come_sailaway | monday's child is fair of face (2/2)

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monday's child is fair of face (2/2)

CW: death, probably gore, possibly more TBA

[and that’s what you missed on glee.

and so, there “Friday” is, standing on the roof of the bar. the attention of the party has surely turned to her by this point, but she doesn’t care about that. she just needs one person to still be a little too distracted to stop what was coming next.

Monday snaps her fingers, and Jenny disappears from wherever she was standing before, reappearing directly in front of Monday, who embraces her from behind, an arm wrapped firmly around her middle. those with enhanced senses might catch what she whispers, seconds before she snaps Jenny’s neck so hard it hangs at a 90 degree angle as Monday kicks her, her corpse toppling forward onto the deck below.]

Surprise, bitch.

[well, there. unfinished business settled. onto more pertinent matters.]

Let’s get a little more comfortable first, hm? Can’t waste too much of her magic, but audiences love a quick change.

[she snaps her fingers, and Monday finds herself in an outfit that is far more to her taste. now. time for her grand performance.]

Greetings, foolish mortals! You may or may not have noticed that things have been a little bit different this month. While the Captain is off having a good old bitch cry about whatever it is he’s so upset about, poor little Friday was running herself ragged keeping this shitheap floating! She was so distracted, in fact, that she happened to have a little accident, while fixing something in the elevator shaft! [a laugh] I guess even clay bitches can break their necks! And there I was, sitting in Fucking Nowhere, doing Fucking Nothing, feeling Fucking. Nothing! And I saw her empty shell. And I was, like, hey, free real estate!

Whatever tear in the veil that your whiny little Captain just didn’t feel like fixing? I ripped that fucker right open. And you’ve all met a few of the sorry little fuckers that fell out already, hm? [another snap] Not all of them, but, hey, that’s what now is for, right? Because, see, we all kinda got together a little bit, and we were like… You know, just borrowing some shitty bodies to have some fun for a few weeks? What a waste! And we still have a lot of bitches we need to spring from jail!

And that! Is where you assholes come in! And, trust me, you are all assholes. Have you even seen some of the psychotic shit you people have said and done to us? Like, yeah, Mary is legitimately insane, but she’s still a kid! Even I’m not gonna call a fucking nine year old a bitch!

You can try to run, but I fucking hate running in heels, so I made that a little bit… difficult. So. Why don’t you nice people just lay down and let us kill you. I’ll be gentle. Promise.

[perhaps people have tried to flee already. they likely have. and they’ve found that the entire party area has been blocked off by the same sort of barrier that surrounds the realm, an invisible orb holding them captive.]

Now. Let’s get the actual party started!

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( it does not matter if rita hates her.

it doesn't matter if rita still thinks she killed her, and is out for blood, or throws more magic her way.

it doesn't matter if clarke is pretty sure she's dying —

rita has seemed suspiciously laissez-flair this entire evening, not even reacting with the expected amount of shock and alarm at the reveal of monday's true nature and intent. and now the pool deck is walled in and chaos has detonated in the midst of party goers. chaos specifically erupted in a ball of white spiritual energy ripping through her chest too, and leaving the front of clarke's fake nursing uniform slowly staining a wet, ominous black. but she's still breathing, she's still on her feet, she can still help. and one of the first people she wants to bodily drag as far out of harms way as humanly possible, is rita mordio. maybe out of some loose desire, a lingering need to prove she means her no harm and never has.

some, if not all of the puzzle pieces, have slotted into place. she still does not know about the hypnotic nature of vampire bites, honestly assumes the suspicion, pure loathing and murderous intent that's been levied at her the past ten days is something more to do with tear's magical abilities now that she's seen the other girl casting in protection of the possessed — but natsuno is off to one side gleefully fighting ebalon after throwing back shots with him a hours earlier, and she can't deny that part now either. and it sucks, it all sucks. palamedes is passed out from anemia back in his room, jade is who knows where, and two of their friends are vessels for the damned so if she's all that's left... well, gotta make these last few minutes count.

so hello rita, in the midst of your existential crisis and trying to sort out fake memories that overlap with the real, you're getting absolutely bodied. clarke vaguely registers the frantic torrent of questions spilling over her lips but now isn't the time to sit and answer. it's time to — )

Move! Go, go gogogogogo! — please don't fight me, please. We need to run.

( to where, though? there's a barrier in place preventing any proper fleeing, and clarke hasn't thought much past "get out of the middle of the deck turned warzone". in full health, maybe she would have attempted to pick rita up and haul her off, but... she is far from healthy, and thus has to settle for grabbing at whatever part of the younger girl she can — elbow, wrist, artfully torn edges of this monstrosity of a costume — and dragging her along to the beat of clarke's stumbling dash. )

[Rita yelps at someone crashing into her, which manages to only partially break her out of her reverie--as if her brain wasn't already overwhelmed, there's a whole new set of sensory overload beyond the surrounding chaos here: being dragged towards...somewhere, the gaping wound in Clarke's chest, the black blood spilling down Clarke's costume, Clarke in general.]

Wait--no--you...?

[It's only through an automatic stubbornness that Rita digs her heels in, as she's barely even thinking about where Clarke is trying to take her. She's too busy staring, unable to decide whether to focus on Clarke's face or where the other girl seems to be bleeding out. She remembers Clarke--but also remembers someone else now--Tear--in the same spot in the same place, doing the same thing, and...which one is real?

Rita abruptly grabs Clarke's shoulder, eyes wide and wild as she seems to search for something in the other girl's face, as if that will somehow tell her the answer.]

Hey! T...tell me! What happened?! Back there, I mean--was it you?!

[Her outstretched arm is mostly bare save for the short sleeve and small costume glove, leaving the "bug bites" dotting her skin plain for Clarke to see.]

Edited 2022-10-28 18:54 (UTC)

( they don't... technically have time for this. it doesn't feel like they have time for this, for clarke it seems like the world is imploding around them and, futile or not, they have to try to outpace the destruction. but she's admittedly not at her best right now, and when rita digs her heels in and refuses to move, it puts an effective halt on clarke's attempts to drag her closer to the barrier, towards any sort of hiding spot, out of the line of fire — what have you.

frustrated, scared... this leaves her with little recourse other than the whirl and face the other girl directly. blue eyes meet green, and in the face of rita's overwhelming confusion, clarke is set in heated determination. how best is she to summarize the last ten days of unjust persecution and confusion? how to clip out her own hurt and focus on the bigger picture? most importantly, how to sum up everything she's wanted to say to rita since the elevator doors had dinged shut and she'd gone into hiding?

...it's a tall order. )

Rita, we don't have to ever be friends. But I saw your body. ( i made sure your eyes were closed, i fixed your hair, i put your arms across your chest so it'd look like you were just sleeping, i mourned you— ) I would never do that to you.

( here's hoping it's enough. she's so intent on looking rita in the eyes that, for now at least, she doesn't register the "bug bites". )

Edited 2022-10-30 05:07 (UTC)

[It feels like they stare at each other for an eternity. Rita shuts out the mayhem that the party has become around them, focused only on searching Clarke's expression. What's happening right now feels less important, somehow, than what happened nearly two weeks ago.

Her brows furrow at Clarke's eventual response, confusion only deepening. No, it can't be...]

But you were--possessed! I remember--I just--it was you, but now it's--it's also someone else! Why-?

[She's not even aware that she's probably not making much sense. Nothing really makes sense to her right now. And...if it wasn't Clarke, then... She still remembers chasing the other girl down...looks down to see the bandages covering his limbs, stares at them. It had been strange, when she'd calmed down a little, but then--Jade had died too, and he corroborated her memory after that.]

--Jade. What about him?!

[It's the only other thing she can latch onto in this moment, gaze snapping back to Clarke's face, even with the other girl continuing to bleed out.]

( she doesn't know if she wants to grab the other girl by the shoulders and shake her, or bust out into tears and pull rita in for a hug. well, clarke's chest is kind of a veritable mess of gore and pain, so the second option is out pretty immediately but — any other time and place, her eyes would be wet again and weeping would be just around the corner. how'd they come to this? what would it take to get out of it? she's a firm believer that nothing in life will every amount to any sort of equity, but can't completely suppress the internal whine that this just isn't fair.

in a torrential rush of information, voice cracking under the strain: )

I didn't kill either of you! Think about it, Jade could have flattened me like a bug if I even tried. ( let's be realistic, only reason she managed to crack him across the face with a book a month ago was because he hadn't been expecting it, and recently he'd been so on edge he'd barely been clinging to the proverbial cliff face. )

And after you — ( literally all of that, all of you... clarke doesn't outright look at the bandage on her arm, nor shake it in rita's face, but what other implication could there be? ) — I basically never left Pal's room. You can ask him about it if we get out of this alive, okay? But please, right now we need to hide!

( a meaningful tug on rita's arm right this very moment, and that's when she spots —

...well, they don't look like bug bites. too consistently spaced, too even. what, maybe... 30mm between each puncture? grouped in one spot on the arm, and nowhere else on rita's skin that clarke can immediately identify just from looking at her. no sign of swelling or allergic reaction. and there's never been a single bug on board, blood sucking and biting or otherwise... )

Is that a bite mark?

[It makes sense--it makes too much sense, because yes, there's no way Clarke should've been able to kill someone of Jade's caliber, and yet--it had all made sense to her, for some reason, before this moment. Too much sense, so readily acceptable, even when it shouldn't have been that way...

Normally, Rita wouldn't want to ask Palamedes anything; the usual distaste doesn't even cross her face this time, though. Her gaze swivels to Clarke's bandages again--not part of her costume, they're real, those are injuries Rita inflicted for...what reason, now?--and then to the gaping hole in the other girl's chest. Get out of this alive? Why is Clarke pleading with her about that when she's the one who looks like she's about to die (--and why is her blood black)?

Rita still hasn't moved, though her resistance to Clarke's newest tug wanes. And then--bite marks? Rita looks at her own arm. A ready excuse comes to her lips so easily-]

It's noth....

[--Wait, no, it's not nothing. They've actually grown in number since her revival, haven't they? But she wasn't paying them any attention...no suspicion or concern at all, even though Natsuno--

Natsuno. Natsuno?]

Y-Yuuki...

[Rita isn't thinking about anything like blame right now. She only wants things to make sense again...only she's quickly transcending upset and shooting straight towards hysterical. It's foggy and dreamlike, but she can now remember his fangs sinking into her arm, exactly where the marks were left. He'd surprised her the first time, but after that...she'd held out her arm for him to do it, and she can't even understand why--and she can't remember anything that happened for some time afterwards. And...when they were alone, and he talked to her, it was like...he wasn't himself. And tonight, at the party...]

Yuuki--what's he been doing?! Where is he?! Every day--tonight, he--this isn't normal! Why?!

[She starts to tug her arm away from Clarke. She...has to find Natsuno. She feels like he's the one with the answers right now.]

Edited (t-t-typo...) 2022-10-31 02:37 (UTC)

( who would have ever thought toting her bland, boring, completely normal humanity could have come in clutch like this? clarke's resented being without magic since she woke up here and learned it was a power that would not govern her entire existence; has resolutely clawed for any opportunity to harness sigil blood magic in an attempt to level the playing field and up her chances at survival. only to momentarily gain a bargaining chip in the form of it not being an inherent sort of power, and not something she could wield well enough to undo a mage of the caliber of jade curtiss.

it's almost-funny. she'll not-laugh about it later.

rita seems to be having a moment of profound realization, but mizuki had texted clarke some confirmation an hour or so prior, and she'd also been full up on suspicious faculties while watching him make eyes at jinx and set his hand on fire to amuse ebalon. now, somewhere in the distance, he's trying to rip both of them to shreds. she would love to allow the other girl her moment of hysterical realization, but to her right, castor of the dioscuri is launching himself at whoever is wearing shi qingxuan's meatsuit with a blinding flash of blue light. and to their left, venti is getting shredded through the chest by a blast from pickles' shotgun.

both hands find rita's shoulders, and clarke gives her an aggressive shake. get your head back on your shoulders girl, and quickly — ) Because he's one of the fucking possessed, Rita! Now we have to move!

( and, yanno what? she doesn't have a lot of strength left in her. blood loss is a slow way to die but it saps the energy from the limbs pretty quickly. still, any last bit in her bones seemed well used on the endeavor of getting both of them out of the line of fire, and clarke puts an amazing amount of effort into getting a arm around the younger girl's torso and attempting to half-carry, half-drag her towards the shadowed maze entrance of the party.

no natsuno-finding for you. )

Edited 2022-11-02 11:55 (UTC)

He's...

[The carnage around them feels distant right now. Not...unimportant, but not a priority. No, the priority is...Natsuno, possessed. Rita's stunned as she turns that over in her mind--it's the only reason he would be doing any of the things he's been doing, and yet...it's not comforting in the least. Because if that's not Natsuno, then where is he? Is he gone? Again, already?

Her temporary wide-eyed stupor allows Clarke to drag her several steps before Rita's abruptly digging her heels in again and wrenching her arm away, this time far more insistently. She still has no idea where her thoughts are going to settle on Clarke. For now--that wound is unmistakably bad, and so Rita tries to give her an insistent shove in the direction of the exit.]

No! I need--you need to move before you're dead; I'm finding Yuuki! I can't just--forget about him! He has to come back! I can't... He's... Just get yourself out of here, already!

[And she shakes her head. This is too much; she can't handle it all. Natsuno-finding is the thing she's going to focus on, and so she turns on her heel and dashes off into the fog. Somewhere--she can hear his voice, even though it sounds wrong, and she'll follow it-]

Rita —

( they'd been making progress, they'd gotten several steps from where they met. but then the other girl is squirming and slamming down her feet and shoving out of clarke's grasp in a way she, at her best, probably could have handled usually. but she's weak, losing a sense of balance and complete control over the muscles in her arms. rita wriggles away, and sends clarke back a halfstep when trying to shove her towards the useless exit.

it's a beautiful sentiment, what rita shouts at her. a lovely example of loyalty. but seems like a fools errand; a big quest, when they have maybe minutes to get out of here. a big ask, when they still don't really know the depths of what they're dealing with here, do they? rita has to know this, right? yet still shakes her head and turns to plunge back into danger. and clarke's screaming after her: )

No! He wouldn't want you to die!!

( but then a piano (?? what the actual fuck??) falls out of the sky uncomfortably nearby. it crunches, bits fly in every direction and clarke has to flinch; close her eyes and turn her face to protect her eyes. and by the time she looks back up, rita mordio's disappeared into the swell of bodies and chaos and violence and bloodshed. the bottom of her stomach drops out, then twists back up like a knife of anxiety in the guts. but she can't stop, and couldn't handle pushing back into the depths of the fray to try to find her. they're just going to have to hope for the best, and pray that rita doesn't get outright murdered by a ghost wearing the face of their friend. )

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monday's child is fair of face (2/2)

1

please leave a message and someone will get back to you after the existential crisis

insert v loud phone beep

message records incoherent screaming

olivia cooke voice: "oh, stunning!"

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