interstellar5555 | I won't pretend that I intend to stop living

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I won't pretend that I intend to stop living

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.

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[She stands there for a moment, with her face screwed up like she is trying very very hard to be angry at him and is failing absolutely miserably. She rolls her eyes dramatically and shifts again, before stepping up closer, pointing a finger in his face.]

I'm gonna be nice, but only cause you look like someone kicked the crap outta ya.

[That is pretty much all the warning he gets before he's getting hugged. She's actually pretty careful, probably partly because she is not feeling fantastic either, but she's trying very hard not to injure either of them in the process.]

Oh my god. That sucked. So hard.

[Congrats, Terry. You're one of the few people getting to see her as upset about this as she actually is.]

[Two someones actually, but that's neither here nor there. What matters is that he doesn't hesitate to hug her back, it's not as tight as he'd like given their current states, but seeing as Terry's hardly a huggy person to begin with, it probably says a lot.]

[He sighs softly into the top of Yuffie's head, immensely relieved to see her.]

Guess now we know why everyone was acting so strangely.

I really hate getting stabbed.

[That is practically muffled in Terry's sweatshirt, and then Yuffie turns her head so it's actually reasonable to understand her.]

If I didn't have the scar to prove it, I'd think I made it all up.

[Yuffie actually pulls back enough to look at him, standing up again with something of a wince. As much as she isn't feeling as bad as she should, she still feels terrible. She does keep a pretty tight grip on the sleeve of his sweatshirt, and she doesn't plan on letting go any time particularly soon. ]

Something messed them up, Ter, I don't think they meant it.

Me either.

[He keeps a hand on Yuffie's shoulder when she pulls back, frowning thoughtfully down at her.]

One guy... He practically had a full-on breakdown when he saw what he was about to do.

[It's more than his natural inclination toward helping people that makes Terry sound sympathetic. Something about that really resonates with him; the feeling of being out of control of your own actions, something outside yourself making you hurt people but feeling like you want to do it all the same in the moment. He doesn't know why, it's just... He feels like he understands it.]

The person that attacked me, she's my friend.

[Yuffie looks painfully sincere.]

She looked so freaked when she realized what happened. When I snapped her out of it, she tried to help me and Jamie.

[The things she'd seen, about the man with the sword and the cloaked people. They'd been controlled. She knew it, after thinking about it. She didn't know how she knew, really. Just that they'd...they'd been puppets. That's what he'd said. She didn't know who he was, but his voice scared her. More even than the boss.]

I think we were right. Stuff's really....really really screwed up.

What the hell made them all act like that though?

["Act like that." Because apparently he can't quite deal with the whole "several attempted murders" thing.]

....I think....

[Yuffie makes a strange face and then scrunches her nose.]

...Okay. How crazy would you think I was if I thought...

Uh.

[Yuffie has barely admitted the first answer that came to mind to herself, let alone to someone else, but if she's going to tell anyone it's gonna be him.]

If I said "magic." And was serious. Would you promise not to commit me?

... Magic.

[He's trying, he's really trying, he feels like he's gonna need to sit down if this is where things are going. So he's going to do just that and carefully put himself on the couch, sighing as he goes.]

I guess it makes about as much sense as anything else.

I know it sounds crazy. Really really crazy.

[Yuffie doesn't sit, she follows and then starts pacing. It's enough to make you want to make her sit down, knowing what she's been through but she's on a roll.]

I should probably be in a hospital bed. Jamie should be dead. Xan. You. We were all really bad off. And now...?

[Yuffie does a little hand gesture that probably means something to the effect of LOOK.]

So if that's possible, and they didn't want to hurt us....then I think it's totally possible something...magic controlled them.

[But magic isn't real.]

[But on the other hand...] It... Didn't happen until after the performances, right? That's when everyone started getting weird.

....Yeah.

[Yuffie pauses and then drags both hands down her face in an exaggerated way that would be a terrible idea if she was wearing any make up at all.]

This is insane. All of this. Is insane.

[She is clearly two steps from shrieking.]

That...Naomi Rivers is dead. It's not hit the news yet but something happens in a room of that many people, they talk.

But? It's almost silent for these guys. Like everyone is scared shitless. And I can't get a clear story. And I was apparently bleeding on a floor when it happened.

[Only Yuffie can sound so irritated about bleeding out like it's being late, not dying.]

Wait. [Slow down, he's going somewhere with this.] When we were at the fucking carnival. Whoever caught me in the "funhouse" sang and I was out.

[If they can do that... Maybe someone can make everyone murder? It's a leap, but not a huge one.]

....Sang at you.

They sang at you and it knocked you out.

[Yuffie looks for a moment like she's going to make a horrific joke in one direction or another, like she's going to start laughing...before her shoulders sag and she looks at Terry like she's catching up to what he's saying.]

...You don't think.....

That's exactly what I think.

[He raises his eyebrows at Yuffie, as if to say "you're thinking it too."]

[SIGH.] I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's the only thing that makes sense.

....Someone sang at people....and mind controlled them...into wanting to kill us.

[Yuffie says this with the air of someone trying to use very very small words and speak to a toddler.

....The toddler in this equation might actually be herself. She's trying to understand what the fuck is happening.]

.....WHY does that make sense to me.

[She offended by this fact more than the actual magic issue.]

[He puts his face in his hands. Or rather, lifts his hands to his face with a groan.]

Maybe this is just a dream one of us is having.

....So if I back up our magic mind control theory with the creepy mind control dream I've been having since the party....

[Yuffie just pauses, drawing about in the air with her hands before just finishing her sentence in a strained voice.]

...would that make this better or worse.

[Terry pulls a face, thinking this over. It's... A lot. This is all bordering on "too much."]

I don't know anymore. [He says from behind his hands.] I don't remember "crazy mind control bullshit" and "weird half-dreams" being in my contract.

Who knows what's in our contracts, Ter. I didn't read that shit.

[Shouldn't she have? Yuffie doesn't like to agree to things without knowing how she's getting paid. She's written her own for things before and she's....she's...What was she saying?]

....Ugh.

[Yuffie drops down on the couch next to Terry the way she usually would, loose limbed and ridiculous before wincing horribly and curling up on herself.]

Bad. Bad. Have to remember that. Ow. Ow.

Yep.

[Terry gives her a sympathetic look, he's also suffering from a case of "my body hates everything I usually do"]

I can't believe this.

[Yuffie is still bent up over herself from her accidental ow when she responds.]

....Worst part is, I think I do. I really really do.

[After a moment, Yuffie uncurls.]

Believe it, you know?

Do you think the other labels have to deal with this stuff?

[Somehow he gets the feeling this bullshit has a lot to do with why the smaller labels are, well. Small.]

...If they do, we got cheated.

[What's a little more fame when you have some creepy crazy magic crap going on?

[He laughs, tired, a little defeated, and tries to find a more comfortable way to sit.]

Guess it's too late to sign with someone else.

[Not that he would. For better or worse, this is his home and his family.]

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I won't pretend that I intend to stop living

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