Zachary Ackerson
Jezebel Volcov
"Wow fuck coding in this website, amirite? Ah? Ah?"
After Cyrus explained the current situation, Jezebel let a groan slip past her teeth. Though just seconds later she chuckled to herself. It was still possible to hear how uneasy she was.
“Seriously?!” She stood beside Zachary and Mercy.
“As if one of us are a traitor, we totally just got here. I doubt either of us could be some grody backstabber.” She giggled a bit more.
“But I guess you can't be too sure.” The trickster looked between the people at either side of her before sighing.
“Well whatever, I guess we should just get this over with.” She pointed at Zachary without looking at him.
“Okay mister archer, let's look at your room.”It was not as though Zachary didn't already assume that there was at least one person who would be among the group that actually was an insider of some sort. That thing was typical in movies, after all. Still, hearing such news did not make him feel much better, nor did his room suddenly being volunteered despite not even having much of a chance to check it out.
Well, it wasn't as though he had anything to hide in there.
"We'll be checking yours next, won't we?" he shot back at the clown.
“W-we? Oh my god...” Jezebel started to twiddle her thumbs.
“Isn't it so inappropriate to check out a girl's room though? Like...” With a huff, she placed her hands on her hips.
“Guys have no class. Whatever! Sure, we can do that.” She folded her arms. “Lead the way.”
Zachary narrowed his eyes at the jester.
"I hope you're aware you nearly just pushed me into a weird group hug that I did not want to be a part of." he sighed. Were woman always so difficult? He wasn't exactly a playboy, so he really wouldn't know.
Wait, this would be the first time he invited a girl into his room. Not the most romantic scenario, but still...
...I shouldn't think about that, though. Besides, she's basically a clown. But then again, she's also maybe a bit older~....Shaking his head to clear his mind of such thoughts, Zach continued.
"Whatever, follow me, then." he waved his hand as a gesture to follow him and then left the break room.
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...
Zachary used his handbook to open the door and then stepped inside, waiting for Jez to follow. He looked around and noticed a mostly plain patient's room, aside from a quiver stuffed with arrows he imagined to be fake resting on the wall and a target for practice sitting in the corner of the room. It certainly wasn't that special.
"Here it is." he announced. Getting a good glance at it now, he felt it was rather plain.
"There's probably nothing of suspicious in here, but I didn't really bother to check last night so I could be wrong." Jezebel smiled a bit too happily.
“Oh, I'm sure there's plenty off with this room, fer shur. It's just a little bit too normal.” Jezebel didn't waste any time prodding around the room. She felt around walls, pulled at loose molding, anything that seemed the least bit suspicious instantly caught her eye. Of course, this made sense. Jezebel was the infinite trickster, and probably knew a thing or two about secret hiding places and trap doors. It hadn't even been ten seconds and she was already done checking half the walls.
“I was expecting your room to be totally trippendicular, but it's actually pretty simple.” She continued to search.
“Anyway, got something you want to tell me?” She spoke without looking at the archer.
“For a guy with clown phobia, you came here pretty fast.”Zachary wasn't sure whether to be impressed or nervous that Jezebel was as efficient as she was. It brought up a lot of questions, but perhaps it was best not to ask those. Besides, he did have something important on his mind he wanted to discuss with her anyway. Focusing on that was ideal to learning something weird.
"Y-you mean Coulrophobia?" he corrected, before realizing how knowing such a term probably didn't help his case one bit.
"Err, ignore that..." the Infinite Archer rubbed the back of his neck. He really did not do his best around clowns, that was for sure, but he didn't like the idea that he was "scared" of them. Just wary.
Zach decided to get back on track.
"It sounds weird that I bothered coming with you, doesn't it? But I think it makes perfect sense. I had something I wanted to ask you, but more importantly, I felt that you were like the only one I could really trust... sort of." he admitted.
“We are so the newest people here. I get that.” She slid Zachary's “nightstand” and bed away from the wall to continue checking.
“But what did you want to ask me?”She probably could not see it while she was busy checking the room, but Zachary smiled. He found it pleasant someone could understand his reasoning, even if it should be very obvious anyway.
"Oh, that." Zachary felt a bit embarrassed to ask something like this, but unfortunately for him Google was not there to provide him a way out. He would have to do things the old-fashioned way.
"So what's a "Baldwin"? You keep saying that, but I'm not sure if it's some ironic insult or what." he asked.
"I can't really react to it properly without knowing what it is." “Seriously?!” Now that caused Jezebel to look in his direction. Though shortly after making eye contact with him she turned away. Was she blushing under that makeup?
“Um.” She looked back at the archer.
“A Baldwin is like the guy version of a Betty. Someone who's tre cute.” She nodded before moving to the front of the nightstand.
“I can look in here, right?” Zachary was a fairly arrogant person, so accepting praise was only natural to him. However, this mostly pertained to his skill with a bow. He was not very used to being called cute. Compliments like that were....
"Oh, err... um." Zachary laughed awkwardly, turning the other way in an attempt to hide the blush he was wearing.
"T-thanks, I guess. Aha." Never once in his life did he imagine anything resembling a clown making him blush. He wasn't able to recover from being flustered very quickly, so he instinctively just said "yes" to her question, only seconds later realizing that she was asking the inspect the nightstand.
That wasn't good.
There was only one drawer on the nightstand, and by the time Jezebel had it opened, it was too late for him to tell her to look away.
“Oh?” She reached into the drawer and pulled out an old arrowhead. It was old and worn, both discolored and dull from use or age.
“What is this thing?”Motherfucker.He did not want her to find what was in that nightstand, but he had let his embarrassment get the better of him. He couldn't help but be a bit irritated at himself for acting like that since he was supposed to keep himself calm most of the time. Damn clowns making his face beet-red!
Returning to the issue at hand... A complex emotion crossed Zach's face for a brief moment when Jez held up the arrowhead, but it soon went back to a typical straight expression.
"Ah, that's... uh, well it's just an arrowhead that holds a bit of sentimental value to me, I must have forgotten to take it with me this morning since I was in a bit of a daze." Zachary explained.
"Huh? There's something else in here," Jezebel looked into the drawer again. As Zachary had expected, that wasn't all that was in there.
“Gag me with a spoon!” With her other hand, she pulled out a sports magazine. It was a swimsuit special and seemed to feature a few of the more athletic infinites on the cover. Jezebel didn't say a word. The jovial clown's half mast eyes and straight lips were able to project her disapproval of her discovery through her thick makeup. She slowly rolled her eyes and turned to look at the archer, silently judging him.
And, of course, Jez had to hold up the magazine that was in there.
Zachary felt intense pressure under the look he was being shot. He couldn't allow her to think he was some pervert!
"I was in the waiting room for a few hours and had nothing better to do than reading the magazines they had out!" he nearly shouted.
"I just found that on me when I awoke, this must be some kind of prank by that dumb bear, I'm sure! Haha..." Jezebel's face was frozen with that look of disappointment.
“Grody to the max!” She placed the magazine and arrowhead back into the makeshift nightstand before walking out of the room.
“Baldwin card revoked, by the way. I'm so going to hurt you if you try to sniff anything in my dresser.”Zachary must have screwed up somewhere. He didn't even care if he made it out alive anymore. What was the point?
BAD END
Except not really.
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"But I'm not..."On the way to Jezebel's room, Zachary was obviously hurt by the implication he was some sort of creep. He repeated the line "But I'm not like that" about a hundred times under his breath and had moved with all the vigor of a limp noodle.
Eventually, the two reached Jezebel's room.
Jezebel's room was quite a bit different than Zachary's. It was still a patient's room, but it had a lot more furnishings. Colored flags hung from the ceiling, and the floor was covered in straw. There was also a unicycle leaned up against one of the walls, as well as much smaller items spread about the room like decks of playing cards, cans of silly string, and colored juggling balls. This was definitely the room of the infinite trickster.
Jezebel stepped off to the side and leaned up against the doorway with her arms folded. She had cooled off shortly after leaving his room, but Jezebel looked a bit sheepish. She avoided looking directly at Zachary as he entered the room
“So yea, get to it.” As he stepped into Jezebel's room, Zachary managed to retrieve himself from the edge of despair. Or whatever he was at.
"This is..." he found himself a bit put-off by the choice of flooring and...well, everything. It was an obnoxious room, in his opinion.
"Wait, why does your room make mine look like someone just half-assed it?!" he suddenly became very angry at this dumb reason, but calmed down just as quickly.
"Whatever, I guess I'll get started then." he announced, not wanting to speak to the unhappy Jezebel anymore than he had to right now.
Zachary did his best to clean the room, but that's all he could really do. If you compared Zach's speed with Jez's in this particular matter, it was like comparing a cheetah with a sloth, in that there was no real comparison. Zachary was nowhere near as quick, and he did have much more to do than Jez on top of that, which was probably the only real benefit of having a simple room like his. But he would not give up! He checked behind the flags for any secret safes or stuff like that (not that he really expected anything of that sort) and had to pick up and inspect any sizable item laying around.
"I'm starting to think I wouldn't find anything even if there was something here." he complained, but continued away at searching every nook and cranny he could think of.
A heavy silence separated the two for some time, until the Infinite Trickster broke it.
Jezabel sighed.
“I uh.” She rubbed the back of her head.
“I'm like, a little sensitive around that sort of stuff. Men's desires and all that.” She looked away from Zach.
“Like, I've so seen stuff a lot worse than that. And we need to trust each other so, like.” She shrugged her shoulders before making eye contact with him.
“You can have your Baldwin card back. I didn't mean to get upset.”The Infinite Archer was obviously still in the middle of his search when Jezebel began to speak, but as soon as it became clear she was saying something that sounded serious, he stood up and turned to face her with a serious face. He was a man who believed that one's full attention should be given to important matters, and this sounded like one.
Jezebel spoke in words that caused Zach a bit of pain. Not that she insulted him or something, but the wording gave him some ideas about what she really meant that made it very unpleasant to think about. He hoped he was wrong, but they certainly weren't close enough for him to confirm it.
"...Is that so?" was the best response he could come up with to what she had said before she resumed eye contact with him.
As the jester continued and returned the "Baldwin card" she had taken from Zach earlier, he couldn't help but smile. It was a very simple and silly thing, but the fact she bothered to apologize for getting upset was respectable in his eyes.
"Trust is a nice thing to have in a situation like this." he replied.
"And I guess if you're willing to apologize for something silly like this, then you can't be too bad." It was a bit hard for him to say, especially to her specifically, but Zach continued.
"We seem to be in a bit of a tough situation and I know it's hard, but... I would not be against learning to trust you if you'll do the same." The clown only smiled in response, choosing to remain quiet while he finished inspecting her room.
As touching as the moment earlier may have been, Zach still had to investigate what appeared to be the remains of a clown fiesta, and it wasn't exactly easy. Still, he managed to chug along at a reasonable pace. The better part of a minute had passed by with neither of them saying anything until Jezebel spoke up again. Zachary was just about done at this point.
“You still owe me a hug, like, you know?” She stepped away from the wall. She wore a nervous smile, but it was the happiest she looked since entering her own room with him.
"That again?" he said, standing up and facing Jezebel from finishing up the last of the odd items on the floor. He took a moment to thank whatever higher being existed for that horrible experience finally being done before continuing.
"I..." Again, he really wasn't one for that whole touching thing, and they did not really know each other that well. Besides, physical contact with the opposite gender in their room was not something he was great at, and that's exactly how you would describe this situation. He certainly was hesitant at the idea. Hopefully, nobody randomly walked in.
"...you aren't going to try to place a "kick me" sign on my back or anything, are you?" he questioned.
The clown's smile broadened.
“In another life, maybe.” She spread out her arms.
“We're totally building trust here, right, right?”There was a second of silence before Zachary decided to finally answer.
"...I guess." Hesitantly, Zachary gave in and completed the hug, probably bright red in the face as he did so.
Once the hug was completed, Jezebel moved her hand up to where she had patted Zachary on the back previously and removed the “Hug me” note she had taped between his shoulder blades. She quietly crinkled it up and dropped it on the floor before completing the hug.
“Thanks Zachary. I feel better now.”
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