(open) do you know how far this has gone?

[traumatizing]

Who:Terry and YOU
What: Someone regained the ability to sense fears and is furiously trying to ignore it
When:Feb 22nd
Where:Pride HQ/out and about
Warnings: None yet, will update as needed.


PRIDE HQ

[It's a lot to wake up to-- Terry can't decipher it at first, but it feels familiar and uncomfortable all the same. This deafening noise in his head it's a struggle to think through.]

[Eventually he drags himself to the café, thinking maybe he's just going stir crazy from staying in the penthouse all the time. He brings a notebook and his loudest headphones, sitting with his soup and the loudest music he has to hand. Maybe he can work through it. Maybe he just needs something to focus on.]

[Or maybe not.]

[It fucking hurts. Like something's screaming for his attention and he can't pick it out of the noise.]

[He kinda just ends up spending more time with his head in his hands then he does writing or eating.]

THE GREAT OUTDOORS

It's gotta be the building right. Enough weird shit goes on in there that it's not so out there he'd be hearing things. All he knows is he has to get away from it.

But it just follows.

Terry's walking aimlessly when he catches something he's absolutely not in the mood to deal with right now. ”Hey, isn't that the guy from Cosmic Indulgence?” “Yeah, Trauma. Hey! Trauma! We love your band!!!”

Why do these things happen to good people?

He's more than happy to entertain fans most days, but right now? His skull feels like it's splitting and he kinda hates everyone in the world right now. But he puts on his game face anyway.

It's somewhere in the sudden onslaught of selfies and autographs that there's this… Moment of clarity. One of them is being particularly obnoxious and it's like he zeroes in on them, totally blanks out until they're yelling about ‘how cool it is’ and asking how he knew. Apparently like an idiot he drew a bee with his autograph and a dumb comment about nightmares.

At least he didn't freak anyone out? But they're all clamouring for his attention and backing up with stuff about how he needs to go isn't doing much.

Someone help?

[Prose or brackets welcome! HMU over PM or @FiremanSam if you have something else you'd like to do!]

Comments

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Satan to the rescue.

"Woah, hey, this isn't feeding time at Sea World, leave some for the rest of us."

Luci cuts through the crowd fairly easily-- those who aren't on board with #CarnieIndulgence know her by reputation and part the sea of fans as she makes her way to Terry. There's only one fan who tries to get in her way and insist she stay away from their 'precious goth', but that's pretty easily side-stepped. Once she reaches Terry, Luci sweeps up behind him and wraps an arm around his shoulders.

"I hate to take you away from all this love, but you're almost late to record."

No he's not, but she can lie.

[traumatizing]

Oh thank god. Or thank Satan, rather.

Terry relaxes when he hears Luci's voice and he makes a valiant effort not to sink against her and just let her take control of the situation. Instead, he gives the crowd of fans an apologetic look and tries to back up a little. "Sorry guys," he puts his hands up, refusing to take anything else that's being thrust toward him and ignoring the clicks of people taking pictures on their phones, "I told you, I've got to go."

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"He told you, he has to go," Luci repeats firmly, turning and angling Terry in front of her so their backs end up to the crowd. Apparently Luci was taking a turn around town too, but she's brought a car. She ushers Terry into the backseat, following after him to keep the press of fans away. One of them shrieks 'WE LOVE YOU TRAUMA!' before getting into the path of the door, and Luci puts a kiss on her before dipping into the car. That provides enough sputtering to cover their tracks.

"Well that was exciting for a moment."

[traumatizing]

A couple of them are pressing hands to the window, taking pictures of whatever they can catch a glimpse of, and Terry's sure he can hear some excited chatter from a couple of them about how she was kissed by the Lucifer!

Terry glances past Luci, looking to the window with a heavy sigh. He'd have liked to spend more time with them, talk to them. Listen to them. But it was just too overwhelming; the excitement and noise is always stressful, but worth it, he can handle that. But the way it mingled with their anxieties, their fears. And when he tried to focus on something else, the way it dug deeper, latched on to something... More.

"That's a way to describe it," he says, sounding every bit as tired and stressed as he feels.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"Hey--" Luci knocks on the glass between the driver and the backseat. "Unless you want them to jump on your hood, I'd move us out of here."

The driver obliges and slowly pulls away from the crowd and into normal traffic. Luci puts her knees on the seat and watches as the fans slip away, her chin on her folded arms. She turns to look at Terry.

"You usually love giving fans attention. Was that related to... what happened earlier this month?"

[traumatizing]

"No, it's..." Terry gives the driver an incredulous look, not wanting to talk where someone else might overhear. There isn't a single Pride employee he's willing to give even the benefit of the doubt to anymore. "Can we go somewhere private?"

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Luci blinks, a little surprised-- she thought she'd heard something from Yuffie about Terry being kind of off-limits now, but--

Okay maybe he just wanted to talk away from prying ears. That's probably more likely than what she's got on her mind now-- but no reason not to play it off as such for the benefit of the driver's ignorance.

"Ooh, did you miss me that much, darling?" she croons, flopping back into the seat and draping herself on Terry's shoulder. Luci taps on the glass again. "Let's head for the Omni on 8th."

hq since nobody picked it yet o/

[sharktrash]

[ He just happens to be around, probably explaining to the barrista how to make decent coffee, when he spots Terry at one of the tables. Clearly the reasonable course of action after the tabloids insist you're banging someone is to get to know them better, right? ]

[ Well, that and there's just something about that goth/emo deal that annoys him a lot right now. He's not sure why, but it might have something to do with those pictures in his head. Didn't he have someone he hated with a pierced lip and eyebrow? Anyway -- ]

[ He's a lovely guy who plays nice, so he approaches Terry from behind, swiftly tugs one of his headphones off and yells. ]

VOI!

[traumatizing]

[Fun fact about Terrance Ward: His panic reaction is punching. So when Squalo plucks his headphone away from his ear and yells, Terry's response is to shout in surprise and leap up to swing a fist at Squalo's face.]

[How's that for getting to know someone?]

[sharktrash]

[ ...about the usual, to be honest. ]

[ Still, he'll give him a kick in the shin for that punch and rub his abused cheek clearly unamused. ]

The hell's your problem?

[ ...because the guy screaming into people's ears is clearly not in the wrong here. ]

[traumatizing]

[The shin? Jesus christ. Terry grunts and drops back down onto his seat, pulling his foot up onto it too so he can rub his shin and glower up at Squalo.]

Maybe you shouldn't go around sneaking up on people.

[sharktrash]

I wasn't sneaking up. I was distracting you from your emo shit.

[ Huffs. How dare you not see something so simple, etc etc. ...this is probably his way of asking "what happened to you" kind of question. ]

[traumatizing]

What emo shit?

[He asks as if he's not getting his emo all over the damn place.]

HQ land

[cleartranquil]

[ Yuffie has been wandering around the place and is about to go get food herself when she notices the pile of Goth on the table. She pauses, at first, mostly because she's sure he's going to get on her case for her taking the sweatshirt she's wearing again, but then her worry overrides that. She wanders over with her coffee cup in hand and having told the waitress to send her food to Terry's table.

She sits down across the table from him, setting her cup down and reaching over to mess with his hair...very carefully being on the other side of the table so he wont smack her by mistake this time. ]

You look terrible.

[ Yuffie Kisaragi does not mince words. ]

[traumatizing]

[Thanks Yuffie.]

[She doesn't startle him this time thankfully, and he looks up at her from behind his curtain of hair with all the exhaustion and hatred for the world he can muster in his expression. (It's a lot.)]

[He also swats her hand away from his hair for good measure.]

I feel terrible too.

[cleartranquil]

[ She flips him off and goes to drinking her cup of coffee, kicking her foot up on the edge of the table. Yuffie's face screws up because she's not wanting to laugh but that expression is pretty extreme Ter, but she doesn't want to make it worse. For once.]

What's wrong with you, lamebrain.

[traumatizing]

My head feels like it's gonna explode.

[Which isn't a lie, exactly. It's just not the whole truth.] Figured maybe I just need to get out of the suite for a bit.

[cleartranquil]

You're not hungover, are you?

[Because that is the first thing they all think of. What can she say.]

And, your drummer's not going nuts again, right?

[Yuffie gives him a look over her cup that might mean she's willing to go do something horrible to his drummer if she needs to. What are friends for.]

[traumatizing]

[Terry shakes his head. And then groans and lifts a hand to press a couple of fingers to his temple, full of immediate regret.]

It's probably just stress. Or cancer. [Hm...] Is stress cancer a thing?

hq

[notahobby]

[Maxxie's been looking for Terry for the past little while, wondering why his texts have gone unanswered. When he finally finds him it's not surprising to see that he's in one of his productivity binges, but this looks a bit different. He looks a lot more tired than usual, a bit strung out, and it makes Maxxie hesitate before he sits down across from him, waiting patiently for Terry to take off his headphones on his own time.]

[traumatizing]

[Terry looks up after a little while - still totally In The Zone - and smiles when he sees him before he looks down again to finish the bit he's working on. he doesn't really get to that before he looks up again abruptly.]

Maxxie-- Shit. [He pulls his headphones off and gives Maxxie an apologetic look.] I'm sorry, I never replied to your texts.

[notahobby]

[Maxxie smiles and shrugs.]

It's okay, you were working.

[Then, with a concerned knitting of his brow:] You feeling alright?

[traumatizing]

Yeah. [He sighs and drags a hand through his hair.] I've just had this headache all day, you know?

[notahobby]

Shit, that sucks.

[He chews his lip for a moment in sympathy.]

You take anything for it?

[traumatizing]

[He offers a bit of a tired smile.]

I took a couple Tylenol this morning but it's doing fuck all.