[OPEN-ISH]

[starseedling]

Who: Steven, Greg, Peridot, Zecora, and OPEN.
Where: The Doctor's medical tent.
When: After the attempted agent kidnapping of him and Peridot.
What: Steven gets shot with a gun, and has to go to the doctor. It's upsetting.
Warnings: Gun wounds, the left overs of violence.

When they port back into their real bodies, it's like everything's started all over again. The hit his body takes from it is instantaneous - and now there is a pain in his mind along with it that hadn't been there before. It's like the echo of what happened to him in the Matrix has overwhelmed his mind, and that his mind has inflicted it back to him. The mind makes it real, or whatever. He's just glad that he's not a full gem, for a solitary moment, because if his mind did this to him now, he doesn't want to consider what could have happened to his physical form if it was entirely reliant on it.

He staggers down onto the grass, the exit wound in his back burning, and blood bubbling out of his nose. Transitioning through realities has just made everything even more confusing, and he doesn't take much initiative besides letting Peridot carry him. They're back at the carnival. But they're not home.

It isn't until they've made it to the medical tent that the adrenaline has faded and things start to hurt for real. With some of the shock beginning to pass, the pain and fear is quick to catch up with him. He really wants someone to hold him, but he knows that he has to have his injury looked after first. He doesn't even consider trying to act tough, this time. Instead, he whimpers and starts to cry a little once he's laid down, too confused and scared to reason with himself or do much about anything.

[The open portion takes place after he's been patched up a bit and is resting, for anyone who wants to check on him.]

Comments

[starseedling]

"It's kind of sore and stuff," he says, laying back at Joker's urging and not resisting that any further. He doesn't really want to, after all. "And... itchy? Is it usually like that?"

With bullet wounds? With Zecora's healing? Who knows.

[pipers_son]

“As someone who has flown inta more buildings and tents than I can count and had ta get patched up, I can tell ya that sometimes things just itch and ya gotta weather it out.” Sympathetically, he pats Steven’s arm. No answer on the bullet part. For all that he’s gone through, somehow being shot hasn’t been on the list. Really only a matter of time.

“But while yer recoverin’, want me ta get ya anythin’?”

[starseedling]

Steven has to think about that. There are a lot of things that he might theoretically want, at the moment - something to make the aching go away, something to entertain himself with. Yet, he's pretty sure that this just might be as good as it gets.

He hesitates for a few more moments.

"Can you... can you let Lion know that I'm here?"

[pipers_son]

Ah, right. The giant pink lion that’s been hanging around the rest of the menagerie. Joker’s caught sight of him a few times in his usual “go bother Ginko” routine. All in all, not the strangest thing that the carnival has run into, honestly.

Joker gives a reassuring smile, one last pat to Steven’s arm given. “Yeah, I can let him know. That it?”

[starseedling]

He thinks about that for a few moments, and then leans back, his lethargy returning. Any trace of a smile fades from his face as he reflects on everything.

"Yeah," he says quietly. Nothing else will help. Not really.

[pipers_son]

Well, he guesses that’s only to be expected. Pushing himself up to his feet, he smiles down to him gently. “I’ll have someone in the cookhouse send ya somethin’ nice later,” he promises. It’s not much, but it’s the best he can offer. After all, he can’t say that he’ll make sure this never happens, right?