Sonic Aftermath

Soleana may have been a symbol of hope and peace to most of new world but it just wasn't home. That was the reality that plagued a young red bilby as he walked down the streets of the ancient city, lost in personal thoughts. Any who passed him saw a youth with dreadful posture and completely unfocused eyes in danger of walking straight into a building if he didn't snap out of it.

What they saw was an illusion.

A flicker of light annoyed the corner of the bilby's left eye. His feet kept an even paced and altered course without the slightest hesitation. The boy's new path brought him along the back of a small gathering near the city square and aimed him toward a new street that would lead to a new area of the city. He'd made many such shifts today as his adolescent mind wrestled with its favourite puzzle, but this time it was different. This time his awareness was investigating an unusual phenomenon.

Thanks to his new route the phrase "he just appeared" carried to a drooping rabbit-like ear on the slightest of breezes. They were followed by more words such as wake, up, new, alright and help. They were of many voices but together they formed a cohesive picture in the back of a distracted mind. A picture that suddenly snapped vividly to the forefront of said mind.

The illusion shattered.

Billy Walker's eyes widened as his slouch straightened up and his small hands lifted out of his pockets. The teen turned to his left toward the square where some people, both those still passing and those who had stopped to watch, observed an unconscious blond man lying on the ground. At the speed of thought their collective visions gained the addition of another blond, this one definitively not human, as he landed next to the mystery man with a single bound.

"Hey, are you alright?" spoke a nervous but clear voice. Billy was down on one knee at the stranger's side, reaching out his right hand to shake the new arrival's left shoulder gently. His worried hazel eyes looked over the human's body for signs of injury. "I, uh, don't really know what to... can you hear me?"

His personal inner struggles may have been moved to a back pocket of his mind for the moment, but Billy's head was still filled with familiar thoughts. Now those thoughts involved wishing someone else here had tried to help the guy. Then Billy wouldn't have had to try to pick up the slack and this person might have gotten someone more qualified.

Still, less qualified was better than nothing, right?

[Not posting again to spam, just exiting Stormer and I to free up the turn order for the rest of you guys]

Billy sighed with relief when the man actually spoke but then gritted his teeth in renewed dread when he promptly passed out again. As a martial artist this particular passerby new a lot about injuries. As an amateur martial artist with a habit of sticking his nose where it didn't belong he knew a lot more about injuries than he might have preferred. Either way though common sense was enough to tell him that head injuries equaled bad news.

"Somebody call an ambulance! He might have a concussion!" Billy yelled to nearest human that was actually standing on their feet.

He didn't have any evidence of a concussion, or in fact any external injuries at all, but the teen also didn't trust himself to make that call without fail even if he checked. Better safe than sorry he figured. Still, to pass the time until real help arrived the young boy tried to lift the man up into a sitting position and examine the back of his head for any warning signs; blood, bumps, anything. It was a feat made slightly embarrassing by how hard it was to lift the larger human;s torso with his thin arms, but the would-be rescuer was motivated to get it done.

When the ambulance arrived, well, he'd probably stay with the unconscious stranger. This guy might need somebody after all. Billy wasn't anything special but at least he was somebody.

[Billy and Stormer Exit]

Zyra gave the mammoth a flat stare, before finally rolling her shoulders in a shrug. She tugged on the fabric a bit around her shoulders, before letting it fall back into place. "Partly because it belonged to me. Partly because it's more protection from the unknown than street clothes. And mostly because it's easier to escape a prison looking like a guard rather than a prisoner. And at this point, I doubt you have another set of clothes in my size tucked away in one of those massive pockets, so I'm gonna keep wearing this."