thebastion | Day 255

Entry tags:

Day 255 - Yeah no

When: Day 255, midday
Who: The Helmsman and anyone who trips over his prone body
Open/Close: Open
Where: The middle of the Bastion, facedown
What: You know what's nice? Grass is nice.
Format: I'll match
Warning: Blood warning/minor self harm in Aoi and Disciple threads

Ever since he'd been brought to the hospital in the middle of the night by Aradia and the Disciple, the Helmsman has been quiet. His throat has been in no condition to really speak, which had been one thing, but besides that... Any attempts to speak with him have just earned a narrow eyed look and thinned lips, although he'd gone along with attempts to feed him and put him into some cleaner clothes.

Apparently, today's the day that changes because anyone going about their business in the Bastion is liable to notice the gray-skinned and horned alien laying facedown in the middle of the little settlement. The clothes he's wearing are far too big for his food-deprived skinny body but despite what it looks like, he is breathing and is alive.

Don't mind him, he's just gonna be here for a while. If you trip, well, that's your problem. Suck it up.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She should be standing herself but instead she's taking him in, looking at how his clothes hang off him, how the scars overlap. It's still so strange to see him again, sitting in front of her like this.

"Ah--good. You're sort of up. Which sounds better right now? Fairly absurdly soft pile in my place or pile of branches and stuff?" Cause honestly she could go either way.

Normally, he wouldn't give a fuck. However, he raises up his hands covered in scars and scabs. Considering how recent uninstallation was... Maybe he shouldn't be laying down on a bunch of dirty rocks and branches with bugs.

Just a thought.

"...Right." She leans over and kisses one of his palms before pulling herself up. Sitting like that created all sorts of weird aches in her muscles and legs, but she barely stumbles.

"That building, top floor." She points off to one side, to the tower she live in.

The sudden kiss makes him startle soemwhat, and it takes him a moment before he can get himself properly hovering. Letting his hands hang limply by his sides, he glances up to the building and grinds his tongue on his fangs again.

Alright, that's... good, he thinks. He waits behind her for her to start moving towards the communal hive first.

It doesn't take more than a few minutes to get there, even with her walking slower in case Psiioniic isn't quite up to snuff. It's a little darker inside the first floor but not too much, and she gestures to the stairs as their next obstacle.

"Hey...I know I was too eager to get those things off you before. But is it going to hurt to take them off no matter what?"

There's no need to worry. As of right now, he's not showing any exhaustion. Of course, that might also be a slight mental disconnect. Things like 'pain', 'hunger', and 'exhaustion' are sort of vague concepts more than things that actually happen to him anymore. At her question, he gives a tentative nod of his head before the words form.

th3y l33ch 0ff p21. gr0w 1nt0 2k1n.

That idea makes her flinch. She can see they're all grown in but she had sort of assumed that was from time, not their function. Or was he saying those two as unrelated items. Hmn. Either way, she wasn't sure how she could remove them.

"I'll get them off you someday..." She trailed off as the eight or nine stories of stairs loomed ahead and she started the climb. Hurting him like that didn't seem like an option if she was honest.

n33d 4n 3n91n33r. They're the only ones who can do such a thing, after all. Usually not for living Helmsman, of course. That's dangerous. But engineers would know how to remove the wires, the right ways to direct little electrical bursts to make the wires retreat into themselves, the right ways to cut.

Her face clouds, disturbed by the idea of never getting to touch along his eyes again, to always see the goggles there. She doesn't reply for a few floors, trying to figure out some way to do that. What's even the likelihood of an engineer coming here, let alone on trained with biotech? Not high. She turns over various ideas in her head, examining and then rejecting them in turn.

"I thought double threes were my thing. Quirk thief."

Unaware of the issues going through her head, still trying to reassure himself with thoughts of this being an hallucination still, he just follows after with his feet not touching the stairs.

1t'2 c4ll3d pr0p3r 2pell1n9

"Proper spelling with quirk theft is what I'd call it," said Disciple, stopping on a landing to stick her tongue out, "But I'll take it as a compliment. Since I'm pretty sure it is. Somewhat."

Onwards and upwards. She doesn't think about his goggles, forces herself not to. Nothing she can do.

At the next landing after that one, his forehead suddenly and gently presses against one of her shoulders. The words that come after it are a bit more explanitary. 1 c4n 2t0p

Her heart breaks a little. Oh--did he think she was being serious? It had been too easy to fall back into their teasing that she forgot he might not want that.

She twists around, pressing her forehead to his.

"Oh Mituna, don't. I was just--I was--being dumb. I like it. It's like a reminder you never forgot us. If it was on purpose. If not, then it's a lucky coincidence, of which I approve."

Still against his own will, he shrinks back at the faintly familiar intimacy. He doesn't know how to react, so much of the time. It's been too long. There's a nod, at least, and maybe his shoulders loose some of their tension.

Letting him cool down, she stands there with him for a few minutes, until awareness of their surroundings kicks in again. It's dumb, how she zones out with him, gets so focused on him that the world ceases to really have effect. Absently, she wonders if that's even healthy.

"You have to be patient with me too. I've......not forgotten, but everything is sort of under a shadow. I have to find all those things again."

y0u'r3 g00d comes up, hazy and wavering. Even if she's just a hallucination, even if she's changed, he can't imagine her being anything but 'good'. He can't imagine any of them like that, frankly- won't let himself because if he loses his memories and feelings of them, what is left?

Instead of stepping ahead of him, she takes his hand loosely in her own, walking up the last few flights hand in hand. He's probably doing that thing again, where he refuses to see the bad things about them--her. There is not them anymore.

"Not completely but thank you."

Well, whatever he was doing backfired. The response doesn't exactly seem to reassure him, and he lets himself be pulled along like she's a child and he's just a colorful helium-filled sphere.

Part of her feels awkward, terrible, like she's not doing her part in this, but she's not sure what her part is. It's hard to get back into the step of things. So she does what she does--did best. Babble. The skill is coming into better use now.

"We don't have anyone else on our level. I think maybe not on the level below us either. I just liked the idea of being alone. I would have preferred a cave but it turns out they don't have such things to live in here. No sopor. I might try to get some from that...whatever it is in the middle of town. I was told it can give you things. Who knows. Sopor and a coon would be nice...If we stay. I guess we could try to go out on the skyway when you're more healed."

It's a relief when she can close the door to her hiveblock behind them. It's bare, with only the vaguest signs there might be someone who lived there. A blanket left curled on the floor where she had sat once. A piece of fruit on the table. On one wall, there's pictures, drawn with pieces of burnt wood, painted in with a suspiciously familiar green.

"Pile is in the respiteblock..."

Pile is in the respite block, but it's to the wall that he wanders over to. The style of those pictures is different and yet the same, something he couldn't forget no matter how hard he could try. (He's never tried.)

Perhaps the respiteblock might show evidence contrary to what his mind is piecing together, but for now, all he can do is look at those splotches of green and start to shake. This hive is nothing like what he'd imagine Dii to ever take up if they ever stopped their wandering, if pipe dreams ever came to fruition, and that color shouldn't be there, not when she's the only oliveblood he's seen in the entire settlement thus far.

She's busy in the kitchen, grabbing some water (that he is going to drink) and a piece of jerky (that he is going to eat). A little time alone might do him--ah fuck. He's shaking.

"Psii--what is it?" She has to skirt past the large awkward pieces of furniture in the room but she doesn't drop anything when she catches up to him by the wall. Oh--was it the pictures? She looks them over, unsure of what he's seeing. Was it just how she drew? Did he forget what her work looked like. It was basic things, trees, deserts, a sketch of the skyway. Her lusus. In a corner, them. Nothing breathtaking but then again, Disciple had forgotten that biting her thumb for the green under her skin wasn't habit before they had gone.

"I didn't draw in my respiteblock yet, would you like to go in there?"

It takes a second for him to answer the question, and when he does, it's just a low alarmed keening noise that drags on. That's it, this really is a hallucination, bad like all the others, this proves it, she's supposed to be okay, she's supposed to be alive somewhere and maybe curled up with furs and away where no one can hurt her, she was the only one to escape she's supposed to be okay-

Yeah the keening noise isn't stopping anytime soon, for however much it's getting ragged and rattly.

That's it, she's dragging him along into her respiteblock, onto the pile she's made. It's a haphazard mess, full of blankets, a mattress, pillows, and some of the pink-red leaves she went back and plucked off the land she had come in on. It lacks the personal touch, too much curling up, not enough preparing for something she didn't think was going to really happen. She gently nudges him onto it, making sure to put him on the softest parts.

"Drink Psii. Shooosh, just drink the water." She pushes it to his lips, trying to coax a few drops down his throat at least.

That's for the best. Once the pictures are out of sight, he stops making noises although he doesn't look any more reassured. There's no real thought into going along with all her nudgings, and he just curls up on the pile like if he becomes small enough things will be okay. The glass to his face earns a wince, but only because he's startled. It's a clean smell, not heavy with salt or other natural things. Tap water. That's good.

His fangs clink against the glass as he opens his mouth just enough for the lip of the glass to press in. There's just a sip before he refuses anymore.

A sip works for her. He drank something, even a sip, so she feels better. Putting it far enough from the pile not to be knocked over, she settles in beside him. Pulling her legs up onto the big mattress that makes hte base of this, she gives him her attention again.

"If you want to talk about it, I'll listen. If not, it's okay, alright?"

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tw for mention of self harm to be safe

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