daybreakacademy | Almost Forgot

Entry tags:

Almost Forgot

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.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Imelda herself is heading back from the cafeteria, on her way to the library or to her room--some place that she can eat her food in quiet... When she notices someone standing still in the middle of the walkway. That someone being Maya.

There's a moment where Imelda honestly considers just walking past. They didn't get off to a good start, and she honestly wouldn't consider them to be in a Good place where each other was concerned. But there's something about the way that she's standing there that gives Imelda pause. Something that makes her think that Maya doesn't look all that well at the moment.

So against her better judgment, she stops next to the girl, frowning at her with a touch of concern. "Maya? Are you alright?" She doesn't look alright, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Does it?

Maya didn't register Ms. Rivera's song as she approached, and didn't react to her speaking. She was still looking around, trying to find a source for that impossible sound she shouldn't be hearing. It moved again, but this time into the open. The- thing, was a bit over six feet tall, human shaped but also not. The limbs were too small and the body too big, with what was almost a scythe in its hands. There was also a hole, you could see right through it, on the center of the creature.

But the part that Maya's eyes fixed on was that mask. It was a white mask, with black empty holes across the face. The nose of the mask jutted out, like a snout on a wolf. Or a hound.

"You ran halfway around the world, did you think I'd let you get away that easily." The voice was impossibly kind for a creature so fierce looking. So- wrong. And it was his voice, coming from that expressionless face.

And Maya's never expected to hear it again. She took a step back, everything felt wrong and- she couldn't be hearing this. And that was when the creature launched a hockey puck sized blast of dark energy at Maya's head.

Her concern feels validated as soon as she gets no response from Maya. The way she's looking around says she's searching for something, so Imelda turns to look as well in the same direction--only to see something that absolutely doesn't belong on the campus. She freezes for a brief moment and sucks in a breath, eyes wide as she takes in the monstrosity. Even more unbelievably, the thing speaks with a human voice--one that Imelda doesn't recognize, and she can't tell if Maya does either.

But that doesn't matter so much when the creature suddenly attacks. She grabs Maya, yanking her out of the way as the energy hurls past, further shielding her from view as Imelda puts herself between Maya and that thing. Her fingers then snap to her mouth, issuing a sharp whistle that can be heard halfway across the campus. In the distance, a large feline shape leaps off of the roof of an academic building and takes flight towards them.

Even with her back to the creature, Imelda keeps her focus trained on it over her shoulder. To Maya, she speaks quickly in a quiet but urgent voice. "Maya. Monet is behind you. A hundred feet or so. When I tell you, I need you to run for that building as fast as you can. Can you do that?"

Fortunately that was definitely meant to kill her. And nearly dying did get her to snap out of it. The sound of that attack was just- wrong. It was sad, and empty. It was more a disjointed echo in a hollow chamber than a real sound to itself. It didn't change the fact that she was, well, clearly haunted.

Her attention was still not on Imelda, it was on the thing attacking them. "He'll follow me. He followed me here." Maya didn't have enough balance to keep her feet under her when Ms. Rivera pulled her from harm, she was on one knee.

The creature shook his head, "She's right, you should just go. You don't need to get between us. She belongs with me, it's better for everyone. Right Maya?"

"Was I speaking to you?" Imelda snaps at the creature, her gaze narrowing into a glare. She belongs with me, it's better for everyone. What kind of nonsense is that?

But she can't escape the fact that Maya seems to have some idea of what this creature is. Or at least why it's here. And that shot had been aimed directly at her head. She's in danger, and there's no way that Imelda intends to simply step aside and let this creature have at her.

Her gaze flickers to Maya and back, trying to look her over and also keep an eye on that monster. There's a sense of relief from Imelda, however faint, when Pepita swoops in and lands on the ground between her and the creature. The chimera bares her fangs at it, growling in warning.

"Come on. On your feet, niña." Imelda makes an attempt to help Maya up off her knee, now that she can afford to give her more focus. Whether that thing follows or not, she should be ready to run if needed. "What is that thing? And why is it following you?"

Maya's shaking. She's actually shaking. She didn't think she could feel this much anymore. For the past year she didn't think she could feel like this. She thought that bone deep numb was all she had anymore. But here she was, terrified, horrified, confused.

Happy? A part of her got to hear his voice again. And then shattered to see him like- that.

Maya got to her feet, barely. It was still so much, and all at once.

"Tell her," the creature said. He hadn't moved yet, with the large cat between them. It adjusted its grip on the weapon it held Obscuring his sound. "Tell her who I am to you."

It takes Maya a few seconds. The barbs aren't helping her stay calm. Just say it. Say it, you've said it before. Just let her know why this is happening, why this is so much.

"His name is Cam. And I loved him until the day he died."

The urge to snap at that creature again is strong. Judging the the way this girl is shaking, she clearly doesn't need the needling that this thing is doing to her. She about to turn and tell Pepita to pounce on the damn thing to shut it up, when she hears Maya speak again. She sucks in a breath, holding it. She might have eventually guessed that he was some sort of undead thing, but not something nearly this personal for her.

Is this some kind of haunting? A summoning gone wrong? "Do you know how this happened?" Her voice is a touch softer. "Why he's here, and not..." Not dead, like he apparently should be. Not in the Outlands or the next life, or wherever spirits really go when their time on this plane is done.

Maya didn't get a chance to answer.

Cam took the initiative, "Oh, I'm still dead. Ever since I died, for her, I've been watching her." He skated a few feet to the left, then right, getting a little closer, but wary of that animal between him and his desire. The mask didn't show feelings, but his voice was almost playful. Not quite the anger you would expect with those words. "She almost joined me, last year- I wanted to do anything I could for her. But I'm dead, and gone. So I was waiting for her. Just she couldn't even manage-"

"Shut up!" Maya's words lashed the air and in their wake a silence filled the area. Literal silence. Maya's power stretching over the field for a few moments as if to punctuate her desire. The wave of her power dissipated quickly though, Maya can't maintain such a field. Merely silently shout into the world, in her own way.

"The point is I still love her, and now that I can be near her, she belongs with me!" And with that Cam rushed, hoping to skate around the large cat and towards the two women. This monstrous form was fast, and the way it moved was like a skater on a lake of ice, only that ice was the entire world.

It's probably a good thing that he doesn't come closer because Pepita is still growling at him, eyes moving back and forth to follow his movements. But Imelda hasn't given her an order yet, so she just waits menacingly.

With the implication that the creature makes, it shouldn't startle her when Maya lashes out, but it does. For a moment, there's no sound anywhere nearby, and that's both unnerving and disorienting. She grips Maya a little tighter for a moment, whether it's from the lack of sound or the things she's already heard... It's hard to say.

But when that creature zips to the side, the small amount of peace that the stalemate provided breaks. "Pepita!" At the sound of her name, the chimera lunges at the monster, jaws snapping, meaning to tackle it and sink her fangs in.

Imelda herself turns from Maya, letting go of her in order to face this thing fully. "If you loved her, you wouldn't be trying to kill her!" she shouts at the monster. Her hands raise up, prepared to defend both herself and Maya with whatever Outland magic she has at her disposal. There's a flash of light across her face, delicate markings of silver across her cheeks and near her hairline while purple dots circle her eyes. "You wouldn't be taunting her like this--and it certainly doesn't mean that you own her."

Maya was never an athlete, she could run around, climb trees, get her knees scraped up as good as any other kid. But she was never coordinated enough when she was in motion. Cam was an athlete, he practiced daily in life, to be stronger, be faster, to move as gracefully on the ice as anything. And that was before he turned into a faceless monstrous thing.

He tucks under Pepita's lung to flip the chimeracat from the belly, one of his less kind hockey moves. He turns to face the creature again, as much as he could rush the goal he doesn't want to have some enforcer on his heels. His words are meant for Imelda though, "Because if she dies we can be together, and all being alive has caused her is pain!"

Maya's face falls at the words. Out in the open. There. Stated. It wasn't true, was it? She- she got bad but, she hasn't tried again. She's been getting better. Knowing she wasn't crazy, getting help. Her friends seeing how miserable she was? She wasn't- still there? In that darkness.

Was she?

The force of the shove causes Pepita to tumble, pulling her wings tight against her body as she rolls to her other side. On her feet again, she whips her reptilian tail around, trying to strike the creature in the torso as she turns to face him again. If he's still on his feet this time, rather than lunging, she'll keep her body low to the ground, growling and circling as she looks for an opening.

"Well, isn't that selfish of you," Imelda scowls at the monster in front of her. "Life is never just one thing or another. Even if it hurts sometimes, there are still things to look forward to. But rather than let her find those things for herself, you come here expecting her to roll over and die for you?" She shakes her head. "You're not having her--not while I'm here. So go back to where you came from and learn some patience."

Cam didn't expect another strike, but while he was pushed back he stayed on his feet, "Selfish? To want her to never have to hurt anymore? Never blame herself for another person ending up hurt? If she joins me she'll be free. We're too alike, we belong together. If only those hunters didn't find her on the-"

The sound vanished again, another spark from Maya's candle. The end of that thought shut down before he could say it. Whatever he said, Maya seemed to react to the words before they came out. Horrified and terrified, another statement about her she didn't want people to know, to see when they simply looked at her.

Once sound resumed Cam turned his attention on her again. Forgetting the large cat-lizard-bird for the moment, "No need to be embarrassed, I watched you struggle and try. To tell your friends, screaming for anyone to help you. You can stop fighting and come with me. Just like you tried to do a year ago. I was there, on the roof with you."

Maya looked down, her mind too busy trying to sort through a lot of feelings, a lot of noise.

Once again, the sound just disappearing from around them is disorienting, oppressive in its nothingness--but she can't blame Maya for not wanting someone else to hear about the worst moments of her life. If Imelda were in Maya's place... she's not sure that she would be handling this situation much better.

It feels like taking something vulnerable from her. Something that Imelda is certain Maya wouldn't want her to have. The thought crosses her mind to do something, make some kind of gesture to assure her that she's not alone; but what that gesture should be is lost on her, and she can't spare the attention. Not when it seems that creature is finally preoccupied.

With Cam's focus fixed on Maya, Imelda cups her hand at her side. Purple and silver light flashes patterns across her cheeks and around her eyes as she throws that hand, a bolt of fire hurling at the creature's masked face. With Imelda's attack as a distraction, Pepita dives low with her massive front paws in an attempt to swipe his legs out from under him. If he goes down this time, he'll have the full weight of the chimera bearing down on him.

Edited 2019-01-31 23:26 (UTC)

Cam has no issue sweeping the fireball away from his face, blocking with his scythe, and moving aside to be sure his face is clear.

But he forgot, just for a moment, about the large cat monster. Which does take his legs out from under him. His skating over the ground ends as his body crashes under him to the ground. He gathers another of those blast of energy in his hand.

"Don't hurt him!" Maya didn't realize she said it until after the words left her mouth. Maya's words caused Cam to pause. Just as confused as Maya over this. Long enough if Pepita needs to contain his limbs, that's perfectly doable.

[Containment isn't initially Pepita's goal, not with the way the chimera is trying to get it's fangs around the hollow's head. But Maya's shout is followed by one from Imelda--somewhat more haltingly, but ordering her to restrain and not kill him.

Thus, the hand that energy is building in is quickly caught under Pepita's paw, pushing it down into the ground. The hollow's opposite shoulder and upper arm is likewise restrained, while the rest of her body seats itself on his legs. She withdraws her jaws from around his head, but her face remains close enough that she could easily clamp them back down again if she wanted to.

Imelda looks back at Maya, then, her brow furrowed on the girl.] Maya, this thing was trying to kill you. [It really doesn't deserve her sympathy, as far as she can tell.]

Cam was struggling against the cat sitting on him, but he wasn't as strong as he seemed, he was fast on his skate, stick on the ice. Without that he couldn't do much. But more than that, Maya not wanting him hurt was confusing given she seemed against his plan.

"You see a thing. Some monster, trying to kill me." Which was the case, Cam was a monster. A dead creature who didn't belong here. He wasn't meant to be in this world anymore. He was gone and Maya was sure he was gone. But... that isn't what she heard, she heard him. His sadness, his anger. All things she remembered. The song had changed, he was dead, but it was still him.

"I see the boy I showed my lucky underwear to before a recital," she moved a little closer, walking toward the two. Entirely undaunted by the- whole, danger thing. "The boy who was my first kiss. And I could hear the daemon near him. I didn't know what it meant, I didn't know what Dallas had done. The deal he made."

Maya knelt down in the space next to Cam. He wasn't struggling anymore, "I didn't know yet, what was out there. I couldn't save you then, I can't fail you twice."

When it comes to things happening, Gongenzaka is not one to make those 'big'. Unless something dramatic comes to him he seems remarkably good at minimizing his presence if anything.

Which is absolutely incredible given he's a bear clomping around in iron geta.

As Gongenzaka enters the common room, the bear's nose twitches however- and, ears perked toward the source now, he speaks with half a whisper. The lights are on, and over there is... "Mnh..? Maya?" He trots over, peering to wherever she is in the room right now. "Should you not, be asleep?"

...

"Also, what is that smell?" ~~that's booze it's fine buddy~~

Maya jumps a little, as if Zaka managed to get into the room without Maya noticing, which shouldn't be possible right? "Oh, it's just you Zaka."

She didn't answer either question right away, just laying on the sofa staring up at the ceiling, giggling a little. "I think that's the cheap beer, some jerk spilled some on me." And you were drinking like a fish, "I kinda couldn't afford to keep drinking what I was when I ditched school earlier either."

As Maya is walking back, a figure swings by overhead. He's wearing that dumb costume, but once he spots her he'll stop pretending, at least. He lands on the ground nearby, pulling off his mask and tucking it under one arm.

"Maya?" he says, a little confused. "What're you doing out this late?"

Is it that late? Maybe he's just lost track of time.

Maya not wanting to hurt this monster is confusing Imelda, too... At least until she starts to speak, listing off things from her perspective. It's not hard to see the emotion that she still carries for the boy she knew. It's painfully familiar in a way that Imelda doesn't particularly want to remember right now, even if some part of her grows a little more sympathetic.

As Maya steps forward, she follows, too wary of this thing to let her approach it on her own, even with Pepita restraining it. And when she kneels down, Imelda puts a hand on her shoulder, protective and yet restraining.

"Maya," she says, her voice a little softer, a little more gentle. "He's already dead. You can't fix that. It's better if we call one of the teachers here. They'll know what to do with him." How to deal with him... or how to get rid of him.

"So what? The dead can suffer," it was a horrible thing to know. That death wasn't the end, it probably helped cement her desire to live. To stick around. The monster in the catacombs hurt the corpses it found. Stealing from it, it was a horrible sickening feeling to know. Maya's voice was kind, but cold. A determination crept in as she kept talking. "If you could go back, do anything more to stop that pain in your heart? Tell me you wouldn't try."

The creature was staring at Maya, or... his mask was pointed at her in any case. "Why are you still trying? Why do you still care? You hated me. You dated the jerk that wanted to steal you from me. And I had to do nothing when he broke your heart."

Maya smiled, "You hurt me, so much. By not telling me. By letting someone tell you what was best for me. I never thought I'd see you again, and didn't know how I'd feel if I ever did."

"Nothing," there was a smile to her that was... wrong. It might have to do with her walking a little uneasy, and smelling like alcohol.

"Just went into town, playing hooky. How about you? Doing spider-things? Spinning Webs? Catching flies?"

Yeah uh. Peter has experienced enough drunks in New York to know what that looks like.

"Keeping an eye out," he says, frowning a little. "Are you drunk?"

"I was, not sure I am anymore."

Maya glanced over at him, "You're not about to get weird about this are you?"

Edited 2019-02-02 01:05 (UTC)

Uh. Well. He sort of was going to do just that? But he looks a little sheepish when she calls him out right now.

"I guess we're technically legal here, huh," he says. "I haven't tried it yet."

He doesn't really intend to, honestly - and even if he does, he'll be sorely disappointing. With his healing factor, it's going to be next to impossible for him to actually get drunk.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 5

Almost Forgot

Hollow Hearts

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Common Room

no subject

coming back

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject