apocalypsehowcomm | Log | August Catch-all

[They're on her. The kelpies. Their sharp fingers rip through her clothes, tear at her flesh as they drag her to the fire, laughter cruel and braying. She knows what's coming. She can see one holding the skin before they throw it over her.

Mercy screams and thrashes, fighting with the thin sheet she'd tried to wrap herself in, hoping it would be light enough it wouldn't constrict, wouldn't bind her, trapping her body as it transformed. But she fights with it, tangled up and screeching.]

No! No, no, no! No!

[Even with her sleep aids, Mercy's sleep isn't nearly as dreamless as she might hope it would be. Not all of the nightmares wake her in a thrashing panic, though. The ones about the kelpies, those are fresh, harsh, vicious in a way that chokes her throat with tears and terror. There are other nightmares, though, older ones that seem to have found fertile ground amongst this new crop.

Mr. Thomas' body lay in a pulped mess at the bottom of the bell tower. In her nightmares, there's always moaning, though, a hint of life that she runs to, tries to save, even when he'd tried to take his own. They can have another chance. She can do this right, better. She can save him this time.

Mercy opens her eyes to a wet pillow and a hollowness in her chest she hasn't known for a long time. She wants her family. She wants her family, but even if she'd been in Inloy, they would have been weeks away. Now? There's worlds and time between them. She rubs her eyes and slips out of bed, padding softly out of her room. She moves with the stealth of a girl used to sneaking out to places she ought not to be sneaking to at the Dread Watcher's hour.

She's equally silent when she slips into Monika's room and over to the other girl's bed. The desire for comfort reigns supreme over common sense. She lifts the covers to try to slide into bed next to Monika like she would with her Grannie or Mama or even Colm.]

Monika, are you asleep?

[The words are whispered softly... closely.]

[The screaming of the train is like nothing Mercy has ever heard in her life. It's like a great and fearsome monster shrieking into the night. The explosion on the other hand? That's familiar. That's familiar in the worst sort of way. She bursts from her apartment, Monika getting out ahead of her as Mercy limps to follow.

She sees someone coming down the stairs from the apartments above.]

Did you see anything? There's been an explosion. I heard it! Like a whole armory's worth of gunpowder going up at once.

[Trains are something wholly foreign. She'd heard that nice man, Martin, mention them when they'd gone to fetch that package, but seeing the giant boxes on wheels at the trainyard is... strange. She can't imagine a cart ever being this size. So many linked all together is a fascinating notion. Although, with big carts come big crashes.

The silvery flickers of that crash have led Mercy here. Her limp is still there after being bitten on the heel by one of the kelpies, but she's moving much more freely than she had. As she stands just outside the trainyard, watching some men in overalls moving around, she notices someone else.]

Ms. Aelwyn? You come to look at what in depths happened her?

[She startles a little before recognizing the voice.

Oh, it's just Mercy. If there was a faint ghostly shade about her, it's immediately gone. She shrugs, donning a pleasant smile.]

Lady Mercy. [There's a twinge of amusement to her tone but it's not mocking so much as friendly.] I figured I'd do some investigation after all that nonsense earlier. I suppose you had the same idea?

[It's good if so. She'd been afraid to ask Angelo or Frontal. And there's nobody else she trusts here not to sell her out to ADI. But Mercy's presence... it's bizarrely comforting.]

I heard it, too.

[ Gojou had been hurrying down the stairs. He hadn't been sleeping, so he's sharp and ready to confront whatever is happening. ]

I didn't see anything, though. We should check outside.

[ He remembers her hesitance when it came to confronting the attackers, so it's possible she won't want to do this either - so he grabs for her hand and tries to drag her towards the entrance. ]

[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.]

[Mercy blinks and shakes her head a bit. She hadn't got nearly enough sleep the past few nights and it seems like she's still seeing flickers of this 'train.' She puts the shade down to that and nothing more.]

Aye. Ain't every night you got a ghost waking a body from the soundness. 'Specially one that ain't a person. You ever heard of the like where you're from? How could a machine have a soul to make something like that?

[She's a little surprised when he takes her hand, but Mercy's far too curious and concerned to just fret in the apartment. If there's been some sort of accident (or purposeful explosion) there are going to be wounded. She'll be needed. She tries to keep up with him, but she's limping a little bit, grimacing and hopping to maintain her speed.]

There!

[Just inside the gates, she spies a smoldering chunk of metal and points at- no, there's nothing there. No, there is? Mercy shakes her head as the image seems to flicker in and out.]

Yes.

[She says that rather quickly, and matter of factly, like it's not just something she's aware of but has experience with.] But where I'm from, it's not uncommon for vehicles to be extraplanar beings like... angels or demons or elemental beings who were forced inside to act as a sort of navigator or power source.

I think it's probably more likely that it's less an actual vehicle's spirit trapped on this plane, and more a humanoid or malevolent presense that is capable of manifesting the train. Like a poltergeist.

[But the idea of a train that became so self-aware that it manifests a soul... fascinates Aelwyn. It must be a truly horrific existence. Somehow, the idea of feeding on such a monster doesn't even cross her mind, like it's fear is entirely unpalatable to whatever monster lurks in Aelwyn's magic.

How curious.]

Edited 2021-08-11 06:29 (UTC)

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.]

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?

Edited 2021-08-12 23:28 (UTC)

Oh! [Mercy frowns deeply, looking around again before putting a hand on the hilt of her blade. The dirk is in a leather sheath at her side.] You think it's dangerous, then? I brought my dagger, if there's any trouble. Supposedly been blessed by one of the Abbots of old for the Blind Mother. There's any fighting, you just run and I'll hold them of afore joining you, all right?

A fancy lady shouldn't get hurt be malevolent presences.

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.

[She chuckles lightly at the suggestion that she should run to avoid getting hurt. That's what she did with Meredith.]

That's sweet of you, dear, but I came prepared. [She'll show off her handgun, holstered in her jacket safely. It should be more affective than a dirk, depending on how it's used, and if push comes to shove Aelwyn is capable of setting this entire trainyard alight, she just needs the fear to feed her first.]

Besides, I think between the two of us we can handle any lingering monsters. We make a good team, remember?

[Well, Monika was asleep. She isn't a particularly light or heavy sleeper, and so while Mercy makes it across Monika's room without Monika stirring, the shifting of her blankets and the voice so close by her ear is enough to wake her. There's an instant of bleary confusion, and then her mind processes a figure before anything else and she bolts up in bed, gasping (and for an eyeblink, barely visible, easily dismissed as a trick of the darkness, her whole face flickers like a malfunctioning monitor) and grabbing a pillow as the worst makeshift weapon ever, and raises it up before--]

Mercy? [--she realizes she recognizes that whispering voice.]

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.

[That's a boost to Mercy's self-confidence. She throws a crooked grin at the other women.]

That's right. We do, don't we?

[Mercy reaches out to take Aelwyn's hand, if she'll allow it, holding it as Mercy leads the way into the trainyard.]

These're trains then? Mr. Martin said they was things that run underground where he's from. They're even bigger'n I thought they'd be. Those carriages they got look like you could fit a whole house in them.

[She startles a little at the physical contact. It's not like she's unused to being touched but it's sort of a strange... divide... between the two major sides of her personality. Or a sharp divide between casual affection or friendship and being objectified.

But despite a split second of hesitation she takes it. Her cool is only a little askew, she's still mostly cool, it's fine.]

Oh, yes, those are trains. Sometimes they run both underground and above ground, depending on the landscape of the city they're built in. It's a lot more convenient to tunnel through a mountain or a particular landscape that's full of particularly steep hills than it would be to build over them.

They carry hundreds of passengers, so they have to be big. I've never been on one, though. Never really needed to.

[There's a flicker of... something, but Mercy puts it down to the shadows and her own imagination, especially when she automatically raises an arm to fend off the pillow. It wouldn't be the first time she's been smacked with one for climbing into her brother's bed at some ungodly hour when they weren't meant to go out graverobbing.]

Sorry, I-I had a bad dream. I can go back- I don't like being alone in these rooms. I'm sorry...

[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.

He said they did it seeing as there were so many people. I can't even imagine everyone being all stacked up on top of each other. He said there're millions of people. That's too many all in one place. The Sisters and Brothers I'm learning from at the temple say that's part of how you get sickness in the biggest villages, putting people too near each other for too long. Their sick gets all over everyone else.

Well... there's not millions of people in the trains themselves. Not these ones, anyway. [She wonders if she could make a train that would fit a million people. Crazy.] Still, yeah, it's a pretty ridiculous amount of people. I haven't personally lived in a city that crowded since I was very young.

My people are a lot more resistant to disease than yours. Your people being humans, I mean. So we don't have to worry quite so much, but... well. Any natural resistance just breeds hubris. [Aelwyn, seeming to slow down mid info-dump, will look at a few of the railway workers more closely. They look very... vacant. Odd.]

Think we should ask someone about the ghost train?

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...

[And this is why she thinks of Aelwyn as particularly clever and wise. Most people wouldn't recognize hubris if it came out and bit them. Mercy nods along, still trying to fathom so many people all being in the same city. Evergreen City had seemed enormous with over a thousand full-time residents, compared to the few hundred in the abbey.]

Aye. Seems a sensible enough place to start.

[She looks around and spots a railyard worker dutifully trying to ignore their existence as they tromp through the yard.]

Greetings to you and yours, sir! We got some questions if you got a minute or two. I'm Sister Mercy and this is my friend Aelwyn.

[A quick motion to the woman beside her. The man glances at them, then just tries to duck his head and tell them he's not looking to be converted.]

Log | August Catch-all | Closed

For Akechi (cw: nightmares, sadism/cruelty, body horror, claustrophobia)

For Monika (cw: nightmares, brief mentions of attempted suicide and gore)

For Gojou (cw: large-scale industrial accidents/train crash, screaming, fire, hallucination)

For Aelwyn (cw: large-scale industrial accidents/train crash, loss of home)

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