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]

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.

[suddenlybees]

So it's working~

[ If Kano is good for one thing, it is thoroughly exhausting people, just what he thought Maverick needed, if he's going to be up so late. ]

Sorry, but you're going to have to stay awake a little longer! Help me finish up this fire escape!

[deuteranope]

[He scoffs our a half-hearted laugh... He was dumb and annoying, but he was still a good kid, huh?]

Yeah, yeah. I'm not the one getting fucking offtrack.

[suddenlybees]

[ A good kid who will drag you through the mud and claim it's for your own good, he's glad that Maverick takes it well. ]

Alright, where were we? One cord from here all the way to the ground, and— are you sure you don't want one outside your window? We can connect 'em, and make a pulley system, and then you can send snacks over to my window whenever you want~

[deuteranope]

[This time, he actually laughs. He's picturing stuff way more stupid than just snacks being sent back and forth. It's completely impractical in so many ways, with simple solutions to anything he can come up with, but... It does sound silly.]

Sure, we can hook up a bucket and make a dumbass fucking pulley between my window and yours.

[Surely something like that couldn't be abused...]

[suddenlybees]

[ A bucket is even better than Kano's idea of paperclipping chip bags to the wire and hoping it makes the trip over. ]

Yesss~! Yeah, that'd be really cool! You can send lots of stuff over, that way~! And when my room catches fire, I can pulley myself over to your room!

[deuteranope]

Why don't I just fill the bucket with water and send it your way, instead?

[keep your dumbassroom fire away from him]

[suddenlybees]

Haha, because that would put out the fire?

[ If there's going to be a fire in Kano's room, it'll be because he set it himself. ]

[deuteranope]

[Well, obviously...]

Live with the consequences, cricket~ Or don't live at all. That's the deal.

[suddenlybees]

Guess I'll die!!

[ if that's how it's going to be, anyways.

But in the meantime, before anybody's rooms catch on fire, he does want to see if a pulley system would work and get some use out of it, so he ties one end of his wire in a slipknot on the railing bars, and tosses the length of it over the edge of the roof. ]

Alright~ It's got to hold my weight, so spot me, 'kay?

[deuteranope]

[ehhhn]

And if you fall, that Odd-Eyes fuck is gonna catch you?

[Imelda would be so disappointed in him and he can't handle that right now...]

[suddenlybees]

Hm... [ Six feet is so tall, he's got to reach all the way up and try to haul himself up. Weak noodly arms aren't meant for chin-ups. ]

Doesn't look like he's down there, but if I scream real loud, he might come!

[deuteranope]

[Not super promising...but it’s better than nothing, which is saying a lot when it comes to interactions with Kano.]

All right. Good enough for me, I guess. I’ll try to let you know if I see something hinky before it gets to that point, though, yeah.

[suddenlybees]

[ He flashes Maverick a thumbs up, then sets on pulling himself up over the railing and slides down to the other side, giving his wire a good hard tug to make sure his slipknot stays and—

and it slips free and falls to the ground below. ]

Oh. Crap. Can you go downstairs and bring that back up for me?