daybreakacademy | Danger Zone

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Danger Zone

WHO: Maya, some open, some closed
WHAT: A collection of things for the latter half of February
WHEN: Let's not focus on details like that
WHERE: All over
NOTES: Various things will probably be tagged with specific content warnings as they come up. The usual Maya stuff. Also her permission post as is standard.

(Open) A. Learning Lessons

After the dance Maya's more than a little... aware, of her shortcomings. And if she plans to help put this final countdown on hold, she'll need to step up all the skills she uses. She isn't a fighter because learning to fight has never been one of the things she was good at, she's the band nerd sister. If Katie had powers, she could beat up anyone she wanted. But here she was.

So Maya can be found making a pest of herself in the Legionnaire Quarters, working out and trying to keep in shape. She's also skulking around the Mythril Cage watching other people spar and practice, she might be impossible to hear coming but she's very visible if you look at her. And asking all sorts of questions about what can be made when she's around the Anvil of Hadur.

All her activities run toward the same idea: what sort of tools can be made to fight with, that are easy to learn, and can be minimally loud magically speaking. That last one propbably takes more explaining than Maya directly offers.

(Open) B. Practice makes Perfect

Maya's taken over one of the band practice spaces and set up several speakers and music playing devices she's found in storage. Record players, a boombox from the 70s, her computer, her phone, each one playing a different 'thing' for her to practice on. Mix tapes, Best of Queen discs, youtube covers, a few TED talks.

A bunch of things that shouldn't be playing at once. And fortunately for those that pass her door... only one thing is making noise at a time as Maya practices muting the various objects around her. Controlling the sound so that only one thing can be heard and all the other objects in the circle around her are quiet.

...Of course sometimes trying to balance so many things at once gets too much and she gets frustrated, turning off the sound of everything in the building for a few seconds. But- what can you do, you have to practice right?

(Open) C. Overcoming Obstacles

Maya had a half-dozen objects made, tiny things the size of baseballs to be hidden around the school for her to go and find. She enlisted her friends to help her on this. Each one had a magical camouflage to them, that once set would make them invisible. But as it's magic, it meant it created a specific noise that Maya could follow.

They were meant to do two things, first is she had to hear past the chaos of the campus to find them, helping to control how overwhelmed her senses were. The second was to work on hearing things further away, focusing her mind to better track a noise.

No point in learning to fight, while letting her natural gifts degrade to being useless in the process.

So Maya's moving around campus trying to grab things from trees, under bushes, and in the various buildings. Invisible things. Naturally this looks weird to anyone who doesn't know her.

W.Wildcard

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That might be true, but he hardly sees his situation particularly noble. He's making no heroic sacrifices, doing what he does. Just a man trying to get home, though he's not about to outright deny Maya's words either.

She makes his twist and ache for her, just when he thinks he's already aching. He takes a few steps closer, feet shuffling, cane tapping. His hand goes to her shoulder, a small bit of support, though he wants so much more just to hug this poor girl.

"Mayita," He says that turn on her name softly. "You're right. It does help. And all that volunteering is true. Ay, I must be more a mess than I think, considering you're the second one to worry like this. I make stupid calls sometimes, yes, and I am glad these are things you understand now--" Even if she didn't then. Even if it breaks his heart knowing she must have learned the hard way. "--But... taking myself out is not going to be one. Trust me, I am rather very stubbornly clinging, probably a lot more than is normal." That's not changing until he sees his girl. And even if things went bad, there's no sense taking himself out when his clock is already ticking.

There's a bit of a soft laugh there. "Peter is one of them, yes. That boy knows way too much." That gets a rueful note. "But he's not the only of you kids digging your fingers in. There's a couple of you, at this point, and some more on Imelda's side I imagine too. You are all either very nosy, or with hearts much too big for yourselves. I'm sure a number of you would drop whatever just to help... but maybe it's a parent's perspective but adults aren't supposed to be placing burdens on kids. We're here to help you with yours." He gives her shoulder a slight squeeze. "I don't want to push you away. I just don't want any of you taking any bit of pain or risk for me. You deserve better than that. If I need help, I can always ask little things, things that don't harm but still help. But considering everything, I hardly need to ask for that stuff."

"I never thought I'd be there, and the pain that got me there wasn't so... straightforward." She couldn't know all of Hector's past, he was pretty specifically hiding it and just getting found out by teenagers being pesky and nosy. So the concern she has, at least, is justified as much as it is projecting. "When you're me, you see things with a very different view from most others."

She smiles a little, "Peter's heart is too big, I'm just nosy. Can't be sure about the others until I meet them." This wasn't entirely true, she got here because she was nosy, something didn't add up and she had to make it add up. Once she knows the story, however, she's now very invested. Its another person suffering from a world that just seemed against caring. "It's a little unfair to think of all of us as children, I'm eighteen soon, but more than that I've been hurt enough I don't need to be told how to take care of myself. Not- not to the degree maybe Peter needs. And even he's been through enough that he should probably be given the benefit of the doubt."

"That's fair. But I can say the same. If for different reasons." He can't imagine either of their states coming from a straight and easy path.

"And it's not like that. Not exactly. If something happened to any of you, I don't know what I'd do. I couldn't bear it if it were something to do with me. The fact you've been hurt as much as you have, it just makes me want to protect you more." He tries to smile but it comes out weak. A little too tired, a little too sad.

"I almost didn't make it out there," He admits. It's a slight twist of facts but still true. "I knew others, some younger than you, some older than me, who just barely dodged it, saved by a miracle too... for a while. Death and I are pretty familiar at this point. It's helped me see... how little time there is. How little time you've all had. It seems enough to you but it's never as much as you think. If I could go back, I'd say as much to myself too. I don't want to use you all as it is, but especially not in light of that. I think about my daughter. She's fourteen now. Not that far from any of you. And if it were her..." He shakes his head.

Edited 2019-02-19 04:17 (UTC)

"What I do is my choice, nobody else's," says the girl who blames herself for things far outside her control spanning nearly five years of her life. "I'll want to help people, that's just who I am. I've always done that. It's why I'm here, I think."

Maya leans against the wall. Listening to his experiences, trying to frame his experiences with her own. Turning what she knows into what he knows. Or understanding as well as she can. "You don't have to tell me how little time there is. The girl I was at fourteen? She never buried anyone. Never had people whisper about how sad she was, to lose someone so tragically. Never called a slut. Never kidnapped. She'd never wondered 'so is this how I die' or woken up, wondering how she was still here. The whole reason I don't give up, I don't wanna be there again is so other people like- the girl I was, don't end up following me. So if your daughter hasn't had to bury anyone yet, there's still a chance she's worlds away from me."

His frown deepens. He understands that. He understands that's how it is for most of these kids. What he doesn't understand is how they can think he can just step nack, wash his hands of it and be just fine.

But just when he thinks he's heard more than he can stand, she says that. He goes cold. He stands there silent, expression unreadable. He can't hear a breath from either of them, though her because of that power.

He wonders how it sounds now.

"...There wasn't a corpse to bury, no. There's never going to be one. But as far as everything else I have no idea what my daughter's been through." His face has hardened. "I hope nothing like that ever happens to her. I wish you hadn't been through that either. And I'm glad you want to help people now but none of that is going to convince me to willingly burden you, or for that matter, pretend that I'm not concerned because you think you've passed a quota for suffering. It's my choice to care about you kids as much as it is yours to ignore it. You never did get that amulet. I know you didn't. Maybe you found something else but in any case, if keeping you out of my business is the only good I can do for you? I'm doing it. So, thank you, but you can't help me."

There's not an over-abundance of noise as they talk. Maya, naturally, makes no noise. Her power drowning the sounds out before they happen. But unless she's she's trying to spread her power, it doesn't extend much past her. So for that moment he goes silent, watching her trying to form his retort a spark of insight happens.

And his first words after simply fan that spark into an idea.

'There was no corpse to bury.' May closes her eyes and listens, a little deeper to his sound. that broken guitar. Worn down and been through too much to be right, but- that's him. What's the sound to his power. It's- there isn't one, that can't be right. Unless- Unless it's that nothing, a meaningful nothing like Kano's white noise, and that empty faerie noise Peter has. An illusion covering up... Maya's expression changed all at once from confused to understanding, and all at once her eyes opened to stare at Hector.

The amulet carried a noise to it, she went to look at it, before deciding she needed to do more than just defend herself. The amulet carried a noise, it was like the bone horror, but backwards. In the same way that White Chain's sound and the sound of the daemon contracts were- reversed. Backwards, opposites. So under the illusion was that noise, a noise that could best be described as clattering bones. "If I got that amulet, you wouldn't be able to get close to me, would you? We wouldn't be talking, because an amulet meant to drive away the undead would have driven you off."

"Am I wrong?"

He doesn't understand that look, when her eyes close. He thinks, maybe, he's struck a nerve.

And he's prepared to leave it that way, for once. This wasn't something he intended to budge on.

But then her eyes open. Unthinkingly he takes a step back. There's a chill up his spine as she speaks. He's silent for another long moment before his eyes close.

Suddenly, under the skin of his face, markings light up. That golden travels all through his bones, shining through his skin. And then that flesh simply dissolves in that light, becoming a gentle dust that swirls up and around him, leaving a skeleton behind. That sparkling dust keeps spinning around him, then reforms, reversing to turn him to something human again. But his cheeks and eyes are a little more sunken than they were. He looks to her once more.

"Ten years ago I went on tour in Europe. And ten years ago, I died, far from home, and only my friend to bury me. I can only assume I have the outlands to thank for being here. Radiance, blight repellents, undead amulets, it all burns me. I'm only alive at night which makes travel pretty difficult. Now you know. Are you going to tell anyone?"

Edited 2019-02-20 04:56 (UTC)

"It isn't my place, plus if I went spilling every secret I hear I'd be too busy to do much else." Maya is a bit surprised by what happened, it doesn't show. Maya's not got a very expressive surprised face. But that wasn't really something to dwell on. He was still Hector, he just didn't have any guts under that skin he also didn't really have. That wasn't enough of a change for her to care.

"I'm figuring out how to defend myself. I don't know if it's more magic to make me sneakier, or how to use a weapon. I didn't buy the charm because I'll figure out my own way to keep myself safe. I don't have a plan, but I-" Maya isn't sure how to bridge these thoughts, how this relates to what else she needs to say. How to make it clear why she's like this more than she has. "But I'm working on it. There are a lot of things I can't do, I can't bring you back to life. I can't make it easier for you to travel home to see your daughter. I can't just give up trying to help people, even dead people. Because if I do nothing, I have to live with what I could have done. And I can't carry much more of that."

"I'd rather fuck up doing something, than be told to sit on the sidelines and watch."

It feels like a non-reaction from her but it doesn't help ease the tension from his frame. Accepting or not, this isn't what he wanted.

"You realize I can still say the same thing, don't you?"

He heaves a great sigh then, hobbling to the wall she leans against in order to do the same. No smiles now, just an old and weary tiredness.

"Don't ask me to live with letting you all risk yourselves. Better yet, don't make me have to. Any plan that can only end badly is a suicide mission. If you're going to do what you must, don't let that be part of it. You are alive. Don't waste it."

His hand rises up to scrub at his face, very much physically here despite being less real than his bones. He needs a drink. He doesn't have time to go drinking.

"For a girl who claims it's not her place, you do like to dig out secrets."

"Not planning on just throwing away my life," Maya doesn't add how the universe seems intent on her living. That's a bit mean, and makes it seem like she's still seeking that out, which she isn't. But she has very definitely nearly died three times, and she's still here. "I plan to find some very clever mostly safe ways to do good and help others."

"I don't dig out secrets, I walk around and secrets fall on me." It's totally different, she didn't want to know half the things that just ended up there for her to hear. "I can hear the edges of the illusion hiding you, and I can't hear you breathing. You and everyone else hiding things from the world have your reasons. I'm just lucky nobody can hear my secrets."

Maybe Peter is right and what she's doing is cheating.

That manages to pull a quirking of a smile from him. Very clever and mostly safe. Easier said than done but the intent absolutely made a difference.

"Good plan," He mutters.

He wants to point out that she didn't have to seek him out in the night to ask about De La Cruz, or insist so much on helping him, but he can already imagine those rebuttals.

Instead he says, "It's not really an illusion. This is my body and I would still feel it if it was damaged. The magic I imagine you're hearing just keeps it from rotting on the spot so much. It's easier to just be bones, but obviously that's not an option back with the living."

There's a pause before he adds, ruefully, "I actually forget I don't need to breathe most of the time. You kind of caught me off guard there, asking about my daughter at a funeral."

Edited 2019-02-20 07:23 (UTC)

"Whatever it is, it's kept the sound of your true nature mostly hidden. I had to look for it to find it." Even if it wasn't an illusion or a glamour, it was in that ballpark. It was hiding something under it, and well enough she couldn't just tell. Like with Kano.

"I didn't know there would actually be one, that sort of thing only happens to me." And maybe everyone else at this school, but that just seemed horrible to even consider. "Although, to be completely honest, I've never been to a funeral. Just- things always kept me away."

Cam's body was sent home, and even if Maya was up for the funeral she couldn't get there. Adam was already buried by the time she was home from Paris. Just- the world had a strange way of keeping her from funerals. Probably for the best.

He bobs his head. That made sense enough. Kind of nice to think it's less obvious than he thought.

But then he's blowing a breath through teeth. "Well, to be honest, there wasn't one. My grave was unmarked. And I mean, it was for the better considering that otherwise he'd have had to deal with that and-- did you know you can't send a corpse over the Atlantic without cremation? The laws are really strict about it." A bad option indeed. He shakes his head. Off topic.

"But, ah, Ernesto didn't tell anyone. At all. I didn't realize until the semester started and Imelda showed up furious." He's silent a moment before adding, "It's been a bad few months. In any case, my Coco's been without a papá. I go back and forth being relieved I didn't hurt her like that afterall and thinking I maybe hurt her worse, growing up thinking I didn't truly love her. If I could just be sure she knew I loved her... I'd far prefer it to any burial."

"Yeah, I can see how that wouldn't be a good option," which leaves, what? Private jet or boat. Those don't have the same rules as planes and cruise liners. Maybe? How were they at a magic school that had zero way to get a father home to his kid!?

Maya made a face at that, she could get how that'd be upsetting for Ms. Rivera, but all the rest of it. And the stuff from earlier, it just- didn't add up, "You know that's weird right? Your best friend just omitting your death? Like- you'd think it'd come up when he has your guitar. And your songs. That he could at least inform your widow. And if it was because he knew you were undead, then he could have done something about you being in the Outlands."

He's definitely tried the boat thing. That had been a disaster, one so weird it felt like a fever dream-- and he didn't dream.

When Maya brings up weirdness, he frowns, watching her face as she speaks. Only to laugh, bitterly.

"That's not weird. That's Ernesto being a coward towards Imelda and being a selfish jerk with the convenience of my death. He was always convinced it was my songs that would make us big." He rolls his eyes and waves a hand. "Guess he was half right. But he definitely doesn't know I'm undead. The man was long gone by the time I crawled back out of the dirt."

Edited 2019-02-20 10:40 (UTC)

"Right, I wouldn't want to face Ms. Rivera." Something still felt off, what sort of friend just couldn't put on their big boy pants and just inform your best friend's wife about their death.

The rest of it seemed a little more sinister, but that was probably just Maya's paranoia acting up. "Well, finding a way to get you to see your daughter again. What could be more important?"

"They never did get along, no matter what I tried."

His best friend was a jerk. It was a fact he'd come to accept with life, and even more recently in his death. It hurt, but so had Imelda's assumptions about him. Sometimes you have to wonder if it's just you.

He is more than happy to move along from that line of thought and back to his daughter. He smiles and says, "Not a thing in the world." His eyes go distant. "She is my world. Mi niñita. She's who I've been playing for, all these years. That song that was just ours."

At first Maya thinks this makes sense, she's met Ms. Rivera and even at best they simply do not hate each other. But then Maya remembers that, at some point. She wasn't a woman whose husband disappeared for a decade without explanation. At one point that song wasn't pain and bitterness directed at oneself. So- no, not making sense. But also not something she can do much about. Not right now.

"So you understand why I want to help, and there's really nothing you can do to stop me from wanting to help." Maybe Hector forgot they'd been arguing most of the evening, but Maya's taking the opportunity to win.

He is immediately jolted out of fond memory.

"Wait, wait, wait! Wait a minute!" He throws his hands up, one still holding his cane. "That is not how that works! You distracted me! This is important for me, not you. In fact this would put you directly into conflict between Imelda and I which you promised not to do. And finally! Since you know I am dead man, then you should know better than to go against my wishes!"

His arms fold and he gives a firm, decisive nod.

Edited 2019-02-21 12:14 (UTC)

"You can't really use the dead thing, the last dead person who had a firm belief over something wanted me dead," she'll focus on that because she has less firm arguments on the top of her head for the conflict with Ms. Rivera concern. She was staying out of it, but now that she knew how things mattered, how could she be against it.

"And caring about people is just the right thing. If I can cleverly help, I'll make it work." Maya's a stubborn one.

"Ah, ah, ah!" He waves a hand. "Nice try! But that doesn't count! That monster stuff is messing with their heads! The respect the will of the dead clause is negated if that dead person is not in full control of mental faculties." He sounds smug, reciting this all as though this is some actual written rule. Who knows, maybe it is somewhere, he was in the outlands not the afterlife.

"And on that note, you can care by not spooking me like you did. Those things really like to go after dead people, you know? I'm like the second favorite snack on the menu after dearest loved ones, I can't deal with being snuck up on right now."

Edited 2019-02-22 00:00 (UTC)

"I don't exactly have much choice on that, would you rather me get closer and tap you on the shoulder?" Maya's used to doing that to everyone. She was more than used to this than she'd like, and if she had to guess she'd probably startled more people than Hector did.

And Hector is secretly a skeleton.

"If it helps nothing is around?"

"Can you come at me from the front? Whistle? Call from a little farther away...? Wear a bell..." He's just throwing options out there.

But she was right about that. His scares were fewer if a little more... unfortunate.

He glances around them. "...That does help to hear though."

"It's hilarious when I wear bells, they don't make noise." Arms crossed, she's tried a lot of ways to make noise passively but they just don't work. "I can't keep my phone on ring if it's in my pocket."

"I'll try to not end up behind you, but there's only so much I can do."

"Oh. Well, I guess your power's your power, you can't control it any more than I can-- wait." He frowns, confused. " How do you play music then? I've heard you play. It's beautiful."

He's kind of regretful that all these attacks have kept them from playing together since. Maybe someday...

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