Almost Forgot

[lastexit]

Who: Maya, Imelda, Maya's baggage (Open Prompt to be Added Later)
What: Hollow Plot
When: On a day... where there are classes? After the "Several Bones to Pick" mission.
Where: On the Grounds of the School. Keeping it vague.
Warnings: Depression and Suicide will both come up in the main thread. And possibly in the aftermath, depending where Maya is then.

Note: Once the main thread has some traction I'll link to a prompt in this log for Maya after things have happened. Depending on how much of a mess Maya is.

Hollow Hearts - Closed

Maya's classes were fairly mundane today. She didn't have her control class about manipulating her silence, nor the class for sensitives so she can manipulate and control her Hearing. Days like this she almost felt like this was a normal school.

Except for the constant noise of everyone else's magic, and the fact it was all in French. You know, those things made her remember it was all nonsense and magic.

She was heading toward the cafeteria, toward getting food, when she heard it. An impossible sound. A sound she couldn't hear, not ever again. It made her think of cheering crowds, and frozen rinks. But it was softer, sadder than the excitement of a Hockey game. Lamenting the festivities as much as being at the center. The notes not quite right, due to the sort of sound equipment an ice rink would have.

But there were other notes in the sound, she remembered those notes from the Catacombs in Paris. The sounds she put a name to. A sound of death in her mind...

She whipped around in place, looking for where the sound was coming from. It was moving, too fast. Behind a building? Was she actually insane now? She- she can't hear that sound.

She can't hear him.

Maya's not walking toward the cafeteria anymore, she looks- lost. Lost and alone. Like the whole world was melted away by whatever she was hearing.

Going into Town + Hog's Swill (Open)

Maya didn't even bother changing from her uniform before heading into town. She didn't want to bother trying to avoid people seeing her. Just leave, just run, just get some space. No guitar, no cello, just her and her books in the middle of a day in a dive bar. She ordered some cheap beer, a water, and some greasy bad-for-you pub grub.

She needed space, not to forget him, but to remember herself. That's how it always went, when she thought about him, wasn't it?

Heading back from Town + Lumiere Dorm (Open)

Eventually, still buzzed, Maya made her way back to the dorm. She'll deal with the classes she ditched later. She'll deal with the friends she didn't see later. For now she wanted to... do something.

She wasn't sure if it was 'avoid people and wait until tomorrow,' maybe 'sleep three days until it stops hurting,' or how about 'find an adventure and forget.' She was too tipsy to work on music and it's awkward to start bawling while playing a cello so she just lazed around in the Floor 1 common room waiting for something to happen. Or to sleep.

Comments

[unpocoloco]

He waits, patient, not speaking a word. He knows this is no simple thing. This is a wound, old, deep, not healed all the way it should and now torn right open. When she finally comes to her answer he nods.

"Okay. That's alright too. If I get the chance, I'll ask." He doesn't know if he'll tell the truth of the boy's answer to Maya, but he could ask. He's got no doubt this Cam's caring pain too. But the living come first. "And if that's what's going to help you look after yourself, then I think that's the best choice too."

He already knew about her own struggles to a degree. What she mentioned about being here, the song she played. He can't understand like one in the same shoes, but he can understand having to step back.

"Also... I know it's not my place to ask, and there's nothing really to stop you from doing what you want, but... if you could, maybe, at least make sure to come out here with someone else for the next little while, something you could defend yourself with, I would really appreciate it. Just for the peace of mind that you'll be a little safer."

[lastexit]

Maya's gaze is a bit withering on the request she use the buddy system. Partially, because drinking alone is the point. Getting out of her own space, away from people to worry over who she is, and how she is. Part of why she was careful who knew her wounds. She'd trusted the wrong people before, and had those wounds used against her.

"I'll try, but most of the people I know at Daybreak don't really do the 'go out drinking' thing. They're all too..." Young? Good? Innocent? "Well-adjusted. For this sort of thing."

[unpocoloco]

He anticipated that look. He smiles apologetic, but doesn't actually apologize or take it back. It's down to her to listen, but he's still going to ask. He knows she's not drinking to have a good time but better this than dead.

There's a soft, rueful laugh from him then. "I suppose that's a way to put it." He get what she means. "I'd offer myself but honestly that might be worse. Unless you think some fussy adult is better than a well-adjusted kid."

Even if he is a mess of a fussy adult.

[lastexit]

"I'd want it to be someone who gets it, just-" Maya was silent for a moment, it looked like she was flustered, "Who knows that if I'm okay to talk about it I will, and if I'm not okay they can leave it alone. Not watch me all worried like I'm going to do something stupid."

The way everyone looked at her at home, afterwards.

"Plus, it's kinda hard to advertise for a drinking buddy. I can't just ask on the network, my R.A. is good but I don't wanna push my luck. Or worry anyone else."

[unpocoloco]

"I wish I knew someone better I could suggest. I don't ask which children here take to drinking and I'm not sure how many of those overlap with what you're looking for."

He heaves a sigh and frowns. His gaze slides back behind them.

"Okay. Tell you what. There's an old antique shop back there, full of enchanted and cursed stuff. One of those is a pretty intense repellant for blight. I don't have a lot of money but I can give you what I got and you can catch the place when it opens. Wear it on your trips to town and tuck in tree or something when you come back so it doesn't mess with the blighted kids. That way you're safe out here but you still get to be alone. Sound like a deal?"

Maybe it's dumb, to hand all his money to a teenager but... he trusts Maya.

[lastexit]

"It'd be weird if you knew who could be my drinking buddy." What, he's too old to know the drinking habits of others her age.

As to his idea, she considers a moment. Something to protect her from blights would certainly limit the chances she gets attacked, but she isn't sure this is the right call. "I can't keep it in my room. Peter can't keep it either, obviously. But... this is a lot to give someone just to be sure they don't get jumped by things she can hear coming?"

Why do people keep trying to give her money, she's very confused by this.

[unpocoloco]

"Yeah, it would," He says rather ruefully. He's definitely too old. Which is why he doesn't know or intend to find out.

"Being able to hear these things coming isn't the same as being able to fight them off," He says. "Unless you've got some bit of power I don't know about, then by all means. But not everyone's magic here is the kind that they can fight back with and these monsters aren't messing around. It's not a lot if it so happens to keep you alive. And only until this is dealt with anyway. It's the only idea I've got left besides Maya, can you please hold off the drinking alone until these monsters are gone." And he's positive that that would be ignored. She is still a teenager afterall. "But yes, you'd have to leave it outside somewhere instead of take it with you."

Maybe people care, Maya.

[lastexit]

"A lot of monsters can't find me?" Yeah, it sounded lame put that way. Cam was specifically looking for her, so it made sense he found her. But anything else would need to stumble into her- even Seers. "Just- is defending against blighted really the best call? Just- undead would make more sense with the things running around."

There was a lot going on with Cam's sound, but the strongest sound was the most obvious, he was dead. And the people most likely to come save her from being killed were all blighted. And she's still not sure about being handed money to buy things.

[unpocoloco]

Yeah, it sounds real lame, and she's getting a brow lift her way for that. True or not.

But just like that, she's turning it all around and he's the one feeling stupid. He blinks out to the street ahead. Then slaps a palm to his forehead. "Ay, Of course! I can't believe I didn't think of that..." It's not like either one made a difference for how badly it burned him up.

"You'd still need to leave it somewhere," He points out. "Our school is supposed to be accepting of all kinds, even, like, vampires or things. But, that would probably narrow things down a fair bit. I'm sure the place has something like that too."

Unbeknownst to him, of course, is the fact that the blight repellent he's thinking of is actually for the undead. This definitely won't come back to bite him later.

[lastexit]

"I'm sure I'll find something, it'll sound like it has some sort of magic to it," she heard magic, after all. And knowing how an anti-blight or anti-undead charm sounds will help her figure out what more warding charms sound like.

"Yeah, I've noticed how many demons are on staff." She sounded very unhappy with that.

[unpocoloco]

He frowns a little at that himself. And not entirely because he disagrees with the sentiment. His mouth presses to a line as he weighs his response here.

"It's... a little terrifying, yes." He's had more than a few run ins with demons after his time in the outlands, though none so personal as hers. "It's probably not as easy to say things like, everyone's different in this case but... I'd just try and remember that everyone here is here to help. If nothing else, you can probably trust these teachers to want things to go well here." At least, that's what he figures. The seers would say something, surely, if anything too bad were going to happen.

"And if you need to just vent out about it now and again, I can listen too." He's sure even the best demons here would understand if that were necessary in this case.

[lastexit]

"Probably doesn't help that demon is one of the sounds I heard first, and never with good things happening," Yuya seemed like a good kid, but she did try to keep her distance. And his sound was one of the least demonic of the demons. Kano's was hidden fairly well, but since she heard it she's been bothered that it's there. "All the other things people seem prejudiced against I just- accept, I guess."

"Also demon is one of the most bone chilling sounds I've ever heard, every variation on it I've heard makes me think I'm in a slasher film." She's so matter-of-fact about it. A hard shift from her more thoughtful understanding of her own limits. Just- demon sound is innately bad.

[unpocoloco]

"No, no that wouldn't help at all," He agrees. He was ever grateful his first exposure to this stuff was through imelda. Waking up dead had been bad enough as it was without having been completely in the dark to this world.

"I think that first exposure is everything," He muses. "The first time you really see the rough parts of this all. Some here don't like the lycans because of their past. Some just really hate the undead. Others are fine with everything and then some are just real sticklers for keeping everybody in line."

There's a pause from him in which he makes a face. "Though with demons it is a little more... they's supposed to demons. So I can't entirely say I'm surprised that's what they sound like. Is it all shrieking violins or do you have any, say... death whistles?"

[lastexit]

"We all went through something, I guess."

She was silent. Well, she was that usually. But it was a little more purposeful as she tried to answer. Magic sound wasn't quite anything so simple as music. It was something, but her mind turned it into a reasonable thing to react to. "I don't think the sound can really be- recreated? It's a little too unnatural for that. Some sounds are easier to explain than others. If I had to, it's the sound of..."

"Um, impending doom." Cheery.

[unpocoloco]

He nods to that. It said something that, even beyond the magic, he could assume that hardly anyone here was normal. They all had something going on, it seemed. Even if he didn't realize it right away.

"Ah. That's... wonderful." Yikes. He makes a face. "I suppose that makes sense though. You can't describe colors to someone who's blind and has never seen them."