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

Terry | OTA

[traumatizing]

[Unfortunately for him, Terry had a lot of injuries of the "liveable with" sort - healed up or no, he's in a pretty bad way and he looks like shit. Aside from a bruised face and a split lip, most of the damage is hidden under his clothes at least, though the way moving about seems to take a lot of effort is significantly more difficult to hide. That's not gonna stop him from trying though.]

CI Penthouse;
[Injuries be damned, he wants to spend some time with his bandmates. He changes into a hoodie and some pyjama pants and throws his trashed suit in the trash and puts on some tea and coffee so that they all can relax a little with a hot beverage of their choosing.]

[It's a lot of work in his state, and Terry's a little flushed from the effort once he gets to the table, but he sits down and starts sending out texts to find out where the others are. And more general texts to everyone he knows to find out if they're in any state approaching "okay".]

One of the HQ cafes?;
[Given he's all amped up on that "I've had a horrifically traumatizing night" energy, Terry is finding it impossible to sleep. Every time he tries, he can only think about what a fucked up night this has been, and how not everyone's replying to his messages - it's understandable, and he's not gonna go chasing everyone up just yet, but it still makes him worry a lot - and he ends up leaving for want of something to take his mind off everything.]

[It's how he ends up in a cafe with a notebook he's not using, nursing a (decaf) coffee and picking at some kind of pastry, in kind of a waking sleep as he watches people go about their business. It's quiet in the building, which is normally something he likes but... not so much right now.]

Wildcard;
[HMU yo]

text, pre-questioning!

[twoscompany]

Oh my god.

Terry. Finally, someone is answering!

CI PENTHOUSE

[cleartranquil]

[Yuffie basically went to track him down the moment she got free enough to figure out where anyone was. She looks pretty wrecked, in an oversized sweater which was probably actually bought for Xanxus. She clearly isn't paying any attention to things like 'locks' and 'reasonable behavior' and looks about as small as she actually is which is rare. She's not moving the best, clearly favoring one side, and when she shows up it takes her very little time to find him.

Her hands are jammed in her pockets and she wanders up behind him like she hasn't just broken into the CI penthouse.]

You are terrible at following directions.

[Like she wasn't near murdered as well.]

CI Penthouse

[dishevelment]

[There was no denying that the both of them were in rough shape, despite the fact that their injuries were 'liveable' and thus not treated as gently. After a careful shower (that actually included a proper conditioning for once), Koumei didn't even feel up to moving anymore.

...And watching Terry bustle around the kitchen with halting movements didn't help matters.]

Terry, just sit down and call delivery, [Koumei groaned from his place on the sofa, leaning back against the arm so he could stare at his bandmate upside down from across the room.] Watching you is exhausting.

A few days after?

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[Luci doesn't like that it's quiet either, but it at least cuts down on the number of people she has to give the once-over while passing. She's still waiting for the other shoe to drop with Lesedi, waiting for someone to blackjack her out of nowhere and drag her off. She feels safe in the Carnie suite, but she's getting tired of feeling trapped at the same time.]

[She spots Terry in the general nexus of bars and clubs and cafes, and she's almost unrecognizable with no makeup or hair product on her. But she recognizes Terry, obviously, and rolls up next to him.]

You doing okay, Terry?

Artolo Apemis - ota

[iitrebel]

A - CoT penthouse

[Art is quiet, when he's taking out from the little 'emergency' room and laid on a bed. There's a ring of bruised skin around his neck, but fortunately internal damage doesn't have to be a worry now. It's all skin injury. And he's still wet. He doesn't talk when he wakes up, however. Unnaturally for the percussionist, he doesn't say a word.]

[It's only when they're suddenly teleported back into the suite does he give a jolt, looking wide eyed as he curls up against the corner of the bed.]

What the fuck.

[He missed out on the "weird shit" part of the night, everyone.]

B - Downstairs hookah lounge

[That morning, Artolo has a very important announcement to the rest of his penthouse.]

I am going to get FUCKED, thank you and good goddamn night!

[And he bolts before any of them can stop him.]

[Fortunately, it's not like he can go far. Really, Artolo is just going to one of the downstairs hookah lounges where he can curl up with one and a decent amount of alcohol. No fancy gothic bullshit today- he's just wearing a plain black tee and jeans because fucking hell no. Not today. Not after getting murdered.]

[He's found his own little corner to wallow in, and for once there's not a cocky grin on his face. He just seems abject miserable and pissed.]

[But he won't turn away company.]

[variaboss]

[ Someone else getting fucked already. He's started building a little mountain of empty bottles. Too bad that his corner of alcoholic heaven is now getting invaded. He can't even care to tell the guy to fuck off. He doesn't have the energy. He's saving it on trying to heal because certain people hate him. ]

You brought reinforcements! Great. My booze army was looking a little thin in the ranks.

Garnet | OTA

[twoscompany]

[She'd been brought in for questioning.

Given how she had been among those who hadn't shown up, she anticipated it - she didn't need her weird vision to know that, though of course she saw it. However, her weird vision also warned her. She saw what would happen if she slipped up with her perception of what happened. Vaguely. Just enough to know, she did not want to know more.

So, she was polite, firm, careful, and most importantly consistent when the questions were showered on her. Yes, she was late, and she gave the info on who to call to back her up on why. No, she didn't know who had kidnapped her or the others. No, the individuals had covered their faces and disguised their voices. No, they didn't seem familiar to her. No, really, nothing untold of that she could think of happened, save that her cell phone batteries had died and her kidnappers simply refused to let them go. And yes, she'd barely had anything to drink, save a sip or two of beer, much less to eat. In fact, she fully admitted she was hungry and her captors had refused to provide anything substantial.

She was given a bag of chips to tide her over while Lesedi's people kept at their questions. She wouldn't give them anymore - namely because she made it seem like there wasn't much more to give. And really, there wasn't, if you didn't count Ivan. Or her realization that she could, indeed, see the future.

They didn't need to know that. And they ultimately didn't seem interested in questioning her more, so they let her go back on her merry way. For now. With a simple warning of course:

Stay away from Virgo artists. Completely.

It was when she was in the elevator that she let her guard down, shutting her eyes tight and bringing her hand to her mouth, letting out a shaky, sobbing breath. Oh god. The visions.

What the hell happened at the party!?

She had to make sure everyone is ok. She just had to. And afterwards, she's in the Cosmic Indulgence penthouse, or barring that, the bar. In either place, she has three items in front of her: a small plate of food, a drink of some sort, and paper with notes scribbled on them.

It was, for the moment, all she could do to not just scream at everything.]

[tigermillionaire]

[Tiger isn't okay.

He hasn't been for a while, but this night has sealed it. After getting back to HQ he is more or less wandering around in a fugue, and to Garnet's vision, the future holds so many terrible possibilities. Possibilities of him getting hurt or hurting himself. Possibilities of him failing to recover from this. Possibilities of him being punished by Pride once again for running away, or persecuted for the pink gem that has somehow formed on his belly.

He's wandering the common areas, listless and afraid. He doesn't want to go back to his room, or that penthouse. He wants to be free, he wants to be with his dad again, but he can't. It isn't fair, and pain of it all is starting to tear him apart.

Where is the mouthy little hellion of a few months ago? Tiger doesn't remember, and as this struggle goes on, the more it feels like he's no one at all.]

[cleartranquil]

[Koumei had said she could be in the CI penthouse. And She's been bothering Terry.

That is more permission than she usually has in most places, to be honest. So, she doesn't look at all worried about the fact that she's in CI's penthouse instead of her own, and she wanders into the kitchen to get tea like it's her own place instead of someone elses. When she notices Garnet sitting at the table, she gives something of a wave.]

Hey there, Doctor G.

[Of the members of CI, she has some of the least experience with Garnet but she still figures you should probably say hello to someone in their own house. There is a future where Yuffie drops the tea cup and near brains herself on a cupboard trying to get out of the way. There's another where there is a nest of bees in the container instead of tea. That one is not particularly likely. The one that happens is the one where Yuffie gets the tea out of the microwave and sits down at the table opposite her.]

What'cha workin' on?

CI Penthouse

[dishevelment]

[Cosmic Indulgence's penthouse was where Koumei would stay for the night, sleeping the fitful sleep of those who feared it, of those who preferred the land of the living over the dead. The wound in his side hurt with every breath, but he couldn't keep one small detail far from his mind as he road the rollercoaster of insomnia that night.

This pain was nothing. The javelin that had struck him in the world of those weird dreams-- that was pain.

Anxiety about another dream drove him to the kitchen in the middle of the night-- where he found Garnet picking at something in front of her in silence.

Finally, he knew he could relax.]

....Garnet. You don't know how glad I am to see you right now, [He said without preamble, a weary smile spreading across his face.

Somethings would indeed turn out all right.]

Yuffie - Ota

[cleartranquil]

1

[ Yuffie's going to be surprisingly easy to find for the most part. She looks for all the world like she's behaving. She keeps lounging around the Carnies suite in clothes she's stolen from other members of the band, or in the bars with food in front of her. She's quiet, and watching things, a little like a particularly irritated large cat. It makes her somewhat harder to approach than usual, though she does seem to perk up the moment spoken to, like a light switch flipped on. She's thinking and planning, and if asked, it's all about the new album.

It's a very good cover. ]

2

[ Though, if you are a friend of hers, she's likely showed up to bother you, more prone to appearing out of nowhere than before, and even more of a frequent stalker than usual. She's clearly got things on her mind but she is putting her friends first as best she can, checking on them at various hours throughout the day. ]


3

[ About the only time it's clear exactly what she's feeling is when she's in the gym. She's wearing herself out. That much is clear. She's trying to be protective of her former injuries, and she's trying to be careful, but there's an edge of actual anger and violence to her working. For once, she can actually be found at the punching bags, hands wrapped like she knows what she's doing, and periodically she'll stop, check something on a laptop, and fix her footing or the placement of her hands.

It's comforting, and it makes her calmer, but it's like something she knows better than breathing, without her body being able to really keep up. It's irritating, and it makes her work harder. The little parts of what she's seen make her think that this is something she's going to have to be good at...and she's never going to be anything less than the best. ]

2

[mildwildchild]

"JESUS - "

Unfortunately, no matter how well-intended Yuffie's actions, Jamie isn't doing so well with people appearing out of nowhere. His startle reflex, once Yuffie pops up in his immediate vicinity, is almost hilariously counterproductive: he just sort of flattens himself against the wall and freezes, staring like a deer in headlights. Yes, hold still and offer a potential attacker unobstructed access to your vital organs, that'll show 'em.

3

[variaboss]

[ Should he even be walking around? Between what Predator did to him and almost freezing to death (and being drugged) he should probably be in bed. But he's Xanxus and he's walking around because he refuses to languish in bed. Besides, he has to do some physical therapy bullshit to help him recover from being kneecapped with a baseball bat. He just didn't expect to see the Tiny Terror at the bag. ]

[ For someone so large, he can be really quiet when he wants to be. He steps around her to go to the other side of the bag to hold onto it for her. ]

Remind me to bring you along next time I hit the bars.

1

[iitrebel]

Please tell me you're not high.

[Forgive Artolo if he's a bit curt and miserable looking. Avoiding near death does that to a guy. He just wants to get a drink at the bar and be drunk enough that the events of that night just... stop being a thing, he guesses.]

[Anyway. If the bar is filled with people hopped up on drugs, he wants no part of it right now.]

2

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[When Yuffie checks on Luci, she's laying on her bed in the same pajamas she's been in for days. She's snapping and setting her thumb alight, then extinguishing it, then repeating. The door opens and Luci doesn't make an effort to hide what she's doing.]

Should you be walking around?

Kido | ota

[blindfoldcode]

[Tsubomi Kido is a goddamn mess. She was certain she was going to die, she was certain she was never going to wake up when she fell asleep with Celty, but here she was. Walking around. Not bleeding. Barely scarred from a wound that should have been goddamn fatal. Was she a goddamn cat? How many lives did she have?

Of course, she never lets her band see exactly how messed up she is. She ignores the nightmares, the yellow eyes, the jolting upright in the middle of the night when she's left alone. She's sore and weak and...

She's up in the mornings, trying to at least cook breakfast, though there's bags under her eyes. She's trying to grin at her bandmates and laugh it off. She's fine. Game night or movie night, she and Pinkie tossed the ideas up in the air. That'd be fun right.

She's totally okay.

She's totally okay except for the fact she keeps winding up in bars and coming back really late and not okay.

She's good at keeping to herself, but she's generally still in the middle of things enough that someone might notice something's off about her. She's dazed and quiet and--yeah she's not doing great.]

[wounds]

[You know who also ends up in bars far too often and far too late?

Genos.

So whenever they end up in the same bar, he slides next to her and orders his own drink.]

Holding up?

[sailorlaughter]

[If Pinkie herself has noticed something's off, she hasn't really said anything about it. But she's started to make breakfast most mornings - her muffins are actually surprisingly good - and she rarely if ever goes out on the evenings anymore. That's all she's got.

One day, she plops down next to Kido.]

Hey, you wanna watch cartoons?

Fetch | OTA (warnings for serious drug use)

[makeitright]

[Fetch didn't think anything of it when she and the others came back to their respective lofts to find them relatively empty. Of course it'd be empty, their bandmates would probably be partying all night and into the morning. She felt sour just thinking about the fact that she already missed out on the first party she was supposed to get to go to.

Tired, angry and just plain done left Fetch craving a better high than kidnapping got her. All it left her with was the discomfort of anxiety and a real bad fucking headache. Stupid robot men.

How exactly do you make a kidnapping boring?

At any rate, she wanted to feel good again. The place being empty was just a plus. Fetch went to her room - didn't bother closing the door because she didn't think anyone would actually respect privacy around here - and took the box off her dresser that had everything she needed inside.

Shooting up was practically a ritual now; the shit she had was pretty cheap - she could get better now but it was what she was used to at this point - and while most liked to smoke it, she'd been trained to shoot.

Fetch settled into a big bean bag chair and just let herself relax for a few seconds before prepping her needle. It didn't even take her a minute to find a good vein and pump it in.

She wouldn't notice if someone had come in while she was shooting up or if they'd come in after - she was too busy staring at her hands.]

[If you want post or pre drug use, let me know with a reply and I'll make another prompt for you!]

[cleartranquil]

[Yuffie looks utterly horrific. She looks something like she went through utter hell, and she's breathing hard as she passes through the entire penthouse. She's stomping through the place, and by the time she's passed by Fetch's door two or three times, she's gone from a truly wrecked version of her outfit from the party to a pair of sweats and a shirt that looks like she stole it from Xan's closet instead of her own. She's barefoot and has the remains of her make up staining the edges of her face in broad red swipes along her hairline. Her hair is flat and she looks like she might've dunked her head under a faucet.

She's shambling a little when she passes by Fetch's door again and finally takes in that Fetch is there and she instantly lights up like she's relieved.]

Fetch? Holy shit. I am so-

[Yuffie stops. And sighs, before actually stepping into the room for real. Her face screws up for a moment before she pauses and sits in Fetch's doorway with a wince and a shifting like she's in pain, and having to use the doorframe to actually get to the floor.]

...I'd say you could've gotten better shit at the party, but you probably wouldn't have wanted it.

[She doesn't upset, just vaguely disapproving. Yuffie's not stupid and knows about the various habits of her various friends.]

Molly (Maki) | OTA

[nandemonai]

[Molly is a little dazed and confused as she shuffles back into Pride Records HQ. someone had tried to kill her. twice, if Rei's theories were correct. and then there was that whole thing with Naomi and Lesedi and she just... has no idea what has been going on. she may not have any injuries to speak of, but she is rather young, barely a teenager. what she saw does have an impact on her.

her stomach in knots, Molly ventures towards one of the studios so that she can find a piano. she... just needs to play. needs some comfort. then she'll head back to her penthouse to find the others... she should probably do that first, but she's not in her right mind now]

[wounds]

[He runs into her as she goes towards a studio.

He hasn't slept in a while, his arm is in a cast and generally he doesn't look in top shape. Then again, it seems like nobody can really say that right now.

He's glad to see Molly still in one piece- she wasn't in the lab room either.]

How are you?

Maxxie / OTA

[notahobby]

FLASHSTEP PENTHOUSE/DECEMBER 7TH

[When they get back from the party, Maxxie makes a beeline for the balcony. He's exhausted and his head is spinning from having to deal wtih all of this on very few of his faculties, and so he feels that it's high time for a cigarette and a quiet moment with the night air. He doesn't say anything to his bandmates on the way out, but they may see him through the glass, having to try a few times before the cigarette lights up and then he sits down in one of the chairs and rubs his face. It's too much to take in in one night.]


CAFE/DECEMBER 8TH

[The next morning, Maxxie has to get out of the penthouse. After another smoke on the balcony he finds himself in the cafe, sitting at a bar that faces the window. There's a mug of coffee in front of him, steaming away next his phone, which he is staring at with a deep frown. He wants to reach out to someone, find some comfort, but anyone he can think of has had it worse than him or they're from Virgo, and he can't... they've got to be watching. They'll know if he tries to contact them. It's slightly terrifying, and he feels trapped, so he sits there biting his nails and bouncing one leg on his barstool as he tries to figure out how to go on, how he can keep working like this.]


WILDCARD/ONWARDS

[After a couple days, Maxxie's mood starts to even out. He's still stressed but he stops snapping at his manager and the bounce returns to his step. The routine starts to set back in, though he's careful not to step over any boundaries and exacerbate the situation. He just wants to return to normal and then he can talk to his friends in Virgo again when everything cools off. If this is a pipe dream, he doesn't want to hear it. Certainly that would be unreasonable, right?]

cafe

[traumatizing]

[Looks like they had the same idea, seeing as Terry's in the cafe too. With his hood up and his hair all in his face, Terry kind of blends into the background, and he's so out of it he doesn't notice Maxxie when he comes in.]

[When he spots him though, Terry feels the need to check in and see if he's okay, so he forces himself up out of his seat and takes some halting footsteps over to Maxxie's table, coffee mug gripped tightly in both hands.]

Hey. [He nudges the seat next to Maxxie's with his foot.] Mind if I sit here, or do you want to be alone?

Jamie | Flashstep

[mildwildchild]

A - JAMIE GETS PHOENIX DOWN'D: (Dec. 7, open to anyone in the Secret Pride Laboratory[TM])
One minute he's lapsing in and out of consciousness on the floor in Naomi's mansion, the next he's...here. Jamie has no idea what might have happened in what seems to him to have been the span of a heartbeat, and for a minute or so he simply lies on the bed where he's wound up, trying to decide if he's dead or not.

The bone-deep ache throughout his entire body convinces him that he's still alive, and he tries to sit up, but that hurts - like, a lot - and he has to sort of push himself up slowly, in little increments. Even then he still feels light-headed and a little nauseous, and he kind of wants to just pass out again, but apprehension about the state of his body overrides it, and he hesitantly investigates the spot on his chest where Luce had driven the knife into him. Instead of the gaping wound or line of surgical staples he'd been expecting, there's just a faint red line, already closed and seemingly healed over.

Jamie frowns down at it, perplexed and worried, trembling lightly. How long has he been out, here?

B - JAMIE RESPAWNS AT HQ WITH 1 HP: (Dec. 7, open to others in HQ)
As suddenly as he'd appeared in that room full of hospital beds, he's back at HQ, still with no idea of how any of this is happening. He's disoriented, sore, weak, and lightheaded from blood loss - a fair amount of that blood is, in fact, all over the front of his clothes and on his hands. He looks like shit and feels approximately the same. Clearly now would be an excellent time to strike up a conversation.

C - JAMIE WANDERS THE OVERWORLD MAP TRYING TO AVOID RANDOM ENCOUNTERS: (Dec. 8 onward, open to all)
Jamie has changed. Unlike the simmering rage that followed the hazing a couple of months ago, all that he can muster up now is a sort of detached apathy. More often than not he's found quietly watching other people go about their business, almost as though he's forgotten what such a thing looks like and needs to be reminded - or maybe he just finds it comforting to see people engaged in routines, like everything is normal and the world as Jamie knows it hasn't just been turned on its head.

He doesn't know how much his bandmates know about what happened to him at the party; he never volunteers information about it and more often than not deflects questions when asked. As the days wear on, his old self starts showing through more, albeit in a muted capacity - and he tries to put on a brave face for the guys and other people he cares about. In the days immediately following the event, though, he's more or less a ghost lingering around HQ or it immediate environs: just drifting from place to place, silently observing, sometimes for hours at a stretch.

A

[punchesyu]

[Yosuke too, wakes up sometime around when Jamie wakes as well, though thankfully without physical injury. Sitting up, his hand finds his forehead and he tries to process where they are. On a bed. Somewhere he doesn't recognize. Looking around, he sees other people from Pride here- and wonders what happened. Yosuke can at least reason right now that it couldn't be good.

His head turns, seeing Jamie, and thanking everything he wasn't alone down here. He speaks up, questioning, and confused.]

Dude...where the hell are we?

Lucifer || Junkyard Carnival

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[Secret Pride Laboratory - Dec. 7]

[She can't help but feel like she's signed her own death warrant. But Xanxus has been taken away by Lesedi to be fixed up and Luci... well. Now she's alone. Last Carnie standing. Waiting for the next step, whatever that is.]

[When the wounded start coming back, her own arm has already been wrapped up and tended to. She concerns herself with making sure everyone she knows in Pride is accounted for-- including Xanxus. It's the most dour she's looked since the hazing incident at the carnival, but she's very insistent on checking everyone out and being sure they're adequately patched. If Lesedi was going to take something from Luci later on, she's damn well going to know how much she actually owes the CEO.]

[Pride HQ (Hallways, Carnie Suite) - Dec. 7]

[When they're returned, Luci needs to go straight to bed. It's been a hell of a night, she needs to get out of her suit, she needs to be alone to sort herself out. She's going to help her friends to their beds, then curl up in her own and think of nothing but what Lesedi wants from her.]

[Each thought is worse than the last, and her somber and pensive expression holds all the way from the lobby of HQ to her bed.]

[Pride HQ/Cellphone - Dec. 8 Onward]

[Luci is very much unlike her usual self. For the most part, she's staying in the Carnie suite in her bedroom. Hiding, maybe. Wondering if Lesedi's thugs are about to show up and drag her away for whatever twisted thing Lesedi needs her for. What would she be made to do in exchange for not letting Xanxus die?]

[And what can she do to combat it? Could she worm her way out of this one?]

[The image of Lesedi with her arm through Naomi comes to mind, and Luci rolls over and brings her pillow down hard over her head. She's really fucked this up this time.]

Text

[worthlesspride]

What the fuck happened at that party? Everyone looks like they saw their own ghosts.