Strange

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The virus hit Lucia hard. Four strains at once, one of them being particularly distressing, all of them being terribly painful. Confined to her bed, the month so far hadn’t been the best. The quarantine was just one of many misfortunes.

The rooms in the hospital might have been cozy, but Lucia was too sick to enjoy that small blessing. Though patients were allowed to bring personal items, she didn’t have the time or energy to pack anything. It wasn’t like she needed her stuff, anyways. Necessities were supplied by the staff here. There was television and radio entertainment available as well, but turning either of them on gave Lucia an intense headache, so she was left to continue doing what she did before the quarantine: absolutely nothing.

The fever threw her body into a state of disorder. One moment, she was burning up, and the next she was freezing. At least at home, she was able to semi-regulate this by tossing her blankets off then on then off again. At the quarantine, she tried to keep most of her body covered. She was sure her roommate had already gotten a glance at her elongated form, red skin, horns, and extra limb, but it wasn’t something she wanted on display for longer than it needed to be. She was staying wary around the other apparent demon in the room.
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Hyper

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This really sucked.

At least, Valentine would think that if he was still capable of his normal coherence. The virus didn't really beat him down that much. As far as he knew, he only contracted one strain so far and he'd already guessed it was Popsiccus. He's slightly betting getting Clairaforesus too but who really knew at this point?

Valentine had been moved to quarantine as soon as it went up to keep him from spreading the virus with the other kids in the orphanage despite the fact he was already in an isolated room. Safety, the told him and he didn't really bother arguing and instead just packed up what he could to bring to the quarantine. He'd brought a few books but next thing he knew he was done with all of them before he even realized.

Now he was bored. You'd think the medication for his high fever would have put him to sleep but maybe it had a different effect on him because of his biology? Shay was in the quarantine too but she had her family over. He didn't want to barge in so here he was in his shared room. He stared at the mirror, a frown set on his face as he studied his demonic reflection. He'd imagined himself having horns but the reddened skin and scales wasn't really his thing. He had more scales than he remembered too, and that bothered him. He was looking equally snakier and more demonic as the days passed.

From the mirror, his gaze moved to the other person in the room. His eyesight hadn't been the best with the medication at work, but he swore he saw red which let him assume they had the same strain. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen her outside their room. He doesn't think he'd seen her at all. Did he know her name at all?

Valentine made his way to her bed side, wobbling along until he knelt next to her, trying to peer at the top of the blanket where he assumed her head was. He poked her a once, twice before speaking quietly. "Psst. Psst. Hey you awake there, Red?"

 
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Strange

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The virus just seemed to make Lucia’s senses annoyingly sensitive. The bright hospital lights burned her eyes. The rough blankets agitated her already itchy skin. Her roommate’s footsteps only heightened her headache and her anxiety as they got louder and closer. It was hard to tell, but it almost felt like he was standing right by her bedside. That was a scary notion. She hadn’t seen him, but she imagined what the demon would look like - face red, a pair of twisted horns protruding from his forehead, eyes black and soulless, tall and gaunt and terrifying. He could be looming over her bed right now, watching her. And she was so vulnerable, such easy prey for whatever malicious intentions he might have. Shivering, she curled up and made herself smaller under the uncomfortable blanket. Her mind was playing tricks on her, she reasoned. Her roommate was probably sitting in his bed, across the room and far away from her. There was nothing to worry about.

Then she felt a poke. A hand that slithered out and touched her. Lucia whimpered. Red, he hissed. He called her Red. She was red, just like him, and she had horns and raw skin and she breathed fire. A sniffle came from beneath the blanket where the pathetic girl hid. It bunched up around her as she pulled the fabric closer to herself. For a moment, she tried to close her eyes and imagine that she was back at home in her dorm, where she could be safe and alone, where she wouldn’t have to worry about other people and evil demons, but she couldn’t shake this miserable reality.

As she felt her feet go cold, she realized a small puddle had appeared at her feet. Another side effect of the awful virus. Her powers, regularly unpredictable control of fire, had turned into even more unpredictable control of water. The puddles always appeared at the worst times. Lucia had to roll a bit to get out of the puddle, but now the bed and her socks were wet, and she couldn't do anything about it. It probably bled through the blanket, too. It was probably visible on the other side. Oh, no.

She opened her mouth to say something, but the only noise that came out was a muffled sob. Covering her face, she tried to compose herself. “I didn’t - that’s not - I didn’t pee!” she croaked. Her voice was hoarse, and it sounded like she was desperately holding back tears. Between the foreign place, the demon stranger, and the fact that she was now soaked, this really sucked.
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Hyper

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Valentine's eyes fell into a few lazy blinks, awfully slow for someone wide awake. Then again, he could call himself anything but awake right now. His roommate didn't seem like they were asleep either but they were hiding under the sheets for some reason. Scared, maybe? He didn't think the horns and extra scales made a difference with how he looked everyday. He flicked his forked tongue once or twice, thoughtfully, but regretted the reflex immediately -- the power fluctuations in the quarantine made him just as dizzy as the virus did.

With Valentine's barely sober state, he really wouldn't have noticed anything else up with his roomie since his own vision was solely focused on where he assumed his roomie's face was. It was only when they said something about wetting their bed that made him look to finally see the darkening stain of the hospital blanket. He snorted just a little then covered his mouth with his hands after making such a reaction. He was trying not to laugh.

"See, I wasn't going to say anything but I'll believe you," he said, his voice sounding like he was floating. He could barely register the whimper in the other's voice. "Why hide though? I'm just a baby snake. It's not like I could eat you; you're too tall," he teased the girl. He didn't want to talk to someone hiding under blankets but he wanted to talk to someone at least. "I'm sick, sad, and friendless and Shay's too busy with family stuff."

 

Strange

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Under the covers, Lucia’s face would’ve gotten redder if it could have. The other demon was taunting her, now, she was sure of it. He laughed at her. He thought she was pathetic. She felt pathetic.

“Oh,” she whispered, feeling the attention on her body. No, this wasn’t her body. Her body was small, petite, and easily fit through most doorways. Short, but she didn’t consider that a bad thing; she was used to it. It was who she was. Now, if she willed them to, her legs could reach far past the edge of the hospital bed. This was wrong. She hugged her knees, bringing them even closer to her chest, as if doing so could shrink her back to normal.

“Baby snakes grow quickly,” she muttered. And she already felt like she had been swallowed whole.

Unsurprisingly, Lucia wasn’t too keen on making casual conversation. But as soon as the words “sick, sad, and friendless” came out of the snake’s mouth, Lucia felt something poignant resonate inside her. He wasn’t the only one. “Yeah...me too,” Lucia sighed, “Except I don’t know what a Shay is, but I don’t think that really matters.”
 

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"It's not like I can grow in the next few minutes. I could wish I could but that's probably not happening any time soon," Valentine sighed. Of all the rare times he wanted company, he got stuck with someone who didn't want to talk. Rotten luck, just as always, wasn't it? How bad could it get though; surely being confined in quarantine with a bunch of other sick people is as bad as things could get. "I mean either way, I don't eat people. I'm not that bad a person."

"Shay's a classmate. I'd say friend but I think she thinks I'm a pet or something," the snake demon huffed a breath. He didn't want to be mad about it but Shay gave of that vibe that she thinks she owned him and that he honestly hated. "But yeah, most of her family is here and I don't wanna butt into family reunions or stuff. It makes me feel uncomfortable so I'm staying here. What's your deal?"

 
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Strange

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Not that bad a person? What was that supposed to mean? Well, there were plenty of horrible things that weren’t as bad as cannibalism. Like arson, or illegally downloading music. For all she knew, the snake might’ve even been lying to her face! Lying wasn’t as bad as cannibalism.

“Huh?” Lucia was taken off-guard. “A pet?” Someone had this terrifying, red, imposing, gigantic, probably-scaly demon with horns...on a leash? She let out a laugh at the thought. Her hands quickly flew to cover her mouth, and giggling, she blurted a muffled apology. “Sorry, I’m sorry! I’m not laughing at you, it’s just, you’re too scary to be a pet!” A big bad snake demon definitely didn’t sound like your typical friendly companion. Even so, Lucia hoped she didn’t make him feel bad by saying that. Suddenly, she grew quiet. “I’m not laughing at you,” she repeated, her voice serious.

“I’m uncomfortable too. I don’t--I don’t want anybody to see me like this,” she said. She didn’t elaborate on why, although with the admission she most certainly began to dwell on thoughts of her new and uninvited features.

A third hand with a mind of its own reached above Lucia’s head and yanked the covers down, revealing the ugly truth. Her body was contorted in a pose that desperately tried to shrink itself down, but her unnaturally-proportioned form was too obvious to be glossed over. Eye-burning red skin and two small, pointy horns on her forehead exposed her own demonic heritage. Her hair, long since faded to its natural, dull brown, sat limply around her shoulders. For a second, she sat there staring at nothing, partially in shock. It didn’t take long for her eyes to drift downwards, widen, then shoot to the onlooker.

Lucia barely caught a glimpse of the red she so feared before pulling the blanket back up. Hide, hide, she needed to hide. The blanket reached her forehead when she paused. There was hardly time to register what just happened, but the unfocused silhouette of the snake had tempted her to take another look. She tugged the blanket below her chin, but then, as if deciding that was showing too much, to just above her nose. Her eyes peeked out, studying the other demon.
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Normally, if people laughed at Valentine, he would be very angry about it -- in any other instance he would have stood up, raised his voice and said 'You think it's funny? I'm too scary for you, huh? Scales are too freaky? Is that it?'. The case though, was that he wasn't really himself with his mind drowning in the medications' side effects. He chuckled along with Lucia and easily let her laughs slide. Instead of being confrontational about it, he forgave her knowing it wasn't far from the truth he was forced to face when he was thrown into the real word where the walls of his home could hide him -- and he didn't even have the horns and red skin then.

Valentine let out a soft chuckle again. "Right, right? Shay thinks I'm a cute pet though. Everyone before her used to say I'm a freak. I didn't even have these horns. Just the scales. When I was younger, Papa told me I was okay the way I was but maman said people would be scared so they didn't let me out of the house. The other kids called me a creepy lizard kid too..." His voice trailed off, memories flooded him for a moment, distracting him from the present.

The sound of the blanket being abruptly moved seemed to shake him out of the memory; it took a while to register: the red skin, her body seemed too long and the skin seemed unnatural -- did that look like clay? He didn't have time to evaluate much but if he was in the right mind, it would have all registered in that short seconds she spent frozen in shock.

The snake demon opened his mouth, then closed it, opened it again and closing it a second time. He seemed to struggle with his thoughts for a moment. His eyes just seemed to study her face mostly, as she hid behind the white cloth. He could see the red clearly now, and the horns on her forehead weren't under blankets anymore.

She didn't want anyone to see her like this, she said. Like what? Long and stretchy? Or perhaps red and demonic? She'd been so scared of him just now; almost like those other kids in the old orphanage. They were scared of him too especially after he said he was the child of a demon. Valentine's expression was somber. "Hey, do you... not like demons?" were the words that tumbled out of his mouth.

 
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Strange

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Lucia was a bit relieved when Valentine didn’t seem to be bothered by her comment, but as his speech took a turn into a dark place, the only thing she knew to do was laugh along nervously. She felt an unpleasant pit of guilt building in her stomach and a tinge of pity for the snake boy.

And as she took in the demon’s appearance, that guilt only began to grow. His figure wasn’t nearly as menacing as she expected, his eyes definitely not soulless, and yet she was still put-off. Unnerved. Why? Her eyes searched for an answer to the wrong question, something that wasn’t physical. They made contact with his and immediately darted away.

Valentine’s question was the tipping point. There was a lump in her throat and her eyes burned and she was frustrated and confused and oh that opened the floodgates. A sharp intake of breath, and she let it out in a heavy sob. The tears were flowing again. Her grip on the blanket tightened and she was shaking her head back and forth. Something inaudible came out of her mouth, trying to explain herself in between breaths. Her eyes were shut tight. She felt disgusting, and probably looked it, too - a pathetic, blubbering mess.
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Hyper

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The thing about Valentine's current state of mind is that he was notably slower than his normal. This other demon started to violently cry, but he seemed lost for a second or two, confused even as to why she would suddenly do so. Eventually his mind did catch up to the moment, finally registering the incoherent mumbling in between her sobs as she rocked herself into a partial cocoon within her blankets.

He was at a loss of words, his natural eloquence beyond him. He really needed that right now but not even the thought of wanting clarity crossed his mind. In that instance of being intoxicated by medicine, all he could really think of was reaching out to pet the girl as she cried. He was careful with this, having at least some sense not to rake his now-sharpened nails into her skin. It would have probably felt like he was running a comb through her hair and tickling her back. His papa used to do this to comfort him, especially after he'd lost his maman, but he would use his claws at the time.

Valentine managed to speak after that, "I don't know why you're crying but okay, just cry it out," he muttered, not really completely understanding the situation. He remembered something about his papa telling him to 'cry it all' out after his maman passed away. He couldn't cry then though, he didn't really understand mortality and by the time he did, it had been a year and all he could feel was the absence of his mother's warmth.

 
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