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It was the in middle of another one of Robert's rants in the board room.
Everyone was tired, Alice had yawned twice, and normally the wet suck-up would look at the dispatcher with determination.
Now, he was looking, but, uh...
He wasn't blinking? Either he had such a big hard on for Robert that his muscles had forgotten to blink, or there was something seriously wrong with him...
Courtney continued to stare blankly, and Robert's voice came to a stop.
"Uh, Visi? Why are you looking at him like that."
"Waterbitch isn't blinking."
Colm, in the corner of her eye, seemed to do a double take, exclaiming, "Holy shite, the lad actually isn't!
"Is this a new power or something?" Alice pondered, now climbing over the table to wave a hand in front of his face.
His thoughts seemed to snap back to him, eyes wide for a couple seconds before blinking rapidly.
"A-Ah! Sorry! I didn- mean to!"
"It's fine, Waterboy. You okay? You seemed pretty spaced out there." Courtney could practically hear the smile in Robert's voice.
"Yup! J-Just tired, is all... all the cats kept me up-" Courtney normally hated stuttering, especially from him, but this time it made her even more worried.
His stutter recently had lessened, but it seemed to be coming back in a wave (pun intended) of anxiety.
His eyes were still blinking rapidly.
"Is this a new variant of a stroke or something?" She asked, actually concerned.
He seemed confused, raising a brow.
"I-I don't think spacing out is symptom of a stroke..." he muttered, still audible to Courtney, but she dropped it. Who cares that much?
"Whatever. What were you saying, Liutenant Dan?"
"I thought we talked about- Whatever. So. You might all be shifting ranks.."
His voice started to phase out, and she kept catching herself looking back at Herman, still blinking like he'd go blind if he stopped, but a bit less since earlier.
During looking, she also realised some others like Malevola and Bruno looking at him with confusion. Huh. So it wasn't just her.
...
Malevola found his eye habits(?) concerning, to say the least.
Did he need to head down to the medical bay or something? She worried for Herman a lot, always making sure he was okay on missions, looking out for him, etcetera.
But this seemed new, maybe it was because he had only recently started to keep his goggles up (or completely gone sometimes) around everyone.
It started off as small things with him putting them up between breaks, and then to just whenever he wasn't out on a mission.
He seemed to blink just fine then, but sometimes he took too long between segments for it to seem normal.
Yet again, she isn't exactly 'normal' either. Only speaking about eyes here, hers are yellow. It's probably some weird genetic thing running in his family.
She'd never met his grandma — one time everyone on the team stayed after Robert left the building to go through his computer and they all read eachothers' files out of curiosity — so she had heard about her before. Maybe she had it too.
Herman's file never mentioned any eye problems, just about how nervous he was and stuff like that. It was an interesting read, sure, but nothing about them.
It was currently break, and she found herself walking up to him before she could move away and pretend she was walking after something else.
She put her hand on his wet shoulder, fighting the urge to grimace at the horrid feeling, before asking, "Waterboy, are your eyes okay?"
Like earlier in the room, his eyes widened and he seemed to blink loads again.
"Y-yea-h, w-why?"
"Your blinking patterns seem abnormal. You got them checked out recently?"
"A-abnormal in wha-t way?"
"When you zoned out you didn't blink, when you get nervous you blink too much."
"O-ohh, well, I, uh- don't need to blink."
Huh? This was new.
...
It felt weird to explain, but the words rushed out his mouth just like water normally did when fighting.
He wishes he could've put his goggles back down in the moment, just to cover up his blinking habits, but he had stupidly left them in his locker because they ended up hurting his head at times.
Mal's eyes seemed to widen in response, thinking for a couple seconds.
He expected insults or something negative to be hurled his way, but there was nothing?
Her hand on his shoulder felt stable, bringing him back down to earth. It was nice, most people refused to touch him.
"That's cool as fuck. How come?"
What?
A weird warmth bloomed in his veins, just like they always do when Robert is nice to him.
It was refreshing, like always, and he could feel his face flush.
"W-well, yknow how the whole thing behind blinking is to, um, keep the eyes- from being dry?"
She nodded, humming in response.
"Well, my eyes are always wet- so I don't need to blink them- to keep them wet."
"Ohh, that explains a lot. That'd be so cool for a prank."
He couldn't help the small chuckle from her response.
"Maybe one day, heh.. That's why I blink still- wait, that's a wrong senten- I worry I freak people out if I don't, so I still blink."
"Fair enough. It's so cool. Is anything else affected by your water? Like, I dunno, sneezing or something."
"T-that too. And also- um- vomit. I vomit up water a lot, basically clearing out all the buildup after not activity- inactivity, if you could say."
"Fair enough. I wonder if Golem has something similar, now that I think about it, or Flambae.."
"Hmm, G-Golem most likely. I dunno how Flambae's insides- organs would be affected, if he's fireproof-.."
"Ah, true true."
"Shift is over," Robert's voice over a speaker chimed in their ears, and Malevola gave his shoulder a pat before saying goodbye.
That was nice.
It was nice to talk about how his body functions with someone who listens, similar to Robert.
He thinks those two would probably be the only ones to listen, and it felt nice.