and we could run away. [open]

[deuteranope]

WHO: Maverick Taylor and OPEN (mostly/semi).
WHAT: Maverick’s nightmares rear their ugly heads again. Time for late night stress relief.
WHEN: Night of February 20th (into the 21st) “officially”, but time is fake and nightmares happened on more than one night, so chase your bliss.
WHERE: Lumi3/outside and around.
NOTES: Smoking and swearing, as a Mav does.

( SKITTERING - closed to Imelda. )

[His feet are bare against the cold ice, and part of his brain tries to tell him that he should be slipping and splitting his head open, but there isn't time to argue because he needs to go, he needs to be faster, he needs --

crrrack.

He’s falling. The only one reaching out to him is the sharp-nailed, glowing creature he was running from in the first place...but arms still catch him. They're cold, probably from being so far beneath the ice in this dark pit, and dirty. He can't find where any of them stop being an arm, even as that one twitches with a crack and starts slithering over to him, crawling, nails scrabbling. He shouldn't open his mouth, but it's the only thing he can still move, as the cries for help rise up within him.

Maverick sits up with a yelp and an overwhelming feeling of nausea, like those fingers really had clawed their way down his throat and were stirring up his stomach, now. This room is -- weird. But it's his, still. Just the one at the academy. He’s here, and he'd yelled, but not for help, and he wasn't crying, and thank fucking god it had been years since he'd ever wet the bed from this shit. He doesn't know how much lower he can let himself sink. He runs his hand through his sleep-addled curls to try and stop it from shaking, but when that doesn't work immediately, he reaches for a pair of headphones coiled around the bedpost to clamp over his ears and -- ugh, fuck, where was his phone? He doesn't want to turn on the light… If anyone had woken up -- or was still fucking awake -- then he needed some kind of plausible deniability. Totally still fucking asleep…]

( SMOKESCREENS AND SNOWBALLS - open, around campus. )

[The fear had faded some, letting anger take its place. Adults weren't supposed to have nightmares, only little kids -- and yet there he was, eighteen years old, and waking up in the middle of the night scared out of his wits time and time again. All because of some fake bullshit his brain came up with! He needs...something real. And a goddamn smoke.

He’s already working on a second cigarette by the time he's settled into packing snow into something that is a maybe vaguely human-shaped lump? His movements are agitated and restless, punctuated now and again by a string of curses or a cloud of smoke intermingling with his breath, clear from the cold. He's gotta suck it up and build an army.

And then he's gotta take that army out with the metal bat resting on the ground beside him.]

( SORRY NOT SUBTLE - open, Lumiére 3 common area. )

[Now that he’s worked out all that anxious energy… Okay, no, he still can't fucking sleep. But at least he can come back inside and curl up on the couch with a mug of hot chocolate. He’s swapped out his bat for his laptop, drooping eyes scanning the screen as he scrolls through various, brainless sites. Mav’s got music going, but with the low volume he's set it to, someone probably has to get pretty close to recognize one of many songs by The Cure. Soothing rock.

...there are literally a dozen packets of hot chocolate resting next to him. He probably has more than enough to share, during these lazy, godless hours.]

Comments

[suddenlybees]

[ Maverick might not need his fucking hot chocolate backwash powder, but what Kano's hearing is that he needs to find something healthy to dump into this concoction. Tea? Tea is a vegetable, right? He squirms out of the way so he can dig out a handful of tea bags out of his jacket pocket and start tearing them open and adding the crushed leaves into Maverick's abandoned cup. ]

Don't worry, I gotcha covered~ Where's your newest tat? Can I see?

[deuteranope]

[why is this monster this way]

Why do you just fucking have teabags in your pocket, you fucking teabag?!

[suddenlybees]

Uh. Sometimes I want tea?

[ Opening the third tea bag, the fourth... ]

[deuteranope]

[That's so much tea...........this is a huge waste. But Maverick doesn't move to stop him, just finds a new way to rub his gross foot on Kano.]

Dare you to drink it.

[suddenlybees]

[ I am somebody who uses three bags in one cup and then complains about being wired, maybe this is how Kano gets away with being awake at ungodly hours of the morning. ]

Ew, gross...!

[ For Maverick's audacity, Kano pulls the sock off Maverick's foot and confiscates it into his pocket, he will get rid of Maverick's holey socks one at a time if he must. ]

I'll drink have if you drink half~ And I get to drink the top half!

[deuteranope]

[whispers I don't drink tea and this means nothing to me]

Hey -- [That's his sock!! Now his foot is cold, because somehow it wasn't before despite the holes, and he has to nudge Kano with a naked-ass foot instead of a clothed one.]

No deal. I already drank plenty. Put my sock back on.

[suddenlybees]

[ Nope, it's disappeared into the abyss of his jacket pocket, and Kano fixes Maverick with a bland smile. ]

What sock?

[deuteranope]

[he's just going to be working real damn hard to stick his toes past that stupid smile and into Kano's mouth, this is his goal now

also: stop gaslighting him!!]

[suddenlybees]

[ Gross, gross!!! Kano wants to laugh, but that'd just be inviting a gross foot into his mouth, so instead he ducks to grab that mug of hot chocolate tea and tries to use it as a shield. Would he dare kick it?? And ruin the upholstery??? ]

[deuteranope]

[The foot pauses in midair, toes wiggling like they have to think critically on this matter, rather than Mav doing the thinking himself. It isn't his fucking couch...but Imelda was good people...Hmm. There's also the possibility of sort of burning his foot, which wouldn't be fun.

Instead, he crosses his leg over the other and starts to chant.]

Chug it, chug it, chug it~

[suddenlybees]

[ ...Who is Kano to go against peer pressure?

He hops onto his feet for this, sets his shoulders back and feet apart in a power stance, because he's got to power through this- he brings the cup to his lips and tilts it back, draining the cup until there's just the tea dregs left. ]

...Ugh, that's bitter...

[deuteranope]

Holy shit.

[GIVE HIM THE MUG, HE NEEDS TO STICK HIS HAND IN IT AND CONFIRM THAT HE ACTUALLY FUCKING DRANK IT]

[suddenlybees]

—Whoa, okay, okay, take it!!

[ THERE ARE BETTER WAYS TO CONFIRM THIS THAN STICKING YOUR HAND IN IT.......

But it's better that Maverick does this instead of turning the cup upside down, though it's to find that the cup has indeed been drained with only soggy tea leaves at the very very bottom, no illusion here. ]

[deuteranope]

[He bites his cheek to keep himself from repeating his "holy shit". Holy shit???]

...Out of all the little freaks here, cricket, you're my favorite. And maybe the freakiest.

[it's been a long night and he's a little genuinely moved by Kano actually drinking that horrendous concoction purely because he pressured him into it.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Being called a freak would normally get Kano to wrinkle his nose, but being the favorite freak? How could he not feel good about being the favorite anything?? ]

Hehe~ Go get some more hot water! I've got some more tea bags in here somewhere, I'll make another cup for you too!

[deuteranope]

[Pfft. You know what? Sure. With the hand he didn't shove into tea dregs, Mav reaches up to try and ruffle Kano's hair before he goes off to heat another kettle, or whatever. That's something he at least can do.

Soon enough: here you are, cricket. Serve him your worst-best.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Kano ducks out of the way, because he's dumb and assumes Maverick was going to smear something in his hair, like he would've done in the reverse position. But once he has the cup of water in his hands, he pulls it over to the other side of the table and plops himself down on top of the surface, bodily blocking Maverick's view of this concoction he's been given permission to mix together. ]

You'll drink all of it, won't you~?

[deuteranope]

[Hmm...! He'll stay behind Kano, letting him block his view, but he reaches out and around with one hand and wiggles his pinkie.]

Promise you won't poison me?

[suddenlybees]

[ ...Kano glances over his shoulder at the pinky. ]

Are you allergic to anything?

[ Because then everything else is fair game. ]

[deuteranope]

[This is so suspicious...he wants to take the pinkie back so bad.]

Not that I fucking know of, unfortunately.

[suddenlybees]

[ No take-backs!!! Kano grabs the pinky with his and squeezes hard, the other hand holding onto the cup he keeps hidden behind his back. ]

Then you won't die! Close your eyes~ No peeking!

[deuteranope]

I'm not gonna fucking close my eyes and not peek.

[That's just so redundant... He's going to pick his laptop back up and go back to watching this litter of kittens bumble around.]

[suddenlybees]

[ One or the other, then!! But having his attention on the screen instead of whatever Kano's dumping into the cup is good enough, and it's just a few more things he's dumping inside of it, giving the mixture a thorough stir with a candy cane before finally turning around and holding it out to Maverick. ]

Voilà~! Tell me how it tastes~

[ The candy cane is Kano's though, he takes that back and gets to work sucking the tip into a fine point. ]

[deuteranope]

Pfh. Gonna stab me with a candy cane if I say it tastes like shit?

[He's just...gonna give it a cautious sniff before taking an even more cautious sip. Does he have to die?]

[suddenlybees]

I'm going to stab you with a candy cane if you say it tastes like shit~

[ It's... well. There's the chocolate powder in there. Tea. Something gritty and bitter that might be coffee grounds. In terms of taste, it's just kind of bitter? It's also just very thick... not slimy thick, but milkshake thick, the sort where you might reasonably need a spoon to eat it with. ]