Log | August Catch-all | Closed

[graveyounglady]

Who: Mercy Graves & Others
When: Throughout August
Where: Around Gloucester
Summary: Various happenings throughout the month.
Warnings: Nightmares, claustrophobia, large-scale industrial accidents/train crash, screaming, fire, hallucination, loss of home, body horror, sadism/cruelty, mentions of attempted suicide and gore



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Comments

[simulatio]

[It's been a long, long time since Goro Akechi has felt safe enough to sleep soundly. Even if he hadn't spent years being conditioned to be aware of the slightest noise from his various foster parents, the recent attack has done nothing to prop up an illusion of security in their apartment.

So the sound of a scream jolts him awake instantly, the fingers of his right hand wrapping around the knife he keeps under his pillow even as his left yanks open the bedside drawer to grab the loaded pistol within. It's not proper firearm safety, to keep a loaded gun like that, but-- well. Safety is a precarious thing.]

Sister Mercy!

[It's a rough bark as he shoves her door open, gun drawn as his eyes dart around in search of an assailant. Considering he wouldn't be caught dead in normal circumstances wearing sleepwear around the apartment, and he has better things to be spending money on, he never bothered purchasing pajamas. So Mercy's fierce rescuer takes the form of a toned teenager wearing nothing but black boxers, holding a gun.]

[graveyounglady]

Mercy's twisted into her sheets and half-sobbing as she throws herself toward the sound of familiar voice and winds up face-first on the floor. She's dressed in a simple purple nightgown she'd thought would be good for sleeping. The little white bones on it had been an amusing and fantastical touch. She couldn't fathom how people could get the weave like that. Regardless, she reaches an arm out.

They got me, Akechi. I'm a seal again.

[She is very obviously not a seal, but here they are.]

[simulatio]

What?

[There's no enemies, as far as he can see. Just a hysterical girl, sobbing on the floor about demons conjured from her own imagination.

Fuck's sake. Willing his own heart to stop pounding quite so hard, he sighs and drops to one knee beside her. He didn't bring the holster for the pistol, for obvious reasons, leaving him holding it rather awkwardly in the same hand as the knife as takes her outstretched hand in the other.]

No, you're not.

[Too brusque. What would the princely character he pretended to be for so long say? A breath, then his voice pitches slightly upward, something that sounds like one of the heroic characters he'd used to watch on TV.]

Listen to the sound of my voice. Focus on what my hand feels like in yours. You can do that for me, right?

[graveyounglady]

A-aye.

[She grasps hold of his hand and squeezes tightly. He understands her. She has a hand. She as a body a heal that smarts something fierce from the bite she'd taken as a seal. A nightmare. It was just another nightmare. After a few moments pulling herself together, Mercy pushes herself up with her other arm.]

I-I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up.

[simulatio]

I thought someone might have broken in.

[To explain. The gun. He doesn't respond to her apology, because she did wake him up, and he's rather annoyed about that, but at least he doesn't say so out loud.]

Are you alright now? [He squeezes her hand back gently, his eyes searching her face in the semi-darkness for what little he might be able to glean from her expression.] Nightmares can feel real, but that's all they are: a nightmare. Your brain is simply trying to process a traumatic event, nothing more.

[graveyounglady]

[Mercy's sniffles and wipes quickly at her eyes. She misses her family something fierce right now. She could wrap her arms around Grannie and let the old woman sing her to softer dreams of the warm earth beneath her and the smell of grass, flowers, and trees growing all around.

On an impulse, she tries to pull Akechi into a hug, in spite of the gun, in spite of him being naked and clearly annoyed.]

You got real fancy words, Akechi.

[simulatio]

What-

[-the fuck do you think you're doing, he manages not to say, strangling it down with audible difficulty. His voice emerges in a harsh bark of surprise and alarm, his entire body tensing at her touch. Hugging a man holding a gun is an absolutely terrible idea, especially when said man is both touch-starved and incapable of handling most emotions in a positive way. Every instinct screams to shove her away -- this is vulnerable, this is too close. He doesn't know how to politely extricate himself from a hug.

Fuck, he hasn't been hugged since before his mother's death. He tries for a laugh, one of the polite ones he'd use to dodge interview questions that bordered on the personal, and hears it fall flat around him.]

I, ah, don't think I said anything particularly complicated, [he manages to say through vocal cords that feel like they're swollen shut. He doesn't hug her back. He doesn't move at all.] You don't need to, ah...

[graveyounglady]

[He doesn't need to hug back for the moment. Mercy just clings to the young man, her arms tight, but not painfully so.]

I just mean you talk pretty. Like a scholar. Reminds me of some of the abbey folk at home. This place is real interesting, but I wanna go home now.

[If he's not pushing her away, Mercy is not letting go.]

[simulatio]

Ah... haha.

[Try as he might, he can't help his laugh from sounding anything but awkward as he gently pats her arm. There, there.]

Well, I was top of my class, I suppose, [he says, not knowing what else to say. Of course she wants to go home. What idiot doesn't want to go home? What the hell is he supposed to say to that?!]

Should you make it back there, you'll have quite the stories to tell your friends, no? [he tries, patting her arm again.] You could write a book.

[graveyounglady]

I could, couldn't I? Maybe even get it in print if Ms. Tawnie opens up her shop. She's got all them pretty pamphlets. If you put them together and bound them all up...

[She sniffs and finally starts to pull back, wiping at her eyes as she releases Akechi.]

No one would believe me about this kind of place, though. Magic machines and electricity and trains. This ain't real for us. It's like living in a dream.