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Exuding confidence was not a forte of Marc’s and his little detective adventure pretty much required it if he was going to get some straight answers out of anyone, especially if they didn’t know him that well beforehand. He knew that he and Emma hadn’t had as much as a quiet greeting in passing to each other, which could be blamed on the gravity manipulator’s lack of guts in talking to girls. He was just so nervous, thinking he’d look like a fool trying to compose himself and stutter out something lame to people. Not everyone would act like Randi and Laney did of course, but he wouldn’t know until he spoke to them. There was only so much his fragile confidence could take.

Nevertheless, he trudged into the infirmary in his red flannel jacket and took a seat when instructed to wait for Emma’s evaluation to be complete. The concept that he hardly knew her never left his mind once he settled on it. How could he introduce himself? It wasn’t as if he could say “I looked up your information, and I have some questions for you. No, I’m not a certified reporter.” Certainly, she had no reason to tell him anything, and the fact that he looked her up wouldn’t do a lot to calm her down if she was nervous. Really, this whole thing was starting to fall apart in his head, but there was a nagging in him that urged him to see it through the end. If he really cared about his teammates, then he needed to start putting himself out here, rather than simply following around every time someone had a plan.

When the nurse motioned that he could walk in, it was several days far earlier than he felt ready for, but he gave a weak nod and nonetheless stood up, dusting away the imaginary dirtiness from his pants before following after the nurse uncertainly. He waited outside of the room that Emma was apparently in, trying to compose himself as best as he could. He wasn’t a sweating, quivering mess but he could definitely feel his heart beating faster as he realized he had no flowchart to follow or general outline, just questions floating around in his head that involved Emma. He quickly wondered if he could just leave and attempt this later or in the day after he had a drink, but after he heard the nurse inside say aloud that Emma had a visitor, he knew he was locked in. Taking it as his cue, Marc took a steady breath in, before poking his head in trying to look as neutral as he can be, before looking toward the the bed and spotting Emma. She looked a little less rested and photogenic than her roster photo showed, but staying in the infirmary for rest hardly made one look picture perfect. He gave an uneasy smile before he shuffled in and let the nurse continue to look after her. Emma gave him a questioning look, no doubt aware of that fact that she and Marc were strangers. She probably wanted to know what he wanted, and Marc had to figure out a way to eloquently explain he had questions for her without stuttering or making her nervous. Thankfully, she was the first to break the awkward silence as she both greeted him and questioned him in one word, her move already putting her in a more dominant social position than him.

Marc raised his hand and gave a sheepish wave, giving a small smile in return. “Hi.” he said weakly, quickly taking a seat near her before placing his hands on his lap and trying to figure out his next move. Unfortunately, the nurse had finished her duties and left the room to give them some privacy, so he couldn’t let that stall his purpose. The ticking of the wall clock and the occasional drop of Emma’s I.V., along with the beeping of equipment added to the quiet atmosphere, further forcing Marc to try and rush himself. Except, he was still unsure of what to start off with. He tried to maintain his face, but the nervousness was just making his small smile stay on his face, looking around the room as he drummed his fingers on his knees. He was horrible at this.

The saint that she was, Emma spoke up again, but to place guilt and blame on herself. Marc’s fidgeting froze as he looked directly at her. She felt…bad? She blamed herself for...the museum? Marc was still unsure of what exactly happened beyond Dante’s rampaging and his friends’ going to get some gelato.

Unfortunately, her self-pity was something he hadn’t anticipated and put his mind into more haywire as he tried to figure out what to say. Now he had to say something, he couldn’t just let someone admonish themselves in front of him and expect to stay quiet. “R-really? I think it’s hard to hate someone who’s stuck in an infirmary.” he tried, his fingers now clasped together as he lowered his gaze a bit. “Actually, you probably saved all of us from some research assignment Ms. Theron would’ve eventually assigned at the end of it.” He tried to appeal to her student side, knowing that no one would have wanted to do something like that after an excursion outside of the island.

Still, he knew that wasn’t enough to alleviate someone’s worries. “I-if it means anything, I don’t hate you. It wouldn’t be fair anyways, since I don’t even know you anyways. Heh.” he joked weakly, giving a small flash of his teeth.

He froze suddenly. He just admitted that he didn’t know her. s**t! “Well, I can’t say that either, right?! I mean, we’re both here on this island, so we’ve seen each other around before, right? Uh…” he panicked, now fidgeting even more in his seat. “My name is Marc, I’m a student here at Muir Island.” he explained, forgetting his investigation momentarily as he went through a mental greeting card routine. “I can manipulate gravity! See?!” he said suddenly, taking his clear sphere out of his pocket and showing her, before trying a little too hard to reverse its entire gravity, causing it to suddenly fly out of his open palm and crash into the ceiling. Marc was probably more surprised than Emma might've been at his display. “O-o-oops…” he lamented lowly, eyes traveling up to the sphere that was rolling around on the ceiling, hands brought up to cover his mouth and nose in shame. He held his hand out to try and return it’s rightful gravity, but stopped himself when he realized he was getting distracted. “I'm just gonna leave that up there and hope it doesn’t fall on either of our heads.” he said to Emma, giving a nervous grin to her as he tried to smooth over his blunder.

“B-but, Emma, don’t feel bad for yourself. These things just happen, right? Look at me, I’m like 5 seconds away from fainting ‘cause I’m talking to a girl like you, but erm, what I mean is…” he said, catching himself as he realized he was just making himself more nervous and probably not putting Emma’s fears at ease. “I mean, your power is totally cool! Those plants and vines outside the building just wanted to protect you, and no one can be mad at you trying to protect yourself. Really, people will probably be mad at Dante, since he made a really big mess.” He didn’t realize he was throwing his roommate under the bus right now. “So, like, don’t worry about it. You don’t deserve any of this hate.”