I won't pretend that I intend to stop living

[mildwildchild]

Who: erryone in Pride
What: recovering from the events of December 7
When: late December 7/early December 8 - ???
Where: Pride HQ and wherever else they're allowed to go
Warnings: Carnies? references to I Will Twist the Knife


So maybe you've just gotten back from the most mellow kidnapping ever and you're itching to tell your bandmates about what went on with the cool helmeted guys while everyone else was at that stuffy party. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait a little while to tell them, but that's okay - surely you can keep yourselves occupied until everyone else returns.

Or maybe you're one of those who wound up at that party of Naomi's, and your night was a little less fun. Now you're back at HQ, possibly with mended physical injuries and almost certainly with a few new psychological scars. Now's your chance to check in on your friends and bandmates who missed out on all the trauma and deal with things as best you can.

Comments

[stylistic_disloyalty]

What, spineless? [Luci snorts and shakes her head with an amused grin.] Kind of hard to do what we do with no backbone.

[notahobby]

Nope. Not a scratch. I just partied all night.

[He says this with the somber tone of someone with survivor's guilt, though technically everyone survived.]

[notahobby]

I dunno, I guess it's not that I don't have backbone, I just... I don't like fighting with people, you know? If Manny starts getting angry I'd rather just give up than let it go on.

[punchesyu]

[He breathes a sigh of relief. Thank god that Maxxie got out of this without getting hurt. He's thankful for that.]

I'm almost afraid to ask...what happened after Naomi...

[Died. Horribly. He hadn't seen it, he'd lost consciousness.]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

I know how that is-- when Camilla asks, I don't stand around. [Luci shifts uncomfortably and hides behind her cup for a moment.] I think there's a difference between fighting and conflict though. Conflict is pretty inevitable, not everyone thinks the same. Maybe you just haven't had a conflict that you think is worth pushing back over yet.

...but if you ever decide to fight someone, like actually fist-to-face, please text and wait until I get there. [She grins, because that would be amusing as anything.]

[notahobby]

She took us to some place where everyone was getting fixed up, and then she took me and a couple other people back to where you and... everyone who wasn't...

[He takes another shaky drag of his cigarette. His voice has been oddly steady, but now it starts to falter.]

I can't, I can't do this right now.

[notahobby]

[Another nervous laugh.]

I dunno, I don't think that's ever going to happen. It's just so much energy disliking someone that much.

[nandemonai]

[it wasn't that awkward. Milky was just trying to be careful. and perhaps Yosuke was just trying to look out for her. she hopes to ease his nerves with a warm smile, wanting him to know that it's really not a big deal]

I will. You take care of yourself, too.

[traumatizing]

You think we're gonna somehow be able to do what Naomi did? Because I dunno if that's gonna be enough to stand up to Santiago.

[That's a 'yes', for the record.]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Lazy pacifist? [Luci laughs with him, though she seems actually amused and not nervous at all.] I don't know, I think everyone finds something they can't sit down and take. So it's not our managers-- [She shrugs.] --big deal.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

No, not Santiago-- [And Luci is in a hurry to get off that subject, even though the thought of Lesedi coming to collect Luci's debt is worming its way through her mind now that it's been brought up.]

But what if someone could stand up to someone like Naomi? If she could convince people to attack Pride band members... what if someone else could have convinced them they weren't hearing what she ordered them to do?

[mildwildchild]

Jamie twists his coffee cup back and forth on the tabletop in small, distracted movements, staring into its depths.

"...have you figured anything out?" he asks softly. "About moving forward?"

[traumatizing]

... Especially if more than one of us could do it.

[If there were enough of them to damage control it, they could potentially drown out anyone else. It's not a bad idea, and he gives Luci a bit of a wry smile.] It'd be an intense Battle of the Bands.

[traumatizing]

"I've figure out that I can't do it alone." He says, despite being captain 'I don't need to talk about my feelings' of the SS 'if I ignore my complicated emotions then they'll just go away.' But raging hypocrisy aside, he knows suffering alone isn't gonna help anyone.

"Beyond that?" He shrugs, "each day at a time, you know?"

[mildwildchild]

That's what's creeping you out about all this?! Me stating the obvious saying we might be dead? Shit, how is that creepier than not being dead when we should be?

[mildwildchild]

He goes silent for a long time, then, just fidgeting with his coffee cup, breathing quietly in and out. When he finally does speak, he does so slowly, haltingly, but with deliberation, as though he's untangling the words from each other one at a time.

"I just...dunno how we're supposed to keep doing this. Living. Performing. Being these people that everyone loves. Everything feels fake."

He's quiet for another heartbeat or two. "We're supposed to pretend that everything's the same but it's not. Shit happened that we can't explain to anyone and I don't - I don't know how to live with that."

[sailorlaughter]

Yeeeeeah...

[Pinkie visibly hesitates for a second.]

So hey, if she ever wants to see you, you should come get me and we'll go together! That way she won't have to meet with all of us individually...or whatever. [It's a bit of a lame excuse.]

[blindfoldcode]

[Kido's silent as she tries, slowly, her brain is still foggy, to come up with an argument.]

You know how it gets with the two of us. I wouldn't want to drag you into something like that. It'll just be another argument and you don't need to get in trouble.

[iitrebel]

I'm telling you, that's bullshit cheating.

[But he will happily and greedily take that glass for himself. Hammered, here he comes.]

We need an impartial judge. One who can actually get drunk.

[sailorlaughter]

That's exactly when I should be there! I'm, like, TOTALLY good at chilling people out, you know?

[DON'T GET IN SOLO ARGUMENTS WITH JIN OH DEAR GOD]

[blindfoldcode]

[SHE'S ALREADY HAD A FEW. MORE THAN A FEW. PROBABLY A LOT. SORRY, PINKIE.]

Don't worry. I can handle it. I'm not so sure she's as good at being chilled out.

[tigermillionaire]

...Okay...

[He doesn't, really, because he's already holding it. But he feels weirdly inclined to accept her offer anyway. This whole thing has been sort of strange.

He hesitantly starts moving back in the direction of the penthouses, watching her uncertainly.]

[traumatizing]

"That's why we..." Terry takes a breath before he continues, because he feels like he's bordering on 'power of friendship' territory here and that's disgusting, "it's why we need eachother. All of us who were there."

He frowns down at his hands, fingers tapping an idle rhythm on the rim of his cup in a manifestation of his tension. "We've got no choice when the label wants business as usual, but we know how fucked up this is-- How fucked up everything is." It's kind of dispassionate, the way he says it. He wants to be angry or hopeful or something, but right now the only feeling about everything Terry can muster up is tiredness. It's been a long couple of days. "At least when it's just some of us though, you don't need to pretend."

[twoscompany]

[And she follows, ready to hold whatever Tiger needs her to hold. She did offer, after all!]

[sailorlaughter]

Yeeeeeeeah...still, two heads are better than one! I bet she'll get better like...eventually...

[She does not actually sound convinced of this.]