In the arms of the ocean, so deep and so cold

[oceantier]

Who: Lapis Lazuli and the residents/staff of Virgo Entertainment
What: After Lapis discovers that it was Virgo Entertainment who kidnapped Steven, she attacks the building late at night. More description here.
When: Wednesday, March 2, about one in the morning
Where: Virgo Entertaiment. Note: Lapis will be attacking from deep within the ocean, so she will not be visible.
Warnings: Blind rage. Property damage. Possibly sharks.


His hand in hers still haunts her mind. She can still feel the shadow of them throughout the day, the small weight of his fingers laced in hers, locked together, tight with the pressure of her own.

Worse, she can feel them yanked away, breaking from hers.

The sound of him crying out reverberates in her head, echoing, echoing, loud, louder, louder. She wants to press her hands to her ears, crouch, wait until it fades . . . There's no relief, and the weight of it pounds against her skull in dull and unrelenting rhythm: He's gone, and she's broken her word.

He's sick, he's in danger, and she's broken her word.

There is no relief.

***

The attack comes suddenly, brutally on Wednesday night as the ocean outside of Virgo Entertainment grows restless. The water rolls, it surges, it rocks, it builds, it moans . . . Like great hands thrusting forward, snatching at the earth, a little higher each time . . .

Until suddenly, it's on par with the building itself.

The noise alone may be enough to wake the residents of the building; the water lashes into the building structure. Windows explode in showers of glass, and the water pours in, eager and fast as it can. Wave after wave smites the structure from every angle, at every window they can reach, shattering the glass and sweeping inward with the glee of eager children. The impacts boom against the structure itself, shuddering through the metal and upward even into the very penthouses. There's no danger; the metal will hold. But the sound is horrible, and it continues, on and on and on, as the waves continue to moan and roll and crash, tearing through the very earth outside the building in their wake.

Residents or staff entering the lowest floor may find it immersed in 2-3 feet of water, complete with specimens -- various fish, masses of kelp . . . and if one is unlucky, very likely a shark. Water continues to wash in, easily able to swipe someone off their feet. Caution is recommended.

The sky is clear, and there is no visible cause for the lashing of the waters -- not even a completely specific origin point.



ooc: Feel free to post threads to this log of your characters reacting, investigating, etc. Lapis is under the ocean and a ways out, so would not readily be accessible or visible. (But hey, there's always the ghost of Edna theory, if you're into that kind of thing.)

Comments

For Lapis | A week later

[eba02]

It's been a week since the sea itself attacked Virgo headquarters. Lapis has been missing since then, and J is full-on worried. She's not answering when he tries to call her communicator - and he's tried, multiple times - and he can't pick her tune out of the Music, which means she's too far away for him to hear. The only thing he can think to do is head to the beach - her beach - and wait. He goes there most nights, laughing off accusations of being a ghost hunter if anyone else is around.

Tonight, there's no one. Tonight, it's late, dark outside with the moon and what few stars can be seen through light pollution shining overhead. Tonight, he plans on waiting, at least a little while longer.

[oceantier]

If he stays there, waits and listens carefully, he can hear her. Her music is quiet, slow, and it aches, echoing and lingering, haunted.

And, if he listens even more carefully, something else: Something lurking, deep below the surface -- dark and far down and hard to hear, interrupting and punctuating the melody with deep, dissonant chords and the interspersed, high-pitched rattle of something almost metallic.

The sound emerges from the water a ways yet down the beach . . . and heads for the rocks.

[eba02]

It takes him a minute to really realize what he's hearing - it's Lapis, all right, but her tune sounds different, deep and sad and slow, and-

He freezes. What is that. There's a countermelody to her tune, something sunk so deep in he can't usually hear it, a low bass line that bypasses the ear and thrums in your chest, beating in a way you can't block out - and this one is sick, twisting the parts of her tune that it touches, making it - and her - something else entirely-

Something is wrong.

He's on his feet before he knows it, sprinting towards the figure he can see in the distance. "Lapis! Wait!"

[oceantier]

The sudden voice sparks immediate alarm; for a split instant, she looks ready to run, to flee, feet bracing into the sand as though she means to take off.

When she realizes they've said her name, recognizes the silhouette . . . it's almost worse. Her eyes flash from J to the rocks, back to the ocean like an animal that's been cornered, unsure of what choice to make: Let him come, let him see her, face him? Or dart back to safety -- plunge back into the dark water?

She knows what he must want to say. She's just not sure she can stand to hear it.

The time is growing short; she's been frozen in indecision for too long. At the very last instant, panic wins; she twists as though to dart into the water.

But very likely it's too late. At the rate he's coming, he can likely catch her before she ever manages -- either by words or by hand.

[eba02]

She's panicking - he can hear it, and he keeps going, because she's been gone for too long and he's been scared - really, actually scared, now that he'll admit to himself - and he's not going to stop until he makes sure she's okay, or gets some answers, or both.

He reaches out and grabs for her arm. "Lapis!"

[oceantier]

It's the anxiety in his voice that stops her as much as the suddenness of his fingers around her arm; she jerks a little with the forward momentum, but pulls to a stop, stilled by both.

She's quiet for a moment, staring at the sand not so far from them both, then twists over her shoulder to look back at him, worry in her face like a child about to be scolded.

[eba02]

He stops short, waiting for the space of one breath, and then another. Her eyes reflect the worry in her tune, and he drops her arm. The last thing he wants to do is make this worse. "Where were you?" His voice is quiet, trying to stay level.

[oceantier]

Her eyes follow his hand as it leaves her arm, drops back to his side. They come back up to his face, still anxious, still worried, as though she could attempt to read his mind through his features.

"Here." Her voice is husky, a little hoarse from disuse. "I've been . . . here."

[eba02]

"I've been here, looking for you-" His mouth is off and running before his brain has time to catch up, and it skids to a stop once he finally parses out what Lapis means. There's no way it should be possible - but she does have that thing with water - and the attacks on Virgo-

"Wait. You've been underwater?"

[oceantier]

"Sometimes." Her voice dips to a thread. "Sometimes . . . in the rocks."

Deep in the rocks, cradled among them, the walls rising all around her until she feels small. Held. Contained. It's familiar and it's relief -- an instinct left from long ago. The water is similar, pressing in around her, dark and deep -- though with less threat of being found.

There's tension in her -- not angry, but waiting as though she anticipates a leveled blow.

"You . . . looked for me?"

Hesitation. Silence. Worry. "Why . . . would you do that?"

She assumes, after all, that he's already connected her with Virgo. For her there seems no reason that he wouldn't have.

[eba02]

There's tension in the lines of her body and in her tune, and confusion - troubled waters. Does she really not understand? He drops his shoulders, tries to relax, to be nonthreatening - not that he's normally a threatening presence to begin with, but nothing around here is normal.

"'Cause I was worried about you," he says simply. "Still am."

[oceantier]

A chorus of emotions scatter through her features at that: Surprise. Worry. Hope.

Grief. Wanting.

Either she doesn't understand, or she isn't quite daring to believe it. Why isn't he angry with her? Why isn't he being Pearl, lambasting her for her judgment, or Sparks, deriding her for hypocrisy in attacking when she's so afraid of the consequences? What she's done . . . potentially she's endangered musicians in Virgo, placed herself at risk with the labels, perhaps even made the Virgo head aware of the rescuers. She's ravaged, she's laid waste . . .

And more than that, very possibly she would do it again.

She's not safe.

Why is he just standing there, looking back at her, looking like he's been afraid?

The wanting, the hope increase -- a high, thin note that could so easily snap.

Don't tell me to go . . .

Please don't tell me to go.

The rattle of the chains chatters in the depths like laughter.

[eba02]

He looks afraid because he's been afraid. There's a water-based attack on a label and then Lapis goes missing for a week? He's spent a good chunk of that week terrified that Virgo got Lapis, that the next time he'd see her would be her face on a poster for their newest band, brainwashed and broken like the rest of them, and that's a hard fear to push away when he's got zero evidence to the contrary.

Finding her helped, at least. She's still hurt, but not the way Virgo does it, and that he can help with. Maybe. He hopes.

He reaches a hand out to her, palm up - an invitation. "Come home with me."

[oceantier]

Come home.

She still looks between his face and his hand, as though just to be sure that he means it.

Usually she doesn't hold strongly. Her touch has always been light, as though she's always been afraid that she'll need to pull away. Now her hand comes forward, holds onto his as hard as she can muster, shivering in his.

"I'm sorry . . ." For worrying him. For making him afraid. She's trembling all over; suddenly she can't seem to stop. "I'm sorry."

She holds on.

[eba02]

He wouldn't be offering if he didn't mean it. That's not who he is - she knows that by now, right?

He grips her hand - firm, but not tight - and gently lays his other hand on her shoulder. "It's okay." He pauses and manages a hint of a smile. "I'm just glad you're okay." They can worry about everything else later; right now, that's priority one.

[oceantier]

"They took Steven."

The words break out of her before she even thinks; he's hit the release valve, and suddenly it's there, pouring out.

"They broke his gem and made him sick and then they took him; they grabbed him when I was trying to save him, and they took him from me." She's shaking now, and badly. "I told him I would save him, keep him safe, and they took him; I couldn't protect him."

Her voice rises, raw, like a wave heading for the rocks. "I've never not been strong enough."

[eba02]

...oh.

He'd known for a while that Lapis isn't an altruistic person; she's here for Steven, and if she has to make a choice, J knows it will be for Steven before anyone else gets consideration. That's just how she's working right now.

For her to trust him this much- for her to tell him this much- for her to lose the one person she came here for-

Well, it's no wonder the whole ocean rose up in retribution.

He steps in and wraps his arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a gentle hug. "I'm sorry." What else can he say to that?

[oceantier]

"You don't understand." She's wild; she wiggles away, not yielding to the comfort, even as she clings to his hand. "What I am, when our gems break . . . when they shatter . . ."

"We die."

"They took him from me, and if he gets worse . . ."

"He'll die."

"He'll die, and I couldn't-- . . . do anything . . ."

The last words are as soft as drowning, and the deep thrums of the extra music are shuddering through her own.

[eba02]

He lets her go, lets her step back the moment she starts to struggle - the last thing he wants to do is make her feel trapped.

He wasn't expecting to hear that - to hear that Steven was in that much danger (or really, that kind of danger), but-

J shakes his head and holds her hand tightly. "That ain't gonna happen." Said with all the certainty in the world, even if he doesn't quite feel it. "They need his energy, and they can't get it if he's dead. They'll keep him alive, an' you'll get a second chance." Whether he believes it is not the question; what's important is whether she believes it.

[oceantier]

What's most important is his confidence level with it -- how well he sells it. She wants to believe him; he's never not been honest with her, never told her anything less. What he's presented her with is a possibility she hasn't considered, and it makes sense -- no point in letting Steven die when he still serves their purposes.

If he's given them enough as is, which is a question she can't answer. She closes her eyes, tries to resolve the well of fear that keeps bubbling through her chest, seeping and flooding.

She can still feel his hand, warm and firm, in hers.

"Are you sure?" The question is a child's, small, on the edge of a cliff.

Even smaller: "He . . . saved me. Twice. I can't-- . . ." The words peter off, and for a moment it looks as though she might not finish them at all. "I did it for him. I can't . . . not make it work."

She's not quite talking about coming here. It's something else, resonating with the alien chords.

[eba02]

"Sure as I can be." Said with all the calm he can muster. It's not really a lie - there's wiggle room in that statement, but hopefully not enough to make Lapis worry more than she already is.

J pauses before speaking again; he's not quite sure what Lapis is talking about. There's the recent attack on Virgo, yes, but she sounds more...faraway than usual, as though her mind is somewhere else, beneath the waves where he can't reach. The best he can do now is clarify. "Are you talkin' 'bout here or somethin' else?"

[oceantier]

A nod. Very small, just a little uncertain, but . . . again, she wants to believe him. He's offering her a hope that she very much wants to claim -- and his calm and her trust of him helps to sell it. The fear isn't completely gone -- never will be -- but it's soothed, tempered by that hope.

As for the other . . . her expression empties, and her arm twitches at her side as though she considers her usual stance -- arms pulled close, crossed over her chest. Holding onto him, she can't do that, so for now it's only a shadow movement that never comes to fruition.

She's never spoken about it before -- hasn't spoken about it with anyone here. Not what she came from, not what Steven really means. It never seemed . . . necessary. Always too large for someone else to swallow. Too large to to know where to begin. Her eyes are gone again, away from him, skimming the sand over his shoulder.

"Steven . . ."

She starts there. Fails at forming the next sentence. Looks worried. Tries again.

"There . . . was a war." She tries that. It's still not right, but it's closer. "My gem was cracked . . . and they put me in a mirror. No one fixed me. No one remembered me. They forgot about me."

Her fingers tighten. "But I knew . . . I saw all those years. I lived all of them. Like that. Watching."

Her voice tries to rise, to surface again. "Steven . . . was the first person to see me. And . . . he liked me. He tried to protect me . . . For the first time in so long . . . I was a person."

Her voice pleads with him to understand that -- the weight of it, massive. There are details here that she isn't even touching . . . can't even fathom how. Everything she witnessed and was unable to touch, emptiness, dissociation, grief, long-standing, all-consuming for thousands upon thousands of years -- the darkness all around her, eating her alive and gnawing on her bones.

So soft, like an air bubble: "He let me out."