For Olivia (Powers plot)

[king_ofcups]

In its first few moments, the morning had been largely unexceptional.

He had emerged from his room quite early. Luckily for everyone involved, he had remembered to pull on a pair of boxer shorts before lumbering down the hall to use the toilet. The walk down the hall was spent planning his morning meal. Pancakes, perhaps. There was likely already someone scheduled to cook that morning, but that certainly never stopped Walter from claiming a corner of the kitchen for himself. For the most part, the island residents were more than accommodating. Unusually so, in fact.

Just another oddity on a long list.

In the bathroom, he'd relieved himself, gone to the sink to clean his teeth, and along the way, witnessed a young man turn into a fish. That, alone, would have been more than enough cause for excitement, if he hadn't, only moments later, seen a rather sullen young man turn a bar of soap and a toothbrush into lumps of black jello.

With his toothbrush still in hand and a smear of toothpaste on his chin, Walter hurried down the hall until he found the curtain on which he'd pinned a small swatch of green fabric, just weeks prior. Without warning, he yanked the curtain back and burst inside.

"Agent Dunham, you must come and see!"

Comments

[gonnabefine]

Sleep was still a luxury for Olivia; she rarely dropped off before three am and was up by eight, but there were some mornings she couldn't do it. Sometimes her body simply demanded rest, and she'd spend hours in bed through the morning, dead to the world for hours. She hated those mornings, hated waking up groggy and unaware of what time it was or where she was.

She disliked Walter bursting excitedly into her room, even moreso when he was in boxers alone.

At least he wasn't completely naked, if the tales Peter told her were anything to go by.

"Walter..." she rubbed a hand over her face, trying to wake herself enough to deal with whatever new development or lab result he'd come up with this time. "What is it?"

[king-ofcups.livejournal.com]

"Something wonderful is happening," Walter said, taking a step closer to the bed and pausing to frown at the toothbrush in his hand, as if he couldn't for the life of him remember how it had gotten there.

"There is a man with fins in the bathroom. He was standing there on two perfectly average legs, and then just like that," he said with a snap of his fingers, "he had a fish tail. Much like the mermaid of common folklore. Or merman, more accurately."

[gonnabefine]

Olivia, glad that she'd worn shorts to sleep under her large t-shirt, got out of bed when it looked like Walter wasn't going anywhere. With the state of excitement he was in, she was waking rapidly, and she shot him a look of disbelief.

No, that was wrong; she believed most of what Walter said. It was harder to figure out what was a figment of his broken mind or imagination, and what was real.

"There was a merman in the bathroom?"

[king-ofcups.livejournal.com]

"Yes," he said, putting the toothbrush down on her dresser, "And a man with the ability to turn objects into Jell-O with only a touch, but the merman seemed a tad more significant."

Practically bouncing on his heels with excitement, his hands wringing, Walter said, "I believe the phenomenon might extend to a greater portion of the island's residents. They do seem, for lack of a better word, a bit odd, this morning."

[gonnabefine]

Olivia gave the toothbrush a glance, making a note to take care of it later so Walter wouldn't have to search for it, and quickly pulled out some clothes from her dresser. "Is this like the other times people have been afflicted?"