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

[deuteranope]

Ye-ah.

[Technically...accurate...]

I can't really fucking picture you as good at climbing. That why you're making two? Like a ladder, kinda?

[suddenlybees]

Hey, I could... probably... climb a rope.

[ MAYBE. He's never actually tried, but he's not going to let that on, nor the fact that they might not be for climbing, exactly. ]

But that's not the point! Never mind that!!! There's enough length to reach the ground and back with just half, or even less than half, so never mind it~ I'm requesting your help, so I thought maybe you'd like a fire escape too? The leftover wire, I can find use for too~

[deuteranope]

[...Oh. Thank goodness there's distance between them now, and maybe Kano can't see the way his jaw clenches and eyes squint a little at the thought. It might be well and good as an exit, but...if it's something he can use as an entrance strategy, anyone else could, too. Never mind Kano -- though that's another kind of horror, the boy just popping out of nowhere. He does that enough already. It's the mysterious Other he worries about.]

Nah. I got my own ways.

[suddenlybees]

[ Surely Kano would be just as secretive about people having access too his bedroom window, but... no... It's just a chance for him to booby-trap that window and that's fun to be had in himself, it's almost as if he's inviting trouble.

He's curious about those "own ways," though, because he can't imagine Maverick jumping out of a three story window, putting his hands together and praying. ]

What's that, what's that? Share with me, I want to know~! Do you have fancy runes? Or- maybe you shout out for Odd-Eyes and hopefully he's there?

[deuteranope]

[Don't inspect his words too closely, he's dodging. Sure, he'd figure something out in the moment, and has gone through a few scenarios in his head...but there's nothing like what Kano immediately supplies him with.

He should probably start studying runes... Sarona's tattoo shit was pretty dang cool. He could do that.]

Odd-Eyes... Uh, Toki? What the fuck would he do?

[suddenlybees]

Toki? What's-- [ .....Toki... Kano lets out a surprised laugh, because yeah, Toki does have those weird eyes that Kano never acknowledged because that would mean acknowledging his own red ones. ]

They're weird, aren't they? Haha, you're right, huh? I'm surprised you can tell! He's a Seer though, did you know? Isn't that the stuff Seers see? People falling out of buildings?

[deuteranope]

[Eh. Heterochromia isn't big in humans, but there's a lot of people at this academy! It isn't so weird to think one of 'em will have one out of many unusual features.]

Fuck off. My eyes aren't so fucking useless that I can't tell brown from hazel or green. [Grumble mumble, huff.] People who need help, yeah. I saw him earlier and he went off to check on some, uh, girl.

[But that's not Mav's problem anymore!!! Yuya was there to make sure the idiot got back home safe and sound.]

Who the fuck is Odd-Eyes, then?

[suddenlybees]

[ It seems like just the other day that Toki was shouting at Kano about Minako shooting herself in the head, so he really doesn't envy Seers at all, all these tragedies that may be misinterpreted at best, and traumatizing at worst. ]

Odd-Eyes is...

[ Has Maverick really never seen him? Though, it's not like people usually have a reason to look out the window on the ground, unless you're Kano and need to jump out a window or off the roof for whatever inane reason. ]

What do you call a dragon without wings?

[deuteranope]

[He looked down out the window once and it was to watch his best friend run off with a flower.]

A bigass fucking lizard.

[suddenlybees]

[ A good reason why Kano needs these fire escapes, or maybe there'd be a dead cat with a fake flower. ]

Odd-Eyes is Yuya's bigass fucking lizard~!

[deuteranope]

[No, there would just be a dead Kano and an impossibly distressed and confused Maverick. Gotta find a creative way to get a safe way for kitty to come and go, because Mav’s definitely not liking the fire escape idea.]

Did I name the fucking thing? [That can’t be the real name, right...]

[suddenlybees]

Hm~ Maybe?

[ Kano never questioned it, mostly because making a mockery of somebody's name when they can swallow you whole is not a smart idea, even he realizes this. ]

That's what Yuya calls him, but it does sound like one of your weird nicknames, huh? Maybe you two have similar tastes in them~ Wanna go say hi to Odd-Eyes?

[deuteranope]

Not really. Tired of weirdass fucking monster pets tonight.

[He even sounds tired, there. Sigh... Weird Outlands shit.]

[suddenlybees]

Odd-Eyes is more a familiar than a pet... How come you like Pepita, then?

[ Pepita is 45908463049x more scary, are you kidding him? ]

[deuteranope]

Pepita’s a fucking cat? Not a fake kaiju motherfucker?

[Pepita is an angel even if she could murder with a glance, are you kidding him?]

[suddenlybees]

Uh.

[ Kano laughs. You know, that disbelieving sort of laugh that's more air than sound. ]

Are you kidding me? She's totally a monster.

[deuteranope]

[uh?????]

You're so fucking dumb? How many times have you landed on your head?

[suddenlybees]

[ He'd have a different answer for Maverick if he'd asked how many times he were hit on the head, but as it is, Kano just shakes his head, adamantly. ]

You think she's cute just 'cause she sits there and purrs and meows all sweetly, but she's trying to get you to lower your guard and underestimate her! She can tear you to shreds! Don't get bought up in the good little kitty act!

[deuteranope]

That's just how cats are! They're vicious bastards with the cutest faces! Why do you think cultures keep fucking worshiping them?

[suddenlybees]

Because people are stupid.

[ They're weak and throw themselves onto their knees for cats and he will never understand it. Even Pepita, who rubs against Kano's legs and sits in his lap even if he leaves feeding her up to Maverick (just in case she mistakes his fingers for a snack), has to be waiting until he lowers his guard enough that someday, she'll strike and maul him and it'll be too late to escape. ]

But if it's going to be like that, people worship all sorts of things! Like bigass fucking lizards, and spaghetti, and even other people! Doesn't make it right!

[deuteranope]

[Okay, well, obviously people are stupid...]

Who the fuck do you know of that fucking worships spaghetti, you bucket of not shutting up? That's not the fucking same, either? It's easy as shit to believe a cat could fuck you up. Of course you get on its good side, unless you're a dumbass that wants to get clawed.

[suddenlybees]

[ Kano gasps and breathes out ] No...

[ Never mind the cats, we are no longer going to talk about murderous bloodthirsty cats. ]

Do you not know about Pastafarianism? Can I convert you to Pastafarianism??

[deuteranope]

[what]

Are you -- do you mean Rastafarianism?

[suddenlybees]

Um.

[ It's a joke, Maverick... Don't teach him real things. ]

I dunno, I don't think I've eaten rasta before?

[deuteranope]

[w h a t]

You don't eat -- never mind, I don't fucking care. I'm too tired for this particular dumb shit, cricket.