Description: Spoilers: he's not on any drugs. No, Antoine is on something far, far worse. The captain of their eliminated King of Fighters team visits him after the events that saw two of Antoine's better friends having to subdue him. Does the drug rehab specialists have any answers...? (Also spoilers: no.)
A lot has happened since the time the incident where Antoine lost control. This left Antoine unconscious and taken to a drug rehabilitation center. While the doctors could not find any trace of drugs, they decided to take the old man's word for it.
Antoine had spent the past week or so in the center. He looked like he had been undergoing withdrawls, but it wasn't from the drugs. That corrupting chi was still eating at him.
Now?
Antoine is sitting on a table, cluching his head. He can feel something raging inside of him, burning. The chi is still corroding. "Nnggh..." People have been scared of coming near Antoine. Even though he had not been hard to control, they have watched for the time where he may snap.
It's easy to take a man's word for it when he brazenly insists he's on something and that he's not acting the way he usually does - that, and he wouldn't back down and try to take him to a mental health clinic instead. Antoine had to be /on/ something.
It's more than a little infuriating when he keeps being told that, no, the guy hasn't had anything they tested for in his bloodstream. He's got to have something, because whatever's going on...
At long last, it's suggested that he just come by and ask Antoine himself. Considering that this implies they haven't asked him any questions themselves, this puts the man with the bad combover in a somewhat more sour mood than usual.
Antoine might already hear his voice from outside, if that pop in the man's elbow doesn't give it away.
"Our tests really found nothing," says one doctor, "nothing at all!"
"No cocaine, no... y'know, burn, or... glow, or..."
"Nothing." The doctor reiterates. "Absolutely, positively nothing."
"That, that doesn't explai--"
"I'm sorry, we can't explain it either, but, here's where he is right now."
There is no 'thank you' to be had for that doctor for guiding Howard over there. He's frustrated and clearly fed up over a lot of things, and shows extremely little - if any - of the reluctance the other doctors and attendants in approaching him.
"Antoine?" Comes what should be a familiar, gravelly voice. "Antoine? It's, it's me, Howard." He says as he steps in.
Life is an eternal struggle. In fact, it has been that way for a long time. Antoine has had to endure that struggle for some time. Since his time in the hospital, he has heard the voices in his head, yet keeping silent on it. The strife has taken its toll on him. He has barely spoken to anyone.
Yet, he hears a familiar voice. His eyes lift up to see that Rust is in front of him. However, it seems like Rust isn't a familiar face at first. Then again, nothing seems to be.
A hand rests to his forehead. "Nggh... Rust..?"
"Yeah... Howard Rust," he clears his throat ash e repeats his full name. The doctor steps back away and continues with his job, not wanting to have to endure this man pegging him with questions he does not have any of the answers to.
No one seems to, really, except for possibly one.
The older man approaches the troubled young martial artist with a sort of ease that goes well against the dangers running rampant throughout Antoine's psyche right about now, but it is undeniably someone from Antoine's memories. The bad hair, that length of pipe, the crackling joints... it's him, all right.
"I mean, I guess... I, shouldn't have to ask, but, how're you feeling?"
That is a question that one should not ask someone going through hell. His eyes narrow towards the ground as Antoine has been trying to process the thoughts. He is trying to figure out what to say. However, the best is... "I don't know." Antoine looks up towards Rust.
"Since I met that woman... we fought. ...I remember the energy she had. It felt sickening..." He reaches his hand over towards his head, feeling it digging in him. Get stronger. Kill. Fight. Serve him.
"It's been telling me many things... I had to leave to clear my mind.."
He doesn't know? The older man's face and posture sink a little to Antoine going 'I don't know.' Absolutely nobody knows what's going on with Antoine, not even himself?! It's a really worrying thought, all the same, given what both he and Quon went through when they finally found him after so long.
"Wait, wait. Wait." He holds up a finger. "That... woman? Uhh... could you, uh, describe her?"
Both hands rest along his face. He is rubbing it, trying to get the senses back in. He grimaces to himself, trying to remember her face. "...Same ethinicity as myself. But... I think she is from a different country... she had a bit of beauty about her, but a rough edge. ...She ... was a very rough-edged type of person."
Antoine narrows his eyes, "The way she looks is now fading from me.." He grimaces, his head nearly hits the table as he clutches his head harder. "Damnit...!"
Was that the kind of person who visited Zach and gave him that... thing? Any details he may have mentioned, unfortunately, are lost in the heat of the older man's frustration with pretty much anything and everything about ready to fall down upon him. That trip was a complete disaster in nearly all imaginable ways. He nods along, for the most part, until Antoine holds his head.
He tries to look over Antoine to make sure he didn't somehow miss a necklace or choker or some such. "Th-that's why I tried to keep us, y'know, together so... agh," the older man just shakes his head, ironically getting a growing headache of his own. One that, fortunately, isn't the sort to compel him to destroy everything around him or glow red eyes or anything.
"I'm, I'm sorry, I didn't come by to, to... to make you feel worse, or..."
That would be a topic of discussion, that. Anything would be other than the current one that Antoine is trying to endure. His hands move from his face, now visibly shaking in the worst way possible. However, Antoine, through his own inner force, manage to calm himself enough.
"It is alright," replies the young martial artist. Lifting his head up, Antoine brightens up to a smile towards his friend, "I am thankful that I have visitors." He frowns, "I apologize for making everyone worry."
If only Howard were capable of smiling back. There is so precious little going on right now that warrants a smile - even with Antoine's reassurance of being thankful he has visitor/s/. The way Antoine moves, the way he fidgets and curses, it's all really worrying. Is it some kind of withdrawal? Not that Mr. Rust is of the mind to really figure out what's going on under the surface, only able to loosely categorize Antoine's problems with the easiest possible - and incorrect - explanation.
Drugs.
"Look, it's... it's okay," though it probably isn't, as the old man holds up a hand, "least you're... you're recognizin' us now, anyway, I'll, I'll be sure to call Quon," if he even bothers to answer, "and, and tell him to, to come here, okay?"
Withdrawl? Maybe. There is the urge to punch Rust's head in. There is the urge to pretty much kill everyone in the room. There is the urge all over the place. Antoine knows that it is getting rough. Antoine has heard that voice. Thankfully, throughout it all, he has been able to at least control it.
"..Ngh." A smile is given, "...Thank you... I would like to see Quon again. I feel bad for making him worry." His head casts down, "...I just hope he's back in class again."
Let it be known that on a fundamental level, Rust's combover is a crime against nature and that these urges to do something about it is, perhaps, a part of the very natural order itself. Something that may be made all the more evident as the older man rubs a head on top of his scalp as if to make sure it's settling just right in times of great distress, such as this.
"Me too, just... me too," it's a complex subject. There's no denying that, in the big picture, Quon probably did the right thing - but damn, willing to wreck his entire future just for that? Howard straightens himself up a bit and stretches out of his legs.
"What, what I want ya to do, Antoine... j-just, y'know, rest up... detox... work, work whatever shit's in your system out," whatever the hell it is because nobody has any freakin' clue about this, "and... and... y'know, I'm sorry that, that... that we lost the first round."
Howard takes this moment to sit down at a nearby uncomfortable stool. Very, very uncomfortable. "I know you were... you were really lookin' forward to it."
"...Detox. ..I am honestly not sure if this is just drugs." Pause, "No. It's not." He looks over towards Rust. "I may not be particularly myself at the moment. However, I need you to open your eyes to this..."
"...The ki that we manifest.. the strange energy that we use. They can do more than just that. They can very well corrupt, depending on the user behind that chi or ... that type of power Zach has." Antoine looks at Rust with a heavy, serious look on his face.
"...No. ... Not drugs. This is something else."
It's /not/ drugs? All right, so maybe he should have taken him to a mental hospital or something instead after all, maybe, maybe, either way almost all this is basically coming out of his dwindling pocket.
"How can it not be--" He's about to speak up in protest of the concept, when Antoine talks about the 'ki' that they manifest, and he settles down a little, leaning forward on the stool with both his hands joined just past his knees, as if almost ready to fall off the stool.
Once again, another mention as to how Zach's power is 'different.' Maybe he really does just need to face up and accept that, despite his inability to give him winning lotto numbers, he might just /be/ what he says he is.
"Something... uh, something else, I mean... I'm, I'm tryin' to follow, Antoine, I'm sorry if, if I'm a bit slow, it's... I've had a lot to take in lately."
"...My chi is corrupted." Antoine notes. "...I had been struggling with the voices, telling me to become a soldier. I have been struggling with the urge to fight and kill. These things... are not me." He leans his head against the table. He manages to support himsel with the hands to his forehead. His teeth grits, he sucks in a breath as he tries to consider his situation.
"...You've been a fighter for a long time... There are some things that you will need to open your eyes to... and keep an open mind. If you keep your mind closed, the truth will fly past you."
It is interesting, despite all of the suffering, Antoine is able to retain the wisdom.
"That is the mindset of a warrior."
"It's... what?" He doesn't need Antoine to repeat that his chi is corrupted, it's he's trying to figure out how it is. Struggling with voices, being a soldier... the urge to fight and kill, how it's not him... okay, yeah, we should get him to a mental ward, Howard thinks.
A thought disrupted with Antoine gritting his teeth and taking in a deep breath, which is worrying in itself. A shoulder pops quietly as the older man extends a hand as if to ask, 'do you need help with something,' when Antoine brings it out: he's been a fighter for a long time, some things that he'll need to open his eyes to... keep an open mind.
It sounds really familiar, actually.
"I think, uh... I think your old master, he... he said somethin' like that," the man concedes, "back, back when I thought I'd... I'd just be, stayin' mostly local, y'know, if I... if I actually had a career goin'."
Everyone knows by now that he never did get a career off the ground then.
Antoine falls silent, clamping his hands together. He allows fo Rust to ry to process the thought. Sadly, the mental ward may not hold him. One has to wonder how long -this- place will hold him. However, he is being good now. He's been controlling himself.
"Yeah. Sifu told me that. It is the only way that I'll progress. If you deny the truth, you can never progress. Part of that progression is accepting the truth of the world around you and the strangeness it has to offer."
"Ask Quon about the bracer that he has."
A smile faintly grows, but then it passes as he runs a hand to his head, "...Anyway, I think visiting time is almost up.... I should try to rest."
"Bracer?" He's never actually noticed it on Quon before, but sometimes some just have to wonder if Howard is actually kind of that dense... in the mind, there's no doubt about being dense enough to soak up most forms of physical harm without too much trouble.
The older man looks over his shoulder for a moment, as if thinking someone might be watching or listening in, you know, since this'd be a very convenient time for them to show up and cause problems or what have you, where Antoine says visiting time's about up.
"Y-Yeah, I, I really should get goin', I just needed to, to check in and see what was up." If it's not drugs, but some more fundamental, mystical level like chi... he's going to have to ask someone who is undoubtedly in the know.
If they're still on speaking terms after Africa. Hoo boy.
"I'll, I'll let Quon know you're here, all right, just... just stay calm, we'll find a way to, to take care of... well, whatever it is, okay?" He says as he gets off the stool, grunting loudly as he rubs his lower back. Cripes, he shouldn't have helped pull that car out of a ditch.
"I'll be back when I can, just... y'know."
Log created on 21:36:01 03/11/2011 by Rust, and last modified on 00:28:29 03/12/2011.