[open] dreams of you all through my head

[pinballer]

Who: Vance Hopper & (mostly) ota
What: Fixing Judith and generally being around
When: Early November
Where: all around
Warnings: eventual discussion of child torture/murder


1 / it's all right now (the drunken sailor)

[ Before the party, Vance was gifted with the mangled remains of Fio's teddy bear, Judith. One of the ghosts did it, and he feels kind of silly doing something so sentimental for a teddy bear, but he knows it's because the ghost was avenging him for Judith's previous attack. So, in a way, he feels responsible.

He chose The Drunken Sailor because it's where Knife Club is held, and also because he thinks Fio is unlikely to wander in and see Judith before it's all fixed up. There's some threads in all different colors set out and everyone is encouraged to take a different one and fix the bear a little bit at a time. That way, Fio will know how many different people all came together for her.

Vance is sitting at the table with a bit of read thread, starting to sew the arm back on. He isn't very good at it, but this is a group effort anyway. ]

[ ooc note: If they know Vance, assume your character got a text and was invited. If they don't know Vance and you want to participate, feel free to handwave that someone invited them. ]

2 / but don't give yourself away

[ Sometime after fixing Judith, Vance can be found all around the ship. He's not as devastated as he was in the aftermath of the party, but he's not entirely back to normal, either. He's...somewhere in between.

If someone saw him take down not-Friday, he's willing to talk about it. He also wants to catch up with anyone he knows who was possessed and isn't anymore.

Once in a while, too, he lifts up the corner of his white tank top and (for the first time since he's been here) takes an actual look at the knife-wound scars that were left behind. He's hated those scars since the first time he saw them and has done whatever it takes to keep them covered. After seeing Judith - all full of stitches but still wanted and still okay - he thinks, finally, that they might not be so hideous after all. ]

3 / it's only teenage wasteland (closed to clarke)

[ As much as he tries to play the tough guy, the last month weighed on him something fierce and he feels like he's about to burst if he doesn't get some of his feelings out into the world. Clarke's been trying to nudge him into sharing a little ever since they went to beach, so he just lets it slip. ]

I lied. I am scared. Of a lot of things. [ About ending up like the ghosts here and being sent to the Nothing, yes, but also of the monsters from his past even if they aren't here anymore. ]

wildcard

[ surprise me. I'm at callico or chimera#5926 if you want to plot. ]

Comments

[pinballer]

At first Vance thinks this is going to be a magic trick, and he fucking hates magicians, but no. It seems to be a legitimate bag of nickels that always has two nickels in it.

"Too bad they stuck you with a bunch of crummy nickels. I could've conquered the world if I had one of those with quarters in it," he says.

And by the world, he means the arcade.

[crushed_pearls]

"Alas, I didn't get the cool old dead guy, I got Jefferson." Erin sighs theatrically. "But I've already got some ideas. If I'm gonna be the nickels girl forever nobody gets to complain if I start making little models out of 'em or practicing coin tricks. Met Ylva a bit ago, showed her how to spin coins some. It's the little things."

Erin stands back up and tucks the coinpurse back where it goes. "How's things been since all of that, youngblood? I didn't catch you in the aftermath but I was a bit completely blind at the time."

[pinballer]

"I chopped Friday's head off," he says, "Or...whoever was possessing Friday. You're welcome."

But, arrogant as he tries to be, he still sounds conflicted about that.

[crushed_pearls]

"Oh shit, that was you?" Erin's surprise is colored just a bit by impressed; Vance doesn't seem like he's lying, and if that's the case he killed something close enough to a wizard for government work. That shit's not easy. "Thank you, genuinely. I'm not sure how much more of that chaos I could have endured. But..."

She blows out a long breath and opens the coinpurse where it is at her belt. A nickel is taken out, to be walked over her knuckles; something to do with her hand, held down low where she hopes it won't be a distraction.

"...Well, killing anyone's a rough job, youngblood. Even if it means protecting the people you care about. Sometimes more, then. Fight to protect yourself, that's easy, nobody wants to go down, but defending others means you picked between two lives."

[pinballer]

"I wasn't mad at the ghosts. I didn't hate them," he says. That makes it harder, in a way. It was also why he was able to get in so close.

That feels like betrayal, even if it was done to protect people he cares about.

"I hope they can all come back the right way someday."

[crushed_pearls]

"...Yeah, me too." The admission is heavy, but saying it out loud instead of leaving it unspoken like she had with Johnny takes some of the weight off Erin's chest. "Some of 'em, anyway. That guy with the pianos can fuck the hell off, but...y'know, I was sorta sweet on one of 'em?" Erin shakes her head. "Took her out first, that fight. I'd do it again but god it fucking sucked."

"...It's okay for it to suck, y'know? That whole 'all chores are dumb' line you had at the party, that's really, really true here. Just because it had to happen doesn't mean it don't fucking suck."

[pinballer]

"Everything fucking sucks here," he says, "I wish people were willing to put up more of a fight about it."

Where's the riots? Where's the mutiny? The previous passengers failed, but that doesn't mean they can't succeed.

[crushed_pearls]

"That's the thing, Vance. Violence is a tool, you use it for the jobs it's good for. You wouldn't use a hammer to play a videogame, right?" Erin finds a spot of wall to lean against and tucks her hands into her pockets. "Just like I won't bust out the 'give peace a chance' routine against someone who's coming right at me. Some problems are just not punchable. We are fighting, just...not like that. I'm fighting now, here."

[pinballer]

"I don't want to help him," he says, "The captain, I mean. I think it's bullshit that he can do what he's done and not pay for it."

And the last thing he wants is to be freed by bullshit.

"I'm going to find a different way out."

[crushed_pearls]

Erin nods. "Sounds like a clear goal to me. And the neat bit is you can still trade information with folks who have decided to make a home here, won't have to face everyone in arms about it. Smart."

[pinballer]

"What kind of home can anyone have here?" he scoffs, "You can't live in a house that's eating you alive. The house has to burn."

[crushed_pearls]

"...I'm not confident that's what's happening," Erin admits after a long moment to think. "Listen...if I tell you something can you not gossip it around? It's not hurtful, but I don't talk about it much because people tend to leap to the wrong conclusion. Full disclosure, when I can get a hold of him I'm gonna tell Skulduggery too, might shed some light on the theory in my head."

[pinballer]

"Yeah, sure. I won't gossip," he says, "What is it?"

[crushed_pearls]

It still takes a minute; Erin sucks a breath in between her teeth and dithers about it before she finally sucks up the spine to just say it.

"Here's the deal; people with real feelings generate an...energy, that I use. That I need, if I'm being honest. The energy isn't the feeling, though, I'm not eating like, your anger or your triumph when you win a game, I'm eating something those feelings make, something that comes off 'em like...like steam off a boiling pot, right? They're related, but the steam isn't the spaghetti no matter what you do to it. Now, when the Black Binder said the Captain is feeding on our emotions I got a bit suspicious about that, because like, I've killed things that eat your actual feelings. It's not fun. You become effectively dead in a matter of days and develop lifelong insanity even if you ever recover. Some folks have been here nearly half a year and they're still feeling their full range of emotions even if 'fine' is a generous way to describe it..."

Deep breath. In. Out.

"...But something is eating half my steam, youngblood. The thing you give off without ever noticing, that I notice all the time? When I go to take it, a good half is being snatched out of my fingers."

[pinballer]

"Then why do we get used up and tossed in the nothing?" he says, "Besides that, I don't care, he can't have my emotional steam. He can't have the pennies between my couch cushions. He can't eat out of my trash can. Fuck him."

Which is to say: even if he could peacefully co-exist with the captain, he wouldn't.

[crushed_pearls]

"Lad I'm not here to persuade you to team Boat Home. Like, I'm on that team but I've got no quarrel with not wanting to be here. If I can figure out a way to help with it I will, y'know? But, my thought here is...that we're not being eaten to death. Those ghosts came back absolutely full of emotion. They were angry, they were sad, they were uh -" fuck it, Vance has been doing the Bad Boy routine, she can get a liiiiiiiiittle blunt, "kinda horny. If they'd been hollowed out completely, how can they come back with feelings? If you're serious about escape these are the sorts of answers we both need; how are we sustained here, what exactly is the Captain getting from us, and what precisely makes us cease to be? You want the Captain as your enemy, more power to you - but the burden is on you, then, to know your enemy. No scrappy underdog ever won on luck. They put in the work."

[pinballer]

"I don't wanna be the scrappy underdog. I was the toughest guy around back home. That's what I want," he says, "I'll kick his ass and set us all free. It is still his fault, isn't it? That we go into the nothing? Even if he's not eating us it's still his doing."

[crushed_pearls]

"Oh yeah. He made this world, he brought us here, he's responsible. No argument there." Erin taps her chin, thoughtfully. Considering Vance's Desire here.

After about a minute: "I can't make you the biggest or strongest person here. From the look of you, even puberty couldn't do that, gotta play the hand you're dealt. But in the meantime while you're looking into magic and mayhem..."

"...I could teach ya that wrist lock. Then it doesn't matter if someone's bigger, especially if you can like, ghost-walk through their block or their weapon and then get them. Up for it?"

[pinballer]

"You only think that because you can't see my six-pack abs. And I'm still growing," he says, because he definitely measures himself every day.

"Alright. I'll learn."

[crushed_pearls]

"Excellent. You'll want someone to practice it on but I've got time to burn right now so we can cover some of the basics, and you're welcome back any time. I'm..."

Kicked out of fight club.

"Not gonna be there Tuesdays for a bit but I'd bet you my left foot Peter Smith knows the technique too. So, the goal is to be able to grab the hand like this - remember not to struggle, you'll still break your own wrist even though I'm being very gentle -"

What follows is the slow-motion demonstration of the fundamentals; where and how to grab the hand, getting the lock from an arm that's in motion, how to dig one's thumb in to make an opponent drop what they're holding. There's even a demonstration of the weakness of the technique ("If they don't panic they'll clock you in the face or cut your throat, which is why we're practicing moving away the instant you have the wrist..."). Erin even offers up her own hands to try it out on, so Vance can feel the way the body moves when the joint is torqued, see how even someone much taller can be moved as if they weigh nothing.

Erin looks almost...at peace. Like she's doing something she was put on this Earth, or at least the SS Hellscape, to be doing.

[pinballer]

"Yeah, I've met him," Vance says, "He's been meddling with me for a while now."

And by meddling he means watching over him a bit ever since he showed up, participated in a duel, and broke his teenage opponent's nose.

He pays attention to the demonstration, clenching his teeth when she takes his wrist. It takes all of his willpower not to try and struggle out of what he feels is a very light grasp, but a broken wrist is the last thing he needs here. When she's done he tries to do the same thing on her, but he doesn't get it quite right. His grip is a little too high up.

"Like that?"

[crushed_pearls]

"Almost! Here..."

Meddling, eh? Something to maybe talk to Peter about in a bit, get the perspective. He seems like a very careful and deliberate kinda guy but there's always that pride that Vance seems good at digging at if someone is willing to play the boy's game on his terms.

Erin moves Vance's hand down gently and presses his thumb in. "You want to be able to feel that hollow right there in the meat, where the thumb bone juuust starts diverging from the hand. That's what causes the pain when I dig in on you; there's a bunch of nerves there the body uses to tell your hand how to be a hand. When you press it locks everything up."

[pinballer]

"Okay, I think I've got it."

He lingers for a moment to commit the feeling to memory, and then lets go.

"Why aren't you going to be at fight club? You seemed to be all about that shit last time we talked."

[crushed_pearls]

Erin winces at the question. Everyone else had just let it go.

Ughhh FUCK.

"I...insulted another member very deeply and it's best if I'm not there, to keep the peace and not disturb anyone else while they're learning. Sorry Vance."

[pinballer]

"That's it? I've insulted pretty much everyone here and I go wherever I want," he says, "Get on my level."