My bad habits don't heal [OPEN]

[hadnoright]

Who: Daisy Tonner & you!
What: Daisy's... dealing?
When: May???
Where: Various places around the ship
Warnings: Mild passive suicidal thoughts, possible references to police brutality, possible poor attitude towards other non-humans/left-of-human types, others added in subject lines
Notes: Hunt Sense Permissions, what does your character smell like? Feel free to flip me to brackets I am comfortable with either style.



1. I'm coming down with something [Laundry Room]

Daisy is sat on top of one of the machines. It's running. Sometimes, so is the tape recorder that sits next to her. She doesn't turn off the tape if people come in. No one will be able to understand it well enough for it to matter. The audio that floats out of the speaker is, frankly, nearly unintelligible; it's distorted horribly, and even what little sense you can make of the contents doesn't actually make sense out of context. The sound of growling and gore and Daisy laughing manically. Questions like 'do you even know what a hand is?'. Strange, unnatural voices. An explosion.

The Unknowing made no more sense from the inside than it does out of it, but Daisy keeps playing it over and over anyway. Sometimes, she rewinds and replays one part a few times in a row: Her own growling and laughter, the sound of a creaking hinge, and an exaggerated cockney accent saying: "Almost a shame you don’t know your own coffin. But you will. You will."

If the trend continues, she knows which tape will come next. After that... after that she's not sure.

Should you walk in at the end of a wash cycle, you might find her pulling out sopping wet and yet still inexplicably filthy clothes. A practical t-shirt and jeans, a jacket, even some old trainers. Caked in dirt. With a frustrated growl, Daisy throws them back into the machine and starts another wash cycle.

2. I lost my own respect [Stan the Man]

The bars are back the way they used to be.

Stan the Man, Rainbow Renly, Bobby B's. It's not like she'd ever really got used to calling them by the bastardisations of Jenny's brothers names—old habits die hard, and all that—but it's still weird to see the change. Feels like being back on her first cruise again, but she isn't.

She's the only one left who ever was, now. The only one who remembers what it was like. Even Jenny's off, reunited with her brothers (and oh doesn't that sting, when Daisy still remembers watching Basira die before Jenny got her too?). She doubts there will ever be anyone else, not after all the hourglasses got smashed. How many souls from her voyage are still down there? How many of them were finally set free?

Why is she the only one left when she wanted nothing more than to be done with it all?

For the first time since she reappeared on the boat, when Daisy takes a seat in Hurikane Stan's she orders actual alcohol and starts drinking. It won't get her drunk, not unless she really pushes it, but it's just that kind of month.

3. My hands, they wander off [Calgona Spa]

Daisy is painting her claws.

They can look like a particularly sharp manicure at a glance already, and painting them in pastels, brights, iridescents, even adding patterns (especially, predictably, daisies) is a habit she developed after they became prominent. Part of that front of hers, the soft, pretty things layered over strength and violence. A way to draw attention away from the little inhuman things that piled up over time, make her look and feel more human.

So maybe it says something about how she's feeling that she's in and out of the spa changing the varnish every few days, this month.

Anyone who comes in at the same time will get a passing look and maybe a wave of wiggling fingers, flashing the claws. "Don't worry. Won't be any slashing from me until they're done drying."

It's a very dry joke. Perhaps an inadvisable joke, but a joke nonetheless.

4. I'm not afraid of death [Pool Deck]

Daisy is floating in the pool in a tankini. She's staring up at the sky, or, occasionally, lying on her front staring at the bottom of the pool in a way that might look just a little bit concerning to a passer-by. It's fine, she technically doesn't need to breathe, it's just more comfortable to.

Still means she's sometimes lying face down in the pool though.

5. I'm just afraid of feeling numb [wildcard]

Find me at bluecitrine or at artisticblueteam#5757/in the discord, or just throw something at her.

Comments

2

[redlightgreenlight]

Daisy is sitting in her spot, drinking about as much as she has been recently. Valdis slips into the seat next to her, holding a bottle of watermelon vodka.

"Remaining ghosts must like you more than me. I've had to get my own."

Valdis grabs a glass and actually pours the vodka into the glass before tossing it back.

[hadnoright]

Daisy huffs a little, gesturing loosely with her glass. "Maybe it's ghost to ex-ghost solidarity," she says, before bringing the glass to her lips and taking a swig. Whatever she's drinking, it's fruity. When she bothers to drink, she still prefers it to taste good. By her personal measure, of course.

She doesn't really believe it's any such thing, either. She knows you don't remember anything but the Nothing. Even if you did, most of the ghosts have far more reason to hate her than not.

[redlightgreenlight]

"Or maybe there just happens to be one here today. They are few and far between these days. It...feels weird. Empty."

Another splash of vodka, but she doesn't drink it right away, simply swirling it around in the glass. Then a sigh.

"I suppose things couldn't stay the same forever."

[hadnoright]

"I know I'm the first bitch around here to doomsay, but this is. Bad. You know? Even for this place." She sighs, leaning against the bar. She stares at the bottles behind it. The gaps that shouldn't be there because everything is meant to restock. "Years, I was here before. And no one managed to pull stunts like you lot have."

Stan's

[businessorlibation]

Johnny steps into the bar, notices Daisy, and freezes. Not quite like prey, but he's having a real hard think about if he wants to, uh. Anything with her.

[hadnoright]

Daisy's ears may be human enough on the outside and thus cannot twitch his direction, but they're certainly keener than a human's and she doesn't miss the sound of his arrival. Or the scent.

She glances back over her shoulder at him. There's a wrinkle in her brow as she has her own moment of thought. "...I'm not going to bite you. Or get drunk and lose it, or whatever. But I'm not gonna leave, either. So. Your call."

[businessorlibation]

"Ah."

So he walks up, takes his usual position behind the bar. "You're here instead of Tauva or Topy--does that mean you're in the mood for cocktails, Daisy?"

[hadnoright]

Daisy's gaze follows him the whole way. It's not a conscious choice to look predatory, it's just... her natural state of being. But true to her word, there's no biting.

"Bobby's," she corrects, half on reflex. "Cocktails are kinda... more my thing anyway? Usually taste better. Don't get drunk unless I drink enough to kill, like. Three men. At least. So. Might as well have fun with it."

She shrugs a shoulder. Harmless enough information, as information goes. She doesn't get into how she usually drinks them virgin for that reason, though. Not that that's exactly sensitive information, either, but...

3

[angrycrabnoises]

Karkat plops down nearby Daisy.

“OH FUCK IT HAS BEEN SO LONG SINCE I HAD A GOOD CLAW MANICURE.”

He examines his own nails.

Black, but they could always be blacker.

[hadnoright]

"...kid you're, like, what, twelve?" She has literally no idea she's spitballing, here. She can't even tell how old human kids are, how is she supposed to know how old... whatever Karkat is is? "How long could it have been?"

[angrycrabnoises]

“SEVEN SWEEPS. I BELIEVE THAT’S FOURTEEN HUMAN EARTH YEARS. I HAVE TAKEN NOTES ON IT,” he says.

“AND FOR YOUR INFORMATION, MY ENTIRE ASS UNIVERSE GOT DESTROYED LIKE HALF A SWEEP AGO, SO I WAS PRETTY CONVINCED THAT I WAS NEVER GETTING A QUALITY MANICURE AGAIN.”

[hadnoright]

Daisy squints at him a bit. "Your... entire universe. Like, it's gone-gone? Or are you just talking about ending up here 'cause that isn't the same thing."

4

[ablativeholopleather]

The downside, perhaps, of going to take some time by oneself in the pool, is that he isn't the only one that uses the place for that. Sure the foot-traffic isn't nearly as heavy as it had been, but he really should have expected to occasionally see someone casting a shadow overhead, interrupting the refracted light coming through the ripples in peculiar ways.

If her eyes are open as she drifts by facedown, she'll spot Wayne, who could easily be mistaken for a dive toy from the surface and go unnoticed for a good while, the yellow of his head the only thing that really stands out against the blue of the pool floor. He'll have an eye up on her, and if they notice one-another, his hand will raise in a tentative wave, accompanied by a mouthed 'yo'.

[hadnoright]

Honestly in the insanity of that early morning and the events following it, including but not limited to Daisy herself spending an unclear amount of time 'dead', Daisy had largely filed the strange looking moon guy away somewhere in the back of her mind and just not thought about him.

The bottom of the pool is either at, or close enough to, the top of the list of places she doesn't expect to see him again. Or see... most of anyone, really. She didn't think they had any aquatic types. Weird as he looks that's not what she'd pin him for, either, and maybe he isn't but. Still.

Daisy waves a very confused wave on the surface of the water.

[ablativeholopleather]

She wouldn't be the only one that had filed him away mostly as a curiosity about the ship and, honestly, he's pretty okay about that as long as people aren't actively being rude when they do eventually meet him. The look on Daisy's face makes it obvious she doesn't know what to think about him.

It doesn't help that if she does remember him, it's because of the fight that he'd only come up on the tail end of and dragged Gil away with the intention of ending it as peacefully as possible. Especially when the crowd had started to gather.

There's a pensive look on his face as he considers that. Would she even want to take the time to talk knowing that?

[hadnoright]

Frankly if Daisy didn't talk to anyone who was so much as peripheral to some aggression of hers on this boat, she wouldn't have anyone to talk to at all. Half the time she still tells herself that's what she'd like, but, well, there's only so far denial will get you.

Ultimately she floats like that for a few moments longer before indicating upwards with her hand and shifting to float upright, shaking her hair out in a way that's not not dog-like and wiping the wiping her eyes.

1. I'm coming down with something [Laundry Room]

[crushed_pearls]

Erin's coming in with a pile of laundry she's sweat through due to, you see, all the labor, but when she sees Daisy in distress she just kinda drops it off to the side and strides over. She's not sure what's wrong with that laundry right now - please God don't let it be blood - but she can sure see that her sovereign is Fucking Unhappy.

She'll let Daisy say the first word. Erin's here to help, but a hug or an inquiry might be a bit far, just now.

[hadnoright]

For a long moment the only sign that Daisy's noticed her is the slightest turn of her head, and you can almost imagine the turn of a canine ear toward the sound. Then her head drops, heels of her hands pressing into her eyes and fingers curling into the front of her hair.

"I-I don't know. Why. I thought this would work. It didn't the first time."

[crushed_pearls]

"Hope springs eternal," Erin murmurs. "Did someone attack you? What happened, love?"

The concern in her voice. Erin has no idea what's going on just yet, and if Daisy doesn't want to let her in, maybe she won't.

3

[maximumcake]

Max returns her wave with a friendly one in return, smiling at the joke with no hesitance. But then, his brow twitches with something that's close to confusion. A... memory has come back to him.

"Huh... I remember you doing your nails like that in my master's house. I... remember offering to helping." They hadn't really talked about that, any of it, had they? It always felt so awkward. But, here he is bringing it up almost by accident now.

"Did any of that really happen?"

[hadnoright]

Daisy pauses mid stroke of the nail brush, breathes out something that sounds a little like 'shit', then finishes the stroke and slips the lid back onto the bottle.

"Yeah," she says, looking over at him, "it really happened. Or— shit, I dunno. To me it did. So if you remember it then... guess it good as did anyway. Wouldn't have stayed and messed your memory up if I had any choice, but... I didn't. So. Yeah."

It makes her a hypocrite, in a way. She got so pissed at Gil for giving her a new memory, but it was stay or die and dying just wasn't an option.

[maximumcake]

"You don't have to be sorry. It doesn't feel like you messed anything up. I know it's selfish of me but... I almost wish you could have stayed longer." But that's a terrible thing to wish on anyone.

"It was nice to have some memories that weren't so lonely."

1

[stalksthedarkness]

"You know some things never really come out, no matter how much you wash them."

Kolchak spoke up after watching the woman, apparently, toss her, apparently, still dirty clothes back into the wash. He couldn't help but open his mouth, it's a habit to engage and find out more about others.

[hadnoright]

Daisy slams the washing machine door shut and hits the buttons to start the new cycle automatically. Her teeth grit as she glances sidelong over at the man, and he might catch a hint of the wolf-like teeth that look like they should be too big for her mouth but somehow aren't.

This is one of those things she hates about the ship. No privacy.

"I know," she says, with just the edge of a growl. And yet she's still trying.

[stalksthedarkness]

Oh great, another person with sharp teeth. He keeps his distance, something not too out of the ordinary. Kolchak tends to keep his distance from most of the people here whenever he is pestering them or caught up in some sort of abnormal, reality-altering event.

"Hey don't growl at me. I ain't the reason why your clothes look like they've been put through a fight to the death."

He does roll his eyes. If she wants to try and be intimidating, she can. Most of everyone and everything else here already plays that schtick on a near daily basis. If the old man was going to be honest, he was really starting to find it boring and dull. Kolchak is still of the mind that laundry time is not the time to flash your pointy teeth at others who are, likewise, doing the same task as you.