Locked in a Room

[dishevelment]

Who: Everyone stuck in Pride HQ
What: This load of crap.
When: Nov. 1-5
Where Pride HQ
Warnings: Pg-13 minimum because Carnies. Tag if it gets over that.


Everyone got the same call-- and now we're all stuck in HQ with no hint of release in sight.

The reason? No one knows.

How are you coping?

Comments

[traumatizing]

Are you okay?

[He's really worried now. It's not like he expects Garnet to be okay all the time, but this isn't like her.]

[twoscompany]

Of course I'm ok--

[St e
v


e







n?]

Terry. As ok as anyone can be.

[traumatizing]

[He's not buying it, but he doesn't want to push her either.]

You sure? [FROWN] It's fine if you're not, you know.

[twoscompany]

[She silent, for a moment.]

...Out of curiosity.

Have you been feeling strange lately?

[traumatizing]

How... Do you mean?

[The look on his face says yes, even if his words don't.]

[twoscompany]

Weird thoughts, feelings. Anything that seems odd.

[She clasps her hands together. Thinking hard about something, something to broach to Terry, but she's unsure how to without sounding craz...ier than the past month has made her.

He's been experiencing it, hasn't it? And - even if they denied it, she'd noticed her other bandmates, other people in other bands, acting weird.]

Terry, you know my birthday, right?

[traumatizing]

[Wh... Terry thinks hard about the question. Her birthday's in... April, maybe? June. It hasn't ever come up, but Garnet's not the most forthcoming person in the world.]

I guess I always assumed you don't... Really like celebrating your birthday?

[twoscompany]

I just realized something. I don't know my birthday.





In fact, somehow...I don't think I have a birthday.

[traumatizing]

That's... How?

[Everyone has a birthday, because everyone has a birth. He turns to face Garnet properly, concerned about what's happening.]

[twoscompany]

[Yes, and he can see the worry and concern.]

I can't remember ever having a birthday. Never having a date...and then when I looked at...

[Motioning to the abandoned cupcake remnants]

I just realized it. I can still see it. Someone was surprised I didn't really have a birthday to celebrate. That I didn't celebrate. Yet that I was also...old. So many birthdays I didn't celebrate.

[And apparently she punched a shark at some point.

What.]

I don't want to believe it. I want to believe I'm mad. Overworked.

We haven't really done much of anything though, this past week, have we? Not like normal. On the same side, I want to believe it. And then...I don't know. I don't know what to think, Terry. I don't want to lose my future. I worked so hard...but then these strange thoughts and feelings keep making me think something else.

[A different life, even with the scant things she saw and heard and felt.

She hasn't felt this confused and conflicted...ever? Is that right?...]

[traumatizing]

[He goes quiet for a long moment, taking all that in, trying to think of something to say that'll make it all okay. But he can't. He can't just wipe all that away and put things back how they were. He draws his legs up and hugs his knees to his chest, looking down at the floor.]

You... You asked if anything weird's been happening to me, and I, uh. I've been having these daydreams, but they feel more like memories. [He's been trying to push it out of his mind, think about something-- anything else, but.] I thought maybe I was freaking out after what happened with Predator because they don't make any sense, but...

[It started before that, didn't it. At the awards ceremony...]

[twoscompany]

[She stares at Terry, her eyes narrowing. Memories. Yes. That...is that was she's experiencing right now, with these strange thoughts? Are they memories.]

...I would have said the same thing, if that's when it had started.

[In short, yes, the awards ceremony.]

[traumatizing]

It's like... Ever since we got back from tour, something's been wrong.

[Lots of things that don't make sense, but he pushes them away. Tries to think of anything else. Terry keeps looking down, as if somehow it's not real if he doesn't look at Garnet's face.]

[twoscompany]

Wrong...

[She's quiet. Of course its wrong. She's not...she's not two people.

The moment she thinks that, though, she feels sadness. Denying it only made her question it more.]

...but it feels like it fits.

[traumatizing]

But it can't.

[It's less a statement of fact, and more something between a question and a plea. He can't be whoever it was in those dreams-- Whatever it was. That guy wasn't happy.]

[twoscompany]

...Are you sure?

[Because she's definitely not sure herself.]

[traumatizing]

I mean... [He chews his lip and looks up at Garnet finally.] How would you even explain it?

[twoscompany]

I don't know. Just as...something we need to figure out. We need to reconcile these thoughts and feelings, somehow.

[traumatizing]

Somehow...

[Frowning intensifies.] What have your, uh... Thoughts been about anyway?

[twoscompany]

About two people, mostly.

[It said carefully, because...the full thought sounds crazy even to her.]

[traumatizing]

[Well that's super vague.]

Two people? Like your parents, or...?

[twoscompany]

[She shakes her head.]

No, they're not my parents. They're.

[Uh.]

. . .me. I think they're me. They make and then become...

[Oh god, she sounds nuts.]

[traumatizing]

[She does, but Terry seems to be taking it seriously at least. Lips pressed together while he considers it.]

Maybe it's... [HM.] Maybe it's not literal?

[twoscompany]

They were dancing, and then there was me. It feels like it was literal. Literally.

[traumatizing]

[Huh.]

[He'd say it's completely ridiculous, except...] I was complaining about some "super hero army." It feels so real, I was arguing with my dad because I didn't want to sign up.