iwearnomask: (Who can compare with me in my white mask)
John Doe ([personal profile] iwearnomask) wrote in [community profile] come_sailaway2023-11-26 06:55 pm

Good For You, You Look Happy And Healthy

Who: John Doe is back! You know, the guy with the mask who's 80% invisible? he's fine.
What: Looking for a friend, adjusting to life on the ship post canon update
Where: various places on the ship
When: late November.
Warnings: Potential mentions of injury and torture, canon was not kind to John and Arthur; likewise canon is not always kind when talking about mental health; will list anything specific in thread headers as they come up.

“You cannot defeat it. But you don’t have to let it win.”

The knife glistens.

“Goodbye, John-”

“Arthur! No-!”

Two lengths of memories fight to find their place in his mind: Months aboard a strange cruise ship in a pocket dimension, drifting further and further from Arthur and trying to find some sense of himself with his own body. Months in a prison pit in the Dreamlands, a harrowing journey in another world growing closer and closer to Arthur, despite the terrible things he said and did. Quietly moving on. Violently dying for each other.

And now: The ceiling of a clean cruise ship cabin.

The first thought, of course, is that this isn’t real.

Some trick of the King’s, meant to torment him, punishment for his defiance, something to force him back in line, but...

He couldn’t remember the cruise in the Dreamlands, he realizes, so how would the King think to weave this as an illusion? Unless his memories of his first stint aboard were also a product of the King, but even the labyrinth was tame by the King’s standards.

So... This was real. Lucky chance, or Kayne’s intervention? He didn’t know, but it also didn’t matter.

He was back, and Arthur -

Arthur!

1. You’re doing great out there without me, baby [closed to Arthur]

Did Arthur go back when he did? Did he come back when he did?

Given the state they both were last in (dying, separated, doomed), John is nothing short of frantic as he searches the ship for Arthur... So urgently that he doesn’t even try to find new clothes, running around in the bloody mess that Arthur had been wearing when they - they encountered the King.

It takes him ten minutes into the search to remember the communication devices, and he fumbles out a message to Arthur’s number:

Arthur its john where the fuck are you

2. Maybe I’m too emotional

John’s thoughts are so fixated on Arthur that he spares nothing for himself.

He really should have, because, uh, he isn’t in the cult robes anymore. And he’s not in the leggings and tights and beachwear, either.

No, passengers on the ship are instead witness to a pallid mask floating above bloody clothes, a pair of eyes visible through the eye-holes of the mask from the front and no other angle, the only bit of flesh visible being his left hand, and even then the smallest finger has been removed, seemingly replaced by a twig that’s grown into its place.

Gone is the caution he lurked around the ship with before; now his movements are frantic and his eyes are wild as he tries to remember Arthur’s haunts in the promenade, a memory simultaneously months ago and hardly a day old. His search takes him a few steps into each location, enough to see what’s there and who’s there and if any of that involves Arthur, sometimes even calling out-

“Arthur! Where are you?! Are you here?!”

3. You found a new girl, and it only took a couple weeks [closed to mother (: ]

Once he knows where and how Arthur is, he’s able to calm down. Which is good, because he also realizes he’s in dire need of a change of clothes, for comfort if not for not getting stared at by every fucking person on the ship.

At least he’s not in fucking cult robes again.

John searches through the racks of clothing for something to his tastes, avoiding everything yellow no matter how nicely the colour clicks in his mind. But he does so with caution, having not forgotten that the clothing store was home to a cougar. No matter how level-headed he remembered that cougar being, John can’t bring himself to be at ease in the domain of a predator at the moment.

4. You’re so unaffected, I really don’t get it.

After all that excitement, John finds himself back in the library. It was a place he went to regularly when he was previously on the ship. He read the poetry available, in part - he could admit now - to understand Arthur and his interests, but he also dipped his toes into the prose. Some attempt to understand more of himself as well, to find himself in stories and words.

Now that he had months of very visceral memories with Arthur, he could admit something else: His drifting through the library was just another form of apathy. Rather than simply being uninterested in the world and the people in it, he was maintaining distance, engaging with an imitation to avoid reality.

And yet, he’s there again, a book of poetry in hand, contemplating if and how it’ll hit different after just a little more time spent in someone else’s head.

(At least he’s dressed in normal Tommy Bahama clothes now. The mask is still there, though, and everything else is invisible but his left hand and his left leg from the calf-down, but hey, beats a cult robe.)


5. But I guess, good for you [Wildcard]

It seems quite a lot has happened since John was here last. There’s a bowling lane now? Was that there before or did he just overlook it? There’s wooden signposts on the sportsdeck, a table beside it, an ongoing project?

There’s a lot of little changes on the ship, and John takes a moment to note each one as he passes.

(Except for the memorial. He avoids that one for now.)
teethoftherisk: (MOTHER THEY SWALLOWED THE REST)

3. You found a new girl, and it only took a couple weeks

[personal profile] teethoftherisk 2023-11-27 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
There's no cougar to be seen.

There is a woman wearing an eye patch sitting cross-legged on what was a table full of polo shirts, all now scattered on the ground. She's muttering to herself, good eye closed, rocking back and forth to soothe herself. After how... how badly things went with Valdis, she's been trying so hard to keep herself calm.

The sound of someone else in the general area makes her snap her eye open. But her whole head turns, the working eye and the empty socket both staring in the direction of-

"Siffleur?" She scrambles to her feet. How? This isn't possible. He's inside of her, isn't he? Though after weeks of no answer, she's started to worry that he was gone entirely but.

But there he is. Her boy. Her son. He's in bloody clothes, and he's so nervous, and she bursts into tears, reaching her arms out to him. "Siffleur! Oh g-god, Siffleur!"
teethoftherisk: (MOTHER I'D KILL FOR YOU)

[personal profile] teethoftherisk 2023-11-27 05:27 am (UTC)(link)
The tight squeeze isn't returned, and instead of Siffleur's voice, there's a gravely sound that comes out of her son's mouth. She recoils a second later, arms flailing, stomach churning because though her eyes say 'Siffleur', something is terribly wrong here.

The spike in her head swivels as her fear spikes, twisting in her skull. Her face twitches, the pain felt but not lingered on. There's so many more pressing things, like the fact that something is terribly wrong here.

But it's him. It's...

Her tears go down her face and her hands tremble. She reaches out to touch his arm again, feeling the familiar shape of him. "... h-how are- how are you in his body? What d-did you do to him?"
teethoftherisk: (MOTHER PLEASE LET ME IN)

[personal profile] teethoftherisk 2023-11-28 05:41 am (UTC)(link)
Her first impulse is to demand he answer her, a raw and furious scream to know where her son is, and what this thing is doing in his body.

But this isn't home. There... there are other worlds. There could even be their world, again. Siffleur twice over but- but this isn't her Siffleur. It's his shape, so familiar to her, unmistakable even with only one eye.

She pulls her hands away again, wringing them, pacing a little to try burn off the energy in her body that's making her feel panicked and upset. "N-no, no, I haven't. I-I- I know what h-he looks like. He's the only person w-who looks the same. Everyone else- they c-change shape. When it gets bad, they look wrong but he never, ever looks wrong to me and you're- you're in his shape but you're not him-"

A hand goes to her mouth and she bites down hard on her knuckle, drawing blood as she fights to stay focused. The constant pain from her missing eye has helped some. But not enough. Never enough. Fuck. Who is this? How can he be Siffleur and not Siffleur?

She takes her hand from her mouth, blood in her teeth. "What's- what's your name? W-who are you?"
teethoftherisk: (MOTHER WHERE ARE YOU?)

[personal profile] teethoftherisk 2023-11-30 06:29 am (UTC)(link)
John Doe, John Doe...

"Like h-him like... like my son." She starts to say, but. That's not useful is it? That's not useful. So. She starts again, taking a breath and trying so desperately to hold tight to everything she can.

"T-tall and gaunt and pale, with- with golden eyes, and a sharp face." Her hands twist again, blood dripping slowly on the ground. "L-like him. Just like him. Even his- his beard." And she reaches up to touch her face, smearing blood over her jawline by accident. "It's- it's red like his..."

But... there is a difference, and she wants to grab his hand badly, but she just grabs her own. "B-but your- oh your hand, what's- what happened to your hand? What did they do? Your finger..."
teethoftherisk: (MOTHER I'M INCOMPLETE)

[personal profile] teethoftherisk 2023-12-01 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
Her fingers flex. Ah. Yes, she knows about paying prices. With a great deal of care, she pushes off the shoe and sock she's wearing, showing John Doe the missing toes on her foot.

"I t-told- I told my son it was f-frostbite. But it wasn't. Sometimes, y-you have to pay the price. Sometimes, you h-have to leave something behind, so you c-can bring what you need to escape with you..."

She put her bare foot back down on the ground and she pulls her arms against herself. "... d-do you know the name Yog-Sothoth?"
teethoftherisk: (MOTHER I APPEAR MISSING)

[personal profile] teethoftherisk 2023-12-01 04:35 am (UTC)(link)
She laughs, a fraught tense sound, and collapses on the ground like a puppet with her strings cut. Of course. There are other worlds, so many other worlds. So it only stands to reason that there would be other thems, other places touched by those terrible beings from beyond the stars, from beyond time and space.

"B-because I s-saw him. I s-saw him and he made me like t-this." She gestures to herself helplessly, barely able to sit upright. Her heart keeps beating in her chest like a bird trapped in chimney, battering itself against the bricks in a frenzy. "Me and Siffleur b-both. We were- we were changed, so completely a-and utterly. I went m-mad and he- he was born... less t-than human. Trapped between."
teethoftherisk: (MOTHER I'M INCOMPLETE)

[personal profile] teethoftherisk 2023-12-07 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
She sighs, laughs, sighs again. Her hands clench at her pants and she just hangs her head forward, feeling that laughter threatening to bubble up over and over.

"Thank you. T-thank you, I... I deserve some of it, b-but not... not nearly as much as I got." And she looks at him, and she knows him, and she gives him the saddest smile. "I'm sorry t-this happened to you too. I'm... I'm sorry there wasn't a version of me waiting for you, when you came through."
teethoftherisk: (MOTHER HOLD ME TIGHT)

[personal profile] teethoftherisk 2023-12-11 06:16 am (UTC)(link)
She flutters her hand a few times. It is what it is. She doesn't know him, not the way she knows Siffleur. Not the way she knows herself.

But still... she knows he didn't want this. This isn't how they come into worlds. This isn't the way they want to be. He wouldn't look like her son if hadn't been changed the way Siffleur had.

She slowly picks herself up and pushes her hair over her shoulder, pulling her jacket close again. "Y-you're not my son b-but I... I know you anyway. I know you."

Her fingers pull at the buttons on her coat. "... I... I always wondered w-what part of him he g-got. I... I can't remember everything I felt when I... when I became more than h-human. It doesn't fit in a h-human mind neatly. I wondered but I... I was never sure." And she looks at him with her own yellow eyes. "I k-know now. Thank you."
teethoftherisk: (MOTHER DON'T LOOK AT ME SO)

[personal profile] teethoftherisk 2024-01-26 04:52 pm (UTC)(link)
That gets a soft chuckle from her, a little dark, a little wry. "O-oh believe me, I... I expected d-different from him. I expected more of m-me, of..." She gestures to herself - to that spike squirming in her skull, grinding through her brain. "Well. L-less humanity. No humanity. I... I t-think it was... he w-wasn't a person w-when he was changed. H-he was a zygote. H-had months w-without a brain. Months of silence. It... it's n-not like it's a repeatable experiment."

And then she giggles to herself because, well... turns out it was. Not all the factors. John here is very different. Even if he looks like Siffleur, there's a hesitancy to him, a sense of guilt maybe. It's hard to tell. Her hands come to her face and she covers it until the giggles stop, which they do thankfully before they spiral out of control. "O-oh... we all... we all are j-just who we are. Nothing m-more."
theweakhavepurpose: (Ready for Takeoff)

2. Hey Ex-Roomie

[personal profile] theweakhavepurpose 2023-11-28 04:56 am (UTC)(link)
Pratt is in his cult gear (because it's comfortable and he's kinda homesick shut up) and is also missing a finger - and there the similarities end. Because he's fully visible, not covered in blood, and as far as he knows isn't part tree.

"Uh... John?" Finally remembers his name after he's been gone for months, Pratt is running on all cylinders today! "Dude are you okay? It's not your blood right?"
theweakhavepurpose: (In Flight)

You know it!

[personal profile] theweakhavepurpose 2023-12-02 06:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"Uhhhh..." Just filling the void with sound while he tries to parse the whole John and Arthur thing, wondering if he just straight up killed him at some point? Was he that jealous of Crichton? Didn't they break up? Pratt really needs a board on his wall with red string for non insane reasons of figuring out everyone's love life, instead of the actual board he still has for insane reasons of him and Caitlyn trying to figure out how the Captain worked.

"Yeah? I think he's still here. What do you mean it's Arthur's blood?"
theweakhavepurpose: (Default)

[personal profile] theweakhavepurpose 2023-12-03 06:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yeah I got that bro." He straightens up because he has no idea why John is so freaked out right now, as if Pratt doesn't sometimes lose it for no reason whatsoever. Unfortunately for John, he's activated cop mode.

"Alright alright. Let's just calm down and start from the beginning. What happened to Arthur and why do you need to find him so badly?" Anything you say can and will be used against you.
theweakhavepurpose: (Don't trust me)

[personal profile] theweakhavepurpose 2023-12-12 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
Well that's absolutely not what Pratt was expecting.

"Then he'd be in the morgue." Just cold rationality, because very few people survive slitting their own throats and as a Deputy he'd encountered the aftermath more than he'd like to think about.

"Or back in his room tomorrow morning."
theotherright: (I'm sorry what?)

1. You’re doing great out there without me, baby

[personal profile] theotherright 2024-01-01 05:26 am (UTC)(link)
Arthur almost doesn't check his phone, when he hears it sound. It's really a toss-up versus ignoring it and continuing to drink.

...But when he puts it like that.



Several amazed seconds later, he's sending a frantically quick reply, and rushing out of the door without finishing his glass.

Promenade come to the promenade

Is it really John? Is it a trick of the ship? He doesn't know, but he also doesn't hesitate. And christ, christ, he so fervantly hopes.
theotherright: (down to the end with you)

I've lost my mind, I've spent the night crying on the floor of my bathroom

[personal profile] theotherright 2024-01-01 11:21 pm (UTC)(link)
"JOHN! Jesus christ, John--"

That's really John's voice. This feels, at one and the same time, both real and unreal. Arthur has been holding and holding on to the idea that he might not have heard it for the last time, sometimes with conviction, sometimes like a kid who's too old telling himself to still believe in Santa Claus.

That's really John's voice, blowing out his eardrums, and Arthur has never been more transcendently happy to hear someone giving him shit.

John stops, but Arthur steps forward, first judging the distance with his hands and then closing it with his whole body as he impulsively grabs John and embraces him, tightly. There's a baseline noir-PI sort of liquor smell about him, though he isn't drunk. He's making a low noise that could be relieved laughter, could be sobbing.

"What did I do this time?" he asks, in a tone of fondness and delight, as if he's not standing here with a massive scar on his throat. Steve came back without new memories, and for all Arthur knows, John has done the same.
theotherright: (I'm sorry what?)

[personal profile] theotherright 2024-01-03 05:24 am (UTC)(link)
Man they really are coming at this physical interaction from opposite angles huh--

Arthur pulls back a bit from the hug, since John is bellowing directly into his eardrum. He feels not entirely unlike a cat being scruffed, as John, instead of holding onto him, gets, um, a hold of him.

"You know about that?" Now he's confused, though. Hasn't John been in the Nothing?
theotherright: (now I knew that I had lost myself)

[personal profile] theotherright 2024-01-03 06:47 am (UTC)(link)
"But you -- Hang on, you haven't been in the Nothing?"

Incredible detective work, Arthur. Top marks.
theotherright: (oh the devil's after both of us)

[personal profile] theotherright 2024-01-13 08:27 am (UTC)(link)
"Maybe? I don't know. I only know he's stopped bloody answering." Yes Arthur has flipped about 800 coins since experiencing his timeline whoopsie-daisy, don't worry about it.

"You're-- you're fashionably late again, friend. It's been two- nearly two full months since then, for me." And the two months of stress wind themselves through his words, throwing harsh light on his relief. The dozens of times he nearly put something for John on the memorial, then cursed himself for giving up. His attempt to get a lead from the Captain on bringing people back, the end of which is just a despairing blur.

At least-- at least he wasn't suffering in the Nothing. Whether he might have been suffering all the same -- god, how far did John go beyond Arthur's last moments with him-- did his deal with Kayne bring John here, albeit belatedly?
theotherright: (the kind old sun will know)

[personal profile] theotherright 2024-01-15 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
As John's grip loosens, Arthur reaches with a hand and takes one of John's in it, and realises with a jolt that -- between the Dreamlands and the months since them -- it's been nearly half a year since he was last physically in a room with John. Since John had a hand that wasn't attached to Arthur's body.

"John, it's not your fault. I-- I'm just glad you aren't in this god damn ship's engine."

He can't describe how glad. But at the same time, there's a leaden weight calling for his attention, wondering if John has been somewhere that must be just as intolerable as the Nothing.

"Has it... been long for you? Since I--" (he has the decency to be grimacing as he says it) "--cut my throat? Is that the, the last thing you remember, or..."
theotherright: (beyond this place of wrath and tears)

[personal profile] theotherright 2024-01-29 12:02 am (UTC)(link)
"Christ," says Arthur, "that must have turned some heads." But he's still so relieved to have John here, now, in front of him, that the words come out as strangely fond.

Internally, his worry strengthens into... he doesn't know. This could be evidence that his deal with Kayne worked, and John was pulled out. But Kayne also said John would forget him, so it could mean precisely the opposite: that John is here, but still has the King's torment to look forward to, should the timeline oopsie-daisy itself again.