October Open

[theweakhavepurpose]

Who: Deputy Pratt and you! Also one Closed to Ash
What: Definitely not having PTSD from last October
Where: Outside the Tommy Bahama, his room, the cheese shop
When: October
Warnings: Residual freak outs about his best buddy, death talk, being real depressed.



1. And out of the red, out of her head. (Closed to Ash)
Pratt hasn't been in his room for a few days, sometimes he forgets he's supposed to sleep, and eat and drink and be human again. He's gotten so much better lately but habits forced into being are hard to break.

He pushes the door open and heads over to his side of the room to dig into some nice cold mashed potatoes, when he stops and stares at the bloody shirt shredded on the floor. That's not good. Immediately on edge he steps the rest of the way into the room, not touching the shirt.

"Hey? You in here?" He quietly closes the door behind him and looks around before drawing his gun and inching towards that scuffling noise coming from the closet.

2. If everything could ever be this real forever - Outside Tommy Bahama

His memory is bad, terrible even. What did he do yesterday? No idea. Who did he talk to this morning? Can't remember. But boy does he remember the terrible things. The awful things. If it would be better left forgotten he remembers every single detail. Everything.

Right now he's just standing in front of the Tommy Bahama, staring at the plate glass window, but he's not seeing Tommy Bahama; he's seeing the Spirit Halloween. Infinite decorations, darkness, violence and then Ava, ... and Sharky. But most definitely not Sharky. It just keeps replaying over and over in his head as he looks at nothing.

Maybe he should blink at some point...

3.Out of your head out of my head - Cheese Shop
Perched on one of the seats in the Cheese Shop, Pratt has wedged a giant knife with a red handle into the barrel that serves as the table. Occasionally he uses it to slice cheese against as he sits there eating his feelings with manchego and salami.

"If we can't really die, then we can't really live huh? Like.. what's the point of all that then? Just keep on keeping on while eating cheese? Is that all there is?"

Comments

[theweakhavepurpose]

"There's gotta be a reason the Captain is here in the first place though. He's uh... hiding from something? Or someone? Or maybe he's looking for someone." He hisses under his breath that he can't remember, and doesn't really recall who told him that. Ava maybe? Ari? One of the two.

"Nope. Only the Captain and Friday. I don't even know what Sparkles looks like other than apparently like looking into a void? The labyrinth was Sparkles though wasn't it? Boredom and making us play a game?" He frowns because there's a Saw comparison there that he'd make if he wasn't talking to a child and someone who didn't have movies where she comes from. "If we all leave it'll be alone, unless everyone goes together."

[sabigoe]

"Hm." She bounces her leg a bit, briefly pondering in silence. She never thought about that. Usually she leaves the mystery solving to the grownups, but she won't be able to help or live off the ship if she remains complacent. Knowing what she knows from both the Captain and Sparkles' memory, she doesn't know who he'd be searching for after failing to revive Amma.

"I don't know who he'd be looking for. If Mister Captain's hiding from... someone, maybe they're some really bad guys. Maybe... some villain that wants to use him." Sparkles and its last master comes to mind.

"Sparkles should leave with us then," she says without hesitation. If it wants to leave the ship. Hopefully it does or it could probably be convinced. She really doesn't want to leave it alone.

Fio holds a hand up a little lower than her head. "And Sparkles is a... shadowy-looking kid, with shiny, fiery eyes. A bit shorter than me." Despite the fact that she's been avoiding Sparkles lately, she won't stop encouraging others to meet with her friend. "If you ever wanna talk to it, you can find it in the arcade."

[theweakhavepurpose]

"Maybe hiding then. That would make the most sense, if he was after someone he'd probably brag about it. Or at least mention it." Being all cagey and reclusive because he's put himself into magical witness protection is something that Pratt can understand. Granted he's being told this by a child, but he trusts Fio to know what she's talking about, and she has way more conversations with all of them than Pratt does, and probably remembers them better too.

"Oh huh. I'm in the arcade a lot. That's probably the feeling of being watched isn't it?" He grins, that's kinda funny, he'd thought he was just being paranoid. "A shadow kid with fire eyes. And it doesn't get along with the Captain right?"

[sabigoe]

"If he's hiding from anyone, then maybe Mister Captain should tell us. That way we can be ready in case it stops being safe."

A small shadowy figure with fiery eyes is the form that she's most used to seeing it take. And it's the figure that she often scribbles out in her drawings. She fails to mention that it may sometimes be any shadow that just appears a little darker than normal...

"They don't get along? Oh, yeah. I guess... that makes sense." After all, Sparkles was locked away and it did try to end everything. She pauses a moment, an idea coming into mind. "Maybe you should introduce Sparkles to Pokémon. I bet it would like that!"

...Okay, so she meant to encourage Pratt to talk with it to figure out more of the mysteries of leaving the ship. But Sparkles could use more friends. Pokémon can bring them together. Maybe.

[theweakhavepurpose]

"He really should. But maybe no ones straight up asked him..." Pratt looks like he just realized something and pats down his jacket feeling for his little notebook he's started carrying everywhere. "Maybe I'll do that. See what he says."

He carefully writes down Ask Captain if something is chasing him

"If it was down in that labyrinth for hundreds of years it's probably not had any fun things. Or movies. Or you know.. human contact. I'll see about setting something up."

[sabigoe]

"He might not remember too... but I think you should still ask him! If you don't get a helpful answer... then, we just have to keep brainstorming!" A nod. Think outside of the box, somehow. She's a little stumped on further questions to suggest besides that one. A small sigh. "Detective work sure is tough."

And as for Sparkles...

"Sparkles and I watched a stop motion movie together once. In one of my dreams. We didn't get to finish it, but maybe it might like things with moving pictures." The Pokémon episodes aren't stop motion, but they have moving pictures and fun creatures! She doesn't know if it will enjoy watching the same form of media now that it's outside, but it's just a suggestion to figure out what it likes and dislikes. She remembers how interested it seemed while explaining how animation works.

[theweakhavepurpose]

He smiles at that, "That was the part of the job I was never that good at. But a lot of stuff I had to investigate when I was a cop was pretty obvious: car crashes, domestic fights, and people being drunk in public. I guess I'm glad that there was never anything super complicated to try and solve. Not like this anyway."

Tapping the pen against the notebook he looks over at Fio curiously, "In your dreams?"

[sabigoe]

"Oh, uh..." She stammers briefly, forgetting that she only kept it a secret between a few close adults about her nightmares. It gets complicated when she explains that her nightmares are everyone's memories. It's pointless keeping it a secret now. She decides to keep it simple, focusing specifically on her dreams with Sparkles.

"Um... yeah, I first met Sparkles in my dreams. Months before that big scary maze happened and before all those cracks showed up. We talked a bunch and stuff, so I kept looking forward to seeing it again when I went to sleep! But then, one night, Sparkles told me it was gonna be the last dream where we see each other. It was October around this time too..."

After waking from that dream, she got ambushed in the Spirit Halloween store and lost a month of her life on the ship. Thanks Mary. She doesn't want to think about that part.

"I thought that since Miss Friday knew everyone on the ship, maybe she'd seen Sparkles around somewhere before too. So I asked her and she got scared and upset at me..."

[theweakhavepurpose]

"Oh. Yeah. October." His voice is flat, less than impressed with what happened that month. He forgets so much every day, yet somehow remembers most of that month in vivid detail.

"Friday? Got upset at you?? Wow. Because of Sparkles?" He's trying to imagine what angry Friday looks like, and decides that it's probably terrifying. Even moreso without a face. "Do you still see Sparkkles in your dreams?"

[sabigoe]

And she won't delve too much on what happened in October. Not that she can talk much about the events when she was stranded in the abyss, unable to feel anything.

"Uh-huh. She hit the desk, really loud! That's how upset she was." Which she won't try to demonstrate exactly, but she pats her palms on the table lightly. Pat pat. "After that, I didn't see Sparkles for... hm, almost eight months I think. I don't see it in my dreams now either. That's why I visit it in the arcade whenever I can."

[theweakhavepurpose]

"Well that's not nice of her." Which is an understatement considering just how curious he is about why Friday would be so upset. Maybe he'll ask her about that - if he remembers.

"Huh. I bet that's because Sparkles is real now. Like really real. Before it was just in your dreams, and now it's here with us." He smiles because that's actually kind of cool, like an imaginary friend that came into life. "Does it eat? Should we bring Sparkles some cheese?"

[sabigoe]

Really real. And she's happy about Sparkles being with them, though she still wishes she had a chance to speak with it prior to the labyrinth. Maybe it wouldn't have happened. Seeing Pratt smile about it though, gives her permission to smile as well. She's extremely fond of the shadow... and often she worries others would hate her for it.

"I don't know if Sparkles likes cheese. I guess it won't hurt to find out, huh? I know it likes sweet things, for sure."

[theweakhavepurpose]

"You know," He leans in conspiratorially like he's about to share covert state secrets, "There's people who don't like candy. And I'm pretty sure those people are wrong. So the fact Sparkles likes sweet things is a point in it's favor."