Trianna watches, unsure of what to do. Teddy probably wouldn't let her hug Cathal. . . but it might not hurt to try.
Before she even can, though, Yvonne was there, holding the older man against her chest, making comforting noises.
Cathal tenses. His whole body was trembling. She even felt like her. He holds onto Teddy for dear life, sobbing even harder. He now remembered how it felt to break down in front of people. Embarrassing, humiliating, scary. Teddy seemed to take notice and he licks Catha’s face, nudging into him.
Yvonne murmurs soothing words in Gaelic, knowing that Cathal couldn't understand - nobody did. But she knew he could read the tone behind them, and knew it would maybe help a little. She could tell the difference between sobs of frustration, anger and grief, and these were grief. She'd heard them from herself plenty of times.
Trianna was stunned. What the fuck. . .?
Teddy looks at the girl and gently nudges her, then rests his head on Cathal’s shoulder. It took a LONG while before he was able to calm down, his sobs slowly quieting down to shudders. He tried his best to apologize and thank the girl, but all that came out was a whine.
Yvonne smiles slightly, seeming to understand. "No need to apologize, bud. We all have our moments."
Trianna sighs. You know what, I won't even question it.
Cathal sucks in a breath, starting to flap his hands in attempt to regulate himself. Teddy moves out of the way, laying down in his lap and closing his eyes. Cathal always hated it when he stimmed like this in front of people. He called it ‘ugly stimming’, where he did drastic movements instead of small and almost unnoticeable.
Yvonne gets up.
"Regardles, ye better now?" she asks.
He shakes his head slightly. No he wasn’t. He felt just as bad as before, but now, it looked like he was ‘calm’. But from the way teddy was still acting, it was clear he wasn’t.
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Tohru drops his gun and makes sure the bunker door is closed.
I should've done something sooner…
"It's probably best if we leave him to it," Tohru says softly, "He'll be alright. Teddy will help him, and we'll be right here if he needs anything. Give him some space."
Yvonne nods thoughtfully, before looking at Tohru and shaking her head.
"Ye gotta understand, some people need t' be comforted. Like him." she murmurs. "I had a brother like him. S I know how to deal with him."
"It's not one size fits all," Tohru argues, "Some like to be comforted, he says he prefers to be left alone."
His eyes dart back and forth between the two.
"He has a therapy dog for this very thing."
Cathal closes his eyes, rocking himself. All he was trying to do was stop the ‘ick’ as he called it. He tries to focus on only the music, drowning out everyone’s voices.
(The fact this is actually a good argument that i wont resolve cause its true that everyone’s different-)
(Lol yeah- Yvonne's has a bit of knowledge tho)
Yvonne nods.
"I know. But sometimes a dog can't help. My brother, he had a rabbit. It didn't help him sometimes. It's what got him, my parents and that poor animal infected." she argues quietly.
Trianna listens quietly.
Cathal sucks in a breath, “Teddy-“ he shudders, “Is immune.” He mutters. “S-so am i…” he hated telling people that. He had a lot of nasty reactions, so he pretended he wasn’t immune so no one would try to use him.
Yvonne goes quiet.
Trianna looks stunned.
Then Yvonne nods. "That explains why you might feel so bad. 'Cus you think you coulda helped some people."
"You're… you're what?" Tohru starts, but he stops himself, "Ahhh, never mind. We can discuss that later. Do you need anything?"
He folds his arms across his chest. His heart is beating pretty fast. Tohru hates arguing with people, especially kids. It pisses him off so much, but he does his best not to let it show.
Cathal stays dead silent, still rocking himself.
Yvonne sighs. "Oh, well. No point in worryin' 'bout it."
Trianna nods slightly.
Cathal sucks in a breath, squeezing his eyes shut.
Teddy whines, then gets up and grabs a water bottle, bringing it back to Cathal and laying back down.
Tohru lowers himself to the floor again, next to his belongings. He grabs bandages out of his bag- the fresh ones he got from the abandoned store earlier. After rubbing a bit more ointment on the injury, he covers it back up. He still needs to put on the sweatpants from his bag, but decides to wait.
"So, did you know we were holed up in this bunker, or did you find us by mistake in the search for shelter?" He asks.
Yvonne looks over at Tohru and snorts.
"I found ye looking for shelter for the night. I wasn't looking for people. I honestly woulda killed ye if it weren't for yer gog." she replies. "And since yer dog likes all of you well, I assumed ye were good enough people to ask for help."
Cathal pets Teddy, staring to calm down. “Yeah…teddys trained well…i…found him when he was a puppy…” he mutters. “Sorry for…pointing at gun at you…” his speech was slow, and it was clear he seemed to be having a hard time. It honestly felt like when he tried to speak, he wasn’t the one speaking.
"What's with all these people…?" Tohru huffed, "Some of you are way too quick to leap to killing. You know that?"
He distractedly runs his hand back and forth over his bandages.
"I understand vigilance, but it's so unnecessary to go that far."
"Well, when it's the fockin apocalypse it's kill or be killed. Supplies, yeah?" Yvonne explains.
Cathal shudders, closing his eyes. He missed his old life. He missed his sister. But it was all gone now…this wasn’t a dream…
He takes a deep, shaky breath and goes silent.
"Oooor," Tohru suggests, "we ensure the survival of as many people as possible so the human race doesn't get wiped out. Finding resources is much easier with a group, and allocation actually isn't all that hard, you know."
He rubs at his neck.
"But I take it you haven't been around people so much since this whole thing started, huh?"
Yvonne sighs. "Bud, the human race is doomed. We have no way of wiping out the bloody infection. I may only be 16, but I sure as shit know we are not salvging the remains of this world. On top of the fact that we have nuclear reactors everywhere about to shut down or simply go Chernobyl on our asses, so we'll have goddamn irradiated zombies next."
"And no, not really. At least, not people that I haven't had to put an ounce of buckshot in." she snorts.
Cathal pauses, then sucks in a breath. “I…have an antidote…it…only works before…youre turned…but…i only have a little…i…got…it from the…base…”
Yvonne and Trianna turn towards Cathal.
After a moment, Yvonne shakes her head, smiling brutally. "I don't want it."
Trianna chuckles. "Neither do I."
Yvonne laughs. "I mean, why would I want to live in this world? Only reason why I'm not dead is 'cus I don't have the bloody balls to kill myself and I'm to proud to let anyone else end me."