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

[punchesyu]

[THAT'S NOT VERY NICE, JAMIE]

D-Don't say that! We aren't dead!!! [Are they dead?] Look, we're not even the only ones here! [He gestures to other Pride members.] This is just some cold, metallic hospital or some freaky lab...

[He lets his words trail off. He didn't want to think of that possibility. Of being human lab rats or something.]

[mildwildchild]

[YOU KNOW YOU LOVE IT, BROSUKE]

Dude, you're not fucking helping. [Jamie shoots him a look of barely-restrained panic.]

Wherever the fuck we are, how the fuck did we even get here?! How'd - wh - what the fuck is going on?

[Stage 1 of dealing with trauma: say "fuck" a lot.]

[punchesyu]

How should I know??!! I just woke up! It's like one nightmare after another!

[Literally. The next part he says a little softer so only Jamie can hear.]

I had another vision, like I was getting dragged under by these creepy black hands that came up out of the floor- I seriously thought I was going to die or something-! That is not what I envisioned dying to be like! And I'm pretty sure whatever the hell happened at that party almost did kill me!

[mildwildchild]

[Jamie looks viscerally horrified by Yosuke's description and finally throws his hands up as though to ward off the rest of whatever he's trying to say, even if the movement does make his chest ache.]

Dude, could you just - not with the fucking visions and shit right now?! And what the fuck did you think dying was gonna be like? How do you know you're not dead, huh? We should both be fucking dead so maybe we are!

[Stage 2 of dealing with trauma is also saying "fuck" a lot. And ignoring your injuries to lean agitatedly over toward your also-recovering bandmate.]

[punchesyu]

I don't know! I always thought that everything just went black and you never woke up again or some freaky shit like that!

[He wasn't sure. He felt alive. He felt weird, but alive. Neither does he know what to make of the idea that the afterlife was in this room with everyone else from their label who'd gone to the party.]

Stop saying we're dead! It's creeping me out!

[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?

[punchesyu]

I-I don't want to think about that right now!!!!

[Just thinking on the fact that they are dead or they might be dead or any other speculation of their state of being is making his head hurt more than it ever needs to, in his opinion.]

Listen, I just want to figure out where we are and how the hell we got here. Can we just focus on that for two seconds, please????!!!!