exile [closed & open]

[prince_of_beasts]

Who: Dimitri, CR, and you
What: Reunions; aftermath
When: Dec.23rd onward
Where: Around the ship
Warnings: Survivor's guilt, PTSD, delusions, suicidal ideation

1. you've got sucker's luck (Darcy, cabins)

Mornings, every morning, Dimitri paces outside the cabins. It can't really be called 'patrolling'; he's too agitated, too sunk into himself. He starts at the fifth hour, and goes until the seventh, just in case, just in case.

When Darcy wakes in her bed, Dimitri's already pacing tight circles in front of her door.

2. oh you meant so much; have you given up? (Ossie & Giles, the cottage)

He's asleep on the doorstep when the latch of the gate clicks. An ear twitches. Dimitri's up and running before he's fully registered the sound, streaking down the path with a desperate yowl.

A few moments later, a fluffy yellow cannonball slams into Ossie's chest.

3. does it trouble your mind the way you trouble mine? (Okie, Playback)

Okie's already left his cabin by the time Dimitri gets to it. Any thought of his ship phone is buried under three weeks of compounded exhaustion and hysterical grief, but a string of frantic questions leads him to Playback.

"Okie?" he calls, flinching as the flickering lights rake across the back of his skull. There's a shape, a familiar silhouette, Dimitri's heart breaks -- "Okie!" He bursts into a run and does not bother slowing down; he launches himself into Okie with a rattle of thunder, and kisses him on the mouth.

4. did you fall for the same empty answers again? (positive CR)

Dimitri searches for the people he knows. Anyone, everyone, any name he recognizes from that accursed signup sheet, desperate to know they made it back, that they didn't slip into some pocket of void on the journey between wherever-it-was and here. He knocks at cabin doors, paces through familiar haunts, occasionally remembers his ship phone long enough to send Are you back? Are you safe?

If he spots someone around the ship, though, he freezes in place, mouth open, eyes wide, face a marbled blotch of exhausted bruising, tear-stains, and bloodless terror. His throat works, but the most sound he can manage is a choking rasp.

5. oh, you're thinking too fast, you're like marbles on glass (open; pick a location or throw me your own!)

Eventually, the frenetic energy driving Dimitri has to run out. His spring unwound, he stutters to a stop wherever it leaves him:
- at the buffet, midway through reaching for a serving-spoon;
- in a stairwell staring blankly at the landing;
- in the showers on the sports deck, shoulders red from too long under water running too hot;
- in Sand Dollars, hands wrapped around a steaming paper cup;
- at night, at the edge of the upper deck, hands white-knuckled on the railing.
Always standing, wherever he comes to rest. His expression is hollow, his skin waxy, his hair greasy and limp; if he's called out to, he might look up, but his eyes are bleary and don't focus.

does it feel like a trial? (wildcard)

HMU in DMs here or bird1312 on Discord!

Comments

[prince_of_beasts]

Movement, in his peripheral vision. There's enough of Dimitri functioning to shift him out of the way, incidentally putting his back to the wall, which Glenn's been badgering him about for the past however-long-he's-been-here. The tea sloshes in its paper cup. Heat bleeds into a part of Dimitri's hand where it hadn't before.

He blinks. His surroundings resolve sluggishly; he picks his head up, squinting like he's stepped into a bright light. "A ... ava?"

[decohere]

The water in her own mug is far too hot and not yet transformed into anything strong enough to resemble tea quite yet, so she simply enjoys the feeling of steam on her face. And blinks through it at Dimitri's startled acknowledgment of her. "Yes?"

They're not exactly on anything she'd consider speaking terms. She can't think of the last time either of them have even bothered to attempt. But she can't come up with any reason to be rude, either.

"It must have been quiet here," is all she can really think to say. Not many that stayed behind, after all.

[prince_of_beasts]

"It was louder when you were all dead." Dimitri speaks in a hazy monotone. His focus drifts again before jolting back to the present.

He wants to like Ava; somehow their conversations always seem to go wrong. Under normal circumstances he'd simply slip away, maybe with a nod of acknowledgement, but. But.

"May I ask -- " For a moment his voice takes on a clipped arch, then quickly drops back to his normal range. "I was told you killed the thing that kept you all."

[decohere]

"Not sure what you mean by that," Ava admits quietly. Maybe the sinking ship excursion where the events were televised... no, Dimitri had been on that one hadn't he.

She drums her fingers against the side of the mug in thought. "Yes. Yes, I killed Number 2." There isn't a whole lot of victory in the statement, for all the damage done to those she cares about. But she doesn't seem too reluctant to answer any questions about it.

[prince_of_beasts]

Oh right that wasn't a normal thing to say. Dimitri shakes his head. "I-it's nothing. Forgive me."

The answer to his question, though -- that gets his attention. He lifts his head, abruptly, intently focused, eyes unblinking and glassy. "Did you make it hurt?"

[decohere]

"Did something happen, while we weren't here?" Ava asks cautiously. She suspected something might have been going on back at the ship in their absence. But if he's insisting it's nothing, she'll politely drop it.

"Of course I did," Ava responds, without shame nor glee. "He tortured many of our friends. He didn't deserve swift." She wonders what he's heard, and from who.

[prince_of_beasts]

"No, nothing happened. Nothing at all ... " Dimitri trails off. He still isn't blinking. An urgency creeps into his monotone, as if there's a pressure beneath his ribs. "How? Please. I need to know how he died."

[decohere]

Several weeks of a mostly empty ship, even a reclusive sort as herself would begin to get anxious. Not knowing when everyone would return. "Ah. I worried somebody might have taken advantage of our absence." Because tactically it would be the time to do it.

She hesitates at the odd request. "Why...?" Her fingers twitch just slightly.

[prince_of_beasts]

"Because he hurt -- " Dimitri's own hands tremble on the paper cup. He pauses to take a long drink, so if he crushes it there's less to spill. "He hurt people in ways I know too well. He tortured the people I cherish most in ways I swore to them would never happen again. And I was not there to -- if I couldn't have stopped it I could have at least made sure he died screaming." He rocks onto his toes, then back down. "I want -- I need to know how he suffered, the way I couldn't make him."

[decohere]

She understands that feeling all too well. Understands the helplessness and bitterness at being robbed even the opportunity for revenge. "He did," Ava agrees heavily. Actual torture, she wants to say. Not the same as what many accuse the Captain of. But brutal, targeted, sickening torture.

She swallows down too-hot water, before continuing. "Once I had my powers back, he realized he had no power over me. Called me a conniving bitch. But I was rather kind. Gave him a choice in which of his eyes he'd prefer to lose first."

[prince_of_beasts]

The corner of Dimitri's mouth pulls back, baring a sliver of teeth. "More kindness than he deserved," he says softly. "Which did he choose?"

[decohere]

"He didn't," Ava confirms, voice low. "Foolishly begged that he might change my mind that he was deserving of any form of mercy. I took him by the spine," Ava clenches her ghostly fist in demonstration. "And plucked one right out. Held it out so he could watch as I smashed it." And she curves her other fingers into claws before clamping shut.

"Pitiful bastard. Wouldn't even apologize."