewing meant biting meant tasting meant-- he swallowed heavily and stepped back to let Geo in.

Just seeing Herbert seemed to flashburn the numbness away. Geo swallowed, moved as if to just take a step inside - and wound up practically launching himself at the werebear, clinging with his shoulders shaking. Herbert was big, tall as him and broad-shouldered, and unlike Laverne or Fred or Sammy he was sturdy enough to withstand Geo's desperate hug. It was all he could do to keep from crying, and talking? Yeah, so not an option right now.

Herbert wasn't terribly surprised, actually, and caught Geo when he half-tackled him. First things, though, he walked them back just enough to get the door closed, then he returned the hug tightly with one arm-- the other still had Elda at one end, and the duckling peeped in rather more surprise than Herbert had. He had to ignore her, though, because he figured Geo was a bit more important just then.

Hugs made things better, right? He really wasn't sure what he'd do if Geo started crying, though. He didn't think he'd ever really had to deal with a crying male before, though maybe it was easier to deal with than crying female, at least.

"It's okay," he said quietly, bringing his Elda-hand around back, too, so he could at least hug back with the arm, even if his hand was a bit full.

He wasn't gonna cry. He swore that to himself, just leaning into the (literal) bear-hug, good eye closed. "Is it?" He mumbled, taking another deep breath, his voice stilted. "Is it ok, really? Or are we all gonna come out of this busted and broken and bruised?"

Well, Herbert hoped not, but at this point he couldn't really say anymore. "Even if we do, we heal. It's what we're made to do, y'know? 'Sides, nobody's broken yet. Just banged up a little, eh?" He patted his friend's back with the non-duckling hand, just hugging with the other, and tried to smile and sound like he was smiling.

Herbert was trying, Geo could tell, but his scent stayed...worried? He'd never been as good at this as Sammy. "Don't wanna be banged up. S-sucks." He pulled free of the hug, half-embarrassed, half wanting to keep hugging. "Sorry. And...is that a duck?"

"Erm. Yes. Her name is Elda." Sammy named her, and Sammy had two more hidden in the laundry room-- or somewhere else-- at home. Herbert didn't think he ought to say that. "Apparently she... imprinted on me? So she thinks I'm her pa."

Elda peep-quacked at him, a tiny little sound that wasn't quite bird but wasn't quite duck, either.

"Come on, go sit down on the couch," Herbert suggested. "I'll go put her in her box and be right back, okay?"

Geo couldn't stop just blinking at the itty-bitty duck - such a tiny little critter! All fluff and fuzz... He shook his head abruptly when Herbert spoke. "'k." He moved over to the couch, sitting sideways with his back against the armrest and his arms wrapped around his knees. His mind made an effort to think, but that effort was swiftly rejected as he watched for Herbert's return.

The werebear headed back into his bedroom to the slightly beat-up looking cardboard box he'd picked up from behind the grocery store the day before. "There you go," he told Elda quietly tucking her into it, onto the little nest he'd made out of a hand towel. He gave the top of her head a little scritch, looking over his shoulder in the direction of the living room. He really didn't know what to do-- Geo didn't look like he was doing so well, even without the bandages, and that wasn't exactly Herbert's field of expertise.

But he was still Geo's friend, so he figured he'd better give it a try. He patted Elda gently one more time, then stood up and headed back into the living room to join Geo on the couch, sitting sideways, himself, so he could face Geo. "So. Rrrm. What happened?" If Geo didn't mind talking about it, anyway.

"Got sloppy, stopped paying attention for a freakin' second, got a metal claw in the eye for my trouble." Geo forced himself to blurt the sentence before he could rethink his even being here. It wasn't healthy to brood, and keep things in and sulk - even something this crappy. Especially since the doctor was right - this wasn't the end of the world. "Hurts, but I'll survive."

Herbert frowned at that. "Metal?" he repeated. Not silver-- surely not silver, or Geo would still be at the hospital; wouldn't he? But the very thought was horrible. "Are you okay?" he settled for. "Was it one of them?" Another reason to be glad he'd bitten one's head off. Except, you know, he still totally wasn't.

"Metal." He restated. "Some...gah, I don't even know. Copper-silver-bronze composite, heavy on the not-silver, but enough that it freaked out the doctor. 's what daddy said, anyways." He was out of it enough that he didn't notice the slip. "An' it was. Some vampire freak, apparently had nothin' better to do..." He snorted, looking up at Herbert through his eyelashes. "Got saved by another vampire though....'s that irony or somethin' else, there?"

It was still troublesome, but what could Herbert do about a silver-poisoning, anyway? At least Geo wasn't sick, poor guy. Herbert knew how that felt. He also didn't even notice the slip, it seemed natural enough to him. The vampire thing, though.... "Rrr? Seriously?" He looked skeptical, honestly. He was skeptical. Vampires were something he wouldn't be trusting any time soon. Not even Olivia's "friend"-- maybe especially Olivia's friend.

"Yeah. Big guy. Sammy said he was a vampire, anyways." Geo looked away again, hugging his knees. "I didn't...didn't really get a good look at him. Wasn't exactly with it at the time." He'd probably seen or heard something, but right now? Early morning was a blur.

Herbert was going to have to ask Sammy. Because now he needed to know if it was really a vampire, what he said, what he did. If it was Olivia's "friend". Everything. He wasn't going to ask Geo, because if Geo had silver-poisoning then, Herbert was sure he didn't remember much. For the moment, the werebear reluctantly let it go, but he most definitely wasn't going to forget it.

Instead, he reached over to pat Geo's knee lightly with one big hand. "Sammy okay? The metal nails didn't get him, too?"

"H-he staked one. Got scraped up a little, but that was more from hittin' the pavement." He stared at Herbert's hand for a second before looking back to Herbert's eyes with a weak smile. "H-how about you? You ok?"

"As okay as I'm gonna be." Herbert made a little face. "Healed up fine, but still...." Still having rotten dreams and random flashes of blood-taste in his mouth. "Just not happy, y'know?" He scratched a little at the mostly-healed scratch in his scalp. "I'm glad Sammy's okay...." But the look he gave Geo was one that rather clearly said he was worried Geo still wasn't, either.

The glance of concern made him look aside quickly. He'd seen that look enough from Fred and Laverne and the doctor, but this was somehow better-and-worse than those three put together. On one hand, Herbert understood what had happened. On the other, he was still a guy, a guy Geo's age, and...this weakness felt odd. "I am too," He admitted, quietly, "But I....just want to rewind this whole week, or at least last night...and I can't..."

Herbert understood that. So well. He watched Geo for a moment in silence, then quietly admitted to Geo what he hadn't said to Sammy-- and probably never would. It just felt wrong telling someone like Sammy, but he thought maybe Geo would understand and appreciate it, especially now. He swallowed and said, "I bit one of their heads off."

Geo's head shot up, eye wide. "You what?! You...you...hell, Herbert, just...blo-" He cut off the end of the word; it just wasn't right to use it. "Hell..." Herbert, in the weeks since he'd met him, had seemed like the most peaceful of the peaceful guys Geo had ever met. Coming from a family of wereravens, that was a high position. "...have...have you been able to eat since then?" Strange question, perhaps, but if Herbert was anything like him, he'd need to eat.

Yeah, Geo understood. Even understood the eating and taste part, when not even Olivia or Charlie got that one. "Not at first, took me a day or two... and half the time I can still... taste it. It was awful." It still was awful. "They would've really hurt Harper, they already'd broken her arm, and they were cutting me up pretty good, but it's still just...." Wrong. And he still felt wrong, like there was something intrinsically messed up inside him, for doing it. "So I kind of know how you feel. I'd really like to just pretend none of it happened, but I can't, either."

Damnit! That was wrong, as wrong as him fighting, as wrong as Sammy fighting; just a feeling of fundamental this is incorrect. Geo tried to shake it off, tried to shove aside the cloying, overwhelming wave of wrongness, but it didn't leave - just hovered in the background of his thoughts. He leaned forward and reached out to brushed his hand down Herbert's neck, as if compelled to -like he had with Sammy the other night- make sure that the skin was intact. "Guess we'll have to muddle through this mess...can't let Sammy see how freaked out I am 'bout all of this..."

"You and me, we can be quietly freaked out together," Herbert suggested with half a grin. He didn't mind being checked over, really. He'd had that impulse with just about everybody, the past couple days, and he really hoped that things settled down before he got into the habit of it. "I didn't tell him. Didn't think he really oughta know that, y'know?"

"I know exactly." Geo sighed, finally pulling his hand away - scrapes and scabs, but all on their way to healing. "I don't know how to explain any of this to mom and dad...kinda wish that I didn't have to, but...if I tell 'em one thing about what happened and the rest of the town says something else..." Even the jade pendant wouldn't help with that. "But, I mean....vampires? Really?"

"Really really," Herbert said, making a face. "We had some before these ones showed up, but they weren't like this." Regan, who had actually been kind of nice when she wasn't muddling up his head, and Olivia's "friend" who he presumed had been here longer than the current batch, if Olivia had, had time to be "friends" with him. And if that was him admitting that the big guy, Corwin or whatever, wasn't as dangerous as some others, well, nobody could hear it but him. And he wasn't. So there.

"I met one." Geo traced patterns on the back of the couch with one finger. "He was...nice enough. Different, gave me the creeps a bit, but he never seemed like he'd harm anyone." He grimaced. "Guess the legends started from somewhere, yanno? Like how bitten-changed werewolves are the ones that ruin it for the normal, non-psycho weres?" He was mostly thinking outloud. "Because if they're not all like this...?"

Herbert tried not to look too skeptical-- and really, Regan hadn't been that bad... aside from the whole spelling-and-biting thing. Which brought him right back to square one. "I dunno. I don't know much about vampires or, really, much about anything except werebears. Do you really think they can be okay? Vampires?" What next? Demons? Though Geo did have a point with the bitten werewolves versus other types, and all... spirits save him, it was just all so confusing.

"I think they can be ok, I guess?" Geo shrugged. "I mean, prejudices can ruin all sorts of things, yeah? Just because they have to drink blood doesn't mean that they all want to kill everyone they meet, right? Otherwise I'd've been dead by now. I mean, yeah, he couldn't drink from me but I could've ruined everything..."

Though he didn't really follow that, Herbert at least got the gist: the vampire who had helped them out wasn't that bad, and prejudices were generally evil. Prejudices he was apparently guilty of holding, which made him feel bad, even though he couldn't quite just... drop them, yet. The werebear sighed a bit, bringing his knees up so he could fold his arms and rest his chin on them. "It's all just confusing. I hope it settles down some soon... so maybe everything can kind of recover, y'know?"

"That's so needed right now that it isn't funny." Geo grimaced, shaking his head. "For the whole town, I mean...like, no people disappearing, or turning up dead, or getting attacked by vampires or anything like that. Just...time when nothing is happening..." Another grimace. "But...from what I've seen, when it rains, it pours..."

"I can't imagine what it can do more than this," Herbert said hopefully. "So maybe it's done pouring, for now." Either that or he'd just said "how much worse can it get?" which meant he'd completely jinxed it and something else horrible was going to happen. Um.... "This might sound really stupid and you can tell me to shut up or something, but... do you want to die some more at video games, or something?" It was a distraction, a change of subject, to keep him from just feeling worse and worse, to the point where he'd just want to grab Geo and hug on him some more, as the only person available to hug on.

"Video games sound awesome." Though he was now twice as likely to suck at them... he shoved that thought from his mind rather roughly; turning to sit on the couch right. "Really, anything that...isn't real sounds awesome right about now." Strange as it sounded. "Video games, movie, whatever."

It didn't sound strange to Herbert, not one bit. Escape sounded just fine, to him. He didn't enjoy video games much by himself-- it was much more fun having someone to laugh when he died-- so he hadn't really touched them since he, Geo, and Sammy had played the last time. His own escape had been knitting, and even that didn't keep his brain adequately occupied, so this was much better. He slid off the couch to turn things on. "Whoever dies in the most strange and unexpected way wins," he said. Maybe it'd even help them both, a little, just hanging out like nothing was really different.

"You know, in some circles that would be considered losing?" And Geo so didn't care right now. He leaned back, taking one of the controllers with an attempt at a grin. "Shame you only get a set number of lives...then we have to keep restarting and restarting..." Too bad real life wasn't like that - and, if it was, where were the save points? He'd have to lodge a complaint about that. "But I bet ya I'll beat ya."

"We'll see about that," Herbert chuckled-- and put in the game that had the least to do with undead that he had, settling back against the couch next to Geo's legs. "May the best were win."