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

"What's stopping you? You can't do everything but you can do some things now and work up to other things later."

Though she feels like this is about reality, about having the ability to chose, or something. Giving the obvious, easy answers, feels like a copout in some way though.

3v3ryth1n9

Yeah, it's about reality. Nervous sparks start to go up his horns again, like he shouldn't be admitting this.

"Shoooosh." She paps him this time. It's softer than it might have been before. A combination of fear of hurting him and showing him the gentleness he had been without.

"Everything isn't stopping you. Fear of things is. And that's okay. It's okay to be scared. To be afraid that things will be different, that accepting you can do things might mean you have to do things. I won't make you do anything but eat and sleep Psii. The rest is up to you. If you want to do things, I will be here every step of it."

Doubling over is a little uncomfortable. Moving isn't an option though and she wants to be close to him for a little while. Closer. Practically bent in half, she kisses his forehead softly.

"I know you're afraid you're believing in a hallucination. But you're not. And I think you find the horror you know safer than the unknowable reality. But you're not scared of the hard things Psii. You survived being a helmsman, you survived years of slavery, you survive. You'll survive this."

Survive. Yes, he'll always survive, even sometimes when he doesn't want to. He makes a bitter and dry sob, brow furrowing at the soft kiss she presses against his forehead. It's not any worse, however, thanks to the gentle shooshpap, and he just lays there.

Is it really okay to be scared? He was supposed to be some brave rebel hero, once upon a time, however much he resented a title he didn't think he earned. Can he really face something like this? He doesn't know and suddenly he's so very tired. Instead of another response written in air, his psionics gently skitter along her fingers and up her wirst.

She shivers, that's a strange sensation after all this time. Familiar, like lips on her cheek but...different. Uniquely him. She watches it tangle there.

"I'm scared too. Scared I'm going to mess this up. Scared I'll push you away, that this will be too alien for comfort. That things won't work. I just--you know me. I could never give up on living."

This is dumb and he shouldn't go along with it. That's what he tries to tell himself as he stays where he is, curled along by her. Finally, however, he offers a tentative suggestion.

p1l3

This is getting too intimate to have in the middle of town, even for all that it shouldn't matter, right? But he's still a troll, not a battery, and he wants a pile, goddammit. More than that, he doesn't want anyone else to see this display of weakness and softness she's giving him.

Pile. It takes a moment to process that. Why do they--oh. Right. She looks up and around for a moment, as if suddenly aware that this is happening out for everyone to see. Definitely too intimate for public.

"Right--Um. Can you float well enough to get up a lot of stairs? Hiveblock is at the top of the building. Or I guess I can make something out on the edge of town. Lots of sticks and rocks out there."

There's a nod, but the Helmsman doesn't make any move to get away from her. She's going to have to do so here- for all that he made the suggestion, he still wants to be like this.

She waits for him to move but when he remains still, close against her, she raises both eyebrows. Going to be like this is it?

"Come on, Psii. Do you want a pile out here in front of everyone? Cause I'm going to have to get up either way."

Well, you know him, Disciple. Always difficult. The words seem to prompt him at least a little, however, and he moves himself away with psionics. Carefully, they push him up so that he's sort of sitting, half more in air than the ground, and he looks at her awkwardly.

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."

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