[center][h2][u]REALITY CHECK[/u][/H2] [img]http://i.imgur.com/LJFSHET.png?1[/img][/center] [indent][indent]Location: Somewhere in California. Time: Early Afternoon [/indent][/indent] Sunlight peered through the moth eaten curtains and into the room, illuminating the hazy darkness. It glided over the end of the bed and across the tucked in sheets before coming to rest, blinding Avatar in the face. Instinctively, his right arm jerked up then shielded his eyes. Turning his face away, his eyelids tightened in irritation and his nose scrunched up. His torso pulled away, retracting from the abrupt wake call. A small moan escaped his lips in subtle protest as he curled into a ball against the awareness stirring into his attention. With the passing moments, the memory foam topper on his stiff mattress adjusted to his shape once more. Sighing, Avatar pleaded for sleep to take him again. After an indistinguishable amount of time pass, it was clear that his efforts remained fruitless and insomnia had officially won this round. Irritated by the encroaching day on his rare trip into the REM sleep stage, Avatar roughly flipped his upper body back again. His fingers began to rub away the grit collected within his sight while he stumbled into awareness. Blindly he began to smack about for his glasses on the table next to him. Each failure brought a soft sting to his fingers and a rumbling, displeased grunt sound from him at the empty palm. Finally, his fingers wrapped about the metal frames then slide them toward him. Snapping them open one handedly, he followed up by pressing them to his face. Avatar blinked to allow his vision to adjust once more and leaned firmly against his right elbow. Grinding the end into the mattress, he settled into a comfortable position while he leaned his head down to ruffle his bangs from his eyes. He then shifted his attention toward the digital clock. It blinked 12 PM. [color=#cc9900] “Tch,”[/color] he whispered through his clenched teeth. It figured it the time would’ve been less than an hour before Mia arrived and if she spotted him still within his bed, he would never hear the end of it. Without another comment, Avatar flopped flat onto his back. His hand then reached for his nearby pillow and flipped it over his face as he screamed in frustration. His arm cusped the edge and let gravity hold it there while he screamed, the fluff muffling the sound. Having released his fill, he stilled then tossed it aside to breathe again. He deeply inhaled a cleansing breath. While his temper would not hasten his goal, it at least helped in calming his churning mind. He rocked his upper body to lean over the edge and stretched his arm out. He slapped the air until he finally clasped something hard. A wheel chair arm. His fingers tightened about the cheap, leather before he pulled it toward him. He wasn’t in the mood to bother with imperfected prosthetic limbs that locked or jammed today. Besides, being reminded of loss served its purpose. It gave him reason and fueled him to continue working on his special project. He owed his accomplishments to that motivation. He frowned and briefly wondered why he ever got out of bed at all. Shaking the depression off, he pulled past the prosthetic limbs and snatched the sliding board next to it. Once he was satisfied it was in place and secure, he proceeded to finish getting up from his bed. Straightening his arm, he scooched over to the bed’s edge to set the brakes on the wheelchair. Avatar finally situated himself within his seat before unclipping the brakes and rolled it in reverse to change his direction. The mechanical whirring buzzed in the background with the wheels rotation. On entering the large closet, he idly wondered what he could chose for this day’s ‘challenges’. The man finally settled on a simple setup: shirt, tie, and loose pants. Technically shoes and socks were useless since he wouldn’t be walking at all and most days served to both impress or give a sense of normalcy to others. A faint hope they would over look the missing bits. Personally, he honestly didn’t give a damn about that in his current mood. It was even less likely with Mia, who had worked around numerous disable during her career. Pushing his way toward the closet back, clothes folded in his lap, something caught his peripheral vision. He promptly paused then turned to fully take in the image of his current state. The main thing he noticed were the obvious dark rings puffing under his eyes. With his organic hand, he tenderly prodded the swollen skin from sleep deprivation. With a irritated huff, he knew Mia wouldn’t be pleased about his presentation in the least as he jerked his chair about and wheeled toward the back door of his closet. Everything within the house was designed for his condition, primarily to give him independence, but it took time. About over half an hour later, he was washed and dressed when Mia arrived. Hearing her hand tapped upon his front door, he pushed his wheels forward into the living/kitchen then pushed open the door. It released with a soft creak revealing a dark skin woman in her early thirties, juggling two bags of groceries and her purse. Her hips tilted to the side while she lifted up the bags. [color=9BC4E2] “Figured you were running low on groceries and needed them,” [/color]she commented then advanced into the house, her tennis shoes squeaked across the wooden floor. She quickly snapped the door shut behind her as Avatar wheeled his way toward the kitchen ahead of her. He tilted his head, hand gripped the towel ends hooked about his neck, and watched Mia begin to put away the assorted goods. Her dark eyes shifted to spy him wheeling toward the bathroom casing her to speak,[color=9bc4e2] “Mind gathering your dirty clothes? I'll take them to the laundromat while we’re out and get you some fresh air. You need to get out more often than just during your therapy appointments.”[/color] [color=cc9900] “I'll politely decline,”[/color] Avatar shouted back on his route to the bathroom. He leaned within his chair to snatch the discarded clothes on the counter and those which had fallen on the floor, tossing each hazardly into the plastic bag lining his hamper. [color=9bc4e2] “Oh sugar, that wasn't an invitation. That was a fact. We’re going out after you're done eating as you need to get out this house and interact with some real people,”[/color] Mia shouted back, followed by the sounds of crinkling plastic and shifting dishes,[color=9bc4e2] “I got you something you might like. Where’s your chopsticks? Never mind, I found ‘em.”[/color] Avatar rolled his eyes then began to backtrack into the kitchen/living half of the apartment house. Mia was already strolling into the living room with two platefuls of food, primary sushi, as she set them down on a side table. Pulling out two dinner trays from the recliner side, she held one over to Avatar [color=9bc4e2] “Put that up will ya?”[/color] Sighing again, Avatar reached with his good limb for the metal edge and sat it upside down in his lap. Flipping up the table’s legs, he then pushed it upright in front of him before Mia the plate down.[color=cc9900] “I hope you weren't expecting this to be authentic Japanese sushi because it's actually not. California rolls were designed and made here in the states, not Japan.”[/color] [color=9bc4e2] “Someone woke up in a shitty mood this morning. Didn't you take your insomnia medicine last night?”[/color] Mia asked, passing the chopsticks. Frowning deeper, Avatar reached for his set and positioned the correctly before he started to pinch a piece at the end. In a dismissive tone he commented.[color=cc9900] “It slipped my mind.”[/color] He popped the sushi into his mouth to prevent any more words as he chewed calmly. His eyes observed her reaction to his statement. By this time, having never used them before, Mia had decided to stab rather than pinch her sushi. Slipping her first piece into her mouth, her eyes darkened in annoyance. In an expected fashion, she wasn't pleased about his admittance to being forgetful and wasted little time in voicing it. [color=9bc4e2] “You know you're suppose to take those every day!”[/color] She snapped abruptly, pointing her chopstick, with another sushi stabbed on the end, at him. It nearly flipped off into Avatar’s face causing him to pull back cautiously. Realizing she had almost splattered him with food, she hastily set it down into her wrap then continued,[color=9bc4e2] “At least I know why you're so crabby, but seriously you need to remember them. The doctor didn't give them to you just sit on a shelf and look pretty. They are meant to help.”[/color] Scooping up his wrap into his hand, he paused long enough to speak before biting down,[color=cc9900] “If my project works successfully then I won't need-”[/color] [color=9bc4e2] “That project is likely why you keep forgetting,”[/color] Mia said off handed. Her shoulders shrugged and started in on her own wrap, a bacon and turkey lettuce one, [color=9bc4e2] “Don't give me that look. You know I speak the truth.”[/color] Avatar sighed for the third time that afternoon and shook his head at the misguided nurse. He continued to eat in utter silence without another word on the subject so to not upset his caretaker. It was going to be a long day.