[OPEN DARKNESS EVENT LOG][DAY/NIGHT 130]

[furrows]

Who: ERRYONE IN ASGARD
What: All of Day 130, day and (early) night!
When: Day 130, day and night
Where: EVERYWHERE
Rating: PG-13, if any worse let me know

[Day: You survived. That was... horrifying. And you don't think you've ever been so happy to see the sun rise the next morning. Things are worse for wear, and you need to get more supplies just in case something else comes.

But wait- halfway through the day, and suddenly the sun is gone? Where did it go, and how is it night so early?

Night: Careful. The terrors of last night are back, and now are even in more of a frenzy than before. More crazed, more dangerous, and wanting to destroy everything they come across. Hope you can keep your eyes open.]

Comments

[trinitylimit]

[He drops his hand and lets her have at it. Sora really appreciates her doing this for him. There's no doubt in his mind that she'd healed others before him. He's sure sure she'll find more people to help when she's done with him. She's really brave, he realizes, and tough to make it so long. He has to say something about it.]

You're really cool, Naminé!

[lethechained]

[It's true, she's quite experienced by now - she's had a lot of practice working at the hospital and living through several other attacks. She'd tried to help others then, as she does now. Not that she's happy that he got hurt in the first place, but... it's nice to get to help him. It'll never make up for what she did - at least not from her point of view - but it's something, at least. She'd never call herself brave, or tough, or anything like that - except of course that's just her own perspective. The truth is, she's a very strong girl indeed, even if it doesn't always seem that way. (It takes a lot to bend as far as she has without breaking. Whether she inherited that will from Kairi or if it's something entirely her own is debatable.)]

[The compliment surprises her so thoroughly that she stops, straightening slightly with her shock obvious on her face. Where did that come from? A few blinks and a very sheepish expression later, she forces her eyes to focus on her work, shoulders rising slightly in what might be shyness or might be the beginnings of a shrug.]

I-- I don't know about that...! [Gracious, her cheeks are pink. What are compliments even--] ... But... thank you, Sora. For thinking that about me. [She pauses, then,] I... think you're 'really cool', too.

[digophelia]

...

[Reluctantly, she ushers him to Sora. Alice can't help but talk to him like he's her own sibling, much like her cats in the past.]

It's alright, Julius, I'll come back for you, I promise.

[There's a moment where Alice lingers, giving him one more hug before leaving him. She promises not to choke up, turning away with the vorpal blade. It's better to take off now before she has second thoughts.]

[deputychief]

In some way, but the degree is a rather important distinction. If I recall correctly, you have mentioned that yours was -- perhaps -- rather extreme in degree, for example.

1/2 i am only ever sincere and dedicated see

[corona]

[ And just like that, the fear and that miserable blush is back in her decidedly avoidant expression. She doesn't have trouble reacting to unexpected horror so much anymore, but it's hardest around Koizumi to keep up the consistent if not level-headed calm she's tried so fiercely to cultivate these past days. He has the advantage here, knowing more about her (and the person she really is beneath everything) than she'd realized until now. And he's only getting better at hitting her buttons without very much effort at all. ]

[queenoftheforlornheart]

Satellizer looked down and away, one arm crossed over her chest and holding her other in a defensive gesture.

"It's alright..." she said simply, not looking over.

"It's over, for now. We'll need to rest, regroup and reassess what is going on so we can better handle the situation..."

She remained silent for some times before finally speaking in a low tone. "Thank you..."

2/3 okay screw it let me just redo these, doo be doo...

[corona]

[ Rapunzel doesn't know why it scares her so badly - what he says. These days if she has any idea why things touch her the way they do, she considers herself ten steps ahead and lucky on a good day. What she does know is that she needs to say something, wants to promise him the same -- or barring anything so potentially dangerous - indeed, she's aware of it too - as a candid declaration like that, to at least ask him to stand still. Every time he moves - coming closer or moving them farther apart, it doesn't matter - her heart throws itself against her chest like something caged.

( There's also this: at first she can't quite identify what she feels when he releases her a second time; it's that furious heart of hers, plummeting, that indicates disappointment rising fast like bile at the back of her throat. )

But what ultimately decides her answer has little to do with the extraordinary power he seems, without cause or warning, to have gained over her. No. It's that he knows what those words mean to her. He knows.

And suddenly she's lost, terrified of the honesty in his voice and the finality in a gesture like I promise— ]

Don't say that. Please don't say that. Pascal used to say that. Auto-Responder and Diva told me the exact same thing and now—

[ Now they're gone. ]

anal retentive? nah

[corona]

...I don't want to do everything, Itsuki. I don't want to be heroic. I'm not a soldier. I'm not a - a demon or a detective or a witch with years and years of training, and I haven't saved any worlds. I haven't done anything and yet— [ Her voice breaks - finally - and in that moment, between crying and saying nothing at all, Rapunzel hates herself a little. Just a little. ]

And yet... I'm the one who's here! [ she laughs ] How does that even make Sense? For people like Nakama and - and Ja'far and Kate and everyone else to die but... for me to live? It's not fair. Not when I'm the least deserving.

So I have to fight! [ another laugh ] You know? I have to try hard enough for all of them. To make up for me being here instead of them.

...But mostly I'm just being selfish aren't I. I guess the truth is that I just don't want anyone else to leave. [ The third time she laughs, Rapunzel ends up looking at him, trying to meet his gaze against her better judgement. Her fourth is through tears. ]

I don't want you to leave.

[hushedpenance]

"No, I can't. Cannot. I'm getting up..!"

He began to sit up, his arms shaking as he pushed off the couch. Those reddish eyes -- even more red now with how bloodshot they were -- stared up into Shou's warm brown ones. His eyelids became heavier and more difficult to keep propped open as those calloused hands brushed through his tangled, slightly burnt hair.

In the end, the humming did him in. He moved in closer, the edges of his ears bumping against the larger man's chest. The soft rumbling and low, rolling melody put the blonde at a temporary peace. His slumber won't last very long at all, but for the time being, he had drifted off.

> wake up in the morning with 10 different holly notifs. 1/2!

[deputychief]

[He can sense the impossibility -- and know the impossibility -- of the situation just as well, he feels. For of course he knows that literally, he can't promise that any more than she can; he is impotent in the face of larger forces, and while that's not an entirely unaccustomed position (for anyone, let alone him), it certainly doesn't conduce to solving this issue in the way that would be easiest, and the way the he really wants to, and which he kind of almost already just tried, anyway. "I won't leave." But everyone here knows those are empty words.

His voice starts out a little bit shaky when he finally speaks again.]

Fairness--permanence--those are both concepts that are only imperfectly realized in this world, or any, it seems. What I said, I only mean to promise for now. I can't do any better. None of us can, but permanence, forever-- It isn't as desirable as one might think. The promise that I know I can keep is--now, in this moment, and the moments that stretch forward from here, as far as --

[He gestures at the still-distant mouth of the alley, dimly visible as a splash of hazy reflected light, as far as can be, when everything else around them immediately, thickly oozes like intestines of the darkness. Infinite space and no space seem to separate them, so, heedless of her jarred state, he steps forward again, or maybe it's more like the darkness pushes, or squeezes, him forward again.]

-- As far as you can see, and...

no wait, 2/3

[deputychief]

[He stops for a moment, and he seems -- he is -- quite in control again when he starts up again.]

It's that I'll be with you as far as that.

[deputychief]

[He doesn't draw back again physically this time, but, mentally, perhaps, he has to, a little bit, outside of his own control; and somehow that shows. And it's because of that that he adds, with an odd reticence:]

And you should know that that's because I feel personally that you're far from the least deserving.

[seventeenpills]

He still retained that deep bow. He wasn't about to let it go until he was properly released.

"Thank Me for what, exactly...?"

1/2 i was like "i wonder if she's going to say anything..."

[corona]

[ The one expression of emotion that never seems a production with Rapunzel is crying: unlike rage and joy, she doesn't wear tears with anything but the sadness due, and almost always she makes it quiet, private affair. If survivor's guilt is reason enough to cry, then crying is reason enough to feel guilty.

But seeing that she can't quite drop the ground and curl up in a fetal position or cover her face without Itsuki taking note, she makes due for the time with a curtain of hair hanging low over her eyes and the comfort of physical pain - her excuse. Her wounds do sting. "My hand hurts" would be surely be an acceptable explanation.

So not for the first time this night she finds herself grateful for the thick, inky darkness and the gloom which allows her the freedom to hide without really hiding at all. Provided no one shows up with a floodlight, she's protected. ]

...You don't have to reassure me every time, you know. [ There's a smile in her voice as, reluctant, she turns away and towards that fracture of light at the end of the small street. ] You already give me more credit than I've earned.

[corona]

[ Normally, as they've done the past handful of times (ah! something she likes about him, finally: the way she can lose herself utterly in conversation - in the world - in feeling, even - without ever leaving his side; she likes finding herself off topic, off the path, even when it hurts as now), she would guide them back to their objective with a prompt, a word. But she doesn't this time for two reasons.

First, because she knows that no matter what she says and no matter which direction she goes, he'll follow. Just like before. And perhaps acknowledging that is an easier way of saying sorry than the alternative, but it means more this way. She hopes.

The second reason is that six steps after "earned", something strikes her, and she stops.

The silhouetting brightness as she glances back means he'll be able to read and understand the look in her eyes, she knows, but... it's all right. He won't have long. And it's worth it, exposing herself this way, for the momentary courage such risk gives her. ]

Partner? Even...though I don't deserve the credit - thank you. For giving it. If I could see myself the way you do, I would never be unhappy again. So thank you. Not... for 'watching' me, like you said, but - for seeing me.

[ she smiles ]

For seeing me and liking me anyway.

how about "the more holly tags in my inbox the better"... also 1/1.

[deputychief]

[he wishes he could capture that moment in a jar for later analysis, but were it possible to get a video of it (and it is, there's the bracelet), it would come out just as a drop of fire in a jar would-- smothered ashes. It's that feeling which buoys his spirits again, lifts him out of the alley, as it were, sets him, blinking, amidst his accustomed mental furniture, surprised to note each chair and table still there, and only some cobwebs to clear, some shadows to dust.

There's nothing he needs to say to that, but fixing his eyes on hers again right now, he does still need to communicate something, and what he reads in her he sends right back in a moment, before closing his eyes and bowing his head with a smile, all of which says assent, yes, the Joyceian yes.

It feels different to be a yes-man like this.

He follows her towards the bright end of the alley. They are drawing close to Odin House now, he recognizes.]

[corona]

[ If she were anyone else - more like the realist he is, maybe - she'd think that the only problem with transient perfection: it has to end. But, momentary or no, the gaiety it imparts is lasting enough that when they arrive she almost forgets to question the safety of the building itself. Like everything else, it's a bastion of nothing so much as shadow.

If anyone else thinking along the same lines is inside, she wouldn't believe it at a glance, which is reassuring and unsettling in equal measure. The fewer people, the better. Hopefully it's the shelter taking everyone in for the night instead of these seemingly abandoned Welcome Halls throughout the city. ]

[deputychief]

[He does not forget to question that. It's dark, for sure, but it's known terrain and it has his room, where he stockpiled other supplies, as well as, of course, food and a roof.

He opens the front door naturally enough, as if nothing is really wrong, and peers inside. Shadow suffuses the room to make it seem simultaneously vaster and more constricting, but he ignores that effect and steps in.]

I'm not sure if anyone else is here at the moment.

[glistens]

Is that bad? [ She's not sure how conditions were yesterday, after all, though she'd been chased through Odin on more than one occasion. Relying on the flashlights along her wrist to illuminate the hall, she lifts a cautious arm and fumbles for the flare gun with her other hand. Better to be paranoid and alive... ]

[ofthursday]

It was.

[deputychief]

Bad? Well, I would say it's not good, but not necessarily bad. They have probably gone to the library, nearby as it is, and more barricaded.

[He takes his torch and lights it again with a small ball of flame. It casts a light that makes the hall seem a bit like a forest, somehow, shadows of waving branches.]

I think it seems safe, though.

[glistens]

It's beautiful! [ "Seems safe" is now, apparently, the tactical equivalent of "100% checked and cleared" in her vocabulary because she follows his appraisal with the sound of heavy plastic hitting the floor, matched in echo only by Rapunzel's voice as she wanders deeper into their (ahem) safehouse. For what she actually does, though, "dancing" would be a more accurate term.

But it's much cozier this way. And how better to shake off any lingering uncertainties than with impromptu ballet? She stops mid-spin, sniffs, and nods. ]

I approve.

[deputychief]

Well, there you have it. That's what we need, although of course, the people in question must also be congenial to the idea of cooperation.

[deputychief]

[He smiles at that, all back to regular and whatnot.]

Ah, your approbation was all I was waiting for.

There are additional supplies in my room, by the way.

I hope you don't mind a late tag :o

[lyreflower]

[Lyra has been out and about almost nonstop, trying to get to the bottom of all this darkness and save as many people as she can--no matter if they're Travelers or natives--from getting hurt or killed. And people really are dying; it's frightening, and she isn't sure how to handle that, but if she can help prevent more people from dying she'll take it.

So she swoops down, being perched on Luti, her Lugia, as soon as she sees someone step out onto the street. The dragon-like Pokemon hovers just above street level, flapping its wings, and Lyra calls out, shining her flashlight down to make sure she's not approaching one of those shadow people.]

You shouldn't be going outside, it's dangerous!