Graupel Canyon Wake Up Sweatie!!

Psychic party, a few hours after that one with the healing

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He had gotten distracted! Like extremely distracted. But then he had been doing one of his circuits through the house and saw that Ash was passed out and unbothered on a couch, and that seemed a good enough place to leave her.

Hours later, having already been through several cresting waves of inebriation, he saw her again and felt the time was right to at least check in on her a little bit. Sidling up to the couch, he whispered her name like he was trying to call over a cat. "Ashley! Ash!" When that didn't work, he reached down and patted her upper arm a few times, smiling like a benevolent ball of drain hair.

Ashley had, once upon a time, been a light sleeper. Woke when the heater kicked on or off, shuffled out of bed for a drink of water and spent forever getting cozy again.

But since healing had become part of her life, she slept like the dead, if the dead snored pretty loud. Curled up on a couch, mouth ajar just enough to be embarrassing, she was out. Tendrils of conversation and general party noise tugged at her consciousness, but it was the kind of sleep that left her deliberately rejecting every pull.

A push, though, would work. Taps, more like it, and within the half dream she was having, it was getting her arm stuck on a doorknob, which... didn't make any sense?

Hey, Ashley. Wake up.

And she did, bloodshot eyes creaking open, then snapping wide. Where was she? When was she? Ash recoiled, not intentionally, and blurted out a "Hiiiiiieee?" that wasn't directed at Ted, exactly. Ted. Wait. Ted! She sat up and felt like her brain kept tumbling over the other side of the couch.

"Ted!" was here and she could tell it was a different time of day just from the light in the house alone. Extreme nap confusion activated.

Ah yes, the hard sleep and the hard wakeup! Who hadn't been there! Ted removed his hand (from her arm, not from his body) and kept beaming. "Hi! Good morning! You must've healed hard, huh?" There was no point in doing much besides offer little drips of context; most of the time people took a while to be all the way on earth when they woke up.

For half a second, she thought "good morning" meant she'd spent the night despite every indication to the contrary as far as time of day went. And. People still being here! She smeared a palm to her right eye, head all cotton and fog.

"He got hit by lightning," she said dumbly, sniffling, then realizing she'd definitely just snorted blood boogers down her throat. She very subtly swallowed. "Er- not here. But. Somehow he found us?"

She looked to Ted, suddenly remembering she'd just up and run off after healing him.

"Do you know if he's..."

Okay? Here still? Ashley didn't know how to end her own sentence. Gotta pick one!

"Still here, or?"

God, it gave him the heebie-jeebies. Note to self, never try to use luck powers in a storm. "I know, it was..." Actually he hadn't thought at all about how that guy had chanced to show up here. He wasn't completely sure he hadn't done it. "Some magic shit. He headed out after you guys finished, he had a driver guy."

He moved to the opposite end of the couch, to sit on the armrest. "Sorry it made you miss the party."

Ted described it better than she could. It made sense for a psychic party, when she thought about it. Just a big pile of magic under one roof. (A nice roof! In a nice house!)

Having a driver made a lot more sense than just... wheeling out of here. Everything had been so sudden, and then her own power malfunctioning, and then he was in pain, and just. Ugh. She had to see if she could follow up with him. Hopefully he was okay.

There was something very kind in Ted sitting here and saying that. It wasn't his fault, but. Selfishly, it was nice to hear it acknowledged. Maybe she was bad for feeling that way.

"It's okay," she said, finally starting to feel like a person. A hungry, tired person, but a person. "I'm not very good at parties, honestly. Usually I people watch."

She smiled, closed-lipped if mostly for fear of blood in her teeth. Gross.

"Has it been okay, hosting?"

Ashley was the sort of soft, kind, introverted person he very rarely got to know well enough to grow fond of. But they had looked out for each other and bonded a little, once upon a time, and that plus the age difference still made him feel protective of her, even if their acquaintanceship had lapsed. She was just a good person, and knowing one of those was like knowing a unicorn. It was special!

Anyway. She was special to him, in a somewhat paternal way she hadn't yet had a chance to tell him she hated. "It was extra good people watching today. And we learned stuff about pacts, too. I got appointed the mayor of psychics." He grinned, pointing impishly at the paper nametag he still wore. "Rich and I are gonna do another one, though. It felt, uh...really great, actually, to hang out with a bunch of other psychics." A spasm of avuncular fondness made him bend forward and pat her heartily on the feet. "No miracle work at the next one, all right?"

Oh, gosh. Pacts. Ashley still knew so little about those, but. She figured she probably wasn't ready for them, anyway, given that she was still figuring her powers out. And she wasn't sure she... understood the point of them, anyway.

Ashley felt a lot more like a person with some powers than a psychic, most days. Like a big part of the identity that was supposed to tie her to everyone else here was missing.

Anyway. Ted was mayor! It left her genuinely laughing, so unexpected a title. She'd do better next party, if she came to it. Maybe stick with Agostina, or Minnie, or something. A socializing chaperone. (The latter would probably be better, but who wanted their boring roommate following them around the whole party?!)

"Mayor's orders?" she said, smiling sheepishly. She'd do better next time. She would. Or.

She'd try, at least.

Ted's eyes widened very seriously, and he bobbled his head. "Uh, yah!" Ted was an idiot. But he snorted and slid back off the couch, a very comfortable and happy idiot. "Wanna go browse the buffet table?"

Food sounded like a good idea. This was why Ted was mayor.

"Deeefinitely," she said, word stretched as she wriggled herself off the couch. Found herself wobble-legged, or maybe just heavy-kneed. But she'd be fine, and food would go a long way to helping her feel human, at least.

How long would she have slept there if Ted hadn't woken her up? Ash decided it was less embarrassing not to think about it.