saltwaterlungs: (Doubting)
saltwaterlungs ([personal profile] saltwaterlungs) wrote in [community profile] come_sailaway2023-05-10 06:27 pm

You must fix your heart

CHARACTERS: Darcy and probably someone
DATE: it's (already) May
LOCATION: Various
SITUATION: Depressed teenager has a normal time
WARNINGS: None yet!


Let our bodies lay, mark our hearts with shame (Skulduggery)


In this moment, after Fio’s hugged Sparkles and everyone seems to be wrapping up the arguments and the… frankly inexplicable tea table (??? who does that?) Darcy is reminded of how badly she had wanted a threat to be able to punch. Sparkles, another undeserved recipient of begrudging mercy, was not that. All she’s got is adrenaline and pain and potentially some more bruised relationships than she had at the start of the day. So y’know. Tuesday. 


She’s already back at her room by the time Skulduggery messages, at her limit of human contact before she disembowels someone, and by the time he arrives she’s doing what she was doing when he texted; which is to say, biting into her arm through her hoodie sleeve to muffle her screaming.


Let our blood in vain, you find God in pain (Meta + Ruby)



Darcy had been expecting some sort of sense of real triumph when all was said and done. But as it always goes, there's no ticker-tape parade when it's over. The Captain's back, Sparkles is somewhere, her friends are safe, she's… fine. The ship will just go back to business as usual. And she will too, eventually; back to the endless loop of training and more training and different training and finding ways to pass the time in between waiting for… something. What is she even waiting for, now? The excursions aren’t lethal anymore, the most recent threat to the ship has been dealt with, and they still can’t leave and... She’ll get back to it, honestly, it’ll all go back to the way things were, into the comforting rhythm of routine. She just… needs a minute.


Darcy passes out for about a day. 


When she drags herself back to consciousness through drool and the pattern of pillow crease pressed into her face, she suddenly remembers her discussion with Ruby; and if she’s lying around feeling bad for herself, she has the time to do it to benefit someone else, so Ruby gets a text that is valiantly attempting to not seem frantic.


you still up for depression day?


Now, if your convictions were a passing phase (Kitchens + OTA)


Honestly, Darcy kind of worries she’s dreaming when she spots them for the first time. Just like December: the bright gleam of industrial steel, the smell of a kitchen freshly cleaned, a good array of knives. Not amazingly well-stocked, she’ll have to hope the Easter-Erda delivers her some of ingredients or equipment she notices are lacking (seriously, what sort of kitchen doesn’t have a rice cooker or orange oil), but literally anything is better than nothing, and it irritates her to no end that she’s going to have to thank the Captain for it.


So find her;


A) Making a batch of bread-rolls to test out the oven with: in the process of kneading, proofing, or waiting for them to finish baking.

B) Throwing together lunch for herself: cutting up vegetables, kneading pasta dough, reading a book of Christina Rosetti’s poetry while waiting for pasta to finish cooking, whisking a sauce together, and eating by herself on the floor in the corner.

C) Making a bigger meal at dinner to share: peeling potatoes, cooking off onions and garlic, browning meat, doing stretches on the floor while waiting for the food to finish cooking in the oven.

D) Or most commonly between meals: cleaning. Sharpening and washing the knives, wiping down the benchtops, doing the dishes, mopping the floors while levitating a few inches above it. It’s the first taste of real sanity she’s been able to find in… definitely since the labyrinth, probably since she arrived. Do not step on her clean floors or risk getting the mop shoved somewhere delicate.


May your ashes feed the river in the morning rays (Gym + OTA)



She imagines that a caged bird being freed feels the same way as she does setting up the treadmill. Darcy is a well-tuned machine that needs to be in motion, which is sufficient motivation to ignore the risk of getting cornered by someone in the gym again (thanks for that anxiety, Clarke,) and actually go to train during the day. Like some sort of animal.


Between the treadmill, deadlifts, one-armed push-ups, rowing machine, and the intensity with which she’s hitting the punching bag, an observer might come to the conclusion that she’s either trying to push past her limits, or run herself ragged. Either way, stay out of her way and off the machine she’s about to use or risk getting scowled at.


Get up, coward. (wildcard)



(For anything else)
maximumcake: (playing innocent)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2023-06-11 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"Careful what you might accidentally speak into being around here." Because they have at least one active cannibal and one reformed cannibal here already as far as Max knows. The reformed one prefers the potatoes.

"Wow. He has two animal forms? That's lucky. I can just do the dog-wolf one. Being a bird sounds so cool though! Does the cloak hurt when you use it?" Max's transformation hurts but he's learned to live with it.
maximumcake: (head scratcher)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2023-06-14 07:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Oof. What is that look for? Did he say something to upset her? Whatever the problem, he's just as eager to skip over it as she is.

"Oh, my transformation hurts. But I don't have a cloak so that's probably why." He shrugs it off. A little pain is no big deal. "I love using mine, but being a dog is different. People can still pick me up, but they'd need both hands, ha. The only problem is I don't have any pockets so I never know what what to do with my phone."
maximumcake: (Snarky bastard)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2023-06-20 02:28 am (UTC)(link)
"Ew, no? Yours do?" Then again, Erik's clothes never fell off when he transformed either so... is he the weird one?

"See, that's what I was telling Helena. I need, like, a doggy purse to strap around my neck or something. Do you know anyone that's good at sewing?"
maximumcake: (wistful)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2023-06-25 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
"Maybe don't call it that then because I got the worst mental image of your phone like... sucking into your ribcage or something..." Which is very "ew," sorry.

"Okie... hm. You know I don't think I've actually had the chance yet. But I know who you mean. He does have the best cowboy vibes. I'll make sure and say hello next time he's got his crafts out. You're never going to believe this but I actually used to dress a little like a cowboy when I was younger. Flannel shirts, jeans, boots, the works. I wore a bolo tie to prom and everything. It was my dad's."
maximumcake: (head scratcher)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2023-06-30 04:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"... EW??" The sound effect? Why did she have to use the sound effect?! Gross! He's got goosebumps now.

"So... kind of like how everyone associates French people with wearing berets and horizontal stripes?" ...okay, so maybe that might be fair. Still surprising. Half the people that went to his school wore that stuff. A lot of them had actual farms to go home to.

"Groundhog day is uh... I mean, it's a little underwhelming as far as holidays go so I don't really blame you for that one."
maximumcake: (Snarky bastard)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2023-07-09 03:39 am (UTC)(link)
"That's funny. I didn't realize that about Japan." He should have paid more attention to fashion while he was there with Erin.

"Technically there is a difference between a country boy and a cowboy. I was a country boy, but I didn't actually live on a farm. My dad owned a car repair shop. Never ridden a horse in my life."

He wouldn't even really disagree that Americans can be annoying. He's been a bad tourist before and he knows it.
maximumcake: (Default)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2023-07-14 02:47 pm (UTC)(link)
"Horses do have weird mouths. I can't even argue with that. Ever seen a horse get its teeth floated? It's so weird." Listen... he watched a lot of nature shows on discovery channel.

"Sometimes it's about a state of mind. Or, that's what I heard a lot from the kids who actually were. There really is a whole culture around it. You can blame Hollywood for some of it. But not all." A lot of the point of being a Cowboy is to be the opposite of pretentious, really.

"But I'd happily call you an honorary cowboy," Max says, nudging her with his elbow.
maximumcake: (pic#14146348)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2023-07-16 11:48 pm (UTC)(link)
"I mean, it's just filing the sharp points down." Yes. The sharp points. Have fun imagining vampire horses now.

"Eh, no skin off my nose. Besides, you're more of a knight than a cowboy. I've seen how good you are with a sword."
maximumcake: (pic#14146348)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2023-07-17 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
"Nah. No way. A cowboy's hat is sacred. You don't mess with that unless you want big trouble. I don't think he'd be willing to help me make my doggy backpack if I try to dethrone him. And then I'd have to wear cowboy boots and that was always more Josiah's thing."
maximumcake: (playing innocent)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2023-07-20 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"Uh, yeah. Probably!" You keep doing what??

"Oh, Josiah is my master's second in command at home. He's in charge of security, but he was also my martial arts and fitness trainer. And, bodyguard, I guess."
maximumcake: (Snarky bastard)

yeah :)

[personal profile] maximumcake 2023-07-23 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
"He never took them off, so, yeah. He only kicks ass in cowboy boots. Which is even funnier because he's not actually a cowboy, really. The rest of his clothes are like black military fatigues. And then... black cowboy boots.

"But, the thing is, they belonged to someone really close to him who died, so he wears them as a tribute. And God help you if you make a joke about it. That's how most people get their asses kicked by him."