Forced Withdrawals [Nox's Building]

[Tatyana]

Tatyana sat and watched, wrapping her arms around her knees, attempting to keep her hands from shaking. She was starting to feel the pressure in her head as a headache was about to take form. Her eyes turned to McKenzie as she begin to gather her stuff and headed into a room.
Tatyana stood as the door shut. McKenzie needed her.

She opened the door and closed it behind her. She sat down next to McKenzie. She didn’t say anything at first. ”Its snowing pretty hard.  We’re going to be here for a bit. I know that will make things hard for you.” Tatyana put her hand on McKenzie’s shoulder. ”Its going to be hard for both of us.”

She looked her in the eyes. ”Im going to…seem like I’m sick. I won’t be feeling very good at all. Going to be really hard. I might get angry and say stupid things. If I do - I promise I don’t mean them and I’m very sorry. I would never do anything to hurt you, okay?”

She waited. Ashton would probably be in soon. ”Ashton and Liv are going to try to help me so it’s not so bad.” She rubbed her head. The headache was getting worse.

[Legione Sumus]

Madison & Mackenzie

Kenzie nodded. "I'll be fine. I've sent the night here before when it got late. We can stay in here. No one will bother us." She acknowledge that she'd be sick Kenzie knew what that meant. She'd been around the church to know what it meant.

"Ashton is nice. Liv too. Nox has pills in his safe."

[Legione Sumus]

Jackson Li

Jackson shrugged. "I'm okay. This is nice. And I didn't seduce you so I'm fine. We are friends. This is good. And I like you so it's all good." He was sorta rambling.

He leaned closer "And Ashton's voice is calming so I couldn't panic even if I wanted to. So unless you wanna go upstairs. Hayden's message says we are all crashing downstairs, and we should get our things. You can crash with us, it'll be like a slumber party. We got sleeping bags. We could make blanket forts."

[Tatyana]

Knowing that McKenzie knew about her drug use was something of a relief. Not being judged by her was better. Most people did it even if they didn’t show it. Sometimes it was just a “you need to get clean” kind of attitude. Her drug use was no one’s business.

McKenzie mentioned Nox’s pills. ”Yeah they told me that. They don’t have access to his safe. So - it’s withdrawals.”

Tatyana began to rub her temples more as the headache increased in intensity and made a light sound at the pain. The headaches sucked - and the headaches were only the beginning. She never really got much farther than that. Tatyana stood up and lay down on the bed.

She should probably tell someone the symptoms were starting to get worse. Ashton was right outside the room, but she didn’t want to get back up. She sighed. She had told them the withdrawals were going to start because she thought they should know. She didn’t expect help. She expected the opposite. But they had offered.

”Kenzie,” she said, feeling bad for asking her. ”Could you tell Ashton outside my symptoms are starting to get worse. If you can’t that’s okay, but I’d really appreciate it.” water would probably be a good idea too, but she didn’t want to overwhelm Kenzie. It didn’t help that the pain of loss was coming too.

[Marta]

Jackson started rambling. It was kind of cute, but Marta didn’t say that. ”Well if ever we’re not in the perimeter of Ashton’s song and I’m too much or anything - let me know please. I don’t want to overwhelm you or make you feel unsafe.” She was sure Jackson felt the same.

”Ive never been to a slumber party before. It will be a new experience for me. Sounds like a lot of fun.” she usually stayed with Elyse when she was here, though occasionally she’d sleep in the girls’ room. She was quickly becoming friends with them all.

But Jackson was right. They should get stuff moved down here for that. ”I have stuff in Elyse’s room for when I stay over. I can also help get other stuff down. The littles might have some trouble focusing especially with the insane snow. We can go upstairs and get stuff.” she let go of his hand to stand up and offered it to help him up.

[Legione Sumus]

Madison & Mackenzie

Kenzie shrugged. "You could ask Sky. It might know the combination. It handles a lot of things for Nox it might remember his combination and passwords too. And if you had a Sky infected wallet close enough to the safe you might be able to unlock it that way too. He's lazy."

When asked she got up and opened the door and waggled a finger at Ashton. "She needs you."

Ashton nodded and moved closer. He sat down outside the door. And pulled it so that it was barely open.

Kenzie smiled and crawled back up into the bed with her laptop and things. "He doesn't need to be in the same room, you just need to hear him." Even Kenzie felt a little better -- less angry at the world.

---

Jackson Li

Jackson smiled. "You'll do the same." He nodded in agreement. Not that she'd ever be too much. It took a lot to make things weird for the whole Blackwood clan. Though they should probably stop calling themselves that -- distance themselves from the trauma. "We need to think of a nickname for all of Nox's strays. Something cool and not mean and doesn't all remind us of our own tragedies. The Caper Kids sounds fun. But not really what I was thinking." He grinned playfully.

She offered a hand up and while he didn't need it he took it. Touching was always nice -- and consentual touching was even better -- and... well they weren't there yet -- neither of them. This was the first real relationship Jackson had ever been in. And the first family he'd been truly part of.

"That's all we ever have is slumber parties, no one really likes to stay alone even here where it's safe. And honestly." he leaned in and whispered. "I think Nox actually likes the big puppy pile and all the kids in his bed. And not in that perverted sorta way we all kinda lived with our whole lives. He's genuine about his affection. It's all very new." They headed up from the basement and to the very top floor. It was a lot of stairs, Jackson wished the elevator was used, but no one dared ask why no one used it -- no one did though, it was like taboo or something. He was pretty sure it wasn't a rule or anything -- he didn't remember there being one. Just seemed rude when the person who owned it always used the stairs.

[Tatyana]

It seemed like everyone knew about Sky. Creepy AI that ran the house or was a wallet virus or whatever. Tatyana wasn't sure and she really didn't care. It was hard to figure out. It felt like something was trying to burrow out of her skull. She just didn't want to talk to the creepy lady of the house.

The door was cracked and Ashton's song entered. She covered her face with her arms. The light made the headache worse. Ashton's song helped keep her calm, but the pain in her head still thundered. The pain of her father's loss was washed away in Ashton's song. Even in her calm she couldn't prevent the tears from falling, but there were no sobbing noises.  It was exceedingly weird to her.

Knowing there were drugs here though made things worse, or at least it should have. Deep down she knew this, but the feelings weren't there simply because Ashton was singing. She should be frustrated and angry or at the very least irritable.  But all she had was the fucking headache. One arm stayed over her tear filled eyes. The other, the one closest to Kenzie dropped to the bed and gripped the blanket tightly.

"Sky," she said, finally giving in.  She had to try. The craving was forcing it. "Is there someone who can get into Nox's lock box in the house - or can you send Liv down to help with the headache - or just painkillers - or something." She went quiet again after that. Talking didn't help the pain at all. This was going to be a shitty couple of days.

[Legione Sumus]

Madison & Mackenzie

Kenzie looked at how rough Tatanya wasn't doing so well. She eventually talked to the AI but Kenzie answered. "I'll get Liv, Sky." She said, and tucked her arms into her coat and grabbed her bag and wallet, left the laptop for Tatyana to use if she wanted to. She'd be back anyway.

She slipped out past Ashton closed the door most of the way and headed up stairs. She stopped half way up and whispered into the phone. "Sky, what's the code to get into Nox's safe? I know you know it?"

A message flashed on her screen but Kenzie didn't look up as she up the stairs and snuck past the adults. Most of them wouldn't have noticed any of them anyway. She went back into the back and punched the code on Nox's door. It wasn't an unknown code -- everyone was allowed in. He had all the bad stuff locked up. Kenzie slipped the door closed. The message wasn't a key code, it wasn't even a signal. It was a message. You know I can't

Kenzie growled as she knelt down and looked at the safe. She didn't know Nox well enough. She sat down and texted Sera [font=courier new]What's Nox's birthday?[/color] It wouldn't be so easy as that. But then she knew that he was also in love with the man in the picture. She sent another text this time to Sophia. [color=courier new]What's the name of the boy in the picture that's face down? Rif? Raf?[/color]

Both texts came back and Kenzie grinned. They didn't ask why she was asking they probably didn't really care. She punched in his birthday first but it came back wrong. She then used the letters as if they were on the phone and punched the man's full name into it.

Beep!

The door clicked open and Kenzie was in.

It was pretty sparse for a safe. Only a handful of things, a thumb drive, his gun and knife and two small bags of pills. She grabbed it all and stuffed it into her bag. And then she hurried out and back through the crowd of adults. No one questioned her. In the stairs she pulled out the little bag of pills -- the one with more and snuck back into the room closing the door behind her.

Kenzie handed Tatyana the pills. "Here."

[Hayden]

Hayden was holding a sleeping baby when he got a text. He glanced down at it and his eye brows rose up in surprise. "Let's see what she does." He said to Lily as he swayed and walked around the apartment. This kid could sleep through everything.

He watched as Kenzie shot through the room. Avoiding all but his watchful eyes -- he knew she was on her way up. Sky's message had been clear.

She darted down the hall and punched the code and Hayden just watched. There were no cameras in the bedrooms. And there was no wifi in Nox's room except that which you took with you -- your wallet, so Sky wasn't going to be helpful.

Kenzie was in there a while but then she ran out and down stairs. Hayden went to Nox's room and saw the safe door still wide open and completely empty. Nox had not taken his gun or knife with him and they were only still in the house because he hadn't taken them back to the safety of the store house because he just hadn't had time. Nox was a walking weapon he didn't need either for safety. But what was worse was there was Atharim data in there and the drugs, and a bottle of good vodka all for Oriena.

Hayden sighed and went down stairs where he knew Tatyana was holed up. Ashton was sitting outside. "What's wrong?" He asked.

Hayden shook his head "Nothing. Not yet anyway." Hayden knocked on the door.

[Tatyana]

Tatyana sort of blanked out for a bit. It wasn’t a black out. She was still conscious, but the pain was becoming so much that it was hard to notice anything. Even when she did it took time. She was aware that Kenzie said something to Sky. She was more aware that Kenzie got up. Her arm remained covering her eyes, so she didn’t see anything.

So now sounds were the big issue. Ashton was singing, and that still kept her calm. Kids were playing outside and what noise that did float it stoked her headache. She would have been very flustered. It got louder and then quieted again as Kenzie came back in. Something was placed on her. Tatyana didn’t look around, and didn’t really respond. She was still just laying there, trying to focus through the headache.

It hit her that something had been placed on her when there was a knock on the door. Privacy wasn’t something she was used to, so it took a moment before she said ”Come in,” Tatyana didn’t uncover her face. What the hell was going on?