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

[mildwildchild]

He looks horrified at the sight of the scar, going even paler than he was already. A wave of guilt sweeps over him and he can't meet her eyes as she leans up next to him and checks him out.

"I'm - "

He starts to answer her question, but he can't bring himself to follow through. That scar, he knows, is more or less his fault. If he hadn't gone and done something dumb and gotten himself nearly murdered, he wouldn't have needed anyone to intervene, and Yuffie wouldn't have had her side sliced open like that. Bad enough that his idiocy had gotten him hurt without dragging Yuffie into it too. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

His joints unlock enough for him to wrap his arms around himself, finally.

"I'm sorry," he says quietly.

[cleartranquil]

It takes her a moment to realize he's upset, and she frowns, tipping her head and bending at an odd angle to get a better look at him. It hurts a little to do, but she's not going to change her way of moving too much.

"Woah, why're you apologizing?" Yuffie asks, looking baffled. To her, it's confusing and just seems...silly. Why would he need to apologize? He didn't do anything. All he did was get hurt. Not like that was his fault or nothing.

"Jamie?" She says, a little quieter, and she straightens up to put a hand on his shoulder. She's not really sure what she should do in a situation like this. They're not her forte they're....they're someone elses. "Hey, it's okay."

[mildwildchild]

He tenses a little at the hand on his shoulder but doesn't pull away; it's a kind gesture, but he doesn't feel like he deserves comfort right now, especially not from Yuffie.

"Just - if I'd been smarter about stuff, I..." He goes silent for a few moments, still too upset and miserable to fully articulate his thought processes. He finally shrugs - helpless, frustrated - and manages, "I fucked up. I fucked up, and you got hurt."

[cleartranquil]

"Smarter how?" Yuffie says, using her free hand to swipe at the air as she talks. "Last I checked most people don't expect people to randomly try to kill them."

"Especially with a crazy..." Yuffie's first impulse is to say 'brainwashing musical magic' but even with the visions she's been having, she's still not totally comfortable with the idea. "stuff like what was going on happening."

Now, Yuffie uses his shoulder to shake him a bit.

"Don't be such a lame brain. If I don't blame you, you shouldn't blame you either."

[mildwildchild]

Jamie lets her jostle him and manages a humorless little snort of laughter at the "lame-brain" insult, which...sounds awfully mild, for something a Carnie came up with.

"Just - it's so stupid. Luci told me, she fucking told me not to take any open drinks from anyone, and the first thing I do is...take an open drink from Luce." He jams his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and finishes in a low mutter, "It's like I fucking asked for it."

[cleartranquil]

"First things first, you didn't ask for it. Yeah, it was kinda silly but Luce is your...well, I dunno if she's your friend, but she's mine. And if things hadn't been..." Yuffie makes a vague sort of hand gesture because she's still getting used to the word "magic". "Then that would've been totally safe."

Yuffie shrugs. Now, if their positions were reversed, she would probably be kicking herself to, and she kind of knows it. But that doesn't stop her from trying to fix it at least a little.

"Besides." She says, and points back at herself. "Lots a' people got hurt. It's not just us. So honestly it could'a been anything. We were pretty lucky."

[mildwildchild]

He goes silent for a little while, mulling over her words. They help, a little - he still feels stupid and guilty and...really, really stupid, but Yuffie's right: he hadn't exactly been expecting Luce to drug and stab him, and if it hadn't been her then maybe someone else would have tried to attack him and he might not have gotten off so lucky. It's kind of funny that "lucky" here means "only nearly stabbed to death," but that's the way life works sometimes.

Jamie sighs and shrugs a little. "I guess you've got a point. Still." He glances over at her, briefly. "I'm sorry you got hurt. Thanks for...for saving me."

[cleartranquil]

"Of course I have a point, J. I'm always right." She says a little flippantly, but it's surprisingly sincere. "At least most of the time."

No, she doesn't seem to notice that she immediately contradicts herself, and she grins at him when he looks at her.

"Don't worry about it. Of course I was gonna come to your rescue." She uses the hand on his shoulder to shove him again. "Pride family, and all that. Ya know?"

As far as she's concerned, they're like a big, ridiculous, messy family. Sure, some of them get grouchy and try to beat up each other with musical instruments, and she really kind of wants to kick Predator out of the family entirely and she probably wants to include the boss too and all, but um...where was she going with this? Right. Big weird family. She's going to stand by that idea.What's the point of being in a big label like this if they all didn't take care of each other?

[mildwildchild]

He averts his gaze again as she gives him another shoulder-shove, but he's grinning faintly this time. It's sort of nice to know that there's people looking out for him, even if he wishes he didn't need looking out for, and it seems they're all going to need each other more now than ever. Just like Rei had said at the party.

"If we're a family," he says, leaning his head back against the wall to look at her finally, "we need so goddamn much therapy."

[cleartranquil]

Yuffie cackles, throwing her head back and grins at him. That is much more like it. She's always pleased when she gets people to smile.

And he is very very right.

Pride has issues.

"Soooooo much therapy." She says, and leans forward to flick him on the nose, because Yuffie's brand of affection is teasing and often quite obnoxious to most people. "It's a good thing we're all awesome famous people who can afford that shit, huh?"

She's not sure what's happening with any of this, or how she's supposed to feel about it, but she knows that whatever is coming, they're going to want to face it together, all of them.