-her shadow surrounds her, chilly but comforting, stretching out and filling the space with its thin presence.

Tenebris.

She closes her eyes and lets herself be envelopd in his dark embrace. It's cold, but she tucks her feet into blankets under her and hums a little. The badness of the day, of the doctors and nurses and even the other patients. The drugs...

He makes it better.

He flutters softly around her, tucking close outside her blankets, and manages a purring sound, trying to soothe.

The fears and pain of the day wash away into the tide of him and she finally lets herself drift...

Outside the cupboard, the brightness of the room slowly changes, turning a warmer, red-gold, rather than the harsh white it had been. A soft crackling noise fades into hearing, and the smell of... Something delicious, rich and meaty, fills the air. It's maybe more obvious in the dark silence of that space than it would be, otherwise.

...Tenebris shifts around her, his attention turning to the outside.

"...Tene?" she mouths, completely inaudible.

He flutters closer to the crack where the light comes in, leaving her warmer around the shoulders. He feels... hungry-want-curious?

Anxiety forms in her chest, pulled forward even with him surrounding her. She's scaredscaredscared, but his wants and needs and curiosity fuel her own and even if they didn't he should have. He's so limited, stuck so close with her. Confined.

Ava reaches forward and... pushes open the cupboard door.

The first thing she sees - well, it depends what draws her eye first. It might be the fire: directly in front of the piece of furniture her cupboard is now in (whatever it is, it's not the same desk) is a fireplace, lit by a softly crackling cedar log fire, sweet and warm. Or, it might be the snow, falling from above, covering most of the floor like a carpet, even up to the fireplace itself, and then piling up in larger drifts closer to the walls. Somehow, despite the warmth she can feel seeping into her bones, it's not melting.

Speaking of the walls, they - and the brickwork of the fireplace - are festooned with long vines of holly and mistletoe, their healthy green and red colouring probably helped along by the way they appear to be growing out of the very walls. They lend the room an extra festive feel, along with the softly twinkling snow globes on the mantlepiece.

Safe to say, this isn't where they came from. Not remotely.

Ava stares.

Tenebris stretches! It's a little difficult in the light, and he has to squish down into a denser form to manage it, but he can just poke a little tendril out around the edge of the - side table? Their cupboard is now in, to peer in the direction of the tantalizing scent.

Avaline crawls out of the cupboard, sticking close to him. He can't go too far away from her, but he's good at pulling her along.

Around the corner of the side table the room opens up much larger. It looks to be some kind of restaurant, full of tables and booths, and a long counter to one end, bracketed by a window through which they can see - darkness, lit by explosions of light, like fireworks in a night sky.

The room is also empty, aside from a single patron, sitting with his back to them at a table.

It's a boy, around Ava's age, maybe. He's seated in a wheelchair, his focus on whatever he's eating - presumably the source of the smell Tenebris is so interested in. He hasn't noticed them, yet.

Tasty smell! Tenebris wants it.

"Would be rude to take," she says silently to her shadow.

But she's not really paying attention because what? This isn't the hospital... it's- some sort of- she's so confused.

But tasty? Her shadow turns back towards her, hang-dog.

It's looks like it's lost it's roof, is what it is. The warm snow doesn't stop at the area around the fireplace - everywhere no one is likely to walk there's a thick drift of the stuff, and thin carpets of it otherwise. She can actually see the track of the wheelchair's wheels leading up to where it's now settled.

Why is there snow inside? It's awfully messy and her mother would be horrified.

Ava tries to ignore Tenebris' emotions but she can't. She's so sensitive to them. She knows he can't help it, that's it's her that's wrong so she just nods and... walks carefully over to the boy.

The crunching of her feet in the snow (warm and soft and unmelting under her feet, it doesn't stick, just sloughs off as she lifts them again) warns the boy of her approach. His head turns to try to see her over his shoulders, and then he grabs the sides of his chair to pull himself up for a better vantage point.

"Luna!" He beams at her, immediately craning back around and trying to shove himself back from the table, "You're okay! You're okay, right? Did the door steal you from your bathroom, too?"

Tenebris coils down around her ankles, out of sight, his focus still on getting at that food without being caught.

She quickly steps back, pulling Tenebris with her, and puts a table between them and the boy.

He stops, smile turning to a frown, "Uh. You are okay, right?"

Avaline shakes her head. She wants to crawl back in her cupboard and bury herself in her shadow and -

"That's not my name?"