He brought me out into the hall, I could have sworn it was haunted (OTA)

[saltwaterlungs]

CHARACTERS: Darcy, Erin, and you?
DATE: Mid-october
LOCATION: Sports deck, Drunken Sailor, Life boats
SITUATION: Darcy’s no good very bad hell cruise
WARNINGS: Shit’s probably going to get dark here folks. CWs for underaged drinking and suicidal ideation at the least.

To hear that there was nothing that I could do to save you (Erin)

The fight club following Darcy’s talk with Skulduggery is… distinctly less enthusiastic than the previous iterations. Erin will find Darcy sat over by the training sabres, rumpled like she’s slept in her clothes. She’s keeping an eye on the rest of the club over folded arms resting on her knees, and she barely looks up when Erin approaches.

The choir's gonna sing and then this thing is gonna kill you

Friday apparently isn’t checking up on anyone sneaking drinks when they’re not meant to. Of course, initially Darcy wasn’t going to try and drink her problems away like she was in a fucking country song. It had just made her sad the one time she’d tried it with Izzy. But after a couple of days of a mess of feelings that she feels entirely unequipped to deal with, Darcy kind of wants to just deal with sad. It’s not like she can talk to anyone about one of her most important relationships aboard the ship utterly imploding. Once again, she is alone in her burdens.

Find her curled up in one of the comfy chairs of the Drunken Sailor with a bottle of rum, headphones in, avoiding everyone.

Something in my throat made my next words shake

Even being on the ship gets too claustrophobic eventually. Like all the secrets she’s been forced to keep will come spilling out of her at the slightest provocation. She can’t bring herself to try and help the aimless newbies, she can’t hunt the Bahamanal in the newly-halloween-ified Tommy Bahama, she can’t drag herself to training. Eventually she packs the backpack she got from camp with some changes of clothes and whatever she can find in the buffet that seems like it’ll keep for a couple of days. And then, she sets herself to stealing one of the life boats.

Stop her or help her, if you want.

And something in the wires made the light bulbs break (wildcard)

(go nuts, show nuts, whatever)

Comments

[prince_of_beasts]

What can he say?

What in the name of the Goddess and all her Saints can he say?

"Please don't," he croaks, without meaning to. His voice is very small. "I know. I know -- I can't lose anyone else."

[saltwaterlungs]

"I know," she parrots, just as soft, "I'm sorry. I'm... trying. Honestly."

She digs her fingertips more firmly into his sleeve and arm, willing his sturdy presence to ground her again.

"I want to want to stay."

[prince_of_beasts]

"I know." The slow wash of a wave from one side of a sea to the other. "I know. ... I want to want to stay, too."

Dimitri swallows, his mouth dry.

"I only kept going because I was needed," he rasps. "It was my only reason to live. Even before my father died. My life belongs to everyone but myself. Without me, there would be no one else. Without it -- if I'm not that -- "

Deep, shaky breath.

" ... there has to be another way. For both of us. I can't see it, and I don't know what it is, but there has to be something. I have to believe that."

[saltwaterlungs]

It is incredibly unlikely that both of them would be here. On the ship, at the same time. That she happened to run into him, first at the Tommy Bahama and then again to save his life from the mirror ghosts. Darcy's faith, strange as it is, remains unshaken through her sorrow; that they're here for each other is an act of God. It has to be. Two broken pillars supporting each other, again. She reaches to loop her arms around his neck, trying to draw herself closer, resting her forehead against Dimitri's chest.

"I believe you."

Because she has to. Because the alternative is breaking the tie that binds them, and she won't. Not can't, won't. She's still figuring out how to want to stay. But the staying is the important part.

"We'll figure it out, mon frangin."

[prince_of_beasts]

Dimitri doesn't believe himself. But Darcy believes him, and there's a closed circuit in that, when he pulls her close with his arms around her back.

He hasn't had any faith in gods for a long time, either. But he can have faith in Darcy. In someone he can cling to, who'll cling to him in turn. Someone he can reach for, who can choose to reach back. The choosing is still hard; maintaining that grip, still exhausting. Maybe it will never get easier. But they're making it, all the same.

"We will," he echoes back. Another promise he has no idea how to keep.

But he'll try.

[saltwaterlungs]

With her hands behind his head, Darcy gently ruffles his hair. Then she withdraws herself a little, explaining-

"I need to get my shit out of the boat. But I'll be back, alright?"

[prince_of_beasts]

"Alright."

But he's going to get to his feet and wait right here while she does.

[saltwaterlungs]

Darcy climbs herself down the side of the ship, then winches herself back up so the life boat is back where it belongs. She secures it back in place and retrieves her things, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Told you I wasn't going anywhere," she affirms, nudging his shoulder with hers.

[prince_of_beasts]

"I believe you."

Dimitri nudges back. He's getting better at this.

" ... what now?"

[saltwaterlungs]

"Back to mine? I haven't been sleeping, I could... probably use a nap."

And maybe some actual human contact, but she's not going to ask for that right out of the gate. Not right now, anyway.